Joaquín Rodrigo (born on November 22, 1901) was blind from the age of three but went on to become one of the most popular composers of the 20th century known especially for his contribution to guitar music, an instrument he never mastered. Rodrigo has left us some 70 songs for voice and piano, 10 songs… Read More
birthday
Celebrating the birthday of Fanny Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Hensel, born November 14
Fanny Hensel (née Fanny Mendelssohn-Bartholdy) born November 14, 1805, was a German composer and pianist, and the sister of composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. As a child, her parents kept her performances limited to periodic Sonntagsmusik salons that she and her brother Felix delivered at the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy home, to a selected group of family friends. Her brother… Read More
Celebrating Verdi’s birthday
Giuseppe Fortunino Frencesco Verdi was born 10/9/1813. IPA Source offers 120 arias from 25 of the Verdi operas but did you know we also offer translations and IPA transcriptions of the complete Ricordi art song collection Compasizioni di Camera? Score: http://imslp.org/wiki/Songs_for_Voice_and_Piano_(Verdi,_Giuseppe) IPA: https://www.ipasource.com/composer/v/verdi-giuseppe-1813-1901.html Listen to the songs on Naxos (subscription necessary): https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.557778 View the entire… Read More
October composer birthdays
We’re celebrating 13 composer birthdays during the month of October. Each composer has a link to our entire collection of texts for that individual. Louis Vierne, born 10/8/1870 Our collection: https://www.ipasource.com/composer/v/vierne-louis-1870-1937.html Giuseppe Fortunino Frencesco Verdi, born 10/9/1813 Our collection: https://www.ipasource.com/composer/v/verdi-giuseppe-1813-1901.html Charles-Camille Saint-Saens, born 10/9/1825 Our collection: https://www.ipasource.com/composer/s/saint-saens-camille-1835-1921.html Ralph Vaughan Williams, born 10/12/1872 Our collection: https://www.ipasource.com/composer/v/vaughan-williams-ralph-1872-1958.html Alexander von Zemlinsky, born… Read More
Happy birthday, Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg
Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg (sometimes spelled Schönberg), born 9/13/1874, was an Austrian composer, music theorist, and painter. He moved to the US in 1934. Because he was Jewish, his music was labeled as degenerate music by the Nazi Party around 1938. Schoenberg’s work is considered very influential on 20th century music. His approach polarized three… Read More
Happy birthday, Amy Beach
Amy Beach, born 9/05/1867, was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. As a pianist, she was acclaimed for concerts she gave in the United States and in Germany. She was most popular, however, for her songs, of which she wrote about 150. The words… Read More
Happy birthday, Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck, born 9/01/1854, is known today for his opera Hänsel und Gretel. Portions of the opera were first composed to accompany a puppet show; the opera premiered in 1893 with a libretto by his sister Adelheid Wette and conducted by Richard Strauss. Although much of the music is often quoted as from folk music,… Read More
Happy birthday, Reynaldo Hahn
Reynaldo Hahn, was the youngest of twelve children of a Venezuelan Catholic mother and a German Jewish father. Hahn’s (pronounced with the German aspirate -h [ha:n]) was born on 8/9/1874 in Venezuela. His first languages were Spanish and German and only learned French after his family moved to Paris. A child prodigy, he became the… Read More