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MENAFN Summary- Daily Business News
Composers Datebook for December 21, 2009
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Monday, December 21 Play today's show | How to listen William Henry Fry On today's date in 1864, the attention of most newspapers readers in New York was probably focused on the trauma of the American Civil War. So even though the once controversial American composer and music critic William Henry Fry had died in Santa Cruz on December 21st, the news didn't reach New Yorkers until late in January the following year. Fry was only 50 when he died of consumption, an illness he had tried to fight by moving to the warmer climate of the Virgin Islands. Fry was born into a wealthy Philadelphia family and was a teenager when he started composing. Fry was the first American composer to tackle grand opera, modeling his works on Bellini and Meyerbeer. He also wrote orchestral pieces, including one called �The Breaking Heart,� which was performed to great acclaim in New York in December of 1853 by the virtuoso symphonic orchestra assembled by a flashy conductor/showman Jullien, who, like Prince or Sting or Madonna felt one name was better than two. As a newspaper critic, Fry railed against the neglect of American composers by American orchestras -- a common complaint in this country still today. And long before Dvorak's similar suggestion, Fry called for the development of a uniquely American school of symphonic music. Like many early prophets of new causes, he was largely ignored for his efforts, and died decades before others fulfilled many of his predictions and dreams. | Music Played on Today's Program: Additional Information: About the Program Support Composers Datebook Your support makes our online services possible. Contribute Now. | |||||||
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The Writer's Almanac for December 21, 2009
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Breaking News: Health-care bill clears crucial procedural vote in Senate, 60 to 40
1:19 AM EST Monday, December 21, 2009
Health-care bill clears crucial procedural vote in Senate, 60 to 40
The Senate cleared a crucial procedural hurdle to bring its health-care bill to the brink of final passage by Christmas Eve. The partisan vote of 60 to 40 shut down a Republican filibuster of the $871 billion package and followed days of tough negotiations with Democratic holdouts.
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Local Breaking News: Metrobus service will be suspended
06:27 PM EST Sunday, December 20, 2009
Metrobus service will be suspended
Re-icing of roads will cause Metrobus to shut down service at 7 p.m. tonight, according to a Metro statement.
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Local Breaking News: Federal government closed Monday
04:43 PM EST Sunday, December 20, 2009
Federal Government will be closed Monday
Federal agencies in the D.C. area will be closed Monday. Non-emergency employees will be granted excused absence for the number of hours they were scheduled to work.
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Sunday Roundup: Axelrod defends Senate health bill from the Left and Right
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Composers Datebook for December 20, 2009
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Sunday, December 20 Play today's show | How to listen Harbison's "Great American Opera?" For a lad who grew up in Orange, New Jersey, listening to the Saturday afternoon broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, American composer John Harbison celebrated his 61st birthday in a big way: on today's date in 1999, Harbison's own opera "The Great Gatsby" premiered at the Met, with its composer on hand to take a curtain call with its cast. F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, a devastating evocation of America's "Roaring 20's", is a regular contender for the title of "The Great American Novel," but Harbison says when he told his mother he was thinking of writing an opera based on "Gatsby," she wasn't very enthusiastic, arguing, in effect, that all the characters in the book were a totally unsympathetic bunch. Gatsby, the novel's anti-hero is a both a fraud and a crook. Daisy, Gatsby's lost love and the object of his obsessive desire, is selfish, spoiled and shallow. But Harbison saw it differently: "Yearning and despair are very big operatic themes," he said. "As for the character of Jay Gatsby, I like that he takes a lot of risks and is steadfast and loyal to some vision that is not realistically possible. The opera provides many opportunities to look at both sides of that, to understand to what degree he's an impostor, and to what degree his story is real, which is a big American theme in general." Time will tell if Harbison's "The Great Gatsby" will prove a strong contender for the title of "The Great American Opera." | Music Played on Today's Program: Additional Information: About the Program Support Composers Datebook Your support makes our online services possible. Contribute Now. | |||||||
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