Today's Birthday Composer

Today's birthday wishes go out to Béla Bartók who would be 127 years old today!

Mr. Bartók's music is considered modern and does sound different from music written in earlier periods.

Whenever I play my only CD of Bartók's music I think of the UAE in particular Khor Fakkan and the surrounding area. When I had picked up Bartók's concerto for orchestra shortly before leaving for the UAE so that piece closely associates with the UAE.

Here is the Wiki entry on his most famous work.

Anyway, here is the last movement from Béla Bartók's concerto for orchestra. You may recognize the piece from a movie or a television show:

Happy Birthday Happy Birthday!

Today is the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685). It is important to spell out the full name as a number of JS Bach's sons went on to achieve musical fame.

JS Bach was a prodigious composer composing over 1100 pieces, an amazing number. WA Mozart who comes shortly after JS Bach composed over 600 works, and Beethoven appears to have composed about half of that, and it seems to me as time goes on composers publish less work.


Anyway, here is one of my favorite Bach pieces:


Happy birtday JS Bach – you would be 323 years old today!

il Prette Rosso - A Birthday Wish!

Antonio Vivaldi aka the Red Priest turns 329 years old today!

We start you off with the first movement from his mandolin concerto in C Major:


Of course, Vivaldi's most known works are his set of four concertos known as The Four Seasons. Each concerto focuses on one of the four seasons and the music is written to evoke images of the season. Whether the joy of the return of the sun in springtime, the hot muggies in summer (followed by the wickedly violent storm), the celebration of the fall harvest, or the quiet contentment of sitting in front of the fire in the winter time:

To rest contentedly beside the hearth, while those outside are drenched by pouring rain.

Source: WikiPedia – The Four Seasons (Vivaldi) Winter Antonio Vivaldi's music was among the earliest works in my classical music collection and good thing. His works are typified by often times very fast, light and bouncy, almost always catchy.

Here is the third movement from the Summer Concerto: The second movement evokes the lazy dog days of summer where it is hot and muggy and most people prefer to laze under a shade tree with a cold drink, and then the storm hits! The storm movement is the third (the second movement foreshadows the storm with sounds evoking approaching thunder),

One complaint I have heard people lodge against il Prette Rosso is many of his works seem to resemble each other closely, to be honest, the charge is not ill founded. Vivaldi's unfamiliar works are often easy to pick out, but this does not lessen his career. Vivaldi was an accomplished musician, teacher, and composer of music.

Happy Birthday John Williams!

Today's birthday composer is still alive and I am guessing you all know a number of his works. Today's birthday composer is John Williams and he has composed the scores to a number of mildly successful films.

The music of John Williams was my first serious introduction to classical music. Back in the mid '70s there was this obscure filme named Star Wars and the theme caught my fancy. So one Christmas a tape of the soundtrack was given to me and my brother received an album of the popularized version of the theme song and others. In addtion, at about the same time I received a tape of the soundtrack to Rocky.

However, pop music quickly overcame the budding interest in classical music and I started getting a hold of Kiss albums.

John Williams also composed scores for Indiana Jones, Jaws, Superman, and other successful movies. Anyway today's presentation is a rendition of the theme from Star Wars. I was looking for a version of John conducting the performance but all such You Tube recordings were shoddy and contained too much crowd noise, instead I select the below version from Japan, just wait for the Japanese announcers to finish up there chit-chat and the performance beings.


The Theme from Star Wars by John Williams:


Happy birthday John Williams you are 76 years old today!

Happy Birthday Ludwig!

Today or tomorrow is the birthday of Ludwig von Beethoven. Most of us know who Ludwig von Beethoven is and know perhaps bits & pieces of one or two of his compositions. Read the Wikipedia entry an then listen to the the second movement the adagio cantabile of his eighth piano sonata in C minor – The Pathetique Sonata.
Happy birthday Ludwig, you would have been 237 years old today or tomorrow!

Happy Birthday John Philip Sousa!

Today is the 153rd birthday of John Philip Sousa. You may not know the name but you know at least one of his works and this is that work:


Another well known work of Mr. Sousa's is the Liberty Bell March which is the theme used by Monty Python's Flying Circus:


Happy birthday John Philip Sousa!