December 4 Dateline

Birthdays

1660 -  André Campra (baptised baptized 4 December 1660), French composer and conductor. He was one of the leading French opera composers in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau. He wrote several tragédies en musique and opéra-ballets  that were extremely well received. He also wrote three books of cantatas as well as religious music, including a requiem. (The Paris Boys Choir - REQUIEM - André Campra - Petits Chanteurs de Sainte-Croix - PRODIGES. Les Petits Chanteurs de Sainte-Croix de Neuilly - The Paris Boys Choir Orchestre baroque Le Collège de Musique Sacrée. Accessed December 4, 2019.  Campra: Requiem [Messe des Morts]. YoutTube. John Eliot Gardiner. Soli & The MonteverdiChoir. English Baroque Soloists. Accessed December 4, 2020.)

1795 - Thomas Carlyle,  Scottish historian, satirical writer, translator, philosopher, mathematician, and teacher. He is considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, with certain acclaim in the Victorian era. In his famous work On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History, he argued that the key role in history lies in the actions of the "Great Man", claiming that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men". A respected historian, his 1837 book The French Revolution: A History was the inspiration for Charles Dickens' 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities. Carlyle's 1836 Sartor Resartus is a notable philosophical novel.  A great polemicist, Carlyle coined the term "the dismal science" for economics, in his essay "Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question", which remains controversial. He also wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopædia. Once a Christian, Carlyle lost his faith while attending the University of Edinburgh, later adopting a form of deism.  In mathematics, he is known for the Carlyle circle, a method used in quadratic equations and for developing ruler-and-compass constructions of regular polygons.

1866 - Wassily Kandinsky, Russian painter and art theorist and one of the leading figures in Blaue Reiter. One of the most important 20th-century artists, he is credited with painting the first modern abstract art works.

1875 - Rainer Maria Rilke (René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke), Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist. He is "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets". He wrote both verse and highly lyrical prose. (Letter To A Young Poet (Pt 1) by Rainier Maria Rilke and Love Song read by A Poetry Channel. Accessed December 4, 2021. Poems by R.M. Rilke in Audiobooks - here, uploaded by Good Audio Books. Accessed December 4, 2016. Rilke On the Beauty and Difficulty of Solitude by Rainer Maria Rilke. YouTube, uploaded by That You Are Here. Accessed December 4, 2021.)

1949 - Jeff Leon Bridges,  American actor, singer, and producer. He comes from a prominent acting family and appeared on the TV series Sea Hunt with his father, Lloyd Bridges, and brother, Beau Bridges. Jeff Bridges has won numerous accolades, including Academy Award nominatons, and the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as an alcoholic singer in the 2009 film Crazy Heart. He also starred in commercially successful films. As an author, Bridges wrote The Dude and the Zen Master with Bernie Glassman. As a photographer, he published many of his photographs online and in a book entitled Pictures: Photographs by Jeff Bridges. He received an Infinity Award for his photos from the International Center of Photography in New York, and a follow-up book, Jeff Bridges: Pictures Volume Two was published in 2019. Bridges also narrated the documentary Lost in La Mancha. Among others, he narrated the documentaries National Geographic's Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West, IMAX), He voiced the character Big Z in the animated picture Surf's Up. He also hosted VH1's Top 100 Greatest Albums of Rock and Roll series in 2001. In 2016, he narrated Dream Big.

Leftie:
Author Thomas Carlyle

More birthdays and historical events, December 4 - On This Day

Historical Events

1154 - Cardinal Nicholas Breakspear is elected Pope Adrian IV, the first and only Englishman to have headed the Roman Catholic Church.

1845 - Piano Concerto in A minor by Robert Schumann premieres, performed by his wife Clara Schumann, in Dresden. It was dedicated to their friend, Ferdinand Hiller, who conducted from manuscript. (Here's one favourite interpretation, played by Martha Argerich - link, also embedded in Schumann's brief biography.) 

1881 - Violin Concerto by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is first performed with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Adolf Brodsky, soloist. Interestingly, Brodsky agreed to perform it after Leopold Auer declared it "impossible to play." The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, was written by Tchaikovsky in 1878. The piece was written in Clarens, a Swiss resort on the shores of Lake Geneva, where Tchaikovsky had gone to recover from the depression brought on by his disastrous marriage to Antonina Miliukova.

Below, violinist Itzhak Perlman interpreting Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, with Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy.



1893 - Australian opera singer Nellie Melba makes her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, starring in Donizetti's most successful opera, Lucia di Lammermoor.  (This great soprano has two foods named after her: Melba toast and Peach melba!) Listen to her sing that heartwarming song, "Home Sweet Home" - here.

1920 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold's opera Die tote Stadt is first performed, in Hamburg.  

1991 - The last American hostage in Lebanon, journalist Terry Anderson, is set free after six years and nine months in captivity.


Video Credit:

 
P.I. Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 - Itzhak Perlman YouTube, Uploaded by Field Liao. Accessed December 4, 2016.



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 4, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.