Street Date (Cecilia's Picks)

Does classical music have sense of humor?
Stravinsky arrested in Boston!
Dohnányi - a closet rapper?
Schoenberg sent to hell?
Beecham meets Hitler.

September Composers
Biographical Profiles
September 3 Locatelli
September 4 Bruckner
September 4 Milhaud
September 5 Bach. J.C.
September 8 Dvorak
September 9 Frescobaldi
September 17 Griffes
September 21 Holst
September 25 Shostakovich
September 26 Gershwin

Street Date (new releases)

Jazz Innovators

Film Reviews
Tell No One
Burn After Reading
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Swing Vote

Public Radio Research
How it has destroyed public radio
as we knew it.

Why Cecilia?
"Visions . . . " by Art Historian Judith Anne Testa,PhD.
"Purcell & Cecilia" by Marielle D. Khoury
"Ode to St. Cecilia's Day- Handel" by Anthony Sargent
"Vespers of . . ." - Alessandro Scarlatti by Denis Stevens

Tools
Abbrevuations
Cataloguers
Composers Through The Years
Recommended Reading

Bruckner accepts applause.

Shostakovich composing.

Shostakovich, Dmitry Dmitryevich
September 25, 1906

He was born in St. Petersburg and studied composition under Maximilian Steinberg, and piano with Nikolaiev at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

At the age of 13 he wrote Scherzo for Orchestra (1919). His Symphony No. 1 in F, Op. 10 (1924-25) was performed in Leningrad in 1926. In 1927 his Symphony No. 2, Op. 14 "The October Revolution of 1917" was completed, and his Symphony No. 3, Op. 30 "May the 1st," in 1929. These were not symphonies for the State, or Stalin, or Communism. They were statements of the fear, anguish, the hopes, the heroism of the Russian people.

As a teenager Shostakovich gained world wide recognition on May 26, 1926 with his first symphony. At the first performance, the conductor, Nikolai Malko commented over the air from Petrograd that, "I have the feeling that I have turned over a new page in the history of symphonic music and of a new and great composer." Within two years Bruno Walter in Germany and Leopold Stokowski and Artur Rodzinski in the US had introduced it as well.

Shostkovich - the heroic face expresses the damage of Stalinist terror.
There's more on Shostakovich along with suggested readings and discography at September Composers

Before the Terror - Shostakovich (left) with the theater
director Vsevolod Meyerhold in 1929. Meyerhold
was executed in prison in 1940.

Wagner & Bruckner

Bruckner, Anton
September 4, 1824

He was born in Ansfelden, Austria, the son of a schoolmaster and organist father, and a musical mother. His mother took him with her, at an early age, as she sang in the church choir for Mass. He learned to play hymn tunes on a miniature violin at the age of 4 and was soon finding hymn tune harmonies on the family piano. At 10 he could take his father's place as organist for church services.

His first music theory lessons came at 11. He was sent to the small town of Hoersching to his 21-year-old godfather and composer Johann Baptist Weiss who was a schoolmaster and organist. Weiss was a local composer of some repute and Bruckner learned harmony from him. At that time he heard a Mozart mass for the first time and Haydn's The Creation and Seasons.

More on Bruckner at September Composers

Bruckner snuff's Wagner.

Contrebass (string bass) by Monique Manseau

 Born in Montreal, the late Monique Manseau showed a deep interest in drawing at a very early age. She won her first poster contest, sponsored by the "Symphonic morning of Montreal," at the age of 12.

Monique's mentor and greatest influence was her father, a medical doctor and scientific illustrator of medical books.

A violinist by training, she soon developed her sense of humor while working with an orchestra. The details of this humor can be found in the lifelike musicians of her "Zeman." We can almost hear them play!

She worked in the field of lithography at "l'Atelier collectif Graff" in Montreal for ten years as a painter-engraver.

Monique Manseau has exhibited at the Archambault Gallery in Lavaltrie. She was part of the Painting Symposium of Kamouraska and in 1997 was a member of "Opus 51," a tribute to Pierre Ayot, held at the Bon Pasteur Historical Chapel in Montreal.

Holst, Gustav
September 21, 1912

Born in Cheltenham, England in 1874, he started to compose as soon as he could write. He picked up new instruments and learned them quickly.

Until the end of the First World War he was known as "von Holst," coming from a refugee Latvian-Russian musical family that had arrived in England in the early 19th century and settled in Cheltenham. His great-grandfather had served at the Imperial Russian court.

His father taught him piano, violin and trombone. The teenaged Gustav served as organist and choirmaster in the Gloucestershire countryside. and he wrote a well- received operetta, Landsdown Castle .

From 1893 to 1898 he studied at the Royal College of Music. As a professional his first position was as a trombone player with the Carl Rosa Opera. Later he joined the Scottish Orchestra. It was there from the inside of the orchestra he learned a flair and brilliance for orchestral writing.

His professional life began as an organist for his village. He conducted village choral societies and at 19 registered at the Royal College of Music. He spent 5 years there. Charles Villiers Standford (Dublin, 1852 to London, 1924 ) was Holst's master for composition. He first earned his living after having been a Royal College of Music trombonist in theater orchestras and then as a member of the Scottish National Orchestra.

There's more at September Composers

This recording of The Planets by Holst was released July 10, 2001.The CD also holds Pluto by Colin Matthews. Pluto hadn't been discovered at the time wrote Holst wrote The Planets.

Here are some comments from composer Colin Matthews about his work, 'Pluto.' "When Kent Nagano asked me to add "Pluto" to The Planets I had mixed feelings. To begin with, The Planets is very satisfying as a whole, and one which makes perfect musical sense. "Neptune" ends the work in a way wholly appropriate for Holst - an enigmatic composer, always likely to avoid the grand gesture if he could do something unpredictable instead. How could I begin again, after the music has completely faded away as if into outer space? And even though Pluto, was discovered four years before Holst's death in 1934, I am certain he never once thought to write an additional movement (he was in any case decidedly ambivalent about the work's huge popularity). In addition, the matter of Pluto's status as a planet has for some been in doubt - it may well be reclassified (together with its tiny satellite Charon) as no more than an asteroid, thrown way out of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, or 'captured' by the sun's gravitational field. (Another intriguing fact about Pluto is that its elliptical orbit means that between 1979 and 1999 it was nearer to the sun than Neptune.)

Yet the challenge of trying to write a new movement for the The Planets without attempting to impersonate Holst eventually proved irresistible. It quickly became clear that it would be pointless to write a movement that was even more remote than 'Neptune' unless the whole orchestra were to join the chorus off-stage. Nor did I feel that I should rely on the astrological significance of Pluto, which is more than a little ambiguous (not that astrologers seem to have problems with a minute planet that they have only just become aware of). In any case I am a thoroughgoing skeptic as far as astrology is concerned - I suspect that Holst's interest was pretty peripheral - and, apart from choosing the title 'Pluto' - the Renewer,' left that aspect to one side.

The only possible way to carry on from where 'Neptune' leaves off is not to make a break at all, and so 'Pluto' begins before 'Neptune' has quite faded, necessitating a slight change in the ending. (The original version of 'Neptune'
is included on the Pluto premier CD.) And it is very fast - faster than 'Mercury:' solar winds were my starting point. The movement soon took on an identity of its won, following a path which I seem to be simply allowing to proceed as it would: in the process I came perhaps closer to Holst than I had expected, although at no point did I think to write a pastiche. At the end music disappears, almost as if 'Neptune' had been quietly continuing in the background.

'Pluto' is dedicated to the memory of Holst's daughter Imogen, with whom I worked for many years until her death in 1984, and whom I suspect would have been both amused and dismayed by this venture."

Dvorak, Antonin
September 8, 1841

He was born in Nehalozeves, the son of a butcher and innkeeper, and is considered a Czech composer. His first work was as a butcher boy. His first musical introduction came from his zither-playing father and the traveling bands that came through his village. He was an early vocalist and learned to play the violin.

Later he took piano and organ lessons. Between 1857 and 1859 he studied at the Organ School, Prague. In 1862 Smetana returned to Bohemia from his post in Sweden to help establish the soon-to-be-famous National Theater of Prague. Dvorak gained admission to became a viola player in the orchestra of the National Theater (1863-73). During these years he became active as a composer.

There is more as well as some recommended recordings at September Composers

Antonin Dvorak was born September 8, 1841 at Nehalozeves, The Czech Republic. This CD contains the complete Symphonies of Dvorak. As LPs this was the first recorded set of the Dvorak Symphonies with their "new" numbering. The LPs wre issued in the mid 60s.

When these performances were issued on CD Ivan March in Gramophone said, ". . . one welcomes these famous Istvan Kertész recordings to the CD catalogue in their digitally remastered format . . .they eclipse all competition-Neumann's versions are not in the same class either as performances or recordings . . .The sound of the CDs is excellent but the improvement is only marginal. The quality remains full, clear and positive in focus throughout the symphonies. . . "

 Bach, Johann Christian bahk
September 5, 1735

Born in Leipzig, the 11th and youngest son of Johann Sebastian, he is known as John the "London Bach." This pianist and composer born to J.S. Bach's second wife, studied with his older brother C.P.E. Bach in Berlin and with Padre Giovanni Battista Martini (who also instructed Mozart) in Bologna.

In 1760 he took a post as organist at Milan Cathedral. He also worked in other northern Italian cities. By 1762 he was in London as composer to the King's Theater and then in 1763 as music-master to Queen Charlotte (wife of George III, King during the United States Revolution). With the distinguished performer Karl Friedrich Abel playing bass viol he gave several series of subscription concerts. This lead to the establishment of regular public concerts in London.

He began a life-long friendship with Mozart, who visited London at the age of 8 in 1764. The two of them played a sonata together and took alternate measures "seamlessly". In 1771 Padre Martini asked him for a portrait. His portrait was painted by his friend Thomas Gainsborough who also created a second portrait. One can be seen in Bologna and the other is in the collection of the Earl of Hillingdon. There is a bust of J.C. Bach that dates from this time (1771-78) as well. It was owned by his brother Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach.

 He began a life-long friendship with Mozart, who visited London at the age of 8 in 1764. The two of them played a sonata together and took alternate measures "seamlessly". In 1771 Padre Martini asked him for a portrait. His portrait was painted by his friend Thomas Gainsborough who also created a second portrait. One can be seen in Bologna and the other is in the collection of the Earl of Hillingdon. There is a bust of J.C. Bach that dates from this time (1771-78) as well. It was owned by his brother Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach.

There's more on Johann Christian at September Composers.

 Griffes, Charles Tomlinson
September 17, 1884

He was born in Elmira, New York and, after lessons with his sister Katherine he studied at Elmira College. Professor Mary Selena Broughton had a major influence on his musical development. He studied in Berlin (he wanted to be a concert pianist) and among his teachers was the Wagnerian, Engelbert Humperdinck. Most American composers of his generation studied in Germany and most considered the German model the best example of the Western European music.

He left the Stern Conservatory in Berlin against the advice of Broughton. He had became more interested in composing than in performing. He sought out the progressive composers and took about 12 lessons with Humperdinck during 1905-6.

He went back the U.S. for a short while and then returned to Berlin. While there he wrote German songs and his Symphonische Phantasie (for orchestra).

For more see September Composers.

 Milhaud, Darius
September 4, 1892

Born in Aix-en Provence of a wealthy, well-established Jewish family involved with the cultural life of the area, Milhaud began violin lessons at the age of seven and started composing soon after that.

He entered the Paris Conservatory as a violin student but soon switched to composing under Xavier Leroux, Paul Dukas, Andre Gedalge and Charles Widor. His friends, mostly painters and writers (including writers Jammes and Claudel), were as much an influence on his composing as were musicians. He collaborated several times with the mystical poet and dramatist Claudel. In Christophe Colomb (1928) original stage devices are used by certain characters with accompaniment by orchestra or mere percussion instruments.

Paul Claudel was a diplomat (French minister to Brazil after World War I) and invited Milhaud to travel with him to Rio de Janeiro. The composer's acquaintance with native music resulted in his ballet L'homme et son desir (1918), the dance suites Saudades do Brasil (1920-21), and the Brazilian influence continued on in other works.

There's some more at September Composers

 Frescobaldi, Girolamo
Baptised September 9, 1583

Frescobaldi was born in September, 1583 in Ferrara and was an organist and composer. He was pupil of Luzzasco Luzzaschi. At the end of Renaissance he tied together both Northern and Southern keyboard idioms "in compendious glory." With Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck of Amsterdam he was the most influential keyboard composer in early 1600s.

And he paved the way for the beginning of the middle Baroque. He visited Flanders for about 10 months for the promotion (and signing of the dedication) of a set of madrigals in 1608 and was organist from 1608 to 28 at St. Peters, Rome. There is no evidence that he was impressed with the progress in organ building in Flanders or that he met Sweelinck. The organ at St. Peter's was rebuilt during his tenure and none of the Flemish innovations were employed.

When the organ was ready it's reported that 30,000 were on hand for Frescobaldi and the first performance.

You can find more at September Composers