Music History Monday: The Death of Johannes Brahms
April
3rd,
2023
Johannes Brahms on his deathbed, April 1897 We mark the death on April 3, 1897 – 126 years ago today – of the German composer and pianist Johannes Brahms at the age of 63. One of the great ones and along with Sebastian Bach and Louis van Beethoven one of the three bees - the…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Joseph Haydn, Mass in the Time of War
March
28th,
2023
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) in 1791, by John Hoppner Haydn’s Masses During the course of his career, Haydn composed a total of fourteen settings of the mass. This means he set the same words to music fourteen times. One might think that in doing so, Haydn could not possibly have avoided repeating himself, but one would…
Music History Monday: Papa’s Last Appearance
March
27th,
2023
A quick comment in reference to the title of today’s post, “Papa’s Last Appearance.” Not that you really need me to tell you, but by “Papa” we are not referring to Papa John Schnatter, who founded “Papa John’s Pizza” in 1984. Neither are we referring to the stand-up comedian Tom Papa, the sportscaster Greg Papa,…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1912)
March
21st,
2023
“What Right Had He to Write This Thing?” Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950) in 1911; Nijinsky is costumed as Petrushka A happy vernal equinox to everyone and sundry! Yes, technically the first day of spring in 2023 was yesterday, March 20. But I was taught that the first day of spring is usually…
Music History Monday: Why All the Hate?
March
20th,
2023
We mark the wedding on March 20, 1969 – 54 years ago today – between the Liverpool-born Beatle John Lennon (1940-1980) and the Tokyo-born artist and musician Yoko Ono (born 1933). Their wedding took place in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. At the time of their…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Charles Ives, Three Places in New England
February
28th,
2023
The Ultimate Hobbyist Yesterday’s Music History Monday post featured the non-musical hobbies of some of our favorite musicians, from Rod Stewart’s train set, to Courtney Love’s Liddle Kiddle dolls (made by Mattel in the late 1960s), to Arnold Schoenberg’s mania for tennis and ping pong, to Gioachino Rossini’s delight in all things food. The subject…
Music History Monday: Everyone Should Have a Hobby!
February
27th,
2023
On February 27, 2018 – five years ago today – Barbra Streisand (born 1942) revealed that she had cloned her dying dog Samantha (nicknamed “Sammie”) twice. (No jokes here about Ms. Streisand singing “Send in the Clones.”) Streisand and Samantha in 2004, during happier times The revelation regarding the Samantha’s clones was made during…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Giacomo Rossini, The Barber of Seville
February
21st,
2023
Italian Opera as an Industry The Teatro San Cassiano in 1637: a digital reconstruction From the moment the first public opera house – the Teatro San Cassiano - opened in Venice in 1637, opera has been a media industry in Italy. By the early nineteenth century, virtually every Italian city and many Italian towns as…
Music History Monday: The First Night: Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville
February
20th,
2023
We mark the premiere performance, on February 20, 1816 – 207 years ago today – of Gioachino Rossini’s comic opera masterwork, The Barber of Seville, at Rome’s famed Teatro Argentina. Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868) in 1815 by Vicenzo Camuccini The Natural Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born on February 29 (bummer of a birthday!), 1792 in…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Wagner: Siegried Idyll
February
14th,
2023
Advertising postcard picturing Wagner (with his father-in-law Franz Liszt directly behind him) greeting Kaiser Wilhelm I at the inaugural Bayreuth Festival in 1876 The Giving of Gifts It is appropriate that today, on St. Valentine’s Day, we celebrate a piece of music given as a gift of love from a husband to his wife: Richard…