1.
Breslau
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Wrocław is the largest city in western Poland. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, Wrocław is the historical capital of Silesia and Lower Silesia. Today, it is the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, at various times in history, it has been part of the Kingdom of Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, the Austrian Empire, Prussia and Germany. It became part of Poland in 1945, as a result of the changes after the Second World War. The population of Wrocław in 2016 was 637,075, making it the fourth-largest city in Poland, the city hosted the Eucharistic Congress in 1997 and the Euro 2012 football championships. Wrocław is classified as a city by GaWC, with the ranking of high sufficiency. In 2016, the city was a European Capital of Culture, also in this year, Wrocław hosted the Theatre Olympics, World Bridge Games and the European Film Awards. In 2017, the city is the host of the IFLA Annual Conference, the first municipal seal stated Sigillum civitatis Wratislavie. A simplified name is given, in 1175, as Wrezlaw, the Czech spelling was used in Latin documents as Wratislavia or Vratislavia. At that time, Prezla was used in Middle High German, in the middle of the 14th century, the Early New High German form of the name, Breslau, began to replace its earlier versions. The city is believed to be named after Wrocisław or Vratislav. It is also possible that the city was named after the duke of the Silesians or after an early ruler of the city called Vratislav. The citys name in other languages is available at the list of names of European cities, persons born or living in the city are known as Vratislavians. In ancient times at or near Wrocław was a place called Budorigum and it has been mapped to the ancient Claudius Ptolemy map of the years 142-147 AD. The city of Wrocław originated at the intersection of two routes, the Via Regia and the Amber Road. Settlements in the area existed from the 6th century onward, when during migration period, Slavic tribe Ślężans settled on the Oder, the city was first recorded in the 10th century as Vratislavia, the Bohemian duke Vratislaus I founded here a Bohemian stronghold. Vratislavia was possibly derived from the dukes name Vratislav, in 985, Duke Mieszko I of Poland conquered Silesia including Wrocław. The town was mentioned explicitly in the year 1000 AD in connection with a founding of a bishopric during the Congress of Gniezno
2.
Habsburg Silesia
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In the second half of the 2nd millennium B. C. Silesia belonged to the Lusatian culture, about 500 BC Scyths arrived, later Celts in the South and Southwest. During the 1st century BC Silingi and other Germanic people settled in Silesia, for this period we have written reports of antique authors who included the area. Slavs arrived in this territory around the 6th century, the first known states in Silesia were those of Greater Moravia and Bohemia. In the 10th century, Mieszko I incorporated Silesia into the Polish state and it remained part of Poland until the Fragmentation of Poland. Afterwards it was divided between Piast dukes, descendants of Władysław II the Exile, High Duke of Poland, in the Middle Ages, Silesia was divided among many duchies ruled by various dukes of the Piast dynasty. During this time, cultural and ethnic German influence increased due to immigrants from the German-speaking components of the Holy Roman Empire, between the years 1289–1292 Bohemian king Wenceslaus II became suzerain of some Upper Silesian duchies. Silesia subsequently became a possession of the Crown of Bohemia under the Holy Roman Empire in the 14th century, and passed with that Crown to the Habsburg Monarchy in 1526. The Duchy of Crossen was inherited by Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1476 and, with the renunciation by King Ferdinand I and estates of Bohemia in 1538, it became an integral part of Brandenburg. In 1742, most of Silesia was seized by King Frederick the Great of Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession, after World War I, Lower Silesia remained with Germany while Upper Silesia, after a series of insurrections by the Polish inhabitants, was split. Part joined the Second Polish Republic and was administered as the Silesian Voivodeship, the Prussian Province of Silesia within Germany was divided into the Provinces of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia. Austrian Silesia, the portion of Silesia retained by Austria after the Silesian Wars. During the Second World War Nazi Germany invaded Polish parts of Upper Silesia, viewing Poles and Jews as subhumans they engaged in a program of systemic extermination through mass murder and ethnic cleansing. In 1945 both provinces were occupied by the Soviet Union, according to the Potsdam agreement most of this territory was afterwards transferred to Poland. The vast majority of the native ethnic German population was expelled by force, the first signs of humans in Silesia date to between 230,000 and 100,000 years ago. The Silesian region between the upper Vistula and upper Oder was the extreme of the human penetration at the time of the last glaciation. The anatomically-modern human is estimated to have arrived in Silesia about 35,000 years ago, subsequently, Silesia was inhabited by people who belonged to changing archaeological cultures in the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The civilization of Old Europe included Silesia, in the late Bronze Age, the Lusatian culture covered Silesia
3.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
4.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
5.
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
6.
Composer
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A composer is a person who creates or writes music, which can be vocal music, instrumental music or music which combines both instruments and voices. The core meaning of the term refers to individuals who have contributed to the tradition of Western classical music through creation of works expressed in written musical notation, many composers are also skilled performers, either as singers, instrumentalists, and/or conductors. Examples of composers who are well known for their ability as performers include J. S. Bach, Mozart. In many popular genres, such as rock and country. For a singer or instrumental performer, the process of deciding how to perform music that has previously composed and notated is termed interpretation. Different performers interpretations of the work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen. Composers and songwriters who present their own music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others, although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, in the 20th and 21st century, a culture eventually developed whereby faithfulness to the composers written intention came to be highly valued. This musical culture is almost certainly related to the esteem in which the leading classical composers are often held by performers. The movement might be considered a way of creating greater faithfulness to the original in works composed at a time that expected performers to improvise. In Classical music, the composer typically orchestrates her own compositions, in some cases, a pop songwriter may not use notation at all, and instead compose the song in her mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play in classical music. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music. In the development of European classical music, the function of composing music initially did not have greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. In as much as the role of the composer in western art music has seen continued solidification, for instance, in certain contexts the line between composer and performer, sound designer, arranger, producer, and other roles, can be quite blurred. The term composer is often used to refer to composers of music, such as those found in classical, jazz or other forms of art. In popular and folk music, the composer is usually called a songwriter and this is distinct from a 19th-century conception of instrumental composition, where the work was represented solely by a musical score to be interpreted by performers
7.
George Gershwin
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George Jacob Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwins compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known, among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris as well as the opera Porgy and Bess. Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell and he began his career as a song plugger, but soon started composing Broadway theatre works with his brother Ira Gershwin, and Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, who refused him, after returning to New York City, he wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and the author DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, Porgy and Bess is now considered one of the most important American operas of the twentieth century, Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores until his death in 1937 from a malignant brain tumor – glioblastoma multiforme. Gershwins compositions have been adapted for use in films and for television. Many celebrated singers and musicians have covered his songs, Gershwin was of Russian Jewish and Ukrainian Jewish ancestry. His grandfather, Jakov Gershowitz, had served for 25 years as a mechanic for the Imperial Russian Army to earn the right of travel and residence as a Jew. His teenage son, Moishe Gershowitz, worked as a cutter for womens shoes. Moishe Gershowitz met and fell in love with Roza Bruskina, the daughter of a furrier in Vilnius. She and her family moved to New York due to increasing anti-Jewish sentiment in Russia, Moishe, faced with compulsory military service if he remained in Russia, moved to America as soon as he could afford to. Once in New York, he changed his first name to Morris, Gershowitz lived with a maternal uncle in Brooklyn, working as a foreman in a womens shoe factory. When he married Rose on July 21,1895, Gershowitz soon Americanized his name to Gershwine. Their first child was born on December 6,1896, Gershwin then moved his family into a second-floor apartment on Brooklyns Snediker Avenue. Their second son, soon to be renamed George, was born at there on September 26,1898 and his birth certificate identifies him as Jacob Gershwine, with the surname pronounced Gersh-vin in the Russian and Yiddish immigrant community. He was named after his grandfather, the one time Russian army mechanic, American practice by then was to give children a first and a middle name, but had no other. He changed the spelling of his name to Gershwin when he became a professional musician, George and Ira lived in many different residences, as their father changed dwellings with each new enterprise which he became involved in. Mostly, the boys grew up around the Yiddish Theater District and they frequented the local Yiddish theaters, with George occasionally appearing onstage as an extra
8.
An American in Paris
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An American in Paris is a jazz-influenced symphonic poem by the American composer George Gershwin, written in 1928. Inspired by the time Gershwin had spent in Paris, it evokes the sights, Gershwin composed An American in Paris on commission from the conductor Walter Damrosch. He scored the piece for the instruments of the symphony orchestra plus celesta, saxophones. He brought back some Parisian taxi horns for the New York premiere of the composition, Gershwin completed the orchestration on November 18, less than four weeks before the works premiere. When the tone poem moves into the blues, our American friend, has succumbed to a spasm of homesickness. But, nostalgia is not a fatal disease, the American visitor once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life and the street noises and French atmosphere are triumphant. Gershwin was attracted by Maurice Ravels unusual chords, but Ravel accepted him as a student, and Gershwin went on his first trip to Paris in 1926 ready to study. After his initial student audition with Ravel turned into a sharing of musical theories, Ravel said he couldnt teach him but he would send a letter referring him to Nadia Boulanger. While the studies were cut short, that 1926 trip resulted in the version of An American in Paris written as a thank you note to Gershwins hosts, Robert. Gershwin called it a ballet written so freely and much more modern than his prior works. Gershwin strongly encouraged Ravel to come to the United States for a tour, Gershwin greeted Ravel in New York in February 1928 at the start of Ravels U. S. Tour, and joined Ravel again later in the tour in Los Angeles. After a lunch together with Chaplin in Beverly Hills, Ravel was persuaded to perform a house concert in a friends music salon. Ravels tour reignited Gershwins desire to return to Paris which he did in March 1928, Ravels high praise of Gershwin in an introductory letter to Boulanger caused Gershwin to seriously consider taking much more time to study abroad in Paris. Yet after playing for her, she told him she could not teach him, Nadia Boulanger gave Gershwin basically the same advice she gave all of her accomplished master students Dont copy others, be yourself. In this case Why try to be a second rate Ravel when you are already a first rate Gershwin. This did not set Gershwin back, as his real intent abroad was to complete a new work based on Paris and perhaps a second rhapsody for piano, Paris at this time hosted many expatriate writers, among them Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, Ernest Hemingway, and artist Pablo Picasso, Gershwin based An American in Paris on a melodic fragment called Very Parisienne, written in 1926 on his first visit to Paris as a gift to his hosts, Robert and Mabel Schirmer. He described the piece as a rhapsodic ballet because it was written freely and is more modern than his previous works, the piece is structured into five sections, which culminate in a loose ABA format
9.
Leopold Damrosch
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Leopold Damrosch was a German American orchestral conductor and composer. Damrosch was born in Posen, Kingdom of Prussia, the son of Heinrich Damrosch and his father was Jewish and his mother was Lutheran. Leopold Damrosch was baptized a Lutheran when marrying his wife, former opera singer Helene von Heimburg, Damrosch began his musical education at the age of nine, learning the violin against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to become a doctor. After he completed his degree Damrosch decided to dedicate his life and he gained fame as a violinist and began to play to large audiences in many major German cities including Berlin and Hamburg. He went to Weimar, and was received by Franz Liszt and it has been said mistakenly that Liszt dedicated his Symphonic poem №2 to Damrosch. However, Liszt did dedicate the similarly named Le Triomphe funèbre du Tasse, Damrosch first appeared as a conductor during the season of 1859 where he conducted the Philharmonic concerts in Breslau. He continued to conduct the Philharmonic for three years due to the success of this season, in 1862 Damrosch founded a symphonic society in Breslau with an orchestra of eighty performers, modeled after the Gewandhaus concerts of Leipzig. This society gained fame throughout Germany and Damrosch invited Liszt to conduct several of the performances, wagner also accepted the invitation to conduct his own manuscript compositions in the winter of 1867. In 1871, Damrosch emigrated to the United States of America at the invitation of the Arion Society in New York and he first conducted in the United States on 6 May 1871, at Steinway Hall, as conductor, composer, and violinist. He participated in concerts over this period and in 1873 he founded the Oratorio Society of New York. In 1874 Damrosch gave another concert at the Oratorio Society, this the first with a full orchestra, for Christmas that year Messiah was performed. In 1877 Damrosch, in connection with a number of persons interested in the cultivation of orchestral music and this society became closely identified with the Oratorio Society and several joint performances were organized. The co-operation of these societies reached its climax in the musical festival which was held in the armory of the 7th regiment in New York. The chorus numbered 1,200, the body being the Oratorio Society. An additional chorus of 1,000 young ladies from the Normal College and 250 boys from the Church choirs took part in the afternoon concerts, the orchestra was composed of 250 pieces, and Dr. Damrosch selected a large number of artists for soloists. Among the choral works performed were Handels Dettingen Te Deum and Messiah, Rubinsteins Tower of Babel, Berliozs Grande Messe des Mortes, and Ludwig van Beethovens Ninth Symphony. The audience numbered from 8,000 to 10,000 at each concert, the degree of Doctor of Music was conferred upon him by Columbia in 1880. In 1883, Damrosch traveled extensively through the west with his orchestra, in September 1884, he began a remarkable series of operatic performances as General Manager and chief conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York
10.
Frank Damrosch
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Frank Heino Damrosch was a German-born American music conductor and educator. In 1905, Damrosch founded the New York Institute of Musical Art, Damrosch was born on June 22,1859 in Breslau, Silesia, the son of Helene von Heimburg, a former opera singer, and conductor Leopold Damrosch. He came to the United States with his father, brother, conductor Walter Damrosch and he had studied music in Germany under Dionys Pruckner. He studied in New York under Ferdinand von Inten and he also studied in Europe under Moritz Moszkowski. For some years he was master at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. He also conducted the Mendelssohn Glee Club from 1885 to 1887, in 1892 he organized the Peoples Singing Classes, and he was also instrumental in founding the Musical Art Society of New York. In 1897 he became supervisor of music in the schools in New York. In 1898 Damrosch succeeded his brother Walter as conductor of the Oratorio Society, during his career, he and his sister Clara Damrosch also taught at the Veltin School for Girls in Manhattan. In 1905 he founded and became director of the New York Institute of Musical Art, in 1926, the Institute of Musical Art merged with the Juilliard Graduate School to form what is today Juilliard School. Damroschs pupils included William Howland, long-time head of the department at the University of Michigan. Damrosch died in New York City on October 22,1937, Damrosch Park, part of New Yorks Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, is named in honor of the Damrosch family. This article contains text from a now in the public domain
11.
Felix Draeseke
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Felix August Bernhard Draeseke was a composer of the New German School admiring Liszt and Richard Wagner. He wrote compositions in most forms including eight operas and stage works, four symphonies, Felix Draeseke was born in the Franconian ducal town of Coburg, Germany. He was attracted to music early in life and wrote his first composition at age 8 and he encountered no opposition from his family when, in his mid-teens, he declared his intention of becoming a professional musician. In 1862 Draeseke left Germany and made his way to Switzerland, upon his return to Germany in 1876, Draeseke chose Dresden as his place of residence. Though he continued having success in composition, it was only in 1884 that he received an appointment to the Dresden conservatory and, with it. In 1894, two years after his promotion to a professorship at the Royal Saxon Conservatory, at the age of 58, in 1912 he completed his final orchestral work, the Fourth Symphony. On 26 February 1913 Draeseke suffered a stroke and died, he is buried in the Tolkewitz cemetery in Dresden. During his career Draeseke divided his efforts almost equally among compositional genres and composed in most of them, including symphonies, concertos, opera, chamber music and his operas Herrat and Gudrun met with some success, but were subsequently neglected. Draeseke keenly followed new developments in all facets of music, a heavily contrapuntal composer, Draeseke reveled in writing choral music, achieving major success with his B minor Requiem of 1877–1880. According to some, Draesekes Symphonia Tragica deserves a place alongside the symphonies of Brahms, other orchestral works by Draeseke include the Serenade in D major and its companion of the same year, the symphonic prelude after Kleists Penthesilea. During his life, and the period following his death. His compositions were performed frequently in Germany by the artists of the day, including Hans von Bülow, Arthur Nikisch, Fritz Reiner. However, as von Bülow once remarked to him, he was a harte Nuß and despite the quality of his works, Draesekes music was promoted during the Third Reich. After the Second World War, changes in fashion and political climates allowed his name, but as the 20th century ended, new recordings spurred a renewed interest in his music. König Sigurd - opera in 3 acts after Emanuel Geibels Sigurd Dietrich von Bern - opera in 3 acts Gudrun - opera in 3 acts Bertram de Born - opera in 3 acts Christus, mysterium in a Prelude and Three Oratorios, Opp. M. Guiérrez-Denhoff and H. Loos, Eds. Felix Draeseke, S. Döhring, H. John, and H. Loos, Eds. Deutsche Oper zwischen Wagner und Strauss, a Study in Consideration of Developments in Symphonic Form in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century, Zürich Diss. phil 1967. Website of the International Draeseke Society Complete list of Compositions by Draeseke Complete list of Recordings of Draesekes Music Matthias Wolfes, free scores by Felix Draeseke at the International Music Score Library Project
12.
Dresden
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Dresden is the capital city and, after Leipzig, the second-largest city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the border with the Czech Republic, Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendour. The city was known as the Jewel Box, because of its baroque, the controversial American and British bombing of Dresden in World War II towards the end of the war killed approximately 25,000, many of whom were civilians, and destroyed the entire city centre. After the war restoration work has helped to reconstruct parts of the inner city, including the Katholische Hofkirche, the Zwinger. Since German reunification in 1990 Dresden is again a cultural, educational and political centre of Germany, the Dresden University of Technology is one of the 10 largest universities in Germany and part of the German Universities Excellence Initiative. The economy of Dresden and its agglomeration is one of the most dynamic in Germany and it is dominated by high-tech branches, often called as “Silicon Saxony”. The city is one of the most visited in Germany with 4,3 million overnight stays per year. The royal buildings are among the most impressive buildings in Europe, main sights are also the nearby National Park of Saxon Switzerland, the Ore Mountains and the countryside around Elbe Valley and Moritzburg Castle. The most prominent building in the city of Dresden is the Frauenkirche, built in the 18th century, the church was destroyed during World War II. The remaining ruins were left for 50 years as a war memorial, the church was rebuilt from 1994 to 2005. Although Dresden is a relatively recent city of Germanic origin followed by settlement of Slavic people, Dresdens founding and early growth is associated with the eastward expansion of Germanic peoples, mining in the nearby Ore Mountains, and the establishment of the Margraviate of Meissen. Its name etymologically derives from Old Sorbian Drežďany, meaning people of the forest, Dresden later evolved into the capital of Saxony. Around the late 12th century, a Slavic settlement called Drežďany had developed on the southern bank, another settlement existed on the northern bank, but its Slavic name is unknown. It was known as Antiqua Dresdin by 1350, and later as Altendresden, dietrich, Margrave of Meissen, chose Dresden as his interim residence in 1206, as documented in a record calling the place Civitas Dresdene. After 1270, Dresden became the capital of the margraviate and it was given to Friedrich Clem after death of Henry the Illustrious in 1288. It was taken by the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1316 and was restored to the Wettin dynasty after the death of Valdemar the Great in 1319, from 1485, it was the seat of the dukes of Saxony, and from 1547 the electors as well. The Elector and ruler of Saxony Frederick Augustus I became King Augustus II the Strong of Poland in personal union and he gathered many of the best musicians, architects and painters from all over Europe to the newly named Royal-Polish Residential City of Dresden. His reign marked the beginning of Dresdens emergence as a leading European city for technology, during the reign of Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland the Zwinger Royal Palace, the Hofkirche and the Frauenkirche were built
13.
Newark, New Jersey
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Newark is the most populous city in the U. S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County. For 2015, the Census Bureaus Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 281,944, Newark is the second largest city in the New York metropolitan area, located approximately 8 miles west of lower Manhattan. Settled in 1666 by Puritans from New Haven Colony, Newark is one of the oldest European cities in the United States and its location at the mouth of the Passaic River, has made the citys waterfront an integral part of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Today, Port Newark-Elizabeth is the container shipping terminal of the busiest seaport on the American East Coast. In addition, Newark Liberty International Airport was the first municipal airport in the United States. Several leading companies have their headquarters in Newark, including Prudential, PSEG, Panasonic Corporation of North America, Audible. com, IDT Corporation, the U. S. District Court for the District of New Jersey sits in the city as well. Local cultural venues include the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark Symphony Hall, The Prudential Center and the Newark Museum. Newark is divided into five wards, the East, West, South, North and Central wards. Newarks Branch Brook Park is the oldest county park in the United States and is home to the nations largest collection of cherry blossom trees, Newark was settled in 1666 by Connecticut Puritans led by Robert Treat from the New Haven Colony. It was conceived as an assembly of the faithful, though this did not last for long as new settlers came with different ideas. On October 31,1693 it was organized as a New Jersey township based on the Newark Tract, Newark was granted a Royal charter on April 27,1713. It was incorporated on February 21,1798 by the New Jersey Legislatures Township Act of 1798, during its time as a township, portions were taken to form Springfield Township, Caldwell Township, Orange Township, Bloomfield Township and Clinton Township. Newark was reincorporated as a city on April 11,1836, replacing Newark Township, the previously independent Vailsburg borough was annexed by Newark on January 1,1905. In 1926, South Orange Township changed its name to Maplewood, as a result of this, a portion of Maplewood known as Ivy Hill was re-annexed to Newarks Vailsburg. During the American Revolutionary War British troops made several raids into the town, the city has experienced revitalization since the 1990s. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had an area of 26.107 square miles. It has the third-smallest land area among the 100 most populous cities in the U. S. behind neighboring Jersey City and Hialeah, the citys altitude ranges from 0 in the east to approximately 230 feet above sea level in the western section of the city. Newark is essentially a large basin sloping towards the Passaic River, historically, Newarks high places have been its wealthier neighborhoods
14.
Anton Rubinstein
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He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein who founded the Moscow Conservatory. As a pianist, Rubinstein ranks amongst the great 19th-century keyboard virtuosos and he became most famous for his series of historical recitals—seven enormous, consecutive concerts covering the history of piano music. Rubinstein played this series throughout Russia and Eastern Europe and in the United States when he toured there, although best remembered as a pianist and educator, Rubinstein was also a prolific composer throughout much of his life. He wrote 20 operas, the best known of which is The Demon and he also composed a large number of other works, including five piano concertos, six symphonies and a large number of solo piano works along with a substantial output of works for chamber ensemble. Rubinstein was born to Jewish parents in the village of Vikhvatinets in the district of Podolsk, Russia, on the Dniestr River, before he was 5 years old, his paternal grandfather ordered all members of the Rubinstein family to convert from Judaism to Russian Orthodoxy. Although he was raised as a Christian, Rubinstein would later return to being atheist, Rubinsteins father opened a pencil factory in Moscow. His mother, a competent musician, began giving him lessons at five, until the teacher Alexander Villoing heard. Rubinstein made his first public appearance at a charity concert at the age of nine. Later that year Rubinsteins mother sent him, accompanied by Villoing, Rubinstein and Villoing remained in Paris for a year. In December 1840, Rubinstein played in the Salle Érard for an audience that included Frédéric Chopin, Chopin invited Rubinstein to his studio and played for him. Liszt advised Villoing to take him to Germany to study composition, however, Villoing took Rubinstein on a concert tour of Europe. They finally returned to Moscow in June 1843, Anton was 14 years old, Nikolai was eight. In spring 1844, Rubinstein, Nikolai, his mother and his sister Luba travelled to Berlin, here he met with, and was supported by, Felix Mendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer. Mendelssohn, who had heard Rubinstein when he had toured with Villoing, said he needed no further piano study, Meyerbeer directed both boys to Siegfried Dehn for work in composition and theory. Word came in the summer of 1846 that Rubinsteins father was gravely ill, Rubinstein was left in Berlin while his mother, sister and brother returned to Russia. At first he continued his studies with Dehn, then with Adolf Bernhard Marx, Now 17, he knew he could no longer pass as a child prodigy. He sought out Liszt in Vienna, hoping Liszt would accept him as a pupil, however, after Rubinstein had played his audition, Liszt is reported to have said, A talented man must win the goal of his ambition by his own unassisted efforts. At this point, Rubinstein was living in acute poverty, Liszt did nothing to help him
15.
Hector Berlioz
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Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts. Berlioz made significant contributions to the orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works, and he also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss. Hector Berlioz was born in France at La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, Louis was an agnostic, with a liberal outlook, his mother, Marie-Antoinette, was a devout Roman Catholic. He had five siblings in all, three of whom did not survive to adulthood, the other two, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout his life. Berlioz was not a prodigy, unlike some other famous composers of the time, he began studying music at age 12, writing small compositions. As a result of his fathers discouragement, he never learned to play the piano and he became proficient at guitar, flageolet and flute. He learned harmony from textbooks alone—he was not formally trained, the majority of his early compositions were romances and chamber pieces. While yet at age twelve, as recalled in his Mémoires, he experienced his first passion for a woman and he also began to visit the Paris Conservatoire library, seeking out scores of Glucks operas and making personal copies of parts of them. He recalled in his Mémoires his first encounter with Luigi Cherubini, Cherubini attempted to throw the impetuous Berlioz out of the library since he was not a formal music student at that time. Berlioz also heard two operas by Gaspare Spontini, a composer who influenced him through their friendship, and whom he later championed when working as a critic, from then on, he devoted himself to composition. He was encouraged in his endeavors by Jean-François Le Sueur, director of the Royal Chapel, in 1823, he wrote his first article—a letter to the journal Le corsaire defending Spontinis La vestale. Despite his parents disapproval, in 1824 he formally abandoned his studies to pursue a career in music. This work was rehearsed and revised after the rehearsal but not performed until the following year, Berlioz later claimed to have burnt the score, but it was re-discovered in 1991. Later that year or in 1825, he began to compose the opera Les francs-juges, the work survives only in fragments, the overture has been much recorded and is sometimes played in concert. In 1826 he began attending the Conservatoire to study composition under Jean-François Le Sueur and he also submitted a fugue to the Prix de Rome, but was eliminated in the primary round. Winning the prize would become an obsession until he won it in 1830
16.
La damnation de Faust
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La damnation de Faust, Op.24 is a work for four solo voices, full seven-part chorus, large childrens chorus and orchestra by the French composer Hector Berlioz. He called it a légende dramatique and it was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 6 December 1846. The French composer was inspired by a translation of Goethes dramatic poem Faust and produced a work that, like the masterpiece on which it is based. Conceived at various times as an oratorio and as an opera its travelogue form. Berlioz himself was eager to see the work staged, but once he did, most of the works fame has come through concert performances. Berlioz read Goethes Faust Part One in 1828, in Gérard de Nervals translation, I read it incessantly, at meals, in the theatre, in the street. He was so impressed that a suite entitled Eight Scenes from Faust became his Opus 1, the Metropolitan Opera premiered it first in concert and then on stage and revived it in concert at Carnegie Hall on 10 November 1996. Filmmaker Terry Gilliam made his debut at Londons English National Opera in May 2011. Three instrumental passages, the Marche Hongroise, Ballet des sylphes, hearing peasants sing and dance, he realizes that their simple happiness is something he will never experience. An army marches past in the distance, Faust doesnt understand why the soldiers are so enthusiastic about glory and fame. Depressed, Faust has returned to his study, even the search for wisdom can no longer inspire him. Tired of life, he is about to commit suicide when the sound of bells and an Easter hymn remind him of his youth. Suddenly Méphistophélès appears, ironically commenting on Fausts apparent conversion and he offers to take him on a journey, promising him the restoration of his youth, knowledge, and the fulfillment of all his wishes. Méphistophélès and Faust arrive at Auerbachs tavern in Leipzig, where Brander, the other guests offer an ironic Amen, and Méphistophélès continues with another song about a flea that brings his relatives to infest a whole royal court. Disgusted by the vulgarity of it all, Faust demands to be somewhere else. On a meadow by the Elbe, Méphistophélès shows Faust a dream vision of a woman named Marguerite. He calls out her name, and Méphistophélès promises to lead Faust to her, together with a group of students and soldiers, they enter the town where she lives. Faust and Méphistophélès hide in Marguerites room, Faust feels that he will find in her his ideal of a pure and innocent woman
17.
Giuseppe Verdi
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Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a family of moderate means. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, whose works influenced him. In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy and he also participated briefly as an elected politician. He surprised the world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida. The baptismal register, prepared on 11 October 1813, lists his parents Carlo, additionally, it lists Verdi as being born yesterday, but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. Verdi himself, following his mother, always celebrated his birthday on 9 October, Verdi had a younger sister, Giuseppa, who died aged 17 in 1833. From the age of four, Verdi was given lessons in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster, Baistrocchi. After learning to play the organ, he showed so much interest in music that his parents provided him with a spinet. Verdis gift for music was apparent by 1820–21 when he began his association with the local church, serving in the choir, acting as an altar boy for a while. After Baistrocchis death, Verdi, at the age of eight, Carlo Verdi was energetic in furthering his sons education. something which Verdi tended to hide in later life. He picture emerges of youthful precocity eagerly nurtured by a father and of a sustained, sophisticated. Verdi returned to Busseto regularly to play the organ on Sundays, at age 11, Verdi received schooling in Italian, Latin, the humanities, and rhetoric. By the time he was 12, he began lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo, director of the music school. This information comes from the Autobiographical Sketch which Verdi dictated to the publisher Giulio Ricordi late in life, in 1879, written, understandably, with the benefit of hindsight, it is not always reliable when dealing with issues more contentious than those of his childhood. The other director of the Philharmonic Society was Antonio Barezzi, a grocer and distiller. The young Verdi did not immediately become involved with the Philharmonic, by June 1827, he had graduated with honours from the Ginnasio and was able to focus solely on music under Provesi. By 1829–30, Verdi had established himself as a leader of the Philharmonic, none of us could rival him reported the secretary of the organisation, Giuseppe Demaldè
18.
Verdi's Requiem
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The Messa da Requiem is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral mass for four soloists, double choir and orchestra by Giuseppe Verdi. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet, the first performance, at the San Marco church in Milan on 22 May 1874, marked the first anniversary of Manzonis death. The work was at one time called the Manzoni Requiem and it is rarely performed in liturgy, but rather in concert form of around 85–90 minutes in length. Musicologist David Rosen calls it probably the most frequently performed major choral work composed since the compilation of Mozarts Requiem, after Gioachino Rossinis death in 1868, Verdi suggested that a number of Italian composers collaborate on a Requiem in Rossinis honor. He began the effort by submitting the concluding movement, the Libera me, during the next year a Messa per Rossini was compiled by Verdi and twelve other famous Italian composers of the time. The premiere was scheduled for 13 November 1869, the first anniversary of Rossinis death, however, on 4 November, nine days before the premiere, the organising committee abandoned it. Verdi blamed this on the conductor, Angelo Mariani. He pointed to Marianis lack of enthusiasm for the project, even though he had part of the organising committee from the start. The composition remained unperformed until 1988, when Helmuth Rilling premiered the complete Messa per Rossini in Stuttgart, in the meantime, Verdi kept toying with his Libera me, frustrated that the combined commemoration of Rossinis life would not be performed in his lifetime. On 22 May 1873, the Italian writer and humanist Alessandro Manzoni, upon hearing of his death, Verdi resolved to complete a Requiem—this time entirely of his own writing—for Manzoni. Verdi traveled to Paris in June, where he commenced work on the Requiem and it included a revised version of the Libera me originally composed for Rossini. The Requiem was first performed in the church of San Marco in Milan on 22 May 1874, Verdi himself conducted, and the four soloists were Teresa Stolz, Maria Waldmann, Giuseppe Capponi and Ormondo Maini. Teresa Stolz went on to a brilliant career, Waldmann retired very young in 1875, also, Teresa Stolz was engaged to Angelo Mariani in 1869, but she later left him. The Requiem was repeated at La Scala three days later on 25 May with the soloists and Verdi again conducting. It won immediate contemporary success, although not everywhere and it received seven performances at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, but the new Royal Albert Hall in London could not be filled for such a Catholic occasion. In Venice, impressive Byzantine ecclesiastical decor was designed for the occasion of the performance and it later disappeared from the standard choral repertoire, but made a reappearance in the 1930s and is now regularly performed and a staple of many choral societies. The playwright and music critic George Bernard Shaw was an admirer of the work from its first London performance. The Requiem was performed 16 times between 1943 and 1944 by prisoners in the camp of Theresienstadt under the direction of Rafael Schächter
19.
Lotos Club
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The Lotos Club was founded as a gentlemans club in New York City, it has since also admitted women as members. Its founders were primarily a group of writers and critics. Mark Twain, a member, called it the Ace of Clubs. The Club took its name from the poem The Lotos-Eaters by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Lotos was thought to convey an idea of rest and harmony. Its State Dinners are legendary fetes for scholars, artists and sculptors, collectors and connoisseurs, writers and journalists, elaborate souvenir menus are produced for these dinners. The Lotos Clubs first home was at Two Irving Place, off of 14th Street near the Academy of Music, journalist DeWitt Van Buren was the Lotos Clubs first president, he was succeeded by A. Oakey Hall. Other early Club officers included Vice President F. A. Schwab, Secretary George Hows, New York Tribune editor Whitelaw Reid was elected Club president in 1877, at which time the Lotos Club moved to 149 Fifth Avenue at 21st Street. In 1893, the Club moved to 556-558 Fifth Avenue at 46th Street and it was at the Lotos Club in 1906 that George Harvey, editor of Harpers Weekly, sent up his first trial balloon by proposing Woodrow Wilson for the office of President of the United States. In 1909, with backing from Andrew Carnegie, the clubhouse was moved to 110 West 57th Street. Frank R. Lawrence was the Clubs longest serving president, from March 1889 until his death on October 26,1918, Lawrence was succeeded as president by Chester S. Lord, who served for five years. In 1923, Columbia University president Nicholas Murray Butler was elected president of the Club, in October 1941 the club held a mortgage-burning ceremony to mark payment of the $389,000 owed on the West 57th Street building. But in 1945 members began considering a move to a simpler clubhouse, the club has been housed since 1947 in a 1900 clubhouse designed by Richard Howland Hunt at 5 East 66th Street. In 1977, the Club amended its constitution to admit women, the Lotos Club issues a Medal of Merit, previous recipients include general David Petraeus, scientist James D. Watson, flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, and puppeteer Bil Baird. The Club also awards a Foundation Prize and an Award of Distinction, list of American gentlemens clubs Official website Documenting the Gilded Age, New York City Exhibitions at the Turn of the 20th Century A New York Art Resources Consortium project. Exhibition catalogs from the Lotos Club
20.
Metropolitan Opera
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The Metropolitan Opera, commonly referred to as The Met, is a company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager, the music director position is in transition as of 2016. The music director designate is Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the director emeritus is James Levine. The Met was founded in 1880 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, the Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. It presents about 27 different operas each year in a season lasts from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating schedule with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Moving to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966, performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday, several operas are presented in new productions each season. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other opera houses, the rest of the years operas are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons. The 2015-16 season comprised 227 performances of 25 operas, the operas in the Mets repertoire consist of a wide range of works, from 18th-century Baroque and 19th-century Bel canto to the Minimalism of the late 20th century. These operas are presented in staged productions that range in style from those with elaborate traditional decors to others that feature modern conceptual designs, the Mets performing company consists of a large symphony-sized orchestra, a chorus, childrens choir, and many supporting and leading solo singers. The company also employs numerous free-lance dancers, actors, musicians, the Mets roster of singers includes both international and American artists, some of whose careers have been developed through the Mets young artists programs. The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to New Yorks old established Academy of Music opera house, the subscribers to the Academys limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these old families were loath to admit New Yorks newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Operas founding subscribers determined to build a new house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. A group of some 22 men assembled at Delmonicos restaurant on April 28,1880 and they elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. The first Met subscribers included members of the Morgan, Roosevelt, the new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22,1883, and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The Academy of Musics opera season folded just three years after the Met opened, in its early decades the Met did not produce the opera performances itself but hired prominent manager/impresarios to stage a season of opera at the new Metropolitan Opera House. Henry Abbey served as manager for the season, 1883–84
21.
Anton Seidl
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Anton Seidl was a Hungarian conductor. He was born in Pest, Hungary and he began the study of music at a very early age, and when only seven years old could pick out at the piano melodies which he had heard in the theatre. At 15, he became a student of harmony in counterpoint under Nicolitsch at the Hungarian national musical academy and he attended the normal school at Pest for three years, the gymnasium eight years, and afterward attended the university for two years. At Bayreuth, he assisted in making the first fair copy of Der Ring des Nibelungen, wagner treated him as one of the chosen few, and it was natural that he should take a part in the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. Wagner then sent him to Vienna to stage Siegfried and Götterdämmerung there and his chance as a conductor came in 1879 when, on Wagners recommendation, he was appointed to the Leipzig State Opera. In May 1881, he introduced in the Victoria Theatre, Berlin, in 1882, he went on tour with Angelo Neumanns Nibelungen Ring company. The critics attributed much of the success that attended the production of the Ring at Her Majestys Theatre in London in June of that year to his conducting. He became conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1891 where he remained until his death in 1898, while in New York, he conducted the premiere performance of Antonín Dvořáks Symphony No. 9, From the New World, which influenced the direction of American classical music. Dvořák had added that subtitle to the page of his autograph score in Carnegie Hall just before turning it over to Seidl. He also had a significant role in the genesis of Edvard Griegs Lyric Suite and it started as Seidls orchestrations of four pieces from Book V of Griegs Lyric Pieces, which he put together as Norwegian Suite. He died in 1898, aged only 47, excerpts from Memoirs of Anton Seidl Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Seidl, Anton. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Wilson, James Grant, Fiske, John. Finck, Henry Theophilus and Krehbiel, Henry Edward, Anton Seidl, a memorial by his friends. Works by or about Anton Seidl at Internet Archive Media related to Anton Seidl at Wikimedia Commons
22.
James G. Blaine
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In the general election, he was narrowly defeated by Democrat Grover Cleveland. Blaine was one of the late 19th century’s leading Republicans and champion of the moderate reformist faction of the party known as the “Half-Breeds. ”Blaine was born in the western Pennsylvania town of West Brownsville and after moved to Maine. Nicknamed “the Magnetic Man, he was a speaker in an era that prized oratory. He began his career as an early supporter of Abraham Lincoln. In Reconstruction, Blaine was a supporter of suffrage. Initially a protectionist, he worked for a reduction in the tariff. His efforts at expanding the United States trade and influence began the shift to a more active American foreign policy, Blaine was a pioneer of tariff reciprocity and urged greater involvement in Latin American affairs. An expansionist, Blaine’s policies would lead in less than a decade to the establishment of the United States acquisition of Pacific colonies, James Gillespie Blaine was born January 31,1830 in West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, the third child of Ephraim Lyon Blaine and his wife Maria Blaine. Blaine’s father was a western Pennsylvania businessman and landowner, and the lived in relative comfort. On his father’s side, Blaine was descended from Scotch-Irish settlers who first emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1745 and his great-grandfather, Ephraim Blaine, served as a Commissary-General under George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. Blaine’s mother and her forebears were Irish Catholics who immigrated to Pennsylvania in the 1780s, Blaine’s parents were married in 1820 in a Roman Catholic ceremony, although Blaine’s father remained a Presbyterian. Following a common compromise of the era, the Blaines agreed that their daughters would be raised in their mother’s Catholic faith while their sons would be brought up in their father’s religion, in politics, Blaine’s father supported the Whig party. Blaine’s biographers describe his childhood as “harmonious, and note that the boy took an early interest in history, at the age of thirteen, Blaine enrolled in his father’s alma mater, Washington College, in nearby Washington, Pennsylvania. There, he was a member of the Washington Literary Society, Blaine succeeded academically, graduating near the top of his class and delivering the salutatory address in June 1847. After graduation, Blaine considered attending law school at Yale Law School, in 1848, Blaine was hired as a professor of mathematics and ancient languages at the Western Military Institute in Georgetown, Kentucky. Although he was eighteen years old and younger than many of his students. Blaine grew to enjoy life in his state and became an admirer of Kentucky Senator Henry Clay. He also made the acquaintance of Harriet Stanwood, a teacher at the nearby Millersburg Female College, on June 30,1850, the two were married
23.
Richard Wagner
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare
24.
European 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
25.
Harp
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The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard, which are plucked with the fingers. Harps have been known since antiquity in Asia, Africa and Europe, Harps vary globally in many ways. In terms of size, many smaller harps can be played on the lap, whereas larger harps are quite heavy, different harps may use strings of catgut or nylon, or of metal, or some combination. While all harps have a neck, resonator, and strings, frame harps have a pillar at their end to support the strings, while open harps, such as arch or bow harps. Modern harps also vary in techniques used to extend the range and chromaticity of the strings, the earliest harps and lyres were found in Sumer,3500 BC, and several harps were found in burial pits and royal tombs in Ur. The oldest depictions of harps without a forepillar can be adjacent to the Near East, in the wall paintings of ancient Egyptian tombs in the Nile Valley. These murals show an instrument that resembles the hunters bow. The chang flourished in Persia in many forms from its introduction, about 3000 BC, around 1900 BC arched harps in the Iraq–Iran region were replaced by angular harps with vertical or horizontal sound boxes. By the start of the Common Era, robust, vertical, angular harps, in the last century of the Sasanian period, angular harps were redesigned to make them as light as possible, while they became more elegant, they lost their structural rigidity. At the height of the Persian tradition of illustrated book production, such light harps were still frequently depicted, the works of the Tamil Sangam literature describe the harp and its variants, as early as 200 BC. Variants were described ranging from 14 to 17 strings, and the instrument used by wandering minstrels for accompaniment, another early South Asian harp was the ancient veena, unlike the modern instrument of the same name, the ancient veena was a harp vice the modern lute-type instrument. Some Samudragupta gold coins show of the mid-4th century AD show the king Samudragupta himself playing the instrument, the ancient veena survives today in Burma, in the form of the saung harp still played there. The harp was popular in ancient China and neighboring regions, though harps are largely extinct in East Asia in the modern day, the Chinese konghou harp is documented as early as the Spring and Autumn period, and became extinct during the Ming Dynasty. A similar harp, the gonghu was played in ancient Korea, Harps are essentially triangular in shape, and are made primarily of wood. Harp strings are made of gut or metal, the top end of each string is secured on the crossbar or neck of the instrument, where each will have a tuning peg or similar device to adjust the pitch of that string. It is the distance between the tuning peg and the soundboard, as well as the tension and weight of the string, the body is hollow and when a taut string is plucked, the body resonates, projecting sound. The longest side of the harp is called the column or pillar, though some earlier harps, such as a bow harp, on most harps, the sole purpose of the pillar is to hold up the neck against the great strain of the strings. On harps which have pedals, the pillar is a column and encloses the rods which adjust the pitch of strings
26.
Vincent Fanelli
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Vincent Fanelli was a harpist, teacher, and handball enthusiast. He was an American artist in early 20th century music education efforts, fanelli’s father, a Neapolitan, was his first harp teacher. By 1908 he was on the faculty at New York’s Institute of Musical Art, now the Juilliard School, Dr. Frank Damrosch. From 1913 to 1930 he was principal harpist of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski, a hand problem developed during this period requiring the re-fingering of his music. Eventually the entire hand became involved, as a result, Mr. Fanelli had to give up playing the harp to save his hand. From 1930 to 1932 he relocated to Gun Lake, Michigan and he recuperated and felt encouraged to play the harp again. At or about this time he developed an interest in handball, Mr. Fanelli played harp under other notable conductors including Arturo Toscanini, Walter Damrosch, and Reginald de Koven. In 1961, he retired from the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra after 29 years, vincent Fanelli died at his home on Staten Island, New York on March 2,1966
27.
General Pershing
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American forces first saw serious battle at Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Soissons. To speed up the arrival of the doughboys, they embarked for France leaving the heavy equipment behind, the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which the Argonne fighting was part of, contributed to Germany calling for an armistice. Pershing was of the opinion that the war should continue and that all of Germany should be occupied in an effort to permanently destroy German militarism. Allowed to select his own insignia, Pershing chose to use four stars to distinguish himself from those officers who held the rank of General. Some of his tactics have been criticized both by commanders at the time and by modern historians. His reliance on costly frontal assaults, long after other Allied armies had abandoned such tactics, has blamed for causing unnecessarily high American casualties. Pershing was born on a farm near Laclede, Missouri, to businessman John Fletcher Pershing, Pershings mother was of English descent. He also had five siblings, brothers James F. and Ward, when the Civil War began, his father supported the Union and was a sutler for the 18th Missouri Volunteer Infantry. Pershing attended a school in Laclede that was reserved for students who were also the children of prominent citizens. Completing high school in 1878, he became a teacher of local African American children, in 1880, Pershing entered the North Missouri Normal School in Kirksville, Missouri. Two years later, he applied to the United States Military Academy, Pershing later admitted that serving in the military was secondary to attending West Point, and he had applied because the education offered was better than that obtainable in rural Missouri. Pershing was sworn in as a West Point cadet in the fall of 1882 and he was selected early for leadership and became successively First Corporal, First Sergeant, First Lieutenant, and First Captain, the highest possible cadet rank. Pershing also commanded, ex officio, the West Point Honor Guard that escorted the funeral procession of President Ulysses S. Grant. Pershing graduated from West Point in the summer of 1886 and was commended by the Superintendent of West Point, General Wesley Merritt, for leadership skills. Pershing briefly considered petitioning the Army to let him study law and he applied for a furlough from West Point, but soon withdrew the request in favor of active Army duty. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army in 1886, at age 26, graduating 30th in a class of 77. Pershing reported for duty on September 30,1886, and was assigned to Troop L of the 6th U. S. Cavalry stationed at Fort Bayard. While serving in the 6th Cavalry, Pershing participated in several Indian campaigns and was cited for bravery for actions against the Apache, during his time at Fort Stanton, Pershing and close friends Lt. Julius Penn and Lt. Richard B
28.
American Expeditionary Force
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The American Expeditionary Forces was the expeditionary force of the United States Army during World War I. It was established on July 5,1917, in France under the command of Gen. John J. Pershing, during the United States campaigns in World War I it fought, alongside French and British troops, against the German Empire. Some of the troops fought alongside Italian forces in that same year and it helped the French Army on the Western Front during the Aisne Offensive in June 1918, and fought its major actions in the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives in late 1918. Pershing insisted that American soldiers be well-trained before going to Europe, as a result, few troops arrived before 1918. This attitude was not always received by the Allied leaders who distrusted the potential of an army lacking experience in large-scale warfare. In addition the British tried to bargain their spare shipping to make the US put its soldiers into British ranks. The French harbors of Bordeaux, La Pallice, Saint Nazaire and Brest became the points into the French railway system which brought the US forces. American engineers in France built 82 new ship berths, nearly 1,000 miles of additional tracks and 100,000 miles of telephone. The first American troops, who were often called Doughboys, landed in Europe in June 1917, a formation of regular soldiers and the first division to arrive in France, entered the trenches near Nancy. The AEF used French and British equipment, particularly appreciated were the French canon de 75 modèle 1897, the canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider and the canon de 155mm GPF. American aviation units received the SPAD XIII and Nieuport 28 fighters, Pershing established facilities in France to train new arrivals with their new weapons. A fifth division, the 41st Division, had converted into a depot division near Tours. After the first offensive action and American-led AEF victory on 28 May 1918 at the Battle of Cantigny, the rest followed at an accelerating pace during the spring and summer of 1918. The training took a minimum of six due to the inexperience of the servicemen. The first offensive action by AEF units serving under command was 1,000 men. This battle took place under the command of the Australian Corps commander. The Allied force in this battle combined artillery, armor, infantry, and air support, U. S. Army and Marine Corps troops played a key role in helping stop the German thrust towards Paris, during the Second Battle of the Marne in June 1918. The first major and distinctly American offensive was the reduction of the Saint Mihiel salient in September 1918, during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, beginning September 12,1918, Pershing commanded the U. S
29.
Parsifal
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Parsifal is an opera in three acts by German composer Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, a 13th-century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival, Wagner first conceived the work in April 1857 but did not finish it until twenty-five years later. It was Wagners last completed opera and in composing it he took advantage of the acoustics of his Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Parsifal was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882, the Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on Parsifal productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Wagner described Parsifal not as an opera, but as Ein Bühnenweihfestspiel, at Bayreuth a tradition has arisen that there be no applause after the first act of the opera. Wagner first read von Eschenbachs poem Parzival while taking the waters at Marienbad in 1845, after encountering Arthur Schopenhauers writings in 1854, Wagner became interested in oriental philosophies, especially Buddhism. Out of this interest came Die Sieger a sketch Wagner wrote for an opera based on a story from the life of Buddha, the themes which were later explored in Parsifal of self-renouncing, reincarnation, compassion, and even exclusive social groups were first introduced in Die Sieger. The composer and his wife Minna had moved into the cottage on 28 April, full of this sentiment, I suddenly remembered that the day was Good Friday, and I called to mind the significance this omen had already once assumed for me when I was reading Wolframs Parzival. The work may indeed have been conceived at Wesendoncks cottage in the last week of April 1857, but Good Friday that year fell on 10 April, when the Wagners were still living at Zeltweg 13 in Zürich. If the prose sketch which Wagner mentions in Mein Leben was accurately dated, it could settle the issue once and for all, Wagner did not resume work on Parsifal for eight years, during which time he completed Tristan und Isolde and began Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. But once again the work was dropped and set aside for another eleven, during this time most of Wagners creative energy was devoted to the Ring cycle, which was finally completed in 1874 and given its first full performance at Bayreuth in August 1876. Only when this task had been accomplished did Wagner find the time to concentrate on Parsifal. By 23 February 1877 he had completed a second and more extensive prose draft of the work, in September 1877 he began the music by making two complete drafts of the score from beginning to end. The first of these was made in pencil on three staves, one for the voices and two for the instruments, the second complete draft was made in ink and on at least three, but sometimes as many as five, staves. This draft was more detailed than the first and contained a considerable degree of instrumental elaboration. The Gesamtentwurf of act 3 was completed on 16 April 1879, the full score was the final stage in the compositional process. It was made in ink and consisted of a copy of the entire opera, with all the voices. The prelude of act 1 was scored in August 1878, the rest of the opera was scored between August 1879 and 13 January 1882
30.
Franz Liszt
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Franz Liszt was a prolific 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, organist, philanthropist, author, nationalist and a Franciscan tertiary. Liszt gained renown in Europe during the nineteenth century for his prodigious virtuosic skill as a pianist. As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School and he left behind an extensive and diverse body of work in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated many 20th-century ideas and trends. Franz Liszt was born to Anna Liszt and Adam Liszt on October 22,1811, in the village of Doborján in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary, Liszts father played the piano, violin, cello and guitar. He had been in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy and knew Haydn, Hummel, at age six, Franz began listening attentively to his fathers piano playing and showed an interest in both sacred and Romani music. Adam began teaching him the piano at age seven, and Franz began composing in an elementary manner when he was eight and he appeared in concerts at Sopron and Pressburg in October and November 1820 at age 9. After the concerts, a group of wealthy sponsors offered to finance Franzs musical education in Vienna, There Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. He also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, then director of the Viennese court. Liszts public debut in Vienna on December 1,1822, at a concert at the Landständischer Saal, was a great success and he was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and also met Beethoven and Schubert. In spring 1823, when his one-year leave of absence came to an end, Adam Liszt therefore took his leave of the Princes services. At the end of April 1823, the returned to Hungary for the last time. At the end of May 1823, the family went to Vienna again, towards the end of 1823 or early 1824, Liszts first composition to be published, his Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli, appeared as Variation 24 in Part II of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. Liszts inclusion in the Diabelli project—he was described in it as an 11 year old boy, born in Hungary—was almost certainly at the instigation of Czerny, his teacher, Liszt was the only child composer in the anthology. After his fathers death in 1827, Liszt moved to Paris, to earn money, Liszt gave lessons in piano playing and composition, often from early morning until late at night. His students were scattered across the city and he often had to long distances. Because of this, he kept uncertain hours and also took up smoking, the following year he fell in love with one of his pupils, Caroline de Saint-Cricq, the daughter of Charles Xs minister of commerce, Pierre de Saint-Cricq. Her father, however, insisted that the affair be broken off, Liszt fell very ill, to the extent that an obituary notice was printed in a Paris newspaper, and he underwent a long period of religious doubts and pessimism. He again stated a wish to join the Church but was dissuaded this time by his mother and he had many discussions with the Abbé de Lamennais, who acted as his spiritual father, and also with Chrétien Urhan, a German-born violinist who introduced him to the Saint-Simonists
31.
Sondershausen
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Sondershausen is a town in Thuringia, Germany, capital of the Kyffhäuserkreis district, situated about 50 km north of Erfurt. On 1 December 2007, the former municipality Schernberg was incorporated by Sondershausen, until 1918 it was part of the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. Sondershausen is situated in North Thuringia and lies in low mountain range between Hainleite and Windleite, the highest mountain is the Frauenberg to the west of the town. A little river called Wipper flows through Sondershausen, around the town there are mixed forests. The city districts are, In the Sondershausen Palace there is a museum with three different exhibit areas. Special exhibits are the Golden Coach, the only of its kind in Germany, there are possible special guided tours of demonstrationdepot, cellar, tower and park of the castle, too. Under the city there is a mine to visit, to visit is a Jewish bath from the 14th Century since 1999 under the gallery on the Schlossberg. Sondershausen Palace, with history and antiquarian collections. Adapted as Palace in Renaissance times, it was expanded in Baroque forms. Especially noteworthy are the Blue Hall and the gardens, the Old Princes Palace, a residence of the princes from 1835 to 1851. It currently houses the administration office of the Kyffhäuserkreis. Crucis Church, the oldest building of Sondershausen
32.
Thuringia
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The Free State of Thuringia is a federal state in central Germany. It has an area of 16,171 square kilometres and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area, most of Thuringia is within the watershed of the Saale, a left tributary of the Elbe. Thuringia has been known as the heart of Germany from the late 19th century. It is home to the Rennsteig, Germanys most well-known hiking trail, half of Germanys 136 Winter Olympic gold medals have been won by Thuringian athletes. Johann Sebastian Bach spent the first part of his life and important further stages of his career in Thuringia, goethe and Schiller lived in Weimar and both worked at the University of Jena, which today hosts Thuringias most important science centre. Other Universities in this state are the Ilmenau University of Technology, the University of Erfurt. The name Thuringia or Thüringen derives from the Germanic tribe Thuringii, an older theory claims that they were successors of the Hermunduri, but later research rejected the idea. Other historians argue that the Thuringians were allies of the Huns, came to central Europe together with them, publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus first mentioned the Thuringii around 400, during that period, the Thuringii were famous for their excellent horses. The Thuringian Realm existed until after 531, the Landgraviate of Thuringia was the largest state in the region, after the Treaty of Leipzig, Thuringia had its own dynasty again, the Ernestine Wettins. Their various lands formed the Free State of Thuringia, founded in 1920, the Prussian territories around Erfurt, Mühlhausen and Nordhausen joined Thuringia in 1945. The coat of arms of Thuringia shows the lion of the Ludowingian Landgraves of 12th-century origin, the eight stars around it represent the eight former states which formed Thuringia. The flag of Thuringia is a bicolor, derived from the white. The coat of arms and flag of Hesse are quite similar to the Thuringian ones, symbols of Thuringia in popular culture are the Bratwurst and the Forest, because a large amount of the territory is forested. Named after the Thuringii tribe who occupied it around AD300, Thuringia became a landgraviate in 1130 AD. Most of the remaining Thuringia came under the rule of the Wettin dynasty of the nearby Margraviate of Meissen, in Mühlhausen and elsewhere, the Anabaptists found many adherents. Thomas Müntzer, a leader of some groups of this sect, was active in this city. Some reordering of the Thuringian states occurred during the German Mediatisation from 1795 to 1814, in 1920, after World War I, these small states merged into one state, called Thuringia, only Saxe-Coburg voted to join Bavaria instead. Weimar became the new capital of Thuringia, the coat of arms of this new state was simpler than those of its predecessors
33.
Carl Goldmark
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Karl Goldmark was a Hungarian-born Viennese composer. Goldmark came from a large Jewish family, one of 20 children and his father, Ruben Goldmark, was a chazan to the Jewish congregation at Keszthely, Hungary, where Karl was born. Karl Goldmarks older brother Joseph became a physician and was involved in the Revolution of 1848. Karl Goldmarks early training as a violinist was at the academy of Sopron. He continued his studies there and two years later was sent by his father to Vienna, where he was able to study for some eighteen months with Leopold Jansa before his money ran out. He prepared himself for entry first to the Vienna Technische Hochschule and then to the Vienna Conservatory to study the violin with Joseph Böhm, the Revolution of 1848 forced the Conservatory to close down. He was largely self-taught as a composer and he also gave lessons, Jean Sibelius studied with him briefly. Goldmarks first concert in Vienna met with hostility, and he returned to Budapest, to make ends meet, Goldmark also pursued a side career as a music journalist. Johannes Brahms and Goldmark developed a friendship as Goldmarks prominence in Vienna grew, Goldmark, however would ultimately distance himself because of Brahms prickly personality. Goldmarks opera Die Königin von Saba, Op.27 was celebrated during his lifetime, first performed in Vienna on 10 March 1875, the work proved so popular that it remained in the repertory of the Vienna Staatsoper continuously until 1938. He wrote six other operas as well and his Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.28, was once his most frequently played piece. The concerto had its premiere in Bremen in 1877, initially enjoyed great popularity, a very romantic work, it has a Magyar march in the first movement and passages reminiscent of Dvořák and Mendelssohn in the second and third movements. It has started to re-enter the repertoire, through recordings by such prominent violin soloists as Itzhak Perlman, nathan Milstein also championed the work and Milsteins recording of the Concerto is widely considered the definitive one. He wrote a violin concerto, but it was never published. A second symphony in E-flat, Op.35, is much less well-known, Goldmarks chamber music, in which the influences of Schumann and Mendelssohn are paramount, although critically well received in his lifetime, is now rarely heard. Other orchestral works include the symphonic poem Zrínyi, Op.47, Goldmarks nephew Rubin Goldmark, a pupil of Dvořák, was also a composer, who spent his career in New York. Goldmark died in Vienna and is buried in the Zentralfriedhof, along many other notable composers. Der Fremdling Die Kriegsgefangene, a Trojan War story taking Achilles captive Briseis as central figure, götz von Berlichingen, after Goethes play about the historical figure Ein Wintermärchen, adapted from Shakespeares The Winters Tale
34.
Cyrano (Damrosch)
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Cyrano is an opera in four acts composed by Walter Damrosch to an English language libretto by William James Henderson based on Edmond Rostands play, Cyrano de Bergerac. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on February 27,1913, with Pasquale Amato in the title role and Frances Alda as Roxane. By the time Damrosch began his Cyrano project, Rostands play, Cyrano de Bergerac and its first US performance in English had taken place in New York City with Richard Mansfield in the title role in 1898, less than year after its Paris premiere. From 1900 to 1901, Constant Coquelin, who created the role, had also toured North America performing the play in the original French with Sarah Bernhardt as Roxanne. When Damrosch decided to turn the play into an opera, he commissioned the Anglo-American critic and musicologist, Damrosch had finished composing the opera by 1903, but its first performance opportunity did not come until ten years later. Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the Metropolitan Operas General Manager from 1908 to 1935, had started a policy of producing at least one new English language opera each season. In 1911 Damrosch invited Gatti-Casazza and Arturo Toscanini to his house to hear excerpts from Cyrano and he had revised his original score somewhat and further cuts were made to its original five-hour and half-hour running time during the rehearsal period. Shortly before the opening, Edmund Rostand pronounced himself indignant at the liberties which Damrosch and Henderson had taken in adapting his play. Cyrano premiered on February 27,1913, with Pasquale Amato in the title role, the sets were designed by Antonio Rovescalli while the costumes were designed by the famed Paris company, Maison Muelle. The work was received by the audience at the opening night. The critic for the Boston Evening Transcript had praise for the libretto but found the music lack individuality, imagination and it cannot be called music of inspiration, of originality, or, in the highest sense, of power. Similar views were expressed by the critic for Theatre Magazine, Cyrano ran for four more performances at the Met that season and was performed by the company once in Atlanta Georgia in April 1913 but was never performed by the Met again. Damrosch revised his opera over the years and revived it in its new version in concert performances Carnegie Hall which opened on 21 February 1941, Damrosch himself conducted the Carnegie Hall revival. Ezio Pinza was originally scheduled to sing the role. The revival had not essentially changed the assessment of the work. The 1941 Carnegie Hall run marked the last time the opera was publicly performed, the opera, like Rostands play, is set in France in 1640 against the background of the Siege of Arras during the Thirty Years War. In the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris the audience arrives for a performance, cavaliers, marquises, a musketeer, a flower-girl, and pages enter and take their places as spectators. Christian asks him the name of the woman that usually sits in a certain box, Le Bret replies that she is Roxane, a cousin of Cyrano de Bergerac
35.
Danny Deever
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Danny Deever is an 1890 poem by Rudyard Kipling, one of the first of the Barrack-Room Ballads. It received wide critical and popular acclaim, and is regarded as one of the most significant pieces of Kiplings early verse. The poem, a ballad, describes the execution of a British soldier in India for murder and his execution is viewed by his regiment, paraded to watch it, and the poem is composed of the comments they exchange as they see him hanged. The poem was first published on 22 February 1890 in the Scots Observer, in America later in the year and it is generally read as being set in India, though it gives no details of the actual situation. Some research has suggested that the poem was written with an incident in mind. A number of details of this execution correspond to the described by Kipling in the poem. Kipling apparently wrote the various Barrack-Room Ballads in early 1890, about a year since he had last been in India, though he wrote large amounts of occasional verse, he usually added a note beneath the title giving the context of the poem. Danny Deever does not have any notes, but Cleared, written in the same month as Danny Deever. This suggests that it was not thought by Kipling to be inspired by a specific incident, the form is a dialogue, between a young and inexperienced soldier and a more experienced and older NCO. This procedure strengthened discipline in the unit, by a process of deterrence and he presses the Sergeant further, in the second verse – why are people breathing so hard. These signs of the effect that watching the hanging has upon the men of the regiment are explained away by the Sergeant as being due to the weather or the bright sun. The voice is reassuring, keeping the young soldier calm in the sight of death, the poem is composed of four eight-line verses, containing a dialogue between two voices, What are the bugles blowin for. To turn you out, to turn you out, the Colour-Sergeant said, what makes you look so white, so white. Im dreadin what Ive got to watch, the Colour-Sergeant said and it is immediately noticeable that the poem is written in a vernacular English. The speech is not a representation of any single dialect. The four verses each consist of two questions asked by Files and answered by the Sergeant- a call-and-response form – and then another four lines of the Sergeant explaining, in some interpretations, the second four lines are taken to be spoken by a third voice, another file-on-parade. The first four lines end with the same word. Danny Deever is often seen as one of Kiplings most powerful early works, david Masson, a professor of literature at the University of Edinburgh, is often reported to have waved the magazine in which it appeared at his students, crying Heres literature
36.
NBC
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The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is part of the Big Three television networks, founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electrics remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBC Universal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke, during a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had an outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&Ts manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&Ts telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, the 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were incompatible with the companys primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&Ts phone lines for network transmission, the divisions ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15,1926, WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On April 5,1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network and this was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18,1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network, initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. The Orange Network name was removed from use in 1936, at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, in 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown
37.
David Sarnoff
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David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio and television. Throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his retirement in 1970. He ruled over an ever-growing telecommunications and consumer electronics empire that included both RCA and NBC, and became one of the largest companies in the world, named a Reserve Brigadier General of the Signal Corps in 1945, Sarnoff thereafter was widely known as The General. Sarnoff is credited with Sarnoffs law, which states that the value of a broadcast network is proportional to the number of viewers, David Sarnoff was born to a Jewish family in Uzlyany, a small town in Belarus, the son of Abraham and Leah Sarnoff. Abraham emigrated to the United States and raised funds to bring the family, Sarnoff spent much of his early childhood in a cheder studying and memorizing the Torah. In 1906 his father became incapacitated by tuberculosis, and at age 15 Sarnoff went to work to support the family. He had planned to pursue a career in the newspaper business. Over the next 13 years Sarnoff rose from office boy to commercial manager of the company, learning about the technology and he also served at Marconi stations on ships and posts on Siasconset, Nantucket and the New York Wanamaker Department Store. The following year, he led two other operators at the Wanamaker station in an effort to confirm the fate of the Titanic, some researchers question whether Sarnoff was at the telegraph key at all. By the time of the Titanic disaster in 1912, Sarnoff was a manager of the telegraphers and that same year Marconi won a patent suit that gave it the coastal stations of the United Wireless Telegraph Company. Sarnoff used H. J. Rounds hydrogen arc transmitter to demonstrate the broadcast of music from the New York Wanamaker station. This demonstration and the AT&T demonstrations in 1915 of long-distance wireless telephony inspired the first of many memos to his superiors on applications of current and future radio technologies. Sometime late in 1915 or in 1916 he proposed to the president, Edward J. Nally. Nally deferred on the proposal because of the volume of business during World War I. Throughout the war years, Sarnoff remained Marconis Commercial Manager, including oversight of the factory in Roselle Park. Unlike many who were involved with radio communications, viewing radio as point-to-point. One person could speak to many, up to 300,000 people heard the fight, and demand for home radio equipment bloomed that winter. By the spring of 1922 Sarnoffs prediction of popular demand for broadcasting had come true, in 1925, RCA purchased its first radio station and launched the National Broadcasting Company, the first radio network in America
38.
New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
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Franz Schubert
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Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. Schubert died before his 32nd birthday, but was prolific during his lifetime. His output consists of six hundred secular vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music. Appreciation of his music while he was alive was limited to a small circle of admirers in Vienna. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of the late Classical and early Romantic eras and is one of the most frequently performed composers of the early nineteenth century. Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund, Vienna, Archduchy of Austria on 31 January 1797, of Franz Theodors fourteen children, nine died in infancy. Their father was a teacher, and his school in Lichtental had numerous students in attendance. Though he was not recognised or even trained as a musician. At age six, Franz began to receive instruction from his father. His formal musical education started around the same time and his father taught him basic violin technique, and his brother Ignaz gave him piano lessons. The boy seemed to more from an acquaintance with a friendly joiners apprentice who took him to a neighbouring pianoforte warehouse where Franz could practice on better instruments. He also played viola in the string quartet, with brothers Ferdinand and Ignaz on first and second violin. Franz wrote his earliest string quartets for this ensemble, young Schubert first came to the attention of Antonio Salieri, then Viennas leading musical authority, in 1804, when his vocal talent was recognized. In October 1808, he became a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt through a choir scholarship, at the Stadtkonvikt, he was introduced to the overtures and symphonies of Mozart, and the symphonies of Joseph Haydn and his younger brother Michael. His exposure to these and lesser works, combined with occasional visits to the opera, one important musical influence came from the songs by Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, an important Lieder composer of the time. The precocious young student wanted to modernize them, as reported by Joseph von Spaun, Schuberts friendship with Spaun began at the Stadtkonvikt and lasted throughout his short life. In those early days, the financially well-off Spaun furnished the impoverished Schubert with much of his manuscript paper, in the meantime, his genius began to show in his compositions. Schubert was occasionally permitted to lead the Stadtkonvikts orchestra, and Salieri decided to start training him privately in music theory, for male voices and orchestra, and his first symphony
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Symphony No. 8 (Schubert)
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A scherzo, nearly completed in piano score but with only two pages orchestrated, also survives. Many have theorized that Schubert may have sketched a finale that instead became the big B minor entracte from his music to Rosamunde. One possible reason for Schuberts leaving the incomplete is the predominance of the same meter. The first movement is in 34, the second in 38, three consecutive movements in basically the same meter rarely occur in symphonies, sonatas, or chamber works of the most important Viennese composers. Schuberts eighth symphony is called the first Romantic symphony due to its emphasis on the lyrical impulse within the dramatic structure of Classical sonata form. To this day, musicologists still disagree as to why Schubert failed to complete the symphony and it could have been a combination of both factors. In 1823, the Graz Music Society gave Schubert an honorary diploma, what may never be known is how much of the symphony Schubert actually wrote, and how much of what he did write he gave to Hüttenbrenner. A fourth movement finale in the key would have been the norm for any symphony written at that time. The Schubert scholar Brian Newbould, who harmonized, orchestrated and conjecturally completed the sketch of the scherzo, believed this to be true. Pages appear to have torn out after the beginning of the scherzo in the full score sent to Hüttenbrenner. That Hüttenbrenner neither had the work performed, nor let the society know he had the manuscript is curious and has spawned various theories. Old age and approaching death seem to have influenced Hüttenbrenner to reveal the work to an important, the performance was nevertheless received with great enthusiasm by the audience. The score of two movements was not published before 1867. The Unfinished Symphony has been called No.7 instead of No, a typically laconic Schubertian transition consists of just four measures for the two horns, effectively modulating to the subdominant parallel key of G major. The second subject begins with a lyrical melody in that key, stated first by the celli. This is interrupted by a dramatic closing group alternating heavy tutti sforzandi interspersed with pauses and developmental variants of the G major melody, an important moment in the first movement occurs in measure 109. In these measures, Schubert holds a tonic B pedal in the bassoon and first horn under the dominant F♯ chord. Unfortunately, a well-meaning but inexperienced editor removed this dissonance by altering the second bassoon, conductors must check these parts carefully to make sure that the B pedal is intact
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Georges Bizet
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Georges Bizet, registered at birth as Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer of the romantic era. During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet won many prizes and he was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. Returning to Paris after almost three years in Italy, he found that the main Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire to the works of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were largely ignored, as a result, his career stalled. Restless for success, he began many theatrical projects during the 1860s, neither of his two operas that reached the stage in this time—Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth—were immediately successful. The production of Bizets final opera, Carmen, was delayed because of fears that its themes of betrayal and murder would offend audiences. After its premiere on 3 March 1875, Bizet was convinced that the work was a failure, Bizets marriage to Geneviève Halévy was intermittently happy and produced one son. After his death, his work, apart from Carmen, was generally neglected, manuscripts were given away or lost, and published versions of his works were frequently revised and adapted by other hands. He founded no school and had no obvious disciples or successors, after years of neglect, his works began to be performed more frequently in the 20th century. Later commentators have acclaimed him as a composer of brilliance and originality whose premature death was a significant loss to French musical theatre, Georges Bizet was born in Paris on 25 October 1838. He was registered as Alexandre César Léopold, but baptised as Georges on 16 March 1840 and his father, Adolphe Bizet, had been a hairdresser and wigmaker before becoming a singing teacher despite his lack of formal training. He also composed a few works, including at least one published song, in 1837 Adolphe married Aimée Delsarte, against the wishes of her family who considered him a poor prospect, the Delsartes, though impoverished, were a cultured and highly musical family. Aimée was an accomplished pianist, while her brother François Delsarte was a singer and teacher who performed at the courts of both Louis Philippe and Napoleon III. François Delsartes wife Rosine, a prodigy, had been an assistant professor of solfège at the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 13. Georges, a child, showed early aptitude for music and quickly picked up the basics of musical notation from his mother. This precocity convinced his ambitious parents that he was ready to begin studying at the Conservatoire even though he was only nine years old. Georges was interviewed by Joseph Meifred, the horn virtuoso who was a member of the Conservatoires Committee of Studies, Meifred was so struck by the boys demonstration of his skills that he waived the age rule and offered to take him as soon as a place became available. Bizet was admitted to the Conservatoire on 9 October 1848, two weeks before his 10th birthday and he made an early impression, within six months he had won first prize in solfège, a feat that impressed Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, the Conservatoires former professor of piano
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Carmen
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Carmen is an opera in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on a novella of the title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. The opera is written in the genre of opéra comique with musical numbers separated by dialogue and it is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. José abandons his sweetheart and deserts from his military duties, yet loses Carmens love to the glamorous toreador Escamillo. The depictions of life, immorality, and lawlessness. After the premiere, most reviews were critical, and the French public was generally indifferent, Carmen initially gained its reputation through a series of productions outside France, and was not revived in Paris until 1883, thereafter it rapidly acquired popularity at home and abroad. Later commentators have asserted that Carmen forms the bridge between the tradition of opéra comique and the realism or verismo that characterised late 19th-century Italian opera. The opera has been recorded many times since the first acoustical recording in 1908, in the Paris of the 1860s, despite being a Prix de Rome laureate, Bizet struggled to get his stage works performed. The capitals two main state-funded opera houses—the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique—followed conservative repertoires that restricted opportunities for young native talent, Bizet was delighted with the Opéra-Comique commission, and expressed to his friend Edmund Galabert his satisfaction in the absolute certainty of having found my path. It was Bizet who first proposed an adaptation of Prosper Mérimées novella Carmen, Bizet may first have encountered the story during his Rome sojourn of 1858–60, since his journals record Mérimée as one of the writers whose works he absorbed in those years. Cast details are as provided by Mina Curtiss from the original piano, the stage designs are credited to Charles Ponchard. Place, Seville, Spain, and surrounding hills Time, Around 1820 Act 1 A square, on the right, a door to the tobacco factory. A group of soldiers relax in the square, waiting for the changing of the guard, moralès tells her that José is not yet on duty and invites her to wait with them. She declines, saying she will return later, José arrives with the new guard, which is greeted and imitated by a crowd of urchins. As the factory bell rings, the cigarette girls emerge and exchange banter with young men in the crowd, Carmen enters and sings her provocative habanera on the untameable nature of love. The men plead with her to choose a lover, and after some teasing she throws a flower to Don José, as the women go back to the factory, Micaëla returns and gives José a letter and a kiss from his mother. He reads that his mother wants him to home and marry Micaëla
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Johannes Brahms
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Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his life in Vienna. Brahms composed for orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works and he worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Many of his works have become staples of the concert repertoire. An uncompromising perfectionist, Brahms destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished, Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg, the diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahmss works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Embedded within his meticulous structures, however, are deeply romantic motifs, Brahmss father, Johann Jakob Brahms, was from the town of Heide in Holstein. The family name was sometimes spelt Brahmst or Brams, and derives from Bram. Against the familys will, Johann Jakob pursued a career in music, arriving in Hamburg in 1826, where he work as a jobbing musician. In 1830, he married Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen, a seamstress 17 years older than he was, in the same year he was appointed as a horn player in the Hamburg militia. Eventually he became a player in the Hamburg Stadttheater and the Hamburg Philharmonic Society. As Johann Jakob prospered, the family moved over the years to better accommodation in Hamburg. Johannes Brahms was born in 1833, his sister Elisabeth had been born in 1831, Fritz also became a pianist, overshadowed by his brother he emigrated to Caracas in 1867, and later returned to Hamburg as a teacher. Johann Jakob gave his son his first musical training, Johannes also learnt to play the violin, from 1840 he studied piano with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel. Cossel complained in 1842 that Brahms could be such a good player, at the age of 10, Brahms made his debut as a performer in a private concert including Beethovens quintet for piano and winds Op.16 and a piano quartet by Mozart. He also played as a solo work an étude of Henri Herz, by 1845 he had written a piano sonata in G minor
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Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Damrosch, Walter Johannes". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "
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