11-11: Rev. Gary Davis Harlem Street Singer 1960 - Allman Brothers Idlewild South 1970 - Schoenberg Piano Music Steuermann 1957 - Ella Fitzgerald Jerome Kern Songbook 1963

1895 – Julius Tausch (German pianist, composer & conductor)
1901 – Antonio Zamara (Italian harpist & composer, active in Vienna)
1912 – Józef Wieniawski (Polish pianist, composer & conductor, younger brother of Henryk)
1929 – Mieczysław Soltys (Polish composer)
1936 – Edward German (English theatrical composer of Welsh descent)
1945 – Jerome Kern (American musical theater composer)
1964 – Edward Steuermann (Austrian-born American pianist & composer)
1967 – Harry Seymour (American actor & soundtrack composer)
1968 – Jeanne Demessieux (French organist, pianist, composer & teacher)
1972 – Berry Oakley (American rock bass guitarist, Allman Brothers Band)
1974 – Alfonso Leng (Chilean composer & dentist)
1977 – Greta Keller (Austrian cabaret singer & actress)
1979 – Dimitri Tiomkin [Дмитро Тьомкін] (Ukrainian-born American film composer, conductor & pianist)
1988 – William Ifor Jones (Welsh conductor & organist)
1993 – Erskine Hawkins (American jazz trumpeter & big band leader)
1994 – Dame Elizabeth Maconchy (English composer)
1995 – Kenneth S. Goldstein (American folklorist, record producer, ethnomusicologist & teacher)

10-12: Blue Cheer Japan 1999 - Sex Pistols Indecent Exposure 6 CDs - Franco & TP OK Jazz : 1972/1973/1974 - B-52's Dortmund 1983 - Rameau Zoroastre : Kuijken 1983 - Hollywood SQ : Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht | Schubert Quintet

1692 – Giovanni Battista Vitali (Italian composer, violone player & church music director)
1794 – James Lyon (American composer & sacred tunebook compiler)
1797 – Pierre de Jélyotte (French operatic haute-contre, harpsichordist, guitarist, violinist & composer, created roles in several Rameau operas)
1817 – Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel (German composer, pianist & priest)
1865 – William Vincent Wallace (Irish composer, violinist, pianist & adventurer, active in Australia & the Americas)
1924 – Monroe Althouse (American military band composer, violinist, cornetist & trombonist)
1956 – Don Lorenzo Perosi (Italian monsignor, composer, organist, pianist & teacher)
1966 – Arthur Lourié [Артур Лурье] (Russian composer & painter, active in France & the U.S., friend of Stravinsky)
1971 – Gene Vincent (American rock singer & guitarist)
1974 – Joseph Frederick Wagner (American composer, conductor, teacher & author)
1978 – Nancy Spungen (American rock groupie, girlfriend of Sid Vicious)
1982 – Chris Reumer (Dutch operatic tenor)
1985 – Ricky Wilson (American New Wave guitarist, bass guitarist, keyboardist, singer & songwriter, The B-52's)
1989 – Franco [François Luambo Makiadi] (Congolese rumba singer, songwriter & guitarist)
1995 – Eleanor Aller (American cellist, Hollywood String Quartet, mother of Leonard Slatkin)
1996 – Vernon Elliott (English bassoonist, conductor & composer)
1997 – John Denver (American folk, country & pop singer, songwriter, guitarist, activist & humanitarian)
2002 – Ray Conniff (American pop, rock & jazz bandleader, arranger, composer, trombonist & singer)
2009 – Dickie Peterson (American bass guitarist, singer, guitarist & songwriter, Blue Cheer)

More insanity, another big opera, it never ends. We had bel canto opera two days ago, Teutonic music drama yesterday, and today it's Baroque opéra tragique, courtesy of Monsieur Rameau. Pierre de Jélyotte (that's him - yes, him - just to the left of  Franz X. Sterkel; with his high tenor voice, many of Jélyotte's roles were female) sang in the premiéres of several Rameau operas, including Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Indes galantes, Dardanus, and Zoroastre. He created the title roles in many of them, including Zoroastre, who was... A MAN! Thus Sang Zarathustra.

Well, I could tell you a lot more about a lot of these folks, but you've got a lot of homework to do already down there ↓↓↓.  I guess before I sign off I should apologize for flipping that photo of Eleanor Aller backwards. It became sort of unavoidable for the sake of the continuity of the collage. You string players probably already noticed it, because one holds the bow with the right hand, not the left!

10-04a: Schoenberg Erwartung | Pierrot Lunaire | Lied der Waldtaube / Boulez | Martin | Minton | Norman 1977-79

Arnold Schoenberg: Vision (Satire) - Oil on cardboard (undated).

As I promised earlier today, here's an extra post dedicated to the memory of Marie Gutheil-Schoder, the soprano who created the solitary role in the original production of Schoenberg's Erwartung in 1924. She was known in her day as not just a great opera singer, but as a great operatic actress. Gustav Mahler called her a musical genius. That's something that should certainly make you sit up and notice! Unfortunately, Gutheil-Schoder left behind only a very few recordings: a couple excerpts from Carmen, an aria from The Merry Wives of Windsor, and some duets from Tales of Hoffmann, all recorded in 1902. But her legacy did live on in the form of the great mezzo Risë Stevens, who was one of her students.

So, it's a Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. You're feeling a great emptiness in your life... a vast, gaping hole, one that only post-Romantic Expressionist atonality can fill. You've come to the right place! (Read more below...)