Synopsis
In 1949, while on his deathbed, German composer Richard Strauss supposedly turned to his beloved daughter-in-law, and said, “Funny thing, Alice. Dying is just the way I composed it in Death and Transfiguration.” Strauss was referring to a tone-poem he had written some 60 years earlier depicting an artist on his deathbed, reviewing his life in art between bouts of an eventually fatal fever.
On today’s date in 1951, Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg was on his deathbed in Los Angeles — on a Friday the 13th, in fact. Now, Schoenberg had a “thing” about numbers. He developed an atonal 12-tone style of composition, and assigned a mystical, quasi-religious significance to numbers. One might imagine Schoenberg on his deathbed, turning to someone he loved and said, “Funny thing: I’m dying on Friday the 13th at the age of 76, which, numerically speaking, is 7+6, or 13, don’t you see.”
We do know that in 1946, after suffering a near-fatal heart attack, Schoenberg wrote a string trio and told his friend Thomas Mann it was a musical representation of both that coronary incident and its subsequent medical treatment, including, at one point, the penetration of a hypodermic needle!
Music Played in Today's Program
Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Death and Transfiguration; Berlin Philharmonic; Herbert von Karajan, conductor; DG 447 422
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951): String Trio; Members of the Juilliard String Quartet; Sony 47690
On This Day
Births
1932 - Danish composer Per Norgaard, in Gentofte (near Copenhagen)
Deaths
1951 - Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, in Los Angeles, on a Friday the 13th. He was superstitiously obsessed with the number 13 and, ironically, was 76 years old at the time of his death (7+6 = 13).
Premieres
1829 - Mendelssohn: Double Concerto for two pianos and orchestra, in London at a benefit concert, with the composer and Ignaz Moscheles as the soloists
1995 - Corigliano: Soliloquy for clarinet and string quartet, in Portland, Oregon, by Chamber Music Northwest
Others
1937 - The first Pan-American Chamber Music Festival is held in Mexico City
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.