Yesterday’s Music History Monday post focused first on Igor Stravinsky’s arrangement and orchestration of The Star-Spangled Banner and the circumstances surrounding its having been, literally, “banned in Boston.” The post then went on to explore the decidedly non-American origin of the music of The Star-Spangled Banner. During the course of yesterday’s Music History Monday post, a link to a performance of Stravinsky’s arrangement was provided. That linked performance – by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas – is the first cut on the prescribed disc, “Stravinsky in America”, about which more will be said later in this post. The hubbub surrounding Stravinsky’s arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner is not the only time a performance of the anthem caused a scandal. After a quick review of yesterday’s post, I will present to you three other performances of The Star-Spangled Banner that made eyebrows arch and tsk-tsk-ers “tsk.” The Star-Spangled Banner began its life as an English drinking song entitled Anacreon in Heav’n, the words of which celebrates the twin delights of Venus and Bacchus (sex and booze). Its music was written by a teenager named John Stafford Smith in the mid-1760s. Thus constituted, Anacreon in Heav’n was the […]
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Robert Greenberg
Historian, Composer, Pianist, Speaker, Author
Author Archive for Robert Greenberg – Page 21
We mark the completion on July 4, 1941 – 81 years ago today – of Igor Stravinsky’s reharmonization and orchestration of The Star-Spangled Banner. Stravinsky in America In September of 1939, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and his long-time mistress Vera de Bosset (1889-1982) arrived in the United States from their home in Paris. The couple were married in Bedford, Massachusetts six months later, on March 9, 1940. Stravinsky had come to the United States to spend the 1939-1940 academic year at Harvard University, where he was to occupy the Charles Eliot Norton Chair of Poetry and deliver six lectures on music that were that year’s Charles Eliot Norton Lectures. By the time the academic year ended in June of 1940, the Stravinskys, Igor and Vera, had no home to return to. Nazi Germany had occupied Paris on June 14, and France surrendered to Germany 8 days later, on June 22, 1940. The couple settled in Los Angeles in 1941 and bought a house at 1260 North Wetherly Drive, just above the Sunset Strip, in Hollywood. Stravinsky and Vera would live there for the next 29 years, until his final illness forced a move to New York City. (For […]
Continue ReadingMonday’s Music History Monday post marked the birth, on June 27, 1859, of Mildred Jane Hill, who wrote the music to Happy Birthday to You. Thus, today’s Happy Birthday to You-themed Dr. Bob Prescribes post! The “Book” I have not a clue as to where or when I bought (or was given) the book that is the prescribed item for today’s post. I’ve had it for as long as I can remember, which means I had it before I moved to California in 1978. There is no price scribbled on its title page, so it’s unlikely that I bought it used. It might – might – have been given to me by my composition teacher Edward T. Cone when I graduated Princeton in 1976; I just don’t remember. Whatever; here’s what “it” is. It is a souvenir of a concert and ball held at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music on January 24, 1970. The festivities marked three events: the 113th anniversary of the Academy of Music, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the 70th birthday of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s long-time music director, Eugene Ormandy (1889-1985).… See the full post — and more — only on Patreon! Robert […]
Continue ReadingHumiliation Before getting to the anniversary we are honoring in today’s Music History Monday post, it is necessary for us to contemplate the painful issue of humiliation. “Humiliation” is a consequence of unjustified shaming, as a result of which one’s social status, public image, and self-esteem are decreased, often quite significantly. Humiliation hurts; humiliation sucks. We are not, for now, going to discuss the seemingly countless ways we can (and have! and will!) be humiliated. Let us instead – for now – observe the difference between spontaneous humiliation and ritual humiliation. “Spontaneous” humiliations would be those unexpected moments of shaming, bullying, rejection, or deep embarrassment that come out of nowhere and have the emotional and physical impact of a punch to the gut. “Ritual” humiliations are different, in that we know exactly what’s coming but are powerless to stop them. Ostracism and its attendant processes – excommunication, shunning, and blackballing, whereby someone is purposely excluded from a community – is a form of ritual humiliation. “Hazing rituals” are another: those activities that purposely humiliate, degrade, and even risk physical harm to someone wanting to join a group or maintain status within a group. Then, there is – for […]
Continue ReadingYesterday’s Music History Monday post marked the birth, on June 20, 1843, of the Russian operatic basso Fyodor Ignatyevich Stravinsky. Considered in his lifetime to be among the greatest bass singers of his time, Fyodor Stravinsky’s memory has been almost entirely eclipsed by that of his son, the composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971). Fyodor Stravinsky died in 1902 at the age of 59. Sadly, he never recorded. But yesterday’s post on Fyodor Stravinsky got me to thinking about my favorite bassi, and thus today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes featuring Matti Salminen and Samuel Ramey. (Yes, of course, there are tens of other bassi deserving of our attention. In the spirit of sharing, I would ask you to name your favorite bass singers and recordings in the comments below.) The Bass The bass is the lowest male singing voice, the lowest vocal range of all voice types. Leading bass roles run a certain dramatic gamut, from old, wise, and perhaps priestly men (Mozart’s Don Alfonso from Cosí fan tutte and Sarastro from The Magic Flute); to old and foolish men (Pergolesi’s Uberto in La Serva Padrona and Rossini’s Dr. Bartolo in The Barber of Seville); to comic relief foolish men (Mozart’s Leporello in Don […]
Continue ReadingWe mark the birth on June 20, 1843 – 179 years ago today – of the Russia bass opera singer Fyodor Ignatyevich Stravinsky, in the city of Minsk, which is today the capital of Belarus but was then part of the Russian Empire. Considered one of the greatest singers of his time, Fyodor Ignatyevich has largely been forgotten because, one, he never recorded and, two, he’s been eclipsed by the fame of his son, the composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971). He was born of Polish descent in the “Government (province) of Minsk”, in what had been part of Poland until 1793, when the Russian Empire sliced off and annexed a large chunk of Poland in what is euphemistically called the “second partition of Poland.” (Today, the “province of Minsk” is part of the “nation” of Belarus, which is advised to mind its P’s and Q’s, as Tsar Putin no more considers Belarus to be separate country than he does Ukraine. Not that you need me to point this out, but I’ll do it anyway: the “annexation” of Crimea in 2014 and the present attempts to destroy Ukraine and annex the Donbas demonstrate that Russian actions towards its neighbors have not changed […]
Continue ReadingIf we want to own a facsimile of one of Wagner’s handwritten, manuscript scores, we’ve got limited options, because a great many of Wagner’s manuscripts have not survived. Their disappearance has everything to do with Wagner’s relationship with King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who was the subject of yesterday’s Music History Monday post. We’ll get into the particulars of the disappearance (and likely destruction) of the manuscripts in a bit. But first, let us contemplate the nature and importance of a composer’s hand-written manuscript scores. Composers’ Holographs A “holograph” is a manuscript or document written in its composer’s or author’s hand. There was a time when a composer’s most prized possessions were their holographs: their hand-written, autograph manuscripts: complete scores notated in pencil or ink. (We pause to rue the passing of such hand-written manuscripts. As a new generation of composers notates their music using computer programs, the art of music calligraphy is presently going the way of hand-copied illuminated manuscripts, and thus technology will soon claim another victory over a time-honored craft. But even worse, we – as students and lovers of music – will lose an irreplaceable resource: hand-written manuscripts from which we can learn a remarkable amount about […]
Continue ReadingWe mark the death (the most suspicious death) on June 13, 1886 – 136 years ago today – of the ultimate Richard Wagner fanboy King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The Running Man Richard Wagner was among the least-athletic looking people to ever grace a composing studio or a conductor’s podium. Depending upon the source, he was between 5’ 3” and 5’ 5” in heights. His legs were too short for his torso, and his oversized square head was perched on an otherwise frail body. In his lifetime, an unknown wag referred to him as “that shovel-faced dwarf”, an unkind if not inaccurate description of the man. But despite his physical shortcomings, Wagner – believe it or not – could run like the wind for remarkable distances. These miracles of sustained athleticism were inspired by Wagner’s creditors and/or the law, from which Wagner was forced to flee on a regular basis. For example, in April of 1836, following the failure of his opera Das Liebesverbot (“The Ban on Love”; for your information, my spell check just tried to change “liebesverbot” to “lobster pot”).Again: in April of 1836, following the failure of his opera Das Liebesverbot in the central German city […]
Continue ReadingIn 2014, I was asked by The Great Courses/The Teaching Company to figure out a way to make a 24-lecture, 16-hour course that minimized the cost of licensing music for musical examples. Upfront: I thought then – as I do now – that this was a case of penny wise and pound foolish, as a music course needs, in the end, to feature . . . music. Whatever; I complied, and in 2015 we recorded Music as a Mirror of History, which explores certain works as personifying certain specific, historic events. As such, Music as a Mirror of History is a history course with music, rather than a music course with history. I read and learned a lot writing the course, and was tickled no end when, after its release, I received inquiries asking me how many research assistants I had employed in its making. “Not a single one” was my repeated response. “How do you know so much?”, I was asked in return. As the nerdish, CIA analyst Joseph Turner says in Joseph Grady’s Six Days of the Condor (shortened to Three Days of the Condor in the movie, starring Robert Redford), “I just read books.” Lecture 10 […]
Continue ReadingWe mark the birth of Richard Wagner’s son Siegfried Wagner on June 6, 1869 – 163 years ago today – in Lucerne, Switzerland. Like the sons of so many great men groomed to follow in their fathers’ footsteps, he could never hope to measure up to or escape from his father’s shadow. Cliché We contemplate, for a moment, this thing called a “cliché.” Strictly defined, a cliché is: “an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being trite or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel.” Granted. But clichés didn’t become the tiresome, oft-repeated, over-used devices that – by definition – they are without carrying within them a kernel of truth. Admittedly, some clichés express stereotypes that may (or may not) be true, but the vast majority of them are analogies that do indeed express truisms. In fact, when it comes to expressing a truism succinctly, nothing succeeds more quickly that a cliché. For example: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” (Parenthetically, some folks would tell us that “the apple doesn’t fall […]
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