Friday Afternoon Jukebox: We Three Kings. Or Chief Executives, Anyway.
Henry VIII was the first of three European chief executives who were also at least somewhat notable composers of music. It is often and falsely claimed that he composed “Greensleeves.” But he did write these two:
Frederick the Great was of course the king of Prussia, an “enlightened” despot, and an even better composer:
The third leader is relatively obscure today, although he does have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame…
That would be Ignacy Jan Paderewski. He was not a king but the prime minister of the Republic of Poland and head of the Polish parliament in exile during World War II. He is also one of my favorite composers:
I could listen to Paderewski all day long. The most admirable of the three.
When I mentioned my plans for this post, Boegiboe pointed out that the other side of the world also boasts a composing monarch, Lili’uokalani, the last queen of Hawai’i:
There’s a James Thurber piece where he’s going through a stack of old Punch issues, quoting jokes both good and bad (mostly bad). One of them is about the pianoforte recital of Paddy Rewski, the player from Irish Poland.Report
And on a similar note, President Garfield was an amateur mathematician who discovered an original proof of the Pythagorean Theorem. According to this, he found it during a mathematics discussion with some of the members of Congress.
Yeah, I can’t picture that either.Report
I’ve found a hidden pocket of authoritarianism. Upon reading your link, I found myself thinking “this is the sort of person who should be in charge of telling others how to live.”
We should test for the music of the spheres. If you cannot hear it, please go back to the private sector.Report
You’re forgetting who the world’s most famous mathematician is.Report
Maybe we could make exceptions for the Post Office.Report
Typical libertarian. The private sector can be authoritarian too!Report
We need people in charge of telling the private sector to not be authoritarian!!!
And they should be good at geometry.Report
Kings and Queens compose
music singing loud and clear
the people rejoiceReport
There’s a story told about Frederick the Great and JS Bach.
Frederick was a flautist who was about to start in playing with his own orchestra. Bach came in the room, whereupon Frederick rose in awe and said “Gentlemen, old Bach is here.” The king took took old Bach and his musicians on a tour of his pianofortes: he had seven in the palace.
After the tour, JS Bach asked Frederick for a theme. The king said he had an odd theme which had been much on his mind, picked up his flute and played it. Bach exclaimed it was one of the finest things he’d ever heard: and this is what he played., The Musical Offering.Report
That was a super-nifty and unexpected jukebox. Paderewski, particularly.Report