Max Ferdinand Perutz

Scientist Datebook:  May 19

Biochemist awarded the 1962 Chemistry Nobel prize for his studies in the structures of haemoglobin and globular proteins.


Max Ferdinand Perutz, FRS, OM, CBE (b. May 19, 1914, Vienna, Austria – d. February 6, 2002, Cambridge, United Kingdom) was an Austrian-born British molecular biologist. Both his parents, Hugo Perutz and Dely Goldschmidt, came from families of textile manufacturers who had made their fortune in the 19th century by the introduction of mechanical spinning and weaving into the Austrian monarchy.

Perutz shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins.

Chemical Bonding

The discovery of Chemical Bonding is linked to two scientists, Linus Pauling and Robert Mulliken.

The significance of the chemical bonding as a discovery is that it demonstrated how the new physics of quantum mechanics could explain the basis and fundamentals of a chemical interaction.


In the early 20th century, the nature of the atom has been developed and explained by chemistry and physics. However, in terms of quantum mechanics, these two science disciplines provided different perspectives. One point of contention was the chemical bonding of the element carbon. Whilst physicists and chemists agree on carbon's structure, that is, 6 electrons, 2 in an inner shell and 4 in an outer shell, its bonding issue in terms of the outer reaction of the 4 electrons was more complicated than normally met the eye of the chemists and physicists.

Anton Raaff

Mozart Contemporaries / Anton Raaff

 

Anton Raaff, Tenor and Friend of Mozart

 

Anton Raaff (also spelt Raaf), German operatic singer (tenor) and a friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is baptized  in Gelsdorf, near Bonn on May 6, 1714. He was a pupil of Bernacchi in Bologna and became a principal operatic tenor in Naples and Florence in the 1760's when the wunderkind Mozart was about 5 years old.

In later years, Anton Raaff served at the courts of Mannheim and Munich. He sang in the first performance of Mozart's opera Idomeneo, 1781, in Munich.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Jenkins The Armed Man: Concert for Peace

Choral Singing / Sydney Philharmonia - Festival Chorus &  VOX


"If war is defined as an active conflict that has claimed more than one thousand lives, of the past three thousand four hundred years, humans have been entirely at peace for only two hundred and sixty-eight of them, or just eight percent of recorded history." - Quoted from SPC program's Conductor's Note page.

Karl Jenkins' A Concert for Peace: The Armed Man

Dates:
Saturday 16 May 2015, 1:00pm

Sunday 17 May 2015, 7:30pm

Venue:

Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House

The Armed Man is a Mass by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, subtitled "A Mass for Peace". The piece was dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis. It was commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum for the Millennium celebrations, to mark the museum's move from London to Leeds. It is essentially an anti-war piece based on the Catholic Mass, but which Jenkins combines with other sources, principally the 15th-century folk song "L'homme armé" in the first and last movements. Other religious and historical sources include the Islamic call to prayer, the Bible (e.g. the Psalms and Revelation), and the Mahabharata. Writers whose words appear in the work include Rudyard Kipling, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Sankichi Toge, who survived the Hiroshima bombing but died some years later of leukaemia. It was written for SATB chorus with soloists (soprano and muezzin) and a symphonic orchestra. 

 

Composer Karl Jenkins was born and grew up on the Gower Peninsula, the son of a local organist and choirmaster. He studied music at Cardiff University and then at the Royal Academy of Music. Originally an oboist, he took to the saxophone and established himself early on as a jazz musician. He then introduced the oboe as a jazz instrument. As a composer, Jenkins manages to combine very different styles of music from classical to pop and to draw on different cultures from around the globe. His Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary (1994) topped the classical album charts. His Requiem, which we sang in 2006, is enjoyed by choristers and audiences alike. 

The Armed Man charts the growing menace of a descent into war, interspersed with moments of reflection; shows the horrors that war brings; and ends with the hope for peace in a new millennium, when "sorrow, pain and death can be overcome".

Below photo:  Prior to our Saturday performance, a release of doves will take place on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House while our Sydney Philharmonia choirs perform Festival Alleluia, by Australian composer Lyn Williams.

The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in association with the United Nations Association of Australia, present 'The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace.'  This very special concert reflects on the passing of 'the most war-torn and destructive century in human history' and looks forward in hope to a more peaceful future.

The distinctive texts are drawn from many parts of the world and from diverse religions and cultures. The captivating music takes the audience on a journey to the battlefields and beyond with stirring brass movements, haunting cello, and heavenly choral accompaniments.