A surprise commission for Mr. Sousa

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

John Philip Sousa (1854 - 1932) The Washington Post March Dallas Wind Symphony; Jerry Junkin, cond. Reference 94

John Philip Sousa (1854 - 1932) Peaches and Cream Foxtrot Cincinnati Pops; Erich Kunzel, cond. Moss MMG-10005

On This Day

Births

• 1763 - Baptismal date of German composer Franz Danzi, in Mannheim;

• 1843 - Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, in Bergen;

• 1864 - French composer Guy Ropartz, in Guingamp, Brittany;

• 1894 - American composer and arranged Robert Russell Bennett, in Kansas City, Mo.;

• 1900 - American composer Otto Luening, in Milwaukee, Wis.;

Deaths

• 1772 - French composer and organist Louis-Claude Daquin, age 77, in Paris;

• 1893 - Hungarian opera composer Ferenc Erkel, age 82, in Budapest;

Premieres

• 1810 - Beethoven: "Egmont" Overture and Incidental Music, at the Court Theater in Vienna, as part of a production of Goethe's drama of the same name;

• 1889 - Sousa: "Washington Post March," in Washington, D.C., outside the Smithsonian Institution, composer conducting the U.S. Marines Band;

• 1914 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 1, in Pavlovsk (Julian date: June 2);

• 1980 - David Byrne: "High Life for Strings,," at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, during the New Music America Festival;

• 1989 - Michael Torke: ballet "Slate," at the New York State Theater, by the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Hugo Fiorato;

• 1991 - Thomas Oboe Lee: "Seven Jazz Pieces" for string quartet, at Brandeis University, by the Lydian String Quartet;

• 1991 - David Ward-Steinman: "Cinnabar" for viola and piano, in Ithaca, N.Y., at the 19th Annual Viola Congress by violist Karen Elaine with the composer at the piano;

Others

• 1707 - J.S. Bach appointed organist at Blasiuskirche, Muehlhausen;

• 1733 - In London the "Opera of the Nobility" is established by several noblemen and supported by the Prince of Wales, as a rival opera company to Handel's company, the "Royal Academy"; Porpora's opera "Arianna in Nasso" (Ariadne on Naxos) opens their first season on December 29th that year; The company folded in 1737, with its final opera performance on June 11, 1737, at the King's Theater in the Haymarket (The original home of Handel's company); These dates are all according to the Julian "Old Style" calendar still in use in England that year.