jmc's classics
It is almost July 4th and the midpoint of the summer. Some cable music stations are playing American patriotic music. I like a lot of this music. This is not associated with Classical Music. Military marches and country as well as some pop music is associated with patriotic music. Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is played a lot on July 4th. July 4th like Memorial Day and Labor Day are associated with BBQing. Also on July 4th Fireworks are lit. In some places in the American South, fireworks are lit on Christmas.
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The Kennedy Center Honors is a prestigious award given at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC to entertainers who have contributed to American Culture. Among this year's members Soprano Rene Fleming. There have been classical musicians in there before. Among them is pianist Van Cliburn (1934-2014) and conductor Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985) in 1982, tenors Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) in 2001 and Placido Domingo in 2000, violinists Alexander Schneider (1908-1993) in 1987 and Nathan Milstein (1904-1992) in 1988 and Isaac Stern(1920-2001) in 1984.
Fleming (1959-) is a lyric soprano and like most other opera singers does crossover to popular music. She is an arts advocate. She was born in Indiana, PA. Fleming has sung contralto rolls. Also among her accomplishments is that she sings operas of French, Russian, Czech and Italian origins. Many of the opera singers of the past were not as versatile. She is a graduate of the prestigious Julliard School in New York. The others who are being honored this year are actor/ comedian Billy Crystal, Dion Warwick, Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, Queen Latifah. The awards ceremony will be this fall and will be broadcast on television. This is one of the most famous awards in the arts another one is the Mark twain prize for humor which I am not familiar with. The Kennedy Center awards have been given out since the 1970's. On this date in 1948 the first demonstrations of the LP aka 33 1/3 RPMs records took place in New York. Until them to buy a record of a complete symphony, concerto, opera, etc. you had to purchase several 78 rpm records which were heavy. For Example it would take 18 records for Handel's Messiah for one album. 78rpms were heavier than 33 1/3 RPMs. The first demonstration took place at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC. One year later RCA introduced 45RPMs. By 1951, The LP was the major format of records. Many of the first artists on LP were classical performers. Stereophonic sound came along in the mid 50's. In 1934 Conductor Thomas Beecham recorded an experimental stereo recording of Mozart's 41st Symphony. There were several other experiments with stereo sound over the next few years. We have it good compared to the previous generations with recordings.
Classical music fans are lucky. Costs for tickets to classical concerts are not as expensive as some pop and rock concerts. Even some sporting events are expensive to attend. I would not pay $500+ to attend any kind of event.
This past Wednesday on "Exploring the Music with Bill McLaughlin" He featured American composer Roger Sessions (1896-1985). The week dealt with American composers who came of age in the early 20th century.
He was born in Brooklyn NY to a family that traced its roots to colonial America. His son John was an accomplished cellist. At age 14 Roger enrolled at Harvard. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1982 for his Concerto for Orchestra. Sessions was also a musicoligist, teacher and a music critic. he is mainly remembered as a composer. Sessions was friends with both German writer Thomas Mann And Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. His early works were in the neoclassical style. His later works were more tonal and serial. So he used different styles or techniques in writing. The later was an influence on Sessions and his music. Among his writings are nine symphonies, several chamber works including two sting quartets, woks for solo piano and solo cello an opera Montezuma. He also wrote songs. The opera is about the Aztec emperor. Americans are not known for their operas. The number of recordings of his works are limited. Usually only one or two each of his works. Most are usually by unknown orchestras. I hope that in the future more recordings of his works become available. This was a good series, It is available on line at wfmt.com. WFMT is a classical music station out of Chicago which is the producer of Exploring the Music. Today is the birthday of Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971). He was a Russian composer. He died in Italy. Like many Russians-including artists and scientists he left Russia after the revolution. Actually some list his birthday as on June 17, because the Russians and other Slavic people use the Julian Calendar which is 13 days behind. He came from a musical family. His works and be divided in to three periods: The Russian Period from 1913-1920, Neoclassical 1920-51 and serial perio from 1954-68. It looks like he did not have any output between 1951-54.
He wrote music for all genres of music. Like most Russians he was a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. Like Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, he did write some church music. He even wrote a setting for the Catholic mass. One of his choral compositions was "A Symphony of Psalms" using texts from Psalms"38, 39 and 140". He is mainly remembered for his ballets Rite of Spring, The Firebird and Petrushka. The Rite of Spring was considered to be revolutionary for its time and caused riots among the audience at its premier in 1913. It is based on Pagan myths. The Firebird is based on Russian and Slavic ferry tails and involves a mythical firebird. Petrushka is about a puppet that comes to life. In addition to thy Symphony of Psalms he wrote Symphony in E- Flat (Opus#1) dating from 1907, Symphony in C from 1940 and Symphony in Three Movements from 1945. Among his other famous works were his concerto in E-Flat called Dumbarton Oaks. Named for the estate of Washington DC Philanthropists Robert and Mildred Bliss. This work has comes from his neoclassical period and was inspired by J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. I have heard some of his music performed live and I do have some CDs of his music. Stravinsky did meet president Kennedy. He died in 1971 in Italy. Today is the birthday of Edward Elgar (1857-1934). it is also the birthday of British writer Thomas Hardee (1840-1928). It is appropriate that Elgar's birthday is in this season. his Pomp And Circumstance March is played at graduations. He is remembered mainly for that and his Cello Concerto (Opus#85). The Cello concerto is one of the most popular cello concertos along with that of Antonin Dvorak(Opus# 104).
Both men were British. Hardy was critical of British Victorian Society. He is remembered for his novels. The most famous one was The Mayor of Casterbridge. |
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