The
Pickwick Portfolio
May
2015
In this issue:
- “A Unique Creature” by Theodore Winstint
- “The Renaissance: a Rebirth” by Theodore Winstint
- “Showing Kindness and Courtesy” by Augustus Snodgrass
- “Things That Make Me Happy” by Augustus Snodgrass
- “Thoughts about Spring” by Sam Weller
- “What I Expect from Life” by Augustus Snodgrass
- “Identifying Nature: Flowers” by Nathaniel Winkle
- Quotes to Note – compiled by Augustus Snodgrass, Sam Weller, Theodore Winstint
- Note-able Composers –“Alessandro Scarlatti” compiled by Augustus Snodgrass“Johannes Brahms” compiled by Augustus Snodgrass“Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky” compiled by Augustus Snodgrass“Gabriel Faure” compiled by Augustus Snodgrass“Claudio Monteverdi” compiled by Augustus Snodgrass“Richard Wagner” compiled by Augustus Snodgrass“Isaac Albeniz” compiled by Augustus Snodgrass
- Story Time – “C. S. Lewis” by Sam Weller
- Poet’s Corner – “The Birthplace” by Robert Frost
“Mountains at Sunset” by Kathleen
Davidson
“The
Last Defile” by Amy Carmichael
“Jabberwocky” by Lewis
Carroll
EDITOR’S NOTE
This paper is part of a club
called “The Pickwick Club.” “The Pickwick Portfolio,” as this
paper is called, is designed for the good of the readers. Its purpose
is to serve as a paper of news, entertainment, and fun. Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Augustus Snodgrass
READ, LAUGH, ENJOY!
A UNIQUE CREATURE
by Theodore Winstint
Imagine walking
and exploring through the safari when all of a sudden you meet an
animal that is as tall as a tree and its skin colour is grey and
dirty? Guessing the animal this is speaking of is not too hard,
because of the grey colour hint. It is the elephant. Elephants are
large mammals and are represented by three species. These animals
have their habitat in Asia and Africa in various climates, which
makes studying them interesting. Although some species of elephants
like to live in desert-like areas, others would prefer wet climates.
By having a very interesting appearance, elephants are very unique.
Vitally important is their way of communication and it greatly
affects their behaviour.
Appearing
majestic and impressive, elephants use these tools to display some of
their characteristics. Since these animals are huge, they weigh 4000
kilograms. The trunk is long. Heavily weighted objects can be lifted
and moved using this handy tool of the elephants, because they have
massive muscles in their trunk. By using their ears, elephants can
fan themselves, which is extremely useful in the hot summer days of
the safari. Immense in size, the elephants still have the ability to
quietly sneak as a mouse. Majestic is the elephant’s appearance,
although it is sometimes unusual.
In behaviour,
the elephant normally is very gentle but sometimes acts peculiar. He
never forgets any human who hurt him in any way. On the other hand,
the elephant never forgets someone who was kind to him. Friendly
humans call him a gentle and forgiving giant. Sometimes, they
suddenly take flight. This happens when humans usually did not hear
anything, and therefore this is a rather peculiar behaviour of the
elephant. An interesting behaviour of the elephants is that
occasionally a society will act cruelly. When the dominant male or
king becomes old, a few young elephants gang together and drive the
old chief away, because they think that the old elephant is not able
to lead them anymore. Behaving gently for most of the time, the
elephant sometimes acts peculiar.
In addition to
the sounds that we hear, the elephants use infrasound, which is a
rumbling that humans cannot hear, to communicate. Humans can hear
sounds in a range of about ten octaves, while the elephants can hear
two octaves higher than we can. Using infrasonic and high-pitched
sounds, elephants can converse and communicate while grazing. They
can hear these sounds from up to five kilometers away. Usually the
females are the ones who talk. The males listen. While the elephants
use infrasound to communicate, they also use it to track their
families. Clearly, the infrasonic rumblings elephants use are
extremely important, because they use it to talk and communicate with
each other.
The elephant’s
appearance is fascinating. Notably, their behaviour is also affected
by their extraordinary yet effective way of communication.
Communication clearly is the most significant characteristic which
sets the elephant apart from other animals. Using infrasound, they
can communicate and converse with each other without other animals
hearing them. If a herd of elephants is planning to attack some
animal, they can notify each other without scaring their prey away,
because of their ability to use infrasonic sounds. Infrasound also
allows the elephants to communicate even if they are five
kilometres away from each other. By studying elephants, one will find
that they are a very unique creature helpful to mankind.
THE RENAISSANCE: A REBIRTH
by Theodore Winstint
Suddenly, someone is telling you,
a scientist, that what you are teaching and believing is not true.
What would you feel like? Or what if there would be an invention to
produce a very expensive item in large quantities and therefore
reduce the price drastically? The years 1300 to 1600 included many of
such instances, and because of this, this era was named the
Renaissance. It was a rebirth. It was a revival. It was a renewal.
Earlier, the “Middle Ages” were dark, and exceedingly little was
accomplished. During the Renaissance, it was the total opposite. The
countries most affected by this age were France, Germany, England,
Italy, and the Low Countries. Including much more drama than just
inventions and discoveries, the Renaissance era contained the Hundred
Years War, which was fought among the French and English, and the
Black Death, while a power war among the Roman Catholic Church and
the Holy Roman Empire was also part of this era. Artists became
interested and inspired again in particular by the ancient Greek and
Roman architecture. While the field of science also held many
interesting and helpful discoveries in store for Renaissance era
scientists. Also, many inventions were made, including the printing
press.
Art during the Renaissance changed
greatly. Also, becoming very popular during this time was the
architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. Unconcerned about finances,
famous artists did not have to worry about making enough money to
live on, because patrons were valuing and paying high amounts for
paintings and statues, as people today pay high amounts to see
musicians perform. Notably, many of these paintings and statues still
trade in for a large amount of money today. Because of the
distribution of more printed books, the new ideas of art and
architecture were spread quickly. One famous artist of the
Renaissance was Leonardo da Vinci, whose paintings included the “Mona
Lisa” and the “Last Supper.” These paintings are among the most
well known and well recognized today. The famous sculptor,
Michelangelo, who sculpted “‘Pieta’ in Rome and the ‘David’
in Florence”(Nat’l Geo Almanac page 165), also lived during this
time. Significantly, he studied the human form, which made him
capable of sculpting accurate resemblances of people. Raphael,
although not quite as famous as the previously mentioned artists, was
known to bring proportion and harmony into his drawings. Clearly,
Renaissance art was realistic. While there was a renewed interest in
art, the world of science also got more attention, and many
discoveries were made during the Renaissance.
When science during this era
advanced greatly, it was because of a revival of interest to study
science. Interested in all fields of science, people were studying
everything starting from plants to animals to humans, while many
investigations also included astronomy and geology. Nicolaus
Copernicus, who was a famous yet not so well loved scientist during
this time, stated, taught and “realized that the Earth moved
around the sun,” although he did not dare “publish his views
until he was actually on his deathbed” (Kingfisher page 203).
Notably, today this is the accepted theory. But what was the world’s
reaction at the time of the discovery? Because of the church’s
insisting the Earth was the center of the universe, Copernicus had
great opposition during his lifetime concerning this theory. This
greatly hindered his work. Nevertheless, Tycho Brahe and Johannes
Kepler carried on his work after he died. In fact, these scientists
were unconsciously laying the groundwork for the scientific
revolution. It was clear that much was learned in science during the
Renaissance, which was the result of a renewed interest to study it,
but the most dramatic change done during this time was the invention
of the printing press.
There has scarcely been nor will
be another invention that changed the world as much as did the
printing press. In the 1450s, Johan Gutenberg invented the printing
press. Before the printing press was invented, scribes copied entire
books by hand, which often took many months to complete. Only the
wealthiest people could afford books then, because they were very
expensive. In fact, even they did not usually have a great, grand,
and glorious collection. When the printing press was introduced,
books were able to be produced quickly and cheaply. Finally, this
made them available to the people of the middle class. Books helped
spread new ideas. Living during this time, Shakespeare, as stated in
the National Geographic Almanac, is:
“held to be a writer for all
times. Nevertheless, he was first a man of the English Renaissance,
and the humanist and classical trends of the time can be seen clearly
in plays such as Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra,
and many others. Utopian ideas shine forth in The Tempest. In
his attention to the human condition, his broad interests in all
aspects of the world, and his joy in his native language,
Shakespeare, who lived from 1564 to 1616, is a prime example of a
Renaissance man – though not as popular in his own time as he would
come to be in the 19th century.” (Nat’l Geo Almanac
page 167)
Thus, printed books changed the
world as probably nothing else would.
Undoubtedly, because of a great
change in the art culture; because of the great advances in science;
because the printing press, which is perhaps the most influential
invention, was invented, the Renaissance is one of the most important
time periods in the history of the world. Although the advances in
science played a great and tremendous role in change of history, it
was the invention of the printing press that most changed the world.
Before Johan Gutenberg invented it, books were written by hand and
thus took a lot of time. Therefore, books were scarce. Because of the
scarceness of books, they were also expensive, as precious stones are
today. The printing press allowed people to produce many more books
in a shorter amount of time, and, in effect, books were a lot
cheaper. This enabled lower class people to also buy books. Being
able to spread new ideas much more quickly, inventors and scientists
were writing and publishing more books. Lower class people also had
the opportunity to be more educated, which gave them a whole new
world of opportunities. Clearly, the Renaissance is one of the most
fascinating and changing time eras in world history.
SHOWING
KINDESS AND COURTESY
by Augustus
Snodgrass
I have witnessed many incidents in
which someone showed kindness or courtesy, but I know of one family,
whose kindness and courtesy stands out to me. If they are present at
a trip or anywhere one goes, one is almost guaranteed that one of
them will be standing at the doors and holding them open for
everyone. They seem to see everyone’s needs, and one does not feel
like they only have eyes for themselves and ignore everyone else. If
one word should describe them, it would be “selfless.” Every one
of the family is so pleasant to be around, and after being with them,
one feels inspired to be like them…to have one’s eyes open for
others. They are always sincere and ready to help. Imagine if
everyone in today’s world would see the needs and wants of
others…never to be in a hurry to finish what they themselves set
out to do, but to be ready to help whenever their help is needed. Let
us look for opportunities to help others and to be a blessing for
those around us.
THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY
by Augustus Snodgrass
There are many things that make me
happy, and I want to tell you about some of them. First of all,
certain foods make me happy, because I enjoy them. Chocolate is
definitely one of them! I mean, who does not love the feeling of the
silky texture rolling over their tongue? Whether just pure chocolate
or chocolate in a croissant, chocolate is one of my favorite things.
I also absolutely love “Wareneki,” which are Mennonite perogies
with a cottage cheese mixture inside and sweet rhubarb sauce on top.
Besides food, I enjoy running. After a nice, hard run, one feels
fresh and ready to get back to lots of school work! I also like just
relaxing in my bungee chair, maybe grabbing my computer, and editing
the Pickwick Portfolio! There is nothing better than reading good
literature written by fellow literature-lovers! Most importantly,
reading God’s Word makes me feel happy, comforted, and loved. When
I read about how He loves us so much, cares for us, and will never
leave our side, how can I feel sad or lonely? Finally, I think it is
important to list the things that make one happy. Focusing on happy
things boosts your spirit and mood! I also love good quotes, and so I
will leave you with a very special quote that I think is very
applicable: “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy,
that makes happiness.” – Charles Spurgeon
THOUGHTS ABOUT SPRING
by Sam Weller
Well, spring is
finally here! At long last the snow is gone, the robins have come,
eggs are in nests, and the trees are budding. Gardens are being
planted, the earth is soft and moist. Everything lives and breathes
life. Be sure you don't miss it! This fresh change comes but once a
year…soon it will be hot, and you will wish it was cold. Soon,
things will be dry, and you will wish it was wet; so don't miss what
is happening NOW! Go outside…RIGHT NOW. Run barefoot in the grass;
do cartwheels in the sun (or rain!). Find a robin's nest, and watch
the eggs! Weave a crown out of budding leaves, and wear it. Don't
worry about being dirty; revel in the mud! Enjoy, and breath in the
life. Don't miss it!
WHAT I EXPECT
FROM LIFE
by Augustus
Snodgrass
Many people have visions or dreams
of what they expect their future and the rest of their life should
look like and bring…perhaps riches, beauty, fame, a successful
career, or a family. We all want to be well off financially, so that
we can obtain anything we want and live a comfortable life. Beauty
brings popularity and fame, and fame feels good, at least as long as
it lasts. A successful career also brings fame and money, and a
family is a part of many people’s dreams; but is that all that life
has to offer? Are these your goals and ideals of life on earth? Is
there not so, so much more that we should strive for and work
towards? Are we in control of the future? Will a comfortable life or
popularity give you true happiness? Will pleasing men here on earth
satisfy your soul? Is not pleasing God a much higher and more
desirable calling? Can God not satisfy so much better and make your
life complete? God has so much more to offer than all material things
of the world! God has a plan for your life, whether it agrees with
your own plan or not. Following His plan will make you so much
happier. Living in a shack without any money, feeling completely
unloved and forgotten, but having God has your Friend would be a
thousand times a happier life than the life of one who owns
everything imaginable. Do you not want to try out the wonderful life
God has planned for you? Imagine all the blessing you could receive
and give on to others if God’s blessing and approval were on
everything you did! This is what I expect from life…I expect God to
bless and protect me from sin, because He said in His Word: “He
stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who
walk uprightly; He guards the path of justice, And preserves the way
of His saints.” (Proverbs 2:7-8) I know He will not leave my side,
as long as I follow in His footsteps and walk where he wants me to
walk. Let us forget our own plans and dreams and following where He
leads. His plan is always the better one!
IDENTIFYING NATURE: FLOWERS
by Nathaniel Winkle
They say that
April showers bring May flowers, but do you know what you are looking
at? Perhaps you are a gardener and know every flower on this list. (I
certainly can't tell a petunia from a pansy!) If you are not into
gardening but wish to try, I hope your garden makes it; (I have tried
my hand at it, and, year after year, only the peas survive.) but, “If
at first you don't succeed, plant and water again.” This list will
help you identify flowers you may want to plant in your garden, as
well as flowers that are probably already growing there. I am sure it
won't be necessary to point out to you what a dandelion looks like.
(If you don't know, count yourself lucky!)
Queen Anne's Lace
Daffodils
Buttercup
Daisy
Lily
(there are many types of lilies in many different colors.)
Petunia
Pansy
Morning Glory
Black-eyed Susan
Tulip
Marigold
Rose
Forget-me-nots
Bluebells
Poppy
Lilac
Azalea
Trillium Grandiflorum, Ontario's provincial flower
(You may have
heard that it is illegal to pick a Trillium in Ontario; you could get
into trouble picking a Trillium on public property or land owned by
conservation. There are exceptions though…if you are lucky enough
to have one growing in your backyard. Legal stuff aside, if you pick
the leaves of the flowers, the plant will die. The plant will grow a
new flower every spring if the leaves are intact.)
QUOTES TO NOTE
compiled by Augustus Snodgrass,
Sam Weller, and Theodore Winstint
“My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.” – Mitch Hedberg
“A man doesn't know what he knows until he knows what he doesn't know.” – Laurence J. Peter
“A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself.” – Unknown
“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.” – Unknown
“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” – Margaret Mead
“All right, everyone line up alphabetically according to your height.” – Casey Stengel
“A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their picture on silence.” – Leopold Stokowski
“Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the minds and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.” – Unknown
"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." – Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard's Egg
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw
“Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.” – Garrison Keillor
“Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope, renewal, and new life.” – Janine di Giovanni
“Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.” – Joseph Campbell
“Quality is not an act, it is a habit.” – Aristotle
“While we are postponing, life speeds by.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“Talent does what it can; genius does what it must.” – Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
“There is no such thing as a good tax.” – Winston Churchill
“Better to fight for something than live for nothing.” – George S. Patton
NOTE-ABLE COMPOSERS
ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI
compiled by Augustus Snodgrass
Happy Birthday, Alessandro Scarlatti!Alessandro Scarlatti (May 2, 1660 – October 22, 1725) was an Italian Baroque composer, especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.
Perhaps one of Scarlatti’s most famous pieces of music is Telemaco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mx1108NGpc.
JOHANNES BRAHMS
compiled by Augustus Snodgrass
Happy Birthday, Johannes Brahms!
Johannes
Brahms
(May 7, 1833 – April 3, 1897) was a German composer and pianist.
Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his
professional life in Vienna, Austria. In his lifetime, Brahms's
popularity and influence were considerable. He is sometimes grouped
with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the
"Three Bs", a comment originally made by the
nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Brahms
composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for
voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own
works; he worked with some of the leading performers of his time,
including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim
(the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples
of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising
perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others
unpublished.
Brahms
is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music
is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of
the Baroque and Classical masters. He was a master of counterpoint,
the complex and highly disciplined art for which Johann Sebastian
Bach is famous, and of development, a compositional ethos pioneered
by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and
other composers. Brahms aimed to honor the “purity” of these
venerable “German” structures and advance them into a Romantic
idiom, in the process creating bold new approaches to harmony and
melody. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his
contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent
figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The
diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting
point and an inspiration for a generation of composers.
Perhaps
one of Brahms’s most famous pieces of music is Hungarian Dance No.
5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X9LvC9WkkQ.
PYOTR
ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
compiled by Augustus Snodgrass
Happy
Birthday, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky!
Pyotr
Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(May 7, 1840 – November 6, 1893), often anglicised as Peter
Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
was a Russian composer whose works included symphonies, concertos,
operas, ballets, chamber music, and a choral setting of the Russian
Orthodox Divine Liturgy. Some of these are among the most popular
theatrical music in the classical repertoire. He was the first
Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression
internationally, which he bolstered with appearances as a guest
conductor later in his career in Europe and the United States. One of
these appearances was at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall in
New York City in 1891. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884 by Emperor
Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension in the late 1880s.
Although
musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a
civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a musical career in
Russia at that time, and no system of public music education. When an
opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint
Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal
Western-oriented teaching he received there set him apart from
composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the
Russian composers of The Five, with whom his professional
relationship was mixed. Tchaikovsky's training set him on a path to
reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to
which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation,
he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style—a task that did
not prove easy. The principles that governed melody, harmony and
other fundamentals of Russian music ran completely counter to those
that governed Western European music; this seemed to defeat the
potential for using Russian music in large-scale Western composition
or from forming a composite style, and it caused personal antipathies
that dented Tchaikovsky's self-confidence. Russian culture exhibited
a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having
drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great, and
this resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia of the
country's national identity.
Despite
his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by
personal crises and depression. Contributory factors included his
leaving his mother for boarding school, his mother's early death, as
well as that of his close friend and colleague Nikolai Rubinstein,
and the collapse of the one enduring relationship of his adult life,
his 13-year association with the wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck. His
homosexuality, which he kept private, has traditionally also been
considered a major factor, though some musicologists now downplay its
importance. His sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed
to cholera; there is an ongoing debate as to whether it was
accidental or self-inflicted.
While
his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions
were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently
representative of native musical values and were suspicious that
Europeans accepted it for its Western elements. In apparent
reinforcement of the latter claim, some Europeans lauded Tchaikovsky
for offering music more substantive than base exoticism, and thus
transcending stereotypes of Russian classical music. Tchaikovsky's
music was dismissed as “lacking in elevated thought,” according
to longtime New
York Times
music critic Harold C. Schonberg, and its formal workings were
derided as deficient for not stringently following Western
principles.
Perhaps
one of Tchaikovsky’s most famous pieces of music is Romeo
and Juliet
“Fantasy Overture”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psFHjnIaaFU.
GABRIEL FAURE
compiled by Augustus Snodgrass
Happy
Birthday, Gabriel Faure!
Gabriel
Urbain Fauré
(May 12, 1845 – November 4, 1924) was a French composer,
organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French
composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many
20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane,
Requiem,
nocturnes for piano and the songs “Après un rêve” and “Clair
de lune.” Although his best-known and most accessible compositions
are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most
highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and
melodically complex style.
Fauré
was born into a cultured but not especially musical family. His
talent became clear when he was a small boy. At the age of nine, he
was sent to a music college in Paris, where he was trained to be a
church organist and choirmaster. Among his teachers was Camille
Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend. After graduating from the
college in 1865, Fauré earned a modest living as an organist and
teacher, leaving him little time for composition. When he became
successful in his middle age, holding the important posts of organist
of the Église de la Madeleine and director of the Paris
Conservatoire, he still lacked time for composing; he retreated to
the countryside in the summer holidays to concentrate on composition.
By his last years, Fauré was recognized in France as the leading
French composer of his day. An unprecedented national musical tribute
was held for him in Paris in 1922, headed by the president of the
French Republic. Outside France, Fauré’s music took decades to
become widely accepted, except in Britain, where he had many admirers
during his lifetime.
Fauré's
music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the
modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was
born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death,
jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being
heard. The Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
which describes him as the most advanced composer of his generation
in France, notes that his harmonic and melodic innovations influenced
the teaching of harmony for later generations. During the last twenty
years of his life, he suffered from increasing
deafness.
In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his works from this
period are sometimes elusive and withdrawn in character, and at other
times turbulent and impassioned.
Perhaps
one of Faure’s most famous pieces of music is Requiem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnilUPXmipM.
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
compiled by Augustus Snodgrass
Happy
Birthday, Claudio Monterverdi!
Claudio
Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi
(May 15, 1567 (baptized) – November 29, 1643) was an Italian
composer, gambist, singer and Roman Catholic priest.
Monteverdi's
work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the change from the
Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He
developed two styles of composition – the heritage of Renaissance
polyphony and the new basso continuo technique of the Baroque.
Monteverdi wrote one of the earliest operas, L'Orfeo,
a novel work that is the earliest surviving opera still regularly
performed. He is widely recognized as an inventive composer who
enjoyed considerable fame in his life-time.
Perhaps
one of Monteverdi’s most famous pieces of music is “Magnificat”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RajAq0Yd-s4.
RICHARD
WAGNER
compiled
by Augustus Snodgrass
Happy
Birthday, Richard Wagner!
Wilhelm
Richard Wagner
(May 22, 1813 – February 13, 1883) was a German composer,
theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known
for his operas (or, as some of his later works were later known,
“music dramas”). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both
the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially
establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic
vein of Weber and Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionized opera through his
concept of the “Gesamtkunstwerk”
(“total work of art”), by which he sought to synthesize the
poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to
drama, and which was announced in a series of essays between 1849 and
1852. Wagner realized these ideas most fully in the first half of the
four-opera cycle Der
Ring des Nibelungen
(The
Ring of the Nibelung). His
compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for
their complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the
elaborate use of leitmotifs—musical phrases associated with
individual characters, places, ideas, or plot elements. His advances
in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly
shifting tonal centers, greatly influenced the development of
classical music. His Tristan
und Isolde
is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music.
Wagner
had his own opera house built, the “Bayreuth Festspielhaus,”
which embodied many novel design features. It was here that the Ring
and Parsifal
received their premieres and where his most important stage works
continue to be performed in an annual festival run by his
descendants. His thoughts on the relative contributions of music and
drama in opera were to change again, and he reintroduced some
traditional forms into his last few stage works, including Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg
(The
Mastersingers of Nuremberg).
Until
his final years, Wagner's life was characterized by political exile,
turbulent love affairs, poverty, and repeated flight from his
creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama, and politics
have attracted extensive comment in recent decades, especially where
they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be
traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century; their
influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy,
literature, the visual arts and theatre.
Perhaps
one of Wagner’s most famous pieces of music is Der
Ring des Nibelungen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HujjNQPv2U.
ISAAC
ALBENIZ
compiled
by Augustus Snodgrass
Happy
Birthday, Isaac Albeniz!
Isaac
Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual
(May 29, 1860 – May 18, 1909) was a Spanish pianist and composer
best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms.
Transcriptions of many of his pieces, such as “Asturias”
(“Leyenda”),
“Granada,”
“Sevilla,” “Cádiz,” “Córdoba,”
“Cataluña,”
and the Tango
in D,
are important pieces for classical guitar, though he never composed
for the guitar. The personal papers of Isaac Albéniz are preserved,
among other institutions, in the “Biblioteca de Catalunya.”
Perhaps
one of Albeniz’s most famous pieces of music is “Asturias”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEfFbuT3I6A.
Note:
Summaries of composers’ lives taken from Wikipedia.
STORY TIME
C. S. LEWIS
by Sam Weller
“I have seen
landscapes…which, under a particular light, make me feel that at
any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge.” Do
you know who said that? C. S. Lewis did, about some mountains he had
seen, and those mountains later became some of the inspiration for
The Chronicles of Narnia.
In this little piece, I will be telling you about my literary hero,
C.S. Lewis. Clive Staples Lewis, or Jack to his friends and family,
was born November 29, 1898, in Belfast Ireland. His only sibling was
his older brother Warren. Jack had a rather turbulent childhood. He
was tutored until his mother died when he was only ten; then he was
sent to school. In the next five years, he would move to four
different schools. It was during this time of change that Jack became
an atheist. Eventually, when he was fifteen, he was once again
tutored, and continued his education this way until his time at
Oxford. Before Jack was able to enter Oxford, he was drafted into the
army during World War I, when he was nineteen. He fought in the
trenches and was wounded. Upon his recovery, he was sent to a post in
England, but soon after was demobilized. He enrolled in Oxford, and
won several honors and awards there. Jack was also a part of the
Inklings group. The Inklings was an “…informal discussion
society…” comprised of himself, his brother Warren, J. R. R.
Tolkien (a very close friend of Jack's), and a few other literary
friends. Jack held various different academic positions at Cambridge
University and Oxford University. One of these positions was the
chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature. His work at these
universities continued for nearly thirty years. Jack was converted
back to Christianity in 1929 with the help of J. R. R. Tolkien and
Hugo Dyson. When World War II began, Jack tried to re-enlist,
offering to train cadets, but he was refused. Why? I don't exactly
know; maybe it was because of his past injuries, maybe not. Anyhow,
he was offered a position writing columns for the Ministry of
Information, but refused, saying he didn't want to “write lies.”
He did take in children evacuees, and eventually served on the Home
Guard in Oxford, which was an internal defence system, should England
be invaded. In 1956, Jack married Joy Davidman Gresham, who had two
sons, David and Douglas. They lived together for around four years;
then she died in 1960. Jack passed away himself three years later on
November 22, 1963. But Jack had left behind a legacy of writing,
which now is some of the world's most well loved literature. Some of
his greatest works are The Screwtape
Letters, The
Space Trilogy, The
Allegory of Love, Mere
Christianity, and The
Chronicles of Narnia.
Okay, so now
you know a little bit about C.S. Lewis; but why is he my personal
literary hero? Well, most importantly, he wrote The
Chronicles of Narnia! To me, that is a
good enough reason, but I'll give a few more. The way he wrote The
Chronicles is just astounding. He
writes so simply, so matter-of-factly, yet he can rivet you to the
pages and captivate you. He will add little bits of humor that make
you laugh out loud. He makes the characters so real and human and
easy to relate to. He doesn't spend pages and pages describing the
setting or what is happening but gives you just enough information to
picture it and lets you make up the rest. When he describes magically
beautiful midnight dances around
a fire with
dryads and fauns under the light of the dancing stars, it's like he
has been there, that he has danced with them, and he is describing a
pleasant memory to you. It's like he has drawn a picture of the scene
with his words. It's a very simple picture, but somehow, you see
everything perfectly. You can feel that he believes the impossible:
that magic lands, talking beasts, flying horses, magic portals,
fauns, centaurs, and dryads all exist, and he encourages you to
believe it, too...to let your imagination soar and grow. I'm sure
that he would not think you silly if, at any age, you came to him
saying you believed in Narnia or any other magic land, for that
matter! To me, C.S. Lewis is like the kindred spirit I have never
met. I love that he enjoyed good literature, that he encouraged one's
imagination, that he enjoyed fairy tales, and thought that children
should be allowed to read them. I love how he weaves moral and
Biblical truths into his stories. It feels sometimes that through his
characters he is speaking wisdom to you and sharing his opinion. I
love his sense of humour, his style of writing. I love that he
enjoyed eating and reading at the same time...that he loved a big cup
of tea and a long book…that he understood what it felt like to be
carried to another place and time. He even said, “But in reading
great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself.”
For these reasons, C.S. Lewis is my favorite author. For these
reasons I love The Chronicles of Narnia
the way I do. To close, here is the dedication found at the beginning
of The Lion, the Witch, and the
Wardrobe. It says:
To Lucy Barfield
My dear Lucy,
I wrote this
story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow
quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy
tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older
still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy
tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust
it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to
hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be
your affectionate Godfather,
C. S. Lewis
POET’S
CORNER
THE BIRTHPLACE
by Robert Frost
Here
further up the mountain slope
Than there
was ever any hope,
My father
built, enclosed a spring,
Strung
chains of wall round everything,
Subdued the
growth of earth to pass,
And brought
our various lives to pass.
A dozen
girls and boys we were.
The
mountain seemed to like the stir,
And made of
us a little while–
With always
something in her smile.
Today she
wouldn’t know our name.
(No girl’s,
of course, has stayed the same.)
The
mountain pushed us off her knees.
And now her lap is full of trees.
MOUNTAINS AT SUNSET
by Kathleen Davidson
Like aged
squaws the mountains crouch and huddle
To warm
their bony hands
Above the
embers of the flaming sunset.
In little
bands
They
huddle, and their snowy tresses
Are
dazzling with silver, then with gold.
For one
long moment, young they are and tender,
Then
suddenly grey and old.
Slowly they
draw their shawls of mist around them
To dream
the dreams of those
Who know
eternity and stars as you and I know
Moments, or the dewdrops on a rose.
THE LAST DEFILE
by Amy Carmichael
Make us
Thy mountaineers;
We would
not linger on the lower slope,
Fill us
afresh with hope, O God of Hope,
That
undefeated we may climb the hill
As seeing
Him who is invisible.
Let us die
climbing. When this little while
Lies far
behind us, and the last defile
Is all
alight, and in that light we see
Our Leader and our Lord, what will it be?
JABBERWOCKY
by Lewis Carroll
‘Twas
brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre
and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy
were the borogoves,
And the
mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware
the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws
that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the
Jubjub bird, and shun
The
frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took
his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time
the manxome foe he sought–
So rested
he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood
awhile in thought.
And, as in
uffish thought he stood,
The
Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came
whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And
burbled as it came!
One, two!
One, two! And through and through
The vorpal
blade when snicker-snack!
He left it
dead, and with its head
He went
galumphing back.
“And has
thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my
arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous
day! Callooh, Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
He chortled in his joy.
‘Twas
brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre
and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy
were the borogoves,
And the
mome raths outgrabe.
