All names in this
Index are by birth-certificate, which may not be the name by which you know
them
At the top left-hand
corner of every screen there is a flat rectangular box with an icon of a
magnifying-glass: your search bar. You may well find it easier to find the
person you are seeking there
As with the writers and the artists, so the musical maestros come in many forms, regularly overlapping several of them. For the purposes of this Index I have broken them down into sub-sections as
a) Opera/Oratoria
b) Orchestral/Concerto/Lieder
c) Performers
d) Conductors/Producers... (the ones who make it
happen without needing to write, sing or play)
e) Jazz and Blues
f) Folk-Rock and Pop
g) Satire
h) Anthems
i) The instrument makers
j) The collectors
I have not included any of the Troubadours or Trobairitz or Beguines on this list, as they have their own pages: the Troubadours on Oct 22, the Trobairitz on Jan 13, the Beguines on Feb 24, and all three together form a sub-section of Woman-Blindness
*
a) Opera/Oratoria
Dieterich Buxtehude (Diderich Hansen
Buxtehude on his 1637 Danish birth certificate; he died on May 9 1707): counted among the masters on Nov 19; BBC composer of the week here; his
website here
Giulio Romolo Caccini (born
October 8 1551; died December 10 1618): his “Euridice” premièred on Dec 5; bio and links to works here
(apparently the opera was really by Jacopo Peri, “with
additional music by Giulio Caccini”). It is
regarded as the earliest surviving opera - but don’t go saying that where Hildegard of Bingen can hear you!
Gabriel Urbain Fauré (born May 12 1845; died November 4 1924):
teaching the Boulanger sisters on Aug 21: bio here; his world music competition here;
turned into jazz here
Hans Krása (born November 30 1899; killed at Auschwitz on
October 17 1944): composer of "Brundibár"; data about him is on the
page for April 1, and the quintet are included as members
of the Terezinstadt Salon on the
page of the Illustrious Illustrators; the other four being:
Adolf Hoffmeister (1902-1973): wrote the libretto
for Hans Krása’s “Brundibár” on April 1; how they did it here; his very interesting bio here
Rudolf (“Rudy”,
“Baštík”) Freudenfeld, though he is also known as Franěk, the
former German, the latter Czech, the former his birth-name, the latter his
survivor’s statement after the war: smuggled the piano reduction of “Brundibár”
into the camp at Terezin on April 1, and took chare of preparing the children for its
first performance: bio here
Pavel Haas (born June 21 1899; died October 17 1944) and Leo Haas (born April 15 1901; died August 13 1983): fellow-prisoners at Terezin on April 1; Pavel the composer here, and the Haas Quartet named in his honour, and still playing, here; Leo the artist here. And no, as far as I can discover, they are not related, except by name
Vítĕzslav Augustín
Rudolf Novák (born December 5 1870; died July 18 1949): impressionist composer who
influenced Hans Krása on April 1; bio and works here
Zigmund (sometimes Zikmund, sometimes Sigmund) Schul (born January 11 1916; died at Terezin on June 2 1944): amongst the artists and musicians on April 1; bio here
Alexander von Zemlinsky (born
October 14 1871; died March 15 1942): inspired Hans Krása on April 1; seems to have impressed everyone who mattered
throughout his life, so why have none of us today heard of him? bio with much
adulation and a very interesting mother here
Giovanni Battista Lulli (Jean Baptiste Lully) (born Nov 28 1632; died March 22 1687): apparently
he was an even better dancer than he was a composer; bio with music links here
Thea Musgrave (alive and well at 96 at the time of writing this): amongst Nadia Boulanger’s distinguished list of students
on Aug 21; Scottish apparently; her website here
Michael Kemp Tippett (born
Jan 2 1905; died January 8 1998): "A Child Of Our Time" on March
19 (listen to it here); his
Foundation here
Giuseppi Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Victor
Emmanuel Rei D’Italia became an acronym: not his pseudonym, a political slogan:
click here) (born Oct 10 1813; died January 27
1901): his “Requiem” played by Gideon
Klein at Terezin on April 1 (and here); his museum here
Suzanne Bloch (born August
9 1907; died January 29 2002) was an opera singer who specialised in Wagner, led the Early
Music revival, and had her blue-period portrait painted by Picasso on Aug 19; see it here, more
about her here; the stealing and recovery of the
painting from the Sao Paolo museum here
*
b) Orchestral/Concerto/Lieder
Malcolm Henry Arnold: born Oct
21 1921; died September 23 2006): his Society here
Bach: transposed on Oct 27, though which member
of the family is up to you: Johann Nikolaus
Bach II (1669–1753); Johann Christoph
Bach V (1676–); Johann Heinrich
Bach II (1709–); Johann Friedrich
Bach I (1682–1730); Johann Michael
Bach II (1685–)... and then go here (and do I make a
joke about the Welsh composer Dai Bach? No, best not; Ferrucio Busoni’s
transcription of a Bach "Toccata and Fugue" is performed by Gideon Klein on April
1
Fanny Cäcilie Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (Hensel was her married name): born November 14 1805; died May 14 1847):
mentioned re Mary Astell on Nov 12; her
scores online for free here; her songs online
for free here; the international competition in her
name here; her German website
here
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, brother of Fanny Hensel: born Feb 3; given as a prize on April
1; played
by Pablo Casals on Nov 13; "The Mendelssohn Project" here; and I would show you his tree on the
Pedway at the Barbican Centre, but for some reason it's been removed (click here anyway)
Béla Viktor János Bartók: (born
March 25 1881; died September 26 1945): conducted by Ernő Dohnányi on July 27; Bartók
the writer here; his Centre for Musicianship here; the music
here
Jakob
Liebmann Meyer Beer (Giacomo Meyerbeer):
(born September 5 1791; died May 2 1864): bio here; the Tchaikovsky view here; his Gesellschaft here; his fan-club here
Ludwig van Beethoven: born Dec 16;
died March 26; last appeared on stage
on May 7; minored the C on Oct 27; lessons with Haydn on Dec 12
(see also Nov 19); mentioned on Feb 11 and April
16, the correct answer on Sept 17;
performed by Gideon Klein on April 1;
his website here; his house in Bonn here; the music here; just the sonatas here; the
Vienna museum here
Richard Rodney Bennett (born
March 29 1936; died December 24 2012): setting Mervyn Peake to music
on June 18; here for the
bio; here for his website
Alban Maria Johannes Berg: (born Feb 9 1885; died December 24 1935): with Erwin Schulhoff on April
1; archives here; the Berg Quartet here
Louis-Hector Berlioz (born Dec
11 1803; died March 8 1869): “Symphonique fantastique” and
“Requiem” premièred in Paris, and Les Troyens” premièred in Karlsruhe, all
on Dec 5 (different years, same day);
his website here; his society here
Alexandre-César-Léop Georges
Bizet (born Oct 25 1838; died June 3 1875): bio here; his music
competition here
Marie-Juliette Olga (“Lili”)
Boulanger (born Aug 21
1893; died March 15 1918); reading list here
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (born September 16 1887; died October 22 1979): is on the same page as her sister, Aug 21
Johannes Brahms (born May 7
1833; died April 3 1897): key influence on Dohnányi on July 27;
his part in the F.A.E. Sonata on Oct 27;
played by Gideon Klein on April 1; his website here
Edward Benjamin Britten (born Nov 22 1913; died December
4 1976): his school here; his website with
Peter Pears here
Josef Anton Bruckner (born Sept 4 1824; died October 11 1896): 9th
symphony premièred on Feb 11; his
music here
Ferruccio Busoni: born, by
extraordinary coincidence, on April 1
1866: he is on the blog on this date because he transcribed some Bach for a Gideon Klein concert, which happened to take
place on this date; died July 27 1924; his Foundation and Piano competition here
John Milton Cage Jr (September
5 1912-August 12 1992): shall I skip him? No, simply do my piece in silence as
an act of homage to him. Transposed as Gedb on Oct 27
Elliott Cook Carter Jr (December
11 1908 - November 5 2012): amongst Nadia
Boulanger’s distinguished list of students on Aug 21: his
website here
Georges Paul Alphonse Emilien Caussade (born November 20 1873; died August
5 1936): teaching Lili Boulanger composition on Aug 21: bio here
Gustave Charpentier (June 25 1860-February 18 1956):
beautifully handled by Gustav Mahler on July 7; Villa Medici here
Fryderyk Franciszek (Frédéric
François) Chopin: (March 1
1810-October 17 1849): with George Sand
on July 1; the Polish view here; his English society here
Aaron Copland (born Nov 14 1900; died December 2 1990): another of
Nadia Boulanger’s students on Aug 21; his house here, his website here
François Couperin (born November 10 1668; died September
11 1733): his
Concert Pieces for Cello and Piano performed on Nov 13; bio and music links here
Achille-Claude Debussy (22
August 1862-25 March 1918) bio here; merely
mentioned on Feb 9; influencing Lily Boulanger on Aug 21; and me, listening to his “La Mer” and Pink Floyd’s
“Echoes”, alternately, as a 17 year old; the view from Paris here; his trio here, his string quartet here; his
website here
Fritz (but he changed it to Frederick) Theodore Albert Delius (born Jan 29 1862; died June 10 1934): his society here; the complete works here
Albert Hermann Dietrich (born August 28 1829; died November
20 1908): contributed to the FAE Sonata on Oct 27; the piece can be heard here; Robert Schumann’s
relationship here
Ernő Dohnányi (in Hungarian, but generally remembered in German as Ernst von Dohnányi), and Hans von Dohnányi: father and son, April
1, July 27 [and
there’s a 3rd generation, Christoph, old now
but still conducting – click here]
Elisabeth (Elsa) Kunwald: first wife of Hans von
Dohnányi on July 27
Antonín Leopold Dvořák (born Sept 8
1841; died May 1 1904): supporting Erwin Schulhoff on April
1; his website here
Edward William Elgar (born June 2
1857; died February 23 1934): the link here is to Mark Elder and
the Hallé Orchestra performing his “Dream of Gerontius”, with Paul Groves and
Alice Coote and Bryn Terfel as the main singers, but far more significantly my
elder daughter Hannah in the 3rd row of the choir
Wilhelm Richard Geyer (Wagner ) (born May 22 1813; died Fenruary 13 1883): Tolkiened on Jan
3; born on May 22; “Die
Walküre” at the annual Wagner Festival at Bayreuth on July 22; studying with Weber on Nov 19;
mentioned as an influence on Feb 9, June 9 and Aug
21; merely mentioned on Feb 11,
Oct 27 and Nov 6; [plus two books by me, available here]
Ludwig Heinrich
Christian Geyer (21 January 1779-30 September 1821): was he or wasn’t he the father of Richard Wagner on Nov 19? Bio here
Philip Glass: one of Nadia Boulanger’s distinguished list of students
on Aug 21; clearly he didn‘t learn much on
Feb 9; try here
George Frideric Handel (born February 23 1685; died April
14 1759): fighting
with the now forgotten Giovanni Bononcini
on March 15: Messiah premièred on March 23, mentioned on Nov 19 (awaited expectantly but without
much optimism on every day of the year); his website here
Giovanni Battista
Bononcini (born July 18 1670; died July 9 1747): “the
rivalrous animosity between George Frideric Handel and the now forgotten...” is
on March 15 - start here; the feud
is here, though Britannica tells it
slightly differently (insisting it was all Handel’s fault)
Franz Joseph Haydn (born March 31 1732; died May 31 1809): teaching
Beethoven on Nov 19 and Dec
12; obscurely mentioned on April 16;
three websites, here, here and here
Paul Hindemith (born Nov 16 1895; died December 28 1963): his
website here
Gustav Theodore Holst (born Sept 21
1874; died May 25 1934): his Foundation here
Charles Edward Ives (born Oct 20
1874; died May 19 1954): the state of Connecticut here; his website here
John W. Ivimey (born September 12
1868; died April 16 1961): his full version of “Three Blind Mice” is on March 15, though
really his speciality was comic opera, and frankly I could have posted him on the world as stage or among the lighter writers; click here
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (born June 6
1903; died May 1 1978): his "virtual museum" here
Gideon Klein (sometimes known as Karel Vranek): (born December 6
1919; died at the Fürstengrube subcamp on January 27 1945): performed on April 1; the ORT website here
Irma Semtzka: the
girlfriend of Gideon Klein who saved his compositions at
Terezin on April 1 – more here
Eduard Herzog: a
childhood friend of Gideon Klein on April 1 - various accounts worth reading, here, and here
Zoltán Kodály (born
December 16 1882; died March 6 1967): a key figure in the career of Ernő Dohnányi on July 27; his website here
Stephan Krehl (born July 5 1864; died April 9 1924): taught Erwin Schulhoff in Leipzig on April 1
Ferenc (Franz) Liszt: (born Oct 22
1811; died July 31 1886): central to the life and work of Erno Dohnányi on July
27
Louis Le Maire (circa
1693/4-circa 1750): composing for kiddies on
March 15, though he mostly composed for adults (click here);
and I failed to point out on the blog-page that our singing version of the
alphabet also uses that same melody – click here
Gustav Mahler: (born July 7 1860; died May 18 1911): his Jewishness on Feb 3;
with Alban Berg on Feb 9, Bruckner
on Feb 11, Spinoza on Feb 21,
Schönberg
on Feb 24, Nielsen on June 9;
principal conductor on July 7 (his
birthday); played too fast by Bernstein
on Aug 25; mentioned on April 1; his Foundation here; his Chamber Orchestra here (though I have to confess I find it
hard to imagine how you could play any of those symphonies properly with only
the numbers of a chamber orchestra)
Lowell Mason (born
January 8 1792; died August 11 1872): made Mary’s Lamb singable on March 15; best
known for his liturgical music, and for introducing music as a subject into
American public schools; bio here
Hildegard Merxheim-Nahet (Hildegard von Bingen): (born 1098; died
September 17 1179): reduced to sainthood on May
10; her abbey rededicated Sept 17;
on this listing for her music, for which click here to learn about it, here to listen to nine
full hours of it; much more about her on the reverend writers page, and her full story on the Mediaeval page of Woman-Blindness
Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (Amadeus is a Latin translation of Theophilus,
and was not his name but simply Mozart
amusing himself): his "Adagio" performed by Gideon Klein on April
1; his G major piano concerto, K. 453, played by Ernő Dohnányi on July 27; died in poverty on Dec 5; mentioned on March 19 and April 16.
His sister Nannerl can be given
birthday presents on July 30; his
website here;
his portal here
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky: (born March 21 1839; died March 28
1881): arrogantly scored the “pictures at an exhibition” by Viktor Alexandrovitch Hartmann on June 2; the Russian view here
Carl August Nielsen (born June 9
1865; died October 3 1931): his website here
Michael Laurence Nyman: Glass crashes, Reich becomes
imperialistic, what does Nyman do, on
Feb 9; his website here
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (born Jan 7
1899; died January 30 1963): his website here
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (born April
23 1891; died March 5 1953): the view from the Bolshoi here
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff (born April 1 1873; died March 28 1943): his website
here
Jean Phillippe Rameau (born Sept 25
1683; died September 12 1764): Opéra National de Paris here
Joseph
Maurice Ravel (born March 7 1875; died December 28 1937): cresting
the wave on Feb 9; his “Kaddish ‘In Memoriam’" on April 1;
rearranging Mussorgsky on June 2 – his
website here; his
Foundation here
Thomas
Ravenscroft (born
June 13 1592; died circa 1635); not to be confused with the TR who is buried at
Westminster Abbey, for whom click here): collecting
songs on March 15; bio here
Johann Baptist Joseph
Maximilian (“Max”) Reger (born March 19 1873; died - pretty grimly: click here - on May
11 1916): taught Erwin Schulhoff in
Leipzig on April 1; generally not much loved as a
composer today: click here
Steve Reich: a
completely blank space on Feb 9
Gioachino Antonio Rossini: (born Feb 29 1792; died November 13 1868):
mentioned on April 1; his Opera
Festival here; his page at English
National Opera here
Charles-Camille
Saint-Saëns (born
Oct 9 1835;
died December 16 1921): works and bio here;
his International Music Competition here
Antonio Salieri (born
August 18 1750; died May 7 1825): did not poison Mozart on Dec 5; the defense here
Érik Alfred Leslie Satie (Virginie Lebeau was his
pen-name for his writings)
(born May 17 1866; died July 1 1925):
his website here
Giuseppe Doménico Scarlatti (born Oct 26
1685; died July 23 1757): bio here; his German website here
Alma Maria Schindler
(Mahler-Gropius-Werfel) (born August 31 1879; died December 11 1964): with
Gustav Mahler on Feb 11 (and
making all the ladies jealous here); her own
achievements here (with a
perfect, if ghastly, illustration of “Woman-Blindness“); her website here; her
orchestra’s website here; her
first husband’s view of her here; her
archives here
Abraham Alexander
Schneider (born October 21 1908; died February 2 1993): his piece for violin
performed by Mieczyslaw Horszowski on Nov 13
Arnold Schönberg (Schoenberg) (born
September 13 1874; died July 13 1951): run out of musical ideas on Feb 9; his student Viktor Ullmann is with him on April 1; The Schoenberg
Centre here; and also here; with a third version
here - I guess that’s
what happens with atonal music; the Jewish view here
Franz Peter Schubert (born Jan 31
1797; died November 19 1828): bio, works and even sheet music here
Erwin Schulhoff - Ervín Šulhov in his native Czech (8 June 1894-
18 August 1942): performed on April 1; mentioned on July 27; bio here
his teachers:
Johannes Eduard Franz Bölsche
(1869-1935):
taught Erwin
Schulhoff in Cologne on April 1
Carl
Friedberg: taught Erwin Schulhoff in
Cologne on April 1
Fritz Steinbach (born June 17 1855; died August 13
1916): taught Erwin Schulhoff in
Cologne on April 1
Ewald Sträßer (or Straesser) (born June 27 1867; died April 4 1933): taught Erwin Schulhoff in Cologne on April 1
and also Alois Hába (21 June 1893-18 November 1973): creator of quarter-tone music and a
massive influence on Erwin
Schulhoff on April 1 – bio here
Robert Schumann (born June 8 1810;
died July 29 1856): played by Gideon Klein
on April 1 and Pablo Casals on Nov
13; created the EFB♭ Sonata on Oct 27 (pianist Clara
Schumann); his website here
Heinrich Schütz (born
October 9 1585; died November 6 1672): with Buxtehude and Handel on Nov 19; “the most important German composer
before Bach” on every website I visit, so why have I/you never heard of him? Try
here
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich: (born Sept 25
1906; died August 9 1975): set Yevtushenko
on July 18; initially on Oct 27; his website here; a guide
to his symphonies here; spelled Chostakovich at his International
Association, here; idol-worshipped here; the
string quartets here
Johan Julius Christian (Jean) Sibelius (born Dec 8 1865; died September 20 1957): mentioned
on June 9; website of Sibelius One here
Bedřich Smetana (born March 2 1824 in what was then Leitomischl in Bohemia but is now
Litomyšl in the Czech Republic; died May 12 1884 in what was then Prazska but
is now Prague): compared with Dvořák on Sept 8; his “Bartered Bride” performed at Terezin on April 1; his museum here; his other museum here; how his “Moldau” for his Bohemian fatherland became the
Anthem for the State of Israel here, and here
Karlheinz Stockhausen (born Aug 22 1928; died December 5 2007):
his society’s website here
Richard Georg Strauss (born June 11
1864; died September 8 1949): “Salome" turned down on July 7; accused of collaborating on July 27; mentioned in much the same regard on Dec 23; his website here
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (born June
17 1882; died April 6 1971); mentioned on April 1; I am linking to his website, but that has to be
the stupidest comment that anyone ever made, and it gets placed as the main
epigram on the front cover: click here (just in case they
take my advice and remove it, it says, mis-spelled with an American z, “Music
is the sole domain in which man realizes the present”); the Foundation set up
in his name, with conductor Robert Craft, here
Josef Suk: (born January 4 1874; died May 29
1935): performed by Gideon Klein on April 1; his memorial here; an appreciation by
his teacher Antonin Dvořák here
Carlo Sigmund Taube (born July 4 1897; died you-know-where on October 11 1944):
fellow-prisoner at Terezin on April 1; bio here; his one
surviving work, “Ein jüdisches Kind“, words by his wife Erika, music by Gary
Bachlund, based on Carlo’s original, here
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (born August 15
1875; died September 1 1912): the Africa
page has his commission, aged only 23, to write his "Ballade in A
Minor for Britain"; much more about him in my novel "A Journey In
Time"; bio here, plaque here
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (born May 7
1840; died November 6 1893): quoted on the MM page on June 2; mentioned on
the blog on Oct 19; fully researched here; his music
competition here; his Moscow
Conservatory here; his Ukrainian
Academy here; his collected
papers here
Michail (Mikis)
Theodorakis (born July 29 1925; died September 2 2021): setting “Zorba the Greek” on Feb 18; his website here
Mikhail Tushmalov (he was
Georgian, so it should really be Tushmalishvili) (1861–1896): the first to
transform Mussorgsky’s piano version into an orchestral
on June 2 (this from Tchaikovsky)
Ralph Vaughan-Williams (born Oct 12
1872; died August 26 1958): his society’s website here; his ashes at Westminster Abbey here
Paul-Antoine Vidal (born June
16 1863; died April 9 1931): teaching Lili Boulanger
composition on Aug 21: bio here
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (born Nov 19 1786; died June 5 1826): teaching Wagner on May
22; his website here; his Trust here; his museum here
George Thomas Smart (10 May
1776 – 23 February 1867): at whose home in London Weber died: here and on Nov 19
*
c) Performers
Jacques Romain Georges Brel: in the hall of fame on June 20; laughing and dancing on Oct 9; “Don Quixote in New York” on Nov 22; mentioned on June 20 [the world as stage and responses to bullying]
Mitch Leigh: aiming for the inaccessible star with Joe Darion on Nov 22; Darion wrote the lyrics, Leigh set them to music: click here; Jacques Brel’s
take on the story, “L'Homme de La Mancha”, premièred in Brussels in October
1968 – click here and here
George
Bridgetower (1778–1860: child musical prodigy of Great
Britain, he gave his first public violin performance in Paris, in 1789, at the
age of ten - and of course you've never heard of him, he was black [under
1807 on the Africa page]; bio here; teaching
Beethoven here
Pau Carlos (Pablo) Salvador Defillo de Casals (born December 29
1876; died October 22 1973): playing cello for JFK
on Nov 13; mentioned on Aug 19; his Foundation here; his website here; the Cello Museum here
Rabindra (“Ravi”) Shankar Chowdhury: born to play the
sitar on April 7
1920 (died December 11 2012); obituary here; his website here
Paul Christopher Richard Crossley: four Tippett piano sonatas on March 19; his website here
Claude Étienne Edmond Marie Pierre
Delvincourt (born January
12 1888; died April 5 1954): pianist who shared the Prix de Rome with Lily Boulanger on Aug 21; bio here
Philip Dukes: playing
the viola on April 1; his website here
Alexander Sheftelyevich Ghindin: pianoing
Mussorgsky on June 2 (linked there,
so you can hear him): for more look here
Glenn Herbert Gould (born Sept 25
1932; died October 4 1982): seated on a bench rather than a piano stool on Feb 23; his website here; honoured in his
homeland here
Jascha Heifetz (born Feb 2
1901; died December 10 1987): nepaprastas
smuikininkas (apparently that's how you say "violinist
extraordinaire" in Lithuanian, though smuiko virtuozas would work
as well); his website here
Daniel Hope: same
description as Heifetz, but in
English; in concert on April 1; his
website here
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz: (born Oct 1
1903; died November 5 1989): "virtuoso pianist" in Ukrainian looks
decidedly exotic to us Latinists - піаніст-віртуоз - but is actually just our expression done in their
phonetics, and then the two words reversed; the view from Berditchev here
Mieczyslaw Horszowski (born June
23 1892; died May 22 1993): playing piano for Pablo Casals on Nov 13; among the forgotten pianists here
József (Joseph) Joachim: (born June 28 1831; died August 15 1907): hired
Ernő
Dohnányi
on July 27, presented with the “FAE
Sonata” on Oct 27 (the piece can be heard here); his website here; and as to the Austro-German version of my investigation
into the terminologies, you can say "Ausnahmetalent auf der Violine"
("exceptional talent on the violin"), or "Weltklasse-Geiger" ("world-class
violinist"), both of which need someone who can compose to remove the
dull-and-boring from those expressions
Gidon Kremer (born
February 27 1947 in Riga, Latvia; still going strong in 2025): violinist,
reviving Schulhoff on April 1; his own website here
Vilém Kurz (born December 23 1872; died May 25 1945) and his wife Růžena Kurzová née
Höhmová (born June
16 1880; died December 20 1938 according to wikipedia, but this link rather
questions both her birth and death dates): taught Gideon Klein piano on April 1
Yo-Yo Ma (or really, in Chinese, the other way around, Ma Yo-Yo): born Oct
7, his website here (where he writes it
as Yo Yoma); and the fabulous 1712
Davidov Stradivarius cello that was previously owned by Jacqueline du Pré here
Yehudi Menuhin (born April
22 1916; died March 12 1999): his website here; his school here; his Blue Plaque in Westminster here; his Foundation here;
awesome man, but let's be clear, his favourite violin, the one he sold to Itzhak
Perlman, was a 1714 Soil Stradivarius, and not
as high quality as the 1742 Lord Wilton Guarnerius or the 1733 Prince
Khevenhüller Stradivarius; though obviously, as Yo-Yo Ma
says in that link about Jacqueline du Pré, that is also a matter of style and temperament
Jessye Mae Norman (born singing on Sept
15 1945; died September 30 2019): bio here; her school here, and also here
Ignacy Jan Paderewski - “Pianist and former Prime Minister of
Poland” - isn't that a wonderful combination! (born Nov
6 1860; died June 29 1941): bio here; his festival here; his bust here
Niccolò Paganini (born Oct 27
1782; died May 27 1840): his website here; now I mentioned Guarneri on Menuhin's listing; Paganini had a 1743 Guarneri which he loved so much, and which transformed his
playing so much, he nicknamed it "Il Cannone". More on Giuseppe
Guarneri and his instrument-making sons here
Itzhak Perlman: born Aug 31
1945: his website here
Lester William Polsfuss (Les
Paul): born playing Gibson
guitars on June 9 1915; his website here; his fan-club here; the Gibson guitars here; died August 12 2009
Jacqueline Mary du Pré (born January 26 1945; died Oct 19 1987): mentioned alongside Itzhak Perlman on Aug
31, Daniel Barenboim on Nov 15; bio here; her Oxford music-building here; her annual charity concert here; her Hampstead plaque here;
and see Yo-Yo Ma above for her favourite cello
Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal (born Jan 7
1922; died May 20 2000):
interviewed here; giving a flute
masterclass here; his association here
Paul Leroy Robeson (born April 9
1898; died January 23 1976): house-museum here; Wildwood Road here; Rutgers alumnus here; his art gallery here; and oddly his main
mention on the blog is not as a singer but as an actor, the starring role in Eugene ONeill's 1924 London production of
"The Emperor Jones", for which see the Africa
page; and should he not be on the Political
Ideologues page as well? Or was he just an activist, and not a theorist?
Start here and expect to encounter his equally committed wife Eslanda
"Essie" Cardozo Goode Robeson, who was busy as an anthropologist, author, actress, and civil rights activist when not pre-occupied managing hubby's business affairs.
Artur Rubinstein (born Jan 28
1887; died December 20 1982): apparently he played a Steinway, here; his website here; his foundation based in Lodz here; his International Music Society here
Robert Teichmüller (born May 4 1863; died May 6 1939): taught Erwin Schulhoff piano in Leipzig on April 1
Wilhelm (Willy) Thern (born June 22 1847; died April 7 1911): taught Erwin Schulhoff in Vienna on April 1
Lazzaro Uzielli (born February 4 1861; died October 8 1943): teaching Erwin Schulhoff in Cologne on April 1
Paul Watkins: playing
the cello on April 1; his website here
Pinchas Zuckerman: born July 16
1948; his PR company here; Pittsburg here, Manhattan here; and he too
plays a Guarneri violin, the 1742 Guarneri del Gesù, nicknamed the
"Dushkin" because that was the man from who he bought it; his San
Francisco masterclass is in my 2016 diary, waiting to be written up here
*
d) Conductors/Producers... (the ones who make it happen without needing to write, sing or play)
Karel Ančerl (born
April 11 1908; died July 3 1973):
conducted Gideon Klein’s music after the war, and was himself a Terezín survivor, but still
imprisoned on April 1;
bio here, website here
Daniel Barenboim: born Nov 15
1942, and on that date with Jacqueline du Pré; his website here
Louis (Leonard) Bernstein (born
Aug 25 1918; died October 14 1990): studying
with Nadia
Boulanger on Aug 21;
his “office” here
Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (born March 26
1925; died January 5 2016): two wesbites, here and here
Valentin Doni: leading
the National Radio Orchestra of Bucharest on June 2; bio here; his German website here
Charles Édouard Dutoit: born Oct 7
1936; website here
Isabella Stewart Gardner (born
April 14 1840; died July 17 1924): the museum is referenced and linked on June 2: museum here; her bio here
John Henry Hammond Jr (born Dec 15
1910; died July 10 1987): discoverer-producer of some of the giants (Billie Holiday, Bob
Dylan…); bio in 2 parts here and here; his son is John P
Hammond the blues musician (here)
Sergei Vladimir Korschmin: expert
on Abramtsevo, and performing Mussorgsky, on June 2: his website here; his Brisbane orchestra has stuff
about him here
Ferdinand Löwe (born February 19 1865; died January 6 1925): conducting Bruckner’s 9th on Feb 11; some stuff at his
teacher Heinrich Schhenker’s archive, here
Savva Ivanovich Mamontov (born
October 3 1841; died April 6 1918): buying the Abramtsevo
Colony on June 2; Abramtsevo website here; Mamontov here; the Private Opera here
Zubin Mehta: born April 29
1936; his website here
André George Previn (born
April 6 1929 in Berlin; died February 28 2019): conducting "A Child Of Our
Time" on March 19; fan-club here; obituaries aplenty on the net
Simon Denis Rattle:
born Jan 19 1955; the Mersey view here; Wolf Prize here
Rafael Schächter (born in
Brăila, Romania, though he is now claimed as a Czech, on May 27 1905; died you-know-where at some point in 1945): principal organiser of cultural activities
at Terezin from his arrival in November 1941; conducted Brundibár
in secret in 1941; see April 1, and here
Leonard Edward Slatkin: (born
September 1 1944): rearranging Mussorgsky on June 2;
bio here; website here
György Stern (Georg Solti) (born Oct 21 1912;
died September 5 1997): taught by Erno Dohnányi
on July 27; bio here (Grammy? but isn’t that for pop music?);
his Accademia website here
Itzhak (Isaac) Stern (born July 21
1920; died September 22 2001): Polar Prize here; his website here; his Society at Carnegie Hall here
Leopold Anthony
Stokowski (born April 18 1882; died September
13 1977): rearranging Mussorgsky on June 2; bio here; his
honour-page at Lycos here; his society (now called his club)
here; his
collected papers here; downloadable recordings from the
BBC archive here
Alan Sytner (1935-2006):
Set up The Cavern Club on Jan 16; obituary
here; sadly the car dealership outlived
the music venue: its website here
Bruno Walter (Schlesinger) - he dropped the surname when he took up the position
of musical theatre director in Breslau in 1895: click here for more
on that, and on his blacklisting by the Nazis; born
September 15 1876; died February 17 1962; conducting Bruckner on Feb 11; the view
from the Mahler Foundation here
Henry Joseph Wood: (born
March 3 1869; died August 19 1944): rearranging Mussorgsky on June 2; the hall named for him is here; the
Promenade concerts co-founded by him here; his Blue Plaque in Belsize Park here
Max Bernard Yasgur (born
December 15 1919; made his name and his fortune between August 15 and 18 1969;
died too soon afterwards to reap the rewards, on February 9 1973: stocking wood
on Aug 15; the festival’s website here; Joni encountering
her first Child of God here
Which leads splendidly into the next several sections, which start with…
e) Jazz and Blues
William James (“Count”)
Basie (born August 21 1904; died April 26 1984): one of John Henry Hammond Jr’s discoveries
on Dec 15; his wesbite here, his concert hall here
David Warren (Dave) Brubeck (born Dec 6
1920; died December 5 2012): his website here; “Take Five” here
Armando
Anthony (“Chick”) Corea (born
June 12
1941; died February 9 2021): his production company here
Miles Dewey Davis (born
May 26 1926; died September 28 1991): his website here
Antoine Dominique Caliste Domino Jr, better known as “Fats”: (born February 26 1928; died October 24 2017): rattling them keyboards on Jan 5; official website here
James Francis (Jimmy) Dorsey (born February 29 1904; died June 12 1957): blowing his own clarinet and
saxophone (I don’t think he ever did the trumpet) on Feb 29; his
orchestra here; his younger brother Tommy here
Edward Kennedy
"Duke" Ellington (born April 29 1899; died May 24 1974): gets his
trumpet blown by Joni Mitchell on Jan 5; bio here; official website here; the Duke Ellington Society here;
“Ellingtonia” here; “Duke on the Web” here
Jacob Gershvin (George Gershwin) (born Sept 26
1898; died July 11 1937): George and Ira share a website here
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (born Oct 21 1917; died January 6 1993): National
Jazz Archive here; the Big Band here; his Miles Davis years here
Francisco Sánchez Gómez (Paco di
Lucia) (born December 21 1947; died February 25 2014):
Flamenco, but mostly Jazz Fusion, on June 12; the man from just
south of La Mancha here; his Fundación here; his legacy here; my playlist here
Benjamin (Benny) David Goodman: born May 30
1909; living up
to his name in a major key on Jan 16;
his website here; his official fan-club here
Odetta Homes Felious Gordon (born Dec
31 1930; died December 2 2008): at the Blues Foundation here; spotlighted for Black History Month here
Lionel Leo Hampton (born April 20 1908; died August 31
2002): all sorts of percussion
instruments, even the vibraphone, and eventually led his own band of minstrels
after working with Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus and Quincy Jones. Inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of
Fame in 1992, awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996. Best known for
“On The Sunny Side of the Street”, which you can hear here. Banned from performing at Carnegie Hall on Jan 16
because of the colour of his skin; bio here; his favourite vibraphone here
William Christopher (W.C) Handy (born Nov 16 1873; died March 28 1958): published "Memphis Blues” on Sept 27; Memphis Hall of Fame here; museum here, foundation here; music festival here; music company here; archives here; website here
Elinore Harris on her birth certificate, Eleanora Fagan in her childhood, Eleanora Fagan Gough during her brief first marriage, Billie Holiday on her concert advertising: her wesbite here: discovered by John Henry Hammond Jr on Dec 15 but her “Lady Day” is her birthday, April 7 (she died on July 17 1959)
John Lee Hooker (born August 22 1917; died June 21 2001): a regular at The Cavern Club on Jan 16; the official store here
Scott Joplin (born Nov 24 1868; I would like to make a pun about his life being a journey from ragstime to richestime, but the truth is he only just managed to survive financially; died April 1 1917): his website here
Wynton Learson Marsalis: born Oct 18 1961; his website here
Albert Laurence di Meola: jamming with Chick and Paco on June 12, and on my playlist, here; and then, if I could find a way to add Charlie, what a wonderful quartet that would make: Mingus and di Meola, Corea and Di Lucia: piano, bass and two guitars: blues meets jazz in partnership with Jazz Fusion; his website here
Alton Glenn Miller (born March 1 1904; went awol on Dec 15 1944: click here): the orchestra here; his army record here; his musical records here
Charlie (Charles) Mingus: great photo with Joni Mitchell on Jan 5; born on April 22; made Hejira on Sept 24; his website here
Susan Graham (Sue Mingus, wife of Charlie) (born April 2 1930; died September
24 2022): heading for the Ganges on Jan 5 - click here for her
obituary
Thelonious Sphere Monk (born Oct 10
1917; died February 17 1982): his website here
Charles (Charlie) Christopher (nicknamed “Bird” or sometimes “Ladybird”) Parker (born Aug 29 1920; died March 12,
1955): cited by Joni on Jan 5; his website here
Cole Albert Porter: born June 9
Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett ("Ma" Rainey”): (born April 26 1886; died Dec 22 1939): the view from North Georgia here; the view from Washington here
Julius LaRosa: failed to take Manhattan on Oct 19
Elizabeth (“Bessie”) Smith: born April
15 1894; died September 26 1937): bio here; her Chatanooga cultural centre here
Theodore (“Teddy ”) Shaw
Wilson (born November 24 1912; died July 31 1986): a black musician under a Jewish band-leader! Oi! A recipe
for controversy on Jan 16. Teddy Wilson
was "the definitive swing pianist, gentle, elegant, and virtuosic,
influenced by Earl Hines and Art Tatum”
according to this
website; you can listen to him here, and
play exactly like him here
*
f) Folk-Rock and Pop
Charles Edward Anderson (Chuck Berry) (born Oct 18 1926; died March 18 2017): his website here
Joan Chandos Baez:
born Jan 9; her website here
Leonard Norman Cohen (born Sept 21
1934; died November 7 2016): quoted on Feb 11, April 10
and Nov 13;
sleeping with gypsies on May 21;
hall of fame on June 20;
not crazy and reporting on Sept 11;
mentioned on Nov 28
Marianne Christine Stang Ihlen: saying “so long” to
Leonard
Cohen on Nov 28
Nancy: no known last name, and no need to publish it if it is known; her tragic
suicide is honoured by Leonard Cohen on Nov 28; click here to read
her even deeper honouring by her nephew
Suzanne Verdal: dancing inspirationally, but platonically, for Leonard Cohen, on Nov 28; their story, told by her, here
Vincent Eugene Craddock (born Feb 11 1935; died October 12 1971): that name doesn’t
really work for a pop star, does it! Gene Vincent on his records: I think that should be Jean
Vinsant on Sept 14 (actually, no, because it was his nom
de microphone, not his birthname): various fan-clubs here, here and here
Harry Lillis (“Bing”) Crosby: maybe,
on Sept 17
Keith Emerson, Greg Lake
and Carl Palmer: ruining Mussorgsky on June 2 - and a
shame really, because they were really rather good and I was a big fan back in
my teens
Reginald Kenneth Dwight
(Elton John):
played the Cavern Club on Jan
16 (click here); apparently The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Kinks and Who all graced that
same stage (Bernie Taupin, who wrote the only decent songs Elton ever sang, gets a mention on June 20)
Arthur Ira Garfunkel:
born Oct 13
Robert (Bob) Frederick Zenon Geldof: born Oct 5; his website here (except that you can’t access it); Boomtown Rats website
here
Stephen Demetri Georgiou (Yusuf Islam
today, but once upon a moonshadow we knew him, and sang along to all his songs,
and in my mind he will always be, Cat Stevens)
born July 21 1948; in Bunjie’s, where apparently he was their washer-up before he got the chance to perform his songs, on Oct 3
Woodrow Wilson ("Woody") Guthrie (born July 14 1912; died Oct
3 1967): mentioned on March 15,
May 24; official website here
George Harold Harrison: mentioned for Bangladesh on July 13; raising actual money for it on Aug 1; his official website here
Johnny Allen Hendrix,
or later James Marshall Hendrix, and
later still plain “Jimi” Hendrix: (born November 27
1942; died Sept 18 1970); and yes he
was American, though most Brits think he came from Notting Hill: website here
Michael (Mick) Philip
Jagger: performing at the
Cavern Club on Jan 16; nimble and quick on March 15;
his website here, the Rolling Stones
website here
Davy (David Robert)
Jones: not yet restyled as David Bowie when I
heard him do the warm-up for P.J.
Proby at the Marquee Club (still at 90 Wardour Street back
then), even before he did his Ziggy Stardust act there. His website here; Oct 3
Janis Lyn Joplin (born
Jan 19 1943; died Oct 4 1970): website here
Carol Joan Klein (Carole King): jazzing up the
clichés on June 20; bio here
Kathryn Dawn (k.d) lang: born to sing Halleluyah on Nov 2
John Winston Lennon: born Oct 9;
but can you really imagine him like this on Nov
9? his official website here
Andrew Mark
Chapman: some seriously phony reasons for murdering John
Lennon on Oct 9, though actually he did it on
December 8); probably he was just a jealous guy
Robert (Bob) Nesta Marley (born February 6 1945; died May
11 1981): his website here
Donald (Don) McLean:
playing Black Jack on March 15; born Oct 2 1945; the pie was baked on Dec 16: a full break-down of its ingredients here
Ralph May (Ralph McTell): doing
the revised version on Oct 3; the
original “Streets” were in Paris, as you can [Mc]tell by the man with his war
ribbons and the baglady, not London images at all in that epoch, but
totemically Parisian: click here; his website here
William Chadbourne
"Chad" Mitchell:
My John Birch question on May 19 needs a follow-up, because I have
now found the Trio singing Dylan’s “Blowin In The Wind” on the Ed Sullivan show (click here), exactly where he sang his
paranoid version of “John Birch” (click here). So clearly there is more than
just coincidence going on here. And then
there is the information that “In 1965, [John] Denver joined The Chad Mitchell
Trio, replacing founder Chad Mitchell. After more personnel changes, the trio
later became known as "Denver, Boise, and Johnson" (John Denver,
David Boise, and Michael Johnson).” More on Mitchell here (I'm afraid I haven't bothered to list John Denver)
James Douglas (Jim) Morrison (born December 8 1943; died July 3 1971): his wesbite here; The Doors here. Not to be confused with ...
George Ivan (Van) Morrison, who can be found on his birthday, Aug 31 1945: website here
Graham William Nash: lauded
with holly on Jan 13; his website here
Philip David Ochs (born December 19 1940; committed
suicide April 9 1976): just a journalist on March
15; his
fan-club here
Michael Gordon (Mike) Oldfield: born May 15
1953, mentioned on June 20; his
website here
Elvis Aaron Presley (born
January 8 1935; died August 16, 1977):
looking remarkably like Herschel Grynspan on March 19;
his official website here,
Graceland here
Peter (Pete) Seeger (born May 3
1919; died January 27 2014): his wesbite here; his music here; tribute from Folkways here
Paul Frederic Simon: in Central Park on Sept
19; Artless at Bunjies on Oct 3; Simon & Garfunkel together here; his wesbite here
Richard Starkey (Ringo
Starr): making the drums sound like the wheels of Thomas’ tank engine, at The
Cavern Club on Jan 16
Rory Storm and the Hurricanes: the very first beat night at The Cavern Club on Jan 16,
with Ringo Starr on drums
Alastair Ian (Al)
Stewart: making time out of sand on July 2; his website here
Priscilla Maria Veronica
White (Cilla Black): the cloakroom attendant at The Cavern Club on Jan 16
Brian Douglas Wilson: (born June 20 1942; no vibrations of any quality
identifiable after June 11 2025); his website here; the Beach Boys website here
Neil Percival Young: singing to Montezuma
and against Cortez on March 4 and June
30, and with Buffalo Springfield on June
20 (the band's induction into the Rock Hall of Fame here); debuted with CS and N on July 25 (its website here);
born Nov 12; his archives here; his official webstore here
Robert Allen Zimmerman (Bob Dylan): Davey Moore on Feb
6; “John Birch” on May 19; born on May
24; dreamed he saw St Augustine
on May 26; quoted on June 9; painted on July
22; with MLK on Aug 28; at Bunjies on Oct 3; sang for Rubin
Carter on Nov 8; under an
alias on Nov 23; produced by John Hammond Jr on Dec
15; mentioned on Feb 18, April 18, June
20 and July 10; his
website here; a wesbite offering links to websites about
him here
*
g) Satire
though both Jacques Brel and Bob Dylan merit a significant place in this section (and Joni’s paving of paradise should get her name on a slab in the parking lot: I have drafted the materials on the right but will not proceed any further while she is still alive)
Thomas Brigham Bishop (born June 29 1835; died May 15
1905): the man who stole the glory from William Steffe on Dec 2
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (born May 10 1760; died June 26 1836): wrote the
French national anthem on his birthday; though the tale told here is
surprising about him, and revealing about the words of the song
Eugène Edine Pottier (born October 4 1816; died in poverty on November 6 1887; buried at the
Père Lachaise cemetery, where all the executed Communards that he managed to
outlive are buried: the
original-original words of the “Internationale” on May 10; and for a great website! click here
John Stafford Smith (born
circa March 30 1750; died September 21 1836): Anacreontic on March 3
Herbert Clark Hoover (born August
10 1874; died October 20, 1964): 31st President of the USA, he formalised
the Star-Spangled National Anthem on March 3
i) The instrument makers
Antonio Stradivari: (born 1644; died Dec 18 1737), and two sons, Francesco and Omobono, lesser talents by all accounts; see Yo-Yo Ma et al higher on this page; the violins here, the Stradivari Trust here
Antoine Joseph (“Adolphe”) Sax (born
Nov 6 1814; died February 7 1894): he may have invented the
instrument, but he never performed on it, as far as I can discover; its website here
Leo Fender: counterpointing Les Paul on June 9; he may have run a guitar factory,
but he couldn’t play it, couldn’t even tune it, though apparently he blew the
saxophone very badly and could hit random keys on a piano (click here)
*
j) The collectors
Cecil James Sharp (born November 22 1859; died June 23 1924): listening to Mrs Goodey singiing Old Macdonald on March 15; his museum in Camden here; the English Folk Dance and Song Society here
Alan Lomax (born Jan 15 in Austin Texas, though Wikipedia has
him incorrectly on the 31st; died July 19 2002); his website here; mentioned on March
15; his father was also a musicologist, John Avery Lomax by name,
and another family member… much easier just to click here
Jerry Silverman: start of WW2 on July
22; about a quarter of of his books here
You can find David Prashker at:
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