SÀMI NATIONAL HOLIDAY

The Sàmi people are indigenous to the arctic area of theNordic countries. February 6 is recognized as Sàmi National Holiday in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. This day is full of activities that celebrate the Sàmi culture. First celebrated in 1993, it has become a popular event and a time for the indigenous Sàmi people to celebrate their cultural identity. More…Discuss

 

QUOTATION: James Madison

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

James Madison (1751-1836) Discuss

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY: BEATRICE CENCI (1577)

Beatrice Cenci (1577)

Beatrice was a young Roman noblewoman whose execution for patricide aroused public sympathy and inspired various poems, novels, and dramas. Her father, Francesco, was a notoriously vicious and cruel man. After years of brutal treatment, Beatrice, her stepmother, brother, and stepbrother could take no more and had Francesco killed. Despite efforts by the people of Rome to obtain mercy for the conspirators, Pope Clement VIII was unyielding. What might have motivated him to uphold their sentences?More… Discuss

 

THIS DAY IN THE YESTERYEAR: THE WASHINGTON NAVAL TREATY IS SIGNED (1922)

The Washington Naval Treaty Is Signed (1922)

Also known as the Five-Power Treaty, the Washington Naval Treaty was an agreement signed in the wake of World War I in an effort to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. Signed by five of the major Allied Powers—Great Britain, the US, Japan, France, and Italy—the treaty limited the tonnage of aircraft carriers and capital ships and imposed proportional limits on the number of warships each signatory nation could maintain. For how long did signatories adhere to these terms? More… Discuss

 

NEWS: MUSIC VIDEO PROJECTS HELP YOUNG CANCER PATIENTS COPE

Music Video Projects Help Young Cancer Patients Cope

For most young people, writing a song and recording amusic video is mere fun, but for those battling cancer, it can prove therapeutic. Young cancer patients who worked with music therapists to write their own songs and then record them reported feeling more social support than those who simply listened toaudiobooks. They also coped with their cancer in more positive ways. Having cancer can be a socially isolating experience, but the process of expressing one’s feelings through music and video seems to improve patients’ outlook and make them feel more supported by family, friends, and medical professionals. More… Discuss

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ARTICLE: THE BALLISTA

The Ballista

The ballista is an ancient missile launcher designed to hurl long arrows or heavy balls. The largest could accurately hurl 60-pound (27-kg) weights up to about 500 yards (450 m). The Greek version was basically a huge crossbow, while the Roman ballista was powered by torsion and used two separate arms joined at their ends by the cord that propelled the missile. Once the Roman Empire declined, so too did the ballista—it was too challenging and expensive to build. Which weapons took its place? More… Discuss

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The Traitor_Martha Wainwright_Leonard Cohen_I’m Your Man_720HD-022711.avi

The Traitor_Martha Wainwright_Leonard Cohen_I’m Your Man
A divine composition based on a unique poem, made a complete Leonard Cohen pièce de résistance, and the rendition beyond the realm of words by Martha Wainwright not to forget the out of this world musical arrangement: I am so happy to be able to appreciate this historic moment of excellence in the making. The explanation given by Mr. Cohen to the meaning of the verse describes a predicament in which each and every one of us found ourselves at least once in life, which makes it our life story, within which we can dissolve completely.

The world is indeed the theater in which we’re actors, directors and spectators:

The traitor, by Leonard Cohen

Now the Swan it floated on the English river
Ah the Rose of High Romance it opened wide
A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer
and the judges watched us from the other side

I told my mother “Mother I must leave you
preserve my room but do not shed a tear
Should rumour of a shabby ending reach you
it was half my fault and half the atmosphere”

But the Rose I sickened with a scarlet fever
and the Swan I tempted with a sense of shame
She said at last I was her finest lover
and if she withered I would be to blame

The judges said you missed it by a fraction
rise up and brace your troops for the attack
Ah the dreamers ride against the men of action
Oh see the men of action falling back

But I lingered on her thighs a fatal moment
I kissed her lips as though I thirsted still
My falsity had stung me like a hornet
The poison sank and it paralysed my will

I could not move to warn all the younger soldiers
that they had been deserted from above
So on battlefields from here to Barcelona
I’m listed with the enemies of love

And long ago she said “I must be leaving,
Ah but keep my body here to lie upon
You can move it up and down and when I’m sleeping
Run some wire through that Rose and wind the Swan”

So daily I renew my idle duty
I touch her here and there — I know my place
I kiss her open mouth and I praise her beauty
and people call me traitor to my face 

Leonard Cohen: “It was called “The traitor”. It was about the feeling that we have of betraying some mission that we were mandated to fulfill, and being unable to fulfill it, and then coming to understand that the real mandate was not to fulfill it, and that the deeper courage was to stand guiltless in the predicament in which you found yourself”.

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Great Compositions/Performances: Friedrich II., Friedrich der Grosse Symphony No.3 in D major

Friedrich II., Friedrich der Grosse Symphony No.3 in D major

Friedrich II., Friedrich der Grosse Symphony No.3 in D major

1. Allegro
2. Andante – Adagio
3. Allegro scherzando

Pro Arte Orchester Munchen
Kurt Redel Conductor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frederick II (German: Friedrich II.; 24 January 1712 – 17 August 1786) was King in Prussia (1740–1786) of theHohenzollern dynasty.^[1] He is best known for his military victories, his reorganization of Prussian armies, his innovative drills and tactics, and his final success against great odds in the Seven Years’ War. He became known asFrederick the Great (Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed Der Alte Fritz (“Old Fritz“).

The young prince was interested primarily in music and philosophy rather than the arts of war. He defied his authoritarian father, Frederick William I, and sought to run away with his close friend Hans Hermann von Katte. They were caught and the king nearly executed his son for “desertion”; he did force Frederick to watch the execution of Hans. Upon ascending to the Prussian throne, he attacked Austria and claimed Silesia during the Silesian Wars, winning military acclaim for himself and Prussia. Near the end of his life, Frederick physically connected most of his realm by conquering Polish territories in the First Partition of Poland.

Frederick was a proponent of enlightened absolutism. He modernized the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service and pursued religious policies throughout his realm that ranged from tolerance to oppression.^[2] He reformed the judicial system and made it possible for men not of noble stock to become judges and senior bureaucrats. Some critics however point out his oppressive measures against conquered Polish subjects.^[3][4] He limited freedom of citizens of his country and introduced harsh compulsory military service.

Frederick supported arts and philosophers he favored, but at the same enacted several laws censoring the press. Frederick is buried at his favorite residence, Sanssouci in Potsdam. Because he died childless, Frederick was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II of Prussia, son of his brother, Prince Augustus William of Prussia.

Nearly all 19th century German historians made Frederick into a romantic model of a glorified warrior, praising his leadership, administrative efficiency, devotion to duty and success in building up Prussia to a leading role in Europe. Historian Leopold von Ranke was unstinting in his praise of Frederick’s “Heroic life, inspired by great ideas, filled with feats of arms…immortalized by the raising of the Prussian state to the rank of a power.” Johann Gustav Droysen was even more favorable.^[5] The Nazis glorified him as pre-figuring Hitler, but that was followed by a downgrading after 1945 in both East and West Germany.^[6]

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Great Compositions/Performances: Yo-Yo Ma: Tchaikovsky “Andante Cantabile” (live)

Great Compositions/Performances:  Yo-Yo Ma: Tchaikovsky “Andante Cantabile” (live)
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra‘s opening night gala concert, October 2005. Sir Andrew Davis, conductor

 

Arthur Rubinstein – Chopin Fantaisie Impromptu in C sharp Minor, Op. 66 Posth

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Great Compositions/Performances: Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition Chicago Symphony Orchestra George Solti

[youtube.com/watch?v=qkZr9acxH9A

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Music composed by Joseph-Maurice Ravel. Charles Dutoit; Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Music composed by Joseph-Maurice Ravel. Charles Dutoit; Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
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Ludwig van Beethoven – Romance for Violin & Orchestra No. 1 in G major, Op. 40

[youtube.com/watch?v=L8bcKlEP_Mo]

Emmy Verhey, Violin. Brabant Orchestra, Eduardo Marturet

 

Stats for euzicasa_ february 5 2014 12pm PST_views by Country

Stats for euzicasa_ february 5 2014 12pm PST_views by Country

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Curing Corrupt Capitalism | Blog, Perspectives | BillMoyers.com

Curing Corrupt Capitalism | Blog, Perspectives | BillMoyers.com.

CVS Plans to End Sales of Tobacco Products by Oct. 1 – NYTimes.com

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Haïku – Destiny, by George -B

Haïku – Destiny, by George -B

First the body dies
then it’s moved six feet under
headstone falls over.

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J.S.Bach: Variatio 25 from Goldberg Variations (Catrin Finch, harp)

[youtube.com/watch?v=Jtm8zfUlFdE]

J.S.Bach: Variatio 25 from Goldberg Variations 
Catrin Finch, harp

The tale of how the variations came to be composed comes from an early biography of Bach by Johann Nikolaus Forkel:
[For this work] we have to thank the instigation of the former Russian ambassador to the electoral court of Saxony, Count Kaiserling, who often stopped in Leipzig and brought there with him the aforementioned Goldberg, in order to have him given musical instruction by Bach. The Count was often ill and had sleepless nights. At such times, Goldberg, who lived in his house, had to spend the night in an antechamber, so as to play for him during his insomnia. … Once the Count mentioned in Bach’s presence that he would like to have some clavier pieces for Goldberg, which should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights. Bach thought himself best able to fulfill this wish by means of Variations, the writing of which he had until then considered an ungrateful task on account of the repeatedly similar harmonic foundation. But since at this time all his works were already models of art, such also these variations became under his hand. Yet he produced only a single work of this kind. Thereafter the Count always called them his variations. He never tired of them, and for a long time sleepless nights meant: ‘Dear Goldberg, do play me one of my variations.’ Bach was perhaps never so rewarded for one of his works as for this. The Count presented him with a golden goblet filled with 100 louis-d’or. Nevertheless, even had the gift been a thousand times larger, their artistic value would not yet have been paid for.
Forkel wrote his biography in 1802, more than 60 years after the events related, and its accuracy has been questioned. The lack of dedication on the title page of the “Aria with Diverse Variations” also makes the tale of the commission unlikely. Goldberg’s age at the time of publication (14 years) has also been cited as grounds for doubting Forkel’s tale, although it must be said that he was known to be an accomplished keyboardist and sight-reader. In a recent book-length study, keyboardist and Bach scholar Peter Williams contends that the Forkel story is entirely spurious.
The aria on which the variations are based was suggested by Arnold Schering not to have been written by Bach. More recent scholarly literature (such as the edition by Christoph Wolff) suggests that there is no basis for such doubts.
After a statement of the aria at the beginning of the piece, there are thirty variations. The variations do not follow the melody of the aria, but rather use its bass line and chord progression.
Variation 25 is the third and last variation in G minor; a three-part piece, it is marked adagio in Bach’s own copy and is in 3/4 time. The melody is written out predominantly in 16th and 32nd notes, with many chromaticisms. This variation generally lasts longer than any other piece of the set.
Wanda Landowska famously described this variation as “the black pearl” of the Goldberg Variations. Peter Williams writes that “the beauty and dark passion of this variation make it unquestionably the emotional high point of the work”, and Glenn Gould said that “the appearance of this wistful, weary cantilena is a master-stroke of psychology.” In an interview with Gould, Tim Page described this variation as having an “extraordinary chromatic texture”; Gould agreed: “I don’t think there’s been a richer lode of enharmonic relationships any place between Gesualdo and Wagner.”

For many years Catrin has delighted audiences with her performances in the UK and worldwide. Inspired to learn the harp at the age of five, her rise to prominence started almost immediately, achieving the highest mark in the UK for her Grade VIII exam at the age of nine. She studied with Elinor Bennett for eight years before entering the Purcell School. Catrin graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2002 where she studied with Skaila Kanga and received the Queen’s Award for the most outstanding student of her year. More about Catrin Finch: http://www.catrinfinch.com
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Hannibal (2001) – Opera Scene ‘Vide Cor Meum’

[youtube.com/watch?v=Lv_167Znr6M]

Published on Mar 27, 2013

“Vide Cor Meum” is a song composed by Patrick Cassidy based on Dante’s “La Vita Nuova“, specifically on the sonnet “A ciascun’alma presa”, in chapter 3 of the “Vita Nuova”. The song first appeared in the movie Hannibal (2001), while Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Inspector Pazzi see an outdoor opera in Florence, Italy.