Composers Datebook
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Composers Datebook
Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessi...
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The 'Naqoyqatsi' Cello Concerto by Philip Glass
In 2002, film director Godfrey Reggio released his latest movie. Naqoyqatsi — the Hopi word for “life as war” — was Reggio’s third and final installme...
David Dzubay's "Ra"
Ok, if you say, “band music,” most people think “marching bands; sporting events.” So if someone tells you there is a band work titled Ra, you might...
The Vienna Philharmonic and American composers
In Beethoven’s day, there were no independent symphonic orchestras in Vienna, so when Ludwig van wanted to put on an orchestral concert, the way he di...
Symphonic Mayuzumi
One of the preeminent figures in 20th century Japanese concert music was composer Toshiro Mayuzumi, born in Yokohama in 1929.
The range of his m...
Madeleine Dring
She’s been called a “British Gershwin” but perhaps a “British Poulenc” might more accurately describe the genial and graceful music of Madeleine Dring...
Shostakovich in America
It’s all a matter of timing. In 1942, the Soviet Union was America’s wartime ally, and the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich made the cover of TIME...
Panufnik's 'Love Abide'
Dealing with the death of loved ones is never easy, but sometimes music can help — especially if music plays a role in the lives of both the departed...
Bartok's Violin Concerto
Any composer who sets out to write a violin concerto knows their new work will be measured against the famous concertos of the past. But in the fall o...
Harbison's Symphony No. 1
The Boston Symphony premiered a new symphony on today’s date in 1984 — a commission for its Centenary Celebrations. It was the Symphony No. 1 by Ameri...
Schubert's Symphony No. 9
In 1838, Robert Schumann visited the grave of Franz Schubert in Vienna and paid a courtesy call on Schubert's brother, Ferdinand, who was still alive....
Handel passes the hat
Not all composers were nice people, and even some of the more famous ones turn out to have been rather nasty, greedy, vindictive and altogether unplea...
Carpenter perambulates
It’s time once again for our Composer Quiz: Name a famous American composer who was also a successful businessman. If you answered insurance executive...
Rachmaninoff makes the cut
Russian émigré composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff was himself the soloist on today’s date in 1927 in the first performance of his Piano Concerto...
Moby Crumb?
On today’s date in 1972, a most unusual chamber work by American composer George Crumb had its premiere at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C....
Massenet's 'Meditation'
A new opera by Jules Massenet had its premiere at the Paris Opera on today’s date in 1894. Thaïs and was based on a rather spicy novel of the same nam...
King Louis XIII's 'Blackbird' Ballet
The thick historical novels of 19th century French writer Alexandre Dumas, Sr. are packed with some fact and a lot of fiction. Chapter 22 of The Three...
Toscanini and Copland
On today’s date in 1942, on a radio broadcast by the NBC Symphony, 75-year-old Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini led a performance of El Salón Mexico...
Adamo at the opera
It might seem farfetched that Winona Ryder, Emma Watson and Charles Ives might have anything in common, but there is a connection of sorts: Ryder appe...
Verdi's 'Simon Boccanegra'
The stage directions read: “The garden of the Grimaldi Palace outside Genoa. On the left side, the palace, directly in front, the sea. Dawn is breakin...
Ruggles and Cowell anniversaries
Today’s date marks the birth anniversaries of two major 20th century American composers: Carl Ruggles was born in East Marion, Massachusetts on today’...
Rachmaninoff's 'Vespers'
On today's date in 1915, the Moscow Synodal Choir gave the premiere performance of a new choral work by Sergei Rachmaninoff. In Russian, the work was...
Tabloid Paganini?
If TikTok influencers were around in Paris in 1831, they would probably have offered a breathless special edition report on a concert that occurred on...
Charlotte Sohy
Today is International Women’s Day, a global celebration of the social, economic, political, and cultural achievements of women, so here’s a French co...
Daniel Pinkham
Some special music had its premiere at Harvard University (in Cambridge, Massachusetts) on today’s date in 1980. It was commissioned to honor the memo...
Beethoven's Op. 127
Today in 1825, one of Beethoven's late chamber works, his String Quartet No. 12, received its premiere in Vienna by the Schuppanzigh Quartet. The Quar...
Zwilich's Cello Concerto
On today’s date in 2020, a new cello concerto by American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich was given its premiere in Fort Lauderdale, by cellist Zuill Ba...
A hopeful fanfare
Perhaps the fanfare is the most optimistic and hopeful of all musical forms, since it signals the start of something new and worth noting.
Ameri...
Richard Strauss, hero
Oscar Wilde often gets credit for the line, “But enough about me — what do you think about me?” Roughly a century ago, this portrait of the self-absor...
Worthington's Dream
Recordings can be an effective calling card for composers — but the expense of recording an orchestral work in the U.S. is rather daunting, so compose...
Higdon's 'An Exaltation of Larks'
English is a quirky language, take for example the way English labels groups of birds — it can be quite idiosyncratic and even poetic: “A conspiracy o...
Nielsen's Symphony No. 3
Today, some “off-the-cuff” remarks about the role of shirt cuffs in music history.
Starched, button-on, detachable cuffs for men’s shirts were v...
Timely music by Beethoven and Leroy Anderson
On this date in 1814, Ludwig van Beethoven conducted the premiere performance of his Symphony No. 8. As the scherzo movement of his new symphony, Beet...
Symphonies by Bizet and Harris
Two interesting symphonies had their premieres on today’s date just eight years apart. Oddly enough, they were composed nearly ninety years apart.
Opening of Royal Albert Hall
In London on today’s date in 1871 an audience gathered in the newly-finished Royal Albert Hall to attend the first-ever concert to be performed there....
'The Wound Dresser' by John Adams
It’s quite possible that you or someone you know is the caregiver for an ill or aging relative or friend. If so, you know the emotional rewards — and...
Julia Perry's Violin Concerto
On today’s date in 2022, violinist Roger Zahab and the University of Pittsburgh Symphony premiered a Violin Concerto written some 50 years earlier by...
Bernstein conducts Ives
On today’s date in 1951, Leonard Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic in the premiere performance of Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 2. Ives was t...
The Theatrophone
Many music lovers will confess they prefer to hear symphonies or operas in the comfort of their own home rather than live in person at a concert hall...
Harbison's 'Olympic Dances'
In 1996, American composer John Harbison received an unusual commission — a ballet for dancers and symphonic winds. The commission came from a consort...
Smyth the Prisoner
The British composer Ethel Smyth needed both talent and fierce determination to succeed in a professional musical career in her day. Born in 1858, she...