Hildegard von Bingen, 12th century "New Ager?"

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179) Instrumental Piece Sequentia BMG/Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 77353

Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179) Benedicamus Domino Anonymous 4 Harmonia Mundi 907200

On This Day

Births

• 1795 - Baptismal date of Italian opera composer Saverio Mercadante, in Altamura, near Bari;

• 1884 - American composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes, in Elmira, New York;

• 1917 - Korean-born German composer Isang Yun, in Tong Young (now Chung Mu);

Deaths

• 1179 - German mystic, writer and composer Hildegard von Bingen, age c. 81, in Rupertsburg (near Bingen);

• 1762 - Italian violinist and composer Francesco Geminiani, age 74, in Dublin;

• 1803 - Austrian composer Franz Xaver Sussmayr, who studied with Salieri and Mozart; Sussmayr completed Mozart's unfinished "Requiem";

Premieres

• 1872 - American premiere of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" at a Central Park concert given by the Theodore Thomas orchestra;

• 1931 - Delius: "A Song of Summer," in London;

• 1957 - Cowell: "Persian Set," at the Gulestan Palace in Tehran, Iran, by the Minneapolis Symphony, Antal Dorati conducting;

• 1982 - Steve Reich: "Tehillim" (orchestral version), by New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta;

Others

• 1966 - German tenor Fritz Wunderlich dies, age 35, from a fall in his home in Heidelberg.