March 2 - Bedřich Smetana (The Musical Birthday Series, 8th Annual Cycle)

Previous entries for March 2nd can be found here: Kurt Weill (2021); Bedřich Smetana (2020); Kurt Weill and Marc Blitzstein (2019), Desi Arnaz (2022), Kurt Weill; Bedřich Smetana (2023), Bedřich Smetana (2024), and Kurt Weill (2025)

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Bedřich Smetana (2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was an important Czech composer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carts and Horses

The overture, often played as a concert piece independently from the opera, was, unusually, composed before almost any of the other music had been written. -- Wikipedia

The charming show that's called The Bartered Bride,

   (The subject of this blog),

Was from the start a source of native pride,

    (And left the Czechs agog).

Its overture, a favorite far and wide,

Whose smash success is amply justified,

Is better known than that to which it's tied, --

   (The tail that wagged the dog).

 

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

 

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".

 

 

 

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

 

February 5 - Giovanni de' Bardi (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for February 5th are here: Ole Bull (2020), Barrett Strong; Christian Gottlob Neefe (2021), Grażyna Bacewicz (2022), Ole Bull (2023), Christian Gottlob Neefe (2024), and Ole Bull (2025)

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Giovanni de' Bardi (5 February 1534 – September 1612) was an Italian literary critic, writer, composer and soldier. He supported the famous Florentine Camerata.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Better Late Than Never

Raise you beer, or champagne, or Bacardi,

And toast Giovanni de' Bardi,

Whose work in old Florence

Emphatically warrants

This verse, which is several years tardy.

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Revival

Intrigued by ancient descriptions of the emotional and moral effect of ancient Greek tragedy and comedy, which they presumed to be sung as a single line to a simple instrumental accompaniment, the Camerata proposed creating a new kind of music. – Wikipedia, s.v. "Florentine Camerata"

In Giovanni de' Bardi's critique

The Renaissance drama was weak,

But attempts to restore

The catharsis of yore,

Had an upshot more Tuscan than Greek.

 

 

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

 

February 23 - Mason Bates (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for January 23rd are here: Muzio Clementi (2020), John Luther Adams (2021), Django Reinhardt; Gary Burton (2022), Anita Pointer; Chita Rivera (2023), Marty Paich (2024), and Muzio Clementi (2025)

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Mason Bates (b. 23 January 1977) is a Grammy award-winning American composer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Taking the Bates

The Metropolitan opera is reviving its season-opening production in February, building on the momentum of recent sold-out performances. – New York Times

Met’s “Kavalier & Clay” mixes stunning production with largely lightweight music – George Grella, New York Classical Review

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

By Mason Bates, whose birthday is today,

Was chosen to start the season at the Met,

And that's about as big as it can get.

The public seems to like it (so there's that),

But critics found the music rather flat,

In spite of this, it really quite a feat

To mount a show and sell out every seat.

And Mason Bates's path to selling tickets.

Was writing music largely free of thickets.

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

January 22 - Stefano Pavesi (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for January 22nd are here: Rosa Ponselle (2020), Leon Jessel (2021), George Balanchine; Vincenzo Righini (2022), Vincenzo Righini; Charles Tournemire (2023), Stefano Pavesi (2024), and Charles Tournemire (2025)

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Stefano Pavesi (22 January 1779 – 28 July 1850) was a prolific Italian opera composer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Grass Withers and the Flower Fades.

Pavesi wrote sixty-six operas. – adapted and translated from Italian Wikipedia

Consider the life of Pavesi!

In opera's halcyon days he

Had fame for a while

In the bel canto style,

But it wilted away like a daisy.

 

 

 

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