Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Remont, ремонт, 状况, إصلاح















Photo credit: © Andrea Maria Dusl. August 14, 2005. All rights reserved. With thanks.

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The road movie romantic comedy, Blue Moon [2002], was Dusl's first as a director. It took almost twelve years to make the film.

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According to certain folklore, it is said that when there is a blue moon, the moon has a face and talks to the items in its moonlight. A fairy moon is the second new moon of a solar month. This moon phase is comparable (and opposite) to a blue moon and is important for religions/cultures which engage in magic. In Astrology, the term black moon can sometimes refer to Lilith, Earth's hypothetical second moon. Some astrologers maintain that it is as real as Eros, a large, scientifically factual asteroid. Eros was visited by the NEAR Shoemaker probe, which orbited it, taking extensive photographs of its surface, and, on February 12, 2001, at the end of its mission, landed on the asteroid's surface using its maneuvering jets.

Pan Cogito Discovers That His Home Will Soon Be Sheltering Cultural Scientists From The Derbentskiy Historical-Architectural And Art Museum-Preserve

Derbentskiy Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Preserve
Address: 368600, Dagestan Republic, Russian Federation.

Description:

The Museum-reservation of Derbent is a komplex monument with total area 435 hectars designed for historic and cultural purpose. It is a rare and integral group of well-preserved architectural monuments of the 6-20 centuries.

The Museum-reservation includes 6 museum - "Derbent-Witness of centuries", "Culture and Mode of Life of Ancient Derbent", Memorial House-Museum of Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, "The Nature of the Sub-Caspian Region", "Glory in Battle", "History of Carpet-knitting and Folk Applied Arts of Daghestan".

8 foot and bus routes, 60 sights and 50 excursions have been developed in the Museum-reservation.

The Museum-reservation of Derbent combines the ancient history, unique town-building and fortification constructions with rich natural landscape combining vast distances with the view of the Caucasus Mountains, which allows to regard Derbent as a true reservation zone.

Next to the museum there are hotels and restaurants.

Working hours:* Warning:
preodered group visits only

Internet:
www.russianmuseums.info/M1206 - official web page

Russian Museums Web-site from the Russian Cultural Heritage Network.



















Classic Dagastan Prayer Rug (Private Collection).

"Some people refer to Dagestan as the "Mountain of Languages" because of the extreme cultural and linguistic diversity within the region. It is the largest of the North Caucasus republics and also serves as the main conduit for Russian oil exports from the Caspian Sea.

In addition to managing the perils of close proximity to the conflict between Chechnya and Russia, Dagestan has also endured internal strife, particularly in recent years. Though the republic's demographics reveal cultural variety, most of the Dagestani population is Muslim and comprised of different Sufi orders that have been in place for centuries. The most recent disagreements concern Wahabbi missionaries, who are in Dagastan seeking converts, and the local Sufi orders who disapprove of the Wahabbi presence. For many, the recent increase in internal conflict in the North Caucasus can be directly attributed to relaxing of the severe restrictions in place during communist Russia. Those who take this position insist that increasing the freedom allotted to these republics -- and certainly by allowing them to achieve independence from Russia -- would result in disastrous consequences for the entire region.

Dagestan, like most of the republics in the North Caucasus, has a role to play in the Russia/Chechnya conflict. During the first Chechen war the Chechens used Dagestan as a supply corridor and in 1999 Chechen guerillas joined Dagestani Muslim radicals in an attempt to establish an Islamic state, which was quickly quelled by the Russian army. This attack, which was led on the Chechen side by Shamil Basayev, convinced Moscow that the Chechen rebellion was enough of a threat that it necessitated an invasion and later in 1999 Russia invaded Chechnya. Essentially Dagestan suffers because of its proximity to the Chechen conflict. On Dagastani soil there are politically motivated kidnappings and frequent bloody attacks taking place in a republic where about 9% of the population is Russian and about 3% is Chechen. As recently as 2005 the deputy interior minister was assassinated in Dagestan's capital city a month after authorities say they foiled plans for an attack of Dagestaini soil similar to the siege of School No. 1."

Sources: BBC NEWS; Wikipedia.org; KOMMERSANT, New Russia's First Independent Newspaper; Answers.com; Rand.org; FRIENDS & PARTNERS Linking US-Russia Across the Internet.

Beslan, Seige of School No. 1 (PBS Wide Angle: human stories. global issues)

Republic of Dagastan, Russian Federation.

Freer and Sackler Art Galleries, Washington, D.C.

Photo credit: (c) www.willishenry.com. 2005. All rights reserved. With thanks.

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Image credit: www.russianlife.net. With thanks.

Friday Afternoon In A San Francisco Urban Park With The San Francisco Symphony And Michael Tilson Thomas ( ... And Possibly A "Classical Striptease")

Free San Francisco Symphony Outdoor Concert at Yerba Buena Gardens

Join the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas for a free concert on August 24 at noon at Yerba Buena Gardens. Bring your lunch and enjoy thrilling music by Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and others. Don’t miss this spectacular event, another in the San Francisco Symphony’s lineup of community events aimed at making music accessible to everyone in our community.

Lise Lindstrom, soprano

Shostakovich Allegretto from Symphony No. 5 in D minor

R. Strauss Final Scene from Salome

Tchaikovsky Scherzo and Finale from Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Opus 13, Winter Daydreams



















Before San Francisco had Michael Tilson Thomas and Yerba Buena Gardens, it had Adolph Sutro and Sutro's (1830-1898) Castle, both pictured above ...

© Copyright 2005 SFImages.com - division of Business Image Group
All rights reserved. With thanks. (An excellent image resource.)

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

MET Opera And English National Opera To Collaborate On John Adams's And Osvaldo Golijov Opera Productions

Met and English National Opera to Co-Produce New Doctor Atomic Staging, Golijov Commission
August 15, 2007

"The Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera announced plans today to collaborate on two new productions — one, a world-premiere — as part of their plans for future seasons. Included under the arrangement is a new co-production of John Adams' Doctor Atomic, which is to be directed by Penny Woolcock, as well as a co-production of the new opera by Osvaldo Golijov and Anthony Minghella, which was originally commissioned by the Met.

As reported by both companies today, the new production of Doctor Atomic will premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on October 13, 2008, and will go on to play at English National Opera in February of the following year. The Osvaldo Golijov-Anthony Minghella commission is to be workshopped at English National Opera before tentatively playing on the British company's stage during 2010; it will arrive at the Met during the 2011-12 season.

"Our collaboration with ENO increases the potential for artistic success. The combined resources of our companies and schedules allow for greater artistic preparation and development that these new works demand," said Met general manager Peter Gelb in a statement issued by the companies today. "In the case of Doctor Atomic, I believe that this monumental work by John Adams is of such merit that it deserves a production created uniquely for our two stages." ...

OperaNewsOnline [Metropolitan Opera]














Infrastructure building in preparation for Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Photo credit: (c) Chang W. Leen and the New York Times. All rights reserved. With thanks.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Toward The Gradual Embodiment Of A Contemporary Spiritualist American Opera: Hampton and Glass's Appomattox Synopsis

Appomattox

Prologue: April, 1865

The brutal Civil War is drawing to a close. Three scenes unfold simultaneously as Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, Mrs. Robert E. Lee with her daughter Agnes, and Mary Todd Lincoln with her seamstress Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave, separately express their anxieties, then jointly voice their foreboding about the suffering that lies ahead.

ACT I: April 2–9, 1865


Scene 1—Aboard his floating headquarters, President Lincoln meets with Grant and enunciates his River Queen Doctrine, outlining the generous terms of surrender to be offered to Lee. Their wives arrive, Mrs. Lincoln voicing petty grievances, while Mrs. Grant is steadfast and calm. Hearing of the success of the day’s battle, Grant orders the final assault on Richmond.

Scene 2—Mrs. Lee rejects her husband’s advice to flee Richmond before the coming battle. Lee reflects on his reason for joining the Confederacy despite having been offered the leadership of the Union forces: his invincible loyalty to the state of Virginia. General Cobb arrives to protest the proposal, favored by Lee, of arming slaves to fight for the Confederacy. If slaves can make good soldiers, he argues, where does that leave their theory of slavery? Lee responds that his business is war, not theorizing.

Scene 3—On the eve of the Union’s attack on Richmond, Mrs. Grant reflects on the hard years of her husband’s earlier life, including his business failures and alcoholism, but she recalls her mother’s prophecy that he would rise to be the highest in the land. Now she worries about the horrible strain the long, bloody war has put on him. Grant assures her that the seemingly endless killing will soon be over.

Scene 4—Refugees flee Richmond amid terror and chaos, but Mrs. Lee and Agnes remain in their home. A troop of black union soldiers rejoices in the city’s capture. T. Morris Chester, a black journalist from the Philadelphia Press, writes a triumphant news dispatch while seated in the Speaker’s chair at the Confederate Congress. Greeted in Richmond by a crowd of newly freed black laborers, Lincoln raises one who had dropped to his knees, saying he must kneel only to God, in thanks for his liberty. With her house now under occupation, Mrs. Lee protests to Union General Rawlins that placing a black soldier as a sentry is an insult. Rawlins apologetically replaces the guard with a white man.

Scene 5—Grant and Lee exchange a series of letters. Grant proposes that Lee surrender to avoid further bloodshed. Lee’s initial response is equivocal, only inquiring as to the terms Grant might propose, and later suggesting they meet to discuss “peace” rather than “surrender.” Lee receives news of his encircled army’s failed breakout attempt. An aide proposes a radical change of strategy: guerrilla warfare. Lee rejects the stratagem, saying the country would require years to recover from such a state of affairs. With no remaining alternative, Lee writes to Grant and asks for a meeting to discuss surrender. The full, crushing weight of his decision weighs upon him as he accepts the Confederacy’s defeat.

ACT II: April 9, 1865, and later times

The surrender meeting is being prepared in a house owned by Wilbur McLean in the small town of Appomattox Court House. Lee arrives impeccably dressed, while Grant appears in a battered, stained uniform. After polite reminiscence about their past acquaintance, Lee finally raises the subject of surrender. Grant proposes the broader terms and proceeds to write them down.

Their discussion is interrupted at times by scenes from both the near and distant future, starkly calling to mind that, although these two generals are conducting themselves with uncommon civility, grace, and humanity, long-established inequalities and injustices will remain for generations to come. First is a glimpse a day or two forward, as Mrs. Lincoln tells her seamstress Elizabeth, a fellow spiritualist, about her husband’s dreams portending his death.

Back at Appomattox, in accordance with Lincoln’s insistence on magnanimity, Grant proposes--to Lee's great relief--that all officers and men be allowed to return to their homes after handing over their arms.

The scene now moves a few years ahead, into Grant's presidency, as the black journalist T. Morris Chester reports from Louisiana on the massacre of a hundred black men by an incipient movement known as the Ku Klux Klan.

The Appomattox meeting continues as Grant accedes to Lee’s request that all his men, not just the officers, be allowed to keep their own horses, so that they can return home to work their farms. Then a scene from 1965 Selma riots unfolds, as civil rights marchers sing the “Ballad of Jimmy Lee Jackson,” about a young black protestor killed by police.

The Appomattox meeting concludes as Lee signs the letter accepting the terms, and the generals shake hands. After Lee bows and leaves, Lee approaches his troops and confirms the surrender; they can go home now, and if they are as good citizens as they were as soldiers, then he will be proud of them.

As the generals depart, soldiers and civilians advance, and the McLean household is systematically demolished by souvenir hunters. Rapacity and greed—harbingers of the future—violently intrude on the heels of a moment of historic reconciliation. The scene shifts to our own century, as a white supremacist now in his eighties, convicted of murdering three civil rights activists decades earlier, remains defiantly unrepentant.

EPILOGUE:

Julia Grant leads a group of women who lament the tragedy and inevitability of war.

Synopsis (c) Christopher Hampton, Philip Glass, and the San Francisco Opera. All rights reserved. 2007

















National Register Nomination: Appomattox Court House National Park, Appomattox County, Virginia, United States

Photo credit: Government of the Commonwealth of Virginia. www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Appomattox. With thanks.

Winning Classical Music Outreach Contest, Library Of Congress Tapped By Congress To Show Classical WETA-FM How To Connect Classical Music To America

... "Launching on October 1, the distinguished Concerts from the Library of Congress radio series returns to the air nationwide. Bill McGlaughlin, creator of the Peabody Award-winning program Saint Paul Sunday Morning, is the host. Co-produced by the Library of Congress, CD Syndications, and WETA-FM, the 13-part series invites listeners to enter the Library’s chambers–its world-class concert hall and its vast music collections, an unmatched archive of more than 22 million items–with hour-long programs accompanied by companion web packages.

Composer Portraits are a central theme for the season. A weeklong minifestival sketches “Two Faces of Mexican Music: Carlos Chávez and Silvestre Revueltas Revisited,” with film screenings, a scholarly symposium, and a remarkable trio of concerts by three critically acclaimed ensembles. The Post-Classical Ensemble, known for thoughtful and provocative programming, the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, and Camerata Bariloche explore the work of conductor, composer, and cultural missionary Chávez and his mercurial contemporary Revueltas. Project partners are the Library’s Music Division, Hispanic Division, and Rare Book and Special Collections Division/Kislak Collection, the Mexican Cultural Institute and the National Gallery of Art." ...

The Library’s celebration of the MacDowell Colony Centennial concludes with two concerts featuring composers who have been fellows of the Colony, including Aaron Copland, Irving Fine, Amy Beach, and Fred Hersch. A major exhibition, “A Century of Creativity: The MacDowell Colony 1907-2007,” can be viewed online at www.loc.gov/exhibits/macdowell." ...

Library of Congress Announces 2007-2008 Season

Generally American classical music-less newer Classical WETA-FM, for Greater Washington.

Naxos collection of American classical music.















Strange but true facts about cultural life in Greater Washington: the Library of Congress and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (above) celebrate American creativity and American classical music; while the newer WETA-FM, formed from the 2007 merger of WGMS-FM and WETA-FM, does not.

Photo credit: (c) answers.com. With thanks.

Sometime During Summer Of 2007, New Classical WETA-FM Graduates From Classical Musical Kindergarten And From Classical Top 100 Format

With eye on posterity, I will note that the new Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital, graduated from kindergarten sometime during the summer of 2007; and that it no longer fully chooses its selections from the WETA/WGMS 2007 merger legacy WGMS programming software. But while the new Classical WETA-FM is by no means an acceptable classical musical station for its educated regional audiences, it can no longer -- as it could during its first six months -- be described as the new Classical WETA-FM Lite.

While it is no Classical BBC, the newer Classical WETA-FM does now feature "deeper" playlists, if still not much outstanding twentieth century music nor American music from the 18th to 21st centuries. Yesterday, the station broadcast both the Max Bruch Symphony #3 and the Nicholai Rimsky-Korsakov Symphony #3 (and the Beethoven Symphony #3, the Eroica); rather than the 1,000th broadcasts of a flute work by Frederick the Great, or the Suite from the Tale of Tsar Saltan, Tsar of Tmutarakan (with Flight of the Bumblebee), 1900. (And at about 3 AM on Saturday morning, the newer Classical WETA-FM, in Greater Washington, broadcast the finale from Lou Harrison's poignant "Elegaic" Symphony. Perhaps by November, they will get around to broadcasting the full work some night at 3 AM -- especially the sublime second movement.)

Despite the greater "depth", the retained WGMS management team at the new Classical WETA-FM still doesn't have a clue as to why it is important to introduce audiences to classic works of American classical music, or to great twentieth century classical music. Instead, they must mount this month's 'classical essay contest' aimed at discovering how to reconnect wider audiences to classical music, rather than leading the way themselves. Long live the newer Classical WETA-FM, the new Tsar Saltan!

Still generally clueless (and American classical music-less) newer Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital.

During overnight hours WETA features programming from Public Radio International's Classical 24 network.

Naxos Collection of Recorded American Classical Music.

National Gallery of Art, American Painting Collection.

Smithsonian American Art Museum.














Flight of the Bumblebee from Alexander Pushkin's The Tale of Tsar Saltan.

... "Late at night, with tipsy head,
Tsar Saltan was put to bed" ...

Nicholai Rimsky-Korsakov's superb skill at orchestration may have been influenced by his synesthesia.

Image credit: (c) Progress Publishers 21, Zubovsky Boulevard, Moscow,
USSR. 1970. Via home.freeuk.com/russica4. With thanks.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

In Memorium, Max Roach



















'Not content to expand on the musical territory he had already become known for, Roach spent the decades of the 1980s and 1990s continually finding new ways to express his musical ideas. In the early 1980s, Roach surprised his fans by performing in a hip hop concert, featuring the artist-rapper Fab Five Freddy and the New York Break Dancers. He expressed the insight that there was a strong kinship between the outpouring of expression of these young black artists and the jazz art he had pursued all his life.'

Photo credit: (c) Tasic Dragan. www.nga.ch. All rights reserved. With thanks.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Pan Cogito Raises An Eye-Brow Over Claim That Mozart And Beethoven Manuscripts In Krakow University Library Are "A Wound In Germany's Cultural Life"

"A priceless manuscript at a Polish library shows how Mozart wrote down his Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major -- neat, small notes, no corrections.

Its neighbor in the collection, Beethoven's original copy of the third movement of his Symphony No. 8, bears witness to his creative agonies, with furious jottings and deletions.

Both manuscripts are towering monuments of Germanic [sic] culture.

But they've been in Poland since World War II -- and despite pressure from the German government Poland says it has no intention of giving them back.

The documents at the Jagiellonian Library are among tens of thousands of manuscripts the Nazis took out of Berlin's national library to protect from Allied bombings. They were initially moved to a military fortress and then hidden away in a remote Benedictine monastery. After the war, Polish authorities transported the manuscripts to the university library in Krakow.

A recent article in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung referred to the manuscripts from the former Prussian State Library as ''the last German prisoners of war.''

That stirred an angry response from Poland, which called German claims for their return ''entirely groundless.''

Negotiations have dragged on for 15 years with no end in sight.

''I consider myself very lucky to be able to take care of this collection and to help secure it for world culture,'' library director Zdzislaw Pietrzyk said in his office. ''It really makes an impression on you to be dealing with a Mozart original.'' ...

There was also a stained and scribbled original manuscript of Beethoven's Eighth, with corrections in pencil, along with his very sketchy pencil notes for his Ninth Symphony.

Other treasures included a 15th century Latin prayer book, with gold, pink and blue letter illuminations; the writings of Jakob Reinhold Lenz, an 18th century German poet and playwright; and one of the oldest existing music books, printed in 1507.

German hopes of regaining the collection offend many in Poland, which lost 6 million people and vast cultural treasures, including an estimated 22 million books and hundreds of thousands of art works, in nearly six years of German World War II occupation. ...

A key issue is that the manuscripts from Berlin were not taken by the Soviet army, as were many German cultural items at the end of the war, but left behind by the Germans in territory that later became Poland.

Pietrzyk said it was fortunate that in 1945 a team of Polish librarians found this part of the Prussian Library collection -- which contains roughly 100,000 items -- in the Benedictine monastery at Krzeszow, formerly Grussau [and near Wroclaw, formerly Breslau], just in time to save it from possible looters. Fifteen of the 505 wooden chests holding it had already been destroyed or stolen.

The collection, which contains manuscripts by romantic poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, was part of a total of about 3 million items that were evacuated from Berlin libraries between 1941-44. It first went to the Fuerstenberg, or Ksiaz, fortress in the Sudety mountains, and then on to Krzeszow, when the fortress was earmarked as a facility for Adolf Hitler. ...

Tono Eitel, the chief German negotiator for the return of cultural objects, was quoted by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as calling Germany's loss of the treasures a ''wound in Germany's cultural life.''

In 1947, the treasures were put into the care of the Jagiellonian library, where they were catalogued and reproduced on microfiche or photocopies for public viewing.

Several prominent items were returned under communist rule.

In 1977, Polish leader Edward Gierek gave East German leader Erich Honecker the original scores of Mozart's ''The Magic Flute,'' his Mass in C-minor, the ''Jupiter'' Symphony and Bach's concerto in C-minor. In return, Honecker handed over a portrait of Poland's 17th century King Jan III Sobieski."

Associated Press "Germany, Poland Fight Over Manuscripts" New York Times August 15, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Poland-Librarys-Treasures.html

















The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Hapsburg Empire, Prussia [Brandenburg], Sweden, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire at the time that J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti were all one year old [1686]. [Telemann and Vivaldi were then slightly older.]

[Click on image to enlarge.]

Image credit: Wikipeddia Commons. With thanks.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Introduction To Next Month's Futurism Music Festival; And “Music: The Next 150 Years?”: [Corrected] Response by Louis Andriessen

Music: The Next 150 Years?”, Response by Louis Andriessen

‘I’m not a futurologist, but when I think about the future I do have the feeling that I have, in a certain sense, a responsibility for which direction I would like music to move in. History has proved that the way society develops tells you how music will develop, and basically it’s very clear that it develops where the money is - we’ve seen that in Dijon in 1400, in Florence later, and so on. I consider specifically American culture, with its incredibly important influence from different cultures on one another. A composer like Morton Subotnick [actually, Lou Harrison] grew up in San Francisco, and by the time he was about 23 he had heard hundreds of Chinese operas but never a single Beethoven symphony. I suppose - and this is also to do with communications - that this interchangeable influence will become more and more important. I think we will be very happy when we can get rid of all nationalist feelings. I think states are totally old-fashioned, one of the last remains of the middle ages, and the sooner we can get rid of all borders the better. (That’s why I have my question marks ‘ about the ex-Soviet composers, because I simply hear that they lacked musical development of the last 40 years. [Giya] Kancheli was once asked, ‘Mr Kancheli, how did it feel to live under Soviet dictatorship for 40 years?’ ‘Well I tell you one thing, until the early sixties, I thought Bela Bartok was a woman.’)

I think that almost all musical renewals come from America [sic]. They were the first to get rid of the Wagner-Mahler-Schoenberg line, and long before my generation took up another approach to composing many people in America didn’t care at all. I wouldn’t say they had an anti-historical, more like an ahistorical and nonwestern or European-oriented, approach, and it has absolutely to do with the constellation of the American people, where there are so many different cultures at present. John Cage could not have been born in Europe, The big thing is the difference between what’s happening in that generation, which is totally different from what Mahler’s doing with the landler in his symphonies: they don’t take the outside of non-western music, but the structural elements. Another person who has been very important for me and who I consider to be the composer for the future, as an example of how to deal with material, is of course Stravinsky. The big difference between Stravinsky and 19th-century composers is that he deals with folk music in a structural, rather than a textural, way.

Until about ten years ago music in America was divided into two groups, and the metaphor for that was the city of New York. In the 60s and 70s there were two types of composer: uptown and downtown. Uptown were the 12-tone composers around Babbitt, the academics in the universities who have good salaries, wives, mistresses, horses, second houses, that kind of thing. Downtown was the complete opposite. The younger composers, whose God was Cage, dealt with electronics and mixed-media, minimal music, with generally noisy, dirty sounds, and they were orientated much more towards non-western developments. Since David Lang’s generation I call them ‘midtown’ composers: that’s the future. Midtown composers deal with both up- and downtown material, with those elements which they think are relevant for developing their musical language, both from the complexities of chromaticism and from pulses, or repetitions, and all the other elements you get from ‘low-brow’ music, pop music, and that’s exactly what, if you make it into a more abstract example, Stravinsky does in The rite of spring. This piece sounds so revolutionary because he seems to be able to combine pulsed rhythms and diatonic melodies, which are elements from folk music, with highly chromatic harmony, and in a way that’s an example for me of how to deal with material. I think that for getting further in the next fifty years, dealing with chromatic and diatonic material could be a very interesting way out."

(c) Louis Andriessen

Joseph Drew and ANALOG arts Ensemble ARTSaha The Future of Music. Now. Festival September 7-15, 2007.

ARTSaha! is a presentation of ANALOG arts ensemble [A cutting edge arts collective, grounded in the classics with a futurist sensibility], with institutional support from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

The Festival's Composers [Classic and Futurist]













Image credit: (c) ANALOG arts ensemble. 2007. All rights reserved. With thanks.

Polish 'Musical' Reconnaissance - Present And Past - Two And One Half Weeks Before The Start Of European/Eurasian Autumn (September 1)

Sound Chronicle of the Warsaw Autumn 2006:

CD No. 1 (polmic 019): Salvatore Sciarrino Quaderno di strada, Krzysztof Penderecki Canticum Canticorum Salomonis, Tristan Murail Winter Fragments

CD No. 2 (polmic 020): Peter Eötvös Atlantis, Eugeniusz Knapik Introduction to Mystery

CD No. 3 (polmic 021): Augustyn Bloch The Layers of Time, Bogusław Schaeffer Musique pour orchestre d’ínstruments à cordes, Krzysztof Knittel St. Matthew Passion

CD No. 4 (polmic 022): Luigi Nono Das atmende Klarsein, Agata Zubel Symphony No. 2, Zbigniew Bujarski Peirene

CD No. 5 (polmic 023): Zbigniew Bagiński Circulations, Zbigniew Penherski Little ‘Autumn’ Symphony, Caspar Johannes Walter Luftspiegelung, Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz The Suite of Space, Nicolaus A. Huber Herbstfestival

CD No. 6 (polmic 024): Jerzy Kornowicz Scenes from Boundless Realms, Gérard Grisey Échanges, Jacek Kochan Alsamples

CD No. 7 (polmic 025): Cezary Duchnowski The Beard, Sławomir Kupczak Anafora V, Magdalena Długosz Silent Asphodels, Roderik de Man Chordis Canam, Alex Buess Khat

CD No. 8 (polmic 026): Paweł Mykietyn Sonata for Cello Solo or with Live Electronics, Magdalena Długosz Abamus, Jarosław Siwiński Polish Songs, Younghi Pagh-Paan Tsi-Shin-Kut, Andrzej Dobrowolski Music for Strings, Two Groups of Wind Instruments and Two Loudspeakers

CD No. 9 (polmic 027): Krzysztof Meyer String Quartet No. 12, Aleksander Lasoń String Quartet No. 6, Tadeusz Wielecki Hazard and Necessity

CD No. 10 (polmic 028): Alexander Shchetynsky Chamber Symphony, Bernd Alois Zimmermann Omnia tempus habent, Joanna Woźny Return, Enno Poppe Öl

CD No. 11 (polmic 029) - fringe events (excerpts of the concerts organised by the Youth Circle of the Polish Composers’ Union - young composers’ carte blanche): Paweł Przezwański It’s Getting Light, Tomasz Praszczałek L’una vuota, Michał Ossowski In brevi, Dariusz Przybylski Sequenza quasi una fantasia, Jacek Wiktor Ajdinović String Quartet No. 2 ‘Futurum’, Marcin Gumiela String Quartet, Wojciech Blecharz Vespertinus, Krzysztof Jędrasik Four Songs about Love, No. I: Time

Polskie Centrum Informacji Muzycznej

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"The history of the Polish musical Baroque opens with Mikołaj Zieleński’s monumental collection Offertoria et Communiones totius anni, published in 1611 in Venice. In his compositions, written for use during the whole liturgical year, Zieleński applies the polychoral technique characteristic of the Venetian school with Giovanni Gabrieli as its main representative. The mass cycles by two other eminent Polish composers of this period, Marcin Mielczewski and Bartłomiej Pękiel, also draw on the Italian style of the period. Pękiel was also the author of the first Polish oratorio, Audite mortales, frequently compared with Claudio Monteverdi’s best known works such as the famous Vespro della Beata Vergine. The new Baroque concertante style found its outstanding reflection in the instrumental works of Adam Jarzębski, violinist in the king’s ensemble, whose Canzoni e Concerti a Due, Tre e Quatro Voci cum Basso Continuo are on a par with the contemporary concertos by Italian composers."

Image credit: Polskie Centrum Informacji Muzycznej

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Operation Tempest, 1944














Mixed reconnaissance patrol of the Polish Home Army and the Soviet Red Army during Operation Tempest, 1944

Photo credit: (c) The Poles On the Front Line [Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs]. All rights reserved. Via Wikipedia.

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Ukrainian Insurgent Army

Documents on Ukrainian Polish Reconciliation

Analysis: Ukraine, Poland Seek Reconciliation Over Grisly History

Euro 2012, the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship













[Click to enlarge.]

Image credit: Wikipedia Commons. With thanks.

Toward The New American Operas "Our American Cousin" And "Appomattox": Rebuilding National Culture On The Garden/Ruins Of Babylon

Our American Cousin (2007)
An opera about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Music by Eric Sawyer (Amherst University)
Libretto by John Shoptaw (UC Berkeley, Department of English).

Thursday, August 23, 2007
8pm, Hertz Hall, admission free
University of California, Berkeley

Members of the University Chamber Chorus with soloists
Janna Baty, Alan Schneider, Angela Hines Gooch, and Drew Poling
Thomas Busse, choral director
Eric Sawyer, piano accompanist

This performance is sponsored by the Department of Music, and by the College of Letters & Science, as part of the “On The Same Page” program, which this year features Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills.

U.C. Berkeley's Spring Opera and the Novel Conference


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Appomattox (2007)
An opera by Philip Glass
Libretto by Christopher Hampton
Music by Philip Glass

San Francisco Opera October 2007

"It was a turning point in American history, and the climax of a powerful personal drama about two proud men. After four years and the loss of 600,000 lives, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to his Union counterpart, General Ulysses S. Grant, in Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, bringing the Civil War to an end.

The intense emotions of this landmark day and the historic weeks leading up to it are compellingly conveyed by the hypnotic music of Philip Glass in this highly anticipated world premiere. The dazzling creative team includes Academy Award winner Christopher Hampton (librettist), renowned stage director Robert Woodruff (director) and acclaimed champion of new music Dennis Russell Davies (conductor).

To celebrate this historic world premiere and deepen your opera experience, we invite you to attend special events presented by our community partners, including performances, lectures and activities throughout the Bay Area.

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San Francisco, California and the American Civil War

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Sunday, September 23, 9:30-10:30 am
The Forum at Grace Cathedral presents "Christopher Hampton Discusses Appomattox"

Academy and Tony Award-winning British playwright Christopher Hampton discusses the creation and development of his libretto for Appomattox. The Very Rev. Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral, moderates. Attend onsite at Grace Cathedral, or tune in to the live audio webcast or archived recordings at www.GraceCathedral.org/forum.

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. FREE and open to the public.

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Monday, September 17, 2007
8pm, Hertz Hall, admission free
Ernest Bloch Lecturer Professor Martha Feldman (University of Chicago)
Opening lecture: "Of Strange Births and Comic Kin"
Lecture series The Castrato in Nature will continue through the semester on Fridays in Morrison Hall, U.C. Berkeley.















Fort Point, San Francisco is a Civil War Era fort built just before the war began. Immediately adjacent to the Golden Gate Bridge, the fort guarded the entrance to the San Francisco Bay and protected California's gold from Confederate raiders.

Photo credit: (c) www.geocities.com/zouaves114/FortPoint.html. All rights reserved. With thanks.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Angelus ... By European Painter Jean-Francois Millet And European Poet, Writer, And Filmmaker Lech Majewski ... (And The Synagogue Of Janow Sokółka)

"ANGELUS"

Feature film by Lech Majewski, 2001

"ANGELUS ... by Lech Majewski - poet, playwright and film producer. The fictive story of the film was inspired from a true story: the story of startling, internationally unique phenomenon, the occult commune of Janow, active in 1920-60 in Silesia. It became known to the society thanks to the paintings of the commune's members, which in several cases (Teofil Ociepka, Erwin Sowka) achieved international success. The time and place of the film's action are concrete and clearly defined: Katowice, Janow and Nikiszowiec, early 1950s. The message of the film consists of a defence of poetic, metaphysical sensibility and imagination, of the attitude of searching for the Mystery and the Sense, a defence of the human being against materialism and totalitarianism.

In 1920 the district of Janow, like almost all of Silesia, was a particular cultural enclave. The habitants were separated both from Polish roots and the German elite and they formed a separate, closed cultural group, where the old traditions, beliefs, customs and rites were cultivated. Magic was omnipresent as well as the belief in the real existence of various "creatures" and alchemy practices were applied. The interest for parapsychology and hermetic sciences caused Janow to become an important occult centre. The status of the master of secret sciences belonged to Teofil Ociepka, miner and painter. A strong occult commune formed around him. Ociepka and his disciples, simple uneducated miners, searched for the "philosophic stone" and pursued spiritual perfection, which would permit them to penetrate the Principle and the Sense of the World and of God, to reach the mystery of Existence. Their activities included elements of occultism, alchemy and theosophy with archaic and magical Silesian beliefs. The circle of Janow was in the times of Stalin a startling, metaphysical oasis, a charming adventure. This phenomenon was consciously and consequently falsified by the authorities of the People's Republic of Poland. This story, its paradoxes and contrasts were the inspiration for Lech J. Majewski's concentrated and "painted" film." ...

Source: (c) Culture.pl [Adam Mickiewicz Institute]

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Jean-Francois Millet
The Angelus
1857-59
Oil on canvas
21 3/4 x 26 in. (55.5 x 66 cm)
Musee d'Orsay, Paris

"Commissioned by a wealthy American, Thomas G. Appleton, and completed during the summer of 1857, Millet added a steeple and changed the initial title of the work, Prayer for the Potato Crop to The Angelus when the purchaser failed to take possession in 1859. Displayed to the public for the first time in 1865, the painting changed hands several times, increasing only modestly in value, since some considered the artist's political sympathies suspect. Upon Millet's death a decade later, a bidding war between the US and France ensued, ending some years later with a price tag of 800,000 gold francs.

The disparity between the apparent value of the painting and the poor estate of Millet's surviving family was a major impetus in the invention of the droit de suite, intended to compensate artists or their heirs when works are resold.

The Angelus was reproduced frequently in the 19th and 20th centuries. Salvador Dalí was fascinated by this work, and wrote an analysis of it, The Tragic Myth of The Angelus of Millet. Rather than seeing it as a work of spiritual peace, Dalí believed it held messages of repressed sexual aggression. Dalí was also of the opinion that the two figures were praying over their buried child, rather than to the Angelus. Dalí was so insistent on this fact that eventually an X-ray was done of the canvas, confirming his suspicions: the painting contains a painted-over geometric shape strikingly similar to a coffin. (Néret, 2000) However, it is unclear whether Millet changed his mind on the meaning of the painting, or even if the shape actually is a coffin." (Wikipedia)

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Moshe Verbin: Model of the [destroyed] Synagogue of Janow Sokółka, Poland [on the European Union frontier, bordering Belarus. The area has a significant Tatar (Muslim) population].

Photo credit: (c) Moshe Verbin via We Remember Janow Sokolski website. With thanks.

Photographer Richard Pares Captures The Lost 'Vanguard' Of Soviet Modernist Architecture, 1922–32

Lost Vanguard: Soviet Modernist Architecture, 1922–32
Photographs by Richard Pare
July 18–October 29, 2007

Museum of Modern Art, New York City
The Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries, third floor

Lost Vanguard: Soviet Modernist Architecture, 1922–­32 examines Soviet avant-garde architecture in the postrevolutionary period. Although they are integral to the history of modern architecture, the featured projects have seldom been published and remain largely unknown. Examples of this avant-garde architecture abound, not just in Moscow and St. Petersburg but throughout the former U.S.S.R., in cities such as Kiev, Baku, Ivanovo, and Sochi. The exhibition highlights some eighty photographs by architectural photographer Richard Pare, who made eight extensive trips between 1992 and 2002, and created nearly ten thousand images to compile a timely documentation of these structures, many of which are now in various states of decay, transformation, and peril. Pare's images are supplemented by Soviet periodicals to provide historical context for an exploration of this extraordinary architecture.















Richard Pare. Shabolovka Radio Tower, Moscow, Russia (by Vladimir Shukhov, 1922). 1998. Chromogenic color print, 60 x 48" (152.4 x 121.9 cm). © 2007 Richard Pare. All rights reserved.

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Edwin Heathcote "Modernism gets brutalist treatment" Financial Times August 11, 2007

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Anatol Petryskyi
The Executioner, 1928
(costume design for the opera Turandot)
Watercolor and gouache on paper
Collection of the State Museum of Theatre, Music, and Cinema Arts of Ukraine, Kyiv

Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910-1930

Image credit (lower): © 1997-2007 The Ukrainian Museum (New York City); all rights reserved. With thanks.

Classical WETA-FM Experiments With Embracing American Culture And 'America The Beautiful' -- Hits Saturday Afternoon Grand Slam (Plus Encore)

The WETA classical music boss must have heard from the 'corporate classics' upstairs, or been on holiday, but the newer Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital, on Saturday, August 11, 2007, threw all WGMS-legacy classical music programming software to the wind, and broadcast FIVE works of fine classical music by American composers -- Edward MacDowell's Piano Concerto #2, George and Ira Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (from the Los Angeles Opera Company), Louis Moreau Gottschalk's Symphony #1 "A Night in the Tropics", Arthur Foote's Piano Quintet, and George Chadwick's The Frogs.

The broadcast towers, in "Greater Washington", apparently withstood this rare, mini- tidal wave of American classical music and beauty.

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National Gallery of Art, American Painting , Washington, D.C.

Rockefeller Collection of American Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (de Young Museum), San Francisco

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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Famous American highlights of August 11 include:

1934 - Federal prison opened at Alcatraz Island.

1965 - Race riots (the Watts riots) begin in Watts area of Los Angeles, California.

1972 - Vietnam War: The last United States ground combat unit depart South Vietnam.

1984 - United States President Ronald Reagan, during a voice check for a radio broadcast remarks "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes".

1992 - The Mall of America, the biggest shopping mall in the country, opened in Bloomington, Minnesota.

2007 - Classical WETA-FM, in Nation's Capital, broadcasts five works by American classical composers in a single day.












Pan Cogito, dressed in reenactment costume, wig, and beard, stands guard over American classical music heritage at Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, California.

[Click on image to enlarge.]

Photo credit: National Park Service. With thanks.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Life Is Elsewhere: Classical Music Bloggers Keep Faith In The Beauty Of Contemporary Music And The Experience Of New Hearing

















I have nothing to say this morning (no unkind comments, please), so please read and think about Charles T. Downey's and Bob Shingleton's latest comments on, respectively (above and below), Giacinto Scelsi and Conlon Nancarrow.

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I hope to curl up later today with my scores and recordings of Harrison Birtwistle's Earth Dances and Theseus Game.

Photo credits: Via Ionarts and On an Overgrown Path. With thanks.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Extra! Extra! National Gallery Of Art To Screen Lech Majewski's Opera "The Roe's Room" (In Polish, WITH SUBTITLES)

Lech Majewski

August 11, 12, and 19, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Polish painter, poet, stage director, and Łódź Film School alumnus Lech Majewski (b. 1953) writes, directs, shoots, edits, and composes music for his beautifully crafted films and media art. His stylized work often eschews language in favor of fantastical imagery, poetry, and music. "His imagination," wrote Laurence Kardish of the Museum of Modern Art, "is informed by a unique sensibility hovering between the absurd and the metaphysical, the beautiful and the profane."

The Knight (Rycerz)
Lech Majewski in person
August 11 at 2:30 p.m.
Medieval imagery inspired this haunting ballad of a knight's quest for a gold-stringed harp. The harp's sound, according to legend, can restore harmony to the world. Piotr Skarga and Daniel Olbrychski play knights in Majewski's first feature. (1980, 35mm, Polish with subtitles, 81 mins.)
also
The Roe's Room
Composed of strange and mesmerizing tableaux, The Roe's Room is an opera about a young poet and countertenor [and his aging parents and possibly a neighborhood girl] who imagines his apartment slowly being devoured by nature. In summer the floor becomes overgrown with grass, and in winter a blizzard comes from the refrigerator. (1997, BetaSP, sung in Polish WITH SUBTITLES, 90 mins.)

Update: See comments below.

The Garden of Earthly Delights
Lech Majewski in person
August 12 at 4:30 p.m.
The Garden of Earthly Delights of Hieronymus Bosch becomes the inspiration for Majewski's elegant conceit in which a British art historian attempts to reenact scenes from the painting's narrative while vacationing in Madrid and Venice with her lover. He, in turn, documents their trip on video and later reedits this footage into an elegiac homage. (2004, 35mm, 103 mins.)

Angelus
August 19 at 4:30 p.m.
Majewski's adaptation of an old Silesian folktale about a young male virgin who must be sacrificed to save the world is retold in images inspired by naïve Silesian paintings—their primitive parables suggesting the harsh realities of the Stalinist period and World War II. "There's a purified aura of beauty in Angelus that creates a stunning sense of the imagination overcoming all obstacles."—Robert Koehler. (2000, 35mm, Polish with subtitles, 103 mins.)


National Gallery of Art Film Program
















Photo credit: Via Lech Majewski's personal home page.

Classical WETA-FM Appeals To World For Ideas On How It Can Begin To Connect Classical Music With A Wider, Younger, Less Rich, And Livelier Audience

"In 1885, The Boston Pops Orchestra was founded to present "concerts of a lighter kind of music". When Arthur Fiedler became official conductor in 1930, he was unhappy with the reputation of classical music as being solely for elite, aristocratic, upper-class audiences. Fiedler made efforts to bring classical music to wider audiences. He instituted a series of free concerts and insisted that the Pops Orchestra would play popular music alongside well-known classical pieces, which opened up a new niche in popular culture that encouraged popularization of classical music.

The Contest:
How would you introduce classical and opera music to the general audience? What are some ways that music lovers make classical/opera more appealing to teens and young adults? Classical WETA 90.9FM, Wolf Trap would like to know your idea(s).

The Prize:
The author of the most creative submission will win two tickets to see The Boston Pops with conductor Keith Lockhart on Wednesday, August 22nd at 8pm, along with dinner for two at Ovations, Wolf Trap’s on-site restaurant.

Entries:
To enter, use the form provided to upload your essay. Entries must be no more than 150 words in length.

All entries must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, August 14, 2007."

Hear Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops at Wolf Trap!
Enter the WETA/Wolf Trap contest to win tickets


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Normally American Classical Music-less WETA-FM, in Greater Washington.

Naxos American Classics celebrates, with fine and affordable recordings, over 200 years American classical music.

National Gallery of Art, American Painting Collection, Washington, D.C.

On the Overgrown Path confronts the issue of Classical Music and Racism

Why Does Richard Wagner Obsess Us So?













18th Century and Contemporary Portraits of highly distinguished African-European violinist and composer Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

Image credit: Via On an Overgrown Path and Calliope Records. With thanks.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Accordions Tuning-Up And Revving-Up To Take John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts Center Millennium Stage By Storm This Oppressive Mid-August

Tuesday, August 14, 2007, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, ALL ACCORDION FESTIVAL CONCERTS LISTED HERE ARE FREE
Jerosh Accordion Orchestra
Akkordeonorchester Hof

Part of the 2007 Coupe Mondiale: World Accordion Championships.
Germany’s Akkordeonorchester Hof, conducted by Guenther Zeilinger, and Canada’s Jerosh Accordion Orchestra, conducted by Maureen Jerosh, perform.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007
The University of Missouri-Kansas City Accordion Community Orchestra
Martin Music Center Accordion Orchestra

Part of the 2007 Coupe Mondiale: World Accordion Championships.
The University of Missouri-Kansas City Accordion Community Orchestra, conducted by Joan Cochran Sommers, and California’s Martin Music Center Accordion Orchestra, conducted by Randall Martin, perform.

Thursday, August 16, 2007
New Zealand Accordion Orchestra
Rosita Lee Accordion Orchestra and Dancers

Part of the 2007 Coupe Mondiale: World Accordion Championships.
New Hampshire’s Rosita Lee Accordion Orchestra and Dancers, conducted by Rosita Lee Latulippe, and New Zealand Accordion Orchestra, conducted by Lionel Reekie, perform.

Friday, August 17, 2007
Beijing Children's Palace Accordion Orchestra
Accordeonova

Part of the 2007 Coupe Mondiale: World Accordion Championships.
Denmark’s Accordeonova, conducted by Peter Anders, and China’s Beijing Children's Palace Accordion Orchestra perform.

Saturday, August 18, 2007
2007 Coupe Mondiale
Part of the 2007 Coupe Mondiale: World Accordion Championships.
Each first-place winner of the six international categories—Coupe Mondiale, Piano Accordion Category, Junior Coupe Mondiale, Virtuoso Entertainment, Junior Virtuoso Entertainment, and Ensemble—take the Millennium Stage by storm.
















This poor Portuguese musician and his dog will not be performing -- for free -- at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C., the Nation's Capital, this August; but his performances -- not free -- may be caught on certain lucky days and nights in Lisbon, Portugal, the European Union.

Photo credit: (c) Erin Desrochers and the University of Rhode Island Office of International Education 2005. All rights reserved. With thanks.

While Waiting For Heat Wave To Break, Pan Cogito Pretends To Begin To Blog About Hitler And His Library

..."A three-volume index to Hitler's main record library can be found in the Rare Book and Special Collections division of the Library of Congress [Third Reich Collection]. A few Russian records are listed there — including Chaliapin singing Boris Godunov — but they are far outnumbered by the Wagner records, of which I counted around four hundred. Furthermore, the fact that Hitler owned such records does not mean that he enjoyed them; many of these items were sent to him as gifts. (At the Library of Congress the listing that surprised me most was for Manuel de Falla's Three-Cornered Hat.) Henriette von Schirach, Baldur von Schirach's wife, once played music by Stravinsky and Prokofiev for Hitler to see if he would like it. He did not. In the waning years, eyewitnesses reported, his favorite playlist included Wagner excerpts, Richard Strauss songs, and arias of Lehár." ...

From Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise, commenting on Stephen Moss's article about Hitler and European Music, in the Guardian.

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Hitler's Library

Ambrus Miskolczy, Professor of History, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

The first book to present the so-called Hitler Library. It sheds new light on the readings of Hitler and on his techniques how to read a book. Hitler presented himself as an ideal reader of Schopenhauer, nevertheless his remarks destroy that image, particularly if we see how he read Ernst Jünger, Richard Wagner, or Paul de Lagarde, and how he reread Mein Kampf.

The book describes the gnostic character of the phenomenon as an explication of the success of nazism and that of the Hitler myth and challenges the static views of traditional historiography.

"Especially exciting is the panorama of the national socialist methodology…we got a strong impression not just on Hitler, but on the intellectual background and 'sideground' of the nazi ideology."
András Gerõ, Central European University, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

2003
184 pages
ISBN 963-9241- 59-8 cloth $39.95 / €33.95 / £25.00
















Hitler's Library, after the war.

Photo credit: Archival photo via www.intelligenttelevision.com. With thanks.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Pan Cogito Awoken At 2 AM On Saturday Morning By Neighbour Calling To Report Performance On WETA-FM Of Elliott Carter's 'Elegy'

On Saturday, August 4, 2007, at 1:40 AM, WETA-FM broadcast Elliott Carter's 'Elegy', from 1943. Mr Carter is a distinguished 98 year old American classical composer.

On Sunday, August 5, 2007, at about 3:00 AM, WETA-FM broadcast a beautiful, early piece by American composer Alan Hovhaness. Mr Hovhaness was a distinguished Armenian-American tonal composer whose work was last heard on WETA-FM in late January 2007, before the WGMS/WETA merger was fully consummated and Jim Allison, formerly of WGMS, was given near total classical programming control of WETA/WGMS.

American classical music on the distinguished and highly affordable Naxos series.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., American paintings.


















Hiroshima (広島市), August 6, 1945.
Cherry Tree
Chuo Park, 800 meters from the hypocenter, 1945-1979.

Photo credit: (c) "HIROSHIMA" by Hiromi Tsuchida.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

As Sharon Rockefeller's WETA-FM Follows Lukashenko In March To Past, Britain's Future Radio Charts Renaissance Of Anglo-American 'Public' Broadcasting

... "Today's broadcast and the following week (Aug 5) are test transmissions, and will be identified as such. The station launches on August 6, and here is the provisional forward schedule for Overgrown Path radio with links to the blog articles they are based on. Unless indicated all works will be played complete:

July 29 (test) - The political dimension of the artist: Nikos Skalkottas Seven Greek Dances, Mikis Theodorakis Requiem (excerpts).

Aug 5 (test) - The American Symphony: William Howard Schuman Symphony No.5 (Symphony for Strings), Aaron Copland Short Symphony, Alan Hovhaness Symphony No. 2 "Mysterious Mountain".

Aug 12 - Brain Music: Thea Musgrave Helios, Howard Skempton Lento, William Alwyn Symphony No. 5 "Hydriotaphia".

Aug 19 - Pierre Boulez - great bogeyman of 20th century music: Boulez Messagesquisse, Gyorgy Ligeti Violin Concerto, Boulez Rituel in Memoriam Bruno Maderna.

Aug 26 - Malcolm Arnold - Neglected 20th century master: English Dances, Set 1, Guitar Concerto, Four Scottish Dances, Symphony No. 5 (last movement).

Sept 2 - American minimalists: Terry Riley Cortejo Fúnebre en el Mont Diablo from Requiem for Adam, John Adams Shaker Loops, Terry Riley The Philosopher’s Hand, Terry Riley – In C (excerpt).

Sept 9 - The eternal feminine: Beata Moon Piano Sonata, Elizabeth Maconchy String Quartet No 5, Elisabeth Lutyens Wittgenstein Motet, Vanessa Lann – Dancing To An Orange Drummer.

Sept 16 - Contemporary sacred music: Judith Weir All The Ends of the Earth, Morten Lauridsen – Lux Aeterna, Salve Regina (Gregorian Chant), Bayan Northcott Salve Regina, Morten Lauridsen – O Magnum Mysterium.

Sept 23 - Music of Lou Harrison: Varied Trio, Piano Concerto, Kunsonoro kaj Gloro (excerpt from La Koro Sutro).

Sept 30 - Benjamin Britten - music does not exist in a vacuum: Concerto for Violin, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.

Oct 7 - New music from the Baltic: Pehr Henrik Nordgren Equilibrium for 19 strings, Peteris Vasks Botschaft (Message), Per Nogard Constellations.

This is going to be real 'post-ratings radio 2.0.

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BBC presenter Libby Purves writes:

"To run radio you must be like an old-fashioned publisher, a 1930s Gollancz or Faber and Faber, working on faith and idealism and wanting to share what you yourself love. All that you can do is make - and publicize - the best and most passionately well-crafted programmes you can think of. Ratings have to be watched, but calmly and with a sense of proportion. You have to believe that if even one person is swayed, or inspired, or changed, or comforted, by a programme, then that programme has been worthwhile."

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Sharon Rockefeller's WETA-FM, So-called Public Broadcasting For Greater Washington.

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Future Radio, Norwich, England's community radio station.
















Future Radio (above) promises its British FM and world-wide Web-listeners that they will be surprised by the beauty of contemporary classical music.

Photo credit: (c) On An Overgrown Path via NewMusicReblog. With thanks.

Belarus Not Expected To Siphon Gas From Russian Federation Transit Lines To Europe During Summer Months, But Is Called "Unpredictable"

"Alexander Lukashenko, Belarussian president, said on Thursday he had ordered his government to pay back a $456m debt to Russia for gas supplies after Moscow threatened to halve gas deliveries.

”I gave an order to the government to take this money from our reserves and pay $460m for Russian gas. It is not a huge sum for our country,” news agency RIA Novosti quoted Mr Lukashenko as saying.

”Although we will have our reserve fund a bit empty, other countries such as [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chavez as well as commercial banks are ready to come to rescue.”

Gazprom on Wednesday threatened to start halving its gas exports to Belarus from Friday in an attempt to force the country into paying a $456m debt to the Russian state-owned gas monopoly.

The move poses a threat to other countries supplied by Gazprom, as Belarus is an important transit route for Russian gas exports to Europe.

But the company said there would be no repeat of the reductions in European gas deliveries that took place during a price dispute with Ukraine in January last year that rocked confidence in Russia’s reliability as an energy supplier.

Ilya Kochevrin, Gazprom’s head of communications, said: “We will cut supplies to Belarus by 45 per cent if they don’t find a way to pay for gas delivered in the past six months. However, we will make sure that all our [European] customers get all their gas in the full amount.”

Gazprom doubled the price it charges Belarus for gas in January as part of a strategy to eliminate subsidies to former Soviet republics. The debt crisis erupted last week following the expiry of a six-month grace period, during which Belarus was allowed to delay paying the new $100 per thousand cubic metres price.

Mr Kochevrin said Gazprom did not expect Belarus to siphon gas from transit lines during the summer months but he said Belarus was “unpredictable”.

Gazprom will consider international arbitration if Belarus fails to pay its bill.

Belarussian transit pipelines serving Poland, Lithuania and Germany handle about 20 per cent of Gazprom’s total exports to Europe, far less than the Ukrainian route. Gazprom said it had notified the European Union and all its European customers about the dispute with Belarus." ...

Isabel Gorst "Belarus pledges to pay Russian gas debt" Financial Times August 2, 2007 (updated).

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""It's time to end the anarchy in the Internet," government news sources quoted the Belarusian leader as saying while visiting the editorial office of the largest government-controlled newspaper Sovetskaya Belorussiya.

"We should not allow this great technical achievement of humankind to turn into an information sewer," Mr. Lukashenka said, suggesting enacting a law that would specify the status of online media outlets. "We'll not be pioneers in this regard, such practices exist in many states," he noted. ...

He suggested that media outlets should launch some "special projects" to convey "true information" to the public."

Maryna Nosava "Lukashenka vows to end «anarchy» in Internet" naviny.by August 2, 2007















Photo credit: © 2002 – 2007 БелаПАН [Belapan] via naviny.by [Belarus]. With thanks.