Pauline Rovkah

A very happy 80th to Joni Mitchell!! "You've got to keep the child alive; you can't create without it." "Chase away the demons, and they will take the angels with them." "Freedom to me is a luxury of being able to follow the path of the heart, to keep the magic in your life."

Such wise words from Gustav Mahler (d otd 1911): “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” “In Bach, the vital cells of music are united as the world is in God.” “A symphony must contain everything.” “I don't choose what I compose. It chooses me.” – at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Erik Satie b otd 1866! Unique... "Before I compose a piece, I walk round it several times, accompanied by myself." "I came into the world very young, in an age that was very old." "When I was young, I was told: 'You'll see, when you're 50.' I am fifty and I haven't seen a thing."

Django Reinhardt d 70 years ago today! Talk about overcoming tribulations - miraculous. In Jeff Beck's view: "By far the most astonishing guitar player ever has got to be Django Reinhardt ... Django was quite superhuman, There's nothing normal about him as a person or a player."

Einstein - b otd 1879! "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." "Imagination is everything." "You can't blame gravity for falling in love."

Prokofiev d otd 70 years ago (famously, & unfortunately, on the same day as Stalin). What a composer! Such an extraordinary range of musical personality: savage energy, vast melodies, biting wit, irresistible elegance. An enigmatic man, with a puzzling life story; but a genius!