1.
Liverpool
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Liverpool is a major city and metropolitan borough in North West England.24 million people in 2011. Liverpool historically lay within the ancient hundred of West Derby in the south west of the county of Lancashire and it became a borough from 1207 and a city from 1880. In 1889 it became a county borough independent of Lancashire, Liverpool sits on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary and its growth as a major port is paralleled by the expansion of the city throughout the Industrial Revolution. Along with general cargo, freight, raw materials such as coal and cotton, the city was also directly involved in the Atlantic slave trade. Liverpool was home to both the Cunard and White Star Line, and was the port of registry of the ocean liner RMS Titanic and others such as the RMS Lusitania, Queen Mary, and Olympic. The city celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2007, and it held the European Capital of Culture title together with Stavanger, Norway, several areas of Liverpool city centre were granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 2004. The Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City includes the Pier Head, Albert Dock, tourism forms a significant part of the citys economy. Liverpool is also the home of two Premier League football clubs, Liverpool and Everton, matches between the two being known as the Merseyside derby, the world-famous Grand National horse race takes place annually at Aintree Racecourse on the outskirts of the city. The city is home to the oldest Black African community in the country. Natives of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians and colloquially as Scousers, a reference to scouse, the word Scouse has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Pool is a place name element in England from the Brythonic word for a pond, inlet, or pit, cognate with the modern Welsh. The derivation of the first element remains uncertain, with the Welsh word Llif as the most plausible relative and this etymology is supported by its similarity to that of the archaic Welsh name for Liverpool Llynlleifiad. Other origins of the name have suggested, including elverpool. The name appeared in 1190 as Liuerpul, and it may be that the place appearing as Leyrpole, in a record of 1418. King Johns letters patent of 1207 announced the foundation of the borough of Liverpool, the original street plan of Liverpool is said to have been designed by King John near the same time it was granted a royal charter, making it a borough. The original seven streets were laid out in an H shape, Bank Street, Castle Street, Chapel Street, Dale Street, Juggler Street, Moor Street, in the 17th century there was slow progress in trade and population growth. Battles for the town were waged during the English Civil War, in 1699 Liverpool was made a parish by Act of Parliament, that same year its first slave ship, Liverpool Merchant, set sail for Africa. Since Roman times, the city of Chester on the River Dee had been the regions principal port on the Irish Sea
2.
Merseyside
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Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. Merseyside, which was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, Merseyside spans 249 square miles of land which border Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and the Irish Sea to the west. North Wales is across the Dee Estuary, there is a mix of high density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Merseyside, but overwhelmingly the land use is urban. For the 12 years following 1974 the county had a system of local government. The county council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts are now effectively unitary authority areas, Merseyside is joined by the neighbouring borough of Halton to form the Liverpool City Region, which together forms a local enterprise partnership and combined authority area. Further areas, including Widnes and Runcorn, were added to the Special Review Area by Order in 1965, draft proposals were published in 1965, but the commission never completed its final proposals as it was abolished in 1966. This would have included four districts, Southport/Crosby, Liverpool/Bootle, St. Helens/Widnes, in 1970 the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive was set up, covering Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral and Knowsley, but excluding Southport and St. Helens. The Redcliffe-Maud Report was rejected by the incoming Conservative Party government, a White Paper was published in 1971. The Local Government Bill presented to Parliament involved a substantial trimming from the White Paper, excluding the northern and southern fringes of the area, excluding Chester, following the creation of Merseyside, Merseytravel expanded to take in St Helens and Southport. Between 1974 and 1986 the county had a system of local government with the five boroughs sharing power with the Merseyside County Council. However, in 1986 the government of Margaret Thatcher abolished the county council along with all other county councils. The eastern part of Merseyside borders onto Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, the territory comprising the county of Merseyside previously formed part of the administrative counties of Lancashire and Cheshire. The two parts are linked by the two Mersey Tunnels, the Wirral Line of Merseyrail, and the Mersey Ferry, to express location within the Merseyside area by the preposition on – thus on Merseyside as opposed to in Merseyside – was traditionally the more usual. Therefore, more recent usage tends to draw distinctions between the geographical Merseyside – for which on is considered appropriate – and the Metropolitan county of Merseyside, Merseyside contains the metropolitan boroughs of Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St. Helens and Wirral. This is a chart of trend of gross value added of Merseyside at current basic prices published by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. This also has a usage by some local authorities and organisations and is used by Geographers A-Z Map Company for their Merseyside Street Atlas. However, a separate City region, comprising Merseyside and Halton, has official recognition as being Greater Merseyside. Halton also forms part of the Merseyside NUTS region, List of Lord Lieutenants of Merseyside List of High Sheriffs of Merseyside 1911 Liverpool general transport strike List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Merseyside Dickinson, Joseph
3.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
4.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
5.
Royal Academy of Music
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The Royal Academy of Music is a conservatoire in London, England, is a constituent college of the University of London and is one of the leading conservatoires in the world. It was founded in 1822 and is Britains oldest degree-granting music school and it received a Royal Charter in 1830. It is a charity under English law. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist, the Academy was granted a Royal Charter by King George IV in 1830. The Academys current facilities are situated on Marylebone Road in central London adjacent to Regents Park, the Royal Academy of Music offers training from infant level, with the senior Academy awarding the LRAM diploma, B. Mus. and higher degrees to Ph. D. The former degree GRSM, equivalent to a university honours degree, all undergraduates now take the University of London degree of BMus. There are also departments for musical performance and jazz. The Academy collaborates with other worldwide, including participating in the SOCRATES student. The Academy has students from over 50 countries, following diverse programmes including instrumental performance, conducting, composition, jazz, musical theatre, the Academy has an established relationship with Kings College London, particularly the Department of Music, whose students receive instrumental tuition at the Academy. In return, many students at the Academy take a range of Humanities choices at Kings, the Junior Academy, for pupils under the age of 18, takes place every Saturday. The Academys library contains over 160,000 items, including significant collections of printed and manuscript materials. The library also houses dedicated to Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir Henry Wood. The Academys museum displays many of these items, the Orchestral Library has approximately 4,500 sets of orchestral parts. Other collections include the libraries of Sir Henry Wood and Otto Klemperer, noted for her performances of Bach and modern English music, she was a friend and advocate of Arnold Bax and also premièred Vaughan Williams Piano Concerto — a work dedicated to her — in 1933. In 1886, Franz Liszt performed at the Academy to celebrate the creation of the Franz Liszt Scholarship, in summer 2012, John Adams conducted an orchestra which combined students from the Academy and New Yorks Juilliard School at the Proms and at New Yorks Lincoln Center. Conductors who have worked with the orchestras include Semyon Bychkov, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Famous people who have conducted the Academys orchestra also include Carl Maria Von Weber in 1826, for many years, the Academy celebrated the work of a living composer with a festival in the presence of the composer. In February–March 2006, an Academy festival celebrated the violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, the festival included a recital by Academy professor Maxim Vengerov, who performed on Il Cannone Guarnerius, Paganinis favourite violin
6.
Conducting
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Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. A conductors directions will almost invariably be supplemented or reinforced by verbal instructions or suggestions to their musicians in rehearsal prior to a performance. The conductor typically stands on a podium with a large music stand for the full score. Conducting while playing a piano or synthesizer may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras, communication is typically non-verbal during a performance. However, in rehearsals, frequent interruptions allow the conductor to give verbal directions as to how the music should be played or sung, Conductors act as guides to the orchestras or choirs they conduct. They choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make adjustments, work out their interpretation. They may also attend to matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions and selecting members. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles such as big bands are usually led by conductors. The principal conductor of an orchestra or opera company is referred to as a music director or chief conductor, or by the German words Kapellmeister or Dirigent. Conductors of choirs or choruses are sometimes referred to as director, chorus master, or choirmaster. Conductors of concert bands, military bands, marching bands and other bands may hold the title of director, bandmaster. Respected senior conductors are sometimes referred to by the Italian word, an early form of conducting is cheironomy, the use of hand gestures to indicate melodic shape. This has been practiced at least as far back as the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, other devices to indicate the passing of time came into use. Rolled up sheets of paper, smaller sticks and unadorned hands are all shown in pictures from this period, the large staff was responsible for the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully, who injured his foot with one while conducting a Te Deum for the Kings recovery from illness. The wound became gangrenous and Lully refused amputation, whereupon the gangrene spread to his leg, in instrumental music throughout the 18th century, a member of the ensemble usually acted as the conductor. This was sometimes the concertmaster, who could use his bow as a baton and it was common to conduct from the harpsichord in pieces that had a basso continuo part. In opera performances, there were sometimes two conductors – the keyboard player was in charge of the singers, and the principal violinist or leader was in charge of the orchestra. By the early 19th century, it became the norm to have a dedicated conductor, the size of the usual orchestra expanded during this period, and the use of a baton became more common, as it was easier to see than bare hands or rolled-up paper
7.
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
8.
Berlin Philharmonic
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The Berlin Philharmonic, is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany and is consistently ranked as one of the best orchestras in the world. The BPO supports several music ensembles. The orchestra was renamed and reorganized under the management of Hermann Wolff in 1882. Their new conductor was Ludwig von Brenner, in 1887 Hans von Bülow, one of the most esteemed conductors in the world, programmes of this period show that the orchestra possessed only 46 strings, much less than the Wagnerian ideal of 64. In 1895, Arthur Nikisch became chief conductor, and was succeeded in 1923 by Wilhelm Furtwängler, despite several changes in leadership, the orchestra continued to perform throughout World War II. After Furtwängler fled to Switzerland in 1945, Leo Borchard became chief conductor and this arrangement lasted only a few months, as Borchard was accidentally shot and killed by the American forces occupying Berlin. Sergiu Celibidache then took over as conductor for seven years. Furtwängler returned in 1952 and conducted the orchestra until his death in 1954 and his successor was Herbert von Karajan, who led the orchestra from 1955 until his resignation in April 1989, only months before his death. Under him, the made a vast number of recordings and toured widely. The orchestra hired its first female musician, violinist Madeleine Carruzzo, however, Karajans hiring in September 1982 of Sabine Meyer, the first female wind player to the orchestra, led to controversy when the orchestra voted 73 to 4 not to admit her to the orchestra. After Karajan stood down from the orchestra in 1989, the offered the chief conductorship to Carlos Kleiber. In 1989, the orchestra elected Claudio Abbado as its principal conductor. He expanded the repertoire beyond the core classical and romantic works into more modern 20th-century works. Abbado stepped down from the conductorship of the orchestra in 2002. During the post-unification period, the orchestra encountered financial problems resulting from stress in the city of Berlin. In 2006, the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic established the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize in Abbados honour, in June 1999, the musicians elected Sir Simon Rattle as their next chief conductor. Rattle made it a condition of his signing with the Berlin Philharmonic that it be turned into a public foundation, with the power to make its own artistic. This required a change to state law, which was approved in 2001, Rattles contract with the orchestra was initially through 2012
9.
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
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The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. It is the resident orchestra at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, which has been its principal performance venue since 1991 and its administrative and rehearsal base is at the nearby CBSO Centre, where it also presents chamber concerts by members of the orchestra and guest performers. Each year the orchestra performs more than 130 concerts to audiences totalling over 200,000 people, another 72,000 people each year take part in its learning, participation and outreach events, and 750 local musicians are engaged in its six choirs and the CBSO Youth Orchestra. The CBSOs current music director is Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, effective with the 2016-2017 season, the CBSOs current chief executive, appointed in 1999, is Stephen Maddock. Birminghams most notable early orchestra was the Birmingham Festival Orchestra, which formed as a group of 25 musicians in 1768 but by 1834 had grown into an orchestra of 147. This was eclipsed as the leading orchestra at the end of the 19th century by George Halfords Orchestra. The period between 1905 and 1920 saw this demand for orchestral music met by a number of competing enterprises. Landon Ronald presented a season of promenade concerts at the Theatre Royal in New Street from 1905 to 1914 with a 70-strong orchestra made up largely of Birmingham-based musicians. During its early years the orchestra was sometimes referred to as the Birmingham City Orchestra, as a result, a shortlist of four candidates was drawn up from the numerous applications for the post, though the initial one-year contract came to limit the choice to local applicants. The eventual appointee was Appleby Matthews, who had been running his own orchestra in the city since 1916 and had support from local music critics on the selection panel. Richard Wassell was appointed as Assistant Conductor, the CBOs first concert was given under Matthews baton as part of the Sunday series at the Theatre Royal on 5 September 1920, with the first piece of music performed being Granville Bantocks Saul. He had only limited experience in any of these roles, however, the CBO committee had two candidates in mind to replace Matthews, Eugene Goossens and Adrian Boult. For a while they explored the possibility of appointing both as joint conductors, but were convinced by Ernest de Sélincourt that this idea was unworkable. The urbane, Oxford-educated Boult was also dealing with influential local citizens. Boult brought a vision for the orchestras future, building on Matthews foundations. Some of the conductors in Europe were brought in to guest conduct, including Bruno Walter, Pierre Monteux, Ernest Ansermet. The orchestra made its first commercial recording in 1925. and building up the diary of out-of-town concerts. The advance made within a season is so considerable as to be remarkable
10.
Order of Merit
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The Order of Merit is an order of merit recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. While all members are awarded the right to use the post-nominal letters OM and a medallion for life, however, Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the Royal Academy, advised against the new order, primarily because of its selection process. From its inception, the order has been open to women, Florence Nightingale being the first woman to receive the honour, several individuals have refused admission into the Order of Merit, such as Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman, and George Bernard Shaw. To date, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, remains the youngest person inducted into the Order of Merit, having been admitted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1968. All citizens of the Commonwealth realms are eligible for appointment to the Order of Merit, since 1991, it has been required that the insignia be returned upon the recipients death. However, it has been claimed by Stanley Martin, in his book The Order of Merit 1902–2002, One Hundred Years of Matchless Honour, that the Order of Merit is the pinnacle of the British honours system. Some orders of precedence are as follows, Martin, Stanley, The Order of Merit, One Hundred Years of Matchless Honour, New York City, I. B
11.
Order of the British Empire
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There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were at first made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire, nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most members are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth realms that use the Imperial system of honours and awards. Honorary knighthoods are appointed to citizens of nations where the Queen is not head of state, occasionally, honorary appointees are, incorrectly, referred to as Sir or Dame – Bill Gates or Bob Geldof, for example. In particular, King George V wished to create an Order to honour many thousands of those who had served in a variety of non-combatant roles during the First World War, when first established, the Order had only one division. However, in 1918, soon after its foundation, it was divided into Military. The Orders motto is For God and the Empire, at the foundation of the Order, the Medal of the Order of the British Empire was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. In 1922, this was renamed the British Empire Medal, in addition, the BEM is awarded by the Cook Islands and by some other Commonwealth nations. The British monarch is Sovereign of the Order, and appoints all members of the Order. The next most senior member is the Grand Master, of whom there have been three, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Mary, and the current Grand Master, the Duke of Edinburgh. The Order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross,845 Knights and Dames Commander, and 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the number of members of the fourth and fifth classes. Foreign recipients, as members, do not contribute to the numbers restricted to the Order as full members do. Though men can be knighted separately from an order of chivalry, women cannot, and so the rank of Knight/Dame Commander of the Order is the lowest rank of damehood, and second-lowest of knighthood. Because of this, Dame Commander is awarded in circumstances in which a man would be created a Knight Bachelor, for example, by convention, female judges of the High Court of Justice are created Dames Commander after appointment, while male judges become Knights Bachelor. The Order has six officials, the Prelate, the Dean, the Secretary, the Registrar, the King of Arms, the Bishop of London, a senior bishop in the Church of England, serves as the Orders Prelate. The Dean of St Pauls is ex officio the Dean of the Order, the Orders King of Arms is not a member of the College of Arms, as are many other heraldic officers. From time to time, individuals are appointed to a higher grade within the Order, thereby ceasing usage of the junior post-nominal letters
12.
London Symphony Orchestra
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The London Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1904, is the oldest of Londons symphony orchestras. It was set up by a group of players who left Henry Woods Queens Hall Orchestra because of a new rule requiring players to give the orchestra their exclusive services, the LSO itself later introduced a similar rule for its members. From the outset, the LSO was organised on co-operative lines and this practice continued for the orchestras first four decades. The profit-sharing principle was abandoned in the era as a condition of receiving public subsidy for the first time. In the 1950s the orchestra debated whether to concentrate on work at the expense of symphony concerts. By the 1960s the LSO had recovered its position, which it has retained subsequently. In 1966, to perform alongside it in works, the orchestra established the LSO Chorus, originally a mix of professional and amateur singers. As a self-governing body, the orchestra selects the conductors with whom it works, at some stages in its history, it has dispensed with a principal conductor and worked only with guests. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in the Barbican Centre in the City of London, among its programmes there have been large-scale festivals celebrating composers as diverse as Berlioz, Mahler and Bernstein. At the turn of the century there were no permanent salaried orchestras in London. The main orchestras were those of Covent Garden, the Philharmonic Society and he would then engage another player to deputise at him for the original concert and the rehearsals for it. The treasurer of the Philharmonic Society described the system thus, A and he sends B to the first rehearsal. B, without knowledge or consent, sends C to the second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, C sends D, in 1904, the manager of the Queens Hall, Robert Newman and the conductor of his promenade concerts, Henry Wood, agreed that they could no longer tolerate the deputy system. After a rehearsal in which Wood was faced with dozens of unfamiliar faces in his own orchestra, Newman came to the platform and announced, Gentlemen, in future there will be no deputies. Orchestral musicians were not highly paid, and removing their chances of better-paid engagements permitted by the deputy system was a financial blow to many of them. The principal movers were three players and a trumpeter, John Solomon. Busby organised a meeting at St. Andrews Hall, not far from the Queens Hall, invitations were sent to present and former members of the Queens Hall Orchestra
13.
Liverpool College
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Liverpool College is a mixed all-through school located in Mossley Hill, a suburb of Liverpool, England. It was one of the 13 founding members of the Headmasters Conference, Liverpool College was the first of many public schools founded in the Victorian Era. The foundation stone of the building was laid on 22 October 1840 by Edward Smith-Stanley. The original building in Shaw street is in the so-called Tudor-Gothic style and it was designed by Mr. Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, and was erected at a cost of £35,000. The College consisted of 3 institutions – Upper, Middle and Lower Schools, while these schools were under the control of one and the same Principal, they were kept entirely separate. The Lower, or Commercial School, was intended for boys who were to go into business houses at an early age, the Middle School combined literary and scientific training, with special attention to modern languages for boys leaving for business or the professions. The Upper School was a first grade school with leaving exhibitions for Oxford. The Liverpool College for Girls at Grove Street was established in 1856, the Liverpool College for Girls, Huyton, or Huyton College as it was popularly known, was started in 1894 and intended to be parallel to the Boys Upper School. The Liverpool College Preparatory School at Fairfield was also founded in 1898, the Council of Liverpool College was therefore one of the most important governing bodies in the kingdom, with 6 schools under its control. Liverpool College has occupied 3 Sites since its foundation in 1840, the Upper School of what was then officially called ‘Liverpool Collegiate’, was moved from Shaw Street to Lodge Lane, Sefton Park in 1884 through the efforts of Rev. Selwyn. The erection of new buildings started in 1887 and were completed in 1890. The first instance of a site in Mossley Hill occurred in 1896 where several acres were purchased as playing fields with the present pavilion being built in 1905, from 1917-36 more land and buildings were purchased at the Site in Mossley Hill. The Junior wing was opened by Lord Stanley and the stone of St. Peter’s chapel was laid by Mr. H. Sutton Timmis. The College has held land on the present 26 acre site since 1896, in 1993 the Liverpool College for Girls, Huyton or Huyton College merged with Liverpool College to become a coeducational day school. The school is situated in Mossley Hill on North Mossley Hill Road, facilities on site include a fully equipped gymnasium and relaxation centre as well as AstroTurf courts and a Combined Cadet Force centre. It had been decided to proceed with plans to concentrate the whole school in what is currently the Lower School site, in a series of projects to construct newer and more up-to-date buildings. In September 2013 the school became an Academy, an independent school that is funded by central government. In September 2010, Liverpool College became a school once again
14.
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
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It is the UKs only orchestra that has its own hall. The society is the second oldest of its type in the United Kingdom and its orchestra, in addition to the orchestra, the society administers the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir. The Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and other choirs and ensembles and it is involved in educational and community projects in Liverpool and its surrounding region. The society and its members have won a number of honours and awards and it is based in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, an art deco concert hall built in the late 1930s. The society has its origins in a group of amateurs in the early 19th century. They had met during the 1830s in St Martins Church under the leadership of William Sudlow, the society was the second of its kind to be established, the first being the London-based Royal Philharmonic Society whose orchestra was disbanded in 1932. The organisation was founded for the rich and élite members of Liverpool society and its first concert was given on 12 March 1840 in a room at the back of a dance academy in Great Richmond Street and was conducted by John Russell with William Sudlow as organist. The programme consisted of 13 short orchestral and choral pieces, including works by Auber, Rossini, Spohr, Henry Bishop, and George Onslow, the society outgrew this room and gave its performances in the hall of the Collegiate Institution in Shaw Street. In 1843 the society appointed its first principal conductor, the Swiss-born J. Zeugheer Herrmann, during the following year, the orchestra performed its first symphonies, Haydns No.99 and Beethovens First. In 1844 the society appointed the Liverpool architect John Cunningham to prepare plans for a hall to be situated at the junction of Hope Street. It was to contain an audience of 2,100 and an orchestra of 250, to raise money for its building, shares were issued and members of Liverpool society were invited to buy seats in the boxes to be included in the hall. The foundation stone was laid in 1846 and construction began the following year, in 1847 the society invited Felix Mendelssohn to compose a cantata based on words from Miltons Comus to celebrate the opening of the hall. Mendelssohn died before this could be carried out, the hall cost £30,000 and was formally opened on 27 August 1849. The organist was W. T. Best, the hall was not full for the first performance, this was attributed to two factors, the high price of admission, and the fear that the building, without central supporting pillars, was unsafe. In 1850 the choir formed the Liverpool Philharmonic Auxiliary Society and were in conflict with their conductor, Herrmann offered his resignation, which was not accepted. By 1852 the financial problems of the society were deteriorating, membership was exclusive and not all the seats on offer had been taken up. Suggestions that the conditions for membership should be relaxed were refused, in 1852 the society widened its activities from music by arranging theatrical performances, including Charles Dickens company and an appearance by William Makepeace Thackeray. In 1855 it was discovered that William Sudlow, the Honorary Secretary had been stealing money from the society and he was replaced by a paid secretary, the post was given to Henry Sudlow, a distant relative of William
15.
University of London
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The University of London is a collegiate research university located in London, England, consisting of 18 constituent colleges, nine research institutes and a number of central bodies. The university moved to a structure in 1900. The specialist colleges of the university include the London Business School, Imperial College London was formerly a member before leaving the university in 2007. City is the most recent constituent college, having joined on 1 September 2016, in post-nominals, the University of London is commonly abbreviated as Lond. or, more rarely, Londin. From the Latin Universitas Londiniensis, after its degree abbreviations, University College London was founded under the name London University in 1826 as a secular alternative to the religious universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In response to the controversy surrounding such educational establishment, Kings College London was founded and was the first to be granted a royal charter. Yet to receive a charter, UCL in 1834 renewed its application for a royal charter as a university. In response to this, opposition to exclusive rights grew among the London medical schools, the idea of a general degree awarding body for the schools was discussed in the medical press. And in evidence taken by the Select Committee on Medical Education, in 1835, the government announced the response to UCLs petition for a charter. Following the issuing of its charter on 28 November 1836, the university started drawing up regulations for degrees in March 1837. The death of William IV in June, however, resulted in a problem – the charter had been granted during our Royal will and pleasure, queen Victoria issued a second charter on 5 December 1837, reincorporating the university. The university awarded its first degrees in 1839, all to students from UCL, the university established by the charters of 1836 and 1837 was essentially an examining board with the right to award degrees in arts, laws and medicine. However, the university did not have the authority to grant degrees in theology, in medicine, the university was given the right to determine which medical schools provided sufficient medical training. Beyond the right to students for examination, there was no other connection between the affiliated colleges and the university. In 1849 the university held its first graduation ceremony at Somerset House following a petition to the senate from the graduates, about 250 students graduated at this ceremony. The London academic robes of this period were distinguished by their rich velvet facings, the list of affiliated colleges grew by 1858 to include over 50 institutions, including all other British universities. In that year, a new charter effectively abolished the affiliated colleges system by opening up the examinations to everyone whether they attended a college or not. The expanded role meant the university needed more space, particularly with the number of students at the provincial university colleges
16.
Symphony No. 2 (Mahler)
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Symphony No.2 by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection Symphony, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. Apart from the Eighth Symphony, this symphony was Mahlers most popular and it was his first major work that established his lifelong view of the beauty of afterlife and resurrection. In this large work, the further developed the creativity of sound of the distance and creating a world of its own. Mahler completed what would become the first movement of the symphony in 1888 as a single-movement symphonic poem called Totenfeier, some sketches for the second movement also date from that year. Mahler wavered five years on whether to make Totenfeier the opening movement of a symphony, in 1893, he composed the second and third movements. While thoroughly aware he was inviting comparison with Beethovens Symphony No, 9—both symphonies use a chorus as the centerpiece of a final movement which begins with references to and is much longer than those preceding it—Mahler knew he wanted a vocal final movement. Finding the right text for this movement proved long and perplexing, when Mahler took up his appointment at the Hamburg Opera in 1891, he found the other important conductor there to be Hans von Bülow, who was in charge of the citys symphony concerts. Bülow, not known for his kindness, was impressed by Mahler and his support was not diminished by his failure to like or understand Totenfeier when Mahler played it for him on the piano. Bülow told Mahler that Totenfeier made Tristan und Isolde sound to him like a Haydn symphony, as Bülows health worsened, Mahler substituted for him. Bülows death in 1894 greatly affected Mahler, at the funeral, Mahler heard a setting of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstocks Die Auferstehung, where the dictum calls out Rise again, yes, you shall rise again / My dust. It struck me like lightning, this thing, he wrote to conductor Anton Seidl, Mahler used the first two verses of Klopstocks hymn, then added verses of his own that dealt more explicitly with redemption and resurrection. He finished the finale and revised the orchestration of the first movement in 1894 and this song was probably written in 1892 or 1893. Mahler initially devised a programme for the work, which he shared with a number of friends. He even had one of these versions printed in the book at the premiere in Dresden on 20 December 1901. In this programme, the first movement represents a funeral and asks questions such as Is there life after death, as generally happened, Mahler later withdrew all versions of the programme from circulation. The work was first published in 1897 by Friedrich Hofmeister, the rights were transferred to Josef Weinberger shortly thereafter, and finally to Universal Edition, which released a second edition in 1910. A third edition was published in 1952, and a fourth, critical edition in 1970 and its world premiere performance was given on 18 October 2005 at the Royal Albert Hall in London with Gilbert Kaplan conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Reproductions of earlier editions have been released by Dover and by Boosey & Hawkes, the Kaplan Foundation published an extensive facsimile edition with additional materials in 1986
17.
St Anne's College, Oxford
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St Annes College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Formerly a womens college, it has been coeducational since 1979, the college is known for its progressive outlook, its academic strength in both the humanities and the sciences, its mix of architecture, and its library – the largest college library in Oxford. In October 2016 it was announced that former Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Helen King had been elected to the position of Principal upon her retirement from the police and she will take up her appointment in April 2017, succeeding Tim Gardam. The 2013–14 annual review valued the colleges endowment at £37 million, in 1942, it became the St Annes Society, and received a university charter to be founded as a women-only college in 1952. While it remains a myth that it is built on land donated by St Johns College. The annual magazine for alumni of the college is known as The Ship, when it was still known as the Society for Home Students, the college had its first common room in Ship Street, located in central Oxford. Its grounds are bounded by Woodstock Road and Banbury Road to the west and east respectively and they extend as far south as 48 Woodstock Road on the west, and 27 Banbury Road on the east side. These grounds house all of the administrative and academic buildings, undergraduate accommodation, as well as the hall. St Annes can accommodate undergraduates for three years of study, undergraduates at St Annes are housed in 14 Victorian houses owned by the college and six purpose-built accommodation blocks. The Victorian houses include 1 –10 Bevington Road, 58/60 Woodstock Road and these houses also contain the college bar, teaching rooms, college gym, and a laundrette. The Hartland House, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, was the first purpose-built college building and it now houses the Library, the junior and senior common rooms, and administrative offices. The Ruth Deech Building, completed in 2005, is the most recent college building and it houses extensive conference facilities on the lower ground floor, in addition to the new College Lodge on the upper ground floor, and 113 en-suite student rooms. The new library and academic centre, scheduled for completion in 2016, is on the site of the former Founders Gatehouse, the Claire Palley Building, completed in 1992 and named after former Principal Claire Palley, was the first accommodation block to have en-suite rooms. It also houses the Mary Ogilvie Lecture Theatre, Trenaman House, built in 1995, holds student rooms as well as communal college facilities on the ground floor and, since 2008, the St Annes Coffee Shop. It was named after Nancy Trenaman, the sixth Principal of the college, the Dining Hall, built in 1959, is amongst the largest in Oxford with a capacity of 300. Three meals are served daily in hall apart from on weekends when only brunch is served and it is also used for college collections and, on occasion, college bops. The Eleanor Plumer House houses the Middle Common Room, and attached facilities including a study room and kitchen. Four additional Victorian houses hold teaching rooms, seminar rooms, music practice rooms, the Robert Saunders House, built in 1996, provides 80 rooms for post-graduate students in Summertown, an area in the north of Oxford
18.
Doctor of Music
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The Doctor of Music degree is a higher doctorate awarded on the basis of a substantial portfolio of compositions and/or scholarly publications on music. Like other higher doctorates, it is granted by universities in the United Kingdom, Ireland and some Commonwealth countries. Most universities restrict candidature to their own graduates or staff, which is a reversal of the practice in former times, when candidates for the degree were not required to be a Master of Arts. The Doctor of Music degree should not be confused with the Doctor of Musical Arts degree, the D. Mus. is also distinct from the Doctor of Philosophy degree in music, which is awarded in areas such as music history, music theory, and musicology. The Doctor of Music degree has also awarded honoris causa when presented to musicians. King, Mark Knopfler, Annie Lennox, Jon Lord, Sir Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Jimmy Page, Paul Simon, Joe Walsh, Brian Wilson and Neil Young in popular music
19.
Honorary degree
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An example of identifying a recipient of this award is as follows, Doctorate in Business Administration. The degree is conferred as a way of honouring a distinguished visitors contributions to a specific field or to society in general. It is sometimes recommended that such degrees be listed in ones CV as an award, rev. Theodore Hesburgh held the record for most honorary degrees, having been awarded 150 during his lifetime. The earliest honorary degree on record was awarded to Lionel Woodville in the late 1470s by the University of Oxford and he later became Bishop of Salisbury. In the latter part of the 16th century, the granting of honorary degrees became quite common, generally, universities nominate several persons each year for honorary degrees, these nominees usually go through several committees before receiving approval. Under certain circumstances, a degree may be conferred on an individual for both the nature of the office they hold and the completion of a dissertation, the dissertation et jure dignitatis is considered to be a full academic degree. Although higher doctorates such as DSc, DLitt, etc. are often awarded honoris causa, the university will appoint a panel of examiners who will consider the case and prepare a report recommending whether or not the degree be awarded. Usually, the applicant must have some strong connection with the university in question, for example full-time academic staff. The Archbishop of Canterbury has the authority to award degrees, some institutes of higher education do not confer honorary degrees as a matter of policy - see below. Some learned societies award honorary fellowships in the way as honorary degrees are awarded by universities. A typical example of university regulations is, Honorary graduates may use the approved post-nominal letters and it is not customary, however, for recipients of an honorary doctorate to adopt the prefix Dr. In some universities, it is however a matter of preference for an honorary doctor to use the formal title of Doctor. Written communications where an honorary doctorate has been awarded may include the letters h. c. after the award to indicate that status. In some countries, a person who holds an honorary doctorate may use the title Doctor prenominally, abbreviated Dr. h. c. or Dr. Sometimes, they use Hon before the letters, for example. In recent years, some universities have adopted entirely separate post nominal titles for honorary degrees and this is in part due to the confusion that honorary degrees have caused. It is now common in countries to use certain degrees, such as LLD or HonD. For instance, a doctor of the Auckland University of Technology takes the special title HonD. Some universities, including the Open University grant Doctorates of the University to selected nominees, most American universities award the degrees of LLD, LittD, LHD, ScD, PedD and DD only as honorary degrees
20.
The Proms
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In 2009 the total number of concerts reached 100. The season is a significant event in British culture, in classical music, Jiří Bělohlávek described the Proms as the worlds largest and most democratic musical festival. Prom is short for promenade concert, a term originally referred to outdoor concerts in Londons pleasure gardens. In fact this tradition has been revived in parks and stately homes around the UK at promenade concerts such as the Battle Proms. In the context of the BBC Proms, promming refers to the use of the areas inside the hall for which ticket prices are much lower than for the reserved seating. Single-concert standing tickets for either the arena or gallery can be only on the day of the concert. Proms concert-goers, particularly those who stand, are referred to as prommers or promenaders. Prommers can buy full-season tickets instead for guaranteed entry to every concert in the season, some prommers are particularly keen in their attendance. The annual series of Proms continuing today had their roots in that movement and they were inaugurated on 10 August 1895 in the Queens Hall in Langham Place by the impresario Robert Newman, who was fully experienced in running similar concerts at His Majestys Theatre. Newman wished to generate an audience for concert hall music by offering low ticket prices and an informal atmosphere. He stated his aim to Henry Wood in 1894 as follows, I am going to run nightly concerts, popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music. Dr George Cathcart, an otolaryngologist, gave financial backing to Newman for the series on condition that Henry Wood be employed as the sole conductor, Wood, aged 26, seized this opportunity and built the Queens Hall Orchestra as the ensemble specially devoted to performing the promenade concerts. This coincided with the adoption of lower pitch by other leading orchestras. Although the concerts gained a following and reputation, Newman went bankrupt in 1902. Wood received a knighthood in 1911, in 1914 anti-German feeling led Speyer to surrender his role, and music publishers Chappell & Co. took control of the concerts. Although Newman remained involved in planning, it was Woods name which became most closely associated with the Proms. As conductor from the first concert in 1895, Sir Henry was largely responsible for building the repertoire heard as the series continued from year to year. While including many popular and less demanding works, in the first season there were substantial nights devoted to Beethoven or Schubert, distinguished singers including Sims Reeves and Signor Foli appeared
21.
Royal Albert Hall
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The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, which holds the Proms concerts annually each summer since 1941. It has a capacity of up to 5,272 seats, the Hall is a registered charity held in trust for the nation and receives no public or government funding. A further 400 events are each year in the non-auditorium spaces. In 1851, the Great Exhibition was held in Hyde Park, the Exhibitions Royal Commission bought Gore House and its grounds on the advice of the Prince. Progress on the scheme was slow and in 1861 Prince Albert died, however, a memorial was proposed for Hyde Park, with a Great Hall opposite. The proposal was approved and the site was purchased with some of the profits from the Exhibition, the Hall was designed by civil engineers Captain Francis Fowke and Major-General Henry Y. D. Scott of the Royal Engineers and built by Lucas Brothers. The designers were heavily influenced by ancient amphitheatres, but had also exposed to the ideas of Gottfried Semper while he was working at the South Kensington Museum. The recently opened Cirque dHiver in Paris was seen in the press as the design to outdo. The Hall was constructed mainly of Fareham Red brick, with terra cotta block decoration made by Gibbs, the dome on top was made of wrought iron and glazed. There was an assembly made of the iron framework of the dome in Manchester, then it was taken apart again and transported to London via horse. When the time came for the structure to be removed from the dome after reassembly in situ. It did drop – but only by five-sixteenths of an inch, the Hall was scheduled to be completed by Christmas Day 1870 and the Queen visited a few weeks beforehand to inspect. The official opening ceremony of the Hall was on 29 March 1871, a welcoming speech was given by Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria was too overcome to speak. At some point, the Queen remarked that the Hall reminded her of the British constitution, a concert followed, when the Halls acoustic problems became immediately apparent. Engineers first attempted to solve the strong echo by suspending a canvas awning below the dome, in July 1871, French organist Camille Saint-Saëns performed Church Scene from the Faust by Charles Gounod, The Orchestra described his performance as an exceptional and distinguished performer. Initially lit by gas, the Hall contained a system where its thousands of gas jets were lit within ten seconds. Though it was demonstrated as early as 1873 in the Hall, full electric lighting was not installed until 1888, during an early trial when a partial installation was made, one disgruntled patron wrote to The Times declaring it to be a very ghastly and unpleasant innovation. In May 1877, Richard Wagner himself conducted the first half of each of the eight concerts which made up the Grand Wagner Festival
22.
London Sinfonietta
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The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The core of the London Sinfonietta is its 18 Principal Players, representing some of the best solo, the London Sinfonietta’s recordings comprise a catalogue of 20th-century classics, on numerous prestigious labels as well as the ensembles own London Sinfonietta Label. David Atherton and Nicholas Snowman founded the orchestra in 1968, Atherton was its first Music Director, from 1968 to 1973 and again from 1989 to 1991. Snowman was its manager from 1968 to 1972. Michael Vyner served as the Artistic Director from 1973 to 1989, paul Crossley took over and served from 1989 until 1994. Markus Stenz served as Music Director from 1994 to 1998, he was succeeded by Oliver Knussen from 1998 to 2002, following 10 years as the ensembles Education Officer, Gillian Moore became Artistic Director of the ensemble from 1998 until 2006. Since 2007, Andrew Burke has been the Chief Executive, the ensemble has commissioned and performed many works by both emerging and established composers. In its first concert on 24 January 1968 conducted by its co-founder David Atherton, in 1970 it recorded that work for The Beatles label Apple Records. The London Sinfonietta champions the music of today from around the world, in its early years, the ensemble also included classical music in its eclectic programming, before its focus moved mainly to music of the latter 20th century. In the early 2000s the ensemble’s programming embraced collaborations with pop, most recently, the ensemble has again updated its focus, placing a priority on music of the 21st century and its connections with other art forms. The London Sinfonietta has worked with a range of conductors, not least its past music directors David Atherton, Markus Stenz and it has had long-standing relationships with Sir Simon Rattle, Elgar Howarth, Diego Masson, George Benjamin and Martyn Brabbins. It now appears regularly with Thierry Fischer, Sian Edwards, Baldur Bronnimann and this results in an innovative strand of collaborative work with young artists, enabling the ensemble to introduce its music to new audiences and partners. London Sinfonietta concert performances are increasingly being conceived as the centrepiece of a cluster of related projects and events and these often combine new technology and new media with live music-making in both educational and performance contexts, giving a platform for artistic work inspired by the ensemble’s repertoire. Innovative ways of promoting contemporary music to new audiences include collaborations with Warp Records, the ensemble has always supported the early careers of composer and musicians. In 2009 the ensemble launched its own summer Academy programme, training musicians and conductors in the repertoire. The course has been led by Elgar Howarth, George Benjamin, the development of the scheme contributed to the ensemble being awarded the 2010 Royal Philharmonic Society Best Ensemble award. The Sinfonietta is a resident ensemble of the Southbank Centre, where it performs much of its London season producing events in the Royal Festival and Queen Elizabeth Halls and the Purcell Room. Since August 2008 the ensembles headquarters have been at the new Kings Place complex in Kings Cross, London, also home to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and it has performed concerts at the venue since October 2008, it also regularly performs at the BBC Proms
23.
Harrison Birtwistle
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Sir Harrison Birtwistle is a British composer. Harrison Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a town in Lancashire some 20 miles north of Manchester. His interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a clarinet when he was seven, Birtwistle composed from around this time, later describing his early pieces as sub Vaughan Williams. In 1952 he entered the Royal Manchester College of Music in Manchester on a clarinet scholarship, while there he came in contact with a talented group of contemporaries including Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr, John Ogdon and Elgar Howarth. In 1965 a Harkness Fellowship gave him the opportunity to continue his studies at Princeton University and this work, together with Verses for Ensembles and The Triumph of Time, established Birtwistle as an important voice in British music. In 1972 he wrote the music to The Offence starring Sean Connery which was his only film score. In 1975 Birtwistle became musical director of the newly established Royal National Theatre in London and he has been honoured with a knighthood and as a Companion of Honour. From 1994 to 2001 he was Henry Purcell Professor of Composition at Kings College London, Birtwistle was the 1987 recipient of the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. In 1995 he was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, at the 2006 Ivor Novello Awards he criticised pop musicians at the event for performing too loudly and using too many clichés. Artist Adam Birtwistle is his son, photographer Cecil Birtwistle is his grandson. It is not easy to link Birtwistles music to any school or movement. For a time, he was described as belonging to the Manchester School, the phrase has since somewhat fallen out of use, since the three composers were united only by their early studies in Manchester, not by a common musical style. Birtwistles music is complex, written in a manner with a clear. His early work is evocative of Igor Stravinsky and Olivier Messiaen. His early pieces made frequent use of ostinati and often had a ritualistic feel and these have been toned down in recent decades as he has adapted and transformed the techniques into more subtle methods. With its strong emphasis on rhythm, the music is described as brutal or violent. The style is stark and uncompromising, Birtwistles favourite image for explaining how his pieces work is to compare them to taking a walk through a town—especially the sort of small town more common in continental Europe than Britain. Such a walk might start in the town square, having explored its main features, we would set off down one of the side streets
24.
Arnold Schoenberg
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Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg or Schönberg was an Austrian composer, music theorist, and painter. He was associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, by 1938, with the rise of the Nazi Party, Schoenbergs works were labeled degenerate music, because he was Jewish. He moved to the United States in 1934, Schoenbergs approach, both in terms of harmony and development, has been one of the most influential of 20th-century musical thought. Many European and American composers from at least three generations have consciously extended his thinking, whereas others have reacted against it. Schoenberg was known early in his career for simultaneously extending the traditionally opposed German Romantic styles of Brahms, later, his name would come to personify innovations in atonality that would become the most polemical feature of 20th-century art music. In the 1920s, Schoenberg developed the technique, an influential compositional method of manipulating an ordered series of all twelve notes in the chromatic scale. He also coined the term developing variation and was the first modern composer to embrace ways of developing motifs without resorting to the dominance of a melodic idea. Schoenbergs archival legacy is collected at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, Arnold Schoenberg was born into a lower middle-class Jewish family in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna, at Obere Donaustraße 5. His father Samuel, a native of Bratislava, was a shopkeeper and he took only counterpoint lessons with the composer Alexander Zemlinsky, who was to become his first brother-in-law. In his twenties, Schoenberg earned a living by orchestrating operettas, while composing his own works and he later made an orchestral version of this, which became one of his most popular pieces. Strauss turned to a more conservative idiom in his own work after 1909, Mahler adopted him as a protégé and continued to support him, even after Schoenbergs style reached a point Mahler could no longer understand. Mahler worried about who would look after him after his death, Schoenberg, who had initially despised and mocked Mahlers music, was converted by the thunderbolt of Mahlers Third Symphony, which he considered a work of genius. Afterward he spoke of Mahler as a saint, in 1898 Schoenberg converted to Christianity in the Lutheran church. According to MacDonald this was partly to strengthen his attachment to Western European cultural traditions and he would self-identify as a member of the Jewish religion later in life. In October 1901, he married Mathilde Zemlinsky, the sister of the conductor and composer Alexander von Zemlinsky and he and Mathilde had two children, Gertrud and Georg. Gertrud would marry Schoenbergs pupil Felix Greissle in 1921, during the summer of 1908, his wife Mathilde left him for several months for a young Austrian painter, Richard Gerstl. This period marked a change in Schoenbergs work. This was the first composition without any reference at all to a key, also in this year, he completed one of his most revolutionary compositions, the String Quartet No
25.
20th-century music
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During the 20th century there was a vast increase in the variety of music that people had access to. The 20th-century orchestra was far more flexible than its predecessors and used a wider variety of instruments. In Beethovens and Felix Mendelssohns time in the 19th century, the orchestra was composed of a standard core of instruments which was very rarely modified. The 20th century saw dramatic innovations in musical forms and styles, composers and songwriters experimented with new musical styles, such as genre fusions. As well, composers and musicians used new electric, electronic, in the 1980s, some styles of music, such as electronic dance music genres such as house music were created largely with synthesizers and drum machines. Faster modes of such as jet flight allowed musicians and fans to travel more widely to perform or hear shows. Busoni, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Schreker were already recognized before 1914 as modernists, composers such as Ravel, Milhaud, and Gershwin combined classical and jazz idioms. Late-Romantic and modernist nationalism was also in British, American. Composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Aaron Copland, Carlos Chávez, in the middle of the century composers such as Harry Partch and Ben Johnston explored just intonation. There were three schools of neoclassicism, associated with Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, and Arnold Schoenberg. Similar sympathies in the half of the century are generally subsumed under the heading postmodernism. A compositional tradition arose in the mid-20th century—particularly in North America—called experimental music and its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage. According to Cage, an action is one the outcome of which is not foreseen. Minimalist music, involving a simplification of materials and intensive repetition of motives began in the late 1950s with the composers Terry Riley, Steve Reich, later, minimalism was adapted to a more traditional symphonic setting by composers including Reich, Glass, and John Adams. For more examples see List of 20th-century classical composers, contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s to early 1990s, which includes modernist, postmodern, neoromantic, and pluralist music. However, the term may also be employed in a sense to refer to all post-1945 musical forms. Many composers working in the early 21st century were prominent figures in the 20th century, some younger composers such as Oliver Knussen, Thomas Adès, and Michael Daugherty did not rise to prominence until late in the 20th century. For more examples see List of 21st-century classical composers, in the early twentieth century, electronic devices were invented that were capable of generating sound electronically, without an initial mechanical source of vibration
26.
Birmingham Town Hall
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Birmingham Town Hall is a Grade I listed concert hall and venue for popular assemblies opened in 1834 and situated in Victoria Square, Birmingham, England. The design was based on the proportions of the Temple of Castor, perfect and aloof on a tall, rusticated podium, it marked an entirely new concept in English architecture. The hall underwent a renovation between 2002 and 2008. Two sites were considered by the Birmingham Street Commissioners for the construction of a hall in the city, Bennetts Hill. Joseph Hansom, of Hansom cab fame, and Edward Welch were chosen as the architects, Hill of London was hired to build the 6,000 pipe organ for £6,000. Construction began on 27 April 1832 with a completion date of 1833. However, Hansom went bankrupt during construction, having tendered too low, the contractors were also losing money. Three guarantors donated money for the building, W. P. Lloyd, John Welch, with the injection of this money, the building was successfully opened for the delayed Music Festival on 7 October 1834, despite the building still being unfinished. During construction, on 26 January 1833, two workers were killed when a 70-foot crane constructed to install the roof trusses broke and the pulley block failed, John Heap died instantly and Win. Badger died a few days later from his injuries and they were buried in St Philips churchyard and a memorial, consisting of a pillar base made by one of the workmen for the Town Hall, was dedicated to them. Architect Charles Edge was commissioned in 1835 to repair weaknesses to the design of the building and he was also commissioned for the extension of the building in 1837 and again in 1850. Charles Dickens gave public readings here to raise money for the Birmingham and Midland Institute, sir Arthur Sullivans Overture di Ballo was also premièred here in August 1870, as part of the Triennial Musical Festival which commissioned new works for every season. The hall was the venue for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1918 until 1991 when they moved to Symphony Hall. In November 1880, the Hall was filled to capacity for a Birmingham public protest meeting in support of Revd, richard Enraght, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, who was imprisoned in Warwick Prison under the Disraeli Governments Public Worship Regulation Act. Popular music has featured, and in the 1960s and 1970s, headline acts such as Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath. On 9 August 1902, the hall, along with the council house, was illuminated in celebration of the coronation of King Edward VII. It was illuminated again on 22 June 1911 for the coronation of King George V, in 1901, it was the scene of rioting on the occasion of a visit by David Lloyd George. It featured prominently in the 1967 Peter Watkins film Privilege and doubled for the Royal Albert Hall in 1996s Brassed Off, the pediment also had images of Britannia, supported by mermaids, which were sculpted by William Bloye
27.
Symphony Hall, Birmingham
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Symphony Hall is a 2,262 seat concert venue in Birmingham, England. It was officially opened by the Queen in June 1991, although had been opened on April 15,1991 and it is home to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and hosts around 270 events a year. It was completed at a cost of £30 million, the halls interior is modelled upon the Musikverein in Vienna and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. A particularly innovative feature is the halls acoustic flexibility and it has a reverberation chamber behind the stage and extending high along the sides, adding 50% to the halls volume, the doors to which can be remotely opened or closed. The U-shaped reverberation chamber area has a volume of 12,700 cubic metres, there is an acoustic canopy which can be raised or lowered above the stage. Dampening panels can be extended or retracted to ensure that the sound of the space is perfectly matched to the scale and style of the music to be performed, there are also reverse fan walls at the rear of the hall which provide further reflections of sound. All the walls and the ceiling are 200 millimetres thick and are made of concrete, the hall is built only 30 metres from a covered railway line. To prevent the transmission of vibrations, the hall is mounted on rubber cushions, the hall is also shielded from heavy traffic on Broad Street by double skins of concrete. Large, low-speed air ducting cuts the ventilation noise, in 2001, a 6000-pipe symphony organ was installed, designed and built by Johannes Klais Orgelbau in Bonn and specially tailored to the halls reverberation chambers. This is now the largest mechanical organ in the UK. List of concert halls Official website Klais pipe organ
28.
Knight Bachelor
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The appointment of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic and lowest rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch, Knights Bachelor are the most ancient sort of British knight, but Knights Bachelor rank below knights of the various orders. There is no counterpart to Knight Bachelor. The lowest knightly honour that can be conferred upon a woman is Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – which, also, foreigners are not created Knights Bachelor, instead they are generally made honorary KBEs. It is generally awarded for service, amongst its recipients are all male judges of Her Majestys High Court of Justice in England. Sir Patrick Stewart, and Sir Tom Jones are Officers of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, like other knights, Knights Bachelor are styled Sir. Since they are not knights of any order of chivalry, there is no post-nominal associated with the award. This style is adopted by Knights Bachelor who are also peers, baronets or knights of the various statutory orders, such as Sir William Boulton, Bt, Kt, or The Lord Olivier. Until 1926 Knights Bachelor had no insignia which they could wear, the Knights Bachelor badge may be worn on all such occasions upon the left side of the coat or outer garment of those upon whom the degree of Knight Bachelor has been conferred. In 1974, Queen Elizabeth II issued a warrant authorising the wearing on appropriate occasions of a neck badge, slightly smaller in size. In 1988 a new certificate of authentication, a knights only personal documentation, was designed by the College of Arms. The Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor was founded for the maintenance and consolidation of the Dignity of Knights Bachelor in 1908, the Society keeps records of all Knights Bachelor, in their interest
29.
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
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The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is a British period instrument orchestra. The OAE is a resident orchestra of the Southbank Centre, London, the leadership is rotated between four musicians, Matthew Truscott, Kati Debretzeni and Margaret Faultless. The OAE does not have a conductor, but chooses conductors individually. Having no permanent music director gives the flexibility to work with some of the world’s greatest conductors. The current Principal Artists are Sir Simon Rattle, Vladimir Jurowski, Iván Fischer, John Butt, Sir Roger Norrington and William Christie are Emeritus Conductors, as were the late Frans Brüggen and Sir Charles Mackerras. The Ethos of the Orchestra is based on democracy, with the idea that the players are not simply technicians, when it began anyone who wanted to could become a member of the orchestra, although they wouldn’t necessarily be asked to play. Responsibility for concert planning is given to a Players Artistic Committee which is elected annually by the members, the OAE’s first concerts, in June 1986, were booked at Oxfords Town Hall and London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Conducted by Sigiswald Kuijken, their first programme consisted of an Overture Suite by Telemann, Rameau’s Suite from Dardanus, the OAEs current recurring season at the Southbank Centre in London includes concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal Festival Hall. In May 2006, the OAE started a series of late night concerts called The Night Shift. The OAE celebrated the 21st anniversary of its founding with a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 June 2007, conducted by Norrington, Elder, Mackerras and Jurowski respectively. In July 2008 the OAE moved its headquarters to Kings Place in London where it now shares an office with the London Sinfonietta, while continuing its Southbank season. On 29 January 2010 The Night Shift made its first appearance at The Roundhouse in Camden, in August 2010 the OAE played at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms season, performing Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and the Love Scene from Romeo and Juliet by Berlioz. The concert was conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and included soloists Sarah Connolly, Ben Heppner, the OAE has toured many countries, including South America and the US in 2002, and toured South East Asia for the first time in autumn 2003. Over the spring/summer of 2010, the OAE are running a series of three concerts inspired by Monteverdi’s Vespers for the schools in which they work, the Night Shift is a concert series where classical music is presented in a relaxed and informal setting. Established in 2006 by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, unusual characteristics include the concise length of each performance, the invitation to bring alcoholic drinks into the concert hall, and the ability to clap and talk at your own convenience. Since its creation, The Night Shift has proven successful among people under age 35, over 80% of the audience falls within this age bracket and approximately 20% of the audience is attending a classical concert for the first time. The Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience scheme is a scheme for young period instrumentalists. Official website Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Blog The Night Shift Bach Cantatas page on the OAE2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards page Charity Commission, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, registered charity no.295329
30.
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
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Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, except in 1941–45 during World War II and 1993 when the theatre was being rebuilt, for a 1994 reopening. Gus Christie, son of Sir George Christie and grandson of festival founder John Christie, since the companys inception, Glyndebourne has been particularly celebrated for its productions of Mozart operas. Recordings of Glyndebournes past historic Mozart productions have been reissued, while Mozart operas have continued to be the mainstay of its repertory, the company has expanded it with productions of Janáček and Handel operas. The primary resident orchestra for the Glyndebourne Festival is the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the festivals associate orchestra is the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In January 2014, Robin Ticciati became the music director of the company. David Pickard has been director of the festival, since 2001. In November 2015, the announced the appointment of Sebastian F. Schwarz as its general director. Its first placement of advertisements was in 2003, the festival has planned to incorporate power by wind turbine, as part of its green initiatives. Many Glyndebourne attendees come from London, and the event is regarded as part of the English summer season, performances start in the afternoon, enabling Londoners to leave town after lunch, and finish in time for them to catch the last train back. A long interval allows opera-goers the opportunity for picnic dinners on the lawns or in one of the restaurants in the grounds. Annually in London, the company presents a performance at The Proms. In 2003, the Glyndebourne Touring Opera administrative duties were absorbed back into the main Glyndebourne Festival Opera administration, unlike Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Glyndebourne On Tour does receive some subsidy, from the Arts Council England. The schedule involves three weeks of performances at Glyndebourne, and then one week in each of the six cities, the music directors of Glyndebourne Touring Opera and Glyndebourne on Tour are separate from the Glyndebourne Festival Opera music directors. Glyndebourne Festival Opera has also toured internationally, including the Adelaide Festival in 2006 with its production of Flight by Jonathan Dove, Glyndebourne is constituted as a registered charity called Glyndebourne Productions Limited, which is a company limited by guarantee. It has a wholly owned subsidiary, Glyndebourne Enterprises Limited, which carries out merchandising, production hire and media development activities, a related charity called the Glyndebourne Arts Trust carries out fund-raising activities. Glyndebourne Association America allows residents of the United States to make tax efficient donations to Glyndebourne, Glyndebourne has an annual budget of a little over £20 million, as of 2010. The Festival is the major opera season in the United Kingdom which is not state subsidised
31.
Fidelio
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Fidelio, Op.72, is a German opera with spoken dialogue by Ludwig van Beethoven, his only opera. The German libretto was prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly. The following year, Stephan von Breuning helped shorten the work from three acts to two, after further work on the libretto by Georg Friedrich Treitschke, a final version performed at the Kärntnertortheater on 23 May 1814. By convention, both of the first two versions are referred to as Leonore, the opera tells how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named Fidelio, rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison. Bouillys scenario fits Beethovens aesthetic and political outlook, a story of sacrifice, heroism. With its underlying struggle for liberty and justice mirroring contemporary political movements in Europe, the finale celebrates Leonores bravery with alternating contributions of soloists and chorus. The distant origin of Fidelio dates from 1803, when the librettist, the contract included free housing for Beethoven in the apartment complex that was part of Schikaneders large suburban theater, the Theater an der Wien. Beethoven was to set a new libretto by Schikaneder, entitled Vestas Feuer, however and he spent about a month composing music for it, then abandoned it when the libretto for Fidelio came to his attention. The time Beethoven spent on Vestas Feuer was not entirely wasted, welch’ ein Augenblick. and the duet O namenlose Freude for Leonora and Florestan, both originated as music for Vestas Feuer. The success of these performances was hindered by the fact that Vienna was under French military occupation, after this premiere, Beethoven was pressured by friends to revise and shorten the opera into just two acts, and he did so with the help of Stephan von Breuning. The composer also wrote a new overture, in this form the opera was first performed on 29 March and 10 April 1806, with greater success. Further performances were prevented by a dispute between Beethoven and the theatre management, in 1814 Beethoven revised his opera yet again, with additional work on the libretto by Georg Friedrich Treitschke. This version was first performed at the Kärntnertortheater on 23 May 1814, the 17-year-old Franz Schubert was in the audience, having sold his school books to obtain a ticket. The increasingly deaf Beethoven led the performance, assisted by Michael Umlauf, the role of Pizarro was taken by Johann Michael Vogl, who later became known for his collaborations with Schubert. This version of the opera was a success, and Fidelio has been part of the operatic repertory ever since. Beethoven cannot be said to have enjoyed the difficulties posed by writing and producing an opera, in a letter to Treitschke he said, I assure you, dear Treitschke, that this opera will win me a martyrs crown. You have by your co-operation saved what is best from the shipwreck, for all this I shall be eternally grateful to you. The full score was not published until 1826, and all three versions are known as Beethovens Opus 72, the first performance outside Vienna took place in Prague on 21 November 1814, with a revival in Vienna on 3 November 1822
32.
Royal Society of Arts
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The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce is a London-based, British organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The shorter version, The Royal Society of Arts and the related RSA acronym, are used more frequently than the full name, the RSA award three medals, the Albert Medal, the Benjamin Franklin Medal and the Bicentenary Medal. Medal winners include Nelson Mandela, Sir Frank Whittle, and Professor Stephen Hawking, on the RSA buildings frieze The Royal Society of Arts words are engraved, although its full name is Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. The short name and the related R S of A abbreviation is used more frequently than the full name, on its website, the RSA characterises itself as an enlightenment organisation committed to finding innovative practical solutions to today’s social challenges. The RSAs Patron is currently HM Elizabeth II, the RSAs President is HRH The Princess Royal, its Chairman is Vikki Heywood, life Fellows must have demonstrated exceptionally high achievement. The RSA says, The RSA Fellowship is an international community achievers and influencers from an array of backgrounds and professions. Fellows are social entrepreneurs to scientists, community leaders to commercial innovators, artists and journalists to architects and engineers, edwin Landseer who at the age of 10 was awarded a silver medal for his drawing of a dog. The RSA originally specifically precluded premiums for patented solutions, today the RSA continues to offer premiums. The Faculty currently has 120 Royal Designers and 45 Honorary Royal Designers, the Faculty consists of the world’s leading practitioners from fields as disparate as engineering, furniture, fashion and textiles, graphics, theater and film design. Early members include Eric Gill, Enid Marx, Sir Frank Whittle, the RSA moved to its current home in 1774. The House, situated in John Adam Street, near the Strand in central London, had been purpose-designed by the Adam Brothers as part of their innovative Adelphi scheme. The former private dining room of the Tavern contains a magnificent Adam ceiling with painted roundels by the school of Kauffman and Zucchi. A major refurbishment in 2012 by Matthew Lloyd Architects won a RIBA London Award in 2013, the first of these plaques was, in fact, of red terracotta erected outside a former residence of Lord Byron. The Society erected 36 plaques until, in 1901, responsibility for them was transferred to the London County Council and, later, similar schemes are now operated in all the constituent countries of the United Kingdom. The Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce hosted the first exhibition of art in 1760. Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who had exhibited at this first exhibition were subsequently members of The Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. The Society was a pioneer in examinations, offering the first national public examinations in 1882 that led to the formation of the RSA Examinations Board now included in the. In 1876, a predecessor of the Royal College of Music, in 1929 The Society purchased the entire village of West Wycombe
33.
2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
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The opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games took place on the evening of Friday 27 July in the Olympic Stadium, London. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the formal opening of this international sporting event with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nations culture. The 2012 Games were formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II, the spectacle was entitled Isles of Wonder and directed by Academy Award-winning British film director Danny Boyle. Prior to London 2012 there had been considerable apprehension about Britains ability to stage a ceremony that could reach the standard set at the Beijing Summer Games of 2008. The 2008 ceremony had been noted for its scale, extravagance and expense, hailed as the greatest ever, in contrast, London spent an estimated £27m, which was nevertheless about twice the original budget. Nonetheless, the London opening ceremony was seen as a tremendous success, widely praised as a masterpiece. The ceremony began at 21,00 BST and lasted almost four hours and it was watched by an estimated worldwide television audience of 900 million, becoming the most-viewed Olympic opening ceremony in both the UK and US. The content had largely been kept secret before the performance, despite involving thousands of volunteers, two shorter sections drew particular comment, involving a filmed cameo appearance of the Queen, and a live performance by the London Symphony Orchestra joined by comedian Rowan Atkinson. These were widely ascribed to Britains sense of humour, the ceremony featured children and young people in most of its segments, reflecting the inspire a generation aspiration of Londons original bid for the Games. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games approached Danny Boyle to be the director of the ceremony in June 2010 and he said it felt weirdly more like a. civic or national responsibility to take the job. He said. obviously Im not going to try and build on Beijing and we cant, and you wouldnt want to, so were going back to the beginning. Were going to try and give the impression that were rethinking and restarting, theyve tried to top themselves each time and you cant do that after Beijing. Beijings budget had been £65m, whereas Londons final budget was £27m, the London stadium had the same number of seats as Beijings, but was half the size, this intimacy of scale meant that Boyle felt he could achieve something personal and connecting. K. Chesterton aphorism, The world shall not for lack of wonders. In July 2010 Boyle started brainstorming ideas with designer Mark Tildesley, writer Frank Cottrell Boyce and they considered what was essentially British, with the non-British Larlarb able to offer a view of what the world thought Britain meant. Cottrell Boyce had given Boyle a copy of Pandaemonium, by Humphrey Jennings and it had become traditional during the opening ceremony to produce the Olympic rings in a spectacular manner. Boyle decided that the journey from the pastoral to the industrial, at the same time the team moved to the Three Mills studio complex in east London, where a 4x4 metre scale model of the stadium was built. For security reasons, a single CGI-assisted version of the ceremony was kept on editor Sascha Dhillons laptop, the cast included professional performers and 7,500 volunteers
34.
Gustav Mahler
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Gustav Mahler was an Austrian late-Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century, born in Bohemia as a German-speaking Jew of humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism to secure the regular opposition. Late in his life he was director of New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Mahlers œuvre is relatively limited, for much of his composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Some of Mahlers immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955 to honour the composers life, the Mahler family came from eastern Bohemia and were of humble circumstances, the composers grandmother had been a street pedlar. Bohemia was then part of the Austrian Empire, the Mahler family belonged to a German-speaking minority among Bohemians, from this background the future composer developed early on a permanent sense of exile, always an intruder, never welcomed. Bernhard Mahler, the son and the composers father, elevated himself to the ranks of the petite bourgeoisie by becoming a coachman. He bought a modest house in the village of Kalischt, halfway between Prague in Bohemia and Brno in Moravia, in the center of todays Czech Republic. Bernhards wife, Marie, gave birth to the first of the couples 14 children, a son Isidor, two years later, on 7 July 1860, their second son, Gustav, was born. In December 1860, Bernhard Mahler moved with his wife and infant son, Gustav, to the town of Iglau,25 km to the south-east, the family grew rapidly, but of the 12 children born to the family in Iglau only six survived infancy. All of these elements would later contribute to his musical vocabulary. When he was four years old, Gustav discovered his grandparents piano and he developed his performing skills sufficiently to be considered a local Wunderkind and gave his first public performance at the town theatre when he was ten years old. Although Gustav loved making music, his reports from the Iglau Gymnasium portrayed him as absent-minded. In 1871, in the hope of improving the results, his father sent him to the New Town Gymnasium in Prague. In 1874 he suffered a personal loss when his younger brother Ernst died after a long illness. Mahler sought to express his feelings in music, with the help of a friend, Josef Steiner, he work on an opera
35.
Symphony No. 6 (Mahler)
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Symphony No.6 in A minor by Gustav Mahler is a symphony in four movements, composed in 1903 and 1904. Mahler conducted the works first performance at the Saalbau concert hall in Essen on May 27,1906 and it is sometimes referred to by the nickname Tragische. This contrasts with the tragic, even nihilistic, ending of No.6, both Alban Berg and Anton Webern praised the work when they first heard it. Berg expressed his opinion of the stature of this symphony in a 1908 letter to Webern, Es gibt doch nur eine VI. trotz der Pastorale. While at the beginning of each movement Mahler calls for two harps, at one point in the Andante he calls for several, and at one point in the Scherzo he writes 4 harps. Often he does not specify a set number, especially in the last movement, while the first version of the score included whip or slapstick and tambourine, these were removed over the course of Mahlers extensive revisions. The status of the nickname is problematic. Mahler did not title the symphony when he composed it, or at its first performance or first publication, when he allowed Richard Specht to analyse the work and Alexander von Zemlinsky to arrange the symphony, he did not authorize any sort of nickname for the symphony. He had, as well, decisively rejected and disavowed the titles of his symphonies by 1900. Only the words Sechste Sinfonie appeared on the programme for the performance in Munich on November 8,1906, nor does the word Tragische appear on any of the scores that C. F. Kahnt published, in Spechts officially approved Thematische Führer or on Zemlinskys piano duet transcription, by contrast, in his Gustav Mahler memoir, Bruno Walter claimed that Mahler called his Tragic Symphony. Additionally, the programme for the first Vienna performance refers to the work as Sechste Sinfonie, the work, in four movements, lasts around 80 minutes. The order of the movements is a matter of debate. Scholars such as Norman Del Mar have argued for the Andante/Scherzo order of the inner movements, the 1963 Erwin Ratz edition publishes the score with the movements ordered to Mahlers original conception. Del Mar, among others, has criticised the Ratz edition for its lack of evidence to justify the Scherzo/Andante order. The Scherzo and the first movement utilise identical keys, A minor at the beginning, Matthews, Paul Banks and scholar Warren Darcy have independently proposed the idea of two separate editions of the symphony, one to accommodate each version of the order of the inner movements. Formally, the symphony is one of Mahlers most outwardly conventional, the first three movements are relatively traditional in structure and character, with a standard sonata form first movement leading to the middle movements – one a scherzo-with-trios, the other slow. However, attempts to analyze the vast finale in terms of the sonata archetype have encountered serious difficulties, the chords are played by trumpets and oboes when first heard, with the trumpets sounding most loudly in the first chord and the oboes in the second
36.
Claudio Abbado
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Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian conductor. The Abbado family for several generations enjoyed both wealth and respect, Abbados great-grandfather squandered the family fortune and reputation by gambling. His son, Abbados grandfather, became a professor at the University of Turin and his grandfather re-established the familys reputation and also showed talent as an amateur musician. Born in Milan, Italy, Claudio Abbado was the son of violinist and composer Michelangelo Abbado, and his father, a professional violinist and a professor at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, was his first piano teacher. His mother also was an adept pianist, Marcello Abbado later became a concert pianist and teacher at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro. His sister also exhibited talent in music, but did not pursue a career after her marriage. His other brother became a successful architect. Abbados childhood encompassed the Nazi occupation of Milan, during that time, Abbados mother spent time in prison for harbouring a Jewish child. This period solidified his anti-fascist political sentiments and he later recalled that Toscaninis periods of abusive behaviour to musicians in rehearsal repelled him. Other conductors who influenced him as a child were Victor de Sabata and it was not until hearing Antonio Guarnieris conducting of Claude Debussys Nocturnes that Abbado resolved to become a conductor himself. At age 15, he met Leonard Bernstein, who commented, Abbado studied piano, composition, and conducting at the Milan Conservatory, and graduated with a degree in piano in 1955. The following year, he studied conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Academy of Music, Abbado and Mehta both joined the Academy chorus to be able to watch such conductors as Bruno Walter and Herbert von Karajan in rehearsal. He also spent time at the Chigiana Academy in Siena, in 1958, Abbado made his conducting debut in Trieste. That summer, he won the international Serge Koussevitzky Competition for conductors at the Tanglewood Music Festival, in 1959, he conducted his first opera, The Love for Three Oranges, in Trieste. He made his La Scala conducting debut in 1960, in 1963, he won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Prize for conductors, which allowed him to work for five months with the New York Philharmonic as an assistant conductor to Bernstein. Abbado made his New York Philharmonic professional conducting debut on 7 April 1963, a 1965 appearance at the RIAS Festival in Berlin led to an invitation from Herbert von Karajan to the Salzburg Festival the following year to work with the Vienna Philharmonic. In 1965, Abbado made his British debut with the Hallé Orchestra, Abbado taught chamber music for 3 years during the early 1960s in Parma. His early advocacy of music included conducting the world premiere of Giacomo Manzonis Atomtod, on 25 March 1965
37.
Daniel Barenboim
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Daniel Barenboim, KBE is an Argentine-Israeli pianist and conductor who is also a citizen of Palestine and Spain. In May,2015 he proudly introduced his new piano at Royal Festival Hall and it was designed by Chris Maene, a Belgian instrument maker. This Barenboim grand piano has straight parallel strings, soundboard veins which go in different directions, specially designed bridges, ribs and bracing, some listeners have been excited by the pianos new sound, while others find it very similar to a conventional Steinway. Together with the Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spains Prince of Asturias Concord Award and he has won seven Grammy awards for his work and discography. Barenboim is a polyglot, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, Daniel Barenboim was born in 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Argentinian-Jewish parents Aida and Enrique Barenboim. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, on 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert in his hometown, Buenos Aires. In 1952, Barenboims family moved to Israel, two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitchs conducting classes. During that summer he met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler. In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, on 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pré were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, Du Pré having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, since I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a kosher witness, Mehta recalled. Du Pré retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the marriage lasted until du Prés death in 1987. In the early 1980s, Barenboim began an affair with the Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova, with whom he has two sons born in Paris before du Prés death, David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pré and he and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the world, David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8. Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, after performing in Buenos Aires, Barenboim made his international debut as a pianist at the age of 10 in 1952 in Vienna and Rome. In 1955 he performed in Paris, in 1956 in London, regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East followed thereafter. In June 1967, Barenboim and his then fiancée Du Pré gave concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba before and during the Six-Day War. His friendship with musicians Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, following his debut as a conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios, London, in 1966, Barenboim was invited to conduct by many European and American symphony orchestras
38.
Senate of Berlin
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The Senate of Berlin is the executive body governing the city of Berlin, which at the same time is a state of Germany. According to the Constitution of Berlin the Senate consists of the Governing Mayor of Berlin and up to eight Senators appointed by the Governing Mayor, the Senate meets weekly at the Rotes Rathaus. King Frederick I of Prussia by resolution finally had both towns, and three later founded adjacent cities, merged and elevated to the Royal Capital and Residence City of Berlin as of 1 January 1710, the council was headed by a Lord Mayor, or Oberbürgermeister. Lord Mayor Heinrich Sahm, elected in 1931, remained in office, and joined the NSDAP in November 1933 and his power totally depended on Julius Lippert, on 25 March 1933 appointed as Prussian State Commissioner for Berlin. So Berlin was de facto under the governance of the Nazi regime. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, Berlin was to be under the governance of the Allied Kommandatura. However, in the election of 20 October 1946, the city elected an SPD-majority Stadtverordnetenversammlung, the second elected SPD mayor, the devoted anti-communist Ernst Reuter, was vetoed by the Soviet commander, so Louise Schroeder officiated as only acting lord mayor. This was unacceptable to the Soviets, who engineered the establishment of a city council in the sector under their direct control. In the 1950 constitution the number of senators was 16, then each elected by the parliament. Anyway, until 1990 the elected candidates gained any legal power as lord mayor, the Oberbürgermeister and the Regierender Bürgermeister similarly headed the government jointly. The senate meets in the room in the Red Town Hall which was created for the Magistrat in the 1950s. Berlin is governed by a maximum of eight senators together with the head of state, each senator presides over one of the following departments, Senate Chancellery The Senate Chancellery staff coordinates the Senates policies and supports the governing mayor. Klaus Wowereit has been the mayor of Berlin since 2001. In 2011, Björn Böhning was appointed chief of the senate chancellery, procedural Rules of the Senate Senate Departments
39.
Young British Artists
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The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988. Many of the artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Goldsmiths and they are noted for shock tactics, use of throwaway materials, wild-living, and an attitude both oppositional and entrepreneurial. They achieved considerable media coverage and dominated British art during the 1990s—international survey shows in the mid-1990s included Brilliant. many of the artists were initially supported and collected by Charles Saatchi. Leading artists of the group include Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, the first use of the term young British artists was by Michael Corris in ArtForum, May 1992, although Saatchi entitled his exhibition as Young British Artists I already in March 1992. The acronym term YBA was not coined until 1996 and it has become a historic term, as most of the YBAs were born in the mid-1960s. The core of the later-to-be YBAs graduated from the Goldsmiths BA Fine Art degree course in the classes of 1987–90, liam Gillick, Fiona Rae, Steve Park and Sarah Lucas, were graduates in the class of 1987. A group of sixteen Goldsmiths students took part in an exhibition of art, called Freeze, of which Damien Hirst became the main organiser. Commercial galleries had shown a lack of interest in the project, and it was held in a cheap non-art space, the event resonated with the Acid House warehouse rave scene prevalent at the time, but did not achieve any major press exposure. One of its effects was to set an example of artist-as-curator—in the mid-1990s artist-run exhibition spaces and galleries became a feature of the London arts scene. In liaison with Hirst, Carl Freedman and Billee Sellman then curated two influential warehouse shows in 1990, Modern Medicine and Gambler, in a Bermondsey former factory they designated Building One, to stage Modern Medicine they raised £1,000 sponsorships from artworld figures including Charles Saatchi. Freedman has spoken openly about the self-fulfilling prophecy these sponsors helped to create, in 1990, Henry Bond and Sarah Lucas organised the East Country Yard Show in a disused warehouse in London Docklands which was installed over four floors and 16, 000m2 of exhibition space. They were far superior, for instance, to any of the art shows that have been staged by the Liverpool Tate in its own multi-million-pound dockland site. Established alternative spaces such as City Racing at the Oval in London, there was much embryonic activity in the Hoxton/Shoreditch area of East London focused on Joshua Compstons gallery. In 1991, the Serpentine Gallery presented a survey of group of artists with the exhibition Broken English. In 1992, Charles Saatchi staged a series of exhibitions of Young British Art, a second wave of Young British Artists appeared in 1992–1993 through exhibitions such as New Contemporaries, New British Summertime and Minky Manky. This included Douglas Gordon, Christine Borland, Fiona Banner, Tracey Emin, Tacita Dean, Georgina Starr and Jane, One exhibition which included several of the YBA artists was the 1995 quin-annual British Art Show. The spread of interest improved the market for contemporary British art magazines through increased advertising, One of the visitors to Freeze was Charles Saatchi, a major contemporary art collector and co-founder of Saatchi and Saatchi, the London advertising agency. Saatchi became not only Hirsts main collector, but also the sponsor for other YBAs–a fact openly acknowledged by Gavin Turk
