#ClassicsaDay #PrideMonth Week 4 2025

The #ClassicsaDay team celebrates Pride Month this June. The wide spectrum of sexual identities is now common knowledge. But there have always been non-cis people. Some were able to live openly, others had to hide their orientation to live. 

For the challenge, I included as many pre-20th-century composers as possible. Here are my posts for the fourth and final week of #PrideMonth.

06/23/25 Stanley Bate (1911-1959): Symphony No. 3

British composer Bate started his career strong, but by the 1940s, it had mostly run its course. He died at age 47, depressed by his apparent failure. Though his music his slowly returning to the repertoire. 

06/24/25 Arthur Benjamin (1893-1960): Caribbean Pieces for 2 pianos

Australian composer Benjamin was as popular with audiences as he was unpopular with critics. Which seemed not to bother him a bit. 

06/25/25 Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012): Symphony No. 3

Bennett was equally known for his film scores as his concert music. Although an avowed modernist, Bennett borrowed from many genres of music. 

06/26/25 Lord Berners (1883-1950): Fantaisie espagnole for orchestra

Berners was a true Renaissance man. He was not only a talented composer but also an accomplished novelist and painter. 

06/27/25 Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990): Overture to Candide

This 1956 operetta had a lackluster premiere. But over time, it has become one of Bernstein's best-known works. 

Next Month:

#ClassicsaDay #PrideMonth Week 3, 2025

  The #ClassicsaDay team celebrates Pride Month this June. The wide spectrum of sexual identities is now common knowledge. But there have always been non-cis people. Some were able to live openly, others had to hide their orientation to live. 

For the challenge, I included as many pre-20th-century composers as possible. Here are my posts for the third week of #PrideWeek.

06/16/25 Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930): Gluck

Siegfried was the son of Richard Wagner. On a long sea voyage to Asia, he became intimate with composer Clement Harris. The tone poem Gluck was dedicated to Harris's memory. 

06/17/25 Walter Arlen (1920-2023): Sonnet

Jewish composer Arlen fled the Nazis in 1939, settling in America. Although he composed throughout his life, most of his works were written after he retired in 1993. Arlen's works are mainly vocal and chamber music. 

6/18/25 Ruth Anderson (1928-2019): SUM (State of the Union Message)

Anderson studied with Darius Milhaud and Nadia Boulanger. She was a pioneer in electronic music and also composed for traditional ensembles. 

06/19/25 Samuel Barber (1910-1981): A Hand of Bridge

Barber was always interested in vocal music, as was his partner Gian Carlo Menotti. "A Hand of Bridge" depicts the inner thoughts of four bridge players as they play a round. Menoti wrote the libretto. 

06/20/25 Jean Barraqué (1928-1973): Sequence for voice, percussion, and chamber ensemble

Barraqué was a fastidious composer who constantly revised his works. His catalog only contains about 30 completed pieces. He was known for his innovative use of serialism, which moved beyond the Schoenberg model. 

#ClassicsaDay #PrideMonth Week 2, 2025

   The #ClassicsaDay team celebrates Pride Month this June. The wide spectrum of sexual identities is now common knowledge. But there have always been non-cis people. Some were able to live openly, others had to hide their orientation to live. 

For the challenge, I included as many pre-20th-century composers as possible. Here are my posts for the second week of #PrideWeek.

06/09/25 Clement Harris (1871-1897): Paradise Lost

Harris was in a relationship with Siegfried Wagner. They were also part of Oscar Wilde's circle. "Paradise Lost" was written during a 6-month cruise with Wagner. 

06/10/25 Adela Maddison (1862-1929): Piano Quintet

Maddison was a British composer and concert producer. Although married, she had an affair with Gabriel Faure, and later in life entered a long-term relationship with Martha Mundt. Most of her works were unpublished, and the majority of them are now considered lost. 

06/11/25 Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Danse Macabre

Saint-Saëns was married and had two children. But his interest in young men never waned. And that part of his life never hindered his career or fame as a composer and organist. 

06/12/25 Ethel Smyth (1858-1944): The Song of Love

Smyth refused to let gender hinder her career. This work was written in 1888. Tchaikovsky encouraged her, as did Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann. The eight-movement cantata is based on the Song of Songs. It received its performance debut in 2023. 

06/13/25 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Piano Concerto No. 2

Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto became a repertoire standard almost immediately after its premiere. So much so that it's overshadowed his two subsequent concertos. 

#ClassicsaDay #PrideMonth Week 1, 2025

 The #ClassicsaDay team celebrates Pride Month this June. The wide spectrum of sexual identities is now common knowledge. But there have always been non-cis people. Some were able to live openly, others had to hide their orientation to live. 

For the challenge, I included as many pre-20th-century composers as possible. Here are my posts for the first week of #PrideWeek. 

06/02/25 Dominique Phinot (c.1510-c.1556): Messe Quam Pulchra es

Phinot was a major composer of sacred music. Palestrina and De Lassus, who followed him, used his works as models. His music was published widely. In 1556, he was executed in Lyons for "homosexual practices."

06/03/25 Charles Coypeau d'Assoucy (1605-1677): Airs a quatre parties

Coypeau had a taste for low entertainment, such as puppet shows and organ grinders. He incorporated those common elements into his own music with witty satire. He was believed to be the lover of Cyrano de Bergerac, both of whom were members of an all-male "free spirits" club.

06/04/25 Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687): Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs

At one time, Lully was the most influential musician at Louis XIV's court. Although he was married with children, his homosexual encounters eventually cost him the patronage of the king. 

06/05/25 Johann Rosenmüller (1619-1684):Entsetze dich, Natur

Rosenmüller was a German composer who spent a large amount of time in Italy. His career was derailed in 1655 when he was accused of molesting choirboys. Rosenmüller fled Italy, but on for a while. By 1658, he was at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. 

06/06/25 Frederick the Great (1712-1786): Flute Concerto No. 4 in D minor

Frederick's preference for men was an open secret at court. As a musician, he was a talented performer and composer, and he employed some of Europe's best musicians. 

#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalMexico Week 4, 2025

    Our neighbor to the south has a long, rich history of classical music. A much longer history than ours, in fact. For May, the Classics a Day team encourages folks to post videos of Mexican classical music. 

There's a lot to choose from. The first composers in New Spain were writing in the 1500s. 

Here are my posts for the third week of #ClassicalMexico.

05/26/25 Carlos Chávez (1899–1978): Xochipilli

Chávez subtitled this work "An Imagined Aztec Music. The subject is the Aztec god Xochipilli-Macuilxóchitl. The ensemble mimics the sound of pre-Columbian instruments.

05/27/25 Silvestre Revueltas (1899–1940): 5 Canciones de Ninos & 2 Conciones Profanas para Voz y Piano

Reveultas first published this collection of songs in 1945 for voice and piano. In 1969, an arrangement for voice and orchestra was made available. 

05/28/25 Eduardo Hernández Moncada (1899–1995): Sinfonia No. 1

Moncada was a member of the Nationalist Movement. As such, he was vitally interested in blending traditional Mexican musical forms with those of modern classical to create a true national style.  

05/29/25 Alfonso de Elias (1902-1984): Intermezzo

de Elias was a virtuoso pianist. And while he wrote many piano works, he also produced other forms of music: symphonies, ballets, concertos, string quartets, and other chamber music.  

05/30/25 Luis Sandi (1905–1996): Sinfonia No. 2

Sandi studied with Carlo Chavez (among others). He conducted Mexico's top orchestras and was a member of the International Music Council of UNESCO. 

Next Month: