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Bite-Sized Trivia, III
(wherein the reigning champ loses his crown but, after significant personal struggles, reclaims it in a thrilling match)
By Tom Heaton
If you've paid any attention at all to the first and second installment of Bite-Sized Trivia, you know how the format works by now. Therefore, awayyyyy we go!
(All information taken from Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1999 edition.)
CAGE, JOHN
Cage is an American composer whose work is described as modern. It certainly sparks much debate between those who consider him a pioneer of unexplored musical territory and those who think his work is undeserving of attention. As in any area of music, it is a matter of personal taste. - One of his most famous pieces is called 4'33" (not Four Feet, Thirty-Three Inches but "Four Minutes, Thirty-Three Seconds"). Here's what the piece consists of: performer sits at piano and does nothing for the next four minutes, thirty-three seconds. (My question: How does the pianist know that the prescribed amount of time has elapsed?)
- He studied composition with Schoenberg.
- He liked using a "prepared piano" - which means that objects such as coins, rubber bands, screws, etc. are placed directly on the piano strings, thus altering their tone and color.
- Ever heard of the term "Happening"? John Cage is credited with creating the earliest musical Happening - in 1952 at Black Mountain College - quite a while before the term came to be identified with the psychedelic '60's.
- He won a prize in Italy - for mushrooms that he had grown. (Mycology became one of his non-musical hobbies.)
- He encouraged the participation of audiences at his concerts, inviting them to go out to the street and collect garbage cans (full or not) for use as percussion instruments.
- Cage is also an author, having penned such books as "A Year From Monday," "Empty Words", "M," and "X."
- As if music, mushrooms and manuscripts weren't enough to keep him busy, he also enjoys producing watercolors, many of which have been put on public display.
- In addition to 4'33", he also wrote 0'0" - same principle, it's just quicker to perform.
CALLAS, MARIA
Before Kathleen Battle, before Kiri Te Kanawa, before Marilyne Horne - in fact, before many of the legendary opera divas with whom we are familiar today, Maria Callas was THE opera superstar of her time. She was also at the center of a lot of controversy. - Of Greek descent, she was an American citizen. Her real name was Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos.
- When she was 13, her family relocated to Greece and she studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Athens
- Her first operatic role was Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana (when she was 15).
- Her professional debut was a scant year later in Suppe's Boccaccio at the Royal Opera in Athens.
- In 1945, she auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera in New York and was offered a contract, which she turned down.
- While making a name for herself at La Scala, she was an attraction for tabloid reporters because of her romance with Greek shipping magnate (and future husband of Jackie Kennedy), Aristotle Onassis.
- She had a stormy professional relationship with the Metropolitan Opera: she debuted there in 1956, left the company after a highly publicized dispute with management, returned in 1958, left again that same year and returned only once in 1965.
- In 1971, she turned lecturer, giving a seminar on opera at the Julliard School of Music, a move which was enthusiastically received by students.
CARUSO, ENRICO
Long before there was a Pavarotti, Domingo, Terfel, etc., etc., - there was Caruso, who towered over the world opera stage. Many think he was blessed with the purest voice ever bestowed upon a tenor. It is impossible to accurately gauge the power and impact of his voice from those few scratchy recordings of him which are available. - He was born in Naples, Italy (1873) and died there, too (1921).
- After performing both in Italy and internationally, he made his debut at La Scala in 1900 and was an instant sensation.
- He made his London debut as the Duke in Rigoletto - again an immediate success.
- In 1903, he made his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera (in Rigoletto), establishing a connection which would be maintained the rest of his life.
- He was in San Francisco when the 1906 earthquake virtually destroyed the city. The hotel in which he was staying was heavily damaged but he emerged unharmed.
- The highest fee he ever charged for an appearance was $15,000 - Mexico City in 1920. (Doesn't sound like much, does it? Just remember that in those days, if you made an ANNUAL salary of $2,000, you were wealthy!)
- He earned quite a bit of money by making recordings as early as 1902.
- Caruso's forte was Italian opera and he also sang French opera but Wagner's work remained a mystery to him. He appeared 3 times in Lohengrin, the only Wagnerian opera he sang.
- He was famous for the "Caruso sob" - the use of intermittent non-singing vocalization which lacked tonal precision.
- Caruso loved night life, partying and singing. He failed to take proper care of his voice, though. His last public performance was December 11, 1920 at the Brooklyn School of Music. This performance was cut short due to a throat hemorrhage.
- His love life was pretty scandalous: he fathered two sons with a woman he never married; two American women brought paternity suits against him, too. He was also accused of improper behavior toward a woman in Central Park, New York. All of these threatened to hurt him in the public eye - yet he remained popular.
CHERUBINI, LUIGI
Here is yet another example of someone achieving fame, fortune and respect during his lifetime only to be completely forgotten by the public at large only a few years after his death. At one time, though, Cherubini was a very big deal indeed! - His complete name (are you ready for this?) was Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini. How many people do YOU know who are named Zenobio?
- His dad was in the music business, working as the maestro al cembal at a theater in Florence.
- At the age of 22, he had his first success as a composer with the opera Armida Abbandonata.
- Already having achieved significant recognition, he was invited to Vienna in 1805, where he was honored by the Court and met such important composers as Haydn and Beethoven.
- After Napoleon conquered Vienna, he expressed his admiration for Cherubini's music, bidding him to return to Paris in order to composer and produce operas.
- In 1822, his career achieved its crowning glory when he was named director of the famed Paris Conservatory of Music.
- While director of the PARIS Conversatory, he insisted that teachers teach the ITALIAN style of composition!
- He rejected as unmusical any type of programmatic music - including the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz (who was a student at the Conservatory under Cherubini's authority). He also didn't care much for Beethoven's Sixth (Pastoral) or the Ninth (Choral).
- He was such a dignitary in France that he was given a state funeral after he died in Paris at the ripe age of 82.
CHOPIN, FREDERIC
Born a Pole but was passionately claimed by both the French and the Polish at his untimely death, Frederic Chopin is considered a master of the piano miniature. He lived an interesting, if short, life. - Chopin considered himself torn between Poland and France - his father was French and his mother was a Pole. On the whole, though, he preferred to live in Paris.
- He made his debut as a pianist at the age of 8, by which time he had already begun composing waltzes and polonaises.
- He was only 15 years old when his first work was published - the Rondo for Piano.
- His variations on a Mozart aria, "La ci darem", won critical acclaim from Robert Schumann in Schumann's influential music review newspaper. Schumann wrote: "Hats off, gentlemen! (Chopin is) a genius!"
- Chopin was the first to admit his deficiency when it came to orchestral scoring. Although he wrote two piano concerti, he did precious little other orchestral music.
- In 1836, he met Aurore Dudevant, who published her novels under the pseudonym of George Sand. The two became an item for a number of years.
- Never a man of robust health, he died at the age of 38 from tuberculosis.
- Mozart's Requiem was sung at his funeral.
- He was buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetary between the graves of Luigi Cherubini and Vincenzo Bellini. (Not far from his grave is that of Jim Morrison, the notorious 1970's rock star who was the lead singer of The Doors.)
- At Chopin's request, his heart was taken from his body and sent to Poland to be buried there.
- As a measure of how beloved he remained in Poland, it was Chopin's "Heroic Polonaise" which was played on loudspeakers throughout Warsaw when that city was liberated from the Nazis at the end of World War II.
- He died a bachelor - and given what is known about the mercurial personality of Mme. Dudevant), it's probably a very good thing!
In the Next Installment of B.S. Trivia (hey, watch it!):
- Find out how burning a flag got Domenico Cimarosa in serious trouble in the 1700's!
- Discover what composer (initials: M.C.) actually BEAT Mozart in a piano duel!
- Can you guess the nationality of this composer solely by his name: Cesar Cui?
Read on! CIMAROSA through DELIUS...
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