01-09: Handel : Giustino HWV 37 / McGegan 1994 - Cozy Cole Hits! 1958 - Songs of Lutoslawski | Serocki | Bloch : Lukomska / Markovsky 1960s

Not shown: Francesca Bertolli, Filippo Traetta & Alexey Kozlovsky

1679 – Werner Fabricius (German composer)
1767 – Francesca Bertolli (Italian contralto, creator of roles in several of Handel's operas)
1854 – Filippo Traetta [Philip Trajetta] (Italian-born American composer & teacher)
1863 – Ferdinand Huber (Swiss composer & collector of Alpine folk music)
1886 – Jakob Eduard Schmölzer (Austrian composer, flutist & collector of Styrian folksongs)
1911 – Edwin Arthur Jones (American composer & violinist)
1911 – William Hall Sherwood (American composer, pianist & teacher, pupil of Liszt)
1939 – Johann Strauss III (Austrian composer & conductor, nephew of Johann Strauss II)
1949 – Amilcare Zanella (Italian composer, pianist & conductor)
1957 – Mary Carr Moore (American composer, conductor, singer & teacher)
1959 – Paul de Maleingreau (Belgian composer & organist)
1962 – Roy Shield (American composer, conductor & music director at NBC)
1966 – Haro Levoni Stepanian [Аро Левонович Степанян] (Azerbaijani composer)
1968 – Louis Aubert (French composer, pianist & singer)
1969 – Ladislav Vycpálek (Czech composer & violist)
1970 – Jani Christou [Γιάννης Χρήστου] (Greek composer & pianist)
1977 – Alexey Kozlovsky [Алексей Козловский] (Ukrainian composer)
1979 – Avery Claflin (American composer & banker, pupil of Erik Satie, business associate of Charles Ives)
1981 – Kazimierz Serocki (Polish composer & pianist, co-founder of Warsaw Autumn music festival)
1981 – Cozy Cole (American jazz drummer)
1987 – Marion Hutton (American jazz & pop singer & actress, sister of Betty Hutton)
1994 – Silas Hogan (American blues singer, guitarist & songwriter, the Rhythm Ramblers)

I'm disappointed at not being able to offer you any Silas Hogan, one of the greats of Louisiana swamp blues. Every day it seems that more things become unavailable. Locating links used to be the easy part of this job.

To clear things up about the Handel: Francesca Bertolli (known more for her beauty than for her voice - which makes it strange that I couldn't locate a likeness of her) sang in about 15 or 20 of Handel's operas during her career, creating roles in some of them. In Giustino (1737) the role she created was that of Leocasta, which is sung here by Jennifer Lane.

10-24a: Music for Henry VII & VIII / Hilliard Ensemble 2008 - Alessandro Scarlatti Il Primo Omicidio / Jacobs 1997 - Dittersdorf Viola & Double-Bass Concertos / Vajnar 1998

1521 – Robert Fayrfax (English court composer)
1725 – Alessandro Scarlatti (Italian composer, father of Domenico)
1785 – Jean-Jacques Robson (Belgian composer)
1789 – Joaquín de Oxinaga (Spanish composer & organist)
1799 – Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (Austrian composer, violinist & silvologist)
1901 – Paul Henrion (French composer of popular songs)
1902 – Vladislav Zaremba [Владислав Заремба] (Ukrainian composer of Polish ancestry)
1912 – Mykola Lysenko [Микола Лисенко] (Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor & ethnomusicologist)
1918 – Charles Lecocq (French composer of comic operas & operettas)

Well, we've already read about some musicians today who had other notable musicians in the family, and now we have Alessandro Scarlatti, who is not to be confused with his famous son Domenico, or the three other lesser-known guys from the same family who were also composers.

The name of Scarlatti always makes me think of a line in John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces that I find very funny. It's where the protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly, proclaims that the greatest composer in history is obviously Scarlatti. That's funny for two reasons. First, because it's an opinion so contrary (as Ignatius J. Reilly generally is) to conventional wisdom - I mean, most people would probably say Bach, or Mozart, or Beethoven, or maybe Handel... but Scarlatti? The other reason it's funny is because he doesn't even say which Scarlatti he's talking about, and anyone who knows something about classical music knows that Alessandro is virtually as famous as Domenico. It's not like when you say "Bach" and it's assumed that Johann Sebastian is the one you mean.

Well, now look what you've gone and done... got me off onto an A Confederacy of Dunces tangent. Damn all of you! Did you know that this hilarious and wonderful novel has to be somewhere near the top of the list of books EVERYONE wishes would be made into a major motion picture, but still hasn't been? First they were going to make it with John Belushi playing Ignatius J. Reilly. Then John Waters was going to make it with Divine. Then John Candy was going to play the role (I think he would have been really great in it). Then Chris Farley was going to do it. And guess what? That's right... THEY ALL POOPED, before their respective projects could even get off the ground! The last actor who was planning on playing the role was Will Ferrell... kind of an odd choice, I think. He's tall enough (which Belushi wasn't). I suppose Will was planning on gaining a few or putting on a fat suit. The project was moving forward. A screen adaptation was made by Steven Soderbergh and Scott Kramer, the entire cast was chosen (with Lily Tomlin as Ignatius's mother), and the director was slated to be David Gordon Green. This was in 2005. The movie was to be filmed on location in the city where the story takes place, NEW ORLEANS. So, there you have it. Dead musicians, dead actors, dead movie projects, dead residents of a drowned city, a dead author who killed himself 12 years before his great novel won him the Pulitzer Prize. Pretty sad.

So anyway, Scarlatti. Also, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. That guy was all about Ditters.