01-10: Howlin' Wolf : Smokestack Lightning Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960 - Anton Karas : The Third Man Original Soundtrack 1949 - Margaret Whiting Sings Rogers & Hart 1947

Not shown: Johan Wikmanson, António da Silva-Leite, Friedrich Karl Kuhmstedt, Josué Teófilo Wilkes & Sverre Jordan

1780 – Francesco Antonio Vallotti (Italian priest, composer, organist & music theorist, developed a well-tempered tuning system)
1792 – Jean-Louis Laruette (French composer & tenor)
1800 – Johan Wikmanson (Swedish organist & composer)
1833 – António da Silva-Leite (Portuguese composer)
1858 – Friedrich Karl Kuhmstedt (German composer, music theorist & teacher)
1876 – Edmond de Coussemaker (Belgian musicologist)
1889 – Martin Andreas Udbye (Norwegian composer & organist)
1892 – Heinrich Dorn (German conductor, composer & music critic)
1895 – Benjamin Godard (French composer, violinist & violist)
1905 – Baumaņu Kārlis [Kārlis Baumanis] (Latvian composer, the Latvian National Anthem, "Dievs, svētī Latviju!")
1939 – Hariclea Darclée (Romanian operatic soprano, creator of title roles in Tosca and La Wally)
1939 – Julius Bittner (Austrian composer)
1941 – Frank Bridge (English composer, violinist, violist, conductor & teacher)
1951 – Athos Palma (Argentine composer)
1953 – Theo Mackeben (German pianist, conductor & composer of film & theatrical music)
1954 – Fred Raymond [Raimund Friedrich Vesely] (Austrian film, theatrical & Schlager composer of Czech descent)
1963 – Tadeusz Szeligowski (Polish composer, teacher, pianist, writer & lawyer)
1967 – Vilém Petrželka (Czech composer & conductor, pupil of Janáček)
1968 – Josué Teófilo Wilkes (Argentine composer & writer)
1969 – John Brownlee (Australian operatic baritone)
1972 – Al Goodman (Ukrainian-born American radio, television, film & musical theater conductor, arranger, composer & pianist)
1972 – Sverre Jordan (Norwegian composer, conductor & music critic)
1976 – Howlin' Wolf [Chester Arthur Burnett] (American blues singer, songwriter, guitarist & harmonica player)
1978 – Don Gillis (American composer, conductor, trombonist & teacher)
1985 – Anton Karas (Austrian zither player & composer of Czech & Hungarian descent, soundtrack for The Third Man)
1997 – Alvinio Misciano (Italian lyric tenor, teacher of Luciano Pavarotti)
2005 – Margherita Carosio (Italian lyric soprano)
2011 – Margaret Whiting (American jazz, pop & country singer)

Can't really think of anything much to say. Howlin' Wolf... Vallotti, a very important name if you're into tuning theory... Coussemaker, one of the heroes of musicology... Howlin' Wolf... Margaret Whiting, great singer... Frank Bridge, whose most famous pupil was Benjamin Britten... Howlin' Wolf... Pavarotti's mentor, Alvinio Misciano, who fell out of a 4th-story window when he was 81... aaaand Howlin' Wolf! Follow the links, there's some good stuff up there... and down there...

12-30: The Birthday Party : Peel Sessions 1980-1982 - Richard Rodgers : Victory at Sea 1953 - The Magic of Boney M 1980 - Artie Shaw & His Gramercy Five 1954

Not shown: Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne

1796 – Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (French composer)
1821 – Angelo Maria Benincori (Italian composer & violinist)
1825 – Peter Grønland (Danish composer)
1828 – Waldemar Thrane (Norwegian composer, violinist & conductor)
1922 – Richard Zeckwer (German-born American composer, organist & teacher)
1934 – Peter Cornelius (Danish operatic tenor & baritone)
1940 – Fritz Volbach (German conductor, composer, musicologist, pianist & organist)
1946 – Charles Wakefield Cadman (American composer & pianist, associated with Indianist movement)
1948 – Rosina Buckman (New Zealand soprano)
1949 – Heinrich Rehkemper (German baritone)
1967 – Bert Berns (American songwriter, producer & record executive "Hang on Sloopy", "Twist and Shout")
1971 – Jan Mul (Dutch composer & organist)
1973 – Henri Büsser (French composer, organist & conductor of German ancestry)
1979 – Richard Rodgers (American popular songwriter & composer for theater, film & television)
1986 – Jiří Jaroch (Czech composer)
1993 – Mack David (American songwriter)
1995 – Ralph Flanagan (American jazz bandleader, pianist, composer & arranger)
1998 – Johnny Moore (American R&B singer, The Drifters)
2003 – Anita Mui [梅艷芳] (Hong Kong cantopop singer & actress)
2004 – Artie Shaw (American jazz clarinetist, bandleader, composer & author)
2009 – Rowland S. Howard (Australian post-punk guitarist, songwriter, keyboardist & singer, The Birthday Party)
2010 – Bobby Farrell (Aruban pop & disco dancer & singer, Boney M.)

We've heard from The Birthday Party before, when we were remembering their bass player, Tracy Pew. (Don't bother looking for that post - the links aren't good anymore.) Weird coincidence: On the fifth anniversary of the day Tracy Pew died, R&B musician Carter Cornelius died. Well, now we have The Birthday Party's guitarist, Rowland Howard, dying on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the day Danish opera singer Peter Cornelius died. Something funny is happening with the Birthday Party and Corneliuses (Cornelii?), and I promise to get to the bottom of it! And you know how much my promises are worth!

And as far as Peter Cornelius goes, that's another issue entirely. There are in fact three famous musicians named Peter Cornelius. The most famous Peter Cornelius nowadays is a still-living Austrian pop singer and guitarist who was formerly a member of Enigma. Prior to that Peter Cornelius coming into prominence, the most famous had been a German composer and author of the 19th century, whom we also remembered in a previous post. And do you want to know what's really coincidental about that post?!? I have no idea. At least, I haven't figured it out, YET. Maybe somebody can leave a comment and tell me what it is...