Music of Latin America
The music of Latin America refers to music originating from Latin America, namely the Romance-speaking countries and territories of the Americas and the Caribbean south of the United States. Latin American music incorporates African music from slaves who were transported to the Americas by European settlers as well as music from the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Due to its syncretic nature, Latin American music encompasses a wide variety of styles, including influential genres such as cumbia, bossa nova, rumba, samba and tango. During the 20th century, many styles were influenced by the music of the United States giving rise to genres such as Latin pop, jazz, hip hop, reggaeton. Geographically, it refers to the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions of Latin America, but sometimes includes Francophone countries and territories of the Caribbean and South America as well, it encompasses Latin American styles that have originated in the United States such as salsa and Tejano. The origins of Latin American music can be traced back to the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the Americas in the 16th century, when the European settlers brought their music from overseas.
Latin American music is performed in Spanish, to a lesser extent, French. The tango is Argentina's best-known musical genre, famous worldwide. Other styles include the Chacarera, Milonga and Chamamé. Modern rhythms include Electrotango. Argentine rock was most popular during the 1980s, remains Argentina's most popular music. Rock en Español was first popular in Argentina swept through other Hispanic American countries and Spain; the movement was known as the "Argentine Wave." Europe influenced this sound as the immigrants brought their style of music with them. Bolivian music is the most linked to its native population among the national styles of South America. After the nationalistic period of the 1950s Aymara and Quechuan culture became more accepted, their folk music evolved into a more pop-like sound. Los Kjarkas played a pivotal role in this fusion. Other forms of native music are widely played. Cumbia is another popular genre. There are lesser-known regional forms, such as the music from Santa Cruz and Tarija.
Brazil is a large, diverse country with a long history of popular-musical development, ranging from the early-20th-century innovation of samba to the modern Música popular brasileira. Bossa nova is internationally well-known, Forró is widely known and popular in Brazil. Lambada is influenced by rhythms like merengue. Funk carioca is a popular style. Many musical genres are native to Chile; the Nueva Canción originated in the 1960s and 1970s and spread in popularity until the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, when most musicians were arrested, killed or exiled. In Central Chile, several styles can be found: the Cueca, the Tonada, the Refalosa, the Sajuriana, the Zapateado, the Cuando and the Vals. In the Norte Grande region traditional music resembles the music of southern Perú and western Bolivia, is known as Andean music; this music, which reflects the spirit of the indigenous people of the Altiplano, was an inspiration for the Nueva canción. The Chiloé Archipelago has unique folk-music styles, due to its isolation from the culture centres of Santiago and Lima.
Music from Chilean Polynesia, Rapa Nui music, is derived from Polynesian culture rather than colonial society or European influences. The music of Costa Rica is represented by musical expressions as parrandera, the Tambito, bolero, calypso, mento the run and callera, they emerged from the migration processes and historical exchanges between indigenous and African. Typical instruments are the quijongo, ocarinas, low drawer, the Sabak, reed flutes, accordion and guitar. Cuba has produced many musical genres, a number of musicians in a variety of styles. Blended styles range from the danzón to the rumba. Colombian music can be divided into four musical zones: the Atlantic coast, the Pacific coast, the Andean region and Los Llanos; the Atlantic music features rhythms such as the cumbia and mapalé. Music from the Pacific coast such features rhythms such as the currulao —which is tinged with Spanish influence— and the Jota chocoana —tinged with African and Aboriginal influence. Colombian Andean has been influenced by Spanish rhythms and instruments, differs noticeably from the indigenous music of Peru or Bolivia.
Typical forms include the bambuco, pasillo guabina and torbellino, played with pianos and string instruments such as the tiple guitarra. The music of Los Llanos, música llanera, is accompanied by a harp, a cuatro and maracas, it has much in common with the music of the Venezuelan Llanos. Apart from these traditional forms, two newer musical styles have conquered large parts of the country: la salsa, which has spread throughout the Pacific coast and the vallenato, which originated in La Guajira and César; the latter is based on European accordion music. Merengue music is heard as well. More musical styles such as reggaeton and bachata have become popular. Merengue típico and Orchestra merengue have been popular in the Dominican Republic for many decades, is regarded as the national music. Bachata is a more recent arrival, ta
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and completely enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa and on the east by the Levant. Although the sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is identified as a separate body of water. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was or desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years, the Messinian salinity crisis, before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. It covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, representing 0.7 % of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar-the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain in Europe from Morocco in Africa- is only 14 km wide. In oceanography, it is sometimes called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere.
The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1,500 m and the deepest recorded point is 5,267 m in the Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia, in the south by Africa, it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, on the southwestern coast of Turkey, is 4,000 km; the sea's average north-south length, from Croatia's southern shore to Libya, is 800 km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travellers of ancient times that allowed for trade and cultural exchange between emergent peoples of the region; the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. The countries surrounding the Mediterranean in clockwise order are Spain, Monaco, Slovenia, Croatia and Herzegovina, Albania, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri and Dhekelia have coastlines on the sea.
The Ancient Greeks called the Mediterranean ἡ θάλασσα or sometimes ἡ μεγάλη θάλασσα, ἡ ἡμέτερα θάλασσα, or ἡ θάλασσα ἡ καθ'ἡμᾶς. The Romans called it Mare Mare Internum and, starting with the Roman Empire, Mare Nostrum; the term Mare Mediterrāneum appears later: Solinus used it in the 3rd century, but the earliest extant witness to it is in the 6th century, in Isidore of Seville. It means'in the middle of land, inland' in Latin, a compound of medius, -āneus; the Latin word is a calque of Greek μεσόγειος, from μέσος and γήινος, from γῆ. The original meaning may have been'the sea in the middle of the earth', rather than'the sea enclosed by land'; the Carthaginians called it the "Syrian Sea". In ancient Syrian texts, Phoenician epics and in the Hebrew Bible, it was known as the "Great Sea" or as "The Sea". Another name was the "Sea of the Philistines", from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites. In Modern Hebrew, it is called HaYam HaTikhon'the Middle Sea'. In Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ'the Middle Sea'.
In Islamic and older Arabic literature, it was Baḥr al-Rūm'the Sea of the Romans' or'the Roman Sea'. At first, that name referred to only the Eastern Mediterranean, but it was extended to the whole Mediterranean. Other Arabic names were Baḥr al-šām'the Sea of Syria' and Baḥr al-Maghrib'the Sea of the West'. In Turkish, it is the Akdeniz'the White Sea'; the origin of the name is not clear, as it is not known in earlier Greek, Byzantine or Islamic sources. It may be to contrast with the Black Sea. In Persian, the name was translated as Baḥr-i Safīd, used in Ottoman Turkish, it is the origin of the colloquial Greek phrase Άσπρη Θάλασσα. Johann Knobloch claims that in Classical Antiquity, cultures in the Levant used colours to refer to the cardinal points: black referred to the north, yellow or blue to east, red to south, white to west; this would explain both the Turkish Akdeniz and the Arab nomenclature described above. Several ancient civilizations were located around the Mediterranean shores and were influenced by their proximity to the sea.
It provided routes for trade and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages. Due to the shared climate and access to the sea, c
Tango
Tango is a popular partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the River Plate, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. It was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries, where natives mixed with slave and European immigrant populations; the tango is the result of a combination of the German Waltz, Czech Polka, Polish Mazurka, Bohemian Schottische with the Spanish-Cuban Habanera, African Candombe, Argentinian Milonga. The tango was practiced in the brothels and bars of ports, where business owners employed bands to entertain their patrons with music; the tango spread to the rest of the world. Many variations of this dance exist around the world. On August 31, 2009, UNESCO approved a joint proposal by Argentina and Uruguay to include the tango in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. Tango is a dance that has influences from Native American and European culture. Dances from the candombe ceremonies of former slave peoples helped shape the modern day tango.
The dance originated in lower-class districts of Buenos Montevideo. The music derived from the fusion of various forms of music from Europe; the words "tango" and "tambo" around the River Plate basin were used to refer to musical gatherings of slaves, with written records of colonial authorities attempting to ban such gatherings as early as 1789. It was just one of the many dances, but it soon became popular throughout society, as theatres and street barrel organs spread it from the suburbs to the working-class slums, which were packed with hundreds of thousands of European immigrants. Many Buenos Aires city neighbourhoods have their particular tango history like for example La Boca, San Telmo or Boedo. At Boedo Avenue Cátulo Castillo, Homero Manzi and other singers and composers used to meet at the Japanese Cafe with the Boedo Group. In the early years of the 20th century and orchestras from Buenos Aires travelled to Europe, the first European tango craze took place in Paris, soon followed by London and other capitals.
Towards the end of 1913, it hit New York City in the U. S. and Finland. In the U. S. around 1911, the word "tango" was applied to dances in a 24 or 44 rhythm such as the one-step. The term was fashionable and did not indicate that tango steps would be used in the dance, although they might be. Tango music was sometimes played but at a rather fast tempo. Instructors of the period would sometimes refer to this as a "North American tango", versus the so-called "Argentine Tango"; the Tango was controversial because of its perceived sexual overtones and, by the end of 1913, the dance teachers who had introduced the dance to Paris were banished from the city. By 1914, more authentic tango stylings were soon developed, along with some variations like Albert Newman's "Minuet" tango. In Argentina, the onset in 1929 of the Great Depression, restrictions introduced after the overthrow of the Hipólito Yrigoyen government in 1930, caused tango to decline, its fortunes were reversed as tango became fashionable and a matter of national pride under the government of Juan Perón.
Taquito Militar, by Mariano Mores played a monumental part in the rise of the tango and a major effect on Argentinian culture as a whole. This song was premiered in 1952 during a governmental speech of President Juan D. Perón, which generated a strong political and cultural controversy between different views of the concepts of "cultured" music and "popular" music, as well as the links between both "cultures". Tango declined again in the 1950s, as a result of economic depression and the banning of public gatherings by the military dictatorships. That, boosted the popularity of rock and roll because, unlike tango, it did not require such gatherings. In 2009, the tango was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. There are two predominant theories regarding the origin of the word "tango." The African culture is credited by some scholars as the creator of this word. It is theorized that the word evolved from the Yoruba word, "shangó," which refers to the Nigerian God of Thunder; this theory suggests that the word “shangó” was morphed through the dilution of the Nigerian language once it reached South America via slave trade.
This theory is paralleled by another theory which believes that “tango” is derived from the Spanish word for drum, “tambor." This word was mispronounced by Buenos Aires’ impoverished and uneducated inhabitants to become "tambo," ultimately resulting in the common "tango." It is theorized that the word "'tango" is derived from the Portuguese word "tanger," which means "to play a musical instrument." Another Portuguese word, "tangomão," is a possible predecessor of the word "tango." The word is the combination of the verb "tanger" with the noun "mão", resulted in the verb "to play a musical instrument with one's hands.2" The tango consists of a variety of styles that developed in different regions and eras of Argentina as well as in other locations around the world. The dance developed in response to many cultural elements, such as the crowding of the venue and the fashions in clothing; the styles are danced in either open embrace, where lead and follow have space between their bodies, or close embrace, where the lead and follow connect either chest-to-chest or in the upper thigh, hip area.
Different styles of tango are: Tango vals Tango argentino Tango canyengue Tango Oriental Uruguayan tango Tango liso Tango salon Tango orillero Tango camacupense Tango milonguero Tango nuevo Contact tango Tango Valparaísino (from Valparaíso
Solen glimmar blank och trind
Solen glimmar blank och trind, is one of the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's best-known and best-loved songs, from his 1790 collection, Fredman's Epistles, where it is No. 48. It depicts an early morning on Lake Mälaren, as the Rococo muse Ulla Winblad sails back home to Stockholm after a night spent partying on the lake; the epistle is subtitled "Hvaruti afmålas Ulla Winblads hemresa från Hessingen i Mälaren en sommarmorgon 1769". Carl Michael Bellman is the central figure in Swedish song, known for his 1790 Fredman's Songs and his 1791 Fredman's Epistles, he played the cittern. Jean Fredman is a fictional character and the supposed narrator in Bellman's epistles and songs, based on a real watchmaker of Bellman's Stockholm; the epistles paint a picture of the demimonde life of the city during the eighteenth century, where strong drink and beautiful "nymphs" like Ulla Winblad create a rococo picture of life, blending classical allusion and pastoral description with harsh reality.
The song is in 24 time. It has each of eight lines; the rhyming pattern is ABAB-CCCB. It has a "gay dancing melody", which along with the poem gives the listener an irresistible impression of being himself present at the song's conception; the melody was a favourite of Bellman's, is of French origin, where it had been used by Antoine de Bourbon. The Epistle depicts a charming picture of an early morning on Lake Mälaren, as the Rococo muse Ulla Winblad sails back home to Stockholm; the song brings in Movitz the cellist, another of Bellman's stock characters in Fredman's Epistles, based on one of his friends. The song tells the story of a boat on the way home after a night out on the island-studded lake. In the boat are the peasant girl Marjo, a tub of butter on her knees, with a cargo of the birch-sprigs that Stockholmers used to decorate their town with as a sign of returning spring and lambs, it begins: Students of Swedish literature are expected to study Fredman's Songs and Epistles. Bellman's biographer, the translator Paul Britten Austin calls the poem a masterpiece, "one of Bellman's greatest.
At a stroke he created in Swedish poetry a new vision of the urban scene. Fresh as Martin's. Detailed as Hogarth's. Frail and ethereal as Watteau's." While each verse paints a "finely etched picture", all together they "build up to an incomparable panorama of that eighteenth-century Stockholm which meets us in Elias Martin's canvasses." Britten Austin writes that No one who has risen on an early Swedish summer morning to see the sun shining from a clear sky on the placid water and has heard or read this song, with its breezy familiar air, can forget it. Britten Austin explains: "Everything occurs with apparent haphazardness, yet each stanza is a little picture, framed by its melody. We remember it all, seem to have lived through it, like a morning in our own lives."Epistle 48 has been recorded by Fred Åkerström, Cornelis Vreeswijk, Mikael Samuelson. Bellman, Carl Michael. Fredmans epistlar. Stockholm: By Royal Privilege. Britten Austin, Paul; the Life and Songs of Carl Michael Bellman: Genius of the Swedish Rococo.
Allhem, Malmö American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York, 1967. ISBN 978-3-932759-00-0 Britten Austin, Paul. Fredman's Songs. Stockholm: Proprius, 1990 and 1999. Hassler, Göran. Bellman – en antologi. En bok för alla. ISBN 91-7448-742-6. Hassler, Göran. Bellman II – en antologi. En bok för alla. ISBN 91-7448-837-6. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list Kleveland, Åse. Fredmans epistlar & sånger. Stockholm: Informationsförlaget. ISBN 91-7736-059-1. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list Massengale, James Rhea; the Musical-Poetic Method of Carl Michael Bellman. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International. ISBN 91-554-0849-4. Text of Epistle 48
Fredmans epistlar
Fredmans epistlar is a collection of 82 poems set to music by Carl Michael Bellman, a major figure in Swedish 18th century song. Though first published in 1790, it was created over a period of twenty years from 1768 onwards. A companion volume, Fredmans sånger was published the following year; the Epistles vary in style and effect, from Rococo-themed pastorale with a cast of gods and demigods from classical antiquity to laments for the effects of Brännvin-drinking, tavern-scenes, apparent improvisations. The lyrics, based on the lives of Bellman's contemporaries in Gustavian-age Sweden, describe a gallery of fictional and semi-fictional characters and events taking place in Stockholm. Jean Fredman, an alcoholic former watchmaker, is fictional narrator; the "soliloquy" of Epistle 23, a description of Fredman lying drunk in the gutter and recovering in the Crawl-In Tavern, was described by Oscar Levertin as "the to-be-or-not-to-be of Swedish literature". Ulla Winblad, based on one of Bellman's friends, is the chief of the fictional "nymphs".
She is half goddess, half prostitute, a key figure among the demimonde characters of Fredman's Epistles. The Epistles are admired for the way that their music fit so well together. Bellman chose not to compose the tunes, instead borrowing and adapting existing melodies, most to exploit the humour of contrasting the associations of well-known tunes with the meanings he gave them; this may have been intended to provide historical depth to his work. Many of the Epistles have remained culturally significant in Scandinavia in Sweden, they are sung and recorded: by choirs such as the Orphei Drängar, by professional solo singers such as Fred Åkerström and Cornelis Vreeswijk, by ensemble singers such as Sven-Bertil Taube and William Clauson. The Epistles have been translated into German, English, Polish, Finnish and Dutch. Bellman wrote a total of 82 Fredman's Epistles, starting in 1768; the overall theme of the Epistles is, on the surface and its effects, but the Epistles are far from being drinking songs.
Instead, they are a diverse collection of songs telling stories. They are sometimes romantically pastoral, sometimes serious mournful, but always dramatic, full of life. Together, they "paint in words and music a canvas of their age", they are populated by a lengthy cast of characters, set in Bellman's time and place, eighteenth century Stockholm, but are decorated, for romantic or humorous effect, in Rococo style. As a result, listeners are confronted with classical imagery. Within these general themes, the Epistles follow no discernible pattern, do not join together to tell any single story, their tunes, are borrowed from a variety of sources French. The words that are fitted to the tunes are in parodic contrast to their original themes likely achieving humorous effects on their eighteenth-century audiences. Fredman's Epistles are thus not easy to categorise, the critic Johan Henric Kellgren stated that Bellman's songs "had no model and can have no successors". Bellman was a skilful and entertaining performer of his songs, accompanying himself on the cittern, putting on different voices, imitating the sounds made by a crowd of people.
He is unusual unique, among major poets in that all of his work was "conceived to music". His achievement has been compared to Shakespeare, Beethoven and Hogarth. Bellman, was no great playwright, nor a major classical composer, his biographer, Paul Britten Austin, suggests that the comparison with Hogarth is closer to the mark. Bellman had a gift for using elegant classical references in comic contrast to the sordid realities of drinking and prostitution; the way he does this, at once regretting and celebrating these excesses in song, achieves something of what Hogarth achieved in engravings and paint. The art historian Axel Romdahl describes Bellman's sensibility as if he had been a painter: "An unusual swiftness of apprehension, both optical and aural, must have distinguished him." Britten Austin agrees with this, noting that "When words and music have faded into silence it is the visual image which remains." Jan Sjåvik comments in the Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Literature and Theater that "Bellman's achievement consists in taking this humble and unrecognized literary form and raising it to a genre that became impossible to ignore, while in the process creating songs and characters that have become an indispensable part of Sweden's literary and cultural heritage."
Many of the 82 Fredman's Epistles remain popular in Sweden. Their diverse styles and themes may be illustrated with examples of some of the best-known songs. To begin with No. 23, Ach du min Moder!, described as "the to-be-or-not-to-be of Swedish literature", tells, in realist style, the story of a drunk who wakes in a Stockholm gutter outside the Crawl-In Tavern. He curses his parents for conceiving him "perhaps upon a table"; the tavern door opens, he goes in and has his first drink. The song ends with loud thanks to the drunk's father. In contrast, the Rococo No. 28, I går såg jag ditt barn, min Fröja, tells the tale of an attempt to arrest the "nymph" Ulla Winblad, based on a real event. Bellman here combines realism – Ulla wearing a black embroidered bodice, losing her watch in a named street in Stockholm's Gamla stan – with images from classical mythology
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, has a population of 570,000 in the city center and about 1 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area. Gothenburg was founded as a fortified Dutch, trading colony, by royal charter in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus. In addition to the generous privileges given to his Dutch allies from the then-ongoing Thirty Years' War, the king attracted significant numbers of his German and Scottish allies to populate his only town on the western coast. At a key strategic location at the mouth of the Göta älv, where Scandinavia's largest drainage basin enters the sea, the Port of Gothenburg is now the largest port in the Nordic countries. Gothenburg is home to many students, as the city includes the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. Volvo was founded in Gothenburg in 1927; the original parent Volvo Group and the now separate Volvo Car Corporation are still headquartered on the island of Hisingen in the city.
Other key companies are Astra Zeneca. Gothenburg is served by Göteborg Landvetter Airport 30 km southeast of the city center; the smaller Göteborg City Airport, 15 km from the city center, was closed to regular airline traffic in 2015. The city hosts the Gothia Cup, the world's largest youth football tournament, alongside some of the largest annual events in Scandinavia; the Gothenburg Film Festival, held in January since 1979, is the leading Scandinavian film festival with over 155,000 visitors each year. In summer, a wide variety of music festivals are held in the city, including the popular Way Out West Festival; the city was named Göteborg in the city's charter in 1621 and given the German and English name Gothenburg. The Swedish name was given after the Göta älv, called Göta River in English, other cities ending in -borg. Both the Swedish and German/English names were in use before 1621 and had been used for the previous city founded in 1604 and burned down in 1611. Gothenburg is one of few Swedish cities to still have an official and used exonym.
Another example is the province of Scania in southern Sweden. The city council of 1641 consisted of four Swedish, three Dutch, three German, two Scottish members. In Dutch, Scots and German, all languages with a long history in this trade and maritime-oriented city, the name Gothenburg is or was used for the city. Variations of the official German/English name Gothenburg in the city's 1621 charter existed or exist in many languages; the French form of the city name is Gothembourg, but in French texts, the Swedish name Göteborg is more frequent. "Gothenburg" can be seen in some older English texts. In Spanish and Portuguese the city is called Gotemburgo; these traditional forms are sometimes replaced with the use of the Swedish Göteborg, for example by The Göteborg Opera and the Göteborg Ballet. However, Göteborgs universitet designated as the Göteborg University in English, changed its name to the University of Gothenburg in 2008; the Gothenburg municipality has reverted to the use of the English name in international contexts.
In 2009, the city council launched a new logotype for Gothenburg. Since the name "Göteborg" contains the Swedish letter "ö" the idea was to make the name more international and up to date by "turning" the "ö" sideways; as of 2015, the name is spelled "Go:teborg" on a large number of signs in the city. In the early modern period, the configuration of Sweden's borders made Gothenburg strategically critical as the only Swedish gateway to the North Sea and Atlantic, situated on the west coast in a narrow strip of Swedish territory between Danish Halland in the south and Norwegian Bohuslän in the north. After several failed attempts, Gothenburg was founded in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus; the site of the first church built in Gothenburg, subsequently destroyed by Danish invaders, is marked by a stone near the north end of the Älvsborg Bridge in the Färjenäs Park. The church was built in 1603 and destroyed in 1611; the city was influenced by the Dutch and Scots, Dutch planners and engineers were contracted to construct the city as they had the skills needed to drain and build in the marshy areas chosen for the city.
The town was designed like Dutch cities such as Amsterdam and New Amsterdam. The planning of the streets and canals of Gothenburg resembled that of Jakarta, built by the Dutch around the same time; the Dutchmen won political power, it was not until 1652, when the last Dutch politician in the city's council died, that Swedes acquired political power over Gothenburg. During the Dutch period, the town followed Dutch town laws and Dutch was proposed as the official language in the town. Robust city walls were built during the 17th century. In 1807, a decision was made to tear down most of the city's wall; the work started in 1810, was carried out by 150 soldiers from the Bohus regiment. Along with the Dutch, the town was influenced by Scots who settled down in Gothenburg. Many became people of high-profile. William Chalmers, the son of a Scottish immigrant, donated his fortunes to set up what became the Chalmers University of Technology. In 1841, the Scotsman Alexander Keiller founded the Götaverken shipbuilding company, in business until 1989.
His son James Keiller donated Keiller Park to the city in 1906. The Gothenburg coat of arms was based on the lion of the coat of arms of Sweden, symbolically holding a shield w
listen);[a] 1890–1976) was a Swedish author, artist, composer and singer. He is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians and the foremost troubadour of the Swedish ballad tradition in the 20th century.[1]
