February 25 - Carlo Goldoni; Erich von Hornbostel (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for February 25th are here: Myra Hess (2020), George Harrison; Enrico Caruso (2021), Enrico Caruso (2022), Armand-Louis Couperin (2023), Enrico Caruso (2024), and Enrico Caruso (2025)

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Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (25 February 1707 – 6 February 1793) was an Italian playwright playwright and librettist. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Boy

His plays make rich use of the Venetian language, regional vernacular, and colloquialisms, and offered his contemporaries images of themselves, often dramatizing the lives, values.  -- adapted from Wikipedia 

No visage was solemn or stony

When watching a play by Goldoni,

Where Venetian vernacular

Eschewed the spectacular

In stories more comic than tony.

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Erich von Hornbostel (25 February 1877 – 28 November 1935) was an Austrian ethnomusicologist, comparative musicologist, and scholar of music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything in Its Place

 

He is remembered for his pioneering work in the field of ethnomusicology, and for the Sachs-Hornbostel system of musical instrument classification. -- Wikipedia

Erich von Hornbostel did work which describes

The music of villagers, natives, and tribes,

With special attention to cultural vibes.

He listened to instruments, noted their tone.

And how they were stroked, plucked, beaten, or blown,

Then placed them in families ending  in "--phone".

 

 

 

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March 25 - Bela Bartók; Johann Adolf Hasse (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for March 25th may be found here:  Béla Bartók (2019), Anita Bryant; Elton John (2020), Aretha Franklin; Arturo Toscanini (2021), Arturo Toscanini (2022), and Haydn Wood (2023)

 

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Béla Bartók (25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practical Ethnomusicology

 

Bartok's compositional command of folk elements is expressed in such an authentic and undiluted a manner because of the scales, sounds, and rhythms that were so much a part of his native Hungary that he automatically saw music in these terms.  -- Wikipedia

Bela Bartók’s rhythmic verve,

  And his scalar complication,

Come from efforts to preserve

  The folk songs of the Magyar nation.

 

 

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Johann Adolph Hasse (bapt. 25 March 1699 – 16 December 1783)was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Married Life

 

They were described by the famous librettist Metastasio as "truly an exquisite couple". -- Wikipedia, s.v. "Faustina Bordoni" 

 

Musical success was fed

  By matrimony,

When Johann Adolf Hasse wed

  Faustina Bordoni.

 

 

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September 23 - John Lomax (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for September 23rd are here: John Coltrane; Ray Charles; Bruce Springsteen (2019), John Lomax; Princess Marie Elisabeth of Saxe-Meiningen (2020), and Jean-Marie Leclair the Elder (2021)

 

John Lomax (23 September 1867 – 26 January 1948) was a pioneering American ethnomusicologist who did much for the preservation of American folk music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ballad of Lomax

Way out in the West

Where the tumbleweeds blow,

A man with a quest

Once decided to go

And find him some cowboys,

Although it seemed strange,

And then he said, “Now, boys,

“Sing songs of the range.

“Sing songs of the prairie

“Signs songs of the camp”

He found a spot where he

Could work by his lamp

As he gave his attention,

To music and word,

And without condescension

Transcribed what he heard

And thus, unrehearsed,

He was able to collect them, –

John Lomax, the first

To explore and respect them.

 

 

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September 23 - John Lomax; Princess Marie Elisabeth of Saxe-Meiningen (The Musical Birthday Series, 2nd Annual Cycle)

Last September 23 I presented a series of nonsense couplets called "Nopes".  I decided to continue this idea this year. (click here)

John Lomax (23 September 1867 – 26 January 1948) was a pioneering American ethnomusicologist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. 

Princess Marie Elisabeth of Saxe-Meiningen (23 September 1853 – 22 February 1923) was a musician and composer.

 

Nope 4

When out in the West with the cowboys John Lomax

Was told not to bring his Atlanta Braves foam axe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nope 5 

Marie-Elisabeth von Saxe-Meiningen

Never composed after having a Heineken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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