March 27 - Phil Chess (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for March 27th may be found here: Antonio Squarcialupi (2019), Sarah Vaughan, Patty Smith Hill; Ben Webster (2021), Ferde Grofé (2022), Vincent d'Indy (2023), and Mariah Carey (2025)

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Philip Chess [born Fiszel Czyż] (27 March 1921 – 18 October 2016) was a Polish-born American record company executive, the founder (with his brother Leonard) of Chess Records.

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Chess Champion

Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. Established and run by two Jewish immigrant brothers from what was then Poland, Leonard and Phil Chess, the company produced and released many singles and albums regarded as central to the rock music canon.  – adapted from Wikipedia, s.v. "Chess Records"

A little Polish Jewish kid

   Could never have expected

The sorts of things he later did,

   Or projects he projected.

He didn't know (this toddler Pole)

   That in the future, he

Would play a legendary role

   In blues and R & B.

 

 

 

 

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March 26 - Pierre Boulez (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous postings for March 26th may be found here: Pierre Boulez (2019), Diana Ross; Pierre Boulez (2020), Pierre Boulez (2021), (2022), (2023), and Rufus Thomas; Pierre Boulez (2024)

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Pierre Boulez (26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was one of the foremost composers and conductors of his time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pierre Shape Tones

Oh clap your hands and make ye merry

For Pierre Boulez's centenary! –

A priest of the cerebral prism

Of serial high modernism;

Whose compositions were so fearsome

We seldom get a chance to hear some.

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Méticuleux

Boulez, though his methods were serial,

Was able to treat his material

With a Gallic finesse

That by turns could express

His thoughts, whether brusque or ethereal.

 

 

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March 25 - Bela Bartók (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th 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. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five Lines Twice on Six Quartets

(1)

A string player never forgets

An encounter with Bartók's quartets,

Which should best be rehearsed

With some breaks interspersed

For rather less arduous sets.

(2)

A cellist one evening said, "Let's

Give a shot at some Bartók quartets,"

But before they were done

The succumbed one by one

To febrile Hungarian sweats.

 

 

 

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March 24 - Maria Malibran (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous post for March 24th may be found here: Maria Malibran (2019), (2020), Fanny Crosby (2021), Elsa Respighi; John Antes (2022), Maria Malibran (2023), and Byron Janis (2024)

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Maria Malibran (24 March 1808 – 23 September 1836) was a Spanish opera singer and one of the great divas of the nineteenth century.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Either/Or

She sang the male title role in Rossini's Tancredi and in Otello sang both the roles of Desdemona and of Otello. – heavily adapted from Wikipedia

The public paid top price to see

And hear her sing en travesti;

At other times she'd show her art

By acting in the female part.

Bel canto at its height depended

On patrons who were unoffended

When hearing love duets intended

For singers singing gender-bended.

 

 

 

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March 23 - Dave Frishberg; Anthony van Hoboken (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for March 23rd may be found here: Julius Reubke (2019), Arthur Farwell (2020), Anthony van Hoboken (2021), Dave Frishberg; Dane Rudhyar (2022), Ludwig Minkus (2023), and Dave Frishberg; Eugène Gigout (2024)

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David Frishberg (23 March 1933 – 17 November 2021) was an American jazz pianist, vocalist, composer, and lyricist.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lessons Unlearned

The lessons in "I'm Just a Bill"

Have been lost up on Capitol Hill,

Where the Senate and House

Barely grumble or grouse,

As they cave to the Executive's will.

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Anthony van Hoboken (23 March 1887 – 1 November 1983) was a Dutch musical collector, bibliographer, and musicologist best known for his catalogue of the works of Haydn. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hob-nobbing

One of Hoboken's tedious chores

Was to ransack the archival stores

Of a palace or church

In a shelf-by-shelf search

For Haydn's lost manuscript sources.

And when they turned up he assigned them

A number so scholars could find them,

So that year after year

When his pieces appear

They have Hoboken numbers behind them.

 

 

 

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