Plenty of people have composed music as a hobby, but none more successfully than Alexander Borodin, a chemist by profession. As a hobbyist, he did not produce a lot of music, but his works include symphonies, chamber music, and an opera—some of the loveliest music in the repertoire. The opera, Prince Igor, includes the ever-popular “Polovtsian Dances,” which formed the tune of the Broadway hit “Stranger in Paradise.” Its success is remarkable, because he never finished the opera. Continue reading →
David Guion
Hail Columbia: almost the national anthem
Early printing of Hail Columbia, with a portrait of President John Adams
“Hail Columbia” is not a well-known song today, but it has a prominent place in American history. It became a hit immediately after its first performance and remained popular for more than a century.
Of all patriotic songs before the Civil War, only “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “America” rivaled “Hail Columbia” in popularity. The former uses the old English drinking song “Anacreon in Heaven” and the latter the English national anthem “God Save the King.”
Oscar Sonneck, who examined these and many of the patriotic songs that never caught on with the public, noted, “”’Hail Columbia’ holds a position quite unique in the history of our national songs for both the words and the music were written in America.”
The word “Columbia” obviously comes from the name Christopher Columbus. The District of Columbia and Columbia University share the name. Columbia is a lady, by the way. Continue reading →
The U.S. Marine Band and John Philip Sousa
Commemorative belt buckle with portait of Sousa, 1985 / Wikimedia Commons
The United States Marine Band is the oldest professional musical organization in the country. John Philip Sousa, its most famous leader, elevated it from a town band in Washington D.C. to a national touring band.
In exploring Sousa’s accomplishments, it is necessary to describe the history of the Marine Band. As it turns out, the band would not have needed a leader of Sousa’s qualifications without the previous efforts of another remarkable musician, Francis Scala. Continue reading →
Sleepy Lagoon by Eric Coates and Jack Lawrence
East Beach at Selsey. The plaque says “This view across the sea to Bognor Regis inspired Eric Coates to compose “By the Sleepy Lagoon” in 1930. It became the BBC signature tune for “Desert Island Discs.” / © Barry Shimmon via Geograph
Many top American songs have become hits immediately. A fair number have made little impression at first but became hits later. These include Easter Parade, I’ll Be Seeing You, and My Funny Valentine.
But how many of those belated hits have been based on music of a British composer working in a completely different genre with words by someone who had never met him? Only “Sleepy Lagoon” by Eric Coates comes to mind. Coates composed it in 1930. It only became a hit twelve years later, and first on the other side of the pond. Continue reading →
André Lafosse and the end of an era in trombone instruction
Au conservatoire: Classe de trombone, professeur M. [Paul] Delisse / drawing by Paul Renouard in the periodical L’Illusation (1886)
André Lafosse published the first edition of his monumental Méthode complète de trombone à coulisse (Complete Method for Slide Trombone) in 1921. He revised it, adding a third volume, in 1946. In 1948, he became professor of trombone at the Paris Conservatory of Music. During his tenure there, he published three more extensive pedagogical works for trombone.
By the time Lafosse retired in 1960, the trombone, its technique, and philosophy of brass instruction had changed drastically. He had resisted all the changes. His trombone method has more in common with that of Antoine Dieppo, the Conservatory’s first trombone professor, than with any of the important pedagogical treatises that appeared within a decade of his retirement. Continue reading →
Symphony no. 2, Lobgesang, by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy / lithograph by Friedrich Jentzen for Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung 39 (1837), after a painting by Theodor Hildebrandt via Wikimedia Commons
Very often, when a symphony acquires a nickname, the composer has nothing to do with it. Think Mozart’s Jupiter or Tchaikovsky’s Little Russian, for example. On the other hand, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy composed Lobgesang (Song of Praise), and it became known as his Symphony no. 2 only after his death. He himself called it a symphony-cantata.
Lobgesang was among Mendelssohn’s most popular works during his lifetime. Although hardly neglected today, it remains one of his less-known major works. The duet “Ich harrete des Herrn” (I Waited for the Lord) for two sopranos and chorus, however, became a well-known standalone piece frequently performed by many church choirs.
After his death, his reputation plunged. Wagner’s screed “Judaism in Music,” with its assumption that Jews were incapable of true artistic understanding, led the attack. Mendelssohn was born Jewish, and it didn’t matter to antisemites that he was a devout Christian and proud German. Many critics, antisemitic and otherwise, saw Lobgesang only as a pale imitation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Understanding Lobgesang, then, requires understanding of Mendelssohn as a religious person and what models he had in mind as he conceived the work. Continue reading →