The Piano — International Piano Day

The piano, also called pianoforte, French piano or pianoforte, German Klavier, is a keyboard musical instrument having wire strings that sound when struck by felt-covered hammers operated from a keyboard. The standard modern piano contains 88 keys and has a compass of seven full octaves plus a few keys.The vibration of the strings is transmitted… Continue reading The Piano — International Piano Day

Akira Kurosawa *III 23 1910 — The Life You Give

Kurosawa Akira, born March 23, 1910, in Tokyo, Japan, was the first Japanese film director to win international acclaim, with such films as Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), Kagemusha (1980), and Ran (1985). Kurosawa’s father, who had once been an army officer, was a teacher who contributed to the… Continue reading Akira Kurosawa *III 23 1910 — The Life You Give

Agnes Martin *III 22 1912 — The Life You Give

Agnes Martin, born March 22 1912, in Macklin, Sask., Canada, was a painter. She moved to the U.S. in 1931 and became a U.S. citizen in 1950. She studied at Columbia University and taught at the University of New Mexico. In 1958 she had her first solo exhibition. Martin was a prominent exponent of geometric… Continue reading Agnes Martin *III 22 1912 — The Life You Give

Johann Sebastian Bach *III 21 1685 — The Life You Give

Johann Sebastian Bach, born March 21 [March 31, New Style], 1685, in Eisenach, Thuringia, Ernestine Saxon Duchies [Germany], was a composer of the Baroque era, the most celebrated member of a large family of north German musicians. Although he was admired by his contemporaries primarily as an outstanding harpsichordist, organist, and expert on organ building,… Continue reading Johann Sebastian Bach *III 21 1685 — The Life You Give

To my Father, and Johann Sebastian Bach — especially

On a day like today, some significant humans arrived planet earth. 1685 Johann Sebastian Bach, the incomparable German composer and musician, in Eisenach, Germany. 1856 Henry Ossian Flipper, the USAmerican soldier who was the first US African American to graduate from West Point, after having been a slave, born in Thomasville, Georgia. 1931 Rolando Eliezer,… Continue reading To my Father, and Johann Sebastian Bach — especially