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Sidney Sager
Sidney Sager (17 May 1917 – 3 December 2002) was an English composer, conductor and trombonist, best known for his music for television and radio. Biography Early life Born into a Jewish family in London's East End, he joined the British Army at the age of 14 as a band boy, and as a result of his natural ability was sponsored by the Army to study at the Royal College of Music. He is the younger brother of Terry Burns (born Mark Sager) the medical inventor and picture restorer. There is also a half-brother, Edward Tunnicliff (born Edward Sager), who now lives in North Norfolk. Sidney Sager's musical career was interrupted by the Second World War, during which he fought with the British Expeditionary Force in France and was evacuated from Dunkirk. Following a brief spell in England he was transferred to North Africa, where he served until the end of hostilities. He returned to civilian life as a musician, playing brass for some time for the Royal Opera at Covent Garden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Definition The term is descended from Latin, ''compōnō''; literally "one who puts together". The earliest use of the term in a musical context given by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from Thomas Morley's 1597 ''A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music'', where he says "Some wil be good descanters ..and yet wil be but bad composers". 'Composer' is a loose term that generally refers to any person who writes music. More specifically, it is often used to denote people who are composers by occupation, or those who in the tradition of Western classical music. Writers of exclusively or primarily songs may be called composers, but since the 20th century the terms 'songwriter' or ' singer-songwriter' are more often used, particularl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturday Playhouse
''Saturday Playhouse'' was a 60-minute UK anthology television series produced by and airing on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from 4 January 1958 until 1 April 1961. There were sixty-eight episodes, among them adaptations of the plays ''The Man Who Came to Dinner'' and '' The Cat and the Canary''. One of the episodes, Alex Atkinson’s classic thriller ''Design for Murder'', was featured twice on the BBC: first on ''Saturday Playhouse'' (Saturday, 15 March 1958; S1/Ep.6) and again from the BBC’s own theatre in Bristol (Thursday, 6 July 1961). Many actors performed for ''Saturday Playhouse'', including: Maxine Audley, John Barrie, Michael Bates, Brian Blessed, Jeremy Brett, Michael Crawford, Anton Diffring, Paul Eddington, Denholm Elliott, Thora Hird, Desmond Llewelyn, Margaret Lockwood, Leo McKern, Bob Monkhouse, Leslie Phillips, Prunella Scales and Elizabeth Shepherd Elizabeth Shepherd (born 12 August 1936) is an English character actress whose lon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato musical styles. In the 19th century, a renewed interest in Renaissance polyphony, coupled with an ignorance of the fact that vocal parts were often doubled by instrumentalists, led to the term coming to mean unaccompanied vocal music. The term is also used, rarely, as a synonym for ''alla breve''. Early history A cappella could be as old as humanity itself. Research suggests that singing and vocables may have been what early humans used to communicate before the invention of language. The earliest piece of sheet music is thought to have originated from times as early as 2000 B.C. while the earliest that has survived in its entirety is from the first century A.D.: a piece from Greece called the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Morris (television Presenter)
Ernest John Morris OBE (20 June 1916 – 6 May 1999) was a Welsh television presenter. He was known for his children's programmes for the BBC on the topic of zoology, most notably '' Animal Magic'', and for narrating the ''Tales of the Riverbank'' series of stories. Early life Morris was born on 20 June 1916 in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, the son of a postmaster. He learned to play the violin as a child and toured the valleys of South Wales, performing with his cello-playing father. Morris attended Eveswell Junior School and then Hatherleigh School, Newport, and worked as a solicitor's clerk, a timekeeper on a building site, and a salesman before managing a farm in Aldbourne, Wiltshire for 13 years."Naturalist who brought Animal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal works (mainly lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of piano and chamber music. His major works include "Erlkönig" (D. 328), the Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (''Trout Quintet''), the Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 (''Unfinished Symphony''), the "Great" Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944, the String Quintet (D. 956), the three last piano sonatas (D. 958–960), the opera ''Fierrabras'' (D. 796), the incidental music to the play ''Rosamunde'' (D. 797), and the song cycles ''Die schöne Müllerin'' (D. 795) and ''Winterreise'' (D. 911). Born in the Himmelpfortgrund suburb of Vienna, Schubert showed uncommon gifts for music from an early age. His father gave him his first violin l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as ''Man and Superman'' (1902), ''Pygmalion'' (1913) and '' Saint Joan'' (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurentia McLachlan
Dame Laurentia McLachlan, OSB, ''née'' Margaret McLachlan, (11 January 1866 – 23 August 1953) was a Scottish Benedictine nun, Abbess of Stanbrook Abbey, and an authority on church music. She became posthumously known to a wide public when portrayed on the stage in a 1988 play, '' The Best of Friends''. Life and work McLachlan was born in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland, the youngest of seven children of Henry McLachlan, an accountant, and his wife, Mary ''née'' McAleese. In 1884 she joined the Benedictine abbey at Stanbrook Abbey. In 1931 she was elected Abbess of Stanbrook. Dame Laurentia, as she became known, served the wider Benedictine community as a member of the commission, set up that same year with the aim of modernising the various constitutions that governed the conditions of monastic life for women in England. She was a pioneer in the restoration of the Gregorian chant in England and a leading authority on music and medieval manuscripts. In 1934 her work was re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sydney Cockerell
Sydney Carlyle Cockerell (16 July 1867 – 1 May 1962) was an English museum curator and collector. From 1908 to 1937, he was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. Biography Sydney Cockerell made his way initially as clerk in the family coal business, George J. Cockerell & Co., until he met John Ruskin. Around 1887, Cockerell sent Ruskin some sea shells, which he collected. At that time he had already met William Morris. Cockerell tried to patch up a quarrel between Ruskin and Octavia Hill, who had been a friend of his late father Sydney John Cockerell, and godmother to his sister Olive. From 1891, Cockerell gained a more solid entry to intellectual circles, working for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. The architect Detmar Blow was a friend. He acted as private secretary to William Morris, becoming a major collector of Kelmscott Press books; was secretary also to Wilfrid Scawen Blunt; and was Thomas Hardy's executor. From 1908 to 1937 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick McGoohan
Patrick Joseph McGoohan (; March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an Irish-American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television. Born in the United States to Irish emigrant parents, he was raised in Ireland and England. He began his career in England in the 1950s and rose to prominence for his role as secret agent John Drake in the ITC espionage programme ''Danger Man'' (1960–1968). He then produced and created ''The Prisoner'' (1967–1968), a surrealistic television series in which he starred as Number Six, an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village. Beginning in the 1970s, McGoohan maintained a long-running association with ''Columbo'', writing, directing, producing and appearing in several episodes. His notable film roles include Dr. Paul Ruth in ''Scanners'' (1981) and King Edward I in '' Braveheart'' (1995). He was a BAFTA Award and two-time Primetime Emmy Award winner. Early life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wendy Hiller
Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller, (15 August 1912 – 14 May 2003) was an English film and stage actress who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly 60 years. Writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation ''Rating the Movie Stars'', described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took command of the screen whenever she appeared on film". Despite many notable film performances, Hiller chose to remain primarily a stage actress. Hiller won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in ''Separate Tables'' (1958). Her performance as Eliza Doolittle in ''Pygmalion'' (1938) earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Early years Born in Bramhall, Cheshire, the daughter of Frank Watkin Hiller, a Manchester cotton manufacturer, and Marie Stone, she was educated at Winceby House School and at age 18 joined the Manchester Repertory Company, for which she acted and stage-managed for several years. She first found success as slum dweller ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. A member of the Terry family theatrical dynasty, he gained his first paid acting work as a junior member of his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terry's company in 1922. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art he worked in repertory theatre and in the West End theatre, West End before establishing himself at the Old Vic as an exponent of William Shakespeare, Shakespeare in 1929–31. During the 1930s Gielgud was a stage star in the West End and on Broadway theatre, Broadway, appearing in new works and classics. He began a parallel career as a director, and set up his own company at the Sondheim Theatre, Queen's Theatre, London. He was regarded by many as the finest Prince Hamlet, Hamlet of his era, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Into The Labyrinth (TV Series)
''Into the Labyrinth'' is a British children's television series. It was produced by ITV Wales & West, HTV for the ITV (TV network), ITV network between 1980 and 1982, the first series was not broadcast until May 1981. Three series, each consisting of seven 25-minute episodes, were produced and directed by Peter Graham Scott. The series was created by Scott along with Bob Baker (scriptwriter), Bob Baker, who had previously written several stories for ''Doctor Who''. The first series only was later shown in the United States as part of "The Third Eye (American TV series), The Third Eye" science fiction series on Nickelodeon. It was also broadcast on ABC Television (Australian TV network), ABC TV in Australia, Televisión Española, TVE in Spain, RTÉ One and RTÉ Two as part of ''The Den (Ireland), The Den'' in Ireland, ETB 1 and ETB 2 in Basque Country, TV2 (Malaysia), TV2 in Malaysia and both Rediffusion Television, RTV and Asia Television, ATV in Hong Kong. The series also rer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
