Composers Datebook

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1969, Leonard Bernstein conducted his last concert as the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein had assumed that post in November of 1957, becoming the first American-born and trained conductor to do so.

For sports fans, these were Bernstein’s “stats” as of May 17, 1969:

He had conducted 939 concerts, more than anyone else in Philharmonic history. He had given 36 world premieres, 14 U.S...

Synopsis

Joan Tower is one of America’s most famous–and quotable–composers. She once asked audiences to imagine Beethoven as a composer-in-residence with a modern American orchestra: “If Beethoven walked in here right now,” said Tower, “I think we’d ALL be a bit shocked. He’d probably look very scruffy and be an obnoxious pain-in-the-butt. Orchestras would NEVER ask him back.”

Tower can be equally blunt about her own music...

Synopsis

Crossword puzzle solvers know the three-letter answer to the clue “Composer Brian” is: E-N-O. But even fans of this British composer, performer, and producer might not know his full name, which is Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno.

Brian Eno was born in Suffolk, England, on today’s date in 1948. He studied painting and music, and in his early 20s played synthesizer with the glam rock band Roxy Music before embarking on a solo career...

Synopsis

In the 1980s, the Finnish Broadcasting Company had come up with the idea of commissioning a whole evening’s worth of orchestral pieces by native composer Einojuhanni Rautavaara, which, when taken together, would form a conventional concert program of overture, concerto and symphony. These three works have come to be called the “Angel Trilogy,” since each of them has a title with the word “Angel” in it...

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1995, an opera by the American composer Amy Beach received its first professional production at Lincoln Center in New York City–63 years after Beach completed it–in the summer of 1932.

Beach was 65 years old in 1932 and for years had wanted to write an opera on an American theme. She settled on a play written by Nan Bagby Stephens, a writer from Atlanta...

Synopsis

In the 1960s, an American composer named Steve Reich prepared some electronic pieces consisting of gradually shifting tape loops of the same prerecorded–and enigmatic–spoken phrases excerpted from someone telling a story. Reich quickly realized he could produce the same effect with conventional instruments and live musicians. These repetitive patterns and the gradual shifts came to be labeled “minimalist...

Synopsis

Primitive man probably imitated animal sounds for both practical and religious reasons. More recently, the Baroque-era composer Heinrich Franz von Biber imitated one particular animal for COMIC effect in his “Sonata Representing Animals,” and, in early 20th century slang, it’s simply “the cat’s meow...

Synopsis

Is the customer always right? Apparently Giuseppe Verdi thought so–to a degree, at least.

On today’s date in 1872, Verdi sent a note to his publisher with an attached letter he had received from a disgruntled customer, a certain Prospero Bertani, who had attended not one, but two performances of Verdi’s brand-new opera, “Aida.”

Bertani said, “I admired the scenery.....

Synopsis

Some classical music snobs look down their nose at film scores, considering them less “serious” than “art” music written for the concert hall.

Aaron Copland, for one, deplored this attitude. He admired the work of composers like Bernard Herrmann, Alex North, David Raksin, and Elmer Bernstein, whose successful Hollywood careers earned them financial rewards on the West Coast, if not the respect of the snootier East Coast music critics...

Synopsis

Stephen Sondheim was 32 years old when his musical “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” opened on Broadway on today’s date in 1962. The best seats would have cost you $8.60, but decent tickets were available for three bucks in those days–and, much to Sondheim’s relief, New Yorkers snapped them up in short order...