December 6 Dateline

Birthdays

1896 - Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershowitz), American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 20th century. With George he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", "The Man I Love" and "Someone to Watch Over Me". He was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward, for the libretto to George's opera Porgy and Bess. The success the Gershwin brothers had with their collaborative works has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira played. His mastery of songwriting continued, however, after the early death of George. He wrote additional hit songs with composers Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Harry Warren and Harold Arlen. His critically acclaimed 1959 book Lyrics on Several Occasions, an amalgam of autobiography and annotated anthology, is an important source for studying the art of the lyricist in the golden age of American popular song.

1900 - Agnes Robertson Moorehead, American actress. Her career included work in radio, stage, film, and television. She is best known for her role as Endora on the television series Bewitched, but she also had notable roles in films, including Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Dark Passage, All That Heaven Allows, Show Boat, and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Moorehead rarely played lead roles, but her skill at character development and range earned her one Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards and six Emmy Awards. She was the first woman to host the Oscars ceremony. Her transition to television won acclaim for drama and comedy. She could play many different types, but often portrayed haughty, arrogant characters.

 
1920 - Dave Warren Brubeck, American jazz pianist and composer, one of the foremost exponents of jazz. Many of his compositions have become jazz standards including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranged from refined to bombastic, reflecting both his mother's classical training and his own improvisational skills. Often incorrectly attributed to Brubeck, the song "Take Five", which has become a jazz standard, was composed by Brubeck's long-time musical partner, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. Brubeck was also a composer of orchestral and sacred music and wrote soundtracks for television, such as Mr. Broadway and the animated miniseries This Is America, Charlie Brown. (Dave Brubeck Quartet - "Blue Rondo à la Turk," live. YouTube, uploaded by gamma68. Accessed December 6, 2019. Dave Brubeck Quartet In Your Own Sweet Way Belgium 1964 YouTube, uploaded by ronbweather. Accessed December 6, 2020.)

 

 1933 - Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Polish composer of contemporary classical music. Górecki became a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde during the post-Stalin cultural thaw. His Webernian-influenced serialist works were characterised by adherence to dissonant modernism throughout the 1960s, but by the mid-1970s he changed to a less complex sacred minimalist sound, exemplified by the transitional Symphony No. 2 and the hugely popular Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs). His Symphony No. 3,  'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs' largely overshadowed the rest of his work. He's known for the deeply meditative mood of his later music. (Gorecki's Totus Tuus, performed by the New College Choir, Oxford, uploaded by Kate Price. Accessed Dec. 6, 2019.  Henryk Gorecki - Symphony No 3; Youth Orchestra of South Tirol, Stefano Ferrario, Viktoria Miskunaite. YouTube, uploaded by asolutionsit.  Accessed Dec. 6, 2020.) 

1953 - Thomas "Tom"Edward Hulce, American actor and theatre producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Academy Award-winning film Amadeus (1984), as well as the roles of Larry "Pinto" Kroger in Animal House (1978), Larry Buckman in Parenthood (1989), and Quasimodo in Disney's animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Awards include an Emmy Award for The Heidi Chronicles, a 2007 Tony Award for Best Musical as a lead producer for Spring Awakening, an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for Amadeus, and four Golden Globe nominations.
 

Lefties:
None known 

 

More birthdays and historical events, December 6 - On This Day

Historical Events

1273 - Thomas Aquinas, aged 48, stops writing his famous Summa Theologica, leaving the work incomplete. He declares:  "I can do no more; such things have been revealed to me that all I have written seems as straw, and I now await the end of my life." 

1768 - The first volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is published in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1841 - Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 4 is conducted by Ferdinand David in its first performance, at Leipzig's Gewandhaus. (L. Bernstein conducts Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op 120, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Accessed December 6, 2016.) 

1846 - Hector Berlioz conducts the first performance of his 'opera de concert', La Damnation de Faust, at Opera-Comique, Paris.

1916 - Welshman David Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister of Britain.

1917 - Finland's Independence Day. (Here's Sibelius' famous Finlandia, Op. 26, symphonic poem. Sibelius: Finlandia (Prom 75).  BBCMusic. "Be Still My Soul". Sung  by King's College Choir Cambridge. Uploaded by spiritdei. Accessed December 6, 2019.)  

1921 - The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed, creating an independent Irish Free State, with the six northeastern countries remaining part of the United Kingdom (U.K.).

1929 - Igor Stravinsky is soloist in his Capriccio, for piano and orchestra, with the Paris Symphony conducted by Ernest Ansermet.

1977 - John Corigliano's Clarinet Concerto is first performed, in New York City.



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 December 6, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.