September 19 - Ernest Tomlinson (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for September 19th are here: Cass Elliot; Rex Smith (2019), Karen Khachaturian (2020), Fred Ahlert; Paul Williams (2021), Brian Epstein; Carl Ignaz Franz Umlauf (2022), and Trisha Yearwood; Leo VI the Wise (2023)

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Ernest Tomlinson (19 September 1924 – 12 June 2015) was an English composer, particularly noted for his light music compositions. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charge of the Light Brigade

In 1984, after discovering that the BBC were disposing of their light music archive, Tomlinson founded The Library of Light Orchestral Music, which is housed in a barn at his family's farmhouse in Lancashire.  — Wikipedia

At the start of the 1990s it really did seem as if the library in the barn was a bit of a white elephant…. Then came the change. A phone call about a projected series of CDs on the Marco Polo label. The provisional title was British Light Music. Thus began the revival of interest in Light Music that gave such happiness to ET’s later years. The existence of the library was triumphantly vindicated. – adapted from https://ernesttomlinson.com/biography/

They must have felt the chance was slight 

That hobbyists or scholars might

Be interested in stuff so trite;

The music, after all, was light.

But Tomlinson declared that he

Would get it from the BBC

And keep the music’s fragile charms

Forever safe from further harms.

It’s easy to ignore or sneer

At artifacts from yesteryear,

And yet, how prudent to archive it

In case the future might revive it.

And though a barn is not a place

That brings to mind archival space,

The thought, I think, is rather splendid

Though never for this use intended.

Replace the erstwhile stalls and stables

With shelves, and chairs, and ample tables,

And scholars will, instead of horses,

Employ the former barns resources

As fodder for their graduate courses.

 

 

 

 

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September 18 - Johann Gottfried Walther (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for September 18th are here: Lord Berners; Francesca Caccini (2019), Arthur Benjamin (2020), Agnes De Mille; Johann Gottfried Walther (2021), Ignaz Holzbauer (2022), and Lord Berners (2023)

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Johann Gottfried Walther (18 September 1684 – 23 March 1748) was a German composer, music theorist, lexicographer, and organist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Place Like Tome

Walther was most well known as the compiler of the Musicalisches Lexicon, an enormous dictionary of music and musicians, and the first dictionary of musical terms written in the German language. - adapted from Wikipedia

Johann Gottfried Walther wrote

  A work of reference.

Which chances are indeed remote

  You’d read by preference.

But if you do, and if you quote, –

  Quote with deference.

 

 

 

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September 17 - Saverio Mercadante (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for September 17th are here: Hank Williams (2019, Saverio Mercadante (2020), Charles Tomlinson Griffes (2021), Charles Tomlinson Griffes (2022), and Charles Tomlinson Griffes (2023)

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Saverio Mercadante (bapt. 17 September 1795 – 17 December 1870) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life Lesson

 

In the decades after his death in Naples in 1870, his output was largely forgotten, but it has been occasionally revived and recorded since World War II. -- Wikipedia 

This blog is not the place to diagnose

Why Mercadante operas came so close

To greatness, yet revivals are so few.  

That’s a question critics might pursue.

Contemporaries found his works attractive.

And really that’s what counts while one is active;

For after one has shed this mortal coil

It truly doesn’t matter, nor will spoil

The pleasure that you had, and that you gave,

Before your pen was silenced by the grave.

 

 

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September 16 - Hildegard von Bingen (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for September 16th are here: Hildegard von Bingen (2019), Charlie Byrd (2020), Nadia Boulanger (2021), Nick Jonas; Hildegard von Bingen (2022), and Hildegard von Bingen (2023)

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Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 17 September 1179) was one of the most accomplished minds of the Middle Ages, distinguishing herself in a number of fields. We do not know when she was born, but September 16 is cited occasionally, although it is unclear on what evidence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mysticism for All?

 

In the early 1990s, recordings of her work suddenly hit the pop charts, a time when medieval chant, new age music and meditative practices were enjoying a boom. -- Brian Wise,@ www.wqxr.org/story/97514-hildegards-striking-music-comes-to-life-vision

Medieval scholars still regard

The sacred chants of Hildegard

As music up there with the best

Produced in the medieval West.

And scholarship, (there is a ton)

On Hildegard, the Bingen nun,

Has opened up to everyone

The beauties of medieval chant, —

Though purists have averred this can’t

Be done without the grim result

Of morphing to a New Age cult.

 

 

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September 15 - John Siebert Taylor (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for September 15th are here: Bobby Short (2019), Jessye Norman; Horatio Parker (2020), Frank Martin (2021), Bobby Short (2022), and Henry Brant (2023)

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John Siebert Taylor (15 September 1869 - 6 July 1948) was a renowned composer of marches,. He was educated in music at Oberlin College and first taught in Janesville, Wisconsin in 1895. Taylor was hired as director of music at Michigan Agricultural College (later Michigan State University) in 1919. - /nl.wikipedia.org and www.spartanmarchingband.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going Dutch

John Siebert Taylor was een Amerikaans componistm dirigent en musikpedagoog van oorspronkelijk Engels-Duitse afkomst. – nl.wikipedia.org (Wikipedia

De vrije encyclopedie)

I do not know if it means much,

But he is only found in Dutch

In Wikipedia, which, of course,

Is inconvenient as a source

For those of us who do not know

The native language of Van Gogh.

Although in fairness, it is true,

The marching band at MSU

Has a web page with a short

Biographical report.

 

 

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