Music History Monday: Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea
June
12th,
2023
Chick Corea (1941-2021) in 2019 We mark the birth on June 12, 1941 – 82 years ago today – of the pianist and composer Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He died of cancer after a brief illness on February 9, 2021, at his home just outside of Tampa Bay, Florida, at the age…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Martha Argerich
June
6th,
2023
Yesterday – Monday, June 5 – marked Martha Argerich’s 82nd birthday. As promised in yesterday’s Music History Monday post, it is a birthday we will celebrate here, now, today, in Dr. Bob Prescribes! Martha Argerich (born 1941) in 1966 Over the course of her storied career, Martha Argerich has made people say the darndest things.…
Music History Monday: Never Eat Anything That Can Bite You Back!
June
5th,
2023
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, 1948) with his beloved boa, Julius Squeezer, before the “breakfast incident” On June 5, 1977 – 46 years ago today – the shock-rock superstar Alice Cooper’s pet boa constrictor and concert co-star, a creature rather cleverly named “Julius Squeezer,” suffered what turned out to be a fatal bite from…
Music History Monday: Isaac Albéniz
May
29th,
2023
Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) in 1901 On May 29, 1860 – 163 years ago today - the composer and pianist Isaac Albéniz was born in Camprodón, Spain. Albéniz was a brilliant pianist and, as evidenced by his 12-movement suite for piano entitled Iberia (written between 1905-1909), a composer of genius. However, before we can get…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Giuseppe Verdi: String Quartet in E minor (1873)
May
23rd,
2023
I am doing something here in this post today that I have only done twice before in the storied history of Dr. Bob Prescribes: I am recommending a recording for the second time. The other two times I did so were a matter of expedience, as I reran two posts back in early March immediately…
Music History Monday: Giuseppe Verdi and the Requiem for Alessandro Manzoni
May
22nd,
2023
We mark the first performance on May 22, 1874 – 149 years ago today – of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, written in memory of the Italian novelist, poet, and patriot Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1872).” Background Giuseppe Verdi circa 1870 In June of 1870, the 57-year-old Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) agreed to compose an opera for the brand-new Cairo…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Robert Johnson
May
16th,
2023
In choosing a topic for last week’s (May 8) Music History Monday post, I had a difficult choice: to either mark the birthday of the short-lived American composer and pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) or the birthday of the even shorter-lived American blues songwriter, singer, and guitarist Robert Johnson (1911-1938). I chose to run with…
Music History Monday: All the Music That’s Fit to Print
May
15th,
2023
Frontispiece to the Harmonice musices odhecaton A, published on May 15, 1501 On May 15, 1501 – 522 years ago today – the first polyphonic (that is, multi-part) music printed using moveable type was released to the public by the Venice-based publisher Ottaviano dei Petrucci. (The publication features a dedication dated May 15, 1501, so we…
Dr. Bob Prescribes The Piano Music of Louis Morau Gottschalk
May
9th,
2023
The Prodigy and the Musical Venues of New Orleans Canal Street, New Orleans, circa 1850 Louis Moreau Gottschalk began playing the piano at around age 5, and by the time he was 7 he was one of those “child prodigies” of which every city could boast. However: Moreau (as he was called) lived in New…
Music History Monday: Louis Moreau Gottschalk, or What Happens in Oakland Does Not Stay in Oakland
May
8th,
2023
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) circa 1864 We mark the birth on May 8, 1829 - 194 years ago today – of the American composer and pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk, in New Orleans. He died, all-too-young, on December 18, 1869 at the age of forty, in exile in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Events that occurred in…