On This Day

I’m pleased and grateful to report that this week marks the 1^st anniversary of Village Virtuoso! Uncountable and deep thanks go out to those who commented, followed, liked, or otherwise supported (and continue to support) my first year of semi-consistent blogging. There is much more to be written about community music and musicians, but for now I thought I’d stick with the anniversary theme and provide a few gems from historical October 10 events.

1789 – In Versailles, France, Doctor Joseph Guillotin proposed that a more humane way of carrying out a death sentence is decapitation by a single blow of a blade. This would eventually inspire the last bars of March to the Scaffold, the fourth movement of composer Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, composed in 1830.

1813 – Giuseppe Verdi, composer (Rigoletto, Aida) is born.

1920 – Thelonius Monk, jazz pianist and composer (Round Midnight, Melodious Thunk) is born in Rocky Mount, NC.

1935 – George Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess opens on Broadway.

1939 – The real Eleanor Rigby died in her sleep of unknown causes at the age of 44. The 1966 Beatles’ song that featured her name wasn’t written about her, as Paul McCartney’s first draft of the song named the character Miss Daisy Hawkins. Eleanor Rigby’s tombstone was noticed in the 1980s in the graveyard of St. Peter’s Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool, a few feet from where McCartney and Lennon had met for the first time in 1957.

1962 – The BBC banned the song Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Pickett.

1965 – The Supremes appear on the Ed Sullivan Show.

1979 – Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley declares “Fleetwood Mac Day,” and the group receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard.