Pedro
Joined Mar 2008
17,260 Posts | 90+
On a mountain top in Costa Rica. yeah...I win!!
- Aug 25, 2017
Discussion Starter
- #579
[FONT="]26 August [/FONT][FONT="]………………………………………………………………………………….total views 680,915
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in 1627 - Thomas Bullis, composer is born.
in 1660 - Bartolomco Bernardi, Italian violinist and composer; b. Bologna, c. 1660; d. Copenhagen, May 23,1732. He received an invitation from the Danish Court to serve as a violinist and composer, and began his work there on Jan. 1, 1703; after an absence of several years (1705-10), he returned to Copenhagen and was appointed director of court music. In Copenhagen he produced 2 operas, II Gige fortunato (Aug. 26,1703) and Diana e la For tuna (Oct. 10,1703); he also wrote an opera, La Libussa, for a production in Prague in 1703; the music of these operas is lost. His trio sonatas were publ. in Bologna (1692, 1696).
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in 1661 - Louis Couperin, French Baroque composer and performer, dies at age 35.[/FONT]
[FONT="]He was born in Chaumes-en-Brie and moved to Paris in 1650–1651 with the help of Jacques Champion de Chambonnières. Couperin worked as organist of the Church of St. Gervais in Paris and as musician at the court. He quickly became one of the most prominent Parisian musicians, establishing himself as a harpsichordist, organist, and violist, but his career was cut short by his early death at the age of thirty-five.[/FONT]
[FONT="]None of Couperin's music was published during his lifetime, but manuscript copies of some 200 pieces survive, some of them only rediscovered in the mid-20th century. The first historically important member of the Couperin family, Couperin made seminal contributions to the development of both the French organ school and French harpsichord school. His innovations included composing organ pieces for specific registrations and inventing the genre of the unmeasured prelude for harpsichord, for which he devised a special type of notation.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Most of the information about Couperin's life comes from two sources. Le Parnasse François, a 1732 book by Évrard Titon du Tillet, contains a biographical sketch describing certain details of his life, and some 30 organ pieces listed not only the date but also the place of composition. Couperin was born around 1626 in Chaumes-en-Brie, a town 40 km south-east of Paris. His father, Charles Couperin, sieur de Crouilly, was a small landowner and part-time organist of a local church. Louis was reportedly an accomplished harpsichordist and violinist by 1650 (and was already composing by then), but had no connections whatsoever with any important musicians of the era. His sudden rise to fame, which happened during 1650–1651, is explained in Le Parnasse François. Titon du Tillet writes that Louis, his two younger brothers Charles and François, and some of their friends visited Jacques Champion de Chambonnières on the feast of Saint James—Chambonnières' name day. The Couperins offered the host and his guests a short concert, playing several pieces composed by Louis. Chambonnières was impressed by Louis Couperin's talents, became his teacher and persuaded him to settle in Paris. There Chambonnières, who was the most prominent French harpsichordist of his time and musician to the King, introduced the young musician to the Court; Couperin's talents met with appreciation; by 1651 Couperin was already living in the city.[/FONT]
[FONT="]He almost certainly met Johann Jakob Froberger in 1651–1652; Froberger's style becoming a major influence on Couperin's music. On 9 April 1653 he became organist of the Parisian church of St. Gervais, where he was paid 400 livres a year, plus lodgings. The position at this ancient church was one of the most important in France at the time. At some point — most probably after he became organist at St. Gervais — Couperin entered the royal service as a treble viol player. Titon du Tillet writes that Couperin had refused, out of loyalty to his old friend and teacher, to replace Chambonnières as royal harpsichordist, and so the post of violist was created especially for him. On 22 October 1655 he stood godfather to his sister's child at Chaumes-en-Brie; from July to October 1656 and around November 1658 he was frequently travelling to Meudon, where he was probably employed by Abel Servien, a diplomat and statesman. He traveled to Toulouse with the court in 1659. During his last years, Couperin lived in the organist's lodgings at St. Gervais with his two brothers, and died on 29 August 1661, aged thirty-five according to Le Parnasse François.[/FONT]
[FONT="]His brothers both played an important role in the development of French Baroque music. No compositions by François (known as "The Elder" or "Couperin de Crouilly") are known to survive, but his line of the family carried the name of Couperin into the 19th century. Charles Couperin (known as "Couperin-cadet") succeeded Louis as organist at St. Gervais and, in 1668, produced an only child, François Couperin le Grand, who became one of the most important French composers of the late Baroque era.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Because his career spanned only some 10 years, none of Couperin's works were published during his lifetime. There are two major manuscript sources for his music:[/FONT]
[FONT="] The famous Bauyn manuscript (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Rés. Vm7 674–675), one of the most important sources for French keyboard music of the 17th century (particularly the work of Chambonnières), contains 122 harpsichord pieces by Couperin, as well as four organ pieces and 5 chamber works. The manuscript dates from ca. 1690.[/FONT]
[FONT="] The so-called Oldham manuscript (a private collection of G. Oldham), recovered only in 1957, contains 70 organ works by Couperin, of which 68 are unique. Also included are a harpsichord suite, four five-part chamber fantaisies, and two pieces for shawm band. This manuscript may have been compiled at least partly during Couperin's lifetime, and is the only such source for his music.[/FONT]
[FONT="]In addition to these, the Parville manuscript contains 55 harpsichord pieces by Couperin, although only five of these are unique (the rest is included in the Bauyn manuscript).[/FONT]
[FONT="]Couperin's harpsichord works are commonly referred to by numbers used in the princeps Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre edition of 1936. The edition was based entirely on the Bauyn manuscript, the only source known at that time. The authors of the manuscript did not arrange the pieces in suites, but rather grouped dances by key first and by genre second. So, for example, numbers 16–19 are courantes in C major, numbers 20–25 are sarabandes in C major, etc. Some editions and recordings may use Davitt Moroney's alternative numbering scheme, which attempts to create suites out of Couperin's dances.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The numbering scheme for Couperin's organ pieces also reflects their source, the Oldham manuscript. Here, however, no attempt was made by the copyist to group pieces in any way. The manuscript draws on at least two grands livres d'orgue, and the copyist apparently chose pieces arbitrarily. Distinguishing the many fantaisies is made easier, however, because Couperin would frequently provide the date, and sometimes the place of composition in a footnote. Numbers 11 and 19, for instance, are both titled "fugue", but the former is inscribed "Couperin a Meudon le 18e Juillet [July] 1656", and the latter "Couperin a paris le 1er 7ber [September] 1656". This extraordinary feature, which is unique for the period, allows tracing Couperin's development as organ composer from 1650 to 1659, sometimes almost day by day.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Harpsichordist Skip Sempé, as well as a few scholars, have questioned the attribution of both the harpsichord pieces of the Bauyn manuscript and the organ pieces of the Oldham manuscript to Couperin, on stylistic grounds.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Dance movements comprise around two thirds of Louis Couperin's harpsichord oeuvre; they include courantes, sarabandes, allemandes and gigues (in decreasing order of numbers). These pieces are more complex than those by Chambonnières and display more variety within an individual piece. His reputation as a composer comes mainly from his chaconnes, passacaglias and unmeasured preludes. These latter pieces, written out in a unique kind of notation (whole notes only, arranged in groups and connected by graceful curves) are influenced by Froberger's free-flowing allemandes and programmatic pieces; some borrow short passages from his toccatas.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Couperin's organ music exerted a great influence over 17th century European composers; it represents the transition from the strict counterpoint in the Titelouze vein to the colorful, concertante organ style introduced by Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers and Nicolas Lebègue, who influenced late Baroque composers such as François Couperin and Nicolas de Grigny. Couperin was the first French composer to write for specific registrations and also the first to compose leaping division basses in the style of divisions for the bass viol. Both of these stylistic traits are among the defining characteristics of French organ music of the 17th and the 18th centuries.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Editions[/FONT]
[FONT="] Louis Couperin: Oeuvres de clavecin. Second modern edition, edited by Davitt Moroney. Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre, Monaco, OL 58 (1985, reprinted in 2004). Moroney omits the ornaments included in the first edition, since they were not contemporary with Louis Couperin. Moroney's lengthy introduction is, to date, the best biographical source on Couperin in English.[/FONT]
[FONT="] Louis Couperin: Pièces d' orgue. Transcribed and edited by Guy Oldham. Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre, Monaco, OL 300 (2003). 144 pages. This volume contains the musical text of 70 pieces, "as well as the relevant plainchant melodies with their texts to facilitate alternatim performance, a facsimile page, editor's notes, and a Critical Commentary." (Out of print.) A companion publication has been planned (but never published), consisting of extended prefatory material, including a technical description of the source, information on the organs played by Louis Couperin, and suggestions for performance.[/FONT]
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in 1683 - Johann Christoph Schultze, (also rarely Schultz) German conductor and composer, dies at age 76.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Johann Christoph Schultze was baptized on October 11, 1733, in the Protestant St. Mary Church in Berlin. His parents were Ephraim Schultz (* around 1710; † around 1784) and Anna Christina Starkcken (daughter of Martin Starken). They married on September 27, 1731, in St. Mary's Church. Ephraim worked as a shoemaker and was "a print master at the Höllandischer Sprütze at the Pommeranzenbrücke" in Berlin. On February 11, 1785 Johann Christoph married Sophie Henriette Edler (* around 1763; † 1839), daughter of Friedrich Edler, in the church at Dorotheenstadt in Berlin. A daughter Maria Carolina was born on 2 August 1785 (other children are not known). Johann Christoph died on August 22, 1813 in Berlin.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Schultze came from a German family of musicians and composers, who was active in music from the second half of the 18th century to the 19th century. The composer is largely forgotten today, but his works are occasionally performed. He may have been one of the last composers who wrote for the Flûte à bec ( recorder ), which was already out of fashion.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Schultze was a Kapellmeister ("music director and predecessor") from 1768 on Döbbelin's theater , later on at the Royal National Theater in Berlin. He was also the violin teacher of the later composer Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832). The latter, who did indeed set Goethe's poem The King in Thule (1811), left to Schultze for unknown reasons the task of the arrangement with orchestral voices. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Further details of his life are not known.[/FONT]
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in 1687 - Willem the Fesch, Dutch violinist/composer (Joseph) is born.[/FONT]
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in 1712 - Sebastian Anton Scherer, German composer and organist of the Baroque era, dies at 80.
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[FONT="]Scherer was born in Ulm, where he resided until his death. On 17 June 1653 he was elected town musician, and it was also around that time that he became assistant to Tobias Eberlin, then organist of the famous Ulm Münster Cathedral. Sherer probably started studying with Eberlin at the same time, later married his daughter and in 1671 succeeded him as organist of the cathedral. Sources disagree on whether Scherer was later appointed organist or simply organ consultant at St. Thomas (Église Saint-Thomas) in Strasbourg, but it was most probably the latter case, since apparently he remained Ulm's cathedral organist until his death in 1712.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Scherer's surviving works are few, as is typical for the era. They include a collection of sacred vocal music (motets, mass movements and psalm settings) somewhat notable for its imaginative word-setting in some of the pieces, fourteen trio sonatas published as one volume in 1680, all of considerable quality, and a two-part volume of organ music. This latter publication exhibits Italian influence, particularly that of Frescobaldi, which was typical for the south German tradition Scherer represented. The first part, written out entirely in tablature, is titled Intonationes breves per octo Tonos and contains 32 short versets, four for each church mode, so that each mode has an intonatio prima (toccata-like, with extensive use of pedal point), secunda (imitative), tertia (toccata-like) and quarta (imitative). The second part contains eight toccatas, all of which are sectional pieces that make heavy use of pedal point and contain much imitative counterpoint as well as free writing.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Other works include sacred and secular vocal music; and there is evidence that a set of lute suites was published in Augsburg, but those pieces are lost.[/FONT]
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in 1726 - Karl Kohaut, notable Austrian lutenist and composer, is born at Vienna (baptized). He was a student of Gottfried von Swieten. In 1758 he entered the Austrian civil service, and eventually rose to the position of secretary of the imperial chancery. He also pursued a distinguished career as a lute virtuoso. His lute concertos are remarkable examples of effective writing for the instrument. – Died at Vienna, Aug. 6, 1784.
in 1745 - Francois Guichard, composer is born.
in 1749 - Johann Ernst Rembt, composer is born.
in 1788 - Aloys Schmitt, German pianist and composer,brother of Jacob Schmitt and father of Georg Aloys Schmitt; is born at Erlenbach. He studied composition with Andre at Offenbach, and in 1816 went to Frankfurt am Main, where he remained all his life with the exception of short stays in Berlin and Hannover (1825-29). He composed 4 operas, Der Doppelganger (Hannover, 1827), Valeria (Mannheim, 1832), Das Osterfest zu Paderborn (Frankfurt am Main, 1843), and Die Tochter der Wuste (Frankfurt am Main, 1845), 2 oratorios, Moses and Ruth, church music, etc., but he is principally known and appreciated for his numerous piano compositions, including 4 piano concertos, several piano quartets, piano trios, a number of attractive character pieces for piano, and studies for school. – Died at Frankfurt am Main, July 25,1866.
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in 1789 - (Philipp) Friedrich Sikher, German composer, is born at Schnait, Wurttemberg. He studied with his father and with Auberlen, an organist at Fellbach. In 1815 he went to Stuttgart to study piano and composition with K. Kreutzer and Hummel, and in 1817 he was appointed music director at the Universotu of Tubingen, receiving an honorary Ph.D. in 1852. He was an influential promoter of German popular singing and publosjed several collections of German folk songs, in which he included his own compositions; of the latter, Lorelei (Ich weiss nicht, was soil es bedeuten, to words by Heinrich Heine) became so popular that it was often mistaken for a folk song; in all, he wrote about 250 songs. He also publosjed Choralbuch for 3 voices, 3 books of hymns for 4 voices, and Tubinger Liedertafel (men's choruses). A critical edition of his output was published in 1960. He wrote the books Geschichte des evangelischen Kirchengesanges (1844) and Harmonie- und Kompositionslehre (1851; second ed., 1859). – Died at Tubingen, Aug. 26,1860.
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in 1813 - Daniel Gottlob Türk, notable composer, organist and music professor of the Classical period, dies at 63.
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[FONT="]Born in Claußnitz, Saxony, Türk studied organ under his father and later under Johann Adam Hiller. It was Hiller who recommended Türk for his first professional position at Halle University, in Halle, Germany. On 18 April 1779 Halle University granted Türk's request to begin lecturing on music theory, making him the University's "Director of Music." This appointment made Türk the second university music director in Germany. While at Halle, Türk published his treatise On the Role of the Organist in Worship which is still occasionally reprinted.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Several of Türk's dances and minuets for the piano are still popular today. He wrote 18 sonatas. His most notable contribution to the classical music canon is the Klavierschule, a teaching guide for the keyboard. He also wrote a cantata, Die Hirten bey der Krippe zu Bethlehem (The Shepherds of Bethlehem) (1782), and some organ pieces and other choral works still in manuscript.[/FONT]
[FONT="]In 1783 he married Johanna Dorothea Raisin Schimmelpfennig, by whom he had two children. He was a member of the Halle Masonic Lodge, "Zu den drei Degen" ("one of the three swords"), along with Carl Loewe. In 1813, he fell ill and died of liver disease.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Teaching[/FONT]
[FONT="]Türk was first taught how to play by his father, and later studied with J.S. Bach pupil Gottfried August Homilius in Dresden. Türk was a gifted teacher in his own right, with students such as Hermann Uber, Karl Traugott Zeuner, Johann Friedrich Nauer and Carl Loewe.[/FONT]
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in 1819– Prince Albert, German musician, music patron, and Prince Consort of Queen Victoria, is born at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg. He learned to sing, play the piano and organ, and compose. In 1840 he married his 1st cousin, Queen Victoria, and in 1857 was made Prince Consort. He was a devoted supporter of the arts. Among his own compositions are sacred works and some 40 German songs in the manner of Mendelssohn. London's Royal Albert Hall (1871) stands in tribute to him. – Died at Windsor, Dec. 14, 1861.
in 1823 - Wilhelm Troszel, composer is born.
in 1828 - Erik Anthon Valdemar Siboni, composer is born.[/FONT]
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in 1832 - Henryk Klein, composer, dies at 96.[/FONT]
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in 1843 - George August Lumbye, composer is born.
in 1847 - Ippolit (Petrovich) Prianishnikov, Russian baritone, is born at Kerch. . He joined the Russian Imperial Navy, and later began to study voice, first at the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1873-75), then in Italy, where he became a student of Ronconi in Milan. He made his debut in Milan in 1876. Returning to Russia, he joined the Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersburg in 1878, remaining there until 1886. He then went to Tiflis (1886-89) and Moscow (1892-93), where he sang and produced opera. In later years he also taught voice. Among his students were Bolshakov, Nikolai Figner, and Mravina. – Died at Petrograd, Nov. 11, 1921
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in 1849 – Jacques Féréol Mazas, French composer, conductor, violinist, and pedagogue, dies at 66.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Mazas was a brilliant pupil of Pierre Baillot at the Paris Conservatoire, from which he received the first prize in 1805. In 1808, he played a violin concerto dedicated to him by Auber. He then performed widely across Europe. In 1831, he accepted the post of first violin at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. A short time later, he was appointed directeur des concerts in Orléans, where he directed that city's Opéra Comique theater. From 1837 to 1841, he was director of the conservatoire in Cambrai. His composition - Le Kiosk - had 8 performances at the Opera-Comique in Paris.[/FONT]
[FONT="]His compositions for violin are, for the most part, studies and duets for young string players of all abilities that constitute methods for both violin and viola.[/FONT]
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in 1860 - Philipp Friedrich Silcher, dies at 71.[/FONT]
[FONT="]German composer, mainly known for his lieder (songs), and an important folksong collector.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Silcher was meant to be a school teacher, but dedicated himself entirely to music in the seminary in Ludwigsburg after he met Carl Maria von Weber. He was taught composition and piano by Conradin Kreutzer and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. In 1817 he was named musical director at the University of Tübingen. He is regarded as one of the most important protagonists of choir singing. He arranged many German and international folk songs that even today remain standard repertoire of many choirs in Germany and became an integral part of German daily life. In 1829 Silcher founded the "Akademische Liedertafel" in Tübingen and directed it until his death.[/FONT]
[FONT="]He was married to Luise Rosine Ensslin (6 September 1804 in Tübingen – 17 June 1871). They had two daughters and one son.[/FONT]
[FONT="]A wine varietal was named after him, the Silcher (not to be confused with Schilcher). The asteroid 10055 Silcher also bears the composer's name.[/FONT]
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in 1873 - Carl Wilhelm, composer, dies at 57.
Karl Wilhelm, also Carl, was a German choral director. He is best known as the composer of the music for the song "Die Wacht am Rhein."[/FONT]
[FONT="]Wilhelm was born in Schmalkalden. He studied at Cassel under Louis Spohr, and then in Frankfurt am Main with Aloys Schmitt and A. André. From 1841 to 1864 he was the director of the Krefeld Liedertafel for which he composed numerous male choruses. In Krefeld in 1854 he set to words "Die Wacht am Rhein," the poem Max Schneckenburger wrote in 1840. In recognition of the success and the national importance of this song, he received the title of "Royal Prussian Musical Director" in 1860, and four years later received a gold medal from Queen (later Empress) Augusta.[/FONT]
[FONT="]On 24 June 1871, he received a personal acknowledgement from Chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck. In the same year, he received an annual gift from the government of 3,000 marks, which was then more than four times a typical salary.[/FONT]
[FONT="]From 1865 on, Wilhelm worked as the director of the music society in Schmalkalden, where he died eight years later.[/FONT]
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in 1878 - Heinrkh Pestalozzi, Swiss composer, is born at Wadenswil, near Zurich. He studied theology and music in Berlin, where he was a singing teacher (1902-12). He then was a pastor in Arosa, Switzerland, and then in 1917 became a voice teacher at the Zurich Conservatory. His choral works and songs acquired great popularity in his homeland. He also publ. several manuals on singing. – Died at Zurich, Aug. 9,1940.
in 1887 - Luis Abraham Delgadillo, composer is born.
in 1893 - Friedrich Smend, eminent German musicologist, is born at Strasbourg. He studied theology at the Universities of Strasbourg, Tubingen, Marburg, and Munster (Ph.D., 1921, with the dissertation Die Acta-Berichte uber Bekehrung des Paulus nach ihrem Quellenwert). He was employed at the University of Munster Library (1921-23) and at the Prussian State Library in Berlin (1923-45); was a teacher (1945-46), director of the library (1946-58), a professor (1949-58), and rector (1954-57) at the Kirchliche Hochschule in Berlin. In 1951 he received an honorary doctorate in theology from the Universotu of Heidelberg and in 1954 an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the Universotu of Mainz. He was an authority on the life and music of Bach. – Died at Berlin, Feb. 10,1980.
in 1894 - Arthur Loesser, esteemed American pianist, teacher, and writer on music, half-brother of Frank (Henry) Loesser, is born at N.Y. He studied with Stojowski and Goetschius at the Institute of Musical Art in N.Y. He made his debut in Berlin (1913). He first played in N.Y. in 1916, and after touring the Orient and Australia (1920-21), he appeared widely in the U.S. In 1926 he was appointed a professor of piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 1943 he was commissioned in the U.S. Army as an officer in the Japanese intelligence dept.; mastered the language and, after the war, gave lectures in Japanese in Tokyo; was the first American musician in uniform to play for a Japanese audience (1946). He published Humor in American Song (N.Y, 1943) and an entertaining volume, Men, Women and Pianos: A Social History (N.Y, 1954). – Died at Cleveland, Jan. 4, 1969.
in 1896 - Richard Hammond, composer is born.
in 1902 - Sergei Balasanian, Tadzhik composer, is born at Ashkhabad. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating with a degree in music history in 1935. From 1936 to 1943 he was mainly active in Tadzhikistan, then was in charge of radio programming there. In 1948 he joined the faculty of the Moscow Cons., serving as chairman of the composition dept. from 1962 to 1971. He was one of the founders of the national school of composition in Tadzhikistan. In his works, he made use of native folk motifs, in ingenious harmonic coloration. Died at Moscow, June 3, 1982.
in 1903 - Jimmy Rushing, US blues singer is born. [/FONT]
[FONT="]James Andrew Rushing was an American blues shouter, balladeer, swing jazz singer, and pianist from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, best known as the featured vocalist of Count Basie's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Rushing was known as "Mr. Five by Five" and was the subject of an eponymous 1942 popular song that was a hit for Harry James and others; the lyrics describe Rushing's rotund build: "he's five feet tall and he's five feet wide". He joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1927 and then joined Bennie Moten's band in 1929. He stayed with the successor Count Basie band when Moten died in 1935.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Rushing said that his first time singing in front of an audience was in 1924. He was playing piano at a club when the featured singer, Carlyn Williams, invited him to do a vocal. "I got out there and broke it up. I was a singer from then on," he said.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Rushing was a powerful singer who had a range from baritone to tenor. He could project his voice so that it soared over the horn and reed sections in a big-band setting. Basie claimed that Rushing "never had an equal" as a blues vocalist, though Rushing "really thought of himself as a ballad singer." George Frazier, the author of Harvard Blues, called Rushing's distinctive voice "a magnificent gargle". Dave Brubeck defined Rushing's status among blues singers as "the daddy of them all." Late in his life Rushing said of his singing style, "I don't know what kind of blues singer you'd call me. I just sing 'em." Among his best-known recordings are "Going to Chicago", with Basie, and "Harvard Blues", with a famous saxophone solo by Don Byas.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Rushing was born into a family with musical talent and accomplishments. His father, Andrew Rushing, was a trumpeter, and his mother, Cora, and her brother were singers. He studied music theory with Zelia N. Breaux at Oklahoma City's Douglass High School, and was unusual among his musical contemporaries for having attended college, at Wilberforce University. Rushing was inspired to pursue music and eventually sing blues by his uncle Wesley Manning and George "Fathead" Thomas, of McKinney's Cotton Pickers. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Rushing toured the Midwest and California as an itinerant blues singer in 1923 and 1924 before moving to Los Angeles, where he played piano and sang with Jelly Roll Morton. Rushing also sang with Billy King (vaudeville) before moving on to Page's Blue Devils in 1927. He, along with other members of the Blue Devils, defected to the Bennie Moten band in 1929.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Moten died in 1935, and Rushing joined Count Basie for what would be a 13-year tenure. Due to his tutelage under his mentor Moten, Rushing was a proponent of the Kansas City jump blues tradition, exemplified by his performances of "Sent for You Yesterday" and "Boogie Woogie" for the Count Basie Orchestra. After leaving Basie, his recording career soared, as a solo artist and a singer with other bands.[/FONT]
[FONT="]When the Basie band broke up in 1950 he briefly retired but then formed his own group. He also made a guest appearance with Duke Ellington for the 1959 album Jazz Party. In 1960, he recorded an album with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, known for their cerebral cool jazz sound, but the album was nonetheless described by the music critic Scott Yanow as "a surprising success."[/FONT]
[FONT="]Rushing appeared in the 1957 television special Sound of Jazz, singing one of his signature songs "I Left My Baby" backed by many of his former Basie band compatriots. In 1958 he was among the musicians included in an Esquire magazine photo by Art Kane, later memorialized in the documentary film A Great Day in Harlem.[/FONT]
[FONT="]In 1958 Rushing toured the UK with Humphrey Lyttelton and his band. A BBC broadcast with Rushing accompanied by Lyttelton's specially organised big band was released on CD in 2009.[/FONT]
[FONT="]In 1969 Rushing appeared in The Learning Tree, the first major studio feature film directed by an African-American, Gordon Parks.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Rushing's performing career ended after he became ill with leukemia in 1971. He died on June 8, 1972, in New York City, and was buried at the Maple Grove Cemetery (Queens), in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Rushing was married twice. He had two sons, Robert and William, with his second wife, Connie, to whom he was married from the 1940s until his death. Connie Rushing is credited with two compositions on her husband's 1968 solo album, Livin' the Blues.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Rushing was one of eight jazz and blues legends honored in a set of United States Postal Service stamps issued in 1994.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Rushing was held in high critical esteem during his career, and this has continued after his death. Whitney Balliett, jazz critic for The New Yorker, wrote of Rushing that "His supple, rich voice and his elegant accent have the curious effect of making the typical roughhouse blues lyric seem like a song by Noël Coward". The critic Nat Hentoff, who ranks Rushing as one of the "greatest blues singers," credits him as a seminal influence in the development of post–World War II popular black music. Hentoff wote that rhythm and blues "has its roots in the blues shouting of Jimmy Rushing...and in the equally stentorian delivery of Joe Turner..." Scott Yanow described Rushing as the "perfect big band singer," who "was famous for his ability to sing blues, but in reality he could sing almost anything." In an essay about his fellow Oklahoman, the writer Ralph Ellison wrote that it was "when Jimmy's voice began to soar with the spirit of the blues that the dancers – and the musicians – achieve that feeling of communion which was true meaning of the public jazz dance." Ellison said Rushing began as a singer of ballads, "bringing to them a sincerity and a feeling for dramatizing the lyrics in the musical phrase which charged the banal lines with the mysterious potentiality of meaning which haunts the blues." In contrast with Rushing's reputation, he "seldom comes across as a blues 'shouter,' but maintains the lyricism which has always been his way with the blues," wrote Ellison. According to Gary Giddins, Rushing "brought operatic fervor to the blues," and of his time with Count Basie notes that "just about every record they made together is a classic."[/FONT]
[FONT="]During his career Rushing was honored with many awards by music critics. He was a four-time winner of Best Male Singer in the Critic's Poll of Melody Maker and a four-time winner of Best Male Singer in the International Critic's Poll in Down Beat. His 1970 album, The You and Me That Used to Be, was named Jazz Album of the Year by Down Beat.[/FONT]
[FONT="]He died June 8, 1972 in New York City. (Cancer). [/FONT]
[FONT="]in 1908 - Antonio Pastor died at age 71. American impresario, variety performer and theatre owner who became one of the founding forces behind American vaudeville in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The strongest elements of his entertainments were an almost jingoistic brand of United States patriotism and a strong commitment to attracting a mixed-gender audience, the latter being something revolutionary in the male-oriented variety halls of the mid-century. He embarked on a show business career at a very young age, obtaining a job singing at P.T. Barnum's Scudder's American Museum. During the next few years he worked in minstrel shows, the circus business, and as a comic singer in variety revues. He established himself as a popular songwriter during a four-year run at Robert Butler's American Music Hall, a variety theatre located at 444 Broadway in what is now called Soho but was then the heart of the lower Manhattan theatre district. He also published "songsters", books of his lyrics which were sung to popular tunes. In 1881 Antonio took a lease on the former Germania Theatre on 14th Street in the same building that housed Tammany Hall. He alternated his theatre's presentations between operettas and family-oriented variety shows, creating what became known as vaudeville. His theatre featured performers such as Ben Harney presenting a new style called "ragtime" as well as other up-and-coming talents such as Lillian Russell, May Irwin and George M. Cohan.
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in 1911 - Jacopo Napoli, Italian composer, son of Gennaro Napoli, is born at Naples. He studied at the Conservatory San Pietro a Majella in Naples, with his father and S. Cesi; was subsequently appointed to the faculty, and eventually was its director (1954-62). Subsequently he was director of the Milan Conservatory (1962-72) and then of the Rome Conservatory (1972-76). He specialized in opera, often with a Neapolitan background, which gave him the opportunity to use Neapolitan songs in his scores. [/FONT][FONT="]His operas include Il Malato immaginario (Naples, 1939), Miseria e nobilita (Naples, 1945), Un curioso accidente (Bergamo, 1950), Masaniello (1951; won a prize of La Scala, Milan), I Peccatori (1954), Il tesoro (Rome, 1958), Il rosario (Brescia, 1962), Il povero diavolo (Trieste, 1963), and Il Barone avaro (Naples, 1970).
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in 1911 - Lester Lanin, orchestra leader (40 Beatle Hits) is born. (or '07?)[/FONT]
[FONT="]Mr. Lanin brought smooth tones, swift changes and a casually elegant style to a continuous stream of dance music, from Dixieland to swing to very, very tasteful rock 'n' roll. He supplied danceable happiness to several generations of the richest and most beautiful people on earth, at events ranging from Queen Elizabeth's 60th birthday party to the wedding of Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel to the private parties of the duPonts, Chryslers and Mellons.[/FONT]
[FONT="]He made music for Grace Kelly's engagement party, and at the wedding of Prince Charles and .... Diana Spencer. He wrote "My .... Love" in honor of their marriage. The kings of Norway, Spain, Greece, Denmark and Sweden hired him.[/FONT]
[FONT="]He played every presidential inauguration since Eisenhower's, except two. Jimmy Carter thought he was too expensive, and George W. Bush didn't invite him. (Ms. Shulman said he may have been disappointed that Mr. Bush didn't ask, particularly since he had long been a favorite of Mr. Bush's father and grandfather.)[/FONT]
[FONT="]His fast, two-beat dance tempo -- what is called the businessman's bounce -- became a standard by which society bands are measured. He and his bands (he sometimes had more than a dozen on the road at once) by 1992 had played 20,000 wedding receptions, 7,500 parties and 4,500 proms.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Mothers would book him for coming-out parties as soon as their daughters were born. His "Pink Petal Waltz," which he wrote for the New York Junior League in 1948, was a time-honored fixture at debutante balls.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Mr. Lanin, along with bandleaders like Ben Cutler, Meyer Davis and Bill Harrington, provided the musical accompaniment for high society as it glided from fox trots to cha-chas to the frug and beyond.[/FONT]
[FONT="]At the time of his death, he had only two bands on the circuit, and he himself had put down his baton three years earlier. But the residual love and steady if diminished demand for music that made some feel like they were bouncing on clouds seemed truly endless.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"For generations of the rich and famous, a society party isn't a society party unless Lanin is there with his back to the tuxedoed crowd," USA Today said in 1992.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Inducted into the Big Band Hall of Fame in Palm Beach, Fla., in 1993, Mr. Lanin built a legacy that The New York Times that year called "an elaborate construct built from scratch each night." The Times said Mr. Lanin claimed to invent the concept of playing continuous music at a party, and he is legendary for never leaving the bandstand during a dance.[/FONT]
[FONT="](President John F. Kennedy could not help asking Mr. Lanin when he went to the bathroom, according to many reports, all of which seem to neglect to give the answer.)[/FONT]
[FONT="]Mr. Lanin was famous for giving away multicolored cotton hats, 50,000 a year, with "Lester Lanin" emblazoned in script behind the brim. He liked to say he was in "the happiness business."[/FONT]
[FONT="]"Serve the public!" he said in an interview with The Times in 1987. "Whoever you play for, try and make sure you were part and parcel of something happy, so if the woman whose party it was sees you on the street 15 years from now, she'll say, 'Lester, you made my party."'[/FONT]
[FONT="]Nathaniel Lester Lanin was born in Philadelphia on Aug. 26, 1907, the youngest of 10 boys. His grandfather was a Philadelphia bandleader who traveled to jobs in a horse-drawn carriage. His father, Benjamin Lanin, was a bandleader, and so were at least six of his brothers. Brother Sam, the most famous in his day, was called the Toscanini of the dance orchestra.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Lester began playing piano and drums at 5, and first wanted to be a lawyer. He dropped out of school at 15 to play with his brothers' bands and book musicians for them and himself. Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong and Doc Severinsen were among those he employed.[/FONT]
[FONT="]One of his first jobs as a leader in his own right was the Boca Raton Club in Florida. His first big break in New York came in 1930, when he played at Barbara Hutton's coming-out party. Things quickly snowballed.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"You play one day, and it's like a mustard seed -- it grows," he said to The Times in 1995. "Someone says, 'I heard you play at such and such a party,' then someone else says it, and before you know it, you're playing lots of parties."[/FONT]
[FONT="]Mr. Lanin was a tiny man who demanded that his musicians neither drink nor use drugs. He never addressed clients by their first names. It was "Mr. Rockefeller" or "Your Highness."[/FONT]
[FONT="]He said he took cues from the dancers, and adjusted his music accordingly.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"I watch their feet," he said in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor in 1980. "If they're out of meter, something's wrong."[/FONT]
[FONT="]Mr. Lanin once loved a very young dancer named Dottie Littlefield, who died tragically at 23, he said in an interview with the London Sunday Mail in 1985. Her favorite song was "Night and Day." He started every evening with that song for 30 years.[/FONT]
[FONT="]He was married once, to an actress and former Miss Texas, but he told The Times that the marriage fell apart because she "spent more time on the road than I did." He left no immediate survivors.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Mr. Lanin made at least three dozen records, including one of Christmas carols he spiced up with his trademark lively tempo. The album cover featured a youthful Lester Lanin wearing a Santa suit and a demure woman peaking over his shoulder.[/FONT]
[FONT="]An oft-told story, repeated in Forbes magazine in 1987 and elsewhere, related the night Mr. Lanin was playing a debutante ball attended by Charles Tandy, the founder of the Tandy Corporation. The businessman did not want the evening to end, so he kept pressing large wads of cash into the bandleader's palm each hour to keep the music going.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The music finally stopped when Mr. Tandy collapsed on the dance floor. He died the next day.[/FONT]
[FONT="]in 1915 - Gre Brouwenstijn, (actually, Gerarda Demphina Van Swol), Dutch soprano, is born at Den Helder. She studied at the Amsterdam Music Lyceum. In 1940 she made her operatic debut as one of the three ...... in Die Zauberflote in Amsterdam. In 1946 she became a member of the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. In 1951 she made her debut at London's Covent Garden as Aida, and continued to make regular appearances there until 1964. She also sang at the Bayreuth Festivals (1954-56), at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires (1958), and at the Lyric Opera in Chicago (1959). In 1971 she gave her farewell performance in Fidelio in Amsterdam. Brouwenstijn was particularly esteemed for her Verdi and Wagner roles. – Died at Amsterdam, Dec. 14,1999.
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in 1915 - Humphrey Searle, distinguished English composer, teacher, and writer on music, is botn at Oxford. He studied classical literature at Oxford (1933-37) and music at the Royal College of Music in London (1937), where his teachers were John Ireland and R.O. Morris. In 1937 he went to Vienna, where he took private lessons with Webern; this study proved to be a decisive influence in Searle's own compositions, which are imbued with the subtle coloristic processes peculiar to the second Viennese School of composition. He served in the British army during World War II, and was stationed in Germany in 1946.
Returning to London, he engaged in various organizations promoting the cause of modern music. He was honorary secretary of the Liszt Society (1950-62); was an adviser on music for the Sadler's Wells Ballet (1951-57). In 1964-65 he was composer-in- residence at Stanford Universotu in Calif.; after serving as a professpr at the Royal College of Music in London (1965-76), he was composer-inresidence at the University of Southern Calif, in Los Angeles (1976-77). In 1968 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Although Searle's method of composing included some aspects of the 12-tone method, he did not renounce tonal procedures, and sometimes applied purely national English melodic patterns. As a writer, he became particularly well known for his writings on Liszt. – Died at London, May 12, 1982.
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in 1915 - William Bardwell, composer is born.
in 1918 - Louis W "Louis" Stotijn, bassoonist/conductor (Residence Orchestra) is born.
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in 1920 - Frederik Prausnitz, (actually, Frederick William), German-born American conductor and teacher, is born at Cologne. He went to the U.S. in his youth and studied at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. He later served on its faculty (1947-61), and then was conductor of the New England Conservatory of Music symphony orchestra in Boston (1961-69). He was music director of the Syracuse (N.Y.) Symphony Orchestra from 1971 to 1974. In 1976 he joined the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore as conductor of its symphony orchestra and opera. From 1980 he acted as director of its conducting program and conductor of its Contemporary Music Ensemble, retiring in 1997. Prausnitz appeared widely as a guest conductor in the U.S. and Europe, garnering a reputation as a leading advocate of contemporary music. He was awarded the Gustav Mahler Medal of Honor of the Bruckner Society of America (1974). He published Score and Podium: A Complete Guide to Conducting (1983) and Roger Sessions: A Critical Biography (1983).
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in 1922 - Lazar Nikolov, Bulgarian composer, is born at Burgas, Aug. 26,1922. He studied composition with Vladigerov at the Bulgarian State Conservtory in Sofia (1942-47) and in 1961 he joined its faculty. An experimenter by nature, Nikolov was one of the few composers in Bulgaria who adopted modern procedures of composition, melodically verging on atonality and harmonically on polytonality. [/FONT]
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26 August
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