August 31 - Alan Jay Lerner (The Musical Birthday Series, 3rd Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for August 31st are here: Alma Mahler (2019) and Joseph Schillinger (2020)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Alan Jay Lerner (31 August 1918 – 14 June 1986) was an American lyricist and librettist who won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lerner and Loewe, Ltd.

Alan Jay Lerner,

  As you probably know,

Was partnered on Broadway

  As Lerner and Loewe.

When working with others

   (Strouse, Previn, and Lane)

He found such success was

   A chore to maintain.

With them some were hits

   While others squeaked by;

But it’s better when partners

   Can see eye to eye.

It’s never quite clear

   Why a partnership gels,

But it certainly did

   For these wonderful Ls!

 

 

 

If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.  [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Takes: Great Art Repurposed.] 

 

 

August 30 - Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke (The Musical Birthday Series, 3rd Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for August 30th are found here: Regina Resnik (2019) and George Frederick Root (2020)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke (30 August 1767 – 27 October 1822) was a German composer, pianist and musical editor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BWV 846; or, A Bar Walks into a Prelude…

Some earlier editions of the prelude contain an extra bar between bars 22 and 23 allegedly added by Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke in an attempt to correct what he or someone else erroneously deemed a "faulty" progression.  Called the Schwencke measure, it has made its way in countless later editions, including the Ave Maria setting that Charles Gounod based on it.-- adapted from Wikipedia, s.v.  “Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 846” and “Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke”

There are certain editions

   Of the Prelude in C

With an odd extra measure

  (It’s bar 23).

It was C. F. G. Schwencke

  Whose manuscript had

This odd extra measure

   For good or for bad.

There’s no way to know if

   This tiny addition

Was the work of our Schwencke,

   Or reflects the Tradition,

So it falls to each player

   To make a decision

If the version is valid

   Or Schwencke’s revision.

 

 

If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.  [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Takes: Great Art Repurpose 

 

August 29 - Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel (The Musical Birthday Series, 3rd Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for August 29th are here: Charlie Parker (2019) and Michael Jackson; Dinah Washington (2020)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel (bapt. 29 August 1686 – 1764) was a German composer and organist , the elder son of Johann Pachel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close to the Tree

Pachelbel! (You know the one.)

Well, it seems he had a son

Who, working in his father’s sphere

Had a long successful career.

Of his works we've been deprived,

For almost none of them survived.

And thus (thank God) there is no canon,

Despite the clan that he began in!

 

 

 

 

If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.  [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Takes: Great Art Repurposed.] 

 

 

August 28 - Paul Henry Lang (The Musical Birthday Series, 3rd Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for August 28th are here: Umberto Giordano; Ivor Gurney; Léon Theremin (2019) and Carolmannus Pachschmidt; Peter[von] Winter (2019)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Paul Henry Lang (28 August 1901 – 21 September 1991) was a Hungarian-American musicologist and music critic. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ballad of a Legacy

When musicology was new,

   And largely unaccepted,

Paul Henry Lang made his debut,

   And did the unexpected, --

He was the first professor in

   A newly-minted ology,

Engaging in the discipline

    Without the least apology.

And as this academic field

  Expanded its variety,

He joined with others and revealed

   A scholarly Society.

And after that he looked around

   For something else to do,

A something which he duly found

   In editing MQ.

And through it all he taught and wrote,

    (Provocative at times),

In scholarship that I would note

     If this were not in rhymes.

Professor Lang has gone to dust,

    But tenured academics

Still employ the cut and thrust

    Of musical polemics.

 

 

 

If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.  [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Takes: Great Art Repurposed.] 

 

 

August 27 - Leon Theremin (The Musical Birthday Series, 3rd Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for August 27th are here: Lester Young (2019) and Rebecca Clarke; Eric Coates (2020)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Leon Theremin (28 August [O.S. 15 August] 1896 – 3 November 1993) was a Russian and Soviet  inventor, most famous for his invention of the theremin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Thought on Leon Theremin

(1)

Leon Theremin moved his hands

To give his instrument commands,

And if you saw him you would swear

He conjured music out of air.

(2)

I doubt that anyone aspires

To make those eerie sounds in choirs,

But if they did, the thing requires

Theremins and lots of wires.

(Available from good suppliers.)

 

 

 

If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.  [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Takes: Great Art Repurposed.]