1.
Les Six
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Les Six is a name given to a group of six French composers who worked in Montparnasse. The name, inspired by Mily Balakirevs The Five, originates in critic Henri Collets 1920 article Les cinq Russes, les six Français et M. Satie. Their music is seen as a reaction against the musical style of Richard Wagner. The members were Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, for the first of these events, the walls of the studio were decorated with canvases by Picasso, Matisse, Léger, Modigliani and others. Music by Erik Satie, Honegger, Auric and Durey was played and it was this concert that gave Satie the idea of assembling a group of composers around himself to be known as Les nouveaux jeunes, forerunners of Les Six. Auric and Poulenc followed ideas of Cocteau, Honegger followed German Romanticism, after World War I, Jean Cocteau and Les Six began to frequent a bar known as La gaya which became Le Bœuf sur le Toit when the establishment moved to larger quarters. As the famous ballet by Milhaud had been conceived at the old premises, on the renamed bars opening night, pianist Jean Wiéner played tunes by George Gershwin and Vincent Youmans while Cocteau and Milhaud played percussion. Among those in attendance were impresario Serge Diaghilev, artist Pablo Picasso, filmmaker René Clair, singer Jane Bathori, the Group was officially launched in January 1920 by a series of two articles by the French music critic and composer Henri Collet in the French journal Commedia. While it seems apparent that Cocteau was behind these articles, the name of the Group was selected by Collet. On only one of these occasions was the entire Groupe des Six involved, Auric and Poulenc were involved in all six of these collaborations, Milhaud in five, Honegger and Tailleferre in three, but Durey in only one. In 1920 the group published an album of pieces together. This was the work in which all six composers collaborated. Durey, who was not in Paris at the time, chose not to participate, the première was the occasion of a public scandal rivalling that of Le sacre du printemps in 1913. In spite of this, Les mariés de la tour Eiffel was in the repertoire of the Ballets suédois throughout the 1920s, the other composers who contributed to the suite were Jean Françaix, Léo Preger and Henri Sauguet. Les Six, The French Composers and their Mentors Jean Cocteau, ISBN 978-0-7206-1293-6 J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout, Claude V. Palisca. 8th edition, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London ISBN 978-0-393-93125-9 Les Six, Satie, and Cocteau – by Stéphane Villemin
2.
Steam engine
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A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. Steam engines are combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be used. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle, in the cycle, water is heated and transforms into steam within a boiler operating at a high pressure. When expanded through pistons or turbines, mechanical work is done, the reduced-pressure steam is then exhausted to the atmosphere, or condensed and pumped back into the boiler. Specialized devices such as hammers and steam pile drivers are dependent on the steam pressure supplied from a separate boiler. The use of boiling water to mechanical motion goes back over 2000 years. The Spanish inventor Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont obtained the first patent for an engine in 1606. In 1698 Thomas Savery patented a steam pump that used steam in direct contact with the water being pumped, Saverys steam pump used condensing steam to create a vacuum and draw water into a chamber, and then applied pressurized steam to further pump the water. Thomas Newcomens atmospheric engine was the first commercial steam engine using a piston. In 1781 James Watt patented an engine that produced continuous rotary motion. Watts ten-horsepower engines enabled a range of manufacturing machinery to be powered. The engines could be sited anywhere that water and coal or wood fuel could be obtained, by 1883, engines that could provide 10,000 hp had become feasible. The stationary steam engine was a key component of the Industrial Revolution, the aeolipile described by Hero of Alexandria in the 1st century AD is considered to be the first recorded steam engine. Torque was produced by steam jets exiting the turbine, in the Spanish Empire, the great inventor Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont obtained a patent for the first steam engine in history in 1603. Thomas Savery, in 1698, patented the first practical, atmospheric pressure and it had no piston or moving parts, only taps. It was an engine, a kind of thermic syphon, in which steam was admitted to an empty container. The vacuum thus created was used to water from the sump at the bottom of the mine
3.
Locomotive
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A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. A locomotive has no payload capacity of its own, and its purpose is to move the train along the tracks. In contrast, some trains have self-propelled payload-carrying vehicles and these are not normally considered locomotives, and may be referred to as multiple units, motor coaches or railcars. The use of these vehicles is increasingly common for passenger trains. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front, however, push-pull operation has become common, where the train may have a locomotive at the front, at the rear, or at each end. Prior to locomotives, the force for railroads had been generated by various lower-technology methods such as human power, horse power. The first successful locomotives were built by Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick, in 1804 his unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. Although the locomotive hauled a train of 10 long tons of iron and 70 passengers in five wagons over nine miles, the locomotive only ran three trips before it was abandoned. Trevithick built a series of locomotives after the Penydarren experiment, including one which ran at a colliery in Tyneside in northern England, the first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murrays rack locomotive, Salamanca, built for the narrow gauge Middleton Railway in 1812. This was followed in 1813 by the Puffing Billy built by Christopher Blackett and William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery Railway, Puffing Billy is now on display in the Science Museum in London, the oldest locomotive in existence. In 1814 George Stephenson, inspired by the locomotives of Trevithick. He built the Blücher, one of the first successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotives, Stephenson played a pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of steam locomotives. His designs improved on the work of the pioneers, in 1825 he built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, north east England, which became the first public steam railway. In 1829 he built The Rocket which was entered in and won the Rainhill Trials and this success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives used on railways in the United Kingdom, the United States and much of Europe. The first inter city passenger railway, Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 1830, there are a few basic reasons to isolate locomotive train power, as compared to self-propelled vehicles. Maximum utilization of power cars Separate locomotives facilitate movement of costly motive power assets as needed, flexibility Large locomotives can substitute for small locomotives when more power is required, for example, where grades are steeper. As needed, a locomotive can be used for freight duties. Obsolescence cycles Separating motive power from payload-hauling cars enables replacement without affecting the other, to illustrate, locomotives might become obsolete when their associated cars did not, and vice versa
4.
Le Havre
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Le Havre is an urban French commune and city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northwestern France. It is situated on the bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux. Modern Le Havre remains deeply influenced by its employment and maritime traditions and its port is the second largest in France, after that of Marseille, for total traffic, and the largest French container port. The name Le Havre means the harbour or the port and its inhabitants are known as Havrais or Havraises. Administratively the commune is located in the Normandy region and, with Dieppe, is one of the two sub-prefectures of the Seine-Maritime department, Le Havre is the capital of the canton and since 1974 has been the see of the diocese of Le Havre. Le Havre is the most populous commune of Upper Normandy, although the population of the greater Le Havre conurbation is smaller than that of Rouen. It is also the second largest subprefecture in France, the city and port were founded by the King Francis I of France in 1517. Economic development in the Early modern period was hampered by wars, conflicts with the English, epidemics. It was from the end of the 18th century that Le Havre started growing, after the 1944 bombings the firm of Auguste Perret began to rebuild the city in concrete. Changes in years 1990–2000 were numerous, the right won the municipal elections and committed the city to the path of reconversion, seeking to develop the service sector and new industries. The Port 2000 project increased the capacity to compete with ports of northern Europe, transformed the southern districts of the city. In 2005 UNESCO inscribed the city of Le Havre as a World Heritage Site. The André Malraux Modern Art Museum is the second of France for the number of impressionist paintings, the city has been awarded two flowers by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom. Le Havre is a major French city located some 50 kilometres west of Rouen on the shore of the English Channel, numerous roads link to Le Havre with the main access roads being the A29 autoroute from Amiens and the A13 autoroute from Paris linking to the A131 autoroute. Administratively, Le Havre is a commune in the Haute-Normandie region in the west of the department of Seine-Maritime, the urban area of Le Havre corresponds roughly to the territory of the Agglomeration community of Le Havre which includes 17 communes and 250,000 people. It occupies the tip of the natural region of Pays de Caux where it is the largest city. Le Havre is sandwiched between the coast of the Channel from south-west to north-west and the estuary of the Seine to the south, Le Havre belongs to the MLG community Paris Basin which was formed in the Mesozoic period. The Paris Basin consists of sedimentary rocks, the commune of Le Havre consists of two areas separated by a natural cliff edge, one part in the lower part of the town to the south including the harbour, the city centre and the suburbs
5.
Harmony
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In music, harmony considers the process by which the composition of individual sounds, or superpositions of sounds, is analysed by hearing. Usually, this means simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches, or chords, the study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic line. In popular and jazz harmony, chords are named by their root plus various terms, in many types of music, notably baroque, romantic, modern, and jazz, chords are often augmented with tensions. A tension is an additional member that creates a relatively dissonant interval in relation to the bass. Typically, in the common practice period a dissonant chord resolves to a consonant chord. Harmonization usually sounds pleasant to the ear when there is a balance between the consonant and dissonant sounds, in simple words, that occurs when there is a balance between tense and relaxed moments. The term harmony derives from the Greek ἁρμονία, meaning joint, agreement, concord, from the verb ἁρμόζω, to fit together, the term was often used for the whole field of music, while music referred to the arts in general. In Ancient Greece, the term defined the combination of contrasted elements, in the Middle Ages the term was used to describe two pitches sounding in combination, and in the Renaissance the concept was expanded to denote three pitches sounding together. Aristoxenus wrote a work entitled Harmonika Stoicheia, which is thought the first work in European history written on the subject of harmony, the underlying principle behind these texts is that harmony sanctions harmoniousness by conforming to certain pre-established compositional principles. Current dictionary definitions, while attempting to give concise descriptions, often highlight the ambiguity of the term in modern use, ambiguities tend to arise from either aesthetic considerations or from the point of view of musical texture (distinguishing between harmonic and contrapuntal. The view that modern tonal harmony in Western music began in about 1600 is commonplace in music theory and this is usually accounted for by the replacement of horizontal writing, common in the music of the Renaissance, with a new emphasis on the vertical element of composed music. Modern theorists, however, tend to see this as an unsatisfactory generalisation, as Carl Dahlhaus puts it, It was not that counterpoint was supplanted by harmony but that an older type both of counterpoint and of vertical technique was succeeded by a newer type. And harmony comprises not only the structure of chords but also their movement, like music as a whole, harmony is a process. Descriptions and definitions of harmony and harmonic practice may show bias towards European musical traditions, pitch simultaneity in particular is rarely a major consideration. Nevertheless, emphasis on the precomposed in European art music and the written theory surrounding it shows considerable cultural bias, the conception of musics that live in oral traditions as something composed with the use of improvisatory techniques separates them from the higher-standing works that use notation. Yet the evolution of harmonic practice and language itself, in Western art music, is and was facilitated by this process of prior composition, some traditions of Western music performance, composition, and theory have specific rules of harmony. This model provides that the seventh and ninth are not dissonant
6.
Violin
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The violin is a wooden string instrument in the violin family. It is the smallest and highest-pitched instrument in the family in regular use, smaller violin-type instruments are known, including the violino piccolo and the kit violin, but these are virtually unused in the 2010s. The violin typically has four strings tuned in fifths, and is most commonly played by drawing a bow across its strings. Violins are important instruments in a variety of musical genres. They are most prominent in the Western classical tradition and in varieties of folk music. They are also used in genres of folk including country music and bluegrass music. Electric violins are used in forms of rock music, further. The violin is sometimes called a fiddle, particularly in Irish traditional music and bluegrass. The violin was first known in 16th-century Italy, with further modifications occurring in the 18th and 19th centuries. In Europe it served as the basis for stringed instruments used in classical music, the viola. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or equal it, many of these trade instruments were formerly sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co. and other mass merchandisers. A person who makes or repairs violins is called a luthier or violinmaker, the parts of a violin are usually made from different types of wood and on the use of a pickup and an amplifier and speaker). Violins can be strung with gut, Perlon or other synthetic, the earliest stringed instruments were mostly plucked. Similar and variant types were probably disseminated along East-West trading routes from Asia into the Middle East, the first makers of violins probably borrowed from various developments of the Byzantine lira. These included the rebec, the Arabic rebab, the vielle, the earliest pictures of violins, albeit with three strings, are seen in northern Italy around 1530, at around the same time as the words violino and vyollon are seen in Italian and French documents. One of the earliest explicit descriptions of the instrument, including its tuning, is from the Epitome musical by Jambe de Fer, by this time, the violin had already begun to spread throughout Europe. The violin proved very popular, both among street musicians and the nobility, the French king Charles IX ordered Andrea Amati to construct 24 violins for him in 1560, one of these noble instruments, the Charles IX, is the oldest surviving violin. The Messiah or Le Messie made by Antonio Stradivari in 1716 remains pristine and it is now located in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford
7.
Conservatoire de Paris
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The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France. The Conservatoire offers instruction in music, dance, and drama, today the conservatories operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Communication. On 3 December 1783 Papillon de la Ferté, intendant of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi, the school was instituted by a decree of 3 January 1784 and opened on 1 April with the composer François-Joseph Gossec as the provisional director. Piccinni refused the directorship, but did join the faculty as a professor of singing, the new school was located in buildings adjacent to the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs at the junction of the rue Bergère and the rue du Faubourg Poissonnière. In June, a class in dramatic declamation was added, in 1792, Bernard Sarrette created the École gratuite de la garde nationale, which in the following year became the Institut national de musique. On 3 August 1795, the government combined the École royale with the Institut national de musique, the combined organization remained in the facilities on the rue Bergère. The first 351 pupils commenced their studies in October 1796, a concert hall, designed by the architect François-Jacques Delannoy, was inaugurated on 7 July 1811. The hall, which exists today, was in the shape of a U. It held an audience of 1055, the acoustics were generally regarded as superb. The French composer and conductor Antoine Elwart described it as the Stradivarius of concert halls, in 1828 François Habeneck, a professor of violin and head of the Conservatorys orchestra, founded the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. The Society held concerts in the hall almost continuously until 1945, the French composer Hector Berlioz premiered his Symphonie fantastique in the conservatorys hall on 5 December 1830 with an orchestra of more than a hundred players. The original library was created by Sarrette in 1801, after the construction of the concert hall, the library moved to a large room above the entrance vestibule. In the 1830s, Berlioz became a curator in the Conservatory library and was the librarian from 1852 until his death in 1869. He was succeeded as librarian by Félicien David, Sarrette was dismissed on 28 December 1814, after the Bourbon Restoration, but was reinstated on 26 May 1815, after Napoleons return to power during the Hundred Days. However, after Napoleons fall, Sarrette was finally compelled to retire on 17 November, in 1819, François Benoist was appointed professor of organ. Probably the best known director in the 19th century was Luigi Cherubini, Cherubini maintained high standards and his staff included teachers such as François-Joseph Fétis, Habeneck, Fromental Halévy, Le Sueur, Ferdinando Paer, and Anton Reicha. Cherubini was succeeded by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber in 1842, in 1852, Camille Urso, who studied with Lambert Massart, became the first female student to win a prize on violin. The Conservatory Instrument Museum, founded in 1861, was formed from the instrument collection of Louis Clapisson, the French music historian Gustave Chouquet became the curator of the museum in 1871 and did much to expand and upgrade the collection
8.
Charles-Marie Widor
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Charles-Marie Jean Albert Widor was a French organist, composer and teacher, most notable for his ten organ symphonies. Widor was born in Lyon, to a family of organ builders, after this term of study Widor moved to Paris, where he would make his home for the rest of his life. At the age of 24 he was appointed assistant to Camille Saint-Saëns at Église de la Madeleine, the organ at St-Sulpice was Cavaillé-Colls masterwork, the instruments spectacular capabilities proved an inspiration to Widor. Despite his jobs ostensibly provisional nature, Widor remained as organist at St-Sulpice for nearly 64 years and he was succeeded in 1934 by his former student and assistant, Marcel Dupré. In 1890, upon the death of César Franck, Widor succeeded him as professor at the Paris Conservatoire. The class he inherited was initially stunned by this new teacher, who demanded a formidable technique. Bachs organ works as prerequisites to effective improvisation, later, he gave up this post to become composition professor at the same institution. Albert Schweitzer also studied with Widor, mainly from 1899, master, Widor, whose own master Lemmens was an important Bach exponent, encouraged Schweitzers theological exploration of Bachs music. Among the leading organ recitalists of his time, Widor visited many different nations in this capacity, including Russia, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, Poland and Switzerland. In addition he participated in the concerts of many of Cavaillé-Colls greatest instruments, notably Notre-Dame de Paris, Saint-Germain-des-Près. In 1921, Widor founded the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau with Francis-Louis Casadesus and he was the Director until 1934, when he was succeeded by Maurice Ravel. His close friend, Isidor Philipp gave piano lessons there, at the age of 76, Widor married Mathilde de Montesquiou-Fézensac on 26 April 1920 at Charchigné. The 36-year-old Mathilde was a member of one of the oldest and most prominent families of Europe and she died in 1960, there were no children from this union. On 31 December 1933, at age 89, Widor retired from his position at Saint-Sulpice, three years later he suffered a stroke which paralysed the right side of his body, although he remained mentally alert to the last. He died at his home in Paris on 12 March 1937 at the age of 93, Widor wrote music for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles and composed four operas and a ballet, but only his works for organ are played with any regularity today. These include, ten Organ Symphonies, three Symphonies for orchestra with organ, Suite Latine, Trois Nouvelles Pièces, and six arrangements of works by Bach under the title Bachs Memento, the organ symphonies are his most significant contribution to the organ repertoire. It is unusual for a written for one instrument to be assigned the term symphony. However, Widor was at the forefront of a revival in French organ music, the organ of the Baroque and Classical periods was designed to project a clear and crisp sound capable of handling contrapuntal writing
9.
Vincent d'Indy
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Vincent dIndy was a French composer and teacher. Paul Marie Théodore Vincent dIndy was born in Paris into a family of royalist. He had piano lessons from an age from his paternal grandmother. From the age of 14 he studied harmony with Albert Lavignac, at age 19, during the Franco-Prussian War, he enlisted in the National Guard, but returned to musical life as soon as the hostilities were over. On the advice of Henri Duparc, he became a student of César Franck at the Conservatoire de Paris. As a follower of Franck, dIndy came to admire what he considered the standards of German symphonism, in the summer of 1873 he visited Germany, where he met Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms. On 25 January 1874 his overture Les Piccolomini was performed at a Pasdeloup concert, around this time he married Isabelle de Pampelonne, one of his cousins. In 1875 his symphony dedicated to János Hunyadi was performed and that same year he played a minor role – the prompter – at the premiere of Bizets opera Carmen. In 1876 he was present at the first production of Richard Wagners Ring Cycle at Bayreuth and this made a great impression on him and he became a fervent Wagnerite. In 1878 dIndys symphonic ballad La Forêt enchantée was performed, in 1882 he heard Wagners Parsifal. In 1883 his choral work Le Chant de la cloche appeared, in 1884 his symphonic poem Saugefleurie was premiered. His piano suite called Poème des montagnes came from around this time, in 1887 appeared his Suite in D for trumpet,2 flutes and string quartet. That same year he was involved in Lamoureuxs production of Wagners Lohengrin as choirmaster and his music drama Fervaal occupied him between 1889 and 1895. DIndy taught there and later at the Paris Conservatoire until his death, xian was one of the earliest Chinese composers of western classical music See, List of music students by teacher, A to B#Vincent dIndy. While A. A. Saygun became one of the pioneers of music in Turkey. Few of dIndys works are performed regularly today and his music drama Le Légende de Saint Christophe, based on themes from Gregorian chant, was performed for the first, and possibly last, time, on 6 June 1920. His comédie musicale had its premiere in paris on 10 June 1927 and his Lied for cello and orchestra, Op.19, was recorded by Julian Lloyd Webber and the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier in 1991. As well as Franck, dIndys works show the influence of Berlioz, DIndy helped revive a number of then largely forgotten early works, for example, making his own edition of Claudio Monteverdis opera Lincoronazione di Poppea
10.
Claire Croiza
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Claire Croiza was a French mezzo-soprano and an influential teacher of singers. Claire Croiza was born in Paris, the daughter of an expatriate American father and an Italian mother and she was taught singing privately at first and then went to the Polish tenor Jean de Reszke for further study. She made her opera début in Nancy in 1905 in Messaline by Isidore de Lara, in 1910 she performed as Alays in the world premiere of Cesare Galeotti’s La Dorise and created the title role in the world premiere of Pierre de Brévilles Éros vainqueur at La Monnaie. It was again as Dalila that she made her Paris Opera début in 1908 and she had a great feeling for the French language and was always able to enunciate the words in clear and natural way without sacrificing the flow of the music. Several contemporary composers chose to accompany her personally in performances of their songs, including Ravel, Fauré, Poulenc, Roussel, from 1922, she also worked as a teacher, giving classes in interpretation at the École Normale, and from 1934 at the Paris Conservatoire. Her pupils included Janine Micheau, Suzanne Juyol, and the baritones Jacques Jansen, Camille Maurane, in 1926 Croiza gave birth to a son, Jean-Claude, whose father was Honegger, but the parents did not marry. She died in Paris in 1946 at the age of 63 and her reputation was concisely summed up by a reviewer in The Times reporting on a Wigmore Hall concert in 1932, Mme. Croiza is an interpreter of modern French songs. She brings to them an exquisite sensibility that reveals every shade of meaning in the poems and her surviving recordings comprise over 40 titles, mostly French songs and opera extracts. They have been collected in a 2-CD set by Marston Records, Claire Croiza, recollections of Claire Croiza, in Bulletin of the Institute of Recorded Sound, no.1, p.12. The Singer as Interpreter, Claire Croizas Master Classes, ISBN 0-575-04391-1 Extensive biographical notes accompanying the Marston CD set. Review of Croizas recordings from La Folia
11.
David
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David was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah, reigning in c. He is described as a man after Gods own heart in 1 Samuel 13,14 and Acts 13,22. The Hebrew prophets regarded him as the ancestor of the future messiah, the New Testament says he was an ancestor of Jesus. God is angered when Saul, Israels king, unlawfully offers a sacrifice and later disobeys a divine instruction to not only all of the Amalekites. Consequently, he sends the prophet Samuel to anoint David, the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, God sends an evil spirit to torment Saul. Sauls courtiers recommend that he send for David, a man skillful on the lyre, wise in speech, and brave in battle. So David enters Sauls service as one of the royal armour-bearers, and plays the lyre to soothe the king, war comes between Israel and the Philistines, and the giant Goliath challenges the Israelites to send out a champion to face him in single combat. David, sent by his father to bring provisions to his brothers serving in Sauls army, refusing the kings offer of the royal armour, he kills Goliath with his sling. Saul inquires the name of the heros father. Saul sets David over his army, all Israel loves David, but his popularity causes Saul to fear him. Saul plots his death, but Sauls son Jonathan, one of those who loves David, warns him of his fathers schemes and David flees. He becomes a vassal of the Philistine king Achish of Gath, but Achishs nobles question his loyalty, Jonathan and Saul are killed, and David is anointed king over Judah. In the north, Sauls son Ish-Bosheth is anointed king of Israel, with the death of Sauls son, the elders of Israel come to Hebron and David is anointed king over all Israel. He conquers Jerusalem, previously a Jebusite stronghold, and makes it his capital. He brings the Ark of the Covenant to the city, intending to build a temple for God, Nathan also prophesies that God has made a covenant with the house of David, Your throne shall be established forever. David wins more victories over the Philistines, while the Moabites, Edomites, Amalekites, Ammonites, during a battle to conquer the Ammonite capital of Rabbah, David seduces Bathsheba and causes the death of her husband Uriah the Hittite. In response, Nathan prophesies the punishment that shall fall upon him, in fulfillment of these words Davids son Absalom rebels. The rebellion ends at the battle of the Wood of Ephraim, Absaloms forces are routed, and Absalom is caught by his long hair in the branches of a tree, and killed by Joab, contrary to Davids order. Joab was the commander of Davids army, David laments the death of his favourite son, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom
12.
Abel Gance
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Abel Gance was a French film director and producer, writer and actor. A pioneer in the theory and practice of montage, he is best known for three major silent films, Jaccuse, La Roue, and the monumental Napoléon. Born in Paris in 1889, Abel Gance was the son of a prosperous doctor, Abel Flamant. Initially taking his mothers name, he was brought up until the age of eight by his grandparents in the coal mining town of Commentry in central France. He then returned to Paris to rejoin his mother who had by then married Adolphe Gance and he started working as a clerk in a solicitors office, but after a couple of years he turned to acting in the theatre. When he was 18, he was given a contract at the Théâtre Royal du Parc in Brussels, where he developed friendships with the actor Victor Francen. While in Brussels, Gance wrote his first film scenarios, which he sold to Léonce Perret, back in Paris in 1909, he acted in his first film, Perrets Molière. At that stage he regarded the cinema as infantile and stupid and was drawn into film jobs by his poverty, but he nevertheless continued to write scenarios. During this period he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, often fatal at that time, Gance tried to maintain a connection with the theatre and he finished writing a monumental tragedy entitled Victoire de Samothrace, in which he hoped that Sarah Bernhardt would star. Its five-hour length, and Gances refusal to cut it, proved to be a stumbling block, with the outbreak of World War I, Gance was rejected by the army on medical grounds and in 1915 he started writing and directing for a new film company, Film dArt. He soon caused controversy with La Folie du docteur Tube, a fantasy in which he. The producers were outraged and refused to show the film, Gance nevertheless continued working for Film dArt until 1918, making over a dozen commercially successful films. His experiments included tracking shots, extreme close-ups, low-angle shots and his subjects moved steadily away from simple action films towards psychological melodramas, such as Mater dolorosa starring Emmy Lynn as a neglected wife who has an affair with her husbands brother. The film was a commercial success, and it was followed by La Dixième Symphonie. Here Gances mastery of lighting, composition and editing was accompanied by a range of literary and artistic references which some critics found pretentious and he re-enlisted in the Service Cinématographique in order to be able to film some scenes on a real battlefield at the front. The film made an impact and went on to have international distribution. He employed elaborate editing techniques and innovative use of cutting which made the film highly influential among other contemporary directors. The finished film was originally in 32 reels and ran for nine hours
13.
Paul Claudel
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Paul Claudel was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptress Camille Claudel. He was most famous for his dramas, which often convey his devout Catholicism. Claudel was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in six different years and he was born in Villeneuve-sur-Fère, into a family of farmers and government officials. His father, Louis-Prosper, dealt in mortgages and bank transactions and his mother, the former Louise Cerveaux, came from a Champagne family of Catholic farmers and priests. Having spent his first years in Champagne, he studied at the lycée of Bar-le-Duc and at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in 1881 and he would remain a strong Catholic for the rest of his life. He studied at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, the young Claudel seriously considered entering a Benedictine monastery, but in the end began a career in the French diplomatic corps, in which he would serve from 1893 to 1936. He was first vice-consul in New York, and later in Boston. C. while he served in Brazil during the First World War he supervised the continued provision of food supplies from South America to France. In 1936 he retired to his château in Brangues, after a long affair with Rosalie Vetch, a married woman with four children and pregnant with Claudels child, ended in February 1905, Claudel married Reine Sainte-Marie-Perrin on 15 March 1906. In his youth Claudel was heavily influenced by the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, like them, he was horrified by modern materialist views of life. Unlike most of them, his response was to embrace Catholicism, all his writings are passionate rejections of the idea of a mechanical or random universe, instead proclaiming the deep spiritual meaning of human life founded on Gods all-governing grace and love. Claudel wrote in a unique verse style and he rejected traditional metrics in favour of long, luxuriant, unrhymed lines of free verse, the so-called verset claudelien, influenced by the Latin psalms of the Vulgate. He used scenes of passionate, obsessive human love to convey with great power Gods infinite love for humanity and his plays were often extraordinarily long, sometimes stretching to eleven hours, and pressed the realities of material staging to their limits. Yet they were staged, at least in part, to rapturous acclaim. In later years he wrote texts to be set to music, most notably Jeanne dArc au Bûcher, as well as his verse dramas, Claudel also wrote much lyric poetry, for example the Cinq Grandes Odes. Claudel was always a controversial figure during his lifetime, and remains so today and his devout Catholicism and his right-wing political views, both slightly unusual stances among his intellectual peers, made him, and continue to make him, unpopular in many circles. As a Catholic, he could not avoid a sense of bitter satisfaction at the fall of the anti-clerical French Third Republic. Claudels diaries make clear his consistent contempt for Nazism, and his attitude to the Vichy regime quickly hardened into opposition. He also committed his sister Camille Claudel to a hospital in March 1913
14.
Jacques Ibert
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Jacques François Antoine Ibert was a French composer. Having studied music from an age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize. Ibert pursued a successful composing career, writing seven operas, five ballets, incidental music for plays and films, songs, choral works and he is probably best remembered for his orchestral works including Divertissement and Escales. As a composer, Ibert did not attach himself to any of the prevalent genres of music of his time and this is seen even in his best-known pieces, Divertissement, for small orchestra is lighthearted, even frivolous, and Escales is a ripely romantic work for large orchestra. In tandem with his work, Ibert was the director of the Académie de France at the Villa Medici in Rome. During World War II he was proscribed by the government in Paris. Restored to his eminence in French musical life after the war, his final musical appointment was in charge of the Paris Opera. His father was a businessman, and his mother a talented pianist who had studied with Antoine François Marmontel. From the age of four, he began studying music, first learning the violin, after leaving school, he earned a living as a private teacher, as an accompanist, and as a cinema pianist. He also started composing songs, sometimes under the pen name William Berty, in 1910 he became a student at the Paris Conservatoire, studying with Émile Pessard, André Gedalge and Paul Vidal. Gédalge also gave him lessons in orchestration, Iberts fellow-students at these private classes included Arthur Honegger. Iberts musical studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, after the war he married Rosette Veber, daughter of the painter Jean Veber. Resuming his studies, he won the Conservatoires top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, the prize gave him the opportunity to pursue further musical studies in Rome. In the course of these, Ibert composed his first opera, Persée et Andromède, to a libretto by his brother-in-law, the author Michel Veber, writing under the pen name Nino. The first of these works was played at the Concerts Colonne in October 1922, conducted by Gabriel Pierné, the two works made Ibert an early reputation both at home and abroad. His publisher Alphonse Leduc commissioned two collections of music from him, Histoires and Les Rencontres, which enhanced his popularity. In 1927 his opéra-bouffe Angélique was produced, it was the most successful of his operas, in addition to composing, Ibert was active as a conductor and in musical administration. He was a member of committees, and in 1937 he was appointed director of the Académie de France at the Villa Medici in Rome
15.
L'Aiglon (opera)
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LAiglon is an opera in five acts composed by Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert. Honegger composed Acts II, III, and IV, with Ibert composing Acts I and V. The libretto by Henri Cain was based on Edmond Rostands 1900 play, LAiglon, about the life of Napoleon II and it premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 11 March 1937 in a production by Pierre Chéreau. The principal roles were sung by Fanny Heldy and Vanni Marcoux, at the Paris Opera that August, Heldy repeated her performance alongside Vanni-Marcoux under Ruhlmann. The work was revived there in 1952 with Géori Boué in the role under André Cluytens. The work was revived in February 2016 at the Opéra de Marseille with Stéphanie dOustrac in the title role and conducted by Jean-Yves Ossonce. The Duke of Reichstadt, with his faithful footman Séraphin Flambeau, escapes from Austrian imprisonment and visits the old site of the Battle of Wagram, amadeus Almanac Retrieved 14 June 2014. Kennedy, Michael, The Oxford Dictionary of Music,985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4 Spratt, the music of Arthur Honegger, Cork University Press,1987, p.544. ISBN 0-902561-34-0 Warrack, John and West, Ewan, The Oxford Dictionary of Opera,782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
16.
Operetta
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Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. By this time, the part of the genre name had become misleading. With this new connotation, opéra comique had dominated the French operatic stage since the decline of tragédie lyrique, most researchers acknowledge that the credit for creating the operetta form should go to Hervé, a singer, composer, librettist, conductor, and scene painter. In 1842 he wrote the little opérette, LOurs et le pacha, based on the vaudeville show by Scribe. In 1848, Hervé made his first notable appearance on the Parisian stage, with Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança, hervés most famous works are the Gounod-parody Le Petit Faust and Mamzelle Nitouche. Jacques Offenbach further developed and popularized operetta, giving it its enormous vogue during the Second Empire, Offenbachs earliest one-act pieces included Les deux aveugles, Le violoneux and Ba-ta-clan, and his first full-length operetta success was Orphée aux enfers. Offenbachs tradition was carried on by Robert Planquette, André Messager. What characterizes Offenbachs operettas is both the way they portray life, and the extremely frivolous way this is done. The character was modeled after Offenbachs female star Hortense Schneider. Considering how Zolas Nana describes an Offenbach-style operetta performance in Paris, it is not surprising that the mostly male, upper-class audiences in other cities like Vienna and Berlin longed to see these shows in their home towns as well, which inspired worldwide performance of Offenbachs works. The highly erotic way Offenbachs operettas were originally played, with stars like Hortense Schneider created a reaction from certain parts of the general public. Operetta was considered an art form. Indeed, together with its grotesque qualities, frivolity is one of the elements of authentic operetta à la Offenbach. It was only later, when audiences widened and became more middle and lower class, the most significant composer of operetta in the German language was the Austrian Johann Strauss II. His first operetta was Indigo und die vierzig Räuber and his third operetta, Die Fledermaus, became the most performed operetta in the world, and remains his most popular stage work. Its libretto was based on a written by Offenbachs librettists. In all, Strauss wrote 16 operettas and one opera, most with great success when first premiered, many of his lesser operettas are now largely forgotten, since his later librettists were less talented and he often composed independently of the plot. Strausss operettas, waltzes, polkas, and marches often have a strongly Viennese style, the Theater an der Wien never failed to draw huge crowds when his stage works were first performed
17.
Nazism
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National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi Germany, as well as other far-right groups. Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying Germans as part of what Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race and it aimed to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous society, unified on the basis of racial purity. The term National Socialism arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of socialism, the Nazi Partys precursor, the Pan-German nationalist and anti-Semitic German Workers Party, was founded on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler assumed control of the organisation, following the Holocaust and German defeat in World War II, only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, still describe themselves as following National Socialism. The full name of Adolf Hitlers party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the shorthand Nazi was formed from the first two syllables of the German pronunciation of the word national. The term was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a peasant, characterizing an awkward. It derived from Ignaz, being a version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria. Opponents seized on this and shortened the first word of the name, Nationalsozialistische. The NSDAP briefly adopted the Nazi designation, attempting to reappropriate the term, the use of Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, and so on was popularised by German exiles abroad. From them, the spread into other languages and was eventually brought back to Germany after World War II. In English, Nazism is a name for the ideology the party advocated. The majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of far-right politics, far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms, a major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps, paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I. The Nazis stated the alliance was purely tactical and there remained substantial differences with the DNVP, the Nazis described the DNVP as a bourgeois party and called themselves an anti-bourgeois party. After the elections in 1932, the alliance broke after the DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag, the Nazis denounced them as an insignificant heap of reactionaries. The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their socialism, their violence. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, there were factions in the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical
18.
French Resistance
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The Résistance also planned, coordinated, and executed acts of sabotage on the electrical power grid, transport facilities, and telecommunications networks. Estimated to have a strength of 100,000 in June 1944 and this burden amounted to approximately 20 million German reichsmarks per day, a sum that, in May 1940, was approximately equivalent to four hundred million French francs. Because of this overvaluation of German currency, the occupiers were able to make fair and honest requisitions and purchases while, in effect. Prices soared, leading to food shortages and malnutrition, particularly among children, the elderly. The labour shortage was worsened by the fact that a number of the French were also held as prisoners of war in Germany. Beyond these hardships and dislocations, the occupation became increasingly unbearable, onerous regulations, strict censorship, incessant propaganda and nightly curfews all played a role in establishing an atmosphere of fear and repression. The sight of French women consorting with German soldiers infuriated many French men, as reprisals for Résistance activities, the authorities established harsh forms of collective punishment. For example, the militancy of communist resistance in August 1941 led to the taking of thousands of hostages from the general population. A typical policy statement read, After each further incident, a number, reflecting the seriousness of the crime, during the occupation, an estimated 30,000 French civilian hostages were shot to intimidate others who were involved in acts of resistance. In early 1943, the Vichy authorities established a paramilitary group and they worked alongside German forces that, by the end of 1942, were stationed throughout France. The group collaborated closely with the Nazis, and was the Vichy equivalent of the Gestapo security forces in Germany and their actions were often brutal and included torture and execution of Résistance suspects. After the liberation of France in the summer of 1944, the French executed many of the estimated 25,000 to 35,000 miliciens for their collaboration. Many of those who escaped arrest fled to Germany, where they were incorporated into the Charlemagne Division of the Waffen SS, the experience of the Occupation was a deeply psychologically disorienting one for the French as what was once familiar and safe become strange and threatening. Many Parisians could not get over the shock experienced when they first saw the huge swastika flags hanging over the Hôtel de Ville, Many résistants often spoke of some climax when they saw some intolerable act of injustice, after which they could not longer remain passive. Barthelt recalled, I recognized him only by his hat, only by his hat, I tell you and because I was waiting on the roadside to see him pass. I saw his face all right, but there was no skin on it, both his poor eyes had been closed into two purple and yellow bruises. In the beginning, resistance was limited to such as severing phone lines, vandalizing posters. Another form of resistance was underground newspapers like Musée de lHomme which circulated clandestinely, the Musée de lHomme was founded by two professors, Paul Rivet and the Russian émigré Boris Vildé in July 1940
19.
Yves Ramette
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Yves Ramette was a French post-romantic composer and organist. Yves Ramette was born in 1921 in Bavay, France, where his father was the Director of a Professional Graduate School, from a very young age Ramette was attracted towards music. When he was seven years old he started learning musical notation as well as playing the violin, at age fourteen, while pursuing his secondary studies at the Lycée de Beauvais, he also learnt Harmony lessons. In Beauvais, he studied the violin with Robert Duforestel. He also studied conducting and orchestration with Eugène Bigot, in parallel, he studied the Organ with Georges Jacob, the Composition with Arthur Honegger at the École Normale de Musique de Paris where he awarded First Prize in 1945. From 1947 to 1953 he taught the organ and Counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum de Paris, in 1952, he was appointed as the “Maître de chapelle” and organ player at the St-Ferdinand-des-Ternes church in Paris. In 1953, together with Božidar Kantušer, Luc Ferrari and Pierre Migaux he founded Group 84 and he created and directed the mixed choir “Voix Ardens” to promote the traditional, classical, romantic and modern choral music. This choir gave many concerts from 1968 to 1987, during his later years, Ramette mainly composed works for the organ and the piano, his favorite instruments. In 1997 he published a memory book “Grandeur et Décadence d’une tribune”, Ramette output includes six symphonies, several chamber musics, choral and vocal works and many organ and piano pieces. Almost all his works have been edited on CD, and the American concert pianist Eric Himy has performed and recorded many of Ramettes piano works. Yves Ramette died in Prades in June 2012, aged ninety-one, Symphony No.1 for Strings and percussion, op.4 Symphony No. 2, op.10 Symphony No.3 for Strings,1, without opus number Sonata for violon and piano No
20.
Symphony
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A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often written by composers for orchestra. Symphonies are scored for string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30–100 musicians, Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the music for their instrument. A small number of symphonies also contain vocal parts, the word symphony is derived from the Greek word συμφωνία, meaning agreement or concord of sound, concert of vocal or instrumental music, from σύμφωνος, harmonious. The word referred to a variety of different things, before ultimately settling on its current meaning designating a musical form. In late Greek and medieval theory, the word was used for consonance, as opposed to διαφωνία, in the Middle Ages and later, the Latin form symphonia was used to describe various instruments, especially those capable of producing more than one sound simultaneously. Isidore of Seville was the first to use the word symphonia as the name of a two-headed drum, in late medieval England, symphony was used in both of these senses, whereas by the 16th century it was equated with the dulcimer. In German, Symphonie was a term for spinets and virginals from the late 16th century to the 18th century. 16, published in 1607, Lodovico Grossi da Viadanas Sinfonie musicali,18, published in 1610, and Heinrich Schützs Symphoniae sacrae, op. 6, and Symphoniarum sacrarum secunda pars, op,10, published in 1629 and 1647, respectively. Except for Viadanas collection, which contained purely instrumental and secular music, the opera sinfonia, or Italian overture had, by the 18th century, a standard structure of three contrasting movements, fast, slow, fast and dance-like. It is this form that is considered as the direct forerunner of the orchestral symphony. The terms overture, symphony and sinfonia were widely regarded as interchangeable for much of the 18th century, when composers from the 17th century wrote pieces, they expected that these works would be performed by whatever group of musicians were available. A performance of the piece might be done with a basso continuo group as small as a single cello, during the 18th century, the symphony was cultivated with extraordinary intensity. It played a role in areas of public life, including church services. Since the normal size of the orchestra at the time was quite small, laRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson trace the gradual expansion of the symphonic orchestra through the 18th century. At first, symphonies were string symphonies, written in just four parts, first violin, second violin, viola, occasionally the early symphonists even dispensed with the viola part, thus creating three-part symphonies. A basso continuo part including a bassoon together with a harpsichord or other chording instrument was also possible, the first additions to this simple ensemble were a pair of horns, occasionally a pair of oboes, and then both horns and oboes together
21.
Johann Sebastian Bach
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Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bachs compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor and his music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth. He is now regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. Bach was born in Eisenach, in the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach and his father Johann Ambrosius Bach was the director of the town musicians, and all of his uncles were professional musicians. His father probably taught him to play the violin and harpsichord, apparently at his own initiative, Bach attended St. Michaels School in Lüneburg for two years. He received the title of Royal Court Composer from Augustus III in 1736, Bachs health and vision declined in 1749, and he died on 28 July 1750. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany and he was the son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians, and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt. He was the eighth and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius, who taught him violin. His uncles were all musicians, whose posts included church organists, court chamber musicians. One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, introduced him to the organ, Bachs mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months later. The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, there he studied, performed, and copied music, including his own brothers, despite being forbidden to do so because scores were so valuable and private and blank ledger paper of that type was costly. He received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on the clavichord, also during this time he was taught theology, Latin, Greek, French and Italian at the local gymnasium. By 3 April 1700 Bach and his schoolfriend Georg Erdmann–who was two years Bachs elder–were enrolled in the prestigious St. Michaels School in Lüneburg, some two weeks travel north of Ohrdruf and their journey was probably undertaken mostly on foot. His two years there were critical in exposing Bach to a range of European culture. In addition to singing in the choir, he played the Schools three-manual organ and he came into contact with sons of aristocrats from northern Germany, sent to the highly selective school to prepare for careers in other disciplines. While in Lüneburg, Bach had access to St. Johns Church and possibly used the famous organ from 1553. His role there is unclear, but it probably included menial, non-musical duties, despite strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer, tension built up between Bach and the authorities after several years in the post. Bach was dissatisfied with the standard of singers in the choir and he called one of them a Zippel Fagottist
22.
Music for the Requiem Mass
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The Requiem Mass is notable for the large number of musical compositions that it has inspired, including settings by Mozart, Verdi, Bruckner, Dvořák, Fauré and Duruflé. Originally, such compositions were meant to be performed in liturgical service, the following are the texts that have been set to music. Note that the Libera Me and the In Paradisum are not part of the text of the Catholic Mass for the Dead itself, in Paradisum was traditionally said or sung as the body left the church, and the Libera Me is said/sung at the burial site before interment. These became included in musical settings of the Requiem in the 19th century as composers began to treat the form more liberally and this is as the Kyrie in the Ordinary of the Mass, This is Greek. Each utterance is sung three times, though sometimes that is not the case when sung polyphonically, a sequence is a liturgical poem sung, when used, after the Tract. The sequence employed in the Requiem, Dies Irae, attributed to Thomas of Celano, has called the greatest of hymns. The Latin text below is taken from the Requiem Mass in the 1962 Roman Missal, the first English version below, translated by William Josiah Irons in 1849, replicates the rhyme and metre of the original. The second English version is a more formal equivalence, some extracts too have been set independently to music, such as Pie Jesu in the settings of Dvořák, Fauré, Duruflé and John Rutter. The Pie Jesu consists of the words of the Dies Irae followed by the final words of the Agnus Dei. Musical Requiem settings sometimes include passages from the Absolution at the bier or Commendation of the dead person, for many centuries the texts of the requiem were sung to Gregorian melodies. The Requiem by Johannes Ockeghem, written sometime in the half of the 15th century, is the earliest surviving polyphonic setting. There was a setting by the elder composer Dufay, possibly earlier, many early compositions employ different texts that were in use in different liturgies around Europe before the Council of Trent set down the texts given above. The requiem of Brumel, circa 1500, is the first to include the Dies Iræ, in the 16th century, more and more composers set the Requiem mass. In contrast to practice in setting the Mass Ordinary, many of these used a cantus-firmus technique. Other composers before 1550 include Pedro de Escobar, Antoine de Févin, Cristóbal Morales, and Pierre de La Rue, over 2,000 Requiem compositions have been composed to the present day. There is great variation between compositions in how much of text is set to music. Most composers omit sections of the prescription, most frequently the Gradual. Fauré omits the Dies iræ, while the same text had often been set by French composers in previous centuries as a stand-alone work
23.
Dies irae
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It is a medieval Latin poem characterized by its accentual stress and its rhymed lines. The poem describes the day of judgment, the last trumpet summoning souls before the throne of God, where the saved will be delivered, the hymn is best known from its use as a sequence in the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass. An English version is found in various Anglican Communion service books, the melody is one of the most quoted in musical literature, appearing in the works of many composers. The Dies Irae was used in the Roman liturgy as the sequence for the Requiem Mass for centuries, as evidenced by the important place it holds in musical settings such as those by Mozart and Verdi. It appears in the Roman Missal of 1962, the last edition before the implementation of the revisions that occurred after the Second Vatican Council, as such, it is still heard in churches where the Tridentine Latin liturgy is celebrated. It also formed part of the liturgy of All Souls Day. Thus they removed such familiar and even beloved texts as the Libera Me, Domine, the Dies Irae, and others that overemphasized judgment, fear and these they replaced with texts urging Christian hope and arguably giving more effective expression to faith in the resurrection. The Dies Irae remains as an ad libitum in the Liturgy of the Hours during the last week before Advent. The Latin text below is taken from the Requiem Mass in the 1962 Roman Missal, the first English version below, translated by William Josiah Irons in 1849, albeit from a slightly different Latin text, replicates the rhyme and metre of the original. This translation, edited for more conformance to the official Latin, is approved by the Catholic Church for use as the funeral Mass sequence in the liturgy of the Anglican ordinariate, the second English version is a more formal equivalence translation. Because the last two stanzas differ markedly in structure from the stanzas, some scholars consider them to be an addition made in order to suit the great poem for liturgical use. The penultimate stanza Lacrimosa discards the consistent scheme of rhyming triplets in favor of a pair of rhyming couplets, the last stanza Pie Iesu abandons rhyme for assonance, and, moreover, its lines are catalectic. In the liturgical reforms of 1969–71, stanza 19 was deleted, in addition Qui Mariam absolvisti in stanza 13 was replaced by Peccatricem qui solvisti so that that line would now mean, You who freed/absolved the sinful woman. This was because modern scholarship denies the common identification of the woman taken in adultery with Mary Magdalene. In addition, a doxology is given after stanzas 6,12 and 18, The text of the sequence is found, with slight verbal variations, in a 13th-century manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Naples. From the Jewish liturgy, the prayer Unetanneh Tokef appears to be related, We shall ascribe holiness to this day, For it is awesome and terrible, a number of English translations of the poem have been written and proposed for liturgical use. A very loose Protestant version was made by John Newton, it opens, Jan Kasprowicz, the first six lines follow the original hymns metre and rhyme structure, and the first stanza translates to The trumpet will cast a wondrous sound. What terror shall be shaping When the Judge the truths undraping – Cats from every bag escaping, bernard Callan, an Irish priest and poet, translated it into Gaelic around 1800
24.
Psalm 130
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Psalm 130, traditionally De profundis from its Latin incipit, is one of the Penitential psalms. In deep sorrow the psalmist cries to God, asking for mercy, the psalmists trust becomes a model for the people. The depths, Here is a metaphor of total misery, deep anguish makes the psalmist feel like those who go down to the pit. Robert Alter points out that. the depths are an epithet for the depths of the sea, other Bible passages also resonate with imagery of fear and chaos engendered by the depths of the sea. If you, Lord, were to mark iniquities, who, O Lord, a temporary shift from the personal to the communal, this plurality again appears in the final two verses. V4. that you may be revered, the experience of Gods mercy leads one to a greater sense of God. According to the rule of Saint Benedict established around 530, this was attributed at the beginning of the service on Tuesday. With regard to the current Liturgy of the Hours, Psalm 130 is recited or sung at vespers on the Saturday of the fourth week, and on Wednesday evenings. In the Liturgy of the Mass, Psalm 130 is read on the 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year B, the title De Profundis was used as the title of a poem by Spanish author Federico García Lorca in his Poema del cante jondo. S. Lewis, Georg Trakl, Dorothy Parker and José Cardoso Pires, in the novel Fires on the Plain, by Shōhei Ōoka, the character Tamura makes reference to Psalm 130s first line De profundis clamavi in a dream sequence. Psalm 130 is recited as part of the liturgy for the High Holidays, the custom of reciting this psalm during these times had long lain dormant until it was revived in the Birnbaum and Artscroll siddurim in the 20th century. Is recited following Mincha between Sukkot and Shabbat Hagadol and it is also among those psalms traditionally recited as a prayer for the sick. In some synagogues, it is said on every weekday, in Hebrew, it is often called MiMaamakim after its initial words. Verses 3-4 are part of the paragraph of the long Tachanun recited on Mondays and Thursdays. Death Funeral Penitential Psalms Requiem Kuttner, Henry, De Profundis, leinster, Murray, De Profundis, Thrilling Wonder Stories. Oracz, Michal, De Profundis, Letters From The Abyss, Redhill, Surrey, ISBN 1-899749-35-7 De Profundis – excerpted text of Wildes De Profundis De Profundis. – From the 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia this short article talks about the origins, its Jewish use. De profundis at the Internet Movie Database Translation of BWV131, Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir
25.
Benjamin Britten
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Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten OM CH was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He was a figure of 20th-century British classical music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral. His best-known works include the opera Peter Grimes, the War Requiem, Born in Suffolk, the son of a dentist, Britten showed talent from an early age. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London and privately with the composer Frank Bridge, Britten first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy was Born in 1934. With the premiere of Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to international fame, over the next 28 years, he wrote 14 more operas, establishing himself as one of the leading 20th-century composers in the genre. In addition to large-scale operas for Sadlers Wells and Covent Garden, he wrote operas for small forces. Among the best known of these is The Turn of the Screw, recurring themes in his operas include the struggle of an outsider against a hostile society and the corruption of innocence. Brittens other works range from orchestral to choral, solo vocal, chamber and he took a great interest in writing music for children and amateur performers, including the opera Noyes Fludde, a Missa Brevis, and the song collection Friday Afternoons. He often composed with particular performers in mind, Britten was a celebrated pianist and conductor, performing many of his own works in concert and on record. He also performed and recorded works by others, such as Bachs Brandenburg concertos, Mozart symphonies, in his last year, he was the first composer to be given a life peerage. Britten was born in the port of Lowestoft in Suffolk, on the east coast of England on 22 November 1913. He was the youngest of four children of Robert Victor Britten and his wife Edith Rhoda, Robert Brittens youthful ambition to become a farmer had been thwarted by lack of capital, and he had instead trained as a dentist, a profession he practised successfully but without pleasure. While studying at Charing Cross Hospital in London he met Edith Hockey and they were married in September 1901 at St Johns, Smith Square, London. The consensus among biographers of Britten is that his father was a loving but somewhat stern, Britten, according to his sister Beth, got on well with him and shared his wry sense of humour, dedication to work and capacity for taking pains. Edith Britten was an amateur musician and secretary of the Lowestoft Musical Society. In the English provinces of the early 20th century, distinctions of class were taken very seriously. Music was the means by which Edith Britten strove to maintain the familys social standing, inviting the pillars of the local community to musical soirées at the house. When Britten was three months old he contracted pneumonia and nearly died, the illness left him with a damaged heart, and doctors warned his parents that he would probably never be able to lead a normal life
26.
Saint-Vincent Cemetery
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Saint-Vincent Cemetery is a cemetery in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. Saint-Vincent Cemetery was opened on January 5,1831 and it was Montmartres second cemetery, built after the Cimetière du Calvaire had been filled. It is a walk from the Montmartre Cemetery and near the Sacré-Cœur. The Lapin Agile is located behind the wall, behind the grave of Maurice Utrillo, the cemetery is a short walk from the Lamarck – Caulaincourt métro station and is serviced by line 12. The nearest railway stations are Gare du Nord and Gare de Pont-Cardinet, the cemetery is also served by bus line 80. There is a Vélib station at Rue du Coulaincourt, Saint-Vincent Cemetery on the Mairie de Paris website Landru, Philippe, Cimetière Saint-Vincent de Montmartre, Cimetières de France et dailleurs 2009 Saint-Vincent Cemetery on the APPL website
27.
Montmartre
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Montmartre is a large hill in Pariss 18th arrondissement. It is 130 m high and gives its name to the surrounding district, Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district. The other, older, church on the hill is Saint Pierre de Montmartre, Montmartre is also the setting for several hit films. This site is served by metro, with line 2 stations at Anvers, Pigalle, and Blanche and line 12 stations at Pigalle, Abbesses, Lamarck - Caulaincourt, texts from the 8th century cite the name of mons Mercori, and a 9th-century text speaks of Mount Mars. Excavations in 1975 north of the Church of Saint-Pierre found coins from the 3rd century, earlier excavations in the 17th century at the Fontaine-du-But found vestiges of Roman baths from the 2nd century. According to Hilduin, Denis collected his head and carried it as far as the fontaine Saint-Denis, then descended the slope of the hill. Hilduin wrote that a church had built in the place formerly called Mont de Mars. In 1134, king Louis VI purchased the Merovingian chapel and built on the site the church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre and he also founded The Royal Abbey of Montmartre, a monastery of the Benedictine order, whose buildings, gardens and fields occupied most of Montmartre. He also built a chapel, called the Martyrium, at the site where it was believed that Saint Denis had been decapitated. It became a pilgrimage site. In the 17th century, a priory called abbaye den bas was built at that site, the abbey was destroyed in 1790 during the French Revolution, and the convent demolished to make place for gypsum mines. The church of Saint-Pierre was saved, at the place where the chapel of the Martyrs was located, an oratory was built in 1855. By the 15th century, the north and northeast slopes of the hill were the site of a surrounded by vineyards, gardens and orchards of peach. The first mills were built on the slope in 1529, grinding wheat, barley. The siege eventually failed when a relief force approached and forced Henry to withdraw. In 1790, Montmartre was located just outside the limits of Paris and that year, under the revolutionary government of the National Constituent Assembly, it became the commune of Montmartre, with its town hall located on place du Tertre, site of the former abbey. The main businesses of the commune were wine making, stone quarries, the mining of gypsum had begun in the Gallo-Roman period, first in open air mines and then underground, and continued until 1860. The gypsum was cut into blocks, baked, then ground, sold as montmartarite, it was used for plaster, because of its resistance to fire and water
28.
Darius Milhaud
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Darius Milhaud was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century and his compositions are influenced by jazz and Brazilian music and make extensive use of polytonality. Milhaud is considered one of the key modernist composers, born in Marseille to a Jewish family from Aix-en-Provence, Milhaud began as a violinist, later turning to composition instead. Milhaud studied in Paris at the Paris Conservatory where he met his fellow group members Arthur Honegger and he studied composition under Charles Widor and harmony and counterpoint with André Gedalge. He also studied privately with Vincent dIndy, while in Brazil, they collaborated on a ballet, LHomme et son désir. On his return to France, Milhaud composed works influenced by the Brazilian popular music he had heard, including compositions of Brazilian pianist, Le bœuf sur le toit includes melodies by Nazareth and other popular Brazilian composers of the time, and evokes the sounds of Carnaval. The recurring theme is, in fact, a Carnaval tune by the name of The Bull on the Roof and he also produced Saudades do Brasil, a suite of twelve dances evoking twelve neighborhoods in Rio. Shortly after the piano version appeared, he orchestrated the suite. On a trip to the United States in 1922, Darius Milhaud heard authentic jazz for the first time, on the streets of Harlem, which left a great impact on his musical outlook. The following year, he completed his composition La création du monde, using ideas and idioms from jazz, in 1925, Milhaud married his cousin, Madeleine, an actress and reciter. In 1930 she gave birth to a son, the painter and sculptor Daniel Milhaud, the invasion of France by Nazi Germany forced the Milhauds to leave France in 1940 and emigrate to the United States. He secured a teaching post at Mills College in Oakland, California, where he composed the opera Bolivar and collaborated with Henri Temianka, the following year, these same pieces were performed at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, by the Paganini and Juilliard String Quartets. The jazz pianist Dave Brubeck became one of Milhauds most famous students when Brubeck furthered his studies at Mills College in the late 1940s. My older brother Howard was his assistant and had all of his classes. Brubeck named his first son Darius, Milhauds former students also include popular songwriter Burt Bacharach. Milhaud told Bacharach, Dont be afraid of writing something people can remember, Dont ever feel discomfited by a melody. Milhaud was an extremely rapid creator, for whom the art of writing music seemed almost as natural as breathing and his most popular works include Le bœuf sur le toit, La création du monde, Scaramouche, and Saudades do Brasil. His autobiography is titled Notes sans musique, later revised as Ma vie heureuse, from 1947 to 1971, he taught alternate years at Mills and the Paris Conservatoire, until poor health, which caused him to use a wheelchair during his later years, compelled him to retire
29.
Swiss franc
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The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione dItalia. The Swiss National Bank issues banknotes and the federal mint Swissmint issues coins, the smaller denomination, a hundredth of a franc, is a Rappen in German, centime in French, centesimo in Italian, and rap in Romansh. The ISO code of the used by banks and financial institutions is CHF, although Fr. is used by most businesses and advertisers. Given the different languages used in Switzerland, Latin is used for inscriptions on the coins. In 1798, the Helvetic Republic introduced a currency based on the Berne thaler, the Swiss franc was equal to 6 3⁄4 grams of pure silver or 1 1⁄2 French francs. This franc was issued until the end of the Helvetic Republic in 1803, in order to solve this problem, the new Swiss Federal Constitution of 1848 specified that the federal government would be the only entity allowed to make money in Switzerland. This was followed two years later by the first Federal Coinage Act, passed by the Federal Assembly on 7 May 1850, the franc was introduced at par with the French franc. It replaced the different currencies of the Swiss cantons, some of which had been using a franc which was worth 1 1⁄2 French francs. In 1865, France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland formed the Latin Monetary Union, the currency was devalued by 30% following the devaluations of the British pound, U. S. dollar and French franc. In 1945, Switzerland joined the Bretton Woods system and pegged the franc to the U. S. dollar at a rate of $1 =4.30521 francs and this was changed to $1 =4.375 francs in 1949. The Swiss franc has historically considered a safe-haven currency with virtually zero inflation. However, this link to gold, which dates from the 1920s, was terminated on 1 May 2000 following a referendum. By March 2005, following a gold selling program, the Swiss National Bank held 1,290 tonnes of gold in reserves which equated to 20% of its assets. In November 2014, the referendum on the Swiss Gold Initiative which proposed a restoration of 20% gold backing for the Swiss franc was voted down, in March 2011 the franc climbed past the US$1.10 mark. In June 2011 the franc climbed past US$1.20 as investors sought safety amidst the continuation of the Greek sovereign-debt crisis, demand for francs and franc-denominated assets was so strong that nominal short-term Swiss interest rates became negative. In response to the announcement the franc fell against the euro, to 1.22 francs from 1.12 francs, the intervention stunned currency traders since the franc had long been regarded as a safe haven. The franc fell 8. 8% against the euro,9. 5% against the dollar and it was the largest plunge of the franc ever against the euro. The SNB had previously set an exchange rate target in 1978 against the Deutsche mark and maintained it, although at the cost of high inflation
30.
Harry Halbreich
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Harry Halbreich was a Belgian musicologist. He later made his base in Belgium, from 1970 to 1976 he was Lecturer in Musical Analysis at the Royal Conservatory in Mons. He worked on radio broadcasts and co-founded the Belgian music magazine Crescendo for which he was a major contributor. From 1973 to 1976 he was director of the Festival de Royan. He was known for a number of books, articles and studies on modern and contemporary music, including works on Olivier Messiaen, Claude Debussy, Arthur Honegger. He prepared musical catalogues of the works of Honegger and Martinů and he has also written on composers of the past, including Edgard Varèse, George Enescu, Maurice Ohana as well as Ludwig van Beethoven. A personal friend of contemporary performers and composers such as Iannis Xenakis, Giacinto Scelsi, György Ligeti and Witold Lutosławski, he was a keen defender of younger composers. He had a broad interest in culture, and while a convert to Catholicism, he was open to and he died on 27 June 2016 at the age of 85. Of his three children, the eldest Frédéric is a painter, albéric Magnard, together with Simon-Pierre Perret, Fayard,2001. Arthur Honegger, un musicien dans la cité des hommes, Fayard,1992, lOeuvre dArthur Honegger, Chronologie, catalogue raisonné, analyses, discographie, Fayard,1994. Debussy, sa vie et sa pensée, together with Edward Lockspeiser, Bohuslav Martinů Werksverzeichnis, Dokumentation und Biographie. Ana-Maria Avram/ Harry Halbreich, Roumanie, Terre du Neuvième Ciel, interviews, la Musique Spectrale au début du XXIè Siècle Conference in Paris with Harry Halbreich, Ben Watson, Costin Cazaban, Sébastien Beranger, moderated by Ana Maria Avram. Part of the text was translated from the Harry Halbreich article in the French Wikipedia
