Junkers was a pioneering German engineer who held many patents for his original developments in the fields of gas engine and aircraft design. He had innovative ideas about metal airplanes and flying wings, and he put them to the test—somewhat ironically, as he was purportedly a pacifist—developing warplanes for World War I. In the lead-up to World War II, the Nazis stripped Junkers of control of his company and sentenced him to house arrest. He died soon after. What was the “Sheetmetal Donkey”? More…Discuss
Don’t like your neighborhood pizzeria? Maybe it’s time to consider international pizza delivery—a tactic used until recently by many Swiss citizens trying to stretch their francs by ordering pizza from nearby German border towns, where it’s less expensive. An exception had allowed food delivery to avoid passing through customs, but it was rescinded by Swiss officials about a year ago. Although the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for the neighboring German region of Hochrhein-Bodensee lobbied for the exception to be reinstated, the Swiss customs office recently rejected the proposal. More…Discuss
BERLIN – German prosecutors say they have arrested a suspected member of the Islamic State group.
The federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement late Saturday that a 24-year-old man identified as Nils D. was arrested in Dinslaken in western Germany and his apartment was raided.
The suspect allegedly traveled to Syria in October in 2013 where he joined IS fighters. He returned to Germany in November 2014.
A local prosecutor in Duesseldorf had opened a separate terror investigation against the man in early 2014, but federal prosecutors said there was no indication that he was planning any concrete attacks. They also said his arrest was not related to the terror attacks in Paris.
Repin was born in Chuguyev, in the Kharkov Governorate (now Ukraine) of the Russian Empire into a military family. He entered military school in 1854 and in 1856 studied under Ivan Bunakov, a local icon painter. He began to paint around 1860. He met fellow artist Ivan Kramskoi and the critic Vladimir Stasov during the 1860s, and his wife, Vera Shevtsova in 1872 (they remained married for ten years). In 1874–1876 he showed at the Salon in Paris and at the exhibitions of the Itinerants’ Society in Saint Petersburg. He was awarded the title of academician in 1876.
In 1880 Repin traveled to Zaporozhye in Ukraine to gather material for the 1891 Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. His Religious Procession in Kursk Province was exhibited in 1883, and Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan in 1885. In 1892 he published the Letters on Art collection of essays. He taught at the Higher Art School attached to the Academy of Arts from 1894. In 1898 he purchased an estate, the Penates, in Kuokkala, Finland (now Repino).
In 1901 he was awarded the Legion of Honour. In 1911 he traveled with his common-law wife Natalia Nordman to the World Exhibition in Italy, where his painting 17 October 1905 and his portraits were displayed in their own separate room. In 1916 Repin worked on his book of reminiscences, Far and Near, with the assistance of Korney Chukovsky. He welcomed the Russian Revolution of 1917. Celebrations were held in 1924 in Kuokkala to mark Repin’s 80th birthday, followed by an exhibition of his works in Moscow. In 1925 a jubilee exhibition of his works was held in the Russian Museum in Leningrad. Repin died in 1930 and was buried at the Penates. >>>>>>>>>>>>> More HERE<<<<<<<<<<<
Art with a Message: Ilia_Efimovich_Repin_(1844-1930)_-_Volga_Boatmen_(1870-1873)
Clara Schumann (née Clara Josephine Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era. She exerted her influence over a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital and the tastes of the listening public. Her husband was the composer Robert Schumann. Together they encouraged Johannes Brahms. She was the first to perform publicly any work by Brahms.[1] She later premiered some other pieces by Brahms, notably the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel.[2]
Clara Josephine Wieck was born in Leipzig on 13 September 1819 to Friedrich Wieck and Marianne Wieck (née Tromlitz).[3] Marianne Tromlitz was a famous singer in Leipzig at the time and was singing solos on a weekly basis at the well-known Gewandhaus in Leipzig.[4] The differences between her parents were irreconcilable, in large part due to her father’s unyielding nature.[4] After an affair between Clara’s mother and Adolph Bargiel, her father’s friend,[5] the Wiecks divorced in 1824 and Marianne married Bargiel. Five-year-old Clara remained with her father.
Child prodigy
From an early age, Clara’s career and life was planned down to the smallest detail by her father. She daily received a one-hour lesson (in piano, violin, singing, theory, harmony, composition, and counterpoint), and two hours of practice, using the teaching methods he had developed on his own. In March 1828, at the age of eight, the young Clara Wieck performed at the Leipzig home of Dr. Ernst Carus, director of the mental hospital at Colditz Castle. There she met another gifted young pianist who had been invited to the musical evening, named Robert Schumann, who was nine years older. Schumann admired Clara’s playing so much that he asked permission from his mother to discontinue his law studies, which had never interested him much, and take music lessons with Clara’s father. While taking lessons, he took rooms in the Wieck household, staying about a year. He would sometimes dress up as a ghost and scare Clara, and this created a bond.
In 1830, at the age of eleven, Clara left on a concert tour to Paris via other European cities, accompanied by her father. She gave her first solo concert at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In Weimar, she performed a bravura piece by Henri Herz for Goethe, who presented her with a medal with his portrait and a written note saying: “For the gifted artist Clara Wieck”. During that tour, Niccolò Paganini was in Paris, and he offered to appear with her.[6] However, her Paris recital was poorly attended, as many people had fled the city due to an outbreak of cholera.[6]
At the age of 18, Clara Wieck performed a series of recitals in Vienna from December 1837 to April 1838.[7] Austria’s leading dramatic poet, Franz Grillparzer, wrote a poem entitled “Clara Wieck and Beethoven” after hearing Wieck perform the Appassionata sonata during one of these recitals.[7] Wieck performed to sell-out crowds and laudatory critical reviews; Benedict Randhartinger, a friend of Franz Schubert (1797–1828), gave Wieck an autographed copy of Schubert’s Erlkönig, inscribing it “To the celebrated artist, Clara Wieck.”[7]Frédéric Chopin described her playing to Franz Liszt, who came to hear one of Wieck’s concerts and subsequently “praised her extravagantly in a letter that was published in the Parisian Revue et Gazette Musicale and later, in translation, in the Leipzig journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.”[8] On 15 March, Wieck was named a Königliche und Kaiserliche Kammervirtuosin (“Royal and Imperial Chamber Virtuoso”), Austria‘s highest musical honor.[8]
The appearance of this artist can be regarded as epoch-making…. In her creative hands, the most ordinary passage, the most routine motive acquires a significant meaning, a colour, which only those with the most consummate artistry can give.
An anonymous music critic, writing of Clara Wieck’s 1837–1838 Vienna recitals[7]
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At its première, Beethoven was noted as remarking that it was one of his best works. The second movement, Allegretto, was the most popular movement and had to be encored. The instant popularity of the Allegretto resulted in its frequent performance separate from the complete symphony.[1]
Performance time lasts approximately 40 minutes. The work as a whole is known for its use of rhythmic devices suggestive of a dance, such as dotted rhythm and repeated rhythmic figures. It is also tonally subtle, making use of the tensions between the key centres of A, C and F. For instance, the first movement is in A major but has repeated episodes in C major and F major. In addition, the second movement is in A minor with episodes in A major, and the third movement, a scherzo, is in F major.
First movement
The first movement starts with a long, expanded introduction marked Poco sostenuto (metronome mark: quarter=69) that is noted for its long ascending scales and a cascading series of applied dominants that facilitates modulations to C major and F major. From the last episode in F major, the movement transitions to Vivace through a series of no fewer than sixty-one repetitions of the note E. The Vivace (dotted quartet=104) is in sonata form, and is dominated by lively dance-like rhythms (such as dotted rhythms), sudden dynamic changes, and abrupt modulations. In particular, the development section opens in C major and contains extensive episodes in F major. The movement finishes with a long coda, which starts similarly as the development section. The coda contains a famous twenty-bar passage consisting of a two-bar motif repeated ten times to the background a four octave deep Pedal point of an E. The critic and composer Carl Maria von Weber is said to have pronounced Beethoven “fit for a madhouse” after hearing this passage.
Second movement
The second movement in A minor has a tempo marking of Allegretto (a little lively), making it slow only in comparison to the other three movements. This movement was encored at the premiere and has remained popular since. The ostinato (repeated rhythmic figure) of a quarter note, two eighth notes and two quarter notes is heard repeatedly. This movement is structured in a double variation form. The movement begins with the main melody played by the violas and cellos. This melody is then played by the second violins while the violas and cellos play a second, but equally important melody, a melody described by George Grove as “a string of beauties hand-in-hand”.[4] Then, the first violins take the first melody while the second violins take the second. This progression culminates with the wind section playing the first melody while the first violin plays the second. After this climax, the music changes from A minor to A major as the clarinets take a calmer melody to the background of light triplets played by the violins. This section ends thirty-seven bars later with a quick descent of the strings on an A minor scale, and the first melody is resumed and elaborated upon in a strict fugato.
Third movement
The third movement is a scherzo in F major and trio in D major. Here, the trio (based on an Austrian pilgrims’ hymn[5]) is played twice rather than once. This expansion of the usual A–B–A structure of ternary form into A–B–A–B–A was quite common in other works of Beethoven of this period, such as his Fourth Symphony and String Quartet Op. 59 No. 2.
Fourth movement
The last movement is in sonata form, the coda of which contains an example, rare in Beethoven’s music, of the dynamic marking ƒƒƒ (called forte fortissimo or fortississimo). Donald Tovey, writing in his Essays in Musical Analysis, commented on this movement’s “Bacchic fury” and many other writers have commented on its whirling dance-energy: the main theme vaguely resembles Beethoven’s arrangement of the Irish folk-song “Save me from the grave and wise”, No. 8 of his Twelve Irish Folk Songs, WoO 154.
Beethoven – Symphony No.7 in A: The 10 best recordings 200 years ago on 8 December 1813, Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 was premiered. Both dramatic and dance-like, the Symphony was put to stirring use in The King’s Speech. Here are 10 very different recordings of this great work. Beethoven – Symphony No.7 in A: The 10 best recordings 200 years ago on 8 December 1813, Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 was premiered. Both dramatic and dance-like, the Symphony was put to stirring use in The King’s Speech. Here are 10 very different recordings of this great work. Read more at http://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/guides/beethoven-7-10-best/#Lxoc1ZqwVUPmrzij.99 Read more at http://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/guides/beethoven-7-10-best/#Lxoc1ZqwVUPmrzij.99 (Access by clicking on the pic!)
Carlos Kleiber conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
German-born Austrian conductor Klieber made fewer than 20 recordings. His version of Beethoven’s Seventh is often cited as the outstanding recording of the work – dramatic and urgent.
Archeologists on the Danish island of Lolland have uncovered a 5,500-year-old Neolithic axe with an intact wooden handle—an extremely rare discovery. The Stone Age artifact was found during excavations conducted prior to a tunnel project. It was unearthed in what was once seabed, perhaps deposited there as a ritual offering. Experts say the lack of oxygen in the clay where it was found likely helped to preserve the axe. Recent excavations nearby also uncovered 5,000-year-old human footprints. More…Discuss
Erich Wolfgang Korngold – Die tote Stadt – Glück das mir verblieb
(“Glück das mir verblieb” (German for “Joy, that near to me remained”) is an aria from the 1920 opera Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) by Erich Wolfgang Korngold)
A German naturalist and explorer, Humboldt traveled extensively and made observations and discoveries too numerous to count. Among other things, he discovered the connection between the Amazon and Orinoco river systems, surmised that lack of oxygen causes altitude sickness, studied the ocean current off the western coast of South America that was known for a time as the Humboldt Current, and added to an understanding of the development of the Earth’s crust. To what did he devote his final years? More…Discuss
Ernő Dohnányi (Hungarian: [ˈɛrnøː ˈdohnaːɲi]; July 27, 1877 – February 9, 1960) was a Hungarianconductor, composer and pianist. He used a German form of his name, Ernst von Dohnányi, on most of his published compositions. The “von” implies nobility, and, according to the biography by his third wife, his family was ennobled in 1697 and given a “seal,” which she describes in some detail.[1]
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness characterizes the scratch resistance of various minerals, through the ability of a harder material to scratch a softer one and not be scratched by it. While the varying hardness of stones was likely first explored around 300 BCE, German mineralogist Friedrich Mohs devised his scale in 1812. It uses 10 standards ranging from talc, the softest, with a value of 1, to diamond, the hardest, with a value of 10. Where does a fingernail fall on the Mohs scale? More…Discuss
Rilke is generally considered the German language‘s greatest 20th century lyric poet. His compositions are generally characterized by striking visual imagery, musicality, and a preponderant use of nouns. His writings include one novel, the semi-autobiographical The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge; several collections of poetry, among them Sonnets to Orpheus and Duino Elegies; and several volumes of correspondence. How did a rose thorn supposedly hasten his death? More…Discuss
The bars which pass and strike across his gaze have stunned his sight: the eyes have lost their hold. To him it seems there are athousand bars, a thousand bars, and nothing else. No World And pacing out that mean, constricted ground, so quiet, supple, powerful his stride is like a ritual dance performed around the centre where his baffled will survives.
The silent shutter of his eye sometimes slides open to admit some thing outside; an image runs through each expectant limb and penetrates his heart and dies
[youtube.com/watch?v=4rRV6L5YFJY]
Rainer Maria RILKE. Pour écrire un seul vers.
Pour écrire un seul vers
Pour écrire un seul vers, il faut avoir vu beaucoup de villes, d’hommes et de choses, il faut connaître les animaux, il faut sentir comment volent les oiseaux et savoir quel mouvement font les petites fleurs en s’ouvrant le matin. Il faut pouvoir repenser à des chemins dans des régions inconnues, à des rencontres inattendues, à des départs que l’on voyait longtemps approcher, à des jours d’enfance dont le mystère ne s’est pas encore éclairci, à ses parents qu’il fallait qu’on froissât lorsqu’ils vous apportaient une joie et qu’on ne la comprenait pas (c’était une joie faite pour un autre), à des maladies d’enfance qui commençaient si singulièrement, par tant de profondes et graves transformations, à des jours passés dans des chambres calmes et contenues, à des matins au bord de la mer, à la mer elle-même, à des mers, à des nuits de voyage qui frémissaient très haut et volaient avec toutes les étoiles, – et il ne suffit même pas de savoir penser à tout cela. Il faut avoir des souvenirs de beaucoup de nuits d’amour, dont aucune ne ressemblait à l’autre, de cris de femmes hurlant en mal d’enfant, et de légères, de blanches, de dormantes accouchées qui se refermaient. Il faut encore avoir été auprès de mourants, être resté assis auprès de morts, dans la chambre, avec la fenêtre ouverte et les bruits qui venaient par à-coups. Et il ne suffit même pas d’avoir des souvenirs. Il faut savoir les oublier quand ils sont nombreux, et il faut avoir la grande patience d’attendre qu’ils reviennent. Car les souvenirs eux-mêmes ne sont pas encore cela. Ce n’est que lorsqu’ils deviennent en nous sang, regard, geste, lorsqu’ils n’ont plus de nom et ne se distinguent plus de nous, ce n’est qu’alors qu’il peut arriver qu’en une heure très rare, du milieu d’eux, se lève le premier mot d’un vers.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926) – Les cahier de Malte Laurids Brigge.
Illustration : Rainer Maria Rilke, portrait de Helmut Westhoff.
Pour une écoute plurielle :
Chez Bernard Pivot, avec Laurent Terzieff, homme de Poésie, de Parole, de Silence. Homme du Sacré, du Visible et de l’Invisible. Homme de Lumière ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDd2bzXXkvU
Analyses of Australian dingo specimens predating the 1788 arrival of European settlers suggest that the dingo is not a kind of wild dog as previously believed but is in fact its own species. Evidence suggests that dingoes made their way to Australia some 3,000 to 5,000 years ago and bred in isolation until domestic dogs were brought to the continent by Europeans. Since that time, dingoes have widely bred with feral dogs, becoming more dog-like in both appearance and DNA and thus more difficult to classify. Given these new findings, researchers have proposed reinstating the species name Canis dingo, first adopted in 1793 by German naturalist Friedrich Meyer.More…Discuss
Johann Sebastian Bach ( Eisenach , Thuringia , March 21 . / March 31, 1685 – Leipzig , July 28, 1750 ) was an organist , harpsichordist and composer of Baroque musicGerman member of a family of musicians most extraordinary of history, with more than 35 famous composers and many outstanding performers . His reputation as an organist and harpsichordist was legendary , famed throughout Europe. Apart from the organ and harpsichord , also played the violin and the viola da gamba as well as being the first great improviser renowned music . His prolific work is considered the pinnacle of Baroque music . He was distinguished for his intellectual depth , technical perfection and artistic beauty, and also for the synthesis of various international styles of his time and of the past and unparalleled extension . Bach is considered the last great master of the art of counterpoint, which is the source of inspiration and influence to later composers and musicians from Mozart through Schoenberg , until today.
The first wife of Andrew II of Hungary, Gertrude played an active role in the political machinations of his early reign. She used her influence to advance her German relatives at court and gifted Hungarian lands to them, angering the Hungarian nobility and inciting them to action. While her husband was off on a military campaign, Gertrude was murdered by a group of discontented nobles. The unsavory affair served as the inspiration for what Hungarian composer’s famous opera, Bánk bán? More…Discuss
From Valentin: “As a stranger I arrived As a stranger I shall leave” Those are the opening words on a heartbreaking journey of gloom, grief and utter loneliness.
One of Schubert‘s friends described the day Schuber performed his newly written song cycle “Winterreise” ( Winter Jorney) : “Schubert was gloomy and depressed, and when asked the reason replied, “Come to Schober’s today and I will play you a cycle of terrifying songs; they have affected me more than has ever been the case with any other songs.” He then, with a voice full of feeling, sang the entire Winterreise for us. We were altogether dumbfounded by the sombre mood of these songs, and Schober said that one song only, “Der Lindenbaum”, had pleased him. Thereupon Schubert leaped up and replied: “These songs please me more than all the rest, and in time they will please you as well.”
As a stranger I arrived As a stranger I shall leave
I remember a perfect day in May How bright the flowers, how cool the breeze The maiden had a friendly smile The mother had kind words
But now the world is dreary With a winter path before me I can’t choose the season To depart from this place I won’t delay or ponder I must begin my journey now
The bright moon lights my path It will guide me on my road I see the snow-covered meadow I see where deer have trod
A voice within says — go now Why linger and delay? Leave the dogs to bay at the moon Before her father’s gate
For love is a thing of changes God has made it so Ever-changing from old to new God has made it so
So love delights in changes Good night, my love, good night Love is a thing of changes Good night, my love, good night
I’ll not disturb your sleep But I’ll write over your door A simple farewell message Good night, my love, good night
These are the last words spoken Soon I’ll be out of sight A simple farewell message Goodnight, my love, good night
Gute Nacht
Fremd bin ich eingezogen, Fremd zieh’ ich wieder aus. Continue reading →
A German artillery officer during World War I, Dornberger was captured and spent two years in a French prisoner-of-war camp. After his release, he studied engineering, and, beginning in 1932, directed construction of the V-2 rocket, the forerunner of all post-war spacecraft. Along with other German scientists, Dornberger was brought to the US as part of Operation Paperclip and worked as an advisor on guided missiles for the US Air Force. He became a key consultant on what major American venture? More…Discuss
[caption id="attachment_99163" align="alignnone" width="300"] CIDSE – TOGETHER FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE (CHANGE FOR THE PLANET -CARE FOR THE PROPLE-ACCESS THIS NEW WEBSITE FROM EUZICASA)[/caption]
CIDSE - TOGETHER FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE (CHANGE FOR THE PLANET -CARE FOR THE PROPLE-ACCESS THIS NEW WEBSITE FROM EUZICASA)
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