Composer Anniversaries in 2007

[Ouled Nails]

Last year, several music forums paid tribute to Mozart and to Shostakovich, in commemoration of their respective years of birth. I am posting this new thread first to identify numerous composer anniversaries in 2007, including two composers from Denmark, second to create a space for those of you who would like to pay tribute to any one of the following composers and some of their most noteworthy pieces of work. I, for one, do intend to return to this thread with additional messages throughout the course of the year.

Badings, Henk (born 1907)
Boddecker, Philipp F. (b. 1607)
Bergstrom, Carl Axel (died, 1907)
Braga, Gaetano (d. 1907)
Buxtehude, Dieterich (d. 1707)
Cioffi, Giuseppe (b. 1907)
Daetwyler, Jean (b. 1907)
Douglas, Roy (b. 1907)
Ellstein, Abraham (b. 1907)
Fischer, John Carl Christian (d. 1807)
Fukai, Shiro (b. 1907)
Gigault, Nicola (d. 1707)
Grieg, Edvard (d. 1907)
Groendhal, Agathe Backer (d. 1907)
Guarnieri, Camargo (b. 1907)
Hellmesberger, Joseph, jr. (d. 1907)
Joachim, Joseph (d. 1907)
Keil, Alfredo (d. 1907)
Lachner, Ignaz (b. 1807)
Langlais, Jean (b. 1907)
Li, Jinguanq (b. 1907)
Matsudaira, Yoritsune (b. 1907)
Miller, Bruce Edward (d. 1807)
McGranahan, James (d. 1907)
Mortensen, Otto (b. 1907, Denmark)
Neruda, Johann Baptist Georg (b. 1707)
Partos, Oedoen (b. 1907)
Rozsa, Miklos (b. 1907)
Rung, Henrik (b. 1807, Denmark)
Said, Zubin (b. 1907)
Serra, Joaquim (b. 1907)
Solovyov Sedoy, Vasily Pavlovich (b. 1907)
Stieler, Caspar (D. 1707)
Taylor, Cyril Vincent (b. 1907)
Vaqueiras, Raimbault de (d. 1207)
Webster, Paul Francis (b. 1907)
Wilder, Alec (b. 1907)

[rojo]

I think this is a fantastic idea, ON; I`ll follow this thread with interest! Well done collecting the data.

[Ouled Nails]

Yeah. ON is a fine abbrev. rojo

[rojo]

Um, was I being offensive in calling you ON, Ouled Nails? If so I apologize. Guess I`m lazy...

Does it bother you?

[Ouled Nails]

Not at all, rojo. I like it!

[rojo]

Great!

[Kurkikohtaus]

Sibelius died in 1957... is 50 significant enough to make the list?

[Sybarite]

Sibelius died in 1957... is 50 significant enough to make the list?

Seems an entirely reasonable anniversary to mark.

[Ouled Nails]

It is good to hear from you and thank you for the informed answer to my questions in another thread. What mattered most in opening this thread on composer anniversaries was mostly to set a tone ("pay tribute to") whereby the contributors are very much encouraged to be positive in their comments -- to avoid aesthetic battle grounds such as distinguishing between "major", "minor", and "rightfully forgotten" composers. In listing the name of nearly forty composers (and I now am aware of other centennials I have overlooked!), I also wished that these tributes would not be confined to two or three outstanding composers, a personal agenda I guess....The truth be said, though, I would be delighted to read your tribute to Sibelius on his 50th anniversary, along with any other 50, 150, 250, or 350-year tribute. So please do not feel in any way restricted by the opening suggestions.

It's very curious that I have overlooked Elizabeth Maconchy (b. 1907) because she was a remarkable human being whose interests in Hungarian and Czech composers (she studied in Prague, just like you!) yielded a remarkable thirteen string quartets, among other compositions. To be sure, then, she should be included as well.

As for D. Buxtehude, I understand that he may very well have been another Danish composer of Danish origins, but, as I said, I did not wish to begin this thread to engage in controversy and his very place of birth and "national" identity has been a source of uncertainty.

[Kurkikohtaus]

...along with any other 50, 150, 250, or 350-year tribute.

That was the jist of my question. As 100 years after birth or death is a major anniversary by anyone's standards, the question of what other round numbers should count as "anniversaries" is sometimes a little open to debate.

In my programming, I try to restrict myself to the ones that end in 00 or 50, but some people are quite fond of the 25's and the 75's as well.

[Ouled Nails]

Grieg: Chopin of Scandinavia.

Lyric Pieces
1
Arietta
Waltz
Watchman's Song
Elves' Dance
Folk Melody
Norwegian Melody
Album Leaf
National Song

2
Berceuse
Folk Melody
Melody
Halling
Jumping Dance
Elegy
Waltz
Canon

3
Butterfly
Lonesome Wanderer
In My Homeland
Little Bird
Erotica
To Spring

4
Valse-Impromptu
Album Leaf
Melody
Halling
Melancholy
Jump Dance
Elegy

5
Shepherd Boy
Norwegian Peasants' March
March Of The Trolls
Notturno
Scherzo
Bell Ringing

6
Vanished Days
Gade
Illusion
Secret
She Is Dancing
Homesickness

7
Sylph
Gratitude
French Serenade
Little Brook
Phantom
Homeward

8
From Years Of Youth
Peasant's Song
Melancholy
Salon
In Ballad Style
Wedding Day At Troldhaugen

9
Sailors' Song
Grandmother's Minuet
At Your Feet
Evening In The Mountains
Cradle Song
Valse Melancholique

10
Once Upon A Time
Summer Evening
Puck
The Woods' Peace
Halling
Gone
Remembrances

[Ouled Nails]

Grieg: the precursor, as viewed by other composers.

Bela Bartok
<Visiting the dying composer in New York one day, Dorati recalls finding him engrossed in a copy of Edward Grieg's Piano Concerto. Asked why he was studying such a romantic score, Bartok said that Grieg was important because he had "cast off the German yoke.">
TIME.com: Bart -- Apr. 6, 1981 -- Page 1

Maurice Ravel
" The generation of French composers to which I belong has been strongly attracted to his music. There is no composer to whom I feel a closer affinity -- besides Debussy -- than Grieg.>
Edvard Grieg — Biography of Norway's Greatest Composer

Manuel de Falla
<[de Falla] was about 17 when he finally committed himself to becoming a composer, around the time that he encountered the music of Grieg. Immediately impressed by Grieg's strong national character and his rejection of Teutonic notions of musical structure, Falla conceived "an intense desire to create one day something similar with Spanish music". >
KeepMedia | Rough Guides Music: Manuel de Falla

Frederick Delius
<The French consensus view was that it was to Rameau, Couperin and Lully, etc. but Delius felt differently: "Nonsense! Modern French music is simply Grieg, plus the third act of Tristan", to which Ravel, replied: "That is true. We are always unjust to Grieg.">
Grieg Society

P.S.: Debussy's hardly favorable opinion of Edvard Grieg's music was largely expressed in response to Grieg's refusal to perform his music in France during the Dreyfus Affair of 1899. Debussy, whose music is seldom nationalist but whose ideology could be in matters relating to his country, simply failed to be objective at times and wrote disparaging remarks in the newspapers. (see last reference cited for this particular context and Debussy's remarks)

[Ouled Nails]

I have picked up some of Jean Langlais' organ music today, played by Langlais. The composer of organ music has this rare opportunity of playing personal, non-sacred music in some of the most sacred places on earth! From the Eglise Notre-Dame in Paris, in 1975, Jean Langlais, the Breton, played his Eight Songs of Brittany, folkloric pieces he felt he needed to compose to restore his emotional self following an infarctus and, then, one of his most "violent" creation for the organ, his Apocalypse of 1972-3. Explaining this "escapade" into Britanny's folk music, he said that he needed to "purify himself" from the complexities and violence of his prior composition. Personal trauma, spirituality, a quest for the simple pleasure of nostalgic memories of younger days all converged to produce this particular work. And being the most famous French organist of his time, he was entitled to play these dances at Notre-Dame!

[Ouled Nails]

Additional comment on Langlais, I'm afraid. A single piece --Offrande à une âme (offering to a soul) -- has been haunting me tonight. I don't know if any of you have ever witnessed a funeral service for a person you love, you admire, but where the officiating preacher/priest's words of condoleances simply are not inspiring. It happened to me. I left the church completely disappointed with how the "void" of a departed one had not been even addressed. Langlais' work is absolutely explicit. It literally pitches generous offerings at the soul, you or anyone else cannot miss it. "I give you my full attention. I offer you these loving thoughts with all my heart. I expand my energy because of your departure." It's quite a testimony!

[rojo]

Sounds fantastic, ON. Hope to hear that some day; I`ll keep a look out for it.