01-16b: Ike Quebec : Blue & Sentimental 1961 - Ponchielli : La Gioconda / Caballé | Pavarotti | Milnes | Bartoletti 1980 - Bach English Suites / Leonhardt 1984 - Delibes : Coppelia | Sylvia Suites / Fournet 1953

Not shown: Antonín Josef Alois Volanek & Annie Patterson

 

Not shown: Henryk Klejne & Charlie Galbraith

1703 – Matteo Coferati (Italian priest, composer & music theorist)
1817 – Antonín Josef Alois Volanek (Czech composer)
1864 – Anton Schindler (Austrian associate, secretary & biographer of Beethoven)
1886 – Amilcare Ponchielli (Italian composer)
1891 – Léo Delibes (French ballet & opera composer)
1911 – Wilhelm Berger (German composer, pianist & conductor)
1919 – Jaroslav Jeremiáš (Czech composer, conductor & pianist, son of Bohuslav, brother of Otakar)
1920 – Reginald De Koven (American music critic, operetta composer & conductor)
1934 – Annie Patterson (Irish organist, teacher, writer & composer)
1935 – Richard Wetz (German composer)
1957 – Arturo Toscanini (Italian conductor)
1961 – János Viski (Hungarian composer & violinist, pupil of Kodály)
1963 – Gilardo Gilardi (Argentine composer, pianist & conductor)
1963 – Ike Quebec (American jazz tenor saxophonist)
1969 – Vernon Duke [Vladimir Dukelsky, Владимир Дукельский] (Russian-born American musical theater & classical composer & songwriter)
1972 – David Seville [Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.] (American pianist, singer, songwriter, actor & record producer, Alvin and the Chipmunks)
1974 – Roy Bargy (American pop composer, conductor, arranger & pianist, first to record Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F)
1976 – Henryk Klejne (Polish composer, conductor & pianist)
1995 – Bill Dillard (American jazz trumpeter, singer & actor)
1996 – Marcia Davenport (American novelist, music critic & radio commentator)
1997 – Charlie Galbraith (English jazz trombonist)
2000 – Will "Dub" Jones (American R&B bass singer, The Coasters, The Cadets)
2000 – John Morris Rankin (Canadian country & folk fiddler & pianist, The Rankin Family)
2012 – Gustav Leonhardt (Dutch harpsichordist, organist, clavichordist, claviorganist, fortepianist, conductor, musicologist & music editor)

01-16a: Toscanini Wax Windfall !! : Beethoven Bizet Brahms Dukas Dvorak Gershwin Mozart Prokofiev Schubert Schumann Tchaikovsky & Wagner !!

1957 – Arturo Toscanini (Italian conductor)

That wasn't too clever of me, was it? Twelve albums by the greatest Italian conductor of the 20th century, and I somehow managed to not include a single Italian composer.

01-15a: Elton John Christmas in London 1974 - Jack Teagarden 1944-1947 - G.B. Sammartini : Complete Early Symphonies / Ferrari 1994

Not shown: Charles-Hubert Gervais & Johannes Herbst

Not shown: Viktor Patrik Vretblad, Francesco Maria Saraceni & Euphemia Giannini-Gregory

1744 – Charles-Hubert Gervais (French composer)
1755 – Azzolino Bernardino Della Ciaja (Italian organist, harpsichordist, composer & organ builder)
1765 – Carlmann Kolb (German priest, organist & composer)
1775 – Giovanni Battista Sammartini (Italian composer, organist, choirmaster & teacher)
1788 – Gaetano Latilla (Italian opera composer & harpsichordist, uncle of Niccolò Piccinni)
1812 – Johannes Herbst (German composer, active also in the United States)
1816 – Dr. Henry Harington (English physician, composer, poet, mathematician & classical scholar)
1844 – Joseph [Giuseppe] Mazzinghi (Italian-born English composer, active in Australia)
1864 – Isaac Nathan (English-born Australian composer, musicologist & journalist)
1904 – Eduard Lassen (Danish-born Belgian composer & pianist, active also in Germany & Italy)
1907 – Karl August Franz Sales Freiherr von Perfall (German composer & opera house director)
1909 – Ernest Reyer (French opera composer & music critic)
1915 – Guillaume Couture (Canadian teacher, conductor, choirmaster, composer, organist, baritone & music critic)
1924 – Géza Zichy (Hungarian composer & world's first professional one-armed pianist)
1926 – Enrico Toselli (Italian pianist & composer)
1935 – Lucien Fugère (French baritone)
1953 – Viktor Patrik Vretblad (Swedish composer)
1961 – Francesco Maria Saraceni (Italian composer)
1964 – Jack Teagarden (American jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer & singer, "Father of Jazz Trombone")
1967 – Albert Szirmai (Hungarian operetta composer & pianist, active also in the United States)
1973 – Jef Alpaerts (Belgian pianist & conductor)
1974 – Karel Salmon [Karl Salomon] (German-born Israeli composer, conductor, pianist & baritone)
1979 – Euphemia Giannini-Gregory (American soprano & vocal coach, Curtis Institute of Music)
1987 – Ray Bolger (American actor, singer & dancer)
1987 – Dolores Hawkins (American R&B singer)
1989 – Günter Reich (German-born Israeli baritone)
1992 – Dee Murray (English rock bass guitarist & singer, Elton John, Spencer Davis Group)
1993 – Sammy Cahn (American pop songwriter, pianist & violinist)

Sorry, it's been more than a week, hasn't it? I'll try to post more often. And as my therapist was wont to say "I'll "try" means I "won't. " When was the last time I said "I'll try" and actually did something?"

01-15b: Harry Nilsson : Pandemonium Shadow Show 1967 - Junior Wells : Come On In This House 1996 - Rossini : Barber of Seville / Bruscantini | de los Angeles | Gui 1962 - Liszt Piano Concertos / Cziffra | Vandernoot 1958 1961 - Les Baxter : Ritual of the Savage 1951

1994 – Philippe Brun (French jazz trumpeter & violinist, active also in Switzerland)
1994 – Georges Cziffra [Cziffra György)] (Hungarian-born French pianist)
1994 – Harry Nilsson (American rock & pop singer, songwriter, keyboardist, guitarist & harmonica player)
1995 – Sollie McElroy (American R&B singer, The Flamingos)
1996 – Les Baxter (American film & exotica pianist, percussionist & composer)
1998 – Junior Wells (American blues singer, songwriter & harmonica player)
2003 – Doris Fisher (American jazz & pop singer & songwriter)
2005 – Victoria de los Ángeles (Spanish soprano)

01-14b: New York Dolls Kansas City 1974 - Muslimgauze : Lo-Fi India Abuse 1999 - Broadcast : Haha Sound 2003 - Windir : Arntor 1998 - Handel : Water Music / Gibson 1985

1991 – Jerry Nolan (American rock drummer, New York Dolls)
1995 – Sir Alexander Gibson (Scottish conductor)
1996 – Pamelo Mounk'a (Congolese soukous & reggae musician)
1999 – Bryn Jones (British electronic & experimental musician, Muslimgauze)
2000 – Lina Aimaro (Italian soprano)
2004 – Joaquín Nin-Culmell (German-born composer, pianist & conductor of Spanish & Cuban descent, active in the U.S.)
2004 – Valfar [Terje Bakken] (Norwegian black metal singer & songwriter, Windir)
2011 – Trish Keenan (English alternative & electronica singer & guitarist, Broadcast)

01-14a: Joaquin Turina Orchestral Music / Batiz 1983 - Jeanette MacDonald 1929-1934 - Francesco Cavalli : Artemisia / La Venexiana 2011 - Stephen Heller Late Piano Works / Meyer-Hermann 1998

Not shown: Michael Arne & Francesco D'Arcais

1676 – Francesco Cavalli (Italian composer & organist))
1761 – Denis-François Tribou (French haute-contre (tenor) who sang in premieres of several Rameau operas)
1786 – Michael Arne (English composer, harpsichordist, organist, singer & actor, son of Thomas Arne & Cecilia Young)
1817 – Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny (French opera composer & violinist)
1888 – Stephen Heller [Heller István] (Hungarian composer & pianist)
1889 – Ilma de Murska [Ema Pukšec] (Croatian coloratura soprano)
1890 – Francesco D'Arcais (Italian composer & music critic)
1935 – Heinrich Schenker (Ukrainian-born Austrian music theorist & musicologist, inventor of Schenkerian analysis)
1943 – Adolf Sandberger (German musicologist & composer, 16th-century specialist)
1945 – Vándor Sándor (Hungarian composer & conductor, perished at Sopron)
1949 – Joaquín Turina (Spanish composer, teacher & music critic)
1952 – Artur Kapp (Estonian composer & organist)
1961 – Henry Geehl (English pianist, composer & conductor)
1965 – Jeanette MacDonald (American actress & singer)
1967 – Renato Lunelli (Italian organist, composer, musicologist & organ builder)
1971 – Ethel Glenn Hier (American composer & pianist)
1978 – Robert Heger (German conductor & composer)
1984 – Paul Ben-Haim [פאול בן חיים] (German-born Israeli composer & conductor)
1986 – Daniel Balavoine (French pop & world music singer, songwriter, guitarist & keyboardist)

Heinrich Schenker is probably the most misunderstood music theorist who ever lived. An example of the analytical technique which he developed (although I don't believe this analysis is actually by him) is shown below. In the example, the bottom system shows the first 16 measures of the aria "Leise, Leise, fromme Weise" from Weber's opera Der Freischütz. In Schenkerian terms, this is what would be called the "foreground" in the musical analysis. Just above that is what would be called a "shallow middleground" analysis of this music, and finally at the top is a "deep middleground" analytical sketch:

It would take many pages for me to explain all that is going on here. I'll just say that the misunderstandings about what Schenker was up to probably stem largely from the fact that he uses many of the symbols of familiar musical notation in his analyses (along with other symbols of his own invention). It has led many to incorrectly believe that Schenker's technique is about showing you which notes are "more important" than others. That it's about "getting rid of notes." That it's saying that a piece of music is "really" something much simpler than what it appears to be on the surface. Schenkerian analysis isn't any of those things.

What it is is a theory of organic form and of a longer-range way of listening. It shows how foreground structures can be construed as elaborations of simpler and simpler structures as one proceeds through various stages of middleground, until one finally reaches the simplest and least adorned structure in the background. This background structure in no way "replaces" the piece. It merely shows how the large-scale form of the piece is unified, in its harmony and voice-leading. It is elaborations upon elaborations of these simplest of harmonic and voice-leading structures that finally result in the foreground structures of the piece itself.

It's okay if none of that made any sense to you. Aside from professional music theorists, almost nobody gets it very well. The first time he ever saw a Schenkerian sketch, as brilliant a mind as Arnold Schoenberg said "All my favorite parts are missing."

01-13a: Donny Hathaway : Everything Is Everything 1970 - Tchaikovsky 4 / Szell 1962 - Andre Kostelanetz : Lure of Paradise 1959 - Ferdinand Ries Septet & Octet / Linos-Ensemble 2005 - Henri Tomasi : Wind Quintet / Rampal et al 1952

Not shown: Leonhard Trautsch, François-Joseph Krafft & Valentín de Zubiaurre y Unionbarrenechea

1762 – Leonhard Trautsch (German composer)
1795 – François-Joseph Krafft (Belgian organist, conductor & composer)
1828 – Alexandre-Auguste Robineau (French abbot & composer)
1838 – Ferdinand Ries (German composer & pianist, friend & pupil of Beethoven)
1864 – Stephen Foster (American popular songwriter, "The Father of American Music")
1892 – Charles Albert White (American composer & co-founder of music publishing firm White, Smith & Company)
1893 – Melitta Otto-Alvsleben (German operatic soprano)
1894 – Nadezhda von Meck [Надежда фон Мекк] (Russian businesswoman & patroness of Tchaikovsky)
1901 – Carlo Angeloni (Italian composer, organist & teacher whose pupils included Puccini)
1914 – Valentín de Zubiaurre y Unionbarrenechea (Spanish composer)
1917 – Albert Niemann (German operatic tenor)
1954 – Roland Diggle (English organist & composer, active in the U.S.)
1971 – Robert Still (English composer, teacher, conductor & amateur tennis player)
1971 – Henri Tomasi (French composer, conductor & pianist of Corsican descent)
1974 – Raoul Jobin (Canadian operatic tenor)
1979 – Donny Hathaway (American soul singer, songwriter & keyboardist)
1979 – Marjorie Lawrence (Australian operatic soprano)
1980 – André Kostelanetz [Андрей Костеланец] (Russian-born American pop & easy listening conductor & arranger)

Tchaikovsky dedicated his Symphony No. 4 in F minor to his wealthy patroness, Nadezhda Filaretnova von Meck. Von Meck also financially supported other composers, including the young Claude Debussy. But the relationship between her and Tchaikovsky is one of the most intriguing stories in music history, one worth reading about. So do! 

Just before Tchaikovsky died, he was actually cursing Nadezhda von Meck's name. Tchaikovsky's death is usually thought of as a suicide, but there are a few lingering doubts. When he drank that unboiled water at the height of a cholera epidemic, was it mere carelessness, or did he wish to make it appear like carelessness so that he could kill himself honorably? Or is the truth even stranger, that what appeared to be carelessness was his possession by some sort of death wish that compelled him to engage in such risky behavior unconsciously? We'll never know.

Even more mystery surrounds the suicide death of Donny Hathaway. At his final recording session, he appeared to have had a psychotic break, saying that white people were out to kill him and steal his musical ideas via a machine they'd connected to his brain. Hathaway was later found to have fallen from the window of his 15th-floor hotel room. Since there were no signs of struggle in the room, and the glass of the window had been removed neatly, investigators ruled his death a suicide. So, was he paranoid, or were they really out to get him? I mean, if whitey can read your mind through a machine, how much trouble is it for him to remove signs of struggle?

Boy, did I pick the wrong week to get let out of the looney bin.