Music History Monday: A Bevy of Firsts and Number Ones!
March
23rd,
2020
Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776-1830) Before moving on to our “firsts” and “number ones”, we would acknowledge an event that picks up on the Music History Monday post of March 2, 2020. That postmarked the death in 1830 of the violinist and conductor Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Schuppanzigh was a loyal friend and supporter of Beethoven and his music,…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Folk Revival
March
17th,
2020
Today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post is different from previous posts in two ways. Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) in 1943; the sticker on his guitar says “This Machine Kills Fascists” First, only once before has this post prescribed more than one recording; today’s post prescribes four. My thinking is as follows: as Amazon is still delivering, and…
Music History Monday: Puff the Magic Dragon
March
16th,
2020
Before getting to the Puffster, I’d like us to recognize three other noteworthy musical events that have fallen on this date. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1726) On March 16, 1736 – 284 years ago today – the Italian composer Giovanni Pergolesi died in Pozzuoli Italy, a city that today is part of metropolitan Naples. Pergolesi passed…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Verdi String Quartets
March
10th,
2020
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) in 1873; this portrait was painted in Naples at exactly the time Verdi composed his String Quartet in E minor Yesterday's Music History Monday post observed the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco on March 9, 1842. Staying with Verdi, today's Dr. Bob Prescribes post deals with Verdi’s least-known masterwork: his String…
Music History Monday: Unspeakable Catastrophe and Unqualified Triumph!
March
9th,
2020
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) in 1842, age 29 We mark the first performance on March 9, 1842 – 178 years ago today – of Giuseppe Verdi’s third opera and first operatic masterwork, Nabucco, at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813-1901) was born on either the ninth or tenth of October 1813,…
Dr. Bob Prescribes A Jazz Duo
March
3rd,
2020
To an overwhelming degree, musicians are “defined” – personally, even spiritually – by the instruments they play and the music they play on those instruments. Put a flute player, a trumpet player, and a pianist in a room, and they might talk about the weather, or where they went to school, or were they are…
Music History Monday: M’Lord Falstaff
March
2nd,
2020
Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776-1830) We mark the death, in Vienna, on March 2, 1830 – 190 years ago today – of the violinist and conductor Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Born in Vienna on November 20, 1776, he was 53 at the time of his death, reportedly of “paralysis”, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Speaking generally but accurately, a…
Dr. Bob Prescribes – Beethoven: Arrangements of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh Songs
February
25th,
2020
We return to the birthday boy, Ludwig/Louis/Luigi van Beethoven, who turns 250 years-young this very year of 2020. As promised/threatened back in mid-2019, every month or two through 2020 I will dedicate a Dr. Bob Prescribes post to one or another of Beethoven’s lesser-known works or lesser-known recordings. On July 23, 2019 it was Beethoven’s…
Music History Monday: The Game Changer
February
24th,
2020
We mark the first performance on February 24, 1607 – 413 years ago today – of Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo, in Mantua, Italy. I suppose I should apologize. I have been advised, gently but firmly, to diversify these Music History Monday posts as much as possible: to spread the topics around by focusing on relatively…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Madama Butterfly
February
18th,
2020
Yesterday's Music History Monday post marked the 116th anniversary of the premiere of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly. The body of that post dealt with the charges of sexism, racism, and cultural appropriation leveled today at the opera, charges that have led many contemporary arbiters to demand that changes be made to the opera or…