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1956 In British Music
This is a summary of 1956 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year. Events * February – Release of Shirley Bassey's first single, ''Burn My Candle (At Both Ends)''. *8 May – Benjamin Britten's opera ''Gloriana'', written in 1953, is given its US première in Cincinnati, in concert form, conducted by Josef Krips. *14 May – Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 8 receives its first London performance. *June – Arthur Bliss heads the first delegation by British musicians to the Soviet Union since the end of the Second World War. The party included the violinist Alfredo Campoli, the oboist Léon Goossens, the soprano Jennifer Vyvyan and the pianist Gerald Moore. * 13 November – The first of a series of Hoffnung Music Festival Concerts takes place at the Royal Festival Hall, in London. *31 December – Flanders and Swann launch their two-man revue ''At the Drop of a Hat''. Charts *''See UK No.1 Hits of 1956'' Classical music: new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 170 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
13 November
Events Pre-1600 *1002 – English king Æthelred II orders the killing of all Danes (ancient people), Danes in England, known today as the St. Brice's Day massacre. *1093 – Battle of Alnwick (1093), Battle of Alnwick: in an English victory over the Scots, Malcolm III of Scotland, and his son Edward, are killed. *1160 – Louis VII of France marries Adela of Champagne. 1601–1900 *1642 – First English Civil War: Battle of Turnham Green: The Cavalier, Royalist forces withdraw in the face of the Roundhead, Parliamentarian army and fail to take London. *1715 – Jacobite rising of 1715, Jacobite rising in Scotland: Battle of Sheriffmuir: The forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain halt the Jacobite advance, although the action is inconclusive. *1775 – American Revolutionary War: Patriot revolutionary forces under Gen. Richard Montgomery occupy Montreal. *1833 – Great Meteor Storm of 1833 *1841 – James Braid (surgeon), James Braid first sees ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hurdy-gurdy
The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses ''tangents''—small wedges, typically made of wood—against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible. Most hurdy-gurdies have multiple drone strings, which give a constant pitch accompaniment to the melody, resulting in a sound similar to that of bagpipes. For this reason, the hurdy-gurdy is often used interchangeably or along with bagpipes. It is mostly used in Occitan, Aragonese, Cajun French, Asturian, Cantabrian, Galician, Hungarian, and Slavic folk music. One or more of the drone strings usually passes over a loose bridge that can be made ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heckelphone
The heckelphone (german: Heckelphon) is a musical instrument invented by Wilhelm Heckel and his sons. The idea to create the instrument was initiated by Richard Wagner, who suggested it at the occasion of a visit of Wilhelm Heckel in 1879. Introduced in 1904, it is similar to the oboe but, like the bass oboe, pitched an octave lower, the heckelphone having a significantly larger bore. General characteristics The heckelphone is a double reed instrument of the oboe family, but with a wider bore and hence a heavier and more penetrating tone. It is pitched an octave below the oboe and furnished with an additional semitone taking its range down to A. It was intended to provide a broad oboe-like sound in the middle register of the large orchestrations of the turn of the twentieth century. In the orchestral repertoire it is generally used as the bass of an oboe section incorporating the oboe and the cor anglais (English horn), filling the gap between the oboes and bassoons. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Jacob
Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE (5 July 18958 June 1984) was an English composer and teacher. He was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London from 1924 until his retirement in 1966, and published four books and many articles about music. As a composer he was prolific: the list of his works totals more than 700, mostly compositions of his own, but a substantial minority of orchestrations and arrangements of other composers' works. Those whose music he orchestrated range from William Byrd to Edward Elgar to Noël Coward. Life and career Jacob was born in Upper Norwood, London, the seventh son and youngest of ten children of Stephen Jacob, and his wife, Clara Laura, ''née'' Forlong. Stephen Jacob, an official of the Indian Civil Service based in Calcutta, died when Gordon was three.Wetherell, Eric"Jacob, Gordon Percival Septimus (1895–1984), composer" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 30 October 2018 Jacob was e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (10 August 1889 – 12 May 1960) was a prolific and versatile English composer. Though best known for his choral music and, in particular, songs, Gibbs also devoted much of his career to the amateur choral and festival movements in Britain. He attained a high level of popularity: his work "Dusk" was requested by Princess Elizabeth on her 18th birthday. Biography Early years and education Gibbs was born in Great Baddow, a country village near Chelmsford in Essex, England on 10 August 1889. His maternal grandfather, a Unitarian minister who wrote a number of songs in spite of being musically untrained, was his closest musical relation. His father, David Cecil Gibbs, was the head of the well-known soap company D & W Gibbs, (Better known later for GIBBS S R Toothpaste which is now part of the Unilever group, founded by C. A. Gibbs's grandfather.) Gibbs's mother, Ida Gibbs (née) Whitehead, died on the 12th August 1891 when Gibbs was only two, having given bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Dodgson
Stephen Cuthbert Vivian Dodgson (17 March 192413 April 2013) was a British composer and broadcaster. Dodgson's prolific musical output covered most genres, ranging from opera and large-scale orchestral music to chamber and instrumental music, as well as choral works and song. Three instruments to which he dedicated particular attention were the guitar, harpsichord and recorder. He wrote in a mainly tonal, although sometimes unconventional, idiom. Some of his works use unusual combinations of instruments. Biography Stephen Dodgson was born in Chelsea, London in 1924, the third child oJohn Arthur Dodgson who was a symbolist painter and nephew of Campbell Dodgson, and his wife, who was born Margaret Valentine Pease and also an artist. He was distant cousin of Lewis Carroll. He was educated at Berkhamsted School in Hertfordshire and at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire. In 1942, he was conscripted into the Royal Navy and took part in anti-submarine warfare escorting convoys in the Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music, Davies formed a group dedicated to contemporary music called the New Music Manchester with fellow students Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Elgar Howarth and John Ogdon. Davies’s compositions include eight works for the stage—from the monodrama ''Eight Songs for a Mad King'', which shocked the audience in 1969, to ''Kommilitonen!'', first performed in 2011—and ten symphonies, written between 1973 and 2013. As a conductor, Davies was artistic director of the Dartington International Summer School from 1979 to 1984 and associate conductor/composer with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1992 to 2002, holding the latter position with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra as well. Early life and education Davies was born in Holly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Prince Of The Pagodas
''The Prince of the Pagodas'' is a ballet created for The Royal Ballet by choreographer John Cranko with music commissioned from Benjamin Britten. Its premiere took place on 1 January 1957 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, conducted by Britten. In February 1957 a recording of a slightly cut version of the score was made by Decca with Britten conducting thOrchestra of the Royal Opera House The ballet was revived at the same venue on 7 December 1989 in a new production by Kenneth MacMillan, achieving acclaim for Darcey Bussell's work in a principal role. Another production, set in Japan, was created by David Bintley for the National Ballet of Japan and premiered by that company on 30 October 2011; this was adopted by Birmingham Royal Ballet and danced in 2014 at The Lowry, Salford. Background In January 1954, Sadler's Wells Ballet announced that Cranko was collaborating with Benjamin Britten to create a ballet. Cranko devised a draft scenario for a work he originall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reginald Smith Brindle
Reginald Smith Brindle (5 January 1917 – 9 September 2003) was a British composer and writer. Early life Smith Brindle was born in Cuerdon, Lancashire, to Robert and Jane Smith Brindle. He began learning the piano at the age of six, and later took up the clarinet, saxophone and guitar (and won a ''Melody Maker'' prize for his guitar-playing). Under pressure from his parents, he began to study architecture. At the time, he was interested in jazz, and played saxophone professionally for a while alongside his studies. On attending an organ recital at Chester Cathedral in 1937, however, he was inspired to take up both the organ and composition. He spent most of World War II serving in Africa and Italy as a captain in the Corps of Royal Engineers. It was during this period that he rekindled his interest in the guitar, an instrument for which he wrote an enormous amount of music. Career After the war, Smith Brindle returned to composition. He submitted a ''Fantasia Passacaglia'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UK No
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, annexed in 1542) an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flanders And Swann
Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo. Lyricist, actor and singer Michael Flanders (1922–1975) and composer and pianist Donald Swann (1923–1994) collaborated in writing and performing comic songs. They first worked together in a school revue in 1939 and eventually wrote more than 100 comic songs together. Between 1956 and 1967, Flanders and Swann performed their songs, interspersed with comic monologues, in their long-running two-man revues ''At the Drop of a Hat'' and ''At the Drop of Another Hat'', which they toured in Britain and abroad. Both revues were recorded in concert (by George Martin), and the duo also made several studio recordings. Musical partnership Flanders and Swann both attended Westminster School (where in July and August 1940 they staged a revue called ''Go To It'') and Christ Church, Oxford, two institutions linked by ancient tradition. The pair went their separate ways during World War II, but a chance meeting in 1948 led to a musical partnershi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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