Dr. Bob Prescribes: Henry Mancini
June
15th,
2021
Henry Mancini (1924-1994) Enrico Nicola “Henry” Mancini was born on April 16, 1924, in Cleveland, Ohio. He grew up in the western Pennsylvanian town of West Aliquippa, about 15 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Apropos of nothing, my research reveals an astonishing number of high-end professional athletes hail from “greater” Aliquippa, including Jon Baldwin (National Football…
Music History Monday: Henry Mancini
June
14th,
2021
Henry Mancini (1924-1994) We mark the death on June 14, 1994 – 27 years ago today - of the composer, songwriter, conductor, and arranger Enrico Nicola “Henry” Mancini in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of seventy. Known primarily for his film and television scores, Mancini received twenty Grammy Awards and four Oscars. Today’s Music…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Florence Foster Jenkins
June
9th,
2021
“Pay-to-play” (aka “P2P”). It’s a fairly new term for something as old as the hills: paying (bribing?) others “for services or the privilege to engage in certain activities.” P2P is particularly big in the book and music publishing industry today, in which publishers require authors and composers to underwrite the costs of production (and not…
Music History Monday: When Opera Singers Misbehave
June
7th,
2021
Francesca Cuzzoni (1696-1778) On June 7, 1727 – 294 years ago today – a long-running feud between the sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni broke out into open warfare – a screaming, hair-pulling, dress-ripping physical altercation on stage, in London – during a performance of Giovanni Bonancini’s opera Astianatte (of 1725). After pulling the “ladies”…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Hank Levy and Don Ellis
June
1st,
2021
Don Ellis (left) and Hank Levy, circa 1971 It is possible to know too much. A wine aficionado has no taste for a $14.00 bottle of Pinot. A modern dance devotee would not deign to attend a square dance. A cocktail shaker enthusiast won’t look twice at a mass-marketed chrome shaker from the 1930s. This…
Music History Monday: Haydn’s Death and His Final Road Trip
May
31st,
2021
Haydn’s house in Vienna; its original address was Kleine Steingasse 73 (today Haydngasse 19), taken in 2014 with yours truly out front We mark the death, on May 31, 1809 – 212 years ago today – of the incomparable Joseph Haydn, at his home in Vienna at Kleine Steingasse 73 (today, the address is Haydngasse…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano
May
25th,
2021
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) in 1803, the year he completed and premiered – along with George Bridgetower - his Violin Sonata in A major, Op. 47, “Kreutzer”, by Christian Horneman By the Numbers Some important Beethoven numbers. Zero: the number of wastepaper baskets Beethoven owned. (The man kept everything.) Zero: the number of hair-styling implements…
Music History Monday: George Bridgetower, Louis van Beethoven, Rodolphe Kreutzer, and a Sonata for Violin!
May
24th,
2021
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) in 1803, painted by Christian Horneman We mark the premiere on May 24, 1803 – 218 years ago today – of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47. When published in 1805, it was dedicated to the French violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer, and has been known as the “Kreutzer…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Eric Satie: Socrate
May
18th,
2021
Erik Satie (1866-1925) circa 1919, soon after completing Socrate Pardon me a brief (well, maybe not as brief as you’d like) rant. Encyclopedia articles about Satie inevitably begin by calling him a “precursor”, a card-carrying member of the Parisian “avant-garde” (properly defined as “people or works that are experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to…
Music History Monday: The Making of an Eccentric: Erik Satie
May
17th,
2021
Erik Satie (1866-1925) in 1920 We mark the birth, on May 17, 1866 – 155 years ago today – of the French composer and provocateur Erik Alfred-Leslie Satie. He was born in the ancient port town of Honfleur, situated in Normandy at the mouth of the Seine River on the English Channel, roughly 100 miles…