Wednesday, August 28, 2019

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

famously of the early electronic instrument, the theremin. [N.B. Theremin was posted here in error; 

his real N.S. birth date is 27 August.]

 


 



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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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