January 13 ~ On This Day in Music

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Read more about Rubber Ducky Day

. 1683 ~ Johann Christoph Graupner, German harpsichordist and composer of high Baroque music who was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel.

. 1690 ~ Gottfried Heinrich Stolzel, German Baroque composer.

. 1842 ~ Heinrich Hofmann, German pianist and composer

. 1854 ~ The first patent for an accordion was issued to Anthony Fass, of Philadelphia, PA

. 1866 ~ Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov, Russian composer

. 1884 ~ Sophie Tucker (Abuza), Russian-born American burlesque and vaudeville singer

. 1904 ~ Richard Addinsell was born
More information about Addinsell

. 1909 ~ Quentin ‘Butter’ Jackson, Trombonist, played with Duke Ellington

. 1910 ~ Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn were heard via a telephone transmitter; rigged by DeForest Radio-Telephone Company to broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

. 1925 ~ Gwen Verdon (Gwyneth Evelyn Verdon), Dancer, Tony Award-winning Actress

. 1930 ~ Robert ‘Squirrel’ Lester, Singer with The Chi-Lites

. 1938 ~ Singer Allan Jones recorded The Donkey Serenade for Victor Records. The song became the one most often associated with the singer. Allan sang and acted in several Marx Brothers films: “A Night at the Opera”, “A Day at the Races”, but the film that catapulted him to stardom was the operetta, “Firefly”, with Jeanette MacDonald. Singer Jack Jones is the son of Allan and wife, actress Irene Hervey.

. 1941 ~ The four Modernaires joined to sing with the Glenn Miller Band on a permanent basis beginning this day. They had a ‘solo’ hit in 1946 with To Each His Own.

. 1957 ~ Elvis Presley recorded All Shook Up and That’s When Your Heartaches Begin for Victor Records in Hollywood. The former tune became Elvis’ ninth consecutive gold record.

. 1961 ~ Wayne Marshall, English pianist, organist and conductor

. 1962 ~ Singer Chubby Checker set a record, literally, with the hit, The Twist. The song reached the #1 position for an unprecedented second time – in two years. The Twist was also number one on September 26, 1960.

. 1968 ~ Johnny Cash performed live for the second time at Folsom Prison in the prison cafeteria which was recorded as the album “Johnny Cash at At Folsom Prison”.

. 2001 ~ Kenneth Haas, the former general manager of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, died after a long illness at the age of 57. Haas was general manager of the Boston orchestra from 1987 to 1996 and was instrumental in appointing Keith Lockhart conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Haas was general manager of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1976 to 1987 after performing the same job for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1975. In Cleveland he established the orchestra’s chamber music and recital series.

. 2001 ~ Michael Cuccione, youngest of the five-member spoof boy band 2gether, died at age 16 from complications from Hodgkin’s disease. The teen played Jason “Q.T.” McKnight on the MTV show “2gether,” which poked fun at the boy band craze. His character had a fictional illness, “biliary thrombosis,” but Cuccione really had suffered from Hodgkin’s disease as a child and underwent five months of chemotherapy. The singer-actor set up a cancer research foundation co-wrote a book with his grandmother and appeared on “Baywatch” as a cancer victim.

Rubber Ducky Day!

Posted by MaryO on

 

Get ready to celebrate a splashing fun day – January 13 is National Rubber Ducky Day! 🎉 This quirky holiday honors none other than Rubber Duckie, the beloved bath-time buddy of Sesame Street’s Ernie and Big Bird. First waddling onto the scene in a 1970 episode, this cheerful yellow companion has been making waves ever since.
But did you know? The humble rubber ducky has a history that floats back to the late 1800s. Originally envisioned as a chew toy, it paddled through the tides of time, evolving from rubber to plastic, especially during the World Wars when rubber was as precious as gold!
The first patent for this buoyant buddy was hatched in 1928 by Landon Smart Lawrence. His ingenious design? A ducky that always bobs back to an upright position, no matter how wavy the bathwater gets! And let’s not forget the artistic touch of Russian Sculptor Peter Ganine, who sculpted a duck that’s pretty much the doppelganger of our modern rubber duckies.
Fast forward to 2001, and the rubber ducky makes a royal splash in Britain. Why? The Sun revealed that even Queen Elizabeth II had a rubber duck in her bathroom – and it wore an inflatable crown! 👑
The crowning moment for these cheerful chirpers came in 2013 when the rubber ducky was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame, joining an exclusive club of only 52 other toys.
So, on January 13, grab your rubber ducky and let’s quack open the celebrations for this iconic, floaty friend! 🦆💦🎈

 

 

 

The now world-famous giant rubber duck, by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, has sailed into the Port of Los Angeles. The six-story-tall bath toy has made its west coast debut to take part in their Tall Ships Festival parade. The duck has also appeared in Australia, Belgium, Japan, New Zealand and Brazil. Earlier this year, versions of the massive inflatable duck were in Asia, including Beijing’s harbor and Taiwan, where the duck actually exploded and fell apart while on display. Report by Sarah Kerr.

 

 

 

Did you know that the City of Fairfax Regional Library has a Rubber Ducky collection?

Go on a scavenger hunt to discover more than 200 ducks hiding throughout the building and are on display.  The Rubber Ducky is the library’s mascot.

 

And, finally, a little history lesson:

 

 

And, the final word…

 

 

January 12 ~ On This Day in Music

Posted by MaryO on

today

. 1715 ~ Jacques Duphly, French harpsichordist and composer.

.1782 ~ On this day Mozart wrote a letter to his father about Muzio Clementi.  He said: “Clementi plays well, as far as execution with the right-hand goes. His greatest strength lies in his passages in 3rds. Apart from that, he has not a kreuzer’s worth of taste or feeling – in short he is a mere mechanicus.”

. 1876 ~ Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Italian Opera Composer

. 1905 ~ Tex (Woodward Maurice) Ritter, Country singer, actor, John Ritter’s father

. 1921 ~ The opening of Town Hall in New York City, an important new concert hall

. 1926 ~ Ray Price, Singer

. 1926 ~ Morton Feldman, American composer, born in NYC, New York

. 1928 ~ Vladimir Horowitz debuted as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was the very same night that Sir Thomas Beecham gave his first public performance in the United States.

. 1930 ~ Glenn Yarbrough, Singer with The Limeliters

. 1933 ~ Václav Suk, Czech-born Russian composer and violinist, died at the age of 71

. 1939 ~ William Lee Golden, Singer with The Oak Ridge Boys

. 1939 ~ The Ink Spots gained national attention after five years together, as they recorded If I Didn’t Care. Many other standards by the group soon followed.

. 1940 ~The Shep Fields Orchestra went to the top of Billboard’s Pop Chart with their song “South of the Border (Down Mexico Way).”

. 1946 ~ Cynthia Robinson, Singer, trumpeter with Sly and the Family Stone

. 1949 – Arthur Godfrey and His Friends was first seen on CBS-TV this day. The program stayed on the network for seven years.

. 1959 ~ Per Gessle, Guitarist, singer with Roxette

. 1963 ~ Songwriter Bob Dylan sang Blowin’ In the Wind on the BBC radio presentation of “The Madhouse on Castle Street”. The song soon became one of the classics of the 1960s protest movement.

. 1985 ~ After a record 24 weeks as the #1 album in the nation, Prince (now known as The Artist Previously Known as Prince) slipped to the #2 spot with Purple Rain. Replacing Prince at the top spot: ‘The Boss’ Bruce Springsteen’s Born In the USA, which spent 24 weeks waiting for Purple Rain to fall.

. 1995 ~ Laurel McGoff, American singer

. 2001 ~ Luis Floriano Bonfa, the master guitarist and composer who helped found Bossa Nova music, died of cancer at the age of 78. Bonfa, who was born in Rio de Janeiro in Oct. 17, 1922, began composing in the 1940s and launched his career as a solo artist in 1952. Better known abroad than at home, Bonfa became internationally famous for his contributions to the soundtrack of Marcel Camus’ 1959 classic film “Black Orpheus.” The film introduced an international audience to Bossa Nova – a more sophisticated and less percussive samba style – and made Bonfa and fellow composer Antonio Carlos Jobim stars. “Bonfa plays the guitar like no other, in a very personal, charismatic style. His guitar is a little orchestra,” the late composer Jobim once said. His reputation grew further when he was a featured performer at the Bossa Nova festival at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1962. He was even more famous for his more than 500 compositions especially Manha de Carnaval andSamba de Orpheu. Placido Domingo, Julio Iglesias, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley recorded songs written by Bonfa. In recent years, his productivity slowed. His last major label release “The Bonfa Magic,” was recorded in 1991.

. 2001 ~ Opera singer Kyra Vayne, a star of the 1940s and 1950s whose talents were rediscovered in the 1990s, died at age 84. The Russian-born soprano was born in St. Petersburg. Vayne fled the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution with her family and was eight years old when her family settled in London. She began a successful opera career in the 1940s, and sang for allied troops during World War II. She later joined the Russian Opera Company, then based at London’s Savoy Theater. Her career collapsed in 1957 when her agent, Eugene Iskoldoff, committed suicide, and for the next 35 years she worked as a secretary for the British Broadcasting Corp.

In the early 1990s, a music company released four recordings of her voice, leading the U.S. music magazine “Fanfare” to ask, “How is it possible that such a singer has not come down to us as one of the century’s most celebrated sopranos?” Soon afterward, Arcadia Books published her autobiography, “A Voice Reborn,” which tenor Placido Domingo described as having “all the elements of an opera.” At the end of 1999, nearly 80 years after she fled Russia, Vayne was invited to perform at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater to mark the new millennium – her first public performance in 40 years. “For me to sing at the Bolshoi is beyond any fairy tale,” she said at the time. “I am not worried about singing in public again after so long, but I am fearful of the emotional impact.” Vayne never married and had no children.

. 2003 ~ Maurice Gibb, a member of the famed disco band the Bee Gees, died at a Miami Beach hospital. He was 53. Gibb, joined with his older brother and his twin to harmonize their way to becoming one of the best selling musical groups ever. Gibb played bass and keyboard for the group, whose name is short for the Brothers Gibb. In a 1978 interview with TG Magazine, Gibb lamented the perception that the Bee Gees were only a disco band. “People accuse us of being nothing more than a disco band now,” Gibb said. “But they don’t know what they’re talking about. If you listen to our records, you’ll find that there’s dance music. But there are also ballads like More Than A Woman. And there are some very beautiful, undanceable songs, too.” The Bee Gees – twins Maurice and Robin, and their older brother Barry – have lived in South Florida since the late 1970s. Their younger brother, Andy, who had a successful solo career, died in 1988 at age 30 from a heart ailment. Chris Hutchins, a writer and former press agent for the Bee Gees, said Maurice was “very much a tormented soul.” “He was not the star (of the Bee Gees), and he knew it, he felt it,” Hutchins told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. Known for their close harmonies and original sound, the Bee Gees are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and their 1977 contributions to the “Saturday Night Fever” album made it the best selling movie soundtrack ever with more than 40 million copies sold. Among their disco hits on that album are Stayin’ Alive, More Than a Woman and How Deep Is Your Love and Night Fever. The group won seven Grammy Awards. The Bee Gees last album was in 2001, entitled “This Is Where I Came In.” The family emigrated from England to Australia in 1958, and the brothers soon gained fame as a teen pop group. They returned to England in the 1960s, and their first four albums contained hits such as 1941 New York Mining Disaster, To Love Somebody and their first U.S. number one song, 1971’s How Can You Mend A Broken Heart.

The Bee Gees followed “Saturday Night Fever” with the 1978 album “Spirits Having Flown” which sold 20 million copies. The brothers wrote and produced songs for Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick in the 1980s. They also wrote the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton hit Islands in the Stream. The Bee Gees released three studio albums and went on a world tour in the 1990s. The live album from the tour “One Night Only,” sold more than 1 million albums in the United States. The Bee Gees run a music production company in Miami called Middle Ear Studios. Gibb’s first wife was British singer Lulu. He and his second wife, Yvonne, were married for more than 20 years and had two children.

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, commonly known as Sonata Pathétique

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During the Offering at Pender UMC’s Traditional Service on January 9, 2022, we were treated to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, commonly known as Sonata Pathétique played by Liz Eunji Sellers .

View the entire service

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, commonly known as Sonata Pathétique, was written in 1798 when the composer was 27 years old, and was published in 1799. It has remained one of his most celebrated compositions.Beethoven dedicated the work to his friend Prince Karl von Lichnowsky. Although commonly thought to be one of the few works to be named by the composer himself, it was actually named Grande sonate pathétique (to Beethoven’s liking) by the publisher, who was impressed by the sonata’s tragic sonorities.

Liz played the second movement – Adagio cantabile (above)

This movement exemplifies the expressive Adagio style of many slow movements in the classical period. The famous cantabile melody is played three times, always in A♭ major, separated by two modulating episodes; the movement is thus a simple rondo rather than the sonata form more common for movements of this seriousness. The first episode is set in F minor (the relative minor of A♭ major), further modulating to E♭ major before returning to the main theme. The second episode begins in A♭ minor and modulates to E major. With the final return of the main theme, the accompaniment becomes richer and takes on the triplet rhythm of the second episode. There is a brief coda.

January 11 ~ On This Day in Music

Posted by MaryO on

today

. 1843 ~ Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, poet and composer of the lyrics to “Star Spangled Banner” died at the age of 63

. 1856 ~ Charles (Johann Christian) Sinding, Norwegian composer

. 1875 ~Reinhold Moritsevich Glière Russian composer.

. 1895 ~ Laurens Hammond, inventor of the Hammond organ. The sound of the Hammond was used by many rock artists including; Procol Harum, Keith Emerson, Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers and The Faces. Hammond died on July 3, 1973.  There is a Hammond organ in the O’Connor Music Studio.

. 1901 ~ Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov died. Kalinnikov was a Russian composer of two symphonies, several additional orchestral works and numerous songs, all of them imbued with characteristics of folksong.

. 1902 ~ Maurice Duruflé, French organist and composer

. 1924 ~ Don Cherry, Singer with Band of Gold

. 1928 ~ Ol’ Man River was recorded on Victor Records by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. Bing Crosby crooned as the song’s featured vocalist. The tune came from the Broadway musical, “Showboat”.

. 1930 ~ Jack Nimitz, Jazz ‘reed’ musician, toured with Supersax

. 1933 ~ Goldie Hill, Country entertainer, married to country singer, Carl Smith

. 1946 ~ Naomi (Diane) Judd, Grammy Award-winning singer in the duo, The Judds, mother of singers Wynonna and Ashley

. 1949 ~ Dennis (Frederick) Greene, Singer with Sha-Na-Na

. 1958 ~ Vicki Peterson, Guitarist, singer with The Bangles

. 1980 ~ Rupert Holmes was at the top of the pop music charts, with Escape (The Pina Colada Song).

. 1981 ~ Leonard Bernstein began conducting the BR – Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra in Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” in Munich’s Hercules Hall. Performed one act at a time, in January, April, and November of 1981, respectively, Bernstein’s “Tristan und Isolde” was telecast live and later released as an audio recording by Philips–to some controversy.

Karl Böhm remarked, with regards to Bernstein’s exaggeratedly slow tempi, “For the first time, someone dares to perform this music as Wagner wrote it.” Böhm’s own recording of the Prelude was four minutes faster.

Upon completion of the project, Bernstein declared, “My life is complete… I don’t care what happens after this. It is the finest thing I’ve ever done.”

. 2003 ~ Mickey Finn, bongo player with 1970s band T.Rex, died at the age of 55. Formed by flamboyant lead singer Marc Bolan in 1967, T.Rex shot to fame with hits such as Get it On, Hot Love and Children of the Revolution in the early 1970s. The band was originally called Tyrannosaurus Rex but the name was shortened to T.Rex in 1970 after Finn joined, replacing original member Steve Took. The band achieved a huge following in Britain — sparking a period of “T.Rextacy” among devoted fans — but achieved more limited popularity in the United States and elsewhere. Credited with introducing the phenomenon of “glam rock” to pop music and influencing artists such as David Bowie, the band played to crowds of up to 100,000 and sold 39 million albums, according to Rolling Stone music magazine.

. 2004 ~ Randy VanWarmer, who recorded the pop hit Just When I Needed You Most and then had a successful career as a songwriter, died. He was 48. Just When I Needed You Most reached No. 4 on Billboard’s pop chart in 1979. VanWarmer, also a guitarist, had written it when he was 18. More recently, VanWarmer wrote I’m in a Hurry (And Don’t Know Why), a No. 1 hit by the country group Alabama in 1992, and I Guess It Never Hurts to Hurt Sometimes, No. 1 by the Oak Ridge Boys in 1984. VanWarmer was born March 30, 1955, in Indian Hills, Colo., and spent much of his childhood in Cornwall, England, after his father died. As a young man he lived in New York City and then Los Angeles before moving to Nashville in 1985. VanWarmer had recently recorded a duet with country singer Razzy Bailey, Sandcastles.

. 2005 ~ Spencer Dryden, drummer for the San Francisco rock band the Jefferson Airplane, died. He was 66.

. 2005 ~ Jimmy Griffin, an Academy Award-winning songwriter and former guitarist for the 1970s pop group Bread, died. He was 61.

. 2016 ~ Gilberto Mendes, Brazilian composer, died at the age of 93

January 10 ~ On This Day in Music

Posted by MaryO on

today

. 1904 ~ Ray Bolger (Raymond Wallace Bulcao), Dancer, actor in The Wizard of Oz

. 1910 ~ Galina Ulanova, Russian-born ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet from 1944 to 1962

. 1917 ~ Jerry Wexler, Record producer, Atlantic Records

. 1925 ~ Max Roach, Jazz musician/drummer, composer: Freedom Now Suite; educator: taught at Lennox, MA School of Jazz and Yale; Professor of Music at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst  Note: This is my Alma Mater, Tom’s and Michael’s as well.

. 1927 ~ Gisele MacKenzie (LaFleche), Singer

. 1927 ~ Johnnie Ray, Singer

. 1932 ~ “Mickey Mouse” and “Silly Symphony” comics were syndicated

. 1935 ~ Sherrill Milnes, American baritone

. 1939 ~ Sal Mineo (Salvatore Mineo, Jr.), Singer, actor in The Gene Krupa Story

. 1943 ~ Jim Croce, Singer, songwriter

. 1944 ~ Frank Sinatra, Jr., Singer, bandleader

. 1945 ~ Ronny Light, Songwriter, Nashville studio musician

. 1945 ~ Rod Stewart, British rock singer

. 1945 ~ Erskine Hawkins waxed a classic for Victor Records. The tune, with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, was titled Tippin’ In.

. 1946 ~ Bob Lang, Bass with Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders

. 1947 ~ “Finian’s Rainbow” opened on the Great White Way in New York City. The musical played for 725 performances. Years later, Petula Clark would star and sing in the movie version.

. 1948 ~ Donald Fagen, Keyboard with Steely Dan

. 1948 ~ Cyril Neville, Percussion, singer with The Neville Brothers

. 1949 ~ The Radio Corporation of America, sometimes known as RCA, announced a new 7-inch, 45 rpm phonograph record. Soon, the 45, the record with the big hole in the middle, would change the pop music business. RCA even manufactured a record player that played only 45s – with a fat spindle that made “stacking wax” real simple and automatic.

. 1953 ~ Theo Mackeben, German pianist/composer (Golden Cage), died at the age of 56

. 1953 ~ Pat Benatar, Grammy award-winning singer

. 1956 ~ Elvis Presley recorded his first tunes as an RCA Victor artist. Recording in Nashville, Elvis sang Heartbreak Hotel, I Was the One, I’m Counting On You, I Got a Woman and Money Honey. Heartbreak Hotel was #1 by April 11, 1956 and stayed there for eight weeks. It was #1 on the pop and rhythm and blues charts and number five on the country music list.

. 1960 ~ Marty Robbins’ hit tune, El Paso, held the record for the longest #1 song to that time. The song ran 5 minutes and 19 seconds, giving many radio station Program Directors fits; because the average record length at that time was around 2 minutes, and formats didn’t allow for records much longer than that, (e.g., 2-minute record, 3 minutes for commercials, 60 seconds for promo, 2-minute record, etc.). DJs got used to the longer length quickly, however, realizing it gave them time, before the record ended, to actually think of something to say next.

. 1964 ~ “Introducing the Beatles,” the first Beatles Album was released in the US by Vee-Jay Records.

. 1969 ~ Elvis Presley’s single, Don’t Cry Daddy, entered the Top 10 on the pop charts this day. If you listened to this song carefully, you’d hear a vocal duet with country artist Ronnie Milsap.

. 1976 ~ Howlin’ Wolf passed away.  Chester Arthur Burnett, known as Howlin’ Wolf, was an African-American Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, from Mississippi. With a booming voice and looming physical presence, he is one of the best-known Chicago blues artists.

. 1984 ~ Cyndi Lauper became the first female recording artist since Bobbie Gentry in 1967 to be nominated for five Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Performance (Female), Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

. 1986 ~ The uncut version of Jerome Kern’s musical, “Showboat”, opened at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. It marked the first time in almost 60 years that the four-hour version of the classic production had played before a mostly awake audience.

. 1991 ~ It was announced that jazz would become a regular part of New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts repertoire.

. 2000 ~ Gospel singer Willie Neal “The Country Boy” Johnson died of a stroke at the age of 65. Johnson was a longtime member of the Gospel Keynotes, which produced more than 20 albums, including Ain’t No Stopping Us Now, and signature song That’s My Son. Ain’t No Stopping Us Now received a Grammy nomination in 1981. The group signed with Malaco Records in 1985 and changed its name to Willie Neal Johnson and the New Keynotes. The group received a Stellar Award for Lord Take Us Through, The Country Boy Goes Home and a Stellar nomination for The Country Boy Goes Home II. Johnson’s group was inducted into The American Gospel Quartet Hall of Fame in Birmingham, Ala., and The Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Detroit in 1999.

. 2002 ~ Moe Foner, a labor official who brought art, theater and music to the largest health care workers union in New York City, died at the age of 86. As an executive secretary for New York’s Health and Human Service Union, Foner worked as a lobbyist, strategist and slogan writer for the city’s hospital workers for several decades. Foner was also the founder of Bread and Roses, a cultural program which organized art exhibitions and performances for union members, often during workers’ lunch hours. Under his direction, Bread and Roses recruited performers from folksingers Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie to the ventriloquist Shari Lewis. He hired rising stars like Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier to put on annual shows about civil rights for hospital workers. Foner also installed the only art gallery at a union headquarters. Born in Brooklyn, Foner graduated from Brooklyn College in 1936 and was employed by several other unions, including the now-defunct Department Store Local 1250, before going to work for the health care workers union.

.  2016 ~ David Bowie died after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer.  Bowie was an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter, and actor.

. 2017 ~ Buddy Greco, American jazz singer (Away We Go, Broadway Open House), died at the age of 90

January 9 ~ On This Day in Music

Posted by MaryO on

today

.  1839 ~ John Knowles Paine, first American-born composer to achieve fame for large-scale orchestral music.

. 1880 First performance of Nikolai Andreyevich Rimski-Korsakov’s opera May Night in St. Petersburg

. 1898 ~ Gracie Fields (Grace Stansfield), Comedienne, singer

. 1899 ~ Russian pianist and composer Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin was born in St. Petersburg.

. 1902 ~ Sir Rudolf Bing, Austrian-born British operatic impresario, manager of the Metropolitan Opera House from 1950 to 1972

. 1941 ~ Joan Baez, American folk singer, guitarist and songwriter

. 1941 ~ Sammy Kaye and his orchestra recorded Until Tomorrow on Victor Records. This song became the sign-off melody for Kaye and other big bands.

. 1944 ~ Scott (Noel) Engel, Singer with The Walker Brothers

. 1944 ~ Jimmy Page, Guitarist with Led Zeppelin

. 1948 ~ Walter Piston’s 3rd Symphony in E, premiered in Boston

. 1948 ~ Bill Cowsill, Singer with The Cowsills

. 1950 ~ David Johansen (Buster Poindexter), Singer with New York Dolls, actor

. 1951 ~ Crystal Gayle (Brenda Gail Webb), Singer, Loretta Lynn’s sister

. 2001 ~ Apple announced iTunes at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, for organizing and playing digital music and videos

. 2003 – A grand piano once owned by Elvis Presley was sold for $685,000.

The Studio is Getting a New Organ

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January 29, this new beauty will replace the two older organs that I have now.

This Allen MDS-16 model is a two channel, internal speaker instrument. A perfect organ for a home or small church or chapel setting.

Great

8′ Diapason

8′ Rohrflote

8′ Flute Celeste II(Sw)

4′ Octave

4′ Spitzflote

2′ Super Octave

2′ Waldflote

Mixture IV

8′ Krummhorn

Chimes

Swell to Great

Swell

16′ Lieblich Gedackt

8′ Gedackt

8′ Viola

8′ Viola Celeste

4′ Spitz Prinzipal

4′ Koppel Flote

2 2/3′ Nasat

2′ Blockflote

1 3/5′ Terz

16′ Basson

8′ Trompette

4′ Clarion

Pedal

16′ Diapason

16′ Bourdon

16′ Lieblich Gedeckt (Sw)

8′ Octave

8′ Gedackt Flote

4′ Choral Bass

Mixture IV

16′ Posaune (SW)

8′ Trompete

Swell to Pedal

Great to Pedal

MIDI to Pedal

The larger organ that it’s replacing is a Yamaha that my aunt owned.  I bought that from her estate and had it shipped to me from Maine.

The smaller organ is a Hammond, owned by my mom, that came with her when she moved in with us.

Music lessons spur emotional and behavioral growth in children, new study says – The Washington Post

Posted by MaryO on

From the Washington Post, but we knew this already, right?

Music training not only helps children develop fine motor skills, but aids emotional and behavioral maturation as well, according to a new study, one of the largest to investigate the effects of playing an instrument on brain development.

Using a database produced by the National Institutes of Health Magnetic Resonance (MRI) Study of Normal Brain Development, researchers at the University of Vermont College of Medicine analyzed the brain scans of 232 healthy children ages six to 18 specifically looking at brain development in children who play a musical instrument. (The original study did not indicate specific instruments.)

“What we found was the more a child trained on an instrument,” said James Hudziak, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont and director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth and Families, “it accelerated cortical organization in attention skill, anxiety management and emotional control.”

Read the entire article at Music lessons spur emotional and behavioral growth in children, new study says – The Washington Post.

January 8 ~ On This Day in Music

Posted by MaryO on

today

. 1713 ~ Death of Italian composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli in Rome age 59

. 1830 ~ Hans von Bulow, German pianist and conductor
More information about von Bulow

. 1906 ~ Arthur Rubinstein made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The concert received only a few favorable reviews.

. 1912 ~ Jose Ferrer (Cintron), Academy Award-winning actor, Rosemary Clooney’s husband

. 1922 ~ Abbey Simon, American pianist

. 1924 ~ Ron Moody, Actor, singer in Oliver Twist

. 1925 ~ Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky, appeared in his first American concert, as he conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in a program of his own compositions.

. 1935 ~ Elvis Presley, American rock-and-roll singer and guitarist. He had 90 top-20 hits.

. 1937 ~ Shirley Bassey, Singer

. 1940 ~ Anthony Gourdine, Singer with Little Anthony and The Imperials

. 1940 ~ Vincent Lopez and his orchestra recorded the third version of Lopez’ theme song titled Nola. This version, recorded in Hollywood on Bluebird Records, is recognized as his best rendition of the classic song.

. 1946 ~ Robbie Krieger, Guitarist with The Doors

. 1947 ~ David Bowie, British rock singer and actor

. 1947 ~ Terry Sylvester, Musician with the groups Swinging Blue Jeans and the Hollies

. 1952 ~ Vladimir Feltsman, Pianist

. 1961 ~ Robert Goulet made his national TV debut this night on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on CBS.

. 1965 ~ The TV dance show, “Hullabaloo”, debuted on NBC~TV. The show, a weekly trip into the world of rock and roll, featured plenty of mini-skirted go~go girls; which didn’t hurt ratings any. ABC countered with “Shindig”, a similar show, similar concept, similar everything.

. 1966 ~ The Beatles LP, “Rubber Soul”, began a 6-week reign at the top of the album chart. This was the seventh Beatles LP to reach the #1 position since February, 1964. “Rubber Soul” stayed on the charts for 56 weeks. The other #1 albums for the Fab Four to that date were: “Meet The Beatles“, “The Beatles Second Album”, “A Hard Day’s Night”,“Beatles ’65”, “Beatles VI” and “Help!”.

. 1973 ~ Carly Simon received a gold record for the single, You’re So Vain.

. 1997 ~ George Handy died. Handy was a jazz music arranger, composer and pianist whose musical beginnings were fostered under the tutelage of pianist Aaron Copland.

. 1998 ~ Sir Michael Tippett, British Composer and librettist, died
More information about Tippett

. 2000 ~ Pianist Jeffrey Biegel appeared on Good Morning America. He discussed his performance of the New York Premiere with Maestro Vakhtang Jordania and the American Symphony Orchestra and performed selections from the manuscript edition of Rhapsody in Blue, with more than 50 bars restored that hadn’t been heard in New York since the famous 1924 premiere concert at Aeolian Hall.

The concert that evening was at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. The Rhapsody was the feature piece in an evening of premieres by American composers and Russian orchestral masterpieces. Works on the program included Variations on The Wayfaring Stranger (New York Premiere) by James Cohn; Peanuts Gallery for Piano and Orchestra by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich; the Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin; Islamey by Balakirev (World Premiere-transcription for piano and orchestra by Jeffrey Biegel), and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.