Music
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The Life You Give: John Cage *IX 5 1912
John Cage, born John Milton Cage, Jr., September 5, 1912, in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., is the avant-garde composer whose inventive compositions and unorthodox ideas profoundly influenced mid-20th-century music. The son of an inventor, Cage briefly attended Pomona College and then traveled in Europe for a time. Returning to the United States in 1931, he…
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Robert the Devil, by Giacomo Meyerbeer *IX 5 1791 / TLYG
Giacomo Meyerbeer, born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer, September 5, 1791, in Tasdorf, near Berlin, Germany, is the opera composer who established in Paris a vogue for spectacular romantic opera. Born of a wealthy Jewish family, Meyerbeer studied composition in Berlin and later at Darmstadt, where he formed a friendship with C.M. von Weber. His early…
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The Life You Give: Anton Bruckner *IX 4 1824
Anton Bruckner, born Josef Anton Bruckner, Sept. 4, 1824, in Ansfelden, Austria, is the composer of a number of highly original and monumental symphonies. He was also an organist and teacher who composed much sacred and secular choral music. Bruckner was the son of a village schoolmaster and organist in Upper Austria. He showed talent…
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“Hänsel und Gretel” by Engelbert Humperdinck *IX 1 1854 / TLYG
Engelbert Humperdinck, born September 1, 1854, in Siegburg, Prussia [Germany], is the composer known for his opera Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck studied at Cologne and at Munich. In 1879 a Mendelssohn scholarship enabled him to go to Italy, where he met Richard Wagner, who invited him to assist in the production of Parsifal at Bayreuth.…
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Charlie Parker *VIII 29 1920 / The Life You Give
Charlie Parker, born Charles Parker, Jr., also called Bird or Yardbird, on August 29, 1920, in Kansas City, Kansas, U.S.A., is the alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, a lyric artist generally considered the greatest jazz saxophonist. Parker was the principal stimulus of the modern jazz idiom known as bebop, and—together with Louis Armstrong and Ornette…
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The Life You Give: Hermann Nitsch *VIII 29 1938
Hermann Nitsch was an Austrian avant-garde painter, composer, and performance artist who worked in experimental and multimedia modes. He was a co-founder of the notorious art movement known as the Viennese Aktionists. With his project Orgien Mysterien Theater (“the Orgiastic Mystery Theater”), Nitsch immersed his audiences in scenes and symbols heavily charged with meaning: religious…
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The Life You Give: Karlheinz Stockhausen *VIII 22 1928
Karlheinz Stockhausen, born Aug. 22, 1928, in Mödrath, near Cologne, Germany, is the composer, and important creator and theoretician of electronic and serial music who strongly influenced avant-garde composers from the 1950s through the ’80s. Stockhausen studied at the State Academy for Music in Cologne and the University of Cologne from 1947 to 1951. In…
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The Life You Give: Antonio Salieri *VIII 18 1750
Antonio Salieri, born Aug. 18, 1750, in Legnago, Republic of Venice [Italy], is the composer whose operas were acclaimed throughout Europe in the late 18th century. At the age of 16, Salieri was taken to Vienna by F.L. Gassmann, the imperial court composer and music director (Hofkapellmeister), and was introduced to Emperor Joseph II. During…
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The Life You Give: Bill Evans *VIII 16 1929
Bill Evans, born William John Evans, August 16, 1929, in Plainfield, New Jersey, U.S.A., is the jazz pianist known for lush harmonies and lyrical improvisation, one of the most influential pianists of his time. Evans’s first piano teacher was his mother; he also studied violin and flute. He graduated with a music teaching degree from…
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Siegfried (Wagner) premiered VIII 16 1876
Siegfried – music drama in three acts(third of the four works which constitute the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen) Music – Richard WagnerLibretto – Richard Wagner Premiere – August 16 1876, in Bayreuth FestspielhausLanguage – German Siegfried, Old Norse Sigurd, is a figure from the heroic literature of the ancient Germanic people. He appears in…
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The Life You Give: Ian Anderson *VIII 10 1947
Born Ian Scott Anderson, August 10 1947 in Dunfermline, Scotland, Anderson was interested in music from a young age, gaining influence from his father James’ record collection of big band and jazz, as well as early rock & roll by Elvis Presley. The Anderson family later relocated to Blackpool where Ian finished his studies. In…
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Music versus Life
I remember very little of my childhood I can’t recall my parents ever touching meneither to caress, nor to punishI did not know anything about lovetenderness, contact, intimacy, warmthOnly through music did I have a chance to show my feelingsSometimes, when I lie awake at nightI wonder wether I have lived at allIs it the…
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William Tell (Rossini) premiered today in 1829
William Tell, German Wilhelm Tell, is the Swiss legendary hero who symbolized the struggle for political and individual freedom.The historical existence of Tell is disputed. According to popular legend, he was a peasant from Bürglen in the canton of Uri in the 13th and early 14th centuries who defied Austrian authority, was forced to shoot…
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The Life You Give: Enrique Granados *VII 27 1867
Enrique Granados, born July 27, 1867, in Lérida, Spain, is the pianist and composer who was a leader of the movement toward nationalism in late 19th-century Spanish music. Granados made his debut as a pianist at 16. He studied composition in Barcelona with Felipe Pedrell, the father of Spanish nationalism in music. He studied piano…
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The Life You Give: Alexis Weissenberg *VII 26 1929
If one wanted to make a biographical feature film about a classical musician, the life of the Bulgarian-American-French pianist Alexis Weissenberg would furnish ideal subject material. Born in Sofia in 1929, Weissenberg was taught to play the piano by his mother. Several members of her family were Vienna Conservatory-trained musicians, and Weissenberg grew up in…
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