Happy Chinese YEAR OF THE PIG!

[Wallingford]

2007.....THE YEAR OF THE FIRE PIG

Actually, the Chinese Year Of The Dog's still in effect for another month; the Chinese Year Of The Pig begins......well, on February 18 and ends on February 6 of next year.

And let me tell you this: the Year Of The Pig was the JACKPOT year for classical musicians! Particularly if you examine the Fire Pig and Water Pig years. (Actually, the Earth Pig year--MY sign--did okay, too.) Quite a few operatic figures here, most notably--as well as a substantial part of the Mozart clan! Actually, the compatible trio of Chinese years comprising the Pig, the Rabbit (or, in some Asian cultures, the Cat) and the Goat (or Sheep) are the years which favor the arts most.

So, here's some free astrological advice for all you apsirant parents out there: If you wanna make a baby who'll grow into a great musician, THIS IS THE YEAR!!!!!!! It's the year of the Fire Pig, and you'll verify this from the last 2 Fire Pig years--1947 & 1887--as a most auspicious year for classical musicians.

According to the Chinese astrologers, people born in the year of the Pig are intelligent, industrious, affable, and simple. But to these pluses must be added the minuses as well: know-it-all, overfed and oversexed.

Pigs also have exceptional gifts as business people: some former Pigs who were musicians parlayed their past knowledge into success as heads of record labels: witness Goddard Lieberson and Mitch Miller, for instance (so have pop musicians, such as Herb Alpert, a Wood Pig.) Perhaps there IS something to the symbol of the piggy bank.

Below are many of the artists born in Pig years. (And should you think all this is strictly crackpot like all other fields of astrology, may I suggest you consult Theodora Lau's THE HANDBOOK OF CHINESE HOROSCOPES:
link
......when I read the chapter devoted to my sign & how I'd fared in all 12 animal years, I was surprised at how eerily accurate a lot of it was! Yep, there are jillions of phoneys--even within the area of astrology discussed here--but one or two who, however unexplainably, actually know what they're doing.)


CLASSICAL MUSICIANS BORN IN THE YEAR OF THE PIG
Color Chart:
Red=Metal Pig
Blue=Water Pig
Brown=Wood Pig
Orange=Fire Pig
Green=Earth Pig

1659
Henry Purcell
1683
Jean-Philippe Rameau
1719
Leopold Mozart
1743
Luigi Boccherini
1755
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (born Jan. 1756)
1791
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Carl Czerny
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart
1803
Hector Berlioz
Adolphe Adam
1827
Josef Strauss
1839
Modeste Moussorgsky
Francis Planté
1851
Vincent d'Indy
1863
Felix Weingartner
Gabriel Pierné
Pietro Mascagni
Isidor Philipp
Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler
Alexander Siloti
1875
Maurice Ravel
Pierre Monteux
Josef Hofmann (born Jan. 1876)
Sir Donald Francis Tovey
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (born Jan. 1876)
Alfred Ketelbey
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Italo Montemezzi
1887
Artur Rubinstein
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Nadia Boulanger
Sigmund Romberg
Ernst Toch
Lawrence Collingwood
Georges Georgescu
Paul Wittgenstein
1899
Eugene Ormandy
William Steinberg
Sir John Barbirolli
Werner Janssen
Duke Ellington
Odd Gruner-Hegge
Robert Casadesus
Gerald Moore
Carlos Chavez
Silvestre Revueltas
Leopold Mannes
Franz Salmhoffer (born 01/22/1900)
Ania Dorfmann

1911
Erich Leinsdorf (born 02/04/12)
Giancarlo Menotti
Enrique Jorda
Jussi Bjorling
Allan Pettersson
Rudolf Firkusny (born 02/11/12)
Mitchell Miller
Nino Rota
Andre Navarra
Ralph Kirkpatrick
Bernard Herrmann
Goddard Lieberson
Vladimir Ussachevsky
Wilhelm Schuchter
Howard Mitchell
Bronislaw Gimpel
Maryla Jonas
1923
Maria Callas
Wolfgang Sawallisch
Alicia DeLarrocha
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Louis Lane
Ned Rorem
Peter Mennin
Ida Haendel
Theodore Bloomfield
Harold Blumenfeld
1935
Seiji Ozawa
Luciano Pavarotti
Erich Kunzel
Terry Riley
Malcolm Bilson
Peter Frankl
Paul Freeman (born 1/2/36)
Gilbert Kalish
Peter Schickele
1947
Peter Serkin
Murray Perahia
Gidon Kremer
Gerard Schwarz
Christopher Parkening
John Adams
David Helfgott
Yan Pascal Tortelier
Philippe Herreweghe
Emmannuel Krivine
Jean-Philippe Collard (born 1/1948)
Gilbert Levine (born 1/1948)
1959
Antonio Pappano
Keith Lockhart
Eiji Oue
Louis Lortie
1971
Evgeny Kissin

[Ralph]

Quite a listing. I will carry it with me when I celebrate the New Year in Chinatown.

[Corlyss_D]

2007.....THE YEAR OF THE FIRE PIG

I like to think of it as The Year of The Other White Meat . . .

[Gary]

I like to think of it as The Year of The Other White Meat . . .

It is.

[Wallingford]

In the meantime, while we have about 3 weeks left of the Year Of The Dog, I thought I'd list a few people who were left out of my thread last year devoted to that sign:

Color Chart:
Red=Metal Dog
Blue=Water Dog
Brown=Wood Dog
Orange=Fire Dog
Green=Earth Dog

1814
Adolphe Sax
1826
Carl Bechstein
1862
Walter Damrosch
Alphons Diepenbrock
Sir Edward German
1874
Reinhold Gliere (born Jan.1875)
1898
Lotte Lenya
Thomas Jensen
Alfred Wallenstein
1910
Leonard Shure
1922
William Kapell
1934
Claudio Scimone
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

[Wallingford]

We mustn't forget this little pup, too:
1982
Lang Lang

[piston]

Happy New Year of the Pig and thank you for your colorful "China towns" and their discreet contributions to our multicultural urbanscapes.

[rach]

Happy Chinese New Year

[Daisy]

I feel I'm in very honorable company! I was born in the Year of the Pig, myself!