Burleigh and Copland

Synopsis

Today let’s play a round of “Six Degrees of Separation” involving two American composers: Harry Thacker Burleigh, who was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, on today’s date in 1866, and Aaron Copland, who died on today’s date in North Tarrytown, New York, in 1990.

Burleigh was the talented African-American baritone who studied at the National Conservatory in New York City in the 1890s when Antonin Dvorak was serving as its director. It was Burleigh who introduced Dvorak to traditional Negro spirituals. “Go Down, Moses” was a particular favorite of Dvorak’s, who called it “great as a Beethoven melody.”

Burleigh never studied composition with Dvorak, but one young American who did was Rubin Goldmark, the New York-born nephew of the eminent Hungarian composer Karl Goldmark. Rubin Goldmark’s own music never became as famous as his uncle’s, but as a composition teacher, he’s still remembered. After all, he could count among his pupils two of the most famous American composers of the 20th century: George Gershwin and Aaron Copland.

Those two young men both visited Goldmark’s studio on West 87th Street around 1919, but they never met until some years later, when their respective musical careers had taken them in quite different directions. As Copland later recalled with some bemusement, when they finally did meet, Copland and Gershwin found they had little to say to one another.

Music Played in Today's Program

Harry T. Burleigh (1866 – 1949) A Jubilee Joseph Smith, piano Premier 1041

Aaron Copland (1900 – 1990) Four Piano Blues Michel Legrand, piano Erato 96386

On This Day

Births

• 1866 - American baritone and composer Henry Thacker Burleigh, in Stamford, Conn.;

• 1879 - Bohemian-born American operetta composer Rudolf Friml, in Prague;

Deaths

• 1916 - Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti, age 70, in Rome;

• 1931 - French composer Vincent d'Indy, age 80, in Paris;

• 1990 - American composer Aaron Copland, age 90, in North Tarrytown, N.Y.;

Premieres

• 1729 - Handel: opera "Lotario," in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Dec. 13);

• 1840 - Donizetti: opera "La Favorite," at the Paris Opéra;

• 1883 - Brahms: Symphony No. 3, with Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Hans Richter; The composer and pianist Ignaz Brüll had performed a two-piano arrangement of this symphony the previous month at two private events for friends (including possibly the Viennese music critic, Eduard Hanslick);

• 1886 - Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A, Op. 100, in Vienna;

• 1877 - Saint-Saëns: opera "Samson et Dalila" (in German), in Weimar at the Hoftheater;

• 1900 - Rachmaninoff: second and third movements only of Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18 (Gregorian date: Dec. 15);

• 1901 - Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata, Op. 19, in Moscow, by cellist Anatoly Brandukov, with the composer at the piano (Gregorian date: Dec. 15);

• 1924 - Sigmund Romberg: "The Student Prince," in New York City;

• 1928 - Franz Schmidt: Symphony No. 3, in Vienna;

• 1928 - Schoenberg: "Variations for Orchestra," in Berlin;

• 1946 - Milhaud: Symphony No. 2, by the Boston Symphony with the composer conducting;

• 1949 - Bartók: Viola Concerto (completed by Tibor Serly), posthumously, by violist William Primrose and the Minneapolis Symphony, Antal Dorati conducting;

• 1949 - premiere of MGM film “On the Town,” based on the 1944 musical by Leonard Bernstein;

• 1949 - Messiaen: first complete performance of "Turangalila" Symphony, by Boston Symphony conducted by Leonard Bernstein; Three of the ten movements of this symphony were premiered in Paris on February 15, 1948);

• 1955 - Petrassi: Concerto for Orchestra No. 5, by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting;

• 1955 - Ernst Toch: Symphony No. 3, by the Pittsburgh Symphony, William Steinberg conducting; This work was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1956;

• 1970 - Tippett: opera "The Knot Garden," in London at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden;

• 1988 - John Harbison: "Fantasy Duo" for violin and piano, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., with violinist David Abel and pianist Julie Steinberg;

• 1998 - Zwilich: String Quartet No. 2, at Carnegie Hall in New York by the Emerson Quartet;

• 1999 - James MacMillan: Symphony No. 2, at Ayr Town Hall in Scotland, by the Scottish Chamber Symphony, with the composer conducting;

Others

• 1717 - J.S. Bach is allowed to leave the Duke’s Court at Weimar; He had been imprisoned since Nov. 6 th by his former employer Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar for accepting a new post at Prince Leopold’s court at Cöthen without first asking permission.