11-04: Sprague Coolidge Cornucopia! Copland Appalachian Spring | Stravinsky Apollo etc | Respighi Trittico Botticelliano etc | Poulenc Flute Sonata : Synth Guitar Arr.

Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (l) with Ethel & Frank Bridge










Works commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Plus others that happen to be on the same discs! Oh, and I forgot to mention in the supplemental reading... the performer on the Respighi is the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. They play without a conductor, you know. Don't worry, they stay together just fine!


11-04: MC5 Saginaw 1970 - Fauré Requiem / Equilbey 2008 - Mendelssohn Scottish & Italian Symphonies / Boult 195? - Canteloube Songs of the Auvergne / Grey 1930



1847 – Felix Mendelssohn (German composer)
1924 – Gabriel Fauré (French composer)
1930 – Buddy Bolden (American jazz cornetist)
1935 – Miklós Radnai (Hungarian composer, music critic & author)
1937 – Rogelio del Villar (Spanish composer)
1953 – Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (American pianist & patron of classical music)
1957 – Joseph Canteloube (French composer, musicologist & author)
1965 – Krsto Odak (Croatian composer)
1994 – Fred "Sonic" Smith (American rock guitar player, MC5 & spouse of Patti Smith)
1995 – Marti Caine (English actress, dancer, presenter, singer, writer & comedienne)
2005 – Sheree North (American actress & singer)
2010 – Michelle Nicastro (American actress & singer)


11-03: Clara Rockmore's Lost Theremin Album - Eddie Lockjaw Davis w/ Shirley Scott 1960 - Bachman-Turner Overdrive Halifax 1984 - Charles Tournemire




1911 – Salvador Giner y Vidal (Spanish composer & teacher)
1939 – Charles Tournemire (French composer & organist)
1945 – Alessandro Longo (Italian composer & musicologist, creator of a D. Scarlatti catalogue)
1964 – John Henry Barbee (American blues guitarist & singer)
1986 – Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (American jazz tenor saxophonist)
1993 – Léon Theremin [Ле́в Терме́н] (Russian inventor)
2006 – Paul Mauriat (French pop musician, "Love Is Blue")
2010 – Jerry Bock (American musical theatre composer, Fiddler on the Roof)
2010 – Jim Clench (Canadian rock bass guitarist, April Wine & Bachman-Turner Overdrive)


Okay look, here's how this thing's gonna go. From now on, lists will be brutally paired down. This one's half as long as it would have been. It's not because I imagine we'll ever get caught up, but because we'd like to spend more time not working on this blog... I hope we'll still be able to hold your interest, and that this little blogspot will continue increasing in readership. And of course by "we" I mean "I."


11-02a: There Are No Downloads for This Part



1635 – Aurelio Signoretti (Italian composer)
1717 – Johann Jacob Walther (German violinist & composer)
1733 – Johann Matthias Leffloth (German organist & composer)
1845 – Chrétien Urhan (German-born French violinist, organist, composer, violist & gambist)
1882 – Cenobio Paniagua y Vásques (Mexican composer)
1884 - Auguste Emmanuel Vaucorbeil (French composer)
1887 – Jenny Lind (Swedish soprano)
1937 – Maude Valerie White (French-born English composer & pianist)
1956 – Jacob Weinberg (Ukrainian composer)
1958 – Adam von Ahn Carse (English composer & musicologist)

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...


11-02b: Mahler 6 "Tragic" Mitropoulos 1959 - Decapitated : Winds of Creation 2000 - Mississippi John Hurt 1928 - Berlioz Romeo & Juiliette | Debussy La Mer | Strauss Dance of 7 Veils / Mitropolous



1960 – Dimitri Mitropoulos (Greek conductor and composer)
1962
Felice Lattuada (Italian composer)
1966 – Mississippi John Hurt (American blues singer & guitarist)
1968
Ernst Hess (Swiss composer)
1991
Fran Stevens (American singer & actress)
1994
Pete Pitterson (Jamaican-born British jazz trumpeter)
1996 – Eva Cassidy (American roots-music singer & pianist)
2007 – Vitek Kiełtyka (Polish death metal drummer, Decapitated)
2011 – Sickan Carlsson (Swedish actress & singer)


No, cause of death does not generally figure into our lists around here. Vitek Kiełtyka was killed in a car accident, but he was not decapitated. That was the name of the band he drummed for. When Decapitated recorded their first album, Vitek was just 15 years old.

Somebody once said that Beethoven's symphonies are all different from each other, while Mahler's symphonies are different from all others. Well, what a crock of crap. It makes it sound like all Mahler's symphonies are similar to each other, as compared to Beethoven's symphonies. That's an evaluation that might fit a symphonist like Bruckner, but not Mahler. Mahler's symphonies are in some ways radically different from one another. It's hard to imagine, for instance, that two symphonies more different from one another than his 3rd and 4th could come from the pen of the same composer.

And so, Mahlerstodfest 19112011 continues. We've heard all now but symphonies nos. 7, 9, and today's offering, 6. So, what makes the 6th so special, as compared, say, to the 5th and the 7th? Well, the comparison is quite apposite, in fact. Mahler's 5th and 7th are both progressive, rhapsodic, "modernistic" works, and both are in five movements. Both begin and end in keys that are relatively remote from one another, given what one expects from a symphony. And both represent the transition from darkness to light whose symphonic expression was first and most famously manifest in Beethoven's 5th Symphony. And in fact they're in some ways the two Mahler symphonies that are most similar to one another.

The 6th is not like those at all. It seems, viewed from a distance, like a "normal," "conventional" symphony. It both begins and ends in the same key, A minor. It's in the traditional four movements. Only, the movements are massive. And they're played by a massive orchestra, the largest Mahler was ever to use for one of his purely instrumental symphonies. There are about 20 each of woodwind and brass instruments (as compared to only 14 of each for the 5th), and a very large percussion section that includes an infamous large non-metallic hammer which strikes two or three blows (depending on the conductor's preference - Mitropoulos does three, and makes the third the loudest) during the finale. The exact implement used for this is not specified by Mahler, and is generally improvised for any given performance; however, something like this is what one often finds:


What is Mahler's 6th symphony "about," then? Well, from its subtitle, "Tragic," we know from the outset that this symphony is going to be a huge downer. And it is! Quite devastatingly so! It's the apotheosis of tragedy itself - a grandiose orchestral catharsis that leaves one drained and pale, 80 minutes later, from a roller-coaster ride of emotions that culminate in the merciless, inexorable destiny of a final and irreversible defeat. Enjoy!

(Oh, and don't miss out on Mississippi John - the sweetest damned country-folk blues you ever did hear!)

11-01: Yma Sumac Live 1961 - Sippie Wallace 1925-1945 - Grand Funk Railroad Closer to Home 1970 - Haydn 100 & 102 | Bach Brandenburg 3 | Weber Overtures / Leitner





1768 – Pierre van Maldere (Belgian violinist & composer)
1810 – Georg Anton Kreusser (German composer)
1817 – Giovanni Calisto Andrea Zanotti (Italian composer)
1895 – Aleksander Zarzycki (Polish pianist, composer & conductor)
1927 – Florence Mills (American cabaret singer, dancer & comedian)
1942 – Hugo Distler (German composer)
1952 – Dixie Lee (American actress, dancer & singer)
1975 – Norbert Rosseau (Belgian composer)
1975 – Philip James (American composer, conductor & teacher)
1983 – Anthony van Hoboken (Dutch musicologist, creator of Haydn works catalogue)
1986 – Serge Garant (Canadian composer & conductor)
1986 – Sippie Wallace (American blues singer & pianist)
2004 – Mac Dre (American rapper)
2004 – Terry Knight (American rock producer, promoter, singer & songwriter)
2005 – Skitch Henderson (English traditional pop bandleader)
2008 – Nathaniel Mayer (American R&B & soul singer)
2008 – Yma Sumac (Peruvian exotica singer with range of more than 4 octaves)
2008 – Shakir Stewart (American record executive & producer)


I have nothing to say about these poopers.


10-31: Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer / Chowdiah / UK Shivaraman / Vinayakraman : Parvathi Mysore 1965 + Beaucoup de Danses Macabres!


1634 – Erasmus Widmann (German composer, cantor & organist)
1654 – Francisco Correa de Arauxo (Spanish organist, composer & music theorist)
1744 – Leonardo Leo (Italian composer)
1768 – Francesco Maria Veracini (Italian composer & violinist)
1815 – Daniel Belknap (American farmer, mechanic, militia captain, poet, composer, singing teacher & tunebook publisher)
1870 – Mihály Mosonyi (Hungarian composer)
1887 – George Alexander Macfarren (English composer & pianist, blind from a young age)
1923 – Charles Jean Baptiste Collin-Mezin (French luthier & bowmaker)
1969 – Hugo Pfister (Swiss composer)
1975 – Sachin Dev Burman [শচীন দেব বর্মন
] (Indian composer, Bengali singer & Hindi film music director)
1989 – Conrad Beck (Swiss composer)
1995 – Alan Bush (English composer, pianist & teacher)
1995 – Lavada "Dr. Hepcat" Durst (American blues pianist & singer)
1995 – Lloyd Lambert (American R&B & rock bass guitarist)
2003 – Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer [செம்மங்குடி ஸ்ரீனிவாச ஐயர்
] (Indian Tamil singer of Carnatic music)

Not many familiars for this Samhain, but I was fortunate enough to locate a recording of the legendary Tamil singer Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer that is as historic as it is lo-fi. Other than that, nada. So I thought we'd have a little fun and belatedly celebrate the holiday right (hey, it's Hallowe'en everyday here at YiDM) with a little mix featuring a variety of recordings of the delightful Danse macabre, Op. 40 by Camille Saint-Saëns (1874). In it, you'll find not only complete orchestral versions (ranging in date from 1927 to 1959), but versions for violin & piano, violin with chamber ensemble, and organ. In addition, you'll hear the chanson of the same name Saint-Saëns wrote in 1872, the "Fossils" movement from his Carnival of the Animals, and a Horowitz transcription, which, if you know anything about those, takes some extreme liberties with the original material. Enjoy! And be safe, kiddies...


10-30: Run DMC 12" Singles Box Set - Robert Volkmann : String Serenade 2 / Suitner - Camelot Original Broadway Cast Recording 1960




1522 – Jean Mouton (French composer)
1853 – Pietro Raimondi (Italian composer)
1883 – Johann Vesque von Püttlingen (Austrian composer)
1883 – Robert Volkmann (German composer, organist & pianist, active in Austria-Hungary)
1885 – Gustav Adolf Merkel (German organist & composer)
1916 – Silas Gamaliel Pratt (American composer)
1928 – Oscar Sonneck (American librarian, editor & musicologist, specialist in early American music)
1944 – Paul Ladmirault (French composer, pianist, organist & violinist)
1953 – Emmerich Kálmán (Hungarian operetta composer)
1969 – Pops Foster (American jazz bassist, tuba player & trumpeter)
1971 – Osvald Chlubna (Czech composer)
1972 – Allen Roth (American orchestra leader, Milton Berle Show)
1986 – Andrzej Markowski [Marek Andrzejewski] (Polish conductor & composer)
1995 – Brian Easdale (English composer)
2000 – Steve Allen (American comedian, author, pianist & composer)
2002 – Jam Master Jay (American rapper & musician, Run DMC)
2007 – Robert Goulet (American popular singer & entertainer)


Did any of you notice that Megaupload was down for several hours yesterday? Made for some breath-holding for a bit there. And if you did notice, you might be an mp3holic. Please state your username and admit it in a comment...


10-29a: Allman Brothers Pittsburgh 1971 - William Kapell : Khachaturian Piano Concerto 1946 - Stravinsky Ebony Concerto : Woody Herman 1946





1829 – Maria Anna ""Nannerl" Mozart (Austrian keyboardist & composer, older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus)
1882 – Gustav Nottebohm (German pianist, teacher, music editor, composer & Beethoven scholar)
1922 – George August Lumbye (Danish composer & conductor)
1931 – Luciano Gallet (Brazilian composer, conductor & pianist)
1934 – Gustavo Emilio Campa (Mexican composer)
1953 – William Kapell (American pianist)
1962 – Naphtali Siegfried Salomon (Danish composer, cellist & violist)
1971 – Duane Allman (American rock guitarist & songwriter)
1981 – Georges Brassens (French singer-songwriter, guitarist & poet)
1987 – Woody Herman (American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer & bandleader)


Late October has been a popular time for talented young musicians perishing in aircraft accidents, sometimes along with their musician relatives. Sometimes they were also from the Southern Rock genre.

You'll recall on the post for October 20th that Lynyrd Skynyrd's lead singer Ronnie van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines (Steve's older sister), all in their late 20s, died in just such a manner in 1977. Then you'll recall a couple days ago the passing of 30-year-old violin virtuoso Ginette Neveu, and her brother and piano accompanist Jean-Paul, when their plane went down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in 1949.

On October 29th, 1953, a plane carrying the brilliant pianist William Kapell, 31, crashed into King Mountain outside of San Francisco, during a deep fog, just as Kapell had nearly made it back home from a tour of Australia. 1953, in fact, saw the passings of some of the world's greatest musicians. Aside from Kapell, there were Sergei Prokofiev, Hank Williams, Arnold Bax, Kathleen Ferrier, and Django Reinhardt.

And then there was Duane Allman, just 24 years old. Now, I know what you're going to say. "Ha! Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident, not an airplane accident!" Well, that's true. But he was definitely airborne just before the end.

10-29b: Shadow Gallery : Tyranny 1998 - Prokofiev War and Peace : Corelli / Rodzinski 1953



2003 – Franco Corelli (Italian spinto & dramatic tenor)
2008 – Mike Baker (American progressive metal singer, Shadow Gallery)


Well, it's the last day of a long weekend. You've got your Prok, and you've got your Prog. What more do you need?


10-28b: Oliver Nelson & Eric Dolphy Straight Ahead 1961 - Carlos Guastavino Las Puertas de la Mañana : Espaillat / Zinger 1994 - Porter Wagoner et al : Shit Happens!




1970 – Eduardo López-Chávarri (Spanish composer, writer & musicologist)
1971 – Yves de la Casinière (French pianist, organist, composer & teacher)
1975 – Oliver Nelson (American jazz composer, arranger, conductor & saxophonist)
1991 – Sylvia Fine Kaye (American popular songwriter & pianist, spouse of Danny Kaye)
1999 – Antonis Katinaris [Αντώνιος Κατινάρης] (Greek rebetiko songwriter & bazouki player of Turkish ancestry)
2000 – Carlos Guastavino (Argentine composer & pianist, "the Schubert of the Pampas" )
2001 – Gerard Hengeveld (Dutch pianist, composer & teacher)
2005 – Fernando Quejas (Cape Verdean morna singer, songwriter & guitarist, active in Portugal)
2006 – Marijohn Wilkin (American country & gospel songwriter & guitarist)
2007 – Jimmy (Dimitrios) Makulis [Τζίμης Μακούλης] (Greek popular singer)
2007 – Porter Wagoner (American country singer, guitarist & songwriter)


Well, you might be surprised that I was unable to locate very much in the way of supplemental reading about Porter Wagoner, either with or without his singing partner of many years, Dolly Parton. So, I put a couple videos up on our YouTube page to make up for it, and in particular the one of Porter & Dolly together is just super and delightful.

But I'm sure it will not surprise any of you that it's Oliver Nelson who really interests me today, given the regular attention I lavish on jazz musicians of the no-longer-with-us sort. Nelson died much too young and thus had a short career, but he lived long enough to record an album that's consistently on everyone's list of one of the all-time great jazz albums, Blues and the Abstract Truth from 1961, an all-star large-combo masterpiece featuring Nelson's wonderful compositions (most notably "Stolen Moments") and expert arrangements, and some mighty soloing from the assembled crowd of geniuses. Of course, if you have any jazz collection to speak of, Blues and the Abstract Truth is already a part of it, so why not dip into some of Nelson's other less-heard works for a change of pace?