Theremin Musical Instrument

The theremin musical instrument is best known for creating the spooky or eerie sounds heard in many 1950s science fiction films. It is a unique instrument being "played" without being touched.  This electronic musical instrument is named after its Russian inventor and physicist, Professor Leon Theremin, who patented the device in 1918 (or 1919).

The controlling section consists of two metal antennas that sense the position of the player's hands. It then controls oscillators for frequency with one hand, and the volume (amplitude) with the other, therefore,  played without being touched.  The electric signals from the theremin are then amplified and sent to the loudspeaker and heard.

Giacomo Puccini

Classical Music Composer's Datebook: December 22

 

Brief biography of G. Puccini, Italian Realism Opera Composer, Verismo Maestro

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was born 22nd December, 1858, in Lucca, Tuscany. He was born into a family of musicians in Lucca. His father was a choirmaster and an organist. He was fifth in line of family composers and Italian church musicians in his hometown. Puccini is famous for operas including La Bohème,  Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, and the unfinished Turandot, all popular to this day. Greatest 'Giovane Scuola' of his time.

Some of his melodies, such as "O mio babbino caro" from his comedic one-act masterpiece Gianni Schicchi,  and "Nessun dorma" from Turandot, popularized by the tenor Luciano Pavarotti, have become part of our modern culture. Puccini's operas combine exotic plots with elements of realism (verismo.) Having been one of the few operatic composers to successfully use both Italian and German operatic techniques, Puccini is regarded as the successor of Giuseppe Verdi.

Jane Austen

Literature / Writers Datebook: December 16

 

Brief biography of English writer Jane Austen, considered the first outstanding woman novelist. Best-known for her novels Pride and Prejudice and Emma. Her novels have been adapted to film and television series. 

 

 

 The commentary of English novelist Jane Austen bites and her masterful use of indirect discourse and irony makes her one of the most influential and respected novelists of the early 19^th century.  Austen's stories are subtle as she tells about young, well-bred heroines, injecting the snobbery and the manners of their country-house families. In Pride and Prejudice, a young man and woman begin by disliking each other but at last fall in love. In Emma, a snobbish young woman develops into someone capable of feeling and love.

Early Life  

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, one of two daughters of the Rev. George Austen and his wife Cassandra (née Leigh). Her brothers James and Henry followed in the path of their father and joined the clergy (the latter towards the end of his life after a successful career as a banker), while Francis and Charles both pursued naval careers.

Close Family Relationship

She had a sister, Cassandra, with whom she maintained a close relationship throughout her life. The abundant correspondence between the sisters provides historians with the greatest insight into Austen's past. The only undisputed portrait of Jane Austen is a  rudimentary coloured sketch done by Cassandra.  

Education

In 1783, she was educated briefly by a relative in Oxford, then in Southampton, and finally in 1785–1786, she attended the Reading Ladies boarding school in Reading, Berkshire. This uncommonly advanced level of education may have contributed to her early alignment towards writing, and she began her first novel in 1789. The Austen family also often enacted plays, which gave Jane an opportunity to present her stories.

Family Move to Bath

Austen's life was even less eventful than those of her characters. In 1801 the family moved to the socially esteemed spa city of Bath, which provides the setting for many of her novels. The following year, she received a marriage proposal from a wealthy man Harris Bigg-Wither, almost six years her junior. She refused him.

Move to Southampton

After the death of her father in 1805, Austen, her sister and her mother lived in Southampton with her brother Frank and his family for several years before moving to Chawton in 1809. Here her wealthy brother Edward had an estate with a cottage, where he allowed his mother and sisters to live. This home is now a museum and is a popular site for tourists and literary pilgrims alike.

Final Years  

It was in Chawton that she wrote her later novels. In 1816, she began to suffer from ill health and moved to Winchester to be closer to her doctor. It is now thought by some that she may have suffered from Addison's disease, a failure of the adrenal glands that was often caused by tuberculosis. At that time the disease was not known and unnamed. Her condition became increasingly unstable. She died aged 41, on July 18, 1817, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Film Adaptation of Austen's Novels

Austen's novels have been adapted in a great number of film and television series, varying greatly in their faithfulness to the originals.

Pride and Prejudice has been the most reproduced of her works, with six films, the 2005 adaptation directed by Joe Wright, starring Keira Knightley (Elizabeth Bennett), Donald Sutherland (Mr. Bennett), Matthew Macfadyen (Mr. Darcy), and Dame Judi Dench (Lady Catherine de Bourgh), as well as the 2004 Hollywood adaptation Pride & Prejudice.

There is also a 1940 film version of the novel starring Laurence Oliver as Mr. Darcy, and Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett. Previously, there were five television series produced by the BBC, the most noteworthy being the well-loved 1995 version, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

Emma has been adapted on television several times, first in 1948. Recent versions include a 1972 British television version, the 1996 film Emma, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam, and also in 1996 on British television with Kate Beckinsale.

Sense and Sensibility has been made into four films including the 1995 version, from a screenplay adapted by Emma Thompson (who won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay), directed by Ang Lee and starred Thompson and Kate Winslet.

Persuasion has been adapted into two television series and one feature film. Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey have also been made into films.  

Novels by Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility, 1811

Pride and Prejudice, 1813

Mansfield Park, 1814

Emma, 1815

Northanger Abbey, 1817 (posthumous)

Persuasion, 1817 (posthumous) 

Love and Friendship, 1922 (posthumous)

 

Photo Credit:

 Jane Austen. Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain. (Portrait, c. 1810, in watercolour and pencil.)

Resources:

Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby, Cambridge Univ. Press,  1993

Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Edinburgh. Chambers Harrap, 2002

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring. New York: Larousse, 1994

 

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

Pauline Viardot and Don Giovanni

Trivia:  Did you know?

Pauline Viardot-Garcia, a mezzo-soprano and composer,  possessed the holograph of the famous opera Don Giovanni  of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. She left it to the Paris Conservatory Library.

Pauline Viardot [née García] (July 18, 1821 – May 18, 1910) was a 19th century French mezzo-soprano and composer of Spanish descent. She achieved initial fame as "Pauline García". She referred to herself simply as "Mme. Viardot" after her marriage.

She spoke fluent Spanish, French, Italian, English, German,and Russian, and composed variety of songs. Her career took her to the best music halls across Europe. In 1840s she was permanently attached to the Opera in Saint Petersburg, Russia.


Viardot was renowned for her wide vocal range and her dramatic roles on stage. Her performances were noted to have inspired composers such as Frédéric Chopin, Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns (who dedicated Samson and Delilah to her, and wanted her to sing the title role, but she declined on account of her age).  She also arranged instrumental woks of Joseph Haydn, Schubert and Brahms as songs.  She was a friend of Clara Schumann.

She spent many happy hours at George Sand's home at Nohant, with Sand and her lover Frédéric Chopin. The warmth of feeling that existed between Viardot and Chopin was based on reciprocal esteem and affinity of temperament. The friendship was also one of mutual artistic benefit. She was given expert advice by Chopin on her piano playing, her vocal compositions, and her arrangements of some of his mazurkas as songs. He in turn derived from her some firsthand knowledge about Spanish music. When Sand's and Chopin's relationship came to an end in July 1847, Viardot tried to get the two back together, but failed.

Pauline Viardot died in 1910, at the age of eighty-eight. Her body is interred in the Paris, Montmarte Centemery.



Resources:

• Eric Blum, Editor.  Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th edition, 1954.

• "Pauline Viardot Garcia".  Hildegard.com/Notes.  Accessed December 11, 2013.

• The Music Salon of Pauline Viardot by Rachel M. Harris.  Accessed December 11, 2013.

Brontë Sisters: Charlotte, Emily and Anne

Literature / Writers Datebook

 

English Novelists and Poets   

Brief biography in a nutshell of three famous Brontë sisters:  Charlotte, Emily and Anne

 

English writers all, the three Brontë sisters – Charlotte, Emily and Anne, are famous for their passionate novels which include two most popular books in the English language, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.

 

The Family Brontë

The Brontë family lived in the north of England on the bleak Yorkshire moors. Four years after Charlotte was born, the family to Haworth parsonage. After Anne's birth their mother died, leaving five sisters and a brother to be raised by their clergyman father and a strict, religious aunt. Both eldest sisters died in their early teens.

The other three sisters and only brother, Branwell, grew up at home, playing on the moors, reading avidly, and writing in tiny books about imaginary kingdoms. They attended school only briefly. Later, however, they worked as teachers or governesses.

 

Three Novelist-Sisters

In 1846, Charlotte, Emily and Anne published a book of poems together. The finest poems were Emily's. After only a few copies sold, the Brontës tried writing fiction. A novel by each sister appeared in 1847: Jane Eyre by Charlotte, aged 31; Wuthering Heights by Emily, aged 29; and Agnes Grey by Anne, aged 27.

 

Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre

All three books drew on each author's own experiences and intense feelings, but Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were most arresting and powerful. Wuthering Heights is a story of love, hate and revenge set on the Yorkshire moors and Jane Eyre tells of a poor but brave girl who falls in love with a harsh and difficult landowner.

 

Premature Family Deaths

No other Victorian novel shares its fierce, wild and savage spirit. It was unfortunate that by mid-1849 Emily and Anne died of tuberculosis, and their brother had died from over consumption of drugs and alcohol. In 1854 Charlotte married a clergyman and died giving birth the following year. 

 

Charlotte Brontë (April 21, 1816 – March 31, 1855)

She used the pen name Currer Bell. Born at Thornton, she was the surviving sister of a talented family, the only one to receive public acclaim but eventually, also died prematurely. She died at the age of 38.

 

Works by Charlotte Brontë:

Jane Eyre, 1847

Shirley, 1849

Villette, 1853

The Professor, 1857 (Published after she died)

 

Emily Brontë (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848)

She died at the age of 30.

 

Work by Emily Jane Brontë

Wuthering Heights, 1847

 

Anne Brontë (January 17, 1820 – Mary 28, 1849)

She died at the age of 29.

 

Works by Anne Brontë

Agnes Grey, 1847

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, 1848 

 

Resources:

Goring, Rosemary (Editor), Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994

Great British Writers, London: Colour Library Books, 1993

McGovern, Una (editor), Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap, 2002

 

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

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A Biography

Classical Music / Composers Datebook:  January 27 

 

Arguably, the greatest composer of all time, Wolfgang Mozart composed more than 600 works including: 21 theatre/stage and opera works, 15 Masses, over 50 symphonies, 25 piano concertos, 12 violin concertos (many more violin sonatas),  27 concert arias, 17 piano sonatas, 26 string quartets, concertos for clarinet and other wind instruments, chamber music, and many other pieces. Together with the work of his older contemporary he called "Papa" Haydn, Mozart's music marks the height of the Classical era in its supposed purity of melody and symmetricality of form. Since his early death in 1791, the popularity of Mozart keep soaring that even younger musicians continue to translate his music to suit their generation.   

Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, better known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was born in Salzburg, Austria, to a musician father Leopold Mozart and mother, Anna Pertl. Of the seven children, only Mozart and his older sister (Maria Anna or "Nannerl" as family called her) survived infancy. Leopold Mozart was himself a composer and an excellent teacher. He was a court musician of the archbishop's chapel in Salzburg, and the author of a well-known book on violin-playing. 

 

 Mozart's Younger Years

Mozart's birthplace (German: geburtshaus) was at No. 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg. As children, Nannerl and Wolfgang showed early musical promise.  

Taught by his father, Mozart was an infant prodigy. He began to play the harpsichord at the age of three, compose at the age of five, and wrote his first minuet at six. This time Mozart went on his first tour with his family. The family lived like this for years, touring and playing over Europe. Before his ninth birthday, he composed his first symphony, wrote his first oratorio at 11, and the first opera the following year.  

 

 Mozart's Youthful Years and First Love

 In Mannheim, Germany, he fell in love with a young soprano, Aloysia Weber. His love was not reciprocated. A year later, in 1778, his beloved mother died in Paris. With heartache from the double loss of his mother and first love, he returned to Salzburg. He found work at the court but unhappy with the court restrictions, Mozart left Salzburg for Vienna in  1781, and decided to go solo, a freelance musician.

 

 

Anton Webern

Classical Music / Composer Datebook: December 3

Austrian composer Anton Webern (December 3, 1883 – September 15, 1945) was born in Vienna. . He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known proponents of the twelve-tone technique. His innovations regarding schematic organization of pitch, rhythm and dynamics were formative in the musical style later known as serialism.

Webern was born as Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern. He never used his middle names, dropping the von in 1918. He attended Vienna University from 1902 where he studied musicology with Guido Adler, writing his thesis on the Choralis Constantinus of Heinrich Isaac. This interest in early music greatly influenced his compositional technique in later years.