March 7 - Thomas Linley the Younger (The Musical Birthday Series, 3rd Annual Cycle)

Thomas Linley the younger (7 May 1756 – 5 August 1778) was an extraordinarily precocious English composer and performer, and became known as the "English Mozart".

[Previous entries for March 5th  can be found here: Heitor Villa Lobos (2019), and Heitor Villa-Lobos (2020)]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Admonition

Thomas Linley died at twenty-two,

Which didn’t give him many years to do,

The sort of things you read in Who Was Who.

This doesn’t denigrate, by any means,

The work that he accomplished in his teens.

“The English Mozart” is the sobriquet

By which he is remembered to this day.

A prodigy, admired and renowned,

He went to Grimsthorpe Castle,... where he drowned.

Envoi

The moral, friends, is simple and pragmatic,

Avoid the lures of anything aquatic.

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

 

April 10 - Eugen d'Albert (The Musical Birthday Series, 2nd Annual Cycle)

Eugen d'Albert (10 April 1864 – 3 March 1932) was a Scottish-born pianist and composer.

[For last year's verse on Claude Bolling click here.]

Oh, He’ll Nae Take the High Road

D'Albert repudiated his early training and upbringing in Scotland and considered himself German. - Wikipedia

Eugene d’Albert, a student of Liszt,

Lived abroad, where he’d insist

That no one ever call him Scottish,

In fact, the subject made him hottish.

(If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.

 [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Tales: Great Art Repurposed.]

February 25 - Myra Hess (The Musical Birthday Series)

Myra Hess (25 February 1890 – 25 November 1965) was a British pianist remembered for concerts she organized in London during World Was II.

BWV147

Dame Myra Hess,

As you might guess,

   Tired of hostesses inquiring,

If she’d be a dear

And let them hear

   "Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring".

(If you enjoy these posts, please consider helping me by sharing.)            

January 22 - Rosa Ponselle (The Musical Birthday Series)

Rosa Ponselle (22 January 1897 – 25 May 1981) was one of the greatest operatic sopranos of the last century.

Variations on a Theme

Facetious

The first time Ponselle

Sang opera on stage 

   Was in Forza. Her tenor? Caruso

It went very well,

But at her tender age

    It surely was risky to do so.

Not so Facetious

The very first time that Ponselle

Appeared in an opera on stage

Her nerves made her feel unwell,

But she sang and was soon all the rage.

After such an auspicious debut --

She was (hard to believe) twenty-one --

There were probably many who knew

An illustrious career had begun.


(If you enjoy these posts, please consider helping me by sharing.)      

June 2 - Edward Elgar (The Musical Birthday Series)

Edward Elgar (2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) is arguably the most important British composer between Purcell and Britten.

Victim of Circumstance

Here is the genuine Elgar enigma,

A thing which has saddled him under a stigma —

How did the march which he called “P and C”

Become de rigueur when we get a degree?

June 3 - Josephine Baker (The Musical Birthday Series)

Although Josephine Baker (3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) is best remembered for her charismatic stage performances, she was also a member of the French Resistance in World War II.

Today's offering is a clerihew. The Wikipedia description is accurate: "A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bently.  The first line is the name of the poem's subject, usually a famous person put in an absurd light, or revealing something unknown or spurious about them. The rhyme scheme is AABB, and the rhymes are often forced. The line length and metre are irregular." 

Two important statements in print on the clerihew are Jacques Barzun's verse introduction to The Clerihews of Paul Hogan (Wesleyan UP, 1985) and Gavin Ewart's introduction to The Complete Clerihews of E. Clerihew Bentley (Oxford UP, 1981).

 Clerihew for JB

Josephine Baker

Didn’t dress like a Quaker,

But it’s hard to embarrass

Paris.

June 1 - Mikhail Glinka (The Musical Birthday Series)

Mikhail Glinka (1 June [O.S. 20 May] 1804 – 15 February  [O.S. 3 February] 1857) is often regarded as the father of the distinctively Russian style of composition.

  

Inka Glinka Doo

Q.  Let’s think a-

     bout Glinka;

What comes to your mind?

A.   There’s gush a-

      bout Russia, 

And the Czar is enshrined.

May 31 - Alfred Deller (The Musical Birthday Series)

Alfred Deller (31 May 1912 – 16 July 1979) was one of the first countertenors to achieve genuine stardom.  

 Old Deller

Alfred Deller

Had a stellar

  Countertenor voice.

Quite a rebel

Singing treble

   As his vocal choice.

Pioneering,

Onward steering!

   This is my high five now:

No more ghetto

Of falsetto, 

    Countertenors thrive now.