Synopsis
Today, a salute to a remarkable American composer and performer — cornet virtuoso Herbert Lincoln Clarke.
Clarke was born in Wolburn, Massachusetts on September 12, 1867, into a peripatetic musical family. He began to play his brother’s cornet and was soon earning fifty cents a night playing in a restaurant band. At 19, he won first prize at a cornet competition in Indiana, and, in 1893, after many years on the road, he got the call from John Philip Sousa to join his illustrious organization as its star soloist, a position he held for over 20 years.
From 1900 on, Clarke began to compose and make recordings of his own music. In 1904, while on a return voyage from England with the Sousa Band, he completed one of his best-known pieces, originally titled Valse Brilliante. While waiting to dock in New York, however, at Sousa’s suggestion, he changed the title to Sounds from the Hudson.
Clarke eventually settled in California and died there on today’s date in 1945. But the much-traveled composer and performer was buried on the opposite coast — in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. — near the grave of his lifelong friend, John Philip Sousa.
Music Played in Today's Program
Herbert L. Clarke (1867-1945): Sounds from the Hudson (Valse Brillante); Wynton Marsalis, cornet; Eastman Wind Ensemble; Donald Hunsberger, conductor; CBS 42137
On This Day
Births
1697 - German composer and flutist Johann Joachim Quantz, in Oberscheden, Hannover
1861 - French-born American composer Charles Martin Loeffler, in Alsace
1862 - German-born American composer and conductor, Walter Damrosch, in Breslau
Deaths
1963 - French composer Francis Poulenc, 64, in Paris
Premieres
1724 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 81 (Jesus Schläft, was soll Ich Hoffen?) performed on the fourth Sunday after Epiphany as part of Bach’s first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24)
1735 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 14 (Wär Gott nicht mit Uns Diese Zeit) performed in Leipzig on the 4th Sunday after Epiphany
1892 - Rachmaninoff: Trio Élégiaque No. 1 (Gregorian date: Feb. 11)
1893 - Brahms: Fantasies for piano Nos. 1-3, and Intermezzo No. 2, in Vienna
1917 - Zemlinsky: opera A Floretine Tragedy, in Stuttgart at the Hoftheater
1920 - Frederick Converse: Symphony, by the Boston Symphony, Pierre Monteux conducting
1942 - Copland: Orchestral Suite from Billy the Kid ballet, by the Boston Symphony
1948 - Harold Shapero: Symphony for Classical Orchestra, by the Boston Symphony conducted by Leonard Bernstein
1958 - Walton: Partita for orchestra, in Cleveland
1959 - Hindemith: Pittsburgh Symphony, by the Pittsburgh Symphony, conducted by the composer
1970 - William Schuman: In Praise of Shahn, in New York
1985 - Libby Larsen: Symphony (Water Music), by the Minnesota Orchestra, Neville Marriner conducting
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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.