Music History Monday

We mark the birth on July 10, 1895 – 128 years ago today – of the German composer and educator Carl Heinrich Maria Orff.  Born in Munich, he died in that city on March 29, 1982, at the age of 86. C...

10 Jul 202326min

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) circa 1925, at the age of 71 We mark the birth on July 3, 1854 – 169 years ago today – of the Moravian (meaning Czech) composer, music theorist, folklorist, and teacher Leo...

3 Jul 202317min

‘Fessing Up THE SCENE from the John Carpenter movie The Thing (1983) Okay: you’re going to have to bear with me for one of my idiotic tangents, one that nevertheless explains precisely how I fee...

26 Jun 202319min

Ferdinand David (1810-1873) (photo © Robert Whitehouse Eshbach We mark the birth on June 19, 1810 – 213 years ago today – of the German virtuoso violinist and composer, Ferdinand David. Born in th...

19 Jun 202320min

Chick Corea (1941-2021) in 2019 We mark the birth on June 12, 1941 – 82 years ago today – of the pianist and composer Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He died of cancer af...

12 Jun 202317min

Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, 1948) with his beloved boa, Julius Squeezer, before the “breakfast incident” On June 5, 1977 – 46 years ago today – the shock-rock superstar Alice Cooper’s...

5 Jun 202318min

Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) in 1901 On May 29, 1860 – 163 years ago today – the composer and pianist Isaac Albéniz was born in Camprodón, Spain. Albéniz was a brilliant pianist and, as evidenced by ...

29 Mai 202320min

We mark the first performance on May 22, 1874 – 149 years ago today – of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, written in memory of the Italian novelist, poet, and patriot Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1872).” Back...

22 Mai 202320min