Composers Datebook

Synopsis

Today’s date marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott.  Born in Edinburgh in 1771, he became Scotland’s most famous novelist, poet, playwright, and historian. His works were wildly popular throughout Europe and America in the 19th Century and attracted the attention of many famous composers.

Franz Schubert was a fan and set several of Scott’s poems to music...

Synopsis

Young composers who came of age in the 1960s found themselves faced with a question: should they adopt the intellectually fashionable post-serial, atonal style of composition developed by Arnold Schoenberg’s followers, or return to a more accessible and tonal musical language, neo-Romantic, neo-Classical, or Minimalist in nature?

For the American composer William Bolcom, who turned 20 in 1958, the first option was not appealing...

Synopsis

The year 1960 marked the centenary of the birth of composer Gustav Mahler, and the British musicologist named Deryck Cooke hit upon the idea of preparing a performing edition of Mahler’s Symphony No. 10, a work left unfinished at the time of Mahler’s death in 1911. This was a daunting task for two reasons...

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1845, the sleepy little German town of Bonn played host to some 5000 visitors. These ranged from curious natives and opportunistic pickpockets to famous composers, performers, and music lovers from many countries, including the British monarch Queen Victoria and King Wilhelm the IV of Prussia.

The occasion? The unveiling of a bronze statue of the great German composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, who had been born in Bonn 75 some years earlier...

Synopsis

In 1906 the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff had his heart set on turning the popular Belgian poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck’s play “Monna Vanna” into an opera.

Unfortunately, Rachmaninoff began work on “Monna Vanna” BEFORE he had secured the rights to do so. Rachmaninoff had already finished parts of a piano score for his opera when in 1907 he learned that Maeterlinck had granted the rights to another composer...

Synopsis

August may seem an unlikely time for Advent music, liturgically speaking, but it was on today’s date in 1992 that a remarkable work entitled “Veni, Veni, Emmanuel” received its premiere at Royal Albert Hall in London. This was during the 1992 Proms at a concert by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra showcasing the talents of the virtuoso Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie...

Synopsis

Today’s we tackle a vexing P.C. issue—not “political correctness,” mind you, but “pronunciation correctness,” a passionate matter for classical radio announcers, of course. 

Now there was a French composer who lived from 1912 to 1997 whose first name was Jean and whose last name was spelled “F-R-A-N- C cedilla-A-I-X.”

Most people pronounce his name “Jean Frahn-SAY,” which has come to be the accepted pronunciation...

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1976, the American composer David Del Tredici conducted the San Francisco Symphony in the first performance of a work he called “Illustrated Alice,” subtitled “Two Scenes from Wonderland.” These two scenes would eventually form bookend movements of a much longer “Alice Symphony,” which premiered 15 years later in August of 1991 at the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts...

Synopsis

Today is the birthday of a 20th century composer who was born in Spain, came of age in Cuba, and, in his later years, was a resident of the United States.  His name was Julián Orbón, who was born in Avilés, Spain, on today’s date in 1925 and died in Miami Beach in 1991...

Synopsis

Few 19th century composers chose their parents as wisely as Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. Papa was a wealthy banker in Berlin, who held Sunday afternoon chamber concerts for his musically gifted children at their home. The kids could perform their own pieces, and if young Felix had composed a little symphony for strings, why Papa would just hire the necessary musicians to have it performed...