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.
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 3 days 20 hours 54 minutes
Wallingford Riegger
Today in 1961, the American composer Wallingford Riegger died in New York City, about a month shy of what would have been his 76th birthday. Riegger was born in Albany, Georgia, in 1885. Like many...
Variations on a tune by Handel
On this date in 1747, a crowd of London concert-goers gathered in response to a newspaper announcement, which read, "At the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden tomorrow will be perform'd a new oratorio,...
Liszt vs. Thalberg
On today's date in 1837, the Princess Cristina Belgiojoso-Trivulzio scored the social coup of the season at her Parisian salon. Ostensibly, it was the culmination of a three-day charity fundraiser ...
The "Naqoyqatsi" Cello Concerto by Philip Glass
In 2002, film director Godfrey Reggio released his latest movie. Entitled "Naqoyqatsi"—the Hopi word for "Life as War"—this was Reggio's third and final installment in a trilogy of unusual, non-nar...
David Dzubay's "Ra"
OK, if you say "band music," most people think "marching bands—sporting events." So if someone tells you there is a band work entitled "Ra"—you might automatically respond: "sis-boom-ba." But that'...
The Vienna Philharmonic and American composers
In Beethoven's day, there were no independent symphonic orchestras in Vienna, so when Ludwig van wanted to put on an orchestral concert, the way he did it was to hire a theater orchestra for a nigh...
Symphonic Mazuyumi
One of the preeminent figures in 20th century Japanese concert music was a composer named Toshiro Mayuzumi, born in Yokohama in 1929. The range of his music reflects a curious turn of mind. He wr...
Madeleine Dring
She's been called a "British Gershwin" but perhaps a "British Poulenc" might more accurately describe the genial and graceful music of Madeleine Dring, a woman whose diverse and energetic creative ...
Shostakovich in America
It's all a matter of timing. In 1942, the Soviet Union was America's wartime ally, and the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich made the cover of Time magazine. Seven years later, the war was over, ...
Bach's "Coethen"Concertos?
Music history, like your parents, often reminds us that "Life is NOT fair." On today's date in 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kapellmeister at the Court of Prince Leopold of Coethen, wrote a flowery...