Redditor NeokratosRed had an idea: depict the hands of great composers and pianists, according to the characteristics of their music. He shared it on the social media site, and also punted for suggestions of more. It has since received over 300,000 images views, and lots of further suggestions from fellow Redditors and piano geeks.
Whisks for Chopin’s elegant pianistic souffles, feather dusters for the gentle impressionism of Debussy, instruments of trade for the composer of the thunderous Hammerklavier sonata.
Piano, and the internet – top marks to the both of you.
• 1922 ~ Lukas Foss, German-born American pianist, conductor and composer
• 1925 ~ Oscar Peterson, Canadian Jazz pianist, jazz trios, solos, played with all jazz greats, composer. He achieved international fame with the touring “Jazz at the Philharmonic”. His biography is Oscar Peterson: The Will to Swing
• 1925 ~ Bill Pinkney, Musician, bass with The Drifters
• 1933 ~ Bobby Helms, Singer
• 1941 ~ Don Rich, Country musician, songwriter, one of Buck Owens’ Buckaroos
• 1941 ~ Au Revoir, Pleasant Dreams was recorded by Ben Bernie and his orchestra.
• 1942 ~ Peter York, Musician, drums with Spencer Davis Group
• 1965 ~ 55,600 people attended a Beatles concert at Shea Stadium, New York, creating world attendance and revenue records for a pop concert.
• 1969 ~ The first day of the most famous musical event of 1969, Woodstock. It was originally called The Woodstock Music and Arts Fair and it began in Bethel, New York.
• 1969 ~ Three Dog Night (Danny Hutton, Cory Wells and Chuck Negron) were awarded a gold record for the album, Three Dog Night. Where’d the name of the group come from? In Australia, the aborigine tribes of several regions slept outside all year. As the temperatures got colder, the tribesmen would sleep with a dog to keep warm. In colder weather, they would huddle with two dogs. It must have been an extremely cold night when the group was formed!
• 1981 ~ Lionel Richie and Diana Ross hit number one on the pop music charts with their beautiful duet, Endless Love. It was a huge success for the two singers. Endless Love was number one for 9 weeks.
• 1989 ~ Many groups who had been to Woodstock had a twentieth-anniversary celebration.
1778 ~ Augustus Toplady, English hymn-writer who wrote Rock of Ages, died.
• 1868 ~ Leone Sinigaglia, Italian composer
• 1888 ~ An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan’s “The Lost Chord”, one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison’s phonograph in London, England.
• 1926 ~ Buddy (Armando) Greco, Singer and pianist
• 1937 ~ Brian Fennelly, American composer, pianist and conductor
• 1940 ~ Dash Crofts, Drums, mandolin and keyboard with Champs; singer is a duo with Seals and Crofts
• 1941 ~ David Crosby (Van Cortland), American rock singer, guitarist and songwriter. Performed with The Byrds as well as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
• 1941 ~ Connie Smith (Meadows), Singer
• 1946 ~ Larry Graham, Bassist and singer with Sly and the Family Stone as well as Graham Central Station
• 1971 ~ Elton John put the finishing touches to his Madman Across the Water LP at Trident Studios, London. Since the album’s release on Feb 2, 1972, it has sold over two million copies in the U.S. alone.
• 1981 ~ The BBC recording of the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana reached number one on the album charts in Britain.
• 2000 ~ Leonard Kwan, a master of slack key guitar whose composition Opihi Moemoe is considered a classic of the genre, died at the age of 69.
Kwan began recording in 1957 and most recently recorded two albums for George Winston’s Dancing Cat Records. The second will be released in September.
Kwan also was the first slack key guitarist to publicly share his instrument tunings in an instruction book.
Hawaiian slack key, or ki ho`alu, is a unique musical style dating to the 1830s, when Spanish and Mexican cowboys arrived in the islands. Some of the guitar strings are slacked from the standard tuning and songs are played in a finger-picking style, with the thumb playing bass.
In 1960, he recorded, Slack Key, the world’s first all-instrumental slack key album.
• 2001 ~ Nicholas Orloff, a dancer and ballet teacher, died at the age of 86.
Orloff was known for his performance of the Drummer, a character he originated in David Lichine’s 1940 “Graduation Ball.”
He was a popular teacher with the Ballet Theater and other schools. He continued to teach in Manhattan schools even after suffering from a stroke three years ago.
Orloff appeared in the 1950 French film “Dream Ballerina” and on Broadway in the musical “Pipe Dream.”
He also was the ballet master of the Denver Civic Ballet in the mid- 1970s.
Born in Moscow, Orloff trained in Paris. He performed with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, the Original Ballet Russe, Ballet Theater, as the American Ballet Theater was known, and the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Ceuvas.
• 2001 ~ Daniel Adrian Carlin, an Emmy-winning music editor who worked with soundtrack composers Lalo Schifrin and Ennio Morricone, died of complications from lung cancer and pulmonary fibrosis. He was 73.
Carlin edited the music for “Scorpio,” “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” “Ghost,” “Gorillas in the Mist,” “Dead Poets Society” and “Cliffhanger.” He won a music-editing Emmy in 1987 for his work on the miniseries “Unnatural Causes.”
He was founder in 1972 of La Da Music. Now known as Segue Music, it is considered the leading film and television editing company.
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, S.244/2, is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by composer Franz Liszt, and is by far the most famous of the set. Few other piano solos have achieved such widespread popularity, offering the pianist the opportunity to reveal exceptional skill as a virtuoso, while providing the listener with an immediate and irresistible musical appeal.
In both the original piano solo form and in the orchestrated version this composition has enjoyed widespread use in animated cartoons. Its themes have also served as the basis of several popular songs.
It is probable that you have heard this piece of music somewhere at one time or another because it is perhaps the most prominent piece of classical (romantic, actually) music featured in animated cartoons across the years.
Now, let the anvils fall and dynamite explode!
And, in real life, Valentina Lisitsa plays Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
• 1820 ~ Sir George Grove, British musicographer and educator. Grove was editor of the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the latest revised editions of which still carry his name
• 1860 ~ Annie Oakley born as Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses. She was a markswoman and member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s “Wild West Show” which toured America. The Irving Berlin musical, Annie Get Your Gun, was based on her life.
• 1912 ~ Jules Massenet, French composer of the operas Werther and Manon died.
More information about Massenet
• 1919 ~ George Shearing, British-born American jazz pianist and composer
• 1924 ~ The first country music record to sell one million copies reached that point on this day. It was The Prisoner’s Song, recorded by Vernon Dalhart. He became a Country Music Hall of Famer in 1981.
• 1930 ~ Don Ho, Singer
• 1930 ~ Guy Lombardo and his orchestra recorded Go Home and Tell Your Mother, on Columbia Records.
• 1948 ~ Kathleen Battle, American soprano, Metropolitan Opera diva, performed with the NY Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris
• 1949 ~ Cliff Fish, Musician, bassist with Paper Lace
• 1951 ~ Dan Fogelberg, Singer
• 1958 ~ Feargal Sharkey, Singer with The Undertones
• 2001 ~ Neil Cooper, the founder of the ROIR rock and reggae record label, died of cancer. He was 71.
Cooper started Reach Out International Records in 1979 and put out his first release – on cassette only – in 1981 by James Chance and the Contortions.
He then produced a catalog of cassettes by rock groups such as Bad Brains, Glenn Branca, Television, MC5, G.G. Allin, Johnny Thunders, and New York Dolls. ROIR’s reggae releases included Lee “Scratch” Perry, the Skatalites, Prince Far I, and Big Youth among others.
The cassette releases were a way to sidestep the artists’ exclusive contracts with other record labels. Vinyl album and compact disc versions were later issued.
Cooper also worked as an agent for MCA and Famous Artists before starting his label.
• 2003 ~ Ed Townsend, who wrote hit songs including 1958’s “For Your Love” and Marvin Gaye’s controversial “Let’s Get It On,” died at the age of 74. Townsend had written more than 200 songs. Nat King Cole and Etta James were among the stars who recorded Townsend’s songs. One of his first hits was “For Your Love” – which Townsend recorded himself.
Townsend also wrote and produced the Impressions’ 1974 No. 1 R&B hit “Finally Got Myself Together (I’m A Changed Man).”
• 1961 ~ Roy Hay, Musician, guitar with Culture Club
• 1966 ~ The last tour for The Beatles began at the International Amphitheater in Chicago; and John Lennon apologized for boasting that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. London’s Catholic Herald said Lennon’s comment was “arrogant … but probably true.”
• 1967 ~ Fleetwood Mac made their stage debut at the National Blues and Jazz Festival in Great Britain.
• 1874 ~ Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor and music critic
• 1902 ~ Solomon Cutner, Classical pianist. A virtuoso performer, he played Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto at the age of 10. His career was stopped after a stroke in 1965.
• 1902 ~ Zino (Rene) Francescatti, French concert violinist; passed away in 1991
• 1910 ~ A.J. Fisher of Chicago, IL received a patent for an invention that moms, grandmas and single guys certainly came to appreciate: the electric washing machine. Previous to Mr. Fisher’s invention, washing machines were cranked by hand (not easily done) – or you used a washboard (also sometimes used as a musical instrument).
• 1919 ~ Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Italian composer and librettist, died. He is famous for the single opera “Pagliacci” but never repeated the success with his other works.
More information about Leoncavallo
• 1932 ~ Helen Morgan joined the Victor Young orchestra to record Bill, a popular tune from Broadway’s Showboat.
• 1963 ~ The TV program Ready, Set, Go! premiered on the BBC in London, England. The show gave exposure to such music luminaries as Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones.
• 1964 ~ Joan Baez and Bob Dylan shared the stage for the first time when the singers performed in a concert in Forest Hills, NY.
• 1969 ~ Hot Fun in The Summertime, by Sly and the Family Stone, and Easy to Be Hard, from the Broadway production Hair, were released on this day. Hot Fun made it to number two on the music charts and Easy to Be Hard climbed to number four.
• 1975 ~ Dmitri Shostakovitch, Russian composer, died. He wrote 15 symphonies as well as operas, ballets and film and theater scores.
More information about Shostakovitch
• 2003 ~ Chester Ludgin, a baritone in the New York City Opera for more than 30 years, died at the age of 78.
Ludgin sang a host of lead baritone parts, but was most recognizable in operas including “The Ballad of Baby Doe,” “The Devil and Daniel Webster” and “Susannah.” He debuted at the City Opera in 1957 in JohannStrauss II’s “Fledermaus.”
He also portrayed the part of Sam for Leonard Bernstein’s “A Quiet Place” at the Houston Grand Opera in 1983. He also sang for the San Francisco Opera and other North American companies.
His last appearance at City Opera was in 1991, but he remained on the stage, singing in musical comedies. His most recent lead was in “The Most Happy Fella.”
• 1818 ~ Henry Charles Litolff, French pianist, composer and music publisher
• 1921 ~ Karel Husa, Czech-born American composer and conductor
• 1921 ~ Warren Covington, Bandleader, trombone, played with Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights
• 1925 ~ Felice Bryant, Songwriter with husband Boudleaux
• 1931 ~ Bix Beiderbecke, U.S. Jazz musician and composer, died. The first white musician to make an impact on jazz, he died from pneumonia aged 28.
• 1936 ~ Rahsaan Roland Kirk, American jazz musician
• 1937 ~ Bunny Berigan and his orchestra recorded I Can’t Get Started for Victor Records. The song became Berigan’s longtime theme song.
• 1939 ~ Ron Holden, Singer
• 1942 ~ B.J. (Billy Joe) Thomas, Singer
• 1943 ~ Lana Cantrell, Entertainer and singer
• 1952 ~ Andy Fraser, Musician: bass with Free
• 1958 ~ Bruce Dickenson, Singer with Iron Maiden
• 1970 ~ Christine McVie joined Fleetwood Mac as the group’s first female member. McVie was married to bass player John McVie. She quit touring with the group in 1991.
• 1975 ~ The Rolling Stones received a gold album for Made in the Shade.
• 1987 ~ Back to the Beach opened at theatres around the country. The film reunited Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, who played middle-aged parents with rebellious kids — kids like Frankie and Annette had played in their Bikini Beach movies in the 1960s.
• 2001 ~ Larry Adler, acknowledged as the king of the harmonica, died at the age of 87 at a London hospital after a long illness.
Adler, born in Baltimore in February 1914, was a musical prodigy whose career covered seven decades during which he worked with a veritable who’s who of the 20th century’s entertainment industry.
From George Gershwin to Elton John, the classically trained Adler had worked with and inspired generations of musicians, touring as late as 1994 and even planning an update of his 1985 biography “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”
“He was without doubt one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century” said musical agent Jonathan Shalit.
“Larry was a man who believed the show must always go on, even to the point of playing from his wheelchair,” he added.
Adler learned to play the piano and mouth organ by ear from listening to records and could not actually read music until 1941.
He won the Maryland Harmonica Championship in 1927 after being expelled from a music conservatory and promptly ran away to New York and got a job playing in film theaters between features.
In 1936 he played harmonica on George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, prompting the composer to exclaim that it sounded as though he had written the haunting melody specially for Adler.
During World War Two Adler toured extensively in Africa and the Middle East, entertaining troops, and insisting on a non-segregation policy between whites and blacks at concerts.
He also entertained in the South Pacific with artists including comedian Jack Benny, and worked consistently for the war effort and the Allied forces.
In 1945 he went to Berlin where he played The Battle Hymn of the Republic on harmonica on the balcony of Adolf Hitler’s ruined chancellery after Germany capitulated.
He left the U.S. for Britain in the early 1950s after being blacklisted during the McCarthy communist witch hunt.
Adler’s most familiar composition is the music for the film comedy “Genevieve,” but he composed the music for other films.
In 1967 and 1973, gave his services to Israel in aid of those affected by the Six Day and Yom Kippur wars.
After Adler guested on Sting’s 1993 album “Ten Summoner’s Tales,” the rock singer returned the compliment and appeared on Adler’s 80th birthday celebration,The Glory Of Gershwin.
They were joined by other stars from the rock world such as Meat Loaf, KateBush, Peter Gabriel and Sinead O’Connor.
A tennis fanatic, Adler once played in a doubles match with Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo and Salvador Dali.
• 2001 ~ Billy Byrd, who once played lead guitar for Ernest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours, died at the age of 81.
William Lewis Byrd was born in Nashville, and taught himself guitar by copying the records of Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt.
In the 1940s, Byrd backed the Oak Ridge Quartet (predecessor of the Oak Ridge Boys), Little Jimmy Dickens, George Morgan and others.
In 1949, Byrd succeeded Tommy “Butterball” Paige as lead guitarist in Ernest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours.
On many of Tubb’s hit records, Tubb would introduce Byrd’s tight melodic solos by exclaiming, “Aw, Billy Byrd now,” or “Play it pretty, Billy Byrd.” Byrd played on scores of Tubb hits, including Jealous Loving Heart,Two Glasses Joe and Answer the Phone.
Byrd also drove Tubb’s bus during his first tenure with the Texas Troubadours, which lasted a decade. He returned twice to the band, from 1969-70 and 1973-74.
Byrd released three solo instrumental albums, and during a brief stint in California backed Tab Hunter and Tex Ritter. In 1950, Byrd and guitarist Hank Garland designed the popular Byrdland guitar for Gibson Guitars.
Stephen Powers first thought of his grand piano as an impressive piece of furniture.
But he enjoyed listening to music so much when friends played at parties at his home in North Wilmington that he began taking lessons.
“I enjoy having a couple of songs under my belt,” says Powers, a 52-year-old banker. “I play Happy Birthday. I play Getting to Know You for my mom.”
Powers is part of a boomlet of adults who are studying piano. Many took lessons briefly as children and regret giving it up. Some simply enjoy music. Others gravitated toward the keyboard because studies suggest piano improves mental acuity while reducing the odds of dementia.
A Swedish study published in 2014 in the International Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that when a twin played a musical instrument later in life, he or she was 64 percent less likely to develop dementia than the twin who did not play.
A study published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2013 evaluated the impact of piano lessons on cognitive function, mood and quality of life in adults age 60 to 84.
The group that studied piano showed significant improvement in tests that measure executive function, controlling inhibitions and divided attention, as well as enhanced visual scanning and motor ability. Piano students also reported a better quality of life.
Some grownups simply relish a challenge.
In the United Kingdom, Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, took to the keyboard at age 56. He chronicled the year he spent learning Chopin’s demanding No. Ballade 1 in G Minor in the book Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible.
Richard Swarmer, 57, of Lewes, played the trumpet from grade school through college. He has sung in several choirs. This year, he began piano lessons.
Learning the piano isn’t easy even for someone with a musical background. Still, Swarmer appreciates that the creative thought process is different from the focus required by his job for a medical benefits company.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed taking piano lessons as an adult,” he says. “It provides a welcome respite from the demands of my job.”
Ethel Thirtel of North Wilmington is 71 and a student at the Music School of Delaware. She is also taking French lessons to help keep her intellect sharp.
“Both pursuits involve active studying and practice to master new skills,” she says.
To meet rising demand, the Music School of Delaware offers adults-only evening group classes to accommodate working people, says Matthew Smith, student and alumni relations officer. The school also provides instruction for adults 50 and older through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at University of Delaware.
“In addition to professionals, we are getting a lot more inquiries from older adults who are retired and have time on their hands,” he says.
Geri Smith, a Julliard-trained singer, musician and composer, has taught piano to children in public schools as well as private arts centers. Her adult students include a 59-year-old writer who took up piano after the death of her husband, a gifted musician.
“Teaching children is a different experience than teaching adults,” says Smith, of Unionville. “Kids pretty much do what you ask them to do but adults ask lots of questions. They want to know why things have to be done a certain way.”
An important part of learning piano is creating new pathways in the brain. A Harvard Medical School study examined the impact of practicing the piano on synapses, the connections between neurons that encode memories and learning.
Volunteers practiced two hours a day for five days, playing a five-finger exercise to the beat of a metronome. To learn how that impacted the neurons scientists used transcranial-magnetic-stimulation (TMS), in which a wire coil sends magnetic impulses to the brain.
They discovered that after a week of practice, the stretch of motor cortex devoted to the finger exercises had expanded like crabgrass.
“Playing the piano creates new synapses,” Smith says. “Think of it as creating a conduit so your right hand can talk to your left hand.”
Meldene Gruber of Rehoboth Beach, who has taught piano for more than 40 years, has seen a surge in adult students in the past two years. Now, half her students are adults.
“A number of my adults say they think playing the piano will help with mental acuity,” she says. “Playing the piano forces you to use both sides of the brain, which is great for neuron firing.”
Most adults have specific goals in mind, such as learning to play Christmas carols or a few favorite pieces.
“You don’t get adults who are focused on becoming concert pianists,” Gruber says. “They come for the joy of playing, not because their mothers made them.”
• 1834 ~ Hermann Mendel, German music lexicographer
• 1909 ~ Karl Ulrich Schnabel, German pianist and composer
• 1912 ~ Marina Koshetz, who followed her famous Russian diva mother Nina to the opera and concert stage and into the movies, was born. Koshetz was born in Moscow, trained in France and came to the United States as a teenager. She made her debut substituting for her mother Nina Koshetz on radio’s “Kraft Music Hall.” Using her father’s surname, she began appearing in films in the early 1930s as Marina Schubert. Among her early films were “Little Women,” “All the King’s Horses” and “British Agent.”
Marina concentrated more on her voice in the 1940s. Adopting the professional name Marina Koshetz, she went on to sing with the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Koshetz made her Los Angeles recital debut at the old Philharmonic Auditorium in 1947.
• 1921 ~ Buddy (William) Collette, Musician. reeds, piano and composer
• 1939 ~ After becoming a success with Ben Bernie on network radio, Dinah Shore started her own show on the NBC Blue radio network. Dinah sang every Sunday evening. Dinah also had a successful TV career spanning over two decades.
• 1940 ~ Columbia Records cut the prices of its 12-inch classical records. The records were priced to sell at $1. Within two weeks, RCA Victor did the same and ended a record-buying slump brought on by disinterested consumers.
• 1958 ~ Randy DeBarge, Musician, bass, vocals with DeBarge
• 1973 ~ Stevie Wonder came close to losing his life, following a freak auto accident. Wonder, one of Motown’s most popular recording artists, was in a coma for 10 days. Miraculously, he recovered and was back in the recording studio in less than eight weeks.
• 1981 ~ Stevie Nicks’ first solo album, Bella Donna, was released. The lead singer for Fleetwood Mac scored a top-three hit with Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around from the album. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers were featured on the track. Nicks went on to record a total of 11 hits for the pop-rock charts through 1988.
• 2016 ~ Pete Fountain, the famed New Orleans jazz clarinetist whose 60-year career was marked by performances for presidents and a pope, making him an international ambassador for the music and culture of his hometown, died at the age of 86.
1859 ~ Katharine Lee Bates
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