1.
Passepied
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The passepied is a French court dance. In English the passepied has been called paspy, an approximation of the French pronunciation. The earliest historical mention of the passepied was by Noël du Fail in 1548, françois Rabelais and Thoinot Arbeau, writing later in the 16th century, identify the dance as a type of branle characteristic of Brittany. At this time it was a fast duple-time dance with three-bar phrases, like many folk-dances it was popular at the court of Louis XIV. The passepied was remodelled by Jean-Baptiste Lully as a concert dance. It is accounted the fastest of the dances of the time, usually with a time signature of 38. Its phrasing had to divide into four measures to accommodate the four characteristic tiny steps over two measures and it used the steps of the minuet, which Lully had long before similarly adapted, to quite different effect, moving lightly and tracing elaborate patterns upon the floor. After this the passepied appeared in a great many theatrical productions and it is found as late as 1774 in Christoph Willibald Glucks Iphegenia in Aulis. Writing in 1739 Johann Mattheson described the passepied as a fast dance, with a character approaching frivolity, for which reason it lacks the eagerness, anger, italians often used it as a finale for instrumental sinfonie. Passepieds occasionally appear in such as J. S. 1, or dramatic music such as his Overture in the French Style for harpsichord. There are often two Passepieds in minor and major keys to be played in the order I, II, I, or else passepieds occur in contrasting pairs, léo Delibes wrote a passepied as part of his incidental music for the play Le roi samuse by Victor Hugo. A more modern example is the fourth and final movement of Claude Debussys Suite bergamasque for piano, an even more modern example is found in the third movement of Igor Stravinskys Symphony in C, which consists of a minuet, passepied, and fugue. Slightly more modern still is the number in act 2 of Sergei Prokofievs ballet Cinderella. Quite decidedly more modern is the first of five dances in the movement, Révérences engrenées, premier pentacle. A still yet more modern instance is the movement of Christopher Rouses orchestral ballet Friandises. An even more extremely modern passepied occurs as the movement of the Garden of the Senses Suite in part 2 of Michael Gandolfis The Garden of Cosmic Speculation. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie, Dance and the Music of J. S
2.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
3.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
4.
Ballet
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Ballet /ˈbæleɪ/ is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own based on French terminology. It has been influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres. Becoming a ballet dancer requires years of training, Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures to evolve the art. Ballet may also refer to a dance work, which consists of the choreography. A well-known example of this is The Nutcracker, a ballet that was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained artists, the word came into English usage from the French around 1630. Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries before being spread from Italy to France by an Italian aristocrat, Catherine de Medici, in France, ballet developed even further under her aristocratic influence. The dancers in these early court ballets were mostly noble amateurs, Ballets in this period were lengthy and elaborate and often served a political purpose. Ornamented costumes were meant to impress viewers and restricted freedom of movement. The ballets were performed in large chambers with viewers on three sides, French court ballet reached its height under the reign of King Louis XIV. Known as the Sun King, Louis symbolized the brilliance of France, in 1661 Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse to establish standards and certify dance instructors. In 1672, Louis XIV made Jean-Baptiste Lully the director of the Académie Royale de Musique from which the first professional ballet company, Lully is considered the most important composer of music for ballets de cour and instrumental to the development of the form. Ballet went into decline in France after 1830, though it continued to develop in Denmark, Italy, the arrival in Europe on the eve of First World War of the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, revived interest in the ballet and started the modern era. The Russian choreographer Michel Fokine challenged tradition and called for reforms that reinvigorated ballet as an art form, in the 20th century, ballet had a wide influence on other dance genres, and subgenres of ballet have also evolved. In the United States, choreographer George Balanchine developed what is now known as neoclassical ballet, other developments include contemporary ballet and post-structural ballet. Also in the century, ballet took a turn dividing it from classical ballet to the introduction of modern dance. Stylistic variations have emerged and evolved since the Italian Renaissance, early, classical variations are primarily associated with geographic origin
5.
Yuri Khanon
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Yuri Khanon is a pen name of Yuri Feliksovich Soloviev-Savoyarov, a Russian composer. Prior to 1993, he wrote under a pen name Yuri Khanin, Khanon was born on June 16,1965 in Leningrad. In 1988 he became a laureate of the European Film Awards, and in 1989 he won “Nika”, a Russian cinematographic award. Due to his numerous concerts throughout Russia as well as to TV and cinema appearances Khanon reached the peak of his popularity in 1988-1992, in 1988, in spite of an opposition of his old-fashioned professors, Yuri Khanon managed to graduate from the Leningrad Conservatory, specializing in composition. He named Erik Satie and Alexander Skryabin as his teachers and predecessors, worshipping their ideology, Yuri Khanon is not just a composer, he is also a writer, a philosopher, a painter, a studio pianist, and a botanist-selectionist. Khanon is author of libretto and texts of almost all his works and his grandfather was Mikhail Savoyarov, a comic actor and composer, who was very famous in St. Petersburg on the eve of the Revolution of 1917. During this period he composed soundtracks to three films, gave concerts, had several appearances on TV and published a series of articles. Many of his performances yielded public scandals, especially his concerts “Music of Dogs” and “Dried Embryos”, in 1992 produced CD Olympia, symphonic works of Khanon, Five smallest orgasms, A Certain Concert for piano and orchestra and Middle Symphony. Five Smallest orgasms, oc.29 were written as a response to Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy. The theme of deception is one of the features of Khanin’s creations. “Middle Symphony”, oc.40, with a text by the composer, is a large, quite extraordinary work with a rather unnatural and it ends with a canon in which the three singers sing the same text backwards for 81 bars. The text is very abstruse, in fact almost absurd, it necessary to overturn one’s impression of the whole symphony just listened to… Does this discussion exhaust the subject of this disc. I don’t know – I doubt it, after 1992 Khanon ceased his public and TV appearances, as well as interviews and concerts, and stopped publishing his music works. Instead he decided, in his own words, “. to work, Khanon never participated in any professional organizations and is notable for his independent ideas and reclusive way of life. Beyond all doubts, Yuri Khanon came into the history of music as “the most closed, metaphorically speaking, he stormed out and started a life of a recluse, thus having declared, “I’m done. You’d better think I exist no more. ”And we, his contemporaries, have nothing to respond, as a concert number “The Middle Duo” is performed around the world by almost all soloists of Russian ballet, though for 10 years Khanon’s music has been used without his permission. From the very beginning of his career Khanon deliberately evaded calling himself a composer, creative work is the least important for him, because, according to his ideas, there’s more than enough composers and artists in our world. “It’s impossible to walk down the street without bumping into just another writer or composer, ” – Khanon ironically wrote in one of his articles in 1993
6.
La Peau de chagrin
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La Peau de chagrin is an 1831 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac. Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells the story of a man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy, La Peau de chagrin belongs to the Études philosophiques group of Balzacs sequence of novels, La Comédie humaine. Before the book was completed, Balzac created excitement about it by publishing a series of articles, although he was five months late in delivering the manuscript, he succeeded in generating sufficient interest that the novel sold out instantly upon its publication. A second edition, which included a series of other philosophical tales, was released one month later. Although the novel uses fantastic elements, its focus is a realistic portrayal of the excesses of bourgeois materialism. Balzacs renowned attention to detail is used to describe a house, an antique shop, a royal banquet. He also includes details from his own life as a struggling writer, the central theme of La Peau de chagrin is the conflict between desire and longevity. The magic skin represents the owners life-force, which is depleted through every expression of will, ignoring a caution from the shopkeeper who offers him the skin, the protagonist greedily surrounds himself with wealth, only to find himself miserable and decrepit at the storys end. La Peau de chagrin firmly established Balzac as a writer of significance in France and his social circle widened significantly, and he was sought eagerly by publishers for future projects. The book served as the catalyst for a series of letters he exchanged with a Polish baroness named Ewelina Hańska and it also inspired Giselher Klebes opera Die tödlichen Wünsche. In 1830 Honoré de Balzac had only begun to achieve recognition as a writer, although his parents had persuaded him to make his profession the law, he announced in 1819 that he wanted to become an author. After moving into a room near the Bibliothèque de lArsenal in Paris, Balzac wrote for one year. Frustrated, he moved back to his family in the suburb of Villeparisis and he spent the next several years writing simple potboiler novels, which he published under a variety of pseudonyms. He shared some of his income from these with his parents and he published for the first time under his own name in 1829. Les Chouans, a novel about royalist forces in Brittany, did not succeed commercially and he achieved a major success later the same year when he published La Physiologie du mariage, a treatise on the institution of marriage. Bolstered by its popularity, he added to his fame by publishing a variety of stories and essays in the magazines Revue de Paris, La Caricature. He thus made connections in the industry that later helped him to obtain reviews of his novels
7.
Mikhailovsky Theatre
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The Mikhailovsky Theatre is one of Russias oldest opera and ballet houses. It was founded in 1833 and is situated in a building on the Arts Square in St. Petersburg. It is named after Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia, the theatre was established in 1833 by decree of Tsar Nicholas I. Before the 1917 Revolution, the Mikhailovsky did not have its own resident company, performances were given either by a French company, hired by the Russian Imperial Theatres or at the end of the century by the Mariinsky Theatre and Alexandrinsky Theatre companies. Both classical and contemporary authors and composers had their works produced to great acclaim in French, when the Bolsheviks took power, the French company was forced to leave Russia. In 1917 the Mikhailovsky Theatre was closed, on March 6,1918 the theatre was reopened as an opera theatre. Shortly afterwards the Mikhailovsky started changing its names, in 1918-1920, it was called the Ex-Mikhailovsky Theatre. In 1920 it was renamed to the State Academic Comic Opera Theatre, in 1926 it got the name of the Leningrad State Academic Maly Opera Theatre, MALEGOT for short. In 1920-1930 the Maly Operny established itself as one of the experimental stages in Russian new musical theatre. In 1930s Russian choreographer Fyodor Lopukhov founded the company of the theatre. The first ballet premiere, Harlequinade, choreographed by Lopukhov, took place on June 6,1933, from 1989 to 2007 the theatre bore the name of Modest Mussorgsky, subsequently returning to its original name the Mikhailovsky Theatre. In what was seen as a move, in 2007 the Russian businessman Vladimir Kekhman was appointed as General Director of the Theatre. In 2007, Obraztsova was appointed director of the Mikhailovsky Opera. However Obraztsova resigned in 2008, and Ruzimatov - in 2009, from 2009 both Obraztsova and Ruzimatov held a seat on the Artistic Committee of the theatre, while Peter Feranec was the theatres music director in 2009 -2011. Mikhail Messerer is currently ballet master in chief of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, from 2012 till present time Mikhail Tatarnikov is the theatre’s music director. In 2011 -2013 Nacho Duato held the position of the Mikhailovsky Ballets artistic director, several of Duato ballets received their world premieres at the theatre, including Nunc Dimittis, Prelude, The Sleeping Beauty, Invisible. In 2009 -2015, Mikhail Messerer staged for the Mikhailovsky numerous ballets, including Swan Lake, Don Quixote, The Flames of Paris, Laurencia, Le Corsaire, Class Concert. The Ballet Company of the Mikhailovsky Theatre made its London debut in July 2008 on the London Coliseum stage arranged by the British ex-dancer Gavin Roebuck
8.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
9.
Avant-garde
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The avant-garde are people or works that are experimental, radical, or unorthodox, with respect to art, culture, and society. It may be characterized by nontraditional, aesthetic innovation and initial unacceptability, the avant-garde pushes the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, the avant-garde also promotes radical social reforms. Several writers have attempted, with limited success, to map the parameters of avant-garde activity, the Italian essayist Renato Poggioli provides one of the best-known analyses of vanguardism as a cultural phenomenon in his 1962 book Teoria dellarte davanguardia. Other authors have attempted both to clarify and to extend Poggiolis study, bürgers essay also greatly influenced the work of contemporary American art-historians such as the German Benjamin H. D. Buchloh. Buchloh, in the collection of essays Neo-avantgarde and Culture Industry critically argues for an approach to these positions. Subsequent criticism theorized the limitations of these approaches, noting their circumscribed areas of analysis, including Eurocentric, chauvinist, and genre-specific definitions. The concept of avant-garde refers primarily to artists, writers, composers and thinkers whose work is opposed to cultural values. For Greenberg, these forms were therefore kitsch, phony, faked or mechanical culture, for instance, during the 1930s the advertising industry was quick to take visual mannerisms from surrealism, but this does not mean that 1930s advertising photographs are truly surreal. In this way the autonomous artistic merit so dear to the vanguardist was abandoned and sales became the measure. It has become common to describe successful rock musicians and celebrated film-makers as avant-garde, nevertheless, an incisive critique of vanguardism as against the views of mainstream society was offered by the New York critic Harold Rosenberg in the late 1960s. Since then it has been flanked by what he called avant-garde ghosts to the one side, and this has seen culture become, in his words, a profession one of whose aspects is the pretense of overthrowing it. Avant-garde in music can refer to any form of working within traditional structures while seeking to breach boundaries in some manner. The term is used loosely to describe the work of any musicians who radically depart from tradition altogether, although most avant-garde composers have been men, this is not exclusively the case. Women avant-gardists include Pauline Oliveros, Diamanda Galás, Meredith Monk, there are movements in theatre history that are characterized by their contributions to the avant-garde traditions in both the United States and Europe. Among these are Fluxus, Happenings, and Neo-Dada, Avant-garde – Wikipedia book Barron, Stephanie, and Maurice Tuchman. The Avant-garde in Russia, 1910–1930, New Perspectives, Los Angeles County Museum of Art Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art ISBN 0-87587-095-3, Cambridge, MA, ISBN 0-671-20422-X Berg, Hubert van den, and Walter Fähnders
10.
Mariinsky Ballet
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The Mariinsky Ballet is the resident classical ballet company of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, internationally, the Mariinsky Ballet continues to be known by its former Soviet name the Kirov Ballet. The Mariinsky Ballet is the parent company of the Vaganova Ballet Academy, the Mariinsky Ballet was founded in the 1740s, following the formation of the first Russian dance school in 1738. The Imperial Theatre School as it was known, was established on 4 May 1738. It would become the predecessor of todays Vaganova Ballet Academy, the schools founder director was the French ballet master and teacher Jean-Baptiste Landé and the purpose of creating the school was to train young dancers to form the first Russian ballet company. The first group of students included twelve boys and twelve girls, following the Russian Revolution, the Soviet government decided that the ballet school and company were unwanted symbols of the tsarist regime and went on to close them both. Following the assassination of the Bolshevik revolutionary Sergey Kirov in 1934, the then Soviet Ballet was renamed the Kirov Ballet, a name which is still sometimes incorrectly used. Despite later name changes and pressures of the Russian revolution, the present day Mariinsky Ballet is still linked to the school, the Mariinsky Ballet is today recognised as one of the worlds greatest ballet companies, employing over 200 dancers, including a reserve troupe and character artists. The Director of the Mariinsky Ballet is Yuri Fateyev, gergiev also serves as Director of the opera company. The two companies operate as separate units, the basis of the Mariinsky Ballet consists of the following artists, For a number of years, Marius Petipa was the ballet master of the Imperial Russian Ballet. NY Times article by Lawrence van Gelder, March 25,2008 Kennedy Center, Information about Mariinsky Ballet accessed 4 October 2008
11.
Ludwig Minkus
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Ludwig Minkus, also known as Léon Fyodorovich Minkus, was an Austrian composer of ballet music, a violin virtuoso and teacher. Minkus is noted for the music he composed while serving as the official Composer of Ballet Music to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres in Russia. During his long career, he wrote for the works and numerous revivals staged by the renowned Ballet Masters Arthur Saint-Léon. Among the composers most celebrated compositions was his score for La source, Don Quixote, during his career Minkus wrote a substantial amount of supplemental material for insertion into already existing ballets. Among these pieces, Minkus is noted for the Grand Pas classique, for this revival Minkus also created an expanded version of the ballets Pas de trois, which would go on to become known as the Minkus pas de trois. Today, Minkuss music is some of the most performed in all of ballet, Ludwig Minkus was born Aloysius Bernhard Philipp Minkus on 23 March 1826, in the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire. His father, Theodor Johann Minkus, was born in 1795 in Groß-Meseritsch, Moravia and his mother, Maria Franziska Heimann was born in 1807 in Pest, Hungary. Minkus was of Jewish descent—his parents converted to Catholicism not long before their relocation to Vienna, Minkuss father was a wholesale merchant of wine in Moravia, Austria and Hungary. He opened a restaurant in the Innere Stadt district of Vienna that featured its own small orchestra and this may have influenced the young Minkus—it is possible that he composed for his fathers Tanzkapelle, one of many such orchestras in the imperial capital. By the age of four he began to receive lessons in the violin. Minkus made his public début at a recital in Vienna at the age of eight, on 18 October 1845 an announcement in the Viennese newspaper Der Humorist commented on the performances of the previous season, and noted that. A conservative style with a glittering performance, soon the young Minkus was appearing in various concert halls as a soloist of note, having been declared a child prodigy by the public and critics. Minkus began composing for his instrument while he was still a student, five pieces for the violin were published in 1846. At this time Minkus began to try his hand at conducting, for a time he was the regular conductor of an orchestra that competed with another under the baton of the young Johann Strauss II. Minkuss life from 1842 to 1852 is poorly documented—travel applications survive which show requests to visit Germany, France, in 1853 Ludwig Minkus emigrated to St. Petersburg, Russia to serve as conductor of the Serf orchestra of Prince Nikolai Yusupov, a post which Minkus occupied until 1855. That same year, Minkus married Maria Antoinette Schwarz at the Catholic Church of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg, Schwarz was also a native of Austria, born in Vienna in 1838. In 1861 Minkus was appointed as Concertmaster to the Bolshoi Theatre, at this time Minkus was also working as professor of violin at the newly established Moscow Conservatory. It was for the performances at the Yusupov palace that Minkus composed what appears to be his first score for ballet
12.
Don Quixote (ballet)
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Don Quixote is a ballet in four acts and eight scenes, based on episodes taken from the famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus and first presented by the Ballet of the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow, Russia on 26 December 1869. The two chapters of the novel that the ballet is based on were first adapted for the ballet in 1740 by Franz Hilverding in Vienna. In 1768, Jean Georges Noverre mounted a new version of Don Quixote in Vienna to the music of Josef Starzer, charles Didelot, known today as the father of Russian Ballet, staged a two-act version of Don Quixote in St. Petersburg for the Imperial Ballet in 1808. In 1809 a version of the work was mounted at Her Majestys Theatre by James Harvey DEgville. Paul Taglioni presented his own version of Don Quixote for the Berlin Court Opera Ballet in 1839, by special commission, Petipa mounted the work for the Ballet of the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The production premiered on 26 December 1869 to great success, Petipa then restaged the ballet in a far more opulent and grandiose production for the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet on 21 November 1871. This new production consisted of five acts and used the designs as the first production. For his productions of 1900 and 1902 Gorsky interpolated new dances, when he staged the production in St. It is widely believed that Gorsky interpolated the Grand Pas des toréadors from the 1881 Petipa/Minkus ballet Zoraiya, however, this piece was already in Don Quixote by the time Gorsky came to revive it as it was found published in the ballet score in 1882. Therefore, the likelihood is that it was actually Petipa himself who interpolated the Grand Pas des toréadors in Don Quixote, the ballet lived on in Russia well after the revolution of 1917, whereas many other ballets ceased to be performed into the Soviet period. In fact, it part of the permanent repertoire both of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre and the Leningrad Kirov Theatre. The famous Grand Pas de Deux from the final scene was staged in the West as early as the 1940s. The first full-length production mounted outside of Russia was a new staging. The first full revival of the original Russian production to be staged in the West was by Ballet Rambert in 1962, in 1966 Rudolf Nureyev staged his version for the Vienna State Opera Ballet, with Minkus score adapted by John Lanchbery. In 1973, Nureyev filmed his version with the Australian Ballet, today the ballet has been staged by many companies all over the world in many different versions, and is considered to be among the great classics of the ballet. This production had nothing to do with the Minkus version and it was only given until the mid-1970s and then taken out of the repertory of the company. In 2005 it was reconstructed by Farrell for the company, first presented by San Francisco Ballet in 2003 under the staging of Helgi Tómasson and then-principal dancer Yuri Possokhov, Don Quixote has recently been revived by SFB
13.
Erik Satie
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Éric Alfred Leslie Satie, who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a figure in the early 20th-century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, Surrealism, repetitive music, an eccentric, Satie was introduced as a gymnopedist in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies. Satie was the son of Alfred Satie and his wife Jane Leslie, Erik was born at Honfleur in Normandy, his home there is open to the public. When Satie was four years old, his family moved to Paris, his father having been offered a job in the capital. After his mothers death in 1872, he was sent, together with his brother, Conrad. There he received his first music lessons from a local organist, in 1878, when he was 12 years old, his grandmother died, and the two brothers were reunited in Paris with their father, who remarried shortly afterwards. From the early 1880s onwards, Satie started publishing salon compositions by his step-mother and himself, in 1879, Satie entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he was soon labelled untalented by his teachers. Georges Mathias, his professor of piano at the Conservatoire, described his pupils piano technique in flatly negative terms, insignificant and laborious, Émile Decombes called him the laziest student in the Conservatoire. Years later, Satie related that Mathias, with great insistence, however, Saties military career did not last very long, within a few months he was discharged after deliberately infecting himself with bronchitis. Satie moved from his fathers residence to lodgings in Montmartre in 1887, by this time he had started what was to be an enduring friendship with the romantic poet Patrice Contamine, and had his first compositions published by his father. He soon integrated with the clientele of the Le Chat Noir Café-cabaret. Publication of compositions in the same vein followed, in the same period he befriended Claude Debussy. He moved to a room, still in Montmartre, in 1890. Le Fils des étoiles, and the Sonneries de la Rose+Croix, Satie gave performances at the Salon de la Rose + Croix, organized by Péladan. While the comrades from both the Chat Noir and Miguel Utrillos Auberge du Clou sympathised, a brochure was produced for the project. In 1893, Satie met the young Maurice Ravel for the first time, one of Saties own compositions of that period, Vexations, was to remain undisclosed until after his death. By the end of the year he had founded the Église Métropolitaine dArt de Jésus Conducteur
14.
Parade (ballet)
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Parade is a ballet with music by Erik Satie and a one-act scenario by Jean Cocteau. The ballet was composed 1916–1917 for Sergei Diaghilevs Ballets Russes, the idea of the ballet seems to have come from Jean Cocteau. He had heard Saties Trois morceaux en forme de poire in a concert, work on the production started in the middle of the First World War, with Jean Cocteau traveling back and forth to the war front in Belgium until shortly before the premiere. The most difficult part of the process, however, seems to have been to convince Misia Edwards in supporting the idea of having this ballet performed by the Ballets Russes. She was easily offended but was trusted completely by Sergei Diaghilev for advice on his productions, a first version of the music was dedicated to Misia and performed in 1916. The set and costume design was entrusted to the then cubist painter Pablo Picasso, in addition to the costume designs Pablo Picasso also designed a curtain which illustrated a group of performers at a fair consuming dinner before a performance. The Italian futurist artist Giacomo Balla aided Picasso in his creating the curtain, in February 1917 all the collaborators, excluding Satie, met in Rome to begin working of Parade scheduled to premiere in May. The English premiere of Parade, performed by Ballet Russes, was performed at Londons Empire Theatre in November 14,1919, the plot of Parade incorporated and was inspired by popular entertainments of the period, such as Parisian music-halls and American silent-films. Much of the used in Parades plot occurred outside of the formal Parisian theater. The plot reproduces various elements of life such as the music hall. Before Parade, the use of popular entertainment materials was considered unsuitable for the world of the ballet. The plot of Parade composed by Cocteau includes the failed attempt of a troupe of performers to attract members to view their show. Some of Picassos cubist costumes were in cardboard, allowing the dancers only a minimum of movement. The score contained several noise-making instruments, which had been added by Jean Cocteau, the ragtime contained in Parade would later be adapted for piano solo, and attained considerable success as a separate piano piece. The finale is a ragtime dance in which the whole cast a last desperate attempt to lure the audience in to see their show. The premiere of the resulted in a number of scandals. One faction of the audience booed, hissed, and was very unruly, nearly causing a riot before they were drowned out by enthusiastic applause, many of their objections were focused on Picassos Cubist design, which was met with cries of sales boche. According to the painter Gabriel Fournier, one of the most memorable scandals was an altercation between Cocteau, Satie, and music critic Jean Poueigh, who gave Parade an unfavorable review
15.
Furniture music
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Furniture music, or in French musique d’ameublement, is background music originally played by live performers. The term was coined by Erik Satie in 1917, the second set contained reminiscences of popular tunes by, amongst others, Camille Saint-Saëns and Ambroise Thomas. It was premiered in Paris the year it was composed, as music to a lost comedy by Max Jacob. During these intermissions the audience was invited to visit an exposition of childrens drawings in the Galerie Barbazanges that was hosting the premiere, the separate commissioned piece was sent to America. There are no public performances or publications of this music prior to leaving the European continent. This piece is presented as furniture music No.3. For a quarter of a century after the death, all of the furniture music pieces remained hidden from the general public. By the end of the 1960s parts of the music started to appear as facsimile illustrations to press articles. The first full publication of sets 1 and 3 followed in the early 1970s, there was no full publication of the 2nd set before the last years of the 20th century. Several decades after Saties death furniture music was revived, largely due to the American composer John Cage and these and other related ideas were picked up by several composers of the neo-Classical/20th Century school of music, accentuating atmosphere and texture over traditional form and movement. Ambient music Cage’s Place In the Reception of Satie - a 1999 paper by Matthew Shlomowitz and this article contains a quote of Milhauds definition of Furniture Music, as it was presented at the first public performance. UbuWebs Eric Satie, Conceptual Works page offers some rare recordings of Saties Furniture Music pieces by the Ars Nova Ensemble for download, serious Immobilities, On the Centenary of Erik Saties Vexations - a 1994 paper by Stephen Whittington on the relationship between Furniture Music and Vexations. A Suite of Furniture - all five of Saties pieces of Furniture Music, with a piece from Sports et Divertissements
16.
Baritone
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A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice types. It is the most common male voice, the baritone voice type is generally divided into the baryton-Martin baritone, lyric baritone, Kavalierbariton, Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, baryton-noble baritone, and the bass-baritone. The first use of the term baritone emerged as baritonans, late in the 15th century, at this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices, but in 17th-century Italy the term was all-encompassing and used to describe the average male choral voice. Baritones took roughly the range as it is today at the beginning of the 18th century. Indeed, many works of the 18th century have roles marked as bass that in reality are low baritone roles. Examples of this are to be found, for instance, in the operas, the greatest and most enduring parts for baritones in 18th-century operatic music were composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They include Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Papageno in The Magic Flute and these included the likes of Filippo Galli, Giovanni Inchindi, and Henri-Bernard Dabadie. The basse-taille and the bass were commonly confused because their roles were sometimes sung by singers of either actual voice part. The bel canto style of vocalism which arose in Italy in the early 19th century supplanted the castrato-dominated opera seria of the previous century and it led to the baritone being viewed as a separate voice category from the bass. More often than not, however, baritones found themselves portraying villains, the principal composers of bel canto opera are considered to be, Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Giacomo Meyerbeer, and the young Giuseppe Verdi. Figaro in Il barbiere is often called the first true baritone role, however, Donizetti and Verdi in their vocal writing went on to emphasize the top fifth of the baritone voice, rather than its lower notes—thus generating a more brilliant sound. The major international baritone of the first half of the 19th century was the Italian Antonio Tamburini and he was a famous Don Giovanni in Mozarts eponymous opera as well as being a Bellini and Donizetti specialist. Commentators praised his voice for its beauty, flexibility and smooth tonal emission, Tamburinis range, however, was probably closer to that of a bass-baritone than to that of a modern Verdi baritone. His French equivalent was Henri-Bernard Dabadie, who was a mainstay of the Paris Opera between 1819 and 1836 and the creator of several major Rossinian baritone roles, including Guillaume Tell. Dabadie sang in Italy, too, where he originated the role of Belcore in Lelisir damore in 1832, the most important of Tamburinis Italianate successors were all Verdians. In France, Paul Barroilhet succeeded Dabadie as the Paris operas best known baritone, like Dabadie, he also sang in Italy and created an important Donizetti role, in his case, Alphonse in La favorite. Antonio Pini-Corsi was the standout Italian buffo baritone in the period between about 1880 and World War I, reveling in comic roles by Rossini, Donizetti and Paer. In 1893, he created the part of Ford in Verdis last opera, notable among their contemporaries were the cultured and technically adroit French baritones Jean Lassalle, Victor Maurel, Paul Lhérie, and Maurice Renaud
17.
Rococo
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Rococo artists and architects used a more jocular, florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque. Their style was ornate and used light colours, asymmetrical designs, curves, unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and witty themes. By the end of the 18th century, Rococo was largely replaced by the Neoclassic style. In 1835 the Dictionary of the French Academy stated that the word Rococo usually covers the kind of ornament, style and design associated with Louis XVs reign and it includes therefore, all types of art from around the middle of the 18th century in France. The word is seen as a combination of the French rocaille and coquilles, the term may also be a combination of the Italian word barocco and the French rocaille and may describe the refined and fanciful style that became fashionable in parts of Europe in the 18th century. The Rococo love of shell-like curves and focus on decorative arts led some critics to say that the style was frivolous or merely modish, when the term was first used in English in about 1836, it was a colloquialism meaning old-fashioned. While there is some debate about the historical significance of the style to art in general. Italian architects of the late Baroque/early Rococo were wooed to Catholic Germany, Bohemia and Austria by local princes, an exotic but in some ways more formal type of Rococo appeared in France where Louis XIVs succession brought a change in the court artists and general artistic fashion. By the end of the long reign, rich Baroque designs were giving way to lighter elements with more curves. These elements are obvious in the designs of Nicolas Pineau. During the Régence, court life moved away from Versailles and this change became well established, first in the royal palace. The delicacy and playfulness of Rococo designs is seen as perfectly in tune with the excesses of Louis XVs reign. The 1730s represented the height of Rococo development in France, the style had spread beyond architecture and furniture to painting and sculpture, exemplified by the works of Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. The Rococo style was spread by French artists and engraved publications, william Hogarth helped develop a theoretical foundation for Rococo beauty. Though not intentionally referencing the movement, he argued in his Analysis of Beauty that the lines and S-curves prominent in Rococo were the basis for grace. The development of Rococo in Great Britain is considered to have connected with the revival of interest in Gothic architecture early in the 18th century. The beginning of the end for Rococo came in the early 1760s as figures like Voltaire and Jacques-François Blondel began to voice their criticism of the superficiality, Blondel decried the ridiculous jumble of shells, dragons, reeds, palm-trees and plants in contemporary interiors. By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France, replaced by the order, in Germany, late 18th century Rococo was ridiculed as Zopf und Perücke, and this phase is sometimes referred to as Zopfstil
18.
Dance
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Dance is a performance art form consisting of purposefully selected sequences of human movement. This movement has aesthetic and symbolic value, and is acknowledged as dance by performers and observers within a particular culture, Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements, or by its historical period or place of origin. Other forms of movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming. Theatrical dance, also called performance or concert dance, is intended primarily as a spectacle and it often tells a story, perhaps using mime, costume and scenery, or else it may simply interpret the musical accompaniment, which is often specially composed. Examples are western ballet and modern dance, Classical Indian dance and Chinese and Japanese song, most classical forms are centred upon dance alone, but performance dance may also appear in opera and other forms of musical theatre. Such dance seldom has any narrative, a group dance and a corps de ballet, a social partner dance and a pas de deux, differ profoundly. Even a solo dance may be solely for the satisfaction of the dancer. On the other hand, some cultures lay down strict rules as to the dances in which, for example. Archeological evidence for early dance includes 9, 000-year-old paintings in India at the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka and it has been proposed that before the invention of written languages, dance was an important part of the oral and performance methods of passing stories down from generation to generation. The use of dance in trance states and healing rituals is thought to have been another early factor in the social development of dance. References to dance can be found in very early recorded history, Greek dance is referred to by Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, the Bible and Talmud refer to many events related to dance, and contain over 30 different dance terms. In Chinese pottery as early as the Neolithic period, groups of people are depicted dancing in a line holding hands, Dance is further described in the Lüshi Chunqiu. Primitive dance in ancient China was associated with sorcery and shamanic rituals, during the first millennium BCE in India, many texts were composed which attempted to codify aspects of daily life. Bharata Munis Natyashastra is one of the earlier texts and it mainly deals with drama, in which dance plays an important part in Indian culture. It categorizes dance into four types - secular, ritual, abstract, the text elaborates various hand-gestures and classifies movements of the various limbs, steps and so on. A strong continuous tradition of dance has since continued in India, through to modern times, where it continues to play a role in culture, ritual, and, notably, the Bollywood entertainment industry. Many other contemporary dance forms can likewise be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, Dance is generally, though not exclusively, performed with the accompaniment of music and may or may not be performed in time to such music. Some dance may provide its own audible accompaniment in place of music, many early forms of music and dance were created for each other and are frequently performed together
19.
Minuet
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A minuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 34 time. The name may refer to the steps, pas menus, taken in the dance, or else be derived from the branle à mener or amener. The minuet was traditionally said to have descended from the bransle de Poitou, at the period when it was most fashionable it was controlled, ceremonious and graceful. The name is given to a musical composition written in the same time and rhythm. Among Italian composers the minuet was often quicker and livelier and was sometimes written in 38 or 68 time. Because the tempo of a minuet was not standard, the tempo direction tempo di minuetto was ambiguous unless qualified by another direction, as it sometimes was. Initially, before its adoption in other than social dance. But the second section eventually expanded, resulting in a kind of ternary form, the second minuet provided form of contrast by means of different key and orchestration. On a larger scale, two such minuets might be combined, so that the first minuet was followed by a second one. The whole form might in any case be repeated as long as the dance lasted, around Lullys time it became a common practice to score this middle section for a trio. As a result, this section came to be called the minuets trio. 13 in G major, K.525, popularly known under the title Eine kleine Nachtmusik, a livelier form of the minuet simultaneously developed into the scherzo. This term came into existence approximately from Beethoven onwards, but the form itself can be traced back to Haydn, the minuet and trio eventually became the standard third movement in the four-movement classical symphony, Johann Stamitz being the first to employ it thus with regularity. An example of the form of the minuet is to be found in Don Giovanni. A famous example of a more recent instrumental work in minuet form is Ignacy Jan Paderewskis Minuet in G. Scherzo, revisiting Music Theory, A Guide to the Practice. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie, the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. Dance Research, The Journal of the Society for Dance Research 24 and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. Classical Form, A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, the Theory of Music as Applied to the Teaching and Practice of Voice and Instruments, 21st edition
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Eclecticism
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However, this is often without conventions or rules dictating how or which theories were combined. It can sometimes seem inelegant or lacking in simplicity, and eclectics are sometimes criticized for lack of consistency in their thinking and it is, however, common in many fields of study. For example, most psychologists accept certain aspects of behaviorism, out of this collected material they constructed their new system of philosophy. The term comes from the Greek ἐκλεκτικός, literally choosing the best, well known eclectics in Greek philosophy were the Stoics Panaetius and Posidonius, and the New Academics Carneades and Philo of Larissa. Among the Romans, Cicero was thoroughly eclectic, as he united the Peripatetic, Stoic, other eclectics included Varro and Seneca. The term eclecticism is used to describe the combination, in a work, of elements from different historical styles, chiefly in architecture and, by implication, in the fine. The simplest definition of the term—that every work of art represents the combination of a variety of influences—is so basic as to be of little use, some martial arts can be described as eclectic in the sense that they borrow techniques from a wide variety of other martial arts. In textual criticism, eclecticism is the practice of examining a number of text witnesses. The result of the process is a text with readings drawn from many witnesses, in a purely eclectic approach, no single witness is theoretically favored. Instead, the critic forms opinions about individual witnesses, relying on external and internal evidence. Since the mid-19th century, eclecticism, in there is no a priori bias to a single manuscript, has been the dominant method of editing the Greek text of the New Testament. Even so, the oldest manuscripts, being of the Alexandrian text-type, are the most favored, in ancient philosophy, Eclectics use elements from multiple philosophies, texts, life experiences and their own philosophical ideas. These ideas include life as connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, Antiochus of Ascalon, was the pupil of Philo of Larissa, and the teacher of Cicero. Through his influence, Platonism made the transition from New Academy skepticism to Eclecticism, whereas Philo had still adhered to the doctrine that there is nothing absolutely certain, Antiochus returned to a pronounced dogmatism. Among other objections to skepticism, was the consideration that without firm convictions no rational content of life is possible and he expounded the Academic, Peripatetic, and Stoic systems in such a way as to show that these three schools deviate from one another only in minor points. He himself was interested in ethics, in which he tried to find a middle way between Zeno, Aristotle and Plato. For instance, he said that virtue suffices for happiness, but for the highest grade of happiness bodily and this eclectic tendency was favoured by the lack of dogmatic works by Plato. Middle Platonism was promoted by the necessity of considering the main theories of the schools of philosophy, such as the Aristotelian logic
21.
Constructivism (art)
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Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1913 by Vladimir Tatlin. This was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art, the movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had an effect on modern art movements of the 20th century, influencing major trends such as the Bauhaus. Its influence was pervasive, with effects upon architecture, graphic design, industrial design, theatre, film, dance, fashion. The term Construction Art was first used as a term by Kazimir Malevich to describe the work of Alexander Rodchenko in 1917. Constructivism first appears as a term in Naum Gabos Realistic Manifesto of 1920. Aleksei Gan used the word as the title of his book Constructivism, Constructivism was a post-World War I development of Russian Futurism, and particularly of the counter reliefs of Vladimir Tatlin, which had been exhibited in 1915. Constructivism as theory and practice was derived largely from a series of debates at INKhUK in Moscow, later the definition would be extended to designs for two-dimensional works such as books or posters, with montage and factography becoming important concepts. As much as involving itself in designs for industry, the Constructivists worked on public festivals, perhaps the most famous of these was in Vitebsk, where Malevichs UNOVIS Group painted propaganda plaques and buildings. Inspired by Vladimir Mayakovskys declaration the streets our brushes, the squares our palettes, artists, in addition some Constructivists were heavily involved in the ROSTA Windows, a Bolshevik public information campaign of around 1920. Some of the most famous of these were by the poet-painter Vladimir Mayakovsky, the constructivists tried to create works that would make the viewer an active viewer of the artwork. These theories were tested in theatre, particularly with the work of Vsevolod Meyerhold, Meyerhold developed a biomechanical acting style, which was influenced both by the circus and by the scientific management theories of Frederick Winslow Taylor. Meanwhile, the sets by the likes of Vesnin, Popova and Stepanova tested Constructivist spatial ideas in a public form. A more populist version of this was developed by Alexander Tairov, with sets by Aleksandra Ekster. These ideas would influence German directors like Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator, Gabo publicly criticized Tatlins design saying, Either create functional houses and bridges or create pure art, not both. This had already caused a controversy in the Moscow group in 1920 when Gabo. This was opposed to the utilitarian and adaptable version of Constructivism held by Tatlin, the tower was never built, however, due to a lack of money following the revolution. A Constructivist international was formed, which met with Dadaists and De Stijl artists in Germany in 1922, participants in this short-lived international included Lissitzky, Hans Richter, and László Moholy-Nagy
22.
Laurence Sterne
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Laurence Sterne was an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. Sterne died in London after years of fighting consumption, Sterne was born in Clonmel, County Tipperary. His father, Roger Sterne, was an ensign in a British regiment recently returned from Dunkirk, within six months the family had returned to Yorkshire, and in July 1715 they moved back to Ireland, having decamped with Bag & Baggage for Dublin, in Sternes words. The first decade of Sternes life was spent moving from place to place as his father was reassigned throughout Ireland, during this period Sterne never lived in one place for more than a year. In addition to Clonmel and Dublin, his family lived in, among other places, Wicklow Town, Annamoe, Drogheda, Castlepollard. Sterne was admitted to a sizarship at Jesus College, Cambridge and his great-grandfather Richard Sterne had been the Master of the college as well as the Archbishop of York. Sterne graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in January 1737, Sterne was ordained as a deacon in March 1737 and as a priest in August 1738. His religion is said to have been the centrist Anglicanism of his time, shortly thereafter Sterne was awarded the vicarship living of Sutton-on-the-Forest in Yorkshire. Sterne married Elizabeth Lumley in 1741, in 1743, he was presented to the neighbouring living of Stillington by Rev. Richard Levett, Prebendary of Stillington, who was patron of the living. Subsequently Sterne did duty both there and at Sutton and he was also a prebendary of York Minster. Sternes life at this time was tied with his uncle, Dr Jaques Sterne. Sternes uncle was an ardent Whig, and urged Sterne to begin a career of political journalism which resulted in some scandal for Sterne and, eventually, Jaques Sterne was a powerful clergyman but a mean-tempered man and a rabid politician. In 1741–42 Sterne wrote political articles supporting the administration of Sir Robert Walpole for a newspaper founded by his uncle and his uncle became his arch-enemy, thwarting his advancement whenever possible. In 1759, to support his dean in a squabble, Sterne wrote A Political Romance. At the demands of embarrassed churchmen, the book was burnt, having discovered his talent, at the age of 46, he turned over his parishes to a curate, and dedicated himself to writing for the rest of his life. Sterne was at work on his comic novel during the year that his mother died, his wife was seriously ill. He wrote as fast as he possibly could, composing the first 18 chapters between January and March 1759, an initial, sharply satiric version was rejected by Robert Dodsley, the London printer, just when Sternes personal life was upset. His mother and uncle both died and his wife had a nervous breakdown and threatened suicide
23.
Shagreen
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Shagreen is a type of rawhide consisting of rough untanned skin, formerly made from a horses back or that of an onager. Shagreen is now made of the skins of sharks and rays. The word derives from the French chagrin and is related to Italian zigrino and Venetian sagrin, the roughness of its texture led to the French meaning of anxiety, vexation, embarrassment, or annoyance. Typically the ears and the spaces above and beneath the grip were covered by polished shagreen, Shagreen was a very common cover for 19th century reading glasses containers as well as other utensil boxes from China. The early horse-skin variety of shagreen was traditionally prepared by embedding plant seeds in the skin while soft, covering the skin with a cloth. When the skin was dry, the seeds were shaken off, sources are not clear whether this was being done to imitate pearl ray-skin shagreen from East Asia or the technique was developed separately. In the 17th and early 18th centuries, the term began to be applied to leather made from sharkskin or the skin of a rayfish. This form is also termed sharkskin or galuchat, such skins are naturally covered with round, closely set, calcified papillae called placoid scales, whose size is chiefly dependent on the age and size of the animal. These scales are ground down to give a surface of rounded pale protrusions. This latter form of shagreen was first popularised in Europe by Jean-Claude Galluchat and it quickly became a fashion amongst the French aristocracy, and migrated throughout Europe by the mid-18th century. The appeal of shagreen in Europe was closely bound up with the way the translucent skin absorbs colour, three items made of shagreen can be found in the Topkapi collection. The water resistant qualities ascribed to the finish are probably why there are many cases and associated objects such as shaving kits, snuff boxes. The restrained look of the skin was felt to be suitable for men. Items continued to be manufactured during the 19th century usually influenced by 18th century examples, there was a definite resurgence in items being made during the 1920s and 1930s, the lean hard finish and traditional pale green tone lent itself very well to the prevailing art-deco style. Many of these items are designed along modernist lines with little 18th century influence, a broad range of items date from this period including furniture and luggage. In the 1970s Shagreen became fashionable again, partly due to the renewed interest in the Art-deco period, a range of items, including furniture such as small tables, have been manufactured since then, providing work for a small number of craftspeople catering to the luxury market. Small decorative items made of shagreen and silver have become popular in Southeast Asia, in medicine, a shagreen patch is a patch of shagreen-like rough skin, often on the lower back, found in some people with the genetic condition tuberous sclerosis. La Peau de chagrin Perfettini, Jean, christine Guth, Towards a Global History of Shagreen in The Global Lives of Things, The Material Culture of Connections in the Early Modern World, ed. by Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Aiello
24.
Turn (dance and gymnastics)
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In dance and gymnastics, a turn is a rotation of the body about the vertical axis. It is usually a complete rotation of the body, although quarter, multiple, consecutive turns are typically named according to the number of 360° rotations. There are many types of turns, which are differentiated by a number of factors, the performer may be supported by one or both legs or be airborne during a turn. When supported by one leg, that leg is known as the supporting leg, during airborne turns, the first leg too leave the floor is the leading leg. Some turns can be executed in either of two directions, in ballet, a turn in the direction of the raised leg is said to be en dehors whereas a turn in the opposite direction is en dedans. Trunk, arm and head positions can vary, and in turns with one supporting leg, turns can begin in various ways as well. For example, ballet turns may begin by rising to relevé or by stepping directly onto relevé, in some dance genres and in Labanotation, a turn in which the performer rotates on a pivot point without traveling is known as a pivot. Pivots may be performed on one or on both feet, the latter is called a twist turn. Spotting prevents dizziness by allowing the head to remain stable during most of the turn and this helps the performer maintain balance and, when executing traveling turns such as tours chaînés and piques, it helps the performer control the direction of travel. An attitude turn is performed with the leg held in attitude position. In ballet, the performer may be assisted by a partner so that the turn can be performed slowly, an axel is a turn in which the performer leaps into the air and, while airborne, tucks both legs underneath and rotates. It is usually executed while traveling across the floor and it is commonly performed in jazz dance and is often immediately preceded by a chaînés in a deep plie. A barrel roll turn, or simply barrel roll, is a turn that involves casting the arms up and leaping into the air, while airborne, the performers back may be arched and the head may be cast back. It starts and ends with the performer facing forward, barrel roll turns are commonly used in tap and jazz dancing. Chaînés is a type of turn that is executed repeatedly while the performer travels along a line or curved path. It is performed quickly on alternating feet and results in a rotation for every two steps taken. It is commonly used in ballet, modern, and ballroom dancing, as this happens, the arms are brought together away from the chest and spotting technique is employed so that the dancers head faces the direction of travel as much as possible. The second half-turn is executed with the feet together, upon completion of the second half-turn, the first foot is stepped out again to begin another turn
25.
Glossary of ballet
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Because ballet became formalized in France, a significant part of ballet terminology is in the French language. A position of the leg to the side One of the directions of body, facing the audience, arms in second position, italian, or French adage, meaning slowly, at ease. Slow movements performed with fluidity and grace, the section of a grand pas, often referred to as grand adage, that features dance partnering. An attribute of movements, including those in which a dancer is airborne. The apparent elegance and precision exhibited by a confident, accomplished dancer, in dance, arabesque is a body position in which a dancer stands on one leg with the other leg turned out and extended behind the body, with both legs held straight. A jump that lands on two feet, when initiated from two feet, the working leg performs a battement glissé/dégagé, brushing out. The dancer launches into a jump, with the foot then meeting the first foot before landing. A petit assemblé is when a dancer is standing on one foot with the other extended, the dancer then does a small jump to meet the first foot. A position in which a dancer stands on one leg while the leg is raised at hip height. The height of the knee versus the foot and the angle of the knee flexion will vary depending on the techniques, the working leg can be held behind, in front, or to the side of the body. The alignment of the thigh compared to the midline in Attitude derrière will vary depending on the techniques, the foot of the supporting leg may be flat on the floor, en demi-pointe, or en pointe. The standing leg can be straight or bend, Attitude was originally created to display the emotional zone of the leg, the knee to the ankle. A movement towards the front, as opposed to en arrière, for example, a step travelling en avant moves forwards towards the audience, as in sissonne en avant. A movement towards the back, as opposed to en avant, a rocking sequence of three steps — fondu, relevé, fondu — executed in three counts. Before the first count, one foot extends in a dégagé to second position or to the front or rear, the second foot in the sequence assembles behind the first to relevé in fifth or fourth position. The foundational principles of movement and form used in ballet. The word is of Russian origin c,1930, with the suffix -mane coming from maniya. Showing lightness of movement in leaps and jumps, a dancer exhibiting ballon will appear to spring effortlessly, float in mid-air, and land softly like a balloon
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International Standard Serial Number
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An International Standard Serial Number is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title, ISSN are used in ordering, cataloging, interlibrary loans, and other practices in connection with serial literature. The ISSN system was first drafted as an International Organization for Standardization international standard in 1971, ISO subcommittee TC 46/SC9 is responsible for maintaining the standard. When a serial with the content is published in more than one media type. For example, many serials are published both in print and electronic media, the ISSN system refers to these types as print ISSN and electronic ISSN, respectively. The format of the ISSN is an eight digit code, divided by a hyphen into two four-digit numbers, as an integer number, it can be represented by the first seven digits. The last code digit, which may be 0-9 or an X, is a check digit. Formally, the form of the ISSN code can be expressed as follows, NNNN-NNNC where N is in the set, a digit character. The ISSN of the journal Hearing Research, for example, is 0378-5955, where the final 5 is the check digit, for calculations, an upper case X in the check digit position indicates a check digit of 10. To confirm the check digit, calculate the sum of all eight digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, the modulus 11 of the sum must be 0. There is an online ISSN checker that can validate an ISSN, ISSN codes are assigned by a network of ISSN National Centres, usually located at national libraries and coordinated by the ISSN International Centre based in Paris. The International Centre is an organization created in 1974 through an agreement between UNESCO and the French government. The International Centre maintains a database of all ISSNs assigned worldwide, at the end of 2016, the ISSN Register contained records for 1,943,572 items. ISSN and ISBN codes are similar in concept, where ISBNs are assigned to individual books, an ISBN might be assigned for particular issues of a serial, in addition to the ISSN code for the serial as a whole. An ISSN, unlike the ISBN code, is an identifier associated with a serial title. For this reason a new ISSN is assigned to a serial each time it undergoes a major title change, separate ISSNs are needed for serials in different media. Thus, the print and electronic versions of a serial need separate ISSNs. Also, a CD-ROM version and a web version of a serial require different ISSNs since two different media are involved, however, the same ISSN can be used for different file formats of the same online serial
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Moscow
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Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits and 17.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth and it is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe, the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and the Moscow International Business Center. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, the city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basils Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament also sit in the city and it is recognized as one of the citys landmarks due to the rich architecture of its 200 stations. In old Russian the word also meant a church administrative district. The demonym for a Moscow resident is москвич for male or москвичка for female, the name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river and its cognates include Russian, музга, muzga pool, puddle, Lithuanian, mazgoti and Latvian, mazgāt to wash, Sanskrit, majjati to drown, Latin, mergō to dip, immerse. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa, the original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, *Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū-stem nouns. From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, in a similar manner the Latin name Moscovia has been formed, later it became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th–17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy, various other theories, having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. The surface similarity of the name Russia with Rosh, an obscure biblical tribe or country, the oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the Neolithic. Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered, on the territory of the Kremlin, Sparrow Hills, Setun River and Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc. The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi, the Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD1100, a settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a place of Yuri Dolgoruky. At the time it was a town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
