title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush declined to raise taxes for education, which led him to oppose a ballot initiative to amend the Florida Constitution to cap growing school class sizes. Bush said he had "a couple of devious plans if this thing passes". Despite his opposition, the amendment passed.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In higher education, Bush approved three new medical schools during his tenure and also put forth the "One Florida" proposal, an initiative that had the effect of ending affirmative action admissions programs at state universities. These moves were among the concerns that led to the faculty of the University of Florida to deny Bush an honorary degree, while the University of Florida Alumni Association made him an honorary alumnus.


title: Jeb Bush

text: As governor, Bush proposed and passed into law major reform to the medical liability system. The Florida Senate, a majority of which were Republican, opposed Bush's proposed caps on non-economic damages for injury and wrongful death. Bush insisted, and called the legislature into five special sessions. The contentious debate even included a senior Bush staffer calling for primary opposition to Republicans who disagreed with the Governor on the reforms. Eventually, the legislature agreed to the caps and Bush's reforms passed. In 2014, after Bush left office, the Florida Supreme Court ruled the damage cap – the "centerpiece" of the 2003 legislation that Bush had pushed for – to be a violation of the state Constitution's equal protection clause, discriminating against "those who are most grievously injured, those who sustain the greatest damage and loss, and multiple claimants."


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush passed a reform to Florida's Medicaid system that moved recipients into private managed care systems.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush was involved in the Terri Schiavo case, involving a woman with massive brain damage, who was on a feeding tube for over 15 years, and whose husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, wished to remove the tube. This move was opposed by Terri Schiavo's parents in the courts. Bush signed "Terri's Law", legislation passed by the Florida legislature that authorized him, as governor, to keep Schiavo on life support. The law was ruled unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court on September 23, 2004. That decision was appealed to the federal courts. On January 24, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, thus allowing the Florida court's ruling to stand.


title: Jeb Bush

text: While Governor of Florida, Bush was opposed to abortion. He supported a law requiring parental notification for teen abortions and requested that the courts appoint a guardian for the unborn child of a mentally disabled woman who had been raped. Choose Life, a pro-life advocacy group based in Ocala, Florida, submitted a specialty license plate application—previously vetoed by Governor Lawton Chiles—which passed both houses and was signed into law by Bush on June 8, 1999.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush signed legislation to restore the Everglades in 2000 as part of a 8 billion project in conjunction with the federal government. He also set aside over one million acres of land for conservation as part of a land purchase program.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In 2001, Bush eliminated civil service protection for over 16,000 state jobs, which had the effect of making it easier to fire employees in those positions. In addition, he issued an executive order which removed racial preferences in state contracting.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In 2004, Bush supported an unsuccessful bill to allow illegal immigrants to be issued drivers licenses by the state.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush supported more than a dozen new protections for gun owners. In 2005, he signed into law Florida's stand-your-ground law, which was the first such state law in the United States.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush is an advocate of capital punishment and 21 prisoners were executed during his term. After the execution of Ángel Nieves Díaz was seemingly botched—it took 37 minutes to complete, and required a second injection of the lethal chemicals—he suspended all executions in Florida on December 15, 2006.


title: Jeb Bush

text: During Bush's tenure, the racial and gender diversity of the state's judicial bench increased. However, according to the "Wall Street Journal", Democrats criticized some of Bush's judicial appointments as being "overtly partisan and political".


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush often used the line-item veto to limit state spending. He exercised his veto to stop other legislation as well (such as a bill about "parenting coordinators").


title: Jeb Bush

text: In 1995, the Florida state legislature created the High-Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) and came up with a public-private partnership model. Government would build the system leveraging state dollars with federal funds and tax-free bonding. The private sector was to invest money in the project, help design and build the network, and be given the franchise to operate the trains (known as design-build-maintain-operate, or DBOM). Trains would be privately owned, similar to how the airline industry operates in a publicly financed airport.


title: Jeb Bush

text: The rail system and its planning was estimated to cost $7–$8 billion. The Florida HSRA and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) reached an agreement with a consortium that included the Fluor Corporation and Bombardier Transportation. The consortium agreed to invest $300 million and utilize the DBOM functionality. The state of Florida would float state bonds, and FDOT would commit $70 million annually (increasing three percent yearly to account for inflation) to service the bonds for the next thirty years. Federal monies would pay for the interest on the bonds, and the state monies would satisfy the principal. When the high-speed railroad was running, operating surpluses would also be applied to the debt.


title: Jeb Bush

text: The high-speed rail project nearly came to fruition until Bush became governor in 1999 and ended the project his second day in office, stating that the venture posed too much risk and cost for Florida taxpayers. State legislators reacted by adding the project on the 2000 ballot as a constitutional amendment which was ultimately passed by voters. The amendment directed Bush and legislature to start building the railroad system by 2003. Bush vetoed funding for both the project and the board, and led a high-profile campaign to repeal the constitutional requirement that mandated the construction of the high-speed system. Voters repealed the constitutional amendment. Many who voted believed they were supporting the train, though in fact a "yes" vote was to approve the repeal.


title: Jeb Bush

text: FDOT spokesperson Nazih Haddah commented that "the rhetoric was inflammatory and misleading. It was really exaggerating tactics that were used to defeat this. The financing and the project were sound. It really squandered a great opportunity for this state." Other public officials stated that Bush's underhanded tactics were emblematic of his willingness to protect moneyed interests – including developers, energy producers and highway builders – who opposed a shift toward mass transit and helped fund the repeal effort. "It's that arrogance of kind of the 1%," said Orlando transportation engineer Ian Lockwood.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush was unopposed in the 2002 Republican gubernatorial primary, and in the general election he faced Democratic challenger Bill McBride. They met for two debates, in the most expensive Florida gubernatorial election yet. Voting went smoothly. Bush defeated McBride 56% to 43%, a greater margin of victory than in 1998.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush won 44% of the state's Jewish vote in the 2002 race. Bush also won the white female vote in the swing-voting battleground of Central Florida's I-4 corridor. However, he was not able to replicate the same success with African American voters (like he had earlier in 1998), winning only 8% of the African American vote. He became the first Republican governor of Florida to win re-election.


title: Jeb Bush

text: According to political scientist Susan MacManus from the University of South Florida, "In Florida, [Bush is] still perceived as conservative, especially on fiscal issues and even on social issues."


title: Jeb Bush

text: Outside of Florida, fellow Republican leaders throughout the country have sought Bush's aid both on and off the campaign trail. Bush's out-of-state campaign visits include Kentucky, where Republican challenger Ernie Fletcher appeared with Bush and won that state's governorship in 2003, ending a 32-year streak of Democratic governors. In the first few months of 2014, Bush campaigned for New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), and David Jolly who won a special congressional election in Florida.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush has been criticized by some in the Tea Party as not being sufficiently conservative, as he supports positions on immigration and Common Core that are unpopular with some conservatives. Bush publicly criticized the national Republican party for its adherence to "an orthodoxy that doesn't allow for disagreement" on June 11, 2012. In comments shared with Bloomberg View, Bush suggested that former Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush would "have had a hard time" finding support in the contemporary GOP.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In October 2013, Bush called for passage of immigration reform. In April 2014, Bush said of illegal immigration: "It's an act of love. It's an act of commitment to your family. I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime. There should be a price paid, but it shouldn't rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families."


title: Jeb Bush

text: From 2004 to 2007, Bush served as a board member for the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). Created by Congress, the board's purpose is to establish policy on reports examining K-12 students' academic progress in America's public and private schools. Since then Bush's education foundation has advocated for the Common Core State Standards Initiative. In October 2013, referring to opponents of the standards, Bush said that while "criticisms and conspiracy theories are easy attention grabbers", he instead wanted to hear their solutions to the problems in American education.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In May 2006, Bush was approached to become the next commissioner of the National Football League. The outgoing commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, was searching for replacements. In response, Bush said on May 24, 2006, that "I'm Governor of the state of Florida and I intend to be Governor until I leave—which is January 2007." Roger Goodell eventually became the new NFL commissioner.


title: Jeb Bush

text: According to Fox Business, Bush earned nearly half of the 29 million he earned between 2007 and when he decided to run for Republican presidential nomination in December 2014, from Wall Street banks and companies.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In April 2007, Bush joined Tenet Healthcare's board of directors. The following August, Bush joined investment bank, Lehman Brothers, as an adviser in its private equity group. Bush has also served on the board of InnoVida, Swisher Hygiene, and Rayonier and has served as an adviser to Barclays. Bush would later return 270,000 in consultancy fees he had been paid by InnoVida after they declared bankruptcy.


title: Jeb Bush

text: As of 2014, Bush had received more than 2 million from his work for Tenet, a company that expected to receive 100 million in new earnings in 2014 because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and that "aggressively encouraged Americans to sign up for insurance under the program..." Bush has reportedly objected to the ACA at company meetings, but has kept his personal views separate from what is best for Tenet.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush had been considered a potential candidate in the 2016 presidential election since the end of the 2012 election.


title: Jeb Bush

text: On December 16, 2014, Bush announced via Facebook that he would be "actively exploring" a 2016 run to become President of the United States and at the end of the year resigned several corporate boards.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In February 2015, Bush released several thousand emails from his time as governor online. Most of the emails are in the public record under Florida's Sunshine Laws. However, Bush created controversy by releasing some emails that included some personal details such as social security numbers, names, and addresses, as well as the contents of the messages. Bush's campaign team subsequently redacted the personal information.


title: Jeb Bush

text: By extending the exploration mode of his potential candidacy to a six-month period (his scheduled announcement came one day short of six months into his exploratory phase), Bush used his time to get acquainted with the press, court donors, and prepare a strategy. In doing this, he navigated several campaign finance laws which limit donations and prohibit coordination with Super PACs. This included delaying his official announcement to run, in order to circumvent the cap on primary donations of $2,700 per individual. In May 2015, it was reported that Bush had been raising money since January 2015, estimated to be close to 100 million, for his super PAC, Right to Rise.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush announced his candidacy on June 15, 2015, at a multicultural campus of Miami Dade College. According to "Reuters", Bush characterized himself as a moderate Republican who still has conservative principles; he promised immigration reform, spoke fluent Spanish, mentioned his wife's Mexican origins, and criticized Hillary Clinton. David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, said: "It's pretty hard for [Republicans] to win the White House if current Hispanic voting trends continue. (Bush) has some unique abilities to appeal to those voters and he's going to maximize them."


title: Jeb Bush

text: After a series of poor results in Iowa and New Hampshire, Bush spent his remaining money and campaign effort on the South Carolina primary. He placed fourth with under 8% of the vote. That night, Bush suspended his campaign, ending his presidential bid, and subsequently endorsed Texas Senator Ted Cruz. In an analysis of what went wrong, "POLITICO" argues that: "His slow, awkward stumble from August through October encapsulates everything that caused the operation viewed as 'Jeb!, Inc.' to fail. Bush was on the wrong side of the most galvanizing issues for Republican primary voters, he himself was a rusty and maladroit campaigner and his campaign was riven by internal disagreements and a crippling fear that left them paralyzed and unable to react to Trump."


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush has addressed myriad political issues over the course of his career, many of them during his governorship as already described. In conjunction with his 2015 bid for the presidency, he has revisited many issues that he addressed before, as well as discussing many new ones.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush believes abortions should only be legal in the case of rape or incest or if the life of the mother is in danger. He does not support public funding for abortion clinics.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush generally rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, which is that climate change is real, progressing, dangerous, and primarily caused by human activity. While he has stated that "I think global warming may be real" he has incorrectly claimed that "it is not unanimous among scientists that it is disproportionately manmade.” and that “What I get a little tired of on the left is this idea that somehow science has decided all this so you can't have a view." "National Journal" wrote that Bush "does not acknowledge the scientific consensus that human activity drives climate change".


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush favors repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA or "Obamacare") and replacing it with a "market-oriented" alternative. Bush has called the current law a "monstrosity" that is "flawed to its core." Bush has proposed some sort of state- or local-government funded "catastrophic coverage" system, in which "if you have a hardship that goes way beyond your means of paying for it, ... the government is there or an entity is there to help you deal with that." After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ACA in "King v. Burwell" in June 2015, Bush stated that the decision was "not the end of the fight" against the law.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In 2015, Bush took the position that people in the United States illegally should have a path to legal status, but not a path to citizenship, and said that legal status and avoiding deportation should require immigrants to pay fines, get work permits, pay taxes, not receive government assistance, learn English, and not commit crimes. He supports tougher enforcement of immigration laws, including prosecution of businesses that try to hire illegal aliens.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush, an opponent of same-sex marriage, disagreed with the "Obergefell v. Hodges" Supreme Court decision and believes that the issue should be decided by the states rather than by the federal government and that it is not a constitutional right. He holds that businesses should have the right to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings on religious grounds. In July 2015, Bush said he supported lifting the military's ban on allowing transgender people to openly serve in the military, so long as "the military's comfortable with this" and it did not impact morale.


title: Jeb Bush

text: As Governor, Bush adopted a "tough on crime" approach. In the 1998 gubernatorial election, he ran on a 10-20-life platform which imposed stronger mandatory minimum sentences for individuals who used guns in crimes. Bush is a supporter of the death penalty. In his unsuccessful 1994 campaign for Florida governor, Bush promised to sign many more death warrants as governor. One of the "central themes" of Bush's 1994 campaign was his proposal to shorten the appeals period in capital cases. During Bush's term as governor, some 21 prisoners were executed. In 2015, Bush said he was conflicted about the death penalty. In his 1994 campaign, Bush proposed publishing the names of juvenile delinquents so the public would "know who the thugs are in their neighborhoods." In 2002, Bush opposed a Florida ballot measure that would have allowed nonviolent drug offenders to enter treatment programs instead of prison. Bush's then-24-year-old daughter had been arrested the same year on drug-related charges and underwent treatment.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush admitted smoking marijuana in his teenage years. "Forty years ago I smoked marijuana and I admitted it," said Bush. "I'm sure other people did it and didn't want to admit it in front of 40 million people." He also agreed that his decision to take marijuana was "stupid" and "wrong." Bush believes each state should be allowed to decide whether it is appropriate to legalize marijuana or not.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In September 2020, Bush told "The Carlos Watson Show" that he was interested in the concept of a universal basic income, as popularized by 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush supports a decrease in capital gains taxes and property taxes. He supports cutting taxes for all Americans and believes they do better with less government interference. Bush also is a supporter of welfare restrictions. He supports the following: a four-year limit of benefits, a requirement that able-bodied recipients participate in work-related activities in order to receive benefits, and limiting benefits given to recipients if they have additional children while on welfare.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush favors gradually raising the retirement age (i.e., the age for collecting Social Security retirement benefits) from 65 to 68 or 70.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush is a frequent critic of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In May 2015, Bush stated that he would have ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq had he been president at the time: "I would have [authorized the invasion], and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody. And so would almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got." He also indicated that the lack of focus on post-invasion security was a mistake. He later stated that "knowing what we know now, ...I would not have engaged". "I would not have gone into Iraq", he said. He also argued that the invasion—though perhaps inspired by faulty intelligence—had been beneficial, saying the world was "significantly safer" without Saddam Hussein in power.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In 2015, Bush said that he does not support a further major commitment of U.S. troops in Iraq to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS or ISIL), saying that such a deployment is not needed to defeat ISIS. He has not, however, ruled out such a deployment in the future. Bush favors building a new U.S. base in Iraq's al-Anbar province, and has said that some U.S. troops ought to be embedded with Iraqi armed forces to help train them and identify targets as joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs). Bush has not commented on adding to the approximately 3,500 U.S. troops in Iraq now.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In a speech, Bush said his brother, former President George W. Bush, was his main adviser on policy with the Middle East. Bush later clarified that he was referring to policy on Israel, rather than on the Middle East as a whole.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush supports the continued collection of metadata of phone calls by the National Security Agency. He also supports the USA Patriot Act, and criticized efforts by Senator Rand Paul and others to stop its reauthorization. Bush stated that Paul was "wrong" about the Patriot Act and stated that: "The Patriot Act has kept us safe, plain and simple. The metadata program has kept us safe, plain and simple. There's been no violation of civil liberties."


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush has called for increased military spending, expressing the belief that 2.5% of GDP is an insufficient amount.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush has called the April 2015 Iran nuclear deal framework a "horrific deal" and said he would likely terminate any final agreement should he become president. He has argued that the deal would put Iran into a position where it could intimidate the Middle East. Bush condemned the July 2015 final nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 world powers, calling it "appeasement." However, Bush stated that he would not seek to revoke the agreement on his first day in office.


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush supported President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. He tweeted: "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and I applaud @POTUS for seeing through America’s promise to relocate its embassy there. This is an important show of solidarity with Israel, one of our nation’s greatest allies."


title: Jeb Bush

text: After losing a 1994 election for Governor of Florida against Lawton Chiles, Bush pursued policy and charitable interests. He "volunteered time to assist the Miami Children's Hospital, the United Way of Dade County and the Dade County Homeless Trust".


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush served from 2012 to 2015 as co-chair of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. He has also worked with The James Madison Institute (JMI), a free market public policy think tank based in Tallahassee, Florida. He helped the institute in numerous ways and still has his think tank working in conjunction with it. In June 2008, Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education partnered with JMI to hold a summit called Excellence in Action: A National Summit on Education Reform.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In 1996, The Foundation For Florida's Future published a book that Bush had co-written, "Profiles in Character" (), a clear parallel to John F. Kennedy's 1955 book "Profiles in Courage". The foundation also published and distributed policy papers, such as "A New Lease on Learning: Florida's First Charter School", which Bush co-wrote. Bush subsequently wrote the foreword to another book, published by the conservative Heritage Foundation and written by Nina Shokraii Rees, "School Choice 2000: What's Happening in the States" ().


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush co-founded the first charter school in the State of Florida: Liberty City Charter School, a grades K-6 elementary school. in a Miami neighborhood that, in 1980, was the site of the first major race riot since the Civil Rights era. The school's co-founder, working alongside Bush, was T. Willard Fair, a local black activist and head of the Greater Miami Urban League. The Liberty City Charter School was closed in 2008 after falling more than 1 million in debt.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In 2000, Bush established the Points of Light program to recognize an "exemplary volunteer, organization, or person".


title: Jeb Bush

text: Bush is the honorary chairman of the Annual AT&T Jeb Bush Florida Golf Classic, a fundraiser that benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He first became involved in the benefit after meeting with committee member Lawson Dutton, whose child suffered from cystic fibrosis. Supporters raised more than 722,000 in 2014 at the 19th annual Jeb Bush Florida Classic, exceeding their goals in attendance and revenues raised. Since the event's inception 19 years ago, the total revenue netted has reached over 7.478 million.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In the city of León, Mexico, where he was teaching English during 1970 as part of a foreign exchange program, Bush met Columba Garnica Gallo. They were married on February 23, 1974, in Austin, Texas. As of 2014, the family residence is in Coral Gables, Florida. Bush is fluent in Spanish.


title: Jeb Bush

text: The Bushes have three children: George Prescott (born April 24, 1976, in Texas), went to Gulliver Preparatory School, studied at Rice University, and earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law. In the 2014 election, he was elected Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office. Noelle Lucila Bush (born 1977) is his only daughter. In November 2015, while campaigning in New Hampshire, Bush detailed Noelle's struggles with drug abuse. His other son, Jeb Bush Jr. (born 1983), who attended Bolles School, works for a Miami, Florida, commercial real estate firm. Bush has four grandchildren, two through his elder son, and two through his younger son.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In 1995, Bush converted from Episcopalianism to Roman Catholicism. In 2004, he became a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus. Bush, a member of Father Hugon Council 3521 in Tallahassee, has joined the Father Hugon Assembly.


title: Jeb Bush

text: In April 2018, upon mother Barbara Bush’s death, Bush delivered a eulogy on behalf of the family at her funeral.


title: Antihero

text: An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actions that most of the audience considers morally correct, their reasons for doing so may not align with the audience's morality. An antihero typically exhibits one of the "Dark Triad" personality traits, which include narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.


title: Antihero

text: There is a controversy over what exactly defines an antihero. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an antihero as "someone who lacks heroic qualities", yet scholars typically have differing ideas on what constitutes as an antihero. Some scholars refer to the "Racinian" antihero, who is defined by several factors. The first being that they are doomed to fail before their adventure begins. The second constitutes the blame of that failure on everyone but themselves. Thirdly, they offer a critique of social morals and reality. To other scholars, an antihero is inherently a hero from a specific point of view, and a villain from another. This idea is further backed by the addition of character alignments, which are commonly displayed by role-playing games.


title: Antihero

text: Typically, an antihero is the focal point of conflict in a story, whether that be as the protagonist, or as the antagonistic force. This is due to the antihero being particularly engaged in the conflict, typically on their own will, rather than a specific call for the greater good. As such, the antihero focuses on their objective first, and everything else is secondary.


title: Antihero

text: An early antihero is Homer's Thersites. The concept has also been identified in classical Greek drama, Roman satire, and Renaissance literature such as "Don Quixote" and the picaresque rogue.


title: Antihero

text: The term antihero was first used as early as 1714, emerging in works such as "Rameau's Nephew" in the 18th century, and is also used more broadly to cover Byronic heroes as well, created by the English poet Lord Byron.


title: Antihero

text: Literary Romanticism in the 19th century helped popularize new forms of the antihero, such as the Gothic double. The antihero eventually became an established form of social criticism, a phenomenon often associated with the unnamed protagonist in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Notes from Underground." The antihero emerged as a foil to the traditional hero archetype, a process that Northrop Frye called the fictional "center of gravity". This movement indicated a literary change in heroic ethos from feudal aristocrat to urban democrat, as was the shift from epic to ironic narratives.


title: Antihero

text: Huckleberry Finn (1884) has been called "the first antihero in the American nursery". Charlotte Mullen of Somerville and Ross's "The Real Charlotte" (1894) has been described as an antiheroine.


title: Antihero

text: The antihero became prominent in early 20th century existentialist works such as Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" (1915), Jean-Paul Sartre's "Nausea" (1938), and Albert Camus's "The Stranger" (1942). The protagonist in these works is an indecisive central character who drifts through his life and is marked by ennui, angst, and alienation.


title: Antihero

text: The antihero entered American literature in the 1950s and up to the mid-1960s as an alienated figure, unable to communicate. The American antihero of the 1950s and 1960s was typically more proactive than his French counterpart. The British version of the antihero emerged in the works of the "angry young men" of the 1950s. The collective protests of Sixties counterculture saw the solitary antihero gradually eclipsed from fictional prominence, though not without subsequent revivals in literary and cinematic form.


title: Antihero

text: During the Golden Age of Television from the 2000s and into the present time, antiheroes such as Tony Soprano, Walter White, Patty Hewes, Omar Little, Alicia Florrick, Annalise Keating, Dexter Morgan and Lucifer Morningstar became prominent in the most popular and critically acclaimed TV shows.


title: Vangelis

text: Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; ), was a Greek composer and arranger of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He was best known for his Academy Award-winning score to "Chariots of Fire" (1981), as well as for composing scores to the films "Blade Runner" (1982), "Missing" (1982), "Antarctica" (1983), "The Bounty" (1984), "" (1992), and "Alexander" (2004), and for the use of his music in the 1980 PBS documentary series "" by Carl Sagan.


title: Vangelis

text: Born in Agria and raised in Athens, Vangelis began his career in the 1960s as a member of the rock bands The Forminx and Aphrodite's Child; the latter's album "666" (1972) is now recognised as a progressive-psychedelic rock classic. Vangelis first settled in Paris, and gained initial recognition for his scores to the Frédéric Rossif animal documentaries ', ', and "". He also released his first solo albums during this time, and performed as a solo artist. In 1975, Vangelis relocated to London where he built his home recording facility named Nemo Studios and released a series of successful and influential albums for RCA Records, including: "Heaven and Hell" (1975), "Albedo 0.39" (1976), "Spiral" (1977), and "China" (1979). From 1979 to 1986, Vangelis performed in a duo with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, released several albums as Jon and Vangelis. He also collaborated with Irene Papas on two albums of Greek traditional and religious songs.


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis reached his commercial peak in the 1980s and 1990s. His score for "Chariots of Fire" (1981) won him an Academy Award for Best Original Score and the film's main theme, "Chariots of Fire – Titles" went to number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, while score for "1492: Conquest of Paradise" (1992) was nominated at Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the film's and main theme topped the European charts selling millions of copies. His compilation albums "Themes" (1989), "Portraits (So Long Ago, So Clear)" (1996), and studio album "Voices" (1995) also sold well at the time. Vangelis composed the official anthem of the 2002 FIFA World Cup held in Korea and Japan. In his last twenty years, Vangelis collaborated with NASA and ESA on music projects "Mythodea" (1993), "Rosetta" (2016), and "Juno to Jupiter" (2021), his 23rd and final studio album.


title: Vangelis

text: Having had a career in music spanning over 50 years and having composed and performed more than 50 albums, Vangelis is one of the most important figures in the history of electronic music, and modern film music. He used many electronic instruments in a fashion of a "one-man quasi-classical orchestra" composing and performing on the first take.


title: Vangelis

text: Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou was born on 29 March 1943 in Agria, Greece, a coastal town in Magnesia, Thessaly, and raised in Athens. His father Odysseus worked in property and was an amateur sprinter; Vangelis described him as "a great lover of music". His mother Foteini Kyriakopoulou was trained as a soprano. Vangelis had one brother, Nikos. Vangelis developed an interest in music at age four, composing on the family piano and experimenting with sounds by placing nails and kitchen pans inside it and with radio interference. When he was six his parents enrolled him for music lessons, but Vangelis later said that his attempts to study "failed" as he preferred to develop technique on his own. He considered himself fortunate to have not attended music school, as he believed that it would have impeded his creativity. He never learned to read or write music, instead played from memory. "When the teachers asked me to play something, I would pretend that I was reading it and play from memory. I didn't fool them, but I didn't care". One of his piano teachers was Greek composer Aristotelis Koundouroff. In a 2008 interview, Vangelis stated that he had a peaceful and happy childhood and that his parents never interfered in his life, letting him to just be and be involved in his activities, mainly consisting of playing the piano, painting and constructing things with his hands.


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis found traditional Greek music as particularly important in his childhood, but at 12 developed an interest in jazz and rock. At 15, he started to form school bands, not to cover other musicians, but to have fun. Vangelis acquired his first Hammond organ at 18. In 1963, Vangelis and three school friends started a five-piece rock band The Forminx (or The Formynx), playing cover songs and original material largely written by Vangelis with English lyrics by radio DJ and record producer Nico Mastorakis. After nine singles and one Christmas EP, which found success across Europe, the group disbanded in 1966.


title: Vangelis

text: Following the split of The Forminx, Vangelis spent the next two years mostly studio-bound, writing and producing for other Greek artists. He scored music for three Greek films; "My Brother, the Traffic Policeman" (1963) directed by Filippos Fylaktos, "5,000 Lies" (1966) by Giorgos Konstantinou, and "To Prosopo tis Medousas" (1967) by Nikos Koundouros. During this time, Vangelis worked on the scores to "Frenzy" (1966) for director Jan Christian, "Apollo Goes on Holiday" (1968) for George Skalenakis and "Antique Rally" (1966).


title: Vangelis

text: In 1968, the 25-year-old Vangelis wished to further his career and, amidst the political turmoil surrounding the 1967 coup, left Greece for London. He was denied entry into the UK and settled in Paris for the next six years. Later in 1968 he formed the progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child with Demis Roussos, Loukas Sideras, and Anargyros "Silver" Koulouris. Their debut single, "Rain and Tears", was a commercial success in Europe which was followed by the albums "End of the World" (1968) and "It's Five O'Clock" (1969). Vangelis conceived the idea of their third, "666" (1972), a double concept album based on the Book of Revelation. It is widely recognized as a progressive-psychedelic rock classic. After increasing tensions during the recording of "666", the group split in 1971. Vangelis would produce future albums and singles by their singer Demis Roussos. Vangelis recalled after the split: "I couldn't follow the commercial way anymore, it was very boring. You have to do something like that in the beginning for showbiz, but after you start doing the same thing everyday you can't continue."


title: Vangelis

text: From 1970 to 1974, Vangelis took part in various solo projects in film, television, and theatre. He composed the score for "Sex Power" (1970) directed by Henry Chapier, followed by "Salut, Jerusalem" in 1972 and "Amore" in 1974. In 1971, he took part in a series of jam sessions with various musicians in London which resulted in two albums released without Vangelis's permission in 1978: "Hypothesis" and "The Dragon". Vangelis succeeded in taking legal action to have them withdrawn. 1972 saw the release of his debut solo album "Fais que ton rêve soit plus long que la nuit", French for "Make Your Dream Last Longer Than the Night". It was inspired by the 1968 French student riots, after which Vangelis decided to write a "poème symphonique" to express his solidarity with the students, comprising musical with news snippets and protest songs; some lyrics were based on graffiti daubed on walls during the riots. A soundtrack album of music that Vangelis performed for a 1970 wildlife documentary series by Frédéric Rossif was released as "L'Apocalypse des animaux" (1973). Vangelis also provided music for the Henry Chapier film "Amore" (1973).


title: Vangelis

text: In 1973, Vangelis released his second solo album "Earth", a percussive-orientated album with various additional musicians, including Robert Fitoussi and Aphrodite's Child bandmate Silver Koulouris. The line-up performed and released a single titled "Who" in 1974 under the name Odyssey, including a concert that Vangelis held at the Paris Olympia in February 1974. Several months later Vangelis travelled to England to audition with the progressive rock band Yes, after singer Jon Anderson had become a fan of his music and invited Vangelis to replace departing keyboardist Rick Wakeman. After problems with obtaining a work visa and the Musician's Union, and his reluctance to travel and tour, Vangelis declined. The band hired Patrick Moraz, who used Vangelis's keyboards in his audition. In 1974, Vangelis left Paris for London as he "outgrew France".


title: Vangelis

text: In August 1975, after Vangelis had settled in a flat in Marble Arch, London, where he set up his new 16-track studio, Nemo Studios, which Vangelis named his "laboratory", he secured a recording deal with RCA Records. He would release a series of electronic albums for RCA until 1979. The first of these, "Heaven and Hell", features the English Chamber Choir and Yes singer Jon Anderson. Released in December 1975, Vangelis supported it with a sold-out concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1976. "Heaven and Hell" was followed by "Albedo 0.39" (1976), "Spiral" (1977), "Beaubourg" (1978), and "China" (1979), each having their own thematic inspiration including astronomy/physical cosmology, Tao philosophy, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and Chinese culture, respectively.


title: Vangelis

text: During the same period, Vangelis composed the score for "Do You Hear the Dogs Barking?" directed by François Reichenbach. This was released in 1975 under the French title "Entends-tu les chiens aboyer?" and re-released two years later as "Ignacio". In 1976, Vangelis released his second soundtrack for a Rossif animal documentary, "La Fête sauvage", which combined African rhythms with Western music. This was followed in 1979 by a third soundtrack for Rossif, "Opéra sauvage". Almost as well known as "L'Apocalypse des animaux", this soundtrack brought him to the attention of some of the world's top filmmakers. The music itself would be re-used in other films, including the track "L'Enfant" in "The Year of Living Dangerously" (1982) by Peter Weir; the melody of the same track (in marching band format) can also be heard at the beginning of the 1924 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies scene in the film "Chariots of Fire" while the track "Hymne" was used in Barilla pasta commercials in Italy and Ernest & Julio Gallo wine ads in the United States. Rossif and Vangelis again collaborated for "Sauvage et Beau" (1984) and "De Nuremberg à Nuremberg" (1989).


title: Vangelis

text: In 1979, Vangelis returned to his Greek roots by recording new arrangements of Greek folk songs with actress and singer Irene Papas. The first set of songs were released under Papas' name as the album "Odes", which was an instant success in Greece. and would be followed in 1986 by a second album, "Rapsodies". In complete contrast, 1980 saw the release of "See You Later", a much more experimental and satirical album of concept pieces and unusual pop songs with vocal contributions from Pete Marsh, Cherry Vanilla and Yes singer Jon Anderson, as well as a rare example of Vangelis singing himself (deliberately badly).


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis had already begun a more extensive collaboration with Jon Anderson in 1979, as the duo Jon and Vangelis. Their debut album, "Short Stories" (1980), reached No. 4 in the UK. They went on to release three more albums; "The Friends of Mr Cairo", "Private Collection", and "Page of Life" released in 1981, 1983, and 1991, respectively. The first two albums produced three hit singles "I Hear You Now", "I'll Find My Way Home" and "State of Independence", with the latter later becoming a hit for the second time when covered by Donna Summer with production by Quincy Jones.


title: Vangelis

text: During this time, Vangelis' music was brought to an even wider audience when several of his 1970s pieces were used for the soundtrack of Carl Sagan's 1980 TV series "" - "Movement 3" from the "Heaven and Hell" album (used as the series' opening theme), "Bacchanale" (also from "Heaven and Hell") and "Alpha" (from "Albedo 0.39"). In 1986, Vangelis would be actively involved in the composition of new music for a special edition. Vangelis recalled that Sagan had sent him recordings of some sounds collected by satellites, which were exactly what he heard as a child.


title: Vangelis

text: In 1980, Vangelis agreed to record the score for "Chariots of Fire" (1981); he accepted because "I liked the people I was working with. It was a very humble, low-budget film." The choice of music was unorthodox as most period films featured orchestral scores, whereas Vangelis's music was modern and synthesiser-oriented. It gained mainstream commercial success which increased Vangelis's profile as a result. The opening instrumental title piece, "Titles", later named "Chariots of Fire – Titles", was released as a single which reached No. 1 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart for one week after a five-month climb. The soundtrack album was No. 1 on the "Billboard" 200 for four weeks and sold one million copies in the United States. In March 1982, Vangelis won an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score, but refused to attend the awards ceremony, partly due to his fear of flying. He turned down an offer to stay in a stateroom aboard the "Queen Elizabeth 2" for a boat crossing. Vangelis commented that the "main inspiration was the story itself. The rest I did instinctively, without thinking about anything else, other than to express my feelings with the technological means available to me at the time". The song was used at the 1984 Winter Olympics.


title: Vangelis

text: The success of "Chariots of Fire" led to further offers for Vangelis to score films, but he avoided becoming "a factory of film music". In 1981, he scored the documentary film "Pablo Picasso Painter" by Frédéric Rossif. It was the third such score by Vangelis as he'd previously scored documentaries about Georges Mathieu and Georges Braque. He composed the score of "Missing" (1982) directed by Costa-Gavras, which was awarded the Palme d'Or and gained Vangelis a nomination for a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. Other Vangelis film soundtracks produced during this time include "Antarctica" (for the film "Nankyoku Monogatari" in 1983, one of the highest-grossing movies in Japan's film history), and "The Bounty" in 1984. He declined an offer to score "" (1984), the sequel to "".


title: Vangelis

text: In 1981, Vangelis collaborated with director Ridley Scott to score his science fiction film, "Blade Runner" (1982). Critics have written that in capturing the isolation and melancholy of Harrison Ford's character, Rick Deckard, the Vangelis score is as much a part of the dystopian environment as the decaying buildings and ever-present rain. The score was nominated for a BAFTA and Golden Globe award. "Blade Runner" has subsequently become one of Vangelis' best-known works, despite problems that prevented its release on album for many years. A disagreement led to Vangelis withholding permission for his recordings to be released, so the studio hired musicians dubbed the New American Orchestra to release orchestral adaptations of the original score. The problem was eventually resolved twelve years later, when Vangelis's own work was released in 1994. Even then, the release was considered incomplete, since the film contained other Vangelis compositions that were not included on the record. This, in turn, was resolved in 2007 when a box set of the score was released to commemorate the film's 25th anniversary, containing the 1994 album, some previously unreleased music cues, and new original Vangelis material inspired by "Blade Runner".


title: Vangelis

text: In 1992, Paramount Pictures released the film "", also directed by Ridley Scott, as a 500th anniversary commemoration of Christopher Columbus' voyage to the New World. Vangelis's score was nominated as "Best Original Score – Motion Picture" at the 1993 Golden Globe awards, but was not nominated for an Academy Award. Due to its success, Vangelis won an Echo Award as "International Artist Of The Year", and RTL Golden Lion Award for the "Best Title Theme for a TV Film or a Series" in 1996.


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis wrote the score for the film "Bitter Moon" (1992) directed by Roman Polanski, and "The Plague" directed by Luis Puenzo. In the 90s, Vangelis scored undersea documentaries for French ecologist and filmmaker, Jacques Cousteau, one of which was shown at the Earth Summit. The score of the film "Cavafy" (1996) directed by Yannis Smaragdis, gained an award at the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent and Valencia International Film Festival.


title: Vangelis

text: In the early 1980s Vangelis began composing for ballet and theatre stage plays. In 1983 he wrote the music for Michael Cacoyannis' staging of the Greek tragedy "Elektra" which was performed with Irene Papas at the open-air amphitheater at Epidavros in Greece. The same year Vangelis composed his first ballet score, for a production by Wayne Eagling. It was originally performed by Lesley Collier and Eagling himself at an Amnesty International gala at the Drury Lane theatre. In 1984 the Royal Ballet School presented it again at the Sadler's Wells theatre. In 1985 and 1986, Vangelis wrote music for two more ballets: "Frankenstein – Modern Prometheus" and "The Beauty and the Beast". In 1992, Vangelis wrote the music for a restaging of the Euripides play, "Medea", that featured Irene Papas. In 2001 he composed for a third play which starred Papas, and for


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis collaborated in 1976 with Italian singer Patty Pravo with the album "Tanto" and with Italian singer Milva achieving success, especially in Germany, with the albums "Ich hab' keine Angst" also translated in French as "Moi, Je N'ai Pas Peur" (1981) and "Geheimnisse" in 1986 ("I have no fear" and "Secrets"), also translated in Italian as "Tra due sogni."


title: Vangelis

text: An Italian language Nana Mouskouri album featured her singing the Vangelis composition "Ti Amerò". Collaborations with lyricist Mikalis Bourboulis, sung by Maria Farantouri, included the tracks "Odi A", "San Elektra", and "Tora Xero".


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis released "Soil Festivities" in 1984. It was thematically inspired by the interaction between nature and its microscopic living creatures; "Invisible Connections" (1985) took inspiration from the world of elementary particles invisible to the naked eye; "Mask" (1985) was inspired by the theme of the mask, an obsolete artefact which was used in ancient times for concealment or amusement; and "Direct" (1988). The last of the aforementioned efforts was the first album to be recorded in Vangelis's post-Nemo Studios era.


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis performed his only concert in the U.S. on 7 November 1986 at Royce Hall on the campus of University of California, Los Angeles. It featured a special guest appearance by Jon Anderson.


title: Vangelis

text: There were another five solo albums in the 1990s; "The City" (1990) was recorded during a stay in Rome in 1989, and reflected a day of bustling city life, from dawn until dusk; "Voices" (1995) featured sensual songs filled with nocturnal orchestrations; "Oceanic" (1996) thematically explored the mystery of underwater worlds and sea sailing; and two classical albums about El Greco – "Foros Timis Ston Greco" (1995), which had a limited release, and "El Greco" (1998), which was an expansion of the former.


title: Vangelis

text: The Sport Aid (1986) TV broadcast was set to music specially composed by Vangelis. He conceived and staged the ceremony of the 1997 World Championships in Athletics which were held in Greece. He also composed the music, and designed and directed the artistic Olympic flag relay portion ("Handover to Athens"), of the closing ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. While no official recording of this composition exists, the music can be heard accompanying the presentation of the emblem of the 2004 Athens Games. In 2002, Vangelis created the official "Anthem" for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. His work from "Chariots of Fire" was heard during the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. His work Conquest of Paradise (1992) (from the movie ) is now the theme song of famous Trail Running competition Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.


title: Vangelis

text: In 2001, Vangelis performed live, and subsequently released, the choral symphony "Mythodea", which was used by NASA as the theme for the Mars Odyssey mission. This is a predominantly orchestral rather than electronic piece that was originally written in 1993. In 2004, Vangelis released the score for Oliver Stone's "Alexander", continuing his involvement with projects related to Greece.


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis released two albums in 2007; the first was a 3-CD set for the 25th anniversary of "Blade Runner", titled "Blade Runner Trilogy" and second was the soundtrack for the Greek movie, "El Greco" directed by Yannis Smaragdis, titled "El Greco Original Motion Picture Soundtrack".


title: Vangelis

text: On 11 December 2011, Vangelis was invited by Katara's Cultural Village in the state of Qatar to conceive, design, direct, and compose music for the opening of its outdoor amphitheater. The event was witnessed by a number of world leaders and dignitaries participating in the 4th Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations held in the city of Doha. British actor Jeremy Irons performed in the role of master of ceremonies, and the event featured a light show by German artist Gert Hof. It was filmed for a future video release by Oscar-winning British filmmaker Hugh Hudson.


title: Vangelis

text: In 2012, Vangelis re-tooled and added new pieces to his iconic "Chariots of Fire" soundtrack, for use in the same-titled stage adaptation. He composed the soundtrack of the environmental documentary film "Trashed" (2012) directed by Candida Brady and starring Jeremy Irons. A documentary film called "Vangelis And The Journey to Ithaka" was released in 2013. He also scored the music for the film "Twilight of Shadows" (2014) directed by Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina.


title: Vangelis

text: For the 12 November 2014 landing of the Philae lander on Comet 67P (part of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission), Vangelis composed three short pieces titled "Arrival", "Rosetta's Waltz", and "Philae's Journey". The pieces were released online as videos accompanied by images and animations from the Rosetta mission. He was quoted by ESA as saying, "Mythology, science and space exploration are subjects that have fascinated me since my early childhood. And they were always connected somehow with the music I write". In September 2016, the works were released as part of the new studio album "Rosetta". In 2018, Vangelis composed an original score for Stephen Hawking's memorial. While Hawking's ashes were interred at Westminster Abbey, the music which backed Hawking's words were beamed by the ESA to the nearest black hole to Earth. It was a personal tribute by Vangelis, and a limited CD titled "The Stephen Hawking Tribute" was shared with the family and over 1,000 guests.


title: Vangelis

text: On 25 January 2019, a new studio album, "", was released which includes both new and old compositions played on a grand piano and were "inspired by night time, and by Vangelis's long-held passion for space". However, Vangelis recalled he was kind-of pressured by the record company to release it and include old compositions. In the same year, Vangelis wrote an electro-orchestral score rooted in ethnic music for "The Thread", a modern dance piece created by Russell Maliphant inspired by Greek mythology and Hellenic dances. It received very positive reviews, and its CD & DVD was released in a special limited edition by Andromeda Music. On the Maliphant's project he also collaborated with fashion designer Mary Katrantzou for whom composed new music for her fashion shows.


title: Vangelis

text: On 24 September 2021, Vangelis released "Juno to Jupiter", his last studio album. It was inspired by NASA's Juno spacecraft, featuring the soprano Angela Gheorghiu on several tracks.


title: Vangelis

text: For a musician of his stature, very little is known about Vangelis' personal life; and he rarely gave interviews to journalists.


title: Vangelis

text: In 2005, he stated that he was "never interested" in the "decadent lifestyle" of his band days, choosing not to use alcohol or other drugs. He also had little interest in the music industry business and achieving stardom, realising "that success and pure creativity are not very compatible. The more successful you become, the more you become a product of something that generates money". Instead, he used it to be as free and independent as possible and often rejected the opportunity to promote or capitalise on his fame.


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis's place of residence was not publicly known; instead of settling in one place or country, he chose to "travel[ed] around". He did own a house by the Acropolis of Athens which he did not renovate. Vangelis did not have children; in 2005, he was in his third long-term relationship and said: "I couldn't take care of a child in the way I think it should be taken care of." Other interviews mention that Vangelis had been married twice; one of these marriages was to French photographer Veronique Skawinska, who produced work for some of his albums. A 1982 interview with "Backstage" suggests that Vangelis was previously married to Greek singer Vana Veroutis, who provided vocals for some of his records.


title: Vangelis

text: Although a very private person, according to many accounts he was an "inordinately approachable", "really nice" and "humorous" man, who enjoyed long friendly gatherings, was fascinated by Ancient Greek philosophy, the science and physics of music and sound, and space exploration. His daily activities mainly involved combining and playing his electronic instruments and the piano. He also enjoyed painting. His first exhibition, of 70 paintings, was held in 2003 at Almudin in Valencia, Spain. It then toured South America until the end of 2004.


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis died of heart failure on 17 May 2022, at the age of 79, at a hospital in Paris. He was suffering from several health issues in the last couple of years and, according to some reports, died of COVID-19 complications.


title: Vangelis

text: The musical style of Vangelis is diverse; although he primarily used electronic music instruments, which characterize electronic music, his music has been described as a mixture of electronica, classical (his music was often symphonic), progressive rock, jazz (improvisations), ambient, avant-garde/experimental, and world. Vangelis is sometimes categorized as a new-age composer, a classification others have disputed. Vangelis himself called New-age music a style which "gave the opportunity for untalented people to make very boring music".


title: Vangelis

text: "Synthtopia", an electronic music review website, stated that Vangelis's music could be referred to as "symphonic electronica" because of his use of synthesizers in an orchestral fashion. The site went on to describe his music as melodic: "drawing on the melodies of folk music, especially the Greek music of his homeland". Vangelis's music and compositions have also been described as "a distinctive sound with simple, repetitive yet memorable tunes against evocative rhythms and chord progressions."


title: Vangelis

text: In an interview with "Soundtrack", a music and film website, Vangelis talked about his compositional processes. For films, Vangelis stated that he would begin composing a score for a feature as soon as he had seen a rough cut of the footage. In addition to working with synthesizers and other electronic instruments, Vangelis also worked with and conducted orchestras. For example, in the Oliver Stone film "Alexander", Vangelis conducted an orchestra that consisted of various classical instruments including sitars, percussion, finger cymbals, harps, and duduks.


title: Vangelis

text: While acknowledging that computers are "extremely helpful and amazing for a multitude of scientific areas", he described them as "insufficient and slow" for the immediate and spontaneous creation and, in terms of communication, "the worst thing that has happened for the performing musician". He considered that contemporary civilization is living in a cultural "dark age" of "musical pollution". He considered musical composing a science rather than an art, similar to Pythagoreanism. He had a mystical viewpoint on music as "one of the greatest forces in the universe", that the "music exists before we exist". His experience of music is a kind of synaesthesia.


title: Vangelis

text: As a musician who always composed and played primarily on keyboards, Vangelis relied heavily on synthesizers and other electronic approaches to music, although his first instrument was the piano. He also played and used many acoustic and folk instruments when required ) and was a keen percussionist (in additional to a standard drum kit, he performed on vibraphone, timpani, symphonic gongs and snare drums, various gamelan instruments, a tubular bell, a wind gong, a bell tree and crotales). On several of his albums, he employed a live choir and classical soprano (usually Vana Veroutis).


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis' first electric keyboard was a Hammond B3 organ, while his first synthesizer was a Korg 700 monophonic. By his own admission, he never got rid of keyboards during the first two decades of his career, but accumulated new ones and simply stopped actively using the old ones once he had effective replacements or had exhausted their possibilities. By the mid-1970s, when based at his Nemo Studio in London, he was also using Elka Tornado IV Reed and Farfisa Syntorchestra organs, a Selmer Clavioline, a Hohner Clavinet D6, a Fender Rhodes 88 electric piano, a GR International Bandmaster Powerhouse 8-track drum machine, a Moog Satellite and various synthesizers by Roland (SH-1000, SH-2000 and SH-3A) and Korg (MaxiKorg 800DV, MiniKorg 700 and 700s). From the mid-1970s onward he employed two grand pianos - an Imperial Bösendorfer and a Steinway & Sons Concert model.


title: Vangelis

text: Both grand pianos, the Roland SH-3A and the Rhodes 88 were retained for Vangelis' active late 1970s and early 1980s setup, which also featured newer synthesizers by Yamaha (CS-40M and GS-1), ARP Instruments (Pro Soloist, 2500, Odyssey), Oberheim Electronics (TVS-1A, four and eight-voice Polyphonic Synthesizers), Sequential Circuits (Prophet-5 and Prophet-10), Roland (Jupiter-4, ProMars Compuphonic and the modular Systems 101, 102, and 104), a Korg Polyphonic Ensemble, an RSF Kobol Black Box and a MiniMoog. Other studio equipment during this period included the Solina String Ensemble and EKO Stradivarius string synthesizers; sequencers by ARP, Roland (CSQ-100 and CSQ-600) and Oberheim (DS-20); drum machines by Simmons (SDS-V), Korg (KR-55, Mini Pops 120), Roland (CR-5000 Compurhythm) and Linn (LM-1); vocoders by EMS (Vocoder 1000) and Roland (VP-330 VocoderPlus Mk. I); and the Dubrecq Stylophone 350S. Vangelis also added a Crumar Compac-piano and a Yamaha CP-80 to his piano set-up.


title: Vangelis

text: For the mid-1980s, Vangelis retained his Roland modular systems and ProMars Compuphonic synthesizers, but added the SH-101 and JX8-P models and the MKS-80 Super Jupiter rack mount module, as well as a Yamaha GS-1. Other holdovers from previous active setups were the Fender Rhodes 88 and Yamaha CP-80, the MiniMoog, the Prophet-10 and the grand pianos. For drum machines, he retained the Linn LM-1 but added an LM-2 LinnDrum and an E-mu SP-12; his chosen sequencers for this period were the Roland CSQ-600 and the ARP; and he upgraded to the Mk. II version of the Roland VP-330 VocoderPlus. Vangelis disliked programming-oriented sampling devices like the Fairlight CMI (considering them to be too far removed from being relatable instruments) and remained unimpressed by many of the later commercial 1980s polysynths such as the Yamaha DX7; however, he did use the E-mu Emulator sampler, in particular the Emulator II model.


title: Vangelis

text: Vangelis' favourite keyboard was the Yamaha CS-80 polyphonic synthesizer, which he began using from 1977 and which allowed him to employ a distinctive and expressive vibrato technique by varying the pressure exerted on the key. He would use this instrument throughout the 1970s and 1980s to the point that its timbres, abilities and idiosyncrasies became closely associated with his musical signature. In a 1984 interview, Vangelis described the CS-80 as "the most important synthesizer in my career – and for me the best analogue synthesizer design there has ever been... It needs a lot of practice if you want to be able to play it properly, but that's because it's the only synthesizer I could describe as being a real instrument, mainly because of the keyboard — the way it's built and what you can do with it."


title: Vangelis

text: For his final period at Nemo in the late 1980s, Vangelis also retained the Emulator II; the Prophet 10 (enhanced by the VS module); the GS-1, his grand pianos and the CP-80 in active service along with the Roland ProMars Compuphonic, JX8-P and VP-330 VocoderPlus (while mostly retiring the Fender Rhodes). He would also continue to use the SP-12 and LinnDrum as drum machines, adding the Sequential Circuits TOM. By this point, the Roland modular systems had also been retired, although he would retain the MKS-80 Super Jupiter and augment it with further MKS-20 and MKS-70 rack mount models as well as two further Roland keyboard synthesizers (the Jupiter-6 and the Juno-106). During this time, Vangelis also made a return to Korg keyboards (acquiring a DW-8000 and a Poly-800) as well as adding the Ensoniq Mirage to his sampler armoury. Sequencing was now handled by a Roland MSQ-700. Despite his stated disappointment with the Yamaha DX7, he still used it alongside the related modular TX7 version.


title: Vangelis

text: In 1988, Vangelis closed Nemo Studio and embarked on the more nomadic lifestyle he would continue for the rest of his life, moving between homes and hotels in different countries according to whim and circumstance. For this, he made a drastic switch to a portable, all-digital instrumental setup based around the Zyklus MIDI Performance System, which was first heard on his 1988 album "Direct".


title: Vangelis

text: For the last part of his career, Vangelis used a custom keyboard set-up with built-in volume and mixing pedal controls, enabling him to improvise, play, arrange and orchestrate his music live without overdubbing or needing to move from one sitting position. This ensemble, and the set-up he used for his irregular concert performances, appeared to be based around various Korg and Roland machines as well as the E-mu Proteus rack module.


title: Vangelis

text: In 1989 Vangelis received the Max Steiner Award. France made him a Knight of the Order of the Arts and Letters in 1992 and promoted him to Commander in 2017, as well as Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour in 2001. In 1993 he received the music award Apollo by Friends of the Athens National Opera Society. In 1995, Vangelis had a minor planet named after him ("6354 Vangelis") by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; the name was proposed by the MPC's co-director, Gareth V. Williams, rather than by the object's original discoverer, Eugène Joseph Delporte, who died in 1955, long before the 1934 discovery could be confirmed by observations made in 1990. In 1996 and 1997, Vangelis received awards at the World Music Awards.


title: Vangelis

text: NASA conferred their Public Service Medal to Vangelis in 2003. The award is the highest honour the space agency presents to an individual not involved with the American government. Five years later, in 2008, the board of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens voted to award Vangelis an honorary doctoral degree, making him a professor emeritus at their Faculty of Primary Education. In June 2008, the American Hellenic Institute honoured Vangelis with an AHI Hellenic Heritage Achievement Award for his "exceptional artistic achievements" as a pioneer in electronic music and for his lifelong dedication to the promotion of Hellenism through the arts. On 16 September 2013, he received the honour of appearing on the Greek 80 cent postage stamp, as part of a series of six distinguished living personalities of the Greek Diaspora. In May 2018 the University of Thessaly in Vangelis's hometown of Volos awarded him an honorary doctorate degree in electrical and computer engineering.


title: Vangelis

text: The American Film Institute nominated Vangelis's scores for "Blade Runner" and "Chariots of Fire" for their list of the 25 greatest film scores.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: Cinderella is a 2021 romantic musical film based on the fairy tale of the same name by Charles Perrault. Written and directed by Kay Cannon, it stars singer Camila Cabello as the title character in her acting debut, alongside Idina Menzel, Minnie Driver, Nicholas Galitzine, Billy Porter, and Pierce Brosnan. It is a jukebox musical, featuring pop and rock hits, in addition to several original songs.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: Development on the film began in April 2019, when Sony Pictures announced a musical-style film of "Cinderella", with Cannon writing and directing. The film was produced by James Corden, through Fulwell 73 with Leo Pearlman, Jonathan Kadin, and Shannon McIntosh. Principal photography began in February 2020 at Pinewood Studios, and was suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production resumed in August 2020 and concluded in September.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: "Cinderella" was released in select theaters and digitally on Amazon Prime Video on September 3, 2021. The film received mixed reviews from critics.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: Cinderella is an ambitious young woman who wants to establish her shop "Dresses by Ella". One day in her patriarchal society, she catches the eye of Prince Robert in the guard-changing ceremony. The next day, Robert, dressed as a commoner, goes to the market, where he finds Ella trying to sell her dress. After some playful banter, he buys it for three times the amount she originally asked. He later invites her to the ball being held two weeks later, with the promise of introducing her to various people from the world to sell her dresses to.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: When the day arrives, Ella is getting ready when her stepmother, Vivian throws ink on her dress and tells her that only her stepsisters Malvolia and Narissa, can attend, since Thomas the vegetable merchant has already confirmed his desire for Ella's hand. Ella is sad, but her fairy godparent, Fab G, magically appears and dresses her in a design of Ella's, with glass shoes, and turns mice into footmen and a crate into a carriage. Ella goes to the ball and meets Tatiana, a visiting queen who offers to take her around the world as a dressmaker for her and asks to meet her the next day in the market square. Later, Robert finds Ella, shows his sister, Princess Gwen wearing the gown he bought from Ella previously and proposes to Ella. Ella refuses, however, as she wants to start her career. She tells him that if she marries him it will be the end of her dream and Robert from his small age wanted to become the king and he also is not ready to accept this. At the stroke of midnight, she leaves the ball after throwing her shoe at one of the King's attendants, who tries to catch her.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: The next day, Vivian tells Ella her life story...that she was also an ambitious girl like Ella and had even gotten an opportunity to learn piano in a reputed music school. She left home to study and when she came back home her husband divorced her, saying that she is not a suitable wife and kicked her and her daughters out. While she was about leave Ella's room she finds Ella's glass slipper and, on knowing the truth that her stepdaughter is the mystery princess, tries to convince Ella to marry Robert. When Ella refuses, Vivian gives her to Thomas.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: Robert's mother, Queen Beatrice, helps his father, King Rowan, understand that it will be right to let him marry a commoner. The king thinks of these words and allows the prince to marry his love. Rowan even gives him the glass slipper. Robert keeps searching for Ella and finds her running in the forest after she escapes from Thomas. They profess their love for each other and kiss. Ella and Robert reach the market in time to show her designs to her benefactor, who accepts them and asks Ella to travel with her.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: Robert introduces Ella to Rowan and Beatrice and informs them of their decision to travel the world. He knows this will ruin the plan for his future ascension to the throne, but Beatrice smiles as Rowan proudly declares that Gwen (who has repeatedly shown an interest and ability in affairs of state), will now be first in line to the throne. Citizens of the kingdom gather to witness the ceremony announcing the Princess' position and that Robert and Ella are in love.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: In April 2019, Columbia Pictures announced a musical retelling of "Cinderella", with Kay Cannon writing and directing. The idea to reinterpret "Cinderella" came from James Corden, who produced the film through Fulwell 73 with Leo Pearlman, Jonathan Kadin, and Shannon McIntosh.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: In April 2019, Camila Cabello was attached in the role of Cinderella. In October 2019, it was announced that talks were underway with Idina Menzel (voice of Elsa in Disney's "Frozen") as Cinderella's stepmother, and Billy Porter for the role of fairy godparent. In December 2019, Nicholas Galitzine was added to the cast as Prince Robert.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: Principal photography began in February 2020 at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom. Filming was suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production resumed in August 2020 and concluded in September.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: In April 2019, it was announced that Camila Cabello was working on the soundtrack for the film. In October, 2020, Idina Menzel confirmed that "[she and Camila] both have original songs as well." On August 2, 2021, it was announced by the director that the soundtrack would be released on September 3, 2021.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: In February 2021, Jessica Rose Weiss confirmed that she and Mychael Danna were working on the film score, and recording the score with orchestra led by Johannes Vogel at Synchron Stage Vienna. The film score was released digitally by Sony Classical on September 3.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: As part of the film's marketing, Amazon Prime Video partnered with Mercedes-Benz in August 2021. On August 9, Japanese shoes brand Onitsuka Tiger announced the release of a limited edition sneakers created in collaboration with "Cinderella". On August 11, hair brand John Frieda announced a collaboration with "Cinderella".


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: "Cinderella" was released in select theaters and digitally in 240 territories via Amazon Prime Video on September 3, 2021. It had a premiere event on August 30, 2021, at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Samba TV reported that 1.1 million American households streamed the film over its first four days of release, while Amazon claimed it was the most-watched VOD title over the same frame.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: In June 2019, Sony scheduled the film for release February 5, 2021. In January 2021, the release date was pushed back to July 16, 2021. In May 2021, Sony cancelled the film's theatrical debut and announced that the film had been bought by Amazon Studios except China, Sony would also retain home entertainment and linear television rights to the film.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: "Cinderella" was released on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD on June 21, 2022 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: According to Samba TV, the film was watched in 1.1 million U.S. households over its four-day Labor Day weekend debut and in 2.2 million households by the end of its first 30 days. According to the analytics company Screen Engine, "Cinderella" was the most-watched streaming movie during its opening weekend, as well as the most-watched movie musical yet in 2021.


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 42% based on 136 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "This singalong-worthy "Cinderella" sprinkles some modern fairy dust on the oft-told tale, but flat performances and clunky dialogue make watching often feel like a chore." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 41 out of 100 based on reviews from 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and praised Cabello for her performance, saying "she has a real knack for comedy" and described the film as having an "upbeat, breezy and sentimental style, laced with some sharp humor and filled with familiar and catchy pop tunes refashioned to fit the storyline." Jonathan Sim of "ComingSoon.net" wrote, "It's a progressively charming take on a romantic tale, and there are sweet, romantic moments throughout the film, even if there isn't much you haven't seen before."


title: Cinderella (2021 American film)

text: Courtney Howard of "Variety" called it a "mediocre musical" and despite some praise for the innovation, she was critical of many of the creative choices, the inconsistent pacing, the character development, and said it felt both "underdeveloped and overstuffed" at the same time.


title: Soft rock

text: Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. Soft rock was prevalent on the radio throughout the 1970s and eventually metamorphosed into a form of the synthesized music of adult contemporary in the 1980s.


title: Soft rock

text: Softer sounds in rock music could be heard in mid-1960s songs, such as "A Summer Song" by Chad & Jeremy (1964) and "Here, There and Everywhere" by the Beatles and "I Love My Dog" by Cat Stevens, both from 1966.


title: Soft rock

text: By 1968, hard rock had been established as a mainstream genre. From the end of the 1960s, it became common to divide mainstream rock music into soft and hard rock, with both emerging as major radio formats in the US. Late 1960s soft rock artists include the Bee Gees, whose song "I Started a Joke" was a number one single in several countries; Neil Diamond with the 1969 hit "Sweet Caroline", the Hollies with their US and UK top 10 hit "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", and Elton John with his popular song "Skyline Pigeon".


title: Soft rock

text: By the early 1970s, softer songs by the Carpenters, Anne Murray, John Denver, Barry Manilow, and even Barbra Streisand began to be played more often on "top 40" radio and others were added to the mix on many adult contemporary stations.


title: Soft rock

text: Major artists of that time included Bread, Carly Simon, Carole King, Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Lobo and Gilbert O'Sullivan who achieved number-one hit singles between 1970–1972 with "Nothing Rhymed", "Alone Again (Naturally)" and "Clair".


title: Soft rock

text: The Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts became more similar again toward the end of the 1960s and into the early and mid-1970s when the texture of much of the music played on top 40 radio once more began to soften. The adult contemporary format began evolving into the sound that later defined it, with rock-oriented acts as Chicago, the Eagles and Elton John becoming associated with the format. The Carpenters' hit version of "(They Long to Be) Close to You" was released in the summer of 1970, followed by Bread's "Make It with You", both early examples of a softer sound that was coming to dominate the charts.


title: Soft rock

text: The soft rock album "Tapestry" by Carole King, released in February 1971, became one of the best-selling albums of all time. The lead double-sided single from the album, "It's Too Late"/"I Feel the Earth Move", spent five weeks at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 beginning in mid-June 1971.


title: Soft rock

text: Los Angeles station KNX-FM, under program director Steve Marshall, introduced a "mellow rock" format in 1971.


title: Soft rock

text: Albert Hammond scored a major hit single with "It Never Rains in Southern California" in 1972, which went top 10 in at least six countries including Canada and the U.S. at numbers 2 and 5, respectively.


title: Soft rock

text: In the spring of 1972, Neil Young scored his only number-one single with "Heart of Gold", from the album "Harvest". Topping the charts in both the U.S. and Canada, this soft rock ballad featured backing vocals from Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor, heard near the end of the song.


title: Soft rock

text: In 1973, Paul McCartney and Wings had a U.S. number one with "My Love", which also reached No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary charts of both the U.S. and Canada.


title: Soft rock

text: Soft rock reached its commercial peak in the mid-to-late 1970s with acts such as Toto, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Air Supply, Seals and Crofts, America and the reformed Fleetwood Mac, whose "Rumours" (1977) was the best-selling album of the decade.


title: Soft rock

text: Denver station KIMN-FM introduced a "mellow rock" album format in 1975. Program director Scott Kenyon told "Billboard" magazine, "Michael Murphey's 'Wildfire' is a perfect example; it feels like Colorado, you can tell it came from this part of the country. There's a sound of the Rockies... the best description is mellow rock. Take that kind of music and make it into a Colorado sounding station."


title: Soft rock

text: By 1977, some radio stations, notably New York's WTFM and NBC-owned WYNY, had switched to an all-soft rock format. Chicago's WBBM-FM adopted a soft rock/album rock hybrid format in 1977 and was known as "Soft Rock 96" presenting the "Mellow sound of Chicago". Five years later, they would flip to a "Hot Hits" top 40 format.


title: Soft rock

text: In the mid- to late 1970s, prominent soft rock acts included Billy Joel, Elton John, Jefferson Starship, Chicago, Toto, Boz Scaggs, the Alessi Brothers, Michael McDonald, Paul Davis, Eric Carmen, the Doobie Brothers, the Alan Parsons Project, Captain & Tennille, the Hollies, and Dr. Hook.


title: Soft rock

text: By the 1980s, tastes had changed and radio formats reflected this change, including musical artists such as Journey.


title: Soft rock

text: A prominent counterpart of soft rock in the late 1970s and early 1980s came to be known as yacht rock; its name coined in 2005 by the makers of the online video series "Yacht Rock". Originating from California's session musicians, yacht rock only partially overlapped with soft rock; it could include soft to mid-level (but rarely ever purely hard) rock. Much of the "West Coast sound" of yacht rock bore similarity to some of the East Coast soft rockers of the era such as Rupert Holmes and Hall & Oates, leading to the conflation.


title: Soft rock

text: In the early 1980s, the radio format evolved into what came to be known as "adult contemporary" or "adult album alternative", a format that has less overt rock bias than its forebear radio categorization. In Los Angeles, KOST 103.5, under program director Jhani Kaye, debuted its soft adult contemporary format in November 1982. Soft rock songs still enjoyed success from artists such as Sheena Easton, Ambrosia, Lionel Richie, Christopher Cross, Dan Hill, Gino Vannelli, Leo Sayer, Air Supply, Julio Iglesias and Bertie Higgins.


title: Soft rock

text: Chris Norman, former lead singer of the band Smokie, scored several hits between 1986–1988 in Europe, particularly in Germany, including "Some Hearts Are Diamonds", "Broken Heroes" and "Midnight Lady", the latter reaching number one in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.


title: Soft rock

text: Soft rock persisted in the 1990s, with artists from previous decades continuing to release new music, such as Genesis, whose 1992 soft rock single "Hold on My Heart" topped the Canadian singles chart and "Billboard" Adult Contemporary chart. Extreme's 1991 single "More Than Words" was internationally successful, topping the national singles charts in at least five countries, including Canada and the United States. Mr. Big's 1992 single "To Be with You" was a number one hit in at least twelve countries. Eric Clapton's 1992 single "Tears in Heaven" was also successful, topping the national singles charts in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and six other countries. Richard Marx's 1994 single "Now and Forever" topped the Canadian adult contemporary chart and peaked in the top ten of the national singles charts in that country, Norway, and the United States. New bands and artists emerged such as the Danish band Michael Learns to Rock, who saw massive popularity in Asia, with many singles becoming commercially successful in the continent starting with their 1991 hit "The Actor", and Australian band Southern Sons, who enjoyed success on the ARIA Charts with three top 10 singles.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking its knowledge attractive to many. The mysterious doctrine of the order is "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe, and the spiritual realm." The manifestos do not elaborate extensively on the matter, but clearly combine references to Kabbalah, Hermeticism, alchemy, and Christian mysticism.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: The Rosicrucian manifestos heralded a "universal reformation of mankind", through a science allegedly kept secret for decades until the intellectual climate might receive it. Controversies arose on whether they were a hoax, whether the "Order of the Rosy Cross" existed as described in the manifestos, and whether the whole thing was a metaphor disguising a movement that really existed, but in a different form. In 1616, Johann Valentin Andreae famously designated it as a "ludibrium". Some scholars of esotericism suggest that this statement was later made by Andreae in order to shield himself from the wrath of the religious and political institutions of the day, which were intolerant of free speech and the idea of a "universal reformation", for which the manifestos called.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: In his work "Silentium Post Clamores" (1617), the Rosicrucian Michael Maier (1568–1622) described Rosicrucianism as having arisen from a "Primordial Tradition" in the following statement: "Our origins are Egyptian, Brahminic, derived from the mysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace, the Magi of Persia, the Pythagoreans, and the Arabs."


title: Rosicrucianism

text: By promising a spiritual transformation at a time of great turmoil, the manifestos influenced many figures to seek esoteric knowledge. Seventeenth-century occult philosophers such as Maier, Robert Fludd, and Thomas Vaughan interested themselves in the Rosicrucian worldview. According to the historian David Stevenson, it was influential on Freemasonry as it was emerging in Scotland.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: In later centuries, many esoteric societies have claimed to derive from the original Rosicrucians. Rosicrucianism is symbolized by the Rosy Cross or Rose Cross.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: The most influential of these societies has been the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which derived from Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and counted many prominent figures among its members. The largest is the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, a multinational organization based in San Jose, California.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: Between 1614 and 1617, three anonymous manifestos were published, first in Germany and later throughout Europe. These were the "Fama Fraternitatis RC" ("The Fame of the Brotherhood of RC", 1614), the "Confessio Fraternitatis" ("The Confession of the Brotherhood of RC", 1615), and the "Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosicross anno 1459" (1617).


title: Rosicrucianism

text: The "Fama Fraternitatis" presents the legend of a German doctor and mystic philosopher referred to as "Father Brother C.R.C." (later identified in a third manifesto as Christian Rosenkreuz, or "Rose-cross"). The year 1378 is presented as being the birth year of "our Christian Father", and it is stated that he lived 106 years. After studying in the Middle East under various masters, possibly adhering to Sufism, he was unable to spread the knowledge he had acquired to prominent European scientists and philosophers. Instead, he gathered a small circle of friends/disciples and founded the Rosicrucian Order (this can be deduced to have occurred around 1407).


title: Rosicrucianism

text: During Rosenkreuz's lifetime, the order was said to comprise no more than eight members, each a doctor and "all bachelors of vowed virginity." Each member undertook an oath to heal the sick without accepting payment, to maintain a secret fellowship, and to find a replacement for himself before he died. Three such generations had supposedly passed between c. 1500 and c. 1600: a time when scientific, philosophical, and religious freedom had grown so that the public might benefit from the Rosicrucians' knowledge, so that they were now seeking good men.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: The manifestos were, and continue to be, not taken literally by many but rather regarded either as hoaxes or as allegorical statements. They state: "We speak unto you by parables, but would willingly bring you to the right, simple, easy, and ingenuous exposition, understanding, declaration, and knowledge of all secrets."


title: Rosicrucianism

text: The first Rosicrucian manifesto was influenced by the work of the respected hermetic philosopher Heinrich Khunrath, of Hamburg, author of the "Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae" (1609), who was in turn influenced by John Dee, author of the "Monas Hieroglyphica" (1564). The invitation to the royal wedding in the "Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz" opens with Dee's philosophical key, the "Monas Hieroglyphica" symbol. The writer also claimed the brotherhood possessed a book that resembled the works of Paracelsus. Adam Haslmayr a friend of Karl Widemann wrote him a letter about Rosicrucian people who revealed the Theophrastiam 24 December 1611.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: In his autobiography, Johann Valentin Andreae (1586–1654) claimed that the anonymously published "Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz" was one of his works, and he subsequently described it as a "ludibrium". In his later works, he makes alchemy an object of ridicule and places it along with music, art, theater, and astrology in the category of less serious sciences. According to some sources, his role in the origin of the Rosicrucian legend is controversial. But according to others, it was generally accepted.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: In the early 17th century, the manifestos caused excitement throughout Europe by declaring the existence of a secret brotherhood of alchemists and sages who were preparing to transform the arts and sciences, and religious, political, and intellectual landscapes of Europe. Wars of politics and religion ravaged the continent. The works were re-issued several times, followed by numerous pamphlets, favorable or otherwise. Between 1614 and 1620, about 400 manuscripts and books were published which discussed the Rosicrucian documents.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: The peak of the "Rosicrucianism furore" was reached when two mysterious posters appeared on the walls of Paris in 1622 within a few days of each other. The first said "We, the Deputies of the Higher College of the Rose-Croix, do make our stay, visibly and invisibly, in this city (...)", and the second ended with the words "The thoughts attached to the real desire of the seeker will lead us to him and him to us."


title: Rosicrucianism

text: The legendary first manifesto, "Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis" (1614), inspired the works of Michael Maier (1568–1622) of Germany; Robert Fludd (1574–1637) and Elias Ashmole (1617–1692) of England; Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, Gotthardus Arthusius, Julius Sperber, Henricus Madathanus, Gabriel Naudé, Thomas Vaughan and others. Rosicrucianism was associated with Protestantism (Lutheranism in particular).


title: Rosicrucianism

text: In Elias Ashmole's "Theatrum Chimicum britannicum" (1650) he defends the Rosicrucians. Some later works impacting Rosicrucianism were the "Opus magocabalisticum et theosophicum" by George von Welling (1719)—of alchemical and paracelsian inspiration—and the "Aureum Vellus oder Goldenes Vliess" by Hermann Fictuld in 1749.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: Michael Maier was appointed "Pfalzgraf" (Count Palatine) by Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and King of Bohemia. He also was one of the most prominent defenders of the Rosicrucians, clearly transmitting details about the "Brothers of the Rose Cross" in his writings. Maier made the firm statement that the Brothers of R.C. exist to advance inspired arts and sciences, including alchemy. Researchers of Maier's writings point out that he never claimed to have produced gold, nor did Heinrich Khunrath or any of the other "Rosicrucianists". Their writings point toward a symbolic and spiritual alchemy, rather than an operative one. In a combination of direct and veiled styles, these writings conveyed the nine stages of the involutive-evolutive transmutation of the "threefold body" of the human being, the "threefold soul" and the "threefold spirit", among other esoteric knowledge related to the "Path of Initiation".


title: Rosicrucianism

text: In his 1618 pamphlet, "Pia et Utilissima Admonitio de Fratribus Rosae Crucis", Henrichus Neuhusius wrote that the Rosicrucians departed for the east due to European instability caused by the start of the Thirty Years' War. In 1710, Sigmund Richter, founder of the secret society of the Golden and Rosy Cross, also suggested the Rosicrucians had migrated eastward. In the first half of the 20th century, René Guénon, a researcher of the occult, presented this same idea in some of his works. An eminent author of the 19th century, Arthur Edward Waite, presented arguments contradicting this idea. It was in this fertile field of discourse that many Rosicrucian societies arose. They were based on the occult, inspired by the mystery of this "College of Invisibles".


title: Rosicrucianism

text: Some modern scholars, for example Adam McLean and Giordano Berti, assume that among the first followers of the Rose Cross there was also the German theologian Daniel Cramer, who in 1617 published a bizarre treatise entitled "Societas Jesus et Rosae Crucis Vera" (The True Society of Jesus and the Rosy Cross), containing 40 emblematic figures accompanied by biblical quotations.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: The literary works of the 16th and 17th centuries were full of enigmatic passages containing references to the Rose Cross, as in the following (somewhat modernized):


title: Rosicrucianism

text: The idea of such an order, exemplified by the network of astronomers, professors, mathematicians, and natural philosophers in 16th-century Europe promoted by such men as Johannes Kepler, Georg Joachim Rheticus, John Dee and Tycho Brahe, gave rise to the Invisible College. This was the precursor to the Royal Society founded in 1660. It was constituted by a group of scientists who began to hold regular meetings to share and develop knowledge acquired by experimental investigation. Among these were Robert Boyle, who wrote: "the cornerstones of the Invisible (or as they term themselves the Philosophical) College, do now and then honour me with their company...";


title: Rosicrucianism

text: John Wilkins and John Wallis, who described those meetings in the following terms: "About the year 1645, while I lived in London (at a time when, by our civil wars, academical studies were much interrupted in both our Universities), ... I had the opportunity of being acquainted with divers worthy persons, inquisitive natural philosophy, and other parts of human learning; and particularly of what hath been called the New Philosophy or Experimental Philosophy. We did by agreements, divers of us, meet weekly in London on a certain day and hour, under a certain penalty, and a weekly contribution for the charge of experiments, with certain rules agreed amongst us, to treat and discourse of such affairs..."


title: Rosicrucianism

text: According to Jean Pierre Bayard, two Rosicrucian-inspired Masonic rites emerged toward the end of 18th century, the Rectified Scottish Rite, widespread in Central Europe where there was a strong presence of the "Golden and Rosy Cross", and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, first practiced in France, in which the 18th degree is called "Knight of the Rose Croix".


title: Rosicrucianism

text: The change from "operative" to "speculative" Masonry occurred between the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 18th century. Two of the earliest speculative Masons for whom a record of initiation exists were Sir Robert Moray and Elias Ashmole. Robert Vanloo states that earlier 17th century Rosicrucianism had a considerable influence on Anglo-Saxon Masonry. Hans Schick sees in the works of Comenius (1592–1670) the ideal of the newly born English Masonry before the foundation of the Grand Lodge in 1717. Comenius was in England during 1641.


title: Rosicrucianism

text: The Gold und Rosenkreuzer (Golden and Rosy Cross) was founded by the alchemist Samuel Richter who in 1710 published "Die warhhaffte und vollkommene Bereitung des Philosophischen Steins der Brüderschaft aus dem Orden des Gülden-und Rosen-Creutzes" ("The True and Complete Preparation of the Philosopher's Stone by the Brotherhood from the Order of the Golden and Rosy Cross") in Breslau under the pseudonym Sincerus Renatus in Prague in the early 18th century as a hierarchical secret society composed of internal circles, recognition signs and alchemy treatises. Under the leadership of Hermann Fictuld the group reformed itself extensively in 1767 and again in 1777 because of political pressure. Its members claimed that the leaders of the Rosicrucian Order had invented Freemasonry and only they knew the secret meaning of Masonic symbols. The Rosicrucian Order had been founded by Egyptian "Ormusse" or "Licht-Weise" who had emigrated to Scotland with the name "Builders from the East". In 1785 and 1788 the Golden and Rosy Cross group published the "Geheime Figuren" or "The Secret Symbols of the 16th and 17th century Rosicrucians".