Music History Monday: Unsung Heroes
June
17th,
2024
John Taylor McClure (1929-2014; bottom left) with Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971; bottom right”) in the recording studio on July 20, 1964 We mark the death on June 17, 2014 – an even 10 years ago today – of the Grammy Award winning American record producer and Director of Columbia Masterworks Recordings John Taylor McClure. McClure was…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Wagner, Tristan und Isolde – Part 1
June
11th,
2024
Tristan und Isolde, overture opening: principal composite leitmotiv Sooner Than Later My Dr. Bob Prescribes post for May 14, 2024 (four weeks ago) was entitled “Fluids of Choice and Drinking Songs.” Among the featured “drinking songs” was the famous “quaff the presumed poison” scene from Act I of Tristan und Isolde. That May 14…
Music History Monday: Let Us Quaff from the Cup: Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde
June
10th,
2024
The real-life married couple Ludwig and Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld as Tristan and Isolde at the first performance of Tristan und Isolde on June 10, 1865 On June 10, 1865 – 159 years ago today - Richard Wagner’s magnificent and groundbreaking music drama Tristan und Isolde received its premiere in Munich under the baton of…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Johann Joseph Fux
June
4th,
2024
Johann Joseph Fux? Yes, Johann Joseph Fux. And please, let us try to refrain from joking about Herr Fux’s fuxing name. There’s nothing we can say that hasn’t already been said by generations of young music composition students, including – to my enduring shame - yours truly. Johann Joseph Fux (circa 1660-1741) Yes: for generations of undergraduate…
Music History Monday: Ludwig von Köchel and the Seemingly Impossible Task
June
3rd,
2024
Ludwig Alois Friedrich Ritter (“Ritter” meaning “Knight”) von Köchel” (18900-1877) We mark the death on June 3, 1877 - 147 years ago today – of the Austrian lawyer, botanist, geologist, teacher, writer, publisher, composer, and “musicologist” Ludwig Alois Friedrich Ritter (“Ritter” meaning “Knight”) von Köchel, of cancer, in Vienna. Born on January 14, 1800, he…
Dr. Bob Prescribes – Wolfgang Mozart, Ein musikalischer Spaß, K. 522
May
28th,
2024
Inappropriate Revisited Subtitled as being a “divertimento for two horns and string quartet” and generally (if rather inaccurately) translated as “A Musical Joke,” Ein musikalischer Spaß is, in my humble opinion, the single strangest work ever written by a major composer, particularly a major composer in his absolute prime who had not a minute to waste. It is…
Music History Monday: “Inappropriate”
May
27th,
2024
There Must Be Something in the Air Have any of you done – or anticipate doing – anything particularly foolish today, anything particularly inappropriate? If you do, know that you will be in good company. Perhaps it’s the angle of the sun; perhaps it’s something in the air or water, because as dates go, May…
Dr. Bob Prescribes The Music of Clara Wieck Schumann
May
21st,
2024
Friedrich Wieck could be a first-class creep. Nevertheless, we – meaning posterity, taken as widely as we please – owe him a debt of gratitude for the education he gave, the musical opportunities he afforded, and the professional contacts he made for his spectacularly gifted daughter, Clara (1819-1896). Friedrich Wieck at the age of 45…
Music History Monday: A Difficult Life
May
20th,
2024
Gaston Leroux’s Paris Opera House (today the Palais Leroux) in 1875, the year of its inauguration Before we get to the principal topic of today’s post, we must note an operatic disaster that had nothing to do with singers or the opera being performed on stage. Rather, it was a disaster that inspired Gaston Leroux…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Fluids of Choice and Drinking Songs
May
14th,
2024
We pick up where we left off in yesterday’s Music History Monday. May 13th – yesterday’s date – has been designated by those fine people who designate such things as “World Cocktail Day” (as well as the first day of “American Craft Beer Week”). I used the occasions to begin a discussion about the drinking habits…