May 25 ~ Today in Music History

memorial-day

 

 

today

• 1688 ~ Christian August Jacobi, Composer

• 1726 ~ Giuseppi Paolucci, Composer

• 1765 ~ Pierre-Joseph Le Blan, Composer, died at the age of 53

• 1767 ~ Ferdinand Franzl, Composer

• 1767 ~ Friedrich Johann Eck, Composer

• 1821 ~ Diederich Krug, Composer

• 1826 ~ Christian Friedrich Ruppe, Composer, died at the age of 72

• 1847 ~ Alphonse Goovaerts, Composer

• 1878 ~ Bill “Bojangles” (Luther) Robinson, Vaudeville dancer, tap-dancing coach for Sammy Davis, Jr. and Shirley Temple
More information about Robinson

https://youtu.be/AjCFYpWDmfM

• 1878 ~ Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera “HMS Pinafore” premiered in London

• 1887 ~ Gas lamp at Paris Opera caught fire, 200 died

• 1889 ~ Hans Joachim Moser, German musicologist

• 1889 ~ Gilardo Gilardi, Composer

• 1889 ~ Sverre Jordan, Composer

• 1898 ~ Mischa Levitzki, Composer

• 1901 ~ Milenko Zivkovic, Composer

• 1902 ~ Helvi Lemmikke Leiviska, Composer

• 1904 ~ Kurt George Hugo Thomas, Composer

• 1912 ~ Eddie Maxwell, Singer

• 1914 ~ Paolo Giorza, Composer, died at the age of 81

• 1915 ~ Ginny Simms, Singer with Kay Kyser Band

• 1917 ~ Jimmy Hamilton, Saxophonist

• 1917 ~ Leon Felix Augustin Joseph Vasseur, Composer, died at the age of 72

• 1919 ~ Gino Negri, Composer

• 1921 ~ Hal David, Oscar-winning songwriter with Burt Bacharach

• 1924 ~ Theodore Morse, Composer, died at the age of 51

• 1925 ~ Aldo Clementi, Composer

• 1926 ~ Miles Davis III, American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He combined be-bop, modal chord progressions and rock rhythms to create ‘cool jazz’. He was one of the major influences on the art from the late 1940s. Read quotes by and about Davis

• 1926 ~ Kitty Kallen, Singer

• 1928 ~ Frigyes Hidas, Composer

• 1929 ~ Beverly Sills, American soprano and opera administrator, chairperson of Lincoln Center; National Chair of March of Dimes’ Mothers’ March on Birth Defects

• 1934 ~ Gustav Theodore Holst, English Composer, died at the age of 59
More information about Holst

• 1936 ~ Tom T. Hall, Singer

• 1936 ~ Jan Levoslav Bella, Composer, died at the age of 92

• 1943 ~ Leslie Uggams, Singer

• 1943 ~ John ‘Poli’ Palmer, Musician, sax, flute, keyboard with Family

• 1946 ~ Patty Smith Hill, Songwriter (“Happy Birthday To You”) died at the age of 78

• 1947 ~ Jessi Colter (Mirian Johnson), Country singer

• 1947 ~ Mitch Margo, Singer with Cross Country and also The Tokens

• 1964 ~ Vasily Andreyevich Zolotaryov, Composer, died at the age of 92

• 1965 ~ Sonny Boy Williamson (Aleck Miller), Blues player, died at the age of 65

• 1971 ~ Mark Brunswick, Composer, died at the age of 69

• 1981 ~ Rosa Ponselle, US singer at the Metropolitan Opera, died at the age of 84

• 1984 ~ Piet Ketting, Dutch pianist, conductor and Composer, died at the age of 79

• 1986 ~ 30 million people worldwide joined in pop singer Bob Geldof’s “Race Against Time” to raise money for the starving in Africa.

Happy Memorial Day!

memorial-day

Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day and was initiated to honor the soldiers for the Union and Confederate armies who died during the American Civil War.

Celebrations honoring Civil War heroes started the year after the war ended. The establishment of a public holiday was meant to unify the celebration as a national day of remembrance instead of a holiday celebrated separately by the Union and Confederate states. By the late 19th century, the holiday became known as Memorial Day and was expanded to include the deceased veterans of all the wars fought by American forces. In 1971, Memorial Day became a federal holiday.

The original national celebration of Decoration Day took place on 30 May 1868. When Memorial Day became a federal holiday, it was given the floating date of the last Monday in May.

The O’Connor Music Studio WILL be open!

 

 

Old-Time Music Preservation

This is one of my “bucket list” items, to go to the Old-Time Piano Playing Contest in Peoria, IL over Memorial Day weekend.

This video is “almost” as good as being there.

 

 

The Old-Time Music Preservation Association is staging their 41st World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest this year to educate people about old-time piano music written prior to 1940.

When the World Championship Old-time Piano Playing Contest wraps up its 41st annual edition Memorial Day weekend in East Peoria IL, it will be for the last time.

More than 800 piano players from 38 states and five foreign countries have participated in the event through the years, collecting over $100,000 in prizes, but whoever wins the contest’s traveling trophy this year will get to keep it.

I guess this is one of my bucket list items that won’t be achieved.

One of the “regulars”, Bill Edwards, who goes by the pseudonym “Perfessor Bill” has written a lot of ragtime music, some of which I’ve ordered.  When I did, it came out that he lives relatively close so he dropped it off in person!  As close as I’ll get to this event.

Bill’s website is an excellent resource for all-things ragtime.  If you’re interested at all, just start digging in.

This is one of the pieces in the OCMS library.

This is one of the pieces in the OCMS lending library.

 

 

One last favorite video