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".

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February 24 - Arnold Dolmetsch (The Musical Birthday Series)

Arnold Dolmetsch (24 February 1858 – 28 February 1940) was a pioneer of the performance of early music on authentic instruments.

Play On

Arnold Dolmetsch played recorder,

Played the lute, and played the viol,

Instruments he made to order

In Elizabethan style.

Thus he changed our paradigms

Of musick from ye olden times.

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February 23 - George Frideric Handel (The Musical Birthday Series)

George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was one of the greatest, and still most popular, of classical composers.

Secret Vice

His father had strictly forbidden

The practicing young Handel did in

The attic at night

By a dim candlelight

On a clavichord secretly hidden.

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Discomfort Ye

A choir announced their new season,

Which caused a revolt for this reason:

It said they would try a

Break from Messiah,

Which patrons regarded as treason.

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The Cost of Fame

As an honor it isn’t too shabby --

Internment in Westminster Abbey -

But his heirs, at the service,

Despondent and nervous,

Kept asking how much would the tab be.

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February 22 - Marni Nixon (The Musical Birthday Series)

Marni Nixon (22 February 1930 – 24 July 2016) was an American soprano best known for dubbing the vocal parts in important movie musicals.  She also had success singing contemporary classical music.

Double Time

That Deborah Kerr or Natalie Wood

Or, later, Audrey Hepburn should

Get leading roles in musical shows

Was mighty strange as casting goes.

None of them had singing voices

So they seemed peculiar choices.

But investors, to be willing.

Needed glamor in top billing.

A clever ruse was improvised,

To keep their lack of voice disguised --

Marni Nixon sang, they dubbed it,

And the actors never flubbed it.

Envoi

Lifeboats save on sinking ships,

Marni saved with synching lips.

February 21 - Charlotte Church (The Musical Birthday Series)

Charlotte Church (b. 21 February 1986) is a Welsh singer and actress. She was an enormously successful child star.

Passing Fancy

Pity, pity, Charlotte Church!

Time has left her in the lurch.

Once a star in adolescence,

Doom to premature senescence.

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