Opus Clavicembalisticum
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Opus Clavicembalisticum
''Opus clavicembalisticum'' is a work for solo piano composed by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, completed on 25 June 1930. It is notable for its length and difficulty: at the time of its completion it was the longest piano piece in existence. Its duration is around 4–4½ hours, depending on tempo. Several of Sorabji's later works, such as the ''Symphonic Variations for Piano'' (which last probably about nine hours) are even longer. At the time of its completion, it was possibly the most technically demanding solo piano work in existence due, for the most part, to its extreme length and rhythmic complexity and to the vast resources of physical and mental stamina demanded by its many passages of transcendental virtuosity, although some works conceived by New Complexity, modernist and avant-garde composers, along with Sorabji himself, were more difficult still; it is in this particular area that ''Opus clavicembalisticum'' primarily receives its notoriety, and to this day is stil ...
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Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (born Leon Dudley Sorabji; 14 August 1892 – 15 October 1988) was an English composer, music critic, pianist and writer whose music, written over a period of seventy years, ranges from sets of miniatures to works lasting several hours. One of the most prolific 20th-century composers, he is best known for his piano pieces, notably nocturnes such as ''Gulistān'' and ''Villa Tasca'', and large-scale, technically intricate compositions, which include seven symphonies for piano solo, four toccatas, ''Sequentia cyclica'' and ''100 Transcendental Studies''. He felt alienated from English society by reason of his homosexuality and mixed ancestry, and had a lifelong tendency to seclusion. Sorabji was educated privately. His mother was English and his father a Parsi businessman and industrialist from India, who set up a trust fund that freed his family from the need to work. Although Sorabji was a reluctant performer and not a virtuoso, he played so ...
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Cadenza
In music, a cadenza (from it, cadenza, link=no , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvisation, improvised or written-out ornament (music), ornamental passage (music), passage played or sung by a solo (music), soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing virtuoso, virtuosic display. During this time the accompaniment will rest, or sustain a note or chord. Thus an improvised cadenza is indicated in written notation by a fermata in all parts. A cadenza will usually occur over the final or penultimate note in a piece, the lead-in (german: Eingang, link=no) or over the final or penultimate note in an important subsection of a piece. It can also be found before a final coda (music), coda or ritornello. In concerti The term ''cadenza'' often refers to a portion of a concerto in which the orchestra stops playing, leaving the soloist to play alone in free time (music), free time (without a strict, regular pulse) and can be wr ...
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Geoffrey Douglas Madge
Geoffrey Douglas Madge (born 3 October 1941) is an Australian classical pianist and composer. Biography Madge was born in Adelaide and took his first piano lessons at the age of eight. He later won the 1963 ABC Concerto and Vocal Competition. After winning this competition he left for Europe in 1963 and settled in the Netherlands. He was appointed professor of piano at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Madge is known for performing long and arduous works. He was the first to record Leopold Godowsky's '' Studies on Chopin's Études'', once described as "the most impossibly difficult things ever written for the piano". He has given six complete performances of Sorabji's ''Opus clavicembalisticum'', one of the longest and most difficult works ever written for the piano. In 1982, 52 years after Sorabji premiered the work, Madge gave the work its second public performance. Two of Madge's performances of the work have been released commercially. In 1979, he gave the first comple ...
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John Tobin (pianist)
John Tobin may refer to: People * Sir John Tobin (1763–1851), Liverpool merchant * John Tobin (dramatist) (1770–1804), author of ''The Honey Moon'' * John F. Tobin (1880–1954), American football player and coach * Jack Tobin (1892–1969), right fielder in Major League Baseball * Jackie Tobin (1921–1982), third baseman and second baseman in Major League Baseball * John M. Tobin, Wall Street broker in part representing Cornelius Vanderbilt (see Hiram Bond) * John Tobin (Nova Scotia politician) (1810–1869), politician in Nova Scotia * John M. Tobin (politician) (1885–1956), politician in Newfoundland * John Michael Tobin (1841–1898), American Civil War officer and Medal of Honor recipient * John Tobin (rugby league) (born 1959), rugby league footballer * John Tobin (boxer) (born 1963), Grenadian Olympic boxer * John Tobin (Gaelic footballer) (born 1952), Irish Gaelic football manager and former player * John M. Tobin Jr. (born 1969), former Boston city c ...
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Curwen Press
The Curwen Press was founded by the Reverend John Curwen in 1863 to publish sheet music for the "tonic sol-fa" system. The Press was based in Plaistow, Newham, east London, England, where Curwen was a pastor from 1844. The Curwen Press is best known for its work in the period 1919-1939. The Press's output included books, advertising posters and published ephemera which typically used three interrelated elements: typography, decoration, and publicity which together give the Press a unique and memorable style. The work of the Press provides important evidence that the fine printing of the interwar years was not confined to private presses. The Curwen Press, under the management of Harold Curwen, John's grandson, was at the vanguard of the design revolution that saw expression in British printing in the early 20th century. An underlying ethos of the Curwen Press was that its craftsmanship could and should take both craftsman and consumer on an emotional and aesthetic voyage. Haro ...
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Hugh MacDiarmid
Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid (), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish Renaissance and has had a lasting impact on Scottish culture and politics. He was a founding member of the National Party of Scotland in 1928 but left in 1933 due to his Marxist–Leninist views. He joined the Communist Party the following year only to be expelled in 1938 for his nationalist sympathies. He would subsequently stand as a parliamentary candidate for both the Scottish National Party (1945) and British Communist Party (1964). Grieve's earliest work, including ''Annals of the Five Senses'', was written in English, but he is best known for his use of "synthetic Scots", a literary version of the Scots language that he himself developed. From the early 1930s onwards MacDiarmid made greater use of English, sometimes a "synthetic English ...
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Goethe's Faust
''Faust'' is a tragic play in two parts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, usually known in English as '' Faust, Part One'' and ''Faust, Part Two''. Nearly all of Part One and the majority of Part Two are written in rhymed verse. Although rarely staged in its entirety, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages. ''Faust'' is considered by many to be Goethe's ''magnum opus'' and the greatest work of German literature. The earliest forms of the work, known as the ''Urfaust'', were developed between 1772 and 1775; however, the details of that development are not entirely clear. ''Urfaust'' has twenty-two scenes, one in prose, two largely prose and the remaining 1,441 lines in rhymed verse. The manuscript is lost, but a copy was discovered in 1886. The first appearance of the work in print was ''Faust, a Fragment'', published in 1790. Goethe completed a preliminary version of what is now known as ''Part One'' in 1806. Its publication in 1808 was follow ...
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Retribution (poem)
Retribution may refer to: * Punishment * Retributive justice, a theory of justice ** Divine retribution, retributive justice in a religious context * Revenge, a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance Film and television Films * ''Retribution'' (1921 film), an Australian silent film by Armand Lionello * ''Retribution'' (1969 film), a Soviet drama film by Aleksandr Stolper * ''Retribution'' (1987 film), an American horror film by Guy Magar * ''Retribution'' (2000 film) or ''Complicity'', a UK film based on a novel by Iain Banks * ''Retribution'' (2002 film), a British television film in the ''Hornblower'' series * ''Retribution'' (2006 film), a Japanese horror film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa * ''Retribution'' (2015 film), a Spanish thriller film by Dani de la Torre * ''Retribution'' (upcoming film), an American thriller film by Nimród Antal * '' Resident Evil: Retribution'', a 2012 film, the fifth in the ''Resident Evil'' series Television * ''Retrib ...
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Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradition, strongly developing during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period, especially in the Baroque period. The term originates from the Latin ''punctus contra punctum'' meaning "point against point", i.e. "note against note". In Western pedagogy, counterpoint is taught through a system of species (see below). There are several different forms of counterpoint, including imitative counterpoint and free counterpoint. Imitative counterpoint involves the repetition of a main melodic idea across different vocal parts, with or without variation. Compositions written in free counterpoint often incorporate non-traditional harmonies and chords, chromaticism and dissonance. General principles The term "counterpoint" has been us ...
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Nitric Acid
Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available nitric acid has a concentration of 68% in water. When the solution contains more than 86% , it is referred to as ''fuming nitric acid''. Depending on the amount of nitrogen dioxide present, fuming nitric acid is further characterized as red fuming nitric acid at concentrations above 86%, or white fuming nitric acid at concentrations above 95%. Nitric acid is the primary reagent used for nitration – the addition of a nitro group, typically to an organic molecule. While some resulting nitro compounds are shock- and thermally-sensitive explosives, a few are stable enough to be used in munitions and demolition, while others are still more stable and used as pigments in inks and dyes. Nitric acid is also commonly used as a strong oxidizing agen ...
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Fever
Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a body temperature, temperature above the human body temperature, normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, set point. There is not a single agreed-upon upper limit for normal temperature with sources using values between in humans. The increase in set point triggers increased muscle tone, muscle contractions and causes a feeling of cold or chills. This results in greater heat production and efforts to conserve heat. When the set point temperature returns to normal, a person feels hot, becomes Flushing (physiology), flushed, and may begin to Perspiration, sweat. Rarely a fever may trigger a febrile seizure, with this being more common in young children. Fevers do not typically go higher than . A fever can be caused by many medical conditions ranging from non-serious to life-threatening. This includes viral infection, viral, bacterial infection, bacterial, and parasitic infect ...
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Stretto
In music, the Italian term ''stretto'' (plural: ''stretti'') has two distinct meanings: # In a fugue, ''stretto'' (german: Engführung) is the imitation of the subject in close succession, so that the answer enters before the subject is completed.Apel, Willi, ed. (1969). ''Harvard Dictionary of Music'', Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. . # In non-fugal compositions, a ''stretto'' (also sometimes spelled ''stretta'') is a passage, often at the end of an aria or movement, in faster tempo. Examples include the end of Franz Liszt's transcendental etude No.10, the end of the last movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony; measure 227 of Chopin's Ballade No. 3; measures 16, 17 and 18, of his Prelude No. 4 in E minor; and measure 25 of his Etude Op. 10, No. 12, "The Revolutionary." Fugal stretto The term ''stretto'' comes from the Italian past participle of '' stringere'', and means "n ...
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