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Composers Datebook®

with host John Birge

George Templeton Strong, Jr.

The name "George Templeton Strong" crops up frequently in both the Ken Burns PBS documentary on the Civil War and Ric Burn's history of New York. THAT George Templeton Strong was a lawyer and music lover who lived in New York City from 1820-1875, who documented in some four millions words of...Episode details...

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Zwilich's Piano Concerto

It was Mozart who wrote the first great piano concertos, with Beethoven, Brahms and others following suit in the 19th century. Closer to our own time, the tradition continues, with new contributions appearing each year. On today's date in 1986, it was the turn of American composer, Ellen Taaffe...Episode details...

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Telemann makes the record

In the Guiness Book of Music Facts and Feats, the record for "Most Prolific Composer" goes to Georg Philip Telemann, who died on today's date in 1767 at the age of 86. And longevity gave an edge to productivity: Telemann outlived his prolific contemporary, J.S. Bach, by 21 years, and outlived...Episode details...

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Vaughan Williams's Fifth

In wartime London, on today's date in 1943, a Promenade Concert featured the first performance of the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The composer himself conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Queen's Hall, the traditional home of the annual summertime Proms concerts, had been...Episode details...

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Who’s who and what’s what is our specialty at Composers Datebook. Take 2 minutes to make a gift today, to help us continue to share this musical education experience.

Carol Barnett's "Praise"

In 2008, the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists was held in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and for the occasion a "Minnesota Organ Book" was commissioned. The idea was that six Minnesota composers* would each write a short piece for organ plus one solo instrument, and that the...Episode details...

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Mehul's "interesting" times and tunes

There is an ancient curse, popularly attributed to the Chinese, "May you live in INTERESTING times!" The French composer Etienne-Nicolas Mehul, who was born on this date in 1763, certainly lived and worked in an "interesting" time, politically and musically speaking. His creative life spanned...Episode details...

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Lalo Schifrin

Today's the birthday of the versatile Argentinean-born American composer, arranger and jazz pianist, Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin, who was born in Buenos Aires on today's date in 1932. From his background, you'd guess Schifrin was destined for a concert career. His father was a violinist in the...Episode details...

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Mendelssohn and Richard Rodgers the record

Today in 1948, about 50 members of the press were invited to New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for a demonstration of a new kind of phonograph record. A Columbia Records employee named Edward Wallerstein stood between a big stack of heavy, shellac, 78-rpm albums, the standard for recorded music in...Episode details...

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Before you go...

Who’s who and what’s what is our specialty at Composers Datebook. Take 2 minutes to make a gift today, to help us continue to share this musical education experience.

"Freddy" Hollaender and "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T"

Today's date marks the 1953 New York premiere of a musical movie that flopped at the time but has since become a cult classic—and for two very good reasons. First, the movie's script—written by Dr. Seuss—was about a little boy named Bart who didn't enjoy practicing the piano and who was worried...Episode details...

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Shchedrin's Oboe Concerto

OK, violin soloists have it easy: there are thousands of violin concertos they can choose from, starting in the Baroque era of Bach and Vivaldi, and continuing right up to the present day, with new violin concertos available from composers from John Adams to Ellen Taaffe Zwlich. Oboe concertos?...Episode details...

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