Synopsis
If you’re a baby boomer who played in a high school or college band, you’ll probably remember the Divertimento for Band by American composer Vincent Persichetti, which premiered on today’s date in 1950, with the composer conducting the Goldman Band.
Persichetti didn’t envision his Divertimento as a band work, per se. At the start, it was just some woodwind figures accentuated by brass and percussion. When he realized that violins and cellos just didn’t seem to fit in the picture, Divertimento began to take shape in his mind as a work for winds, brass and percussion alone.
He went on to write a dozen more compositions for concert band. Beyond his works for band, he was a prolific composer of keyboard, chamber and orchestra pieces. He once claimed that since musical ideas often came to him in his car, he liked to tape a piece of music paper to his steering wheel, so he could jot down ideas and keep his eyes on the road at the same time.
Luckily for other residents of his hometown of Philadelphia, apparently this practice didn’t result in any head-on collisions!
Music Played in Today's Program
Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987): Divertimento; North Texas Wind Symphony; Eugene Migliaro Corporon, conductor; Klavier 11124
On This Day
Births
1931 - American composer Lucia Dlugoszewski, in Detroit
Deaths
1970 - Estonian composer Heino Eller, 83, in Tallinn
1986 - French composer and organist Maurice Duruflé, 84, in Paris
Premieres
1929 - Shostakovich: opera The Nose, in Leningrad at the Malïly Opera Theater
1937 - Blitzstein: opera-review, The Cradle Will Rock, in New York City, composer at piano
1950 - Persichetti: Divertimento for Band, by the Goldman Band, with the composer conducting
1961 - Schoenberg: Jacob’s Ladder, in Vienna, posthumously at 35th Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music
1973 - Britten: opera Death in Venice, in Snape at The Maltings
Others
1708 - While in Italy, Handel completes the score to his Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, presumably for the wedding of the Duke of Alvito to Donna Beatrice Sanseverino on July 19 that year
1710 - Handel is appointed Kapellemeister to Georg Ludwig, Elector of Hanover (the future King George I), at a salary of 1000 thaler under condition that Handel receive an immediate 12-month leave of absence to London
1891 - Czech composer Antonín Dvořák receives an honorary degree from Cambridge University in England
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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.