The “young eagle from the North,” as Schumann described him, gets his own Google Doodle. Happy birthday, Johannes Brahms, born 190 years ago today.
https://www.google.com/doodles/johannes-brahmss-190th-birthday
Tag: Google Doodle
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Oskar Sala Google Doodle Celebrates Electronic Music Pioneer
Oh my! This is a surprise. Oskar Sala gets a Google Doodle for his 112th birthday!
Sala was a physicist and electronic music pioneer, who promoted and developed an instrument called the Trautonium (later the Mixtur-Trautonium), a precursor to the synthesizer. He also worked with composer Bernard Herrmann to create the unsettling sound design for Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” a film without a musical score. Note the inclusion of two birds (ravens?) in the doodle.
Sala died in 2002 at the age of 91. Keep an eye out for him, should you wind up doing a Google search today!
Sala plays his Mixtur-Trautonium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tQQEChMq1A
As soloist in Harald Genzmer’s Trautonium Concerto
More about this unusual instrument
https://120years.net/wordpress/the-mixturtrautonium-oskar-sala-germany-1936/
Sala’s sound design enhances “The Birds”
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Toots Thielemans Google Doodle Celebrates Jazz Legend
Toots Thielemans gets a Google Doodle for his 100th birthday! Of course, he’s rendered in his golden years, so I’ve appended a photo from his comparative youth.
It’s only been six years since the Belgian harmonica player tooted his last. He lived a long and fruitful life, bringing joy and consolation to millions.
Besides his considerable jazz achievements, Thielemans performed on the soundtracks of John Williams’ “The Sugarland Express” and “Cinderella Liberty.” He can also be heard in the film version of “Midnight Cowboy” (though Tommy Reilly appears on the original soundtrack album).
And no one of my generation will forget his contribution to this:
From Sesame Street to the only X-rated movie ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, with the Boston Pops, no less. John Barry wrote the music, by the way.
Toots plays “Cinderella Liberty”
Toots visits Letterman
Toots on guitar, jamming with Miles Davis, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Max Roach and more in 1949
With Billy Joel
Prime Toots, with harmonica, guitar, and whistle
Quincy Jones called him “one of the greatest musicians of our time.” If you do a Google search today, be sure and honk for Toots!
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Montserrat Caballé Google Doodle Celebrates La Superba
Montserrat Caballé gets a Google Doodle on what would have been her 89th birthday. Naturally in Google’s write-up, they emphasize her collaboration with Freddie Mercury, with imbedded video of “Barcelona.” Oh yeah, she also happened to be one of the greatest sopranos of her generation. I guess that’s why they called her “La Superba.”
Google Doodle pays tribute to Spanish opera singer Montserrat Caballé on 89th birthday
From her American debut, filling in for a indisposed Marilyn Horne. The performance earned her a 25-minute standing ovation.
“Il Pirata”
Hypnotic in “Maria Stuarda,” with great anecdote in the comments section about Caballé upstaged by a peacock!
A favorite Caballé album of songs by Enrique Granados
Meltingly beautiful Donizetti
Lock up the crystal! Superhuman in “Don Carlo.”
Quite a blast from “Hérodiade”
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Happy Birthday Bach Donate to Classical Network
The day is upon us! Happy birthday, Bach!
Before you attempt a Google search today, you had better resign yourself to a marked dip in productivity. This time-sucking, interactive Google Doodle gives a crash course in music theory and employs “artificial intelligence” to harmonize your own instant masterpiece (which you can then share with your friends).
Now if only it would do the additional work of transforming my melody into a fugue!
If you can postpone the instant gratification of A.I. for just a moment, please don’t forget, we at The Classical Network are working hard to wrap up our “Bach 500” campaign.
As soon as we reach 500 listener contributions – contributions IN ANY AMOUNT, mind you; you set the level – we unlock this year’s Bach Pot, which means over $14,000 in challenge money to the station. Then it’s off to our own little Café Zimmerman, metaphorically speaking, for a celebratory marathon of Bach’s music, free from fundraising interruptions.
Can you help us get there ASAP? Become one of the 500 now at our website, by clicking on “donate,” at wwfm.org, or call us (after 9 a.m. EDT) at 1-888-232-1212. We are looking forward to making this goal and giving free rein to all the sonatas, concertos, suites, and cantatas we can lay our hands on.
There was nothing artificial about Bach’s intelligence, or his humanity. Thank you for your continued support of great music on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!
More information on the creation of the Bach Google Doodle here:
https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-johann-sebastian-bach
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