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Soul Music (radio Series)
''Soul Music'' is a music documentary series on BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in November 2000 which aims to focus on the emotional impact of famous pieces of music. The works chosen can be anything from classical, popular, jazz or religious. The first episode examined Sir Edward Elgar's '' Cello Concerto in E minor''. The programme doesn't have a presenter, but features a montage of interviews interspersed with clips of the work in question. Each programme usually has three to five contributors who have a personal story connected to the piece of music. One is usually a musicologist, conductor or performer who discusses the background to the work or composer, the other contributors are people who have a personal story connected to the piece. For example, a 2010 episode on Gabriel Fauré's ''Requiem'' featured Fauré biographer Jessica Duchen discussing the history of the work; veteran choral conductor Sir David Willcocks, who reflected on his experience in the artillery during World ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Poppins (film)
''Mary Poppins'' is a 1964 American musical fantasy film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney, with songs written and composed by the Sherman Brothers. The screenplay is by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, based on P. L. Travers's book series ''Mary Poppins''. The film, which combines live-action and animation, stars Julie Andrews in her feature film debut as Mary Poppins, who visits a dysfunctional family in London and employs her unique brand of lifestyle to improve the family's dynamic. Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, and Glynis Johns are featured in supporting roles. The film was shot entirely at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, using painted London background scenes. ''Mary Poppins'' was released on August 27, 1964, to critical acclaim and commercial success. It became the highest-grossing film of 1964 and, at the time of its release, was Disney's highest-grossing film ever. It received a total of 13 Academy Awards nominations, including B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siegfried Idyll
The ', WWV 103, by Richard Wagner is a symphonic poem for chamber orchestra. Background Wagner composed the ''Siegfried Idyll'' as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was first performed on Christmas morning, 25 December 1870, by a small ensemble of the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich on the stairs of their villa at Tribschen (today part of Lucerne), Switzerland. Cosima awoke to its opening melody. Conductor Hans Richter learned the trumpet in order to play the brief trumpet part, which lasts only 13 measures, in that private performance, reportedly having sailed out to the centre of Lake Lucerne to practise, so as not to be heard. The original title was ''Triebschen Idyll with Fidi's birdsong and the orange sunrise, as symphonic birthday greeting. Presented to his Cosima by her Richard.'' "Fidi" was the family's nickname for their son Siegfried. It is thought that the birdsong and the sunrise refer to incidents of per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature 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 Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised 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, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members of the socialist Fabian Society, such as George Bernard Shaw, who was a founding director. Today, the magazine is a print–digital hybrid. According to its present self-description, it has a liberal and progressive political position. Jason Cowley, the magazine's editor, has described the ''New Statesman'' as a publication "of the left, for the left" but also as "a political and literary magazine" with "sceptical" politics. The magazine was founded by members of the Fabian Society as a weekly review of politics and literature. The longest-serving editor was Kingsley Martin (1930–1960), and the current editor is Jason Cowley, who assumed the post in 2008. The magazine has recognised and published new writers and critics, as well as e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonia Quirke
Antonia Quirke is a British film critic. As well as writing on film for the ''Financial Times'' and a weekly column for the ''New Statesman'', she has presented regularly on ''The Film Programme'', '' Pick of the Week'', BBC Radio 4, as well as '' Film...'' and ''The One Show'' on BBC One. Quirke attended, in her words, a "doughty northern convent school". She has a degree in English literature from University College London. Quirke participated in the 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' critics' poll, where she listed her ten favourite films as follows: ''The Deer Hunter'', '' Going Places'', ''Jaws'', ''King Kong'', ''Nosferatu'', '' On the Waterfront'', ''Rear Window'', ''Reds'', '' This Is Spinal Tap'', and ''A Woman Is a Woman ''A Woman Is a Woman'' (french: Une femme est une femme) is a 1961 French musical romantic comedy film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina and Jean-Claude Brialy. It is a tribute to American musical co ...''. Publica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind
"Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" is a hymn with words taken from a longer poem, "The Brewing of Soma" by American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. The adaptation was made by Garrett Horder in his 1884 ''Congregational Hymns''. In the many countries the hymn is most usually sung to the tune "Repton" by Hubert Parry; however, in the US, the prevalent tune is "Rest" by Frederick Charles Maker. Text The text set appears below. Some hymnal editors omit the fourth stanza or resequence the stanza so that the fifth stanza as printed here comes last. If sung to Parry's tune, "Repton", the last line of each stanza is repeated. It is often customary, when singing the final stanza as printed here, to gradually sing louder from "Let sense be dumb...", reaching a crescendo on "...the earthquake, wind and fire", before then singing the last line "O still, small voice of calm" much more softly. The Brewing of Soma "The Brewing of Soma" is the Whittier poem (1872) from which the hym ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wichita Lineman
"Wichita Lineman" is a song written by the American songwriter Jimmy Webb in 1968. It was first recorded by the American country music artist Glen Campbell with backing from members of The Wrecking Crew and was widely covered by other artists. Campbell's version, which appeared on his 1968 album of the same name, reached number 3 on the US pop chart, remaining in the Top 100 for 15 weeks. In addition, the song topped the American country music chart for two weeks and the adult contemporary chart for six weeks. It was certified gold by the RIAA in January 1969. The song reached number 7 in the United Kingdom. In Canada, the single topped both the ''RPM'' national and country singles charts. the song had also sold 357,000 downloads in the digital era in the United States. In 2021, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" ranked "Wichita Lineman" at number 206. It has been referred to as "the first existential country song". British music journa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glen Campbell
Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting ''The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour'' on CBS television from 1969 until 1972. He released 64 albums in a career that spanned five decades, selling over 45 million records worldwide, including twelve gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album. Born in Delight, Arkansas, Campbell began his professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles, spending several years playing with the group of instrumentalists later known as " The Wrecking Crew". After becoming a solo artist, he placed a total of 80 different songs on either the ''Billboard'' Country Chart, ''Billboard'' Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Among Campbell's hits are " Universal So ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Shropshire Lad Rhapsody
''A Shropshire Lad'' is a collection of sixty-three poems by the English poet Alfred Edward Housman, published in 1896. Selling slowly at first, it then rapidly grew in popularity, particularly among young readers. Composers began setting the poems to music less than ten years after their first appearance, and many parodists have satirised Housman's themes and poetic style. A Shropshire Rhapsody Housman is said originally to have titled his book ''The Poems of Terence Hearsay'', referring to a character there, but changed the title to ''A Shropshire Lad'' at the suggestion of a colleague in the British Museum. A friend of his remembered otherwise, however, and claimed that Housman's choice of title was always the latter. He had more than a year to think about it, since most of the poems he chose to include in his collection were written in 1895, while he was living at Byron Cottage in Highgate. The book was published the following year, partly at the author's expense, after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Butterworth
George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC (12 July 18855 August 1916) was an English composer who was best known for the orchestral idyll ''The Banks of Green Willow'' and his song settings of A. E. Housman's poems from '' A Shropshire Lad''. Early years Butterworth was born in Paddington, London. Soon after his birth, his family moved to York so that his father Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth could take up an appointment as general manager of the North Eastern Railway, which was based there. Their home was at Riseholme, a house on Driffield Terrace, which later became part of the Mount School. In 2016, the centenary year of his death on the Somme, biographer Anthony Murphy unveiled on behalf of the York Civic Trust a blue plaque to his memory at College House, Driffield Terrace, part of the Mount School. George received his first music lessons from his mother, who was a singer, and he began composing at an early age. As a young boy, he played the organ for services in the chapel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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