AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
In 1986, some chemists disputed the delocalized view of benzene in an article published in the journal "Nature". They showed that the electrons in benzene are almost certainly localized to particular carbon atoms. They showed the aromatic properties of benzene come from spin coupling rather than electron delocalization. Other scientists wrote articles to support this view in "Nature" in 1987. But, chemists are slow to switch from the delocalized electrons view.
Derivatives of benzene occur sufficiently often as a component of organic molecules that there is a Unicode symbol in the Miscellaneous Technical block with the code U+232C (⌬) to represent it with three double bonds, and U+23E3 (⏣) for a delocalized version.
Tasmanian devil
The Tasmanian devil ("Sarcophilus harrisii") is a meat eating mammal. It is a marsupial, which means it has a small pouch to carry its babies. It is the largest meat eating marsupial in the world. It is nocturnal, which means it sleeps during the day and is awake during the night. Tasmanian devils now live only in Tasmania, an island state of Australia.
The devil is the same size as a small dog with a wide head and a short tail. Male devils can weigh 12 kg and be 30 cm tall. It has black fur and makes a loud and very scary screeching noise. It will hunt other animals and also feed on dead animals. The devil has strong teeth and jaws and will eat all its prey, even bones and fur.
The Tasmanian devil became extinct on the Australian mainland about 3,000 years ago - before European settlement in 1788. They were hunted in Tasmania. In the 1930s the Van Dieman's Land Company offered 25 cents for each male and 35 cents for each female killed. In 1941 they became officially protected.
In 1996 the devils began to get very sick and then die with large tumours on their faces. Devil facial tumour disease has greatly reduced the number of devils and now threatens their survival. In some areas 85% of devils have been found with the disease. In the places where the tumours were seen first, devil numbers have dropped by 95%. The tumour is spread by biting. Because the devils are all closely related (not enough genetic diversity), the tumour cells are not seen as new; so the devil's immune system does not fight it. In May 2008 the Tasmanian devil was listed as endangered. Programs are being tried by the Tasmanian government to reduce the impact of the disease. About 60 devils without the disease have been captured and are to be kept as a tumour free group for rebreeding. Scientists have been looking at ways to give the devils immunity but so far this has not worked.
New research is showing the devils are having babies earlier, they use to breed at two years, but now are breeding at one year old. Devils used to have babies every year for three years, but they are now dying before they can produce a second litter (family).
The devils have a low genetic diversity which is consistent with a 'founder effect'. What this means is: a small number colonised Tasmania from Australia at some stage. So their genetic variety was much less than the parent population. Disease like the present may have happened before, and reduced the population to a small number. These events are called 'population bottlenecks'. A small population which carries less variation is always vulnerable to extinction, because none of the animals may be resistant to the infection.
Its genome was sequenced in 2010 by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. There is some hope for their survival because, since 2005, three females have been found that are partially resistant to the disease.
Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn (also known as Franz Joseph Haydn) was an Austrian composer. He was born on March 31 or April 1, 1732, and died on May 31, 1809. He was one of the most famous composers in the Classical music period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony."
Haydn's father made wheels for a living, and had the skills of a blacksmith, stonemason, and carpenter. He used that skill in his spare time to make musical instruments for his family to play. The Haydn family would give informal weekend concerts. One of Joseph's relatives thought that Joseph had a great singing voice and should go with him to a boarding school where he would start studying to become a priest.
Haydn did not like it very much at the boarding school, but his voice developed to a point where he was selected to be a part of the Boy's Choir of the Vienna Cathedral. He stayed there until his voice changed.
Haydn made a living teaching lessons and playing in the streets for handouts until he met Nicolai Porpora, who hired Haydn as an accompanist and general servant.
Eventually Haydn got a job working for Nicholas Esterhazy. He worked for the Esterhazys for over 30 years. He wrote symphonies, string quartets, operas, piano sonatas, and other pieces.
After he was released from his duties with the Esterhazys, Haydn travelled to London. Even at the age of 60 he was still active and wrote some of his most famous symphonies there.
While in London, he heard Handel's Messiah, and was inspired to write two oratorios of his own, The Seasons and The Creation.
While working on these oratorios in Vienna, Haydn gave lessons to Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven had first wanted to study with Mozart, but by the time Beethoven was ready to study in Vienna, Mozart had died.
The house in Vienna where Haydn wrote his oratorios has been turned into a museum called 'haydnhaus'.
Haydn was so well-respected in Vienna that he was known as "Papa Haydn" and his influence on music was profound and great.
Scale (music)
In music, a scale is a set of notes in order of their pitch (that is, their frequency). If the scale starts with the note which has the lowest pitch and goes up to the note with the highest pitch, the scale is called "ascending". If the scale starts with the note which has the highest pitch and goes down to the note with the lowest pitch, the scale is called "descending". Scales are often the same both ascending and descending, but this is not always true. Very often, a scale is defined over an interval (such as an octave). The most common scales use intervals of five, six or seven different notes.
On a piano, there are white keys and black keys. If we start on the note "C" and play each white key going up until we come to the next "C", we have played the "C Major" scale. It has eight notes because there are eight notes from each "C" to the next one: "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "A", "B", "C".
The note played by each black key has two names: it can be named by the note after it, or the note before it. For example, the black key after "C" can be called "C♯" (C-sharp). "Sharp" means higher in pitch. That same note can also be called "D♭" (D-flat) because it is the note before "D". "Flat" means lower in pitch.
There are half steps (or semitones) between two keys next to each other on the piano. The key to the right plays a note half a step higher (sharp) and the key to the left plays a note half a step lower (flat). So between the third and the fourth note, and between the seventh and eighth note, there is only half a step. Starting the scale at the next white key (D), two black keys will need to be touched to get the same scale, the first one for the third note, the second for the seventh note: "D", "E", "F♯", "G", "A", "B", "C♯", "D". The pattern for an ascending major scale is up a whole step, up another whole step and then a half step, then a whole step, a whole step and another whole step, then half a step to complete the octave. This is often shown as: WWHWWWH or TTSTTTS (where "T" stands for "tone" and "S" stands for "semitone").
Scales use either just sharps or just flats when choosing between the two names for the same note, when this is possible. In a scale of seven different notes, each letter is used only once. This means that some scales have one or two notes named with a sharp or a flat even though they are played by white keys. In the "C♯" Major scale, for example, all the notes have names with a sharp: "C♯", "D♯", "E♯", "F♯", "G♯", "A♯", "B♯", "C♯". In this scale, "E♯" is the name for the note played by the key that plays "F" and the "B♯" is the name for the note played by the key that plays "C". The same notes are used in the "D♭" Major scale, but they all have different names: "D♭", "E♭", "F", "G♭", "A♭", "B♭", "C", "D♭".
Sometimes the major scale is sung to the words "do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do" ("solfège"). In the musical "The Sound of Music", Maria teaches the children to sing by teaching them a song called "Doe, a deer, a female deer". Each line starts on the next note of the scale and uses a different English word for each note ("doe", "ray", "me", "far", "sew", "la" and "tea").
There are also minor scales. These work the same way as major scales, but use different patterns of intervals:
Traditional western music generally uses seven notes, and repeats the first note (an octave higher or lower) to complete the octave.
During the Middle Ages, and the Renaisssance, the diatonic scale (the white keys of the piano) was used most often. Black keys (called accidentals) were less common. The classical period (1600 to 1900) generally used major and minor scales, as outlined above. Natural minor was used less. From about 1900, there are other scales, for example the chromatic scale (12 half tones).
Orthology (language)
Orthology is the study of the right use of words in language. The word comes from Greek "ortho"- ("correct") and -"logy" ("science of"). This science is a place where psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and many other fields of learning come together. The most noted use of "Orthology" is for the selection of words
for the language of Basic English by the Orthological Institute.
The book, "The Meaning of Meaning", by C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards, is an important book dealing with orthology. The term "Orthology" comes from the book "The Grammar of Science" by Karl Pearson.
Toei Company
Toei Company, Ltd. (東映株式会社 "Tōei Kabushiki-gaisha" (pronounced "toe ay") is a Japanese film, television production, and  distribution corporation. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan, studios at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a shareholder in several television companies. It is notable for anime, live action dramas known as tokusatsu, and historical dramas.
Tokyo-Yokohama Films (東横映画 "Tō-Yoko Eiga", incorporated in 1938, had previously erected its facilities immediately east of the Tōkyū Tōyoko Line, they managed the Tōkyū Shibuya Yokohama studio system prior to V-J Day. From 1945 through the Toei merger, Tokyo-Yokohama Films leased from the Daiei Motion Picture Company a second studio in Kyoto. Through the merger, they gained the combined talents and experience of different actors. On October 1, 1950, the Tokyo Film Distribution Company was incorporated; in 1951 the company purchased Ōizumi Films.
In 1956, Toei established an animation division, Toei Animation at the former Tokyo-Ōizumi animation studio, purchasing the assets of Japan Animated Films (originally founded in 1948)
Toei was a pioneer in the use of transformation in live-action martial-arts dramas, a technique developed for the "Kamen Rider", "Metal Heroes" and "Super Sentai" series; The genre currently continues with "Kamen Rider" and "Super Sentai".
In April 6, 2020, Toei create their official Youtube Channel and uploading some of the oldest tokusatsu series (from the 50s to 90s).
Naoko Takeuchi
Naoko Takeuchi (武内直子 Takeuchi Naoko), born March 15, 1967, is a manga artist from Japan. She lives in Tokyo. She wrote the manga Sailor Moon, which was so popular it was made into an anime, musicals, video games and more. Her husband, Yoshihiro Togashi, is the creator of "YuYu Hakusho" and "Hunter × Hunter".
Kimi Ga Yo
Kimigayo (きみ が よ; Kanji: 君が代) is the national anthem of Japan. The name of the song roughly means 'Imperial Reign' in English. The anthem is based on a poem written by an unknown poet from Japan about one thousand years ago. The music was written more recently (about two hundred years ago) and was then rewritten shortly afterwards because the original tune was unpopular.
Although popular for a long period and sung in situations where people from other countries would usually sing their country's national anthem, Kimi Ga Yo was only considered as Japan's official national anthem in 1999. The law that stated this also defined the Flag of Japan in a similar way.
"Kimigayo" is one of the shortest known national anthems of any country. It is only 56 seconds long.
April Fools' Day (also known as April Fool's Day) is celebrated in many countries on April 1 every year. On this day, practical jokes (or "April Fools") are played on friends and family. The jokes are done to embarrass them. In some countries, April Fools only last until noon, and if someone plays a joke after, they are an April Fool.
People have set aside a special day for playing jokes for centuries. The ancient Romans had a holiday called Hilaria.
In the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on March 25 in most European towns. In some areas of France, New Year's was a week-long holiday ending on April 1. Some people think that April Fools' started because those who celebrated on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates.
In the U.K., a person playing a joke would yell "April Fool!" at the recipient. According to tradition, the joking was supposed to stop at midday.
In the Nordic countries, many news outlets would publish or broadcast a fake news story on April 1.
In France, an April fools joke is called a "Poisson d'Avril'. One tradition there is to try and stick a paper fish on one's friends back, and shout "Poisson d'Avril!' when it is discovered.
Sometimes a large media corporation would broadcast or publish a fake news story on April 1. For example, in 1957 the BBC broadcast a story about spaghetti trees. According to the story, people in Switzerland grew spaghetti on trees. Later, many people called the BBC asking how they could get a spaghetti tree.
Baroque music
Baroque music is a set of styles of European classical music which were in use between about 1600 and 1750.
The word "Baroque" is used in other art forms besides music: we talk about Baroque architecture, painting, sculpture, dance and literature. The Baroque period comes between the Renaissance and the period of Classicism.
Musicians think of the Baroque period as starting around 1600. The famous Renaissance composers Palestrina and Lassus had died a few years earlier. Claudio Monteverdi wrote some music in Renaissance style, and other music in Baroque style. Opera was being invented. It was a time of musical change.
The change from writing music in the Baroque style to the Classical style was much more gradual. 1750 is the year that Bach died, so it is an easy date to choose for the end of the Baroque period.
The Baroque was a time when people liked large spaces and a lot of ornamentation. This can be seen in the architecture of famous buildings such as St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, or St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. They were built at this time. In Venice there were churches with galleries on either side of the church. Composers liked to write music for two groups of musicians placed in opposite galleries. Giovanni Gabrieli wrote a lot of music like this.
The idea of two contrasting groups was used a lot in Baroque music. Composers wrote concertos. These were pieces for orchestra and a solo instrument. Sometimes a concerto contrasted a group of soloists with the rest of the orchestra. These are called by the Italian name "Concerti Grossi. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are good examples.
Organs, and some harpsichords, had at least two manuals (keyboards). The player could change from one manual to the other, contrasting two different sounds.
Baroque music was often a melody with a bass line at the bottom. This could be, for example, a singer and a cello. There was also a harpsichord or organ that played the bass line as well, and made up chords in between. Often the composer did not bother to write out all the chords (harmonies) but just showed some of the chords by figures, leaving it to the performer to decide exactly which notes to play. This is called “figured bass” or “basso continuo”. The soloist, who played or sang the melody on top, often put in lots of ornamental notes. Again: the composer did not write this all down but left it to the performer to improvise something nice around the notes he had written.
Because composers were now writing opera it was important for the audience to hear the words clearly. In the Renaissance the groups of a choir were often singing several different words using different melodies all at once. This was called “polyphony”. Polyphony was widely used in instrumental music, but was not used in opera, which needed to tell a story without being confusing.
When a soloist in an opera sings a song (an aria) the aria is in a particular mood. They called this “affection”. There were several “affections” or moods: there were arias about revenge, jealousy, anger, love, despair, peaceful happiness etc. Each movement in a concerto also had one particular mood. Music from later periods is different. For example: Haydn in the Classical Period would often change its mood during a piece.
The Baroque suite is a collection of dance movements written in the style of Baroque music. There is an accepted standard order in which the dances are performed. The five primary dances are the Overture, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue. Many times a composer would add a Prelude before all the dances. Sometimes a composer would add another piece in between the Sarabande and the Gigue.
There are many exceptions to the standard order, but the order of Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Other, and Gigue is most common. This can be easily remembered by the acronym PACSOG.
Here are a few of the most important composers of the Baroque period:
A canyon (or gorge) is a big crack in the ground, or a very deep valley. Most canyons are made by rivers. A few are made by earthquakes. They can be big, like the Grand Canyon, or small.
Canyons can be formed by erosion by running water which will take rocks and soil away.
Pattern language is used to mean a system of patterns that have a certain meaning other than just the pattern.
The pattern can be a pattern which has a hidden meaning shown through any sense like sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.
The most obvious form of sight-based pattern language comes in the form of writing. Nearly every language has a unique written form, which grammatically follows the spoken form.
National Maritime Day
In the United States, National Maritime Day is held every May 22 to honor people who have served in the United States Merchant Marine service.
The first National Maritime Day was May 22, 1933, based on a joint resolution passed by the United States Congress on May 20, 1933. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first President to issue a proclamation about the day.
The biggest National Maritime Day celebration was in 1946, the first National Maritime Day after the Allied Powers won World War II. That year, governors of many U.S. states also officially named the day National Maritime Day or "Maritime Day" for their state. The first National Maritime Day after the end of the Korean War, in 1954, was also more widely celebrated than most.
In the 2006 annual proclamation by president George W. Bush, he made special mention of the Merchant Marine service's hurricane aid work following Hurricane Katrina and the other hurricanes of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.
Nuclear fusion is the process of making a single heavy nucleus (part of an atom) from two lighter nuclei. This process is called a nuclear reaction. It releases a large amount of energy.
The nucleus made by fusion is heavier than either of the starting nuclei. However, it is not as heavy as the combination of the original mass of the starting nuclei (atoms). This lost mass is changed into lots of energy. This is shown in Einstein's famous "E=mc" equation.
Fusion happens in the middle of stars, like the Sun. Hydrogen atoms are fused together to make helium. This releases lots of energy. This energy powers the heat and light of the star.
Not all elements can be joined. Heavier elements are less easily joined than lighter ones. Iron (a metal) cannot fuse with other atoms. This is what causes stars to die. Stars join all of their atoms together to make heavier atoms of different types, until they start to make iron. The iron nucleus cannot fuse with other nuclei. The reactions stop. The star eventually will cool down and die.
On Earth it is very difficult to start nuclear fusion reactions that release more energy than is needed to start the reaction. The reason is that fusion reactions only happen at high temperature and pressure, like in the Sun, because both nuclei have a positive charge, and positive repels positive. The only way to stop the repulsion is to make the nuclei hit each other at very high speeds. They only do that at high pressure and temperature. The only successful approach so far has been in nuclear weapons. The hydrogen bomb uses an atomic (fission) bomb to start fusion reactions. Scientists and engineers have been trying for decades to find a safe and working way of controlling and containing fusion reactions to generate electricity. They still have many challenges to overcome before fusion power can be used as a clean source of energy.
Concertmaster
The Concertmaster (American English) or leader (British English) is the most important violinist in an orchestra. He or she will sit in the front seat, by the conductor's left. The word "concertmaster" comes from the German "Konzertmeister".
The leader will be the highest paid member of the orchestra. He has to decide how the violins will play the music and write in the bowing. He will decide where each member of the violins should sit. He will probably also interview them and offer them the job in the orchestra. He will talk to the conductor about anything the orchestra are not happy about (he may have to remind the conductor when it is time to stop the rehearsal!). If part of the music is marked "solo" then he will play it as a solo while the other violins stop playing.
In the United States it is usual for the concertmaster to be on the platform before the concert and to tell the orchestra to tune their instruments, playing on his A string to give them the correct pitch. In European orchestras it is usually the oboe that gives an A for tuning. In Britain the leader usually comes on stage after the orchestra have tuned, and gets an applause.
"of the past:"
"of today":
Mutual assured destruction
Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a military strategy in which two opposing military forces are powerful enough to completely destroy each other. It should help to avoid a nuclear war. This usually happens when both forces have nuclear weapons. If a state attacks another with nuclear weapons, the state attacked will potentially be able to attack back. The attacker must think that he will be destroyed with his victim if he attacks. The theory is that no state would start an attack if attacking its enemy means its own destruction.
The concept was discussed by Herman Kahn. It was part of the background to the film "Dr. Strangelove".
Stairway to Heaven was a 1971 song by Led Zeppelin. It was on the album Led Zeppelin IV.
Some listeners claim that by reversing the song, a hidden Satanic message is revealed. The message is:
Oh, here's to my sweet Satan<br>
The one whose little path would make me sad whose power is Satan<br>
He'll give, he'll give you 666<br>
There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan
Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band that started in Dublin in 1969. Up to 1984 the band were led by bassist, songwriter and singer Phil Lynott (1949-1986). The band's famous song "The Boys Are Back in Town" is still played a lot on classic rock radio stations. Since Lynott's death, other former members have carried on using the band name.
Phil Lynott wrote most of the band's songs. The band's music showed many musical styles including: country music, psychedelic rock, Celtic music and folk music which Lynott mixed with hard rock and heavy metal styles.
Thin Lizzy were listed at number 51 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".
Aziz al-Abub
Aziz al-Abub (a.k.a. Ibrahim al-Nadhir or al-Nahdhir) was a Lebanese Hezbollah psychiatrist and mind control expert.
Aziz was a disciple of Ewen Cameron and a graduate of the Soviet Union's that specialized in mind control techniques.
Aziz al-Abub used mind-control, drugs and physical torture in the infamous 444-day (1984-1985) torture and mental derangement of American in Beirut.
Hobbits are a fictional race in the Middle-earth world invented by J. R. R. Tolkien, also often called "halflings".
They appeared in the books "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". Several important main characters in those books are hobbits, such as Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins.
Hobbits (or similar beings) have become very popular and are now often used in fantasy fiction and (video) games.
Hobbits are like small humans between two and four foot tall (between 60 and 120 centimeters). They have hair/fur on the top side of their feet, leathery foot-soles, and slightly pointed ears. They tend to be stout and often have brown and curly hair. Male hobbits do not have beards. Hobbits live longer compared to humans, and many hobbits reach the age of 100.
Hobbits are a peaceful people and live a simple, pre-industrial life in the land which they call The Shire, and also in Bree-land.
A typical hobbit-house has a long hallway with rooms on both sides, and round doors and windows. Originally these were underground in hills, then the house was called a "smial"; but this architecture(style of building) is also used for 'normal' houses above ground.
Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins is a Hobbit from "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". He is a major protagonist of "The Hobbit" and a minor protagonist of "The Lord of the Rings".
Bilbo Baggins was greeted by Gandalf the Grey and a group of 13 Dwarves known as the Company of Thorin Oakenshield. He was offered to help them to take back Erebor from the dragon Smaug. At the Misty Mountain, he landed at a cave and met Gollum. He took Gollum's One Ring and went back to his Company. Decades after returning from Erebor, he celebrated his 111th birthday as well as his nephew Frodo's birthday. He wanted to keep the One Ring.
In Peter Jackson's movie adaptations of both books, Bilbo was played by Martin Freeman when he was younger and Ian Holm when he was older.
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is a fictional fantasy world invented by J. R. R. Tolkien. Several of his books take place there, such as "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". It is supposed to be a long gone mythological time of our earth.
Although Middle-earth is only one continent in Tolkien's world, it is often used for the whole fictional world and all stories Tolkien invented for it. Tolkien created and worked on Middle-earth through most of his life, and it is this creation for which he is most famous.
Middle-earth has its own geography, several different species and peoples (elves, dwarves, humans, hobbits), their languages, and a history that spans thousands of years. The stories of Middle-earth are also a kind of 'artificial myth'.
"Middle-earth" is called "Endor" (or "Endóre") and "Ennor" in the fictional Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin.
The oldest people of Middle-earth are the immortal Elves. Second were the Dwarves. After them came mortal Men. In the Third Age, there appeared another people, the Hobbits. There are also the tree-like Ents.
The history of the Middle-earth world is thousands of years long. Sometimes, when big historical events happen, a new "Age" is begun, which starts counting again with the year 1.
Arnold Rosé
Arnold Josef Rosé (October 24, 1863 – August 25, 1946) was a famous violinist. He was the leader (concertmaster) of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for 50 years.
Arnold Rosé was born in Iaşi (Jassy) in what is now Romania. His family was Jewish. Their name at that time was Rosenblum. He had three brothers. All four boys were musical and so his parents decided to move to Vienna which was a big city in Austria where there was lots of music. Arnold’s father was a carriage builder. In those days people often travelled by horse and cart. His father made good quality carriages and he made plenty of money from his business.
When Arnold was seven he started music lessons. When he was ten he was good enough to study the violin at the Vienna Conservatorium which was a special school for musical pupils.
In 1881 he played a violin solo with a famous orchestra and famous conductor: the Vienna Philharmonic under Hans Richter. The piece he played was the Violin Concerto by Otto Goldmark. Soon he was offered the job of orchestral leader. This was a very important position for such a young man. He stayed in that job for 50 years!
Rosé did other things as well as playing with the orchestra. He gave violin lessons to talented pupils. He like to play string quartets and he got together with three other players to make up the Rosé Quartet. They were very good and for more than half a century people said they were the best string quartet in Europe. Arnold’s brother Eduard was the cellist in the quartet. They played works by lots of composers, especially Haydn, Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Rosé knew the composer Johannes Brahms and they played some of Brahms’s compositions when they had only just been written, e.g. the clarinet quintet (for clarinet and string quartet). The Rosé Quartet also knew the composer Schoenberg and helped him to get well known by playing his music.
Another composer Rosé knew very well was Gustav Mahler. Mahler had two sisters. Arnold Rosé married one of them, and his brother Eduard married the other.
Arnold was kept very busy at his job as leader of the orchestra. The orchestra played in the concert hall as well as for the opera. At one special concert lots of flowers and plants had been brought in to the concert hall. The orchestra were busy playing when Arnold noticed people were looking at his shoes. He thought maybe he had an odd pair of shoes on. When he looked down at his feet he saw a mouse sitting there.
Arnold and his wife Justine had a son and a daughter who both became musicians. They had plenty of money to live quite comfortably. He was given the title of Royal and Imperial Court Musician, and he had a special court carriage to take him to the opera. He also had a carriage of his own with a footman in livery (uniform) to drive him about.
However, things changed in 1938. The Nazis took over Austria and made life very difficult for Jewish people. They were in great danger. In the autumn his wife died and Arnold had to save his life by going to England. He stayed there for most of his remaining years. He died in London.
10s BC
40s
Pontiac Silverdome
The Pontiac Silverdome is a domed stadium in the town of Pontiac, Michigan, near Detroit. It opened in 1975 and closed in 2007. The largest crowds to come to the stadium were for WrestleMania III on March 29, 1987, where the main event was a match between Hulk Hogan and André the Giant. The crowd attendance for that night reached 93,173, which is also the record for indoor attendance. The Detroit Lions NFL team played at the stadium from 1975 until 2001.
List of decades
The Estonian language () is a Uralic language. It is mainly spoken in Estonia. The Estonian language is similar to Finnish and is one of the few national languages of Europe not to be an Indo-European language.
The Estonian alphabet uses the Latin alphabet. It has many vowels, including Ö, Ä, Õ and Ü.
It has been influenced by and adopted many words from German and Swedish. Estonian language also has different dialects.
The chromosomes of a cell are in the cell nucleus. They carry the genetic information. Chromosomes are made up of DNA and protein combined as chromatin. Each chromosome contains many genes. Chromosomes come in pairs: one set from the mother; the other set from the father. Cytologists label chromosomes with numbers.
Chromosomes are present in every cell nucleus with very few and special exceptions. This means they are found in all eukaryotes, since only eukaryotes have cell nuclei. When eukaryote cells divide, the chromosomes also divide.
When a somatic (body) cell (such as a muscle cell) divides, the process is called mitosis. Before mitosis, the cell copies all the chromosomes and then it can divide. When they duplicate, chromosomes look like the letter "X". When they are doubled, the two halves are called chromatids (see diagram). The chromatids are joined at the centromere.
There are 46 chromosomes in a human, 23 pairs. Everyone has a set of chromosomes from their father and a matching set from their mother. They include a pair of sex chromosomes. The mother's eggs always contain an X chromosome, while the father's sperm contains either a Y chromosome or an X chromosome. That determines the sex of the child. To produce sex cells (gametes), the stem cells go through a different division process called meiosis. This reduces the 23 pairs (diploid) to 23 singles (haploid). These, when combined by fertilisation, produce the new set of 23 pairs.
Different animals have different numbers of chromosomes. If a person does not have the usual number of chromosomes, they may die or have one or more peculiarities. For example, they might get a genetic disorder like Down syndrome (extra chromosome 21) and Klinefelter syndrome (a male with two X chromosomes). Some genetic disorders are more common than others.
Polytene chromosomes are over-sized chromosomes which have developed from standard chromosomes. Specialized cells undergo repeated rounds of DNA replication without cell division (endomitosis). Polytene chromosomes form when multiple rounds of replication produce many sister chromatids that are stuck together in parallel.
Polytene chromosomes are found in "Drosophila" species and in nonbiting midges. They also occur in arthropods of the class Collembola, Ciliate protozoa, early stages of mammalian embryos, and suspensor cells in plants.
Polytene cells have a metabolic function. Multiple copies of genes allows a high level of gene expression. In "Drosophila", for example, the chromosomes of the larval salivary glands undergo many rounds of endoreduplication. This produces large amounts of glue-like mucous (“glue”) before pupation.
Chromosome puffs (seen in diagram) are diffused uncoiled regions of the polytene chromosome. They are sites of active transcription.
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli (probably born Venice (date unknown), about 1553 - 57; died 21 August 1612, in Venice) was an Italian organist and composer.
He was very famous in his day and composed a great deal of church music; motets and madrigals. He lived at the end of the Renaissance period and beginning of the Baroque.
About 1575, Giovanni began working for Orlando di Lasso at the Bavarian court, as his uncle Andres Gabrieli had before him. Little is known of his time in Munich, and he left in 1579 after the death of his patron, Duke Albrecht. There is no record of Gabrieli's activities until 1584 when he'd returned to Venice. That year he replaced organist Claudio Merulo at Basilica di San Marco, church of Venice's patron saint. Due to Merulo's resignation, a contest was eventually held January 1, 1585 to fill his post, which Gabrieli won, having already occupied the position anyway. Giovanni and his uncle, who had raised him and taught him music, worked together only a short time at the church before Andres died in August 1585. Giovanni held his post until he died in 1612.
Also in 1585 Giovanni had been appointed as organist of Scuola Grande di San Rocco, where he composed ceremonial music.
During all this, he was also a music teacher. Heinrich Schutz was one of his students.
Giovanni is well known for being one of the first composers who specified volume markings and instrumentation in music.
Arcangelo Corelli
Arcangelo Corelli (b.Fusignano, Imola, 17 Feb.1653; d.Rome, 8 Jan.1713) was an Italian violinist and composer. He composed some of the most important Italian music of the Baroque period. He was also very famous as a player. Other violinists learned from his style of playing and developed the art of playing the violin. His works include sonatas and concerti grossi. Perhaps his most famous is the La Folia sonata for Violin.
Henry Purcell was an English composer. He was born in 1659 in Westminster, London; he died 21 November 21 1695, Westminster). Many musicians think he is the greatest English composer of all times. Although he only lived until he was 36, he wrote a large amount of music. His compositions include church music, instrumental music, music for the theatre, even popular drinking songs. He wrote the first English opera. He lived in the time called the Baroque period. He liked Italian and French music, and combined those styles to make something that was typically English.
We do not know very much about Purcell’s childhood. His mother’s name was Elizabeth. In 1664, Henry Purcell senior died and the widow took her children to live with her brother in law, Thomas Purcell, who was very kind to them. Thomas Purcell was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal which meant that he sang in the king’s choir. Soon Henry was singing in the Chapel Royal. This was the best musical training a boy could have in England. His teachers were Captain Henry Cooke, and then Pelham Humfrey. Henry sang in the choir until his voice broke in 1673. He was then given the job of looking after the king’s musical instruments.
Purcell may have been composing already when he was nine. We know that he wrote an ode for the King's birthday in 1670. When Humfrey died Purcell studied with the famous composer John Blow. He went to Westminster School. In 1676 he was made organist at Westminster Abbey. He started writing music for the theatre. He also wrote church music, including an anthem for a singer called John Gostling who had a very good, deep bass voice. Purcell wrote several anthems for him during his life. One is called "They that go down to the sea in ships". It goes down to a low D.
In 1680, Blow, who had been made organist of Westminster Abbey in 1669, resigned so that the 22-years-old Purcell could have his job. Purcell then spent the next six years just writing sacred (religious) music. Later he went back to writing music for the theatre, including the first English opera "Dido and Aeneas".
In 1682 Purcell became organist of the Chapel Royal. He did this job as well as being organist at Westminster Abbey. His first printed composition, "Twelve Sonatas", was published in 1683. Music printing was expensive in those days, so it was unusual to have something printed. He continued to write music including odes to the king and royal family. In 1685, he wrote two of his finest anthems, "I was glad" and "My heart is inditing", for the coronation of King James II.
In 1687 he wrote more "theatre music." Sometimes this music was for masques (a kind of ballet with some singing as well), sometimes it was music for tragedies, e.g. plays by Dryden. In 1691, he wrote "King Arthur", also written by Dryden. In 1692, he composed songs and music for "The Fairy-Queen" (an adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"). Purcell’s music for this was lost for many years, and was rediscovered and published in 1901. In these works the characters in the plays do not sing, they speak their lines.
Purcell's "Te Deum and Jubilate" was written for Saint Cecilia's Day, 1693, the first English "Te Deum" ever composed with orchestral accompaniment. He composed an anthem and two elegies for Queen Mary II's funeral.
He was very famous when he died in 1695, possibly from tuberculosis. His wife and two of his six children survived him.
Purcell is buried next to the organ in Westminster Abbey. His epitaph reads, "Here lyes Henry Purcell Esq., who left this life and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded."
Purcell wrote a lot of music for the theatre. He was born one year before the time known in England as the “Restoration”. Before the Restoration Oliver Cromwell had been ruling England for nearly 20 years. Most music had been banned. People were therefore very glad to be able to make music again, and they wanted lots of songs and instrumental music in their plays. Opera, however, was not wanted. In Europe opera was very popular in countries such as Italy, Germany and France, but it did not become popular in England until Handel came to England in 1709 and introduced Italian opera.
"Dido and Aeneas" is an exception because it is a real opera: everything is sung, and the words are in English. It was written for a performance at a girls’ school. It is quite short, lasting just one hour. It contains the famous lament "When I am laid in earth" sung by Dido.
Purcell wrote a very large amount of music for the church. This includes anthems and service settings. Although he was an organist he wrote very little for organ. He wrote chamber music, including some very beautiful fantasias for viols.
Although Purcell was recognized as a great composer at the time he did not have much influence on other composers after his death. He was the last in a line of great English musicians in the 16th and 17th centuries. After his death English music was not as important as it had been. In the 18th century the music heard in England was largely imported from the continent, e.g. Italian opera.
Much later, in the 20th century, English composers were often inspired by Purcell’s music. Benjamin Britten wrote a piece called "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" which is based on a tune from Purcell's "Abdelazar". The aria "I know a bank" from Britten's opera "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is inspired by Purcell's aria "Sweeter than Roses". Sir Michael Tippett loved Purcell’s harmonies and rhythms and they influenced him in his compositions.
François Couperin
François Couperin (born in Paris on 10 November 1668; died in Paris, on 12 September 1733) was a French composer who lived in the Baroque period. Many of his relatives were composers. He is often called "François Couperin le Grand" (The Great) because he was the most famous of the Couperin family. He is best known today for his harpsichord music. He wrote several pieces which he called "Ordres" meaning the same as the word "suite" i.e. a collection of dance movements. Sometimes these movements have strange titles and we cannot always be sure what they mean. Some of them may have been nicknames of people he knew. He also wrote important organ music. He never had a family of his own before he died.
Christoph Willibald von Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck (b.Erasbach nr. Berching, July 2, 1714; d.Vienna, November 15, 1787) was a German composer. He is famous for his operas which were written in a new and exciting way. He was not interested in writing operas which were just a series of songs for singers to show off. He wanted to make his operas into good pieces of drama. His operas had a big influence on later composers like Mozart, Weber and Wagner. He wrote Italian operas and French operas. "Orfeo ed Euridice" includes song “Che farò senza Euridice” which is one of the best-known opera songs ever written.
Jan Ladislav Dussek
Jan Ladislav Dussek (b. Ĉáslav, Bohemia, 12 Feb.1760; d.Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 20 March 1812) was a Bohemian composer of the Classical period. He travelled a lot, living in Holland, Lithuania, Italy, France and England. He lived nearly twelve years in London where he was a fashionable teacher and famous composer. He is best remembered now for his piano music.
Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 - 3 April 1897) was a famous German composer. He started his career as a pianist. He was always very self-critical and destroyed any composition he thought was not really good. He thought that people were expecting him to be the “next Beethoven”, and spent many years on his first symphony before he allowed it to be performed. In the end, he wrote four symphonies altogether, as well as four concertos and a number of choral works, including a requiem. He also wrote chamber music, piano music, and German art songs, or "Lieder". One of his best known songs is "Wiegenlied" ("cradle song"), often called "Brahms' Lullaby," which is often heard in music boxes.
Brahms was born in Germany. His father was a double bass player in the Hamburg city orchestra. He probably gave the young boy his first music lessons. He soon was learning the piano with a teacher named Otto Cossel. When Brahms played in a public concert in 1843 an American agent asked him to tour America, but his teacher realized he was too young. He said that Johannes should study with Eduard Marxsen, a well-known teacher in Hamburg. By 1848 he was playing piano recitals. He also started to compose, and he sent some of his compositions to Robert Schumann to ask for his advice. Schumann sent the parcel back unopened.
At this time there were many Hungarian musicians in Hamburg. Brahms liked their folk music with its unusual rhythms, little triplet figures and sense of rubato. It was to influence his own style of composition. One of the Hungarians was called Remenyi. He played the violin and Brahms often accompanied him at concerts. They went on tour together and met famous people such as the composer Franz Liszt and the violinist Joseph Joachim who became a close friend of Brahms for many years. Joachim told Brahms to go and see Schumann and his wife Clara in Düsseldorf. Schumann liked Brahms and could see that he was going to be a great composer, so he wrote an article in his music journal about him. The article had the title: "Neue Bahnen" ("New Paths"). Schumann turned out to be correct: Brahms did become a famous composer and found “new paths” (new ways of composing).
Brahms remained a very close friend of Schumann. When Schumann had a nervous breakdown, Brahms went all the way to Düsseldorf to see him. Brahms soon fell in love with Clara who was 14 years older than himself. He continued to be in love with her after Robert Schumann’s death, and they had a close relationship, though Brahms became interested in other women and was briefly engaged. However, he never married.
In 1859, Brahms settled in Hamburg. He founded a women’s chorus and wrote and arranged a lot of music for them. His "First Piano Concerto" was a great success in Hanover and Hamburg, but not in Leipzig, where a lot of people preferred the wildly Romantic music of Liszt which was quite different from Brahms’s style based on the Classical music style. Brahms decided to go to Vienna. He was to stay there for the rest of his life.
In Vienna he soon made many friends who liked his music. For a short time he was director of a choir called the Vienna Singakademie, who sang some of his compositions. He met Wagner. Wagner was afraid that Brahms would start to write operas which would be more famous than his own. So Wagner wrote an article saying that Brahms was a very bad conductor. Wagner had made himself an enemy of Brahms, who never did write any operas anyway.
In 1870, Brahms became director of a concert series called Vienna Gesellschaftskonzerte. He became more and more famous as a composer, but he was never very good at conducting, and in 1875 a conductor called Hans Richter took over conducting the concerts. During these years he finished one of his greatest works: "Ein deutsches Requiem" ("A German Requiem"), as well as one of his most popular works: the "Variations on the St Anthony chorale" (sometimes wrongly known as "Variations on a Theme by Haydn)".
At last, in 1876, he allowed his "First Symphony" to be performed. It was not very successful at first, but in Vienna the audience liked it. He started to compose a lot of his greatest works and received many honours from universities. In the winter he gave concerts and in the summer he spent his time composing. He wrote his last symphony ("Fourth Symphony") in 1885 and conducted it, going on tour with the orchestra through Germany and the Netherlands.
From 1889, Brahms spent each summer in Ischl where he had many friends. By 1890 he had decided to stop composing, although he did still write four beautiful works for clarinet after meeting the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld. In 1896 he wrote "Four Serious Songs" which were probably inspired by the sad death of Clara Schumann. The next year Brahms died from cancer in Vienna. His father had died of the same illness.