Music History Monday: There’s No Software Without the Hardware!
June
18th,
2018
[caption id="attachment_3766" align="alignright" width="261"] Ignaz Joseph Pleyel[/caption] Today we celebrate the birthday of the piano builder and composer Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, who was born in Ruppertsthal, Austria on June 18, 1757: 261 years ago today. It’s entirely understandable if you’ve never heard of Pleyel or his music, because his music – despite being extremely attractive…
Music History Monday: Richard Strauss
June
11th,
2018
[caption id="attachment_3747" align="alignright" width="263"] Richard Strauss in 1936[/caption] We celebrate the birth of the composer Richard Strauss, who was born on June 11, 1864, 154 years ago today. I will pull no punches here: in my humble (but happily expressed) opinion, Richard Strauss was one the greatest composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He…
Music History Monday: Serge Koussevitzky and What it Takes to Be a Special Person!
June
4th,
2018
[caption id="attachment_3733" align="alignright" width="210"] Serge Koussevitzky[/caption]If I were a rich man, yabba-dabba-dabba yabba-dabba-dabba-daba-doo… Now look, I will be the first to acknowledge how lucky I am: in a world filled with want and poverty, my family and I live in the greatest of comfort. (The old joke must be told. The flight attendant settles an…
Music History Monday: Leopold Mozart
May
28th,
2018
[caption id="attachment_3710" align="alignright" width="220"] Portrait of Leopold Mozart in 1765 at the age of 46, attributed to Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni.[/caption]On this day in 1787 – 231 years ago – Leopold Mozart, the father of Wolfgang Mozart, died in Salzburg at the age of 67. For all of his talents as a violinist, violin teacher, conductor…
Music History Monday: A One Hit Wonder?
May
21st,
2018
[caption id="attachment_3679" align="alignright" width="201"] Rugerro Leoncavallo in 1910[/caption] On May 21, 1892 – 126 years ago today – Ruggero Leoncavallo’s two-act opera I Pagliacci (“The Clowns”) received its premiere at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. It was a phenomenal hit from the first and remains an A-list opera…
Music History Monday: Leo Smit
May
14th,
2018
[caption id="attachment_3663" align="alignright" width="296"] Leo Smit circa 1918[/caption] Today we remember and honor the Dutch composer Leo Smit, who was born on May 14, 1900 – 118 years ago today – in Amsterdam. As regular readers of this blog are aware, while I opine (and even bloviate) with fair regularity, I rarely get personal in…
Music History Monday: Feast or Famine
May
7th,
2018
I have come to realize over the eighteen months I’ve been writing these Music History Mondays that a date-sensitive blog (like this one) is a metaphor for life itself. On some days you just can’t buy a break while on others there are so many different possibilities that choosing one becomes well nigh impossible, a…
Music History Monday: Microphones
April
30th,
2018
[caption id="attachment_3588" align="alignright" width="237"] Bing Crosby and microphone[/caption]On April 30th, 1977 – 41 years ago today – the English rock band Led Zeppelin set a new attendance record for a single-act, non-festival ticketed concert, when it played to an audience of 77,229 in Pontiac, Michigan at the Pontiac Silverdome, the capacity of which was a…
Music History Monday: One of a Kind!
April
23rd,
2018
[caption id="attachment_3542" align="alignright" width="243"] Prokofiev in New York in 1918[/caption]On April 23, 1891 – 127 years ago today – the composer and pianist Sergei Prokofiev was born in the village of Sontsovka, in Ukraine. He was, very simply, one of a kind: a brilliant, tungsten-steel-fingered pianist; a great composer; and one of the most irksome…
Music History Monday: The Break It Down Show
April
16th,
2018
April 16 is one of those dates during which pretty much nothing of interest happened by way of music history. Now please, that’s not to say that nothing happened on this date. For example, on April 16, 1954, Roy Orbison attended an Elvis Presley show in Dallas Texas. Wow. On April 16, 1983, Kirk Hammett…