Dr. Bob Prescribes La Vie en Rose
December
20th,
2022
My copy of The Quincunx, which I have kept for reasons unknown Some 30 years ago, I was given a novel by the English author Charles Palliser called The Quincunx. The good friend who gave me the book claimed that it was, hands down, her favorite novel of all time. Back then, when someone gave…
Music History Monday: Getting Personal: Édith Piaf
December
19th,
2022
Édith Piaf (1915-1963) We mark the birth on December 19, 1915 – 107 years ago today – of the French singer and actress Édith Piaf in the Belleville district of Paris. Born Édith Giovanna Gassion, she came to be considered France’s national chanteuse, one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century, a French…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Joey DeFrancesco, organ
December
13th,
2022
Live and Learn An Emenee Chord Organ I have been known to make snide comments about the electric organ. This is an unfortunate artifact of my childhood in the 1950s and 60s, when toy organs made by “Emenee Industries Inc.” (of New York, N.Y.) were everywhere. They came in different sizes, though the ones I…
Music History Monday: The Garden State Hall of Fame
December
12th,
2022
“The Garden State” (having been born in Brooklyn, New York, I grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey, just northeast of 75° latitude and 40° longitude December 12 is a crazy day in American jazz and popular music history, a day that saw the births of five – count ‘em, five – significant musicians, three of…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Wolfgang Mozart: Requiem, K. 626 (1791)
December
6th,
2022
The Commission During the summer of 1791 – some five months before his death – Mozart was anonymously commissioned to compose a Requiem Mass: a mass for the dead. More than any other single element, it was this anonymous commission that helped to later fuel the myth that Mozart had, in fact, been murdered. Constanze…
Music History Monday: Myths of Mayhem and Murder!
December
5th,
2022
Here We Go Again . . . It has come to pass. I have been writing these Music History Monday posts for long enough that Monday dates and events have begun to repeat. And as a result, December 5, which was a Monday in 2016, once again falls on a Monday today. Ordinarily there are…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Aaron Copland, Music for the Theatre (1925)
November
29th,
2022
Aaron Copland in France, 1921-1924 Aaron Copland in Paris, circa 1923 Aaron Copland (1900-1990) never went to college. It was a decision that he later claimed to regret, although it’s hard to imagine how he could have gotten a better education than the one he actually received. He had begun to study music composition with…
Music History Monday: Aaron Copland in New York
November
28th,
2022
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) in 1933 We mark the New York premiere on November 28, 1925 – 97 years ago today – of Aaron Copland’s Music for the Theater, at a League of Composer’s concert conducted by Serge Koussevitzky at New York’s Town Hall. The actual world premiere of the piece took place eight days before,…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Henry Purcell
November
22nd,
2022
Henry Purcell (1659-1695), portrait attributed to Godfrey Kneller When we think of Henry Purcell (1659-1695), if we think of him at all, what comes to mind are two of his operas – The Fairy’s Kiss and Dido and Aeneas – and perhaps a few well-worn songs. You’ll pardon me the comparison, but this is like…
Music History Monday: Henry Purcell and British Music Restored!
November
21st,
2022
Henry Purcell (1659-1695), portrait by John Closterman, circa 1695 We mark the death on November 21, 1695 – 327 years ago today – of the English composer and organist Henry Purcell, in London. He lies buried today in a place of singular honor, adjacent to the organ on which he performed in Westminster Abbey in…