The most recent Google Doodle honours the life and work of black British composer, educator, and opera singer Amanda Aldridge.
Google Doodles frequently alter the company’s iconic logo to include a historical figure or noteworthy event associated with a particular date. Aldridge is paired with a doodle of musical treble clefs on either side in the Google picture for Friday, June 17.
The woman seen is Aldridge, a well-known composer who went under the moniker Montague Ring and published hundreds of instrumental albums, parlour music, and more than 30 songs.
She was born in London on March 10, 1866.
On this day in 1911, Aldridge performed a piano recital in Queens Small Hall, which served as the BBC Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras’ first home prior to World War I.
Google calls Aldridge a role model who displayed “musical talent at an early age.”
Who Was Amanda Aldridge?
Ira Aldridge, an African-American actor and Swedish opera singer, was the father of Amanda Aldridge. She pursued a career as a vocalist at the Royal Conservatory of Music in London, where she trained with renowned Swedish soprano Jenny Lind.
Sadly, a throat injury quickly ended Aldridge’s singing career, but she made the most of her skills to build a successful career as a voice instructor, pianist, and composer.
In order to make romantic Parlour music, Aldridge combined numerous rhythmic influences and genres with poetry written by Black American authors as she explored her mixed-ethnic ancestry via the prism of music, according to Google.
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The living rooms of middle-class families included popular genres of parlour music.
The piano composition “Three African Dances,” which was influenced by West African drumming, is her most well-known work. She also trained Marian Anderson, one of America’s first great opera singers, and civil rights leader Paul Robeson in addition to writing music.
In her latter years, Aldridge wrote symphonic works, sambas, and love ballads, “garnering international notice for her blending of musical forms,” according to Google.
Aldridge made her first television appearance at the age of 88 on the British programme Music for You, which made her timeless works accessible to a whole new audience.
One day before turning 90, Aldridge passed away in London on March 8, 1956.
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