GIUSEPPE VERDI AND PYOTR TCHAIKOVSKY AND WOODY GUTHRIE AND LEAD BELLY

GFR NEWS | TAKE 38 📵

As the host on Hard Quiz always says:

this week I have been really getting into...

composer fun facts! Here are some personal tit-bits of famous composers for you:

GIUSEPPE VERDI

Giuseppe Verdi (b1813, d1901, Italian Composer)

When Verdi was ten a local shopkeeper, struck by his musical abilities, agreed to finance his education. At twenty nine the unexpected success of his third opera, Nabucco, encouraged him to focus solely on operas and he proceeded to write an opera every nine months or so for the next eleven years. His subject matter was often of nations throwing off the yoke of tyrants and dictators and as Italy at that time was seeking independence from an oppressive neighbour he was frequently in trouble with the censors. After years of constant hard work he spent less time writing operas and served five years in the newly liberated and independent Italian parliament and also managed to write the famous Aida. Finally he retired for good at eighty one and focussed the rest of his years to setting up a support home for elderly and impoverished Italian musicians. The home remains to this day, well funded by his royalties. He wrote several of the most performed operas including La traviata and Rigaleto and wrote Aida for the opening of the Suez Canal.

Verdi was born in Busseto in Parma in the north of Italy, here is a photo of a local landmark The Rocca Pallavicino. Locals swear you can feel his spirit all over the town.

PYOTR TCHAIKOVSKY

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (b1840 d1893, Russian Composer)

Tchaikovsky of course wrote the 1812 overture, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker (now that is a great name for a ballet, think about it..). What is somewhat less known is that he poisoned himself to death at 53 after a lifetime of anxiety, anguish and terror of general public life. He hated travelling and thought himself a homosexual when in fact he never had sex with either gender and treated men and women the same. He had very few friends and was mean to the ones he had and was in a constant state of emotional and existential turmoil unless working at his composing at his exact everyday routine of writing from 9am to lunch, taking a brief walk and then on his return he would draft that mornings work till the evening when he ate and then played cards. He is often compared to his contemporary Van Gough and the only other joy he had besides composing was his fourteen year correspondence with a rich widow he never met, Nadezhda von Meck, who sponsored him with an annual salary of 6000 roubles, enough for him to live in comfort and devote himself to his work. A woman of immense determination to encourage the arts she completely withdrew from public life after becoming a widow, hence the strong connection with Pyotr I imagine.

Tchaikovsky‘s benefactor Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck

WOODY GUTHRIE

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (b1912 d1967, North American composer)

Woody is best known for songs that were traditional folk ballads he learned as he busked and train-hopped and slept on friends floors, travelling around looking for work to support his young family. He made them his own but what really enraptured folks was his 200 song repertoire and the many political songs he wrote just days or hours before going on stage and sung to a few basic chords, they were political, anti-capitalist, anti-war, anti-racism and calling for an end to war profiteering.

Woody hit the big time in New York at a big socialist gathering with, amoung others, Lead Belly - they became good friends with Woody using his influence to get Huddie on a CBS radio show in 1940. If you have not heard the Library Of Congress tapes, hours of talking and playing by Woodie and questions by Alan Lomax, then look it up, pretty much all rock n roll lyrics owe a debt to those sessions.

LEADBELLY

Huddie William Ledbetter (b1888 d1949, North American composer)

The younger of two children, Lead Belly was born near Mooringsport, Louisiana, although on his World War II draft registration card he gave his birthplace as Freeport, Louisiana. He was the younger of two children and served a fair few years in jails where he would hone his guitar skills. Again the Lomax Library Of Congress tapes are amazing and his signature tune was Goodnight Irene, one of my fave lyrics from that song:

Sometimes I live in the country | Sometimes I live in the town | Sometimes I have a great notion | To jump In the river and drown

and:

Ramblin' stop your gamblin' | Stop stayin' out late at night | Go home to your wife and your family | Sit down by the fireside bright

Huddie artfully combines a grin with his meanest jailyard stare

FEATURED RELEASE

GUILTFILTER - WRECK IT ALL

GUILTFILTER has a brand new single out now called Wreck It All - click the image below to stream it now: