Great composers hit the beach. (Part 2 of 2)
Tag: Music History
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Vivian Perlis Music Historian Dies at 91
The award winning musicologist and historian Vivian Perlis has died. In her roles as founder and director of Yale University’s Oral History of America, Perlis assembled an invaluable archive of material concerning some of the United States’ greatest artists, immeasurably enhancing the depth and range of our understanding of American music.
One of her notable achievements was collaring Charles Ives’ insurance business partner and documenting his personal reminiscences. This spurred her to do the same with some of Ives’ other acquaintances. A selection of the material was issued as a book, “Charles Ives Remembered.”
She also sat down with Aaron Copland during the final years of his life, and coauthored two highly readable autobiographies, “Copland: 1900-1942” and “Copland: Since 1943.” These were combined in 2013 into “The Complete Copland.”
In 2005, she published “Composers Voices from Ives to Ellington.”
The Oral History of America holds over 2,200 interviews and transcripts, including material on both classical and jazz musicians. Perlis retired from the project in 2010.
At the time of her death, she was 91 years-old.
Perlis, the interviewer, is interviewed!
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Pablo Casals Bach Cello Suites Birthday
It’s Pablo Casals’ birthday. Enjoy a beautiful Saturday morning with his pioneering traversal of the Bach cello suites, still sounding great after 80 years.
It’s hard to believe that these cornerstones of the cello repertoire were once commonly regarded as little more than etudes. The truth is, before the 20th century they were not widely known, much less understood. It is Casals who is credited with having rehabilitated them, following his discovery of the music in a Catalan bookshop at the age of 13. He cherished the suites for the rest of his life, not only playing them in public but delving into them privately every morning after a walk and a smoke. There must have been something to it: Casals died in 1973, two months shy of his 97th birthday.
He was the first cellist to record all six suites, already 60 by the time he first played Bach before a microphone.
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Mahler Still Being Talked About
As Oscar Wilde memorably observed, “… There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that’s not being talked about.”
Gustav Mahler’s unprecedentedly ambitious – and loud – masterworks caused his contemporaries to sit up and take notice. Reactions ranged from exaltation to confusion to outright hostility, and not necessarily in that order. Of course Mahler got the last laugh. Despite the high cost of presenting his symphonies, they are now more prevalent on concert programs than ever before. And the halls are packed.
You haven’t really made it until you are widely caricatured. You’ll find more examples by following the link below. Some of the portraits are affectionate; some are mean-spirited. Either way, it’s clear that Mahler was being talked about.
Happy birthday, Gus!
https://www.gustav-mahler.eu/index.php/private-life/3206-caricatures
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Bach & Handel Finally Met The Truth
It was believed that the two greatest musical masters of their day never met. Now we know better.
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