William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. He was the founder and frontman of the pioneering Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief songwriter and producer. He led the group from its 1955 origins, when they were called The Five Chimes, until 1972, when he retired from the group to focus on his role as Motown Records vice president. Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the following year. He left Motown in 1999.

Robinson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and awarded the 2016 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for his lifetime contributions to popular music. He is a double Hollywood Walk of Fame Inductee, as a solo artist (1983) and as a member of The Miracles (2009). In 2022, he was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.

Early life and early career
William Robinson Jr. was born to an African-American father and a mother of African-American and French descent in a poor family in the North End area of Detroit, Michigan.

Robinson's ancestry is also part Nigerian, Scandinavian, Portuguese, and Cherokee. His uncle Claude gave him the nickname "Smokey Joe" when he was a child.  In 2012, Robinson explained:

My Uncle Claude was my favorite uncle. He was also my godfather. He and I were really, really close. He used to take me to see cowboy movies all the time when I was a little boy because I loved cowboy movies. He got a cowboy name for me, which was Smokey Joe. So from the time I was three years old if people asked me what my name was I didn't tell them my name was William, I told them my name was Smokey Joe. That's what everyone called me until I was about 12 and then I dropped the Joe part. I've heard that story about him giving it to me because I'm a light skinned black man but that's not true.

He attended Northern High School, where he was above average academically and a determined athlete. However, his main interest was music, and he formed a doo-wop group named the Five Chimes. He and Aretha Franklin lived several houses from each other on Belmont; he said he'd known Franklin since she was about five, overhearing her play the piano when he had come to play with her older brother Cecil after her family first moved to Detroit.

Robinson's interest in music started during childhood after he heard the groups Nolan Strong & the Diablos and Billy Ward and his Dominoes on the radio. He has cited Barrett Strong, a Detroit native, as a strong vocal influence. In 1955, he formed the first lineup of The Five Chimes with childhood friend Ronald White and classmate Pete Moore.

Two years later, they were renamed the Matadors and included Bobby Rogers. Another member, Emerson (Sonny) Rogers, Bobby Rogers' cousin, was replaced by his sister, Claudette Rogers (who would marry Smokey Robinson in 1959). The group's guitarist, Marv Tarplin, joined them sometime in 1958. The Matadors began touring Detroit venues around this time. Eventually they changed their name to The Miracles.

Career

The Miracles and Motown

In August 1957, Robinson and the Miracles met songwriter Berry Gordy after a failed audition for Brunswick Records. At that time during the audition, Robinson had brought along with him a "Big 10" notebook with 100 songs he wrote while in high school. Gordy was impressed with Robinson's vocals and even more impressed with Robinson's ambitious songwriting. With his help, the Miracles released their first single, "Got a Job", an answer song to the Silhouettes' hit single "Get a Job" on End Records. It was the beginning of a long and successful collaboration. During this time, Robinson attended college and started classes in January 1959, studying electrical engineering. He dropped out after only two months, following the Miracles' release of their first record.

Gordy formed Tamla Records, which was later reincorporated as Motown. The Miracles became one of the first acts signed to the label, although they had actually been with Gordy since before the formation of Motown Records. In late 1960, the group recorded their first hit single, "Shop Around", which became Motown's first million-selling hit record. Between 1960 and 1970, Robinson would produce 26 top forty hits with the Miracles as lead singer, chief songwriter and producer, including several top ten hits such as "You've Really Got a Hold on Me", "Mickey's Monkey", "I Second That Emotion", "Baby Baby Don't Cry" and the group's only number-one hit during their Robinson years, "The Tears of a Clown".

Other notable hits such as "Ooo Baby Baby", "Going to a Go-Go", the multi-award-winning  "The Tracks of My Tears", "(Come Round Here) I'm The One You Need", "The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage" and "More Love" peaked in the top twenty. In 1965, the Miracles were the first Motown group to change their name when they released their 1965 album Going to a Go-Go as Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.

Between 1962 and 1966, Robinson was also one of the major songwriters and producers for Motown, penning many hit singles such as "Two Lovers", "The One Who Really Loves You", "You Beat Me to the Punch" and "My Guy" for Mary Wells; "The Way You Do The Things You Do", "My Girl", "Since I Lost My Baby" and "Get Ready" for the Temptations; "Still Water (Love)" for the Four Tops; "When I'm Gone" and "Operator" for Brenda Holloway; "Don't Mess With Bill", "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" and "My Baby Must Be a Magician" for the Marvelettes; and "I'll Be Doggone" and "Ain't That Peculiar" for Marvin Gaye.

After the arrival of Holland–Dozier–Holland and the team of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, Robinson was eclipsed as a top writer and producer for the label, and other Motown artists such as Gaye and Stevie Wonder began to compose more original material. Later in his career, Robinson wrote lyrics and music for the Contours such as "First I Look at the Purse", as well as the Four Tops' "Still Water" and The Supremes' "Floy Joy". The other Miracles—Bobby Rogers, Pete Moore, Ronnie White, and Marv Tarplin—collaborated with him as writers on many of these hits, and Pete Moore also doubled as co-producer with Robinson on several of them.

By 1969, Robinson wanted to retire from touring to focus on raising his two children with his wife Claudette, and on his duties as Motown's vice president, a job he had taken on by the mid-1960s after Esther Gordy Edwards had left the position. However, the success of the group's "Tears of a Clown" made Robinson stay with the group until 1972. His last performance with the group was in July 1972 in Washington, D.C.

Solo career

After a year of retirement, Robinson announced his comeback with the release of the eponymous Smokey album, in 1973. The album included the Miracles tribute song, "Sweet Harmony", and the hit ballad "Baby Come Close". In 1974, Robinson's second album, Pure Smokey, was released but failed to produce hits. Robinson struggled to compete with his former collaborators Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and former Temptations member Eddie Kendricks, as all three had multiple hit singles during this period.

Former Beatle George Harrison featured the track "Pure Smokey" on his 1976 album Thirty Three & 1/3 as a tribute to Robinson. (Harrison's fellow Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney were also fans of Robinson's songwriting and the group covered "You Really Gotta Hold on Me" on their second UK album With the Beatles and US album The Beatles' Second Album, respectively.)

Robinson answered his critics the following year with A Quiet Storm, released in 1975. The album launched three singles – the number-one R&B hit "Baby That's Backatcha", "The Agony & The Ecstasy" and "Quiet Storm" (the radio format quiet storm, originated by DJ Melvin Lindsey, is named after the album). However, Robinson's solo career suffered from his work as Motown's vice president, and his own music took the backseat. As a result, several albums including Smokey's Family Robinson, Deep in My Soul, Love Breeze and Smokin, saw poor promotion and received bad reviews. At this point Robinson relied on other writers and producers to help him with his albums.

Following these albums, Robinson got out of a writer's block after his close collaborator (and fellow Miracle), Marv Tarplin, who joined him on the road in 1973 after Robinson left the Miracles, presented him a tune he had composed on his guitar. Robinson later wrote the lyrics that became his first solo top ten Pop single, "Cruisin'". The song hit number one in Cash Box and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100.  It also became his first solo number one in New Zealand. Robinson would follow a similar approach with his next album, Warm Thoughts, which produced another top 40 hit, "Let Me Be the Clock", though it did not repeat the success of "Cruisin'".

In 1981, Robinson topped the charts again with another sensual ballad, "Being with You", which was another number one hit in Cash Box and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It also hit number one in the UK Singles Chart, becoming his most successful single to date. The Gold-plus parent album sparked a partnership with George Tobin and with Tobin, Robinson released his next several Motown albums, Yes It's You Lady, which produced the hit "Tell Me Tomorrow", Touch the Sky and Essar. In 1983, Robinson teamed up with fellow Motown label mate Rick James recording the R&B ballad, "Ebony Eyes".

In 1987, following a period of personal and professional issues, Robinson made a comeback with the album, One Heartbeat and the singles, "Just to See Her" and "One Heartbeat", which were Top 10 hits on Billboards Pop, Soul, and Adult Contemporary charts.  They were aided by popular music videos.  "Just to See Her" won Robinson his first Grammy Award in 1988. The album became one of his most successful ever, selling over 900,000 copies in the United States alone. In the same year, Robinson released One Heartbeat, the UK group ABC released a tribute song, "When Smokey Sings".

He was inducted as a solo artist to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, later igniting controversy as the committee had inducted only Robinson and not members of his group, the Miracles, which Robinson saw as an affront. In 2012, however, the committee rectified the mistake announcing that the group would be inducted on their own merit. Though Robinson was not listed as an inductee, he was due to induct his former group at the ceremony in April 2012.

After MCA purchased Motown in 1988, Robinson relinquished his position as vice president. Following the release of the album, Love Smokey, in 1990, Robinson left Motown for a deal with SBK Records in 1991. However, the album, Double Good Everything failed to chart. Robinson remained virtually quiet during the nineties (though he would make a notable cameo appearance in The Temptations 1998 miniseries), making a brief comeback in 1999 when he re-signed with Motown and issued the album, Intimate, which included the song "Easy to Love".

In 2003, he once again split ties with Motown, releasing the gospel album, Food for the Spirit on Liquid 8 Records in 2004. In 2004, Robinson sang the main title theme song "Colorful World" to the American children's animated series ToddWorld for Discovery Kids, TLC and Mike Young Productions. Two years later, Robinson released the standards album, Timeless Love, in 2006 on Universal Records.

In 2009, he issued the album, Time Flies When You're Having Fun on his own label, Robso Records.  It reached  number 59 on the Billboard album chart, his highest showing since One Heartbeat. He subsequently released "Now And Then" in 2010, which peaked at number 131.

Smokey & Friends was released in mid-August 2014. It was an album of duets, including songs with Elton John, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor. It reached number 12 on the Billboard album chart.

Christmas Everyday was Robinson's first post-Miracles Christmas album, and was released on November 10, 2017. In 2018, he appeared on an episode of CMT Crossroads alongside country singer Cam.

In April 2017, Robinson visited Fremont-Lopez Elementary School in Stockton, California, where he served as a designated arts mentor under Turnaround Arts.

On July 31, 2018, Robinson appeared as a special guest on the Fox network's show Beat Shazam as a special guest.

Robinson appeared on the song "Make It Better" from Anderson Paak's 2019 album Ventura.

In 2023, Robinson announced that he would release his first album in almost a decade in April 2023. The nine-track album will be called Gasms, and will feature entirely new music. The first single from the album, called "If We Don't Have Each Other", was already available on streaming service by January 2023.

Personal life
Robinson married a fellow Miracles member, Claudette Rogers, in 1959. The couple had two children: a son, Berry Robinson (born 1968), named after Motown's first label founder Berry Gordy and a daughter, Tamla Robinson (born 1971), named after the original "Tamla" label set up by Gordy that would eventually become Motown.

According to Robinson, he had affairs with multiple women while married to Claudette, among them an approximately year-long affair with Diana Ross. According to Robinson, Ross ended it because she felt uncomfortable as she was friends with Claudette, whom Robinson admitted he still loved. (A representative for Ross had no comment on Robinson's claim.) Robinson says that loving multiple people in that way simultaneously is natural.

Robinson also had a son named Trey (born 1984) with another woman during his marriage to Claudette. After Robinson admitted to having fathered a child with a woman other than his wife, he filed for legal separation and later filed for divorce that was finalized in 1986. The Robinsons had also separated in 1974 and during that separation, Robinson engaged in an extramarital affair that inspired the song "The Agony & The Ecstasy" (later featured on A Quiet Storm).

Robinson married Frances Gladney in May 2002. They own a home in Pittsburgh and use it as a winery.

Robinson has not eaten red meat since 1972. He practices Transcendental Meditation. Robinson has golden green eyes, which he believes were passed down from his French great-grandmother.

Discography

Awards and accolades

On February 22, 1983, Smokey was awarded an individual star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Four years later, in 1987, Robinson was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Robinson's single "Just to See Her"" from the One Heartbeat album was awarded the 1988 Grammy Award for Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. This was Robinson's first Grammy Award. One year later, in 1989, he was inducted to the Songwriter's Hall of Fame

In 1993, Robinson was awarded a medal at the National Medal of Arts. Two years before, he won the Heritage Award at the Soul Train Music Awards. In 2005, Robinson was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. At its 138th Commencement Convocation in May 2006, Howard University conferred on Robinson the degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa. In December 2006 Robinson was one of five Kennedy Center honorees, along with Dolly Parton, Zubin Mehta, Steven Spielberg and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

On March 20, 2009, the Miracles were finally honored as a group with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Smokey was present with original Miracles members Bobby Rogers, Pete Moore, (Bobby's cousin) Claudette Rogers, and Gloria White, accepting for her husband, the late Ronnie White, whose daughter Pamela and granddaughter Maya were there representing him as well. Smokey's replacement, 1970s Miracles lead singer Billy Griffin, was also honored.

Controversially, original Miracle Marv Tarplin was not honored, against the wishes of his fellow Miracles and the group's fans, who felt that he should have also been there to share the honor.
Later, Tarplin did receive his star. He was also inducted with the rest of the original Miracles, Bobby Rogers, Pete Moore, Ronnie White, and Claudette Robinson, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, 25 years after Robinson's controversial solo induction in 1987. He was also awarded Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.

In 2009, Robinson received an honorary doctorate degree—along with Linda Ronstadt—and gave a commencement speech at Berklee College of Music's commencement ceremony. In 2015, he was given a BET Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2016, Robinson received the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song; and, on August 21, 2016, he was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in his hometown of Detroit.

In 2019, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council members Jimmy Page and Peter Gabriel.

In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Robinson at No. 23 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

References

Further reading

External links

 Smokey Robinson interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' December 1992
 Interview on  Fresh Air

 Smokey Robinson's page at soulwalking.co.uk
 Smokey Robinson Biography and Update at SoulTracks
 Smokey Robinson at cosmopolis.ch

 Smokey Robinson Wines

1940 births
Living people
20th-century African-American male singers
21st-century African-American male singers
African-American male singer-songwriters
African-American record producers
American child singers
American gospel singers
American male pop singers
American music industry executives
American people of French descent
American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters
American soul singers
American tenors
Child pop musicians
Grammy Legend Award winners
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Kennedy Center honorees
Motown artists
Northern High School (Detroit, Michigan) alumni
Record producers from Michigan
SBK Records artists
Singers from Detroit
Singer-songwriters from Michigan
The Miracles members
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Universal Music Group artists

Smokey Robinson


ရှိန်းကျိန့်မြို့ ( ) သည် တရုတ်နိုင်ငံတောင်ပိုင်း၊ ကွမ်တုံပြည်နယ်ရှိ အဓိကမြို့ကြီးတစ်မြို့ဖြစ်ပြီး ဟောင်ကောင်၏မြောက်ဘက်တွင်ကပ်လျက်တည်ရှိသည်။ ယင်းဒေသသည် တရုတ်နိုင်ငံ၏ပထမဆုံးသော အထူးစီးပွားရေးဇုန်ဖြစ်သည်။ လက်ရှိတွင်လည်း ပြည်နယ်အဆင့်ထက်အနည်းငယ်သာနိမ့်သော ပြည်နယ်ခွဲအနေအထားအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးတည်ရှိလျက်ရှိသည်။

Shenzhen's modern cityscape is the result of the vibrant economy made possible by rapid foreign investment since the institution of the policy of "reform and opening" establishment of the SEZ in the late 1979, before which it was only a small village. Both Chinese and foreign nationals have invested enormous amounts of money in the Shenzhen SEZ. More than US$30 billion in foreign investment has gone into both foreign-owned and joint ventures, at first mainly in manufacturing but more recently in the service industries as well. Shenzhen is now considered one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.

တရုတ်ပြည်မကြီးတောင်ပိုင်းရှိဘဏ္ဍာရေးဗဟိုဌာနဖြစ်သည့်အားလျော်စွာ ရှိန်းကျိန့်မြို့သည် ရှိန်းကျိန့်စတော့အိတ်ချိန်းနှင့်အခြားအဆင့်မြင့်နည်းပညာကုမ္ပဏီများ၏ရုံးစိုက်ရာမြို့ဖြစ်သည်။ ရှိန်းကျိန့်မြို့သည် တရုတ်နိုင်ငံ၏ ကုန်သေတ္တာတင်ပို့သည့် အစည်ကားဆုံးဆိပ်ကမ်းများတွင်တစ်ခုအပါအဝင်ဖြစ်သည်။

ရာဇဝင်
Human habitation in Shenzhen dates back to ancient times. The earliest archaeological remains so far unearthed are shards from a site at Xiantouling on Mirs Bay, dating back to 5000 BC. From the Han Dynasty (third century BC) onwards, the area around Shenzhen was a centre of the salt monopoly, thus meriting special Imperial protection. Salt pans are still visible around the Pearl River area to the west of the city and are commemorated in the name of the Yantian container terminal (盐田, meaning "salt fields").

The settlement at Nantou was the political centre of the area from early antiquity. In the year 331 AD, six counties covering most of modern south-eastern Guangdong were merged into one province or "jun" named Dongguan Jun with its centre at Nantou.  As well as being a centre of the politically and fiscally critical salt trade, the area had strategic importance as a stopping off point for international trade. The main shipping route to India, Arabia and the Byzantine Empire started at Canton. As early as the eighth century, chronicles record the Nantou area as being a major commercial centre, and reported that all foreign ships in the Canton trade would stop there. It was also as a naval defence centre guarding the southern approaches to the Pearl River.

Shenzhen was also involved in the events surrounding the end of the Southern Song Dynasty (1276–79). The Imperial court, fleeing Kublai Khan's forces, established itself in the Shenzhen area and the last Emperor died strapped to the back of his chief Minister who preferred suicide to the possibility of the Emperor being captured and bringing shame to the dynasty. In the late 19th century the Chiu or Zhao (Zhao was the Song Imperial surname)clan in Hong Kong identified the Chiwan area as the final resting place of the Emperor and built a tomb to him. The tomb, since restored, is still in Chiwan.

Earliest known ancient records that carried the name of Shenzhen date from 1410 during the Ming Dynasty. Local people called the drains in paddy fields "zhen" (圳). Shenzhen (深圳) literally means "deep drains" as the area was once crisscrossed with rivers and streams, with deep drains within the paddy fields. The character 圳 is limited in distribution to an area of South China with its most northerly examples in Zhejiang Province which suggests an association with southwards migration during the Southern Song Dynasty (12th and 13th centuries). The County town at Xin'an in modern Nanshan dates from the Ming Dynasty where it was a major naval centre at the mouth of the Pearl River. In this capacity it was heavily involved in 1521 in the successful Chinese action against the Portuguese Fleet under Fernão Pires de Andrade. This battle, called the Battle of Tunmen, was fought in the straits between Shekou and Lintin Island.

Shenzhen was singled out to be the first of the five Special Economic Zones (SEZ). It was formally established in 1979 due to its proximity to Hong Kong. The SEZ was created to be an experimental ground for the practice of market capitalism within a community guided by the ideals of "socialism with Chinese characteristics".

Shenzhen eventually became one of the largest cities in the Pearl River Delta region, which has become one of the economic powerhouses of China as well as the largest manufacturing base in the world.

In November 1979, Shenzhen, then known as Bao'an County (宝安县), was promoted to prefecture level, directly governed by Guangdong province. In May 1980, Shenzhen was formally nominated as a "special economic zone", the first one of its kind in China. It was given the right of provincial-level economic administration in November 1988.

For five months in 1996, Shenzhen was home to the Provisional Legislative Council and Provisional Executive Council of Hong Kong.

Geography

Shenzhen is located in the Pearl River Delta, bordering Hong Kong to the south, Huizhou to the north and northeast and Dongguan to the north and northwest. The municipality covers an area of  including urban and rural areas, with a total population of 14 million in 2008.

The city was originally a hilly area, with fertile agrarian land. However, after becoming a special economic zone in 1979, Shenzhen underwent tremendous change in landscape. The once hilly fishing village is now replaced by mostly flat ground in city center area, with only Lianhua Shan (Lotus Hill), Bijia Shan (Bijia Mountain) and Wutong Shan the only three places that have some kind of elevation as viewed from satellites.  With the influx of migrants from inland China, Shenzhen is experiencing a second stage boom, and it is now expanding peripherally and the hills in surrounding areas such as Mission Hills are now being levelled to make land for more development.

Shenzhen is located on the border with the Hong Kong SAR across the Sham Chun River and Sha Tau Kok River,  southeast of the provincial capital of Guangzhou,  south of the industrial city of Dongguan and  north-northeast of the resort city of Zhuhai.

Climate
Shenzhen is situated in the subtropical part of China, located at about the Tropic of Cancer, yet due to the Siberian anticyclone, has a warm, monsoon-influenced, humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa). Winters are mild and relatively dry, due in part to the influence of the South China Sea, and frost is very rare. Spring begins somewhat dry, but rainfall begins to dramatically increase in April, and the rainy season lasts until early to mid October. The monsoon reaches its peak intensity in the summer months, when the city also experiences very humid, and hot, but moderated, conditions. The region is prone to torrential rain as well, with 10 days that have  or more of rain.
The latter portion of autumn is dry. The annual precipitation averages at over , some of which is delivered in typhoons that strike from the east during summer and early autumn.

Administrative divisions

Shenzhen is a sub-provincial city. It has direct jurisdiction over eight districts (区 qu):

The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) comprised only Luohu, Futian, Nanshan, and Yantian districts until 1 July 2010, when the SEZ was expanded to include all districts, a fivefold increase over its pre-expansion size.

Adjacent to Hong Kong, Luohu is the financial and trading centre of Shenzhen.  Futian, at the heart of the SEZ, is the seat of the Municipal Government.  West of Futian, Nanshan is the centre for high-tech industries.  Formerly outside the SEZ, Bao'an and Longgang are located to the north-west and north-east, respectively, of central Shenzhen. Yantian is the location of Yantian Port, the second busiest container terminal in mainland China and the fourth busiest in the world.

Demographics

Shenzhen has seen its population and activity develop rapidly since the establishment of the SEZ. Shenzhen's population is roughly ten million. About six million of these people are migrant workers who return home on the weekends and live in factory dormitories during the week. Shenzhen is the largest migrant city in China.

There had been migration into southern Guangdong and what is now Shenzhen since the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279) but the numbers increased dramatically since Shenzhen was established in the 1980s. In Guangdong, it is the only city where Mandarin is mostly spoken, with migrants from all over China. At present, the average age in Shenzhen is less than 30. Among the total, 8.49 percent are between the age of 0 and 14, 88.41 percent between the age of 15 and 59, one-fifth between 20 and 24 and 1.22 percent are aged 65 or above.

The population structure polarizes into two opposing extremes: intellectuals with a high level of education, and migrant workers with poor education. It was reported in June 2007 that over 20 percent of China's PhD's worked in Shenzhen.

According to the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, in 2002, 7,200 Hong Kong residents commuted daily to Shenzhen for work, and 2,200 students from Shenzhen commuted to school in Hong Kong. Though neighbouring each other, daily commuters still need to pass through customs and immigration checkpoints, as travel between the SEZ and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) is restricted.

In late July 2003, China relaxed travel restrictions to allow individuals from the southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as well as Beijing and Shanghai, to visit Hong Kong. Previously, mainland travelers could only visit the city as part of tour groups. (See Individual Visit Scheme.)

Immigration into Shenzhen from the Chinese interior was previously restricted by the hukou system.  One consequence is that just outside of Shenzhen, there exist large towns consisting of now settled migrants who had previously attempted to enter the city.

Languages
Prior to the establishment of Special Economic Zone, the indigenous local communities could be divided into Cantonese and Hakka, which were two cultural and linguistic sub-ethnic groups vernacular to Guangdong province. In particular, the Cantonese variety spoken locally was called Weitou dialect, whereas now the younger generations of the Cantonese communities are being assimilated into the more prestigious variety, known as standard Cantonese, probably because of the influence of Hong Kong's broadcasting. Today, the original inhabitants of indigenous Cantonese and Hakka communities are dispersing into more recently built urban settlements (e.g. apartments and villas), but a large proportion of them are still clustering in their traditional urban and suburban villages.

Since 1980s, the unprecedented influx of immigrants drastically altered the linguistic landscape, in which Shenzhen as a whole has undergone a language shift towards Mandarin, which was both promoted by China's Central Government as a national lingua franca and natively spoken by most of the out-of-province immigrants and their descendants. Since then, the Cantonese and Hakka indigenous populations were diluted into trivial proportions. Despite the ubiquity of Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Hakka, and Teochew are still spoken among people of in-province ancestries in private occasions to a lesser extent than Mandarin. Hokkien and Hunanese are also sometimes observed.

Generally speaking, in most circumstances, people who are monolingual in either Cantonese, Hakka, or Teochew are senior citizens of in-province ancestries; people who are bilingual in both Cantonese and Mandarin are the middle-aged and youngsters of Cantonese ancestry; people who are trilingual in Cantonese, Mandarin, and either Hakka or Teochew are of either Hakka ancestry or Teochew ancestry; and people who are monolingual only in Mandarin are those of out-of-province ancestry.

Mandarin native speakers, whose majority is out-of-province immigrants and their descendants are found unwilling to learn any of Cantonese, Hakka or Teochew, probably due to Mandarin's dominance, advantages, administrative legitimacy, educational priority, societal bias, and official statuses at national, provincial, and municipal levels, as well as those languages' inherent complexities and difficulties.

Economy

In 2001, the working population reached 3.3 million. Though the secondary sector of industry had the largest share (1.85 million in 2001, increased by 5.5%), the tertiary sector of industry is growing fast (1.44 million in 2001, increased by 11.6%). Shenzhen's GDP totaled CNY 820.1 billion in 2009, up by 10.7 percent over the previous year, with a GDP per capita of US$13,581 as of 2009. Its economy grew by 16.3 percent yearly from 2001 to 2005 on average. The proportion of the three industries to the aggregate of GDP was 0.1:46.7:53.2 in 2009. The proportion of the primary industry to GDP was down by 13.4%, and the tertiary industry was up by 12.5%. Shenzhen is in the top ranks among mainland Chinese cities in terms of comprehensive economic power. It ranked fourth in GDP among mainland Chinese cities in 2001, while it ranked the top in GDP per capita during the same period. Its import and export volumes have been first for the last nine consecutive years. It is the second in terms of industrial output. For five consecutive years, its internal revenue within local budget ranks third. It also ranks third in the use of foreign capital.

Shenzhen is a major manufacturing center in China. In the 1990s, Shenzhen was described as constructing "one highrise a day and one boulevard every three days". The Shenzhen's rapidly growing skyline is regarded as one of the best in the world. It currently has 26 buildings at over 200 meters tall, including the Shun Hing Square (the 19th tallest building in the world).

Shenzhen is home to some of China's most successful high-tech companies, such as BYD, Dingoo, G'Five, Hasee, Huawei, JXD, Konka, Netac, Skyworth, Tencent and ZTE. BYD, Hasee and  Huawei are headquartered in the Longgang District. TCL Corporation, best known as China's number one TV brand, has a presence in the city. Taiwan's largest company Hon Hai Group (Foxconn) has a manufacturing plant based in Shenzhen. Many foreign high-tech companies have their operations in the Science and Technology park in Nanshan District or outside the core districts where labor and land are much cheaper.
CSG Holding is the largest architectural glass manufacturer in China. Vanke is the largest residential real estate developer in China. In the financial sector, Shenzhen Development Bank, China Merchants Bank and Shenzhen City Commercial Bank are some of the largest banks in China, with headquarters in Shenzhen.

Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center is a super large public construction with multi-functions of hosting business activities, celebrations, conferences, conventions, entertainment events, exhibitions, restaurants and all kinds of shows.

In 2010, the GDP reached a record high of 951 billion yuan, an increase of 10.7% over 2009. Shenzhen's economic output is ranked fourth among the 659 Chinese cities (behind Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou), and it is comparable to that of a medium sized province in China. In 2010, Shenzhen's GDP per capita was 95,000 yuan (US$14,615), making it one of the richest of all Chinese cities.

On 1 July 2010 the Shenzhen special economic zone was expanded from  to  and border controls with the rest of China relaxed.

Industrial zones
 Shenzhen Hi-Tech Industrial Park (SHIP) was founded in September 1996. It covers an area of . Industries encouraged in the zone include Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals, Building/Construction Materials, Chemicals Production and Processing, Computer Software, Electronics Assembly & Manufacturing, Instruments & Industrial Equipment Production, Medical Equipment and Supplies, Research and Development, Telecommunications Equipment.

 Shenzhen Software Park is integrated with Shenzhen Hi-Tech Industry Park, an important vehicle established by Shenzhen Municipal Government to support the development of software industry. The Park was approved to be the base of software production of the National Plan in 2001. The distance between the 010 National Highway and the zone is . The zone is situated  from the Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport.

Shenzhen Stock Exchange

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) is a mutualized national stock exchange under the China Securities Regulatory Commission (the CSRC) that provides a venue for securities trading.  A broad spectrum of market participants, including 540 listed companies, 35 million registered investors and 177 exchange members, create the market. Since its creation in 1990, the SZSE has grown with a market capitalization around 1 trillion yuan (US$122 billion).  On a daily basis, around 600,000 deals, valued at US$807 million, trade on the SZSE.

Cityscape

The tallest building in Shenzhen is now Kingkey 100, which rises to  and contains 100 floors for office space and a hotel. It is currently the tallest building in Shenzhen as well as one of the tallest buildings in southern China. Shenzhen is also the home to the world's 14th tallest building, the Shun Hing Square (Diwang Building). The city has 23 buildings over , mostly concentrated in Luohu and Futian districts. The second tallest building in Shenzhen is SEG Plaza at a height of 356 meters (292 meters to roof-top), located in the popular electronics district of Hua Qiang Bei.

Shenzhen has some of the largest public projects in China. The International Trade Center (国贸), built in 1985, was the tallest building in China when built, and the Shun Hing building was also the tallest in Asia when it was built (still the tallest steel building in the world). Shenzhen is also the site for many tall building projects. Some of the supertalls that have been either proposed or approved are well over . Other proposed buildings would surpass the Kingkey 100's height by 2015.

For example, the  tall Pingan International Finance Centre will be the tallest in China and second tallest building in the world upon completion in 2014, after the Burj Khalifa. See list of tallest buildings in Shenzhen.

Gallery

Integration with Hong Kong
Hong Kong and Shenzhen have very close business, trade and social links as demonstrated by the statistics presented below.  Except where noted the statistics are taken from sections of the Hong Kong Government (HKG) website.

As of December 2007, there are six land crossing points on the boundary between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.  From west to east these are Shenzhen Bay Port road crossing (opened 1 July 2007);  Fu Tian Kou An to Lok Ma Chau rail connection linking Shenzhen Metro Line 4 to the MTR's East Rail Line Lok Ma Chau Spur Line (opened 15 August 2007); Huanggang to Lok Ma Chau road connection; Futian to Man Kam To road connection; Luohu to Lo Wu rail connection linking the MTR East Rail Line to Shenzhen Metro Line 1, Shenzhen Rail Station and Luohu in general; and the Shatoujiao to Sha Tau Kok road connection.  Both of the rail connections require the passengers to cross the Shenzhen River on foot as there is no direct rail connection between the two cities, although the  Hong Kong intercity trains to other mainland cities pass through Shenzhen without stopping.

In 2006, there were around 20,500 daily vehicular crossings of the boundary in each direction.  Of these 65 percent were cargo vehicles, 27 percent cars and the remainder buses and coaches.  The Huanggang crossing was most heavily used at 76 percent of the total, followed by the Futian crossing at 18 percent and Shatoujiao at 6 percent.  Of the cargo vehicles, 12,000 per day were container carrying and, using a rate of 1.44 teus/vehicle, this results in 17,000 teus/day across the boundary, while Hong Kong port handled 23,000 teus/day during 2006, excluding transshipment trade.

Trade with Hong Kong in 2006 consisted of US$333 billion of imports of which US$298 billion were re-exported.  Of these figures 94 percent were associated with China.  Considering that 34.5 percent of the value of Hong Kong trade is air freight (only 1.3 percent by weight), a large proportion of this is associated with China as well.

Also in 2006 the average daily passenger flow through the four connections open at that time was over 200,000 in each direction of which 63 percent used the Luohu rail connection and 33 percent the Huanggang road connection.  Naturally, such high volumes require special handling, and the largest group of people crossing the boundary, Hong Kong residents with Chinese citizenship, use only a biometric ID card (Home Return Permit) and a thumb print reader.  As a point of comparison, Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport, the 5th busiest international airport in the world, handled 59,000 passengers per day in each direction.

Hong Kong conducts regular surveys of cross-boundary passenger movements, with the most recent being in 2003, although the 2007 survey will be reported on soon.  In 2003 the boundary crossings for Hong Kong Residents living in Hong Kong made 78 percent of the trips, up by 33 percent from 1999, whereas Hong Kong and Chinese residents of China made up 20 percent in 2006, an increase of 140 percent above the 1999 figure. Since that time movement has been made much easier for China residents, and so that group have probably increased further yet.  Other nationalities made up 2 percent of boundary crossings.  Of these trips 67 percent were associated with Shenzhen and 42 percent were for business or work purposes.  Of the non-business trips about one third were to visit friends and relatives and the remainder for leisure.

Future integration plans
In Section 114(1) of the policy address on 10 October 2007, Donald Tsang, Hong Kong Chief Executive, stated:

Jointly developing a world-class metropolis with Shenzhen: In my Election Platform, I have put forward the vision of developing the Hong Kong-Shenzhen metropolis and undertaken to strengthen our co-operation. My proposals met with positive responses from the Shenzhen authorities. We share a common goal and have had some preliminary exchange of views. Currently, we are discussing airport collaboration and the development of the Lok Ma Chau Loop.

On 21 November 2007, the Shenzhen Government officially endorsed this policy and included it in the Shenzhen planning blueprint for the period up to 2020.  It was announced that Shenzhen mayor, Xu Zongheng, would visit Hong Kong in December 2007 to sign a metropolis agreement with the SAR government.

The plans were originally detailed by the Hong Kong non-governmental think tank, Bauhinia Research Foundation in August 2007, and covered such matters as financial services, hi-tech and high-end research and development, transport, environmental matters and ecology.  It was claimed that Shenzhen-Hong Kong could be the third largest metropolis in the world in GDP terms by 2020, only behind New York City and Tokyo.  The plan was also endorsed by the China Development Institute, a Shenzhen-based non-government think tank.

Port

Situated in the Pearl River Delta in China's Guangdong Province, Shenzhen Port is adjacent to Hong Kong. The city's  coastline is divided by the Kowloon Peninsula into two halves, the eastern and the western. Shenzhen's western port area lies to the east of Lingdingyang in the Pearl River Estuary and possesses a deep water harbour with superb natural shelters. It is about  from Hong Kong to the south and  from Guangzhou to the north. By passing Pearl River system, the western port area is connected with the cities and counties in Pearl River Delta networks; by passing On See Dun waterway, it extends all ports both at home and abroad. The eastern port area lies north of Dapeng Bay where the harbour is wide and calm and is regarded as the best natural harbour in South China.

Shenzhen handled a record number of containers in 2005, ranking as the world's fourth-busiest port, after rising trade increased cargo shipments through the southern Chinese city. China International Marine Containers, and other operators of the port handled 16.2 million standard  boxes last year, a 19 per cent increase. Investors in Shenzhen are expanding to take advantage of rising volume.

Yantian International Container Terminals, Chiwan Container terminals, Shekou Container Terminals, China Merchants Port and Shenzhen Haixing (Mawan port) are the major port terminals in Shenzhen.

Transport

Air

Shenzhen Airlines and Jade Cargo International are located at Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport. The airport is 35 kilometers from central Shenzhen and connects the city with many other parts of China, and serves domestic and international destinations.

Railway
Shenzhen Railway Station is located at the junction of Jianshe Road, Heping Road and Renmin Nan Road and provides links to different parts of China. There are frequent high speed trains to Guangzhou, plus long-distance trains to Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Jiujiang, Maoming, Shantou and other destinations. The train from Hong Kong's Hung Hom MTR station to the Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau border crossings take 43 minutes and 45 minutes respectively.

There is another railway station located in Nanshan District, Shenzhen West (Shenzhen Xi), which is used for a small number of long distance trains, such as the one to Hefei.

Shenzhen North Railway Station (Shenzhen North) opened in 2011 in the Longhua area, handling high-speed trains to Guangzhou South, Guangzhou North, Changsha, Wuhan, Beijing and intermediate stations on the Beijing-Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong HSR route.

Shenzhen East Railway Station (Shenzhen Dong) was opened in December 2012. It was originally called Buji station after the suburb it is located and was a Grade 3 station along the Guangshen Railway with no passenger services. Now after massive renovations, it currently handles mostly regional services.

Longgan Railway Station is under construction and will be completed by 2013 to serve high-speed trains on the Hangzhou-Fuzhou-Shenzhen HSR route when it opens in 2013.

Futian Railway Station is under construction and will be completed by 2014. It is completely underground, located in the centre of its namesake Futian District. The central location means it will become the focal point for most high-speed train services on the Beijing-Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong HSR route upon completion. Connection to West Kowloon Railway Station in Hong Kong will be made in 2015, allowing for 15 minute cross border train journeys.

Metro
The Shenzhen Metro system opened on 28 December 2004. In phase I, there are only two lines: the Luobao and Longhua lines. Luobao line is from Luohu (Lo Wu and Shenzhen railway stations) to the Window of the World (Overseas Chinese Town). The Longhua line is from Futian Kouan (Futian checkpoint; it was named Huang Gang at first) to Shaonian Gong (Children's Palace).

In June 2011, the Shenzhen Metro extended the Luobao and Longhua lines. The Luobao line runs from Luohu to Shenzhen Bao'an Airport and the Longhua line (now operated by MTR) runs from Futian Kouan (Futian Checkpoint) to Qinghu. Also in June 2011, three lines of the second phase opened before the 26th summer Universiade. They are Shekou line (from Chiwan to Xinxiu), Longgang line (from Yitian to Shuanglong), and Huanzhong line (from Qianhaiwan to Huangbeiling).

Sea
Shenzhen is also connected by fast ferries linking Shekou, on the west edge of the SEZ with Zhuhai, Macau, Hong Kong International Airport, Kowloon, and Hong Kong Island.

Shenzhen has shorelines in its southwest and southeast. Beaches like Dameisha and Xiaomeisha are often crowded with locals and tourists. The Xichong beach, is just one hour drive from Shenzhen's city center, and it still retains its age old natural beauties.

Road
Since February 2003, the road border crossing at Huanggang and Lok Ma Chau in Hong Kong has been open 24 hours a day. The journey can be made by private vehicle or by bus. On 15 August 2007, the Lok Ma Chau-Huanggang pedestrian border crossing opened, linking Lok Ma Chau Station with Huanggang. With the opening of the crossing, shuttle buses between Lok Ma Chau transport interchange and Huanggang were terminated.

Taxis are metered and come in three colors. Red taxis may travel anywhere; green ones are restricted to outside the SEZ, and yellow ones are restricted to inside the SEZ.

There are also frequent bus and van services from Hong Kong International Airport to Huanggang and most major hotels in Shenzhen. A bus service operated by Chinalink Bus Company operates from Kowloon Station on the Airport Express MTR line (below Elements Mall) direct to the Shenzhen International airport.

Tourist attractions

Shenzhen's major tourist attractions include the Chinese Folk Culture Village, the Window of the World, Happy Valley, Splendid China, the Safari Park in Nanshan district, the Dameisha Promenade, Xiaomeisha Beach Resort in Yantian district, Zhongying Jie/Chung Ying Street, Xianhu Lake Botanical Garden, and Minsk World. The city also offers free admission to a number of public parks including the Lianhuashan Park, Lizhi Park, Zhongshan Park and Wutongshan Park.

There are over twenty public city parks in Shenzhen.

Some tourists, however, choose to stay in a largely expatriate and exotic residential community called Shekou, home to a large French cruise liner cemented into the ground called Sea World. Shekou was expanded and renovated in recent years, including claiming additional land from the sea.

Shenzhen's central music hall and library are located in the Shenzhen Cultural Center.

In recent years, the East Coast (shoreline) of Shenzhen has attracted more and more tourists, including backpackers.  One of the most famous beaches is Xichong in the south of Dapeng Peninsula.

Culture
Shenzhen Cultural Center
Longgang Cultural Center

Media
Shenzhen is served by a variety of daily newspapers, including the Shenzhen Daily

Sports
Shenzhen Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium that hosts many events. The 26th Summer Universiade, the latest one to take place, was held in Shenzhen on 12 August 2011. Shenzhen has constructed the sports venues for this first major sporting event in the city.

Education

Colleges and universities
 Shenzhen University
 Shenzhen Polytechnic
 Shenzhen Radio and TV University
 Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology
 Shenzhen Graduate School of Peking University
 Shenzhen Graduate School of Tsinghua University
 Shenzhen Graduate School of Harbin Institute of Technology
 South University of Science and Technology

High schools

International relations

Twin towns and sister cities
Shenzhen is twinned with:
 Houston, United States, March 1986
 Brescia, Italy, November 1991
 Brisbane, Australia, June 1992
 Poznań, Poland, July 1993
 Vienne, France, October 1994
 Kingston, Jamaica, March 1995
 Lomé, Togo, June 1996
 Nuremberg, Germany, May 1997
 Walloon Brabant, Belgium, October 2003
 Tsukuba, Japan, June 2004
 Gwangyang, South Korea, October 2004
 Johor Bahru, Malaysia, July 2006
 Perm, Russia, 2006
 Turin, Italy, January 2007
 Timişoara, Romania, February 2007
 Rotherham, England, United Kingdom, November 2007
 Reno, Nevada, United States, 30 April 2008
 Montevideo, Uruguay February 2009
 Kalocsa, Hungary, 2011
 Haifa, Israel, 2012
 Barcelona, Spain July 2012

References

External links

Shenzhen Government Online

WikiSatellite view of Shenzhen at Wikimapia

ရှိန်းကျိန့်မြို့


Duccio di Buoninsegna ( , ;  – ) was one of the most important painters in Italy in the Late Middle Ages. He worked mainly in the city of Siena in Tuscany but one of his largest works was done for a church in Florence. He is most famous for his altarpieces of the Madonna and Child. Duccio painted in the Byzantine style, similar to Greek icons.

Duccio's life

The first written record of Duccio is dated 1278, when he was painting in Siena. His paintings, of which only a few remain, are all Holy pictures. Two of them are very large and were painted as altarpieces. Some of them are very small and were for private owners, not for churches.

At that time, many artists painted pictures that were specially for people to look at while they were praying. The pictures are most often of the Madonna and Child. They often have gold backgrounds which glow when they are lit by candlelight. The figures in the paintings do not look very solid or realistic. They look very still, calm and holy. These paintings had been done in the same style for many hundreds of years, in Greece, Constantinople and many other countries where the Greek Orthodox Church was the main church. The style, which was called the Byzantine style, had also spread to Italy where several Orthodox icons (Holy picture), had become famous and were copied by many artists.

Duccio was one of the greatest painters in the Byzantine style in Italy at the time. He had a famous rival who worked in Florence. His name was Cimabue. One of Cimabue's pupils, Giotto, was to become even more famous, and is remembered as having begun the Renaissance style of painting in Florence. Even though Duccio probably saw Giotto's paintings, in which the figures look solid and three-dimensional, like actors on a stage, Duccio was not very influenced by him.

Duccio had several students who also became famous painters of the 1300s. They include Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, who were also influenced by Giotto.

The "Rucellai Madonna"
In 1285 Duccio was asked to go to Florence to paint an altarpiece of the Madonna and Child for the church of Santa Maria Novella which had been  rebuilt for the Dominican friars. It was a very large church and for it, Duccio painted the biggest ancient altarpiece of this type that is known.  It is called the "Rucellai Madonna" because the Rucellai, who were a very rich family, paid for the decoration of the main chapel of the church, where this altarpiece was hung in the 1600s.

Duccio painted the Madonna sitting on a throne with the Christ Child in her lap, raising his hand in blessing. Around them are six kneeling angels in robes of delicate colours. The robe of the Madonna is very dark blue and looks almost black; it is painted with ground-up semi precious stone called lapis lazuli. The robe of the baby looks quite transparent. Duccio was one of the first painters to try to paint transparent material. One of the important parts of Duccio's design is the gold border of the Madonnna's robe, which seems to wander around the painting in a waving line, and frames the Madonna's face in a way that holds the attention of the viewer.

The "Rucellai Madonna" is no longer in the Church of Santa Maria Novella. In  1948 it was moved to the Ufizzi Gallery where it is shown in the same room as Cimabue's "Trinita Madonna" and Giotto's "Ognisanti Madonna".

The "Maestà"
In Duccio's own city there was a large cathedral. In 1308 he was given the job of making an enormous altarpiece of the Madonna on a throne for the cathedral. It was not to be as tall as the "Rucellai Madonna" but was much wider, because it showed two rows of saints and a row of angels on either side of the throne. The four saints the kneel at the front of the picture are those who were particularly remembered in the city of Siena. The altarpiece was to have a very fancy Gothic gold frame with more figures at the top, and small pictures at the bottom, but unfortunately the frame has been destroyed.

Because the painting stood above an altar that was right in the middle of the cathedral, and not against a wall, it was easy for people to walk around to see the back of the altarpiece. So Duccio painted the back as well. The back of the altarpiece had lots of small scenes which tell the life of Jesus. These small scenes, which have gold backgrounds and bright colours in the usual way, are very lively illustrations to the Bible stories.

After three years, the altarpiece was finished. It was carried in a great procession from Duccio's workshop, up the hill to the cathedral which stood on the highest point of the city. It was called the "Maestà" (or "Majesty"). Four other artists were asked to do smaller altarpieces to go in the four chapels that were nearby.

Unfortunately, in the 1700s, people at the cathedral thought that Duccio's altarpiece was old-fashioned. It was taken to pieces, and some of the smaller parts were sold. They can be seen in the National Gallery, London and other places. Luckily most of the pieces were kept together and can now be seen in the Cathedral Museum which is near Siena Cathedral.

Some of the smaller panels from the "Maestà"

Some of Duccio's other works

Related pages
 List of Italian painters

References

 John White, Duccio, Thames and Hudson, (1979),
 Cecilia Jannella, Duccio, Scala/Riverside, Siena (1991),
 John T. Paoletti and Gary M. Radke, Art in Renaissance Italy, Laurence King Publishing, (2005),

1255 births
1319 deaths
14th-century Italian painters
13th-century Italian painters

Duccio


"Isle of Beauty, Isle of Splendour" adalah lagu kebangsaan dari negara Dominika.

Lirik
Isle of beauty, isle of splendour,
Isle to all so sweet and fair,
All must surely gaze in wonder
At thy gifts so rich and rare.
Rivers, valleys, hills and mountains,
All these gifts we do extol.
Healthy land, so like all fountains,
Giving cheer that warms the soul.

Dominica, God hath blest thee
With a clime benign and bright,
Pastures green and flowers of beauty
Filling all with pure delight,
And a people strong and healthy,
Full of godly reverent fear.
May we ever seek to praise Thee
For these gifts so rich and rare.

Come ye forward, sons and daughters
Of this gem beyond compare.
Strive for honour, sons and daughters,
Do the right, be firm, be fair.
Toil with hearts and hands and voices.
We must prosper! Sound the call,
In which ev'ryone rejoices,
"All for Each and Each for All."

Pranala luar
 "Dominica: Isle of Beauty, Isle of Splendour", YouTube.

Dominika
Lagu kebangsaan

Isle of Beauty, Isle of Splendour


A muzzleloader is any firearm in which the user loads the  projectile and the propellant charge into the muzzle end of the gun (i.e., from the forward, open end of the gun's barrel). This is distinct from the modern (higher tech and harder to make) designs of breech-loading firearms, in which user loads the ammunition into the breech end of the barrel. The term "muzzleloader" applies to both rifled and smoothbore type muzzleloaders, and may also refer to the marksman who specializes in the shooting of such firearms. The firing methods, paraphernalia and mechanism further divide both categories as do caliber (from cannons to small-caliber palm guns).

Modern muzzleloading firearms range from reproductions of sidelock, flintlock and percussion long guns, to in-line rifles that use modern inventions such as a closed breech, sealed primer and fast rifling to allow for considerable accuracy at long ranges.

Modern mortars use a shell with the propelling charge and primer attached at the base.  Unlike older muzzleloading mortars, which were loaded the same way as muzzleloading cannon, the modern mortar is fired by dropping the shell down the barrel where a pin fires the primer, igniting the main propelling charge.  Both the modern mortar and the older mortar were used for high angle fire.  However, the fact that the mortar is not loaded in separate steps may make its definition as a muzzleloader a matter of opinion.

Muzzleloading can apply to anything from cannons to pistols but in modern parlance the term most commonly applies to black powder small arms. It usually, but not always, involves the use of a loose propellant (i.e., gunpowder) and projectile, as well as a separate method of ignition or priming.

Loading

In general, the sequence of loading is to put in first gunpowder, by pouring in a measured amount of loose powder, historically mostly by using a powder flask (or powder horn), or by inserting a pre-measured bag or paper packet of gunpowder (called a cartridge) or by inserting solid propellant pellets. The gunpowder used is typically black powder or black powder substitutes like Pyrodex. Sometimes two types of gunpowder (and two flasks) were used consisting of finer priming powder for the flash pan and coarser powder for the main charge behind the ball. This was particularly the case with earlier muzzleloaders like matchlocks but appear to have been less common with flintlocks and was irrelevant with percussion locks since they used percussion caps rather than priming powder.

Wadding is made from felt, paper, cloth or card and has several different uses. In shotguns, a card wad or other secure wadding is used between the powder and the shot charge to prevent pellets from dropping into the powder charge and on top of the shot charge to hold it in place in the barrel. In smooth bore muskets and most rifles used prior to cartridges being introduced in the mid-to late nineteenth century, wadding was used primarily to hold the powder in place.

On most naval cannons, one piece of wadding was used to hold the powder in place and served the purpose of creating a better seal around the shot. Another was used to act as a plug to stop the shot rolling out because of the swaying of the ship.

The use of cartridges with both gunpowder charge and ball, made up in batches by the shooter or a servant, was known from very early on, but until roughly around 1800 loading using a powder flask and a bag of balls was more common outside of the military. The measuring stage for the barrel charge of gunpowder could be avoided by carrying a number of pre-measured charges in small containers of wood, metal or cloth, often carried on a bandolier.  These were known by various names, including "chargers" or "apostles" as 12 were often carried.  For most of the time muzzleloaders were in use, a round ball and pre-measured powder charge could be carried in a paper or cloth wrapping.  The shooter would bite off the end of the paper cartridge with his teeth and pour the powder into the barrel followed by the ball encased in the paper wrapping.

The projectiles and wads were then pushed down into the breech with a ramrod until they were firmly seated on the propellant charge.  Priming powder could be carried in a separate priming flask and poured into the priming pan or a little powder from the cartridge was used, and the frizzen was pushed down to hold the priming powder in place. After the gunpowder and projectile or shot charge were placed in the barrel a ramrod was used to firmly pack everything down at the base of the barrel.  Then either a priming charge was placed in the priming pan or a percussion cap was placed on the nipple, the firing mechanism initiated; the cock or hammer was then cocked to make the firearm ready to fire.

Projectile types and history

Muzzleloading firearms generally use round balls, cylindrical conical projectiles, and shot charges.

In some types of rifles firing round ball, a lubricated patch (see Kentucky rifle) of fabric is wrapped around a ball which is slightly smaller than the barrel diameter.  In other types of round ball firing rifles, a ramrod and hammer is used to force the round ball down through the rifling.  When fired, either the lead ball or the wrapping grips the rifling and imparts spin to the ball which usually gives improved accuracy. In rifles firing Minié balls, the patch, often the paper wrapping from the cartridge, is used as an initial seal and to hold powder in place during loading.

The Minié ball replaced the round ball in most firearms, especially for military use, in the 1840s and 1850s.  It has a hollow base which expands to grip the rifling.  The combination of the spinning Minié ball and the consistent velocity provided by the improved seal gave far better accuracy than the smoothbore muzzleloaders that it replaced.

Modern usage
When aiming for great accuracy, muzzle-loaders are usually cleaned ("swabbed") before reloading, so that there is no residue left in the barrel to reduce accuracy, though in competitions run by the international governing body, the MLAIC, this is prohibited for military rifle and musket events. However, in small arms muzzleloading rifles, swabbing is only done after every 5-10 shots.  Large caliber muzzle-loaders such as cannons are always swabbed between shots to prevent accidents caused by live sparks igniting the fresh charge of powder as it is being loaded.

Muzzleloading

Muzzleloading is the sport or pastime of firing muzzleloading guns. Muzzleloading guns, both antique and reproduction, are used for target shooting, hunting, historical re-enactment and historical research. The sport originated in the United States in the 1930s, just as the last original users and makers of muzzleloading arms were dying out. The sport received a tremendous boost in the 1960s and 1970s. The Muzzle Loaders Associations International Committee (www.MLAIC.org) was formed in 1970 and held its first World Championship in 1971. Since then a flourishing industry manufacturing working reproductions of historic firearms now exists in the United States and Europe, particularly in northern Italy, for example at Gardone Val Trompia, in the Province of Brescia. In the United States muzzleloading guns are, subject to a number of qualifications, generally not considered firearms. Subject to state law they may be possessed by persons who might otherwise not be legally allowed to own a firearm.

The American National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association holds two national tournaments a year in Friendship, Indiana as well as the Western National Shoot Event held in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Muzzle Loaders Associations International Committee (MLAIC) governs international competition with muzzle-loading arms.  The MLAIC holds a Short Range World Championship in even-numbered years and a Long Range World Championship () on odd numbered years (South Africa has won the last 5 Long Range World Championships).

Modern use
Driven by demand for muzzleloaders for special extended primitive hunting seasons, firearms manufacturers have developed in-line muzzleloading rifles with designs similar to modern breech-loading centerfire designs. Knight Rifles pioneered the in-line muzzleloader in the mid-1980s, manufacturing and selling them to this day. Savage Arms has created the 10ML-II, which can be used with smokeless powder, reducing the cleaning required. However, Savage has discontinued the production of smokeless muzzleloaders. Remington Firearms also have a muzzleloader in production, the model "700 Ultimate" or "700 SL Ultimate". There are several custom gun makers that are currently building smokeless muzzleloaders on new or donor bolt actions.

See also

Related to muzzle-loading small arms

Related to muzzle-loading artillery

Rifled muzzle loader
List of muzzle-loading artillery
Bombard
Falconet
Saker
Cannon
Demi-cannon
Culverin
Demi-culverin
Minion
Canon-obusier (gun-howitzer)
ML 8 inch shell gun
68-pounder gun
Parrott rifle
70 pounder Whitworth
RML 68-pounder 64 cwt gun
RML 7 inch gun
68-pounder Lancaster gun
RML 12 inch 25 ton gun
RML 12 inch 35 ton gun
RML 17.72 inch gun, ("100-ton gun")

References

External links

 National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association
Muzzle Loaders association of Great Britain
Muzzle-Loading Associations International Committee
Muzzleloader Articles A number of articles on loading and firing various military muzzleloaders.

Firearm actions
Early firearms
Ammunition
19th-century weapons
18th-century weapons
Black-powder pistols

Muzzleloader


The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a movement to save human life and health. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.

Although it is a big international organisation, it is privately run. No government controls the Red Cross.

The Red Cross has a special job, given by international law. It is the only private group to have its jobs set out by international law.

Three things make up the movement:

 The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was created in 1863 in Geneva. Its job, under international law, is to protect the life and dignity of the victims of war.
 The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) was founded in 1919. It tries to make sure the national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies can work together and organise relief assistance missions in case of large-scale emergencies. The International Federation Secretariat is also based in Geneva, Switzerland.
 There is a Red Cross and Red Crescent society in nearly every country in the world. 186 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are recognized by the ICRC and admitted as full members of the Federation. Each one works in its home country, following the ideas of international humanitarian law and the statutes of the international Movement. If possible National Societies can take on additional humanitarian tasks that are not directly defined by international humanitarian law or the mandates of the international Movement. The British Red Cross Society, for example, organises volunteer ambulances at public events. The German Red Cross operates a blood bank and a professional full-time ambulance service for hospitals.
75px
The Red Cross, the Red Crescent and the Red Crystal,the three international symbols of the Red Cross

Goals
According to the Geneva conventions, there are five goals for International red cross and red crescent movements;
To monitor compliance of warring parties with the Geneva Conventions
To organize nursing and care for those who are wounded on the battlefield
To supervise the treatment of prisoners of war and treat them
To help with the search for missing persons in a war (tracing service)
To organize protection and care for normal people
To make peace between groups in war

Other websites

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement Official Website

Red Cross
Organizations based in Geneva


The World Bank Group is a group of five international organizations. The World Bank Group gives advice and finance to member countries for economic development and reducing poverty. It is a non-profit-making international organization owned by member governments. The Group has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.. It also has offices in 124 other member countries.

The group
The World Bank Group is made of the following five organizations:
 the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), established in 1945,
 the International Finance Corporation (IFC), established in 1956,
 the International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960,
 the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), established in 1988 and
 the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), established in 1966.

The beginning
The World Bank Group originated at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Many countries met and decided to start a Bretton Woods system including an international organization to provide finance to member countries. The Bank came into existence on 27th December 1945. Its name was the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The Bank's first loan was to France. The loan was of 250 million US Dollars. The purpose was to help France to again build industry and other important things like roads destroyed during the Second World War.

The activities
The activities of the World Bank Group cover many activities. Some of these activities are as follows:
 Development of health and education
 Development of agriculture and rural development
 Reduction of pollution
 Development of infrastructure, for example, development of facilities likes roads and electricity
 Development of system for good government

The World Bank Group gives loans at low rate of interest to member countries. The member countries use the money received for any one of above or some other similar activity.

In short, the World Bank Group's main mission is 1) to fight poverty and 2) to improve the living standards of people in the developing world. Beside giving direct money and finance, the World Bank Group provides advice and assistance to developing countries on almost every aspect of economic development.

The management
In general, the World Bank Group is part of the United Nations system. But, member countries govern it through a board. The IBRD has 184 countries as its members. Other four organizations of the Group have between 140 and 176 member countries. A Board of 24 Executive Directors controls the activities of the World Bank Group. A President heads the Board.

Its criticism
Many economists and people have criticized the World Bank Group for its style of functioning. Before giving loans, the Bank sometimes requires many changes in the policies of a country. This has attracted criticism as it reduces the country's independence to run its economy in its own way. The criticism is also on account of other factors. One of them is that two or three countries have more power to decide matters. As of November 1, 2004 the United States held 16.4% of total votes, Japan 7.9%, Germany 4.5%, and the United Kingdom and France each held 4.3%. As major decisions require an 85% super-majority, the US can block any change.

In spite of several criticisms, the World Bank Group's role in economic development and reduction of poverty has continued in many countries.

Other websites
 World Bank Group (website)

Non-profit organizations of Washington, D.C.
World Bank

World Bank Group


The Banqueting House, on Whitehall in the City of Westminster, central London, is the grandest and best-known survivor of the architectural genre of banqueting houses, constructed for elaborate entertaining. It is the only large surviving component of the Palace of Whitehall, the residence of English monarchs from 1530 to 1698. The building is important in the history of English architecture as the first structure to be completed in the classical style of Palladian architecture which was to transform English architecture.

Begun in 1619 and designed by Inigo Jones in a style influenced by Andrea Palladio, the Banqueting House was completed in 1622 at a cost of £15,618, 27 years before King Charles I of England was beheaded on a scaffold in front of it in January 1649. The building was controversially re-faced in Portland stone in the 19th century, though the details of the original façade were faithfully preserved. Today, the Banqueting House is a national monument, open to the public and preserved as a Grade I listed building. It is cared for by an independent charity, Historic Royal Palaces, which receives no funding from the British Government or the Crown.

History

The Palace of Whitehall was the creation of King Henry VIII, expanding an earlier mansion that had belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, known as York Place. The king was determined that his new palace should be the "biggest palace in Christendom", a place befitting his newly created status as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. All evidence of the disgraced Wolsey was eliminated and the building rechristened the Palace of Whitehall.

During Henry's reign, the palace had no designated banqueting house, the king preferring to banquet in a temporary structure purpose-built in the gardens. The Keeper of the Banqueting House was a position enhanced by Queen Mary I by designating it in relation to a building of the same name at Nonsuch Palace, near the south edge of Greater London, which has since been demolished and instead marks the site of a footpath junction of the London Loop. This house was used to entertain the French agent in London and ambassador Antoine de Noailles and his wife in 1556.

The Elizabethan banqueting house
A more permanent Banqueting house was built at Whitehall in 1581, costing £1,744-19 shillings. Raphael Holinshed described the building, with its timbered structure covered with canvas painted in imitation of stone, and a painted ceiling including the queen's devices and heraldry. The new building was intended as the venue for entertaining Francis, Duke of Anjou and Alençon. In subsequent years, the decorative scheme was enhanced by the painters George Gower and Lewis Lizard.

The ceiling of this Elizabethan banqueting house, inherited by King James I at the Union of the Crowns, was painted with clouds by Leonard Fryer in 1604.

The first Jacobean banqueting house at Whitehall
King James began building a new banqueting house in 1607, which was destined to only have a short life. The building was probably designed by Robert Stickells. King James visited the construction site in September 1607 and was displeased with the placing of pillars which obscured the windows. This banqueting house was the venue for The Masque of Beauty in January 1608, and Prince Henry's Barriers in January 1610.

An adjacent chamber was built for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate in 1613. This banqueting house was destroyed by fire in January 1619, when workmen, clearing up after New Year's festivities, decided to incinerate the rubbish inside the building.

Architecture

The replacement Banqueting House was commissioned from the fashionable architect Inigo Jones. Jones had spent time in Italy studying the architecture evolving from the Renaissance and that of Andrea Palladio, and returned to England with what were, at the time, revolutionary ideas: to replace the eclectic style of the Jacobean English Renaissance with a more pure, classical design, which made no attempt to harmonise with the Tudor palace of which it was to be part.

The design of the Banqueting House is classical in concept. It introduced a refined Italianate Renaissance style that was unparalleled in the free and picturesque Jacobean architecture of England, where Renaissance motifs were still filtered through the engravings of Flemish Mannerist designers. The roof is essentially flat and the roofline is defined by a balustrade. On the street façade, the engaged columns, of the Corinthian and Ionic orders, the former above the latter, stand atop a high, rusticated basement and divide the seven bays of windows.

The building is on three floors: The ground floor, a warren of cellars and store rooms, is low; its small windows indicating by their size the lowly status and usage of the floor, above which is the double-height banqueting hall, which falsely appears from the outside as a first-floor piano nobile with a secondary floor above. The lower windows of the hall are surmounted by alternating triangular and segmental pediments, while the upper windows are unadorned casements. Immediately beneath the entablature, which projects to emphasize the central three bays, the capitals of the pilasters are linked by swags in relief, above which the entablature is supported by dental corbel table. Under the upper frieze, festoons and masks suggest the feasting and revelry associated with the concept of a royal banqueting hall.

Much of the work on the Banqueting House was overseen by Nicholas Stone, a Devonshire mason who had trained in Holland. It has been said that, until this time, English sculpture resembled that described by the Duchess of Malfi: "the figure cut in alabaster kneels at my husband's tomb." Like Inigo Jones, Stone was well aware of Florentine art and introduced to England a more delicate classical form of sculpture inspired by Michelangelo's Medici tombs. This is evident in his swags on the street façade of the Banqueting House, similar to that which adorns the plinth of his Francis Holles memorial.

In 1638, Jones drew the designs for a new and massive palace at Whitehall in which his banqueting house was to be incorporated as one wing enclosing a series of seven courtyards, visible on the monumental main façade as only a small flanking wing. These revealed the ideas behind Jones' concept of Palladianism. However, King Charles I, who commissioned the plans, never amassed the resources to execute them; his lack of funds and the tensions that eventually led to the Civil War intervened and the plans were permanently shelved. The Second English Civil War resulted in Charles I's own execution outside Banqueting House following the defeat of Royalist forces.

In January 1698, the Tudor Palace was razed by fire that raged for 17 hours. All that remained was the Banqueting House, Whitehall Gate, and Holbein Gate. Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor were asked to design a new palace, but nothing came of the scheme. It has been said that the widowed King William III never cared for the area, but, had his wife, Mary II, been alive, with her appreciation of the historical significance of Whitehall, he would have insisted on the rebuilding.

Interior
The term Banqueting House was something of a misnomer. The hall within the house was, in fact, used not only for banqueting, but also royal receptions, ceremonies, and the performance of masques. The entertainments given there would have been among the finest in Europe, for, during this period, England was considered the area's leading musical country. On 5 January 1617, Pocahontas and Tomocomo were brought before the king at the Banqueting House, at a performance of Ben Jonson's masque The Vision of Delight. According to John Smith, James I was so unprepossessing, neither Pocahontas nor Tomocomo realized whom they had met until it was explained to them afterward. Such masques were later augmented with French musicians, whom Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I, brought to the court. The masques began a slow decline, however, after the death in 1625 of Orlando Gibbons, who ironically died on a trip to meet the newly married Henrietta Maria and her musicians.

Inside the building is a single two-storey, double-cube room. The double-cube, in which the length of the room is twice its equal width and height, is another Palladianism, where all proportions are mathematically related. At the upper level, the room is surrounded by what is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a minstrels' gallery. While musicians may have played from this vantage point, its true purpose was to admit an audience; at the time of the Banqueting House's construction, kings still lived in "splendour and state", or publicly. The less exalted and the general public would be permitted to crowd the gallery in order to watch the king dine. The lower status of those in the gallery was emphasised by the lack of an internal staircase, the gallery only being accessible by an external staircase. The building was, however, later extended to accommodate an internal staircase.

James I, for whom the Banqueting House was created, died in 1625 and was succeeded by his son, Charles I. The accession of Charles I heralded a new era in the cultural history of England. The new king was a great patron of the arts. He added to the Royal Collection and encouraged the great painters of Europe to come to England. In 1623 he visited Spain where he was impressed by Titian, Rubens, and Velázquez. It became his ambition to find a comparable painter for his own court. Rubens while in England as a diplomat was asked to design and paint the Banqueting House ceiling which was sketched in London but completed at his studio in Antwerp due to the scale of the job. It was probably commissioned in 1629–30, and finally installed in 1636, the ceiling having been completely remodelled to frame the various sections. The subject, commissioned by the king, was the glorification of his father, titled The Apotheosis of James I, and was an allegory of his own birth. To the king's chagrin, Rubens took his knighthood and decamped back to Antwerp, leaving Anthony van Dyck, lured not only with a knighthood but also a pension and a house, to remain in England as the court painter. The panels for the ceiling were all painted in Rubens' atelier in Antwerp and sent to London by ship. Inigo Jones later designed another double-cube room at Wilton House, to display Van Dyck's portraits of the aristocratic Pembroke family.

Given the attention and effort which were lavished by Charles I on the Banqueting House, his end was not without irony. On the afternoon of 30 January 1649, he stepped out of a first-floor window of Banqueting House onto the scaffold that had been erected outside for the purpose of his own execution. The actual window no longer exists, as it was not in the main hall but just outside it in an adjacent part of the building which has now gone. Seen from the outside, it would have been the next window along at the north end, roughly above the current visitors' entrance.

Legacy
Unlike the architecture of the more southern European countries, English architecture went through no period of evolution to classicism. Through Jones it arrived suddenly and fully formed. Before this, English architecture had still been based on the styles of the Middle Ages, if for the previous century influenced by Netherlandish and French renaissance classicism, which had resulted in an English renaissance style during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. However, as can be seen at prodigy houses like Hatfield House, one of England's first purpose-built "Renaissance" houses, even during this era, English domestic architecture never quite lost its "castle air".

Although English architecture had been influenced, mostly indirectly, by Italian classicism for a century or so, resulting in the use of classical forms and motifs in late Tudor, Elizabethan and Jacobean buildings, on his return from Italy Jones brought with him far more thorough and up to date understanding of the underlying principles of late Renaissance classicism. With his work at the Queen's House in Greenwich, and the Banqueting House, Jones transformed English architecture.

The overthrow of the monarch and establishment of the puritanical Commonwealth caused the style to be seen as Royalist, which delayed its spread; but within a few years of the Restoration almost every English county was to have some buildings in the classical style. The Banqueting House and its features became much copied. A much-favoured motif was the placing of pediments above not only the focal point of a façade but also its windows. The use of alternating segmental and triangular pediments, an arrangement employed by Vasari as early as 1550 at the Medicis' Palazzo Uffizi in Florence, was a particular favourite. Provincial architects began to recreate the motifs of the Banqueting House throughout England, with varying degrees of competence. Examples of the style's popularity can be found throughout England; the then-remote county of Somerset alone contains three 17th-century versions of the Banqueting House: Brympton d'Evercy, Hinton House, and Ashton Court. Following the fall of the monarchy, Jones' career was effectively ended, his style seen as royalist. He died in 1652, never having seen the popularity of the architectural concepts he introduced.

James II was the last monarch to live at Whitehall; William III and Mary II preferred to live elsewhere and eventually reconstructed Hampton Court Palace. Following the fire which destroyed Whitehall Palace, the Banqueting Hall became redundant for the purpose for which it was designed, and it was converted to a chapel to replace the Chapel Royal of Whitehall, which had been destroyed in the fire and was used to host concerts. It remained a chapel before being given to the Royal United Services Institute by Queen Victoria in 1893. Highly controversial plans to partition the large mansion house space in the service of offices for the Institution were quickly dropped in favour of the creation of a museum which displayed personal items of famous commanders and included the skeleton of Napoleon's horse. The museum closed in 1962, and the great south window, closed up by the RUSI, was restored.

Today, the banqueting hall is open for tours and use as a venue space.

References

Bibliography
 Copplestone, Trewin (1963). World Architecture. London: Hamlyn.
 Dunning, Robert (1991). Somerset Country Houses. Wimborne, Dorset: The Dovecote Press.

 Fletcher, B (1921). A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method. London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd.
 Halliday, F. E. (1967). Cultural History of England. London: Thames & Hudson.
 Hart, V. (2002). '"Immaginacy set free": Aristotelian Ethics and Inigo Jones's Banqueting House at Whitehall', RES: Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics, vol.39, pp. 151–67.
 Hart, V. (2011). Inigo Jones: The Architect of Kings. Yale University Press.
 Williams, Neville (1971). Royal Homes. Lutterworth Press.

External links

Historic house museums in London
Museums in the City of Westminster
Royal buildings in London
Grade I listed buildings in the City of Westminster
Grade I listed palaces
Historic Royal Palaces
Houses completed in 1622
Inigo Jones buildings
Neoclassical architecture in London
Palladian architecture in England
1622 establishments in England
Whitehall
Charles I of England
Pocahontas

Banqueting House


Dina aljabar dasar, interval (atawa heuleut) hartina hiji kumpulan nu ngandung sakabéh wilangan nyata antara dua wilangan nu disebutkeun, katut, bisa jadi, dua wilangan éta. Notasi interval nyaéta éksprési variabel nu kawengku dina hiji interval; misalna "5 < x < 9". Dumasar kasapukan konvénsi, interval "(10,20)" nunjukkeun sakabéh angka nyata antara 10 jeung 20, teu kaasup 10 atawa 20. Di sisi séjén, interval "[10,20]" ngawengku sakabéh awilangan nyata antara 10 jeung 20 katut angka 10 jeung 20. Kamungkinan lianna dibéréndélkeun di handap.

Dina matematika tingkat luhur, harti formal interval téh nyaéta hiji subsét S tina hiji totally ordered set T nu ngandung sarat x jeung y kaasup S, x < z < y, lajeng z anggota S.

Sakumaha disebutkeun di luhur, jadi penting nalika T = R, sét wilangan nyata.

Interval R kabagi kana sababaraha tipe (a jeung b wilangan nyata, a < b):
 (a,b) = { x | a < x < b }
 [a,b] = { x | a ≤ x ≤ b }
 [a,b) = { x | a ≤ x < b }
 (a,b] = { x | a < x ≤ b }
 (a,∞) = { x | x > a }
 [a,∞) = { x | x ≥ a }
 (-∞,b) = { x | x < b }
 (-∞,b] = { x | x ≤ b }
 (-∞,∞) = R téa, sét sakabéh wilangan nyata
 {a}
 sét kosong

In éach case where they appéar above, a and b are known as endpoints of the interval.
Note that a square bracket [ or ] indicates that the endpoint is included in the interval, while a round bracket ( or ) indicates that it is not.
For more information about the notation used above, see Naive set theory.

Intervals of type (1), (5), (7), (9) and (11) are called open intervals (because they are open sets) and intervals (2), (6), (8), (9), (10) and (11) closed intervals (because they are closed sets).
Intervals (3) and (4) are sometimes called half-closed (or, not surprisingly, half-open) intervals.
Notice that intervals (9) and (11) are both open and closed, which is not the same thing as being half-open and half-closed.

Intervals (1), (2), (3), (4), (10) and (11) are called bounded intervals and intervals (5), (6), (7), (8) and (9) unbounded intervals.
Interval (10) is also known as a singleton.

The length of the bounded intervals (1), (2), (3), (4) is b-a in éach case. The total length of a sequence of intervals is the sum of the lengths of the intervals. No allowance is made for the intersection of the intervals. For instance, the total length of the sequence {(1,2),(1.5,2.5)} is 1+1=2, despite the fact that the union of the sequence is an interval of length 1.5.

Intervals play an important role in the théory of integration, because they are the simplest sets whose "size" or "measure" or "length" is éasy to define (see above).
The concept of méasure can then be extended to more complicated sets, léading to the Borel measure and eventually to the Lebesgue measure.

Intervals are precisely the connected subsets of R. They are also precisely the convex subsets of R.
Since a continuous image of a connected set is connected,
it follows that if f: R→R is a continuous function and I is an interval, then its image f(I) is also an interval.
This is one formulation of the intermediate value theorem.

Intervals in partial orders

In order theory, one usually considers partially ordered sets. However, the above notations and definitions can immediately be applied to this general case as well. Of special interest in this general setting are intervals of the form  [a,b].

For a partially ordered set (P, ≤) and two elements a and b of P, one defines the set
 [a, b] = { x | a ≤ x ≤ b }
One may choose to restrict this definition to pairs of elements with the property that a ≤ b. Alternatively, the intervals without this condition will just coincide with the empty set, which in the former case would not be considered as an interval.

Interval arithmetic

Interval arithmetic,  also called interval mathematics, interval analysis, and interval computations, has been introduced in 1956 by M. Warmus. It defines a set of operations which can be applied on intervals :

T · S = { x | there is some y in T, and some z in S, such that x = y · z }

 [a,b] + [c,d] = [a+c, b+d]
 [a,b] - [c,d] = [a-d, b-c]
 [a,b] * [c,d] = [min (ac, ad, bc, bd), max (ac, ad, bc, bd)]
 [a,b] / [c,d] = [min (a/c, a/d, b/c, b/d), max (a/c, a/d, b/c, b/d)]

Division by an interval containing zero is not possible.

The addition and multiplication operations are commutative, associative and sub-distributive: the set X ( Y + Z ) is a subset of XY + XZ.

Notasi alternatip
Cara séjén keur nuliskeun interval, ilaharna katempo di France sarta sababarha nagara Eropa séjénna, nyaéta:

 ]a,b[ = { x | a < x < b }
 [a,b] = { x | a ≤ x ≤ b }
 [a,b[ = { x | a ≤ x < b }
 ]a,b] = { x | a < x ≤ b }

Tumbu kaluar

Interval computations research centers

Topology
Order theory
Matematika

Interval (matematika)


Gaetano Donizetti (born Bergamo 29 November 1797; died Bergamo 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer. He was the most famous composer of operas in Italy in the years between the death of Bellini (1835) and the time when Verdi was becoming well-known. Bellini and Donizetti wrote operas in the bel canto style: music with beautiful, smooth melodies.

Donizetti's family were very poor. His talent was discovered by Simon Mayr who was maestro di cappella (music director) at S Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. He opened a school which trained boys to sing in the church choir and gave them a good musical education. Donizetti learned a lot from Mayr and was always very grateful to him.

Donizetti's first operas were performed in Venice. A rich lady who realized he was very talented paid so that he did not have to do military service. His opera Zoraida di Granata was very successful in Rome and he was given a contract for an opera for Naples. For several years he composed between two and five operas every year. They were not particularly successful. One of the reasons was that the libretti he was given (the words he had to set) were not very good.

In 1828 he married. None of their three children lived very long and his wife died in 1837 which made him very sad during his last years. This can be felt in his music.

His opera Anna Bolena made him internationally famous. It was performed in London and Paris. His opera Maria Stuarda was based on a play by Schiller. It was not popular at first. The audience did not like the tragic ending. Today it is recognized as containing some great music, especially in the final scene. After a visit to Paris he returned to Naples to produce Lucia di Lammermoor which was based on Scott's novel The Bride of Lammermoor. There is a French version as well as an Italian version of this opera.

In 1838 he moved to Paris where he had his operas performed in four theatres. Berlioz wrote very critical articles about him in a music journal. Donizetti had gone to Paris hoping that he would earn lots of money so that he could then retire, just like Rossini had done. However, his health was not good and he found it harder to concentrate. He managed to composed Don Pasquale which is one of the best comic operas every written, but it does have a lot of music that he had written earlier. He was obviously finding it difficult to think of new ideas. Soon he became really ill. He was suffering from syphilis. He was put in a sanatorium near Paris for 17 months. In 1847 some friends arranged for him to stay with them, but he was very ill by then. He was paralysed and almost unable to speak. His friends looked after him until he died.

He was buried in Bergamo. His remains are now in a church there. The house where he was born is a museum.

1797 births
1848 deaths
Romantic composers
19th-century Italian composers
People from Bergamo

Gaetano Donizetti


Electronic music is music which is made with electronic equipment such as synthesizers or computers. Sometimes electronic music artists create special sounds using tape recorders too.

After World War II, when tape recorders had been invented and were becoming popular, composers started to use them to make music.  The tape recorder was needed for the performance.  Composers used them to combine lots of different sounds.  Sometimes it was music played on ordinary (acoustic) instruments which was then changed in some way by the tape recorder.  Sometimes they took sounds from everyday life such as the sound of water, traffic noise or bird song.  All these noises were put together in the way the composer wanted by using the tape recorder.  Tapes of sounds were often cut into pieces, then the pieces were 'spliced' – put back together in a different order. The results were often very interesting, but there were problems.  Some people asked: "Is it music?"  Others thought it was boring to just look at a tape recorder during a concert instead of being able to watch live musicians play.

Composers in Paris were experimenting with electronic music in the 1940s.  They called it "Musique concrète" because they used natural, concrete sounds. ("Concrete" in this sense meant the opposite of "abstract" music which was written down for performance).  The sounds were played back at different speeds, combined in lots of ways, played backwards or played continuously (repeated in a 'loop'), or played into a mixer and re-recorded onto another tape recorder.  The sounds could be filtered. Effects such as vibrato or echo could be added.  Sometimes composers used synthesizers which were machines that could make electronic music in real time.  They sounded more like normal instruments than the sound effects on a tape recorder.

Computers have often been used for composing electronic music.

Classical music
Composers who have used these ways of making music include John Cage (1912-1992), Bruno Maderna (1920-1973), Pierre Boulez (1925-2016), Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007), Martin Garrix (2009-2019) with songs like "Pizza", "Forever" and "Scared to be lonely". Very often composers combined electronic music with ordinary instruments being played.

Rock music
Bands like Twenty One Pilots, Taylor Swift, and Vance Joy among many others employ electronic sounds amongst their music.

Rap music
Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Lil Wayne and many other have added electronic music into their rap music.

Pop music
In popular music, the use of electronics to create new sounds began in the 1960s. Producer Joe Meek and inventor Bob Moog both expanded the range of sounds that could be used in pop music, and by the end of that decade electronics had become accepted in the industry. In the next few years the work of people like Giorgio Moroder, Jean-Michel Jarre, Brian Eno and Kraftwerk made electronic music famous.

In the early 1980s electronic music became fashionable, and bands like New Order, The Human League, Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode became famous. Sometimes these bands would mix electronic music with rock music.

In the 21st Century electronics are so much a part of popular music that using it is no longer strange - in fact, many artists use nothing else.

EDM music

A subgenre of electronic music is electronic dance music, or EDM. Electronic dance music is a form of electronica which is generally made with the intention of being danced to, thus making it generally club-friendly and often (but not always) up-tempo in nature. Whilst a lot of electronic genres are also classified as EDM, not all forms of electronic music fall within the specific category. Examples of EDM genres include post-disco, deep house, techno, Eurodance, trance, trip hop, drum and bass and dubstep, as well as several others.

In 2018, Billboard released a market statistic that proved the value and worth of the electronic dance music market. In this statistical statement, the company shows a 12-percent growth within one year where many changes took place with this musical revolution. One of the biggest helpers in this EDM market growth was YouTube.

Other genres of music
all sorts of genres of music even whale songs, ambient music, sounds of nature and sound effects have been distorted by some electronic sound, also to record sounds from space astronauts use electronic equipment to compress noise into a singularity.

References

 New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 1980; ISBN 1-56159-174-2

Electronic music