January 31 - Franz Schubert (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for January 31st are here: Franz Schubert; George Benjamin (2020), Philip Glass; Mario Lanza (2021), and Justin Timberlake; Carol Channing (2022)

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Franz Schubert (31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was one of the greatest nineteenth century composers.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bad Planning

In the cycle he called Winter Journey,

A lover leaves, ne’er to return, he

Reaches his end

With no wife and no friend,

And, I’m guessing, no probate attorney.

 

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Duly Noted

There are very few symphonies finer

Than that Schubert wrote in b minor;

It isn’t diminished

By being "Unfinished", —

Or so says the note on the liner.

 

 

 

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January 30 - Thomas Tallis (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for January 30th are here: Johann Joachim Quantz; Thomas Tallis (2020), Johann Joachim Quantz (2021), and Thomas Tallis; Harold Prince (2022)

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Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 23 November 1585) was an extremely important English composer. We do not, in fact, know when he was born, but some sources cite tentative evidence pointing to 30 January, so... why not?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Career Path

Tallis served at court as a composer and performer for Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. He avoided the religious controversies that raged around him throughout his service to successive monarchs. - adapted from Wikipedia

It was nimbly inventive of Tallis

To continue his work at the palace;

He remained on the scene

Under each King and Queen

By avoiding sectarian malice.

 

 

 

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January 29 - Luigi Nono (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for January 29th are here: Daniel François Esprit Auber (2020), Adam Lambert (2021), and John Raitt; Frederick Delius (2022)

 

Luigi Nono (29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an important Italian avant-garde composer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Combinatoriality

 

Nono met his wife-to-be, Nuria Schoenberg (daughter of Arnold Schoenberg), at the 1953 world première of Moses und Aron in Hamburg.  - adapted form Wikipedia

When Nono met his future wife,

He knew he’d found a mate for life,

For she was there, like him, to hear

A most important world premiere.

Envoi in a New Meter

And surely these two were the happiest pair in

The audience gathered for Moses and Aaron.

 

 

 

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January 28 - Gottfried Vopelius (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for January 28th are here: John Tavener (2020), Artur [Arthur] Rubinstein; Johann Ernst Bach (2021), and Giovanni Battista Velluti; Ferdinand Hérold (2022)

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Gottfried Vopelius (28 January 1645 – 3 February 1715), was a German Lutheran academic, hymn-writer, and music editor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Protestant

 

 "[New Leipzig Hymnal]: Compiled from the most beautiful and best songs; In which not only songs of the blessed Dr. Luther, and other (songs) with the Word of God, and in accord with the unmodified Augsburg Confession , but also (songs) as introduced and customary in other untainted Evangelical places and regions,." preface to Vopelius's Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch (New Leipzig Hymnal) as found in Wikipedia

 

Gottfried Vopelius once compiled

A thick and respectable tome

Of sacred music clearly styled

To counter the doctrines of Rome.

 

 

 

 

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January 27 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Jerome Kern (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for January 27th are here: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (2020), Jerome Kern (2021), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Mikhail Baryshnikov (2022)

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was one of the greatest composers of all time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Viennese School

The Viennese public was awed

By Mozart, a musical god,

And with Franz Joseph Haydn

And Beethoven tied in,

It was quite a Parnassian squad!

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Jerome Kern (27 January 1885 – 11 November 1945) was an American composer of musical theater and popular music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tip

If a piano bar player should spurn

To feature the ballads of Kern,

They’d find that their patrons

Of gay men and matrons,

Would leave, and they’d never return.

 

 

 

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