| Today in Music History A Daily Look at Music History For Violin Students A Look at What Happened on Today's Date Long, Long Ago . . . Or Maybe Just Last Year |
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| TODAY IS July 1 |
| Did You Guess? Barbara bore J.S. Bach 7 children. His second wife, Anna Magdalena, bore him 13 children. That means J.S. Bach had 20 kids! Unfortunately not all of them survived to adulthood. |
| Can You Guess? We read of one of J.S. Bach's sons below. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was the son of his first wife. She died, and J.S. Bach remarried. Can You Guess how many children Bach had altogether? Look at the Bottom of the Page for the Answer. |
| What Else Happened Today? |
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| July 1, 1948 was the preimere of Alan Rawsthorne's Violin Concerto, at the Cheltenham Festival in England. Rawsthorne was born in Lancashire in the north of England. As he was growing up he decided to become a dentist, but decided that he would rather be a musician, and so decided to apply to the Royal Manchester School. At first he was aiming to be a dentist, but found that he disliked the profession. |
| 1592 - Marc'Antonio Ingegneri, the Italian church musician and composer who taught Monteverdi, died. 1784 - Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer and eldest son of J.S. and Bach and his wife Barbara, died in Berlin. 1897 - Founding of The Music Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. 1927 - Premiere of Bela Bartok's Piano Concerto. Bartok himself was the soloist, in Frankfurt. 1933 - Felix Ayo, Spanish-Italian violinist, was born. 1964 - David Arditti, English composer, was born in Bournemouth. |
| Alan Rawsthorne 1905-1971 |
| Rawsthorne decided to attend the Royal Manchester School of Music. He wanted to study either piano or cello. Unfortunately Rawsthorne did not pass either exam. And it is said that, "how he managed entry and continued study there is something of a mystery." Rawsthornes music career was not off to a flying start. At the age of 25 Rawsthorne went to study with the great pianist, Egon Petri, became a reasonably good keyboard player. He had improved enough that when he returned to England he obtained a teaching post in one of England's specialist music schools at Dartington Hall. But Rawsthorne sought to become a composer, and his tenacity paid off. His first major succes came when he was 33 years old. Theme and Variations for two violins appeared in 1935. Bagatelles for Piano (1938) and the Symphonic Studies (1938) followed, and the works seemed not to be those of a struggling composer seeking to find his feet, but compositions by a mature individual who had spent years honing his craft. Just as Rawsthorne seemed to be hitting his strinde, World War II broke out. In a 1940 air raid on London Rawsthorne lost several major manuscripts, including the first draft of his Violin Concerto. He volunteered for the army, but never gave up his composing. In 1942, in the midst of the war, his First Piano Concerto was performed at a Promenade Concert in London's Royal Albert Hall. The work that made Rawsthorne famous was his Street Corner Overture. |
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| Music Samples from Alan Rawsthorne |
| Great Summer Shirts for Fiddlers! |
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