November's Composer Anniversaries

November Great Classical Composer Anniversaries

3/11/1801 Bellini born 4/11/1847 Mendelssohn died 4/11/1924 Fauré died 6/11/1854 Sousa born 6/11/1893 Tchaikovsky died 8/11/1890 César Franck died 12/11/833 Borodin born 13/11/1868 Rossini died 14/11/1805 Fanny Mendelssohn born 14/11/1900 Copland born 15/11/1787 Gluck died 18/11/1786 Weber born 19/11/1828 Schubert died 20/11/1894 A.Rubinstein died 21/11/1695 Purcell died 22/11/1900 A.Sullivan died 22/11/1913 Britten born 23/11/1585 Thomas Tallis died 24/11/1868 Scott Joplin born 28/11/1829 A.Rubinstein born 29/11/1643 Monteverdi died 29/11/1797 Donizetti born 29/11/1924 Puccini died

I have done a webpage with composer anniversaries for the whole year at: www.52composers.com/composer-anniversaries.html

Spotted Dick

Today I made Spotted Dick and custard for Sunday lunch. It went down well!
As my first contribution to the Helm Family Cookbook, proposed by my brother Mike, I post the recipe below.
It is not your classic school dinner pudding, stodgy steamed suet, but rather a lighter spongy lemony version. Different.


One day soon I'll do the 'original'.

There is of course a website: http://spotteddick.net/
And a Wikipedia entry
Heinz do a tinned version (which isn't bad at all!)
And of course someone has produced a T-shirt


Serves 6 (or 8 who will be wishing for more)
Ingredients:
175 g butter, softened, plus a little extra for greasing the basin
175 g caster sugar
1 lemon, grated zest, and juice.
1 orange, grated zest
3 eggs, beaten
200 g self-raising flour
50 cc milk
80 g sultanas and/or currants (for adults - soak them overnight  in calvados or some such spirit)
Procedure
1. Grease a 1.2 litre pudding basin with butter.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Add the lemon and orange zest, followed by the lemon juice, and whisk in the beaten egg, a little at a time.
4. Sift in the flour and gently whisk the mixture together.
5. Add just enough milk for the mixture to drop easily from a spoon.
6. Fold in the sultanas and currants.
7. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pudding basin and firstly cover with a disc of greaseproof paper, then with a  piece of foil, tied under the rim of the basin with string.
8. To steam the pudding, place a small saucer into the base of a large pan. Place the basin onto the saucer and fill the pan with boiling water two-thirds up the side of the basin.
9. Cover and steam for 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours. Continue to top up the water to the two-thirds mark, as the water will evaporate. Take care not let the water dry out.

February classical composers anniversaries

Late again, but here are February's anniversaries:

February Great Classical Composer Anniversaries

2/02/1594 Palestrina died 3/02/1809 Mendelssohn born 7/02/1652 Allegri died 13/02/1883 Wagner died 15/02/1857 Glinka died 17/2/1653 Corelli born 20/2/1961 P.Grainger died 23/2/1934 Elgar died 23/2/1685 Handel born 27/2/1887 Borodin died 29/2/1792 Rossini born

Delius Anniversary

29th January was the 150th birthday of the english composer Frederick Delius (1862 - 1934).

Not one of my favourite composers. However as it is his anniversary I have done his portrait and added a profile to my 52composers.com website.
He was born 'Fritz' a name which he used until he was 40, when he changed it to Frederick.
He spent most of his adult life abroad in America, Germany, Norway and mainly France.

Here are the composer anniversaries for January:

January Great Classical Composer Anniversaries

1/1/1782 J C Bach died 2/1/1837 Balakirev born 2/1/1905 M Tippett born 4/1/1710 Pergolesi born 6/1/1838 Max Bruch born 7/1/1899 Poulenc born 8/1/1713 Corelli died 8/1/1990 M Tippett died 11/1/1801 Cimarosa died 16/1/1886 Ponchielli died 16/1/1891 Delibes died 17/1/1751 Albinoni died 18/1/1835 Cesar Cui born 23/1/1981 S.Barber died 27/1/1756 Mozart born 27/1/1813Verdi died 29/1/1862 Delius born 30/1/1963 Poulenc died 31/1/1797 Schubert born

Tomorrow 2012 arrives. Here are the major anniversaries for composers:

2012 Classical Composer Anniversaries Gabrieli 400th anniversary of his death on 12 August Delius 150th birthday on 29 January Debussy 150th anniversary of his birth on 22 Auguust 1812 John Cage centenary of birth on 5 September Massenet centenary of his death on 13 August John Ireland 50th anniversary of his death on 12 June You can find a far more comprehensive list of anniversaries at classical-composers.org

St Hildegard of Bingen

Here is my portrait of the first female classical composer - Blessed Hildegard von Bingen. One of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages.
The central image is a photoetching and the border is a collagraph. 
I have just uploaded a profile of her on my website at 52composers.com

There is an increasing interest in her music and there is plenty to see on YouTube. There is an interesting BBC documentary available on DVD at Amazon and a full length German biopic 'Vision'.