1.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations
2.
Folk dance
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Folk dances are dances that are developed by people that reflect the life of the people of a certain country or region. Not all ethnic dances are folk dances, for example, ritual dances or dances of ritual origin are not considered to be folk dances, ritual dances are usually called Religious dances because of their purpose. The terms ethnic and traditional are used when it is required to emphasize the roots of the dance. In this sense, nearly all folk dances are ethnic ones, if some dances, such as polka, cross ethnic boundaries and even cross the boundary between folk and ballroom dance, ethnic differences are often considerable enough to mention, e. g. Czech polka vs. Dances not generally designed for performance or the stage, though they may later be arranged. Execution dominated by a tradition from various international cultures rather than innovation. New dancers often learn informally by observing others and/or receiving help from others, more controversially, some people define folk dancing as dancing for which there is no governing body or dancing for which there are no competitive or professional institutions. The term folk dance is sometimes applied to dances of historical importance in European culture and history, for other cultures the terms ethnic dance or traditional dance are sometimes used, although the latter terms may encompass ceremonial dances. A number of modern ballroom dances originated from folk ones, varieties of European folk dances include, Sword dances include Longsword dances and rapper dancing. Some choreographed dances such as dance, Scottish country dance. Country dance overlaps with contemporary dance and ballroom dance. Most country dances and ballroom dances originated from folk dances, with gradual refinement over the years, people familiar with folk dancing can often determine what country a dance is from even if they have not seen that particular dance before. Some countries dances have features that are unique to that country, for example, the German and Austrian schuhplattling dance consists of slapping the body and shoes in a fixed pattern, a feature that few other countries dances have. Folk dances sometimes evolved long before current political boundaries, so that certain dances are shared by several countries, for example, some Serbian, Bulgarian, and Croatian dances share the same or similar dances, and sometimes even use the same name and music for those dances. International folk dance groups exist in cities and college campuses in many countries, in which dancers learn folk dances from many cultures for recreation
3.
Triple metre
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It is reasonably common in ballads and classical music but much less so in traditions such as rock & roll and jazz. The most common time in rock, blues, country, funk, although jazz writing has become more adventurous since Dave Brubecks seminal Time Out, the majority of jazz and jazz standards are still in straight quadruple time. One noteworthy example of a classic that employs triple-meter time is John Coltranes version of My Favorite Things. Triple time is common in formal dance styles, for example the waltz, the minuet and the mazurka, the baroque sarabande is commonly a slow triple rather than the much faster Spanish original, consistent with the courtly European interpretations of many Latin dances. Tunes in triple metre tend to be lyrical and less martial than those in duple meter. Consequently, for example, triple meter is rare in national anthems – the national anthems of the United Kingdom, there are many classical works in triple metre. Joseph Haydns Farewell Symphony is a case, as the first three movements are all in triple meter, as is the farewell section of the final movement. In hymns and other works it is still common, with tunes such as Dave Bilboroughs Abba, Father following from more traditional melodies such as Slane, Cloisters. In contemporary pop traditions triple metre is much less common but examples do exist, the verses of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds from The Beatles 1967 album, Sgt. Manic Depression from the 1967 album, Are You Experienced, the Way Young Lovers Do from the 1968 album, Astral Weeks, by Van Morrison. You Aint The First from the 1991 album, Use Your Illusion I, Waltz #2 and Waltz #1 from Elliott Smiths 1998 album XO. The verses of 3 Libras from the 2000 album, Mer de Noms, by A Perfect Circle and Its About Time from Young the Giants 2014 album, sWVs 1992 R&B hit Weak includes the lyrics cause my heart starts beating triple time but the song is in 44 time. In film music, the score to Peter Pan by James Newton Howard is remarkable in that it is almost entirely written in triple meter
4.
Accent (music)
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In music, an accent is an emphasis, stress, or stronger attack placed on a particular note or set of notes, or chord, either as a result of its context or specifically indicated by an accent mark. Accents contribute to the articulation and prosody of a performance of a musical phrase, accents may be written into a score or part by a composer or added by the performer as part of his or her interpretation of a musical piece. Compared to surrounding notes, A dynamic accent or stress accent is an emphasis using louder sound or a stronger articulation, a tonic accent is an emphasis on notes by virtue of being higher in pitch as opposed to higher in volume. An agogic accent is an emphasis by virtue of being longer in duration, accents which do not correspond to the stressed beats of the prevailing meter are said to be syncopated. For example, in time, also called 4/4, the most common metre in popular music. If chords or notes are played on two or four, this creates syncopation, as the music is emphasizing the weak beats of the bar. Syncopation is used in Classical music, popular music and traditional music, however, it is more prominent in blues, jazz, funk, disco and Latin music. There are four kinds of accents, Longer notated duration of a note, for example. Extended duration of a note within its full-time value, for example, players of organ and harpsichord can emphasize one of a sequence of staccato quarter notes by making it less staccato. Extended duration of a note with the effect of slowing down the tempo. Delayed onset of a note, for example by doing a pause before starting a note, in music notation, an accent mark indicates a louder dynamic and a stronger attack to apply to a single note or an articulation mark. The most common is the accent, the fourth symbol in the diagram above. The vertical accent, third in the diagram, may be stronger or weaker than the horizontal accent, in most musical works this type of accent is meant to be played more forcefully and usually shorter. The remaining marks typically shorten a note, staccato, the first symbol shown above, indicates that the last part of a note should be silenced to create separation between it and the following note. For example, a quarter note should be played as an eighth note followed by an eighth rest. The duration of a note may be about half as long as the note value would indicate, although the tempo. In jazz articulation, it is stated as dit, the staccatissimo, shown second, is usually interpreted as shorter than the staccato, but composers up to the time of Mozart used these symbols interchangeably. A staccatissimo crotchet would be played in traditional art music as a lightly articulated semi-quaver followed by rests which fill the remainder of the beat
5.
Beat (music)
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In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse, of the mensural level. In popular use, beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including, tempo, meter, specific rhythms, Rhythm in music is characterized by a repeating sequence of stressed and unstressed beats and divided into bars organized by time signature and tempo indications. Metric levels faster than the level are division levels. Beat has always been an important part of music, some music genres such as disco will in general de-emphasize the beat, while other such as funk emphasize the beat to accompany dance. The downbeat is the first beat of the bar, i. e. number 1, the upbeat is the last beat in the previous bar which immediately precedes, and hence anticipates, the downbeat. Both terms correspond to the direction taken by the hand of a conductor, an anticipatory note or succession of notes occurring before the first barline of a piece is sometimes referred to as an upbeat figure, section or phrase. Alternative expressions include pickup and anacrusis, the latter term was borrowed from the field of poetry, in which it refers to one or more unstressed extrametrical syllables at the beginning of a line. In music that progresses regularly in 44 time, counted as 1234,1234. The first beat of the bar is usually the strongest accent in the melody and the likeliest place for a change, the third is the next strongest. The second and fourth are weaker—the off-beats, subdivisions that fall between the pulse beats are even weaker and these, if used frequently in a rhythm, can also make it off-beat. The effect can be simulated by evenly and repeatedly counting to four. This is a technique of African polyrhythm that transferred to popular western music. According to Grove Music, the Offbeat is where the downbeat is replaced by a rest or is tied over from the preceding bar, the downbeat can never be the off-beat because it is the strongest beat in 44 time. Certain genres tend to emphasize the off-beat, where this is a characteristic of rocknroll. A back beat, or backbeat, is a syncopated accentuation on the off beat, in a simple 44 rhythm these are beats 2 and 4. A big part of R&Bs attraction had to do with the stompin backbeats that make it so eminently danceable, an early record with an emphasised back beat throughout was Good Rockin Tonight by Wynonie Harris in 1948. There is a back beat on Roll Em Pete by Pete Johnson and Big Joe Turner. A distinctive back beat can be heard on Back Beat Boogie by Harry James And His Orchestra, outside U. S. popular music, there are early recordings of music with a distinctive backbeat, such as the 1949 recording of Mangaratiba by Luiz Gonzaga in Brazil
6.
Quarter note
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A quarter note or crotchet is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note. Often, musicians say that a crotchet is one beat, but this is not always correct, as the beat is indicated by the time signature of the music. Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, the stem usually points upwards if it is below the middle line of the stave or downwards if it is on or above the middle line. However, the direction may differentiate more than one part. The head of the note also reverses its orientation in relation to the stem, in Unicode, the symbol is U+2669. A related value is the quarter rest and it denotes a silence of the same duration as a quarter note. It typically appears as the symbol, or occasionally, as the older symbol, the note derives from the semiminima of mensural notation. The word crotchet comes from Old French crochet, meaning hook, diminutive of croc, hook. However, because the hook appeared on the note in the later white notation. The quarter note is played for half the length of a half note and it is one beat in a bar of 44. The term quarter note is a calque of the German term Viertelnote, the Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Serbian and Slovak names mean quarter and quarters pause
7.
Ballroom dance
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Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world. Because of its performance and entertainment aspects, ballroom dance is widely enjoyed on stage, film. Ballroom dance may refer, at its widest definition, to almost any type of dancing as recreation. The two styles, while differing in technique, rhythm and costumes, exemplify core elements of dancing such as control. Developed in England, the two styles are now regulated by the World Dance Council and the World DanceSport Federation. In the United States, two variations are popular, American Smooth and American Rhythm, which combine elements of the Standard. There are also a number of dances, and local or national dances. Sequence dancing, in pairs or other formations, is still a style of ballroom dance. The term ballroom dancing is derived from the ball which in turn originates from the Latin word ballare which means to dance. In times past, ballroom dancing was social dancing for the privileged, among the dances described were the solemn basse danse, the livelier branle, pavane, and the galliarde which Shakespeare called the cinq pace as it was made of five steps. Eventually, the first definite cleavage between ballet and ballroom came when professional dancers appeared in the ballets, and the left the Court. Ballet technique such as the turned out positions of the feet, however, the dance was initially met with tremendous opposition due to the semblance of impropriety associated with the closed hold, though the stance gradually softened. In the 1840s several new dances made their appearance in the ballroom, including the Polka, Mazurka, in the meantime a strong tendency emerged to drop all decorative steps such as entrechats and ronds de jambes that had found a place in the Quadrilles and other dances. Modern ballroom dance has its roots early in the 20th century, the first was a movement away from the sequence dances towards dances where the couples moved independently. This had been pre-figured by the waltz, which had made this transition. The second was a wave of music, such as jazz. Since dance is to a large extent tied to music, this led to a burst of newly invented dances, there were many dance crazes in the period 1910–1930. The third event was an effort to transform some of the dance crazes into dances which could be taught to a wider dance public in the US
8.
Poland Is Not Yet Lost
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Mazurek Dąbrowskiego is the national anthem of Poland. It is also known by its title, Pieśń Legionów Polskich we Włoszech. English translations of its Polish incipit include, Poland has not yet perished, Poland has not perished yet, Poland is not lost, Poland is not lost yet, and Poland is not yet lost. The music is an unattributed mazurka and considered a folk tune that Polish composer Edward Pałłasz categorizes as functional art which was fashionable among the gentry, Pałłasz wrote, Wybicki probably made use of melodic motifs he had heard and combined them in one formal structure to suit the text. It is one of the most important songs of the Slavic nations, the text of the hymn was modified to suit new occasions and socio-political contexts throughout the songs history. When Poland re-emerged as an independent state in 1918, Dabrowskis Mazurka became its de facto anthem and it was officially adopted as the national anthem of the Republic of Poland in 1926. It also inspired songs by other peoples struggling for independence during the 19th century. One such anthem is Hey, Slavs, the original lyrics, authored by Wybicki, were a poem consisting of six stanzas and a chorus repeated after all but last stanzas, all following an ABAB rhyme scheme. The official lyrics, based on a variant from 1806, show a departure from the original text. It misses two of the original stanzas and reverses the order of other two, notably, the initial verse, Poland has not yet died was replaced with Poland has not yet perished, suggesting a more violent cause of the nations possible death. The manuscript is today only from facsimile copies, twenty four of which were made in 1886 by Edward Rożnowski, Wybickis grandson. The chorus and subsequent stanzas include heart-lifting examples of heroes, set as role models for Polish soldiers, Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, Napoleon, Stefan Czarniecki. Dąbrowski, for whom the anthem is named, was a commander in the failed 1794 Kościuszko Uprising against Russia, bonaparte was, at the time when the song was written, a commander of the Italian campaign of French Revolutionary Wars and Dąbrowskis superior. Having already proven his skills as a leader, he is described in the lyrics as the one who has shown us ways to victory. Bonaparte is the only person mentioned by name in the Polish anthem. In the same castle, Józef Wybicki, started his career as a lawyer, one of his major victories during the uprising was the Battle of Racławice where the result was partly due to Polish peasants armed with scythes. Alongside the scythes, the song mentioned other types of weaponry, traditionally used by the Polish szlachta, or nobility, the sabre, known in Polish as szabla, basia and her father are fictional characters. They are used to represent the women and elderly men who waited for the Polish soldiers to return home, the melody of the Polish anthem is a lively and rhythmical mazurka
9.
Mazovia
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Mazovia is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. Borders of the Mazovian Voivodeship, which was created in 1999, do not reflect exactly its original shape, historical Mazovia existed since the Middle Ages until the partitions of Poland and consisted of three voivodeships with the capitals in Warszawa, Płock and Rawa Mazowiecka. In a narrower sense, the Mazovian Voivodeship was only the first of them, between 1816 and 1844 another Mazovian Voivodeship existed, encompassing the south of the region. In the Middle Ages the main city of the region was Płock, since 1138 Mazovia had a separate branch of the Piast dynasty and was incorporated to the Polish Crown as late as in the 15th and 16th centuries. As much as over 20% of Mazovian population was the yeomanry, inhabitants of Mazovia are Mazurzy – hence the region of Masuria, settled by them. Mazovia has a landscape without hills and without lakes and it is spread over the Mazovian Lowland, on both sides of the Vistula river and its confluence with Narew and Bug. Forests cover one-fifth of the region, with the large Kampinos Forest, Puszcza Biała, in the north Mazovia borders on the Masurian subregion of former Prussia, in the east on Podlachia, in the south on Lesser Poland and in the west on Greater Poland. The area of Mazovia is 33,500 km2 and it has population of 5 million. When the Slavs came to this region from the area of Polesie, they mingled with the descendants of Vistula Veneti. This created a Lechitic tribe, Mazovians, the historical region of Mazovia in the beginning encompassed only the territories on the right bank of Vistula near Płock and had strong connections with Greater Poland. In the period of the rule of the first monarchs of the Piast State, Płock was one of their seats, in the period 1037–1047 it was the capital of the independent, Mazovian state of Masław. Between 1079 and 1138 this city was de facto the capital of Poland, during the 9th century Mazovia was perhaps inhabited by the tribe of Mazovians, and it was incorporated into the Polish state in the second half of 10th century under the Piast ruler Mieszko I. In 1138 the duchy of Mazovia was established, and during the 12th and 13th centuries it joined temporarily various adjacent lands and endured invasions of Prussians, Yotvingians, and Ruthenians. To protect its northern section Conrad I of Masovia called in the Teutonic Knights in 1226, after the reunification of the Polish state by Władysław I in the early 14th century, Mazovia became its fief in 1351. In the second half of 15th century western Mazovia and in 1526/1529 the main part was incorporated into the Polish state, in the 15th century eastern part of the region was settled, mainly by the yeomanry. Mazovia was considered underdeveloped in comparison with Greater Poland and Lesser Poland, in the Early Modern Times Mazovia was known for exporting grain, timber, and fur. It was also distinct because there was no reformation here, Mazovia was divided into three voivodeships, each of them divided into lands, each of them divided into counties. The Polish-Lithuanian Union of Lublin established Mazovia as the region of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with Warsaw rising to prominence as the seat of the state legislature
10.
Masuria
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Masuria is a region in northern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Before the end of World War II, it was inhabited by Polish-speaking Lutheran Masurians. Masuria occupies much of the Masurian Lake District, administratively, it belongs to Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. Its biggest city is Ełk, often regarded as its capital and it has territory of about 10,000 km2 and population of 500,000. Before 13th century, the territory was inhabited by the Old Prussians also called Baltic Prussians, the territory later called Masuria was then known as Galindia and was probably a peripheral, deeply forested and lightly populated area. Its inhabitants spoke a language now known as Old Prussian and had their own mythology, although a 19th-century German political entity bore their name, they were not Germans. They were converted to Roman Catholicism in the 13th century, after conquest by the Knights of the Teutonic Order, estimates range from about 170,000 to 220,000 Old Prussians living in the whole of Prussia around 1200. The wilderness was their natural barrier against attack by would-be invaders, during the Northern Crusades of the early 13th century, the Old Prussians used this wide forest as a line of defence. They did so again against the Knights of the Teutonic Order, the orders goal was to convert the native population to Christianity and baptise it by force if necessary. In the subsequent conquest, which lasted over 50 years, the population was nearly exterminated. After the Orders acquisition of Prussia, Poles began to settle in the part of the conquered region. German, Dutch, Flemish, and Danish colonists entered the area afterward, western half of the province was ceded to Poland, and the grand master became a vassal of the Polish crown. The secularization of the Teutonic Order in Prussia and the conversion of Albert of Prussia to Lutheranism in 1525 brought Prussia including the later called Masuria area to Protestantism. The Polish language predominated due to the immigrants from Mazovia. While the countryside was inhabited by Protestant Polish-speakers, who took refuge, the ancient Old Prussian language survived in parts of the countryside until the early 18th century. Areas that had many Polish language speakers were known as the Polish Departments, in 1656, during the Battle of Prostki, the forces of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, including 2,000 Tatar raiders, beat the allied Swedish and Brandenburg army capturing Bogusław Radziwiłł. The war resulted in the destruction of most towns,249 villages, over 50% of the population of southern Prussia died within the years 1656–1657,23,000 killed, another 80,000 died of diseases and famine,3,400 people were enslaved. In Lötzen 800 out of 919 people died, the last group of refugees to emigrate to Masuria were the Russian Philipons in 1830, when King Frederick William III of Prussia granted them asylum
11.
Classical music
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Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music, including both liturgical and secular music. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common-practice period, Western staff notation is used by composers to indicate to the performer the pitches, tempo, meter and rhythms for a piece of music. This can leave less room for such as improvisation and ad libitum ornamentation. The term classical music did not appear until the early 19th century, the earliest reference to classical music recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from about 1836. This score typically determines details of rhythm, pitch, and, the written quality of the music has enabled a high level of complexity within them, J. S. The use of written notation also preserves a record of the works, Musical notation enables 2000s-era performers to sing a choral work from the 1300s Renaissance era or a 1700s Baroque concerto with many of the features of the music being reproduced. That said, the score does not provide complete and exact instructions on how to perform a historical work, even if the tempo is written with an Italian instruction, we do not know exactly how fast the piece should be played. Bach was particularly noted for his complex improvisations, during the Classical era, the composer-performer Mozart was noted for his ability to improvise melodies in different styles. During the Classical era, some virtuoso soloists would improvise the cadenza sections of a concerto, during the Romantic era, Beethoven would improvise at the piano. The instruments currently used in most classical music were largely invented before the mid-19th century and they consist of the instruments found in an orchestra or in a concert band, together with several other solo instruments. The symphony orchestra is the most widely known medium for music and includes members of the string, woodwind, brass. The concert band consists of members of the woodwind, brass and it generally has a larger variety and number of woodwind and brass instruments than the orchestra but does not have a string section. However, many bands use a double bass. Many of the used to perform medieval music still exist. Medieval instruments included the flute, the recorder and plucked string instruments like the lute. As well, early versions of the organ, fiddle, Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self accompanied with a drone note, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as the 13th century through the 15th century there was a division of instruments into haut, during the earlier medieval period, the vocal music from the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant, was monophonic, using a single, unaccompanied vocal melody line. Polyphonic vocal genres, which used multiple independent vocal melodies, began to develop during the medieval era, becoming prevalent by the later 13th
12.
Maria Szymanowska
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Maria Szymanowska was a Polish composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She toured extensively throughout Europe, especially in the 1820s, before settling permanently in St. Petersburg, in the Russian imperial capital, she composed for the court, gave concerts, taught music, and ran an influential salon. Her compositions—largely piano pieces, songs, and other chamber works. She was the mother of Celina Szymanowska, who married the Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz, marianna Agata Wołowska was born in Warsaw, Poland on December 14,1789 into a prosperous Polish family. Her father Franciszek Wołowski was a landlord and a brewer and her mother Barbara Wołowska came from a noble Polish Lanckoroński family. She gave her first public recitals in Warsaw and Paris in 1810, the children remained with Maria after her separation from Szymanowski in 1820. Szymanowska died of cholera during the summer 1831 epidemic in St Petersburg and she is presumed to be unrelated to Karol Szymanowski, considered to be the most famous Polish composer of the 20th century. Her playing was well received by critics and audiences alike, garnering her a reputation for a delicate tone, lyrical sense of virtuosity. After years of touring, she returned to Warsaw for some time before relocating in early 1828, first to Moscow and then to St. Petersburg, list_of_compositions_by_Maria_Szymanowska Szymanowska composed around 100 piano pieces. Like many women composers of her time, she wrote music predominantly for instrumentation she had access to, including solo piano pieces and miniatures, songs. Her work is labeled, stylistically, as part of the pre-romantic period stile brillant. Szymanowskas musical style is parallel to the starting point of Frédéric Chopin. Hummel and Field dedicated compositions to her, goethe is rumored to have fallen deeply in love with her. The salon she established in St. Petersburg drew especially prominent crowds, Maria Szmyd-Dormus, ed. Kraków, PWM,1990. Irena Poniatowska, ed. Bryn Mawr, PA, Hildegard,1991, sylvia Glickman, ed. Bryn Mawr, PA, Hildegard,1991. Maria Anna Harley, ed. Bryn Mawr, PA, Hildegard,1999, elżbieta Zapolska, mezzo-soprano, Bart van Oort, fortepiano Broadwood 1825. Riches and Rags, A Wealth of Piano Music by Women, Celina Szymanowska List of Poles Chechlinska, Zofia. Szymanowska, Maria Agata, in Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy, fierro, Nancy, Maria Agata Szymanowska, 1789-1831 James R. Briscoe, ed.1997
13.
Henryk Wieniawski
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Henryk Wieniawski was a Jewish Polish violinist and composer. Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lublin, Congress Poland, wolf Helman, also known as Tobiasz Pietruszka, changed his name to Tadeusz Wieniawski, taking on the name of his neighbourhood to blend into his Polish environment better. Prior to obtaining his degree, he had converted to Catholicism. He married Regina Wolff, the daughter of a noted Jewish physician from Warsaw, after graduation, Henryk toured extensively and gave many recitals, where he was often accompanied by his brother Józef on piano. In 1847, he published his first opus, a Grand Caprice Fantastique, when his engagement to Isabella Hampton was opposed by her parents, Wieniawski wrote Légende, Op.17, this work helped her parents change their mind, and the couple married in 1860. From 1872 to 1874, Wieniawski toured the United States with Rubinstein, Wieniawski replaced Henri Vieuxtemps as violin professor at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles in 1875. During his residence in Brussels, Wieniawskis health declined, and he often had to stop in the middle of his concerts and he started a tour of Russia in 1879 but was unable to complete it, and was taken to a hospital in Odessa after a concert. On 14 February 1880, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys patroness Nadezhda von Meck took him into her home and his friends also arranged a benefit concert to help provide for his family. He died in Moscow a few weeks later from an attack and was interred in the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw. His daughter Régine Wieniawski, born in Brussels the year before his death and she published her early works as Irène Wieniawska, but after marrying Sir Aubrey Dean Paul and becoming a British subject, she used the pseudonym Poldowski. Another daughter, Henriette, would go on to marry Joseph Holland Loring in 1904, Wieniawski was a player in the Beethoven Quartet Society in London, where he also performed on viola. His LÉcole moderne,10 Études-caprices is a well known work for aspiring violinists. His Scherzo-Tarantelle, Op.16 and Légende, Op.17 are also performed works. He also wrote two popular mazurkas for solo violin and piano accompaniment, using such as left-hand pizzicato, harmonics, large leaps. Wieniawski was given a number of posthumous honours and his portrait appeared on a postage stamp of Poland in 1952 and again in 1957. A100 złoty coin was issued in 1979 bearing his image and this devils staccato was used to discipline students technique. The first violin competition named after Wieniawski took place in Warsaw in 1935, ginette Neveu took first prize, David Oistrakh second, and Henri Temianka third. The International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition has been held five years since 1952
14.
Karol Szymanowski
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Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist, the most celebrated Polish composer of the early 20th century. He is considered a member of the late 19th-/early 20th-century modernist movement Young Poland. The early works show the influence of the late Romantic German school as well as the works of Alexander Scriabin, as exemplified by his Étude Op.4 No.3. Later, he developed an impressionistic and partially atonal style, represented by works as the Third Symphony. His third period was influenced by the music of the Polish Górale people, including the ballet Harnasie, the Fourth Symphony. King Roger, composed between 1918-1924, remains the most popular opera by Szymanowski, Szymanowski was born into the Korwin-Szymanowski family, members of the wealthy land-owning Polish gentry class, in the village of Tymoszówka, then in the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire. He studied music privately with his father before enrolling at the Gustav Neuhaus Elisavetgrad School of Music in 1892, from 1901 he attended the State Conservatory in Warsaw, of which he was later director from 1926 until retiring in 1930. Since musical opportunities in Russian-occupied Poland were quite limited, he travelled throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, being lame in one knee made him unsuitable for military service in World War I. In 1918, Szymanowski completed the manuscript of a novel, Efebos. His travels, especially those to the Mediterranean area, provided him with new experience, after his return he raved about Sicily, especially Taormina. There, he said, I saw a few young men bathing who could be models for Antinous, I couldnt take my eyes off them. Now he was a confirmed homosexual and he told me all this with burning eyes. Szymanowski settled in Warsaw in 1919, in 1926 he accepted the position of Director of the Warsaw Conservatory though he had little administrative experience. He became seriously ill in 1928 and temporarily lost his post and he was diagnosed with an acute form of tuberculosis, and in 1929 traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for medical treatment. Szymanowski resumed his position at the Conservatory in 1930, but the school was closed two years later by a ministerial decision and he moved to Villa Atma in Zakopane where he composed fervently. In 1936 Szymanowski received more treatment at a sanatorium in Grasse and he died at a sanatorium in Lausanne on 29 March 1937. His body was brought back to Poland by his sister Stanisława and laid to rest at Skałka in Kraków, Szymanowskis long correspondence with the pianist Jan Smeterlin, who was a significant champion of his piano works, was published in 1969. Szymanowski was influenced by the music of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, Max Reger, Alexander Scriabin and the impressionism of Claude Debussy and he also drew much influence from his countryman Frédéric Chopin and from Polish folk music
15.
November Uprising
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The November Uprising, Polish–Russian War 1830–31, also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress Polands military academy revolted, led by lieutenant Piotr Wysocki and they were soon joined by large segments of societies of Lithuania, Belarus, and the Right-bank Ukraine. Despite local successes, the uprising was crushed by a numerically superior Imperial Russian Army under Ivan Paskevich. Tsar Nicholas I decreed that henceforth Poland was a part of Russia, with Warsaw little more than a military garrison. After the Partitions of Poland, Poland ceased to exist as an independent political entity at the end of 1795, however, the Napoleonic Wars and Polish participation in the wars against Russia and Austria resulted in the creation the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. The Congress of Vienna brought that states existence to an end in 1815, and essentially solidified the long-term division of Poland among Russia, Prussia, United with Russia through a personal union with the Tsar as King of Poland, the province could elect its own parliament and government. The kingdom had its own courts, army and treasury, over time, however, the freedoms granted to the Kingdom were gradually taken back and the constitution was progressively ignored by the Russian authorities. Alexander I of Russia never formally crowned himself as King of Poland, instead, in 1815, he appointed Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich as de facto viceroy, disregarding the constitution. Soon after the Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed, Russia ceased to respect them, in 1819 Alexander I abandoned liberty of the press in Congress Kingdom and introduced censorship. As a result, after 1825 sessions of Polish Sejm were conducted in secret, Nicholas I of Russia formally crowned himself as King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw. He abolished Polish social and patriotic organizations, the opposition of the Kaliszanie faction. Although married to a Pole, he was considered as an enemy of the Polish nation. Also, his command over the Polish Army led to conflicts within the officer corps. These frictions led to various conspiracies throughout the country, most notably within the army, the final spark that ignited Warsaw was a Russian plan to use the Polish Army to suppress Frances July Revolution and the Belgian Revolution, in clear violation of the Polish constitution. The rebels managed to enter the Belweder, but Grand Duke Constantine had escaped in womens clothing, the rebels then turned to the main city arsenal, capturing it after a brief struggle. The following day, armed Polish civilians forced the Russian troops to north of Warsaw. This incident is called the Warsaw Uprising or the November Night. Taken by surprise by the unfolding of events during the night of 29 November
16.
Counterpoint
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In music, counterpoint is the relationship between voices that are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradition, strongly developing during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period, the term originates from the Latin punctus contra punctum meaning point against point. Counterpoint generally involves musical lines with strongly independent identities, Counterpoint has been used to designate a voice or even an entire composition. In each era, contrapuntally organized music writing has been subject to rules—sometimes strict ones, chords are the simultaneous soundings of notes, whereas harmonic, vertical features are considered secondary and almost incidental when counterpoint is the predominant textural element. Counterpoint focuses on melodic interaction—only secondarily on the produced by that interaction. In the words of John Rahn, It is hard to write a beautiful song and it is harder to write several individually beautiful songs that, when sung simultaneously, sound as a more beautiful polyphonic whole. The way that is accomplished in detail is, some examples of related compositional techniques include, the round, the canon, and perhaps the most complex contrapuntal convention, the fugue. All of these are examples of imitative counterpoint, Species counterpoint generally offers less freedom to the composer than other types of counterpoint and therefore is called a strict counterpoint. The student gradually attains the ability to free counterpoint according to the given rules at the time. The idea is at least as old as 1532, when Giovanni Maria Lanfranco described a concept in his Scintille di musica. Zacconi, unlike later theorists, included a few extra contrapuntal techniques, a succession of later theorists quite closely imitated Fuxs seminal work, often with some small and idiosyncratic modifications in the rules. The following rules apply to melodic writing in each species, for each part, if the final is approached from below, then the leading tone must be raised in a minor key, but not in Phrygian or Hypophrygian mode. Thus, in the Dorian mode on D, a C♯ is necessary at the cadence, permitted melodic intervals are the perfect fourth, fifth, and octave, as well as the major and minor second, major and minor third, and ascending minor sixth. The ascending minor sixth must be followed by motion downwards. The three notes should be from the triad, if this is impossible, they should not outline more than one octave. In general, do not write more than two skips in the same direction, if writing a skip in one direction, it is best to proceed after the skip with motion in the other direction. The interval of a tritone in three notes should be avoided as is the interval of a seventh in three notes, there must be a climax or high point in the line countering the cantus firmus. This usually occurs somewhere in the middle of exercise and must occur on a strong beat, an outlining of a seventh is avoided within a single line moving in the same direction
17.
Fugue
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A fugue usually has three sections, an exposition, a development, and a final entry that contains the return of the subject in the fugues tonic key. In the Middle Ages, the term was used to denote any works in canonic style, by the Renaissance. Since the 17th century, the fugue has described what is commonly regarded as the most fully developed procedure of imitative counterpoint. Most fugues open with a main theme, the subject, which then sounds successively in each voice, when each voice has entered. This is often followed by a passage, or episode, developed from previously heard material. In this sense, a fugue is a style of composition, the form evolved during the 18th century from several earlier types of contrapuntal compositions, such as imitative ricercars, capriccios, canzonas, and fantasias. The famous fugue composer Johann Sebastian Bach shaped his own works after those of Johann Jakob Froberger, Johann Pachelbel, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Dieterich Buxtehude and others. With the decline of sophisticated styles at the end of the period, the fugues central role waned, eventually giving way as sonata form. The English term fugue originated in the 16th century and is derived from the French word fugue or the Italian fuga and this in turn comes from Latin, also fuga, which is itself related to both fugere and fugare. A fugue begins with the exposition and is according to certain predefined rules, in later portions the composer has more freedom. Further entries of the subject will occur throughout the fugue, repeating the accompanying material at the same time, the various entries may or may not be separated by episodes. What follows is a chart displaying a fairly typical fugal outline, S = subject, A = answer, CS = countersubject, T = Tonic, D = Dominant A fugue begins with the exposition of its subject in one of the voices alone in the tonic key. After the statement of the subject, a second voice enters and states the subject with the subject transposed to another key, to make the music run smoothly, it may also have to be altered slightly. A tonal answer is called for when the subject begins with a prominent dominant note. To prevent an undermining of the sense of key, this note is transposed up a fourth to the tonic rather than up a fifth to the supertonic. Answers in the subdominant are also employed for the same reason, while the answer is being stated, the voice in which the subject was previously heard continues with new material. If this new material is reused in later statements of the subject, it is called a countersubject, if this material is only heard once. The countersubject is written in invertible counterpoint at the octave or fifteenth, for example, when the note G sounds in one voice above the note C in lower voice, the interval of a fifth is formed, which is considered consonant and entirely acceptable
18.
Glossary of ballet
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Because ballet became formalized in France, a significant part of ballet terminology is in the French language. A position of the leg to the side One of the directions of body, facing the audience, arms in second position, italian, or French adage, meaning slowly, at ease. Slow movements performed with fluidity and grace, the section of a grand pas, often referred to as grand adage, that features dance partnering. An attribute of movements, including those in which a dancer is airborne. The apparent elegance and precision exhibited by a confident, accomplished dancer, in dance, arabesque is a body position in which a dancer stands on one leg with the other leg turned out and extended behind the body, with both legs held straight. A jump that lands on two feet, when initiated from two feet, the working leg performs a battement glissé/dégagé, brushing out. The dancer launches into a jump, with the foot then meeting the first foot before landing. A petit assemblé is when a dancer is standing on one foot with the other extended, the dancer then does a small jump to meet the first foot. A position in which a dancer stands on one leg while the leg is raised at hip height. The height of the knee versus the foot and the angle of the knee flexion will vary depending on the techniques, the working leg can be held behind, in front, or to the side of the body. The alignment of the thigh compared to the midline in Attitude derrière will vary depending on the techniques, the foot of the supporting leg may be flat on the floor, en demi-pointe, or en pointe. The standing leg can be straight or bend, Attitude was originally created to display the emotional zone of the leg, the knee to the ankle. A movement towards the front, as opposed to en arrière, for example, a step travelling en avant moves forwards towards the audience, as in sissonne en avant. A movement towards the back, as opposed to en avant, a rocking sequence of three steps — fondu, relevé, fondu — executed in three counts. Before the first count, one foot extends in a dégagé to second position or to the front or rear, the second foot in the sequence assembles behind the first to relevé in fifth or fourth position. The foundational principles of movement and form used in ballet. The word is of Russian origin c,1930, with the suffix -mane coming from maniya. Showing lightness of movement in leaps and jumps, a dancer exhibiting ballon will appear to spring effortlessly, float in mid-air, and land softly like a balloon
19.
Cape Verde
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Located 570 kilometres off the coast of West Africa, the islands cover a combined area of slightly over 4,000 square kilometres. The Cape Verde archipelago was uninhabited until the 15th century, when Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized the islands, ideally located for the Atlantic slave trade, the islands grew prosperous throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, attracting merchants, privateers, and pirates. The end of slavery in the 19th century led to economic decline, Cape Verde gradually recovered as an important commercial center and stopover for shipping routes. Incorporated as a department of Portugal in 1951, the islands continued to agitate for independence. Since the early 1990s, Cape Verde has been a representative democracy. Lacking natural resources, its economy is mostly service-oriented, with a growing focus on tourism. Its population of around 512,000 is mostly of mixed European and sub-Saharan African heritage, a sizeable diaspora community exists across the world, slightly outnumbering inhabitants on the islands. Historically, the name Cape Verde has been used in English for the archipelago and, since independence in 1975, for the country. In 2013, the Cape Verdean government determined that the Portuguese designation Cabo Verde would henceforth be used for official purposes, such as at the United Nations, Cape Verde is a member of the African Union. The name of the stems from the nearby Cap-Vert, on the Senegalese coast. In 1444 Portuguese explorers had named that landmark as Cabo Verde, on 24 October 2013, the countrys delegation announced at the United Nations that the official name should no longer be translated into other languages. Instead of Cape Verde, the designation Republic of Cabo Verde is to be used, before the arrival of Europeans, the Cape Verde Islands were uninhabited. The islands of the Cape Verde archipelago were discovered by Genoese and Portuguese navigators around 1456, according to Portuguese official records, the first discoveries were made by Genoa-born António de Noli, who was afterwards appointed governor of Cape Verde by Portuguese King Afonso V. Other navigators mentioned as contributing to discoveries in the Cape Verde archipelago are Diogo Gomes, Diogo Dias, Diogo Afonso, in 1462, Portuguese settlers arrived at Santiago and founded a settlement they called Ribeira Grande. Ribeira Grande was the first permanent European settlement in the tropics, in the 16th century, the archipelago prospered from the Atlantic slave trade. Pirates occasionally attacked the Portuguese settlements, sir Francis Drake, an English corsair privateering under a letter of marque granted by the English crown, twice sacked the capital Ribeira Grande in 1585 when it was a part of the Iberian Union. After a French attack in 1712, the town declined in relative to nearby Praia. Decline in the trade in the 19th century resulted in an economic crisis
20.
Brava, Cape Verde
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Brava is an island in Cape Verde. It is the smallest inhabited island, but at the time the greenest, of Cape Verde. First settled in the 1540s, its population grew after Mount Fogo on neighbouring Fogo erupted in 1675, for more than a century, its main industry was whaling, but the island economy is now primarily agricultural. Brava was discovered in 1462 by Portuguese sailors, the Portuguese founded a settlement here in 1573 by sailors from the Azores and Madeira. Sir Francis Drake visited the island in 1579, in the 17th and the 18th centuries, pirates raided the bays of the island. Piracy continued until the 19th century, when whaling was common from the ships of Europe, emigration began as US whaleships carried people from Brava to the northeastern part of North America, especially along the Eastern Seaboard. Most of the immigrants from Brava settled in Boston and New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, in the 19th century, many of the men continued to work in whaling. An American consulate was opened in 1843, in the late 1970s, practically the whole island is a stratovolcano. It lies in the lee of the enormous Fogo volcano, volcanic activity on the island has been mainly located along three lines, which all intersect at the crest of ground that forms the highest part of the island. The islands main town is Vila Nova Sintra, the island has elementary and secondary schools, churches, and a square in honour of the musician Eugénio Tavares. The two large islands north of Brava are uninhabited, the mountain valleys dominate the south, the east and the west. The north has a few valleys, precipitation arrives from the trade wind clouds. The island is covered with a leeward cloud so that evaporation is reduced, key inhabited places include the village of Vila Nova Sintra. The village of Furna has a commercial port, being highly mountainous this island has quite diverse climate. Brava island has moderate tropical climate along the coast and semi-arid mild tropical climate Bsh with very balanced temperatures year round in the interior, the average annual temperature on the coast is about 23–25 °C, decreasing to some 17–20 °C in the mountains. There can be remarkably cool weather with warmer wet season starting in June and ending in November with colder dry season starting in December, as of 1832, the population was estimated at 8,000. The main economy of the island is agricultural, related to irrigation, main agricultural goods include coffee, potatoes including sweet potatoes, corn, banana and sugar cane. Trading and private households depend on income from Cape Verdean residents from North America, Brava never had a lot of tourism
21.
Czechs
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Ethnic Czechs were called Bohemians in English until the early 20th century, referring to the late Iron Age tribe of Celtic Boii and the land Bohemia. The Czech diaspora is found in numbers in the United States, Canada, Israel, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, Italy. The Czech ethnic group is part of the West Slavic subgroup of the larger Slavic ethno-linguistical group, the West Slavs have origin in early Slavic tribes which settled in Central Europe after East Germanic tribes had left this area during the migration period. The West Slavic tribe of Bohemians settled in the area of Bohemia during the migration period and they formed an independent principality in the 9th century, the Duchy of Bohemia, under the Přemyslid dynasty. According to mythology, the father of the Czech people were Forefather Čech. The Czech are closely related to the neighbouring Slovaks, the Czech–Slovak languages form a dialect continuum rather than being two clearly distinct languages. Czech cultural influence in Slovak culture is noted as having much higher than the other way around. Czech people have a history of coexistence with Germanic people. The Czech National Revival took place in the 18th and 19th centuries aiming to revive Czech language, culture, the Czech were the initiators of Pan-Slavism. The Czech ethnonym was the name of a Slavic tribe in central Bohemia that subdued the tribes in the late 9th century. The origin of the name of the tribe itself is unknown, according to legend, it comes from their leader Čech, who brought them to Bohemia. Research regards Čech as a derivative of the root čel-, the Czech ethnonym was adopted by the Moravians in the 19th century. The name Bohemia is Germanic, English used that name until after the establishment of Czechoslovakia, the population of the Czech lands has been influenced by different human migrations that wide-crossed Europe over time. In their Y-DNA haplogroups, which are inherited along the male line,34. 2% of Czech males belong to R1a, which is particularly common in a large region extending from South Asia and Southern Siberia to Central Europe and Scandinavia. The population of the Czech Republic descends from diverse peoples of Slavic, Celtic and Germanic origin, presence of West Slavs in the 6th century during the Migration Period has been documented on the Czech territory. Slavs settled in Bohemia, Moravia and Austria sometime during the 6th or 7th centuries, according to a popular myth, the Slavs came with Forefather Čech who settled at the Říp Mountain. The Duchy of Bohemia emerged in the late 9th century, in 880, Prague Castle was constructed by Prince Bořivoj, founder of the Přemyslid dynasty and the city of Prague was established. Vratislav II was the first Czech king in 1085 and the duchy was raised to a kingdom under Ottokar I in 1198
22.
Impressionism
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Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s. The Impressionists faced harsh opposition from the art community in France. The development of Impressionism in the arts was soon followed by analogous styles in other media that became known as impressionist music. Radicals in their time, early Impressionists violated the rules of academic painting and they constructed their pictures from freely brushed colours that took precedence over lines and contours, following the example of painters such as Eugène Delacroix and J. M. W. Turner. They also painted scenes of modern life, and often painted outdoors. Previously, still lifes and portraits as well as landscapes were painted in a studio. The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting en plein air, the Impressionists, however, developed new techniques specific to the style. The public, at first hostile, gradually came to believe that the Impressionists had captured a fresh and original vision, even if the art critics and art establishment disapproved of the new style. In the middle of the 19th century—a time of change, as Emperor Napoleon III rebuilt Paris, the Académie was the preserver of traditional French painting standards of content and style. Historical subjects, religious themes, and portraits were valued, landscape, the Académie preferred carefully finished images that looked realistic when examined closely. Paintings in this style were made up of brush strokes carefully blended to hide the artists hand in the work. Colour was restrained and often toned down further by the application of a golden varnish, the Académie had an annual, juried art show, the Salon de Paris, and artists whose work was displayed in the show won prizes, garnered commissions, and enhanced their prestige. The standards of the juries represented the values of the Académie, represented by the works of artists as Jean-Léon Gérôme. In the early 1860s, four young painters—Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and they discovered that they shared an interest in painting landscape and contemporary life rather than historical or mythological scenes. A favourite meeting place for the artists was the Café Guerbois on Avenue de Clichy in Paris, where the discussions were led by Édouard Manet. They were soon joined by Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, during the 1860s, the Salon jury routinely rejected about half of the works submitted by Monet and his friends in favour of works by artists faithful to the approved style. In 1863, the Salon jury rejected Manets The Luncheon on the Grass primarily because it depicted a woman with two clothed men at a picnic. While the Salon jury routinely accepted nudes in historical and allegorical paintings, the jurys severely worded rejection of Manets painting appalled his admirers, and the unusually large number of rejected works that year perturbed many French artists
23.
Claude Debussy
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Achille-Claude Debussy, known since the 1890s as Claude-Achille Debussy or Claude Debussy, was a French composer. He and Maurice Ravel were the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music and he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Debussys music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of nontraditional tonalities. The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, Debussy, the oldest of five children, was born Achille-Claude Debussy on 22 August 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. His father, Manuel-Achille Debussy, owned a shop there, his mother. The family moved to Paris in 1867, but in 1870 Debussys pregnant mother fled with Claude to his aunts home in Cannes to escape the Franco-Prussian War. At the age of seven, he began lessons with an Italian violinist in his early 40s named Jean Cerutti. In 1871 he drew the attention of Marie Mauté de Fleurville, Debussy always believed her, although there is no independent evidence to support her claim. His talents soon became evident, and in 1872, at age ten, Debussy entered the Paris Conservatoire and he also became a lifelong friend of fellow student and distinguished pianist Isidor Philipp. After Debussys death, many pianists sought Philipps advice on playing his works, Debussy was experimental from the outset, favouring dissonances and intervals that were not taught at the Academy. Like Georges Bizet, he was a brilliant pianist and a sight reader. However, Debussy never once won a competition, and his personal opinion on competitions are that it is rather. The rules are taught in places called Conservatories, Art Schools, the contests, preceded by strict training, take place once a year and the umpires of the game are members of the institute —Monsieur Croche. The pieces he played in public at this time included sonata movements by Beethoven, Schumann and Weber,2, a movement from the Piano Concerto No. 1, and the Allegro de concert, during the summers of 1880,1881, and 1882, he accompanied Nadezhda von Meck, the wealthy patroness of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, as she travelled with her family in Europe. Despite von Mecks closeness to Tchaikovsky, the Russian master appears to have had effect on Debussy. In September 1880 she sent his Danse bohémienne for Tchaikovskys perusal, a month later Tchaikovsky wrote back to her, It is a pretty piece. Not a single idea is expressed fully, the form is terribly shriveled, Debussy did not publish the piece, and the manuscript remained in the von Meck family, it was eventually sold to B
24.
Maurice Ravel
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Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, in the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as Frances greatest living composer. After leaving the conservatoire Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity, incorporating elements of baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with form, as in his best-known work, Boléro. He made some arrangements of other composers music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known. As a slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, many of his works exist in two versions, a first, piano score and a later orchestration. Some of his music, such as Gaspard de la nuit, is exceptionally difficult to play. Ravel was among the first composers to recognise the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public, from the 1920s, despite limited technique as a pianist or conductor, he took part in recordings of several of his works, others were made under his supervision. Ravel was born in the Basque town of Ciboure, France and his father, Pierre-Joseph Ravel, was an educated and successful engineer, inventor and manufacturer, born in Versoix near the Franco-Swiss border. His mother, Marie, née Delouart, was Basque but had grown up in Madrid, in 19th-century terms, Joseph had married beneath his status – Marie was illegitimate and barely literate – but the marriage was a happy one. Both Ravels parents were Roman Catholics, Marie was also something of a free-thinker, a trait inherited by her elder son and he was baptised in the Ciboure parish church six days after he was born. The family moved to Paris three months later, and there a younger son, Édouard, was born and he was close to his father, whom he eventually followed into the engineering profession. Maurice was particularly devoted to their mother, her Basque-Spanish heritage was an influence on his life. Among his earliest memories were folk songs she sang to him, the household was not rich, but the family was comfortable, and the two boys had happy childhoods. Ravel senior delighted in taking his sons to factories to see the latest mechanical devices, in later life, Ravel recalled, Throughout my childhood I was sensitive to music. My father, much better educated in art than most amateurs are, knew how to develop my taste. There is no record that Ravel received any formal schooling in his early years
25.
Jacques Offenbach
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Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and he was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were revived during the 20th century. The Tales of Hoffman remains part of the opera repertory. Born in Cologne, the son of a cantor, Offenbach showed early musical talent. At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but found academic study unfulfilling, from 1835 to 1855 he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition, however, was to compose pieces for the musical theatre. Finding the management of Paris Opéra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, there he presented a series of his own small-scale pieces, many of which became popular. In 1858, Offenbach produced his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers, during the 1860s, he produced at least 18 full-length operettas, as well as more one-act pieces. His works from this period included La belle Hélène, La Vie parisienne, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Offenbach became associated with the Second French Empire of Napoleon III, the emperor and his court were genially satirised in many of Offenbachs operettas. Napoleon III personally granted him French citizenship and the Légion dHonneur, with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Offenbach found himself out of favour in Paris because of his imperial connections and his German birth. He remained successful in Vienna and London, however and he re-established himself in Paris during the 1870s, with revivals of some of his earlier favourites and a series of new works, and undertook a popular U. S. tour. In his last years he strove to finish The Tales of Hoffmann, but died before the premiere of the opera, Offenbach was born Jacob or Jakob Offenbach to a Jewish family, in the German city of Cologne, which was then a part of Prussia. His birthplace in the Großen Griechenmarkt was a distance from the square that is now named after him. He was the son and the seventh of ten children of Isaac Juda Offenbach né Eberst and his wife Marianne. Isaac, who came from a family, had abandoned his original trade as a bookbinder and earned an itinerant living as a cantor in synagogues. He was generally known as der Offenbacher, after his native town, Offenbach am Main, in 1816 he settled in Cologne, where he became established as a teacher, giving lessons in singing, violin, flute and guitar, and composing both religious and secular music. When Jacob was six years old, his father taught him to play the violin, within two years the boy was composing songs and dances, and at the age of nine he took up the cello
26.
French West Indies
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Pierre Belain dEsnambuc was a French trader and adventurer in the Caribbean, who established the first permanent French colony, Saint-Pierre, on the island of Martinique in 1635. Belain sailed to the Caribbean in 1625, hoping to establish a French settlement on the island of St. Christopher, in 1626 he returned to France, where he won the support of Cardinal Richelieu to establish French colonies in the region. Richelieu became a shareholder in the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe, created to accomplish this with dEsnambuc at its head, the company was not particularly successful and Richelieu had it reorganized as the Compagnie des Îles de lAmérique. In 1635 dEsnambuc sailed to Martinique with one hundred French settlers to land for sugarcane plantations. After six months on Martinique, dEsnambuc returned to St. Christopher and his nephew, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, inherited dEsnambucs authority over the French settlements in the Caribbean, in 1637 becoming governor of Martinique. He remained in Martinique and did not concern himself with the other islands, the French permanently settled on Martinique and Guadeloupe after being driven off Saint Kitts and Nevis by the British. Fort Royal on Martinique was a port for French battle ships in the region from which the French were able to explore the region. In 1638, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, nephew of Pierre Belain dEsnambuc and first governor of Martinique, the King would name the Governor General of the company, and the company the Governors of the various islands. However, by the late 1640s, in France Mazarin had little interest in colonial affairs, in 1651 it dissolved itself, selling its exploitation rights to various parties. The du Paquet family bought Martinique, Grenada, and Saint Lucia for 60,000 livres, the sieur dHouël bought Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante, La Desirade and the Saintes. The Knights of Malta bought Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin, which were made dependencies of Guadeloupe, in 1665, the Knights sold the islands they had acquired to the newly formed Compagnie des Indes occidentales. Dominica is a former French and British colony in the Eastern Caribbean, Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday,3 November 1493. In the hundred years after Columbuss landing, Dominica remained isolated, at the time it was inhabited by the Island Caribs, or Kalinago people, and over time more settled there after being driven from surrounding islands, as European powers entered the region. In 1690, French woodcutters from Martinique and Guadeloupe begin to set up camps to supply the French islands with wood. France had a colony for years, they imported slaves from West Africa, Martinique. In this period, the Antillean Creole language developed, France formally ceded possession of Dominica to Great Britain in 1763. Great Britain established a colony on the island in 1805. In Trinidad, the occupying Spanish had contributed little towards advancements, because it was considered underpopulated, Roume de St
27.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
28.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
29.
Donegal fiddle tradition
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The Donegal fiddle tradition is the way of playing the fiddle that is traditional in County Donegal, Ireland. It is one of the distinct fiddle traditions within Irish traditional music, the distinctness of the Donegal tradition developed due to the close relations between Donegal and Scotland, and the Donegal repertoire and style has influences from Scottish fiddle music. For example, in addition to the standard tune types such as Jigs and Reels, the distinctiveness of the Donegal tradition led to some conflict between Donegal players and representatives of the mainstream tradition when Irish traditional music was organised in the 1960s. Due to the frequency of stops and the strong bowing it is often compared to the Cape Breton tradition. Another characteristic of the style is the pace at which it tends to proceed. Modern players, such as the fiddle group Altan, continue to be due to a variety of reasons. Among the most famous Donegal style players are John Doherty from the twentieth century and James Byrne, Paddy Glackin, Tommy Peoples. The fiddle has ancient roots in Ireland, the first report of bowed instruments similar to the violin being in the Book of Leinster, the modern violin was ubiquitous in Ireland by the early 1700s. However the first mention of the fiddle being in use in Donegal is from the blind harper Arthur ONeill who in his 1760 memoirs described a wedding in Ardara as having plenty of pipers and fiddlers. Donegal fiddlers participated in the development of the Irish music tradition in the 18th century during which jigs and slipjigs and later reels, the Donegal tradition derives much of its unique character from the synthesis of Irish and Scottish stylistic features and repertoires. Like some Scottish fiddlers, some Donegal fiddlers worked at imitating the sound of the bagpipes, workers from Donegal would bring their music to Scotland and also bring back Scottish tunes with them such music of J. Scott Skinner and Mackenzie Murdoch. Lilting, unaccompanied singing of wordless tunes, was also an important part of the Donegal musical tradition often performed by women in social settings. Among the travelling fiddlers of the late 19th century players such as John Mhosaí McGinley, Anthony Hilferty, the McConnells and these virtuosos played unaccompanied listening pieces in addition to the more common dance music. There are other differences between the Donegal style and the rest of Ireland, instruments such as the tin whistle, flute, concertina and accordion were very rare in Donegal until modern times. Traditionally the píob mór and the fiddle were the instruments used. Migrant workers carried their music to Scotland and also brought back a number of tunes of Scottish origin, the Donegal fiddlers may well have been the route by which Scottish tunes such as Lucy Campbell, Tarbolton Lodge and The Flagon, that entered the Irish repertoire. These players prided themselves on their abilities, which included playing in higher positions. Other old fiddlers dislike the ways comhaltas sessions were organised with a player, often not himself a musician
30.
County Donegal
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County Donegal is a county of Ireland. It is part of the Border Region of the Republic of Ireland and is in the province of Ulster and it is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. Donegal County Council is the council for the county and Lifford serves as the county town. The population of the county is 158,755 according to the 2016 census and it has also been known as Tyrconnell, after the historic territory of the same name. In terms of size and area, it is the largest county in Ulster, uniquely, County Donegal shares a small border with only one other county in the Republic of Ireland – County Leitrim. The greater part of its border is shared with three counties of Northern Ireland, County Londonderry, County Tyrone and County Fermanagh. While Lifford is the county town, Letterkenny is by far the largest town in the county with a population of 19,588, Letterkenny and the nearby city of Derry form the main economic axis of the northwest of Ireland. Indeed, what became the City of Derry was officially part of County Donegal up until 1610, there are two Gaeltacht districts in the west, The Rosses, centred on the town of Dungloe, and Gweedore. Another Gaeltacht district is located in the north-west, Cloughaneely, centred on the town of Falcarragh, the most northerly part of the island of Ireland is the location for three peninsulas of outstanding natural beauty, Inishowen, Fanad and Rosguill. The main population centre of Inishowen, Irelands largest peninsula, is Buncrana, in the east of the county lies the Finn Valley. The Laggan district is centred on the town of Raphoe, according to the 1841 Census, County Donegal had a population of 296,000 people. As a result of famine and emigration, the population had reduced by 41,000 by 1851, by the time of the 1951 Census the population was only 44% of what it had been in 1841. The 2006 Census, undertaken by the States Central Statistics Office, had County Donegals population standing at 147,264, according to the 2011 Census, the countys population had grown to 161,137. It has an indented coastline forming natural sea loughs, of which both Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle are the most notable. The Slieve League cliffs are the sixth-highest sea cliffs in Europe, the climate is temperate and dominated by the Gulf Stream, with warm, damp summers and mild wet winters. Two permanently inhabited islands, Arranmore and Tory Island, lie off the coast, Irelands second longest river, the Erne, enters Donegal Bay near the town of Ballyshannon. The River Erne, along with other Donegal waterways, has been dammed to produce hydroelectric power, the River Foyle separates part of County Donegal from parts of both counties Londonderry and Tyrone. A survey of the marine algae of County Donegal was published in 2003
31.
Irish language
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Irish, also referred to as Gaelic or Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people. Irish enjoys constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland and it is also among the official languages of the European Union. The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island of Ireland and it has the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe. The fate of the language was influenced by the power of the English state in Ireland. Elizabethan officials viewed the use of Irish unfavourably, as being a threat to all things English in Ireland and its decline began under English rule in the 17th century. In the latter part of the 19th century, there was a decrease in the number of speakers. Irish-speaking areas were hit especially hard, by the end of British rule, the language was spoken by less than 15% of the national population. Since then, Irish speakers have been in the minority, efforts have been made by the state, individuals and organisations to preserve, promote and revive the language, but with mixed results. Around the turn of the 21st century, estimates of native speakers ranged from 20,000 to 80,000 people. In the 2011 Census, these numbers had increased to 94,000 and 1.3 million, there are several thousand Irish speakers in Northern Ireland. It has been estimated that the active Irish-language scene probably comprises 5 to 10 per cent of Irelands population, there has been a significant increase in the number of urban Irish speakers, particularly in Dublin. In Gaeltacht areas, however, there has been a decline of the use of Irish. Údarás na Gaeltachta predicted that, by 2025, Irish will no longer be the language in any of the designated Gaeltacht areas. Survey data suggest that most Irish people think highly of Irish as a marker of identity. It has also argued that newer urban groups of Irish speakers are a disruptive force in this respect. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil the name of the language is Gaeilge, before the spelling reform of 1948, this form was spelled Gaedhilge, originally this was the genitive of Gaedhealg, the form used in Classical Irish. Older spellings of this include Gaoidhealg in Classical Irish and Goídelc in Old Irish, the modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent dh in the middle of Gaedhilge, whereas Goidelic languages, used to refer to the language family including Irish, comes from Old Irish
