Mozart and Those Weber Women

Mozart Contemporaries / The Weber Women

  
Agnes Selby, Guest Writer

Die WeberischeFraun - Those Weber women — is the derogatory way in which Mozart historians maliciously refer to Mozart's wife, her mother and her sisters. In this they are influenced by Leopold Mozart, whose fear of losing the power he had exercised over his son's destiny prompted him to hate the Weber women well before he met them. Although Leopold saw them in a different light when he finally met them in Vienna, German historians have attached great importance to his early, most prejudiced statements and added to them the venom of their own imagination.In 1945, in Mozart, His Character, His Work, the renowned German scholar and critic Alfred Einstein wrote with unscholarly prejudice:"the Weber family embodied the evil and demoniac element which he could never escape; which would never loosen its hold upon him even after death......"

Eugene Ysaye

Composer Datebook:  July 16

Belgian Composer Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe was born on July 16, 1858. He was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. Regarded as "The King of the Violin" and considered one of most important composers of Belgium and greatest virtuosos of his day, he toured as a solo violinist and conductor throughout Europe and the United States. Although he never studied composition formally, he mastered writing in a Romantic style.

In 1886, he formed the Ysaye Quartet and few year later, premiered Debussys's quartet. 

Among his celebrity relatives were his brother, pianist and composer Théo Ysaÿe (1865–1918), and his great-grandson Marc Ysaÿe, drummer of rock band Machiavel.

Henry David Thoreau

Literature / Writer's Datebook: July 13

Brief biography of Henry David Thoreau. American writer, naturalist, political activist, critic,  transcendentalist, famous for his book Walden and essay on Civil Disobedience.  

 

 American author Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), is known for transcendentalism, a belief in the individual, and for his strong political views. He is the author of the famous Walden or Life in the Woods and the essay "Civil Disobedience." He was greatly influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and British writer Thomas Carlyle.  

 

Early Life of Henry David Thoreau

David Henry Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts, US, the son of a pencil maker, John Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar. His paternal grandfather was of French origin.  Named after his paternal uncle, David Thoreau, he became Henry David after although, although he never petitioned to make it legal.   

Thoreau was educated a Harvard University when he was just 16. He graduated in 1837, at 20  years old, the same year that Ralph Waldo Emerson gave his famous address urging American scholars to create a new culture separate from European influences. Thoreau became a good friend and follower of Emerson.

 

Simple Life at Walden Pond

At 27, he built a small cabin on Walden Pond near Concord, where he lived alone for over two years. He wrote about his time there, recording his daily thoughts and activities and described the environment going on around the pond.  These observations and reflections became the source of one of his most important works, Walden, published when he was 37. 

The book, however, went beyond just an observation for it had a message, a call for people to live simple lives, in harmony with nature and no surpluses of unwanted possessions.

 

Thoreau's Essay "Civil Disobedience"

When Thoreau was 29, he was imprisoned briefly for refusing to pay his taxes, which he did to express his opposition to slavery. This event in his life prompted him to write his essay "Civil Disobedience," in which he explained his belief that the government exists for the people, and therefore the people are more important.

 

Thoreau's Legacy

 The beliefs and ideologies of Henry David Thoreau, most especially the importance of an individual and simple living, were great influence to 20^th century prominent reformers who later adopted them, for example, Martin Luther King, who used them in his 1960s civil rights movement, Mahatma Gandhi (India), and Leo Tolstoy (Russia.)  Thoreau died at the age of 44, on May 6, 1862.

 

Books by Henry David Thoreau

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, 1849

"Civil Diosobedience," Essay, 1849

Walden, 1858 (Life in the Woods)

Cape Cod, 1865 (published after he died)

A Yankee in Canada, 1866 (published after he died)

Summer, 1884

Winter, 1887

 

Image Credit:

Henry David Thoreau. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain.  

 

Resources:

Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers, 2002

Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse, 1994  

The Cambridge Literature in English, New Edition, edited by Ian Ousby, Cambridge, 1993

 

(c) July 2009. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Marcel Proust

Literature / Writer's Datebook: July 10

 

Brief biography of Marcel Proust, French novelist, short story writer and critic,  famous for his novel Remembrance of Things Past.  

 

French author Marcel Proust (1871-1922), is best known for his seven-part novel Remembrance of Things Past (sometimes translated as In Search of Lost Time), considered as one of the most profound and perfect achievements of literature.

 

Early Life of Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust was born on July 10, 1871, in Anteuil, near Paris in France. He was the son of a prominent doctor and a wealthy Jewish mother. He suffered with asthma from an early age, a semi-invalid all his life, but this did not prevent him from attending secondary school, doing his military service. He later studied law and literature at the famous Sorbonne in Paris. 

Proust began writing in magazines while at school. When he was 25 years old, he published a collection of serious yet stylish short stories entitled Pleasures and Days. About this time, he gradually withdrew from his high-society. With his health already deteriorating, and his support of Captain Dreyfus, the Jewish army officer who was wrongly accused of betraying French secrets to the Germans, Proust lost some of his aristocratic friends and other influential people in high places. The death of his father and beloved mother aggravated his grief, and he withdrew still further, becoming a virtual recluse, giving himself to introspection.

Proust the Freelance Writer

Proust became financially independent when he was 34 years old, following the death of his parents. He started his great novel, Remembrance of Things Past. Influenced by the autobiographies of Johann Wolfgang con Goethe and Francois René Chateaubriand, he set out to tell the story of a search for truth based on the events of his own life. In so doing, he transformed into art the realities of experience. The main character, Marcel, discovers that as an artist he can reveal truths about life through the careful expression and reflection of his own memories. The novel was originally published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927.

Marcel Proust died at the age of 51, on November 18, 1922.

 

Recommended viewing / listening: 

A literary legend: The life and legacy of Marcel Proust • YouTube, uploaded by  FRANCE 24 English. Accessed July 10, 2022. 

Marcel Proust Documentary. YouTube, uploaded by Write Like. Accessed July 10, 2023.

Proust - In Search of Lost Time - 7 Volumes (Full Summary). YouTube, uploaded by Fiction Beast. Accessed July 10, 2022.

 

Image Credit:

Marcel Proust.  Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

 

Works by Marcel Proust

Remembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Time), published in seven parts, 1913-1927

Swann's Way, 1913 in French, 1922 in English

Within a Building Grove, 1919 in French, 1924 in English

The Guermantes Way, 1920-21, two volumes in French, 1925, in English

The Cities of the Plain, 1921-22, three volumes in French, 1927, in English

The Captive, 1923 in French, 1929 in English, posthumous

The Sweet Cheat Gone, 1925 in French, 1930 in English, posthumous

The Past Recaptured or Time Regained, 1927 in French, 1931 in English, posthumous  

 

Resources:

Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers, 2002

Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse, 1994   

Marcel Proust. Wikipedia.org

Illustrated Biographical Dictionary, edited by John Clark, Chancellor Press, 1978

 

(c) July 2009. Updated July 10, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Mozart at Villa Bertramka Prague

7 August 2009

Villa Bertramka in Prague a place dedicated for Mozart

Bertramka Mozart Museum (Photo being retrieved due to import)

I kindly requested Sherry Davis, founder of The Chronicles of Modern Day Mozartian, and a friend from my Mozartian group, to share this photo inside Villa Bertramka in this website.


Mozart's Villa Bertramka (Photo to be retrieved due to import)

Sherry took this photo in Prague, June 2009. For those who are not familiar, Villa Bertramka is a landmark of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's historical accounts, therefore a  museum. He was a frequent guest at Villa Bertramka. It's but fitting for Bertramka to be dedicated Mozart's Mozart and to the former owners and Mozart’s hosts: Mr and Mrs Dušek.

Women that Changed our World

Women Leaders / Mainly, 20th Century

The 20th century began with a sense of great optimism after centuries of oppression. It was to be one of the most violent and tumultuous in world history. And the most progressive. And women have   fought every step of the way.

From extraordinary breakthroughs and inventions in science, to revolutionary political shifts, and artistic and cultural movements, this is a collection of some of the most remarkable achievements of women in the last century.

Some made music, some made noise, all made a difference. Here we celebrate incredible women who overcame hardships, broke records, and blazed trails. While some are obvious choices and some more obscure, all acted to increase our freedom, safety, and prosperity.

Some have changed the way people think, some the way people see an hear, and others have changed the course of events across the globe. All have shaped our history. And our future.

Humanity and Liberty

• Emmeline Pankhurst
• Mother  Teresa
• Rosa Parks
• Eva Peron
• Anne Frank
• Gloria Steinem
• Malala Yousafzai

Science

• Nettie Steens
• Marie Curie
• Lise Meitner
• Inge Lehmann
• Barbara McLintock
• Maria Goeppert Mayer
• Marguerite Perey
• Mary Leakey
• Katsuko Saruhashi
• Rosalind Franklin
• Rosalyn Yalow
• Martha Chase

Medicine

• Florence Nightingale
• Margaret Sanger
• Dorothy Hodgkin
• Gertrude Elion
• Elizabeth Blackburn
• Nancy Wexler

Technology

• Hertha Ayrton
• Amelia Earhart
• Grace Hopper
• Stephanine Kwolek

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Literature / Writers Datebook: July 4

Brief biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short story writer. He is best known for his four major romances: The Marble Faun, The Blithedale Romance, The House of the Seven Gables, and most importantly, The Scarlet Letter. He also wrote some popular books for children.

Early Life

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804. Born to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning, his ancestors include John Hathorne, the only judge involved in the Salem witch trials who never repented of his actions. Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin College, where he knew Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the 14th president of the US, Franklin Pierce. 

Between the ages of 21 and 35 Hawthorne lived in seclusion, writing short stories. Unfortunately, he was unable to earn a living as a writer. He was forced to work in customhouses.  In 1842, when he was 38, he moved to Concord, Massachusetts, where he met the transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.   

The Novelist and The Scarlet Letter

At 46 years old, Hawthorne published his famous masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter.  This allegorical novel set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, tells the story of Hester Prynne, her husband Roger Chillingworth and her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, who was the father of her child. This work explores the effect of guilt, anxiety and sorrow on the minds of the three major characters.    

 

Career as a Novelist

The following year after the success of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne published The House of the Seven Gables, the story of a family cursed by one of the victims of the 17th-century Salem witchcraft trials. 

In 1853, then US President Franklin Pierce made Hawthorne consul in Liverpool. The post permitted him to travel in Italy, the setting of his last book The Marble Faun, a novel about the conflict between innocence and guilt.

Nathaniel Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864 aged 59 years old, in Plymouth, New Hampshire, USA. 

 

Hawthorne's Legacy

Hawthorne's influence as writer, thinker, and public figure in the 19^th-century America has suffused American literature for generations. His writings grapple with morality, the role of religion in American life, and what it means to reckon with an unquiet past, themes that span literature through the ages.

 

Books by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fanshawe  1828

Twice-Told Tales  1837

Mosses from an Old Manse  1846

The Scarlet Letter  1850

The House of Seven Gables  1851

A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls  1851

Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys  1853

The Marble Faun  1860

 

Photo Credit:

Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain.  

 

Resources:

Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers, 2002

Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse, 1994  

Nathaniel Hawthorne.  en.wikipedia.org

The Cambridge Literature in English, New Edition, edited by Ian Ousby, Cambridge, 1993

 

(c) July 2009. Tel. July 4, 2023. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Leoš Janáček

 Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: July 3

 

Czech Composer Leo Janacek. Conductor, Teacher, Natural Successor to Smetana  

 

 Leo Janácek's biography – his life and major works. A late-bloomer, recognized and became famous only after the performance of his opera Jenufa in Prague.  

 

Earlier works influenced by 19^th-century Dvorák and Smetana; he also was interested in and highly influenced by Moravian folk music. While his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín Dvořák, his later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jenůfa, which was premiered in 1904 in Brno. The success of Jenůfa (often called the "Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages.

Leos Janácek was a Czech composer, conductor, teacher and musical administrator. His successes came very late. He only became famous after his opera Jenufa was performed in Prague; he was past 50 years old. His operas Osud and Mr. Broucek's Excursion to the Moon were also written about that time. His best known Sinfonietta for orchestra, dedicated to the Czech Armed Forces that was performed for an open-air public occasion, was written when he was over 70 years old. 

 

Early Years

Born on July 3, 1854 in Hukvaldy, Moravia (now Czech Republic), Janácek was the ninth of fourteen children. His father was a village schoolmaster. He attended a monastery school in Brno and at 14 entered the Imperial and Royal Teachers' Training Institute on a state scholarship, where he stayed for three years.  

 

Training. Marriage. Career Beginnings.

Janácek studied at the Leipzig Conservatory where he developed interest in composition under the strict supervision of Leo Grill. He also studied in Vienna. He returned to Brno and became engaged to one of his pupils, 15-year old Zdenka Schulzova whom he married. At the same time, he also founded an organ school. In 1919, he became director of the Conservatoire at Brno and professor at the Prague Conservatoire the following year. 

 

Janácek's Works (excepting operas)

1. Folk songs arrangements

2. Suite for strings

3. Symphonic poem

4. Violin sonata

5. Ballet

6. Orchestral Rhapsody for Orchestra Taras Bulba, 1918

7. Orchestral Sinfonietta, 1926

8. Choral Msa Glagolskja (Glagolitic Mass), 1926

9. String Quartet No.2, ‘Intimate Letters’

 

Featured video. Janáček's Jenufa (The Royal Opera)

The later compositions of Leos Janacek, in particular, Katya Kabanova based on the play Goza (The Storm), 1921,  and String Quartet No.2, ‘Intimate Letters’, were inspired by his unrequited love for Kamila Stosslova, 38 years his junior.

Janácek's music is highly influenced by Moravian folk music. He worked in different musical styles: from established romantic techniques to dissonant combinations, and influences: from western European music to Czech and Moravian folk songs.

Janácek's reputation outside Czechoslovakia and German-speaking countries was first made as an instrumental composer. He has since been regarded not only as a Czech composer worthy to be ranked with Smetana and Dvorak, but also as one of the most original and influential opera composers of the 20th-century.

Leos Janacek died in Moravska Ostrava, 12 August 1928, at 74 years old. 

 

Leo Jánacek's Legacies are his Operas

1. Jenufa, began 1896 and staged in Brno in 1904

2. Osud (Fate) 1904

3. Mr. Broucek's Excursion to the Moon, satirical opera, 1920

4. Katya Kabanova based on the play Goza (The Storm), 1921,

5. The Cunning Little Vixen (Prihody lisky bystriusky), 1923

6. The Makropoulos Affair, 1926

7. From the House of the Dead, 927

 

Recommended Work

Sinfonietta, Deutsche Grammophon

 

Credit Image

Leos Janacek. Karadar / Public Domain.

 

Resources

John Stanley Classical Music, Mitchell Beasley (1994)

The Hamlyn Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, edited by A. Isaacs and E. Martin (1990)

The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, New Updated Edition. Macmilla Publishers. 1994.

  

(c) July 2009. Updated July 3, 2024.  Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Franz Kafka

Literature / Writer's Datebook: July 3

Brief biography of Austrian author Franz Kafka, novelist and short story writer, famous for his short story "The Metamorphosis" and the novel The Trial. 

 

 Austrian novelist Franz Kafka works, strange and disturbing, have had a great influence on 20^th-century Western literature, including the writers Albert Camus and Samuel Beckett. He is best known for "Metamorphosis" and The Trial.

His often portrayal of the world is one of a schizophrenic society in which a lost or bewildered individual has strayed.

 

Early Years

Franz Kafka was born on July 3, 1883, in Prague, (now in the Czech Republic, then part of Austria). The son of German-Jewish parents, he was a shy and hypersensitive man who lived with his parents for most of his short life. He studied law at the German University in Prague although his passion was writing. His break came when he got a job writing reports on industrial accidents and health hazards. The only time he had for creative writing was in the evenings.

 Although very much attached to his father, he eventually moved to Berlin with Dora Dymant in 1923, before he succumb to lung cancer the following year.

 

Kafka: The Writer and his Theme

 Some of Kafka's early stories were published when he was 26 years old. In the summer of 1912 he wrote the two short stories, "The Judgement" and "The Metamorphosis," that established his importance as a writer. The "Metamorphosis" became Kafka's most famous story. It is about a man who wakes to find that he has been transformed overnight into a giant insect.

Both stories feature a theme common to all his work: a lonely victim who suffers persecution for a crime he does not understand. This theme is carried further in Kafka's most famous novel, The Trial, in which the hero, Joseph K., is unaware of the offence for which he is persecuted and finally executed. This ideas has been described as an allegory for the bewilderment felt by many people living in the modern world.

  

Later Years 

Kafka refused to allow any of his three novels to be published during is lifetime and left instructions to his friend Max Brod that all his manuscripts should be burned after his death. Fortunately for literature, Brod decided to publish the manuscripts posthumously, and translated by Edwin and Willa Muir. A number of his other writings have also been published posthumously. He died at the age of 40, on June 3, 1923.   

 

Works by Franz Kafka

"The Boilerman", 1913

"Meditations", 1913 ("Betrachtungen")

"The Judgement", 1913

The Metamorphosis", 1915 ("Die Verwandlung" or "The Transformation")

"In the Penal Colony", 1919

The Country Doctor, 1919

Published After Kafka Died:

The Trial, 1925 ("Der Prozess")

The Castle, 1926 ("Das Schloss")

America, 1927 ("Amerika")

 

Image Credit:

Franz Kafka. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

 

Resources:

Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers, 2002

Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse, 1994   

 

(c) July 2009. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.