The Canadian folk and country singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot died in Toronto on 1 May 2023 at the age of 84.
Gordon Lightfoot was born on 17 November 1938 in Orillia, Ontario. Despite a few solo recordings in the 1960s, he first made a name for himself primarily as a songwriter. His songs were sung by Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and the group Peter, Paul and Mary, among others. His first international hit was “If You Could Read My Mind” in 1970. During his career, he recorded 31 albums and had 15 singles in the US Top 50. In 1986 Gordon Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, with Bob Dylan giving the eulogy.
Category: Music
Stamp of the Month: May 2023
The American singer, actor and entertainer Francis Albert “Frank” Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey. He died in Los Angeles on May 14, 1998, at the age of 82. May 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of his death.
Frank Sinatra was already touring the bars of his hometown Hoboken as a teenager with his ukulele and a small music system. He made his first small radio appearances from 1932 and won a talent contest with the vocal quartet “The Hoboken Four” in 1935. In 1939 he was discovered by bandleader Harry James, who
Frank Sinatra was already touring the bars of his hometown Hoboken as a teenager with his ukulele and a small music system. He made his first small radio appearances from 1932 and won a talent contest with the vocal quartet “The Hoboken Four” in 1935. In 1939 he was discovered by bandleader Harry James, who
USA 13.5.2008
USA 13.5.2008
(Back side)
After numerous affairs, his star began to decline at the beginning of the 1950s and he even found himself without a recording contract in 1952. In 1957, he finally managed to return to the concert stage and to a weekly programme “The Frank Sinatra Show” on television via a diversion via film. In 1966, his song “Strangers in the Night” was the biggest commercial success of his musical career to date. In 1968 he recorded the version of the French chanson “Comme d’habitude”, written by Paul Anka, which was to become a world hit and his own signature tune under the title “My Way”.
Frank Sinatra live at Madison Square Garden, New York City (1974)
In Memoriam: Harry Belafonte
As a musician, Harry Belafonte first performed Caribbean folk songs and calypso music. Later he developed into a versatile world musician and was one of the best-known black artists in the USA at the beginning of the 1960s. He succeeded in overcoming the barriers of racial segregation on American television with his music. In the course of his career, Harry Belafonte sold more than 150 million records. In 1965, he won two Grammy Awards.
On 25 April 2023, the US singer, actor and entertainer Harry Belafonte died in New York City at the age of 96.
Harry Belafonte (real name: Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.) was born in New York City on 1 March 1927. After attending the American Negro Theatre, he decided to become an actor in 1940. From 1953 onwards he appeared in several feature films and in 1954 was given his own television show, in which he introduced musicians who were little known at the time, such as Miriam Makeba and Bob Dylan, among others.
In addition to his success as an artist, Harry Belafonte became a civil rights activist alongside Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. He campaigned against apartheid and the Vietnam War and made it possible for Africans to study in the USA through scholarships. At the beginning of the 1980s, Harry Belafonte approached Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones with the idea of recording a benefit single for the starving population in Africa. This became the “USA for Africa” project, which later became “We Are the World” with other musicians.
The video shows Harry Belafonte performing one of his greatest hits, “Islands in the Sun”, the theme song for the 1957 film of the same name.
Stamp of the Month: April 2023
The American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul LeRoy Robeson was born on 9 April 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey. He died in Philadelphia on 23 January 1976. April 2023 marks the 125th anniversary of his birth.
GDR 22.3.1983
USA 20.1.2004
The son of a former slave, Robeson studied at Rutgers University and Columbia University, where, in addition to musical and academic success, he made a name for himself as a football player. From 1927 to 1939 he lived in London, where he became a convinced socialist under the influence of George Bernard Shaw, among others, and later a protagonist of the African-American civil rights movement.
Paul Robeson received his first role in a silent film as early as 1924. On Broadway he played “Othello” and with his bass singing voice he also made his breakthrough as a singer in the
Paul Robeson received his first role in a silent film as early as 1924. On Broadway he played “Othello” and with his bass singing voice he also made his breakthrough as a singer in the
Broadway musical “Show Boat” in 1932. Because of his political views, Paul Robeson’s passport was revoked during the McCarthy era, his records disappeared from the shops and his name was blacklisted, which was tantamount to a ban on performing in the United States. International committees then demanded freedom of travel for Robeson and organised “transnational concerts” over the telephone between the US and Europe. It was not until 1958 that he was allowed to leave the country again. He was celebrated at his performances in England and in the GDR and received several awards as the “embodiment of the ‘other’ America”.
Mali 10.5.1986
50 Years ago …
50 years ago, on 24 March 1973, the British rock band Pink Floyd released the album “The Dark Side Of The Moon”. With more than 50 million copies sold, the concept album is one of the world’s best-selling music albums and became a long-running hit in the international album charts.
Great Britain 7.7.2016
Other anniversaries …
Stamp of the Month: March 2023
Germany 1.3.2023
The German composer, organist, pianist and conductor Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger was born on 19 March 1873 in Brand in the Upper Palatinate. He died in Leipzig on 11 May 1916 at the age of 43. March 2023 marks the 150th anniversary of his birth.
Max Reger received music lessons at an early age and decided to become a musician in 1888 after attending the Bayreuth Festival. He studied in Sondershausen and Wiesbaden and obtained a position at the conservatory there as a teacher of piano and organ. In 1901 he moved to Munich, where he was very active as a composer and pianist and was appointed to the Royal Academy of Music in 1905. In 1907 he became university music director and professor at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig. In addition to teaching in Leipzig, he was court conductor at the famous Meininger Hofkapelle from 1911 to 1914.
As a composer, Max Reger made significant achievements in the fields of chamber music, lied, choral and orchestral music. However, he became most famous for his compositions for the organ. His organ works were described by himself as technically very difficult and often require the use of all the technical possibilities of an organ. However, he is also considered the perfector of “chromatic polyphony”, which was once cultivated by his role model Johann Sebastian Bach.
GDR 23.1.1973
Germany 2.5.1991
Niger 20.4.2016
Stamp of the Month: February 2023
Italien 25.10.2021
The Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso was born in Naples on 25 February 1873. He died in his hometown on 2 August 1921 at the age of only 48. February 2023 marks the 150th anniversary of his birth.
Caruso, whose voice was already noticed as a boy in the church choir, made his opera debut at the age of 19. His breakthrough came five years later with the role of Federico in the world premiere of Francesco Cilea’s opera “L’Arlesiana” at the Teatro Lirico in Milan. Later he also took part in the world premieres of Umberto Giordano’s opera “Fedora”
Caruso, whose voice was already noticed as a boy in the church choir, made his opera debut at the age of 19. His breakthrough came five years later with the role of Federico in the world premiere of Francesco Cilea’s opera “L’Arlesiana” at the Teatro Lirico in Milan. Later he also took part in the world premieres of Umberto Giordano’s opera “Fedora”
In addition to his stage presence, Enrico Caruso’s work for the Victor Talking Machine Company was one of the decisive factors in the triumph of the record. Caruso recorded a total of 498 titles. These include opera arias as well as many popular songs such as Eduardo Di Capua’s song “O sole mio”, which he helped to make it world famous. The aria “Vesti la giubba” from the opera “Pagliacci”, recorded on 1 February 1904, was the recording industry’s first million-seller.
The video shows a shellac record with Enrico Caruso’s very first recording “E Lucevan Le Stelle” from Puccini’s opera “Tosca”. The recording was made on 11 April 1902 in Milan for G&T Records, a subsidiary of RCA Victor. At this first recording session, 10 titles were recorded, of which only one master each was made. Because of the unexpected success, the masters wore out very quickly, so that new masters had to be created from the records that were made. The record in the video is based on such a repressing, which was produced by G&T Records for the European market in the late 1940s.
Stamp of the Month: January 2023
Spain 14.6.1996
The Spanish singer, flamenco dancer and actress María Dolores Flores Ruiz, who became known by her stage name Lola Flores, was born in Jerez de la Frontera on 21 January 1923. She died in Madrid on 16 May 1995. January 2023 will be the 100th anniversary of her birth.
The video shows Lola Flores singing “La Zarzamora”, one of the hits from the show “Zambra”.
Shchedryk / Щедрик (Carol of the Bells)
“Shchedryk” was later adapted as an English Christmas carol, “Carol of the Bells”, by Peter J. Wilhousky following a performance of the original song by Alexander Koshetz’s Ukrainian National Chorus at Carnegie Hall on October 5, 1922. Wilhousky copyrighted and published his new lyrics (which were not based on the Ukrainian lyrics) in 1936, and the song became popular in the United States and Canada, where it became strongly associated with Christmas.
Stamp of the Month: December 2022
Belgium 11.5.1985
The French composer and organist César Auguste Jean Guillaume Hubert Franck was born on December 10, 1822 in Liège, then part of the Kingdom of the United Netherlands. He died in Paris on November 8, 1890. December 2022 will be his 200th birthday.
César Franck was a co-founder of the Société Nationale de Musique in 1871 and was later elected its president. In 1885 he became a Knight of the Legion of Honour.
As a composer, César Franck initially wrote piano music with little success. It was only when he took up his position at the church of Ste-Clotilde that he began to write music for the organ. Above all, he had the “simple organists” in mind, who had to arrange the service Sunday after Sunday. For them he composed numerous shorter pieces, which were published in two anthologies entitled “L’Organiste”. He only wrote his best-known works today in the last years of his life.
The video shows the cathedral organist Matthias Maierhofer on the choir organ of the Freiburg Minster, performing César Franck’s “Prélude, Fugue et Variation op. 18”.