What Do Thomas Mann - Bizet's Carmen - Nelson Mandela & August Wilson Have To Do with The Dover Quartet October 31 Concert for Peoples' Symphony Concerts?
Events and creations are often influenced by the context and environment in which they occur.
That's why I thought you might like to know what was happening in the world of Brahms, Dvorak and indigenous composer Pura Fe when they composed the works that the acclaimed Dover String Quartet will bring us in their concert on Saturday, October 31st at 7;30 PM at Washington Irving Campus (one block from Union Square).
Brahms wrote his Quartet No. 3* in B-flat, Op. 67 in 1875 when
Authors Thomas Mann and Rainer Maria Rilke were born, as was psychiatrist Carl Jung, composers Maurice Ravel and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and medical missionary, philosopher and musican Albert Schweitzer
Mark Twain wrote "Tom Sawyer," Monet painted Boating at Argeneuil, Bizet's Carmen premiered in Paris and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 made its U.S. premiere in Boston.
* The Quartet was first performed in the U.S. by the Kneisel Quartet, a group that performed for Peoples' Symphony Concerts at Washington Irving in the 19-teens.
Six Years later, Dvorak composed his Quartet No. 11 in C Major, Op. 61
Composer Bela Bartok, artist Pablo Picasso and author Stefan Zweig were born, as was Kemal Atatürk, who founded and shaped the country of Turkey.
James A. Garfield was inaugurated as 20th President of the U.S. but was shot and killed that September, succeeded by Veep Chester Arthur
The first of all cabarets, Chat Noir was founded in Paris; first U.S. Lawn Tennis Championship held; City populations (in millions) London 3.3; Paris 2.2; New York 1.2; Berlin 1.1; Vienna 1.0; Tokyo 0.8; St. Peteersburg 0.6
Freedom of the press established in France; flogging abolished in British Army and Navy; Tuskegee Institute founded by Booker T. Washington; Canadian Pacific Rialway Comanty founded; Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the U.S. and Canada are formed
Indigenous composer Pura Fe wrote Rattle Songs in the early 1990s and they have been orchestrated for string quartet by Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate
In 1990, South African President F.W de Klerk announces amnesty for Nelson Mandela and the lifting of restrictions on over 30 organizations including the African National Congress; Germany celebrates its formal reunification and Helmut Kohl is elected first Chancellor of a reunited Germany; Czechoslovakia holds first free postwar elections; Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Mikhail Gorbachev.
Music loses legendary figures with the deaths of Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Sammy Davis Jr., Sarah Vaughn and Pearl Bailey. Film loses some of its greatest women stars - Greta Garbo, Ava Gardner, Joan Bennett, Paulette Goddard, Barbara Stanwyck. Margaret Lockwood
Nobel Prize for Medicine to Joseph E. Murray (U.S.), who performed first kidney transplants and to E. Donall Thomas (U.S.) who first transplanted bone marrow between humans; Nobel Prize for literature to Mexican writer Octavio Paz; Pulitzer Prize for Drama to August Wilson for The Piano Lesson
Academy Awards: Driving Miss Daisy; Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot); Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy).