Musician's Birthdays December 13-19

December 13 - Johann Andreas Streicher (1761) German piano maker; Josef Lhévinne (1874) Russian pianist; Carlos Montoya (1903) Spanish flemenco guitarist;

December 14 - "Spike" Jones (1911) American bandleader of satiric music; Rosalyn Tureck (1914) American pianist and harpsichordist; Christopher Parkening (1942) American guitarist

December 15 - John Hammond (1910) American jazz critic; Alan Freed (1922) American disc jockey; Dave Clark (1942) British rock drummer and singer

December 16 - Ludwig van Beethoven (1770) German composer; Zoltán Kodaly (1882) Hungarian composer and collector of folk songs; Sir Noel Coward (1899) British composer of musical comedies, actor and producer

December 17 - Dominico Cimarosa (1749) Italian composer; Arthur Fiedler (1894) American violinist and conductor; Paul Butterfield (1942) American Blues singer and harmonica player

December 18 - Edward MacDowell (1860) American composer and pianist; Anita O'Day (1919) American jazz singer; Keith Richards (1943) British rock singer and guitarist

December 19 - Fritz Reiner (1888) Hungarian-born American conductor; Edith Piaf (1915) French chanteuse and songwriter; Phil Ochs (1940) American fold singer, songwriter and guitarist

On his deathbed Beethoven stated,
Strange, I feel as if up to now I had written no more than a few notes.

Musician's Birthdays - December 6-12

• December 6 - Ira Gershwin (1896) American librettist and lyricist; Dave Brubeck (1920) American jazz pianist and composer; Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929) German conductor, cellist and musicologist

• December 7 - Pietro Mascagni (1863) Italian composer and conductor; Ernst Toch (1887) Austrian-born American composer; Harry Chapin (1942) American folk-rock singer and songwriter

• December 8 - Jean Sibelius (1865) Finnish composer; Sammy Davis Jr. (1925) American singer of popular music; James Galway (1939) Irish flutist

• December 9 - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1915) German soprano; Tatiana Troyanos (1938) American mezzo-soprano; Joan Armatrading (1950) British rock singer and song writer

• December 10 - Cesar Frank (1822) Belgian composer and organist; Olivier Messiaen (1908) French composer; Morton Gould (1913) American composer, conductor and pianist

• December 11 - Hector Berlioz (1803) French composer, conductor and music critic; Elliot Cook Carter, Jr. (1908) American composer; Brenda Lee (1944) American singer of popular music

• December 12 - Frank Sinatra (1915) American actor and singer of popular music; Dionne Warwick (1941) American singer of popular music; Grover Washington, Jr. (1943) American saxophonist