In Scotland, and many countries with Scottish connections, St Andrew’s Day is marked with a celebration of Scottish culture with traditional Scottish food, music and dance. Schools across Scotland hold special St Andrew’s Day events and activities including art shows, Scottish country dancing, lunchtime Ceilidhs, dance festivals, storytelling, reciting and writing poems, writing tall tales, cooking traditional Scottish meals, and bagpipe-playing.
The day is also seen as the start of a season of Scottish winter festivals encompassing St Andrew’s Day, Hogmanay and Burns Night.
In Edinburgh, there is a week of celebrations, concentrating on musical entertainment and traditional ceilidh dancing. A ceilidh is a social event with couples dancing in circles or sets (groups of eight people).
In Glasgow city centre, a large shindig, or party, with traditional music and a ceilidh are held. In Dumfries, songs are performed in the Burn’s night tradition.
In Barbados Saint Andrew’s Day is celebrated as the national day of Independence in Barbados. As the patron saint of Barbados, Saint Andrew is celebrated in a number of Barbadian symbols including the cross formation of the Barbadian Coat of Arms, and the country’s national honours system which styles persons as Knights or Dames of St. Andrew.
. 1789 ~ Thanksgiving was celebrated nationally for the first time in the United States.
. 1915 ~ Earl Wild, American composer and pianist (Caesar’s Hour, NBC Symphony 1942)
. 1925 ~ Eugene Istomin, American pianist
. 1932 ~ Alan Stout, American composer
. 1933 ~ Robert Goulet (Stanley Applebaum), Singer, actor
. 1935 ~ Marian Mercer, Singer, actress
. 1938 ~ Ray Brown, Singer with The Four Freshmen
. 1938 ~ Tina Turner (Annie Bullock), American soul-rock singer, Grammy Award-winning Pop Singer of the Year, 1985; Ike Turner’s ex-wife
. 1940 ~ Xavier Cugat and his orchestra recorded Orchids in the Moonlight on the Columbia label.
. 1944 ~ Alan Henderson, Bass with Them
. 1946 ~ John McVie, Guitarist with Fleetwood Mac
. 1956 ~ Tommy Dorsey passed away at the age of 51. His records sold more than 110,000,000 copies.
. 1959 ~ Albert Ketèlbey, British composer (In a Monastery Garden), died at the age of 84
. 1963 ~ Amelita Galli-Curci passed away
. 1968 ~ Cream gave a farewell performance filmed by the BBC in London. The rock group played before a capacity crowd at Royal Albert Hall.
. 1969 ~ The Band received a gold record for the album, The Band.
. 1978 ~ Frank Rosolino passed away
. 1980 ~ “Wings Over America” premiered in New York City. The movie is about the first American tour of Paul McCartney and Wings.
. 2001 ~ Paul Hume, a music critic who once drew the ire of President Harry Truman after he panned his daughter’s recital, died of pneumonia at his home in Baltimore. Hume was 85. Hume worked for The Washington Post and built a reputation as one of the most learned critics in the nation. Classical music legends Vladimir Horowitz, Eugene Ormandy and Leonard Bernstein all held Hume in high esteem. Hume will always be remembered for his review of a recital by Truman’s daughter, Margaret, in 1950, in which he criticized her singing as flat. After reading the review, Truman wrote an angry, threatening letter to Hume. Truman’s remarks got him in hot water with the public, which felt he shouldn’t take time to joust with critics as the nation fought the Korean War. A Chicago native, Hume taught music history at Georgetown University from 1950 to 1977 and was a visiting professor at Yale University from 1975 to 1983. He wrote several books, including a study of Catholic church music and a biography of Giuseppe Verdi.
. 2003 ~ Meyer Kupferman, a prolific composer whose work ranged from contemporary classical music to opera, ballet and jazz, died. He was 77. Kupferman, a virtuoso clarinetist, taught composition and music theory at Sarah Lawrence College, where he was a staff member from 1951 to 1993. During his tenure there, he also served as chair of the music department and conducted the orchestra, chorus and chamber improvisation ensemble. In 1948 Kupferman wrote both his first piano concerto and opera. In all, he produced seven operas, 12 symphonies, nine ballets, seven string quartets, 10 concertos and hundreds of chamber works. His compositions have been performed and recorded worldwide. Kupferman also was commissioned by the Hudson Valley Philharmonic to write ‘FDR’ for the centennial of Franklin Roosevelt’s birth. The manuscript of the piece is now held by the Roosevelt Library. William Anderson, a family friend and a guitarist who performed Kupferman’s music, told the New York Times that Kupferman died of heart failure.
. 1787 ~ Franz Gruber, composer of Silent Night. The song was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village in present-day Austria. A young priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had come to Oberndorf the year before. He had written the lyrics of the song “Stille Nacht” in 1816.
The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster and organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf. Before Christmas Eve, Mohr brought the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the Christmas Eve mass. It is unknown what inspired Mohr to write the lyrics, or what prompted him to create a new carol.
. 1896 ~ Virgil Thomson, American composer, conductor and music critic
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. 1924 ~ Paul Desmond, was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for composing that group’s greatest hit, “Take Five”.
. 1925 ~ Derroll Adams, Country singer, played with Jack Elliott
. 1931 ~ Nat Adderley, Musician, cornet, mellophone, French horn, trumpet, brother of Cannonball Adderley
. 1941 ~ Percy Sledge, Singer
. 1949 ~ Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, by Johnnie Marks, appeared on the music charts and became THE musical hit of the Christmas season. Although Gene Autry’s rendition is the most popular, 80 different versions of the song have been recorded, with nearly 20,000,000 copies sold.
. 1955 ~ Following a summer at the top of the American pop charts, Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets became the #1 song in Great Britain.
. 1937 ~ Music from the Raymor Ballroom in Boston, Massachusetts was beamed coast to coast on NBC radio. The special guests during this broadcast were Glenn Miller and his orchestra.
. 1937 ~ Three lovely ladies, known as The Andrews Sisters, recorded Decca record number 1562 this day. It became one of their biggest hits: Bei Mir Bist Du Schön.
. 1950 ~ The musical comedy, Guys and Dolls, from the pen of Frank Loesser, opened at the 46th Street Theatre in New York City. The show ran for 1,200 performances.
. 1958 ~ Jackie Wilson’s Lonely Teardrops was released, as was a disk by Ritchie Valens featuring Donna on one side and La Bamba on the other.
. 1958 ~ Harold Jenkins, who changed his name to Conway Twitty, got his first #1 hit on this day. It’s Only Make Believe was the most popular song in the U.S. for one week.
. 1972 ~ A Friday night show that would compete head-to-head with NBC’s Midnight Special premiered. In Concert featured Chuck Berry, Alice Cooper, Blood Sweat and Tears, Seals and Crofts and Poco. Robert W. Morgan of KHJ, Los Angeles was the offstage announcer for the ABC-TV show that was staged before a live audience. In Concert was the creation of the guy who dreamed up the fictitious group The Archies and brought fame to The Monkees: rock promoter, Don Kirshner.
. 1973 ~ Following over two years of retirement, Frank Sinatra went back to work again with a TV special on NBC titled, “Ol’ Blue Eyes is Back”. Despite the fact that the show finished third in the ratings (in a three-show race), at least one critic called the program, “The best popular music special of the year.”
. 1976 ~ The Band, appearing at the Winterland in San Francisco, announced that this was to be the group’s last public performance.
. 1985 ~ Big Joe Turner passed away
. 1991 ~ Freddie Mercury, British singer-songwriter (Queen – We are Champions), died at the age of 45
. 1993 ~ Albert Collins, passed away
. 2003 ~ Teddy Wilburn, half of the country music duo the Wilburn Brothers, died. He was 71. Wilburn and his brother, Doyle, had 30 songs on the country charts from 1955 to 1972, including the hits Hurt Her Once for Me, Trouble’s Back in Town and Roll, Muddy River. Doyle Wilburn died of cancer in 1982. Teddy Wilburn was born in the Ozark Mountain community of Hardy, Ark. He and Doyle first performed publicly at ages 6 and 5, with the Wilburn Family band. After recording on Decca records as the Wilburn Brothers, Teddy and Doyle joined the Grand Ole Opry cast. Between 1963 and 1974, the Wilburn Brothers were hosts of one of country music’s first syndicated color TV shows. In 1972 they were nominated for the Country Music Association’s Vocal Group of the Year award.
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