Category Archives: Composers

June 4: Today’s Music History

Posted by MaryO on

today

 

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

 

 

• 1585 ~ Marc-Antoine de Muret, Composer, died at the age of 58

• 1770 ~ James Hewitt, Composer

• 1846 ~ Josef Sittard, Music writer

• 1872 ~ Stanislaw Moniuszko, Composer, died at the age of 53

• 1585 ~ Erno Rapee (1891) Hungarian conductor

• 1899 ~ Leo Spies, Composer

• 1905 ~ Carl Albert Loeschhorn, Composer, pianist and Royal Professor died at the age of 85

• 1907 ~ Marjan Kozina, Composer

• 1907 ~ Agathe Grondahl, Composer, died at the age of 59

• 1909 ~ Paul Nordoff, American composer of the Frog Prince

• 1913 ~ Bruno Bettinelli, Composer

• 1915 ~ William Charles Denis Browne, Composer, died at the age of t 26

• 1919 ~ Robert Merrill (Moishe Miller), Metropolitan Opera singing star, baritone

• 1922 ~ Irwin Bazelon, American composer

• 1916 ~ Mildred J Hill, Composer/musician (Happy Birthday To You), died at the age of 56

• 1927 ~ Gerry Mulligan, American jazz baritone saxophonist and arranger

• 1930 ~ Morgana King, Jazz singer

• 1930 ~ Pentti Raitio, Composer

• 1931 ~ Cesar Bolanos, Composer

• 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.
Read more about Serge Koussevitsky

• 1956 ~ Max Kowalski, Composer, died at the age of 73

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

• 1963 ~ First transmission of Pop Go The Beatles on BBC radio

• 1964 ~ The Beatles “World Tour” begins in Copenhagen Denmark

• 1972 ~ Godfried Devreese, Composer, died at the age of 79

• 1978 ~ 32nd Tony Awards: Da and Ain’t Misbehavin’ won

• 1988 ~ “Cabaret” closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 262 performances

• 1988 ~ 42nd Tony Awards: M Butterfly and Phantom of the Opera won

• 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 standard Gentle on My Mind and turned his back on Hollywood to return to bluegrass music, died Monday 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?”

Daily Listening Assignments ~ June 4, 2023

Posted by MaryO on

 

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”.

 

Twinkle

 

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:

Who knew?  There’s an accordion version.

Have a great day!

June 3: Today’s Music History

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

. 1932 ~ The Broadway musical “The Band Wagon” opened in New York City. The comedic musical film about an aging star that tries to revive his career in a Broadway production. The film ranked #17 in the American Film Institute’s list of best musicals in 2006.

• 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, 2023

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!

June 2: Today’s Music History

Posted by MaryO on

today

 

 

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

 

 

• 1577 ~ Giovanni Righi, Composer

• 1614 ~ Benjamin Rogers, Composer

• 1715 ~ Herman-François Delange, Composer

• 1750 ~ Johann Valentin Rathgeber, German Composer, died at the age of 68

• 1806 ~ Isaac Strauss, Composer

• 1807 ~ Robert Fuhrer, Composer

• 1830 ~ Olivier Metra, Composer

• 1831 ~ Jan G Palm Curaçao, Bandmaster/choirmaster/composer

• 1857 ~ Sir Edward Elgar, British composer Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance, usually heard at graduations, was featured in Disney’s Fantasia 2000.
Read quotes by and about Elgar
More information about Elgar

• 1858 ~ Harry Rowe Shelley, Composer

• 1863 ~ Paul Felix Weingartner, German conductor

• 1873 ~ François Hainl, Composer, died at the age of 65

• 1876 ~ Hakon Borresen, Composer

• 1891 ~ Ernst Kunz, Composer

• 1897 ~ Alexander Tansman, Composer

• 1900 ~ David Wynne, Composer

• 1909 ~ Robin Orr, Composer

• 1913 ~ Bert Farber, Orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey and Vic Damone

• 1915 ~ Robert Moffat Palmer, American composer

• 1927 ~ Carl Butler, Country entertainer, songwriter

• 1927 ~ Freidrich Hegar, Composer, died at the age of 85

• 1929 ~ Alcides Lanza, Composer

• 1929 ~ Frederic Devreese, Composer

• 1932 ~ Sammy Turner (Samuel Black), Singer

• 1934 ~ Johnny Carter, American singer

• 1937 ~ Louis Vierne, Composer, died at the age of 66

• 1939 ~ Charles Miller, Saxophonist and clarinetist

• 1941 ~ William Guest, Singer with Gladys Knight & The Pips

• 1941 ~ Charlie Watts, Drummer with Rolling Stones

• 1944 ~ Marvin Hamlisch, American pianist, composer and arranger of popular music
More information about Hamlisch

• 1947 ~ Hermann Darewsky, Composer, died at the age of 64

• 1949 ~ Dynam-Victor Fumet, Composer, died at the age of 82

• 1949 ~ Ernest Ford, Composer, died at the age of 91

• 1960 ~ For the first time in 41 years, the entire Broadway theatre district in New York City was forced to close. The Actors Equity Union and theatre owners came to a showdown with a total blackout of theatres.

• 1964 ~ The original cast album of “Hello Dolly!” went gold — having sold a million copies. It was quite a feat for a Broadway musical.

• 1964 ~ “Follies Bergere” opened on Broadway for 191 performances

• 1972 ~ Franz Philipp, Composer, died at the age of 81

• 1977 ~ Henri D Gagnebin, Swiss organist and composer, died at the age of 91

• 1982 ~ “Blues in the Night” opened at Rialto Theater NYC for 53 performances

• 1983 ~ Stan Rogers, musician, died in aircraft fire

• 1985 ~ The Huck Finn-based musical “Big River” earned seven Tony Awards in New York City at the 39th annual awards presentation.

• 1986 ~ Daniel Sternefeld, Belgian conductor and composer died at the age of 80

• 1987 ~ Andres Segovia, Spanish classical guitarist, died at the age of 94. He established the guitar as a serious classical instrument through his numerous concerts and by his transcriptions of many pieces of Bach and Handel.
More information on Segovia

• 1987 ~ Sammy Kaye, Orchestra leader (Sammy Kaye Show), died at the age of 77

• 1994 ~ Prima Sellecchia Tesh, daughter of John Tesh and Connie Sellecca

• 1997 ~ Doc Cheatham, Jazz musician, died of stroke at the age of 91

• 2001 ~ Imogene Coca, the elfin actress and satiric comedienne who co-starred with Sid Caesar on television’s classic “Your Show of Shows” in the 1950s, died at the age of 92. Coca’s saucer eyes, fluttering lashes, big smile and boundless energy lit up the screen in television’s “Golden Age” and brought her an Emmy as best actress in 1951. Although she did some broad burlesque, her forte was subtle exaggeration. A talented singer and dancer, her spoofs of opera divas and prima ballerinas tiptoed a fine line between dignity and absurdity until she pushed them over the edge at the end. With Caesar she performed skits that satirized the everyday – marital spats, takeoffs on films and TV programs, strangers meeting and speaking in cliches. “The Hickenloopers” husband-and-wife skit became a staple.

• 2015 ~ Paul Karolyi, Hungarian composer, died at the age of 80

Daily Listening Assignments ~ June 2, 2023

Posted by MaryO on

 

This is the month for graduations of all sorts, college, high school, even preschool.  Perhaps you know someone who is graduating this year.  Maybe it’s you!

This piece by Sir Edward Elgar is called Pomp and Circumstance and usually heard at graduations.  It was featured in Disney’s Fantasia 2000.

Edward Elgar’s father was a musician who tuned pianos, owned a music shop and was employed as a church organist. The young Edward learned to play the organ and violin at a young age and composed his first short piece at the age of 10. His first job was as assistant organist to his father. His main love was composition, although his music was not successful until his Enigma Variations were published in 1899. This work made him famous.

Until Elgar, there had not been a major creative composer in England since Handel’s death in 1759. He became known as England’s greatest composer and was widely recognized in his day. Unfortunately, Elgar’s fame waned at the end of his life – he composed little music during his last fifteen years and withdrew from almost all musical contact. It was not until the 1960’s that his music again became popular.

More information about Elgar

Do you know your chords well?  If so, try this version:

If not, ask at your next lesson for a version at your level.

 

June 1: Today’s Music History

Posted by MaryO on

today

 

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

 

 

• 1893 ~ Allesandre Spontone, Composer

• 1653 ~ Georg Muffat, Composer

• 1755 ~ Frederico Fiorillo, Italian Violist and composer

• 1757 ~ Ignaz Playel, Austrian Composer and piano builder

• 1763 ~ Johann Caspar Vogler, Composer, died at the age of 67

• 1765 ~ Friedrich Ludwig Seidel, Composer

• 1769 ~ Joseph Antoni Frantiszek Elsner, Composer

• 1771 ~ Ferdinando Paer, Composer

• 1776 ~ John George Schetky, Composer

• 1804 ~ Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer; “The Father of Russian Music”
More information about Glinka

• 1810 ~ Johann Paul Wessely, Composer, died at the age of 47

• 1826 ~ Carl Bechstein, German piano inventor

• 1826 ~ Hermann Zopff, Composer

• 1848 ~ Otto Valdemar Malling, Composer

• 1886 ~ Ernst Kurth, Austrian/Swiss musicologist

• 1892 ~ Samuel L M Barlow, Composer

• 1893 ~ Opera “Falstaff” was produced in Berlin

• 1898 ~ Edgar “Cookie” Fairchild, Bandleader for the Jerry Colonna Show

• 1898 ~ Lieb Glantz, Composer

• 1903 ~ Percy William Whitlock, Composer

• 1905 ~ Dinora de Carvalho, Composer

• 1909 ~ Szymon Goldberg, Polish/American violinist and conductor

• 1909 ~ Giuseppe Martucci, Composer, died at the age of 53

• 1918 ~ Friedrich Richard Faltin, Composer, died at the age of 83

• 1918 ~ Jaroslav Novotny, Composer, died at the age of 32

• 1919 ~ Boris Lazarevich Klyuzner, Composer

• 1921 ~ Nelson Riddle, Grammy Award-winning orchestra leader and arranger of popular music for Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole

• 1926 ~ Vasily Mikhaylovich Metallov, Composer, died at the age of 64

• 1929 ~ Yehudi Wyner, Composer

• 1934 ~ Pat (Charles Eugene) Boone, Singer, married to Red Foley’s daughter, Shirley

• 1935 ~ Alberto Cametti, Composer, died at the age of 64

• 1941 ~ Edo de Waart, Dutch conductor

• 1942 ~ Ernest Pingoud, Composer, died at the age of 53

• 1943 ~ Ely van Tongeren, Dutch guitarist and singer

• 1943 ~ Richard Goode, concert pianist. In 1980 he won the Avery Fisher Award

• 1945 ~ Frederica Von Stade, American mezzo-soprano

• 1945 ~ Linda Scott, Singer

• 1946 ~ Carol Neblett, American soprano with the NYC Opera

• 1947 ~ Ron Wood, Guitar with Rolling Stones after 1975

• 1949 ~ Mike Levine, Rock keyboardist/bassist

• 1950 ~ Graham Russell, Singer with Air Supply

• 1955 ~ F Melius Christiansen, Composer, died at the age of 84

• 1959 ~ Celebrating a solid year at the top of the album charts was “Johnny’s Greatest Hits” on Columbia Records. The LP stayed for several more years at or near the top of the album charts. It became the all-time album leader at 490 weeks.

• 1960 ~ “Finian’s Rainbow” closed at 46th St Theater NYC after 12 performances

• 1961 ~ There was a new sound in the air this day. FM multiplex stereo broadcasting was enjoyed for the first time by listeners to FM radio in Schenectady, NY, Los Angeles and Chicago. The FCC adopted the standard a year later.

• 1964 ~ Rutkowski Bronislaw, Composer, died at the age of 66

• 1966 ~ George Harrison was impressed by Ravi Shankar’s concert in London

• 1967 ~ The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released. One of the first critically-acclaimed rock albums, “Sgt. Pepper’s” became the number one album in the world and was at the top of the U.S. album list for 15 weeks.

• 1968 ~ Simon and Garfunkel’s Mrs Robinson hit #1

• 1970 ~ Everything was Beautiful by Ray Stevens hit #1

• 1971 ~ “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” opened at Golden NYC for 31 performances

• 1972 ~ Dmitri Shostakovitch’s 15th Symphony premiered in West Berlin

• 1973 ~ George Harrison’s Living in the Material World went gold

• 1973 ~ Paul McCartney and Wings released Live and Let Die

• 1974 ~ Alanis Nadine Morisette, Singer

• 1974 ~ “My Girl Bill” by Jim Stafford hit #12

• 1975 ~ “Chicago” opened at 46th St Theater NYC for 947 performances

• 1980 ~ Barbra Streisand appeared at an ACLU Benefit in California

• 1988 ~ “Les Miserables” opened at Shubert Theatre, LA

• 1996 ~ Don Grolnick, Jazz musician, died at the age of 48

Daily Listening Assignments ~ June 1, 2022

Posted by MaryO on

 

Today, we start with Spring from the Four Seasons by Vivaldi.  Many OCMS students have played this already in one of their Piano Pronto books.  It’s also available in Piano Maestro.

If you have it in your piano book, today would be a great day to review it. (HINT – there might be a quick review at your next lesson!)

Vivaldi was born in Venice, Italy, March 4, 1678 and spent most of his life there. His father taught him to play the violin, and the two would often perform together.

He taught at an orphanage for girls and wrote a lot of music for the girls to play. People came from miles around to hear Vivaldi’s talented students perform the beautiful music he had written.

Many people think Vivaldi was the best Italian composer of his time. He wrote concertos, operas, church music and many other compositions. In all, Antonio wrote over 500 concertos.

His most famous set of concertos is The Four Seasons which is a group of four violin concerti.  Each of which gives a musical expression to a season of the year. They were written about 1721 and were published in 1725 in Amsterdam.

Here’s a piano version similar to the one in Movement 1 but in a different key.

 

And the original with Itzhak Perlman playing and conducting!

Want to play a version of this but aren’t using these books? Just ask!

Daily Listening Assignments 2023

Posted by MaryO on

 

This summer, I’ve decided to add a new feature to piano lessons.  I know that many families travel during the summer months and it’s sometimes difficult to practice.

These daily assignments, June through August will help you and your students learn a bit more about the pieces they’re learning during the year – or maybe give ideas for something that they’d like to learn.

Each piece has a bit of composer info and several different interpretations, some of which are very humorous.  Some of the assignments appear in Piano Maestro so be sure to have that handy, if your student uses that.

Some days give hints that the assignment of the day may be played (or reviewed) at the next lesson so please be sure that your student takes note of that (no pun intended!)

Find them here, under Daily Listening Assignment starting June 1 at 9:00 am.

Have a safe and musical summer!

May 31: Today’s Music History

Posted by MaryO on

 

• 1656 ~ Marin Marias, Composer

• 1674 ~ Friedrich Erhard Niedt, Composer

• 1696 ~ Heinrich Schwemmer, Composer, died at the age of 75

• 1802 ~ Cesare Pugni, Composer

• 1804 ~ Jeanne-Louise Farrenc, Composer

• 1809 ~ Franz Joseph Haydn died at the age of 77

• 1817 ~ Edouard Deldevez, Composer

• 1854 ~ Vatroslav Lisinski, Composer, died at the age of 34

• 1866 ~ Vladimir Ivanovich Rebikov, Composer

• 1875 ~ Italo Montemezzi, Composer

• 1879 ~ Mark Hambourg, Composer

• 1892 ~ Louis Fourestier, Composer

• 1892 ~ Willem Ravelli, baritone singer

• 1898 ~ Johan Brouwer, Dutch pianist, writer and resistance fighter

• 1902 ~ Billy Mayerl, Composer

• 1902 ~ Ralph Walter Wood, Composer

• 1912 ~ Alfred Deller, British countertenor

• 1914 ~ Akira Ifukube, Composer

• 1917 ~ First jazz record released (Dark Town Strutters Ball)

• 1919 ~ Chet Gierlach, Music publisher and composer

• 1919 ~ Emmanual Tettey Mensah, Musician

• 1923 ~ Wolfgang Lesser, Composer

• 1928 ~ Jacob Lateiner, Cuban pianist and professor at Juilliard

• 1929 ~ Aladar Zoltan, Composer

• 1933 ~ Shirley Verrett, American mezzo-soprano, New York Met

• 1934 ~ Karl-Erik Welin, Composer

• 1938 ~ Peter Yarrow, American folk singer and guitarist
More information on Yarrow

• 1939 ~ Charles Drain, singer

• 1940 ~ Augie Meyers, Keyboardist with Texas Tornados

• 1941 ~ Johnny Paycheck (Don Lytle), Country singer

• 1944 ~ Mick Ralphs, Guitarist with Mott the Hoople

• 1947 ~ Henri G Casadesus, French alto violist (viola d’amour) and composer, died at the age of 66

• 1948 ~ Jose Vianna da Motta, Composer, died at the age of 80

• 1955 ~ Raoul Gunsbourg, Composer, died at the age of 95

• 1961 ~ Rock ’n’ roll fans were ready for a good old-fashioned summertime as Chuck Berry’s amusement park, Berryland, opened near St. Louis, MO.

• 1962 ~ Eduardo Toldra, Composer, died at the age of 67

• 1967 ~ Billy Strayhorn, American composer, pianist and arranger died at the age of 51 of esophageal cancer

• 1969 ~ Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour was released by Tamla Records. The song made it to number four on the pop music charts on July 26 and stayed on the nation’s radios for eleven weeks.

• 1969 ~ John Lennon, Yoko Ono recorded Give Peace a Chance

• 1974 ~ William DeVaughn, a soul singer, songwriter and guitarist from Washington, DC, received a gold record for his only hit, Be Thankful for What You Got.

• 1976 ~ Ear doctors didn’t have to drum up business this day. There were plenty of walk-ins as The Who put out a total of 76,000 watts of power at 120 decibels. They played the loudest concert anyone had ever heard, making it into “The Guinness Book of World Records”.

• 1977 ~ “Beatlemania” opened at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 920 performances

• 1979 ~ Radio City Music Hall (NYC) reopened

• 1989 ~ First presentation of rock n roll Elvis awards

• 1994 ~ Herva Nelli, Soprano, died at the age of 85

. 1996 ~ Normani Kordei Hamilton. Known simply as Normani, the talented singer and dancer gained fame as part of the group Fifth Harmony, who were formed in 2012 on the American version of X-Factor, a television singing competition. The group ended up in third place on the competition show but went on to achieve commercial success. In 2018 the group split and Normani began her solo career. Her first solo single “Motivation” reached the US Top 40 and was certified platinum. Normani has also collaborated with notable musicians Calvin Harris, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Sam Smith, and Megan Thee Stallion.

• 1997 ~ “Once Upon a Mattress,” closed at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 187 performances.

• 2002 ~ Mario Lago, an influential composer, actor and political dissident, died of lung failure. He was 90. Throughout a multifaceted career, Lago wrote more than 200 popular songs and appeared in 20 films and more than 30 telenovelas, Brazil’s version of television soap operas. He was also an active member of Brazil’s Communist Party, and was imprisoned six times during Brazil’s 1964-86 military regime. One of Lago’s most successful songs, Amelia, sang the praises of a woman happy with very little from her husband. The name came to signify a submissive woman in Brazilian slang. Lago continued acting until January, 2002 when he was hospitalized for a month with emphysema.