Robert Greenberg
Historian, Composer, Pianist, Speaker, Author
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Dr. Bob Prescribes: Peter Mennin
April 24th, 2019
Peter Mennin (1923-1983) Peter Mennin was a symphonist: of his 26 works, 9 were symphonies. (Let’s get this “the curse of the 9-thing” out of the way here and now. Mennin completed his Ninth Symphony in 1981, at the age of 58. In 1982, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died on June 17, 1983, one month after his 60th birthday. What is it about completing a numbered Ninth Symphony that spells doom for…
Music History Monday: A Marriage of Convenience
April 22nd, 2019
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) in 1746, by Elias Gottlob Haussmann On April 22, 1723 – 296 years ago today – the 38-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach was elected music director and cantor of St. Thomas church in Leipzig. Despite the fact that it was a prestigious position, Bach felt scant enthusiasm for the job and considered…
Dr. Bob Prescribes William Schumann
April 16th, 2019
William Schuman (1910-1992) circa 1965 In last week’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post, I asserted that the composers Roy Harris (1898-1979) and his student William Schuman (1910-1992): “are generally considered to be the two greatest American composers of symphonies to have yet graced our planet.” I have received no evidence in the intervening week that that…
Music History Monday: The Empress
April 15th, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqeNtqywBEA Bessie Smith performing W.C. Handy’s St. Louis Blues in a 16-minute movie of that name, filmed in 1929. It is the only known movie of Empress Smith” Today we celebrate the birth – on April 15, 1894, 125 years ago today, in Chattanooga, Tennessee – of the American contralto Bessie Smith. Bessie Smith We… Robert Greenberg | Copyright © 2019 All Rights Reserved