Birthdays 1680 - Jean-Baptist Loeillet of London, Flemish Baroque composer, harpsichordist and flutist. He is called the London Loeillet to distinguish him from another famous composer, his first cousin Jean Baptiste Loeillet of Ghent, and he was the elder brother of Jacques Loeillet, also a composer. Leopold Godowsky's piano suite Renaissance features an arrangement of one of the Loeillet's Gigues. He played woodwind in the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket and held musical gatherings every week at his home. His performances were well received in London and he was responsible for introducing Arcangelo Corelli's 12 concerti grossi to Londoners. According to the New Penguin Dictionary of Music, he helped to popularise the transverse flute (a new instrument compared to the recorder) in England. He died in London.
1774 - William Horsley, English musician. His compositions were numerous, and include amongst other instrumental pieces three symphonies for full orchestra. More important are his glees, of which he published five books besides contributing many detached glees and part songs to various collections. His glees include "By Celia's Arbour," "O, Nightingale," and "Now the storm begins to lower", and his hymn tunes he usually set to There is a green hill far away. Horsley studied in Germany under Moritz Hauptmann and Felix Mendelssohn. On his return to England, he composed several oratorios and other pieces.(There's a Green Hill Far Away, sung by King's College Choir, Cambridge. YouTube, uploaded by drwestbury. Accessed November 18, 2015.)
1786 - Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber, German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school, considered the founder of the German Romantic school. He was a cousin of Wolfgang A Mozart's wife, Constanze Weber - Mozart. Carl Maria von Weber's operas: Der Freischütz, Euryanthe and Oberon greatly influenced the development of the Romantische Oper (Romantic opera) in Germany. Der Freischütz came to be regarded as the first German "nationalist" opera, Euryanthe developed the Leitmotif technique to an unprecedented degree, whilst Oberon may have influenced Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, at the same time, revealed Weber's lifelong interest in the music of non-Western cultures. This interest was first manifested in Weber's incidental music for Schiller's translation of Gozzi's Turandot, for which he used a Chinese melody, making him the first Western composer to use an Asian tune that was not of the pseudo-Turkish kind popularized by Mozart and others. (Carl Maria von Weber: Oberon. Conducted by Bernard Haitink. Royal Opera House Covent Garden. 01-12-1999. Uploaded by ear8002. Accessed November 18, 2013. The Best of Weber's Music. Uploaded by Top Classical Music. Accessed November 18, 2013.)
1787 - Louis Daguerre (Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre), French inventor, artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography. Though he is most famous for his contributions to photography, he was also an accomplished painter and a developer of the diorama theatre.
1836 - Sir William Schwenk Gilbert, English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator, best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most famous of these include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works, The Mikado. The popularity of these works was supported by the repertory company that Gilbert, Sullivan and their producer Richard D'Oyly Carte founded, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. These Savoy operas continue to be frequently performed. Gilbert's creative output included over 75 plays and libretti, and numerous short stories, poems and lyrics, both comic and serious. His plays inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, and his comic operas with Sullivan inspired the later development of American musical theatre, especially influencing Broadway librettists and lyricists. According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Gilbert's "lyrical facility and his mastery of metre raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since". ("Love, unrequited, robs me of my rest" ("Nightmare" Song), Iolanthe 2011, Light Opera Sacramento. Uploaded by Phil Daley. Accessed November 18, 2012. "The Nightmare" by Sir W.S. Gilbert, uploaded by corblimeynorthern. Accessed Nov. 18, 2018.)
1787 - Louis Daguerre (Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre), French inventor, artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography. Though he is most famous for his contributions to photography, he was also an accomplished painter and a developer of the diorama theatre.
1836 - Sir William Schwenk Gilbert, English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator, best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most famous of these include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works, The Mikado. The popularity of these works was supported by the repertory company that Gilbert, Sullivan and their producer Richard D'Oyly Carte founded, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. These Savoy operas continue to be frequently performed. Gilbert's creative output included over 75 plays and libretti, and numerous short stories, poems and lyrics, both comic and serious. His plays inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, and his comic operas with Sullivan inspired the later development of American musical theatre, especially influencing Broadway librettists and lyricists. According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Gilbert's "lyrical facility and his mastery of metre raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since". ("Love, unrequited, robs me of my rest" ("Nightmare" Song), Iolanthe 2011, Light Opera Sacramento. Uploaded by Phil Daley. Accessed November 18, 2012. "The Nightmare" by Sir W.S. Gilbert, uploaded by corblimeynorthern. Accessed Nov. 18, 2018.)
1859 - Sergei Mikhailovich Lyapunov (or Liapunov; 30 November [O.S. 18 November] 1859), Russian composer, pianist and conductor. He succeeded Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
as assistant director of music at the Imperial Chapel. He emigrated to Paris
in 1923 and directed a school of music for Russian émigrés, but died of
a heart attack the following year. Lyapunov is remembered for his Douze études d'exécution transcendente. This set completed the cycle of the 24 major and minor keys that Franz Liszt had started with his own Transcendental Études but had left unfinished.
Not only was Lyapunov's set of études as a whole dedicated to the
memory of Franz Liszt, but the final étude was specifically titled Élégie en mémoire de François Liszt. (Sergei Lyapunov ‒ Piano Sonata, Op.27, performed by Nicholas Walker. YouTube, uploaded by medtnaculus. Accessed November 18, 2018.)
1860 - Ignace Jan Paderewski (O.S. 6 November), Polish piano virtuoso, composer, and in 1919 the prime minister and foreign minister of Poland during which he signed the Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I. His musical fame opened access to diplomacy and the media, as possibly did his status as a freemason, and charitable work of his second wife, Helena Paderewska.
During World War I, Paderewski advocated an independent Poland, including by touring the United States, where he met with President Woodrow Wilson, who came to support the creation of an independent Poland in his Fourteen Points at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, which led to the Treaty of Versailles. Shortly after his resignations from office, Paderewski resumed
his concert career to recoup his finances.(Ignacy J. Paderewski: Minuet in G, Op. 14, No. 1. YouTube, uploaded by MrPoloniaMusic. Accessed Nov 11, 2020.
1861 - Dorothy Dix (Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer), American journalist and columnist. As the forerunner of today's popular advice columnists, Dix was America's highest paid and most widely read female journalist at the time of her death. Her advice on marriage was syndicated in newspapers around the world. With an estimated audience of 60 million readers, she became a popular and recognized figure on her travels abroad. In addition to her journalistic work, she joined in the campaign for woman suffrage and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1906 - Klaus Heinrich Thomas Mann, German-born American writer and dissident. He was the son of Thomas Mann and brother of Erika Mann, with whom he maintained a lifelong close relationship, and Golo Mann. He is well known for his 1936 novel, Mephisto. Mann's novel Der Vulkan is one of the 20th century's most famous novels about German exiles during World War II.
1939 - Margaret Eleanor Atwood, CC OOnt CH FRSC, Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. She has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and two graphic novels, as well as a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including the Booker Prize (twice), Arthur C. Clarke Award, Governor General's Award, Franz Kafka Prize, Princess of Asturias Awards, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television. Atwood is also the inventor of the LongPen device and associated technologies that facilitate remote robotic writing of documents.
Leftie:
None Known
Here's Carl Maria von Weber's Overture from his German opera Der Freischütz (Der Freischuetz), with NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Australian conductor Simone Young. What a wonderful performance from a favourite Australian conductor!
Historical Events
1307 - According to legend, William Tell refuses to bow to the tyrant Gessler's hat and is forced to shoot an apple from his own son's head.
1477 - William Caxton prints the first book in England, entitled Dictes or Syengis of the Philosophres.
1820 - Nathaniel Palmer, captain of a U.S. sealing ship, the Hero, sails south in the hope of finding more hunting grounds and discovers Antarctica.
1852 - The state funeral of Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington takes place at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The interior of the cathedral is covered in black velvet fort he occasion and illuminated by gaslight.
1865 - Mark Twain's first famous story is published in New York's Saturday Press under its original title, "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog."
1991 - Terry Waite returns to Great Britain after nearly five years as a captive of Shi'ite Muslim terrorists. In 1987 he had gone to Lebanon as the Archbishop of Canterbury's Special Envoy to negotiate for the release of several hostages and had been taken a hostage himself.
Video Credit:
Der Freischütz J277 : Overture, conducted by Simone Young. YouTube, uploaded by KiatMac Pattaya. Accessed May 17, 2021.
Resources:
Historical Events
1307 - According to legend, William Tell refuses to bow to the tyrant Gessler's hat and is forced to shoot an apple from his own son's head.
1477 - William Caxton prints the first book in England, entitled Dictes or Syengis of the Philosophres.
1820 - Nathaniel Palmer, captain of a U.S. sealing ship, the Hero, sails south in the hope of finding more hunting grounds and discovers Antarctica.
1852 - The state funeral of Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington takes place at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The interior of the cathedral is covered in black velvet fort he occasion and illuminated by gaslight.
1865 - Mark Twain's first famous story is published in New York's Saturday Press under its original title, "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog."
1991 - Terry Waite returns to Great Britain after nearly five years as a captive of Shi'ite Muslim terrorists. In 1987 he had gone to Lebanon as the Archbishop of Canterbury's Special Envoy to negotiate for the release of several hostages and had been taken a hostage himself.
Video Credit:
Der Freischütz J277 : Overture, conducted by Simone Young. YouTube, uploaded by KiatMac Pattaya. Accessed May 17, 2021.
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
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 November 18, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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