November 24 Dateline

Birthdays

1632 - Baruch Spinoza (or Benedictus de Spinoza), Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Sephardi origin. One of the early thinkers of the Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe, he came to be considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy. (Philosophy - Baruch Spinoza. Uploaded by The School of Life. Accessed November 24, 2018.)

1849 - Frances Hodgson Burnett, British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, and The Secret Garden. During the serialization of Little Lord Fauntleroy in St. Nicholas in 1885, readers looked forward to new installments. The fashions in the book became popular, with velvet Fauntleroy suits being sold; other Fauntleroy merchandise included velvet collars, playing cards, and chocolates. Sentimental fiction was then the norm; in time, Little Lord Fauntleroy though still popular, was overtaken by The Secret Garden in popularity. Several of Burnett's novels for adults were also very popular in their day. A Lady of Quality was second in 1896, The Shuttle was fourth in 1907 and fifth in 1908, T. Tembarom was tenth in 1913 and sixth in 1914, and The Head of the House of Coombe was fourth in 1922. 

 
1864 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa), French post-Impressionist painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colorful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 19th century allowed him to produce a collection of enticing, elegant, and provocative images of the modern affairs of those times. Toulouse-Lautrec is among the best-known painters of the Post-Impressionist period, with Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat. In a 2005 auction at Christie's auction house, La Blanchisseuse, his early painting of a young laundress, sold for US$22.4 million and set a new record for the artist for a price at auction.

1868 - Scott Joplin, African-American composer and pianist, known as the "King of Ragtime" because of the fame achieved for his ragtime compositions, music that was born out of the African-American community. He wrote over 100 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and has been recognized as the archetypal rag. In 1976, he was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize. His talents and a combination of gospel hymns, spirituals, dance music, classical music and work songs contributed significantly to the invention of a new style called “Ragtime” in his day. (The Best of Scott Joplin. YouTube, uploaded by Jazz & Blues Experience. Accessed Nov. 24, 2018. Scott Joplin: Complete Works (Rags, Marches, Waltzes & Songs). YouTube, uploaded by Majestic George. Accessed Nov. 24, 2023.) 

1888 - Cathleen Nesbitt CBE (born Kathleen Mary Nesbitt), English actress of stage, film and television. She is most likely popular as the grandmother of Cary Grant in the romantic film "An Affair to Remember" starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. Nesbitt lived for many years in the United States, but returned to the United Kingdom where she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1978. Her autobiography, A Little Love and Good Company, was published in 1973.

Lefties: 
None known

 

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 24 - On This Day

 

 



Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" was used as theme music for the movie The Sting starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

Historical Events

1642 - Abel Tasman sights Tasmania (one of Australia's present states) from his ship, the first European to do so. On November 25, he named the island "Anthony van Dieman's Land, in honour of the Hon. Governor General our high Superior, who has sent us out to make this discovery."

1859 - Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection is published. It is an immediate and controversial bestseller putting forward the evolution theory that challenges the idea of Biblical creation.

November 23 Dateline

Birthdays

1719 -  Johann Gottlob Breitkopf, German publisher/printer and founder of the famous Breitkopf & Härtel. Son of Bernhard Cristoph Breitkopf. Johann Breitkopf devised a font with a smaller division of the musical elements, enabling piano reductions of scores.

1876 - Manuel de Falla, Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century. His image appeared on Spain's 1970 100-pesetas banknote. His first important work was the one-act opera La vida breve (Life is Short, or The Brief Life, written in 1905, revised before its premiere in 1913.) With a libretto by Carlos Fernández Shaw, La vida breve won Falla first prize in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando musical competition, with a prize of 2500 pesetas and a promise of a production at the Teatro Royal in Madrid—a pledge which unfortunately was not fulfilled (Harper 1998, 17). In April 1905 he won the first prize in a piano competition sponsored by the firm of Ortiz and Cussó. On 15 May his work Allegro de concierto premiered in the Ateneo de Madrid and on 13 November the Real Academia presented him with his prize for La vida breve. (Manuel de Falla's "El Paño Moruno" from "Siete canciones populares españolas", sung by Spanish mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza, with Gabriel Estarellas, guitar accompanist. Manuel de Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain.)

Also listen to de Falla's famous "Noches en los Jardines de España" (Nights in the Gardens of Spain),  interpreted by Martha Argerich, and another link played by Daniel Barenboim.



1888 - Harpo Marx (born Adolph Marx), American comedian, actor, mime artist, musician, the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. He was one of the most noted comedians of the 20th century as part of the famous Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo). In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers, Harpo's comic style was visual, an example of both clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish blond wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate). He frequently used props such as a horn cane, made up of a pipe, tape, and a bulbhorn, and he played the harp in most of his films.

1933 -  Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki, Polish composer and conductor. Among his best known works are Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Symphony No. 3, his St. Luke Passion, Polish Requiem, Anaklasis and Utrenja. He won many prestigious awards, including the Prix Italia in 1967 and 1968; the Wihuri Sibelius Prize of 1983; four Grammy Awards in 1987, 1998 (twice), and 2017; the Wolf Prize in Arts in 1987; and the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1992.  In 2012, Sean Michaels of The Guardian called him 'arguably Poland's greatest living composer'. (Penderecki Violin Concerto No.2. 'Metamorphosen'. YouTube, uploaded by OPUS... Accessed Nov. 23, 2020.)

1955 - Ludovico (Maria Enrico) Einaudi, OMRI, Italian pianist and composer. He began his career as a classical composer, later incorporating other styles and genres such as pop, rock, folk, and world music. Einaudi has composed the scores for a number of films and television productions, including This Is England, The Intouchables (Untouchable), I'm Still Here, the TV miniseries Doctor Zhivago, and Acquario (1996), for which he won the Grolla d'oro award. He has also released a number of solo albums for piano and other instruments, notably I Giorni in 2001, Nightbook in 2009, and In a Time Lapse in 2013. On 1 March 2019, Einaudi announced a seven-part project named Seven Days Walking, which was released over the course of seven months in 2019. (Ludovico Einaudi's "I Giorni",  performed by Sally Maer (cello) and Sally Whitwell (piano). Arranged by Sally Whitwell for cello & piano. Uploaded by ABC Classic. Accessed November 23, 2018.)

1956 - Shane Elizabeth Gould, Australian former competition swimmer who won three gold medals, a silver medal and a bronze at the 1972 Summer Olympics. In 2018, she won Australian Survivor: Champions vs. contenders. She was initially on the Champions tribe.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, November 23 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1815 - Canada's first street lights are lit in Montreal. They are fueled by whale oil.

1852 - About this date, the first red post boxes, commonly known as pillar boxes, are introduced in the Channel Islands. The idea for them came from novelist Anthony Trollope. At that time, he worked for the Post Office. It is a year later, in 1853, when the pillar boxes are installed in the mainland.

November 22 Dateline

Birthdays

1710 - Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer and organist, he second child and eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. Despite his acknowledged genius as an organist, improviser and composer, his income and employment were unstable and sadly, he died in poverty. His compositions include many church cantatas and instrumental works, of which the most notable are the fugues, polonaises and fantasias for clavier, and the duets for two flutes. He incorporated more elements of the contrapuntal style learned from his father than any of his three composer brothers, but his use of the style has an individualistic and improvisatory edge which endeared his work to musicians of the late 19th century.

1819 - George Eliot (real name: Mary Ann Evans), English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She was known by her pen name George Eliot. She wrote seven novels, including Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda, most of which are set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight. Her Middlemarch has been described by the novelists Martin Amis and Julian Bernes as the greatest novel in the English language. In using a pen name, she wanted to escape the stereotype of women's writing being limited to lighthearted romances. Another factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny, thus avoiding the scandal that would have arisen because of her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes. [Wiki] (George Eliot - Short Biography. Uploaded by podcasts for Curious Minds. Accessed November 22, 2019.)

1890 - Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle, French officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic in order to reestablish democracy in France. In 1958, he came out of retirement when appointed President of the Council of Ministers by President René Coty. He rewrote the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. De Gaulle was elected President of France later that year, a position to which he was reelected in 1965 and held until his resignation in 1969. He was the dominant figure of France during the early part of the Cold War era. His memory continues to influence French politics.

1899 - Hoagy Carmichael (born Hoagland Howard Carmichael), American jazz pianist, composer, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is famous for songs "Stardust", "The Nearness of You", Heart and Soul" (in collaboration with lyricist Frank Loesser), and "Georgia on my Mind" (lyrics by Stuart Gorrell), four of the most-recorded American songs ofall time. He was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s and was among the first singer-songwriters to utilize new communication technologies, such as the TV and the use of electronic microphones and sound recordings. He collaborated with lyricist Johnny Mercer on "Lazybones" and "Skylark." Carmichael's "Ole Buttermilk Sky" was an Academy Award nominee in 1946, from Canyon Passage. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," with lyrics by Mercer, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1951. Carmichael also appeared as a character actor and musical performer in several films, hosted three musical-variety radio programs, performed on TV, and wrote two autobiographies.

1901 - Joaquin Rodrigo, Spanish composer and virtuoso Pianist. His music is among the most popular of the 20th century. His music is particularly written for that most of Spanish instruments, the guitar. While evoking something of the colourful Spanish landscape and character in the melodies, it also dances lightly to the rhythms of flamenco and other traditional types of Spanish song and dance. His most famous work, Concierto de Aranjuez, is considered one of the pinnacles of Spanish music and of the guitar concerto repertoire. It captures all the passion and romance of Spain, with its orchestration and evocative writing for the solo instrument.

1913 - Benjamin Britten, English composer, conductor, and pianist. (Britten's interview, 1968.) He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include: Peter Grimes, War Requiem, the orchestral showpiece The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Billy Budd. Together with Peter Pears and the librettist and producer Eric Crozier, Britten founded the annual Aldeburgh Festival in 1948, and he was responsible for the creation of Snape Maltings concert hall. In his last year, he was the first composer to be given a life peerage.

1943 - Billie Jean King, American former World No. 1 professional tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. She won the singles title at the inaugural WTA Tour Championships. For three years, she was the United States' captain in the Federation Cup. King is an advocate for gender equality and a pioneer for equality and social justice. In 1973, at age 29, she won the "Batte of the Sexes" tennis match against the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. She was the founder of the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation. Regarded by many in the sport as one of the greatest women's tennis players of all time, King was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987.

1961 - Stephen Hough (born Stephen Andrew Gill Hough), CBE, British-born Australian Classical pianist, composer, writer, poet and painter. Hough is a polymath. He is an Honorary Member of various distinguished institutions, including the Royal Academy of Music in London. He became the first classical music performer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001. In 2009 he was named by The Economist and Intelligent Life magazines as one of twenty living polymaths. In 2010 he was named Instrumentalist of the Year at the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. As a painter, Hough had a solo exhibition of his paintings at the Broadbent Gallery in London in October 2012. (Stephen Hough Plays Brahms First Piano Concert Pt. 1, where he plays an extended excerpt from the first movement, with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer. Uploaded by MartinaSemenova. Accessed November 22, 2008.

1967 - Boris Franz Becker, Former world No. 1 German professional tennis player. He won the first of his six major singles titles at age 17. His Grand Slam singles titles included three Wimbledons, two Australian Opens and one US Open. He also won three year-end championships, 13 Masters Series titles and an Olympic gold medal in doubles. In 1989, he was voted the Player of the Year by both the ATP and the ITF. Since his playing career ended, he has engaged in numerous ventures, including coaching Novak Djokovic for three years, and working in the field of poker.

1984 - Scarlett Johansson, American actress and singer. The world's highest-paid actress since 2018, she has made multiple appearances in the Forbes Celebrity 100. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Tony Award and a BAFTA Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. She shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing an estranged teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long, and a seductress in the psychological thriller Match Point. She debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress. She received critical acclaim and two Academy Award nominations for playing an actress going through a divorce in the drama Marriage Story and a single mother in Nazi Germany in the satire Jojo Rabbit. Her films have grossed over $14.3 billion worldwide, making Johansson the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time.

 
Leftie:
Actress Scarlett Johansson

More birthdays and historical events, November 22 - On This Day
 

 

In memory of birthday celebrants, composers Joaquin Rodrigo and Benjamin Britten. Below, enjoy videos of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, performed by Petrit Ceku (guitar) - Parkening Competition 2012 Finals and Britten's Violin Concerto.  A later interpretation of Britten's Violin Concerto was performed by the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, with Giulio Plotino (violin), conducted by Simone Young. - Here.    

Historical Events

St. Cecilia's Feast Day - celebrated this day, November 22, to honour the patroness of Musicians.

Saint Cecilia (Latin: Sancta Caecilia). It is written that as the musicians played at her wedding she "sang in her heart to the Lord".  Her feast day is celebrated in the Latin Catholic, Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and in some churches of the Anglican Communion on November 22. She is one of seven women, in addition to the Blessed Virgin, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass in the Roman Catholic Church. While the details of her story may be apocryphal, her existence and martyrdom are considered a historical fact. She is said to have been beheaded with a sword. An early church, Santa Cecilia, was founded in the 3rd century by Pope Urban I in the Trastevere section of Rome, reputedly on the site of the house in which she lived. A number of musical compositions are dedicated to her, and her feast day has become the occasion for concerts and musical festivals. [Wiki]

1739 - G. F. Handel's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day is first performed, in London. (Henry Purcell's Ode to St. Cecilia (Z 328): I-II. Uploaded by SimplyBaroque. Accessed November 22, 2018.) 

1906 - The International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin adopted "SOS" ("Save Our Souls") as the international distress call.

November 21 Dateline

Birthdays

1694 - Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, and historian. He was known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was famous for his wit, his criticism of Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church, as well as his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. A satire on prevailing philosophical thought of its time, his book Candide is considered Voltaire's most enduring and well-read work. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.  (LITERATURE - Voltaire. The School of Life. Accessed Nov. 21, 2019.)

1852 - Francisco Tárrega (Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea), Spanish composer and classical guitarist of the Romantic period. Tarrega is known for such pieces as Recuerdos de la Alhambra. He is often called "the father of classical guitar" and is considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time. As a composer Tárrega's musical style was conservative, with a style similar to the general trends of the second half of the 19th century. A virtuoso on his instrument, he was known as the "Sarasate of the guitar". Tárrega is considered to have laid the foundations for 20th century classical guitar and for increasing interest in the guitar as a recital instrument. Tárrega preferred small intimate performances over the concert stage. (Ana Vidovic plays Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega on a Jim Redgate classical guitar. YouTube, uploaded by SiccasGuitars. Classical Guitar - Capricho Arabe, F. Tárrega, performed and uploaded by Tatyana Ryzhkova. Sanja Plohl plays Francisco Tárrega: Lágrima. YouTube, Accessed November 21, 2020.)

1912 - Eleanor Torrey Powell, American dancer and actress, best remembered for her tap dance numbers in musical films. At the age of sixteen, she began studying tap and started appearing in musical revues on Broadway. She made her Hollywood debut as a featured dancer in the movie George White's Scandals. She was known as one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's top dancing stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood, appearing in a series of musical vehicles tailored especially for her talents, including Born to Dance, Broadway Melody of 1938 and Rosalie. In 1965, she was named the World’s Greatest Tap Dancer by the Dance Masters of America.

1931 - Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson, Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death. His first major success was with his Piano Concerto No. 1, premiered by Clive Lythgoe at the 1958 Cheltenham Festival to a standing ovation. Williamson was a prolific composer at this time, receiving many commissions and often performing his own works, both on organ and piano. In 1975, the death of Arthur Bliss left the title of Master of the Queen's Music vacant. He was selected for the position, the first non-Briton to hold the post. 

1941 - Juliet Mills (born Juliet Maryon Mills), British-American actress of film, stage, and television. She was nominated at age 18 for a Tony Award for her stage performance in Five Finger Exercise. She progressed to film work and TV, playing the lead role on the sitcom Nanny and the Professor in the early 1970s. She received Golden Globe Award nominations for her role in the series and for the film Avanti!. She won an Emmy Award for her performance in the TV miniseries QB VII. In 1983, Mills joined The Mirror Theater Ltd's Mirror Repertory Company, performing in repertory productions throughout their seasons. She had a role on the daytime drama series Passions, for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award. She is the daughter of actor Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell and the eldest of three siblings; her younger siblings are actress Hayley Mills and director Jonathan Mills. 

1945 - Goldie Jeanne Hawn, American actress, producer, dancer, and singer. She received the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Cactus Flower. She maintained bankable star status for more than three decades, while appearing in such films as There's a Girl in My Soup, Butterflies Are Free, Shampoo, Foul Play, and Private Benjamin, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing the title role. She later starred in more films like: Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, The Out-of-Towners and The Banger Sisters.  Hawn is the mother of actors Oliver Hudson, Kate Hudson, and Wyatt Russell, and has been in a relationship with actor Kurt Russell since 1983. In 2003, she founded The Hawn Foundation, which educates underprivileged children.

Leftie:
Actress Goldie Hawn
 

More birthdays and historical events, November 21 - On This Day

 

Features: 

Leonard Bernstein's operetta Candide, based on Voltaire's famous book of the same name. 

Historical Events

1783 - The first successful free flight takes place when F.P. de Rozier and F. Laurent, M. d'Arlandes, fly for 25 minutes over Paris in a balloon.

1877 - Thomas Alva Edison announces the invention of the phonograph.

November 20 Dateline

Birthdays

1752 - Thomas Chatterton, English poet. His precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge. At 17, he sought outlets for his political writings in London, having impressed the Lord Mayor, William Beckford, and the radical leader John Wilkes, but his earnings were not enough to keep him, and he poisoned himself in despair. The oil painting The Death of Chatterton by Pre-Raphaelite artist Henry Wallis has enjoyed lasting fame. His unusual life and death attracted much interest among the romantic poets, and Alfred de Vigny wrote a play about him that is still performed today.

1765 - Friedrich Heinrich Himmel, German opera composer and conductor who originally studied theology at Halle before turning to music. During a stay at Potsdam he showed his self-acquired skill as a pianist before King Frederick William II, who made him a yearly allowance to enable him to complete his musical studies under Johann Gottlieb Naumann, a German composer of the Italian school, and the style of that school Himmel adopted in his operas. The first was a pastoral opera, Il primo navigatore, produced at Venice in 1794 with great success. In 1792 he went to Berlin, where his oratorio Isaaco was produced, in consequence of which he was made court Kapellmeister to the king of Prussia, and he wrote a great deal of official music, including cantatas, and a coronation Te Deum. His Italian operas were all received with great favour. Of greater importance is a Singspiel Fanchon to words by Kotzebue. Himmel's gift of writing simple melody is also observable in his Lieder, including An Alexis send ich dich (To Alexis).(Friedrich Heinrich Himmel / Ernst Pauer - Prayer (D flat major. Uploaded by Erakko Ippolitov - Piano Channel. Accessed Nov. 20, 2016.) 

1889 - Edwin Hubble, American astronomer (Hubble Space Telescope) who played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology. He is regarded as one of the most important astronomers of all time and he is widely recognized for the Hubble Space Telescope, named in his honour. Hubble discovered that many objects previously thought to be clouds of dust and gas and classified as "nebulae" were actually galaxies beyond the Milky Way. He used the strong direct relationship between a classical Cepheid variable's luminosity and pulsation period (discovered in 1908 by Henrietta Swan Leavitt) for scaling galactic and extragalactic distances. He provided evidence that the recessional velocity of a galaxy increases with its distance from the Earth, a property now known as "Hubble's law", despite the fact that it had been both proposed and demonstrated observationally two years earlier by Georges Lemaître. The Hubble–Lemaître law implies that the universe is expanding.

1923 - Nadine Gordimer,  South African writer, political activist and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was recognized as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity". Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. Under that regime, works such as Burger's Daughter and July's People were banned. She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned, and gave Nelson Mandela advice on his famous 1964 defence speech at the trial which led to his conviction for life. She was also active in HIV/AIDS causes.

1925 - Robert Francis Kennedy, American politician and lawyer, also referred to by his initials RFK and occasionally by the nickname Bobby, who served as the 64th U.S. Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. Senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968. He was, like his brothers John and Edward, a prominent member of the Democratic Party and has come to be viewed by some historians as an icon of modern American liberalism. His tenure is best known for its advocacy for the civil rights movement, the fight against organized crime and the Mafia, and involvement in U.S. foreign policy related to Cuba. He authored his account of the Cuban Missile Crisis in Thirteen Days. After his brother's assassination, he remained in office in the Johnson Administration. He left to run for the United States Senate from New York in 1964 and defeated Republican incumbent Kenneth Keating. Kennedy opposed racial discrimination and U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

1927 - Estelle Margaret Parsons, American actress, singer and stage director. After studying law, Parsons became a singer. She worked for the TV program Today. Parsons established her career on Broadway before progressing to film. She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde, and was nominated for her work in Rachel, Rachel . She later directed several Broadway productions. Her television work included her most well-known role, playing Beverly Harris, mother of the title character, on the sitcom Roseanne, and its spinoff The Conners. She has been nominated five times for the Tony Award (four times for Lead Actress of a Play and once for Featured Actress). Parsons was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2004.

1956 - Bo Derek (born Mary Cathleen Collins), American actress, film producer, and model perhaps best known for her breakthrough film role in the sex comedy 10  in 1979. She was directed by husband John Derek in Fantasies, Tarzan, the Ape Man, Bolero (1984) and Ghosts Can't Do It (1989), unfortunately, all of which received negative reviews. A widow since 1998, she lives with actor John Corbett. Now in semi-retirement, she makes occasional film, television, and documentary appearances. 

 
Lefties:
Actress Estelle Parsons

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 20 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1805 - Ludwig van Beethoven conducts Fidelio, his only opera, in its first performance, in Vienna.



1889 - Gustav Mahler conducts his Symphony No. 1, "Titan," in its first performance, in Budapest.



1947 - Princess Elizabeth, 21 marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, 26, at Westminster Abbey in London. She is crowned Queen Elizabeth II six years later.

November 19 Dateline

Birthdays

1600 - Charles I, King of Great Britain and Ireland. He enters into a struggle against parliamentary power. and rules for 11 years without them. The Royalists and Parliamentarians fight the English Civil War, which King Charles loses.

1831 - James Abram Garfield, 20th U.S. President, serving from March 4, 1881, until his death by assassination six and a half months later. He is the only sitting member of the United States House of Representatives to be elected to the presidency.

 

1888 - Felix Adrian Norman Salmond, English cellist and cello teacher who achieved success in the UK and the US. His father was a baritone, and his mother was a pianist who had studied with Clara Schumann He played the cello at the premiere of Elgar's famous Cello Concerto.  His other performances also included the premieres, on 21 May 1919, of Edward Elgar's String Quartet in E minor and Piano Quintet in A minor at the Wigmore Hall (formerly Bechstein Hall).

1905 - Tommy Dorsey (Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr.), American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombone playing. His theme song was "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". His technical skill on the trombone gave him renown among other musicians. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey.  After Dorsey broke with his brother in the mid-1930s, he led an extremely popular and highly successful band from the late 1930s into the 1950s. He is best remembered for standards such as "Opus One", "Song of India", "Marie", "On Treasure Island", and his biggest hit single, "I'll Never Smile Again".

1917 - Indira Gandhi, Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was the first and, to date, only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. She served as prime minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father. During Nehru's time as Prime Minister of India, Gandhi was considered a key assistant accompanying her father on his foreign trips. She was elected President of the Indian National Congress in 1959. Upon her father's death in 1964, she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. She succeeded Shastri as Prime Minister of India. In 1999, Indira Gandhi was named "Woman of the Millennium" in an online poll organised by the BBC. In 2020 Gandhi was named by the Time magazine among world's 100 powerful women who defined the last century.

1921 - Géza Anda, Swiss-Hungarian pianist, a celebrated interpreter of classical and romantic repertoire, particularly noted for his performances and recordings of Mozart. He was also considered to be an interpreter of Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Bartók. In his heyday he was regarded as an amazing artist, possessed of a beautiful, natural and flawless technique that gave his concerts a unique quality. Most of his recordings were made on the Deutsche Grammophon label. (Anda plays Mozart / Piano Concerto No. 15 in B-flat major, K. 450. YouTube, uploaded by scrymgeour34. Accessed November 19, 2020.)

1942 - Calvin Richard Klein, American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewellery.

1954 -  Kathleen Denise Quinlan, American film and television actress. She received a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination for the 1977 film I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for her role in the 1995 film Apollo 13. Her other film appearances include American Graffiti, Airport '77, The Promise, The Runner Stumbles, Sunday Lovers, Sunset, Clara's Heart, The Doors, Breakdown, and Breach.

1961 - Meg Ryan (born Margaret Mary Emily Hyra), American actress and producer. She appeared in supporting roles in films during the mid 1980s like box office hit Top Gun, achieving recognition in independent films such as Promised Land before her performance in the Rob Reiner-directed romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... brought her widespread attention and her first Golden Globe nomination. Ryan subsequently established herself, as one of the most successful actresses in the 1990s and early 2000s, particularly in romantic comedy films such as Sleepless in Seattle, French Kiss, You've Got Mail, and Kate & Leopold. Her other films include The Doors, When a Man Loves a Woman, Courage Under Fire, Addicted to Love, City of Angels, Proof of Life, and The Women. In 2015, she made her directorial debut with Ithaca, a film in which she also acted.

1962 - Jodie Foster (born Alicia Christian Foster), American actress and director. She has received two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. As a director, she has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. Foster began her professional career as a child model when she was three years old. She made her film debut with Disney's Napoleon and Samantha. Foster's breakthrough came with Scorsese's psychological thriller Taxi Driver in which she played a child prostitute; she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other roles as a teenager include the musical Bugsy Malone and the thriller The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, and she became a popular teen idol by starring in Disney's Freaky Friday and Candleshoe. She gained critical acclaim into adult roles for playing a rape survivor in the legal drama The Accused, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She won her second Academy Award three years later for the psychological horror The Silence of the Lambs. Foster made her debut as a film director the same year with Little Man Tate, and founded her own production company, Egg Pictures, in 1992. The company's first production was Nell, in which she also played the title role, garnering her fourth nomination for an Academy Award. Her other successful films in the 1990s were the romantic drama Sommersby, western comedy Maverick, science fiction Contact, and period drama Anna and the King.  She has focused on directing in the 2010s and also starred in the films.

Leftie:
20th U.S. President James Garfield

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 19 - On This Day
 

 

Feature: 

 

Zoltan Kodaly's Psalmus Hungaricus, Op. 13.  Kertész conducting the London Symphony Orchestra; Kosma, Brighton Festival Chorus. (For those of us who don't understand Hungarian text, translation below. Glorious music. Beautiful.)

"Mikoron Dávid nagy búsultában, [When as King David sore was afflicted,]
Baráti miatt volna bánatban, [By those he trusted basely deserted,]
Panaszolkodván nagy haragjában [In his great anger bitterly grieving]
Ilyen könyörgést kezde ı magában: [Thus to Jehovah pray'd he within his heart.]

Istenem Uram, kérlek tégedet, [God of my fathers, bow Thine ear to me,]
Fordítsad reám szent szemeidet, [Turn not away the light of Thy countenance,]
Nagy szükségemben ne hagyj engemet [Leave me not lonely in my misery,]
Mert megemészti nagy bánat szívemet. [Sore is my heart and sorrow o'erwhelmeth me.]"

 

Historical Events

1850 - Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet, becomes Poet Laureate, an office he holds until his death in 1892. 

1863 - U.S. President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address when dedicating a national military cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania. It begins with the famous: "Four score and seven years ago, our father brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Notable orator Edward Everett spoke before the president for two hours. Lincoln spoke for two minutes. 

November 18 Dateline

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.)

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 

More birthdays and historical events, November 18 - On This Day

 

 

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.

November 17 Dateline

Birthdays

1906 - Soichiro Honda (Honda Sōichirō), Japanese engineer and industrialist. In 1948, he established Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and oversaw its expansion from a wooden shack manufacturing bicycle motors to a multinational automobile and motorcycle manufacturer.

1925 - Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.), American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time. A prominent heartthrob of the Golden Age of Hollywood, he achieved stardom with his role in Magnificent Obsession, followed by All That Heaven Allows and Giant, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Hudson also found continued success with a string of romantic comedies co-starring Doris Day. He was also hit on television, starring in the popular mystery series McMillan & Wife. His last role was as a guest star on the fifth season (1984–1985) of the primetime ABC soap opera Dynasty, until AIDS-related illness made it impossible for him to continue.

1925 - Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC CH CBE, Australian conductor and musical director. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the SSO and Birgit Nilsson in the opening concert of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, in 1973. Mackerras was the President of Trinity College of Music, London, and served as Music Advisor to City Opera of Vancouver. He served as the conductor for Alfred Brendel's final concert performance with the Vienna Philharmonic. His final public performance saw him conduct Mozart's Così fan tutte at Glyndebourne in the summer of 2010. (Sir Charles Mackerras: The Last Interview. Uploaded by Glyndebourne. Accessed November 17, 2011. A Tribute to Charles Mackerras. Uploaded by ABC News. Accessed November 17, 2012. Mozart Symphonies: Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras were reunited in July 2009 to record the second collection of Mozart Symphonies. Uploaded by LinnRecords. Accessed November 17, 2013.)

1942 - Martin Charles Scorsese, American-Italian filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and influential directors in film history. Scorsese's body of work explores themes such as Italian-American identity, Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, faith, machismo, nihilism, crime and tribalism. Many of his films are known for their depiction of violence, and the liberal use of profanity and rock music. He founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and the World Cinema Foundation. In 2017, he introduced the African Film Heritage Project.

1944 - Danny DeVito, American actor, director, and screenwriter. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series Taxi, which won him a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award. He plays Frank Reynolds on the FX and FXX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2006–present). He is known for his film roles in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Terms of Endearment, Throw Momma from the Train, Twins, The War of the Roses, Batman Returns, Get Shorty, among others. He is also known for his voice roles in films. DeVito and Michael Shamberg founded Jersey Films.

1947 - James Warwick, English actor and director, best known for his roles on television and London's West End and New York's Broadway theatre. He has had leading roles in UK TV including Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime (alongside Francesca Annis as the sleuthing couple Tommy and Tuppence), the detective series 'The Terracotta Horse' and the BBC serial The Nightmare Man. He also appeared in the Doctor Who serial Earthshock as Lieutenant Scott. His notable credits include: Jason King, The Onedin Line, Lillie (where he again acted with Francesca Annis), Rock Follies, Tales of the Unexpected, Howards' Way, Bergerac and Iris Murdoch's The Bell with Ian Holm.

Leftie:
Actor Rock Hudson

More birthdays and historical events, November 17 - On This Day

 

 

Below video features Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64.  In four movements: 1. Andante — Allegro con anima  2. Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza 3. Valse: Allegro moderato 4. Andante maestoso— Allegro vivace. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Kirill Kondrashin, conductor. Recording: Royal Festival Hall, London, 24 January 1978

Historical Events

1558 - Queen Mary I, known as Bloody Mary for her persecution of Protestants, dies of influenza at the age of 42 and Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England.

1604 - Sir Walter Raleigh, one of Queen Elizabeth I's favourites, is tried for treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London. 

November 16 Dateline

Birthdays

42 B.C.E. - Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Second Roman emperor, reigning from AD 14 to 37. He succeeded his stepfather, Augustus. He was one of the greatest Roman generals, but also remembered as a reclusive ruler. Pliny the Elder called him "the gloomiest of men". During his reign, Jews became more prominent in Rome, and Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus began proselytizing Roman citizens, increasing long-simmering resentments. In 26 AD he removed himself from Rome and left administration in the hands of his unscrupulous Praetorian prefects Sejanus and Naevius Sutorius Macro. His grand-nephew and adopted grandson, Caligula, succeeded him.

1836 - Kalākaua (David Laʻamea Kamananakapu Mahinulani Naloiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua), called The Merrie Monarch, was the last king and penultimate monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, reigning from February 12, 1874, until his death. Succeeding Lunalilo, he was elected to the vacant throne of Hawaiʻi against Queen Emma. Kalākaua had a convivial personality and enjoyed entertaining guests with his singing and ukulele playing. At his coronation and his birthday jubilee, the hula that had been banned from public in the kingdom became a celebration of Hawaiian culture.

1873 - William Christopher Handy, American composer and musician, who referred to himself as the Father of the Blues. Handy was one of the most influential songwriters in the United States. One of many musicians who played the distinctively American blues music, he did not create the blues genre but was the first to publish music in the blues form, thereby taking the blues from a regional music style (Delta blues) with a limited audience to a new level of popularity. He used elements of folk music in his compositions.

1895 - Paul Hindemith, German composer, conductor and lecturer at Harvard University,  A prolific composer, in the 1920s, he became a major advocate of the Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivity) style of music. Notable compositions include his song cycle Das Marienleben (1923), Der Schwanendreher for viola and orchestra (1935), and opera Mathis der Maler (1938). Hindemith's most popular work, both on record and in the concert hall, is likely the Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, written in 1943. (Paul Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. SWR Symphonieorchester. Liederhalle Stuttgart, Oktober 2016. Uploaded by SWR Classic. Accessed November 16, 2019.)

1907 - Oliver Burgess Meredith, American actor, director, producer, and writer. He has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "one of the most accomplished actors of the century". A lifetime member of the Actors Studio by invitation, he won several Emmys, was the first male actor to win the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, and was nominated for two Academy Awards. He established himself as a leading man in Hollywood with critically acclaimed performances as George Milton in Of Mice and Men, Ernie Pyle in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), and the narrator of A Walk in the Sun.

 
1930 - Chinua Achebe (born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe), Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart, considered his masterpiece, is the most widely read book in modern African literature. A titled Igbo chief himself, Achebe focuses his novels on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and traditional African values during and after the colonial era. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. He also published a large number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections.

1946 - Edward Higginbottom, DPhil (Oxon), BMus (Cantab), FRCO, British music scholar, organist, choirmaster and conductor. Most of his career has been as organist at New College Oxford, where he led their choir for more than 35 years and produced a large number of choral recordings. An early episode of ITV’s Inspector Morse featured a character based on Edward Higginbottom (although the suspect’s obsession with Spangles and Trebor Mints was not based on real life).(Allegri Miserere Mei. Director: Edward Higginbottom. Choir: New College Choir, Oxford. Provided by Warner Classics Int'l. Accessed June 4, 2020.)

Lefties:
None known

 

More birthdays  and historical events, November 16 - On This Day
 

 

Suggested Listening: 

Paul Hindemith's 'Mathis der Maler Symphony' -  Conducted and composed by Paul Hindemith. Berlin Philharmonic, 1955
Part 1/4
Part 2/4
Part 3/4
Part 4/4

Historical Events

1539 - Francisco Pizarro and his men defeat the Inca army at Cajamarca and capture the Inca Emperor Atahualpa, who is strangled in August the following year.

1848 - Frederic Chopin, already ill, volunteers to play in London at a Polish benefit ball, his last public appearance.

Below, listen and enjoy as pianist Arthur Rubinstein interpret Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat major, a popular romantic nocturne, popularised "To Love Again."(Sung by Vic Damone, uploaded by nancyfloressantos. Accessed November 16, 2018.)

 

 

November 15 Dateline

Birthdays

1511 - Johannes Secundus (also Janus Secundus), Dutch New Latin poet. In 1533 he went to join his other brother Grudius at the Spanish court of Charles V. There he spent two years as secretary to the Archbishop of Toledo. He returned to Mechlin because of illness. Secundus was a prolific writer, producing several books of elegies on his lovers Julia and Neaera, epigrams, odes, verse epistles and epithalamia, as well as some prose writings (epistles and itineraria). His most famous work was the Liber Basiorum (Book of Kisses, first complete edition 1541), a short collection consisting of 19 poems, in which the poet explores the theme of the kiss in relation to his Spanish lover, Neaera. The 'Basia' are really extended imitations of Catullus (in particular poems 5 and 7) and some poems from the Anthologia Graeca.

 
1738 - Sir Frederick William Herschel, German-born British astronomer, composer and brother of fellow astronomer Caroline Herschel. Herschel followed his father into the Military Band of Hanover, before migrating to Great Britain at the age of 19. He constructed his first large telescope in 1774, after which he spent 9 years carrying out sky surveys to investigate double stars. Hepublished catalogues of nebulae in 1802 (2,500 objects) and in 1820 (5,000 objects). The resolving power of the Herschel telescopes revealed that many objects called nebulae in the Messier catalogue were actually clusters of stars. Herschel pioneered the use of astronomical spectrophotometry. He also discovered infrared radiation. Other work included an improved determination of the rotation period of Mars, the discovery that the Martian polar caps vary seasonally, the discovery of Titania and Oberon (moons of Uranus) and Enceladus and Mimas (moons of Saturn). Herschel was made a Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order in 1816. He was the first President of the Royal Astronomical Society. His work was continued by his only son, John Herschel.

 
1887 - Georgia O'Keeffe, American artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. She has been recognized as the "Mother of American modernism". Alfred Stieglitz, an art dealer and photographer, requested her to move to New York which she did 1918. They developed a professional and a personal relationship that led to their marriage in 1924. O'Keeffe created many forms of abstract art, including close-ups of flowers, such as the Red Canna paintings, that many found to represent female genitalia, although O'Keeffe consistently denied that intention. The imputation of the depiction of women's sexuality was also fueled by explicit and sensuous photographs that Stieglitz had taken and exhibited of O'Keeffe. In later years, O'Keeffe began spending part of the year in the Southwest, which served as inspiration for her paintings of New Mexico landscapes and images of animal skulls. 

1905 - Annunzio Paolo Mantovani, known mononymously as Mantovani, was an Anglo-Italian Conductor, Composer of light music and light orchestra-styled Entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book British Hit Singles Albums states that he was "Britain's most successful album act before the Beatles...the first act to sell over one million stereo albums and six albums simultaneously in the US Top 30 in 1959". (Mantovani & his Orchestra. Very Best of Mantovani Album Pre-Listen (Official). Uploaded by ToCo Int'l Official Channel. Accessed November 15, 2018.)

1914 - Jorge Bolet, Cuban-American virtuoso pianist and teacher. Among his teachers were Leopold Godowsky, and Moriz Rosenthal, the latter an outstanding pupil of Franz Liszt. Bolet provided the piano soundtrack for the 1960 biopic, Song Without End, which starred Dirk Bogarde as the legendary 19th-century piano virtuoso, Franz Liszt. (The film won the Academy Award for Best Music score.)  In 1974 he came to national prominence, with a stupendous recital in Carnegie Hall. Bolet was Professor of Music (piano) at Indiana University. In 1977 he became Head of Piano at the Curtis Institute, succeeding Rudolf Serkin, but he resigned to concentrate on his performing career. The Decca/London record company put him under contract in 1978, giving the 64-year-old Bolet his first systematic exposure internationally. 

 

1931 - John Grinham Kerr, American actor and attorney. He began his professional career on Broadway, earning critical acclaim for his performances in Mary Coyle Chase's Bernardine and Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy. He reprised his role in the film version of Tea and Sympathy, which won him a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer, and portrayed Joseph Cable in the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musical South Pacific. He subsequently appeared in number of television series, including a starring role on the primetime soap opera Peyton Place. In the 1970s, he moved away from acting to become a lawyer, making a few small cameos in Canadian-produced films like The Silent Partner and The Amateur. He operated a legal practice in Beverly Hills until 2000, when he retired from the profession. (John Kerr sings "You've Got to be Carefully Taught" - South Pacific (1958), YouTube, Rodgers & Hammerstein. Accessed November 15, 2019.)

 
1932 - Petula Clark, CBE (born Sally Olwen Clark), British singer, actress and composer whose career spans eight decades. Clark's professional career began as an entertainer during World War II on BBC Radio. During the 1950s she started recording in French and having international success in both French and English. During the 1960s, she became known globally for her popular upbeat hits, including "Downtown", "I Know a Place", "My Love", "A Sign of the Times", "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", "Colour My World", "This Is My Song," "Kiss Me Goodbye," and "Don't Sleep in the Subway", and she was dubbed "the First Lady of the British Invasion". She has sold more than 68 million records. 

1932 - J.G. Ballard, English novelist, short-story writer, satirist, and essayist who first became associated with the New Wave of science fiction for his post-apocalyptic novels such as The Drowned World. He produced a variety of experimental short stories (or "condensed novels"), such as those collected in the controversial The Atrocity Exhibition. While much of Ballard's fiction would prove thematically and stylistically provocative, he became best known for his relatively conventional war novel, Empire of the Sun, a semi-autobiographical account of a young British boy's experiences in Shanghai during Japanese occupation. The story was adapted into a film by Steven Spielberg. In the following decades until his death, Ballard's work shifted toward the form of the traditional crime novel. The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's fiction gave rise to the adjective "Ballardian".

 

1942 - Daniel Barenboim, KBE, citizen of Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, pianist and conductor. As general music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. His awards and prizes include seven Grammy awards, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband. Barenboim is a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German.

Lefties:

None known

More birthdays and historical events, November 15 - On This Day

Historical Events

1684 - King Louis XIV of France opens the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) in the Palace of Versailles. In this room the German empire was proclaimed on January 18, 1871, and the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919.

1832 - Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op.107, "Reformation," is first performed in Berlin.

 

 

November 14 Dateline

Birthdays

1650 - William of Orange, King of England, (born Nov 14 [N.S.] and Nov 4, [O.S.]William III, William Henry; Dutch: Willem Hendrik), sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the 1670s and King of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1689 until his death. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II. He is sometimes informally known as "King Billy" in Ireland and Scotland. His victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is commemorated by unionists by displaying orange colours in his honour. William's reputation as a staunch Protestant enabled him and his wife to take power. Popular histories usually refer to his joint reign with his wife, Queen Mary II, as that of William and Mary.

1719 - Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, German composer, conductor, violinist, music teacher and father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart, nicknamed "Nannerl". Leopold Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.

1778 - Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Austrian virtuoso pianist and composer, whose music reflects the transition from the Classical to the Romantic musical era. (J. N. Hummel: Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra - Mathis Kaspar Stier, Bassoon. Final of Prague Spring Competition 2014 Komorní filharmonií Pardubice, Marko Ivanovič - Director. Accessed November 14, 2015.)

1797 - Charles Lyell, Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, FRS, Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining Earth's history. He is best known for his book Principles of Geology which presented the idea that Earth was shaped by the same natural processes still in operation today, at similar intensities. The combination of evidence and eloquence in Principles convinced a wide range of readers of the significance of "deep time" for understanding the Earth and environment. Lyell's scientific contributions included a pioneering explanation of climate change, in which shifting boundaries between oceans and continents could be used to explain long-term variations in temperature and rainfall. He also gave influential explanations of earthquakes and developed the theory of gradual "backed up-building" of volcanoes.

1805 - Fanny [Cäcilie] Mendelssohn Bartholdy (after marriage, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel), German composer and pianist, sister of Felix Mendelssohn. She composed over 460 pieces of music. Her compositions include a piano trio and several books of solo piano pieces and songs. A number of her songs were originally published under her brother, Felix Mendelssohn's, name in his opus 8 and 9 collections. Her piano works are often in the manner of songs, and many carry the name Lieder für das Pianoforte (Songs for the piano, a parallel to Felix's Songs without Words).  In Hamburg, the Fanny & Felix Mendelssohn Museum is dedicated to the lives, her work and her brother Felix Mendelssohn. (Pianist Heather Schmidt interpreting Fanny's Notturno in G minor. Accessed November 14, 2018. Fanny Mendelssohn's Piano Sonata in C minor. uploaded by Classical Music11. Accessed November 14, 2019.)

1840 - Claude Monet, French Painter, founder of French Impressionist Painting.  He is considered the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein air landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris. Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883, Monet lived in Giverny, where he purchased a house and property and began a vast landscaping project which included lily ponds that would become the subjects of his best-known works.   (650+ Greatest Monet Paintings (HD 1080p) Claude Monet Impressionist Silent Slideshow & Screensaver. Uploaded by Soothing SCenery: Instant Decor! Accessed November 14, 2019.)

1889 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian independence activist and, subsequently, the first Prime Minister of India. He was a central figure in Indian politics both before and after independence. He emerged as an eminent leader of the Indian independence movement, serving India as Prime Minister from its establishment in 1947 as an independent nation, until his death in 1964. He was also known as 'Pandit Nehru' due to his roots with the Kashmiri Pandit community, while Indian children knew him better as 'Chacha Nehru' (Hindi: Uncle Nehru).

1891 - Sir Frederick Grant Banting, KBE MC FRS FRSC, Canadian medical scientist, physician, painter and Nobel Laureate noted as the first person who used insulin on humans. In 1923 Banting and John James Rickard Macleod received the Nobel Prize in Medicine. He shared the honours and award money with his colleague, Dr. Charles Best. As of November 2018, Banting, who received the Nobel Prize at age 32, remains the youngest Nobel laureate in the area of Physiology/Medicine. In 1923 the government of Canada granted Banting lifetime annuity to continue his work. In 1934 he was knighted by King George V.

1900 - Aaron Copland, American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Composers". The open, slowly changing harmonies in much of his music are typical of what many people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit. His works include the ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid and Rodeo, his Fanfare for the Common Man and Third Symphony. He also produced music in many other genres, including chamber music, vocal works, opera and film scores. (A Copland and Ballet Suite Appalachian Spring) 

1907 - Astrid Lingren, Swedish witer of fiction and screenplays. She is best known for children's book series, featuring Pippi Longstocking, Emil i Lönneberga, Karlsson-on-the-Roof, and the Six Bullerby Children (Children of Noisy Village in the US), and for the children's fantasy novels Mio, My Son, Ronia the Robber's Daughter, and The Brothers Lionheart. In January 2017, she was calculated to be the world's 18th most translated author, and the fourth most translated children's writer after Enid Blyton, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm.  In 1994, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "her unique authorship dedicated to the rights of children and respect for their individuality."

1921 - Brian Keith, American film, television and stage actor. He gained recognition for his movies such as the Disney family film The Parent Trap, the comedy The Russians Are Coming, and the adventure saga The Wind and the Lion, in which he portrayed President Theodore Roosevelt. On television two of his best-known roles were those of bachelor-uncle-turned-reluctant-parent Bill Davis in the 1960s sitcom Family Affair, and a tough retired judge in the 1980s lighthearted crime drama Hardcastle and McCormick. He starred in The Brian Keith Show, which aired on NBC, where he portrayed a pediatrician who operated a free clinic on Oahu, and in the CBS comedy series Heartland.

1948 - King Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George), King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and, at age 73, became the oldest person to accede to the British throne following the death of his mother, Elizabeth II, on 8 September 2022. Prince Charles' coronation as King Charles III took place at Westminster Abbey, 6th May 2023. Charles founded The Prince's Trust in 1976, sponsors The Prince's Charities, and is a patron, president and a member of over 400 other charities and organisations. As an environmentalist, he raises awareness of organic farming and climate change which has earned him awards and recognition from environmental groups. He supports alternative medicine, including homeopathy, and his views on the role of architecture in society and the conservation of historic buildings have received considerable attention from British architects and design critics. (Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Inspired Pen Web.)

 

1954 -  Condoleezza "Condi" Rice, American diplomat, political scientist, civil servant, author, and professor who served as the 66th U.S. Secretary of State, and as the 20th U.S. National Security Advisor. Dr. Rice was the first female African-American Secretary of State and the first woman to serve as National Security Advisor. She later pursued an academic fellowship at Stanford University. She chaired the Millennium Challenge Corporation's board of directors. In March 2009, Dr. Rice returned to Stanford University as a political science professor and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution. The following year, she became a faculty member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a director of its Global Center for Business and the Economy. She is director of the Hoover Institution from September 1, 2020. Dr. Rice has received several honorary degrees from various American universities. She is also a talented classical pianist, with knowledge of Russian, French, German and Spanish. (The Sec of State, the Instructor, and the Piano. YouTube, uploaded by Hoover Institution. Condoleezza Rice playing the piano for Queen Elizabeth II. Uploaded by iconic. Accessed Nov 15, 2015.)   

Lefties:
Prince Charles of Wales
Actor Brian Keith

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 14 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1666 - English diarist Samuel Pepys writes about the first successful blood transfusion - between two dogs conducted at a meeting of the Royal Society. The dog that received the blood survived, the donor didn't. 

1914 - The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire recently allied with Germany, declares jihad (holy war) on Britain, Russia, and France and enters World War I.

November 13 Dateline

Birthdays

1312 - Edward III, King of England. Son to Edward II and grandson to Edward I.He becomes to be one of the most successful kings in English history. He was there for the start of the Hundred Years' War and won the naval battle of Sluys and the famous Crecy in 1346. He becomes King of France in 1340. His successors keep Calais until it was lost by Mary I's Spanish husband in 1558.

1850 - Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist and travel writer, most noted for Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and A Child's Garden of Verses. He spent several years in search of a location suited to his health, before finally settling in Samoa, where he died.  A celebrity in his lifetime, Stevenson's critical reputation has fluctuated since his death, though today his works are held in general acclaim. He is ranked as the 26th most translated author in the world.(Wiki, accessed Nov. 13, 2019.) 

 
1921 - Joonas Kokkonen, Finnish composer, He was one of the most internationally famous Finnish composers of the 20th century after Sibelius; his opera The Last Temptations has received over 500 performances worldwide, and is considered by many to be Finland's most distinguished national opera. Kokkonen wrote the music that made him internationally famous: the last two symphonies, the ...durch einen Spiegel for twelve solo strings, the Requiem, and the opera The Last Temptations (1975) (Viimeiset kiusaukset), based on the life and death of the Finnish Revivalist preacher Paavo Ruotsalainen. The opera is punctuated with chorales which refer back to Johann Sebastian Bach, and which are also reminiscent of the African-American spirituals used for a similar purpose in Michael Tippett's oratorio A Child of Our Time. Joonas Kokkonen - Symphony No. 4 [edit] (Vinyl, 1980). YouTube, uploaded by Pericolosospore Jerzy. Accessed November 13, 2020.)

1922 - Oskar Werner (born Oskar Josef Bschließmayer), Austrian stage and cinema actor whose prominent roles include two 1965 films, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Ship of Fools. Other notable films include Decision Before Dawn, Jules and Jim, Fahrenheit 451, The Shoes of the Fisherman and Voyage of the Damned. Werner accepted both stage and film roles throughout his career. In 1955, he played the role of Mozart in the Austrian drama film Mozart (with alternative title The Life and Loves of Mozart), directed by Karl Hartl. It was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. The plot explores the mental state of Mozart during production of his final opera The Magic Flute. Werner's portrayal of Mozart was unusual for the time in playing him as a cheerful and easygoing young man, reflecting the postwar optimism of the newly restored Austrian Republic. His awards include a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, and had been nominated several times for the Golden Globe, the Academy Award as well as the BAFTA Award.

 
1938 - Jean Seberg, American actress who lived half her life in France. Her performance in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film Breathless immortalized her as an icon of French New Wave cinema. She appeared in 34 films in Hollywood and in Europe, including Saint Joan, Bonjour Tristesse, Lilith, The Mouse That Roared, Moment to Moment, A Fine Madness, Paint Your Wagon, Airport, Macho Callahan, and Gang War in Naples.(1981 Special Report: "Jean Seberg". Uploaded by Hezakya News & Films. Accessed November 13, 2019.)

1955 - Whoopi Goldberg (born Caryn Elaine Johnson), American actress, comedian, author, and TV personality. She is one among entertainers to have won an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award.  Her breakthrough came in 1985 for her role as Celie, in a period drama film The Color Purple, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won her first Golden Globe Award. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Ghost, making her the second black woman to win an Academy Award for acting, and a second Golden Globe, her first for Best Supporting Actress. In 1992, she starred in the comedy Sister Act, earning a third Golden Globe nomination, her first for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. She reprised the role in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, making her the highest-paid actress at the time. A theatre performer and producer, Goldberg has performed in Broadway productions, earning her a Grammy Award. She has won a Tony Award as a producer of the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. In television, Goldberg is known for her role as Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation and for co-hosting and moderating the talk show The View since 2007, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award.

 

Lefties:

 
Edward III, King of England
Comedienne and Actress Whoopi Goldberg
Actress Jean Seberg 

More birthdays and historical events, November 13 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1907 - Paul Cornu, French inventor and cyclist, is the first person to "fly" a helicopter when he lifts off the ground for 20 seconds in a prototype model he built himself.

1915 - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer, presents a concert of his compositions for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro.  His works are mainly Neo-Baroque in Brazilian style with Russian and French influences. Haunting melody displayed in his Choros (serenades) and his famous series of nine Bachianas Brasileiras.

Here's Bachianas Brasileiras 4.