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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January 3 - Petro Metastasio (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for January 3rd are here: Victor Borge; Henriette Sontag (2020), Victor Borge (2021), Stephen Stills (2022), Victor Borge (2023), Victor Borge (2024), and Victor Borge (2025)

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Pietro Metastasio (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782) was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seria Business

Metastasio said of his verse

As the singers began to rehearse,

"The public is smitten

With da capos I've written,

Which is good for my penniless purse!"

 

 

 

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July 6 - Nicola Francesco Haym (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for July 6th are here: Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (2019), Claude-Michel Schönberg (2020), Hanns Eisler (2021), Alberto Nepomuceno (2022), and Bill Haley (2023)

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Nicola Francesco Haym (6 July 1678 – 31 July 1729) was an Italian opera librettist, composer, theater manager and performer, literary editor and numismatist. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haym, Sweet Haym

 

His historical importance, however, rests upon his libretti for Handel’s scores, including Teseo (1713), Radamisto (1720), Ottone (1723), Flavio (1723), Giulio Cesare (1724), Tamerlano (1724), Rodelinda (1725), Siroe (1728), and Tolomeo (1728). -- adapted from encyclopedia.com 

To Signor Haym we owe a debt. He

Put together the libretti

For some of Handel’s biggest hits,

And so today, since space permits,

I’ll venture on this birthday foray,

And end with “Mille grazie, Signore.”

 

 

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March 28 - Joseph Weigl; Myfanwy Piper (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous postings for March 28th may be found here: Paul Whiteman (2019), Lady Gaga (2020), Alf Clausen (2021), Lady Gaga (2022), and Joey Roukens (2023)

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Joseph Weigl (28 March 1766 – 3 February 1846) was an Austrian composer and conductor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well Connected

 

Weigl studied music under Johan Georg Albrechtsberger, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Antonio Salieri. --- Wikipedia

When Albrechtsberger, Mozart, and Salieri

  Are listed on your resume as teachers,

You’ll go through life with quite a load to carry,

  Regardless of your own intrinsic features.

 

 

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Myfanwy Piper (28 March 1911 – 18 January 1997) was a British art critic and librettist. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Fiddle

 

In 1953 she was asked by Benjamin Britten to write the libretto for The Turn of the Screw, followed by Owen Wingrave (1971) and Death in Venice (1973).  - National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk)

In music there are dingy ghettos

Reserved for writers of librettos.

Their names are on the title page,

But do not use this fact to gauge

The scope of credit given to them,

Beyond the cash remittance due them,

 

Consider Piper, for example,

Though proofs of her success are ample,

It would have been absurd of her

To think that folks had heard of her.

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