QOTD

[randy_byers]

'Anniversarising can be the most obvious yet most scattergun approach to programming in classical music, but all those round numbers ought to give programmers the excuse and audiences the chance to programme less familiar music as well as the symphonic Scandiwegians. So in 2015 let’s hear it for Aulis Sallinen (80) and Frank Zappa (who would have been 75 this year). Muzio Clementi, by the way and since you ask, would have been 263; which although not round, is a satisfyingly big prime number. Here’s a thought: why can’t we use primes rather than round numbers as excuses for anniversaries? Here’s to Beethoven’s 251st anniversary (his next available prime) in 2021!' (Tom Service, "This year's classical music anniversaries – and some less usual suspects")

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Eleventy-first! It's the eleventy-first anniversary of the birth of Dmitri Kabalevsky. And the death of Antonin Dvorak.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Kabalevsky is a new one on me, but I think eleventy-first anniversaries is an excellent idea.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Kabalevsky's greatest hit. Sort of his equivalent to the Sabre Dance by Khachaturian, a composer he greatly resembles.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I've definitely heard that before!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Took me a minute to remember that I knew it from the soundtrack of an anime series called FLCL (aka Fooly Cooly), where it has always stood out as a very oddball track amongst the punkish rock songs by a Japanese band called the Pillows.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The music piece that most activated an unexpected memory for me was this one, when it appeared on an ALPS Soundtrack tape some years ago.

I had completely forgotten it, but instantly remembered it on hearing, but where I had heard it I could not recall. Took quite a while, this being before Wikipedia or such, to identify that it was the memorable theme song from an otherwise completely forgettable TV game show from my childhood.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Swinging!