09-121314: Rameau Anacréon Christie - ABBA live 1981 - Johnny Cash @ Folsom Prison - Furry Lewis On the Road Again 1969 - Stanley Turrentine Let It Go 1966 - DJ Mehdi Daftworld Mix 2011

1645 – Heinrich Steuccius (German composer, in J. S. Bach's choral repertoire)
1750 – Charles Theodore Pachelbel (German composer, organist & harpsichordist, active in Charleston, SC, son of Johann)
1764 – Jean-Philippe Rameau (French composer, music theorist & harpsichordist)
1789 – Franz Xaver Richter (Austrian singer, violinist, composer, conductor & music theorist)
1861 – Fortunato Santini (Italian priest & collector of large music score archive)
1894 – Emmanuel Chabrier (French composer & pianist)
1924 – Pekka Hannikainen (Finnish composer, father of pianist Ilmari, composer Väinö & cellist Tauno)
1932 – Jean Cras (French composer & career naval officer)
1932 – Julius Röntgen (German-Dutch composer & pianist)
1936 – Ossip Gabrilowitsch (Russian-American pianist & conductor)
1960 – Dino Borgioli (Italian lyric tenor)
1960 – Leo Weiner (Hungarian composer & music educator)
1964 – Mary Howe (American composer & pianist)
1975 – Walter Herbert (German-born American conductor & impresario)
1977 – Leopold Stokowski (British-born American conductor)
1981 – Furry Lewis (American blues guitarist, singer & songwriter)
1981 – Yasuji Kiyose (Japanese composer, teacher of Hiroyoshi Suzuki & Tōru Takemitsu)
1982 – Christian Ferras (French violinist)
1982 – Federico Moreno Torroba (Spanish composer)
1985 – Dane Rudhyar (American author, composer & astrologer)
1989 – Perez Prado (Cuban bandleader, singer, composer & keyboardist, active in Mexico, "King of the Mambo")
1990 – Wim de Craene (Belgian pop & cabaret singer & songwriter)
1991 – Ferry Barendse (Belgian jazz trumpeter & composer, The Ramblers)
1991 – Robert Irving (English conductor)
1994 – Georgi Tutev (Bulgarian composer)
1997 – Stig Anderson (Swedish pop songwriter & entrepreneur, manager of Abba)
1997 – Georges Guétary (French singer & actor)
2000 – Stanley Turrentine (American jazz tenor saxophonist)
2000 – Carlo Del Monte (Spanish operatic tenor, active also in Italy, France & Mexico)
2001 – Stelios Kazantzidis (Greek laïkó singer)
2003 – Johnny Cash (American singer, songwriter, guitarist, actor & author)
2006 – Norman Brooks (Canadian singer, Al Jolson soundalike)
2007 – Robert Savoie (Canadian operatic baritone)
2011 – DJ Mehdi (French hip hop & electro producer of Tunisian ancestry)

 ~ RIP DJ Mehdi ~

(20 Jan. 1977 – 13 Sep. 2011)

Our Hearts Go Out to All Your Loved Ones

*   *   *   *   *

Well, I left a lot of links for you up there, so I wouldn't have to write as much. Yes, I am, how you say, lazy-ass American. That's right. Me want lot of money, no want work.

Not like in old country. We work! Stomp on grapes for wine, 14 hours a day, they pay us 37 cents. It's not much... enough for a little bread... and to keep power on so we can blog one more day! That is all we ask... is it so much? To blog just once more... maybe download some Morton Feldman or early Franco-Flemish isorhythmic motets... you know... usual sad life of common people like it always has been!

So many times we feel despair of oppression. But then we break out music, and violins, and wine (oh, I forgot to mention that part... since they pay us so little to stomp on grapes, we get to take some of wine home with us... which is, you know, kinda cool, actually), and we start to dance... dance... DANCE... in that... you know, in that silly way that people in my country do... and then all is right with the world!

And then we go to sleep. For a really, really long time, maybe 10 hours. All that dancing... it wears you out, you know! And the drinking too. Maybe you call in sick for work the next day. The boss says "No problem, this other guy wants more hours this week anyway. See you tomorrow, buddy." What a tragedy! Damnable world and its unfairness.

UPDATE: Oh, and be sure check out vee-deo of Pachelbel kanon in just intonation, meantone tuning & equal temperament, with rolling score to follow along... it's, how you say, a real "ear-stretcher." Hehehe. Just like in old days, in old country. They make you confess. Stretch ears, stretch arms... you would not believe some parts they stretch! Torture you, you confess. Then they burn at stake. Or impale you... take many hours, even days, crucifixion more humane. But in other ways, not like old days, old country. You no roll score... score roll you. Also, NO CHOICE OF TUNING! You tune OUR way!! NO?!? Then we torture, impale!! Very painful, many hours you long for death. So... aaaaahhh.... ya. De Pachelbel kanon. In Re, ah... in D! Major! Have a happy day, and keep with your face a smile upon it !!  :D

09-08: More Moondog 1956 | Story of Moondog 1957 - Gesualdo Madrigals / Christie - Alex North Spartacus 1960 - Beethoven Missa Solemnis Toscanini 1940 - Strauss Elektra Kleiber 1971

1613 – Don Carlo Gesualdo (Italian nobleman, lutenist, composer & murderer of his wife & her lover)
1637 – Robert Fludd (English mystic & doctor, debater with Johannes Kepler over harmonic theory of universe)
1706 – Romanus Weichlein (Austrian monk & composer)
1819 – Franz Stanislaus Spindler (German singer & composer)
1831 – John Aitken (Scottish-born American music publisher, silversmith, goldsmith & jeweler)
1838 – Pietro Rovelli (Italian violinist & composer)
1871 – Étienne-Joseph Soubre (Belgian composer)
1879 – Nikolai Zaremba (Russian music theorist & composer, teacher of Tchaikovsky)
1894 – Hermann von Helmholtz (German physician, physicist, psychologist & acoustician)
1899 – Václav Hugo Zavrtal (Czech conductor, composer & collector of Mozartiana)
1916 – Friedrich Baumfelder (German composer, conductor & pianist)
1917 – Charles-Édouard Lefebvre (French composer, pupil of Gounod, son of painter Charles Lefebvre)
1944 – Jan van Gilse (Dutch composer, conductor, pianist & organizer on behalf of Dutch composers)
1949 – Richard Strauss (German composer & conductor)
1960 – Jussi Björling (Swedish tenor)
1974 – Wolfgang Windgassen (German operatic Heldentenor)
1976 – Assen Karastoyanov (Bulgarian composer, conductor, teacher & writer on music)
1976 – Joaquín Zamacois i Soler (Chilean-born Spanish composer, teacher & writer on music)
1977 – Zero Mostel (American actor of stage, screen & musical theater)
1978 – Pancho Vladigerov (Bulgarian composer, teacher & pianist)
1984 – René Bernier (Belgian composer & teacher)
1991 – Jo Budie (Dutch Schlager orchestra leader)
1991 – Alex North (American soundtrack & stage composer)
1995 – Erich Kunz (Austrian operatic bass-baritone)
1997 – Derek Taylor (English journalist, writer, publicist & press officer for The Beatles)
1999 – Moondog [Louis Thomas Hardin] (American composer, street musician, poet & instrument inventor)

Well... I'm really sorry. I'm now 8 days behind. I really would need at least 2 or 3 other people working on this blog with me to be able to keep up with it the way I want to. Perhaps that will happen one day, but in the meantime, I'll have to make some changes around here. In the future, I'm going to be limiting my lists to just the most prominent figures on any given day - I hate to set an exact limit, but it will probably be in the area of 12 to 18 persons at the very most. It's kind of a shame, because I think some of the more obscure figures often have the most interesting stories surrounding them, but it really can't be helped. Further, the number of downloads will be curtailed a bit as well, to probably no more than 3 or 4 per day.

There's also something else. I'm going to be going out of town for about a week, so this blog will be on hiatus for about 8 or 9 days. When I return, probably on September 27th, I'll be doing a roundup of all the days up to that point that haven't been covered, i.e., Sep. 9th thru 26th - a period of 18 days! I'll be choosing just the very most famous musicians from each day - no more than 2 or 3 for any given day - it'll be a big post, possibly in several parts. Either tomorrow or the day after I'll be devoting a post specifically to an announcement of the hiatus...

So anyway... some very important musicians for September 8th. Two notable Bulgarian composers, curiously enough... perhaps the passings of Мистър Karastoyanov and Мистър Vladigerov had something to do with the a little overindulgence on September 6th, Unification Day, which marks the ceding of Eastern Rumelia to Bulgaria in 1885? In any case, among the truly famous musicians on our list is Moondog, the Viking of 6th Avenue, an eccentric street musician and an icon in the world of "outsider music," a kindred spirit, in a way, to both Harry Partch and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, also building his own instruments as they did - and doing so blind, as Kirk did - who managed to get married, land a record deal on Prestige, and become a famous musician with an impressive cult following, all while he was intentionally living as a homeless man on the streets of New York City. He's a legend who continues to inspire to this very day... (Read more below)

Then there's Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, a composer of many madrigals and a fair amount of sacred music, who employed very daring chromaticism in his later works (which has attracted the interest of many 20th-century musicians, especially Igor Stravinsky), and who was also the most infamous murderer in music history (unless you count Charles Manson as a musician). Gesualdo suspected his first wife of infidelity, and managed to catch her and the Duke of Andria in the act, after having pretended to go away on a journey. With the help of his servants, he stabbed them both numerous times with both knives and swords, and shot the Duke in the head. Afterward, he displayed their mutilated bodies outside his palace, with the Duke given the further humiliation of being dressed in Signora Gesualdo's nightgown. Gesualdo, being a nobleman, was immune from prosecution for his crimes, but he kept a crew of bodyguards around him for the remainder of his life to protect him from any revenge the families of his victims might seek. Interesting... Cecil Gray and Philip Heseltine (a.k.a Peter Warlock) wrote a book in 1926 called Carlo Gesualdo Prince of Venosa, in which they detailed the police reports from the time, which make for gruesome reading even today. And guess what, Cecil Gray's deathday is just one day after Gesualdo's, on September 9th... (Read more below) ... see you on the other side of the crime scene ribbon...