Jacqueline du Pré vs Janis Joplin
Two music prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Jacqueline du Pré | Janis Joplin | |
| Field | Music | Music |
| Sub-field | Classical | Composer |
| Born | 1945 | 1943 |
| Died | 1987 | 1970 |
| Country of birth | United Kingdom | United States |
| Star sign | Aquarius | Capricorn |
Who they are
Jacqueline du Pré
There is a recording made in 1965, when Jacqueline du Pré was nineteen years old, that classical musicians still use as a reference point for what the cello can express. She was performing Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor — a late, elegiac work that Elgar wrote in 1919, after the destruction of the First World War, and which had been considered a minor piece of his output until du Pré played it. Her performance — large-scaled, deeply personal, technically sovereign — transformed the concerto's reputation overnight. It is now considered one of the great…
Full biography of Jacqueline du Pré →
Janis Joplin
In June 1967, at the Monterey International Pop Festival in California, a twenty-four-year-old woman from Port Arthur, Texas, walked onto an outdoor stage with a psychedelic blues band called Big Brother and the Holding Company and sang "Ball and Chain" — a song originally recorded by Big Mama Thornton in 1952 — with such ferocity that the audience of 7,000 people went silent in the middle of the song before erupting at its close. Seated in the audience was Mama Cass Elliott of the Mamas and the Papas, one of the most commercially successful acts…
Full biography of Janis Joplin →
What they share
- Both are held here under Music.
- Near contemporaries - 2 years apart.
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Born in different countries: United Kingdom and United States.
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Jacqueline du Pré or Janis Joplin?
- Janis Joplin. Jacqueline du Pré was born in 1945, Janis Joplin in 1943.
- What field is each of them in?
- Jacqueline du Pré is filed under Music (Classical). Janis Joplin is filed under Music (Composer).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.