The Pergamon Altar is a monumental construction built during the reign of king Eumenes II in the first half of the 2nd century BC on one of the terraces of the acropolis of the ancient Greek city of Pergamon in Asia Minor. The structure is 33.4 metres deep. The base is decorated with a frieze in high relief showing the battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods known as the Gigantomachy. There is a second and less well-preserved high relief frieze on the inner court walls which surround the actual fire altar on the upper level of the structure at the top of the stairs. In a set of consecutive scenes, it depicts events from the life of Telephus, legendary founder of the city of Pergamon and son of the hero Heracles and Auge, one of Tegean king Aleus's daughters. In 1878, the German engineer Carl Humann began official excavations on the acropolis of Pergamon, an effort that lasted until 1886; the excavation was undertaken in order to rescue the altar friezes and expose the foundation of the edifice.

Other ancient structures on the acropolis were brought to light. Upon negotiating with the Turkish government, it was agreed that all frieze fragments found at the time would become the property of the Berlin museums. In Berlin, Italian restorers reassembled the panels comprising the frieze from the thousands of fragments, recovered. In order to display the result and create a context for it, a new museum was erected in 1901 on Berlin's Museum Island; because this first Pergamon Museum proved to be both inadequate and structurally unsound, it was demolished in 1909 and replaced with a much larger museum, which opened in 1930. This new museum is still open to the public on the island. Despite the fact that the new museum was home to a variety of collections beyond the friezes, the city's inhabitants decided to name it the Pergamon Museum for the friezes and reconstruction of the west front of the altar; the Pergamon Altar is today the most famous item in the Berlin Collection of Classical Antiquities, on display in the Pergamon Museum and in the Altes Museum, both of which are on Berlin's Museum Island.

It was announced that on September 29, 2014 the Pergamon Exhibit will be closed for the duration of 5 years for a complete remodeling of the exhibit hall, including but not limited to construction of a new glass ceiling and a new climate control system. The exhibit is scheduled to reopen in 2023; the Pergamene kingdom founded by Philetaerus at the beginning of the 3rd century BC was part of the Hellenistic Seleucid empire. Attalus I, successor and nephew of Eumenes I, was the first to achieve full independence for the territory and proclaimed himself king after his victory over the Celtic Galatians in 228 BC; this victory over the Galatians, a threat to the Pergamene kingdom, secured his power, which he attempted to consolidate. With conquests in Asia Minor at the expense of the weakened Seleucids he could increase the size of his kingdom. A Seleucid counteroffensive under Antiochos III reached the gates of Pergamon but could not put an end to Pergamene independence. Since the Seleucids were becoming stronger in the east, Attalus turned his attention westward to Greece and was able to occupy all of Euboea.

His son, Eumenes II, further limited the influence of the Galatians and ruled alongside his brother Attalus II, who succeeded him. In 188 BC, Eumenes II was able to create the Treaty of Apamea as an ally of Rome, thus reducing the influence of the Seleucids in Asia Minor; the Attalids were thus an emerging power with the desire to demonstrate their importance to the outside world through the construction of imposing buildings. As is the case with most young dynasties, the Attalids sought to anchor their legitimacy with endowments and monumental construction projects; the imposing altar accordingly had a political dimension. Up until the second half of the 20th century it had been assumed by some scholars that the altar was endowed in 184 BC by Eumenes II after a victory over the Celtic Tolistoagian tribe and their leader Ortiagon. In the meantime datings relating the altar to archaeological findings and historical events are under discussion, it is not imperative to connect the altar endowment with specific military events such as the Roman victories over Antiochos III in 184 BC in alliance with Eumenes II, or Eumenes II's own victory over the Galatians in 166 BC.

Investigation of the altar's construction and friezes has led to the conclusion that it was not conceived as a monument to a particular victory. The design of Pergamene victory monuments is known from the monument relics; the most famous are Roman copies of bronze statues of the "Great Gaul", representations of defeated Celts after the victory of Attalos I over the Tolistoagians, or reliefs showing booty weapons from the halls of the Pergamene Athena sanctuary, dedicated by Eumenes II to the goddess who brought victory after the triumph over the Seleucids and their allies in 184 BC. The Gigantomachy frieze on the outside walls of the Pergamon altar avoids to a great extent any direct references to contemporary military campaigns — except for the "Star of Macedonia" on the round shield of one of the Giants on the eastern frieze, or a Celtic oblong shield in the hand of a god on the northern frieze; the struggle of the Olympian gods, supported by Heracles, the astrological deities governing the days and hours and originating in the ancient race of the Titans, personifications of the forces of war and fate, sea creatures, Dionysus with his followers, appears much rather to be a cosmological event of general e

The Vessel Drum and Bugle Corps is a competitive junior drum and bugle corps. Based in the Inland Empire of Southern California, the unit performed as City Sound Drum & Bugle Corps in Drum Corps International competitions as an Open Class corps 2010–14. Reorganized as Vessel Drum & Bugle Corps, the group returned to competition in 2018. Vessel Drum and Bugle Corps is a partnership between Orange County Independent Ensembles and Los Angeles Youth Arts Organization. Los Angeles Youth Arts Organization was founded in June, 1997 by current director Nathaniel Lewis, Jr. as an indoor winter drum line called City Sound. His intent was to give teens and young adults from "diverse cultures" with performance opportunities lacking in many California schools. In 2010, the corps added a horn line and color guard to become a full drum and bugle corps, performing in Drum Corps International contests within California. In November 2012, City Sound's drumline was featured on the Disney Channel's Shake It Up. City Sound is a Boy Scouts "Learning for Life" Explorer Post and was awarded the Boy Scouts of America, Learning For Life, Character Education Quality Award for 2013.

In 2013 and 2014, members of City Sound were able to receive college credit through California State University Dominguez Hills for marching in the corps for one season. In 2014, City Sound traveled out of their home state of California for the first time as a corps, competing at the Southwest Corps Connection in Mesa, Arizona. In May 2015, the corps announced that it would take the year off, since it had difficulty in recruiting a sufficient number of brass players. In 2017, Sean Cunningham, Director of Orange County Independent Ensembles and Nathaniel Lewis of Los Angeles Youth Arts Organization decided to partner in a new Drum and Bugle Corps known now as Vessel Drum and Bugle Corps.. In January 2018, after three seasons of inactivity as City Sound, DCI announced that the corps was approved to return in 2018 as Vessel Drum and Bugle Corps. Vessel Drum & Bugle Corps is a registered non-profit 501 musical organization which has a Board of Directors and staff assigned to carry out the organization's mission.

The corps director is Jr.. Source = Vessel website Drum Corps International website

The Harmonic scale is a "super-just" musical scale allowing extended just intonation, beyond 5-limit to the 19th harmonic, free modulation through the use of synthesizers. Transpositions and tuning tables are controlled by the left hand on the appropriate note on a one-octave keyboard. For example, if the harmonic scale is tuned to a fundamental of C harmonics 16–32 are as follows: Some harmonics are not included: 23, 25, 29, & 31; the 21st is a natural seventh above G, but not a great interval above C, the 27th is a just fifth above D. Play diatonic scale It was invented by Wendy Carlos and used on three pieces on her album Beauty in the Beast: Just Imaginings, That's Just It, Yusae-Aisae. Versions of the scale have been used by Ezra Sims, Franz Richter Herf and Gosheven. Though described by Carlos as containing "144 distinct pitches to the octave", the twelve scales include 78 notes per octave. Technically there should be duplicates and thus 57 pitches. For example, a perfect fifth above G is the major tone above C.

"Wendy Carlos Harmonic scale", Microtonal-Synthesis.com