In the sixty-odd years since their composition, the Four Last Songs have acquired in many people’s minds an unassailable status as simply the most beautiful music known to them, to be listened to in a dimly lit room and a state of rapt meditation, surrendering to the extraordinary spell of profound, other-worldly calm that they cast. This is not surprising. They were, indeed, the last things of any significance that Strauss wrote, between May and September 1948, at the age of eighty-four. (previously) [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Mar 24, 2012 -
11 comments
Debbie Friedman passed away today. She was the most well known and influential composer of Jewish music and litergy in the United States.
The Jerusalem Post says that "Friedman’s music is performed in synagogues around the world more than that of any other modern composer."
Her most well known song is a setting of
Mi Shebeirach, a prayer for healing.
posted by kdern
on Jan 9, 2011 -
24 comments
mid-70s proto-punk band, Death, have finally gotten a
real disc out. unearthed in crates lost for decades, their founder dead before seeing it happen, their children never knowing the shadowy past of their forebears, the sound of black pop-punk-politi-metal-wave is finally here.
[more inside]
posted by artof.mulata
on Mar 29, 2009 -
16 comments
Frank Kerr
died on Wednesday, October 15th of throat cancer. The 51-year-old was better known as Frankie Venom, the lead singer of
Teenage Head, a punk band from Hamilton, Ontario that
some have called Canada's version of The Ramones. The Glasgow native formed the band in 1975 with some high-school friends and they released several popular albums and played at least two shows
that ended in riots. After splitting with the group in 1985 due in part to lifestyle issues, Venom later rejoined and began touring again. In 2003, Teenage Head recorded a special cover album with Ramones drummer Marky Ramone that was just released earlier this year. One fan got
some video of one of Frankie's last shows in Hamilton.
posted by mathewi
on Oct 16, 2008 -
18 comments
Death were a
proto-punk trio of black Jehovah's Witnesses based out of Detroit back in 1974. They were almost signed to Columbia, but bailed on the label when Columbia wanted them to change their name. Instead, they self-released a 7" which is now
quite a collector's item, influenced as it was by,
“Iggy and Stooges, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and The Who”.
But the story doesn't end there. Recently, Bobby Hackney, whose father played in Death along with two of his uncles, learned of the band and, lo and behold, his dad found the master tapes for their unreleased full-length in his attic. Is a new chapter in
punk rock history about to be written?
posted by stinkycheese
on Jun 11, 2008 -
35 comments
Music for Funerals - 5000 Brits were surveyed about songs they'd like played during their funeral. I'm warning you right now, Bon Jovi made the top 20.
posted by davebush
on Oct 3, 2006 -
173 comments
'Pavarotti of the Plains' In 1957,
Don Walser stopped recording country music and became a National Guardsman, just as rock 'n' roll took over the airwaves. He stayed with the Guard for 39 years, but around 1990, his performances at Henry's in Austin, Texas developed a following. By the end of the decade, he would sign to
Sire Records, open for Ministry and the Butthole Surfers, collaborate with
Kronos Quartet and be honored with a
National Heritage Award. Walser retired from his music career in 2001 because of ill health. He
passed away on Wednesday at age 72.
posted by NemesisVex
on Sep 21, 2006 -
17 comments
"The sound was not of this world, it hovered in space like some celestial blessing". He could play the piano ”before he had learned to smile”, his mother said, and he gave his first concert at the age of six. He studied under
Alfred Cortot,
Charles Munch,
Paul Dukas, and
Nadia Boulanger. He was an esteemed teacher and critic at 19, an international phenomenon at 24. He escaped from his native Rumania to Switzerland in 1943 with his fiancée, a joint capital of five Swiss francs in their pockets. After the war, just as he had arrived in the pantheon of great performing artists,
Dinu Lipatti was diagnosed with leukemia. In September 1950, near death, despite the urgings of his doctors Lipatti insisted upon
one last recital at Besançon. As his wife recalled,
this was the only way Lipatti could bear to take his leave of the world. Lipatti was
so weak he could barely walk to the piano. But once he began playing, he became transformed.
After performing 13 waltzes, he could no longer muster the strength necessary to perform the final selection. So he substituted
Myra Hess's piano arrangement of Bach's 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring".
(page with sound). Three months later,
Lipatti died at the age of 33. After Lipatti's funeral, his old mentor Cortot wrote: "There was nothing to teach you. One could, in fact, only learn from you."
posted by matteo
on May 20, 2006 -
15 comments
After a
Noel Mewton-Wood performance of
Hindemith's (.pdf) Ludus Tonalis, Dame
Myra Hess exclaimed: ‘The boy is truly remarkable, and
what shall he be like at 40-odd?’.
Glowing testimonials to his ‘genius’ (Sir Malcolm Sargent) from Beecham, Schnabel, Bliss, Hindemith and Britten were countered by indifference from the major record labels and concert managements. In 1953,
at the age of 31, the pianist, a shy young man susceptible to depression, committed suicide. Now, the
Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive of Middlesex University offers
a scan of the The London Evening News page with the report of Mewton-Wood's death. And here is
a mp3 page with some of his out-of-print work.
posted by matteo
on Mar 24, 2006 -
11 comments
RIP Tommy Vance. For years the voice of BBC Radio 1's 'The Friday Rock Show' and, for TV viewers throughout the UK, the voice of a multitude of adverts,
Tommy Vance has died following a stroke. RIP you gravel-throated bringer of rock.
posted by TheDonF
on Mar 6, 2005 -
9 comments
The Dance of Death. Die Totentanz: A German-language
site spotlighting, for example, the dance of death in
literature,
graphic art,
music and
film. For those, like me, whose German is not so good,
this page offers an English-language history of the phenomenon, and the Catholic Encyclopedia has an
article too. See also
Holbein's Dance-of-Death;
Lübeck's Dance-of-Death; and umm,
this.
posted by misteraitch
on Jul 3, 2003 -
14 comments
Takes the phrase "Get a Life" to a new level. Those masterminds of marketing, those night rocking, day partying satanic minions, KISS, have achieved the ultimate score in product merchandising. That's right, it's your very own KISS coffin, and while you might think "What's the point?", keep in mind that before you shuffle off this mortal coil, it doubles as a beer cooler.
posted by jeremias
on Feb 20, 2003 -
36 comments
Fuller Up is a "site about dead musicians...and how they got that way". I got to thinking about my favorite late artists, mostly classic rock, from the 60's, 70's & 80's, and which ones would IMO be making good music were they alive today. Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, SRV and Bob Marley top that list, while Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison probably died at the right time, when their stars were shining bright. By the way, if you want to know where the deceased RIP, try
Find A Grave.
posted by msacheson
on Nov 13, 2001 -
36 comments
Q: What's the best thing you can do for your career, if you're a musician?
A:
Die.(warning, page designer has used really small fonts)
posted by darukaru
on Jun 28, 2001 -
6 comments
