Music History Monday: Abbey Road, and This and That
August
8th,
2022
August 8 is a great day, a signal day, an epic day for both good and bad reasons in the history of popular, rock, and jazz music. We’d observe a few of today’s date-related events before moving on to our featured story. First, with heads respectfully bowed, we would note some of those who have…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
August
2nd,
2022
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784) circa 1725, at the age of 15 Weimar On July 14, 1708, the newly appointed court organist Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and his wife Maria Barbara Bach (1684-1720) arrived in the Thuringian (central German) city of Weimar from Bach’s previous post in the Thuringian city of Mühlhausen. The young couple moved…
Music History Monday: The Wayward Bach, His Wayward Daughter, and the Bachs of Oklahoma
August
1st,
2022
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784) circa 1760, oil on canvas by Wilhelm Weitsch We mark the death on August 1, 1784 – 238 years ago today – of the German composer and organist Wilhelm Friedemann Bach in Berlin at the age of 73. Born in the central German city of Weimar on November 22, 1710, Wilhelm…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Thomas Hampson
July
26th,
2022
Back on June 21, in my Dr. Bob Prescribes post entitled “The Joys of Bassi”, I asserted that, in my experience, baritones, bass-baritones, and bass singers – like the people that play their instrumental equivalents, the string bass and low brass – are the salts of the earth of the vocal world. I observed that,…
Music History Monday: Under the Covers
July
25th,
2022
Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton (1926-1984) We mark the death on July 25, 1984 – 38 years ago today – of the American Rhythm and Blues singer Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton. Born on December 11, 1926, she died in Los Angeles of both heart and liver disease brought on by alcohol abuse. According to…
Dr. Bob Prescribes – Lost and Found: Puccini at the Organ!
July
19th,
2022
Yesterday’s Music History Monday post celebrated the premiere (on July 18, 2003) of a newly discovered piano work by Claude Debussy (1862-1918). Composed in late February/early March of 1917, Les Soirs illumines par l’ardeur du charbon (“the evenings lighted by the glow of the coals”) was, in fact, Debussy’s final piano work; he died of…
Music History Monday: A Debussy Discovery!
July
18th,
2022
The Dead Sea Before getting into the date specific event/discovery that drives today’s post, permit me, please, to tell the story of the greatest manuscript discovery of all time. The ancient city of Jerusalem sits at nearly 2,700 feet above sea level. Less than 15 miles south of Jerusalem sits the Dead Sea, which at…
Doctor Bob Prescribes – Vocal Sampling
July
13th,
2022
Yesterday’s Music History Monday post on the death of George Gershwin was, to my mind, painfully dark. Having examined and processed the dreadful events leading up to Gershwin’s tragic death at the age of 38, we turn here in today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post not just to the land of the living but to a…
Music History Monday: The Death of George Gershwin
July
11th,
2022
George Gershwin (1898-1937) photographed by Carl Van Vechten on March 28, 1937, 3½ months before his death We mark the death on July 11, 1937 – 85 years ago today – of the American composer and pianist George Gershwin, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Born in Brooklyn New York on September 26, 1898,…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Star-Spangled Banner
July
5th,
2022
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,…