Having Won The Morning Office GDP Guessing Pool, Pan Cogito's Thoughts Turn To History, Anti-Heroines, Anti-Heros, Fredigundis, and Radovan Karadzic

Fredegond (Fredigundis) (d. 597) working woman, politician and queen

Radovan Karadžić (b. 1945) politician, poet and psychiatrist

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"FREDEGOND (Fredigundis) (d. 597), Frankish queen. Originally a serving-woman, she inspired the Frankish king, Chilperic I., with a violent passion. At her instigation he repudiated his first wife Audovera, and strangled his second, Galswintha, Queen Brunhilda's sister. A few days after this murder Chilperic married Fredegond (567). This woman exercised a most pernicious influence over him. She forced him into war against Austrasia, in the course of which she procured the assassination of the victorious king Sigebert (575); she carried on a malignant struggle against Chilperic's sons by his first wife, Theodebert, Merwich and Clovis, who all died tragic deaths; and she persistently endeavoured to secure the throne for her own children. Her first son Thierry, however, to whom Bishop Ragnemod of Paris stood godfather, died soon after birth, and Fredegond tortured a number of women whom she accused of having bewitched the child. Her second son also died in infancy. Finally, she gave birth to a child who afterwards became king as Clotaire II. Shortly after the birth of this third son, Chilperic himself perished in mysterious circumstances (584). Fredegond has been accused of complicity in his murder, but with little show of probability, since in her husband she lost her principal supporter.

Henceforth Fredegond did all in her power to gain the kingdom for her child. Taking refuge at the church of Notre Dame at Paris, she appealed to King Guntram of Burgundy, who took Clotaire under his protection and defended him against his other nephew, Childebert II., king of Austrasia. From that time until her death Fredegond governed the western kingdom. She endeavoured to prevent the alliance between King Guntram and Childebert, which was cemented by the pact of Andelot; and made several attempts to assassinate Childebert by sending against him hired bravoes armed with poisoned scramasaxes (heavy single-edged knives). After the death of Childebert in 595 she resolved to augment the kingdom of Neustria at the expense of Austrasia, and to this end seized some cities near Paris and defeated Theodebert at the battle of Laffaux, near Soissons. Her triumph, however, was short-lived, as she died quietly in her bed in 597 soon after her victory."

Source: Online Encyclopedia: Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 44 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. © 2008 - Net Industries, worldwide.

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Fredigundis -- Opera in three acts by Austrian composer Franz Schmidt, text after Felix Dahn by Bruno Warden and Ignaz Welleminsky; composed 1916-21, premiered in Berlin, Germany in 1922.

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German lawyer, author and historian Julius Sophus Felix Dahn (1834-1912), of German and French ancestry, was an honorary member the association "Germania" a nationalistic, antisemitic, anti-Slavic organisation.

*

Fredigundis, starring Radovan Karadzic in the title role (the female singing role tba) and directed by Katherina Wagner/Stefan Herheim/Christoph Schlingensief coming soon to the Bayreuth Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, and the San Francisco Opera.

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Photo credit: Wikipedia [Julius Sophus Felix Dahn], (c) Reuters. 2008. All rights reserved. [Radovan Karadžić], and (c) Bayreuth Festival. 2008. [Klingsor]. With thanks.

In Which Pan Cogito Notes That The NSO, Under Yakov Kreizberg, Will Be Performing Franz Schmidt's Symphony #4 ("Requiem For My Daughter") This Autumn

... 'And laugh over the untroubled water' ...

Franz Schmidt

Symphony No. 4 in C Major

"Written in 1933, this is the best-known work of Franz Schmidt's entire oeuvre. The composer called it "A requiem for my daughter". It begins with a long 23-bar melody on an unaccompanied solo trumpet (which returns at the symphony's close, "transfigured" by all that has intervened). The Adagio is an immense ABA ternary structure. The first A is an expansive threnody on solo cello (Schmidt's own instrument) whose seamless lyricism predates Strauss's Metamorphosen by more than a decade (its theme is later adjusted to form the scherzo of the symphony); the B section is an equally expansive funeral march (deliberately referencing Beethoven's Eroica in its texture) whose dramatic climax is marked by an orchestral crescendo culminating in a gong and cymbal crash (again, a clear allusion to similar climaxes in the later symphonies of Bruckner, and followed by what Harold Truscott has brilliantly described as a "reverse climax", leading back to a repeat of the A section)."

The Book with Seven Seals

"Franz Schmidt's crowning achievement was the oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (1935-37), a setting of passages from the Book of Revelation. His choice of subject was prophetic: with hindsight the work appears to foretell, in the most powerful terms, the disasters that were shortly to be visited upon Europe in the Second World War. Here his invention rises to a sustained pitch of genius. A narrative upon the text of the oratorio was provided by the composer.

Schmidt's oratorio stands in the Austro-German tradition stretching back to the time of Bach and Handel. He was the first to write an oratorio fully on the subject of the Book of Revelation (as opposed to a Last Judgement in a Requiem like that of Verdi). Far from glorifying its subject, it is a mystical contemplation, a horrified warning, and a prayer for salvation. The premiere was held in Vienna on 15 June 1938, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Oswald Kabasta: the soloists were Rudolf Gerlach (John), Erika Rokyta, Enid Szantho, Anton Dermota, Josef von Manowarda and with Franz Schütz at the organ.

Schmidt's premiere was made much of by the Nazis (who had annexed Austria shortly before), and Schmidt was seen to give the Nazi salute. His conductor Kabasta was apparently an enthusiastic Nazi who, being prohibited from conducting in 1946 during de-nazification, committed suicide. These facts long placed Schmidt's posthumous reputation under a cloud. His lifelong friend and colleague Oskar Adler, who fled the Nazis in 1938, wrote afterwards that Schmidt was never a Nazi and never anti-semitic but was extremely naïve about politics. Hans Keller gave similar endorsement. Most of his principal musical friends were Jews, and they benefited from his generosity.

This work provided the only actual model for the fictional oratorio Apocalypsis cum Figuris described by Thomas Mann in his 1947 novel Doctor Faustus. Mann invests his fictional oratorio and its composer with the demonic conflicts in German society leading to the catastrophe of the Nazi ideology and the Second World War. That was indeed the context in which Schmidt's oratorio appeared, but his private character and artistic motivations (as distinct from the society in which they existed) are not to be construed, in reality or in sum, through the lens of Mann's literary formula, which was assembled from a very wide array of Germanic themes and personalities."














Texts and photo credits: Wikipedia and (c) David Ploch (Steinhof "Memorial to the History of Nazi-Medicine [Euthanasia] in Vienna" photo; and Franz Schmidt Memorial photo). Copyright controlled. With deep thanks.

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"The Viennese euthanasia clinic Am Spiegelgrund scrupulously listed all deaths from the clinic's foundation in July 1940 to the end of the war. Although the euthanasia killings were systematically disguised by means of incomplete entries, the Book of the Dead represents an invaluable source which made possible the reconstruction of the names of 789 Spiegelgrund victims, with the dates of their birth, committal to the clinic, and death.

The existence of the book was kept secret by the Psychiatric Hospital of the City of Vienna at Baumgartner Höhe (today's Otto Wagner Hospital, formerly Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Am Steinhof) until 1998. It has been in the Muncipial and provincial archives of Vienna since 2002.

The portraits of Spiegelgrund victims are based on photographs stemming from the case histories of the euthanasia clinic. Commissioned by the city of Vienna, they were produced by the artist Anne Schmees on the occasion of the burial ceremony in 2002. The surviving case histories and the original photographs are today preserved in the Muncipial and provincial archives of Vienna."

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The composer's first wife was killed by the Austrian Nazis in 1942 after 23 years confinement in Steinhof.

*



















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Das Buch mit 7 Siegeln für Soli, gemischten Chor, Orgel und Orchester
October 21, 2008, Salzburg/Austria/European Union
Junge Philharmonie Salzburg

Sympony #4
November 20-22, 2008, Washington, D.C./United States
National Symphony Orchestra/Yakov Kreizberg

Das Buch mit 7 Siegeln für Soli, gemischten Chor, Orgel und Orchester
April 4, 2009, Dresden/Germany/European Union
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Unable To Take His Family On Summer Holiday To Salzburg, Bad Ischl, Or Truskavets, Pan Cogito Consults The August Cultural Program Of Nation's Capital

July 30, 2008 (Wed)
8:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

July 31, 2008 (Thu)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Tribute to Gershwin and Bernstein
Music Center at Strathmore

July 31, 2008 (Thu)
8:15 pm
National Symphony Orchestra: Beethoven's Best
With Joyce Yang, piano
Filene Center, Wolf Trap

July 31, 2008 (Thu)
8:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 1, 2008 (Fri)
8:30 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
Rodgers and Hammerstein at the Movies
Filene Center, Wolf Trap

August 1, 2008 (Fri)
8:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 2, 2008 (Sat)
8:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 2, 2008 (Sat)
8:30 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
Dial H for Hitchcock
Filene Center, Wolf Trap

August 3, 2008 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 7, 2008 (Thu)
8:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 8, 2008 (Fri)
8:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 9, 2008 (Sat)
8:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 10, 2008 (Sun)
5 pm
Inscape Chamber Music Project
Music by Rochberg, Britten, Golijov
Episcopal Church of the Redeemer (Bethesda, Md.)

August 10, 2008 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 13, 2008 (Wed)
8:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 14, 2008 (Thu)
8:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 15, 2008 (Fri)
8 pm
Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos
Wolf Trap Opera
The Barns at Wolf Trap

August 15, 2008 (Fri)
8:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 16, 2008 (Sat)
8:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

August 17, 2008 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Studio Theater

Source: Charles T. Downey and ionarts.com. With thanks.

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Salzburg Summer Festival, July 26 to August 31, 2008. Salzburg, Austria, Present European Union.

Private Tourist Sector of Resort Truskavets. Truskavets, Ukraine, Future European Union.

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Photo credits: (c) Getty Images/Agence France Press and Governor's Office, Commonwealth of Virginia. All rights reserved. With thanks.

Renaissance Research "Conservatory Project" Assignment On 17th And 20th Century Opera And Film: Badoara, Hofmannstahl, Schnitzler, Kubrick

Pan Cogito, always of his time and century, finally got around on Saturday afternoon to viewing Stanley Kubrick's "late style film" Eyes Wide Shut (1999) at the esteemed National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C.

Pan spent a good part of Sunday home alone (his legal wife at her museum job), and with the curtains drawn, watching adult videos of Giacomo Badoaro, Claudio Monteverdi, and Hans Werner Henze's opera Il Ritorno D'Ulisse In Patria (1641/1984) and Hugo von Hofmannstahl and Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919) -- both recorded years back at the Salzburg Festivals, in Austria, European Union.

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Renaissance Research "Conservatory Project" Assignment:

Write an essay discussing the views of human sexuality in Badoaro and Monteverdi's Ulisse, Hofmannstahl and Strauss (and Goethe's) Die Frau, and Schnitzler and Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. You may want to reread the relevant works by Badoaro, Hofmannstahl, Goethe [Das Marchen], and Schnitzler before writing. What do you think of the symbolism of the 'water of life' containing blood in Hofmannstahl's libretto?
















Image credits: (c) Warners Brothers and Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria, Present European Union [Klimt's Der Kuss, 1907-08].

Pan Cogito Reflects On The Experience Of Listening To A Beautiful New Opera During A Driving Rainstorm, And Remembers A Poem Not Read In Many Years

I very much enjoyed, generally, finally listening yesterday evening to Philip Glass's 'Waiting for the Barbarians', based on Christopher Hampton's libretto from J.M Coetzee's novel, recorded live in (former East) Germany three years ago. I found that a good deal of the orchestration was unusual and beautiful, and the vocal setting quite often very poignant -- if not always masterful. (I felt that a little too often the vocal settings sat unhappily in the center of the largely arpeggiated orchestral texture. However, I also thought that Richard Salter, Elvira Soukop, and Eugene Perry sang beautifully; and that Dennis Russell Davies conducted the very fine German orchestra beautifully.)

*

Waiting For The Barbarians (1904)

-What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are due here today.

-Why isn't anything going on in the senate?
Why are the senators sitting there without legislating?

Because the barbarians are coming today.
What's the point of senators making laws now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.

-Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting enthroned at the city's main gate,
in state, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor's waiting to receive their leader.
He's even got a scroll to give him,
loaded with titles, with imposing names.

-Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.

-Why don't our distinguished orators turn up as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.

-Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home lost in thought?

Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven't come.
And some of our men who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.

Now what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
Those people were a kind of solution.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1863 -1933).

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Essay on Cavafy's World by Artemis Leontis.

Image Credits: Copyright © 2001 The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan. All rights reserved. With thanks.

Life On Earth: U.S. Government Tentatively Allows Pan Cogito To Keep His Wife; Might Reconsider Deporting Her To Lithuanian-Ukrainian Borderlands

Recently first published one hundred year old drawings of fungi and vascular plants by Carlos Spegazzini, the eminent Argentine mycologist (1858–1926). Spegazzini's numerous publications describing over 5000 fungi almost never included illustrations, but a very large number of the original packets of his specimens bear beautiful, delicate, carefully-drawn and scientifically accurate pencil drawings of the material enclosed. These pictures range in size from approximately 7 to 10cm square. In some cases, where material is scanty, these drawings may be the only remaining evidence of the microscopic features of the fungus he originally observed.

The third image is of Fruitbodies of the golf-ball fungus Cyttaria espinosae on living twigs of the southern beech tree Nothofagus obliqua, Valdivia, Chile.

Image credits: (c) Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; and D.W. Minter and the Biodiversity Website. With thanks.

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Yesterday, Senator, and Presidential candidate, John McCain talked about the need for the U.S. military to secure the "Iraq-Pakistan border.”

'What's Next?' -- The Opera [And The 21st Century]

Can you name these three Monuments of 'Western Civilization'? [Hint: the first one, and its Summer version, no longer exist.]

Photo credits: Project Gutenberg, Wikimedia Commons, and jamesstamp.com. With thanks.

National Symphony Orchestra Free Concerts Of World And American Classical Music Shame Classical WETA-FM To Program Amy Beach And Charles Griffes

Despite its lack of a Musical Director, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C. is continuing its classical music outreach, education, and leadership activities today and tomorrow by offering two FREE, shorter concerts of World and American Classical music in Washington, D.C.'s Rock Creek Park Amphitheater, in a beautiful section of Washington that, generally, marks a dividing line between the Nation's Capital's richer and poorer halves:

Carter Barron Amphitheatre
16th Street & Colorado Avenue, NW, Washington, DC

Friday, July 18, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.

Emil de Cou, conductor
Paul Cigan, clarinet
Laurent Weibel, violin

"Around the World in 60 Minutes"

Wagner: Entrance of the Guests from Tannhäuser
Bernstein: On the Town - Three Dance Episodes: Times Square
Weber: Concertino for clarinet and orchestra
Sibelius: Finlandia
Nicolai: Overture – The Merry Wives of Windsor
Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy for violin and orchestra
Borodin: Polovtsian Dances
Chabrier: España

Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.

Marcelo Lehninger, conductor

"Music from the Americas"

Gershwin: Cuban Overture
Williams: Olympic Fanfare and Theme
Copland: El Salón México
Chadwick: Symphonic Sketches – i. Jubilee
Gould: Latin-American Symphonette – ii. Tango
Grofé: Mississippi Suite – iv. Mardi Gras
Dvorák: Symphony No.9 "From the New World" – iv. finale

FREE, no tickets required. Gates open at 7 p.m. each evening. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Come early beginning at 6:45 p.m. for the musical instrument "Petting Zoo," a project of the Women's Committee for the National Symphony Orchestra.

In case of inclement weather: Please call the NSO Summer Concert Hotline at (202) 416-8113 after 5 p.m. on the day of the event to find out if the concert has been cancelled. There is no rain date.

Parking at Carter Barron is limited; neighborhood parking is restricted. Carter Barron is accessible by Metrobuses S1, S2, and S4. Please visit www.metroopensdoors.com for schedule information.

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This cultural leadership on the National Symphony's part has apparently forced Sharon Percy Rockefeller's Classical WETA-FM to at least temporarily lift its ban on the broadcasting of American classical music. [Yesterday, and on the large majority of days this past year, Classical WETA-FM has broadcast no American classical music. When it does broadcast American classical music, it is normally a 'tokenist' effort of an extracted movement of a longer work or a single piano work from a set of piano works.]

Today, Classical WETA-FM has been shamed (perhaps by Sharon Percy Rockefeller's fellow Board of Director members at the National Gallery of Art of Washington, D.C.) into broadcasting two works -- one an extract and one a shorter work -- by distinguished American composers Amy Beach and Charles Griffes; who are far more important to American classical music civilization than Classical WETA-FM's favorite for the past 18 months, Frederick the Great of Prussia:

4:45pm: Piano Concerto: II [Second movement]
Amy Beach
Alan Feinberg (piano)
Nashville Symphony Orchestra
Kenneth Schermerhorn (conductor)
Naxos 559.139

9:48pm: Symphonic Fantasy for Two Pianos
Charles Tomlinson Griffes
Michael Lewin (piano)
Janice Weber (piano)
Naxos 559.046

American classical music-less programming on Classical WETA-FM, Thursday, July 17, 2008.

Tokenist American classical music programming -- due to the National Symphony's leadership -- on Classical WETA-FM, Friday, July 18, 2008.

More tokenist American classical music programming -- due to the Washington National Opera's leadership -- on Classical WETA-FM, Saturday, July 19, 2008.

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Selected African American Artists at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

















Horace Pippin
Interior, 1944
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer P. Potamkin, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.42.1














Alma Thomas [not Alma Mahler]
Red Rose Cantata, 1973
oil on canvas
Overall: 175.3 x 127 cm (69 x 50 in.) unframed: 128.9 x 177.2 x 3.8 cm (50 3/4 x 69 3/4 x 1 1/2 in.)
Gift of Vincent Melzac
1976.6.1

Image credits: (c) National Gallery of Art 2008. All rights reserved.

Pan Cogito Discovers A Book First Published In 1864 In His Childhood Dewey Beach Summer Rental Cottage About To Be Demolished For Condominiums

A Book of
Golden Deeds
of all Times and all Lands

..."This has been done in the hope that these extracts may serve as a mother's storehouse for reading aloud to her boys, or that they may be found useful for short readings to the intelligent, though uneducated classes." ... CHARLOTTE M. YONGE [Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe"]

WHAT IS A GOLDEN DEED? 11
THE STORIES OF ALCESTIS AND ANTIGONE 13
THE CUP OF WATER 22
HOW ONE MAN HAS SAVED A HOST 26
THE PASS OF THERMOPYLE 34
THE ROCK OF THE CAPITAL 42
THE TWO FRIENDS OF SYRACUSE 52
THE DEVOTIONS OF THE DECII 56
REGULUS 61
THE BRAVE BRETHREN OF JUDAH 66
THE CHIEF OF THE ARVERNI 74
WITHSTANDING THE MONARCH IN HIS WRATH 81
THE LAST FIGHT IN THE COLISÆUM 86
THE SHEPHERD GIRL OF NANTERRE 93
LEO THE SLAVE 98
THE BATTLE OF THE BLACKWATER 108
GUZMAN EL BUENO 113
FAITHFUL TILL DEATH 116
WHAT IS BETTER THAN SLAYING A DRAGON 122
THE KEYS OF CALAIS 127
THE BATTLE OF SEMPACH 137
THE CONSTANT PRINCE 141
THE CARNIVAL OF PERTH 146
THE CROWN OF ST. STEPHEN 152
GEORGE THE TRILLER 159
SIR THOMAS MORE'S DAUGHTER 168
UNDER IVAN THE TERRIBLE 174
FORT ST. ELMO 186
THE VOLUNTARY CONVICT 195
THE HOUSEWIVES OF LÖWENBURG 200
FATHERS AND SONS 206
THE SOLDIERS IN THE SNOW 214
GUNPOWDER PERILS 217
HEROES OF THE PLAGUE 226
THE SECOND OF SEPTEMBER 235
THE VENDÉENS 242
THE FAITHFUL SLAVES OF HAITI 257
THE PETITIONERS FOR PARDON 263
THE CHILDREN OF BLENTARN GHYLL 279
AGOSTINA OF ZARAGOSA 284
CASAL NOVO 290
THE MAD DOG 295
THE MONTHYON PRIZES 298
THE LOSS OF THE MAGPIE SCHOONER 312
THE FEVER AT OSMOTHERLY 319
THE CHIEFTANESS AND THE VOLCANO 325
DISCIPLINE 328
THE RESCUERS 332
THE RESCUE PARTY 336
THE CHILDREN OF THE WOOD OF THE FAR SOUTH 343
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 349

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Date Deed Nation Country Page
B. C.
ALCESTIS' SACRIFICE FOR HER HUSBAND Greek Thrace 18
Antigone's Burial of her Brother Greek Thebes 19
1068. Codrus' Devotion Greek Athens 56
1050. DAVID'S DRAUGHT OF WATER Israelite Palestine 22
512. The silence of Leæna Greek Athens 14
507. HORATIUS AT THE BRIDGE Roman Rome 26
480. THE SPARTANS AT THERMOPYLÆ Greek Thessaly 34
389. COMINIUS AT THE ROCK Roman Rome 42
380. DAMON'S FRIENDSHIP Sicilian Greek Syracuse 53
339. THE DEVOTION OF DECIUS THE ELDER Roman Italy 56
326. ALEXANDER'S CUP OF WATER Greek Persia 24
294. The Devotion of Decius the Younger Roman Italy 60
249. THE CONSTANCY OF REGULUS Roman Carthage 61
219. The Rescue of Scipio Roman Italy 206.
180. THE RISING OF THE MACCABEES Jewish Palestine 66
52. THE SURRENDER OF VERCINGETORIX Gallic Gaul 74
A. D.
42. The Affection of Arria Roman Rome 116
60. The Sentinel at Pompeii Roman Italy 13
290. Beatrix Burying her Brother Roman Rome 168
306. NATALIA'S AFFECTION Greek Bithynia 117
389. THE REBUKE TO THEODOSIUS Italian Milan 82
404. THE HERMIT IN THE COLISÆUM Rome Egyptian 92
483. GENEVIÈVE PLEADING FOR PARIS Gallic Paris 93
533. THE ESCAPE OF ATTALUS Gallic France 98
991. THE BATTLE OF THE BLACKWATER English Essex 108
1064. THE REBUKE TO SVEND English Denmark 85
1066. The Northman on Stamford Bridge Norse England 31
1141. The Ladies of Weinsburg Bavarian Germany 200
1273. Rudolf's Draught of Water Swiss Germany 25
1291. GUZMAN'S FIDELITY Spaniard Tarifa 113
1306. Bruce's Defence Scottish Scotland 32
1308. GERTRUDE VON DE WART'S FAITHFULNESS German Austria 118
1314. Bruce's Protection of the Lavender Scottish Ireland 33
1332. DIEUDONNE'S SUBMISSION Provençal Rhodes 122
1347. SURRENDER OF THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS French Calais 127
1397. WINKELRIED'S CHARGE Swiss Switzerland 137
1401. The Succourer of Rothesay Scottish Scotland 15
1433. FERNANDO'S CONSTANCY Portuguese Africa 141
1435. CATHERINE DOUGLAS'S DEFENCE Scottish Scotland 146
1440. HELEN KOTTENNER AND ST. STEPHEN'S CROWN Hungarian Hungary 152
1450. The Succourer of Gilles de Bretagne Breton Brittany 15
1455. GEORGE THE TRILLER'S RESCUE German Saxony 159
1491. The Spaniard at the Gates of Grenada Spaniard Spain 13
1535. Margaret Roper's Filial Love English England 169
1564. KOURBSKY'S LETTER CARRIER Russian Russia 174
1565. DEFENCE OF FORT ST. ELMO Order of St. John Malta 186
1576. SYDNEY'S DRAUGHT OF WATER English Holland 25
1576. BORROMEO IN THE PLAGUE OF MILAN Italian Milan 227
1622. VINCENT DE PAUL AS A CONVICT French France 195
1631. THE HOUSEWIVES OF LÖWENBURG German Germany 201
1643. The Spanish Infantry's Fall at Rocroy Spaniard Flanders 13
1648. THE LINDSAYS AT EDGEHILL English England 206
1652. The Flask at Flensborg Danish Holstein 25
1666. THE PLAGUE-STRICKEN EYAM English England 228
1672. The Soldier's Cloaks covering Turenne French Germany 214
1700, c. LADY EDGEWORTH'S PRESENCE OF MIND Irish Ireland 219
1720, c. HELEN WALKER'S PETITION Scottish England 263
1721. BISHOP BELZUNCE IN THE PLAGUE OF MARSEILLES French France 232
1760. THE SHOUT OF D'ASSAS French Germany 33
1790. Madame Augguier at the Queen's Door French France 235
1792. THE RESCUE OF ABBÉ SICARD French France "
1792. THE DAUGHTER'S DEFENCE French France "
1792. THE PRINCESSE DE LAMBALLE'S FRIENDSHIP French France "
1793. THE REVOLT OF LA VENDÉE French France 242
1793. THE FAITHFUL SLAVES OF HAITI Negro West Indies 257
1798. CASABIANCA'S OBEDIENCE French Aboukir Bay 210
18--. Rose Pasquer's Faithfulness French France. 305
1804. THE GUNPOWDER AT ST. HELIERS Jerseyman Jersey 220
1804. Crew of the Hindostan English Mediterranean 222
1805. PRASCOVIA'S JOURNEY Russian Russia 264
1807. THE FORTITUDE OF AGNES GREEN English England 279
1808. THE DEFENCE OF ZARAGOZA Spanish Spain 284
1810. The Fidelity of Ivan Russian Caucasus 102
1811. THE FIELD OF CASAL NOVO English Spain 290
1812. THE MAGAZINE OF CIUDAD RODRIGO English Spain 222
1812. THE HESSIAN SOLDIERS IN THE RETREAT German Russia 215
1812. JEANNE PARELLE'S FILIAL PIETY French France 299
1816. MR. BUXTON AND THE MAD DOG English England 295
1820. The Fire at Strasburg French France 223
1822. THE CREW OF THE DRAKE English Newfoundland 312
1823. MÈRE JAQUEMIN AND HER LODGER French France 309
1824. The Saint Remi Fever French France 325
1825. THE OSMOTHERLY FEVER American England 319
1825. DEFYING THE VOLCANO Polynesian Hawaii 325
1826. THE LOSS OF THE MAGPIE English West Indies 312
1830. Albony's Fight with the Mad Dog French France 297
1830. FANNY MULLER'S SELF-DENIAL German France 308
1830. MARTIN'S FIDELITY TO SULLY'S DESCENDANTS French France 303
1837. JEAN VIGIER'S LOVE TO HIS MOTHER French France 301
1838. GRACE DARLING English England 335
1840. MADELEINE SAUNIER'S CHARITY French France 310
1848. PAUL DUNEZ'S FAITHFULNESS Negro Cayenne 262
1850, c. SOLDIERS IN THE BIRKENHEAD English African Coast 330
1850, c. Crew of the Atalante English Nova Scotia 329
1850, c. ANNA GURNEY'S RESCUES English England 332
1852. MADELEINE BLANCHET'S DEFENCE French France 305
1853. DR. KANE'S RESCUE PARTY American Arctic Regions 337
1854. Dr. Thomson at the Alma English Crimea 16
1854. Florence Nightingale English Crimea 16
1857. Lieut. Willoughby in the Magazine at Delhi English India 225
1857. Dr. Hay at Benares English India 16
1857. Deeds of the English in the Mutiny English India 343
1863. Unselfish Soldier American N. States 17
1864. Dying Engineer American N. States 17
1864. The Substitute American S. States 136
1864. AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN IN THE WOOD English Australia 346

via the Digital Library of the University of Pennsylvania

Image and text credit: (c) BUILD-A-BOOK Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers through the combined work of: Alison Rogers, LaGloria Scott, Ann and Neil Piche, Brooks Taylor, Chris Alhambra, Jan Lawson, Jessie Hudgins, Joan Chovan, Judith Fetterolf, Judith Welch, Lori Summers, Patricia Heil, Sally Drake, Sue Farley, Sumi Lee, Velvet Van Bueren, and Mary Mark Ockerbloom. With thanks.

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Ho hum ... Another day of absolutely no American classical music on Sharon Percy Rockefeller's Classical WETA-FM, so-called classical music public radio in the Nation' Capital.

Cleveland Orchestra To Celebrate Its Upcoming Centennial, In 2018, With Commissions To Four-Plus European Composers And One 'American'(?) Composer

... "But hold on. Before we pop corks in artistic celebration, let's take a closer look at two of these endeavors: opera and commissions. They're exciting, if also conventional. And they happen to be almost uniformly Eurocentric.

First, commissions. The [Cleveland Orchestra] centennial project of five world premieres leading to the orchestra's 100th season in 2018 is itself admirable. Orchestras and audiences are in constant need of replenishment through works by composers who savor the colors and expressive richness a mass of instruments can produce.

By looking forward, however, the orchestra actually is going retro. In 1958, the institution celebrated its 40th anniversary with a commissioning project of 10 works....

George Szell led the 1958 premieres, just as music director Welser-Most [his contract extended to 2018] is expected to conduct the centennial scores by Marc-Andre Dalbavie, Osvaldo Golijov, HK Gruber, Matthias Pintscher and Kaija Saariaho. Although this group is distinguished, each composer has had a work performed by the Cleveland Orchestra in the past decade -- and none is American. Others deserve a creative shot.

Szell's commissionees included five Americans (Paul Creston, Alvin Etler, Howard Hanson, Peter Mennin, Robert Moevs) -- a sign he had a broad view of the art, even if he didn't necessarily savor contemporary music, which he called "temporary music."

Along with the composers in the centennial project, the orchestra's programs in coming seasons will bring premieres by Britain's Julian Anderson, George Benjamin and Oliver Knussen, Austria's Johannes Maria Staud and Germany's Jorg Widmann. The sole new American work next season, Paul Chihara's viola concerto, will be led by Jahja Ling.

Aside from Chihara's concerto, subscription audiences next season will hear music by only three other Americans (John Adams, Samuel Barber, Charles Ives). Two others, Sean Shepherd and August Read Thomas, will be relegated to a single new-music concert led by Knussen.

Orchestras have a duty to perform music by composers of many nations and styles. An American orchestra should pay more than passing attention to its own country's composers, including such established and rising figures as William Bolcom, John Harbison, Nico Muhly and Ollie Wilson [sic]. The Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony are stellar examples of ensembles that acknowledge this vibrancy." ...

Donald Rosenberg, Plain Dealer Music Critic "Cleveland Orchestra's plans for commissions, opera have Eurocentric ring -- commentary" The Cleveland Pain Dealer July 12, 2008.

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The Cleveland Orchestra

















Childe Hassam
Poppies, 1891
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift (Partial and Promised) of Margaret and Raymond Horowitz, 1997.135.1
Copyright © 2008 National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

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Martin Puryear
Lever No. 3, 1989
Gift of the Collectors Committee
1989.71.1
Copyright © 2008 National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

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The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., respects American classical civilization.

Renaissance Research "Conservatory Project" Pop Quiz On Contemporary Composition: American Classical Music, Unlike Classical WETA, Greets The World

Which Pulitzer, Grammy, and UNESCO Prize-winning American Classical composer incorporated Caribbean steel drums, Cambodian angklungs, Japanese Kabuki blocks, the Brazilian cuica , and the Appalachian hammered dulcimer into one of his/her masterpieces of American classical music?

For which works of American classical music did this composer win the Pulitzer, Grammy, and UNESCO Music Prizes; and in what years?

Have you ever heard a work of this American classical composer performed live in concert, or on public radio in your listening area?

Do you know which American classical orchestras will be featuring works by this American classical composer during the upcoming classical musical season of change?

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Sharon Percy Rockefeller's Classical WETA-FM, so-called public classical music radio in the Nation's Capital.

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Classical WETA Opera House to broadcast Washington 'National' Opera production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, this Saturday at 1 PM.

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Names for the hammered dulcimer in different countries of the world

Austria - hackbrett
Belarus - Цымбалы (tsymbaly)
Brazil - saltério
Cambodia - khim
China - yangqin
Croatian - cimbal, cimbale
Czech Republic - cimbál
Denmark - hakkebræt
France - tympanon
Germany - Hackbrett
Greece - santouri
Hungary - cimbalom
India - santoor
Iran - santur
Ireland - tiompan
Italy - salterio
Korea - yanggeum 양금
Laos - khim
Latgalia - cymbala
Latvia - cimbole
Lithuania - cimbalai, cimbolai
Mexico - salterio
Mongolia joochin
Netherlands - hakkebord
Poland - cymbały tsymbaly
Portugal - saltério
Romania - ţambal
Russia - Цимбалы tsymbaly, Дульцимер (dultsimer)
Slovakia - cimbal
Slovenia - cimbale, oprekelj
Spain - salterio
Sweden - hackbräda, hammarharpa
Switzerland - Hackbrett
Thailand - khim
Turkey - santur
Ukraine - Цимбали tsymbaly
United Kingdom - hammered dulcimer
United States - hammered dulcimer
Vietnam - đàn tam thập lục (lit. "36 strings")
Yiddish - tsimbl

Source: Wikipedia. [Also for the photos]. With thanks.










The diatonic and the chromatic hammered dulcimer.

Ten Years On, Iran's Ancient Armenian Religious Church-Monastery Complex Joins Lviv, Ukraine's Armenian Church-Complex On UNESCO World Heritage List

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Fortified Armenian monasteries in Iran were added to the new sites inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List

"The Armenian Monastic Ensembles in Iran, in the north-west of the country, consists of three monastic ensembles of the Armenian Christian faith: St Thaddeus and St Stepanos and the Chapel of Dzordzor. These edifices - the oldest of which, St Thaddeus, dates back to the 7th century – are examples of outstanding universal value of the Armenian architectural and decorative traditions. They bear testimony to very important interchanges with the other regional cultures, in particular the Byzantine, Orthodox and Persian. Situated on the south-eastern fringe of the main zone of the Armenian cultural space, the monasteries constituted a major centre for the dissemination of that culture into Azerbayjan and Persia [today's Iran]. They are the last regional remains of this culture that are still in a satisfactory state of integrity and authenticity. Furthermore, as places of pilgrimage, the monastic ensembles are living witnesses of Armenian religious traditions through the centuries."


The Armenian Monastic Ensembles in Iran [2008]

L'viv, Ukraine – the Ensemble of the Historic Centre [1998]

Kyiv, Ukraine: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra [1990, 2005]

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Complete UNESCO World Heritage Site List, Updated to July 10, 2008.

The List of World Heritage in Danger, July 10, 2008.

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Virtual Museum of Komitas Vardapet, 20th Century Composer and Master of Armenian Classical Music [a beautiful web-site, in Armenian, English, and Russian, and from Armenia, Future European Union.]

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The Armenian Cathedral complex in northwestern Iran (top two photos) was fortified; while the Armenian Cathedral complex in Lviv, West Ukraine (interior photo) had no need to be fortified: Lviv (Leopolis) being a European Civilization center of religious tolerance for over 750 years.

Photo credits: (c) A. Prepis and UNESCO World Heritage Program; and Lviv-Life.com. With thanks. See also Lviv Ecotour images.

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Thankfully, there was somewhat more than Israeli and Iranian rehearsals for proto-nuclear warfare in the news this week ... [and with apologies for the "mental recession" that has kept me from posting this week despite the arrival of the fought-over government "economic stimulus payment"].

Renaissance Research "Conservatory Project" Assignment On Contemporary Composition: 100 Years Of Russian/Soviet Film And Film Music

The Russian Federation Ministry of Culture has declared 2008 the Centenary of Film in Russia and the Former Soviet Union, and there have been 'Envisioning Russia' Film Festivals of Russian and Soviet Film achievement this year in New York City, Washington, D.C., and certainly elsewhere in the United States and the world.

What is your experience with Russian and Soviet cinema? What is your experience with Russian and Soviet film music? Do you know much of the film music that many great 20th century Russian and Soviet composers wrote for their national cinemas?

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Here is a list of 13 twentieth century great Russian and Soviet films from the twenties to the nineties; followed by a list of the composers and/or the types of film musics employed in these films. Can you match some or all of the films and the film composers or film music styles?

Bed and Sofa / Tretya Meshchanskaya
Alexander Nevsky/ Александр Невский
Tractor Drivers / Traktoristy [Ukrainian Soviet]
The Cranes Are Flying / Letyat zhuravli
Walking the Streets of Moscow / Ya shagayu po Moskve
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors/ Tini zabutykh predkiv [Ukrainian]
Uncle Vanya / Dyadya Vanya
The Mirror/ Zerkalo
The Ascent / Voskhozhdeniye
Jazzmen / My iz dzhaza
Scarecrow/ Chuchelo
Repentance/ Monanieba [Georgian]
Burnt By The Sun/ Utomlyonnye solntsem

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Daniil Pokrass and Dmitry Pokrass
Sergei Prokofiev
Mieczyslaw Vainberg
Alfred Schnittke
Myroslav Skoryk and Gutsul folk music
Sofia Gubaidulina
Arvo Part
Edward Artemyev (ambient electronic film scores for two of the films above)
Ukrainian and Russian Jazz from Odesa [Odessa] and Moscow in the 1920s
Latin American tinged Russian popular song
extracts from J.S. Bach's Saint John and Saint Matthew Passions and Orgelbüchlein
Dmitri Shostakovich improvised piano music?

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If you have the interest (as I believe you should), make a list of the extraordinary film directors of these 13 Russian and Soviet [and Ukrainian and Georgian and Belarusian] films.

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Photo credits: (c) Mosfilm Cinema Concern, Moscow, Russian Federation, Future European Union. With thanks.

Rescu'd From Death By Force Though Pale And Faint

'In thee compassion is, in thee is pity,
In thee magnificence; in thee unites
Whate'er of goodness is in any creature.
Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth
Of the universe as far as here has seen
One after one the spiritual lives,
Supplicate thee through grace for so much power
That with his eyes he may uplift himself
Higher towards the uttermost salvation.'

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For my father on his Eightieth Birthday.














Point Reyes Station, 1906, after the San Francisco Earthquake.

Photo credit: COPYRIGHT 2003, Anne T. Kent California Room, Marin County Free Library. With thanks.

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In From The Cold?: World Bank President Robert Zoellick Calls Upon Rich Nations, Including Russian Federation, To Help Solve Man-Made Food-Fuel Crisis

"World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick has called on leaders of the G8 as well as the major oil producers to act now to deal with surging food and energy prices, warning that the world is now “entering a danger zone.”

Mr. Zoellick’s call is contained in a letter to the head of the upcoming G8 summit in Japan, in which the Bank, World Food Program (WFP) and International Monetary Fund estimate that about $10 billion is needed to meet short term needs of people hit hardest by the crisis.

“What we are witnessing is not a natural disaster -- a silent tsunami or a perfect storm: It is a man-made catastrophe, and as such must be fixed by people,“ Mr. Zoellick said.

“I urge the Group of Eight countries, in concert with major oil producers [the Russian Federation is a member of both groups], to act now to address this crisis." ...

World Bank "G8 Must Act Now as 'World Entering a Danger Zone,' Zoellick Says" July 2, 2008

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SUGGESTED ACTION ITEMS ON FOOD PRICES FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE G8

A New Deal for Global Food Policy: A 10-Point Plan

Support immediate needs and dampen the worst effects of the crisis on vulnerable populations:

1. Continue to fully fund the World Food Program’s emerging needs, increase the flexibility of use of these funds (removing earmarked and tied aid), and support its drive to purchase food locally. Consider a partial UN assessment to meet ongoing increases in WFP requirements.

2. Support the expansion of social protection programs such as school feeding, food for work, and conditional cash transfer programs focused on the most vulnerable groups. Increase and/or front-load budget support to most vulnerable countries.
Provide financial and technical support to stimulate an agricultural supply response.

3. Ensure immediate provision of seeds and fertilizer for the most affected countries for the upcoming planting season; reform fertilizer policies to promote a mix that better matches soil conditions; provide technical support to improve production incentives. Launch a new commitment to agriculture in developing countries.

4. Double total aid to agriculture to support investments in rural infrastructure, water and irrigation services, agricultural extension services, and post-harvest management. Increase funding going to global agricultural research and development.

5. Create an enabling environment to stimulate private sector led-investment in agri-business across the entire value chain.

6. Encourage innovative instruments for risk management such as crop insurance for small farmers. Commit to re-examine policies towards bio-fuels in the G8 countries.

7. Agree on action in the US and Europe to ease subsidies, mandates and tariffs on bio-fuels that are derived from maize and oilseeds; accelerate the development of second generation cellulosic products. Take leadership at the highest political levels to coordinate across major exporters and importing countries and break the price spiral.

8. Call for the immediate elimination of taxation or restrictions on humanitarian food aid (certainly for WFP purchases); end export restrictions by key producers on shipments to the least developed countries and those in fragile situations; increase Japanese rice donations and exports; initiate discussions with China to increase its rice exports, or donations, to 2-3 million tons. Build a well-functioning international trading system that avoids the recurrence of such types of crises in the future.

9. Move swiftly with an ambitious Doha round with sharp reduction of producer subsidies and import tariffs.

10. Explore institutional options to monitor and share information on national stocks and global prices and determinants; explore agreement among the G8 and key developing countries to hold virtual ‘global goods’ stocks, perhaps for humanitarian purposes.

Source: World Bank July 2, 2008

Header Photo: Children in Somalia, Africa.

Photo credit: (c) www.islamic-relief.com. With thanks.

Whither Civilization In Time Of Warfare?

Saint Michael the Archangel by Andrea della Robbia.

Photo credit: (c) Metropolitan Museum of Art. All rights reserved.