Joseph Haydn’s music contains many jokes, and the Surprise Symphony includes probably the most famous of all: a sudden very loud (fortissimo chord) at the end of the otherwise soft (piano) opening theme in the variation-form second movement. The music then returns to its original quiet dynamic, as if nothing had happened, and the ensuing variations do not repeat the joke. (In German it is commonly referred to as the Symphony “mit dem Paukenschlag”—”with the kettledrum stroke”).
In Haydn’s old age, his biographer George August Griesinger asked him whether he wrote this “surprise” to awaken the audience. Haydn replied:
No, but I was interested in surprising the public with something new, and in making a brilliant debut, so that my student Pleyel, who was at that time engaged by an orchestra in London (in 1792) and whose concerts had opened a week before mine, should not outdo me. The first Allegro of my symphony had already met with countless Bravos, but the enthusiasm reached its highest peak at the Andante with the Drum Stroke. Encore! Encore! sounded in every throat, and Pleyel himself complimented me on my idea.
The first time I saw this video during a piano lesson, both my students and I were surprised, too!
The melody is pretty basic and sometimes used to teach skips. I remember having it in one of my first books with words similar to See the Happy Little Frog, Hopping now from Log to Log.
Here’s a piano version.
Can you find the “surprise” indicated by the sforzando? Hint. It looks like this: Sforzando is one of those Italian words you get to learn in music and means a strong, sudden accent on a note or chord. Sforzando literally means subito forzando (fz), which translates to “suddenly with force.”
There’s some information about Haydn and this symphony in this video.
and this one
Beethoven’s Wig added some words
For 2 pianos, 8 hands. They’ve added their own surprise around minute 3.
• 1926 ~ Dick Williams, Choral director of the Andy Williams Show
• 1926 ~ Henry Charles Tonking, Composer, died at the age of 63
• 1928 ~ Charles Strouse, American of popular music
• 1931 ~ Henry Weinberg, Composer
• 1932 ~ Emil Pauer, Composer, died at the age of 76
• 1934 ~ Phillip Entremont, Pianist
• 1934 ~ Samuel Lipman, Music critic
• 1934 ~ Wynn Stewart, Singer
• 1939 ~ Larry Clinton and his orchestra recorded In a Persian Market (by Ketelbey) on Victor Records.
• 1940 ~ Tom Jones, Grammy Award-winning singer
• 1941 ~ Jaime Laredo, Bolivian-born American violinist Clarence White (1944) Guitarist with the Byrds
• 1945 ~ Ruben Marcos Campos, Composer, died at the age of 69
• 1945 ~ The opera “Peter Grimes” by Benjamin Britten, premiered in London, at Sadler’s Wells Theater.
• 1948 ~ Georges Adolphe Hue, Composer, died at the age of 90
• 1949 ~ Due to an impending lawsuit that stemmed from Milton Berle’s TV show, comedienne Cathy Mastice held the first musical press conference. She sang her way into announcing the court action. Due to the publicity she received, Ms. Mastice became an overnight success.
• 1953 ~ Kukla, Fran (Allison) and Ollie, along with the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler, were featured on the first network telecast in ‘compatible color’. The program was broadcast from Boston, MA.
• 1958 ~ Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson), Singer
• 1963 ~ First Rolling Stones TV appearance (Thank Your Lucky Stars)
• 1965 ~ Pierre Cardevielle, French Composer/conductor, died at the age of 59
• 1993 ~ Prince celebrated his birthday by changing his name to a symbol and calling himself The Artist Previously Known as Prince. He went back to “Prince” in 2000
Today, we’ll be listening to the end of the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini. This piece, originally the overture to an opera, has been arranged for piano and is in several method books, including Piano Pronto Movements 1 and 2. It’s also in Bastien Book 4 and Piano Maestro.
The original story
Maybe your grandparents watched the original Lone Ranger
Or you saw the newer Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp
Here’s the entire William Tell Overture played by an orchestra
Piano Solo
Franz Liszt made a really hard version for piano solo. See if you can follow along!
Piano Duet (1 piano, 4 hands)
Piano Duet arranged by Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Piano Duo (2 pianos, 8 hands)
Piano Quartet (4 pianos, 16 hands)
For pipe organ
For synthesizer
And then things get nuts with cartoons. Lots of cartoons used this music. Here are Mickey Mouse and friends
And Spike Jones
Handbells…
Poor Rossini – I think he’d have a fit if he knew how is music was being used.
• 1955 ~ Bill Haley and Comets, Rock Around the Clock hit #1
• 1958 ~ Lily Theresa Strickland, Composer, died at the age of 71
• 1962 ~ The Beatles met their producer George Martin for first time. After listening to a playback of the audition tapes, Martin said, “They’re pretty awful.” He changed his mind after meeting the group, however.
• 1966 ~ Claudette Orbison, wife of singer Roy, died in a motorcyle crash
• 1971 ~ Arnold Elston, Composer, died at the age of 63
• 1971 ~ John Lennon and Yoko Ono unannounced appearance at Fillmore East in NYC
• 1971 ~ For the last time, we saw Polish dancing bears, a little mouse named Topo Gigio, remembered The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five, the comedy of Jackie Mason, John Byner, Rich Little, Richard Pryor and so many more, as The Ed Sullivan Show left CBS-TV. Gladys Knight and The Pips and singer Jerry Vale appeared on the final show. The Ed Sullivan Show had been a showcase for more than 20 years for artists who ranged from Ethel Merman to Ella Fitzgerald, from Steve (Lawrence) andEydie (Gorme) to The Beatles. The Ed Sullivan Show was the longest running variety show on TV ~ a “rillly big sheeeew.”
• 1991 ~ Stan Getz, Jazz saxophonist (Girl from Impanima), died at the age of 64
• 1994 ~ Willie Humphrey, Jazz clarinetist, died at the age of 93
• 1995 ~ Imam Elissa, Singer, died at the age of 76
What can I say about John Cage’s 4′33″? Pretty much anyone can play this anytime.
It consists of the pianist going to the piano, and not hitting any keys for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. (He uses a stopwatch to time this.) In other words, the entire piece consists of silence or rests.
On the one hand, as a musical piece, 4’33” leaves almost no room for the pianist’s interpretation: as long as he watches the stopwatch, he can’t play it too fast or too slow; he can’t hit the wrong keys; he can’t play it too loud, or too melodramatically, or too subduedly.
On the other hand, what you hear when you listen to 4’33” is more a matter of chance than with any other piece of music — nothing of what you hear is anything the composer wrote.
With orchestra and soloist
Next time you come to a lesson and haven’t practiced, just tell me you’re playing Cage’s 4’33”!
• 1927 ~ Paul Lacombe, Composer, died at the age of 89
• 1932 ~ Pete Jolly (Cragioli), Pianist
• 1937 ~ Stanley Lunetta, Composer
• 1941 ~ Martha Argerich, Brazilian pianist
• 1941 ~ Floyd Butler, Singer with Fifth Dimension and Friends of Distinction
• 1941 ~ Roy Eldridge was featured on trumpet and vocal as drummer Gene Krupa and his band recorded After You’ve Gone for Okeh Records.
• 1942 ~ Sammy Kaye and his orchestra recorded the classic I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen for Victor Records.
• 1942 ~ Charles Dodge, Composer
• 1943 ~ Bill Hopkins, Composer
• 1944 ~ Riccardo Zandonai, Composer, died at the age of 61
• 1945 ~ Don Reid, Singer, Grammy Award-winning group: The Statler Brothers and CMA Vocal Group of the Year from 1972 to 1980
• 1946 ~ Fred Stone, Singer with Sly and the Family Stone
• 1947 ~ Laurie Anderson, American composer and performance artist
• 1956 ~ Kenny G (Gorelick), Saxophonist
• 1956 ~ Elvis Presley made his second appearance on Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theatre. Presley sang Heartbreak Hotel, his number one hit. The TV critics were not kind to Elvis’ appearance on the show. They panned him, saying his performance looked “like the mating dance of an aborigine.”
• 1959 ~ Bob Zimmerman graduated from high school in Hibbing, MN. Zimmerman was known as a greaser to classmates in the remote rural community, because of his long sideburns and leather jacket. Soon, Zimmerman would be performing at coffee houses at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and later, in Greenwich Village in New York City. He would also change his name to Bob Dylan (after poet Dylan Thomas, so the story goes).
• 1964 ~ David Jones and The King Bees had their first record, Liza Jane, released by Vocalion Records of Great Britain. Less than a decade later, we came to know Jones better as David Bowie.
• 1965 ~ “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham and Pharaohs hit #2
• 1971 ~ Marky Mark (Mark Wahlberg), Guitarist, singer with Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch
• 1972 ~ Maureen McGovern quit her job as a full-time secretary for a new career as a full-time singer. Maureen was part of a trio before recording as a solo artist in July, 1973. Her first song, The Morning After, from the movie, The Poseidon Adventure, was a million-seller. She also sang the theme, Different Worlds, from ABC-TV’s Angie, and Can You Read My Mind from the movie, Superman. Ms. McGovern starred in Pirates of Penzance for 14 months on Broadway.
• 1993 ~ Conway Twitty, Country star (Linda on My Mind), died at the age of 59 during surgery
• 1994 ~ Ish Kabbible (Merwyn A Bogue), Cornetist with Kay Kyser, died at the age of 86
Happy Birthday is a song that I like to have each of my students learn at various levels appropriate to their level. When a friend or family member has a birthday, it’s great to be able to sit down and play.
It’s only been fairly recently that piano students could have this music in their books.
“Happy Birthday to You”, more commonly known as simply “Happy Birthday”, is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person’s birth. According to the 1998 Guinness World Records, “Happy Birthday to You” is the most recognized song in the English language, followed by “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”.
The melody, or part you sing, of “Happy Birthday to You” comes from the song “Good Morning to All”, which has traditionally been attributed to American sisters Patty and Mildred J. Hill in 1893, although the claim that the sisters composed the tune is disputed.
Patty Hill was a kindergarten principal and her sister Mildred was a pianist and composer. The sisters used “Good Morning to All” as a song that young children would find easy to sing. The combination of melody and lyrics in “Happy Birthday to You” first appeared in print in 1912, and probably existed even earlier.
“Happy Birthday” in the style of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, Dvorak, and Stravinsky. Find the melody!
Lots of legal stuff below which you can skip…
None of the early appearances of the “Happy Birthday to You” lyrics included credits or copyright notices. The Summy Company registered a copyright in 1935, crediting authors Preston Ware Orem and Mrs. R. R. Forman. In 1988, Warner/Chappell Music purchased the company owning the copyright for US$25 million, with the value of “Happy Birthday” estimated at US$5 million. Based on the 1935 copyright registration, Warner claimed that the United States copyright will not expire until 2030, and that unauthorized public performances of the song are illegal unless royalties are paid to Warner. In one specific instance in February 2010, these royalties were said to amount to US$700. By one estimate, the song is the highest-earning single song in history, with estimated earnings since its creation of US$50 million.In the European Union, the copyright for the song expired on January 1, 2017.
The American copyright status of “Happy Birthday to You” began to draw more attention with the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act in 1998. When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Act in Eldred v. Ashcroft in 2003, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer specifically mentioned “Happy Birthday to You” in his dissenting opinion. American law professor Robert Brauneis, who extensively researched the song, concluded in 2010 that “It is almost certainly no longer under copyright.”
In 2013, based in large part on Brauneis’s research, Good Morning to You Productions, a company producing a documentary about “Good Morning to All”, sued Warner/Chappell for falsely claiming copyright to the song. In September 2015, a federal judge declared that the Warner/Chappell copyright claim was invalid, ruling that the copyright registration applied only to a specific piano arrangement of the song, and not to its lyrics and melody.
In 2016, Warner/Chappell settled for US $14 million, and the court declared that “Happy Birthday to You” was in the public domain.
Legal stuff is finished and people can now sing and play “Happy Birthday to You” whenever and wherever they want.
One of my all-time versions of Happy Birthday, in duet form – and I have the music if you want to tackle it.
• 1934 ~ The Dorsey Brothers, Tommy and Jimmy, recorded Annie’s Aunt Fanny on the Brunswick label. The track featured trombonist Glenn Miller, who also vocalized on the tune.
• 1937 ~ Freddie Fender, Guitarist
• 1940 ~ Dorothy Rudd Moore, Composer
• 1942 ~ Glenn Wallichs did what was called ‘promotion’ for Capitol Records in Hollywood. He came up with the idea that he could send copies of Capitol’s new records to influential radio announcers all around the U.S. and, maybe, add to the chances that stations would play the records. The practice would soon become common among most record labels.
• 1944 ~ Roger Ball, Musician, saxophonist and keyboards with Average White Band
• 1945 ~ Anthony Braxton, Jazz musician Read more about Braxton
• 1945 ~ Michelle Phillips (Holly Michelle Gilliam), Singer with The Mamas and the Papas
• 1945 ~ Gordon Waller, Singer with Peter and Gordon
• 1951 ~ Conductor Serge Koussevitsky died. Born in Russia, he conducted the State Symphony Orchestra in Petrograd before moving to the U.S. to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
• 1989 ~ Vaclav Kaslik, Czech opera Composer/conductor, died at the age of 71
• 1994 ~ Derek Lek Leckenby, rock guitarist (Herman’s Hermits), died at the age of 48
• 1994 ~ Earle Warren, Alto sax player, died at the age of 79
• 1995 ~ 49th Tony Awards: Love! Valour! Compassion! and Sunset Boulevard won
• 1997 ~ Ronnie Lane, bassist (Faces), died at the age of 50 of multiple sclerosis
• 2001 ~ John Hartford, a versatile and wry performer who wrote the standardGentle on My Mind and turned his back on Hollywood to return to bluegrass music, died Monday at at the age of 63. He was a singer-songwriter, comedian, tap-clog dancer, television performer and riverboat enthusiast. Gentle on My Mind has been broadcast on radio or television more than 6 million times, according to Broadcast Music Incorporated, which collects song royalties. It has been recorded more than 300 times, most prominently by Glen Campbell in 1967. Hartford’s career rambled from Hollywood to Nashville, with stops writing and performing on network television, thousands of shows at bluegrass clubs and festivals, and stints as a licensed steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. At the height of his fame in the early 1970s, Hartford reconsidered his decision to take an offer to star in a detective series on CBS. Instead, he returned to Nashville and resumed his career as an innovative, relatively low-profile bluegrass singer-songwriter. “I knew that if I did it, I would never live it down,” Hartford said of the television series in a 2000 interview. “Because then when I went back to music, people would start saying, `Oh, he didn’t make it in acting so he’s gone country.”‘ Born in New York City and raised in St. Louis, Hartford was enthralled as a youngster by riverboats and bluegrass music, in particular that of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. He moved to Nashville in 1965, and his first album “John Hartford Looks at Life” was released the following year. Hartford’s version of Gentle on My Mind from second album “Earthwords & Music” was a minor hit in 1967. The song is about a hobo whose mind is eased by the thought of a former lover. Hartford moved to California in 1968, landing a job writing and performing on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” His went on to the cast of “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.” Returning to Nashville in 1971, Hartford released the landmark acoustic album “Aereo-Plain” and continued to record until his death. He was one of the performers on the hit soundtrack to the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
I’m sure many have you have learned Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by now. Did you know its’ the same melody as the ABC Song? You know…
Don’t believe it? Sing them both in your head or out loud.
The French melody first appeared in 1761, and has been used for many children’s songs, such as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” and the “Alphabet Song”.
This is one of the first pieces a student learns in piano methods, since it has them reach just a bit outside their accustomed hand position on the word “little”.
I try to remember to let students know that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed a set of twelve variations on the theme “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman” for the piano and it started as the same basic Twinkle tune.
The sheet music is available at the O’Connor Music Studio if you want to borrow it or download it here about 1/3 of the way down the page under “Scores”.
I always enjoy these graphical scores. Watch the colors as the melody gets more and more complex:
• 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
• 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 Sothby’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
Can you find the “surprise” indicated by the sforzando? Hint. It looks like this: Sforzando is one of those Italian words you get to learn in music and means a strong, sudden accent on a note or chord. Sforzando literally means subito forzando (fz), which translates to “suddenly with force.”
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