Week of August 11, 2014
August 11
1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi. This one’s a stretch, but Wi-Fi is really important, and Antheil was a genius and a composer.
Births:
1748 – Joseph Schuster, German composer (d. 1812)
1919 – Ginette Neveu, French violinist (d. 1949)
1966 – Juan María Solare, Argentine pianist and composer
Deaths:
1868 – Halfdan Kjerulf, Norwegian composer (b. 1815)
1996 – Rafael Kubelík, Czech conductor and composer (b. 1914)
August 12
Births:
1696 – Maurice Greene, English organist and composer (d. 1755)
1885 – Juhan Simm, Estonian composer (d. 1959)
Deaths:
1588 – Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder, Italian-English composer (b. 1543)
1612 – Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian organist and composer (b. 1557)
August 13
Births:
1879 – John Ireland, English composer (d. 1962) That’s funny
1960 – Koji Kondo, Japanese composer (of video games, but those video games include Mario stuff and the legend of Zelda. Some people would consider those super important)
Deaths:
1912 – Jules Massenet, French composer (b. 1842)
1996 – David Tudor, American pianist and composer (b. 1926) This guy premiered Boulez’s piano sonata no. 2
August 14
1888 – An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan‘s “The Lost Chord“, one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison‘s phonograph in London, England.
Births:
1738 – Leopold Hofmann, Austrian composer (d. 1793)
1857 – Max Wagenknecht, German organist, composer, and educator (d. 1922)
1892 – Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, English pianist, composer, and critic (d. 1988)
1911 – Jan Koetsier, Dutch composer and conductor (d.2006)
1924 – Georges Prêtre, French conductor
1953 – James Horner, American composer and conductor
Deaths:
1727 – William Croft, English organist and composer (b. 1678)
1996 – Sergiu Celibidache, Romanian conductor and composer (b. 1912)
2007 – Tikhon Khrennikov, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1913)
August 15
Births:
1736 – Johann Christoph Kellner, German organist and composer (d. 1803)
1875 – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English pianist, violinist, and composer (d. 1912)
1882 – Marion Bauer, American composer and critic (d. 1955)
1890 – Jacques Ibert, French composer (d. 1962)
Deaths:
1728 – Marin Marais, French viol player and composer (b. 1656)
1907 – Joseph Joachim, Hungarian violinist, composer, and conductor (b. 1831)
1951 – Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist and composer (b. 1882)
August 16
1761 – Yevstigney Fomin, Russian composer (d. 1800) Earliest Russian composer I can recall seeing so far
1909 – Paul Callaway, American organist and conductor (d. 1995)
1917 – Roque Cordero, Panamanian composer (d. 2008) Wowza. This guy studied under Krenek and Mitropoulos and a guy named Leon Barzin.
Deaths:
1518 – Loyset Compère, French composer (b. 1445)
1940 – Eduard Sõrmus, Estonian violinist (b. 1878)
1959 – Wanda Landowska, Polish-French harpsichord player (b. 1879)
August 17
1784 – Classical composer Luigi Boccherini receives a pay rise [sic?] of 12000 reals from his employer, the Infante Luis, Count of Chinchón.
Births:
1686 – Nicola Porpora, Italian composer (d. 1768)
1928 – T. J. Anderson, American composer, conductor, and educator
1948 – Alexander Ivashkin, Russian-English cellist and conductor (d. 2014)
Deaths:
1901 – Edmond Audran, French composer (b. 1842)
1973 – Jean Barraqué, French composer (b. 1928)
Fugue for Thought 