Terry Seligmann, flute, Laura Redman, oboe, Loren Stata,
bassoon, Lindsey Keck, horn, Bob Blacksberg, clarinet
Gordon
Jacob,
born in London, served in the Field Artillery, was taken POW in 1917, and,
fortunately for all who love wind instruments,survived to study, compose and teach at the Royal College of Music, from
1924 to his retirement in 1966. No avant garde he - “I personally feel repelled
by the intellectual
snobbery of
some progressive artists... the day that melody is discarded altogether, you may
as well pack up music...” We share three movements of a quintet that displays
his deep knowledge of instrumental technique.
George
Percy Grainger (stage name Percy Aldridge Grainger),
an Aussie, son of a domineering and possessive mother, wrote the smash hit,
Country Gardens, and settled in White
Plains, NY after WWI. From Wikipedia, “While pregnant, [his mother] allocated
time each day to stare at a statue of a Greek god in the belief it would pass
some of its qualities to her child. … In 1910, Grainger began designing and
making his own clothing, ranging from jackets, to shorts, togas, muumuus and leggings,
all made from towels and also intricate grass and beaded skirts. The clothing
was not just for private use but were often worn in public by Grainger. He also
designed a crude forerunner of the modern sports
bra for
his Danish sweetheart, Karen
Kellerman.”
Jacques
François Antoine Ibert,
of Paris, the seventh of Les Six,
wrote beautifully crafted music, rich in the idiom of wind instruments. He
scored Orson Welles’ 1948 version of Macbeth.
(Franz)
Joseph Haydn,
Austrian, with a famous sojourn to London. Survived smallpox to become the
“Father of the Symphony.”One L.
Beethoven, Haydn’s student, could only write 9, compared to teacher’s 108. From
Wikipedia - his biographer Dies wrote,
“he couldn't understand how it happened that in his life he had been loved by
many a pretty woman. ‘They couldn't have been led to it by my beauty.’”
Paquito
D’Rivera,
Cuban, child prodigy. Many GRAMMYs, National Medal for the Arts, awarded by the
then incumbent of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, honorary degree from Penn 2008.(Picture not recent.)
Gordon
Jacob,
born in London, served in the Field Artillery, was taken POW in 1917, and,
fortunately for all who love wind instruments,
survived to study, compose and teach at the Royal College of Music, from
1924 to his retirement in 1966. No avant garde he - “I personally feel repelled
by the intellectual
snobbery of
some progressive artists... the day that melody is discarded altogether, you may
as well pack up music...” We share three movements of a quintet that displays
his deep knowledge of instrumental technique.
