World War I in Europe, Bach in America

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, effectively beginning World War I.

Early in the course of that war, French composer Albéric Magnard became a national hero when he died defending his home against invading German troops. Maurice Ravel tried to enlist as a French pilot but was refused because of his poor health. Instead, he became a truck driver stationed at the Verdun front. British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was too old to be drafted, but he enlisted as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Another British composer, George Butterworth, would be killed by a sniper during the Battle of the Somme.

Austrian violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler served briefly in the Austrian Army in 1914 before being wounded and honorably discharged. He arrived in then-neutral New York on November of 1914 and remained in America through the war years.

In 1915, Kreisler made a recording of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, performing with the Russian violinist Efrem Zimbalist. Austria and Russian may have been at war in Europe, but in a cramped New Jersey recording studio, at least, the music of Bach provided a brief island of peace and harmony.

Music Played in Today's Program

J.S. Bach (1685-1750): Double Concerto (recorded 1915); Fritz Kreisler, Efrem Zimbalist, violins; string quartet; Buddulph CD 21/22

On This Day

Births

• 1893 - Danish composer Rued Langgaard, in Copenhagen

Deaths

• 1750 - German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, 65, in Leipzig. He died a little after 8:15 p.m. and was buried at St. John’s cemetery on either July 30 or 31. In 1894 his body was exhumed, examined, and reburied in the Leipzig's St. Thomas Church, where he had served as Kantor.

• 1838 - Finnish composer Bernard Henrik Crusell, 62, in Stockholm

• 1969 - American songwriter and musical composer Frank Loesser, 59, in New York City

Premieres

• 1717 - Handel: Water Music on the river Thames (Julian date: July 17)

• 1823 - Spohr: opera Jessonda, in Kassel

• 1840 - Berlioz: Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale, in Paris, with the composer conducting (with a sword) over 200 marching musicians

Others

• 1741 - In Vienna, burial of Italian composer and violinist Antonio Vivaldi

• 1850 - To mark the centenary of the composer’s death, The Bach Gesellschaft is founded in Leipzig. Their goal is to publish a complete edition of Bach’s works.

• 1954 - Premiere of Columbia Pictures film On the Waterfront, with a score by Leonard Bernstein

• 1997 - Ligeti: opera La Grand Macabre (revised version), in Salzburg at the Grosses Festpielhaus