Birthdays
1525 - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. Considered the greatest composer of liturgical music, he wove his music from the traditions of the Counter-Reformation and the Baroque. He died February 2, 1594. He had a long-lasting influence on the development of church and secular music in Europe, especially on the development of counterpoint, and his work is considered the culmination of Renaissance polyphony. His compositions included masses, lamentations, hymns, motets, litanies, and magnificats. (O Magnum Mysterium - Palestrina. YouTube, King's College Choir Cambridge, Sir Philip Ledger. Uploaded by Frank James. Accessed February 3, 2018. Sicut Cervus - Palestrina. Westminster Cathedral Choir. Martin Baker, Director. YouTube, uploaded by AAMMS1967. Accessed February 3, 2020.)
1736 - Johann Georg Albrechtsbreger, Austrian music theorist and composer, organist, and and one of the teachers of Ludwig van Beethoven. He was friendly with Haydn and Mozart. His fame as a theorist attracted to him in the Austrian capital a large number of pupils, some of whom afterwards became eminent musicians. Among them were: Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ignaz Moscheles, Josef Weigl, Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson, Antonio Casimir Cartellieri, Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Reicha and Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. Beethoven returned to Vienna in 1792 (a year after Mozart had died) to study with Joseph Haydn, but became infuriated when his work was not being given attention or corrected. Haydn recommended his friend Albrechtsberger, with whom Beethoven then studied harmony and counterpoint. On completion of his studies, the young student noted, "Patience, diligence, persistence, and sincerity will lead to success", which reflects upon Albrechtsberger's own compositional philosophy.
1809 - Felix Mendelssohn, (born Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, and his String Octet. The melody for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is also his. Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions. A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family. He was brought up without religion until the age of seven, when he was baptised as a Reformed Christian. Felix was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent. (Listen to his best-known oratorio, Elijah, Op. 70).
1874 - Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. She moved to Paris in 1903, and made France her home for the remainder of her life. She hosted a Paris salon, where the leading figures of modernism in literature and art, such as Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson and Henri Matisse, would meet. In 1933, Stein published a quasi-memoir of her Paris years, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, written in the voice of Alice B. Toklas, her life partner. The book became a literary bestseller and vaulted Stein from the relative obscurity of the cult-literature scene into the limelight of mainstream attention. Two quotes from her works have become widely known: "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose," and "there is no there there", with the latter often taken to be a reference to her childhood home of Oakland. Her books include Q.E.D., about a lesbian romantic affair involving several of Stein's friends; Fernhurst, a fictional story about a love triangle; Three Lives; and The Making of Americans.
1894 - Norman Rockwell (Norman Percevel Rockwell), American author, painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over nearly five decades.
1907 - James A. Michener, American novelist of more than 40 books, most of which were fictional, lengthy family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating solid history. His numerous bestsellers include: Tales of the South Pacific for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948, Hawaii, The Drifters, Centennial, The Source, The Fires of Spring, Caribbean, Alaska, Texas, Space, and Poland. His first book was adapted as the famous Broadway & film musical South Pacific by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. (Writers - James Michener (1907-1997). Accessed February 3, 2020.)
1927 - Val Doonican (Michael Valentine Doonican), Irish singer and entertainer. He sang traditional pop, easy listening, and novelty songs, and was noted for his warm and relaxed style. A crooner, he had five successive Top 10 albums in the 1960s as well as several hits on the UK Singles Chart, including "If the Whole World Stopped Lovin'", "Walk Tall" and "Elusive Butterfly". The Val Doonican Show, had a long and successful run on BBC Television; he won the Variety Club of Great Britain's BBC-TV Personality of the Year award three times.
Lefties:
None known
More birthdays and historical events, February 3 - On This Day
Historical Events
1966 - The first soft landing of an unmanned probe on the moon, Luna 9, is done by the U.S.S.R. This Soviet success spurs the U.S. on in the race to put a man on the moon. An earlier American probe, Ranger 8, crashed into the moon in 1965. The soft landing of Luna 9 showed that one day a manned landing might be possible.
1690 - The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper currency in America.
1916 - Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada, burn down. A patent for "ice box on wheels", a refrigerator car, is granted to William Davis, a fish dealer in Michigan, U.S.
1964 - The legendary rock group The Beatles receives their first gold album award for Meet the Beatles. They were formed in Liverpool, England, in 1960, and went on to transform popular music as a creative, commercial art form over the next decade. They were one of the most popular bands of all time, producing songs like "Yesterday, "Hey Jude," "Penny Lane, "With A Little Help From My Friends," "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," "Day Tripper" and "Come Together." The favourite Beatles four are: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. (Here's a link to The Beatles greatest hits, uploaded by deaven7. Accessed July 1, 2018.)
1966 - The first soft landing of an unmanned probe on the moon is achieved by the USSR. It is named "Luna 9." This success by the Russians challenges the U.S. in the race to put a human being on the moon.
1972 - The first winter Olympics to be held in Asia in Sapporo, Japan.
1984 - The birth of the first world's first baby conceived by embryo transplant is announced in Long Beach, California.
1995 - Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins becomes the first female space-shuttle pilot as Discovery blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida.
Video Credit:
Mendelssohn: On Wings of Song (Auf Flügeln des Gesanges). YouTube, uploaded by Papermoon2011. Accessed February 3, 2017
Resources:
1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org
(c) June 2007. Updated February 3, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment