Music: Composers on Coins

[Prosit]

Yeah it is excellent!
Dale

Always liked this one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ZSQUyU00s
The brass arrangement of this (Mark Freeh) is damn tricky to play!

[Prosit]

Classical ....Sonata, Suite, Symphony.....hummmm  oh you mean like really really old, white powdered wig type stuff   

Actually I like all genres just some more than others.

Dale

Hi, Dale.

Swing?  SWING???!!! Surely you mean Sonata, Suite, Symphony...surely you jest!   :>)

Actually I am a bit of a "Swing" and Blues fan, though I am classically trained and definitely lean that way in my composing...

I tried to listen to the example you sent but every time I try to open up a video on Youtube, lhe little spinny thing on the screen freezes up the whole computer and I have to reboot.

[chrisild]

Well, what about Django Reinhardt? Belgium issued a €10 collector coin last year, to honor his 100th birthday (or should I write, the 100th anniversary of his birth?), and while I don't particularly like the design, his music is a great mix of jazz and "gypsy" music.

Christian

[Alan Glasser]

Hi, Christian. Thanks!!! It's a good thing I have coin friends to help keep me informed of the new issues. Many thanks.

Happy New Year.  Alan   MA

[Alan Glasser]

Hello, everyone and once again...Happy New Year.

for my musician collection, I am looking for a bit of help from someone. I have a new acquisition from Poland, 10 Zlotych 2005 featuring Mikolaja Rej. I have documented that he is a MUSICIAN, but I am trying to find out WHAT TYPE of musician. I know he was an author/poet amongst other things, but does anyone know his musical connections? Composer, performer, set literature to music or had his work SET to music by another composer...?

Would be most grateful for some guidelines on this one. Many thanks!!   Alan

[andyg]

I presume it's this fellow,
courtesy of Wikipedia and Google translate,
Mikolaj Rej

[Alan Glasser]

Hello andyg and thanks once again for the assistance. Yes, this is the dude. I was able to find only a brief reference; "...was a leading Polish Poet and Prose writer of the Renaissance, as well as a politician and MUSICIAN". Well...I may have to pull out the "big guns" and contact a friend who sends me an occasional coin. She lives in Warsaw and maybe can get some information for me. I hate to put him in the collection under ",miscellaneous". I only have 1 "miscellaneous" coin...a ballet coin from Russia which I guess is "kind of" music related. It's pushing the limits, however...and anyway...Russia and earlier, the U.S.S.R. minted a zillion Ballet related coins. I just don't want to go down that road. So, the research continues.

Many thanks.  Alan

[translateltd]

Something that we (and certain cataloguers) can overlook is that personal names undergo grammatical changes in the Slavic languages in particular, so "Mikolaja Reja" as it appears on the coin means "of Mikolaj Rej".  The spelling changes can slow the search process down sometimes.

[chrisild]

Reminds me of an episode that Steffen Möller wrote about in his "Viva Polonia" book. (He is a writer and actor who moved to Poland, almost out of sheer curiosity, when he was 25.) One of the first oddities he noticed was a poster advertising a classical music festival which mentioned somebody named "Ludwiga van Beethovena". Hmm, a cleverly picked pseudonym of a woman?

A little later he saw a monument that honors "Adamowi Mickiewiczowi Naród". Yeah, reminded him of Adam Mickiewicz, but ... some guy from some Naród family maybe, with the famous poet's name as his first and middle name? Nah, turned out it is much easier, and yet complicated: The text means "The People (or Nation) to Adam Mickiewicz". In many other languages a name remains unaltered even in a "genitive" or "dative" sense, but as you wrote, that does not apply everywhere.

Christian

[andyg]

Hello andyg and thanks once again for the assistance. Yes, this is the dude. I was able to find only a brief reference; "...was a leading Polish Poet and Prose writer of the Renaissance, as well as a politician and MUSICIAN". Well...I may have to pull out the "big guns" and contact a friend who sends me an occasional coin. She lives in Warsaw and maybe can get some information for me. I hate to put him in the collection under ",miscellaneous". I only have 1 "miscellaneous" coin...a ballet coin from Russia which I guess is "kind of" music related. It's pushing the limits, however...and anyway...Russia and earlier, the U.S.S.R. minted a zillion Ballet related coins. I just don't want to go down that road. So, the research continues.

Many thanks.  Alan

Nowhere on the Polish wikipedia I linked to above does it say he was a musician, rather a poet - it's still a nice coin though!
Perhaps you need a section on poets?

[chrisild]

Guess that "back then" (Renaissance) there were more famous polymaths than these days. Apparently his works "cover" theology, politics, poetry, and more - including some music:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikołaj_Rej
http://en.vionto.com/show/me/Mikołaj+Rej

Christian

[Alan Glasser]

andyg and chrisild translateld ...and others. Mikolaja Meja remains a bit of a mystery. I'll write to my Piano teacher friend in Warsaw...(very proud and knowledgable about Poland's musical heritage...and see if she can help). If I learn anything, I'll post. Your replies are most appreciated. I had to look up the term "polymath", and remember that I have been in this situation on many occasions with lesser known European "musicians" from far earlier times. Many were "polymaths" too; poets, politicans, performers and  composers and the like...it is hard to determine in which category their coins should be included in the "Music Coin Collection". Add to that the variations in name spelling as mentioned here in another post, the Cyrillic alphabet, finding out HOW some of these historic people were music related is indeed a challenge. That is part of the fun. I have coins with some very obscure music connections....but again...the challenge is finding out the connection...and often...finding the coin is also a challenge.
There is a terrific wealth of knowledge on this board, and I thank everyone for the assistance you offer!

Alan

[<k>]

2007 San Marino 5 Euro Arturo Toscanini Coin.

[Alan Glasser]

  Hello, everyone. This piece arrived from Germany last Thursday. I have completed the music coins of Austria set! Heck...it only took about 30 years (with many diversions during that time of course!) Alan in Massachusetts







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[Alan Glasser]

Hello all.

May I ask for a tiny bit of help from you experts out there. I have checked SCWCs and Numismaster (the "Find my Coin" feature seems to be "on the fritz") looking for a KM number and mintage if available for a new aqusition. Would anyone kindly be able to help me find this information on a 2007 Ivory Coast 1500 Franc Gold coin minted in 2007? It features Frederic Chopin.

Thanks very much.

Alan in steamy Massachusetts