01-11a: Kalinnikov : Symphonies 1 & 2 / Kuchar 1994 - Cimarosa : Requiem in G minor / Varoli 2000 - Max Lorenz in Recital 1927-1930 - Oscar Straus : The Chocolate Soldier / Stevens | Eddy 1941

Not shown: Rose Sutro

1791 – William Williams Pantycelyn (Welsh Calvinist hymnist, poet & author)
1801 – Domenico Cimarosa (Italian composer)
1901 – Vasily Kalinnikov [Василий Калинников] (Russian composer, bassoonist, timpanist & violinist)
1947 – Eva Tanguay (Canadian singer & entertainer, "the girl who made vaudeville famous")
1952 – Aureliano Pertile (Italian lyric-dramatic tenor)
1954 – Oscar Straus (Austrian composer, The Chocolate Soldier)
1957 – Rose Sutro (American duo-pianist with her sister Ottilie)
1958 – Alec Rowley (English composer, pianist, organist & author)
1961 – Elena Gerhardt (German mezzo-soprano, most associated with Lieder repertoire)
1975 – Max Lorenz (German heldentenor, associated with Wagner roles)
1987 – Albert Ferber (Swiss pianist & teacher, active in England)

Max Lorenz was very blessed to have that voice. Living in Germany at the height of the Nazi regime, and considering that his wife was Jewish, and that his marriage to her was intended to hide the not-so-well-kept secret that he was gay, one would think they'd have been whisked away to a concentration camp without much fuss. But in fact Lorenz was so prized as the leading Wagnerian Heldentenor of his day, his family was under the protection of Hermann Göring himself, who gave strict instructions to the S.S. that they were not to be bothered. I guess when it came to their hatred of minorities, their love of Wagner was one of the few things that could make the Nazis look the other way.

10-23: Al Jolson 1912-1932 : 81 songs! - Carter Family w/ Johnny Cash Keep On the Sunny Side 1964 - Verdi La Forza del Destino : Price | Tucker | Merrill | Verrett | Schippers 1965

1753 – Columban Praelisauer (German priest, librarian, composer & choir director)
1782 – Joseph Riepel (Austrian music theorist & composer)
1801 – Johann Gottlieb Naumann (German composer, conductor & music director)
1806 – Franz Seydelmann (German composer)
1869 – Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Tolbecque (Belgian violinist, conductor & composer of dance music)
1886 – Johann Nepomuk Kafka (Czech-Austrian composer)
1925 – Vyacheslav Karatïgin [Вячеслав Каратыгин] (Russian music critic & composer)
1942 – Ralph Rainger (American film composer & pianist)
1948 – Eugeniusz Morawski-Dąbrowa (Polish composer & teacher)
1950 – Al Jolson (American popular singer, actor & entertainer)
1954 – Henri Zagwijn (Dutch composer)
1976 – Leonard Lee (American R&B singer, Shirley and Lee)
1978 – [Mother] Maybelle Carter (American country & gospel guitarist, banjoist, autoharpist & singer, Carter Family)
1982 – Jacques Klein (Brazilian pianist)
1984 – James Petrillo (American trumpeter and leader of the American Federation of Musicians, 1940-1958)
1996 – Alexander Kelly (English pianist, piano teacher & composer)
2003 – Tony Capstick (English actor, comedian & musician)
2004 – Robert Merrill (American operatic baritone)

Well, once again, no time or energy or mental concentration for a proper write-up... so go to your links above and be sure to read about the MUSICIANS' STRIKE of 1942, and the ensuing battles between organized musical labor (yes, there really was such a thing - the AFM was at one time more than the glorified booking agent it is now) and the major record labels. And also be sure to read about Mother Maybelle Carter, who had more of an influence on the sound of modern country, and gospel, and bluegrass, and folk music than perhaps any other single person. And of course, read about the World's Greatest Entertainer, Mr. Al Jolson.

Also, readers, prepare yourselves... for the possible return of waex within the next few days... (!!)

10-07: Ornette Coleman This Is Our Music 1960 - Dixie Dregs Atlanta 1982 - Morales : Missa Si Bona Suscepimus / Tallis Scholars - Mario Lanza EP : Granada | Lolita | 2 Rigoletto Arias

1553 – Cristóbal de Morales (Spanish composer)
1766 – André Chéron (French keyboardist, composer & conductor, teacher of Jean Marie Leclair)
1887 – George James Webb (English-born American composer)
1890 – John Hill Hewitt (American songwriter, playwright & poet)
1915 – Samuel Prowse Warren (Canadian-born American organist, choirmaster, music editor, composer & teacher)
1918 – Sir Hubert Parry (English composer, teacher & musicologist, "Jerusalem")
1925 – Hubert Platt Main (American teacher, publisher & hymn composer)
1959 – Mario Lanza (American tenor & movie star)
1966 – Grigoris Asikis [Γρηγόρης Ασίκης] (Turkish-born Greek rebetiko singer, songwriter & outi & bouzouki player)
1966 – Smiley Lewis (American R&B singer, songwriter & guitarist)
1976 – Nikolai Lopatnikoff (Estonian-born American composer)
1981 – Wouter Paap (Dutch composer, keyboardist & writer)
1988 – Billy Daniels (American pop singer & actor)
1992 – Ed Blackwell (American jazz drummer)
1998 – Arnold Jacobs (American tuba player & teacher, Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
2002 – Pierangelo Bertoli (Italian folk singer-songwriter, guitarist & political activist)
2003 – Arthur Berger (American composer & writer)
2006 – Abraham Afewerki (Eritrean pop, jazz, R&B & reggae singer, songwriter & guitarist)
2010 – T Lavitz (American jazz & rock keyboardist, reed player, composer & producer, Dixie Dregs, Jefferson Starship)

Cristóbal de Morales, a composer of sacred music, is regarded as the greatest Spanish composer of the Renaissance prior to Tomás Luis de Victoria. You'll recall, of course, that this year marks the 400th anniversary of Victoria's death, and thus we've been trying to pay particular attention to him.

Hubert Parry is best known for his setting in 1916 of a short poem which appears in the preface to William Blake's Milton, A Poem, first printed in 1808. Here is that preface as it appears in Blake's own illuminated version:

This of course is the anthem everyone knows as "Jerusalem." It's a song that's used for a number of particular occasions in England - it's sung, for example, at the end of the annual Labor Party conference, in some Anglican cathedrals on Jerusalem Sunday, and as the recessional music on St. George's Day, and by all those gathered each year as the closing music (save for the national anthem and the traditional "Auld Lang Syne") on the Last Night of the Proms, using an orchestration Edward Elgar made of the anthem in 1922.

Now, if you don't happen to be British, or Anglican, you may not know what Blake is talking about in the little poem set by Parry. He's making a reference to an old legend (whose veracity he does not take for granted - note that it's stated in the form of questions) that Jesus actually visited England, in Somerset, as a child or young man, in the vicinity of where Glastonbury Cathedral now stands, along with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. It's one of several legends, Christian, Arthurian, and Neo-Pagan in nature, that surround this particular part of southwestern England, and made it one of the most popular tourist destinations in the British Isles many years before they started having a music festival there! What, exactly, Blake meant in his reference to the legend has been the subject of debate. But regardless of your status as regards citizenship, religion, or political affiliation, I think there's something in the combination of his words and Parry's music that really stirs the soul.

(More later... on Mario Lanza, Ed Blackwell, Pierangelo Bertoli, and Abraham Afewerki...)

08-31: The Move 1968 - John Ward / Rose Consort of Viols - Lionel Hampton Complete Jazztone Recordings 1956 - Verdi Otello arias / Francesco Tamagno 1903 - Bartók / Spivakovsky / Balsam 1947

1604 – Giovanni Giovenale Ancina (Italian priest, scholar & composer, beatified 1889)
1616 – Gemignano Capilupi (Italian composer)
1631 – Nicolaus Erich (German composer & church musician)
1638 – John Ward the younger (English composer, chorister & lawyer)
1667 – Johann von Rist (German poet, playwright & hymnist)
1730 – Gottfried Finger (Moravian composer)
1795 – François-André Danican Philidor (French composer & chess master)
1805 – Joseph dall'Abaco (Belgian cellist & composer, active in Germany, England & Italy)
1832 – Jean Nicolas Auguste Kreutzer (French violinist & composer, younger brother of Rodolphe)
1862 – Ignaz Aßmayer (Austrian composer, organist & church musician)
1905 – Francesco Tamagno (Italian operatic tenor)
1910 – Pierre Aubry (French musicologist, 13th-century specialist)
1910 – Emīls Dārziņš (Latvian composer, conductor & music critic)
1923 – Ernst Van Dyck (Belgian operatic tenor)
1946 – Paul von Klenau (Danish composer & conductor, active in Germany & Austria)
1949 – Paul Höffer (German composer, pianist & teacher)
1964 – Désiré Defrère (Belgian operatic tenor)
1965 – Antonin Trantoul (French operatic tenor)
1969 – Ottmar Gerster (German composer, violinist & pianist)
1975 – Jonny Born (German operatic baritone)
1994 – Artur [Arthur] Balsam (Polish-born American pianist & teacher)
2002 – Lionel Hampton (American jazz vibraphonist, drummer, pianist, bandleader & actor)
2002 – Farhad Mehrad (Iranian rock singer, songwriter, guitarist & pianist)
2003 – Jaap Geraedts (Dutch composer & flutist)
2004 – Carl Wayne (English rock singer, keyboardist & electric bassist, The Move)

Well, I'm not going to say "write-up pending" today, because I already have three posts I have to go back and amend, so today I'm just going to keep it short and sweet for a change.

On August 31st we remember John Ward, English composer of viol music (Read more below); F.-A. Danican Philidor, whose family formed a long lineage of French court musicians, and who also has two chess moves named after him; Auguste Kreutzer, brother of Rodolphe Kreutzer, to whom Beethoven's "Kreutzer Sonata" (the sonata after which Tolstoy's novella (the novella by which Janáček's first string quartet was inspired) was named) was dedicated; and Ignaz Aßmayer, who gave organ lessons to Anton Bruckner, and whose name looks very funny if you don't have a German double-s handy.

We also remember Francesco Tamagno, the tenor who created the title role of Verdi's Otello in 1887 (that's to say, he was the very first to sing the role of Otello - well, unless you count the much less famous Otello by Rossini from 1816, for which Andrea Nozzari created the title role - Read more below); Ernst Van Dyck, the tenor who created the title role of Massenet's Werther in 1893; Pierre Aubry, an early scholarly specialist in medieval music; and Artur Balsam, a pianist who made many recordings in the late 78 and early LP era (Read more below).

Finally, we remember Lionel Hampton, who for all intents and purposes invented jazz vibraphone during the swing era (Read more below); Farhad Mehrad, who pioneered Persian rock music in the 70s, and had his music banned in Iran after the revolution, but has grown to be more accepted by the religious establishment as Iran's population has become younger and more liberal; and Carl Wayne, lead singer for The Move (Read more below), the British psychedelic rock group that later metamorphized into E.L.O. after Jeff Lynne joined it.

There! That was so short I needn't even bother with the usual "jump." But if you really feel like doing some more "reading," I think you know what to do...

Read more...

08-24: Don Byas & Mary Lou Williams 1953 - Mozart Abduction from the Seraglio Beecham Simoneau 1956 - Antonio Paoli 1909 Verdi - Albert Sammons 1916 Vieuxtemps - Leo Blech 1931 Brahms

Pretty darned close to chronological. Tagged image here.

1712 – Thomas Bullis (Scottish composer & organist)
1724 – Andreas Kneller (German composer & organist)
1804 – Valentin Adamberger [Adamonti] (German operatic tenor)
1817 – Nancy Storace (English operatic soprano)
1829 – Benjamin Jacob (English organist, conductor & composer)
1840 – Joseph Waast Aubert Nonot (French harpsichordist, organist & composer)
1841 – Karl Friedrich Curschmann (German composer & singer)
1932 – Gheorghe Cucu (Romanian composer, conductor & folklorist)
1946 – Antonio Paoli (Puerto Rican operatic tenor & boxer)
1949 – Hermann Devriès (French operatic baritone)
1957 – Albert Sammons (English violinist & composer)
1958 – Leo Blech (German composer & conductor)
1962 – Henry Ley (English organist, composer & teacher)
1964 – Maurice Schoemaker (Belgian composer)
1972 – Don Byas (American jazz tenor saxophonist, settled in France & Holland)
1973 – Sláva Vorlová [Mira Kord] (Czech composer & pianist)
1976 – Michael Head (English composer, pianist, organist & singer)
1978 – Louis Prima (American jazz & pop singer, trumpeter & bandleader)
1979 – Ernst Gruber (Austrian operatic tenor)
1985 – Paul Creston (American composer)
1988 – Kenneth Leighton (English composer & pianist)
1992 – Larrie Londin (American rock & country session & road drummer, Journey, Elvis, et al.)
1999 – Alexandre Lagoya (Egyptian-born Greek-Italian classical guitarist & boxer)
2005 – Kaleth Morales (Colombian vallenato singer, songwriter & guitarist)
2005 – Harold "Hal" Kalin (American pop singer, The Kalin Twins, "When")
2006 – Léopold Simoneau (French operatic lyric tenor)

Write-up pending... but it's going to be a good one... a great one... an exciting one, I can feel it...

08-23: Skinny Puppy Bochum Germany 1986 - Verdi Requiem Giulini 1964 - Maynard Ferguson Birdland Dream Band 1956 - David Rose The Stripper

Ordered chronologically. Tagged image here.

1723 – Antoine Moucqué (Belgian composer & church musician)
1777 – Giuseppe Sellitto (Italian composer)
1802 – Corona Schröter (German singer, composer, actress, pianist, guitarist & artist)
1825 – Amos Bull (American church choirmaster & hymntune composer)
1839 – Charles Philippe Lafont (French violinist & composer)
1878 – Adolf Fredrik Lindblad (Swedish composer)
1898 – Joseph Robinson (Irish composer, conductor & singer)
1902 – Teresa Stolz (Bohemian dramatic soprano, active in Italy & possible mistress of Verdi)
1924 – Heinrich Berté (Austro-Hungarian operetta composer)
1937 – Albert Roussel (French composer)
1943 – Paul Zilcher (German composer)
1944 – Nikolai Roslavets (Russian composer)
1960 – Oscar Hammerstein II (American Broadway librettist)
1962 – Irving Fine (American composer, pianist & conductor)
1963 – Glen Gray (American jazz saxophonist & bandleader, Casa Loma Orchestra)
1971 – Gisela Hernández (Cuban composer & teacher)
1972 – Balys Dvarionas (Lithuanian composer, pianist, conductor & teacher)
1986 – Marcos Cubas (Cuban-born tenor, active in Argentina & the Canary Islands)
1987 – Siegfried Borris (German composer, musicologist & teacher)
1990 – David Rose (English-born American songwriter, composer, arranger, pianist & conductor, "The Stripper")
1994 – Fisher Tull (American composer, teacher & trumpeter)
1995 – Dwayne Goettel (Canadian industrial & electronic musician, keyboards & samplers for Skinny Puppy)
1996 – Jurriaan Andriessen (Dutch composer)
2006 – Maynard Ferguson (Canadian jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist & bandleader)

Still catching up, and still need to do write-ups for some previous posts, but I'll go ahead and finalize this one, just because... I dunno, I feel like I'm in the groove! I'll post links back to the unfinished posts as I finish them, m'kay?

Orthography. Don't really think about it much, do we? Well, unless you're a nut like me. See, we take how words are written and spelled for granted, but prior to the 18th century, when things like dictionaries started to be widely published, spellings for words weren't so standardized as they are now... there were just one or more common ways of spelling them. Shakespeare will spell the same word more than one way, even in the same play! And peoples' names are no exception. Take the first cat on our list, Antoine Moucqué. I had a hard time locating anything about the guy at first, because the name I was searching on was "Mouque." Turns out, there are at least four different ways of spelling that name. This is a problem I'm having all the time with early musicians, especially the lesser-known ones.

Now, take another guy who comes near the end of our list: Siegfried Borris. Siegfried Borris was a German composer and musicologist who died on August 23rd, 1987. But there was another German musician (a violinist, who was concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic in the 30s) named Siegfried Borries, who died on August 12th, 1980. So, there was a little confusion at first. But here's the problem: Siegfried Borries didn't make it onto my list for August 12th (the day I started this blog), because I didn't know about him! My... "sources"... didn't mention him. And on that same day, I got something else wrong: I should have had Les Paul a day later, on August 13th! So, you see, I'm getting things wrong around here now and again because of inaccuracies or discrepancies in my information, so I hope you can appreciate that, and , you know, cut me some slack...

Charles Philippe Lafont was apparently an amazing violinist. He received his first lessons from his mother, and later studied with both Rodolphe Kreutzer and Pierre Rode (who wrote all those Etudes every violinist has to play while training). Kreutzer and Rode taught him the classical French technique of the Viotti school, which he made even more brilliant. In 1816, he had a little cutting contest with Niccolò Paganini, by reputation the greatest violinist who ever lived. It's said that neither violinist really won, but since the contest was held at La Scala in Milan, the audience was naturally more sympathetic to Paganini.

Adolf Fredrik Lindblad was a Swedish composer of more than 200 songs, an opera, and some instrumental music. At one point Lindblad was mentoring soprano Jenny Lind, who would later become world-famous as the "Swedish Nightingale." His great affection for Lind was so obvious that his wife, Sophie, offered to divorce him so that he could marry the singer. He did not. I tell you, that Sophie Lindblad... helluva woman, there! You made a wise decision, Adolf Fredrik Lindblad.

Nikolai Roslavets. He was a committed Modernist in the Soviet Union, who was greatly influenced by the Russian Futurist artists and the late works of Alexander Scriabin, and developed a compositional technique similiar to Schoenberg's 12-tone system, which he called a "new system of sound organisation" that was based on "synthetic chords." Well naturally, Roslavets was officially censured by the Soviet government from the 1930s onward. Past a certain point, he could obtain no official job. Then he had a stroke and lived the last few years of his life in poverty as an invalid. But his forward-looking and original works have started to enjoy a revival of interest in recent years. See you on the other side of the Iron Curtain...