Daily Archives: June 3, 2020

June 3: On This Day in Music

Posted by MaryO on

Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment

 

 

• 1657 ~ Manuel de Egues, Composer

• 1660 ~ Johannes Schenck, Composer

• 1661 ~ Gottfried Scheidt, Composer, died at the age of 67

• 1736 ~ Johann Christoph Oley, Composer

• 1746 ~ James Hook, Composer

• 1750 ~ Frederic Thieme, Composer

• 1773 ~ Michael Gottard Fischer, Composer

• 1801 ~ Frantisek Jan Skroup, Composer

• 1804 ~ Jean-Engelbert Pauwels, Composer, died at the age of 35

• 1809 ~ John “Christmas” Beckwith, Composer, died at the age of 58

• 1828 ~ Jean Alexander Ferdinand Poise, Composer

• 1828 ~ Jose Inzenga y Castellanos, Composer

• 1829 ~ Alfonse Charles Renaud de Vilback, Composer

• 1832 ~ Alexander Charles Lecocq, Composer

• 1841 ~ Eduardo Caudella, Composer

• 1844 ~ Emile Paladilhe, Composer

• 1849 ~ Francois de Paule Jacques Raymond de Fossa, Composer, died at the age of 73

• 1858 ~ Julius Reubke, Composer, died at the age of 24

• 1867 ~ Bela Anton Szabados, Composer

• 1868 ~ Lvar Henning Mankell, Composer

• 1872 ~ Heinrich Esser, Composer, died at the age of 53

• 1875 ~ French composer Georges Bizet died at the age of 36, the same year his “Carmen” was first produced. It caused a scandal at first but went on to become one of opera’s most popular works.
More information on Bizet

• 1887 ~ Roland Hayes, American tenor

• 1887 ~ Emil Axman, Composer

• 1888 ~ Cark Reidel, Composer, died at the age of 60

• 1890 ~ Henryk Oskar Kolberg, Composer, died at the age of 76

• 1893 ~ Assen Karastoyanov, Composer

• 1898 ~ Nikolai Afanisev, Composer, died at the age of 77

• 1899 ~ Johann Strauss Jr., Viennese conductor and composer of waltzes including “The Blue Danube”, died at the age of 73.
More information on Strauss

• 1904 ~ Jan Peerce (Jacob Pincus Perlemuth), Opera singer, tenor

• 1906 ~ Josephine Baker, American-born French jazz singer and dancer

• 1907 ~ Antonio Emmanvilovich Spadavecchia, Composer

• 1911 ~ Come Josephine in My Flying Machine hit #1

• 1913 ~ Josef Richard Rozkosny, Composer, died at the age of 79

• 1922 ~ Ivan Patachich, Composer

• 1926 ~ Carlos Veerhoff, Composer

• 1926 ~ Janez Maticic, Composer

• 1927 ~ Boots Randolph, American saxophonist (Yakety Sax)

• 1931 ~ The Band Wagon, a Broadway musical, opened in New York City. The show ran for 260 performances.

• 1932 ~ Dakota Staton (Aliyah Rabia), Jazz singer

• 1939 ~ Beer Barrel Polka hit #1 on the pop singles chart by Will Glahe

• 1942 ~ Curtis Mayfield, American rhythm-and-blues singer, songwriter, producer and guitarist Grammy Award-winner, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, March 15, 1999

• 1944 ~ Mike Clarke, Musician, drummer with The Byrds

• 1946 ~ Ian Hunter, Singer, songwriter with Mott the Hoople

• 1949 ~ Stephen Ruppenthal, Composer

• 1950 ~ Suzie Quatro (Quatrocchio), Singer

• 1951 ~ Deniece Williams, Singer

• 1952 ~ Frank Sinatra recorded the classic Birth of the Blues for Columbia Records

• 1959 ~ Ole Windingstad, Composer, died at the age of 73

• 1961 ~ Charles Hart, Lyricist: Phantom of the Opera

• 1961 ~ “Wildcat” closed at Alvin Theater NYC after 172 performances

• 1964 ~ The Hollywood Palace on ABC-TV hosted the first appearance of the first U.S. concert tour of The Rolling Stones. Dean Martin emceed the show. One critic called the Stones “dirtier and streakier and more disheveled than The Beatles.”

• 1971 ~ Yehudi Menuhin performed on a 250-year-old Stradivarius violin at Sotheby’s auction house. It sold for $200,000.

• 1978 ~ Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams combined their singing talents to reach the number one spot on the nation’s pop music charts with Too Much, Too Little, Too Late.

• 1986 ~ Arthur Charles Ernest Hoeree, Composer, died at the age of 89

• 1994 ~ Hub Matthijsen, Violinist/bandmaster, died at the age of 52

Daily Listening Assignments ~ June 3, 2020

Posted by MaryO on

 

Today we’re going to listen and learn about the opera Carmen.

I chose this for today since it’s the anniversary of French composer Georges Bizet‘s death.

Georges Bizet was born in Paris, France. Both his parents were musicians, and they actually wanted their son to become a composer when he grew up! Bizet loved music, but he also loved to read books. His parents wound up hiding his books so that he would spend more time on his music.

When Georges was 10 years old, his father enrolled him in the Paris Conservatory. While he was there, he wrote his only symphony, but it wasn’t performed until many years after he died. Bizet graduated from the Conservatory with awards in both composition and piano.

Bizet also composed operas. His most famous opera is Carmen. When Carmen first opened in Paris, the reviews were terrible. Many critics said there were no good tunes in it, so audiences stayed away.

In the middle of the night during the first round of Carmen performances, Bizet died. He was only 36. Four months later, Carmen opened in Vienna, Austria, and was a smash hit. It is now one of the most popular operas ever written. Bizet never knew that audiences would come to consider it his masterpiece.

 

Vladimir Horowitz made Carmen his own by turning it into a fantasy (or the more musical spelling – fantasie).

The fantasia (Italian; also English: fantasy, fancy, fantazy, phantasy, German: Fantasie, Phantasie, French: fantaisie) is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. Because of this, like the impromptu, it seldom approximates the textbook rules of any strict musical form.

When you play wrong notes for an audience, just tell the audience it’s a “Fantasie”, not the original work!

As you can see, Carmen is a popular work. Here it is for two pianos, played by Anderson and Roe.

The Canadian Brass tell the story of Carmen in their own humorous words.

If you want to learn this, just let me know!