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Post by jk on Mar 19, 2023 4:17:34 GMT -5
1663: Although the Dutch/German composer and organist Johann Adam Reincken (bapt. 1643–1722) is rated highly among 17th-century composers, very little of his music has survived. Actually, you can see a bit of Herr Reincken in my avatar. Looking at the complete painting, which he may have commissioned, he's the ornately dressed gent at the harpsichord. One major work of his that has reached us is the "Sister Ray"-length chorale fantasia for organ An Wasserflussen Babylons (nothing to do with the Boney M song): 1953: Three 20th-century women composers whose names I kept coming across in the 1960s were the English-born Elisabeth Lutyens (1906–1983), the South African-born Priaulx (rhymes with meeow) Rainier (1903–1986) and the Irish-born Elizabeth Maconchy (1907–1994). In my foolish teenage years, I wouldn't have anything to do with classical music of any era that didn't come from mainland Europe -- it simply didn't count. So the music of these three ladies, with the possible exception of Ms Lutyens, passed me by entirely. To quote Irish musician Ailie Blunnie, Elizabeth Maconchy worked with "short musical fragments, as opposed to large-scale concepts or templates". As a consequence, "she never planned anything out, musically speaking, in any great detail in advance of composition, [and by using shorter formats] she could afford to explore the possibilities implicit in the ideas themselves as they arose". Her overture Proud Thames was written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953:
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Post by jk on Mar 20, 2023 3:27:49 GMT -5
1662: The Italian composer Giovanni Legrenzi (bapt. 1626–1690) first worked in Bergamo (as an organist) and then Ferrara (as maestro di cappella). But it was in Venice that he had the most success. In 1685, Legrenzi was appointed maestro di cappella at the prestigious Basilica di San Marco, after just missing out nine years earlier in a bid to succeed Francesco Cavalli [ 1666]) and later succeeding Antonio Sartorio [ 1672] as vice- maestro. He was by this time (along with Carlo Pallavicino [ 1679]) the leading opera composer of his day, with ten commissions in the five years to 1685. The most famous of his students was Tomaso Albinoni [ 1694]. From Legrenzi's Compiete con le lettanie & antifone della B.V. à 5 voci, Op. 7, this is No. 6, "Salve, Regina": 1954: Wilhelm Weismann (1900–1980) was a German composer and musicologist. In 1924, a year after completing his studies, he embarked on a momentous trip to Italy that took in Sicily, Rome, Naples and Florence, during which he was greatly impressed by Italian architecture and painting. In the Uffizi he could see original compositions by arch-madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo [ 1611], whose work would occupy him throughout his life. In 1929, according to his wiki, Weismann was appointed editor at the world-famous Leipzig music publishing house Edition Peters, rising to the newly created post of chief editor in 1956. Two years earlier, he composed this serene setting of Psalm 23, Der Herr ist mein Hirte:
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Post by jk on Mar 21, 2023 13:41:48 GMT -5
1661: This is the first of several years heading back in time that failed to yield a musical work found on YouTube. In such cases, I've instead chosen the year of birth of a composer not yet featured. Their previous absence in the list -- and these are often obvious candidates -- may be because the works that might have been included are undated or not connected to one particular year, and therefore fall outside the scope of this project. The French Baroque composer Henri Desmarets (often erroneously written Desmarest; 1661–1741) was primarily known at the time for his stage works, although he also composed sacred music as well as secular cantatas, songs and instrumental works. From his opera Didon, this is "Que vois-je…", presumably sung by the heroine, the Carthaginian queen Didon (Dido, or Elissa): 1955: I first encountered the music of Chuck Berry (1926–2017) in 1963 when my brother and I found and bought a 78 rpm record of his "Johnny B. Goode", which I'd read about but never heard. That was quite a revelation! That song is the one pop track on the Golden Record aboard the two Voyager spacecraft, both now in interstellar space. So no Beatles, no Beach Boys, no Dylan… The record's compiler Carl Sagan was accused of including something aimed at an adolescent audience. "Lots of adolescents on Planet Earth", was the gist of his retort. "Maybellene" ushered in a string of wonderfully crafted narrative records by Berry, who I'd regard as one of classic rock and roll's two premier raconteurs, the other being Eddie Cochran:
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Post by jk on Mar 22, 2023 8:12:49 GMT -5
1660: Marco Uccellini (1603 or 1610–1680) was one of a line of distinguished 17th-century Italian violinist-composers. His sonatas for violin and continuo contributed to the development of an idiomatic style of writing for the violin (including virtuosic runs, leaps and forays into high positions), expanding the instrument's technical capabilities and expressive range. Uccellini's innovations influenced a generation of Austro-German violinist-composers whose ranks included Schmelzer [ 1664], Biber [ 1673] and Walther [ 1676]. His Sinfonia Boscareccia, Op. 8 is a collection of 37 small pieces for violin and basso continuo joined ad libitum by a second and a third violin. The sheet music was first printed in Venice in 1660, getting a second edition nine years later in Antwerp. This is no. 27, "L'Arcadicha": 1956: Doo-wop was as important a genre as classic rock and roll in the development of pop in the 1950s. It is represented here by The Willows, a Harlem-based outfit that began life as The Dovers. Their big hit, "Church Bells May Ring", was a group composition, although their label manager assumed the writing credits, as often happened in those days. Featuring a teenage Neil Sedaka on overdubbed orchestral chimes, it lost out to a top twenty cover version by Canadian vocal quartet The Diamonds, only getting as high as #62 nationally. Still, I'd say The Willows' original has aged more gracefully:
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Post by jk on Mar 23, 2023 7:13:33 GMT -5
1659: Georg Arnold (1621–1676) was an Austrian composer and organist. From 1649 he was court organist in Bamberg at the court of Fürstbischof Melchior Otto Voit von Salzburg. Judging from his wiki, Arnold wrote mainly religious vocal music. From the one instrumental work in the list, Canzoni, ariae e sonatae for one to four violins (two in this case), viola (or bassoon) and continuo, this is "Canzona No. 4": 1957: Bill Justis (1926–1982) was an American pioneer rock and roll musician, composer and arranger, best known for his 1957 Grammy Hall of Fame composition, "Raunchy". Co-written with Sidney Manker, "Raunchy" was the first rock and roll instrumental hit, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (two places ahead of Ernie Freeman's cover version) and #11 the next year in the UK. Justis was also responsible for managing (maybe even creating) Ronny & the Daytonas and producing their iconic US #4 hit "G.T.O.". Before then, he was responsible for bringing Charlie Rich to Sun Records when working as an A&R man for Sam Phillips. My one and only problem with "Raunchy" is that it's not raunchy at all. Still, it got George into The Beatles and that's only to be applauded!
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Post by jk on Mar 25, 2023 4:25:48 GMT -5
Today's post marks another milestone, its two components being exactly three centuries apart... 1658: Giuseppe Torelli (1658–1709) is best remembered today for contributing to the development of the instrumental concerto (whether solo or as concerto grosso) for strings and continuo, as well as being the most prolific Baroque composer for the trumpet. A teacher as well as a practising violinist and violist, the most notable amongst his many pupils was Francesco Manfredini [ 1718], who studied violin with him in Bologna. Of the more than 30 concertos Torelli wrote for 1 or more trumpets, including a Sinfonia à 4, this is his Concerto in D Major for Trumpet and Strings: 1958: I wonder if anyone other than me has ever slipped on a record of music by Edgard Varèse (1883–1965) when seeking to win the heart of a lady? All to no avail, I should add -- the lady in question was already fixed up with some bloke with a pipe and even the seductive squeaks, squawks and thumps of Varèse's Poème électronique weren't going to entice her away from him:
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Post by jk on Mar 26, 2023 3:17:27 GMT -5
1657: Antonio Cesti (bapt. 1623–1669) seems to have been torn between his calling as a Franciscan friar and being a composer of secular operas. A tenor and organist into the bargain, his music, which also includes chamber cantatas, was heavily influenced by his career as a professional singer. Cesti's tragi-comic opera La Dori (Innsbruck, 1657) is pretty incomprehensible if the onstage action is all you to have to go by, being one unholy mess of mistaken identities. It thoroughly perplexed its 20th-century audience when it was revived more than 300 years later in 1983, as the programme notes contained neither a synopsis nor an annotated cast list! Just to keep things simple, this is the opening instrumental "Sinfonia" from Act One: 1959: Duane Eddy (born 1938) is, I believe, the first person to feature in this thread who is still with us. "Peter Gunn" began life as the theme tune to the US TV series of that name. Written by Hank Mancini, as JH calls him, the Grammy-winning soundtrack album features the familiar likes of Plas Johnson and Gene Cipriano. Duane strips it back to its bare bones, a pounding eight-note riff with above it a single wailing tenor sax, courtesy of another familiar face, Steve Douglas. The riff stops halfway for a breakdown, with each instrument re-entering in succession (guitar, bass, piano, drums, sax). There is nothing remotely like this extreme example of "less is more" anywhere else in Eddy's canon -- or in anyone else's, come to that. I'd say this was Steve D's finest hour, the finest moment of his finest hour being when he hits that high note on his re-entry:
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Post by jk on Mar 27, 2023 2:29:14 GMT -5
1656: Like Torelli two posts ago, the composer and viol player Marin Marais was born in the year in question, whose slot would have been difficult to fill otherwise. Marais (1656–1728), who studied composition with Lully [ 1670] and the viol with Sainte-Colombe, is credited with being one of the earliest composers of programme music. The score of The Bladder-Stone Operation (1725) for viola da gamba and continuo includes written remarks such as "Securing the arms and legs with silken cords" and "The pincers are inserted". From his Pièces de viole du second livre (1701), this is "Tombeau pour Monsieur de Lully" for 2 bass viols and continuo, written in memory of his composition teacher: 1960: Miles Davis (1926–1991), much like Stravinsky [ 1945] before him, was to music what Picasso was to the visual arts, adopting a variety of musical directions in a five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz. Davis was a significant influence on the future careers of two youngsters in Lancaster, CA, and one in particular. Frank Zappa (next month) and Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) would stay up into the early hours in Don's bedroom listening to doo-wop and city blues, later adding to their library Sketches of Spain (1960), on which Miles worked with arranger and composer Gil Evans. Beefheart for his part quotes a brief passage from it in "Sugar 'N Spikes" on Trout Mask Replica (1969). Besides the album's influence on Zappa's approach to music generally, the twists and turns of the melody in the next track can be heard all over his work. "Will O' The Wisp" is an arrangement of "Cancion del Fuego Fatuo", the tenth number from Manuel de Falla's ballet El amor brujo, often translated as "Love the Magician" (1915):
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Post by jk on Mar 28, 2023 3:42:53 GMT -5
1655: I have tried to include as many women composers and (from now on) performers as possible in these posts. Regrettably, these have suffered sexist (and racist) behaviour on the part of church and court in less civilized times. Here we're faced with the incredible notion that music-making by women in the Baroque era (and not just then, I fear) was considered "an intellectual asset of a courtesan"! This accusation was certainly levelled at singer and composer Barbara Strozzi, an unmarried mother of four -- one suspects more than a whiff of jealousy in all this, as it transpires that Ms Strozzi (bapt. 1619–1677) was the most published composer of her time, and not just in her home town of Venice. Barbara Strozzi wrote almost entirely secular works for mainly one voice (but sometimes as many as five) and continuo. Taken from her one known religious work, Sacri musicale affetti, the motet "Mater Anna" is as much an ode to Anna de Medici as to the mother of the Virgin Mary: 1961: In 1962, after discovering "classical" orchestral music and revelling in the multi-hued but seriously tonal delights of Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov, I was initially shocked at hearing the UK premiere of Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 string instruments. Written a year earlier by the Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki (1933–2020), this fascinating work threw all the conventions of instrumental technique out of the window. Since when, for example, had a composer asked their performers to play the highest note on their instrument? This is one work where the visual aspect of the score is on equal footing with what you hear:
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Post by jk on Mar 29, 2023 2:47:15 GMT -5
1654: The German composer and organist Vincent Lübeck (1654–1740) enjoyed a remarkable reputation in his lifetime for someone who is now largely forgotten. Despite Lübeck's longevity and fame, very few compositions by him survive, the most important of which are his organ pieces. Influenced by Buxtehude [ 1680] and J.A. Reincken [ 1663], these are technically and artistically sophisticated works, with frequent virtuosic passages for pedal, five-voice polyphony and other devices rarely used by most of the composers of the period. This organ fantasia on Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ is the only existing complete chorale prelude definitely by Lübeck. At 271 bars and in twelve clearly defined sections, it is one of the largest known examples of the genre: 1962: The first time I attended a showing of David Lean's classic film Lawrence of Arabia was in the Spring of 1963 on the biggest screen of my young life in London's Leicester Square. (I've seen it since then on television but it definitely needs watching in the cinema.) Three years later I bought the OST composed and conducted by the Frenchman Maurice Jarre (1924–2009). His wonderfully evocative score vividly conveys the burning heat of an unrelenting desert sun:
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Post by jk on Mar 30, 2023 4:05:07 GMT -5
1653: Adam Michna z Otradovic (c.1600–1676) was a Czech Catholic poet, composer, hymn writer, organist and choir leader. His Loutna česká is an early example of Czech Baroque music. This thirteen-part collection of songs was composed for alto, soprano and two tenors but can be sung by larger choirs. The ninth part, "Anjelské Přátelství" (The Fellowship of Angels) has become one of the most popular songs by Adam Michna. I can find no confirmation of this but I'm told it gets played in a truncated version every hour (even at night??) at Malostranské náměstí, the main square of Prague’s Malá Strana district, by a lone trumpeter (many of Michna's relatives were trumpeters): 1963: The Trashmen hail from Minneapolis (MN), where the surf is never up. The vocalist on their most famous record, "Surfin' Bird", was drummer Steve Wahrer. Combining two R&B hits written and performed by The Rivingtons, "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" (1962) and "The Bird's The Word" (1963), the song, such as it is, was initially attributed to Wahrer until The Rivingtons threatened to take action. "Surfin' Bird" took the men to #4 on the Billboard Top 100 shortly before the British Invasion changed America's musical landscape for good.
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Post by jk on Mar 31, 2023 2:57:28 GMT -5
1652: The French lutenist and composer Denis Gaultier (1597 or 1602/3–1672) was given the name "Gaultier le jeune" to distinguish him from his brother (or cousin) Ennemond, another renowned lutenist. Still, publications often misattributed works between them or printed only their last name. To make matters worse, the authenticity of music long attributed to Denis has been contested in recent years. Gaultier held no court position, but gained fame through salon playing; his works consist mainly of dance suites for the lute. He can be considered an important exponent of the French style brisé, and as such was an influence on harpsichordists such as Johann Jakob Froberger (a few days hence). La Rhétorique des dieux is one of three published collections of Gaultier's music that have come down to us, all from his late years. This manuscript offers an impressive synthesis of music, mythology, engraving, gold work, prose and poetry. From its Suite No. 2 in A Major, this is the second movement, "Andromède": 1964: "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up" is my contender for greatest NYGG single of all time. Performed by The Ronettes, numerous assisting vocalists and the "Wrecking Crew" in full flight, this "stompin' rock ballad" has everything going for it. Produced by Phil Spector and arranged by Jack Nitzsche, it boasts the false ending to end all false endings. Only that of The Beach Boys' "I'm So Young", itself a Ronettes album track, comes close. Indeed, could Brian's false ending have been inspired by that of "Breakin' Up"? Incredibly, this masterpiece rose no further than #39 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #43 in the UK.
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Post by jk on Apr 1, 2023 9:07:37 GMT -5
Something today's candidates have in common is that neither wrote the piece illustrating what they do. But that's all they have in common... 1651: John Playford (1623–1686/7) was a London bookseller, publisher, minor composer and member of the Stationers' Company, which published books on music theory, instruction books for several instruments and psalters with tunes for singing in churches. He is perhaps best known today for his publication, during the period of the Puritan-dominated Commonwealth, of The English Dancing Master, a dancing manual containing the music and instructions for English country dances. Playford, who was a Royalist, had been captured by Cromwell's men and told that if he valued his freedom he might consider a change of musical direction away from the serious stuff. Although many of the tunes in the book are attributed to him today, he probably didn't write any of them. Most were popular melodies that had existed for years, such as "Jenny Pluck Pears": 1965: Kim Weston (born 1939) is best known for her duet with Marvin Gaye, "It Takes Two". But her crowning achievement in my book, and the track chosen to represent Tamla Motown in this thread, is the magnificent "Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While)", which like the Ronettes song in the previous post should have made a much bigger dent on the national charts. Its instrumental break is a textbook example of "less is more", just a groove and two well-chosen notes on a rack tom:
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Post by jk on Apr 2, 2023 4:20:37 GMT -5
1650: Born into a Czech family, Alberik Mazák aka Alberich Mazak (1609–1661) was barely in his twenties when he entered the Cistercian Abbey at Heiligenkreuz in Lower Austria; he would be ordained a priest there in 1633. Mazák's 300-plus compositions are exclusively sacred vocal works, his accompanying instruments of choice being the violin, trumpet, bassoon, viola da gamba, cornet and sackbut. This is his Pater Noster à 4: 1966: For reasons that should be obvious, The Beach Boys are the one exception to a rule I made for myself about not including musicians previously recruited for my earlier year-by-year thread. There, 1966 was represented by "I'm Waiting For The Day", my favourite track from Pet Sounds, with Brian and Mike on vocal duties. Running a close second in my estimation is the album's title track, where the only Beach Boy involved in any way is Brian on grand piano. Oddly, Brian refutes any claims that the track "Pet Sounds" was influenced by the exotic likes of Martin Denny, more specifically his "Quiet Village", saying he has never had the chance to listen to the exotica of Denny and Les Baxter. Still, there's no denying the similarities between the two -- the triplets in the melody, the layers of percussion. Maybe Brian had been exposed to the Denny track, a top five hit in mid 1959, without it registering and/or without knowing who it was.
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Post by jk on Apr 3, 2023 2:10:41 GMT -5
1649: Johann Jakob Froberger (bapt. 1616–1667) was one of the first major keyboard composers in history and the first to focus equally on both harpsichord/clavichord and organ. Along with other cosmopolitan composers including J.K. Kerll [ 1669], Froberger contributed greatly to the exchange of musical traditions in Europe. His compositions were known to and often studied by countless composers, from Pachelbel [ 1699] to Beethoven [ 1808]. His Libro Secundo (1649) and Libro Quarto (1656), two richly decorated volumes dedicated to Ferdinand III, were found in Vienna. Each book has four chapters and contains 24 pieces. Both include six toccatas and six suites; Libro Quarto adds 6 ricercars and 6 capriccios, whereas Libro Secundo instead has 6 fantasias and 6 canzonas, including this "Fantasia sopra Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La in C Major": 1967: This will have pop fans everywhere howling for my blood: this is 1967, after all, when the promise held out by 1966 came to full flower! And there I am, posting an obscure electronic piece! Frankly, I don't believe 1967 was that different from any other year post-66. In I of IV, the American composer Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016) seems to have anticipated the path taken by Fripp & Eno (to say nothing of Pink Floyd's "Echoes"), most particularly the hostile landscape that is their "An Index of Metals", which takes up side two of Evening Star (1975). The difference here is that Ms Oliveros' equally riveting (and unsettling) I of IV is all electronic -- not a guitar in sight:
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Post by jk on Apr 4, 2023 3:51:29 GMT -5
1648: Giacomo Carissimi (bapt. 1605–1674) was one of the most celebrated masters of what is called the Roman School of music (compare Giovanni Mossi [ 1716]). The greatest achievements generally ascribed to Carissimi are the further development of the recitative and the chamber cantata and the development of the oratorio, of which he was the first significant composer. Jephte follows what is considered the classic early Baroque oratorio form with a Biblical text related by soloists and chorus linked by a narrator. It recounts the Old Testament tragedy of Jephthah and his only daughter, whom he is forced to sacrifice after making a rash promise before God. The closing "Plorate filii Israel" must be one of the most heart-breaking pieces of music known to humankind: 1968: Back in 1970, the band I was in gathered at the drummer's house to play each other their favourite new LPs. Most folks brought along the likes of Blossom Toes and other UK stuff I sneered at at the time. My own contribution was side two of The Velvet Underground's White Light White Heat. I'll show them, I thought. The opening chaos of "I Heard Her Call My Name" was greeted with cries of "We could do better than that!" Not long after, they decided that no, we probably couldn't do better than that. (I recall the drummer was most impressed with "Sister Ray".) Since then my tastes have done a 180 (I believe that's the expression) but this still sounds pretty good:
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Post by jk on Apr 5, 2023 14:29:26 GMT -5
1647: Pelham Humfrey (1647–1674) was the first of the new generation of English composers at the beginning of the Restoration to rise to prominence. Humfrey was sent by King Charles II to study in Paris where he was greatly influenced by music at the French Court but clearly had also assimilated the more expressive vocal style of Giacomo Carissimi [ 1648]. Even at his young age, Humfrey exerted a strong influence on his peers, including Henry Purcell [ 1692] and John Blow [ 1696]. This is the "Magnificat" from his Service in E Minor: 1969: If Lawrence of Arabia [ 1962] is a film I could watch again and again, Scacco Alla Regina (Check to the Queen) is one I'll probably never see. (Actually, both films are great favourites of my blogger friend, who has devoted several blog posts to them -- see my signature). That said, many of the often erotic Italian films she advocates and discusses have fabulous soundtracks, one of whose composers is Piero Piccioni (1921–2004). His stunning "Capriccio" features the wordless singing of Edda Dell'Orso (born 1935), best known for her vocalizing on the big tune from Once Upon a Time in the West. In a just world, her name would be on everyone's lips:
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Post by jk on Apr 6, 2023 15:49:31 GMT -5
1646: Little is known of the life of the Dutch composer Cornelis Thymanszoon Padbrué (c.1592–1670). Born into a musical family, he published several collections of madrigals and motets but his magnum opus was the oratorio De tranen Petri ende Pauli (The Tears of Peter and Paul), based on a play by the Dutch literary giant Joost van der Vondel. The work was written for five singers, alternating solo and ensemble parts, and continuo. Regarded as the first Northern European oratorio, much of it has regrettably been lost. This is one of the surviving fragments, "Voor Jesus naem en Caesars Rijck": 1970: I'd read much about the music of the American composer Morton Feldman (1926–1987) but the first time I actually heard it was (this is off the top of my head) in the early to mid 1980s, when Feldman visited NL. In the interview he gave on Dutch radio he came across as a warm person with an infectious sense of humour. I believe Crippled Symmetry, which was broadcast after the interview, was getting its first performance in Europe. Unlike his colleague and close friend John Cage [ 1942], who used the I Ching, an ancient Chinese divination text, as a tool to write music based on chance, Feldman once stated in an interview that his whole debt to Oriental culture was Chinese food. Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety has been described as a delicate reflection by Feldman on the death of his childhood piano teacher, Vera Maurina-Press (the title quotes Feldman's mother's exact words to him at the time). Touching in its simplicity, the motive of a falling third occurs 90 times, once for each year in the life of Madame Press. The piece is scored for a 12-member ensemble of 2 flutes, horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba (or bass clarinet), tubular bells, celesta, 2 cellos and 2 double basses:
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Post by jk on Apr 7, 2023 13:56:36 GMT -5
1645: The German organist and composer Andreas Werckmeister (1645–1706) is best known today as a music theorist (J.S. Bach [ 1722] was well versed in his writings on counterpoint). One of the earliest advocates of equal temperament, Werckmeister was of seminal importance in helping to establish the harmonic basis underlying almost all subsequent Western music. Of his compositions, all that remain are a booklet of pieces for violin and continuo and some organ works, one of which is this Canzona in A Minor: 1971: My first major confrontation with minimal music (I'd never heard the term before then) was in the mid 1970s when a friend played for me a three-LP set of music by Steve Reich entitled Drumming / Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices And Organ / Six Pianos. This was one of just a handful of occasions that turned jk's musical world on its head. Reich (born 1936) is interested in perceptible processes. "I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music." One way he achieves this is through "phase shifting", in which a phrase is slightly altered over time in a flow that is clearly perceptible to the listener. The LP side that immediately grabbed me was part two of Drumming, with its gorgeous wash of marimbas topped off with wordless female voices:
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Post by jk on Apr 8, 2023 8:36:20 GMT -5
1644: Sigmund Theophil Staden (1607–1655) was born in Kulmbach in the Principality of Bayreuth as the son of Johann Staden, the founder of the so-called Nuremberg school. Sigmund, who was himself based in Nuremberg, has the distinction of writing the earliest German opera whose music has survived. (The only other extant works of his are three Friedens-Gesänge from 1651.) This "Prelude" opens Act One of Seelewig: 1972: My initial run-in with the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara was when the amateur choir I accompanied at rehearsals had to battle with his Magnificat (they got there in the end). It was Cantus Arcticus, subtitled "Concerto for Birds and Orchestra", that won me over to his music. This magical listening experience incorporates tape recordings of birdsong made near the Arctic Circle and on the bogs of Liminka, in northern Finland. For me the taped sounds have a mournful resignation about them, as if to say this may be the only way to hear birdsong in future. Yet the orchestral component radiates a certain optimism. The work is in three movements: "The Bog" opens with a flute duet, after which the other woodwinds join in, followed by the birds. The second movement, "Melancholy", features a slowed-down recording of the song of the shore lark. The final movement, "Swans Migrating", takes the form of a long crescendo for orchestra, with the sounds of whooper swans. At the end both birdsong and orchestra fade, as if into the distance:
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Post by jk on Apr 9, 2023 7:14:29 GMT -5
1643: Antonio Tarsia (1643–1722) was an Italian composer born in Koper, Slovenia, where he would also die. A big name among early Baroque composers in Ljubljana, Tarsia left us a large number of sacred compositions sung in Latin. This is his Gloria in G for four soloists (SATB), mixed choir and orchestra: 1973: I think I must have got seriously into The Band after borrowing Barney Hoskins' broth of a book Across The Great Divide from the local library, probably in the early 1990s. I then bought every album of theirs up to and including the underwhelming Islands. The Band were something else. I can understand others at the time of the release of their debut album, Music from Big Pink, were "shattered by their control" and driven to "a profound rethink" (to quote from memory from an old NME article). "A Change Is Gonna Come" comes from Moondog Matinee, an album of cover versions, all of which can easily vie with the original. Sung by Rick Danko, "Change" is Sam Cooke's finest composition and one of the greatest songs of all time:
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Post by jk on Apr 10, 2023 4:32:36 GMT -5
1642: Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602–c.1676-8) was a Benedictine nun at the convent of S. Radegonda; she wrote music to be performed there until she became its abbess. Ms Cozzolani was a staunch defender of her nuns' right to make music without restrictions at a time when the Archbishop of Milan saw things differently (see the wiki). "Ecce annuntio vobis" comes from her Concerti sacri, Op. 2, for 2 to 4 voices and continuo (first published in Venice in 1642): 1974: Nico (1938–1988), born in Cologne as Christa Päffgen, was a German singer, songwriter, actress and model. She is best known to pop music lovers for her contributions as a "chanteuse" to the album that launched a thousand bands, The Velvet Underground & Nico. Reviewer Richard Goldstein wryly describes her as "half goddess, half icicle" and writes that her distinctive voice on that album "sounds something like a cello getting up in the morning". On a visit to her birthplace, I was dismayed to find absolutely nothing there to recall its famous daughter. Maybe the uncertain wartime history of her father Wilhelm has something to do with this shameful state of affairs. (On a side note, the Päffgen family has brewed Kölsch beer since 1883, and very tasty it is too.) Always a contested presence within The Velvet Underground (she was their then-manager Andy Warhol's idea), she was forced out before work began on their follow-up album as a quartet. That said, John Cale would work with Nico as a producer and arranger on three of her solo albums. From the third of these, The End… (which also includes a blissed-out version of the German national anthem), this is "Valley Of The Kings". It's just Nico and her harmonium -- chills-down-the-spinesville:
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Post by jk on Apr 11, 2023 3:12:47 GMT -5
1641: Three years ago, this 123-video YouTube channel of sterling stuff performed by Le Concert Brisé under cornettist William Dongois introduced me to a welter of mainly Italian Baroque composers, one of whom was Giovanni Battista Fontana (1589–1630; not to be confused with Elvis's drummer). Fascinating instrumentation they had in those days: in Fontana's Sonata No. 14 a 3, violin and cornett share solo duties with an occasionally busy bassoon line burbling underneath: 1975: The Yorkshireman Gavin Bryars (born 1943) began his career as a jazz bassist, playing alongside the likes of guitarist Derek Bailey and drummer Tony Oxley, before turning to composing. To me, his name is synonymous with two compositions, Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet and this year's featured work, The Sinking of the Titanic. Both were first recorded and released back-to-back on Brian Eno's Obscure Records as that label's first LP. Other versions have followed but these original recordings are definitive in my book. As for the dramatic event itself, this is Harold Bride, the junior wireless operator, in an interview for The New York Times of 19 April 1912: "...from aft came the tunes of the band..... The ship was gradually turning on her nose – just like a duck that goes down for a dive. I had only one thing on my mind – to get away from the suction. The band was still playing. I guess all of the band went down. They were playing 'Autumn' then. I swam with all my might. I suppose I was 150 feet away when the Titanic, on her nose, with her afterquarter sticking straight up in the air, began to settle slowly.... The way the band kept playing was a noble thing. I heard it first while we were still working wireless, when there was a ragtime tune for us, and the last I saw of the band, when I was floating out in the sea with my lifebelt on, it was still on deck playing 'Autumn'. How they ever did it I cannot imagine."
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Post by jk on Apr 12, 2023 8:46:48 GMT -5
1640: Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger (c.1580–1651) was an Austrian-Italian composer and virtuoso performer of the early Baroque period. A prolific and highly original composer, Kapsberger is chiefly remembered today for his music for lute and theorbo ( chitarrone), which was seminal in their development as solo instruments. Libro quarto d'intavolatura di chitarrone, his fourth published collection of music for theorbo, consists of 12 toccatas, 16 preludes, 10 passacaglias, 5 chaconnes and numerous other pieces including dances, variations and canzonas. From it, this is "Toccata Prima": 1976: I had little time for The Tubes in their heyday. I'd found it difficult to accept that times had changed and a new generation of musicians had taken over. My first musical encounter with their music was when I heard a cover version of their "White Punks On Dope", admittedly with completely new lyrics, by Germany's Nina Hagen Band (coming up soon); I decided to check out the original. Both versions are super. It was Viper, a mod at the old Capitol BB MB, who years later pointed me at this splendid song from the band's second album, Young and Rich (he also pointed me at some good disco, bless him). "Don't Touch Me There" sees former roadie John Waybill duetting somewhat suggestively with Re Styles (Shirley Marie Macleod). Waybill's nickname -- originally a band in-joke -- is "Fee", apparently short for "Fiji", owing to his then copious head of hippie hair. (Fee Waybill makes me think of Tim Lookingbill, an "alfalfa male" at Hoffman.)
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Post by jk on Apr 13, 2023 4:28:47 GMT -5
1639: The Italian Baroque composer Giovanni Rovetta (c.1595/97–1668) was maestro di capella of the Capella Marciana at St Mark's Basilica in Venice. After serving his predecessor Claudio Monteverdi (up next month) as a chorister, instrumentalist, bass and vice-director, he took over in 1664 until his death four years later, when he was succeeded by Francesco Cavalli [ 1666]. His students included fellow Venetian Giovanni Legrenzi [ 1662]. Rovetta's Messa e salmi concertati, Op. 4 is counted among his most successful works. From it, this is the "Magnificat": 1977: The only time I ever heard "Sideshow" by Barry Biggs (born 1946) was when working as a cleaner (the penalty of being a non-Dutch-speaking ex-pat) in the "Jumbo hangar" behind the scenes at the main local airport. It sounded pretty spectacular blasting out in that cavernous space. So I never heard who the singer was -- at one desperate point I thought it might have been Boz Skaggs! It took me nearly half a century to identify the song. Even then, all I had to go on were the words "hurry hurry", not the most immediately productive of strings to google. I got there in the end, and it sounds as good now as it did then:
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