Category Archives: Music

April 13

Anti-Semitism in Handel’s ‘Messiah’?

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On the 13th of April 1742, the famous English oratorio Messiah by George Frederic Handel was first performed in the New Music Hall on Fishamble Street in Dublin. Around seven hundred people attended its premiere, which was a charitable event organised in support of the Mercer’s Hospital in Stephen’s Street, and of the Charitable Infirmary […]

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April 03

Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya: Love in the Creative Partnership

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On the 3rd of April 1950, German composer Kurt Weill died of a heart attack in New York City. His highly innovative and eclectic works for the theatre, such as the Threepenny Opera, Mahagonny, Lady in the Dark, Street Scene, but also numerous popular songs and instrumental music, have secured him lasting fame and a […]

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March 31

Skandalkonzert: The Battle for Modernism

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On the evening of the 31st of March 1913, the infamous Skandalkonzert at the Great Hall of the Vienna Musikverein took place. Despite the bad press that followed, the event has entered public consciousness as a major breakthrough into the era of modernism in classical music. What could be more symbolic than a riot erupting […]

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March 29

Emmett Miller: The Yodelling Minstrel

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On the 29th of March 1962, American minstrel show performer, singer and yodelling master, Emmett Miller, died in Macon, Georgia, the US, the city of his birth some sixty two years earlier (although certain sources indicate he was born in 1903). Popular in the mid-1920s and early 1930s for his blues-country-like recordings with the characteristic […]

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March 23

John Lennon: James Joyce’s Illegitimate Son?

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On the 23rd of March 1964, In His Own Write by John Lennon was first published. The book was the first solo Beatle project in any form that turned out to be an instant success. Printed initially by Jonathan Cape of Great Britain, it sold only in England 50,000 copies on the first day. In […]

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March 01

Frederic Chopin: Child Prodigy and Master of the Pedal

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On the 1st of March 1810, Frederic Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, the Duchy of Warsaw (now Poland). The great Polish composer, associated with passionate love and physical suffering, and, in an indirect way, with Polish insurrection, has gained the status of a leading symbol of the Romantic period in music. According to A. […]

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January 27

The Mozart Effect

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People say, live fast, die young. As vague as this may sound, by looking at the life of one of the greatest, if not the greatest, composers of all time, there seems to be some degree of relevance in it. On the 27th of January 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria. The […]

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January 23

Django’s Hand: The Story of Success

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If you are looking for inspiration to boost your enthusiasm for following your dreams this year, you will find it in the story of the famous guitarist and banjo player Jean-Baptiste Reinhardt, better known by his stage name Django. Born on the 23rd of January 1910  in Liberchies, Pont-à-Celles, Belgium, into a family of travelling Manouche Gypsy entertainers, Django […]

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December 07

Louis Prima: Just a Gigolo

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On the 7th of December 1910, Louis Prima, an American trumpet player and singer of Italian descent, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. His performances, starting from the jazz infused 1920s right up to the  pop and rock dominated 1960s at the end of his career, were a rich combination of musical showmanship, comic genius and Italian […]

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November 06

Jeanette Schmid, the Cross-dressing Whistler

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On the 6th of November 1924, Rudolf Schmid was born in Volary, Sudetenland (now in the Czech Republic). In 1941 he enlisted in the Wehrmacht, the German Armed Forces, aged just 17 and served in the beginning of WWII at Udine in Italy. However, Schmid’s constitution was not built for the army. “A delicate young […]

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