In 1854 Harriet Smithson died and seven months later Berlioz married Marie Recio, a singer he had known for 12 years. Her Spanish mother came to live with them, and she looked after Berlioz very kindly in his last years when he was ill. Berlioz’ son Louis had become a captain in the navy and travelled all over the world. This was something Berlioz had always dreamt of doing since his childhood when he used to read travel books. Berlioz was terribly sad in 1867 when he heard that Louis had died in Havana of yellow fever.
Berlioz had always had a passion for the Latin poet Virgil. In 1856 he spent a long time writing a long opera in five acts called "Les Troyens" ("The Trojans"). He knew it would be almost impossible to find anyone who would put on a performance. It only became possible in 1863 after he had divided the work into two parts. After that it was 30 years before the opera was performed again. It contains some of his best music. The storm scene is especially famous and often performed separately as an orchestral piece.
As he got older he became obsessed with death. He had lost two wives, and his two sisters had also died. He started to walk in cemeteries. He wrote his "Memoires" (autobiography). It has been translated into many languages including English.
In 1863 he wrote to Estelle, the girl he had loved when he was a child. She was now a widow of 67 and he was 60. He visited her in Lyons and loved her again. He wrote regularly to her for the rest of his life, and stayed with her three times in Grenoble where she lived with her son. She gradually understood him better, and she gave him much happiness during his last years.
A final journey to St Petersburg was too much for Berlioz. He became ill. He went to Nice on the way home, where he twice collapsed while walking by the sea. He went back to Paris where he was cared for by his mother-in-law. He died on 11 March 1869 and was buried in the Cimitière Montmartre.
Berlioz is a clear example of a “prophet who is without honour in his own country”: not many people in France realized he was a great composer, but in other countries he was welcomed as one of the great composers and conductors of his day. Many of his works are difficult to describe. His "Symphonie fantastique" is not quite a symphony, his "Harold en Italie" is not quite a concerto. His "Requiem" is not a normal, religious requiem, "Roméo et Juliette" is a mixture of all sorts of things. He wrote five operas, which are all very different in style. His songs are tender and lovely, influenced by the French romance. His overtures are very popular at orchestral concerts. His music is very original and, although he wrote a book on orchestration, the sounds he composed were so personal that no one could imitate him. He was not good at playing any instrument, but could imagine all the sounds in his head. Many of his melodies stretch themselves over an unusual number of bars. A lot of his orchestral music is programme music: it is often inspired by books or wild stories in his imagination.
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini (Catania, November 3 1801 - Puteaux, near Paris, September 23 1835) was an Italian composer and opera composer.
Bellini was well liked for his melodies. His first success was "Il pirata" in 1827. It was followed by "I Capuleti e Montecchi" in 1830. Then came his most famous operas "La sonnambula" (1831), "Norma" (1831) and his last "I puritani" (1835).
His second to last work "Beatrice di Tenda" (1833) was less successful.
Although his operas never left the repertoire, they became popular again in the 1950s due largely to soprano Maria Callas, followed by Joan Sutherland in the 1960s.
Charles-Valentin Alkan
Charles-Valentin Alkan (30 November 1813 - 29 March 1888) was a French-Jewish composer and pianist. His real name was Morhange. He was a virtuoso pianist who wrote a lot of piano music. Most of the pieces he wrote are extremely difficult to play. Franz Liszt, Busoni and other people of his day thought he was a great composer. Despite this, most people have only discovered in recent years how good his music is. His piano music is mostly tonal, but it changes key in unusual ways. The story was told by many people that he died when a bookcase collapsed on top of him, but that story is proved not to be true.
From the 1860s to 1873 he did not show in public very much, and composed some of his works.
Alkan was a close friend of Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt.
Kalki
Kalki is the final avatar or incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Hindus believe that there are four stages of time. The stage of time we are in is called the Kali Yuga. In this stage of time, people are very bad. To make the world good, Kalki will come to Earth, and will destroy the bad things and kill the bad people. People will change then, and become good people. A new stage of time will begin, called the Satya Yuga or the first stage of life. He is deciding to only come when everybody on Earth is very cruel. Kalki will come after Buddha, his work is to punish people who not changed their behaviour even after Buddha taught the right way. Kalki will come within this millennium. He will take birth in India. According to Nostradamus prophecies Kalki is the Chyren who will be king of whole world.He establish rightness in earth after defeating the whole world. He will punish bad people without mercy. It is said that he will be ruthless to cruel people. Kalki will establish a Golden Age within the Kali Yuga, before becoming king of the world. It is said that Krishna told Arjuna on the battlefield that right after his death, there will be the beginning of the Kali Yuga. He says 5000 years after his death (6000 B.C.) will come a Golden Age within the Kali Yuga. After the Kali Yuga Golden Age which will last approximately 10,000 years, he will establish the real Satya Yuga by defeating Kali (Demon) who is also known as the prince of evil in vedic scriptures.
Thomas Arne
Thomas Arne (born in London, baptized 28 May 1710; died London 5 March 1778) was an English composer and violinist. He was the most famous musician in the theatre in England in the 18th century. He wrote music for lots of plays. He had a great gift for writing beautiful tunes. Songs such as "Where the Bee Sucks" are still very popular. His best known tune is "Rule Britannia" which is sung every year at the Last Night of the Proms.
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (born Pressburg November 14 1778; died Weimar October 17 1837) was an Austrian composer and pianist. He was a child prodigy. Mozart thought he was so talented that he taught him free of charge. Hummel became one of the greatest pianists and composers in Europe. He always wrote in a Classical style, he never became an early Romantic like Beethoven.
He also wrote a concerto for trumpet, which is fairly famous.
Alphabetical order
Alphabetical order is a way to sort (organize) a list. It helps a reader to find a name or a title in the list. It is done by following the standard (usual) order of letters in an alphabet. Some lists in alphabetical order were used during the early Roman Empire. It became commonplace after the Renaissance.
Sorting things in English is done using the Roman alphabet. Different languages have different rules for sorting.
A list of items like Eric," Lydia", Andrea", and Bob" is organized by their first letter. "A" comes before "B", and "B" comes before "E", and "E" comes before "L" in the alphabet. When alphabetical order is used:
If many words have the same first letter, they are sorted by their second letters.
After that, the third and fourth letters are used until the whole list is sorted.
The words a, an and the are ignored. Sometimes they are written at the end, after a comma. Spaces and hyphens ( - ) are ignored, too.
A formula can be used to systematically ignore a, an and the. For Microsoft Excel, it would be:
That can also be listed like this:
Names are usually ordered by Family name, not given name.