title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss's tenure at the Bavarian State Opera was not a happy one. With the death of Ludwig II of Bavaria in June 1886, the opera house was not as well financially supported by his successor Otto of Bavaria which meant that much of the more ambitious and expensive repertoire that he wanted to stage, such as Wagner's operas, were unfeasible. The opera assignments he was given, works by Boieldieu, Auber and Donizetti, bored him, and to make matters worse Hermann Levi, the senior conductor at the house, was often ill and Strauss was required to step in at the last minute to conduct performance for operas which he had never rehearsed. This caused problems for him, the singers, and the orchestra. During this time, Strauss did find much more enjoyable conducting work outside Munich in Berlin, Dresden, and Leipzig. In the latter city he met and befriended the composer Gustav Mahler in the autumn of 1887. Also happily, Strauss met his future wife, soprano Pauline de Ahna, in 1887. De Ahna was then a voice student at the Munich Musikschule (now the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich), but soon switched to private lessons with Strauss who became her principal teacher.


title: Richard Strauss

text: In May 1889 Strauss left his post with the Bavarian State Opera after being appointed Kapellmeister to Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in Weimar, beginning in the autumn of 1889. During the summer of 1889 he served as the assistant conductor of the Bayreuth Festival during which time he befriended Cosima Wagner who became a longterm close friend. Pauline De Ahna went with Strauss to Weimar and he later married her on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being irascible, garrulous, eccentric and outspoken, but to all appearances the marriage was essentially happy, and she was a great source of inspiration to him. Throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final "Four Last Songs" of 1948, he preferred the soprano voice to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles. In Weimar she created the role of Freihild in Strauss's first opera, "Guntram", in 1894. The opera was received with mixed reviews in Weimar, but its later production in Munich was met with scorn and was Strauss's first major failure.


title: Richard Strauss

text: In spite of the failure of his first opera, Strauss's tenure in Weimar brought about several important successes for his career. His tone poem "Don Juan" premiered in Weimar on 11 November 1889 to tremendous critical response, and the work quickly brought him international fame and success. This was followed by another lauded achievement, the premiere of his tone poem "Death and Transfiguration" in 1890. Both of these works, along with the earlier "Burleske", became internationally known and established him as a leading modernist composer. He also had much success as a conductor in Weimar, particularly with the symphonic poems of Liszt and an uncut production of "Tristan und Isolde" in 1892.


title: Richard Strauss

text: In the summer of 1894 Strauss made his conducting debut at the Bayreuth Festival, conducting Wagner's "Tannhäuser" with Pauline singing Elisabeth. Just prior to their marriage the following September, Strauss left his post in Weimar when he was appointed Kapellmeister, or first conductor, of the Bavarian State Opera where he became responsible for the operas of Wagner. While working in Munich for the next four years he had his largest creative period of tone poem composition, producing "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" (1895), "Also sprach Zarathustra" (1896), "Don Quixote" (1897), and "Ein Heldenleben" (1898). He also served as principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1894–1895. In 1897, the Strausses’ only child, their son Franz, was born. In 1906, Strauss purchased a block of land at Garmisch-Partenkirchen and had a villa () built there with the down payments from the publisher Adolph Fürstner for his opera "Salome", residing there until his death.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss left the Bavarian State Opera in 1898 when he became principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Berlin at the Berlin State Opera in the fall of 1898; a position he remained in for 15 years. By this time in his career, he was in constant demand as a guest conductor internationally and enjoyed celebrity status as a conductor; particularly in the works of Wagner, Mozart, and Liszt in addition to his own compositions. He became president of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein in 1901, and that same year became leader of the Berliner Tonkünstlerverein. He also served as editor of the book series "Die Musik". He used all of these posts to champion contemporary German composers like Mahler. His own compositions were becoming increasingly popular, and the first major orchestra to perform an entire concert of only his music was the Vienna Philharmonic in 1901. In 1903 Strauss Festivals dedicated to his music were established in London and Heidelberg. At the latter festival his cantata "Taillefer" was given its world premiere.


title: Richard Strauss

text: In 1904 Strauss embarked on his first North American tour, with stops in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, New York City, and Pittsburgh. At Carnegie Hall he conducted the world premiere of his "Symphonia Domestica" on 21 March 1904 with the Wetzler Symphony Orchestra. He also conducted several other works in collaboration with composer Hermann Hans Wetzler and his orchestra that year at Carnegie Hall, and also performed a concert of leider with his wife. During this trip he was working intensively on composing his third opera, "Salome", based on Oscar Wilde's 1891 play "Salome". The work, which premiered in Dresden in 1905, became Strauss's greatest triumph in his career up to that point, and opera houses all over the world quickly began programing the opera.


title: Richard Strauss

text: After "Salome", Strauss had a string of critically successful operas which he created with the librettist and poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. These operas included "Elektra" (1909), "Der Rosenkavalier" (1911), "Ariadne auf Naxos" (1912, rev. 1916), "Die Frau ohne Schatten" (1919), "Die ägyptische Helena" (1928), and "Arabella" (1933). While all of these works remain part of the opera repertoire, his opera "Der Rosenkavalier" is generally considered his finest achievement. During this time he continued to work internationally as a celebrity conductor, and from 1919 to 1924 he was principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera. In 1920 he co-founded the Salzburg Festival with Max Reinhardt and the set designer Alfred Rolle. In 1924 Strauss's opera "Intermezzo" premiered at the Dresden Semperoper with both the music and the libretto by Strauss. For this opera, Strauss wanted to move away from post-Wagnerian metaphysics which had been the philosophical framework of Hofmannsthal's libretti, and instead embrace a modern domestic comedy to Hofmannsthal's chagrin. The work proved to be a success.


title: Richard Strauss

text: At the outbreak of World War I Strauss was invited to sign the Manifesto of German artists and intellectuals supporting the German role in the conflict. Several colleagues, including Max Reinhardt, signed, but Strauss refused, and his response was recorded with approval by the French critic Romain Rolland in his diary for October 1914: "Declarations about war and politics are not fitting for an artist, who must give his attention to his creations and his works."


title: Richard Strauss

text: In 1924 Strauss's son Franz married Alice von Grab-Hermannswörth, daughter of a Jewish industrialist, in a Roman Catholic ceremony. Franz and Alice had two sons, Richard and Christian.


title: Richard Strauss

text: In March 1933, when Strauss was 68, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power. Strauss never joined the Nazi Party, and studiously avoided Nazi forms of greeting. For reasons of expediency, however, he was initially drawn into cooperating with the early Nazi regime in the hope that Hitler—an ardent Wagnerian and music lover who had admired Strauss's work since viewing "Salome" in 1907—would promote German art and culture. Strauss's need to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law and Jewish grandchildren also motivated his behavior, in addition to his determination to preserve and conduct the music of banned composers such as Gustav Mahler and Claude Debussy.


title: Richard Strauss

text: I consider the Streicher–Goebbels Jew-baiting as a disgrace to German honour, as evidence of incompetence—the basest weapon of untalented, lazy mediocrity against a higher intelligence and greater talent.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Meanwhile, far from being an admirer of Strauss's work, Joseph Goebbels maintained expedient cordiality with Strauss only for a period. Goebbels wrote in his diary:


title: Richard Strauss

text: Unfortunately we still need him, but one day we shall have our own music and then we shall have no further need of this decadent neurotic.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Nevertheless, because of Strauss's international eminence, in November 1933 he was appointed to the post of president of the newly founded "Reichsmusikkammer", the Reich Music Chamber. Strauss, who had lived through numerous political regimes and had no interest in politics, decided to accept the position but to remain apolitical, a decision which would eventually become untenable. He wrote to his family, "I made music under the Kaiser, and under Ebert. I'll survive under this one as well." In 1935 he wrote in his journal:


title: Richard Strauss

text: In November 1933, the minister Goebbels nominated me president of the "Reichsmusikkammer" without obtaining my prior agreement. I was not consulted. I accepted this honorary office because I hoped that I would be able to do some good and prevent worse misfortunes, if from now onwards German musical life were going to be, as it was said, "reorganized" by amateurs and ignorant place-seekers.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss privately scorned Goebbels and called him "a pipsqueak". However, in 1933 he dedicated an orchestral song, ""Das Bächlein"" ("The Little Brook"), to Goebbels, in order to gain his cooperation in extending German music copyright laws from 30 years to 50 years. Also in 1933, he replaced Arturo Toscanini as director of the Bayreuth Festival after Toscanini had resigned in protest against the Nazi regime.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss attempted to ignore Nazi bans on performances of works by Debussy, Mahler, and Mendelssohn. He also continued to work on a comic opera, "Die schweigsame Frau", with his Jewish friend and librettist Stefan Zweig. When the opera was premiered in Dresden in 1935, Strauss insisted that Zweig's name appear on the theatrical billing, much to the ire of the Nazi regime. Hitler and Goebbels avoided attending the opera, and it was halted after three performances and subsequently banned by the Third Reich.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Do you believe I am ever, in any of my actions, guided by the thought that I am 'German'? Do you suppose Mozart was consciously 'Aryan' when he composed? I recognise only two types of people: those who have talent and those who have none.


title: Richard Strauss

text: This letter to Zweig was intercepted by the Gestapo and sent to Hitler. Strauss was subsequently dismissed from his post as "Reichsmusikkammer" president in 1935. The 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics nevertheless used Strauss's "Olympische Hymne", which he had composed in 1934. Strauss's seeming relationship with the Nazis in the 1930s attracted criticism from some noted musicians, including Toscanini, who in 1933 had said, "To Strauss the composer I take off my hat; to Strauss the man I put it back on again", when Strauss had accepted the presidency of the "Reichsmusikkammer". Much of Strauss's motivation in his conduct during the Third Reich was, however, to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law Alice and his Jewish grandchildren from persecution. Both of his grandsons were bullied at school, but Strauss used his considerable influence to prevent the boys or their mother being sent to concentration camps.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Frustrated that he could no longer work with Zweig as his librettist, Strauss turned to Joseph Gregor, a Viennese theatre historian, at Gregor's request. The first opera they worked on together was "Daphne", but it ultimately became the second of their operas to be premiered. Their first work to be staged was in 1938, when the entire nation was preparing for war, they presented "Friedenstag" ("Peace Day"), a one-act opera set in a besieged fortress during the Thirty Years' War. The work is essentially a hymn to peace and a thinly veiled criticism of the Third Reich. With its contrasts between freedom and enslavement, war and peace, light and dark, this work has a close affinity with Beethoven's "Fidelio". Productions of the opera ceased shortly after the outbreak of war in 1939. The two men collaborated on two more operas which proved to be Strauss's last: "Die Liebe der Danae" (1940) and "Capriccio" (1942).


title: Richard Strauss

text: When his Jewish daughter-in-law Alice was placed under house arrest in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1938, Strauss used his connections in Berlin, including opera-house General Intendant Heinz Tietjen, to secure her safety. He drove to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in order to argue, albeit unsuccessfully, for the release of Alice's grandmother, Paula Neumann. In the end, Neumann and 25 other relatives were murdered in the camps. While Alice's mother, Marie von Grab, was safe in Lucerne, Switzerland, Strauss also wrote several letters to the SS pleading for the release of her children who were also held in camps; his letters were ignored.


title: Richard Strauss

text: In 1942, Strauss moved with his family back to Vienna, where Alice and her children could be protected by Baldur von Schirach, the Gauleiter of Vienna. However, Strauss was unable to protect his Jewish relatives completely; in early 1944, while Strauss was away, Alice and her son Franz were abducted by the Gestapo and imprisoned for two nights. Strauss's personal intervention at this point saved them, and he was able to take them back to Garmisch, where the two remained under house arrest until the end of the war.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss completed the composition of "Metamorphosen", a work for 23 solo strings, in 1945. The title and inspiration for the work comes from a profoundly self-examining poem by Goethe, which Strauss had considered setting as a choral work. Generally regarded as one of the masterpieces of the string repertoire, "Metamorphosen" contains Strauss's most sustained outpouring of tragic emotion. Conceived and written during the blackest days of World War II, the piece expresses Strauss's mourning of, among other things, the destruction of German culture—including the bombing of every great opera house in the nation. At the end of the war, Strauss wrote in his private diary:


title: Richard Strauss

text: The most terrible period of human history is at an end, the twelve year reign of bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany's 2000 years of cultural evolution met its doom.


title: Richard Strauss

text: In April 1945, Strauss was apprehended by American soldiers at his Garmisch estate. As he descended the staircase he announced to Lieutenant Milton Weiss of the U.S. Army, "I am Richard Strauss, the composer of "Rosenkavalier" and "Salome"." Lt. Weiss, who was also a musician, nodded in recognition. An "Off Limits" sign was subsequently placed on the lawn to protect Strauss. The American oboist John de Lancie, who knew Strauss's orchestral writing for oboe thoroughly, was in the army unit, and asked Strauss to compose an oboe concerto. Initially dismissive of the idea, Strauss completed this late work, his "Oboe Concerto", before the end of the year.


title: Richard Strauss

text: The metaphor "Indian summer" has been used by journalists, biographers, and music critics, notably Norman Del Mar in 1964 to describe Strauss's late creative upsurge from 1942 to the end of his life. The events of World War II seemed to bring the composer —who had grown old, tired, and a little jaded — into focus. The major works of the last years of Strauss's life, written in his late 70s and 80s, include, among others, his "Horn Concerto No. 2", "Metamorphosen", his "Oboe Concerto", his "Duet Concertino for clarinet and bassoon", and his "Four Last Songs".


title: Richard Strauss

text: Like most Germans', Strauss's bank accounts were frozen, and many of his assets seized by American forces. Now elderly and with very few resources remaining, Strauss and his wife left Germany for Switzerland in October 1945 where they settled in a hotel just outside Zürich. There they met the Swiss music critic Willy Schuh, who became Strauss's biographer. Short of money, in 1947 Strauss embarked on his last international tour, a three-week trip to London, in which he conducted several of his tone poems and excerpts of his operas, and was present during a complete staging of "Elektra" by the BBC. The trip was a critical success and provided him and his wife with some much needed money.


title: Richard Strauss

text: From May to September 1948, just before his death, Strauss composed the "Four Last Songs" which deal with the subject of dying. The last one, "Im Abendrot" (At Sunset), ends with the line "Is this perhaps death?" The question is not answered in words, but instead Strauss quotes the "transfiguration theme" from his earlier tone poem "Death and Transfiguration"—meant to symbolize the transfiguration and fulfilment of the soul after death. In June 1948, he was cleared of any wrong-doing by a denazification tribunal in Munich. That same month he orchestrated "Ruhe, meine Seele!", a song that he had originally composed in 1894.


title: Richard Strauss

text: In December 1948, Strauss was hospitalized for several weeks after undergoing bladder surgery. His health rapidly deteriorated after that, and he conducted his last performance, the end of Act 2 of "Der Rosenkavalier" at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, during celebrations of his 85th birthday on 10 June 1949. On 15 August he suffered from a heart attack and he quietly died of kidney failure in his sleep shortly after 2 PM on 8 September 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany. From his death-bed, typical for his enduring sense of humour, he commented to his daughter-in-law Alice, "dying is just as I composed it in "Tod und Verklärung"". Georg Solti, who had arranged Strauss's 85th birthday celebration, also directed an orchestra during Strauss's burial. The conductor later described how, during the singing of the famous trio from "Rosenkavalier", "each singer broke down in tears and dropped out of the ensemble, but they recovered themselves and we all ended together". Strauss's wife, Pauline de Ahna, died eight months later, on 13 May 1950, at the age of 88.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss's late works (as an octogenarian composer) were modelled on "the divine Mozart at the end of a life full of thankfulness". Strauss himself declared in 1947 with characteristic self-deprecation: "I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer." The Canadian pianist Glenn Gould described Strauss in 1962 as "the greatest musical figure who has lived in this century".


title: Richard Strauss

text: Some of Strauss's first compositions were solo instrumental and chamber works. These pieces include early compositions for piano solo in a conservative harmonic style, many of which are lost: two piano trios (1877 and 1878), a string quartet (1881), a piano sonata (1882), a cello sonata (1883), a piano quartet (1885), a violin sonata (1888), as well as a serenade (1882) and a longer suite (1884), both scored for double wind quintet plus two additional horns and contrabassoon.


title: Richard Strauss

text: After 1890, Strauss composed very infrequently for chamber groups, his energies being almost completely absorbed with large-scale orchestral works and operas. Four of his chamber pieces are actually arrangements of portions of his operas, including the "Daphne-Etude" for solo violin and the String Sextet, which is the overture to his final opera "Capriccio". His last independent chamber work, an Allegretto in E major for violin and piano, dates from 1948.


title: Richard Strauss

text: He also composed two large-scale works for wind ensemble during this period: Sonatina No. 1 "From an Invalid's Workshop" (1943) and Sonatina No. 2 "Happy Workshop" (1946)—both scored for double wind quintet plus two additional horns, a third clarinet in C, bassett horn, bass clarinet, and contrabassoon.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss wrote two early symphonies: Symphony No. 1 (1880) and Symphony No. 2 (1884). However, Strauss's style began to truly develop and change when, in 1885, he met Alexander Ritter, a noted composer and violinist, and the husband of one of Richard Wagner's nieces. It was Ritter who persuaded Strauss to abandon the conservative style of his youth and begin writing tone poems. He also introduced Strauss to the essays of Wagner and the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer. Strauss went on to conduct one of Ritter's operas, and at Strauss's request Ritter later wrote a poem describing the events depicted in Strauss's tone poem "Death and Transfiguration".


title: Richard Strauss

text: The new influences from Ritter resulted in what is widely regarded as Strauss's first piece to show his mature personality, the tone poem "Don Juan" (1888), which displays a new kind of virtuosity in its bravura orchestral manner. Strauss went on to write a series of increasingly ambitious tone poems: "Death and Transfiguration" (1889), "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" (1895), "Also sprach Zarathustra" (1896), "Don Quixote" (1897), "Ein Heldenleben" (1898), "Symphonia Domestica" (1903) and "An Alpine Symphony" (1911–1915). One commentator has observed of these works that "no orchestra could exist without his tone poems, written to celebrate the glories of the post-Wagnerian symphony orchestra."


title: Richard Strauss

text: James Hepokoski notes a shift in Strauss's technique in the tone poems, occurring between 1892 and 1893. It was after this point that Strauss rejected the philosophy of Schopenhauer and began more forcefully critiquing the institution of the symphony and the symphonic poem, thereby differentiating the second cycle of tone poems from the first.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss's output of works for solo instrument or instruments with orchestra was fairly extensive. The most famous include two concertos for horn, which are still part of the standard repertoire of most horn soloists—Horn Concerto No. 1 (1883) and Horn Concerto No. 2 (1942); the Romanze for cello and orchestra (1883); a Violin Concerto in D minor (1882); the "Burleske" for piano and orchestra (1885, revised 1889); the tone poem "Don Quixote" for cello, viola and orchestra (1897); the well-known late Oboe Concerto in D major (1945); and the Duett-Concertino for clarinet and bassoon with string orchestra, which was one of his last works (1948).


title: Richard Strauss

text: Around the end of the 19th century, Strauss turned his attention to opera. His first two attempts in the genre, "Guntram" (1894) and "Feuersnot" (1901), were controversial works; "Guntram" was the first significant critical failure of Strauss's career, and "Feuersnot" was considered obscene by some critics.


title: Richard Strauss

text: In 1905, Strauss produced "Salome", a somewhat dissonant modernist opera based on the play by Oscar Wilde, which produced a passionate reaction from audiences. The premiere was a major success, with the artists taking more than 38 curtain calls. Many later performances of the opera were also successful, not only with the general public but also with Strauss's peers: Maurice Ravel said that "Salome" was "stupendous", and Gustav Mahler described it as "a live volcano, a subterranean fire". Strauss reputedly financed his house in Garmisch-Partenkirchen completely from the revenues generated by the opera. As with the later "Elektra", "Salome" features an extremely taxing lead soprano role. Strauss often remarked that he preferred writing for the female voice, which is apparent in these two sister operas—the male parts are almost entirely smaller roles, included only to supplement the soprano's performance.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss's next opera was "Elektra" (1909), which took his use of dissonance even further, in particular with the Elektra chord. "Elektra" was also the first opera in which Strauss collaborated with the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal as his librettist. The two subsequently worked together on numerous occasions. For his later works with Hofmannsthal, Strauss moderated his harmonic language: he used a more lush, melodic late-Romantic style based on Wagnerian chromatic harmonies that he had used in his tone poems, with much less dissonance, and exhibiting immense virtuosity in orchestral writing and tone color. This resulted in operas such as "Der Rosenkavalier" (1911) having great public success. Strauss continued to produce operas at regular intervals until 1942. With Hofmannsthal he created "Ariadne auf Naxos" (1912), "Die Frau ohne Schatten" (1919), "Die ägyptische Helena" (1928), and "Arabella" (1933). For "Intermezzo" (1924) Strauss provided his own libretto. "Die schweigsame Frau" (1935) was composed with Stefan Zweig as librettist; "Friedenstag" (1935–36) and "Daphne" (1937) both had a libretto by Joseph Gregor and Stefan Zweig; and "Die Liebe der Danae" (1940) was with Joseph Gregor. Strauss's final opera, "Capriccio" (1942), had a libretto by Clemens Krauss, although the genesis for it came from Stefan Zweig and Joseph Gregor.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss was a prolific composer of lieder. He often composed them with the voice of his wife in mind. His lieder were written for voice and piano, and he orchestrated several of them after the fact. In 1894–1895, around the age of 30, he published several well-known songs including "Ruhe, meine Seele!", "Cäcilie", "Morgen!", "Heimliche Aufforderung", and "Traum durch die Dämmerung". In 1918, after a long hiatus devoted to opera, he wrote "Sechs Lieder", Op. 68, also called "Brentano Lieder". He completed his works in the genre in 1948 with "Four Last Songs" for soprano and orchestra. He reportedly composed these with Kirsten Flagstad in mind and she gave the first performance, which was recorded. Strauss's songs have always been popular with audiences and performers, and are generally considered by musicologists—along with many of his other compositions—to be masterpieces.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Until the 1980s, Strauss was regarded by some post-modern musicologists as a conservative, backward-looking composer, but re-examination of and new research on the composer has re-evaluated his place as that of a modernist, albeit one who still utilized and sometimes revered tonality and lush orchestration. Strauss is noted for his pioneering subtleties of orchestration, combined with an advanced harmonic style; when he first played Strauss at a university production of "Ariadne auf Naxos", the conductor Mark Elder "was flabbergasted. I had no idea music could do the things he was doing with harmony and melody."


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss's music had a considerable influence on composers at the start of the 20th century. Béla Bartók heard "Also sprach Zarathustra" in 1902, and later said that the work "contained the seeds for a new life"; a Straussian influence is clearly present in his works of that period, including his First String Quartet, "Kossuth", and "Bluebeard's Castle". Karol Szymanowski was also greatly influenced by Strauss, reflected in such pieces as his "Concert Overture" and his first and second symphonies, and his opera "Hagith" which was modeled after "Salome". English composers were also influenced by Strauss, from Edward Elgar in his concert overture "In the South (Alassio)" and other works to Benjamin Britten in his opera writing. Many contemporary composers recognise a debt to Strauss, including John Adams and John Corigliano.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss's musical style played a major role in the development of film music in the middle of the 20th century. The style of his musical depictions of character (Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, the Hero) and emotions found their way into the lexicon of film music. Film music historian Timothy Schuerer wrote, "The elements of post (late) romantic music that had greatest impact on scoring are its lush sound, expanded harmonic language, chromaticism, use of program music and use of Leitmotifs. Hollywood composers found the post-romantic idiom compatible with their efforts in scoring film". Max Steiner and Erich Korngold came from the same musical world as Strauss and were quite naturally drawn to write in his style. As film historian Roy Prendergast wrote, "When confronted with the kind of dramatic problem films presented to them, Steiner, Korngold and Newman ... looked to Wagner, Puccini, Verdi and Strauss for the answers to dramatic film scoring." Later, the opening to "Also sprach Zarathustra" became one of the best-known pieces of film music when Stanley Kubrick used it in his 1968 movie "". The film music of John Williams has continued the Strauss influence, in scores for mainstream hits such as "Superman" and "Star Wars".


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss has always been popular with audiences in the concert hall and continues to be so. He has consistently been in the top 10 composers most performed by symphony orchestras in the US and Canada over the period 2002–2010. He is also in the top 5 of 20th-century composers (born after 1860) in terms of the number of currently available recordings of his works.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss, as conductor, made a large number of recordings, both of his own music as well as music by German and Austrian composers. His 1929 performances of "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" and "Don Juan" with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra have long been considered the best of his early electrical recordings. In the first complete performance of his "An Alpine Symphony", made in 1941 and later released by EMI, Strauss used the full complement of percussion instruments required in this work.


title: Richard Strauss

text: Koch Legacy has also released Strauss's recordings of overtures by Gluck, Carl Maria von Weber, Peter Cornelius, and Wagner. The preference for German and Austrian composers in Germany in the 1920s through the 1940s was typical of the German nationalism that existed after World War I. Strauss clearly capitalized on national pride for the great German-speaking composers.


title: Richard Strauss

text: There were many other recordings, including some taken from radio broadcasts and concerts during the 1930s and early 1940s. The sheer volume of recorded performances would undoubtedly yield some definitive performances from a very capable and rather forward-looking conductor.


title: Richard Strauss

text: In 1944, Strauss celebrated his 80th birthday and conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in recordings of his own major orchestral works, as well as his seldom-heard "Schlagobers" ("Whipped Cream") ballet music. Some find more feeling in these performances than in Strauss's earlier recordings, which were recorded on the Magnetophon tape recording equipment. Vanguard Records later issued the recordings on LPs. Some of these recordings have been reissued on CD by Preiser. The last recording made by Strauss was on 19 October 1947 live at the Royal Albert Hall in London, where he conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in his "Burleske" for piano and orchestra (Alfred Blumen piano), "Don Juan" and "Sinfonia Domestica".


title: Richard Strauss

text: Strauss also made live-recording player piano music rolls for the Hupfeld system and in 1906 ten recordings for the reproducing piano Welte-Mignon all of which survive today. Strauss was also the composer of the music on the first CD to be commercially released: Deutsche Grammophon's 1983 release of their 1980 recording of Herbert von Karajan conducting the "Alpine Symphony".


title: Richard Strauss

text: Pierre Boulez has said that Strauss the conductor was "a complete master of his trade". Music critic Harold C. Schonberg writes that, while Strauss was a very fine conductor, he often put scant effort into his recordings. Schonberg focused primarily on Strauss's recordings of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, as well as noting that Strauss played a breakneck version of Beethoven's 9th Symphony in about 45 minutes. Concerning Beethoven's 7th Symphony, Schonberg wrote, "There is almost never a "ritard" or a change in expression or nuance. The slow movement is almost as fast as the following "vivace"; and the last movement, with a big cut in it, is finished in 4 minutes, 25 seconds. (It should run between 7 and 8 minutes.)" He also complained that the Mozart symphony had "no force, no charm, no inflection, with a metronomic rigidity".


title: Richard Strauss

text: Peter Gutmann's 1994 review for "ClassicalNotes.com" says the performances of the Beethoven 5th and 7th symphonies, as well as Mozart's last three symphonies, are actually quite good, even if they are sometimes unconventional. Gutmann wrote:


title: Richard Strauss

text: It is true, as the critics suggest, that the readings forego overt emotion, but what emerges instead is a solid sense of structure, letting the music speak convincingly for itself. It is also true that Strauss's tempos are generally swift, but this, too, contributes to the structural cohesion and in any event is fully in keeping with our modern outlook in which speed is a virtue and attention spans are defined more by MTV clips and news sound bites than by evenings at the opera and thousand page novels.


title: Richard Strauss

text: In May 1891 Strauss came down with a serious pneumonia. While convalescing in Feldafing, he wrote to the critic Arthur Seidl: "Dying may not be so bad, but I should first like to conduct "Tristan"."


title: Richard Strauss

text: In 1934 Strauss told his friend and librettist Stefan Zweig: "What suit me best, South German bourgeois that I am, are sentimental jobs; but such bullseyes as the "Arabella" duet and the "Rosenkavalier" trio don't happen every day. Must one become seventy to recognize that one's greatest strength lies in creating kitsch?"


title: Richard Strauss

text: In 1948 during a visit by his son Franz in Montreux, Strauss was prompted again to compose. Franz had told him "Papa, stop writing letters and brooding, it does no good. Write a few nice songs instead." A few months later Franz' wife Alice was visiting, and just before she left, Strauss put some scores on the table and told her off-the-cuff: "Here are the songs your husband ordered". These were the "Four Last Songs".


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: Nippon Gakki Co. Ltd. (currently Yamaha Corporation) was established in 1887 as a reed organ manufacturer by Torakusu Yamaha (山葉寅楠) in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture and was incorporated on 12 October 1897. In 1900, the company started the production of pianos. The first piano to be made in Japan was an upright built in 1900 by Torakusu Yamaha, founder of Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd. — later renamed Yamaha Corporation. The company's origins as a musical instrument manufacturer are still reflected today in the group's logo—a trio of interlocking tuning forks.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: After World War II, company president Genichi Kawakami repurposed the remains of the company's war-time production machinery and the company's expertise in metallurgical technologies to the manufacture of motorcycles. The YA-1 (AKA Akatombo, the "Red Dragonfly"), of which 125 were built in the first year of production (1954), was named in honour of the founder. It was a 125cc, single cylinder, two-stroke street bike patterned after the German DKW RT 125 (which the British munitions firm, BSA, had also copied in the post-war era and manufactured as the Bantam and Harley-Davidson as the Hummer). In 1955, the success of the YA-1 resulted in the founding of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., splitting the motorcycle division from the company. Also, in 1954 the Yamaha Music School was founded.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: Yamaha has grown into the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments (including pianos, "silent" pianos, drums, guitars, brass instruments, woodwinds, violins, violas, cellos, and vibraphones), and a leading manufacturer of semiconductors, audio/visual, computer related products, sporting goods, home appliances, specialty metals, and industrial robots. Yamaha released the Yamaha CS-80 in 1977.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: In 1988, Yamaha shipped the world's first CD recorder. Yamaha purchased Sequential Circuits in 1988. It bought a majority stake (51%) of competitor Korg in 1987, which was bought out by Korg in 1993.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: In the late 1990s, Yamaha released a series of portable battery operated keyboards under the PSS and the PSR range of keyboards. The Yamaha PSS-14 and PSS-15 keyboards were upgrades to the Yamaha PSS-7 with short demo songs, short selectable phrases, and sound effects.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: In 2002, Yamaha closed its archery product business that was started in 1959. Six archers in five different Olympic Games won gold medals using their products.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: In January 2005, it acquired German audio software manufacturer Steinberg from Pinnacle Systems. In July 2007, Yamaha bought out the minority shareholding of the Kemble family in Yamaha-Kemble Music (UK) Ltd, Yamaha's UK import and musical instrument and professional audio equipment sales division. It was renamed Yamaha Music U.K. Ltd in late 2007. Kemble & Co. Ltd, the UK piano sales & manufacturing arm, was unaffected.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: On 20 December 2007, Yamaha made an agreement with the Austrian Bank BAWAG P.S.K. Group BAWAG to purchase all the shares of Bösendorfer, intended to take place in early 2008. Yamaha intends to continue manufacturing at the Bösendorfer facilities in Austria. The acquisition of Bösendorfer was announced after the NAMM Show in Los Angeles, on January 28, 2008. As of 1 February 2008, Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH operates as a subsidiary of Yamaha Corp.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: Yamaha Corporation is widely known for its music teaching programme that began in the 1950s. Yamaha electronics have proven to be successful, popular, and respected products. For example, the Yamaha YPG-625 was awarded "Keyboard of the Year" and "Product of the Year" in 2007 from "The Music and Sound Retailer" magazine. Other noteworthy Yamaha electronics include the SHS-10 Keytar, a consumer-priced keytar which offered MIDI output features normally found on much more expensive keyboards.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: is a Japanese word used by Yamaha Corporation to describe its corporate mission. Kandō is the sensation of profound excitement and gratification derived from experiencing supreme quality and performance. Some reasonable English equivalents are "emotionally touching" or "emotionally moving".


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: The Yamaha Music Foundation is an organization established in 1966 by the authority of the Japanese Ministry of Education for the purpose of promoting music education and music popularization. It continued a program of music classes begun by Yamaha Corporation in 1954.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: Yamaha expanded into many diverse businesses and product groups. The first venture into each major category is listed below.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: Yamaha announced the singing synthesizer Vocaloid for the first time at the German fair Musikmesse on March 5–9, 2003.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: Yamaha began the sale and production of Vocaloid applications, starting with Lily which was later sold via Internet Co., Ltd.'s website. Their involvement continued with the VY series, with VY1 being the first, released in deluxe and standard editions on September 1, 2010. The VY series is a series designed to be a high quality product for professional musicians. The series is also designed with the intention to set a new standard for the Vocaloids for having no face, sex, or set voice, but are designed to complete any song. VY1 has a new approach to how the software handled the database of samples and improved the performance of the Vocaloid 2 engine.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: Yamaha announced a version of the Vocaloid 2 software for the iPhone and iPad, which exhibited at the Y2 Autumn 2010 Digital Content Expo in Japan. Later, this version of the software was released using the VY1 voice. VY2 will also be released for this version of the software.


title: Yamaha Corporation

text: In Japan, the company maintains three factories for musical instrument manufacture, engine and various vehicle manufacture (motorcycles and marine products), with all factories located in Shizuoka Prefecture.


title: The Cramps

text: The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2006. Their lineup rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy the only ever-present members. The band are credited as progenitors of the psychobilly subgenre, uniting elements of punk rock with rockabilly.


title: The Cramps

text: The addition of guitarist Bryan Gregory and drummer Pam Balam resulted in the first complete lineup in April 1976. They released their debut album "Songs the Lord Taught Us" in 1980. The band split after the death of lead singer Interior in 2009.


title: The Cramps

text: Lux Interior (born Erick Lee Purkhiser) and Poison Ivy (born Kristy Marlana Wallace) met in Sacramento, California, in 1972. In light of their common artistic interests and shared devotion to record collecting, they decided to form the Cramps. Lux took his stage name from a car ad, and Ivy claimed to have received hers in a dream (she was first Poison Ivy Rorschach, taking her last name from that of the inventor of the Rorschach test). In 1973, they moved to Akron, Ohio, and then to New York in 1975, soon entering into CBGB's early punk scene with other emerging acts like Suicide, the Ramones, Patti Smith, Television, Blondie, Talking Heads, and Mink DeVille. The lineup in 1976 was Poison Ivy Rorschach, Lux Interior, Bryan Gregory (guitar), and his sister Pam "Balam" (drums).


title: The Cramps

text: In a short period of time, the Cramps changed drummers twice; Miriam Linna (later of Nervus Rex, the Zantees, and the A-Bones and co-owner of Norton Records) replaced Pam Balam, and Nick Knox (formerly with the Electric Eels) replaced Linna in September 1977. In the late 1970s, the Cramps briefly shared a rehearsal space with the Fleshtones, and performed regularly in New York at clubs such as CBGB and Max's Kansas City, releasing two independent singles produced by Alex Chilton at Ardent Studios in Memphis in 1977 before being signed by Miles Copeland III to the young I.R.S. Records label. Their first tour of Great Britain was as supporting act to the Police on that band's first UK tour promoting "Outlandos d'Amour".


title: The Cramps

text: In June 1978, they gave a landmark free concert for patients at the California State Mental Hospital in Napa, recorded on a Sony Portapak video camera by the San Francisco collective Target Video and later released as "Live at Napa State Mental Hospital." Once back to the east coast, they played the revamped 1940s swing club "The Meadowbrook" in New Jersey, which had a huge stage and dance floor. Next they recorded two singles in New York City, which were later re-released on their 1979 "Gravest Hits" EP, before Chilton brought them back that year to Memphis to record their first full-length album, "Songs the Lord Taught Us", at Phillips Recording, operated by former Sun Records label owner Sam Phillips.


title: The Cramps

text: The Cramps relocated to Los Angeles in 1980 and hired guitarist Kid Congo Powers of the Gun Club. While recording their second LP, "Psychedelic Jungle", the band and Miles Copeland began to dispute royalties and creative rights. The ensuing court case prevented them from releasing anything until 1983, when they recorded "Smell of Female" live at New York's Peppermint Lounge; Kid Congo Powers subsequently departed. Mike Metoff of the Pagans (cousin of Nick Knox) was the final second guitarist – albeit only live – of the Cramps' pre-bass era. He accompanied them on an extensive European tour in 1984 (that had been canceled twice because they could not find a suitable guitarist) which included four sold out nights at the Hammersmith Palais. They also recorded performances of "Thee Most Exalted Potentate of Love" and "You Got Good Taste" which were broadcast on 'The Midsummer Night's Tube 1984.' "Smell of Female" peaked at No. 74 in the UK Albums Chart.


title: The Cramps

text: In 1985 the Cramps recorded a one-off track for the horror movie "The Return of the Living Dead" called "Surfin' Dead", on which Ivy played bass as well as guitar. With the release of 1986's "A Date With Elvis", the Cramps permanently added a bass guitar to the mix, but had trouble finding a suitable player, so Ivy temporarily filled in as the band's bassist. Jennifer "Fur" Dixon joined them on the world tour to promote the album. Their popularity in the UK was at its peak as evidenced by the six nights at Hammersmith in London, three at the Odeon (as well as many other sell out dates throughout the UK) and then three at the Palais when they returned from the continent. Each night of the tour opened with the band coming on one at a time each: Knox, Fur, Ivy and then Lux before launching into their take on Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel". The album featured what was to become a predominating theme of their work from here on: a move away from the B-movie horror focus to an increased emphasis on sexual double entendre. The album met with differing fates on either side of the Atlantic: in Europe, it sold over 250,000 copies, while in the U.S. the band had difficulty finding a record company prepared to release it until 1990. It also included their first UK Singles Chart hit: "Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?"


title: The Cramps

text: It was not until 1986 that the Cramps found a suitable permanent bass player: Candy del Mar (of Satan's Cheerleaders), who made her recorded debut on the raw live album "RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandxxx", which was followed by the studio album "Stay Sick" in 1990. It spent one week at No. 62 in the UK Albums Chart in February 1990.


title: The Cramps

text: Candy del Mar and Knox left the band in 1991. The Cramps hit the Top 40 in the UK for the first and only time with "Bikini Girls with Machine Guns"; Ivy posed as such both on the cover of the single and in the promotional video for the song. The Cramps went on to record more albums and singles through the 1990s and 2000s, for various labels. When the band signed to The Medicine Label, a Warner Brothers imprint, in 1994 – the label made the announcement via a limited edition (500 copies) 12" live album of the Cramps' first two Max's Kansas City shows, given away to all ticket holders as they exited a secret CBGB show in early January of that year.


title: The Cramps

text: In 1994, the Cramps made their national US television debut on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" performing "Ultra Twist".


title: The Cramps

text: In 1995 the Cramps appeared on the TV-series "Beverly Hills, 90210" in the Halloween episode "Gypsies, Cramps and Fleas". They played two songs in the episode: "Mean Machine" and "Strange Love". Lux Interior started the song by saying "Hey boys and ghouls, are you ready to raise the dead?".


title: The Cramps

text: In honor of the success of the Cramps, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has on display a shattered bass drum head that Lux's head went through during a live show.


title: The Cramps

text: On January 10, 2001, Bryan Gregory died at Anaheim Memorial Medical Center of complications following a heart attack. He was 49.


title: The Cramps

text: In 2002, the Cramps released their final album, "Fiends of Dope Island", on their own label, Vengeance Records. That same year, Lux Interior did a voiceover for the lead singer character of the band The Bird Brains on the animated TV show SpongeBob SquarePants singing 'Underwater Sun.' The song was written and composed by Stephen Hillenburg and Peter Strauss.


title: The Cramps

text: The Cramps played their final shows in Europe in the summer of 2006 and their last live show was on November 4, 2006, at the Marquee Theater in Tempe, Arizona.


title: The Cramps

text: On February 4, 2009, Lux Interior died at the Glendale Memorial Hospital after suffering an aortic dissection which, contrary to initial reports about a pre-existing condition, was "sudden, shocking and unexpected".


title: The Cramps

text: The Cramps' music is played at varying tempos, with a minimal drumkit. An integral part of the early Cramps sound was dual guitars, without a bassist. The focus of their songs' lyrical content and their image was camp humor, sexual double-entendre, and retro horror/sci-fi b-movie iconography. Their sound was heavily influenced by early rockabilly, such as Jerry Lott AKA The Phantom, whose 1958 single 'Love Me' they covered, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll like Link Wray and Hasil Adkins, 1960s surf music acts such as the Ventures and Dick Dale, 1960s garage rock artists like the Standells, the Trashmen, the Green Fuz and the Sonics, as well as the post-glam/early punk scene from which they emerged, as well as citing Ricky Nelson as being an influence during numerous interviews. They also were influenced by the Ramones and Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Poison Ivy stated, "The failure of outsiders to acknowledge the influence of blues and R&B on The Cramps is an omission bordering on racism. Rockabilly is rooted in the blues and we consider ourselves a blues band."


title: The Cramps

text: The band used the phrases gothabilly, psychobilly and "rockabilly voodoo" to market their music. The term "psychobilly" was first used in the lyrics to the country song "One Piece at a Time", written by Wayne Kemp for Johnny Cash, which was a Top 10 hit in the United States in 1976. The lyrics describe the construction of a "psychobilly Cadillac using stolen auto parts." The Cramps have since rejected the idea of being a part of a psychobilly subculture, noting that "We weren't even describing the music when we put 'psychobilly' on our old fliers; we were just using carny terms to drum up business. It wasn't meant as a style of music." Nevertheless, The Cramps, along with artists such as Screamin' Jay Hawkins, are considered important precursors to psychobilly. Critics and journalists classified the Cramps' sound as psychobilly, gothabilly, garage punk, rockabilly, garage rock, horror punk, neo-rockabilly, punk rock and surf. The Cramps have influenced countless subsequent bands in the garage, punk and revival rockabilly styles.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S (stylized and marketed as iPhone 5s) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the seventh generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 5, and unveiled in September 2013, alongside the iPhone 5C.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S maintains almost the same external design as its predecessor, the iPhone 5, although the 5S received a new white/gold color scheme in addition to white/silver and space gray/black. The 5S has vastly upgraded internal hardware, however. It introduced the A7 64-bit dual-core system-on-chip, the first 64-bit processor to be used on a smartphone, accompanied by the M7 "motion co-processor". A redesigned home button with Touch ID, a fingerprint recognition system which can be used to unlock the phone and authenticate App Store and iTunes Store purchases, was also introduced. The camera was also updated with a larger aperture and a dual-LED flash optimized for different color temperatures. Earphones known as EarPods were included with the 5S, and Apple released accessories including a case and a dock. It had a 4-inch display, similar to the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S originally shipped with iOS 7, which introduced a revamped visual appearance among other new features. Designed by Jony Ive, iOS 7 departed from skeuomorphic elements used in previous versions of iOS in favor of a flat, colorful design. Among new software features introduced to the iPhone 5S were AirDrop, an ad-hoc Wi-Fi sharing platform; Control Center, a control panel containing a number of commonly used functions; and iTunes Radio, an internet radio service. The 5S is the first iPhone to be supported through six major versions of iOS, from iOS 7 to iOS 12, along with the iPhone 6S and the first-generation iPhone SE which were supported from iOS 9 to iOS 15, and the second iOS device to support six major updates – the first being the iPad 2 which supported iOS versions 4 to 9.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Reception towards the device was positive, with some outlets considering it to be the best smartphone available on the market due to its upgraded hardware, Touch ID, and other changes introduced by iOS 7. Some criticized the iPhone 5S for keeping the design and small display of the iPhone 5, and others expressed security concerns about the Touch ID system. Nine million units of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C were sold on the weekend of their release, breaking Apple's sales record for iPhones. The iPhone 5S was the best selling phone on all major U.S. carriers in September 2013.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S was succeeded as Apple's flagship smartphone by the larger iPhone 6 in September 2014. On March 21, 2016, the iPhone 5S was discontinued following the release of the iPhone SE, which incorporated internal hardware similar to the iPhone 6S while retaining the smaller form factor and design of the 5S.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Before its official unveiling, media speculation primarily centered on reports that the next iPhone would include a fingerprint scanner; including Apple's 2013 acquisition of AuthenTec, a developer of mobile security products, references to a fingerprint sensor on the home button in the beta release of iOS 7 and leaked packaging for an iPhone 5S showing that the traditional home button now had a metallic "ring" around it. Similar ring-based imagery was seen on the official invitation to Apple's iPhone press event in September 2013, where the new device was unveiled. Shortly before its official unveiling, "The Wall Street Journal" also reported the rumor.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Apple announced the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S during a media event at its Cupertino headquarters on September 10, 2013. While the iPhone 5C became available for preorder on September 13, 2013, the iPhone 5S was not available for preorder. Both devices were released on September 20, 2013. While most of the promotion focused on Touch ID, the 64-bit Apple A7 processor was also a highlight during the event.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Schiller then showed demos of "Infinity Blade III" to demonstrate the A7's processing power and the device's camera using untouched photographs. The release of iOS 7 on September 18, 2013 was also announced during the keynote.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S was released on September 20, 2013, in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, China, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It was released in 25 additional countries on October 25, 2013, and in 12 countries on November 1, 2013. Indonesia was the last country to receive the iPhone 5S, on January 26, 2014. The iPhone 5S was succeeded as Apple's flagship smartphone by the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus on September 19, 2014, but the older model remained available for purchase at a reduced price, while the 64 GB version was discontinued. The gold edition of the iPhone 5S was discontinued on September 9, 2015, when Apple revealed the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S was discontinued on March 21, 2016, and succeeded by the first-generation iPhone SE, which continues the same form factor but features vastly upgraded internals similar to the flagship iPhone 6S. This was a break with Apple's product positioning trend (in North America and Western Europe), starting with iPhone 4S released in October 2011, which gave each newly released model one year as the flagship phone, then moving it to midrange for its second year of production, with the third and final year as the entry-level offering before discontinuation. While the iPhone 5S was expected to continue on sale until September 2016, replacing it and its A7 processor early meant that Apple "just reduced its long-term chip support window by a year" for iOS. In addition, a new iPhone launch was meant to stimulate demand, as sales of iPhone 6S and 6S Plus had not met expectations since their September 2015 release and the iPhone family was expected to suffer its first-ever negative growth quarter in 2016.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S maintains a similar design to the iPhone 5, with a LCD multi-touch Retina display and a screen resolution of 640×1136 at 326 ppi. Its home button has been updated with a new flat design using a laser-cut sapphire cover surrounded by a metallic ring; the button is no longer concave, nor does it contain the familiar squircle icon seen on previous models. The phone itself is thick and weighs . The phone uses an aluminum composite frame. The device is available in three color finishes; "space gray" (replacing black with slate trim on the iPhone 5), white with silver trim, and white with gold trim. The iPhone 5S was the first iPhone to be available in a gold color; this decision was influenced by the fact that gold is seen as a popular sign of a luxury product among Chinese customers.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S is powered by the Apple A7 system-on-chip, the first 64-bit processor ever used on a smartphone. The device's operating system and pre-loaded software were optimized to run in 64-bit mode, promising increased performance, although third-party app developers would need to optimize their apps to take advantage of these enhanced capabilities. The A7 processor was designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung. The A7 processor is accompanied by the M7 "motion co-processor", a dedicated processor for processing motion data from the iPhone's accelerometer and gyroscopes without requiring the attention of the main processor, which integrates with iOS 7's new CoreMotion APIs. The same A7 SoC and M7 motion co-processor are also found in the iPad Air and iPad Mini 2, both of which were released in the same quarter as the iPhone 5S.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The phone includes a 1560 mAh battery, which provides 10 hours of talk time and 250 hours of standby time.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The home button on the iPhone 5S incorporates a fingerprint recognition system known as Touch ID, based on technology from AuthenTec, a company which Apple had acquired in 2012. The sensor uses a capacitive CMOS-based sensor which can detect the "sub-epidermal layers" of fingers at 500 pixels per inch, and uses a 360-degree design that can read the print at any angle. The sensor itself is activated by a touch-sensitive metallic ring surrounding the button. Touch ID can be used for various authentication activities within the operating system, such as unlocking the device or authenticating App Store and iTunes purchases instead of an Apple ID password. The sensor can be trained to recognize the fingerprints of multiple fingers and multiple users. Fingerprint data is stored in an encrypted format within a "secure enclave" of the A7 chip itself, and is not accessible to any other apps or servers (including iCloud).


title: IPhone 5S

text: While the camera is still 8 megapixels in resolution with the image capture size of 3264 × 2448 (4:3), the lens has a larger aperture (2.2, compared to 2.4 on the predecessor) and larger sized pixels in its image sensor than previous iPhone models. The flashlight has dual "True Tone" flashes, consisting of an amber LED and a white LED, which are variably used based on the color temperature of the photo to improve color balancing.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The camera software includes automatic digital image stabilization, dynamic tone mapping, 10 fps burst mode and slow motion video at 120 fps.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S's camera was paired with a dual-LED flash, allowing for higher-quality nighttime photos. iOS 7 introduced a new camera app, allowing the iPhone 5S to capture fast continuous shots and record slow-motion videos with 720p at 120 frames per second and an audio track, making it the first iPhone to be able to record at any frame rate beyond 30 frames per second.


title: IPhone 5S

text: An analysis by "GSM Arena" suggests that the image quality of the supposedly 720p slow-motion footage resembles approximately 480p.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Earphones known as Apple EarPods were included with the iPhone 5S. According to technology commentators, the design of the earphones is aimed to improve sound quality by allowing air to travel in and out more freely. Apple states that the design of their earphones allows it to "rival high-end headphones that cost hundreds of dollars more". Reviews by Gizmodo and TechRadar reported that although the earphones sounded better than its predecessor, reviewers felt that quality of sound produced is poor. TechRadar further opined that the EarPods are inferior to other earphones of a similar price.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S was initially supplied with iOS 7, released on September 20, 2013. Jonathan Ive, the designer of iOS 7's new elements, described the update as "bringing order to complexity", highlighting features such as refined typography, new icons, translucency, layering, physics, and gyroscope-driven parallaxing as some of the major changes to the design. The design of both iOS 7 and OS X Yosemite (version 10.10) noticeably departs from skeuomorphic elements such as green felt in Game Center, wood in Newsstand, and leather in Calendar, in favor of flat, colorful design.


title: IPhone 5S

text: iOS 7 adds AirDrop, an ad-hoc Wi-Fi sharing platform. Users can share files with the iPhone 5 onwards, the iPod Touch (5th generation), iPad (4th generation) onwards, or iPad Mini (1st generation) onwards. The operating system also adds Control Center, a control panel accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. Control Center contains a number of commonly used functions, such as volume and brightness controls, along with toggles for enabling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode, and for using the rear camera's flash LED as a flashlight.


title: IPhone 5S

text: iTunes Radio, an Internet radio service, was also included on the iPhone 5S. It was a free, ad-supported service available to all iTunes users, featuring Siri integration on iOS. Users were able to skip tracks, customize stations, and purchase the station's songs from the iTunes Store. Users could also search through their history of previous songs.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Apple announced in June 2018 that the iPhone 5S would support the iOS 12 update. This made it the second longest supported iOS device, having supported six major versions of the iOS operating system, on par with the iPad 2 which supported iOS 4 through iOS 9. The iPhone 5S would also receive major speed boosts of up to 70%, according to Apple. This included the camera, keyboard and other functions.


title: IPhone 5S

text: During the keynote, Apple announced a case for the iPhone 5S that was made of soft microfiber on the inside and leather on the outside. This case was announced along with iPhone 5C's case, both of which were the first cases Apple had announced since the iPhone 4 Bumpers.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Docks for both the iPhone 5S and 5C were found on the Apple online store after the announcement. Because of the casing difference between the iPhone 5S and 5C, they have separate docks, each made specifically for each respective phone.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S received a positive reception from reviewers and commentators. Walt Mossberg of All Things Digital gave the phone a favorable review, saying that Touch ID "sounds like a gimmick, but it's a real advance, the biggest step ever in biometric authentication for everyday devices," and labeled it "the best smartphone on the market." David Pogue of "The New York Times" praised Touch ID, but said that the innovation of the smartphone market has been saturated, and "maybe the age of annual mega-leaps is over." He focused much of his review on iOS 7, which he believed was the biggest change of the device over previous generations, praising new Siri features, Control Center, and AirDrop. In an editorial, Pogue stated that iOS 7 was the biggest change in the iPhone series, citing utilitarian interface changes as the main contributor to this. Scott Stein of CNET criticized the lack of design change over iPhone 5 and said that although the iPhone 5S "is not a required upgrade, but it's easily the fastest and most advanced Apple smartphone to date." Although praised for its camera, 64-bit A7 chip, M7 motion-chip, and fingerprint scanning capabilities, some investors thought that the iPhone 5S, although a notable improvement over the iPhone 5, was still relatively unchanged from its predecessor, and worried that the iPhone line had become a stagnant, dull product. Apple's share price fell 5.4% after the launch to close at a month low of $467.71 on the NASDAQ.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch who praised the iPhone 5S as the best smartphone available said "looks may not be different from the iPhone 5, but the internal components have a dramatic impact on day-to-day activities normal for a smartphone user," and went into detail explaining the impact of the improved camera and specifications on the phone. Etherington suggested that the 64-bit A7 processor will not reach its full potential until developers create applications supporting it. Myriam Joire of Engadget found that the iPhone 5S could benefit significantly from the A7 if developers created applications optimized for the 64-bit processor. Anand Lal Shimpi of AnandTech praised the phone's A7 processor, describing it as "seriously impressive", and stated that it was the most "futureproof of any iPhone ever launched. As much as it pains me to use the word futureproof if you are one of those people who likes to hold onto their device for a while – the iPhone 5S is as good a starting point as any." Scott Lowe of IGN also spoke highly of its 64-bit processor, "which has a substantial lead in processing power over the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, accounting for a graphics boost of up to 32% and 38% in CPU benchmarks." The debut of Apple's 64-bit A7 processor took rival Android smartphone makers by surprise, particularly Qualcomm whose own 64-bit system-on-chip was not released until 2015.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Most reviewers recommended the iPhone 5S over the iPhone 5C which was released at the same time. The 5C retained almost the same hardware as the discontinued iPhone 5, while the iPhone 5S featured substantially improved performance/features thanks to its new 64-bit A7 processor, as well as extra storage space, all for a relatively small additional upfront cost over the iPhone 5C (US$650 versus US$550 in March 2014). This was especially the case when iOS 8 was released and both iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C were moved to the mid and low end of the iPhone range, respectively; the iPhone 5S still had 16 or 32 GB (14.9 or 29.8 GiB) storage available while the iPhone 5C had to make do with 8 GB storage with only 4.9GB available to the user after installing iOS 8. Furthermore, the 5C's polycarbonate exterior received a mixed reception and was seen as a cost-cutting downgrade compared to the iPhone 5's aluminum/glass case; the 5S retained the latter design and looked even more premium due to its additional gold finish.


title: IPhone 5S

text: As of 2015–16, there were still a significant number of customers who preferred the 4-inch screen size of iPhone 5S, which remained the second-most popular iPhone after the iPhone 6 and ahead of the iPhone 6S. Apple stated in their event that they sold 30 million 4-inch iPhones in 2015, even as that form factor was succeeded as the flagship iPhone by the redesigned larger display 4.7/5.5-inch iPhone 6 and 6 Plus back in September 2014. Furthermore, the 5/5S design was regarded as "long been the golden child of Apple phone design and a benchmark for phones in general" (with the 5S's gold finish adding a premium touch to the 5's already well-regarded look), while the succeeding 6 and 6S design was less critically acclaimed as it "felt a little bit wrong, as though you were holding a slick $650 bar of soap". The iPhone 5 was described as "elegance rooted in the way the aluminum and glass work together. It felt streamlined, yet substantial, which is different from iPhone 6, which feels substantial in size alone. Plus, unlike the ubiquitous rounded corners of the 6, iPhone 5 didn't really look like anything else on the market at the time". However, the iPhone 5/5S design was not suited to scaling up, in contrast to the iPhone 6/6S which could better accommodate the growing consumer trend towards larger screen sizes and indeed spawned the 6/6S Plus phablet models. When Apple discontinued the iPhone 5S, it was replaced by the first-generation iPhone SE which outwardly appears almost identical to the 5S even as the SE's internal hardware has been upgraded significantly.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S and 5C sold over nine million units in the first three days, setting a record for first weekend smartphone sales, with the 5S selling three times more units than the 5C. After the first day of release, 1% of all iPhones in the US were iPhone 5Ss, while 0.3% were iPhone 5Cs.<ref name="cnet iP5S/C sales 1"></ref> Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray reported that the line at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store contained 1,417 people on release day, compared to 1,300 for the iPhone 4 in 2010, and 549 for the iPhone 3G in 2008 on their respective release days. This was the first time that Apple launched two models simultaneously. The first-day release in China also contributed to the record sales result.


title: IPhone 5S

text: On launch day, major in-stock shortages were reported in most stores, across all countries where the iPhone 5S initially went on sale. A great many customers in line outside Apple Stores worldwide were left disappointed due to severe shortages across all 5S models, with the gold model in particular being in highly limited supply. While this situation eased in the US in the days following the launch, other countries reported receiving few restocks. Some commentators questioned how Apple handled the initial release, as online pre-orders were not offered for the iPhone 5S, meaning large numbers of people queuing outside physical stores, with most in line not receiving a unit. In the US, Apple offered an online reservation system, so customers could keep checking for units available at their local Apple Stores, and order for pickup. Online orders were also in short supply on launch day, with the shipping date across all model sizes and colors changing from "7-10 working days" to "October" in all countries, within hours of online orders being taken.


title: IPhone 5S

text: The iPhone 5S was the best selling phone on AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile in September 2013 in the United States, outselling the iPhone 5C and Samsung Galaxy S4. According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, the iPhone 5S outsold the 5C by a two-to-one margin during its September release, confirming Apple CEO Tim Cook's view that the high-end smartphone market was not reaching a point of market saturation. While commentators viewed the 5C as a flop because of supply chain cuts signifying a decline in demand, the 5S was viewed as a massive success. Apple admitted that it had failed to anticipate the sales ratio, leading to an overstocking of the 5C and shortages of the 5S.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Six months after the release of the iPhone 5S, on March 25, 2014, Apple announced that sales of the iPhone brand had exceeded 500 million units. By May 2014, despite having been on the market for eight months, the iPhone 5S reportedly outsold the newly released Samsung Galaxy S5 by 40%, with 7 million iPhone 5S units versus 5 million Galaxy S5 units. The Galaxy S5's failure to oust the iPhone 5S from the top-selling spot was a major setback for Samsung Mobile, as the preceding Samsung Galaxy SIII and Samsung Galaxy S4, in the first quarter of their releases, had outsold the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 respectively.


title: IPhone 5S

text: A number of technology writers, including Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDNet and Kevin Roose of "New York" believed that the fingerprint scanning functionality of the iPhone 5S could help spur the adoption of the technology as an alternative to passwords by mainstream users (especially in "bring your own device" scenarios), as fingerprint-based authentication systems have only enjoyed wider usage in enterprise environments. However, citing research by biometrics engineer Geppy Parziale, Roose suggested that the CMOS-based sensor could become inaccurate and wear out over time unless Apple had designed the sensor to prevent this from occurring. Brent Kennedy, a researcher of the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, recommended that users not immediately rely on the technology, citing the uncertainty over whether the system could properly reject a spoofed fingerprint.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Following the release of the iPhone 5S, the German "Chaos Computer Club" announced on September 21, 2013 that they had bypassed Apple's new Touch ID fingerprint sensor by using "easy everyday means". The group explained that the security system had been defeated by photographing a fingerprint from a glass surface and using that captured image to make a latex model thumb which was then pressed against the sensor to gain access. The spokesman for the group stated, "We hope that this finally puts to rest the illusions people have about fingerprint biometrics. It is plain stupid to use something that you can't change and that you leave everywhere every day as a security token." However, in 2013, 39% of American smartphone users used no security measures at all to protect their smartphone. Others have also tried Chaos Computer Club's method, but concluded that it is not an easy process in either time or effort, given that the user has to use a high resolution photocopy of a complete fingerprint, special chemicals and expensive equipment, and because the spoofing process takes some time to achieve.


title: IPhone 5S

text: Several problems were experienced with the iPhone 5S's hardware after its release. The most widely reported issue is that the angle reported by the phone's level sensor had drifted by several degrees, which caused the gyroscope, compass, and accelerometer to become inaccurate. Reports suggested that this is a hardware-induced problem. Some encountered other problems such as crashing with a blue screen and then restarting, the power button making a rattling noise when the phone was shaken, overheating, the microphone not working, and Touch ID not working for iTunes purchases. Some of these issues have since been fixed by software updates.


title: Epithet

text: An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It can also be a descriptive title: for example, Pallas Athena, Phoebus Apollo, Alfred the Great, Suleiman the Magnificent, and Władysław I the Elbow-high. Many English monarchs have traditional epithets: some of the best known are Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, Richard the Lionheart, Æthelred the Unready, John Lackland and Bloody Mary.


title: Epithet

text: The word "epithet" can also refer to an abusive, defamatory, or derogatory phrase. This use as a euphemism is criticized by Martin Manser and other proponents of linguistic prescription. H. W. Fowler complained that "epithet is suffering a vulgarization that is giving it an abusive imputation."


title: Epithet

text: Epithets are sometimes attached to a person's name or appear in place of their name, as what might be described as a glorified nickname or sobriquet, and for this reason some linguists have argued that they should be considered as pronouns. It has also been argued that epithets are a phenomenon with the syntax-semantics interface, because they have components of both, and also a pragmatic dimension.


title: Epithet

text: An epithet is linked to its noun by long-established usage. Not every adjective is an epithet. An epithet is especially recognizable when its function is largely decorative, such as if "cloud-gathering Zeus" is employed other than in reference to conjuring up a storm. "The epithets are decorative insofar as they are neither essential to the immediate context nor modeled especially for it. Among other things, they are extremely helpful to fill out a half-verse", Walter Burkert has noted.


title: Epithet

text: Some epithets are known by the Latin term , as they are required to distinguish the bearers, as an alternative to numbers after a prince's name—such as Richard the Lionheart (Richard I of England), or Charles the Fat alongside Charles the Bald. The same epithet can be used repeatedly joined to different names, such as Alexander the Great as well as Constantine the Great.


title: Epithet

text: Other epithets can easily be omitted without serious risk of confusion, and are therefore known as . Thus the classical Roman author Virgil systematically called his main hero , the epithet being , meaning religiously observant, humble and wholesome, as well as calling the armsbearer of Aeneas , the epithet being , which means faithful or loyal.


title: Epithet

text: There are also specific types of epithets, such as the "kenning" which appears in works such as "Beowulf". An example of a kenning would be using the term "whale-road" instead of the word "sea".


title: Epithet

text: Epithets are characteristic of the style of ancient epic poetry, notably in that of Homer or the northern European sagas (see above, as well as "Epithets in Homer"). When James Joyce uses the phrase "the snot-green sea" he is playing on Homer's familiar epithet "the wine-dark sea". The phrase "Discreet Telemachus" is also considered an epithet.


title: Epithet

text: The Greek term , in rhetoric, means substituting any epithet or phrase for a proper name, as "Pelides", signifying the "son of Peleus", to identify Achilles. An opposite substitution of a proper name for some generic term is also sometimes called , as a Cicero for an orator. The use of a father's name or ancestor's name, such as "Pelides" in the case of Achilles, or "Saturnia" in the case of the goddess Juno in Virgil's "Aeneid", is specifically called a patronymic device and is in its own class of epithet.


title: Epithet

text: In William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet", epithets are used in the prologue, such as "star-cross'd lovers" and "death-mark'd love."


title: Epithet

text: Epithets were in layman's terms glorified nicknames that could be used to represent one's style, artistic nature, or even geographical reference. They originated to simply serve the purpose of dealing with names that were hard to pronounce or just unpleasant. It from there went to something that could be very significant assigned by elders or counterparts to represent one's position in the community or it could be a representation of whomever one wanted to be or thought he was. The elegance of this movement was used throughout history and even modern day with many examples ranging from "Aphrodite the Heavenly & Zeus the Protector of Guests" all the way to "Johnny Football & King James".


title: Epithet

text: American comic books tend to give epithets to superheroes, such as The Phantom being "The Ghost Who Walks", Superman called "The Man of Steel", and "The Dynamic Duo" Batman and Robin, who are individually known as "The Dark Knight" and "The Boy Wonder".


title: Epithet

text: Additionally, , the Spanish version of epithet, is commonly used throughout poems in Castilian literature.


title: Epithet

text: In many polytheistic religions, such as those of ancient India and Iran (the most ancient of which go back to a common Indo-Iranian period), Greece and Rome, a deity's epithets generally reflected a particular aspect of that god's essence and role, for which their influence may be obtained for a specific occasion: Apollo is "Apollo, [as] leader of the Muses" and therefore patron of the arts and sciences while "Phoibos" Apollo is the same deity, but as shining sun-god. "Athena protects the city as , oversees handicrafts as , joins battle as and grants victory as ."


title: Epithet

text: Alternatively, the epithet may identify a particular and localized aspect of the god, such as a reference to the mythological place of birth or numinous presence at a specific sanctuary: sacrifice might be offered on one and the same occasion to Pythian Apollo ("Apollo Pythios") and Delphic Apollo ("Apollo Delphinios"). A localizing epithet refers simply to a particular center of veneration and the cultic tradition there, as the god manifested at a particular festival, for example: Zeus Olympios, Zeus as present at Olympia, or Apollo Karneios, Apollo at the Spartan Carneian festival.


title: Epithet

text: Often the epithet is the result of fusion of the Olympian divinity with an older one: Poseidon Erechtheus, Artemis Orthia, reflect intercultural equations of a divinity with an older one, that is generally considered its pendant; thus most Roman gods and goddesses, especially the Twelve Olympians, had traditional counterparts in Greek, Etruscan, and most other Mediterranean pantheons, such as Jupiter as head of the Olympian Gods with Zeus, but in specific cults, there may be a different equation, based on one specific aspect of the divinity. Thus the Greek word ("thrice grand") was first used as a Greek name for the Egyptian god of science and invention, Thoth, and later as an for the Greek Hermes and, finally, the fully equated Roman Mercurius Mercury (both were messenger of the gods). Among the Greeks, T. H. Price notes the nurturing power of might be invoked in sacrifices and recorded in inscription, without specifically identifying Hera or Demeter.


title: Epithet

text: Some epithets were applied to several deities of the same pantheon rather accidentally if they had a common characteristic, or deliberately, emphasizing their blood- or other ties; thus in pagan Rome, several divinities gods, and heroes were given the "Comes" as companion of another (usually major) divinity. An epithet can even be meant for collective use, e.g. in Latin 'the felt hat-wearers' for the brothers Castor and Pollux. Some epithets resist explanation.


title: Epithet

text: Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Christians of other churches practice the use of epithets in the veneration of Jesus (e.g., "Christ"; "Prince of Peace"; "The Good Shepherd"), of Mary, Mother of Jesus (e.g. "Mother of God"; "Panagia"), and of the saints (e.g. "Pope Saint John Paul the Great, Saint Theophan the Recluse"). "Our Lady of Lourdes" is essentially periphrasis, except where some aspect of the Virgin is invoked.


title: Epithet

text: An epithet is an adjective or adjectival phrase that characterizes a place, a thing, or a person that helps make the characteristics of this thing more prominent. These descriptive phrases can be used in a positive or negative way that benefits the orator. "It will generally happen, that the Epithets employed by a skillful orator, will be found to be, in fact, so many abridged arguments, the force of which is sufficiently conveyed by a mere hint; e.g. if any one says, 'We ought to take warning from the bloody revolution of France,' the Epithet suggests one of the reasons for our being warned; and that, not less clearly, and more forcibly, than if the argument had been stated at length." With persuasion being a key component of rhetoric, it is rational to use epithets. The use of persuasive wording gives leverage to one's arguments. Knowledge along with descriptive words or phrases can be a powerful tool. This is supported in Bryan Short's article when he states, "The New Rhetoric derives its empiricist flavor from a pervasive respect for clarity and directness of language." Rhetoricians use epithets to direct their audience to see their point of view, using verbal forms of imagery as a persuasive tactic.


title: Epithet

text: Orators have a variety of epithets that they can employ that have different meanings. The most common are fixed epithets and transferred epithets. A fixed epithet is the repetitive use of the same word or phrase for the same person or object. A transferred epithet qualifies a noun other than the person or thing it is describing. This is also known as a hypallage. This can often involves shifting a modifier from the animate to the inanimate; for example, "cheerful money" and "suicidal sky".


title: Epithet

text: Orators take special care when using epithets so as to not use them as smear words. Orators could be accused of racial or abusive epithets if used incorrectly. American journalist William Safire discussed the use of the word in a 2008 column in "The New York Times": "'I am working on a piece about nationalism with a focus on epithet as a smear word,' writes David Binder, my longtime Times colleague, 'which was still a synonym for 'delineation' or 'characterization' in my big 1942 Webster's but now seems to be almost exclusively a synonym for 'derogation' or 'smear word.' ... In the past century, [epithet] blossomed as 'a word of abuse,' today gleefully seized upon to describe political smears."


title: Epithet

text: Descriptive bynames were given to a person to distinguish them from other people of the same name. In England bynames were used during the period when the use of surnames had not been extensively adopted. As an example the Domesday Book of 1086 identifies 40 individuals with the given name of "Richard". Most (40%), such as "Richard of Coursey" are identified with a locational byname, indicating where they came from, or in some cases where they lived. Others (25%), such as "Richard the butler" and "Richard the bald" are identified with an occupational or a personally descriptive byname. Some of the individuals, such as Richard Basset, made use of what we would recognize as a surname.


title: Epithet

text: The distinction between a byname and a surname lies in the fact that the byname is not usually heritable, and may change for any given person as his circumstances change. Richard the bald, for example, was presumably not always bald, and Richard of Brampton may not have always lived at Brampton.


title: Epithet

text: The use of bynames did not end with the adoption of surnames. In some cases, before the adoption of middle names, government records, such as taxes lists, included people with both the same given name and the same surname. This led to the use of bynames to further distinguish the person. For example, one "John Smith" might be described as "John Smith of the mill", while another might be described as "John Smith the short".


title: Victor Webster

text: Victor Webster (born February 7, 1973) is a Canadian actor. He is known for being the second actor to play Nicholas Alamain on the NBC daytime soap "Days of Our Lives" from 1999 to 2000, and for his roles as the mutant Brennan Mulwray in "Mutant X", Coop the cupid on "Charmed" and detective Carlos Fonnegra in "Continuum."


title: Victor Webster

text: He is also known for his portrayal of Mathayus of Akkad / The Scorpion King in "" (2012) and "" (2015).


title: Victor Webster

text: Victor Webster was born in Calgary, Alberta, the son of Roswitha, a hair stylist, and John ("Jack") Webster, a police officer. As a teenager, his behaviour often got him into trouble. To find a more productive outlet, he started studying martial arts and eventually became a teacher of this, earning an undefeated record as an amateur kickboxer and heavyweight black belt. Meanwhile, his early interest in acting was demonstrated in his involvement with numerous school plays and theatre classes.


title: Victor Webster

text: Webster worked as a stockbroker and in import/export. He appeared in "Cosmopolitan" magazine's "All About Men" 1998 special issue. He began to pursue acting opportunities in the late 1990s. In 1999 he landed a part on the NBC daytime soap opera, "Days of Our Lives". After leaving "Days", he was cast as one of the leads in the nationally syndicated SF-action series "Mutant X" (2001), which ran for three seasons. In 2002, he was listed as one of "People" magazine's "50 Most Eligible Bachelors".


title: Victor Webster

text: Webster appeared in the film "Bringing Down the House" and made guest appearances on other TV shows, including a 2003 role on HBO's "Sex and the City", while working on "Mutant X". Since "Mutant X", Webster has continued to alternate between television and theatrical film roles. In 2006 he appeared in the final episodes of "Charmed", portraying Coop, a cupid who married Phoebe Halliwell (played by Alyssa Milano) in the final episode of the series.


title: Victor Webster

text: In 2009, Webster had a recurring role as Caleb Brewer on the "Melrose Place" relaunch. He appeared on the season 5 episode "Parasite" of "Criminal Minds" playing a con artist-turned-serial killer. He also guest-starred in the 2009 murder mystery "Harper's Island". He had a small role in the 2010 Tyler Perry film "Why Did I Get Married Too". In 2011, he had a recurring role on "Castle" as Kate Beckett's boyfriend, Josh Davidson. In the 2013 remake of "Embrace of the Vampire", he played the lead male vampire Stefan. On "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce", he played Carl, a gigolo. In the 2016 Hallmark original movie "Summer Villa", he's a chef. In 2019, Webster began starring in the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries series "The Matchmaker Mysteries".


title: King Ghidorah

text: Although King Ghidorah's design has remained largely consistent throughout its appearances (an armless, bipedal, golden and yellowish-scaled dragon with three heads, two fan-shaped wings and two tails), its origin story has varied from being an extraterrestrial planet-destroying dragon, a genetically engineered monster from the future, a guardian monster of ancient Japan, or a god from another dimension. The character is usually portrayed as an archenemy of Godzilla and a foe of Mothra, though it has had one appearance as an ally of the latter.


title: King Ghidorah

text: Despite rumors that Ghidorah was meant to represent the threat posed by China, which had at the time of the character's creation just developed nuclear weapons, director Ishirō Honda denied the connection and stated that Ghidorah was simply a modern take on the dragon Yamata no Orochi.


title: King Ghidorah

text: The initial idea for "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster" came from Tomoyuki Tanaka, who also created Godzilla. Tanaka's inspiration came from illustration of the Lernaean Hydra in a book about Greek Mythology, and Orochi of Japanese folklore. Tanaka was enamored with the idea of Godzilla fighting a multi-headed serpent, but considered seven or eight heads to be too excessive, and thus the number of heads was reduced to three. The final version was a three-headed dragon with large wings, two tails and of extraterrestrial origin.


title: King Ghidorah

text: Toho also drew inspiration from the three-headed dragon Zmey Gorynych or King Dragon in Japanese version from the 1956 Soviet film "Ilya Muromets", which had been distributed theatrically in Japan by Shintoho in March 1959. King Ghidorah's name is composed of and "Ghidorah." The "Ghidorah" part of King Ghidorah's name comes from the pronunciation of the word "hydra" (Гидра, ˈɡʲidrɐ) in Russian, written as in Japanese.


title: King Ghidorah

text: Other sources of inspiration included mythological creatures such as the hydra, unicorn, pegasus, and qilin.


title: King Ghidorah

text: In its debut film, "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster", Ghidorah is portrayed as an ancient extraterrestrial entity responsible for the destruction of the Venusian civilization, five thousand years before the film's events. Its attempt to destroy Earth is thwarted by the combined efforts of Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra.


title: King Ghidorah

text: Subsequent Shōwa era films would portray Ghidorah as the pawn of various alien races seeking to subjugate Earth. King Ghidorah also appears in the fifth and sixth episodes of the television series "Zone Fighter", where it is revealed that it is supposedly a creation of the Garoga aliens, though it is left unclear as to whether this statement is true or not.


title: King Ghidorah

text: Screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa insisted that the Ghidorah suit be fabricated using light-weight silicone-based materials in order to grant the wearer greater mobility. The final Ghidorah design was constructed by special effects artist Teizo Toshimitsu, who had initially painted it green in order to further differentiate it from Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra, but changed it to gold on the insistence of Eiji Tsuburaya, after his assistant noted that being a creature from Venus, the "gold planet", Ghidorah should be that color.


title: King Ghidorah

text: The monster suit itself was built by Akira Watanabe, and worn by Shoichi Hirose. Hirose walked hunched over inside the Ghidorah costume, holding a metal bar for balance, while puppeteers would control its heads, tails and wings off-camera like a marionette. The monster's heads were each fitted with remotely controlled motors, which were connected to operators via a wire extending from the suit's backside.


title: King Ghidorah

text: Performing as Ghidorah proved challenging to Hirose, as he had to time his movements in a way that would not conflict with the separately operated heads and wings, as doing so would have resulted in the overhead wires tangling. Because of the suit's weight, it frequently snapped the overhead wires supporting it. Special effects were added as the creature is capable emitting destructive, lightning-like "gravity beams" from its mouths and generating hurricane-force winds from its wings.


title: King Ghidorah

text: Despite King Ghidorah's central role in the film's plot, the character was given little screen time, as Hirose had fallen out with special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, who never forgave Hirose for accepting a Hollywood deal, and subsequently he hired Susumu Utsumi to play King Ghidorah after "Invasion of Astro-Monster". In that film, King Ghidorah was given a darker shade of gold, and its movements both on land and in the air were more fluid than during "Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster", as the special effects crew had at that point learned from the shortcomings of the previous film's depiction of the creature.


title: King Ghidorah

text: In "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah" (1991), the creature is re-envisioned as a trio of diminutive genetically engineered creatures called Dorats owned by a group of humans from the 23rd century known as the Equal Environment Earth Union, a group dedicated to equalizing the power of Earth's nations. Seeking to stop Japan's global economic dominance in their timeline by transforming the Dorats into King Ghidorah through nuclear exposure, the Earth Unionists plant the Dorats on Lagos Island during the 1954 H-bomb tests there. Prior to doing so, they remove the dinosaur that would ultimately become Godzilla from the island, so that King Ghidorah would be able to attack Japan without opposition. In 1992, the Earth Unionists unleash Ghidorah onto Japan, but he is defeated by a recreated Godzilla. King Ghidorah's body stays under the ocean for two centuries before being recovered by a defected Earth Unionist to make it a cyborg and sent back to 1992 as Mecha-King Ghidorah in order to stop Godzilla's rampage.


title: King Ghidorah

text: The character's manes were deleted and replaced with horns, as it proved difficult for the special effects team to superimpose the manes into footage of people escaping the monster. Special effects director Koichi Kawakita had originally planned on having each of Ghidorah's heads fire differently colored beams, but this was ultimately scrapped in favor of the classic yellow color. This version of King Ghidorah was portrayed by Hurricane Ryu.


title: King Ghidorah

text: In "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II" (1993), Mecha-King Ghidorah's remains are salvaged by the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center (UNGCC) and used to build Mechagodzilla.


title: King Ghidorah

text: In "Rebirth of Mothra", a monster named Desghidorah appears, who heavily resembles King Ghidorah but has graphite black skin and a quadrupedal stance.


title: King Ghidorah

text: In "Rebirth of Mothra III" (1998), King Ghidorah is depicted as an extraterrestrial that landed on earth during the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era and wiped out the dinosaurs by draining them of their life energies. Ghidorah left Earth and returns in modern times to feed on human children. Mothra Leo fails to defeat the monster and travels back to the Cretaceous in order to kill Ghidorah retroactively. Leo defeats the younger Ghidorah, but the monster's severed tail allows it to regenerate back into its adult form in modern times. After hibernating from the Cretaceous era to the present day, aided by the ancient Primitive Mothra species, Leo finally kills the monster by transforming into a new form: "Armor Mothra". This version of King Ghidorah was portrayed by Tsutomu Kitagawa.


title: King Ghidorah

text: In "", Ghidorah is portrayed as having been one of the three Guardians of Yamato, originating 1,000 years before the events of the film. Initially an antagonist, Ghidorah was imprisoned in Mount Fuji, only to be reawakened in 2001 to halt Godzilla's destruction of Tokyo. Ghidorah is defeated, but then revived and empowered by ally Mothra.