HUFFINGTON
12.08.13
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MUSIC
ELLIOTT CARTER
BIG MAMA THORNTON MARIA CALLAS
Elliott Carter, one of the greatest
modern classical composers, was born
in New York City in 1908. The young
Elliott went to New York’s Horace
Mann School and was mentored by
composer Charles Ives. After attending
Harvard, where he earned a master’s in
music, Carter arrived in Paris nearing
1933, just as conflagration was about
to consume Europe. As the streets
sadly teemed with Nazi refugees, Carter studied with the legendary Nadia
Boulanger, eventually returning to New
York to teach and compose. In 1960,
after first gaining world renown, he
was honored at home with the Pulitzer
Prize for his string quartets. His many
awards include the Gold Medal for
Music from the National Institute of
Arts and Letters, the National Medal of
Arts, and a second Pulitzer. The maestro, who said his music was born from
jazz, composed until his passing in
2012. Remember him with “Cello Sonata: III. Adagio,” performed by Chicago Pro Musica, from the 2005 album
Elliott Carter: Early Chamber Music, an
excellent introduction to this titan.
Blues singer, drummer, and harmonica
player Big Mama Thornton was born Willie Mae Thornton in Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1926, to a minister
father and gospel-singing mother, one of
seven children. Even as a teen, Willie Mae
was large in brilliance and stature, standing nearly six feet tall. At the age of 14,
she lost her mother and had to join the
workforce. Later that same year, she won
a singing contest and soon left home for
a musical career, making her bones on
the road. In 1951, Thornton signed her
first record contract and by 1953 enjoyed
her first hit with Leiber and Stoller’s
legendary title “Hound Dog.” By the ’60s,
after recording dozens of sides, her star
began to wane. However, Janis Joplin’s
cover of Thornton’s “Ball and Chain” in
1968 was a welcome triumph. By the
’70s, hard living started to take its toll on
Thornton’s health. In July of 1984, she
suffered a heart attack and was found
dead in her California boarding house.
Thornton’s accolades include the 1979
San Francisco Blues Festival Award and
induction into the Blues Foundation’s
Hall of Fame. Her collaborations include
Johnny Otis, Sammy Green, Junior
Parker and Muddy Waters. Thornton’s
original 1953 version of the so famously
Elvised “Hound Dog,” from the collection
Women Blues Singers (1928-1969), has
all the markings of her early gre atness.
BUY: iTunes.com
GENRE: Classical
ARTIST: Elliott Carter
SONG: Cello Sonata: III. Adagio
ALBUM: Elliott Carter: Early
Chamber Music
BUY: iTunes.com
GENRE: Blues
ARTIST: Big Mama Thornton
SONG: Hound Dog
ALBUM: Women Blues Singers
(1928-1969)
Soprano magnetar Maria Callas was
born Maria Anna Sophie Cecilia Kalogeropoulos in New York City in December 1923, the youngest of three. Her
childhood was plagued with feelings
of great inferiority, with the exception
of her voice. “My sister was slim and
beautiful and friendly, and my mother
always preferred her. I was the ugly
duckling, fat and clumsy and unpopular. It is a cruel thing to make a child
feel ugly and unwanted,” she told Time
magazine in 1956. Callas made her
professional debut in Greece in 1941,
but did not make her first Italian opera
appearance until 1951. A true diva,
Callas became notorious for walking
out on performances, and it was said
that if you wanted to see a full show,
you should show up to a rehearsal. The
cause of her death in 1977 at the age
of 53 remains a mystery to this day.
With scores of Callas treasures to collect, revisit the ever-stunning Giacomo
Puccini masterpiece “Turandot–Act 3:
Tu Che Di Gel Sei Cinta” (1954).
BUY: iTunes.com
GENRE: Opera
ARTIST: Maria Callas
SONG: Turandot–Act 3: Tu Che Di
Gel Sei Cinta
ALBUM: Maria Callas