Music Monday ~ First Decan Aries ~ The Divas?

First decan Aries Sun people (born during the first ten days of the sign, roughly those born in March) unless weakened by a strong conflicting Moon or cluster of planets elewhere, are likely to display the most Aries attributes of the sign. This effect can be seen in a group of music stars whose birthdays fall around now.





In no particular order:

Lady Gaga 28 March

Aretha Franklin 25 March

Mariah Carey 27 March

Reba McEntire 28 March

Diana Ross 26 March ~ Happy birthday to her!

Elton John 25 March

Celine Dion 30 March

Eric Clapton 30 March

Steven Tyler 26 March ~ Happy birthday to him!

Sarah "Sassy" Vaughn 27 March

How many of those have been labelled "diva" because of their rather demanding natures, their drive and ambition? Quite a few - and it seems to manifest most noticeably in the females, probably because females in general, accurate or not, are considered to be less "pushy", so we notice when they display this tendency.

Because it's their birthday today, one performance by Ms Ross and one by Mr. Tyler:



Steven Tyler singing Beatles for a change, at the Kennedy Center:



PS: there are some posts on Steven Tyler and his astrology in the archives - access them by clicking on his name in the Label Cloud in the sidebar, at right.

Music Monday ~ 14 November : Fertile astrological soil for composers?

Glancing through lists of births for this day through the years, 14 November, I noticed the word composer coming up again and again. "Odd", I thought. Scorpio, ruled by Pluto, or traditionally by Mars, doesn't strike me as being a particularly musical sign.

But, but but....nextdoor lies Libra, where Mercury and/or Venus might well be found in charts for 14 November. Libra is ruled by Venus, planet of the arts including music. Then too, Moon or ascendant could be in a musically oriented sign - Libra or Taurus - or even Aquarius (invention, innovation = composing).

14 November is in the 3rd decan (tenth) of Scorpio, which is known as the Cancer decan giving Moon as secondary ruler of the date. Those born during the last week of Scorpio are likely to be a softer, more sensitvie breed than their fellows from the two earlier decans - and more apt to use the legendary Scorpio passion with far more senstivity.

Another thought: Scorpio is a Fixed sign - composing music is producing something kind of "fixed", as against performing music, which produces more of a fleeting pleasure.

Ah well, that's my explanation! Here's the list I came up with:

1663 - Friederich Wilhelm Zachow, composer

1719 – Leopold Mozart, Austrian composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's father (d. 1787)

1740 – Johann van Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethoven's father and 1st teacher (d. 1792)

(Interesting that the fathers of two iconic composers were both born 14 November)

1778 – Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1837)

1800 - Heinrich Ludwig Egmont Dorn

1805 – Fanny Mendelssohn, German composer and pianist (d. 1847)

1816 - John Curwen, composer

1825 - August Reissmann, composer

1829 - Giulio Roberti, composer

1845 - Johann Ernst Perabo, composer

1879 - Geoffrey Turton Shaw, composer

1887 - Bernhard Paumgartner, Austria, musicologist/conductor/composer

1900 – Aaron Copland, American composer (d. 1990)

1932 - Ramon Zupko, composer

1939 – Wendy Carlos, American composer

1949 – Raul Di Blasio Argentine pianist, composer, producer

1954 – Yanni, Greek musician & composer

1957 - Frank Affolter, pianist/writer/composer

1960 – Tom Judson, American actor and composer

Music Monday ~ Spoilt for choice....

With so many musical birthdays coming up I simply could not decide on one singer/musician/composer to feature, so listed the best known of the bunch, chronologically, by year.




January 27 1756 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - composer.

January 27 1885 - Jerome Kern - composer/songwriter.

January 26 1908 - Stephane Grappelli - jazz violinist.
January 23 1910 -Django Reinhardt - jazz guitarist

January 28 1927 - Ronnie Scott - jazz saxophonist, jazz club owner.
January 28 1929 - Acker Bilk - jazz/dixieland/pop clarinetist.

January 25 1938 - Etta James - blues/soul/jazz singer.

January 24 1941 - Aaron Neville - singer, soul/R&B.
January 24 1941 - Neil Diamond - singer/songwriter, pop/rock.


January 26 1955 - Eddie Van Halen - guitarist/songwriter, rock.

January 25 1981 - Alicia Keys - singer/musician/actress, pop, rock.
January 29 1982 - Adam Lambert - singer/musical theater, pop, rock.


You can feel the waves of change passing through the music industry just by considering each variation of style represented by the artists in the list: classical in the 18th century to standard ballads, to jazz, to soul, to pop and rock and eventually to new stars of today and tomorrow, born in the 1980s, just now flowering. From Mozart (left) to Adam (right)-


All these artists have Sun in Aquarius, of course, and in the first decan (10 degree sector) of Aquarius. I'm not certain how much weight we should put on the decan theory, but it's something to keep in mind. Some astrologers favour the Chaldean system for calculating rulership of the decans, others favour a system based on tripicity (the elements). Using the latter, the first decan of Aquarius is said to represent the most Aquariusly Aquarius of the three 10 degree sectors, and is ruled by Uranus/Saturn. The remaining sectors - 2nd and 3rd are the Gemini/Mercury and Libra/Venus decans. Under the Chaldean system the first decan of Aquarius is ruled by Venus, arrived at using an order dictated by planetary speed. Bearing in mind that Venus rules the arts, including music, in this instance the Chaldean system appears more apt. (See The Decans in Astrology by Benjamin Dykes for more on decans).

(There are posts about Neil Diamond and Adam Lambert elsewhere on this blog, access via the label cloud in the sidebar.)