Composers Datebook

Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.

Eine durchschnittliche Folge dieses Podcasts dauert 2m. Bisher sind 2794 Folge(n) erschienen. Dieser Podcast erscheint täglich.

Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 3 days 20 hours 50 minutes

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Wendy Carlos and "Tron"


On today’s date in 1982, a sci-fi movie titled “Tron” opened in theaters across the country, targeting an audience fascinated by the then still-new craze for computer gaming. In the movie, a progra...


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 July 9, 2020  2m
 
 

John Williams, musical tree-hugger?


On today's date in the year 2000, amid the greenery of the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts, violinist Gil Shaham gave the outdoor, open-air premiere of this new concerto at the Tanglewood Festi...


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 July 8, 2020  2m
 
 

Handel celebrates peace


Unless you're a graduate student in 18th century European history, it's unlikely you know off the top of your head who the winners and losers were in the War of the Spanish Succession. Suffice it t...


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 July 7, 2020  2m
 
 

Louis Armstrong and American music


On today's date in 1971, jazz great Louis Armstrong died in New York City at the age of 69. He was born in New Orleans, and for years, all the standard reference books listed his birthday as the Fo...


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 July 6, 2020  2m
 
 

Piazzolla passes


On today's date in 1992, lovers of the tango had good reason to be sad. The great Argentinean composer and bandoneón virtuoso Astor Piazolla had died in Buenos Aires at the age of 71. Now, the ba...


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 July 5, 2020  2m
 
 

Wagner's American Centennial commission


On today's date in 1876, America was celebrating its Centennial, and the place to be was in Philadelphia, where a Centennial Exhibition was in progress. Officially known as "The International Exhib...


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 July 4, 2020  2m
 
 

Grainger and "Country Gardens"


"Country Gardens" is the best-known work of the Australian-born American composer, arranger, and pianist Percy Grainger. Its score bears this note: "Birthday-gift, Mother, July 3, 1918." Grainger's...


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 July 3, 2020  2m
 
 

Lucky Gluck?


In the German, "Gluck" means luck, and today's date marks the birth anniversary of a German composer named Christoph Willibald Gluck, whose good fortune it was to be credited with "reforming" the v...


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 July 2, 2020  2m
 
 

Milhaud's "Scaramouche" Suite


On today's date in 1937, some jaunty music by the French composer Darius Milhaud premiered in Paris. It was a suite for two pianos entitled "Scaramouche," after a stock character in the Italian com...


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 July 1, 2020  2m
 
 

Herrmann's "Wuthering Heights"


In 1971, American film composer Bernard Herrmann confessed, "the only thing I ever did that was foolhardy was to write an opera." The opera was based on the 19th century novel "Wuthering Heights" b...


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 June 30, 2020  2m