American History Month -
February, 2018
Click on Each New Person of the Day and
Learn Our Common American History!
02/01/18 - Joseph Boulogne,
Chevalier de Saint-Georges (December 25, 1745 – June 10,
1799) was a champion fencer, virtuoso violinist, and conductor of
the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. Born in Guadeloupe, at that time
considered part of America, he was the son of George Bologne de
Saint-Georges, a wealthy planter, and Nanon, his African slave. Biography -
Music Compositions
02/02/18 - Coleridge-Taylor
Perkinson (1932 - 2004) was music director and
composer-in-residence for the Negro Ensemble Company, the Alvin
Ailey Dance Company, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and for
productions at the American Theatre Lab, the Denver Center for
the Performing Arts, and the Goodman Theatre, among others. Biography -
Music Compositions - MUSIC 1 - 2
02/04/18 - Yo-Yo Ma (1955 -)
was born in Paris to Chinese parents; mother Marina Lu, a singer
and father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, a violinist and professor of music at
Nanjing National Central University. The family moved to New York
in 1962. Yo-Yo began performing before audiences at age five and
performed for Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy
when he was seven. At age eight, he appeared on American
television with his sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, in a concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Today he has over 90 albums, 18 of which are Grammy
Award winners. In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Ma to
serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. In
2011, Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Yo-Yo Ma and Condoleezza Rice surprised the attendees of the 2017
Kennedy Center Arts Summit with a Brahms duet for piano and cello.
Biography -
Official Web site - Facebook Page - Bobby McFerrin and Yo Yo Ma - Yo Yo Ma Greatest Hits of 2018
02/05/18 - Florence Beatrice
Price (1887 - 1953) was born to Florence Gulliver and James H.
Smith on April 9, 1887, in Little Rock, Arkansas, one of three
children in a mixed-race family. Despite racial issues of the
era, her family was well respected and did well within their
community. Her father was a dentist and her mother was a music
teacher who guided Florence's early musical training. She had her
first piano performance at the age of four and went on to have
her first composition published at the age of 11, the first
African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the
first to have a composition played by a major orchestra. Biography -
Music
02/06/18 - William Grant Still (1895
–1978) was an African American composer, who composed more
than 150 works, including five symphonies and eight operas. Often
referred to as "the Dean" of African American
composers, Still was the first African American composer to have
an opera produced by the New York City
Opera. Still is known most for his first symphony, which was, until the 1950s the most widely performed
symphony composed by an American.
Biography -
Music
02/07/18 - Scott Joplin ( c.
1867/68 - 1917) was an African American composer and pianist born
into a musical family of railway laborers in Northeast Texas, who
developed his musical knowledge with the help of local teachers.
Joplin grew up in Texarkana, where he formed a vocal quartet, and
taught mandolin and guitar. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime
compositions and was dubbed the "King of Ragtime".
During his brief career, he wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one
ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first, and most popular
pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag",
became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and has been
recognized as the archetypal rag.
02/08/18 Undine Eliza Anna
Smith Moore (1904 –1989) was a notable and prolific African
American composer of the 20th century. Moore was born in Jarratt,
Virginia. She was the granddaughter of slaves. In 1908, her
family moved to Petersburg, Virginia. She began studying piano at
age seven with Lillian Allen Darden. Moore attended Fisk
University, where she studied piano with Alice M. Grass. In 1938
she married Dr. James Arthur Moore, the chair of the physical
education department at Virginia State College. Known to some as
the "Dean of Black Women Composers," Moore's career in
composition began while she was at Fisk.While her range of
compositions include works for piano and for other instrumental
groups, Moore is more widely known for her choral works. Scenes from the Life of a Martyr, a 16-part oratorio on the life of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., for chorus, orchestra, solo voices and narrator was
premiered at Carnegie Hall and was nominated for a Pulitzer
Prize. Other familiar compositions are "Afro-American Suite for flute, violoncello, and
piano", "Lord, We Give Thanks to Thee" for chorus, "Daniel, Daniel, Servant of the Lord" for chorus, and "Love, Let the Wind Cry How I Adore Thee."
02/09/18 - William James
"Count" Basie (1904 – 1984) was an American jazz
pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer born to Harvey Lee
and Lillian Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey. His mother taught him
to play the piano and he started performing in his teens.
Dropping out of school, he learned to operate lights for
vaudeville and to improvise accompaniment for silent films at a
local movie theater in Red Bank. By age 16, he increasingly
played jazz piano at parties, resorts and other venues. In 1924,
he went to Harlem, where his performing career expanded; he
toured with groups to the major jazz cities of Chicago, St. Louis
and Kansas City. Late one night with time to fill, the band
started improvising. Basie liked the results and named the piece "One O'Clock Jump."
In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in
1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first
recording. He led the group for almost 50 years. His first
official recordings for Decca included "Pennies from Heaven" and "Honeysuckle Rose". In March of 1981, Basie and his Orchestra played
Carnegie Hall.
02/10/18 - Edward Kennedy
"Duke" Ellington (1899 – 1974) was an African
American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra,
which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over
fifty years. Ellington is generally considered to have elevated
the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other more
traditional musical genres. Ellington had always been a prolific
writer, composing thousands of tunes including ‘It
Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)’, ‘Sophisticated Lady’, ‘In A Sentimental Mood’,
‘Prelude To A Kiss’. In
later years he also composed film scores, among them The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Anatomy Of A Murder (1959), Paris Blues
(1960) and Assault On A Queen (1966). His
reputation continued to rise after he died, and he was awarded a
special posthumous Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999.
Biography - Music
02/11/18 - Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) was a pianist and
composer, the first African American soloist to appear with the
Chicago Symphony, and played an important role in the development
of twentieth century classical and musical theater. She was born
in Chicago, IL. Her parents, Dr. Monroe Majors and Estella C.
Bonds, were separated two years later leaving young Bonds to be
raised by her mother. Showing promise at an early age, she
completed her first composition at the age of five. Her musical
prowess was encouraged by her mother, who was also a musician and
a frequent host to African American writers, artists, and
musicians. Visitors from the local Chicago area and around the
country would regularly play in the Bond home and their presence
and performances there clearly had an effect on young Margaret.
After receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees in
music from Northwestern University in 1933 and 1934 respectively,
Bonds went on to a successful career writing pieces for the Glenn
Miller Orchestra and regularly performing on the radio. Although
Bonds was educated as a classical musician, her work was
versatile and strongly influenced by jazz and blues. Her
compositions were performed by a large number of concert artists
including Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman.
In 1936, Bonds also founded the Allied Arts Academy, an
institution for talented African American children in Chicago.
Perhaps most notable was her collaboration with the poet Langston
Hughes. Bonds wrote a musical piece to accompany the Hughes poem
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” in 1941. This partnership lasted well
into the 1950s and included several larger projects such as theatrical adaptations of some of Langston Hughes’s works.
Bonds’s musical scores also featured the texts of other
poets including pieces for W.E.B. Du Bois and Robert Frost.
Bonds has been credited with creating new interest in traditional
African American musical forms, history, and culture.
Biography - Music
02/12/18 -
Lincoln's Birthday - Julia Ward Howe (1819 – 1910) was an
American poet and author, best known for writing the words for
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic." She was also an advocate for
abolitionism and was a social activist, particularly for women's
suffrage. She was inspired to write "The Battle Hymn of the
Republic" after she and her husband visited Washington,
D.C., and met Abraham Lincoln at the White House in November
1861. During the trip, her friend James Freeman Clarke suggested
she write new words to the song "John Brown's Body", which she did on November 19. The song
was set to William Steffe's already-existing music and Howe's
version was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in February
1862. It quickly became one of the most popular songs of the
Union during the American Civil War.
Biography
- The Story Behind the Hymn - The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe
02/13/18 - Breshears "Little Stars Trio"
(2007, 2008, 2010 - ) Dustin Jr.,
Starla,
and Valery
Breshears, children of Dustin and Julie Breshears —both
pianists and teachers— and four other siblings in Chico,
California. Two of the three youngest, Colin, 5, and Delilah,
almost 3, are already taking lessons on the violin and cello,
respectively. Serenity, at 1-year-old is the youngest Breshears,
will take up the violin, according to Dustin Sr. The Little Stars
Trio can often be found performing “Haydn's 'London' Trio,” “Simple Gifts,”
and other favorites (some pieces they arrange themselves, with
the help of their parents) in concert halls and also just for
tourists on the city streets.
Biography in Music - Video Interview
02/14/18 - Pau Casals i Defilló (1876 – 1973),
usually known in English as Pablo Casals, was a cellist,
composer, and conductor from Catalonia, Spain. He is generally
regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th
century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time. He made
many recordings throughout his career, of solo, chamber, and
orchestral music, also as conductor, but he is perhaps best
remembered for the recordings of the Bach Cello Suites he made from 1936 to 1939. Pau and his wife,
Marta, made their permanent residence in the town of Ceiba,
Puerto Rico. He made an impact in the Puerto Rican music scene,
by founding the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra in 1958, and the
Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico in 1959.
One of his last
compositions was the "Hymn of the United Nations". He
conducted its first performance in a special concert at the United Nations on October
24, 1971, two months
before his 95th birthday. On that day, the Secretary-General of
the United Nations, U Thant, awarded Casals the U.N. Peace Medal
in recognition of his stance for peace, justice and freedom.
Casals accepted the medal and made his famous "I Am a
Catalan" speech, where he stated that Catalonia had the
first democratic parliament, long before England did.
BBC Documentary - Pau Casals exiled to Prada - 1961 Concert At The White
House -
02/15/18 - Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate (1968 - ) born in Norman, Oklahoma is a Chickasaw classical composer and pianist. His compositions are inspired by
American Indian history and culture. He has had several commissioned works, which have been performed by major orchestras
in Washington, DC; San Francisco, Detroit, Minneapolis, and the American Composers Forum. When the San Francisco Symphony Chorus
performed and recorded his work Iholba' in 2008, it was the first time the chorus had sung any
work in Chickasaw or any American Indian language.
02/16/18 - Toshiko Akiyoshi (1929- ) is a Japanese
American jazz composer/arranger, bandleader
and pianist.
She has received 14 Grammy nominations, and she was the first
woman to win the Best Arranger and Composer awards in Down Beat
Magazine's readers poll. In 1956, Akiyoshi enrolled to become the
first Japanese student at Berklee College of Music. In 1984, she
was the subject of a documentary film titled "Jazz Is My Native Language." In 1996, she published her
autobiography, "Life with Jazz," which is now in its
fifth printing in Japanese. In 1998, Akiyoshi was awarded an
Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music. In
2007 she was named an NEA Jazz Master by the U.S.
National Endowment for the Arts.
Today, Akiyoshi lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side with her
husband.
Long Yellow Road - Toshiko Akiyoshi Interview by Monk Rowe (1999) - Toshiko Akiyoshi: on being a Japanese jazz
artist (2007)
02/17/18 - Aaron Copland (1900 – 1990) was an American
composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of
his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his
peers and critics as "the Dean of American Composers."
The open, slowly changing harmonies in much of his music are
typical of what many people consider to be the sound of American
music, evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit. He
is best known for the works he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s in a
deliberately accessible style often referred to as
"populist" and which the composer labeled his
"vernacular" style. Works in this vein include the
ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid and Rodeo, El Salon Mexico, Fanfare for the Common Man and
Third Symphony. In addition to his ballets and orchestral works, he
produced music in many other genres including chamber music, vocal works, opera and film scores.
02/18/18 - Anthony Parnther (1943- ) is an American conductor of
West Indian and Samoan descent, born in Norfolk, VA. He is
currently the music director and conductor of the Southeast Symphony in Los
Angeles, California, a position he has held since 2010. He is a
noted conductor,
orchestrator, and bassoonist with the Hollywood
Studio Symphony for television, motion pictures and video games.
In 2012, he conducted "Afro-American" Symphony
No. 1 "by William Grant Still. Anthony
taught at Fullerton College from 2008 - 2010 and University of
California, Berkeley from 2010 - 2015. He has been artist in
residence at the Oakwood School from 2015 - to the present.
02/19/18 - Samuel Osborne Barber II (1910 – 1981) was an
American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music.
Barber was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of
Marguerite McLeod (née Beatty) and Samuel Le Roy Barber. He was
born into a comfortable, educated, social, and distinguished
family. His father was a physician; his mother, called Daisy, was
a pianist of English-Scottish-Irish descent whose family had
lived in the United States since the time of the American
Revolutionary War. His aunt, Louise Homer, was a leading
contralto at the Metropolitan Opera; his uncle, Sidney Homer, was
a composer of American art songs. When Barber was 28, his 1936 Adagio for Strings was performed by the NBC Symphony Orchestra under the
direction of Arturo Toscanini in 1938, along with his first Essay for Orchestra. The Adagio had been arranged from the slow movement of
Barber's String Quartet, Op. 11. He was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: for his opera Vanessa
(1956–57) and for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962). Also widely performed is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915
(1947), a setting for soprano and orchestra of a prose text by
James Agee.
02/20/18 - Twelve-year-old Jun (Justin) Yu (2006 -) is the son
of Chinese composer and conductor Ziliang (pianist/composer Julian Yu, born in Shanghai,
China) and Korean pianist Rho Aera (Julia Rho, recognized as a
prodigy at an early age and was subsequently trained at the Yaeji
Music School). With such a musical upbringing, it's only natural
that Jun (Justin) Yu would take to that upbringing. Jun plays the
cello, having made his debut at the age of 4. Since then he has performed with his father's Long
Island, NY based Joyous String Ensemble with
major TV appearances on the “Ellen DeGeneres Show”,
ABC’s “Good Morning America”, Fox News, NBC's The Today Show, Steve Harvey’s “Little Big Shots”, an NBA Half-time Show, and the Harry Connick Show. Centered
around 12-year-old multi-talented cellist Justin Yu
and 8-year-old violinist Christine Yu, the group also
consists of violinists Tyler, Mickayla, Sabrina, Tiffany,
cellists Victoria and Gwendolyn and bassist Brendon. In addition,
the group performed at the White House for President Obama in
2015 at the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. Internationally, the group has performed all over the
world, including on Hunan TV’s “Amazing Kids” Show
(China), SBS “Star King” (Korea),
Little Big Star (Netherland) and SAT "Super Kids" (Germany). Justin also performed solo at New York's Carnegie Hall in 2014.
02/21/18 - Today is my (Jim Gerrish's) birthday and so I am
going to choose an American that I know from my own experience.
He is an outstanding musician who has already made an historic
impact in our home town of East Orange, NJ. Unlike most of the
others listed on this calendar, he doesn't have an
"official" biography written, so that's what I will be
adding here.
I first met Allan Theodore in 2009 when he was fifteen years old and a new member of the East Orange Unified Marching
Band (EOUMB) at Cicely Tyson School in East Orange,
NJ. Allan played flute and piccolo at
that time, but the band director, Frederick Goode, also noticed
that he was capable of much more and he was often asked to lead the band. Over the years in high school that Allan continued
with the band, two things happened; his leadership of the band improved to include conducting,
acting as drum major, organizing and delegating. At the same time, he
continued to explore the flute and trombone as his instruments of
choice, and became a flute, piccolo and trombone teacher to other
band members, as well as working through classical flute literature on his own. When Allan graduated from high school in 2013, he moved to Prairie View, Texas on a music scholarship to play trombone for the Prairie View A&M University Marching Storm
Band. The music directors there soon saw his leadership abilities
and it wasn't long before he became one of several drum majors leading the band. He continued his flute scholarship at
the same time, having been invited to study at Dartington Hall Trust in London in August of 2016. Most recently, he helped lead the Marching Storm
Band at the 2018 Honda Battle of the Bands as one of the drum majors. I will continue to follow his career with interest,
and with pride in my own small part in being able to let the
people of East Orange know that his career started here.
02/22/18 - Francis Hopkinson
(1737 - 1791) delegate to the Continental Congress who bravely
proclaimed the original thirteen colonies would break away from
British rule to form the United States of America. Francis
Hopkinson designed the first official American flag, Continental
paper money, and the first U.S. coin. He was an author, a
composer, and one of the 56 signers of the Declaration of
Independence in July 1776, as a delegate from New Jersey. He was
chosen for George Washington's birthday on our American History
Calendar because he represents the kind of music that George
Washington would have heard during his life and presidency. In
1778, Hopkinson composed "A Toast" (to General Washington). Lyrics are here.
02/23/18 - Paul Chihara was
born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. A Japanese American, he
spent three years of his childhood with his family in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho. Chihara received a BA and an MA in English literature
from the University of Washington and Cornell University,
respectively. He received a DMA in 1965 from Cornell, studying
with Robert Palmer. He also studied composition with Nadia
Boulanger in Paris, Ernst Pepping in West Berlin, and Gunther
Schuller in Tanglewood. He was the first composer-in-residence of
the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Neville Marriner,
and was most recently part of the music faculty of UCLA, where he
was the head of the Visual Media Program. As of 2015, Chihara has
been on the faculty of New York University as an Artist Faculty
in Film Music.
02/24/18 - Frank Isaac
Robinson (1938 -), born in Detroit, Michigan, was known as Sugar
Chile Robinson. He is an American jazz pianist and singer who
became famous as a child prodigy. According to contemporary
newsreels, he was self-taught and managed to use techniques
including slapping the keys with elbows and
fists. He won a talent show at the
Paradise Theatre in Detroit at the age of three, and in 1945
played guest spots at the theatre with Lionel Hampton, who was
prevented by child protection legislation from taking Robinson on
tour with him. However, Robinson performed on radio with Hampton
and Harry "The Hipster" Gibson, and also appeared as himself in the Hollywood film
"No Leave, No Love," starring Van Johnson and Keenan
Wynn. In 1946, as the first African
American performer to do so, he played for President Harry S.
Truman at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner,
shouting out "How'm I Doin', Mr. President?" –
which became his catchphrase – during his performance of
"Caldonia". He began touring major theaters, setting
box office records in Detroit and California. In 1949 he was
given special permission to join the American Federation of
Musicians and record his first releases on Capitol Records, "Numbers Boogie" and "Caldonia", both reaching the Billboard
R&B chart. In 1950, he toured and appeared on television with Count Basie. He stopped recording in 1952 to go back to school. He
earned a degree in history from Olivet College and one in
psychology from the Detroit Institute of Technology. In recent
years he has made a comeback as a musician with the help of the
American Music Research Foundation. On April 30, 2016, he
attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner on the 70th
anniversary of his appearance at the 1946 dinner. He met
President Obama and was saluted during the dinner, receiving a
standing ovation as the picture of him as a child appeared on the
video screens. In 2016 he was inducted into the Rhythm &
Blues Hall of Fame.
02/25/18 - George Li (1995 -)
was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents from the People's
Republic of China. He began piano lessons at the age of 4, and
later studied with Yin Chengzong, before transferring to teachers
Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. Li made his orchestral debut
with the Xiamen Philharmonic at the age of 9, a year after which
he made his solo recital debut in his native Boston. Since then,
he has been a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist.
At the age of eleven, he made his Carnegie Hall debut, which was featured in the new TV series produced by
NPR, From the Top. His performance on the Martha Stewart Show followed
two weeks later. Li was awarded first prize in the Massachusetts
Music Teachers Association state competitions at the age of 6 and
7. In 2005, Li won second prize in both the Virginia Waring
International Piano Competition and the Cincinnati World Piano
Competition at the age of nine. On June 7, 2011, Li performed for
President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, German Chancellor Dr.
Angela Merkel and her husband Dr. Joachim Sauer at a state dinner
in the White House Rose Garden. On June 23, 2011, Li was selected
to be one of the two recipients of the 2012 Gilmore Young Artist
Award. He is currently the youngest recipient of the award. In
2015, Li won the second prize silver medal in the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition.
 |
Brothers George Li (left) and Andrew Li (right)
Andrew Li (2000 -) is
beginning to catch up to his older brother George.
George and Andrew
Performing Together - 2010a
- 2010b
- 2013a
- 2013b
- 2014
- Encore - 2016
-
|
02/26/18 - Marie Dionne
Warrick (1940 - ), later Warwick, was born in East Orange, New
Jersey, to Mancel Warrick and Lee Drinkard. Her mother was
manager of the Drinkard Singers, and her father was a Pullman
porter, chef, record promoter and CPA. Her parents were both
African American, and she also has Native American, Brazilian and
Dutch ancestry. Her cousin, Whitney Houston, also lived in East Orange. After graduating from East
Orange High School in 1959, Warwick pursued her music career at
the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. During a
recording session, Warwick met Burt Bacharach, who hired her to
record demos featuring songs written by him and lyricist Hal
David. She later landed her own record deal. The demo version of
"It's Love That Really Counts",
along with her original demo of "Make It Easy on Yourself",
would surface on Warwick's debut Scepter album, Presenting Dionne
Warwick, which was released in early 1963. Her UK hits were most
notably "Walk On By" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" In 1985, Warwick recorded the American Foundation
for AIDS Research (AmFAR) benefit single "That's What Friends Are For" with her friends Gladys Knight, Elton John and
Stevie Wonder which raised over three million dollars for that
cause. In 1997, Lincoln School in East Orange, NJ, was renamed the Dionne Warwick Institute of
Economics and Entrepreneurship. In
2017, she performed at Lincoln Center in
New York City, was presented with the Marian Anderson Award, and performed in concert at Bergen PAC in Englewood, NJ. She is currently planning a tour to the UK for 2018.
02/27/18 - Nathalie Joachim is
a Brooklyn born Haitian-American who combines her exceptional
performance skill as a flutist with her creative talents as a
composer, producer and singer. She was recently appointed flutist
of the four-time Grammy winning contemporary chamber ensemble, Eighth Blackbird. Joachim is also co- founder of the critically
acclaimed urban art pop duo, Flutronix. Her original
compositions have been widly broadcast on radio and television.
Ms. Joachim is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where
she studied with Carol Wincenc and Jayn Rosenfeld, and was the
first person to successfully complete the conservatory’s
MAP, Pre-College, and College Division programs. Upon graduation,
she was granted the first ever Juilliard InterArts Award for
independently producing and presenting exceptional
interdisciplinary arts performances involving music, dance,
theater and technology while pursuing her degree. Upcoming
premieres include Fanm d’Ayiti, an evening-length work for
flute, voice, string quartet and electronics, commissioned by and
developed in residency through St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music series (2018). Fanm d’Ayiti (Women of Haiti)
explores Haitian song and the role of women’s voices in
Haitian music culture.
02/28/18 - Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790), in addition to being one of the Founding Fathers of
the United States, was a leading author, printer, political
theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor,
humorist, poet, song writer,
musician, composer, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. He
founded many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire
department and the University of Pennsylvania. He was also
president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.
Franklin is included on our musical American History Calendar
this year because he is known to have played the violin, the
harp, and the guitar. He also composed music, notably a string quartet in early classical style. While he was in London, he developed a much-improved
version of the glass harmonica, in which the glasses rotate on a
shaft, with the player's fingers held steady, instead of the
other way around. He worked with the London glassblower Charles
James to create the first "Armonica", and instruments based on his mechanical version soon
found their way to other parts of Europe. The famous Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart wrote an Adagio for Glass Armonica in C-Major, as did hundreds of other well known composers since its invention.
© 2018, James
Gerrish , Temporary Custodian of the Web site.
