August 31 - Alma Mahler (The Musical Birthday Series)

Alma Mahler (31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964) was a composer and muse to a succession of important artists.


 



Contradiction

I won’t attempt Mahler (called Alma).

  Who’s been skewered with expert aplomb

In a waltzing critique of her love life

  By the satirist Lehrer (called Tom).


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August 30 - Regina Resnik (The Musical Birthday Series)

Regina Resnik (30 August 1922 – 8 August 2013) was an opera singer with a long international career and wide repertoire.

As a Matter of Fach

Regina Resnik, soprano turned mezzo -

How did it happen, and how did she gets so?

A dramatic soprano, who ranked with Ponselle,

A spectacular career, and everything well,

Then, on advice, by deliberate choice

She took a year off and rejiggered her voice.

She returned to her stardom, a diva, although her

Roles were now sinister, darker, and lower.

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August 29 - Charlie Parker (The Musical Birthday Series)

Charlie Parker (29 August 1920 – 12 March 1955) was an innovative and virtuosic jazz saxophonist.  I have no basis whatever for the bit of domestic biographical nonsense presented below.

 Nesting

Charlie Parker, who was known as “Bird”

Revelled in changes, the fastest yet heard.

He’d practice for hours developing bop,

Until Mrs. Parker insisted he stop.

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August 28 - Umberto Giordano; Ivor Gurney; Léon Theremin (The Musical Birthday Series)

Umberto Giordano (28 August 1867 – 12 November 1948) was a composer of several highly successful operas.

Umberto Giordano, today,

Is known for Andrea Chenier.

The success of Siberia

Was vastly inferiah,

In its frigid verismo-ish way.

 ♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪


Ivor Gurney (28 August 1890 – 26 December 1937) was a poet and composer who never fully recovered after being gassed in World War I.

Doppelgänger

The English department knows Gurney,

A poet of the first world war;

The music department knows Gurney,

The composer of songs by the score.

He must have been quite a conniver

To succeed in these alternate spheres;

A psychically wounded survivor,

The Ivor who had two careers.

 ♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪

Léon Theremin (28 August [O.S. 15 August] 1896 – 3 November 1993) was an inventor, most 

famously of the early electronic instrument, the theremin.

Counsel

Heed this advice as you begin

Your lessons on the theremin - 

Its repertoire is very thin,

Take up, instead, the violin.

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August 27 - Lester Young (The Musical Birthday Series)

Lester Young (27 August 1909 – 15 March 1959) was an influential jazz saxophone player.  

Lest We Forget

Lester Young did not grow old;

He drank himself to death we’re told.

And as the alcohol took hold

His improvising grew less bold,

His life itself was uncontrolled.

The fate, alas, his bio says

Of one whom Billie called “the Prez.”


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August 26 - Leon Redbone (The Musical Birthday Series)

Leon Redbone (26 August 1949 – 30 May 2019) had an improbable pop career singing  Tin Pan Alley standards and novelty material.

 

“With his reluctance to discuss his past came speculation that ‘Leon Redbone’ 

was an alternative identity for another performer. Two common suggestions in 

years past were Andy Kaufman and Frank Zappa, both of whom 

Redbone outlived.”  Wikipedia

Doppelgänger

Leon Redbone, who is recently dead,

Wore a signature hat on his head. 

Some people thought his eccentric persona

Couldn’t be real, that it wasn’t his own, a

Conspiracy theory which was set to the side

As each of the alternate candidates died.


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August 25 - Leonard Bernstein (The Musical Birthday Series)

Leonard Bernstein (25 August 1918 – 14 October 1990) was a dominant force in virtually all areas of music during his busy career.

Two couplets, a tercet, a quatrain, and a limerick walked into a bar...

Getting Personal 1

It must have been flattering when he

Said, “Please, all my friends call me Lenny.”

Getting Personal 2

Those young people’s shows on TV

Made a lasting impression on me.

And It Was Goddam Good

The glorious mess that is Mass

Exults in excess and in sass,

And much, I confess, that’s first class.

Resurrection 

Mahler might have persisted

   As an occasional curiosity 

Had Bernstein not insisted

  That length was not loquacity

It Must Be So

Take care that you listen and heed

The advice that you get in Candide:

Give thanks for your birth

On this optimal earth,

Viel Glück, et bon chance, and godspeed!

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