Dr. Bob Prescribes Scott Joplin
April
2nd,
2019
Scott Joplin Scott Joplin died penniless and all but forgotten on April 1, 1917 in an asylum in New York City’s gigantic Manhattan State Hospital, his brain reduced to black-currant jelly by syphilis. He left behind him a “terminally unproduced opera” entitled Treemonisha and a body of piano rags that virtually defined the genre and…
Music History Monday: An American Original and an American Tragedy
April
1st,
2019
Scott Joplin On April 1, 1917 – 102 years ago today - the American composer and pianist Scott Joplin died at the Manhattan State Hospital on New York City’s Ward’s Island, which straddles the Harlem River and the East River between Manhattan and Queens. He was 48 years old. During the course of his compositional…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Walter Piston
March
26th,
2019
Walter Piston, Harmony, third edition, published in 1969 There was a time not long ago when you could not turn over a musical rock without finding a copy of Walter Piston’s book Harmony underneath. First published in 1941, Piston’s Harmony was ubiquitous; my first copy was a yellow-jacketed third edition, published in 1969. (It is…
Music History Monday: Four Birthdays and a Painful Death
March
25th,
2019
Some birthday greetings to four wonderful musicians before diving into the rather more grim principal subject of today’s post. Four Birthdays Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) ca. 1900 A buon compleanno (“happy birthday” in Italian) to the legendary Italian conductor (and cellist) Arturo Toscanini, who was born on March 25, 1867 – 152 years ago today –…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Howard Hanson, Symphony No. 2
March
19th,
2019
Warrant Officer Ripley aboard the Nostromo I invoke Ridley Scott’s 1979 Sci-fi masterwork, the movie Alien. It was the first movie in that storied franchise, with the killer tag line, “in space no one can hear you scream” (40 years later, I still love that line!). I set final scene. Warrant Officer Ellen Louise Ripley…
Music History Monday: Transfigured Night
March
18th,
2019
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) in 1903 On March 18, 1902 – 117 years ago today – Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht (meaning Transfigured Night) for string sextet received its premiere in his native city of Vienna. Considered today to be Schoenberg’s first “major” work, the music prompted what are euphemistically called “disruptions” (meaning catcalls and hisses) and…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Erroll Garner
March
12th,
2019
Erroll Garner performs Col Porter’s I Get a Kick Out of You, circa 1960: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VHUpGxFJJ8 Erroll Louis Garner (1923-1977) was a 5’2” miracle: a virtuoso jazz pianist whose performances had the nuanced textures of big band charts; whose sheer, overpowering and contagious joy could not help but overwhelm listeners; who created a style of playing…
Music History Monday: The “Revival” Begins
March
11th,
2019
On March 11, 1829 – 190 years ago today – the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn conducted a heavily edited version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s sacred oratorio St. Matthew’s Passion at the Singakademie in Berlin. Located just north of the Unter den Linden and know today as the “Maxim Gorky Theater”, the Singakademie was, for many years,…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Piano Duets
March
5th,
2019
Transcriptions Piano Duet ZOFO and yours truly on stage together, March 2018 Today, we take for granted our ability to hear any music at any time. We live in the golden age of the couch potato; we have merely to flick our fingers (or thumbs!) and almost anything is available to us, much of it…
Music History Monday: The Red Priest
March
4th,
2019
Probable portrait of Antonio Vivaldi, ca. 1723 On March 4, 1678 – 341 years ago today – the Italian composer, violinist, priest and rapscallion Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice. Yes, I know we are all “one-of-a-kind” and that that phrase is way overworked, but truly, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was a genre unto himself! Vivaldi…