Birthdays
1748 - Maximilian Johann Karl Dominik Stadler, Abbé Stadler, Austrian composer, musicologist and pianist. From 1791 he lived in Linz and from 1796 in Vienna, where he settled the estate of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and was in charge of the Imperial Music. Stadler was among the most prominent personalities of Viennese musical
life at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. He befriended Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert and wrote numerous essays on Mozart.
1792 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the major English Romantic poets, who is regarded by some as among the finest lyric and philosophical poets in the English language, and one of the most influential.. He is best known for such classic poems as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud and The Masque of Anarchy. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death. Shelley was a key member of a close circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron, John Keats, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Love Peacock and his own second wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.
1900 - Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon), England's late Queen Mother, wife of King George VI, and the mother of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. She was queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions from her husband's accession in 1936 until his death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter. She was the last empress of India. (A Century in 100 Minutes - Queen Mother.) YouTube, Real Royalty. Accessed June 14, 2020.)
1901 - Louis Armstrong (born Louis Daniel Armstrong nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops"), was an American trumpeter, composer, vocalist, and actor, one among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras in the history of jazz. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. He appeared in films such as High Society alongside Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra, and Hello, Dolly! starring Barbra Streisand. He received many accolades including three Grammy Award nominations and a win for his vocal performance of Hello, Dolly! in 1964.
1905 - Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov, Soviet Russian composer, and, from 1946 to 1986, the second head of the Alexandrov Ensemble which was founded by his father, Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov. Alexandrov reached the rank of Major-General and was awarded the order of Hero of Socialist Labour, the Lenin Prize and the State Prize of the USSR, and named People's Artist of the USSR. Music by Alexandrov is used for the Anthem of Transnistria.
1913 - Robert Hayden, American poet, essayist, and educator. He served as consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976 to 1978, a role today known as US Poet Laureate. He was the first African-American writer to hold the office.
1961 - Barack Obama (born Barack Hussein Obama II), American politician and attorney, who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama was the first African American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. During his term in office, America's reputation abroad significantly improved. His presidency has generally been regarded favorably, and evaluations of his presidency among historians, political scientists, and the general public place him among the upper tier of American presidents. Obama left office in January 2017 and continues to reside in Washington, D.C.
Leftie:
Former U.S. President Barack Obama
Featured Poem:
Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Music, When Soft Voices Die"
(A tribute to English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Music, When Soft Voices Die"
(A tribute to English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory - Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken. Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heap'd for the belovèd's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on.
Below is Shelley's poem "Music, When Soft Voices Die", beautifully set to music by Victor C. Johnson. YouTube, uploaded by The Lorenz Corporation. Accessed August 4, 2018.
"Music, When Soft Voices Die" is a major poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 and first published in Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1824 in London by John and Henry L. Hunt with a preface by his wife, Mary Shelley. The poem is one of the most anthologised, influential, and well-known of Shelley's works. (Wiki).
Many composers and musicians have set the poem to music with vocal accompaniment. The music of the video below was composed bby Victor C. Johnson for piano and choir. (Wiki)
Historical Events
1693 - Don Perignon invents Champagne. the monk's first words upon tasting the beverage were reportedly, "Come quickly, I am drinking the stars!"
1782 - Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Constanze Weber marry in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral. (Mozart left Salzburg in 1781. Along with his artistic declaration of independence, Mozart married his girlfriend, Constanze, just weeks after The Abduction from the Seraglio’s premiere.
