Category: Stamps

Stamp of the Month: July 2022

Ignacio Cervantes

The Cuban pianist and composer Ignacio Cervantes Kawanag was born on July 31, 1847 in Havana. He died in his hometown on April 29, 1905. July 2022 will be his 175th birthday.

Cuba 15.9.1997


Cuba 27.6.1959
Cervantes was considered a child prodigy and was taught by the American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, among others. Gottschalk encouraged him to study at the Conservatoire de Paris (1866-1870), where he received first prizes for composition (1866) and harmony (1867) and gave concerts with Christina Nilsson and Adelina Patti.
Cervantes was one of the first musicians to emphasize the special character of the Central and South American peoples in their music.
As a supporter of the Cuban rebels, he had to leave the country temporarily in 1875 and lived in Mexico and the United States for several years. Ignacio Cervantes composed an opera, various pieces of chamber music, zarzuelas and the famous forty-one “Danzas Cubanas”. He wrote his “Fusión de Almas” for his daughter María Cervantes (1885-1981), who became a well-known pianist, composer and singer.
 

The video shows the Orquestra De Guiarres De Barcelona conducted by Sergi Vicente performing a medley of Ignacio Cervantes’ “Danzas Cubanas”. All members of the orchestra are teachers, graduates or master students of the Conservatorio Superior de Mùsica del Liceo in Barcelona.

New Stamps 2022

Every year, worldwide more than 200 stamps related to music are issued. The list of new issues published in the members-only-section of our website is updated several times per month.
 


21.5.: Algeria / Guinea / Taiwan
28.5.: Greece / Philippines / Slovenia / Togo
4.6.: Algeria / Central African Republic / Croatia / Kyrgyzstan / Romania / Sierra Leone / Taiwan
11.6.: Aland / Denmark / Kazakhstan / Sierra Leone / Taiwan
21.6.: Georgia / Moldova / Niger / Norway / Philippines / Sierra Leone / USA
26.6.: Austria / Czech Republic / Germany / Sierra Leone / USA

Stamps Europe (members only)  Stamps Overseas (members only)
 
Planned issues (members only)

8 … 9 … 10 … ready !



There are so many topics and stories hidden in our stamp albums that never come to the public eye …
… because there is too little material to create an exhibit,
… because far too many collectors shy away from the effort of assembling an exhibit or
… because collectors don’t want to accept the strict rules of a jury.

We’ll put an end to that and show, …
… that you can tell a story with just 10 stamps.
… that no great effort is required to do this and
… that you can show what’s in our albums even without rules!

And the best thing about it: it’s fun and you really want more!
Join in …   8 …  9 …  10 …  ready!
The next place on this website is reserved for your story.


You need help ?
Here you’ll get some hint

Minstrelsy
Franz Zehenter 
 


A Century of Musicians
Yme Woensdregt 

Les Ballets Suédois
Manfred Gorol 

Visit to the Opera
Jörg Kiefer 


Hoch auf dem gelben Wagen
(German folk song)
Wolfgang Andrée 

Der Große Zapfenstreich (“Grand Tattoo”)
Wolfgang Andrée 

The Song of the Germans (National Anthem)
Wolfgang Andrée 


Filip Višnjić
The Serbian Homer
Manfred Gorol 

St. Cecilia
Yme Woensdregt 

Women Writing Music
Yme Woensdregt 


The Ugly Beethoven
Yme Woensdregt 

How do you Play
a Recorder ?
Peter Lang 

Times of upheaval towards the end of romanticism
Rudolf Wagner 


Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel
Louis Op t’Eynde 

Zaha Hadid and Music
Manfred Gorol 

De Stemvork
Louis Op t’Eynde  


Polish Musical Poster Art
Manfred Gorol 

After Corona – What we can
look forward to again
Harald Schönherr 

The German Folksong
Wolfgang Andrée 


H.C. Andersen and his Fairy Tales in Music
Karl-Heinz Büdding 

Curiosities in
Music Philately
Harald Schönherr 

Hansel and Gretel on
the opera stage
Karl-Heinz Büdding 


The Beethoven Monument
and Artistic Freedom
Peter Lang 



Music Makes Everything Better!
Peter Lang 


Hohner, Seydel, Köstler, Koch
and all the others
Norbert Amrein 

Stamp of the Month: June 2022

Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson

The Icelandic composer Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson was born on June 28, 1847 in Seltjarnarnes, he died on February 2, 1927 in Copenhagen. June 2022 will be his 175th birthday.
 
Sveinbjörnsson showed musical talent from an early age. However, since his father died early and a career as a professional musician in Iceland was practically impossible at the time, he trained as a pastor. In 1868 he decided to study music, majoring in piano and harmony. He was a member of the choir of Niels Gade’s music association and took piano lessons from Carl Reinecke in Leipzig in 1872/73. From 1873 to 1919 he lived in Edinburgh as a pianist and music teacher.

Island 11.12.1979
 
In addition to a number of choral works, Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson’s compositional oeuvre mainly includes piano and chamber music, which reveals a clear connection to the British salon music of the time. As early as 1874 he composed the melody of the later Icelandic national anthem “Lofsöngur” to the text by the poet Matthías Jochumsson. Icelandic music is rarely found in his work, e.g. in the two “Icelandic Rhapsodies”, in which he combined melodies from Icelandic folklore into one piece of music.
 

The video shows the Icelandic pianist Nína Margrét Grímsdóttir (*1965) with Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson’s “Minuet & Trio” from 1873, the first musical work composed by an Icelander. The recording was made in March 2011 at the Icelandic Music Museum in Kópavogur.

In Memoriam: Andrew Fletcher

The British musician Andrew Fletcher died on May 26, 2022.
Andrew Fletcher was born in Nottingham on July 8, 1961. He first played electric bass and was a member of the group “No Romance in China” with his school friend Vince Clarke. In 1979 he switched to synthesizers and formed the band “Composition of Sound” together with Clarke and Martin Gore. The band was later renamed “Depeche Mode”.
“Depeche Mode” is considered the most popular synth rock and synth pop group. With over 100 million records sold worldwide, it is one of the most successful bands in the world. Andrew Fletcher was the only member of the band who never wrote a song. As the band’s keyboardist, however, he had a decisive influence on the band’s style. In addition, he took on many of the organizational tasks and was heavily involved in the band’s studio work.

In Memoriam: Vangelis

On May 17, 2022, the Greek composer Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, better known by his stage name Vangelis, died in Paris at the age of 79 as a result of a COVID-19 disease. Born on March 29th, 1943 in Agria, Greece, Vangelis was one of the pioneers of electronic music. Vangelis was largely self-taught in music and had only a basic knowledge of reading or writing music throughout his career. In the early 1960s he founded his first band. In 1968 he formed the progressive rock group Aphrodite’s Child with Demis Roussos and Lucas Sideras, which had several hit singles. In 1973 he started his solo career with his first film scores. In the 1980s he shared several international hits with Jon Andersen. In 1982 Vangelis won the first Oscar for an all-synthesizer film score with the music for the strip “Chariots of Fire”. Other film music hits followed, such as “Blade Runner”, “Bounty” and “1492 – Conquest of Paradise”, the background music for many documentaries by Jacques Cousteau, as well as the anthem for the 2002 World Cup.

New Stamps by Private Postal Services

Private Postal Services too release stamps related to music. Members will find a list with the latest issues in the members only section.
 


1.3: Brief und mehr (Münster)
5.3.: BW Post Stuttgart
8.5.: Citipost Hannover / Citipost Weserbergland / LMF Augsburg / Nordbrief Rendsburg / Peterspost (Finland) / RPV Cottbus / Turbopost Neuruppin
 
Private Postal Services (Members only)

New Stamps 2021

Every year, worldwide more than 200 stamps related to music are issued. The list of new issues published in the members-only-section of our website is updated several times per month.
 


15.1.: Central African Republic / Chad / Mongolia / Mocambique / Tuvalu
6.3.: Angola / Central African Republic / Chad / Colombia / Djibouti / Mocambique / Sao Tomé / Togo / Turkmenistan
24.3.: Chad / Djibouti
13.4.: Albania / Central African Republic / Chad / Philippines / Uzbekistan
7.5.: Andorra / Guinea-Bissau / Paraguay / Sao Tomé

Stamps Europe (members only)  Stamps Overseas (members only)

Stamp of the Month: May 2022

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

The Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold was born on May 29, 1897 in Brno, he died on November 29, 1957 in Los Angeles. May 2022 will be his 125th birthday.
 
Korngold was considered a musical prodigy in Vienna. As early as 1910, a ballet music by the 13-year-old was premiered at the Vienna Court Opera. Some of his early works were frequently performed by prominent conductors such as Bruno Walter,

USA 16.9.1999
 

Austria 31.3.1997 
Arthur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Richard Strauss. Korngold’s operas “Der Ring des Polykrates”, “Violanta” (both 1916), “Die tote Stadt” (1920) and “Das Wunder der Heliane” (1927) were great successes and made him – alongside Richard Strauss – the most frequently performed opera composer in Germany and Austria. In 1934 he followed Max Reinhardt’s invitation to Hollywood to compose the film music for his film “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. With the work on this film, in which a symphony orchestra was used for the first time, he set new standards in the still young history of film music. Because of his Jewish heritage, he stayed in the United States and worked as a film composer for Warner Brothers. By 1946 he had composed the music for
19 films, of which “Anthony Adverse” (1936) and “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938) each received an Oscar for the best film score.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold considered himself a representative of modern classicism. In addition to film music and six operas, his compositional output includes piano works, songs, orchestral and chamber music, choral works, incidental music and an operetta.
 

The video shows Jeffrey Schindler and the Australian International Symphony Orchestra Institute performing the overture to the 1940 film “The Sea Hawk” by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The recording was made in 2010 during the final concert of the summer course at the University of Tasmania’s Conservatory of Music.

Stamp of the Month: April 2022

Toots Thielemans

The Belgian jazz musician Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor Thielemans was born on April 29, 1922 in Brussels. He died in his hometown on August 22, 2016. April 2022 will be his 100th birthday.
 
Under his stage name “Toots” Thielemans was an outstanding representative of modern jazz. He learned to play the accordion and guitar and eventually discovered the chromatic harmonica.

Belgium 21.3.2022
 
Like no other, he helped the harmonica to gain respect in jazz. As early as 1950 he was a member of the “All-Star Band” on Benny Goodman’s European tour. Later he made music with, among others, Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Paul Simon and Billy Joel. In the 1980s he was a frequent member of the all-star cast around Dizzy Gillespie. He can also be heard with his instrument in the soundtrack of several film scores such as “Asphalt Cowboy”, “The Getaway” or “French Kiss”.
One of his most famous works as a composer is the background music for the children’s television series “Sesame Street”.
In 2004, Toots Thielemans was honored with the German Jazz Trophy for his life’s work, and in 2009 he received the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, the highest award for jazz musicians in the USA. In 2001, King Albert II of Belgium made him a baron.

Belgium 18.11.2000 


The video shows Toots Thielemans at the “Night of the Proms” 2009 in Rotterdam. He performs his jazz standard “Bluesette”. This title was composed and first recorded in 1961 and has since been covered by more than 100 artists.