April 22 - Joshua Rifkin (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for April 22rd may be found here: Alfred Burt (2019), Ethel Smyth (2021), Joshua Rifkin, and Glen Campbell (2021), Giuseppe Torelli (2022), Alfred Burt (2023), and Paul II Anton Esterházy de Galánth; Yehudi Menuhin; Kathleen Ferrier (2024)

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Joshua Rifkin (b. 22 April 1944) is an American musicologist, conductor, and keyboard player.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One and Only

"Musicologists don't often come to blows. But it happened at the 1981 meeting of the American Musicological Society, when Joshua Rifkin announced that Bach's 'chorus' was really a quartet."  -- Eric van Tassel, New York Times, April 26, 199

Joshua Rifkin caused a row

By claiming that Herr Bach, somehow,

Performed without a Sunday choir,

Which set the learned world on fire.

Cantatas with one voice per part

Seems rather skimpy for his art.

But think before you rashly judge it,

Perhaps the Thomaskirche budget

Mirrored other congregations

And faced financial limitations,

So hiring choruses for the Lord

Was more than Leipzig could afford.

 

 

 

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April 21 - Randall Thompson (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for April 21st may be found here: Randall Thompson (2019), Leonard Warren (2020), Patti LuPone (2021), Randall Thompson; Lionel Rogg (2022), Randall Thompson (2023), and William Knyvett (2024)

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Randall Thompson (April 21, 1899 – July 9, 1984) was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peaceable

Randall Thompson's often-sung octavos

Are not the thing for standing Os and bravos;

They compensate with gentle satisfaction

For what they lack in derring-do and action.

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Faint Praise

His works were politely impassioned.

With excitement and dissonance rationed,

And though carefully drafted,

And exquisitely crafted,

They were more than a little old-fashioned.

 

 

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August 24 - Stephen Paulus (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for August 24th are here: Théodore Dubois (2019), Stephen Paulus (2020), Mason Williams (2021), Jean-Michel Jarre (2022), and Théodore Dubois (2023)

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Stephen Paulus (24 August 1949 – 19 October 2014) was an American composer best known for his vocal music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pentameters for Paulus

Our calendars with yearly promptings call us

To celebrate the work of Stephen Paulus.

Let mingled voices raise their grateful sound

With limpid lyrics, simple and profound.

The dawn’s uncertain when the day is done,

But Stephen with his choral strains has spun

A fabric which our gathered choral throng

Unfurls with careful dignity of song.

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January 26 - Maria von Trapp (The Musical Birthday Series, 5th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for January 26th are here: Alice Babs (2020), Maria von Trapp (2021), Stéphane Grappelli; Jimmy Van Heusen (2022), and Emanuel Aloys Förster; Jimmy Van Heusen (2023)

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Maria von Trapp (26 January 1905 – 28 March 1987) was the matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She Had Confidence

The family had very little input in either the play or the movie The Sound of Music. While Maria was grateful that there wasn't any extreme revision of the story she wrote in The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, and that she herself was represented fairly accurately, she wasn't pleased with the portrayal of her husband. -- adapted from Joan Gearin,"Movie vs. Reality: The Real Story of the Von Trapp Family" at www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/winter/von-trapps-html

 

Maria Augusta von Trapp

Acquiesced to the sizeable gap

‘Twixt the literal truth

Of her Austrian youth,

And a Hollywood musical's sap.

 

 

 

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April 21 - Randall Thompson (The Musical Birthday Series, 5th Annual cycle)

Previous posts for April 21st may be found here: Randall Thompson (2019), Leonard Warren (2020), Patti LuPone (2021), and Randall Thompson; Lionel Rogg (2022)

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Randall Thompson (April 21, 1899 – July 9, 1984) was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Standard Repertoire

If you're seeking a piece to inspire

A competent amateur choir,

There are pieces one hears

That stand up through the years,

And Thompson's a frequent supplier.

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

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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