1.
Nadar (photographer)
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Nadar was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, and balloonist. Photographic portraits by Nadar are held by many of the national collections of photographs. Nadar was born in April 1820 in Paris and his father, Victor Tournachon, was a printer and bookseller. After his fathers death, Nadar decided to quit his studies for economic reasons. Nadar started working as a caricaturist and novelist for various newspapers and he fell in with the Parisian bohemian group of Gérard de Nerval, Charles Baudelaire and Théodore de Banville. His friends picked a nickname for him, Tournadar, which later became Nadar and his work was published in Le Charivari for the first time in 1848. In 1849, he founded the Revue comique and the Petit journal pour rire, from work as a caricaturist, he moved on to photography, particularly portraits. He opened his studio in rue Saint Lazare in 1854. Nadar photographed a wide range of personalities, politicians, stage actors, writers, painters, portrait photography was going through a period of native industrialization and Nadar refused to use the traditional sumptuous decors, preferred natural daylight and despised useless accessories. In 1886, with his son Paul, he did what may be the first photo-report and it was published in Le Journal Illustré. He took his first photographs in 1853 and in 1855 opened a studio at 25 Boulevard des Capucines. He also pioneered the use of lighting in photography, working in the catacombs of Paris. He was the first person to photograph above ground with his balloons, as well as the first to photograph below ground, Le Géant was badly damaged at the end of its second flight, leading Nadar to the conviction that heavier-than-air machines would be more successful. Later, The Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier than Air Machines was established, with Nadar as president, Nadar was the inspiration for the character of Michael Ardan in Vernes From the Earth to the Moon. On his visit to Brussels with Le Géant, on 26 September 1864, crowd control barriers are still known in Belgium as Nadar barriers. In April 1874, he lent his studio to a group of painters to present the first exhibition of the Impressionists. He photographed Victor Hugo on his death-bed in 1885 and he is credited with having published the first photo-interview, and also took erotic photographs. From 1895 until his return to Paris in 1909, the Nadar photo studio was in Marseilles, Nadar died in 1910, aged 89
2.
Composer
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A composer is a person who creates or writes music, which can be vocal music, instrumental music or music which combines both instruments and voices. The core meaning of the term refers to individuals who have contributed to the tradition of Western classical music through creation of works expressed in written musical notation, many composers are also skilled performers, either as singers, instrumentalists, and/or conductors. Examples of composers who are well known for their ability as performers include J. S. Bach, Mozart. In many popular genres, such as rock and country. For a singer or instrumental performer, the process of deciding how to perform music that has previously composed and notated is termed interpretation. Different performers interpretations of the work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen. Composers and songwriters who present their own music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others, although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, in the 20th and 21st century, a culture eventually developed whereby faithfulness to the composers written intention came to be highly valued. This musical culture is almost certainly related to the esteem in which the leading classical composers are often held by performers. The movement might be considered a way of creating greater faithfulness to the original in works composed at a time that expected performers to improvise. In Classical music, the composer typically orchestrates her own compositions, in some cases, a pop songwriter may not use notation at all, and instead compose the song in her mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play in classical music. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music. In the development of European classical music, the function of composing music initially did not have greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. In as much as the role of the composer in western art music has seen continued solidification, for instance, in certain contexts the line between composer and performer, sound designer, arranger, producer, and other roles, can be quite blurred. The term composer is often used to refer to composers of music, such as those found in classical, jazz or other forms of art. In popular and folk music, the composer is usually called a songwriter and this is distinct from a 19th-century conception of instrumental composition, where the work was represented solely by a musical score to be interpreted by performers
3.
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
4.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
5.
Faust (opera)
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The manager Léon Carvalho insisted on various changes during production, including cutting several numbers. Faust was not initially well received, the publisher Antoine Choudens, who purchased the copyright for 10,000 francs, took the work on tour through Germany, Belgium, Italy and England, with Marie Miolan-Carvalho repeating her role. It was revived in Paris in 1862, and was a hit, further notable revivals at the Opéra took place on 4 December 1893 and 25 January 1908. The popularity of Faust has declined somewhat, beginning around 1950, a full production, with its large chorus and elaborate sets and costumes, is an expensive and time-consuming undertaking, particularly if the act 5 ballet is included. However, it appears as number 35 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide and it was Faust with which the Metropolitan Opera in New York City opened for the first time on 22 October 1883. It is the eighth most frequently performed there, with 747 performances through the 2011-2012 season. It was not until the period between 1965 and 1977 that the version was performed, and all performances in that production included the Walpurgisnacht. Place, Germany Time, 16th century Fausts cabinet Faust, a scholar, determines that his studies have come to nothing and have only caused him to miss out on life. He attempts to kill himself with poison but stops each time when he hears a choir and he curses science and faith, and asks for infernal guidance. Méphistophélès appears and, with an image of Marguerite at her spinning wheel. Fausts goblet of poison is magically transformed into an elixir of youth, making the aged doctor a handsome young gentleman, at the city gates A chorus of students, soldiers and villagers sings a drinking song. Valentin, leaving for war with his friend Wagner, entrusts the care of his sister Marguerite to his youthful friend Siébel, Méphistophélès appears, provides the crowd with wine, and sings a rousing, irreverent song about the Golden Calf. Méphistophélès maligns Marguerite, and Valentin tries to him with his sword. Valentin and friends use the hilts of their swords to fend off what they now know is an infernal power. Méphistophélès is joined by Faust and the villagers in a waltz, Marguerite appears and Faust declares his admiration, but she refuses Fausts arm out of modesty. Marguerites garden The lovesick boy Siébel leaves a bouquet for Marguerite, Faust sends Méphistophélès in search of a gift for Marguerite and sings a cavatina idealizing Marguerite as a pure child of nature. Méphistophélès brings in a box containing exquisite jewelry and a hand mirror and leaves it on Marguerites doorstep. Marguerite enters, pondering her encounter with Faust at the city gates, marthe, Marguerites neighbour, notices the jewellery and says it must be from an admirer
6.
Saint-Cloud
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Saint-Cloud is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 9.6 kilometres from the centre of Paris, canonized after his death, the village where his tomb was located took the name of Sanctus Clodoaldus. A park contains the ruins of the Château de Saint-Cloud, built in 1572 and destroyed by fire in 1870, the château was the residence of several French rulers and served as the main country residence of the cadet Orléans line prior to the French Revolution. The palace was also the site of the coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte that overthrew the French Directory in 1799. The town is famous for the Saint-Cloud porcelain produced there from 1693 to 1766. The Headquarters of the International Criminal Police Organization had been located at 22 Rue Armengaud from 1966 until 1989, the main landmarks are the park of the demolished Château de Saint-Cloud and the Pavillon de Breteuil. The Saint-Cloud Racecourse, a track for Thoroughbred flat racing, was built by Edmond Blanc in 1901 and is host to a number of important races including the annual Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. Saint-Cloud is served by two stations on the Transilien La Défense and Transilien Paris – Saint-Lazare suburban rail lines, Le Val dOr, the town is also served by a number of stops on the T2 Tramway, which runs along the side of the Seine. Central Saint-Cloud, known as le village, is served by the metro station Boulogne-Pont de Saint-Cloud. Public high schools, Lycée Alexandre-Dumas Lycée Santos-Dumont It is also served by the high school Lycée Jean Pierre Vernant in Sèvres
7.
La Madeleine, Paris
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Léglise de la Madeleine is a Roman Catholic church occupying a commanding position in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The Madeleine Church was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleons army, to its south lies the Place de la Concorde, to the east is the Place Vendôme, and to the west Saint-Augustin, Paris. The closest métro station is Madeleine, the site in the suburban faubourg had been annexed to the city of Paris in 1722. Two false starts were made in building a church on this site, the reconstruction of the older church consecrated to Mary Magdalene was considered. In the meantime, the National Assembly was housed in the Palais Bourbon behind a colonnaded front that was inspired by the completed portico at the far end of the former rue Royale. Two curates who had sworn fealty to the Revolution held a memorial service at the church. With completion of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in 1808, after the fall of Napoleon, with the Catholic reaction during the Restoration, King Louis XVIII determined that the structure would be used as a church, dedicated to Mary Magdalene. Vignon died in 1828 before completing the project and was replaced by Jacques-Marie Huvé, the July Monarchy rededicated the monument of repentance for Revolution as a monument of national reconciliation, and the nave was vaulted in 1831. In 1837 it was suggested that the building might best be utilised as a railway station. The funeral of Chopin at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris was delayed almost two weeks, until October 30,1849, Chopin had requested that Mozarts Requiem be sung. The Requiem had major parts for female voices, but the Church of the Madeleine had never permitted female singers in its choir, the Church finally relented, on condition that the female singers remain behind a black velvet curtain. During the Paris Commune of 1871, the curé of the church, Abbé Deguerry was one of those arrested and he was executed alongside Georges Darboy, the Archbishop of Paris and four other hostages on 24 May, as French government troops were retaking the city. The Madeleine is built in the Neo-Classical style and was inspired by the Maison Carrée in Nîmes and its fifty-two Corinthian columns, each 20 metres high, are carried around the entire building. The pediment sculpture of the Last Judgement is by Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire, and its size is 354 feet long and 141 feet wide. Inside, the church has a nave with three domes over wide arched bays, lavishly gilded in a decor inspired as much by Roman baths as by Renaissance artists. The Madeleine is a parish of the Archdiocese of Paris, masses and other religious services are celebrated daily. Funerals and weddings in Paris are still celebrated here, in the basement of the Church is The Foyer de la Madeleine. For a yearly fee of 5 Euros one can dine under the vaulted ceilings on a three course French meal served by volunteers for the price of 8.50 Euros
8.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
9.
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
10.
Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmerman
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Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, known as Pierre Zimmerman and Joseph Zimmermann, was a French pianist, composer, and music teacher. Zimmermann was born in Paris, the son of a piano maker and he attended the Paris Conservatory in 1798, studying piano with François-Adrien Boieldieu, while a student there, he won first prizes for piano in 1800 and harmony in 1802. He would later study under Luigi Cherubini, Zimmermann became a piano assistant at the Conservatory in 1811 and a full professor there in 1816, serving until 1848, he refused a position as a professor of counterpoint and fugue in 1821. Among his students were Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet, César Franck, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Ambroise Thomas, Louis Lacombe, Alexandre Goria, Zimmermann was often assisted in his teaching by Gounod. Zimmermann wrote two operas, Lenlèvement and Nausicaa and he also composed two piano concertos, one piano sonata, and numerous other works for piano. His most important legacy is considered his Encyclopédie du pianiste, a method of piano playing, including a treatise on harmony. He died in Paris and is buried in the Auteuil Cemetery in the 16th arrondissement and his daughter Juliette married Édouard Dubufe Don Randel, The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music
11.
Prix de Rome
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The Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them to stay in Rome for three to five years at the expense of the state, the prize was extended to architecture in 1720, music in 1803, and engraving in 1804. The prestigious award was abolished in 1968 by André Malraux, the Minister of Culture, the Prix de Rome was initially created for painters and sculptors in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by completing a very difficult elimination contest, the prize, organised by the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, was open to their students. From 1666, the winner could win a stay of three to five years at the Palazzo Mancini in Rome at the expense of the King of France. In 1720, the Académie Royale d’Architecture began a prize in architecture, six painters, four sculptors, and two architects would be sent to the French Academy in Rome founded by Jean-Baptiste Colbert from 1666. Expanded after 140 years into five categories, the contest started in 1663 as two categories, painting and sculpture, in 1803, music was added, and after 1804 there was a prix for engraving as well. The primary winner took the First Grand Prize and the Second Prizes were awarded to the runners-up, in 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte moved the French Academy in Rome to the Villa Medici with the intention of preserving an institution once threatened by the French Revolution. At first, the villa and its gardens were in a sad state, in this way, he hoped to retain for young French artists the opportunity to see and copy the masterpieces of antiquity and the Renaissance. Jacques-Louis David, having failed to win the three years in a row, considered suicide. Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Ernest Chausson and Maurice Ravel attempted the Prix de Rome, but did not gain recognition. Ravel tried a total of five times to win the prize, during World War II the prize winners were accommodated in the Villa Paradiso in Nice. The Prix de Rome was abolished in 1968 by André Malraux, since then, a number of contests have been created, and the academies, together with the Institut de France, were merged by the State and the Minister of Culture. Selected residents now have an opportunity for study during an 18-month stay at The Academy of France in Rome, the heyday of the Prix de Rome was during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Prix de Rome for Architecture was created in 1720, the engraving prize was created in 1804. A Prix de Rome was also established in the Kingdom of Holland by Lodewijk Napoleon to award young artists and architects, during the years 1807–1810 prize winners were sent to Paris and onwards to Rome for study. Suspended in 1851 it was reinstated in 1870 by William III of the Netherlands, since then the winners have been selected by the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam under the main headings of architecture and the visual arts. The Belgian Prix de Rome is an award for artists, created in 1832
12.
Cantata
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A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. Cantatas for use in the liturgy of church services are called church cantata or sacred cantata, several cantatas were, and still are, written for special occasions, such as Christmas cantatas. Johann Sebastian Bach composed cycles of cantatas for the occasions of the liturgical year. The term originated in the early 17th century simultaneously with opera, prior to that, all cultured music was vocal. With the rise of music the term appeared, while the instrumental art became sufficiently developed to be embodied in sonatas. From the beginning of the 17th century until late in the 18th, a cantata consisted first of a declamatory narrative or scene in recitative, held together by a primitive aria repeated at intervals. Fine examples may be found in the music of Giacomo Carissimi. With the rise of the da capo aria, the became a group of two or three arias joined by recitative. George Frideric Handels numerous Italian duets and trios are examples on a large scale. His Latin motet Silete Venti, for solo, shows the use of this form in church music. This is equally evident whether we examine the church cantatas of Bach, of which nearly 200 are extant. Cantatas were in demand for the services of the Lutheran church. Many secular cantatas were composed for events in the nobility and they were so similar in form to the sacred ones that many of them were parodied to sacred cantatas, for example in Bachs Christmas Oratorio. The term cantata came to be applied almost exclusively to choral works, Anton Bruckner composed several Name-day cantatas, a Festive Cantata and two secular cantatas. Brucknerss Psalm 146 is also in cantata form, mendelssohns Symphony Cantata, the Lobgesang, is a hybrid work, partly in the oratorio style. Robert Schumann wrote the cantata Paradise and the Peri, the full lyric possibilities of a string of choral songs were realized by Johannes Brahms in his Rinaldo, that—like the Walpurgisnacht—was set to a text by Goethe. The competition for the French Prix de Rome prescribed that each candidate submit a cantata, hector Berlioz failed in three attempts before finally winning in 1830 with Sardanapale. While almost all of the Prix de Rome cantatas have long since been forgotten, cantatas, both of the chamber variety and on a grand scale, were composed after 1900 as well
13.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. He had a influence on the development of church music. Palestrina was born in the town of Palestrina, near Rome, documents suggest that he first visited Rome in 1537, when he is listed as a chorister at the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica. He studied with Robin Mallapert and Firmin Lebel and he spent most of his career in the city. Italy itself had yet to produce anyone of comparable fame or skill in polyphony, from 1544 to 1551, Palestrina was the organist of the Cathedral of St. Agapito, the principal church of his native city. This book of Masses was the first by a composer, since in the Italian states of Palestrinas day, most composers of sacred music were from the Low Countries, France, Portugal. In fact the book was modeled on one by Cristóbal de Morales, during the next decade, Palestrina held positions similar to his Julian Chapel appointment at other chapels and churches in Rome, notably St John Lateran, and St Mary Major. In 1571 he returned to the Julian Chapel and remained at St Peters for the rest of his life, the decade of the 1570s was difficult for him personally, he lost his brother, two of his sons, and his wife in three separate outbreaks of the plague. He seems to have considered becoming a priest at this time, but instead he remarried and this finally gave him financial independence and he was able to compose prolifically until his death. He died in Rome of pleurisy in 1594, as was usual, Palestrina was buried on the same day he died, in a plain coffin with a lead plate on which was inscribed Libera me Domine. A five-part psalm for three choirs was sung at the funeral, Palestrinas funeral was held at St. Peters, and he was buried beneath the floor of the basilica. His tomb was covered by new construction and attempts to locate the site have been unsuccessful. Palestrina left hundreds of compositions, including 105 masses,68 offertories, at least 140 madrigals, in addition, there are at least 72 hymns,35 magnificats,11 litanies, and four or five sets of lamentations. The Gloria melody from a Palestrina magnificat is widely used today in the hymn tune. He published just two collections of madrigals with profane texts, one in 1555 and another in 1586, the other two collections were spiritual madrigals, a genre beloved by the proponents of the Counter-Reformation. Palestrinas masses show how his style developed over time. His Missa sine nomine seems to have been attractive to Johann Sebastian Bach. Most of Palestrinas masses appeared in thirteen volumes printed between 1554 and 1601, the last seven published after his death, one of his most important works, the Missa Papae Marcelli, has been historically associated with erroneous information involving the Council of Trent
14.
St. Cecilia Mass
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St. Cecilia Mass is the common name of a solemn mass in G major by Charles Gounod, composed in 1855 and scored for three soloists, mixed choir, orchestra and organ. The official name is Messe solennelle en l’honneur de Sainte-Cécile, in homage of St. Cecilia, the work was assigned CG56 in the catalogue of the composers works. The first work by Gounod performed in public was on 1 May 1841 a mass at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, the St. Cecilia Mass was his first major work. Parts of it, the Sanctus and Benedictus, were performed in London on 13 January 1851, gounods new music was acclaimed in the press, rendering details and culminating in an enthusiastic summary, It is. The work of a trained artist – and what is more. The review was published in Paris and raised expectations, the premiere was performed on St. Cecilias day,22 November 1855, in Saint-Eustache, Paris, where it was customary to celebrate the day by the performance of a new mass. The Order of Mass is slightly extended, in the Gloria, the prayer miserere nobis is intensified by an added Domine Jesu. The mass has an instrumental offertory, the movement ends with an added Amen. The changes have been criticized as not liturgically strict, the vocal parts of the mass are performed by three soloists and a choir of four parts, sometimes with divided tenor and bass. The soloists act mostly as an ensemble, without arias, Gounod scored the mass for a large orchestra, demanding six harps. In Gloria and Sanctus, he highlighted passages by pistons, typical instruments of the romantic French orchestra, in Benedictus and Agnus Dei, he was the first composer to use the newly developed octobass, a string instrument of the violone family. He included the organ, mostly in Grand jeu. In the following table of the movements, the markings, keys and time signatures are taken from the choral score, camille Saint-Saens commented after the premiere, The appearance of the Messe Saint-Cécile caused a kind of shock. This simplicity, this grandeur, this light which rose before the musical world like a breaking dawn. … at first one was dazzled, then charmed, then conquered, the Sanctus was used in Werner Herzogs film Nosferatu the Vampyre. com
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Symphony in C (Bizet)
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The Symphony in C is an early work by the French composer Georges Bizet. According to Groves Dictionary, the symphony reveals an extraordinarily accomplished talent for a 17-year-old student, in melodic invention, thematic handling, Bizet started work on the symphony on 29 October 1855, four days after turning 17, and finished it roughly a month later. It was written while he was studying at the Paris Conservatoire under the composer Charles Gounod, Bizet showed no apparent interest in having it performed or published, and the piece was never played in his lifetime. He used certain material from the symphony in later works, however, There is no mention of the work in Bizets letters, and it was unknown to his earlier biographers. His widow, Geneviève Halévy, gave the manuscript to Reynaldo Hahn, who left it along with papers to the archives of the conservatory library. It received its first recording on 26 November 1937, by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Walter Goehr, written for a standard orchestra, the work closely follows the classical symphonic form in four movements. The first and the last movement are in sonata form, allegro vivace The symphony is widely assumed to have been a student assignment, written toward the end of Bizets nine years of study at the Conservatoire de Paris. As Bizet would later write of this period, Fifteen years ago, when I used to say Sapho and the choruses from Ulysse are masterpieces, people laughed in my face. In 1855, with Gounod his principal mentor, Bizet wrote his first three major compositions, the opera La maison du docteur, an overture, and the Symphony in C. A year before Bizet started to compose the Symphony, Gounod had written his own first Symphony, Gounods Symphony in D proved a popular work, receiving at least eight performances in Paris alone within the space of a year. Bizet was subsequently engaged with writing a transcription of the work for two pianos, one of a number of commissions to transcribe Gounods work Bizet accepted to earn extra income. This proximity to his mentors work emerges in the close resemblance of Bizets symphony with Gounods. As Howard Shanet, who revived Gounods symphony with the Columbia University Orchestra in 1955, observed, made it clear that the young Bizet had copied all its most conspicuous features in his Symphony in C. There are, in fact, so many references, parodies, as Bizet would later write to his former teacher You were the beginning of my life as an artist. You are the cause, I am the consequence and this sentiment permeates the compositional spirit of the Symphony in C. All four movements of Bizets symphony employ devices found in the earlier Gounod piece, the two inner movements are strikingly similar in form, rhythm and melodic shape. First movement Like Gounod, Bizet bookends the opening movement with an opening tutti chord, in two passages, at measures 86ff and 141ff Bizet quotes directly from Gounod, measures 119ff and mm. 331ff. Second movement Bizet draws very closely from Gounods Allegretto moderato in the Symphony in D, like Gounod, Bizet composed a small fugue as the development section, using an identical scoring in the order of entry
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Georges Bizet
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Georges Bizet, registered at birth as Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer of the romantic era. During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet won many prizes and he was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. Returning to Paris after almost three years in Italy, he found that the main Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire to the works of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were largely ignored, as a result, his career stalled. Restless for success, he began many theatrical projects during the 1860s, neither of his two operas that reached the stage in this time—Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth—were immediately successful. The production of Bizets final opera, Carmen, was delayed because of fears that its themes of betrayal and murder would offend audiences. After its premiere on 3 March 1875, Bizet was convinced that the work was a failure, Bizets marriage to Geneviève Halévy was intermittently happy and produced one son. After his death, his work, apart from Carmen, was generally neglected, manuscripts were given away or lost, and published versions of his works were frequently revised and adapted by other hands. He founded no school and had no obvious disciples or successors, after years of neglect, his works began to be performed more frequently in the 20th century. Later commentators have acclaimed him as a composer of brilliance and originality whose premature death was a significant loss to French musical theatre, Georges Bizet was born in Paris on 25 October 1838. He was registered as Alexandre César Léopold, but baptised as Georges on 16 March 1840 and his father, Adolphe Bizet, had been a hairdresser and wigmaker before becoming a singing teacher despite his lack of formal training. He also composed a few works, including at least one published song, in 1837 Adolphe married Aimée Delsarte, against the wishes of her family who considered him a poor prospect, the Delsartes, though impoverished, were a cultured and highly musical family. Aimée was an accomplished pianist, while her brother François Delsarte was a singer and teacher who performed at the courts of both Louis Philippe and Napoleon III. François Delsartes wife Rosine, a prodigy, had been an assistant professor of solfège at the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 13. Georges, a child, showed early aptitude for music and quickly picked up the basics of musical notation from his mother. This precocity convinced his ambitious parents that he was ready to begin studying at the Conservatoire even though he was only nine years old. Georges was interviewed by Joseph Meifred, the horn virtuoso who was a member of the Conservatoires Committee of Studies, Meifred was so struck by the boys demonstration of his skills that he waived the age rule and offered to take him as soon as a place became available. Bizet was admitted to the Conservatoire on 9 October 1848, two weeks before his 10th birthday and he made an early impression, within six months he had won first prize in solfège, a feat that impressed Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, the Conservatoires former professor of piano
17.
Michel Plasson
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Michel Plasson is a French conductor. Plasson was a student of Lazare Lévy at the Conservatoire de Paris, in 1962, he was a prize-winner at the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors. He studied briefly in the United States, including time with Charles Münch and he became the music director of the city of Metz for 3 years. In 1968, Plasson became principal conductor of the Orchestre et Chœurs du Capitole de Toulouse and his recordings with the orchestra include orchestral works, and operettas of Jacques Offenbach, including Orphée aux enfers, La Vie parisienne, La Périchole and La belle Hélène, and Bizets Carmen. Plasson resigned as conductor in 2003 and now has the title of Honorary Conductor, or conductor emeritus. From 1994 to 2001, he was conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic. Guest appearances include Grand Théâtre de Genève, De Nederlandse Opera, plassons son Emmanuel Plasson is also a conductor. Plassons recordings were made for EMI/Virgin, and focused upon works by French composers. Among these recordings, his interpretations for the works by Offenbach, Gounod. Berlioz Chansons, with Rolando Villazón, Lauren Naouri, and Nicolas Rivenq, bizet LArlésienne - complete incidental music, with Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse. Carmen, with Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, Thomas Hampson, les pêcheurs de perles, with Barbara Hendricks, John Aler and Gino Quilico. Chabrier Orchestral Works, with Barbara Hendricks, Susan Mentzer and Pierre Del Vescovo, debussy Orchestral Works, with Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse. Delibes Lakmé, with Natalie Dessay, Gregory Kunde, and José van Dam, duruflé Requiem, and other Religious Works, with Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Hampson and Marie-Claire Alain. Fauré Orchestral Works, with Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, gardel 15 Tangos, with Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse. Gounod Faust, with Richard Leech, Cheryl Studer, José van Dam, mireille, with Mirella Freni, Alain Vanzo and José van Dam. Lalo Symphonie espagnole and Violin Concerto, with Augustin Dumay, landowski Montségur, with Karan Armstrong and Gino Quilico,1987. Magnard Four symphonies, and orchestral works Guercoeur, with José van Dam, Hildegard Behrens, Massenet Don Quichotte, with Teresa Berganza, José van Dam and Alain Fondary. Hérodiade, with Cheryl Studer, José van Dam, Thomas Hampson, manon, with Ileana Cotrubaș, Alfredo Kraus, Gino Quilico and José Van Dam
18.
Neville Marriner
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Sir Neville Marriner, CH, CBE was an English violinist who became one of the worlds greatest conductors. He founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and his partnership with them is the most recorded of any orchestra, Marriner was born in Lincoln, England, the son of Herbert Marriner, a carpenter, and his wife Ethel. He was educated at Lincoln Grammar School, where he played in a band with the composer Steve Race. He initially learned the violin as well as the piano from his father and he joined up himself in 1941, serving in a reconnaissance role in the British Army, but was invalided out in 1943 with kidney problems. He returned to the Royal College, where he continued his studies with the violinist Billy Reed and he then attended the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with the violinist René Benedetti. Marriner was briefly a teacher at Eton College. In 1948, he became a professor of the Royal College of Music, in 1948 or 1949, he took up the position of second violinist of the Martin String Quartet, continuing to play with the quartet for 13 years. He had met the harpsichordist Thurston Dart while recuperating from kidney damage during the war, and they formed a duo together and these were the precursors to Darts Jacobean Ensemble, in which Marriner played from 1951. He played the violin in two London orchestras, the Philharmonia Orchestra in the early 1950s, and the London Symphony Orchestra as principal second violin and he also played with the chamber orchestras of Reginald Jacques and Boyd Neel, as well as the London Mozart Players. Marriner recorded prolifically with the Academy, Marriner had studied the subject with Monteux at his school in Hancock, Maine, in the United States, from around 1950. Marriner was the founder and first music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, from 1979 to 1986, he was music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. He was principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1986 to 1989 and he remained the musical director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields until 2011, when he was succeeded by Joshua Bell, continuing to hold the title of Life President until his death. He also conducted other orchestras, including the New York Chamber Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra. He continued to conduct into his nineties, becoming the oldest conductor of a Proms concert in 2014 and his obituary in The Telegraph praises the Academy of St Martin in the Fields interpretations of baroque and classical music as fresh, technically brilliant, and describes them as a revelation. Marriner preferred modern instruments and effects, and his work came under criticism by Hogwood, among others and he later expanded the Academys repertoire to include Romantic and early-modern music. Marriner made over 600 recordings covering 2,000 different works – more than any conductor except Herbert von Karajan and he recorded for various labels, including Argo, LOiseau Lyre, Philips and EMI Classics. His recorded repertoire ranges from the era to 20th-century British music. His first wife was cellist Diana Carbutt, whom he married in 1949 and they had two children, Susie, a writer, and Andrew, a clarinettist who often worked with his father and who is now principal clarinet of the London Symphony Orchestra
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Academy of St Martin in the Fields
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The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is an English chamber orchestra, based in London. The original group numbered 11, all male, the orchestra gave its first concert on November 13,1959, in the church it was named after. In 1988, the dropped the hyphens from its full name. Marriner held the title of Life President until his death in 2016, the initial performances as a string orchestra at St Martin-in-the-Fields played a key role in the revival of baroque performances in England. The orchestra has since expanded to include winds and it remains flexible in size, changing its make-up to suit its repertoire, which ranges from the Baroque to contemporary works. On recordings, besides Marriner, Iona Brown and Kenneth Sillito have led the orchestra, since 2000, Murray Perahia has held the title of principal guest conductor of the orchestra, and has made commercial recordings with the orchestra as pianist and conductor. The orchestras first recording was for the LOiseau-Lyre label at Conway Hall on March 25,1961 and it has since accumulated an extensive discography, and is one of the most recorded chamber orchestras in the world, with over 500 sessions. Other labels the orchestra has recorded for include Argo, Capriccio, Chandos, Decca, EMI, Hänssler, Hyperion, PENTATONE, the orchestra has also recorded under the names Argo Chamber Orchestra, London String Players, and London Strings. It has played on the soundtracks of Amadeus, and The English Patient. The Academy also helped record the UEFA Champions League Anthem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Marriner and the Academy – A Record Partnership. London, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields,1999, official Academy of St Martin in the Fields website Music & Vision page on appointment of Johan Duijck
20.
Fanny Mendelssohn
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Fanny Mendelssohn, later Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy and, after her marriage, Fanny Hensel, was a German pianist and composer. She composed over 460 pieces of music and her compositions include a piano trio and several books of solo piano pieces and songs. A number of her songs were published under her brother, Felix Mendelssohns. Her piano works are often in the manner of songs, and she also wrote, amongst other works for the piano, a cycle of pieces depicting the months of the year, Das Jahr. The music was written on coloured sheets of paper, and illustrated by her husband Wilhelm Hensel, each piece was also accompanied by a short poem. Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, the oldest of four children and she was descended on both sides from distinguished Jewish families, her parents were Abraham Mendelssohn, and Lea, née Salomon, a granddaughter of the entrepreneur Daniel Itzig. She was not however brought up as Jewish, and never practised Judaism and she received her first piano instruction from her mother, who had been trained in the Berliner-Bach tradition by Johann Kirnberger, who was himself a student of Johann Sebastian Bach. Thus as a 13 year old, Fanny could already play all 24 Preludes from Bachs The Well-Tempered Clavier by heart and she studied briefly with the pianist Marie Bigot in Paris, and finally with Ludwig Berger. In 1820 Fanny, along with her brother Felix, joined the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin which was led by Carl Friedrich Zelter and this child is really something special. Much later, in an 1831 letter to Goethe, Zelter described Fannys skill as a pianist with the highest praise for a woman at the time, both Fanny and Felix received instruction in composition with Zelter starting in 1819. Fanny showed prodigious ability as a child and began to write music. Visitors to the Mendelssohn household in the early 1820s, including Ignaz Moscheles, however, Fanny was limited by prevailing attitudes of the time toward women, attitudes apparently shared by her father, who was tolerant, rather than supportive, of her activities as a composer. Her father wrote to her in 1820 Music will perhaps become his profession, while for you it can, although Felix was privately broadly supportive of her as a composer and a performer, he was cautious of her publishing her works under her own name. He wrote, From my knowledge of Fanny I should say that she has neither inclination nor vocation for authorship and she is too much all that a woman ought to be for this. She regulates her house, and neither thinks of the public nor of the world, nor even of music at all. Publishing would only disturb her in these, and I cannot say that I approve of it, the siblings shared a great passion for music. Felix did arrange with Fanny for some of her songs to be published under his name, in turn Fanny helped Felix by constructive criticism of pieces and projects, which he always considered very carefully. In 1829, after a courtship of several years, Fanny married the painter Wilhelm Hensel and her husband was supportive of her composing
21.
Felix Mendelssohn
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Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family and he was brought up without religion until the age of seven, when he was baptised as a Reformed Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a prodigy, but his parents were cautious. Mendelssohn enjoyed early success in Germany, where he revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Leipzig Conservatoire, which he founded, became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook, Mendelssohn wrote symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions and he is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era. Mendelssohns father was the banker Abraham Mendelssohn, the son of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and his mother was Lea Salomon, a member of the Itzig family and a sister of Jakob Salomon Bartholdy. Mendelssohn was the second of four children, his older sister Fanny also displayed exceptional, the family moved to Berlin in 1811, leaving Hamburg in disguise fearing French revenge for the Mendelssohn banks role in breaking Napoleons Continental System blockade. Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn sought to give their children – Fanny, Felix, Paul, Fanny became a well-known pianist and amateur composer, originally Abraham had thought that she, rather than Felix, would be the more musical. However, at time, it was not considered proper, by either Abraham or Felix, for a woman to have a career in music, so Fanny remained an active. Abraham was also disinclined to allow Felix to follow a career until it became clear that he seriously intended to dedicate himself to it. Mendelssohn grew up in an intellectual environment, Sarah Rothenburg wrote of the household that Europe came to their living room. Abraham Mendelssohn renounced the Jewish religion, he and his wife decided not to have Felix circumcised. Felix and his siblings were first brought up without religious education, Abraham and his wife Lea were themselves baptised in 1822, formally adopting the surname Mendelssohn Bartholdy for themselves and their children. The name Bartholdy was added at the suggestion of Leas brother, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, in 1829, his sister Fanny wrote to him of Bartholdy this name that we all dislike. Like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart before him, Mendelssohn was regarded as a child prodigy and he began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, and at seven was tutored by Marie Bigot in Paris. After the family moved to Berlin, all four Mendelssohn children studied piano with Ludwig Berger, from at least May 1819 Felix studied counterpoint and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin. This was an important influence on his future career, Zelter had almost certainly been recommended as a teacher by his aunt Sarah Levy, who had been a pupil of W. F. Bach and a patron of C. P. E. Bach
22.
The Well-Tempered Clavier
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The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 846–893, is a collection of two series of Preludes and Fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, composed for solo keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the German of Bachs time Clavier was a name indicating a variety of keyboard instruments, most typically a harpsichord or clavichord –. The modern German spelling for the collection is Das wohltemperierte Klavier, some 20 years later Bach compiled a second book of the same kind, which became known as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part Two. Modern editions usually refer to both parts as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I and The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II, the collection is generally regarded as being among the most influential works in the history of Western classical music. Each set contains twenty-four pairs of preludes and fugues, the first pair is in C major, the second in C minor, the third in C♯ major, the fourth in C♯ minor, and so on. The rising chromatic pattern continues until every key has been represented, the first set was compiled in 1722 during Bachs appointment in Köthen, the second followed 20 years later in 1742 while he was in Leipzig. The C♯ major prelude and fugue in book one was originally in C major – Bach added a key signature of seven sharps, although the Well-Tempered Clavier was the first collection of fully worked keyboard pieces in all 24 keys, similar ideas had occurred earlier. His contemporary Johann Heinrich Kittel also composed a cycle of 12 organ preludes in successive keys, Fischer was published in 1702 and reissued 1715. It is a set of 20 prelude-fugue pairs in ten major and nine minor keys, Bach knew the collection and borrowed some of the themes from Fischer for the Well-Tempered Clavier. Finally, a lost collection by Johann Pachelbel, Fugen und Praeambuln über die gewöhnlichsten Tonos figuratos and it was later shown that this was the work of a composer who was not even born in 1689, Bernhard Christian Weber. It was in written in 1745–50, and in imitation of Bachs example. Bachs title suggests that he had written for a tuning system in which all keys sounded in tune. The opposing system in Bachs day was meantone temperament in which keys with many accidentals sound out of tune, Bach would have been familiar with different tuning systems, and in particular as an organist would have played instruments tuned to a meantone system. There is debate whether Bach meant a range of temperaments, perhaps even altered slightly in practice from piece to piece. During much of the 20th century it was assumed that Bach wanted equal temperament, internal evidence for this may be seen in the fact that in Book 1 Bach paired the E♭ minor prelude with its enharmonic key of D♯ minor for the fugue. This represents an equation of the most tonally remote enharmonic keys where the flat, any performance of this pair would have required both of these enharmonic keys to sound identically tuned, thus implying equal temperament in the one pair, as the entire work implies as a whole. However, research has continued into various unequal systems contemporary with Bachs career, accounts of Bachs own tuning practice are few and inexact. The three most cited sources are Forkel, Bachs first biographer, Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, who received information from Bachs sons and pupils, and Johann Kirnberger, one of those pupils
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Piano
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The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. The word piano is a form of pianoforte, the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument. The first fortepianos in the 1700s had a sound and smaller dynamic range. An acoustic piano usually has a wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings. Pressing one or more keys on the keyboard causes a padded hammer to strike the strings. The hammer rebounds from the strings, and the continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies by more efficiently coupling the acoustic energy to the air, when the key is released, a damper stops the strings vibration, ending the sound. Notes can be sustained, even when the keys are released by the fingers and thumbs and this means that the piano can play 88 different pitches, going from the deepest bass range to the highest treble. The black keys are for the accidentals, which are needed to play in all twelve keys, more rarely, some pianos have additional keys. Most notes have three strings, except for the bass that graduates from one to two, the strings are sounded when keys are pressed or struck, and silenced by dampers when the hands are lifted from the keyboard. There are two types of piano, the grand piano and the upright piano. The grand piano is used for Classical solos, chamber music and art song and it is used in jazz. The upright piano, which is compact, is the most popular type, as they are a better size for use in private homes for domestic music-making. During the nineteenth century, music publishers produced many works in arrangements for piano, so that music lovers could play. The piano is widely employed in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, with technological advances, amplified electric pianos, electronic pianos, and digital pianos have also been developed. The electric piano became an instrument in the 1960s and 1970s genres of jazz fusion, funk music. The piano was founded on earlier technological innovations in keyboard instruments, pipe organs have been used since Antiquity, and as such, the development of pipe organs enabled instrument builders to learn about creating keyboard mechanisms for sounding pitches
24.
Hail Mary
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The Hail Mary, also commonly called the Ave Maria or Angelic Salutation, is a traditional Catholic prayer asking for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. In Roman Catholicism, the forms the basis of the Rosary. In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, a prayer is used in formal liturgies. It is also used by other groups within the Catholic tradition of Christianity including Anglicans, Independent Catholics. Some Protestant denominations, such as Lutherans, also use of a form of the prayer. Based on the greeting of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary in the Gospel of Luke and it has often been set to music, although the most famous musical expression of the words Ave Maria — that by Franz Schubert — does not actually contain the Hail Mary prayer. The prayer incorporates two passages from Saint Lukes Gospel, Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, the first of the two passages from Saint Lukes Gospel is the greeting of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, originally written in Koine Greek. The opening word of greeting, χαῖρε, chaíre, here translated Hail and this was the normal greeting in the language in which Saint Lukes Gospel is written and continues to be used in the same sense in Modern Greek. Accordingly, both Hail and Rejoice are valid English translations of the word, the word κεχαριτωμένη, here translated as full of grace, admits of various translations. The text also appears in the account of the contained in the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Matthew. The second passage is taken from Elizabeths greeting to Mary in Luke 1,42, Blessed art thou among women, taken together, these two passages are the two times Mary is greeted in Chapter 1 of Luke. The Hail Mary prayer of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches is in the form, Θεοτόκε Παρθένε, χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη Μαρία, εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξί, καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου, ὅτι Σωτῆρα ἔτεκες τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν. God-bearing Maid, rejoice, grace-filled Mary, the Lord with thee, praised thou among women, and praised the fruit of thy womb, because it was the Saviour of our souls that thou bearest. Another English rendering of the text reads, Mother of God and Virgin, rejoice, Mary full of grace. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, to the Biblical texts this adds the opening invocation Theotokos Virgin, the name Mary and the concluding because it was the Saviour of our souls that thou barest. Saint Thomas Aquinas spoke of the name Mary, which served to indicate who was the full of grace person mentioned, but at about the same time the name Jesus was also added, to specify who was meant by the phrase the fruit of thy womb. To the greeting and praise of Mary of which the prayer thus consisted, the petition first appeared in print in 1495 in Girolamo Savonarolas Esposizione sopra l’Ave Maria. The Hail Mary prayer in Savonarolas exposition reads, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death
25.
Sapho (Gounod)
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Sapho is a 3-act opera by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Émile Augier which was premiered by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier on 16 April 1851. It was presented only 9 times in its production, but was a succès destime for the young composer. It was later revived in 2-act and 4-act versions, achieving a total of 48 performances, the Viardot family knew Seghers and through him Gounod received an invitation to play several of his compositions on the piano so they could hear them. After several hours Pauline Viardot asked Gounod why he had not yet written an opera and he responded that he did not have a libretto. Viardot immediately told Gounod to seek out Augier and tell him that she would take the responsibility to sing the role in Gounods opera. Gounod also says that Viardot recommended his opera to the director of the company, according to her daughter, Viardot made renewal of her contract for the 1850–1851 season at the Opéra conditional on a commission for Augier and Gounod. In any case, the contract between Augier, Gounod, and Roqueplan, which was dated 1 April 1850, specified a 2-act opera to be provided by 30 September 1850, Gounod, Augier, and Viardot were well suited for a collaboration. In reaction to some of the excesses of French romanticism, Augier had become one of the leaders of a movement in which a primary aim was the restoration of classical subjects to French drama. Viardot had a well-known interest in Greek literature, and Gounod himself, the legends concerning the Greek poet Sappho were selected for the story of the opera, not least because this would provide a suitably serious and impressive title role for Viardot. In his memoirs Gounod writes that on 2 April, shortly after Augier had completed the libretto and it was a month before Gounod could even begin to think about working on the opera. Pauline Viardot, who was in Germany performing, wrote and offered her house in Brie to Gounod as a retreat where he could focus on his composition as well as tend to the needs of his mother. Louis Viardot, Paulines husband, had offered money, presumably to help defray unanticipated expenses arising from Urbains untimely demise. A16 May 1850 letter from Turgenev to Viardot provides a glimpse of Gounod as composer, What Gounod lacks somewhat is a brilliant. His music is like a temple, it is not open to all, I even think that he will always hold it in disdain. He possesses a range of colours on his palette but everything he writes—even a drinking song such as Trinquons—bears a lofty stamp. He idealizes everything he touches but in so doing he leaves the crowd behind and we spoke about these matters this morning. He knows himself as well as any man knows himself, I also do not think that he has much of a comic streak, Goethe once said man ist am Ende … was man ist. By early September Gounod had nearly finished writing the music, when Pauline Viardot returned to France and this did not mean, however, that she did not want alterations
26.
Pauline Viardot
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Pauline Viardot was a leading nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, pedagogue, and composer of Spanish descent. Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, her name appears in various forms, when it is not simply Pauline Viardot, it most commonly appears in association with her maiden name García or the unaccented form, Garcia. This name sometimes precedes Viardot and sometimes follows it, sometimes the words are hyphenated, sometimes they are not. She achieved initial fame as Pauline García, the accent was dropped at some point, after her marriage, she referred to herself simply as Mme Viardot. She came from a family and took up music at a young age. She began performing as teenager and had a long and illustrious career as a star performer and her three daughters also pursued careers in music performances. Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García was born in Paris to the Garcías and her godparents were Ferdinando Paer and Princess Pauline Galitsin, who provided her with her middle names. She was 13 years younger than her sister, diva Maria Malibran. As a small girl, she travelled with her family to London, New York and Mexico. By the age of six she was fluent in Spanish, French, English and Italian, later in her career, she sang Russian arias so well that she was taken for a native speaker. After her fathers death in 1832, her mother, soprano Joaquina Sitchez, took over her singing lessons and she had wanted to become a professional concert pianist. She had taken lessons with the young Franz Liszt and counterpoint and harmony classes with Anton Reicha, the teacher of Liszt and Hector Berlioz. It was with the greatest regret that she abandoned her strong vocation for the piano, Liszt, Ignaz Moscheles, Adolphe Adam, Camille Saint-Saëns and others have left accounts of her excellent piano playing. After Malibrans death in 1836, aged 28, Pauline became a professional singer, however, her professional debut as a musician was as a pianist, accompanying her brother-in-law, the violinist Charles Auguste de Bériot. In 1837, 16-year-old Pauline García gave her first concert performance in Brussels and in 1839 and this proved to be the surprise of the season. Despite her flaws, she had an exquisite technique combined with a degree of passion. At the age of 17, she met and was courted by Alfred de Musset, some sources say he asked for Paulines hand in marriage, but she declined. However, she remained on good terms with him for many years and her friend George Sand had a role in discouraging her from accepting de Mussets proposal, directing her instead to Louis Viardot
27.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and statesman. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters and he was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. He also contributed to the planning of Weimars botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace and his first major scientific work, the Metamorphosis of Plants, was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy. During this period, Goethe published his novel, Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship, the verse epic Hermann and Dorothea, and, in 1808. Goethes comments and observations form the basis of several biographical works, Goethes father, Johann Caspar Goethe, lived with his family in a large house in Frankfurt, then an Imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire. Though he had studied law in Leipzig and had been appointed Imperial Councillor, Johann Caspar married Goethes mother, Catharina Elizabeth Textor at Frankfurt on 20 August 1748, when he was 38 and she was 17. All their children, with the exception of Johann Wolfgang and his sister, Cornelia Friederica Christiana and his father and private tutors gave Goethe lessons in all the common subjects of their time, especially languages. Goethe also received lessons in dancing, riding and fencing, Johann Caspar, feeling frustrated in his own ambitions, was determined that his children should have all those advantages that he had not. Although Goethes great passion was drawing, he became interested in literature, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. He also took pleasure in reading works on history and religion. He writes about this period, Goethe became also acquainted with Frankfurt actors, among early literary attempts, he was infatuated with Gretchen, who would later reappear in his Faust and the adventures with whom he would concisely describe in Dichtung und Wahrheit. He adored Caritas Meixner, a wealthy Worms traders daughter and friend of his sister, Goethe studied law at Leipzig University from 1765 to 1768. He detested learning age-old judicial rules by heart, preferring instead to attend the lessons of Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. In Leipzig, Goethe fell in love with Anna Katharina Schönkopf, in 1770, he anonymously released Annette, his first collection of poems. His uncritical admiration for many contemporary poets vanished as he became interested in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, already at this time, Goethe wrote a good deal, but he threw away nearly all of these works, except for the comedy Die Mitschuldigen. The restaurant Auerbachs Keller and its legend of Fausts 1525 barrel ride impressed him so much that Auerbachs Keller became the real place in his closet drama Faust Part One. As his studies did not progress, Goethe was forced to return to Frankfurt at the close of August 1768, Goethe became severely ill in Frankfurt. During the year and a half that followed, because of several relapses, during convalescence, Goethe was nursed by his mother and sister
28.
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
29.
Romeo and Juliet
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Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeares most popular plays during his lifetime and along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays, today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. The plot is based on an Italian tale translated into verse as The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562, Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both but expanded the plot by developing a number of supporting characters, particularly Mercutio and Paris. Believed to have written between 1591 and 1595, the play was first published in a quarto version in 1597. The text of the first quarto version was of quality, however. Shakespeares use of his dramatic structure has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic skill. The play ascribes different poetic forms to different characters, sometimes changing the form as the character develops, Romeo, for example, grows more adept at the sonnet over the course of the play. Romeo and Juliet has been adapted numerous times for stage, film, musical, during the English Restoration, it was revived and heavily revised by William Davenant. David Garricks 18th-century version also modified several scenes, removing material then considered indecent, Performances in the 19th century, including Charlotte Cushmans, restored the original text and focused on greater realism. John Gielguds 1935 version kept very close to Shakespeares text and used Elizabethan costumes, the play, set in Verona, Italy, begins with a street brawl between Montague and Capulet servants who, like their masters, are sworn enemies. Prince Escalus of Verona intervenes and declares that further breach of the peace will be punishable by death, later, Count Paris talks to Capulet about marrying his daughter Juliet, but Capulet asks Paris to wait another two years and invites him to attend a planned Capulet ball. Lady Capulet and Juliets nurse try to persuade Juliet to accept Pariss courtship, meanwhile, Benvolio talks with his cousin Romeo, Montagues son, about Romeos recent depression. Benvolio discovers that it stems from unrequited infatuation for a girl named Rosaline, one of Capulets nieces, persuaded by Benvolio and Mercutio, Romeo attends the ball at the Capulet house in hopes of meeting Rosaline. However, Romeo instead meets and falls in love with Juliet, Juliets cousin, Tybalt, is enraged at Romeo for sneaking into the ball but is only stopped from killing Romeo by Juliets father, who does not wish to shed blood in his house. Romeo makes himself known to her and they agree to be married, with the help of Friar Laurence, who hopes to reconcile the two families through their childrens union, they are secretly married the next day. Tybalt, meanwhile, still incensed that Romeo had sneaked into the Capulet ball, Romeo, now considering Tybalt his kinsman, refuses to fight. Mercutio is offended by Tybalts insolence, as well as Romeos vile submission, Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo attempts to break up the fight
30.
Mireille (opera)
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Mireille is an 1864 opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Michel Carré after Frédéric Mistrals poem Mireio. The vocal score is dedicated to George V of Hanover, Mistral had become well known in Paris with the publication of the French prose translation of Mireio in 1859, and Gounod probably knew the work by 1861. He was charmed by its originality, the story being much less contrived than many of those on the stage at the time. The action of the opera is quite faithful to Mistral, although the sequence of events of the Val d’Enfer and Mireilles avowal of her love of Vincent to her father are reversed in the opera. Gounods biographer James Harding has argued that matters in this extended lyric poem is not the story but the rich tapestry or Provençal traditions, beliefs. During the course of composition Gounod spent much time in Provence, visiting the sites of the action in the poem/opera, Gounod stayed at the Hôtel de la Ville Vert in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and was treated to a banquet by the townspeople on May 26. A pre-performance run-through of the work at Gounods house included Georges Bizet on the piano, Gounod and the Vicomtesse de Grandval sang the solo parts. The opera premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on March 19,1864, the first night was attended by Ivan Turgenev, who in a letter to Pauline Viardot, ridicules part of Act 3. As with the role of Marguerite in Faust, Gounods demands on his principal soprano are particularly onerous – from light soprano in Act I to more singing in Act IV. Even before the premiere Gounod had been forced by his prima donna to make changes to the form. This caused vocal problems for Miolan-Carvalho - wife of the theatre director - who got Gounod to make the easier for her. Gounod even marked in the manuscript that the roulades at the end of her Act 2 air were demanded by her, critical reaction to the first performances was negative with accusations of Wagnerism. The criticisms led to a version first presented on December 15,1864. However, this also failed to find an audience. The December performances of Mireille also included an ending to the overture. After Carvalhos company went bankrupt in 1868, the transferred to the Opéra-Comique. The first production at the Salle Favart was on November 10,1874, in four acts and this version did much better, and the opera became a repertory piece, receiving 226 performances by the end of 1894. The three-act version pleased some later writers, who admired warmth and colour and found it glows with the life, a new production at the Opéra-Comique, which opened on March 13,1901, was again in five acts, used spoken dialogue, and reinstated the tragic ending
31.
Punch (magazine)
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Punch, or The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, after the 1940s, when its circulation peaked, it went into a long decline, closing in 1992. It was revived in 1996, but closed again in 2002, Punch was founded on 17 July 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells, on an initial investment of £25. It was jointly edited by Mayhew and Mark Lemon and it was subtitled The London Charivari in homage to Charles Philipons French satirical humour magazine Le Charivari. Mayhew ceased to be joint editor in 1842 and became suggestor in chief until he severed his connection in 1845, the magazine initially struggled for readers, except for an 1842 Almanack issue which shocked its creators by selling 90,000 copies. In December 1842 due to difficulties the magazine was sold to Bradbury and Evans. Bradbury and Evans capitalised on newly evolving mass printing technologies and also were the publishers for Charles Dickens, Punch humorously appropriated the term to refer to its political cartoons, and the popularity of the Punch cartoons led to the terms widespread use. The illustrator Archibald Henning designed the cover of the magazines first issues, the cover design varied in the early years, though Richard Doyle designed what became the magazines masthead in 1849. Artists who published in Punch during the 1840s and 50s included John Leech, Richard Doyle, John Tenniel and this group became known as The Punch Brotherhood, which also included Charles Dickens who joined Bradbury and Evans after leaving Chapman and Hall in 1843. Punch authors and artists contributed to another Bradbury and Evans literary magazine called Once A Week. In the 1860s and 1870s, conservative Punch faced competition from upstart liberal journal Fun, at Evanss café in London, the two journals had Round tables in competition with each other. Punch gave several phrases to the English language, including The Crystal Palace, several British humour classics were first serialised in Punch, such as the Diary of a Nobody and 1066 and All That. Towards the end of the century, the artistic roster included Harry Furniss, Linley Sambourne, Francis Carruthers Gould. Among the outstanding cartoonists of the century were Bernard Partridge, H. M. Bateman, Bernard Hollowood who also edited the magazine from 1957 to 1968, Kenneth Mahood. Circulation broke the 100,000 mark around 1910, and peaked in 1947–1948 at 175,000 to 184,000, sales declined steadily thereafter, ultimately, the magazine was forced to close in 1992 after 150 years of publication. Punch was widely emulated worldwide and popular in the colonies, however, the colonial experience, especially in India, also influenced Punch and its iconography. Tenniels Punch cartoons of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny led to a surge in the magazines popularity, colonial India was time and again caricatured in Punch and can be seen as a significant source for producing knowledge about India. Many Punch cartoonists of the late 20th century published collections of their own, Punch magazine ceased publishing in 1992
32.
Blackheath, London
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Blackheath is an area of south-east London, divided between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham, located east of the town of Lewisham, and south of the town of Greenwich. It is notable for its pubs, village-y feel. The name is recorded in 1166 as Blachehedfeld and means the dark coloured heathland and it is formed from the Old English blæc and hǣth and refers to the open space that was the meeting place of the ancient hundred of Blackheath. The name was applied to the Victorian suburb that developed in the 19th century and was extended to the areas known as Blackheath Park. An urban myth is that Blackheath was associated with the 1665 Plague or the Black Death of the mid-14th century, virtually every part of London has a local tradition about plague pits under, say, a local school or shop. The sheer number of bodies meant that the traditional churchyards became, as one put it. During the seventeenth century Blackheath was, along with Hounslow Heath, in 1673 the Blackheath Army was assembled under Marshal Schomberg to serve in the Third Anglo-Dutch War. The Roman road that became known as Watling Street crosses the northern edge of Blackheath, probably heading for the mouth of Deptford Creek. Blackheath was a point for Wat Tylers Peasants Revolt of 1381. Wat Tyler is remembered by Wat Tyler Road on the heath, after pitching camp on Blackheath, Cornish rebels were defeated in the Battle of Deptford Bridge, just to the west, on 17 June 1497. With Watling Street carrying stagecoaches across the heath, en route to north Kent, in 1909 Blackheath had a local branch of the London Society for Womens Suffrage. The Vanbrugh Pits are on the north-east part of the heath, the site of old gravel workings, Vanbrugh Pits have long been reclaimed by nature and form one of the more attractive parts of the generally rather flat Blackheath. It is particularly attractive in spring when the extensive gorse blossoms, the pits are named after Sir John Vanbrugh, architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, who had a house nearby, adjacent to Greenwich Park, now called Vanbrugh Castle. Mince Pie House built for his family, survived until 1911, the sizeable estate of Blackheath Park, created on lands of Wricklemarsh Manor by John Cator is situated east of Blackheath. The Cator Estate was built on part of the formerly owned by Sir John Morden. The Cator Estate also contains innovative 1960s Span houses and flats by the renowned Span Developments, St Michael and All Angels Church, designed by local architect George Smith and completed in 1830, was dubbed the Needle of Kent in honour of its tall, thin spire. All Saints Church, situated on the heath, designed by the architect Benjamin Ferrey, another Anglican church, St John the Evangelists, was designed in 1853 by Arthur Ashpitel. The Pagoda is an example of a beautiful property situated in Blackheath
33.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
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Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted and executive produced by Alfred Hitchcock, which aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries, by the time it premiered on October 2,1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades. Time magazine named it one of The 100 Best TV Shows of all time, the Writers Guild of America ranked it #79 on their list of the 101 Best-Written TV Series tying it with Monty Pythons Flying Circus, Star Trek, The Next Generation and Upstairs, Downstairs. A series of anthologies with the running title Alfred Hitchcock Presents were issued to capitalize on the success of the television series. Alfred Hitchcock Presents is well known for its title sequence, the camera fades in on a simple line-drawing caricature of Hitchcocks rotund profile. He then almost always says Good evening, the caricature drawing, which Hitchcock created, and the use of Gounods Funeral March of a Marionette as theme music have become indelibly associated with Hitchcock in popular culture. At least two versions of the opening were shot for every episode, a version intended for the American audience would often spoof a recent popular commercial or poke fun at the sponsor, leading into the commercial. An alternative version for European audiences would instead include jokes at the expense of Americans in general, for later seasons, opening remarks were also filmed with Hitchcock speaking in French and German for the shows international presentations. Hitchcock closed the show in much the way as it opened. He told TV Guide that his reassurances that the criminal had been apprehended were a necessary gesture to morality, Alfred Hitchcock Presents finished at #6 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1956–57 season, and at #12 in 1957–58, #24 in 1958–59 and #25 in 1959–60. Originally 25 minutes per episode, the series was expanded to 50 minutes in 1962, Hitchcock directed 17 of the 267 filmed episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and one of the 50-minute episodes, I Saw the Whole Thing with John Forsythe. The last new episode aired on June 26,1965, in 1985, NBC aired a new TV movie pilot based upon the series, combining four newly filmed stories with colorized footage of Hitchcock from the original series to introduce each segment. The movie was a ratings success. Alfred Hitchcock Presents revival series debuted in the fall of 1985 and retained the format as the pilot. The new series lasted one season before NBC cancelled it. Other notable directors included Robert Altman, Ida Lupino, Stuart Rosenberg, Robert Stevenson, David Swift and William Friedkin, who ended up directing what would be the last episode. Alfred Hitchcock Presents,25 minutes long, aired weekly at 9,30 on CBS on Sunday nights from 1955 to 1960, and then at 8,30 on NBC on Tuesday nights from 1960 to 1962. It was followed by The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, which lasted for three seasons, September 1962 to June 1965, adding another 93 episodes to the 268 already produced for Alfred Hitchcock Presents
34.
Georgina Weldon
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Georgina Weldon was a British campaigner against the lunacy laws, a celebrated litigant and noted amateur soprano of the Victorian era. Morgan Thomas was a barrister, having inherited a large sum of money from his father and uncle. Georgina spent most of her childhood in Florence, and her singing voice was trained by her mother. In 1856 the Thomas family changed its name to Treherne, the surname of Morgan Thomass ancestors up to the mid-eighteenth century. On 21 April 1860, against her fathers wishes, Georgina married William Henry Weldon, in August 1860 she suffered a miscarriage when her husband threatened to kill her and himself. In 1863 William Weldon took a mistress, the nineteen-year-old Annie Stanley Dobson and she claimed to be a widow and went by the name Mrs Lowe, and gave him a son, Francis Stanley Lowe. On the death of his grandmother he inherited £10,000 a year and in 1870 he leased Tavistock House in Bloomsbury, which had a theatre that had been added by Charles Dickens. By 1869 Georgina Weldons childless marriage was breaking down, at this time she devised a scheme for a National Training School of Music to teach music to poor children. The Weldons filled Tavistock House with orphans and she also joined Henry David Leslies famous choir, through which she met the French composer Charles Gounod in March 1871. By November 1871 Gounod, who was in health, had moved into Tavistock House with Mr. This close association with the composer benefited Weldons singing career and she published Hints for Pronunciation in Singing in 1872 as well as various songs and memoirs. It has been suggested that Georgina and Gounod were lovers, however, Gounod became increasingly disturbed by gossip about the Weldon Affair and in June 1874 he returned to his wife in Paris. Feeling slighted by Gounods departure, Georgina Weldon refused to send on his personal belongings, when Gounod asked Georgina to return these belongings to him, she insisted that he return to London to claim them from her in person. Only when he had reconstructed the musical score, nearly a year later. She then instigated a number of lawsuits against him for libel, attempting to sue him for £10,000, instead, in 1880 and again in 1885 she herself was imprisoned for libels connected with her musical career. By 1875 Harry Weldon had tired of his wifes orphanage scheme, the couple separated, and he gave Georgina the lease to Tavistock House and £1000 a year as a financial settlement. Georgina was seen by the two doctors, who obtained an interview with her under false pretences, pretending that they were interested in her musical orphanage. They then signed the lunacy order, Georgina realised that something was wrong and, when staff from the asylum arrived to take her away by force, she escaped and evaded capture for the seven days that the order remained valid
35.
Tavistock House
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Tavistock House was the London home of the noted British author Charles Dickens and his family from 1851 to 1860. At Tavistock House Dickens wrote Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and he also put on amateur theatricals there which are described in John Forsters Life of Charles Dickens. Later, it was the home of William and Georgina Weldon, whose lodger was the French composer Charles Gounod, Tavistock House was built by builder and developer James Burton, who probably lived in Tavistock House while he developed the surrounding area. The house is shown on Davies Map of Marylebone, printed in 1834, from Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, Burton acquired the leases for two plots of land, one northern and one southern, on the east side of Tavistock Square. It was on the plot, and part of the southern plot. Burton sold the lease for Tavistock House to Thomas Murdock in 1805, Murdock lived there for six years before he in turn sold the lease to Benjamin Oakley in 1811. In 1812 Oakley transferred the lease to journalist James Perry, who was the first editor of The European Magazine, stockbroker Charles Williams later lived in Tavistock House, renting it from his friend James Perry. From Tavistock House Williams published a volume of letters and portraits of his family. In 1851 Dickens, with his family, moved into the western section of the by now divided Tavistock House. His first published story, A Dinner at Poplar Walk is set in Tavistock House, Dickens wrote Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, and A Tale of Two Cities at Tavistock House. He also put on amateur theatricals there which are described in John Forsters Life of Charles Dickens, the Frozen Deep was first performed at Tavistock House at a dress rehearsal on 5 January 1857 for an audience of servants and local tradespeople. Other performances were held on 6,8,12 and 14 January for audiences of about 90 people at each performance and these audiences were made up of friends of Dickens and Collins, including members of Parliament, judges, and government ministers. Dickens had Tavistock Houses large schoolroom converted into what he billed as The Smallest Theatre in the World, the first performance at this improvised theatre was the burlesque Guy Fawkes by Alfred Smith, held to celebrate Twelfth Night. In 1858, while living at Tavistock House Dickens separated from his wife, in 1856 Dickens bought Gads Hill Place in Kent, but he did not sell the lease for Tavistock House until August 1860, after his daughter Kate Dickens marriage. Dickens sold the lease to William Spencer Johnson and William Bush for two thousand guineas, the celebrated litigant and soprano Mrs. Georgina Weldon and her husband William Henry Weldon later lived in Tavistock House, and she held classes for the cultivation of the voice in the house. Charles Gounod later lodged with the Weldons in Tavistock House, and it has been suggested that Georgina Weldon and Gounod were lovers, and that he had promised her the title role in his opera Polyeucte when it opened in Paris. However, Gounod became increasingly disturbed by the gossip about the ‘Weldon Affair’, feeling slighted by Gounods departure, Georgina Weldon refused to send on his personal belongings, including the draft of his opera Polyeucte, forcing him to rewrite it. Tavistock House was demolished in 1901, and its location is covered today by the headquarters of the British Medical Association in Tavistock Square
36.
Ferdinando de Cristofaro
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Ferdinando de Cristofaro was one of the most celebrated mandolin virtuosi of the late 19th Century. He was also a classical pianist, teacher, author and composer, who performed at the courts of Europe. He received his education in the Conservatory of Naples, devoting himself to the study of the piano. He was beaming a virtuoso on that instrument too, and would have outdone his achievements as a mandolinist, Cristofaro was entirely self-taught on the mandolin, and he soon distinguished himself by his performances on this instrument in Italy. To the Neapolitans, he introduced a new and completely advanced method of playing—accustomed as they were to hearing the instrument in the hands of strolling players for accompanying popular songs, the classical compositions, executed by Cristofaro, caused unbounded enthusiasm, astonishment, and admiration. His fame spread rapidly throughout Italy, and after appearing with success in all the important cities, he was induced to visit Paris. During his residence in there, he appeared in public with the most prominent musicians of the time, including Charles Gounod, who, upon several occasions accompanied his solos with the pianoforte. In 1881, he had made a name in the world as a composer. That same year, Cristofaro visited London, performing successfully and he was sought there also as a teacher and was appointed conductor of the Ladies Guitar and Mandolin Band. He repeated his visit to London during the season giving mandolin recitals in which renowned mandolinist songwriter Luigi Denza. Cristofaro intended to reside a part of season in London, and devote himself to teaching his instrument. He had concluded arrangements to resume his lessons in London during Easter and he left many pupils, and he was constantly engaged in composition and as a public performer. As an executant, he was in many respects unsurpassed and his tone was remarkable for its exquisite tenderness and delicacy—his expression and nuances were unapproachable—and his tour de force were models of artistic excellence. He brought the higher mechanical attributes such as the shake, double stopping, as a soloist, or in part playing, or again at the piano as accompanist, he well knew how to exhibit the mandolin to its greatest advantage. His mandolin was constructed according to his own design by the eminent maker, Salsedo of Naples and he usually performed with a plectrum of cherry bark. Cristofaro was not content with his successes, but pushed himself toward larger fame and he decided to write a melodramatic opera, calling it Almina da Volterra. He set the plot was laid in Venice in the time of the republic, the work took him two years and was met with understanding of his talents. Cristofaro was the author of a method for the mandolin, consisting of two volumes, each being published in five languages, English, French, Italian, Portuguese
37.
Pontifical Anthem
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The Pontifical Anthem and March, also known as the Papal Anthem, is the anthem played to mark the presence of the Pope or one of his representatives, such as a nuncio, and on other solemn occasions. When the Vaticans flag is raised, only the first eight bars are played. The music was composed in 1869 by Charles Gounod, for the celebration on April 11,1869 of Pope Pius IXs golden jubilee of priestly ordination, the purely instrumental piece in three parts, originally called Marche pontificale, became extremely popular from its first performance. Gounods Marche Pontificale was first performed in this new role during a ceremony on Christmas Eve of 1949, the old anthem too was played for a last time, almost as a token of respect. At that time, Antonio Allegra, who was one of the organists of St. Peters Basilica. Other lyrics have been composed for the music in various languages, some of these versions are not directly related to the papacy, e. g. Rudy Villanuevas Cebuano prayer, Yutang Tabonon, for protection for the Philippine nation. In 1991, Raffaello Lavagna of Savona wrote Latin lyrics for a four-voice choir, index of Vatican City-related articles PDF, info here Official site of Vatican City State Streaming audio, lyrics and information about the Pontifical Anthem
38.
National anthem
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The majority of national anthems are either marches or hymns in style. The countries of Latin America tend towards more operatic pieces, while a handful of countries use a simple fanfare, a national anthem is usually in the national or most common language of the country, whether de facto or official, there are notable exceptions. Amhrán na bhFiann, the anthem of the Republic of Ireland, was written in English, the current national anthem of South Africa is unique in that five of the countrys eleven official languages are used in the same anthem. One of the two national anthems of New Zealand, God Defend New Zealand, is commonly now sung with the first verse in Māori. The tune is the same but the words are not a translation of each other. God Bless Fiji has lyrics in English and Fijian which are not translations of each other, although official, the Fijian version is rarely sung, and it is usually the English version that is performed at international sporting events. There are several countries that do not have official lyrics to their anthems, one of these is the Marcha Real, the anthem of Spain. In 2007 a national competition to write words was held, other anthems with no words include Inno Nazionale della Repubblica, the anthem of San Marino, and that of Kosovo, entitled Europe. National anthems rose to prominence in Europe during the 19th century, the oldest national anthem belongs to the Netherlands and is called the Wilhelmus. It was written between 1568 and 1572 during the Dutch Revolt, but did not become the anthem until 1932. The Japanese anthem, Kimigayo, has the oldest lyrics, which were taken from a Heian period poem, in contrast, the music of Qaumi Taranah, Pakistans national anthem was composed in 1949, preceding its lyrics, which were written in 1952. The Philippine anthem Lupang Hinirang was composed in 1898 as wordless incidental music for the ceremony declaring independence from the Spanish Empire, the Spanish poem Filipinas was written the following year to serve as the anthems lyrics, the current Tagalog version dates to 1962. Spains national anthem, the Marcha Real, written in 1761, was among the first to be adopted as such, in 1770. Denmark adopted the older of its two national anthems, Kong Christian stod ved højen mast, in 1780, and La Marseillaise, Serbia became the first Eastern European nation to have a national anthem – Rise up, Serbia. – in 1804. Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu, the anthem of Kenya, is one of the first national anthems to be specifically commissioned. It was written by the Kenyan Anthem Commission in 1963 to serve as the anthem after independence from the United Kingdom, National anthems are used in a wide array of contexts. Certain etiquette may be involved in the playing of a countrys anthem and these usually involve military honours, standing up/rising, removing headwear etc. In diplomatic situations the rules may be very formal, there may also be royal anthems, presidential anthems, state anthems etc. for special occasions
39.
Vatican City
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Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or the State of Vatican City, is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With an area of approximately 44 hectares, and a population of 842, however, formally it is not sovereign, with sovereignty being held by the Holy See, the only entity of public international law that has diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world. It is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Bishop of Rome – the Pope, the highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. Vatican City is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to early Christianity and is the episcopal see of 1.2 billion Latin. According to the terms of the treaty, the Holy See has full ownership, exclusive dominion, within Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peters Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the worlds most famous paintings and sculptures, the unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and tourist mementos, fees for admission to museums, and the sale of publications. The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, the name is taken from Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state. Vatican is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum meaning garden, located in the area the Romans called vaticanus ager. The official Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, although the Holy See and the Catholic Church use Ecclesiastical Latin in official documents, the Vatican City officially uses Italian. The Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanæ, this is used in documents by not just the Holy See. The name Vatican was already in use in the time of the Roman Republic for an area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome. Under the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers that was completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply. Even before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this originally uninhabited part of Rome had long considered sacred. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby, the particularly low quality of Vatican water, even after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial. The Vatican Obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant and this area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD64. Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down, opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Peters in the first half of the 4th century, the Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery
40.
Joan of Arc
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Joan of Arc, nicknamed The Maid of Orléans, is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years War and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint. Joan of Arc was born to Jacques dArc and Isabelle Romée, the uncrowned King Charles VII sent Joan to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence after the siege was lifted nine days later. Several additional swift victories led to Charles VIIs coronation at Reims and this long-awaited event boosted French morale and paved the way for the final French victory. On 23 May 1430, she was captured at Compiègne by the Burgundian faction and she was later handed over to the English and put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais Pierre Cauchon on a variety of charges. After Cauchon declared her guilty she was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, in 1456, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, debunked the charges against her, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr. In the 16th century she became a symbol of the Catholic League and she was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. Cultural depictions of her have continued in films, theater, television, video games, music, the Hundred Years War had begun in 1337 as an inheritance dispute over the French throne, interspersed with occasional periods of relative peace. Nearly all the fighting had taken place in France, and the English armys use of chevauchée tactics had devastated the economy, the French population had not recovered to its size previous to the Black Death of the mid-14th century, and its merchants were isolated from foreign markets. Prior to the appearance of Joan of Arc, the English had nearly achieved their goal of a monarchy under English control. In the words of DeVries, The kingdom of France was not even a shadow of its thirteenth-century prototype, the French king at the time of Joans birth, Charles VI, suffered from bouts of insanity and was often unable to rule. The kings brother Louis, Duke of Orléans, and the kings cousin John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, quarreled over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal children. This dispute included accusations that Louis was having an affair with the queen, Isabeau of Bavaria. The conflict climaxed with the assassination of the Duke of Orléans in 1407 on the orders of the Duke of Burgundy, the young Charles of Orléans succeeded his father as duke and was placed in the custody of his father-in-law, the Count of Armagnac. Their faction became known as the Armagnac faction, and the party led by the Duke of Burgundy was called the Burgundian faction. In 1418 Paris was taken by the Burgundians, who massacred the Count of Armagnac, the future French king, Charles VII, assumed the title of Dauphin—the heir to the throne—at the age of fourteen, after all four of his older brothers had died in succession. His first significant official act was to conclude a treaty with the Duke of Burgundy in 1419. This ended in disaster when Armagnac partisans assassinated John the Fearless during a meeting under Charless guarantee of protection, the new duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, blamed Charles for the murder and entered into an alliance with the English
41.
Charles VII of France
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Charles VII, called the Victorious or the Well-Served, was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1422 to his death. In the midst of the Hundred Years War, Charles VII inherited the throne of France under desperate circumstances, in addition, his father Charles VI had disinherited him in 1420 and recognized Henry V of England and his heirs as the legitimate successors to the French crown instead. At the same time, a war raged in France between the Armagnacs and the Burgundian party. However, his political and military position improved dramatically with the emergence of Joan of Arc as a leader in France. Joan of Arc and other charismatic figures led French troops to lift the siege of Orléans, as well as other cities on the Loire river. With the local English troops dispersed, the people of Reims switched allegiance and opened their gates and this long-awaited event boosted French morale as hostilities with England resumed. Following the battle of Castillon in 1453, the French had expelled the English from all their continental possessions except for the Pale of Calais, the last years of Charles VII were marked by conflicts with his turbulent son, the future Louis XI of France. Born at the Hôtel Saint-Pol, the residence in Paris. He was the child and fifth son of Charles VI of France. His four elder brothers, Charles, Charles, Louis and John had each held the title of Dauphin of France in turn, all died childless, leaving Charles with a rich inheritance of titles. By 1419, Charles had established his own court in Bourges and they also decided that a further meeting should take place the following 10 September. On that date, they met on the bridge at Montereau, the Duke assumed that the meeting would be entirely peaceful and diplomatic, thus he brought only a small escort with him. The Dauphins men reacted to the Dukes arrival by attacking and killing him, Charles level of involvement has remained uncertain to this day. Although he claimed to have been unaware of his mens intentions, the assassination marked the end of any attempt of a reconciliation between the two factions Armagnacs and Burgundians, thus playing into the hands of Henry V of England. Charles was later required by a treaty with Philip the Good, the son of John the Fearless, to pay penance for the murder, at the death of his father, Charles VI, the succession was cast into doubt. For those who did not recognize the treaty and believed the Dauphin Charles to be of legitimate birth, for those who did not recognize his legitimacy, the rightful heir was recognized as Charles, Duke of Orléans, cousin of the Dauphin, who was in English captivity. Only the supporters of Henry VI and the Dauphin Charles were able to enlist sufficient military force to press effectively for their candidates, the English, already in control of northern France, were able to enforce the claim of their king in the regions of France that they occupied. Northern France, including Paris, was ruled by an English regent, Henry Vs brother, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford
42.
Legion of Honour
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The Legion of Honour, full name National Order of the Legion of Honour, is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction, Chevalier, Officier, Commandeur, Grand Officier and Grand-Croix. The orders motto is Honneur et Patrie and its seat is the Palais de la Légion dHonneur next to the Musée dOrsay, in the French Revolution, all French orders of chivalry were abolished, and replaced with Weapons of Honour. The Légion however did use the organization of old French orders of chivalry, the badges of the legion also bear a resemblance to the Ordre de Saint-Louis, which also used a red ribbon. Napoleon originally created this to ensure political loyalty, the organization would be used as a facade to give political favours, gifts, and concessions. The Légion was loosely patterned after a Roman legion, with legionaries, officers, commanders, regional cohorts, the highest rank was not a grand cross but a Grand Aigle, a rank that wore all the insignia common to grand crosses. The members were paid, the highest of them extremely generously,5,000 francs to an officier,2,000 francs to a commandeur,1,000 francs to an officier,250 francs to a légionnaire. Napoleon famously declared, You call these baubles, well, it is with baubles that men are led, do you think that you would be able to make men fight by reasoning. That is good only for the scholar in his study, the soldier needs glory, distinctions, rewards. This has been quoted as It is with such baubles that men are led. The order was the first modern order of merit, under the monarchy, such orders were often limited to Roman Catholics, and all knights had to be noblemen. The military decorations were the perks of the officers, the Légion, however, was open to men of all ranks and professions—only merit or bravery counted. The new legionnaire had to be sworn in the Légion and it is noteworthy that all previous orders were crosses or shared a clear Christian background, whereas the Légion is a secular institution. The jewel of the Légion has five arms, in a decree issued on the 10 Pluviôse XIII, a grand decoration was instituted. This decoration, a cross on a sash and a silver star with an eagle, symbol of the Napoleonic Empire, became known as the Grand Aigle. After Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804 and established the Napoleonic nobility in 1808, the title was made hereditary after three generations of grantees. Napoleon had dispensed 15 golden collars of the legion among his family and this collar was abolished in 1815. The Légion dhonneur was prominent and visible in the French Empire, the Emperor always wore it and the fashion of the time allowed for decorations to be worn most of the time
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Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Charles-François Gounod". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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