Tag: history

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of May 26, 2014

Fugue for Thought

May 26 Births: 1880 – W. Otto Miessner, American composer and educator (d. 1967)] 1893 – Eugene Aynsley Goossens, English conductor and composer (d. 1962) 1904 – Vlado Perlemuter, Lithuanian-French pianist and educator (d. 2002) Wikipedia says of him “He never played contemporary music other than Ravel’s, except for Sergei Prokofiev‘s Piano Concerto No. 3.” 1921 – Ernst Märzendorfer, Austrian conductor (d. 2009) First conductor to record all of Haydn’s symphonies 1938 – William Bolcom, American pianist and composer Deaths: 1999 – Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor (b. 1906) May 27 Births: 1584 – Michael Altenburg, German theologian and composer (d. 1640) 1884 – Max Brod, Czech journalist, author, and composer (d. 1968) 1891 – Claude Champagne, Canadian violinist, … Continue reading On this day: Week of May 26, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of May 19, 2014

Fugue for Thought

Week of May 19, 2014 Yet another week of dates and (a lack of) events. I’m always so excited when there’s a date of a premiere or  something that happens. It’s rare that I find them on Wikipedia. Some of them I’m aware of because a piece happens to be in my listening rotation, and I make a note of it ahead of time, but that’s only by coincidence.  May 19 Births: 1616 – Johann Jakob Froberger, German organist and composer (d. 1667) 1880 – Albert Richardson, English architect and educator, designed the Manchester Opera House (d. 1964) Significant enough 1929 – Helmut Braunlich, German-American violinist and composer … Continue reading On this day: Week of May 19, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of May 12, 2014

Fugue for Thought

Barely got last week’s installment out, and there is LOTS of stuff I kind of have queued up that I’ve been listening to and am eager to write about and would definitely be able to if this were a more revenue-generating activity. But alas, ’tis a labor of love. Let us begin.  May 12 Births: 1739 – Johann Baptist Wanhal, Bohemian composer (d. 1813) 1754 – Franz Anton Hoffmeister, German composer and publisher (d. 1812) 1755 – Giovanni Battista Viotti, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1824) 1814 – Adolf von Henselt, German pianist and composer (d. 1889) 1845 – Gabriel Fauré, French pianist, composer, and educator (d. 1924) 1928 – Burt Bacharach, … Continue reading On this day: Week of May 12, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of May 5, 2014

Fugue for Thought

Way behind on writing this week. Busy week. Let’s get started.  May 5 1891 – The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor. Cool little piece of trivia I didn’t know.  Births: 1749 – Jean-Frédéric Edelmann, French composer (d. 1794) 1869 – Hans Pfitzner, German composer (d. 1949) Deaths: —— —  May 6 Births: 1680 – Jean-Baptiste Stuck, Italian-French cellist and composer (d. 1755) Deaths: 1596 – Giaches de Wert, Flemish-Italian composer (b. 1535) 1973 – Ernest MacMillan, Canadian conductor and composer (b. 1893)] 2002 – Murray Adaskin, Canadian violinist, composer, conductor, and educator (b. 1906) May 7 … Continue reading On this day: Week of May 5, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

Week of April 28, 2014

Fugue for Thought

What’s gonna happen when I’ve done a year of these? I guess it’ll retire.  April 28 1948 – Igor Stravinsky conducted the premier of his American ballet, Orpheus, in New York City at New York City Center. Births: 1715 – Franz Sparry, Austrian composer (d. 1767) 1848 – Ludvig Schytte, Danish composer, pianist, and teacher (d. 1909) 1906 – Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor (d. 1999) 1943 – Yoav Talmi, Israeli conductor and composer 1943 – Jeffrey Tate, English musical director and conductor No deaths of note.  April 29 Births: 1842 – Carl Millöcker, Dutch composer and conductor (d. 1899) 1879 – Thomas Beecham, English conductor (d. 1961) This guy’s pretty important, but he seemed like kind of … Continue reading Week of April 28, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of April 21, 2014

Fugue for Thought

This series seems not to be as interesting for others as it is to me; then again, almost all of this is for my own personal edification, so enjoy what you wish. I also end up learning about a lot of other non-music-related events while scanning the entries for calendar days on Wikipedia.  April 21:  No events Births 1730 – Antonín Kammel, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1788) 1874 – Vincent Scotto, French composer (d. 1952) 1889 – Efrem Zimbalist, Russian-American violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1985) 1933 – Easley Blackwood, Jr., American pianist, composer, and educator Deaths: 1991 – Willi Boskovsky, Austrian violinist and conductor (b. 1909) … Continue reading On this day: Week of April 21, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: week of April 14, 2014

Fugue for Thought

Here we are again. I’m still baffled that there isn’t some list or library or something of premiere dates for all these famous pieces that people love and adore collected somewhere. It seems that would be terribly useful. Let’s begin with something not so musically related.  April 14 1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th). This isn’t at all musically related, but it did happen today.  Also, nothing else musically happened, so it’s nice to have something. We work with what we’ve got here at FFT Births: 1913 – Jean Fournet, French conductor (d. … Continue reading On this day: week of April 14, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of April 7, 2014

Fugue for Thought

Here we are again for more exciting history stuff, like composers I don’t know and non-comprehensive lists of events, apparently. Here we go.  April 7 1724 – Premiere performance of Johann Sebastian Bach‘s St John Passion BWV 245 at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig. 1805- The premiere of Beethoven’s third symphony is given in Vienna‘s Theater an der Wien on 7 April 1805 with the composer conducting I’m satisfied with those two events. Births: 1713 – Nicola Sala, Italian composer and theorist (d. 1801) 1763 – Domenico Dragonetti, Italian bassist and composer (d. 1846) What a cool last name. 1899 – Robert Casadesus, French pianist and composer (d. 1972) 1970 – Leif Ove Andsnes, Norwegian pianist Deaths: 1858 – Anton Diabelli, Austrian composer (b. … Continue reading On this day: Week of April 7, 2014

Uncategorized2 Comments

On this day: Week of March 31, 2014

Fugue for Thought

We’re coming back to another installment of history and dates. Last week was a good week of some new features on the site (see ‘Resources’) and I hope there is more of that to come. Also, I’m realizing that not ALL premieres and events that ever happened in the history of ever are actually included in these Wikipedia date entries, but a few google attempts do not show me any compendiums of premiere dates of symphonies or anything of the like. So some of that will be manual. Let’s see what we have for this week.  March 31 1913 – The … Continue reading On this day: Week of March 31, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of March 24, 2014

Fugue for Thought

History is interesting as long as it isn’t boring.  March 24 1721 – Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, now commonly called the Brandenburg concertos, BWV 1046-1051. (How’s that for a significant event?) Births: 1962 – Angèle Dubeau, Canadian violinist Seriously? That’s it? Granted, there were a few I decided not to include.Deaths: 1653 – Samuel Scheidt, German organist and composer 1916 – Enrique Granados, Spanish pianist and composer And that’s it for day one. Granados is a pretty important dude. Well, I’ve heard of him.  March 25 Nothing. Births: 1867 – Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor  1881 – Béla Bartók, Hungarian pianist and composer 1930 – David Burge, American pianist, composer, and conductor Deaths:  1620 – Johannes Nucius, German … Continue reading On this day: Week of March 24, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of March 17, 2014

Fugue for Thought

Another week of history lessons and lists of people who I do not know that I probably should.  March 17 Nothing happened. Births: 1665 – Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, French harpsichordist and composer 1876 – Frederick Ayres, American composer 1936 – Ladislav Kupkovič, Slovakian composer and conductor Deaths: 1875 – Ferdinand Laub, Czech violinist and composer 1999 – Ernest Gold, Austrian composer  March 18 No events again. When did everything happen?! Births: 1657 – Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, Italian organist and composer  1844 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (this guy is important, and recently featured here) 1882 – Gian Francesco Malipiero, Italian composer and educator 1939 – Yannis Markopoulos, Greek composer 1950 – James Conlon, American conductor Deaths: 1823 – Jean-Baptiste Bréval, … Continue reading On this day: Week of March 17, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of March 10, 2014

Fugue for Thought

Here we are once again for another week of facts, history, dates, and trivia.  March 10: No events of musical merit. Births: 1839 – Dudley Buck, American organist and composer 1844 – Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer  1875 – Alexander Goldenweiser, Russian pianist, composer, and educator (this guy has been in my rotation some recently) 1892 – Arthur Honegger, French-Swiss composer (listened through a few of this guy’s symphonies) 1915 – Charles Groves, English conductor  Deaths: 1832 – Muzio Clementi, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor  1910 – Carl Reinecke, German pianist, conductor, and composer Some familiar names to begin the week. No one I’m too familiar with, but if nothing … Continue reading On this day: Week of March 10, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of March 3

Fugue for Thought

And here we are once again for another week of historical events. I’m quite glad I decided to do this by the week, since it gives me the opportunity to prepare ahead of time to write something based on or associated with any momentous events or otherwise exciting types of things. I certainly won’t always be able to keep pace with what’s happened in history every week, but it could come in handy when I’m not quite sure how to proceed or what to post next. It could be good for some suggestions. Let’s see if there’s anything good this … Continue reading On this day: Week of March 3

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of Feb 24, 2014

Fugue for Thought

Ready for our next installment of “on this day”? I wanted to call it “this week in history” for a while, but am too lazy. It’s still divided by day, and you can still go right to the “on this day” link to view the week’s post if you’re dying to know what happened musically when you get up in the morning. Let’s get started. Also, I’ll be in Shanghai for most of this week, so we will see if I can get a post up here or not.  Feb 24: 1607 – L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the first works recognized as … Continue reading On this day: Week of Feb 24, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

On this day: Week of February 17, 2014

Fugue for Thought

I’m going to start compiling these weekly so they don’t gunk up the recent posts feed.  Feb 17: Nothing happened.  Births: 1653 – Arcangelo Corelli, Italian violinist and composer 1820 – Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian violinist and composer 1887 – Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer (I like the Finns. Should check this guy out) 1925 – Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor Deaths: 1652 – Gregorio Allegri, Italian composer  1732 – Louis Marchand, French organist and composer 1841 – Ferdinando Carulli, Italian guitarist and composer 1943 – Armand J. Piron, American violinist and composer 1962 – Bruno Walter, German-American conductor (Mahler’s right hand man for a time) 1970 – Alfred Newman, American composer and conductor 1982 – Thelonious Monk, American … Continue reading On this day: Week of February 17, 2014

UncategorizedLeave a comment

February 16 (and a soapbox)

Fugue for Thought

On this day: Again not so much musically. On to births: 1774 – Pierre Rode, French violinist and composer 1847 – Philipp Scharwenka, Polish-German composer (I’ve played one of this dude’s polkas) 1856 – Willem Kes, Dutch conductor and violinist 1938 – John Corigliano, American composer Deaths: 1957 – Josef Hofmann, Polish-American pianist and composer 2013 – Eric Ericson, Swedish conductor And that’s about it for today.  I’m running into some issues, though. I am obviously just scanning Wikipedia’s entry for each day, but some people are listed as composers or pianists or instrumentalists, but for commercial jingles, jazz ensembles, South Korean pop music, or new age piano-y stuff, and I’m making … Continue reading February 16 (and a soapbox)

UncategorizedLeave a comment

February 15

Fugue for Thought

On this day:  Apparently nothing musically happened. On to… Births: 1571 – Michael Praetorius, German organist and composer 1760 – Jean-François Le Sueur, French composer 1761 – Jacob Kimball, Jr., American composer  1847 – Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer and educator 1899 – Georges Auric, French composer 1905 – Harold Arlen, American composer 1907 – Jean Langlais, French composer and organist 1947 – John Coolidge Adams, American composer 1949 – Hans Graf, Austrian conductor Deaths: 1621 – Michael Praetorius, German organist and composer (this guy died on his birthday) 1857 –  Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer (b. 1804) 1924 – Lionel Monckton, English composer 1974 – Kurt Atterberg, Swedish composer 1981 – Karl Richter, German conductor and organist 1992 – William Schuman, American composer I was getting nervous there … Continue reading February 15

Uncategorized2 Comments

February 13

Fugue for Thought

On this day: 1914- ASCAP is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members  Births:  Leopold Godowsky (1870), Polish-American pianist and composer  Jeanne Demessieux (1968), pianist and composer Yfrah Neaman (1923), violinist  Colin Matthews (1946), composer Deaths:  Johann Kaspar Kerll (1693), composer and organist Johann Joseph Fux (1741), composer  Richard Wagner (1883), composer and director  Roger Voisin (2008), trumpeter  Continue reading February 13

Uncategorized1 Comment

February 12

Fugue for Thought

On this day: 1816- The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is destroyed by fire. Births: Thomas Campion (1567), composer Josef Reicha (1752), Czech cellist, composer, and conductor Jan Ladislav Dussek (1761), Czech composer and pianist  Lionel Grigson (1942) English pianist and composer Deaths:  Laurent Belissen (1762), composer Hans von Bülow (1894), conductor, pianist, composer Ambroise Thomas (1896), composer Émile Waldteufel (1915), composer Henri Duparc (1933), composer Eubie Blake (1983) pianist, composer Continue reading February 12