Art chapter
Painting chapter
QMRFour drawings by Canaletto, representing Campo San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, obtained with a camera obscura (Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia)
Music chapter
QMRThe Four Last Songs (German: Vier letzte Lieder), Op. posth., for soprano and orchestra are, with the exception of the song "Malven" (Mallows) composed later the same year, the final completed works of Richard Strauss, composed in 1948 when the composer was 84.
The songs are "Frühling" (Spring), "September", "Beim Schlafengehen" (When Falling Asleep) and "Im Abendrot" (At Sunset). The title Four Last Songs was provided posthumously by Strauss's friend Ernst Roth, who published the four songs as a single unit in 1950 after Strauss's death.
Strauss died in September 1949. The premiere was given posthumously at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 22 May 1950 by soprano Kirsten Flagstad and the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler.
Lieder and choral[edit]
All his life Strauss produced Lieder. The Four Last Songs are among his best known, along with "Ruhe, meine Seele!", "Cäcilie", "Morgen!", "Heimliche Aufforderung", "Traum durch die Dämmerung", and others. In 1948, Strauss wrote his last work, the Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra. He reportedly composed them with Kirsten Flagstad in mind and she gave the first performance, which was recorded. Strauss's songs have always been popular with audiences and performers, and are generally considered by musicologists—along with many of his other compositions—to be masterpieces.
Last works[edit]
The metaphor "Indian Summer" is often used by journalists, biographers, and music critics to describe Strauss's late creative upsurge from 1942 to the end of his life. The events of World War II seemed to bring the composer—who had grown old, tired, and a little jaded—into focus.[25] The major works of the last years of Strauss's life, written in his late 70s and 80s, include, among others, his Horn Concerto No. 2, Metamorphosen, his Oboe Concerto, and his Four Last Songs.
The Four Last Songs, composed shortly before Strauss's death, deal with the subject of dying. The last one, "Im Abendrot" (At Sunset), ends with the line "Is this perhaps death?" The question is not answered in words, but instead Strauss quotes the "transfiguration theme" from his earlier tone poem, Death and Transfiguration—meant to symbolize the transfiguration and fulfilment of the soul after death.
QMRThe work is scored for a large orchestra:piccolo, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets in B-flat, D clarinet,1 bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns in F and E, 4 horns in D (ad libitum)2, 3 trumpets in F and C, 3 trumpets in D (ad libitum)2, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, triangle, large ratchet, and strings
1Although the original score calls for a clarinet in D, the part is usually played on clarinet in E-flat as the clarinet in D is now rarely played.
2Strauss indicates four and three extra horns and trumpets respectively to be added ad libitum. The parts are to be played by separate players from the original four horns and three trumpets.
There also exists a version for piano four-hands, which has been recorded by Percy Grainger and Ralph Leopold.
QMRFour-on-the-floor (or four-to-the-floor) is a rhythm pattern used in disco and electronic dance music. It is a steady, uniformly accented beat in 4/4 time in which the bass drum is hit on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4) in common time.[1] This was popularized in the disco music of the 1970s[2] and the term four-on-the-floor was widely used in that era: it originated[citation needed] with the pedal-operated, drum-kit bass drum.
Many styles of electronic dance music, particularly those that are derived from house and techno, use this beat as an important part of the rhythmic structure.[1] Sometimes the term is used to refer to a 4/4 uniform drumming pattern for any drum.[3] A form of four-on-the-floor is also used in jazz drumming. Instead of hitting the bass drum in a pronounced and therefore easily audible fashion, it is usually struck very lightly (referred to as 'feathering') so that the sound of the drum is felt instead of heard by the listener. Typically, this is combined with a ride cymbal and hi-hat in syncopation. When a string instrument makes the rhythm (rhythm guitar, banjo), all four beats of the measure are played by identical downstrokes.
In reggae drumming, the bass drum usually hits on the third beat but sometimes drummers play four on the floor. Sly Dunbar from Sly & Robbie was one of the reggae drummers that played mostly in this style. Also Carlton Barrett from Bob Marley & The Wailers played four on the floor on several hits by The Wailers like "Is This Love" and "Exodus". In Reggae, four on the floor usually goes by the hand with a low end and powerful bassline. Four on the floor can be found in more modern Reggae derivative styles like Dancehall, while it is less common to find it in roots reggae.
QMRTransformation[edit]
Richard Middleton[12] suggests adding the concept of transformation to Narmour's[13] prosodic rules which create rhythmic successions in order to explain or generate syncopations. "The syncopated pattern is heard 'with reference to', 'in light of', as a remapping of, its partner." He gives examples of various types of syncopation: Latin, backbeat, and before-the-beat. First however, one may listen to the audio example of stress on the "strong" beats, where expected: About this sound Play (help·info)
Latin equivalent of simple 4/4[edit]
This unsyncopated rhythm is shown in the first measure directly below:
Latin transformation
The third measure depicts the syncopated rhythm in the following audio example in which the first and fourth beat are provided as expected, but the accent unexpectedly lands in between the second and third beats, creating a familiar "Latin rhythm" known as tresillo: About this sound Play (help·info)
Backbeat transformation of simple 4/4[edit]
The accent may be shifted from the first to the second beat in duple meter (and the third to fourth in quadruple), creating the backbeat rhythm familiar in rock drumming beatbox stereotypes:
Backbeat transformation
Different crowds will "clap along" at concerts on either 1 & 3 or 2 & 4, as above.
Dance chapter
Beyonce's twerk dance happens four moves by four moves according to this dance teacher.
This dance teacher teaches how to dance like Chris brown by doing first four moves like a quadrant in each of the four squares. Then he does four more moves.
Literature chapter
QMRThe principal versions of Annales Cambriae appear in four manuscripts:
A: London, British Library, MS. Harleian 3859, folios 190r-193r.
B: London (Kew), Public Record Office, MS. E.164/1 (K.R. Misc. Books, Series I) pp. 2–26
C: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Domitian A.i, folios 138r-155r
D: Exeter, Cathedral Library, MS. 3514, pp. 523–28, the Cronica ante aduentum Domini.
E: ibid., pp. 507–19, the Cronica de Wallia.
A is written in a hand of about 1100x1130 AD, and inserted without title into a manuscript (MS) of the Historia Brittonum where it is immediately followed by a pedigree for Owain ap Hywel (died 988). Although no explicit chronology is given in the MS, its annals seem to run from about AD 445 to 977 with the last entry at 954, making it likely that the text belongs to the second half of the 10th century.
B was written, probably at the Cistercian abbey of Neath, at the end of the 13th century. It is entitled Annales ab orbe condito adusque A. D. mcclxxxvi [1286].
C is part of a book written at St David's, and is entitled Annales ab orbe condito adusque A. D. mcclxxviii [1288][or 1278?]; this is also of the late 13th century.
Two of the texts, B and C, begin with a World Chronicle derived from Isidore of Seville's Origines (Book V, ch. 39), through the medium of Bede's Chronica minora. B commences its annals with Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain "sixty years before the incarnation of the Lord." After A.D. 457, B agrees closely with A until A ends. C commences its annals after the empire of Heraclius (AD 610-41) at a year corresponding to AD 677. C mostly agrees with A until A ends, although it is clear that A was not the common source for B and C (Dumville 2002, p. xi). B and C diverge after 1203, C having fewer and briefer Welsh entries.
D and E are found in a manuscript written at the Cistercian abbey of Whitland in south-west Wales in the later 13th century; the Cronica ante aduentum Domini (which takes its title from its opening words) extends from 1132 BC to 1285 AD, while the Cronica de Wallia extends from 1190 to 1266.
A alone has benefited from a complete diplomatic edition (Phillimore 1888).[1]
Source for the Arthurian legend[edit]
There are two entries in the Annales on King Arthur, one on Medraut (Mordred), and one on Merlin. These entries have been presented in the past as proof of the existence of Arthur and Merlin,[2] although that view is no longer widely held because the entries could have been added arbitrarily as late as 970, long after the development of the early Arthurian myth.
The entries on Arthur, Mordred, and Merlin in the A Text:
Year 72 (c. AD 516) The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ on his shoulders for three days and three nights and the Britons were victors.
Year 93 (c. 537) The Strife of Camlann in which Arthur and Mordred fell and there was death in Britain and in Ireland.
Year 129 (c. 573) The Battle of Armterid
Texts B and C omit the second half of the year 93 entry. B calls Arfderydd "Erderit"; C, "Arderit". In the B Text, the year 129 entry continues: "between the sons of Elifer and Guendoleu son of Keidau in which battle Guendoleu fell and Merlin went mad".
Concerning Arthur's cross at the Battle of Badon, it is mirrored by a passage in Nennius where Arthur was said to have borne the image of the Virgin Mary "on his shoulders" during a battle at a castle called Guinnion.[3] The words for "shoulder" and "shield" were, however, easily confused in Old Welsh – *scuit "shield" versus *scuid "shoulder" [3] – and Geoffrey of Monmouth played upon this dual tradition, describing Arthur bearing "on his shoulders a shield" emblazoned with the Virgin.[4]
QMRBirth of the Gozan[edit]
At the end of the Kamakura period (1333) the four temples of Kennin-ji, Kenchō-ji, Engaku-ji and Jufuku-ji, were already known as the Gozan, but not much is otherwise known about the system, its structure and the hierarchical order.[1]
The first official recognition of the system came from Emperor Go-Daigo during the brief Kemmu Restoration (1333–1336). Go-Daigo added the Kyoto Gozan to the existing temples in Kamakura with Daitoku-ji and Nanzen-ji together at the top as number 1, followed by Kennin-ji and Tōfuku-ji. At this point in time, in spite of their name, the Gozan were not five but four in both cities.[1] At the beginning of Muromachi Period, they became five in Kyoto later, when Ashikaga Takauji built Tenryū-ji in memory of Go-Daigo.
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