Celebration Day
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Heinrich Heine *XII 13 1797 — The Life You Give / Das Leben Das Du Gibst
Heinrich Heine, born Dec. 13, 1797, in Düsseldorf, Germany, is the poet whose international literary reputation and influence were established by the Buch der Lieder (1827; The Book of Songs), frequently set to music, though the more sombre poems of his last years are also highly regarded. Heine was born of Jewish parents. His father…
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Antoni Tàpies *XII 13 1923 — The Life You Give
Antoni Tàpies, born Antoni Tàpies Puig, marqués de Tàpies), December 13, 1923, in Barcelona, Spain, was a Catalan artist, credited with introducing contemporary abstract painting into Spain. He began as a Surrealist but developed into an abstract artist under the influence of French painting and achieved an international reputation. In 1943 Tàpies began studying for…
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Edvard Munch *XII 12 1863 — The Life You Give
Edvard Munch, born December 12 1863, in Ådalsbruk, Løten, Norway, was a prolific yet perpetually troubled artist preoccupied with matters of human mortality such as chronic illness, sexual liberation, and religious aspiration. He expressed these obsessions through works of intense color, semi-abstraction, and mysterious subject matter. Following the great triumph of French Impressionism, Munch took…
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Carlos Gardel *XII 11 1890 — La Vida Que Das/The Life You Give
Carlos Gardel, December 11, 1890, in Toulouse, France, is the singer and actor, celebrated throughout Latin America for his espousal of tango music. Biografía en castellano al fondo de la página Some uncertainty exists concerning Gardel’s early life. While most sources indicate that he was born in France, Gardel occasionally cited Tacuarembó, Uruguay, as his…
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Big Mama Thornton *XII 11 1926 — The Life You Give
Big Mama Thornton, born Willie Mae Thornton on December 11, 1926, in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.A., is the singer and songwriter who performed in the tradition of classic blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie. Her work inspired imitation by Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin, who recorded popular cover versions of Thornton’s “Hound Dog”…
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Hector Berlioz *XII 11 1803 — The Life You Give
Hector Berlioz, born Louis-Hector Berlioz on December 11, 1803, in La Côte-Saint-André, France, is the composer, critic, and conductor of the Romantic period, known largely for his Symphonie fantastique (1830), the choral symphony Roméo et Juliette (1839), and the dramatic piece La Damnation de Faust (1846). His last years were marked by fame abroad and…
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Olivier Messiaen *XII 10 1908 — The Life You Give
Olivier Messiaen, born Olivier-Eugène-Prosper-Charles Messiaen, December 10, 1908, in Avignon, France, is the influential composer, organist, and teacher noted for his use of mystical and religious themes. As a composer he developed a highly personal style noted for its rhythmic complexity, rich tonal colour, and unique harmonic language. Messiaen was the son of Pierre Messiaen,…
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César Franck *XII 10 1822 — The Life You Give
César Franck, born César Auguste Jean Guillaume Hubert Franck, on December 10, 1822, in Liège, Neth.—died Nov. 8, 1890, Paris, France), Belgian-French Romantic composer and organist who was the chief figure in a movement to give French music an emotional engagement, technical solidity, and seriousness comparable to that of German composers. Franck was born of a…
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Elisabeth Schwarzkopf *XII 9 1915 — The Life You Give
Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, born December 9 1915, in Jarotschin, near Posen, Germany, [now Poznań, Poland] is the soprano who performed in the major opera houses of the Western world, and is remembered especially for her mastery of German songs known as lieder. Schwarzkopf studied at the Berlin High School for Music from 1934, winning various…
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Jim Morrison *XII 8 1943 — The Life You Give
Jim Morrison, born James Douglas Morrison, December 8, 1943, in Melbourne, Florida, U.S.A., is the singer and songwriter who was the charismatic front man of the psychedelic rock group the Doors. Morrison’s father was a naval officer (ultimately an admiral), and the family moved frequently, though it settled down in the Washington, D.C., suburb of…
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Jean Sibelius *XII 8 1865 — The Life You Give
Jean Sibelius was born in Hämeenlinna, Finland, on 8th December 1865, the second of three children. His father died when ‘Janne’ was only two. Although the language spoken at home was Swedish, Janne attended Hämeenlinna’s pioneering Finnish-speaking grammar school. Music was encouraged at home, and before long Janne was improvising and composing pieces of his…
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Tom Waits *1949 — The Life You Give
Tom Waits, born December 7, 1949, in Pomona, California, is a singer-songwriter and actor whose gritty, sometimes romantic depictions of the lives of the urban underclass won him a loyal if limited following and the admiration of critics and prominent musicians who performed and recorded his songs. Born into a middle-class California family but enamoured…
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Marius Müller-Westernhagen *XII 6 1948 — Das Leben das Du Gibst / The Life You Give
Marius Müller-Westernhagen, born Marius Hubertus Hans Müller-Westernhagen, December 6 1948 in Düsseldorf, Germany, is the popular singer and performer who made his first move into the entertainment industry via theatre acting and singing courses in Hamburg. He made his television debut in 1964, and has gone on to appear in over 50 movies since. Possibly…
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Rainer Maria Rilke *XII 4 1875 — The Life You Give / Das Leben das Du Gibst
Rainer Maria Rilke, born December 4 1875, in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now in Czech Republic] was the poet who became internationally famous with such works as Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus. Rilke was the only son of a not-too-happy marriage. His father, Josef, a civil servant, was a man frustrated in his career; his…
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John Wallis *XII 3 1616 — The Life You Give
John Wallis, born December 3, 1616, (O.S. November 23), in Ashford, Kent, England, is the mathematician who contributed substantially to the origins of the calculus and was the most influential English mathematician before Isaac Newton. Wallis learned Latin, Greek, Hebrew, logic, and arithmetic during his early school years. In 1632 he entered the University of…
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