Tag Archives: Music

Fats Waller: Born May 21, 1904

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

Fats Waller (May 21, 1904-December 15, 1943), jazz and popular pianist, singer, and songwriter, was born Thomas Wright Waller in New York City, the son of Edward Martin Waller, a Baptist preacher, and Adeline Lockett. From age six Waller was devoted to the piano but initially failed to practice properly or learn to read music well, because he could memorize lessons immediately. In his youth he also played reed organ in church. He studied piano, string bass, and violin at P.S. 89, which he attended to about age fourteen or fifteen. Although his girth had earned him a nickname by this time, the names Thomas and Fats appeared interchangeably (and sometimes together, as Thomas “Fats” Waller) in his professional work until at least 1931. Later in his career, and posthumously, the nickname prevailed.
http://www.anb.org/articles/18/18-01201.html

Rudolph Valentino: Born May 6, 1895

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

While in New York during the spring of 1923, Rudolph Valentino paid a visit to the Brunswick studios and recorded two songs. El Relicario in Spanish and The Kashmiri Song in English. According to legend, Valentino recorded these songs for his new bride, Natacha Rambova since they had recently wed after a few very tense years of legal difficulties concerning Valentino’s divorce from Jean Acker.
It was reported that after he heard his voice, he quipped “There goes my opera career!“
https://www.popsike.com/19231926-Rudolph-Valentino-SingsKashmiri-Love-SongEl-Relicario-78rpm-Record/200783413331.html

“Breathtakingly Detailed Large-Format Photographs of Opera Houses Around the World”

Posted in Miscellanea by

operahouse

Photographer David Leventi captures opera houses all over the world in breathtaking detail in his series Opera. Leventi uses large-format photography to ensure the detail of rich texture and light in his work.
http://laughingsquid.com/breathtakingly-detailed-large-format-photographs-of-opera-houses-around-the-world/

http://www.davidleventi.com/portfolio/opera/1/thumbs

“Turandot” premieres in Milan on April 25, 1926:

Posted in Miscellanea by

Poster

Turandot premiered at La Scala in Milan on 25 April 1926, almost a year and a half after Puccini’s death. Puccini’s friend Arturo Toscanini, who had worked on the score with the composer during the last months of Puccini’s life, conducted the premiere. As is widely recorded, when the opera reached the last note written by Puccini, Toscanini ended the performance. What he said at the time has been variously reported, from the poetic “Here death triumphed over art” to the poigniant “For me, the work ends here.” An eyewitness quoted in a recent biography puts it somewhere between the two: “Here ends the opera, because at this point the maestro was dead.”
FROM http://www.theopera101.com/operas/turandot/

Leopold Stokowski: Born on April 18, 1882

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

This great conductor was born on 18 April 1882 and died on 13 September 1977…Stokowski began his conducting career at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1909, at the young age of 27….After a few years in Cincinnati, however, Stokowski moved on to the Philadelphia Orchestra and molded it into one of the finest orchestras in the world. In fact, Rachmaninoff claimed that the Philadelphia WAS the finest orchestra in the world.
FROM http://www.classical.net/music/guide/society/lssa/stokybio.php

Stokowski arrived in Los Angeles January 2, 1938 to record the Sorcerer’s Apprentice with a hand-picked orchestra of 85 Hollywood session musicians…Disney had decided that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice short film needed to be expanded to a full-length movie, in order to be financially viable. Fantasia was issued in 1941 and 1942, and was released again many times over the years, and continues even today to play in some theaters.
FROM http://www.stokowski.org/1939_1940_Electrical_Recordings_Stokowski.htm

Mickey

Leopold Stokowski was a frequent visitor to the [New York] Philharmonic over the years, appearing with the Orchestra on nearly 200 occasions…In his last appearance with the Philharmonic, on February 8, 1969, he led a program of music by Bach and two modern works inspired by him: Lukas Foss’s Phorion, and Rock Variations and Fantasy on a Brandenburg Concerto, written and performed by the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble.
FROM https://nyphil.org/about-us/artists/leopold-stokowski

Leonardo da Vinci: Born April 15, 1452

Posted in Artists Born Today Include: by

LastSupperThe Last Supper ~ 1494–1498 ~ Oil/tempera on dry plaster ~ Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

The illegitimate son of a 25-year-old notary, Ser Piero, and a peasant girl, Caterina, Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy, just outside Florence…Growing up in his father’s Vinci home, Leonardo had access to scholarly texts owned by family and friends. He was also exposed to Vinci’s longstanding painting tradition, and when he was about 15 his father apprenticed him to the renowned workshop of Andrea del Verrochio in Florence. Even as an apprentice, Leonardo demonstrated his colossal talent.
>>>>>>   https://legacy.mos.org/leonardo/ (Museum of Science: Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance Man)

“On Leonardo da Vinci’s Birthday MFA Boston Shows the Most Beautiful Drawing in the World”~ https://news.artnet.com/in-brief/leonardo-da-vinci-birthday-288061 (artnet news)

Slideshow~ http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/leon/hd_leon.htm#slideshow1 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History)

Leonardo Da Vinci timeline~ http://worldhistoryproject.org/topics/leonardo-da-vinci (World History Project)



The Story of Leonardo’s Horse~ https://www.davincisciencecenter.org/about/leonardo-and-the-horse/the-full-story-of-leonardos-horse/ (Da Vinci Science Center)



Ralph Steadman Illustrates the Life of Leonardo da Vinci~ http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/07/11/ralph-steadman-i-leonardo/ (Brain Pickings)

List of works by Leonardo da Vinci~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci (Wikipedia)

Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with the Ermine), about 1488Lady with an Ermine
1489–1490
Oil on wood panel
Wawel Castle, Kraków

Mona LisaMonaLisa
1503–1506 (perhaps 1517)
Oil on wood panel
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Ginevra
Ginevra de’Benci
1474–1478
Oil on wood panel
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

St. John the Baptist
JohnTheBaptist
1513–1516

Oil on wood panel

Musée du Louvre, Paris

>> Click on images to enlarge <<<

Bessie Smith: Born on April 15, 1894

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

Smith’s childhood in 1890s Tennessee began with a series of setbacks that most people don’t get over: Her parents were dead by the time she was 10, and she and her siblings were raised in Chattanooga by an aggrieved older sister. They nearly starved. For money, her sister took in laundry. Young Bessie sang on the street and at churches that sent for the child with the extraordinary voice.

By the age of nine, she had a following. By 16, she’d met blues great Ma Rainey and begun traveling with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, a touring variety show that played to rural populations of the South and Midwest. By 24, Smith had lit out as a solo act…
FROM https://www.npr.org/2018/01/05/575422226/forebears-bessie-smith-the-empress-of-the-blues

https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/bessie-smith
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bessie-smith-mn0000054707/biography
http://www.naxos.com/person/Bessie_Smith_2941/2941.htm

Lily Pons: Born on April 12, 1898

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

Few opera stars have led such an impressive career. For over a quarter of a century, her coloratura voice captured the stages of Paris, London, Buenos Aires, Mexico, and the United States. Like Mario Lanza and Luciano Pavarotti, she acted in second-rate films about opera stars, which were surprisingly well-attended.

Her sweet soprano voice had an extremely high tessitura. It was said she could hold a high D for about a minute. The Metropolitan Opera revived roles especially for her, like Delibes’ Lakmé, Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le Coq d’or.
FROMhttp://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/s/sny60655a.php

In 1932, the tiny Frederick County post office of Lilypons opened for business. “It was a dot on a map, because nobody has ever been quite sure what to call it. Lilypons, Md., was never a city, town or even a hamlet,” said The Evening Sun in 1986. “It is now what it has always been: one frame building surrounded by a small cluster of ponds nestled into a bdaycakepeaceful crook of the Monocacy River eight miles south of Frederick.” In 1963, during a period of cost cutting, the Postal Service discontinued the Lilypons postmark and combined its functions with the nearby Buckeystown post office. A plaque commemorating the tiny post office was mounted on the building in 1986. ~Fred Rasmussen FROMhttps://www.baltimoresun.com/

Tom Lehrer: Born April 9, 1928

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

Thomas Andrew “Tom” Lehrer is a retired American singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy, humorous songs he recorded in the 1950s and ’60s. ~Wikipedia

Biography~ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/tom-lehrer-mn0000611877/biography

“Looking For Tom Lehrer”~
https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/tom-lehrer?utm_term=.ruJ6aPBRrd#.xq4Xe2dq4w