Song / Down Memory Lane
"The Sound of Silence", originally "The Sounds of Silence," is a song by the American music duo Simon & Garfunkel (Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel). The song was written by singer-songwriter Paul Simon over a period of several months in 1963 and 1964. The duo signed a record deat with Columbia Records after a studio audition. The song was recorded in March 1964 at Columbia Studios, New York City, for inclusion on their debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M..
Video Credit:
Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence (from The Concert in Central Park). Simon & Gaafunkel. Youtube. Accessed November 5, 2022.
Lyrics:
The Sound of Silence from Google search.
Resource:
The Sound of Silence. en.wikipedia.org.
(c) 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
Literature / Poet-Writer's Datebook
Brief biography and key works of English poet John Milton, English poet and essayist famous for the poem "Paradise Lot".
John Milton was one of the greatest English poets with huge influence on English poetry. He is best known for Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Lycidas.
John Milton's Life in a Nutshell
John Milton was born on December 9, 1698 in London. His father was a successful lawyer ad composer who was wealthy enough to afford a second house in the country. Milton spent six years in private study after finishing university in Cambridge, 1632. He was a Puritan, who gave up his original ambition to become a priest, instead, decided to devote his life to God as a poet. He traveled in Europe and served as Latin secretary to the Commonwealth government. In 1652 he became blind.
Milton was educated in Cambridge University and began to write poetry while he was at college. At the age of 29, he completed one of his first major works, Lycidas, regarded as perhaps the finest short poem in English. Five years later, in 1642, the English Civil War broke, as Oliver Cromwell fought to overthrow the king. Milton stopped composing poetry and wrote political essays supprting Cromwell. In the same period Milton was slowly losing his sight.
Paradise Lost and Blind Milton
The monarchy was restored in 1660. Milton retired to devote himself to poetry once again. His ambition had always been to compose an epic poem in comparison to the works of ancient writers such as Homer and Virgil. By then completely blind, he began dictating his great poem, Paradise Lost, to his wife and daughters. The work, published when he was 55, was immediately recognized as an outstanding achiement. IT tells the soty of how Satan was thrown out of Heaven and how he came to Earth to corrupt Adam and Eve. The themes of war and areligious conflict it explores constantly remind the reader of the troubled tiems Milton lived throguht.
He died at the age of 65, November 8, 1674.
"And all amid them stood the tree of life, High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold; and next to life Our death the tree of knowledge grew fast by, Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill." ~ John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IV
Works by John Milton
"On the Morning of Christ's Nativity", 1629
"L'Allegro", c. 1631
"Il Penseroso", c. 1631
Comus, 1634
Lycidas, 1637
Areopagitica, 1644
Poems, 1645
Paradise Lost, 1667
Paradise Regained, 1671
Samson Agonistes, 1671
Photo Credit:
John Milton. en.wikipedia.org / public domain.
Resources:
Goring, Rosemary, Ed. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994
McGovern, Una, Ed. Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers / Harrap Publishers, 2002
Ousby, Ian. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Payne, Tom. The A-Z of Great Writers. London: Carlton, 1997
(c) December 9, 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: December 7
Pietro Mascagni is known for the lyrical “Easter Hymn” and the passionate but tragic interlude of "Intermezzo” from his opera Cavallaria Rusticana (Rustic chivalry.) The “Intermezzo” was used in the film “Raging Bull”.
Mascagni's Early Training
A baker’s son, Mascagni was born on December 7, 1863, in Livorno, Italy. His father wanted him to take up law so he studied music secretly. When his father found out, an uncle rescued and took him in his care. His musical ability was great that at 18 years old, the teenage Mascagni already wrote a symphony, a cantata and a mass.
Mascagni's Formal Music Education
He formally studied at the Milan Conservatory where he shared lodging with Giacomo Puccini, both of them taught by composer Amilcare Ponchielli, famous for the opera La Gioconda.
Mascagni's Early Career
In 1884, he travelled by working as a conductor with a touring opera company, married, managed a small town school and give piano lessons.
Mascagni's and his Signature Opera Cavalleria Rusticana
In Rome on February 21, 1890, Mascagni was summoned to present his opera Cavalleria Rusticana. It had outstanding success winning the Sonzogno contest. Mascagni won first prize in a competition for one-act operas. The première of Cavalleria rusticana was held May 17 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.
With this opera, he rose to immediate international acclaim. This one-act opera is based on a short story and a play. It is a tale of adultery, revenge and death, revolving around an Italian peasant. With Cavalleria Rusticana, the vogue for verismo (realism) was effectively established at that time.
Below video: Pietro Mascagni's 'Cavalleria rusticana - Intermezzo'. Lim Kek-tjiang conducts Evergreen Symphony Orchestra. Accessed December 12, 2010.
Mascagni's Later Works
Although some numbers from L’amico Fritz and the oriental Iris have survived in the repertory, none of his succeeding operas was anything as successful as Cavalleria Rusticana. He once said: "It is a pity I wrote Cavalleria Rusticana first; I was crowned before I was king!" (Dictionary of Composers and Their Music by Eric Gilder, Sphere Reference, 1987.) Mascagni's later works include the comedy Le maschere, the unexpectedly powerful Il piccolo Marat and Nerone, this last testifying to his identification with fascism.
Mascagni's musical legacy
Mascagni belonged to Puccini’s generation of Italian opera composers. During the last years of the 19th-century, they contributed to the movement called verismo (meaning realism), featuring stories of ordinary people rather than the traditional grand and noble themes. In a manner of a true Italian son, simple yet intense drama appealed to him. He died in Rome, 2nd of August, 1945.
Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana ensures him a place in the history of opera.
Operas by Pietro Mascagni
Cavalleria rusticana ('Rustic Chivalry') 1888
L'amico Fritz ('Friend Friz') 1891
Iris 1898
La maschere 1901
Il Piccolo Marat 1921
Nerone ('Nero') 1934
Image Credit:
Pietro Mascagni. Karadar / Public Domain
Resources:
Dictionary of Composers and Their Music by Eric Gilder, Sphere Reference (1987)
The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Publishers (1994)
(c) December 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
Literature / Writers Datebook: November 30
Brief biography of Mark Twain, American children's writer, famous for the adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, and Mark Twain quotes.
Children's writer and humorist Mark Twain is a fixture in American literature. He was a humorous writer who created two famous characters, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He is also known for his travel book The Innocents Abroad.
Through his two most popular and loved novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain captured his boyhood escapades along the Mississippi River. He was one of my favourite authors as a child. He lived life the way he wanted to live and passed on amazing lines of knowledge through his books. Who can't love his stories about the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn? ... The joys of childhood when the world is full of wonders and children are free of the heavy responsibilities of adulthood.
Early Life of Samuel Clemens
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, the fifth of six children. The family was poor and his father suffered ill health. In 1839 they moved to Hannibal, a rapidly growing town in the Mississippi River, and there, Twain went to the local school.
When he was 12, his father died. Twain had to leave school to find work in which he apprenticed to a printer. At age 22, he became a river pilot at a time when there were a thousand or so boats a day on the Mississippi River. For four years, he enjoyed and loved his trade, but the American Civil War ended the river traffic.
Writing Career as Mark Twain
After the war, he became a full-time journalist in 1862, and soon began to use the pen name Mark Twain. At the age of 32, he published his first important story, and two years later, published his first successful novel, the humorous travel book The Innocents Abroad. It told the story of an excursion of American pilgrims to the Holy Land.
Twain's Marriage and the Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer
In 1870, Twain married Olivia Langdon, with whom he had five children. He wrote his classic children's stories, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in his 40s. Twain had become increasingly disillusioned by modern life and personal tragedies, and the books provided an opportunity for him to relive his boyhood 'golden days' on the Mississippi.
Both stories, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, give a realistic picture of life around the Mississippi and are full of adventure and humor. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, considered his masterpiece, is noted for its accurate and sympathetic depiction of adolescent life.
Twain's Later Life
His later life was plagued with several financial problems. He was also pained by declining health and the death of his favorite daughter.
Mark Twain is regarded as a major literary figure in American history, with his classic books loved worldwide. He died at the age of 74, in Redding, Connecticut, April 21, 1910.
Mark Twain Books
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches, 1867
The Innocents Abroad, 1869
Roughing It, 1872
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884
Pudd'nhead Wilson: a Tale, 1894
Suggested interesting link:
Mark Twain Quotations, Newspaper Collections, & Related Resources. Barbara Schmidt. Accessed November 2010.
Photo Credit:
Mark Twain. Wikipedia Commons. / Public Domain A portrait of the American writer Mark Twain taken by A. F. Bradley in New York, 1907.
Resources:
Goring, Rosemary, Ed. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994
McGovern, Una, Ed. Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers / Harrap Publishers, 2002
Ousby, Ian, Ed. The Cambridge Literature in English. Cambridge: CUP, 1993
Payne, Tom. The A-Z of Great Writers. London: Carlton, 1997
(c) November 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
Voltaire, whose real name is Francois-Marie
Arouet, (1694-1778), was born to a wealthy family on November 21 in Paris. Intended for the
legal profession, he went to a college run by Jesuit priests studying law but
rebelled against his family's wishes to pursue a literary career. Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: November 3
Italian Opera Composer of the Romantic Period
Vincenzo Bellini's brief biography – his life, opera, and major works. He is best known for opera Norma and 'bel canto' (beautiful singing).
Vincenzo Bellini is best known for his opera Norma which established him as the master of the Italian operatic bel canto style of singing, with his arias having long melodic score and dramatic tension brilliantly crafted. The story and settings take a back seat in favour of bel canto ('beautiful singing.')
Early Years
Born on November 3, 1801, in the Sicilian town of Catania, Vincenzo Bellini started piano lessons given by his father. A child prodigy, he could already play very well at five. He developed simplicity of melodic expression in his compositions. He studied at Naples Conservatory.
His first opera, Adelson e Salvini, was produced in 1825 while still a student. This attracted the attention of Domenico Barbaia, who commissioned him to write Bianca e Gernando, produced at the Teatro San Carlo. Norma and La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) followed in 1831. In I Puritani (The Puritans), his last work, he discovered a new boldness and vigour of orchestral effect.
Later Years
Two years after he wrote Norma, he travelled to London and Paris, where he met and befriended Gioachino Rossini and Frédéric Chopin.
Like Mozart and Schubert, he also died in his thirties. His popularity after his death was enormous, but later his operas fell into neglect. Since World War II, however, singers including Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, and Montserrat Caballe, have helped restore Bellini’s popularity particularly with his masterpiece Norma.
He once wrote in a letter, “Carve in your head by letter of brass: an opera must draw tears, cause horror, bring death, by means of a song.” This is exactly what his operas portray.
Bellini was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. He died from gastroenteritis, in Puteaux near Paris, aged 34.
Bellini was a contemporary and rival of Gaetano Donizetti, famous for his opera L'Elisir d'amore. With Felice Romani his librettist, Bellini and Romani were the Rodgers and Hammerstein of their day. They collaborated on six operas.
Suggested Listening:
Bellini - Norma, Casta Diva / Presentat° + New Mastering (Maria Callas, Ct. record.: T.Serafin 1954). YouTube, uploaded by Classical Music / Reference Recording. Accessed November 3, 2020.
Bellini's Major Operas
Adelson e Salvini (Adelson and Salvini) 1825
Bianca e Gernando (Bianca and Gernando) 1826
Il Pirata (The Pirate) 1827
La straniera (The Foreigner) 1829
Zaira 1829
I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) 1830
La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) 1831
Norma,
including 'The Warriors' Chorus' 1831
Beatrice di Tenda 1833
I Puritani (The Puritans) 1835
Suggested Bellini Recording
Opera Norma (highlights), either performed by Maria Callas or Dame Joan Sutherland in the leading role.
Resource:
Sadie, Stanley, Ed. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition. London: Macmillan Publishers. 2000
Note: This article is an abridged version. I originally wrote and published a longer piece for suite101.com in October 2007. / Tel
(c) November 3, 2010. Updated November 3, 2022. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
Wolfgang A Mozart Family / Mozart's Son
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Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (born 26 July 1791 – died 29 July 1844), born in Vienna, also known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jr.. He was the youngest child of six born to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife Constanze and the younger of his parents' two surviving children, the elder son, Karl Thomas Mozart. Franz Xaver was born five months before his father died and he almost did not know him. He was called ‘Franz’ as his great-grandfather and his great-uncle, who died the same year of his birth but his father Wolfgang nicknamed him ‘Wowi ‘. He studied music in Prague, and also with Hummel, Salieri and others in Vienna. Like his father, he was a prodigious child; he published a piano quintet when he was only eleven years old.
Franz Xaver Mozart spent most of his years in various posts in or near Lemberg in the Ukraine. In 1838, Mozart left for Vienna and then for Salzburg, where he was appointed as the Kapellmeister of the Mozarteum. From 1841, he taught the pianist Ernst Pauer. Mozart died from stomach cancer on 29 July, 1844 in the town of Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary) where he was buried.
Like his brother, he never married and died childless. Upon death, his will was executed by Josephine de Baroni-Cavalcabò, his lover and longtime patron to whom he had dedicated his cello sonata. The shadow of his father loomed large over him even in death as evidenced by the epitaph which was etched upon his tombstone: "May the name of his father be his epitaph, as his veneration for him was the essence of his life."
Wolfgang A Mozart Family / Mozart's Son
Carl (or Karl) Thomas Mozart (21 September 1784 – 31 October 1858) was the second son, and the elder of the two surviving sons, of Wolfgang and Constanze Mozart. The other was Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart.
Carl was born in Vienna. His schooling, in Prague, under Franz Xaver Niemetschek and František Xaver Dušek. He became a gifted pianist but before he finished his schooling, he left for Livorno in 1797 to begin his apprenticeship with a trading firm.
Karl Mozart planned to open a piano store in the following years, but the project failed for lack of funds. He moved to Milan in 1805 and studied music with Bonifazio Asioli, but he he gave up his studies in 1810 to become an official in the service of the Austrian financial administration and the governmental accounting department in Milan.
He also served as official translator for Italian for the Austrian Court Chamber. He owned a house in the village of Caversaccio in Valmorea, Province of Como. He appreciated the amenities of the place and the wholesomeness of the water.
He bequeathed the house to the town, which is stated on a plaque dedicated to him. The Town Hall keeps a copy of the will.
Karl Mozart also frequently attended events related to his father until his death in Milan in 1858. Like his brother, Franz Xaver Mozart, he neither married nor had children, and therefore the Mozart family line died with him.
Recommended Reading:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Son: Carl Thomas Mozart. Accessed 21 September 2017
Video Credit:
Karl Thomas Mozart. Wikipedia / Public Domain.
Resource:
Karl Thomas Mozart. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed 21 September 2010.
(c) 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: September 11
Brief biography of Estonian minimalist and avant-gard composer Arvo Pärt, famous for Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, Spiegel im Spiegel and Tabula Rasa.
Arvo Pärt is considered one of the most inventive and instinctive mystical minimalist composers in the late 20th-century. His musical scores have been pervaded by bell-like sounds since the musical breakthrough to poetic expression which he calls "tintinnabular" style.
The work that brought him international attention was the six-minute poignant Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten for strings and bell. Pärt's music has been featured in numerous films, for example, "Fratres for Cello and Piano" was used in the soundtrack of a 2007 film "There Will Be Blood."
Life of Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt was born on September 11, 1935, in Paide, Estonia. He is the most renowned composer in his homeland. He studied at the Tallinn Conservatory graduating in 1963 while working as a sound producer for an Estonian radio. In 1962 he won a prize for a children’s cantata Our Garden and an oratorio Stride of the World.
The continuing upheavals with soviet officials led him to emigrate with his family. Pärt lived in Vienna first, became an Austrian citizen, then later, relocated to West Berlin in 1982.
His early works followed standard Soviet models and influenced by Dmitri Shostakovitch, but later he turned to strict serialism, and eventually to minimalism as revealed through his sacred music works.
Serialist Works
Among his known serialist works are Perpetuum mobile, Symphony no.2, and Pro et contra for cello and orchestra.
Orthodox Church Music Influence
In the 1970s he came into contact with the music of the Orthodox Church which affected his music technically and spiritually, for example in Symphony no.3 and the cantata Song for the Beloved, as well as the concerto grosso Tabula rasa for three violins, strings and prepared piano.
Minimalist Works
In drawing on minimalist techniques of repetition, he has also evoked the music of other composers such as Leo Janacek, Igor Stravinsky and Benjamin Britten.
Some of these minimalist works are Arbos for seven instruments, If Bach had been a Bee-Keeper, two versions for harpsichord and ensemble, and 80-minute St John Passion. Pärt also wrote Te Deum for chorus and strings, Stabat Mater and Miserere.
Later Works
Pari intervalli echoes J.S. Bach chorale preludes, calls on 13th-century music, and uses choral and intrumental sounds recalling ancient incantation which is ritualistic in effect. Of recent works, His music has been featured in numerous films including his famous Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten and Spiegel im Spiegel, Tabula Rasa, and many more.
Pärt's Works
Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten for strings and bell, 1977, 6-minute
Perpetuum mobile, 1963
Symphony no.2, 1966
Pro et contra for cello and orchestra, 1966
Symphony no.3, 1971
Song for the Beloved, 1971, Cantata
Concerto grosso Tabula rasa for three violins, strings and prepared piano, 1977
Arbos for seven instruments, 1977
"If Bach had been a Bee-Keeper", two versions for harpsichord and ensemble, 1978, 1980
St John Passion, 1982, 80-minute
Te Deum for chorus and strings, 1984-1985
Stabat Mater, 1985
Miserere, 1989
Image:
Arvo Pärt. Wikipedia Commons
Resources:
The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Press, 1994
The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Revised Edition, edited by Michael Kennedy, OUP, 1994
(c) September 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
