During World War II, Walton did not have to do military service so that he had time to compose music for propaganda films, such as "The First of the Few" (1942), and Laurence Olivier's adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry V" (1944). After composing a second string quartet (1946) Walton spent most of the next seven years writing his opera, "Troilus and Cressida" (1947-1954). The opera was not very popular. This was because his music was rather Romantic, very different from a lot of modern music that was in fashion in the 1950s, especially the music of Pierre Boulez and his followers.
Walton also composed the music for two more Shakespeare-Olivier films - the Academy Award-winning "Hamlet", and "Richard III". Walton, however, did not win Oscars for any of his Shakespeare-based scores.
Walton then started to write more orchestral music: the Cello Concerto (1956), the Symphony No. 2 (1960), and the "Variations on a Theme by Hindemith" (1963). He started to have many honours: He was knighted in 1951 and received the Order of Merit in 1968. People liked his one-act comic opera "The Bear", when it was performed at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1967, and he was asked by people from all over the world for new music. His song-cycles from this period were given their first performances by famous singers such as Peter Pears and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
In his last years, Walton found composition more and more difficult. He tried to compose a third symphony for André Previn, but later gave up. His last works were mostly church music or reworkings of older pieces.. He had settled on the island of Ischia in Italy in 1949 with his Argentinian wife Susana Gil. He died there in 1983.
Since his death, Walton's music has been performed and recorded a lot. People no longer think of him as old-fashioned, but as a composer who had a very strong personality which can be heard clearly in his music.
Walton was knighted in 1951 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1967.
List of Romanian composers
This is a list of Romanian composers.
Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a self-governing port on the Baltic Sea port and a city-state. It was set up on January 10, 1920, by Part III Section XI of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, and put under League of Nations protection, with special rights reserved to Poland, because it was the only port in the Polish Corridor.
The Free City ceased to exist after 1939 when it was occupied and annexed by Nazi Germany. After Germany's defeat in 1945 Danzig was occupied and annexed by Poland under the Polish name Gdańsk.
The Free City of Danzig included the major city of Danzig (Gdańsk) as well as Zoppot (Sopot), Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański), Neuteich (Nowy Staw) and some 252 villages and 63 hamlets. Its area was .
The Free City was represented abroad by Poland's ambassadors. The railway line that connected the Free City with Poland was administered by Poland. Similarly, the separated military post within the city's harbour, the Westerplatte (formerly a city beach), was also given to Poland. There were also two post-offices, one for the Danzig Postal Service, the other was Polish-run.
League of Nations mandated territories, were run by member countries on behalf of the League. But Danzig and the Saargebiet were run by the League of Nations itself, with representatives of various countries taking on the role of High Commissioner:
The Free City's population was 357,000 in (1919). 98% were German-speakers, with the rest mainly speaking either Kashubian or Polish.
The Treaty of Versailles, split Danzig from Germany. The treaty made the people living in the city citizens of the Free City. German inhabitants lost their German nationality, if they wanted to stay German they had to go and live outside the Free City's territory.
Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig
In May 1933, the Nazi Party won the local elections in the city. But they had less than the two-thirds majority that would let them change the Constitution of the Free City of Danzig. The government introduced anti-Semitic and also anti-Catholic laws against the Poles and Kashubian inhabitants.
Poland always refused to allow the status of Danzig to change. In April 1939 the Polish Commissioner-General said that Poland was willing to fight if there was a change..
The Nazi government voted for re-unification with Germany on September 2, 1939, the day after the German invasion of Poland began.
Around 90% of the city was reduced to ruins towards the end of the Second World War. On March 30, 1945 the city was taken by the USSR. It is thought that more than 90% of the pre-war population were either dead or had fled by 1945.
The Allied Powers were told at the Potsdam conference that the former Free State was now part of Poland. (The Yalta conference was unclear whether the Free City would be recreated or not).
Surf's Up (movie)
Surf's Up is a 2007 American computer-animated movie made by Sony Pictures Animation. It stars Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, Mario Cantone, James Woods, Rebecca Honig, Diedrich Bader, Rob Machado, Kelly Slater and Sal Masekela. The movie is a parody of surfing documentaries, like "The Endless Summer" and "Riding Giants".
Baby Boy
"Baby Boy" is a Middle Eastern-influenced R&B and dancehall song written by Beyoncé Knowles, Scott Storch, Sean Paul, Robert Waller, and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter for Knowles' first solo album, "Dangerously in Love" (2003).
It was produced by Knowles and Storch and was released to positive reception as the album's second single in July 2003. The song (which features dancehall singer Sean Paul) reached number one in the U.S., becoming Beyoncé's second solo number-one single and Sean Paul's second; it also reached number two in the UK. It was also recognized at the ASCAP awards by the label companies receiving the Publisher of the Year from EMI and Most Performed Songs award in 2003. It was certified Platinum in the US for sales and shipments of over one million copies there. "Baby Boy" finished at number 12 on the "Billboard" Year-End Hot 100 of 2003.
List of heads of state of the Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig (German: "Freie Stadt Danzig"; Polish: "Wolne Miasto Gdańsk") existed between 1920 and 1939.
The City had its own post office, currency and citizenship, but it was not independent: it was administered directly by the League of Nations, represented by a High Commissioner. The city was governed by the Senate. The head of state was the President of the Senate. The Free City was represented abroad by Poland's ambassadors.
League of Nations mandated territories, were run by member countries on behalf of the League. But Danzig and the Saargebiet were run by the League of Nations itself, with representatives of various countries being the High Commissioner:
Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig
Main-Franconian dialects
Main-Franconian is group of German dialects that are spoken in the centre of Germany, in the area known as Franconia near the river Main.
In Germany most people call these dialects simply “Fränkisch”. Although they have a lot in common there are many variations from one small region to another.
Historically Franconia (German: “Franken”) was a very large area covering a lot of Germany including parts of the Rhine as far as the Netherlands. Today Franconia is the north part of Bavaria (German: “Bayern”) including what is known as Lower Franconia, Upper Franconia, Mid-Franconia and parts of Upper Bavaria.
Typical for Franconian dialects is the voiceless consonants becoming voiced, i.e. “k” pronounced like “g”, “t” like “d”, “p” like “b” and “s” like English “z”. In pubs one often hears on the public address system a request for a member of staff
The pronunciation of vowels may be different from normal German, e.g.
Franconia is often described as the place where:
An angry Franconian might say:
Port Arthur, Texas