Sousa joins the Marines

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

John Philip Sousa (1854 - 1932) Sound Off U.S. Marine Band; Col. John R. Bourgeois, cond. USMC 6728

On This Day

Births

• 1832 - American composer Henry Clay Work, in Middletown, Conn.; A printer by trade, he wrote some famous popular songs, including "Grandfather's Clock," "Father, Come Home," and "Marching Through Georgia";

• 1865 - French composer Paul Dukas, in Paris;

• 1931 - Italian composer Sylvano Bussotti, in Florence;

Deaths

• 1708 - British composer John Blow, age c. 59, in London;

• 1964 - Austrian-born American composer Ernst Toch, age 76, in Santa Monica, Calif.; He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for his Symphony No. 3;

• 1979 - American composer Roy Harris, age 81, in Santa Monica, Calif.;

Premieres

• 1733 - Rameau: opera, "Hippolyte et Aricie," in Paris at the Palais Royal Opéra;

• 1913 - Elgar: symphonic poem, “Falstaff,” at the Leeds Festival, with the composer conducting;

• 1937 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 18, in Moscow, Alexander Gauk conducting;

• 1961 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 12 ("The Year 1917"), by the Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting;

• 1967 - Sessions: Symphony No. 7, in Ann Arbor, Mich., by the Chicago Symphony, Jean Martinon conducting;

• 1975 - Shostakovich: Viola Sonata, in Leningrad, by Fyodor Druzhinin (viola) and Mikhail Muntyan (piano);

• 1992 - Michael Torke: “Chalk” for string quartet, at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester (U.K.), by the Balanescu Quartet;

• 1998 - Ives (arr. David G. Porter): "Emerson Overture," for piano and orchestra, with soloist Alan Feinberg and the Cleveland Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnányi conducting;

• 2005 - John Adams: opera "Dr. Atomic,," in San Francisco by the San Francisco Opera, Donald Runnicles, cond;

Others

• 1880 - John Philip Sousa, age 25, is appointed 17th Leader of the U.S. Marine Band, a post he would hold for 12 years; During this time, the band made its first concert tour, premiered many of Sousa's most famous marches, and produced some of the first phonograph recordings ever made;

• 1924 - Opening of The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, funded by a gift of $12.5 million from the American patroness Mary Louise Curtis Bok, who had inherited her fortune from the Curtis Publishing Company; The faculty, providing instruction for 203 students, includes Leopold Stokowski and Josef Hofmann heading conducting and piano departments, respectively; Polish-born coloratura Marcella Sembrich; Hungarian violinist Carl Flesch; French-born harpist/composer Carlos Salzedo; and Italian composer Rosario Scalero.