Dr. Bob Prescribes: Igor Stravinsky – Pulcinella Suite
June
11th,
2019
We will return to the music of mid-century American symphonists next week. For now, we celebrate Igor Stravinsky’s spectacular and spectacularly influential Pulcinella in anticipation of his 139th birthday, which we will mark on June 17th in next week’s Music History Monday post. Bad Times Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) in the early 1920s The First World…
Music History Monday: Tristan und Isolde
June
10th,
2019
On June 10, 1865 – 154 years ago today - Richard Wagner’s magnificent music drama Tristan und Isolde received its premiere in Munich under the baton of Hans von Bülow (with whose wife, Cosima, Wagner was carrying on an affair). Ludwig and Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld as Tristan and Isolde at the first performance of…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Amy Beach
June
4th,
2019
Amy Beach (1867-1944) Amy Marcy Cheney was born in Henniker, New Hampshire on September 5, 1867. She was a phenomenal child prodigy as both a pianist and composer. (She “composed” her first piece – a set of three waltzes – in her head at the age of four at her grandfather’s house, at which there…
Music History Monday: Here music has buried a treasure, but even fairer hope
June
3rd,
2019
George Bizet (1838-1875) in 1875 We mark the death of the French composer Georges Bizet, who passed from this vale of tears on June 3, 1875, 144 years ago today. He was but 36 years, 7 months, and 9 days young when he passed. The title for today’s post is the epitaph that appeared on…
Dr. Bob Recommends: Aaron Copland, Short Symphony
May
28th,
2019
Looking like the wedding scene from The Godfather; standing, left to right: Gerhard Samuel, Donald Fuller, Arthur Berger, Jerome Moross; seated: Leon Kirchner, Aaron Copland, Israel Citkowitz, David Diamond, Elliot Carter; Palisades, New York; 1949 Thus far, this post series has celebrated eight mid-twentieth century American composers – Howard Hanson, Roy Harris, Samuel Barber, Henry…
Music History Monday: The Little Pagan
May
27th,
2019
Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) in 1819) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres We mark the death of the violinistic wizard, composer, and showman extraordinaire Niccolò Paganini, who died 179 years ago today in the Mediterranean resort city of Nice on May 27, 1840. Woman with Marfan Syndrome, making us squirm. Marfan Syndrome (or “MFS”) is a genetic disorder of the…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: David Diamond
May
22nd,
2019
David Diamond in 1987 David Leo Diamond (1915-2005) composed eleven symphonies. When he died at 89 of congestive heart failure on June 13, 2005 in the Town of Brighten – located on the southeastern border of his native city of Rochester, New York – he left no family or heirs. A prolific composer, his greatest…
Music History Monday: Battered but Unbroken
May
20th,
2019
Clara Schumann in 1857, age 38 With our heads bowed and our hands on our hearts, we mark the death – 123 years ago today – of the pianist and composer Clara Wieck Schumann, who died of a stroke at the age of 76 on May 20, 1896. She was among the most outstanding pianists…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Henry Cowell
May
14th,
2019
Henry Cowell | Photo © Sidney Cowell Henry Cowell was an American iconoclast: a maverick composer who created his own most original musical language in response to a particular, uniquely “American” experience. A list of such radical American composers begins with Cowell’s personal hero and role model, Charles Ives and continues with Cowell’s own students…
Music History Monday: A Child (and a Man!) of the Theater
May
13th,
2019
On this day in 1767 – 252 years ago today – Wolfgang Mozart’s first opera, entitled Apollo and Hyacinthus received its premiere in Mozart’s hometown of Salzburg. The composer was 11 years old. Mozart in 1777. Mozart’s father Leopold wrote of this portrait, ”It has little value as a piece of art, but as to…