Music History Monday: Ludwig van Beethoven and the Legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach
March
21st,
2022
The only undisputed image of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is that painted and repainted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann between 1746 and 1748; the painting above is Haussmann’s second version of his original, 1746 canvas, in which Bach is seen holding a copy of his six-part canon BWV 1076 We mark the birth on March 21,…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Georg Philipp Telemann: Concerti per molte stromenti
March
15th,
2022
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767); hand-colored aquatint by Valentin Daniel Preisler, after a lost painting by Louis Michael Schneider, 1750 In his lifetime, the composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was considered the single greatest composer living and working in the German-speaking world. (Whereas his contemporary, Johann Sebastian Bach [1685-1750], was perceived as being a composer of…
Music History Monday: Georg Philipp Telemann
March
14th,
2022
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) circa 1745, engraving by Georg Lichtensteger We mark the birth of March 14, 1681 – 341 years ago today – of the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann, in the city Magdeburg, in what today is central Germany. A contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) (both of…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Bodas de Sangre (“Blood Wedding”)
March
8th,
2022
The Enduring Magnificence of Flamenco On Sunday, February 27, my Patreon Zoom session (which goes by the rather precious title of “The Dr. is In!”) focused on Spanish music for the piano that has been transcribed for the guitar. Co-lead and largely created by my patron Joe Sullivan, the session featured music by some of…
Music History Monday: Unexpected Warblers
March
7th,
2022
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Before we go forth to encounter the “unexpected”, a quick birthday greeting to the wonderful Maurice Ravel, who was born in the southern French municipality of Ciboure on March 7, 1875: 147 years ago today. I would direct you to my Music History Monday post of December 28, 2020, a post that…
Dr. Bob Prescribes John Alden Carpenter, Skyscrapers (1926)
March
1st,
2022
John Alden Carpenter was a lifelong Midwesterner: he was born in Chicago in 1876 and died there in 1951. He reached his compositional maturity in the twentieth century. He was a businessman and thus, a compositional amateur. (“Amateur” in the best sense: as a practitioner of something not for money but for love, which is…
Music History Monday: John Alden Carpenter
February
28th,
2022
We mark the birth on February 28, 1876 – 146 years ago today – of the American composer and pianist John Alden Carpenter, in Chicago, Illinois. He died there in the Windy City at the age of 75, on April 26, 1951. John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951) circa 1925 John Alden Carpenter is certainly not a…
Dr. Bob Prescribes The Blues Brothers
February
22nd,
2022
Last week’s Music History Monday post – which appeared on February 14, St. Valentine’s Day – offered up some of the very worst love songs ever written and recorded. That “worst love songs” topic grew out of an anniversary: the 30th anniversary of the U.S. opening of the movie Wayne’s World on February 14, 1992.…
Music History Monday: Courage
February
21st,
2022
Members of Pussy Riot “perform” at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow on February 21, 2012 On February 21, 2012 – ten years ago today – five members of the Russian feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot staged an unauthorized performance on the soleas [so-LAY-us] of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Modest Mussorgsky: Complete Songs
February
15th,
2022
You Know It When You Hear It For 35 years – from 1984 until 2019 – I was part of a composers’ collective called “Composers, Inc.” As originally construed, we were six San Francisco Bay Area composers that banded together to produce concerts of new American music, concert that would – obviously – include our…