April 30 - Franz Lehár (The Musical Birthday Series)

Franz Lehár (30 Apr 1870 -24 Oct 1948) was one of the greatest of operetta composers.  In the United States, he is largely known only for The Merry Widow and a handful of favorite arias from other operettas. In the German-speaking countries he is still actively staged.

Do I Hear A(nother) Waltz?

Franz Lehár, of course, had his faults,

But he certainly could write a waltz.

There are some that you'll know,

And then you can go,

And find dozens you don’t, in the vaults.

April 29 - Steve Norquist (The Musical Birthday Series)

Steve Norquist (b. 29 April 1954) writes this blog.  He performs obscure, undeservedly forgotten, and just plain odd piano music at his YouTube channel Piano Curiosities with Steve Norquist.

Song of Myself

Today I’ve decided that we

Will take time to celebrate me.

It’s shameless, but I’ve

Just turned sixty-five,

So allow me this one little spree.

April 28 - John Jacob Niles (The Musical Birthday Series)

John Jacob Niles (28 April 1892 –1 March 1980) collected, arranged, or composed (the boundaries are fluid) some of the most beloved American folk melodies.

Appalachian Sing

I wonder and wander,

Sang John Jacob Niles

In his signature falsetto tone.

I ponder what’s yonder,

As over the miles

I travel the hillsides alone.

No glimmer of glamour

Is found in the styles

I hear from the folk in the hollows.

The grimmer the grammar,

The tighter the smiles,

The richer the singing that follows.

From the porch where they perch

They sing of their trials

In songs that are modal and pallid.

It’s for such that I search

And add to my files

Under legend, or carol, or ballad.

April 27 - Friedrich von Flotow (The Musical Birthday Series)

Friedrich von Flotow (27 April 1812 – 24 January 1883) was a successful opera composer, now primarily known for the one aria discussed below.

Going with the Flotow

A tenor who sang “Ach! so fromm”

When he sang at his Austrian home,

Had to learn “M’appari”

When he found out that he

Had an future performance in Rome

April 26 - Conrad Susa (The Musical Birthday Series)

Conrad Susa (26 April 1935 – 21 November 2013) was primarily a composer of music for plays in his capacity as composer-in-residence at the Old Globe Theater of San Diego.  He gained a wider reputation with several successful operas and other vocal works.

Transformations Unbound

Said advisors to young Conrad Susa,

“You’ll have a big hit if you choose a

Book by Anne Sexton

To find your next text in —

An emotional lollapalooza.”

April 25 - Ella Fitzgerald (The Musical Birthday Series)

Ella Fitzgerald (25 April 1917 – 15 June 1996) no doubt had many misadventures on stage during her long and distinguished career, but I'm certain neither of the situations described below was among them.

Variations on a Theme

Times a-Changin’

A test of composure befell a

Resourceful young singer named Ella.

While playing a standard

The drummer meandered

And started a jazz tarantella.

Charting the Chorus

At Christmas time Ella Fitzgerald

Found her version of “Sleigh Ride” imperiled.

The band had their charts,

But they altered their parts

Until it became “Hark the Herald”.

April 24 - Barbra Streisand (The Musical Birthday Series)

The reason for the spelling of the great Barbra Streisand's (b. 24 April 1942) name is easily discovered, but it seemed more festive to pretend that they were a mystery.  

The Way We Wre

No one knows why Barbra

Is spelled with just two A’s.

Could it be to save some space

On record store displays?

Maybe a designer thought

That three was overkill?

Could it be her label sought

A lower printer’s bill?

Envoi

Concision is a virtue, but

I find it hard to think

That leaving out a single vowel

Would save much space or ink.

April 23 - Ruggero Leoncavallo (The Musical Birthday Series)

Ruggero Leoncavallo (23 April 1857 – 9 August 1919) was the composer of the famous one act opera Pagliacci among others, with the results considered below.

 Pagliaccio non son

Have pity on Leoncavallo,

Whose Pag was a tough act to follow.

When he tested his strength

On shows of full length

The results were depressingly hollow.

April 22 - Alfred Burt (The Musical Birthday Series)

Alfred Burt (22 April 1920 –7  February 1954) wrote a series of yearly Christmas carols for friends and relatives.  After his death they were published and several of them have become well known.

Today's offering is a clerihew. The Wikipedia description is accurate: "A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bently.  The first line is the name of the poem's subject, usually a famous person put in an absurd light, or revealing something unknown or spurious about them. The rhyme scheme is AABB, and the rhymes are often forced. The line length and metre are irregular." 

Two important statements in print on the clerihew are Jacques Barzun's verse introduction to The Clerihews of Paul Hogan (Wesleyan UP, 1985) and Gavin Ewart's introduction to The Complete Clerihews of E. Clerihew Bentley (Oxford UP, 1981).

Some Children See Him 

Alfred Burt

Would have been hurt

To hear his favorite carol

Sung in Elf by Will Farrell.

April 21 - Randall Thompson (The Musical Birthday Series)

Today is the birthday of Randall Thompson (21 April 1899 – 9 July 1984).  It is, perhaps. appropriate that the composer of the beloved choral "Alleluia" should occasionally  be celebrated on Easter (as in 2019).

Mr. Thompson

He’s beloved of choral societies

For his absence of all improprieties.

There never will lurk

Any quirks in his work,

Nor hints of atonal anxieties

April 20 - Tito Puente; Lionel Hampton (The Musical Birthday Series)

Coincidentally today is the birthday of two charismatic percussionists, Latin bandleader Tito Puente (20 April 1923 – 31 May 2000), and jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton (20 April 1908 – 31 August 2002). Here are two limericks to celebrate.

Lionized

For decades the critical scribes

Have looked for a jargon that jibes

With the thrill that they get

When a session or set

Has Lionel Hampton on vibes.

Tito Too 

Percussionist Tito Puente

Had a band that was muy caliente.

His big Latin combo

Was known for the mambo

And cha cha especialmente.

April 19 - Germaine Tailleferre (The Musical Birthday Series)

Germaine Tailleferre (19 April 1892 – 7 November 1983)  was a composer of charm and grace whose music is occasionally revived, especially on concerts devoted to women composers.

Gilt by Association?

We’ve heard of Germaine Tailleferre,

But to hear a performance is rare.

By a lucky caprice

She joined in Les Six,

Which at least keeps her name in the air.

April 18 - Franz von Suppé (The Musical Birthday Series)

Franz von Suppé (18 April 1819 – 21 May 1895) is known in America only by a couple of pops concerts staples.  A few of his operettas are still in the active European repertoire.

Featherlight Cavalry

Though his music is fluent and deft,

Von Suppé lacks musical heft.

The Poet and Peasant

Is bouncy and pleasant,

But after it’s over… what’s left?

April 17 - Anja Silja (The Musical Birthday Series)

Anja Silja (b. 17 April 1940) was one of the most compelling singing actors on the opera stage of her time.  As mentioned in today's verse, I was privileged to see her once in Vienna.

Anja Marks

Anja Silja sang each role

With confident devotion;

A Valkyrie out on patrol,

Or Senta by the ocean,

Fidelio in Rocco’s jail,

Or Salome undressing,

Tosca and her final wail,

And Elsa’s useless guessing,

Lulu’s fatal sex appeal,

Brunnhilde on her rock,

Isolde’s potion-aided zeal,

Erwartung’s heightened talk.

All of this in spite a voice

Unsteady, although loud.

And luckily, I can rejoice

That I’ve been in the crowd.

April 16 - Henry Mancini; Charlie Chaplin (The Musical Birthday Series)

Today two film composers share a birthday. 

Henri Mancini (16 April 1924 – 14 June 1994) wrote appealing film scores and themes that readily adapted themselves to "easy listening" arrangements.  

Charlie Chaplin (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) the great star of the silent screen was heavily involved in the music for his films.  He was musically illiterate so his work was accomplished with the help of professional musicians.  The balance of the collaboration seems to have been never satisfactorily determined.

 A Rhyme for Us

The movies Mancini has scored

Make quite a respectable hoard.

He captured our hearts,

A place on the charts,

And just about every award.

Silent Music

Charlie Chaplin wrote the scores for silent films, and while

You ponder on this paradox, just watch the screen and “Smile”.

 

April 15 - Bessie Smith (The Musical Birthday Series)

Bessie Smith (15 April 1894 – 26 September 1937) was a hugely admired and influential blues singer.

Birthday Blues for Bessie

Woke up this morning and I had the birthday blues,

Oh, woke up this morning and I had the birthday blues,

Just another birthday, don’t have to tell you whose.

Each year I get older, and get closer to the grave,

Every year I’m older, and I’m closer to my grave,

Never learned my lesson, and I still misbehave.

Used to pray on birthdays, but they told me it’s a myth,

Went to church on birthdays, but they told me it’s a myth,

But I’ve still got my Victrola and the voice of Bessie Smith.

April 14 - Morton Subotnik (The Musical Birthday Series)

Morton Subotnik (b. 14 April 1933) is one of the pioneers in using electronic sounds in composition and live performance.

Drug Culture

Morton Subotnik’s one big hit,

Silver Apples of the Moon,

(Nonesuch had commissioned it),

Didn’t have a beat or tune.

Even Nonesuch didn't guess

A record with no tune or beat

Could have a popular success

With average listeners on the street.

The explanation for the buzz

Isn’t hermeneutical.

In the Sixties listening was

Uniquely pharmaceutical.

April 13 - William Sterndale Bennett (The Musical Birthday Series)

William Sterndale Bennett (13 April 1816 – 1 February 1875) was an extraordinarily talented musician, admired and befriended by Mendelssohn and Schumann, whose natural caution prevented the full blossoming of his gifts.  He was also important as a pianist, educator, and musical administrator. A few of his piano pieces and several songs still cling to the most precarious of footholds in the repertoire.

Backward Glances

William Sterndale Bennett was

So musically conservative,

Even Robert Schumann was too much.

His view of composition grew

Essentially preservative,

And with each passing day more out of touch.

April 12 - Tiny Tim (The Musical Birthday Series)

Tiny Tim (12 April 1932 – 30 November 1996) was one of the most improbable novelty acts to attain international attention with his cultivated eccentricity and highly unusual vocal stylings.  He is, in fact, buried in my hometown of Minneapolis.  My little poem began as a pure spoof but became a sentimental elegy of its own accord. The lake mentioned is real, and is near his resting place, but has been recently renamed Bde Maka Ska, which doesn't fit my rhyme scheme, so I have used the name as it was when Tiny Tim was buried.

April Elegy for a Tiptoeing Pierrot

The resting place of Tiny Tim

Is several miles away

From where I write this verse to him

On this his natal day.

A lasting presence on the scene

With his falsetto tones;

Laugh-In brought him to our screen,

YouTube to our phones.

The tulips which he tiptoed through

Are still beneath the ground

In April, not responding to

His high soprano sound.

The ukulele that he played

Is now forever still

For Tiny Tim is softly laid

Beside a Lakewood hill.

And when the Minnesota moon

Shines softly where he lies,

His voice is heard o’er Lake Calhoun —

And lovers wipe their eyes.