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In 1585 Thomas Tallis died at about age 80, in Greenwich. England. 

in 1834 Hector Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” was premiered by the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, with Narcisse Girard conducting and Chrétien Urhan the soloist. 

Manuel de Falla

In 1876 Manuel de Falla was born in Cádiz, Spain. Born Manuel María de los Dolores Falla y Matheu, he was the son of José María Falla, a Valencian, and María Jesús Matheu, from Catalonia. In 1889 he continued his piano lessons with Alejandro Odero and learned the techniques of harmony and counterpoint from Enrique Broca. At age 15 he became interested in literature and journalism and founded the literary magazines El Burlón and El Cascabel. He lived and work in Madrid, Paris, Granada, and moved to Argentina following Francisco Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War. There he premiered his Suite Homenajes in Buenos Aires in November 1939. In 1940, he was named a Knight of the Order of King Alfonso X of Castile. Franco’s government offered him a large pension if he would return to Spain, but he refused. Falla did spend some time teaching in exile. Among his notable pupils was composer Rosa García Ascot. His health began to decline and he moved to a house in the mountains where he was tended by his sister María del Carmen de Falla. He died of cardiac arrest on 14 November 1946 in Alta Gracia, in the Argentine province of Córdoba. In 1947 his remains were brought back to Spain and entombed in the cathedral at Cádiz. One of the lasting honors to his memory is the Manuel de Falla Chair of Music in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at Complutense University of Madrid. His image appeared on Spanish currency notes for some years. Manuel de Falla never married and had no children. 1

André Caplet

In 1878 André Caplet was born in Le Havre, France. He exhibited an unusual talent and originality during his musical education, and won the Prix de Rome in 1901 ahead of Maurice Ravel. He became a close friend of Claude Debussy, sometimes serving as translator, and he orchestrated part of Debussy’s Le Martyre de saint Sébastien. He also collaborated with Debussy in the orchestration of La boîte à joujoux. In 1911, Caplet prepared an orchestration of Debussy’s Children’s Corner, which, along with his orchestration of Clair de lune from the Suite bergamasque is probably the most widely performed and recorded example of his work. Caplet was a composer in his own right, whose very innovative works have been sadly overlooked for the most part. Especially interesting is his instrumental use of voices, as in his Septuor à cordes vocales et instrumentalesfrom 1909 and in the oratorio-like Le Miroir de Jésus from 1923, which features “choeur de femmes” in an accompanying role Caplet termed “voix d’accompagnement”. He also wrote two works based on the short story The Mask of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe: Conte fantastique for harp and string quartet, and an orchestral symphonic study Le Masque de la mort rouge. Caplet served as conductor of the Boston Opera from 1910 to 1914. While serving in the military during the First World War, he was gassed, which resulted in the pleurisy that killed him. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine), a suburb of Paris, at the age of 46. The next year the sculptorJacques Zwobada, a native of Neuilly, was commissioned to create a monument to Caplet. This was one of Zwobada’s earliest works after he graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts. 2

In 1850 George Loder conducted the Philharmonic Society of New York in the premiere of his overture, “Marmion.” 

In 1867 Johannes Brahms’ Ballad No. 1 (“Edward”) was premiered in Vienna. 

In 1890 Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in Eb, Op., 87, premiered in Prague. 

In 1985 Michael Torke’s “Bright Blue Music” was premiered by the New York City Youth Symphony, David Alan Miller conducting. 

Also in 1885 conductor Anton Siedl, a Wagner protégé, mades his American debut conducting “Lohengrin” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. 

In 1899 Antonín Dvořák opera “The Devil and Kate” premiered in Prague. 

In 1903 Enrico Caruso made his debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in Verdi’s “Rigoletto”. He would sing a total of 607 performances with the Met, the last occurring on December 24, 1920 (an evening performance of Halevy’s “La Juive”).

In 1921 Leoš Janáček’s “Kátya Kabanová” premiered in Brno at the National Theater. 

In 1928 Daniel Gregory Mason’s “Chanticleer (Festival Overture)” premiered in Cincinnati. 

In 1931 Béla Bartók’s ballet “The Wooden Prince” was premiered in Budapest. 

Krzysztof Penderecki

Happy 82nd birthday Krzysztof Penderecki! Born on this date in 1933 in Debica, Poland. He has called him Poland’s greatest living composer. Among his best known works are his Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, St. Luke Passion, Polish Requiem, Anaklasis, four operas, eight symphonies and other orchestral pieces, a variety of instrumental concertos, choral settings of mainly religious texts, as well as chamber and instrumental works. Penderecki studied music at Jagiellonian University and the Academy of Music in Kraków. After graduating from the Academy of Music, Penderecki became a teacher at the academy and he began his career as a composer in 1959 during the Warsaw Autumn festival. His Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra and the choral work St. Luke Passion, have received popular acclaim. His first opera, The Devils of Loudun, was not immediately successful. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Penderecki’s composing style changed, with his first violin concerto focusing on the semitone and the tritone. His choral work Polish Requiem was written in the 1980s, with Penderecki expanding it in 1993 and 2005. During his life, Penderecki has won several prestigious awards, including the Commander’s Cross in 1964, the Prix Italia in 1967 and 1968, the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 1964, three Grammy Awards in 1987, 1998 and 2001, and the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1992. 3 

In 1934 Aaron Copland’s “Short Symphony” was premiered by the Orquestra Sinfonica de Mexico, with Carlos Chávez conducting in Mexico City. Two orchestras – the Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony – had planned on giving the American premier but soon decided that the piece was too difficult to learn given the short amount of time. It would be forty years until the American premier.

In 1940 Dmitri Shostakovich conducted the premiere of his his Piano Quintet in g, in Moscow, with the Beethoven Quartet, from the piano. 

In 1963 Daniel Pinkham’s Symphony No. 2 premiered in Lansing, Michigan.

  1. Wikipedia contributors, “Manuel de Falla,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manuel_de_Falla&oldid=689852227 (accessed November 23, 2015).
  2. Wikipedia contributors, “André Caplet,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andr%C3%A9_Caplet&oldid=691955947 (accessed November 23, 2015).
  3. Wikipedia contributors, “Krzysztof Penderecki,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Krzysztof_Penderecki&oldid=683201099 (accessed November 23, 2015).