Our violinist canceled at the last minute for chamber music this evening. Normally, if I know a violinist will be out, I can tap hubby to fill in. But this happened too late. So we had a pianist play the violin part for the Schubert Trout and we limped through it. I had marked up a score without measure numbers and that proved to be a hindrance as well.
Since we didn't have the violinist, we skipped rehearsing the Schumann for the second week in a row. At least this time, I hadn't been practicing it all week.
At the end of class, the violist was working up a Bruch piece, so I grabbed a pianist to try out the Breval in super slow mode. The run through wasn't too bad. Only missed a few notes and the mordents. I knew the piece well enough that when we got off track, it was fixable. Who knows, maybe I'll get to play it for this term's recital.
Progress Report on memorizing Suzuki Book I. I'm having my usual issue with remembering which notes are slurred.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Studying Chinese Again
When I received an email last month with a 25% discount off the local community college's Intensive Mandarin Chinese evening course, I sprung for it. I haven't reviewed my putonghua since 2004 and thought it might be a good refresher. The course teacher is male and has a different spin than the female teachers I have had in the past. This course also covers the character writing which is very useful.
Distracted by cello and humanities I haven't focused much on Chinese studies yet but it's starting to get exciting. Just browsing through the internet last night and found tons of resources. Especially on YouTube. There's karoake with pinyin. So much more to study than there was 5 years ago.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Caught Cheating
R had me play thru etude on Book I today with one of the students. Unfortunately, I did forget a few phrases on a couple of pieces and had to look them up. R came in and closed the book on me. Also insisted that I leave 1 down while playing ext. 4 for the last piece in the book. That's gonna hurt!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Short Term Goal
Now that I've overwhelmed my senses reviewing 500 years of art history in two days. I'll try to focus on a short-term cello goal.
January 31st will mark a year of cello practice for me. Yeah, yeah, I know I started the cello and this blog April of 2007 but after discounting time off travelling, I'm just now coming to the 52 week mark.
Anyway, my goal is to be able to play the Suzuki book I with the CD from memory by the end of the month. I have about two more songs to memorize. Wish me luck!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Countdown 13.3
Survey of Art History - 20th Century
FAUVISM AND ESPRESSIONISM
The Red Room (Harmony in Red)
1908-1909
Georges Rouault
The Old King
1916-1936
Oskar Kokoschka
Bride of the Wind
Austrian
1914
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Street Scene, Berlin
1913
Kathe Kollwitz
Memorial to Karl Liebnecht
1919
Max Beckmann
Departure
1932-1933
CUBISM
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
1907
193. Pablo Picasso
Still Life with Chair Caning
collage
1912
194. Pablo Picasso
Three Musicians
1921
Georges Braque
The Portuguese
1911
196. Fernand Leger
The City
1919
Robert Delaunay
Eiffel Tower
1911
Marcel Duchamp
Nude Descending a Staircase
1912
FUTURISM
Gino Severini
Dynamic Hieroglyph of the Bal Tabarin
1912
Giacomo Balla
Dog on a Leash
1912
Umberto Boccioni
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
1913
Kasimir Malevich
Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying
1915
203. Vladimir Tatlin
Monument to the Third International
1920
Naum Gabo
Column
1923, rebuilt 1938
DE STIJL (Holland)
Piet Mondrian
Composition in Blue, Yellow, and Black
1936, Dutch
206. Hans Arp
Human Concretion
Alsatian
1935
207. Constantin Brancusi
Brid in Space
metal ? brass
Rumanian
1928
Marcel Duchamp
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors
French
Glass
1936
Marcel Duchamp
Bicylce Wheel
French
Ready Made
1913
.Joan Miro
Painting
1933
SURREALISM
Salvador Dali
The Persistence of Memory
Spanish
1931
Rene Magritte
The Rape
1934
1930's ART & IDEOLOGY
Jose Clemente Orozco
Epoch of American Civilization: Hispano-America
Mexican
1932-34
Dorothy Lange
Migrant Mother
American
1936
Ben Shahn
The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti
American
1931-32
Jacob Lawrence
No. 36 During the Truce Toussait is Deceived...
American
1937-38
220. Edward Hopper
Nighthawks
American
1942
POSTMODERN
Jackson Pollock
Autumn Rhythms (1950)
American
1947
Mark Rothko
Four Darks on Red
American
1958
Willem de Kooning
Woman I/IV
American
1952
1967
226. Donald Judd
Untitled
Stainless Steel Boxes
American
1968
Robert Smithson
Spiral Jetty
American
Earthwork
1970
FIGURATIVE ART - POST WWII
Jasper JohnsTarget with Four Faces
American
1955
Andy Warhol
Marilyn Monroe Diptych
American
1962
Roy Lichtenstein
Blam
American
1962
Supermarket Shopper
American
1970
Judy Chicago
The Dinner Party
American
1979
20th CENTURY ARCHITECTURE
Frank Lloyd Wright
Robie House
Chicago
American
1909
Frank Lloyd Wright
Kaufmann House (Falling Water)
Bear Run, Pennsylvania
American
1936-40
Gerrit Rietveld
Schroeder House
Utrecht
Dutch, de Stijl
1924
Walter Gropius
The Bauhaus
Dessau, Germany
German
1925-26
Le Corbusier (Charles Edouard Jeanneret)
Villa Savoye
Poissy, France
French
1929-30
Mies van der Rohe
Seagram's Building
New York with Philip Johnson
1958
Frank Lloyd Wright
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
New York
American
1946-59
245. Le Corbusier
Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp (exterior)
Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp (interior)
Ronchamp, France
French
1950-55
Michael Graves
Public Service Building
Portland
American
1981-83
Renzo Piano
Centre Georges Pompidou (The Beaubourg)
Paris, with Richard Rogers
1977
Philip Johnson
AT&T Building
New York
1978
Countdown 13.2
Survey of Art History - 19th Century
William Blake
The Ancient of Days
frontpiece for Europe: A Prophecy
1794
Francisco Goya
3rd of May, 1808
1814
Francisco Goya
Saturn Devouring One of his Children
1819-1823
Gros
Napoleon at the Pest House of Jaffa
1804
Gericault
The Raft of the Medusa
1819
Delacroix
Liberty on the Barricades
1830
Runge
Morning
Slave Ship
1840
Constable
The Haywain
1821
Caspar David Friedrich
Cloister Graveyard in the Snow
1808-1810
Caspar David Friedrich
Abbey in an Oak Forest
1808-1810
REALISM AND NATURALISM
Courbet
The Burial at Ornans
1848-1849
Millet
The Gleaners
1857
Daumier
The 3rd Class Carriage
c. 1862
Eduoard Manet
Dejeuner Sur L'herbe (The Picnic)
1863
PRE-RAPHAELITES AND THE AESTHETIC MOVEMENT
Millais
Ophelia
1851-1852
160. Whistler
Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge
1877
IMPRESSIONISM
Caillebotte
Paris: A Rainy Day
1877
Degas
Ballet Rehearsal: Adagio
1876
Renoir
Le Moulin de la Galette
1876
Edouard Manet
Bar at the Folies-Bergere
1882
Monet
Luncheon (Decorative Panel)
1874
Monet
Rouen Cathedral: The Portal
1893
Mary Cassatt
The Bath
1892
POST IMPRESSIONALISM
Seurat
La Grande Jatte
1884-1886
Cezanne
Mont Sainte-Victoire with Viaduct
1885-1887
Cezanne
Still Life with Peppermint Bottle
ca 1894
Gauguin
The Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel)
1888
Gauguin
Spirit of the Dead, Watching
1892
Vincent Van Gogh
Starry Night
1889
Auguste Rodin
Walking Man
bronze
1877/1905
Barry and Pugin
Houses of Parliament
1840s
Richard Morris Hunt
The Breakers
Newport, Rhode Island
1892-1895
Joseph Paxton
Crystal Palace
1889
Gustave Eiffel
Eiffel Tower
Paris
1887-1889
Louis Sullivan
Guaranty Building
Buffalo, US
1894-1895
Louis Sullivan
Carson, Pirie, Scott Department Store
Chicago
1899-1904
Victor Horta
Van Eetvelde House
Brussels
1895
Antoni Gaudi
Casa Mila
Barcelona, Spain
1905-1910
Countdown 13.1
Survey of Art History - Baroque and 18th Century Art
ITALIAN BAROQUE
Caravaggio
The Conversion of Saint Paul
Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome
1601
The Crucifixion of Saint Peter
Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome,
1601
1
Caravaggio
Calling of Saint Matthew
San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome
1600
Caravaggio
Death of the Virgin
Louvre, Paris
1606
Artemisia Gentileschi
Judith and Maidservant
Institute of the Arts, Detroit
1625
Francesco Borromini
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
Rome
1665-1676
Gianlorenzo Bernini
David
Galleria Borghese, Rome
1623
Gianlorenzo Bernini
The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa
Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome
1645-1652
Gianlorenzo Bernini
Piazza and Colonnade
Sculpture and architecture at saint Peter's, Rome
Gianlorenzo Bernini
Baldacchino
at the crossing of the church over the tomb of Saint Peter
Saint Peter's, Rome
Gianlorenzo Bernini
Cathedra Petri
The throne of Saint Peter
Saint Peter's, Rome
. El Greco
The Burial of Count Orgaz
Santo Tome, Toledo
1586
El Greco
Portrait of Fray Hortensio Felix Paravicino
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1609
Jose (Jusepe) de Ribera
The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew
Prado, Madrid
1639
Diego Velazquez
Los Borrachos ("The Drinkers")
Prado, Madrid
1628
Diego Velazquez
Portrait of Juan Pareja
Metropolitan Museum, New York
1650
Diego Velazquez
Las Meninas ("The Maids in Waiting")
Prado, Madrid
1656
BAROQUE IN THE LOW COUNTRIES
Peter Paul Rubens
The Elevation of the Cross
Antwerp Cathedral
1610
Peter Paul Rubens
The Abduction of the Daughters of Leucippus
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
1617
Peter Paul Rubens
The Arrival of Marie de' Medici at Marseilles
Louvre, Paris
1622-1625
Gerrit van Honthorst
Supper Party
Uffizi, Florence
1620
Jacob van Ruisdael
View of Haarlem
Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague
1670
Willem Claesz Heda
Still Life
Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam
1634
Rembrandt van Rijn
Supper at Emmaus
Louvre, Paris
1648
Rembrandt van Rijn
Return of the Prodigal Son
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg (Leningrad)
1665
106. Rembrandt van Rijn
The Three Crosses
etching, 4th state
1653
Rembrandt van Rijn
The Conspiracy of Julius Civilis
National Museum, Stockholm
1661
FRENCH BAROQUE
Georges de la Tour
Adoration of the Shepherds
Louvre, Paris
1645-1650
Nicolas Poussin
The Burial of Phocion
Louvre, Paris
1648
Nicolas Poussin
Et in Arcadia Ego
Louvre, Paris
1655
Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellee)
Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba
National Gallery, London
1648
Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellee)
Pastoral Landscape
Private collection
1640s
Louis le Vau, Claude Perrault, Charles le Brun
East Facade of the Louvre
Paris
1667-1670
Louis Le Vau, Jules Hardouin-Mansart
Garden Facade of Versailles
Versailles
1669-1685
Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Charles Le Brun
Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors)
Versailles
1680
Francois Girardon
Apollo Attended by the Nymphs
Gardens of Versailles
1666-1672
Francois de Cuvillies
Amalienburg (Hunting Lodge)
palace grounds of Nymphenburg, near Munich
1734-1739
ROCCOCO
Antoine Watteau
Return from Cythera
Louvre, Paris
1716
123. Jean-Honore Fragonard
The Swing
Wallace Collection, London
1766
Clodion (Claude Michel)
Nymph and Satyr
terracotta
Metropolitan Museum, New York
1775
NATURALISM AND THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin
Grace at Table
Louvre, Paris
1740
Paul Revere
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1768-1770
The Village Bride
1761
Hogarth
Breakfast Scene from Marriage a la Mode
1745
Benjamin West
The Death of General Wolfe
1771
Inigo Jones
Whitehall Banqueting House
London
1619-1622
Lord Burlington (Richard Boyle) and William Kent
Chiswick House
near London
1725+
131. Thomas Jefferson
Monticello
Charlottesville
1770-1806
Jupiter and Thetis
engraving
1790s
Kauffman
Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi
1785
Jacques Louis David
Oath of the Horatii
1784
Jacques Louis David
Death of the Marat
1793
Soufflot
Ste. Genevieve (Pantheon)
1755-1792
Canova
Pauline Borghese as Venus
1808
Ingres
Grand Odalisque
1814
Ingres
Princesse de Broglie
1853
Countdown 13
Survey of Art History - Pre Baroque
BYZANTINE
Bonaventura Berlinghieri
Saint Francis Altarpiece
Pescia, San Francesco (Italy)
1235
BYZANTINE
Cimabue
Madonna Enthroned
Florence (Italy)
1280-1290
PROTO-RENAISSANCE
Giotto di Bondone
Madonna Enthroned
Florence (Italy)
1310
Giotto di Bondone
Lamentation over Christ
Arena Chapel Frescoes
Padua (Italy)
1305-1308
Giotto di Bondone
Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate
Arena Chapel Frescoes
Padua (Italy)
1305-1308
LATE GOTHIC
Simone Martini
Annunciation
Sienese (Italy)
1333
The Limbourg Brothers
Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (The Book of Hours): May
France
1413-1416
Gentile Da Fabriano
The Adoration of the Magi
Florence (Italy)
1423
EARLY RENAISSANCE
Masaccio
Expulsion
Brancacci Chapel, Florence
1425
Brancacci Chapel, Florence
1427
Florence
1428
Orsanmichele, Florence
1411-1413
Donatello
Feast of Herod
bronze relief
Siena
1425
Donatello
The Penitent Magdalen
wood
Florence
1454-1455
Donatello
David
Hospital of the Innocents (Ospedale degli Innocenti)
Florence
1419-24
Filippo Brunelleschi
Church of Santo Spirito
Florence
c. 1436
MIDDLE RENAISSANCE
Leon Battista Alberti
Palazzo Rucellai, Facade
Florence
1452-70
Leon Battista Alberti
Santa Maria Novella, facade
Florence
1458-1470
Leon Battista Alberti
Sant'Andrea
Mantua
c. 1470
Bernardo Rossellino
Tomb of Leonardo Bruni
Santa Croce, Florence
1445-50
Antonio Pollaiuolo
Hercules and Antaeus
Bronze
Florence
1475
Antonio Pollaiuolo
Battle of the Ten Nudes
Engraving
1465
Andrea Mantegna
Saint James Led To Martyrdom
Ovetari Chapel, Church of the Eremetani, Padua
1455 (destroyed)
Andrea Mantegna
Camera degli Sposi (Camera Picta)
Fresco
Mantua
1465-1474
Andrea Mantegna
Dead Christ
Milan
1501
Andrea del Castagno
The Last Supper
Sant'Apollonia, Florence
1445-1450
58. Andrea del Verrocchio
David
Florence
1465
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni
1488
HIGH RENAISSANCE
27. Leonardo da Vinci
Drawing of an Embryo in the Womb
1510
28. Leonardo da Vinci
The Virgin of the Rocks
Oil
1485
29. Leonardo da Vinci
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and the Infant St. John
cartoon
1498
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Piazza and architecture on the Capitoline Hill
Rome
begun 1537
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Laurentian Library
Florence
begun 1524
The Last Judgement
Sistine Chapel Altar, Vatican
Fresco
1533-1541
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Rebellious Slave
meant for the tomb of Pope Julius II
1513-1516
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Dying Slave
meant for the tomb of Pope Julius II
1513-1516
Raphael
Galatea
Villa Farnesina, Rome
1513
Raphael
The School of Athens
Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican
1509-1511
Donato Bramante
Palazzo Caprini
Rome
c. 1510 (now destroyed)
Donato Bramante
Tempietto of San Pietro in Montorio
Rome
1504
VENETIAN ART DURING THE RENAISSANCE
Giovanni Bellini
Madonna and Child with Saints
also known as the San Zaccaria Altarpiece
San Zaccaria, Venice
Oils
1505
Giovanni Bellini
The Feast of the Gods
oils
1514
Titian
Sacred and Profane Love
oils
1515
Titian
Madonna of the Pesaro Family
Oils
Venice
1519-1526
Titian
Venus of Urbino
Oils
1538
Titian
Christ Crowned with Thorns
Oils
1573
NORTH RENAISSANCE
The Annunciation, with Saint Joseph and Donors
The Merode Altarpiece
Cloisters, New York
1425-1428
Jan van Eyck
Man in a Red Turban
National Gallery, London
1433
Jan van Eyck
Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride
The Arnolfini Wedding
National Gallery, London
1434
Jan van Eyck
The Virgin with the Canon George van der Paele
Communal Museum, Bruges
1436
Rogier van der Weyden
The Escorial Deposition
Prado, Madrid
1435
Rogier van der Weyden
Portrait of a Lady
National Gallery of Art, Washington
1460
Hieronymus Bosch
The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych (Central Panel)
Creation of Eve
Hell
Prado, Madrid
1505-1510
Jan Gossaert (Mabuse)
Neptune and Amphitrite
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin
1516
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
The Peasant Dance
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
1567
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Hunters in the Snow
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
1565
Martin Schongauer
St. Anthony Tormented by the Demons
engraving
1480-1490
Albrecht Durer
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
woodcut
1498
Albrecht Durer
Adam and Eve
engraving
1504
74. Albrecht Durer
The Four Apostles (Left Side)
The Four Apostles (Right Side)
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
1526
Albrecht Durer
Hieronymus Holzshuher
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin
1526
Albrecht Durer
The Great Piece of Turf
watercolor
Albertina, Vienna
1503
Matthias Grunewald
Crucifixion
Grunewald - Resurrection
from the Isenheim Altarpiece
Musee d'Unterlinden, Colmar
1510-1515
Albrecht Altdorfer
The Battle of Issus
Alexander vs Darius
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
1529
Lucas Cranach
The Judgemnent of Paris
Metropolitan Museum, New York
1528
Agnolo Bronzino
Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time
Oils
1546
Jacopo Pontormo
The Descent from the Cross
Oils
1525-1528
Parmigianino
Madonna of the Long Neck
Oils
1535
Giovanni da Bologna
Abduction of the Sabine Women
1579-1583
Guilio Romano
Palazzo del Te
Mantua
1525-1535
Guilio Romano
Hall of the Giants
Palazzo del Te, Mantua
1525-1535
Andrea Palladio
Church of San Giorgio Maggiore
Venice
1565
Andrea Palladio
Villa Rotonda or Villa Capra
Vicenza
1566-1570
Monday, January 19, 2009
Countdown 16
Just posting some poems. Didn't have a very productive weekend for humanities studies.
Although chamber music class inspired me to do some heavy cello practice :)
His most famous poem ‘Gitanjali’ was originally written in Bengali language. Tagore was born in Bengal in 1861. He writings tasted initial success as a writer in his native Bengal.
‘Gitanjali’ (‘song offerings’), is a collection of 103 poems. Originally written in Bengali, they were translated in English by Tagore himself. The characteristic feature of the collection is that the Introduction to Gitanjali was written by W.B.Yeats. Tagore had translated these songs from Bengali into English before his visit to England in 1912. His poems were well received in England.
‘Gitanjali’ begins with: “Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life.”
In one of the songs ‘Where mind is without fear’ Tagore has dreamed of a utopian land, a land of his dreams, a perfect place to live in.
Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
And put his clothes on in the blueback cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?
Morning Song by Sylvia Plath
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.
Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.
I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.
All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.
One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.
“Marks” by Linda Pastan
My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I am average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass. Wait 'til they learn
I'm dropping out.
Emily Dickinson - After great pain, a formal feeling comes
After great pain, a formal feeling comes --
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs --
The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?
The Feet, mechanical, go round --
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought --
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone --
This is the Hour of Lead --
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow --
First -- Chill -- then Stupor -- then the letting go --
A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Do not go gentle into that good night
by Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Rabindra Nath Tagore (1861 - 1941), the celebrated poet, story writer and dramatist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 (in the words of the Nobel Prize Committee) “because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West".
His most famous poem ‘Gitanjali’ was originally written in Bengali language. Tagore was born in Bengal in 1861. He writings tasted initial success as a writer in his native Bengal.
‘Gitanjali’ (‘song offerings’), is a collection of 103 poems. Originally written in Bengali, they were translated in English by Tagore himself. The characteristic feature of the collection is that the Introduction to Gitanjali was written by W.B.Yeats. Tagore had translated these songs from Bengali into English before his visit to England in 1912. His poems were well received in England.
‘Gitanjali’ begins with: “Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life.”
In one of the songs ‘Where mind is without fear’ Tagore has dreamed of a utopian land, a land of his dreams, a perfect place to live in.
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
Saturday, January 17, 2009
A New First
Last month I started timing my cello practice sessions. When I first started playing cello I could only play about 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Last night I managed 3 hours! Whee.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Countdown 20
Romanesque architecture is the term that is used to describe the architecture of Middle Ages Europe which evolved into the Gothic style beginning in the 12th century. The term "Romanesque", meaning "descended from Roman", was used to describe the style from the early 19th century.[1] Although there is no consensus for the beginning date of the style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th centuries, examples can be found across the continent, making Romanesque architecture the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman Architecture. The Romanesque style in England is more traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.
Combining features of contemporary Western Roman and Byzantine buildings, Romanesque architecture is known by its massive quality, its thick walls, round arches, sturdy piers, groin vaults, large towers and decorative arcading. Each building has clearly defined forms and they are frequently of very regular, symmetrical plan so that the overall appearance is one of simplicity when compared with the Gothic buildings that were to follow. The style can be identified right across Europe, despite regional characteristics and different materials.
Gothic Architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture.
Originating in 12th-century France and lasting into the 16th century, Gothic architecture was known during the period as "the French Style" (Opus Francigenum), with the term Gothic first appearing during the latter part of the Renaissance as a stylistic insult. Its characteristic features include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress.
Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the great cathedrals, abbeys and parishchurches of Europe. It is also the architecture of many castles, palaces, town halls, guild halls, universities, and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings.
nterior of San Zanipolo, Venice, Italy.
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, in which there was a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture.
The Renaissance style places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in the architecture of classical antiquity and in particular ancient Roman architecture, of which many examples remained. Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aedicules replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings.
Developed first in Florence, with Filippo Brunelleschi as one of its innovators, the Renaissance style quickly spread to other Italian cities and then to France, Germany, England, Russia and elsewhere.
St. Peters Basilica (also has Baroque elements)
St. Michael's Munich
Baroque architecture, starting in the early 17th century in Italy, took the humanist Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical, theatrical, sculptural fashion, expressing the triumph of absolutist church and state. New architectural concerns for color, light and shade, sculptural values and intensity characterize the Baroque. But whereas the Renaissance drew on the wealth and power of the Italian courts, and was a blend of secular and religious forces, the Baroque was, initially at least, directly linked to the Counter-Reformation, a movement within the Catholic Church to reform itself in response to the Protestant Reformation. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) is usually given as the beginning of the Counter-Reformation.
The Baroque played into the demand for an architecture that was on the one hand more accessible to the emotions and, on the other hand, a visible statement of the wealth and power of the Church. The new style manifested itself in particular in the context of new religious orders, like the Theatines and the Jesuits, which aimed to improve popular piety. By the middle of the 17th century, the Baroque style had found its secular expression in the form of grand palaces, first in France—as in the Château de Maisons (1642) near Paris by François Mansart—and then throughout Europe.
St. Paul's Cathedral, London
Fountain of Trevi
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Beyond the Comfort Zone
Trust my chamber music teacher to come up with another piece to throw me out of my comfort zone on the cello this year. This time he wants me to tackle the "Andante Cantabile" from Schumann's quartet in E flat, opus 47. Not only does it have cello solos but it has a section with six flats!!! He had us read through it tonight and thought it was within my range. Ha!
Countdown 22
Humanities Countdown to Test - 3 weeks. Better get crackin'
THEATER
Dumb Show: A part of a play, especially in medieval and Renaissance drama, that is enacted without speaking.Communication or acting by means of expressive gestures; pantomime.
Greek "Rule of five acts"
1. Only 3 actors
2 Economy
3 Time, place and action must have unity
4 No mingling of the tragic and comic "kinds";
5 No artificial dénouement (conclusions to the plot)
DANCE
Martha Graham used Isamm Noguchi's ballet sets
Ballet positions
  Susan Jaffe demonstrating first arabesque. | Arabesque [a-ra-BESK] One of the basic poses in ballet, arabesque takes its name from a form of Moorish ornament. In ballet it is a position of the body, in profile, supported on one leg, which can be straight or demi-plié, with the other leg extended behind and at right angles to it, and the arms held in various harmoniouspositions creating the longest possible line from the fingertips to the toes. The shoulders must be held square to the line of direction. The forms of arabesque are varied to infinity. The Cecchetti method uses five principal arabesques; the Russian School (Vaganova), four; and the French School, two. Arabesques are generally used to conclude a phrase of steps, both in the slow movements of adagio and the brisk, gay movements ofallégro. |
The great chain of being or scala naturae is a classical and western medieval conception of the order of the universe, whose chief characteristic is a strict hierarchical system.
Utilized in Shakespeare's writings
Thales - 6c - The world began with water. Before Thales things were explain as products of the gods.
Thales - First father of western philosophy
Leucippus and Democritus - atomism - matter consists of atoms.
Zeno 4c - Paradoxes, Plurality and motion does not exist.
Parmenides 5c-4c - Metaphysics and there's no time, no motion
Heraclitus - 4c - everything is always changing and in a continuous state of flux
Socrates didn't write anything. Plato wrote the Dialogues about universal truths and forms.
Aristotle 3c - systems and logic
Hamartia (Ancient Greek: ἁμαρτία) is a term developed by Aristotle in his work Poetics. The term can simply be seen as a character’s flaw or error.
LITERATURE
John Donne (pronounced like done; 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English Jacobean poet, preacher and a major representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. His works are notable for their realistic and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially as compared to those of his contemporaries.
Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters wait for someone named Godot, who never arrives. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's premiere. Voted "the most significant English language play of the 20th century", Waiting for Godot is Beckett's translation of his own original French version, En attendant Godot, and is subtitled (in English only) "a tragicomedy in two acts". The original French text was composed between1948-10-09 and 1949-01-29. The premiere was on 5 January 1953 in the Théâtre de Babylone with Roger Blin as the director who also played Pozzo.
SHAKESPEARE'S "Dark Lady"
Sonnets 127-152 are addressed to a woman commonly known as the 'Dark Lady' because her hair is said to be black and her skin dun. These sonnets are explicitly sexual in character, in contrast to those written to the "Fair Youth". It is implied that the speaker of the sonnets and the Lady had a passionate affair, but that she was unfaithful, perhaps with the "Fair Youth". The poet self-deprecatingly describes himself as balding and middle-aged at the time of writing.
POETRY
Villanelle - 5 three line stanzas, followed by a 4 line stanza
Slant Rhyme - approximate rhyme
Masculine Rhyme - one syllable words
Feminine Rhyme - two or more syllables
Iambic pentameter - 10 syllables of rising and falling stresses - utilized by Shakespeare and Milton
Assonance - eyes like sapphires shining bright ( "I" sound)
Consonance - repetition of consonant sounds - counter, original, spare, strange ("R" sound)
ARCHITECTURE
Louis Sullivan - Skyscrapers - Form follows function.
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 – April 15, 1446) was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. All of his principal works are in Florence, Italy
Had to build a dome bigger than Rome's Pantheon for the Florence cathedral without buttresses which were forbidden by the church.
trumeau : Medieval architecture term
Vertical architectural member between the leaves of a doorway. Trumeaus were often highly decorated with human and animal forms.
See also: jamb,trumeau figure.
St. Pierre, Moissac, France
Early twelfth century
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There are also two other types of classical orders, the Tuscan and the Composite. The Tuscan order is very plain, with a plain shaft, a simple capital and base, and a plain frieze. The Composite order is a combination of the Ionic and Corinthian orders.
Jazz
Charlie Parker - "The Bird" saxophonist
John Coltrane - "Giant Steps" saxophonist
Monday, January 12, 2009
Countdown 23 and Back to School
I did manage to do a little humanities study during the week off visiting my friend in Bradenton but haven't typed up my notes yet.
Tonight was the first of fifteen "intensive" Chinese classes. Out of the twenty people in the class only three haven't studied Chinese before. So this class should zip along. It will be a good review for me.
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