Born Today! 31.08.2024

Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, also known as Jean-Paul-Gilles Martini (31 August 1741 – 14 February 1816;) was a French composer of German birth during the classical period. He is best known today for the vocal romance "Plaisir d'amour," on which the 1961 Elvis Presley pop standard "Can't Help Falling in Love" is based. He is often confused with the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Martini, so is sometimes known as Martini Il Tedesco ("Martini The German").

Johann Ignaz Walter (31 August 1755 – 22 February 1822) was an operatic tenor, opera director and composer in Austria and Germany.

Carl Franz Edmund Kretschmer (31 August 1830 – 13 September 1908) was a German organist and composer who worked for the Dresden Court and composed several operas and masses.

Amilcare Ponchielli (US: , Italian: [aˈmilkare poŋˈkjɛlli]; 31 August 1834 – 16 January 1886) was an Italian opera composer, best known for his opera La Gioconda. He was married to the soprano Teresina Brambilla.

Nikoghayos Tigranian (Armenian: Նիկողայոս Թադևոսի Տիգրանյան, 31 August 1856, Alexandropol – 17 February 1951, Yerevan) was an Armenian composer, pianist, musicologist, and sociocultural activist. He introduced the Braille System to Armenia.

Alma Mahler-Werfel (born Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler; 31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964) was an Austrian composer, author, editor, and socialite. Musically active from her early years, she was the composer of nearly fifty songs for voice and piano, and works in other genres as well. 17 songs are known to have survived. At 15, she was mentored by Max Burckhard. She married composer Gustav Mahler, who later began to support her in composing and assisted in preparing some of her works for publication, but he died in 1911. In 1915, Alma married Walter Gropius, and they had a daughter, Manon Gropius. Throughout her marriage to Gropius, Alma engaged in an affair with Franz Werfel. Following her separation from Gropius, Alma and Werfel eventually married. In 1938, after Nazi Germany annexed Austria, Werfel and Alma fled, as it was unsafe for the Jewish Werfel. Eventually the couple settled in Los Angeles. In later years, her salon became part of the artistic scene, first in Vienna, then in Los Angeles and New York.

Ludwig Schmidseder (24 August 1904, in Passau – 21 June 1971, in Munich) was a German composer and pianist of the "Light Muse". Several of his Schlager compositions are still popular tunes today. The young Schmidseder followed his father's wishes and trained as a banker, whilst taking piano lessons in secret. He furthered his musical education at the Munich Conservatorium, then left for South America in 1926, ending up in Rio de Janeiro. Starting out as a dishwasher, he went on to become an entertainer and play in a trio on ocean cruises. Schmidseder composed music for the trio, and developed into a virtuoso piano player. From 1930 he worked in Berlin, composing film music, creating operettas and writing more than 500 songs, some of which became much-loved hits. He moved from being a bar pianist (until 1936) to being the house composer at the old Berlin Metropol-Theatre. His operetta Die Oder Keine (That One or No One) was performed more than 600 times. Schmidseder joined the NSDAP on 1 May 1933. After World War II, Schmidseder continued to compose film music and appear in films. The corpulent cook would later become famous as a TV cook and produced a book of recipes.

Lucrecia Roces Kasilag (31 August 1918 – 16 August 2008) was a Filipino composer and pianist. She is particularly known for incorporating indigenous Filipino instruments into orchestral productions.

Emmanuel Nunes (31 August 1941 – 2 September 2012) was a Portuguese composer who lived and worked in Paris from 1964.

Willem Jeths (born 31 August 1959) is a Dutch classical composer.