One of the most interesting buildings is a small Rococo-Classical Palace with a big English park. People built the palace in about 1750-1800 . Other places in the town are: The birthplace of Ján Kollár, a Neo-gothic Catholic church with a valuable altar built on the place of an older church, a Lutheran church built in 1784, a Mausoleum, an Art-Nouveau greenhouse and a pavilion from 1800. In the Mausoleum there is now a Museum of Crafts.
The nature around Mošovce is really beautiful. A system of old roads with trees and small forests create a nice landscape. This landscape looks nice with the forests of the Veľká Fatra Mountains. This mountain range is one of the nicest ones in Slovakia. People from all parts of the world come visit the beautiful Limestone and dolomite rocks, and the beautiful nature in the Blatnická and Gaderská Valleys, which are not far away.
Many important people were born in Mošovce. The greatest ones are Frico Kafenda (1883-1963), composer; Anna Lacková-Zora (1899-1988), writer; Štefan Krčméry (1892-1955), literary critic, historian, and poet; Júr Tesák Mošovský, Baroque playwright; and Miloslav Schmidt, the founder of the amateur fire brigades in Slovakia.
Probably the most important person born in Mošovce is the great Slavic poet, philosopher, and Lutheran priest, Ján Kollár (1793-1852), who was very active in the literature of at least two nations. He wrote a book of poems called Slávy Dcera. His work was very important for the patriots and national activists, who lived at the same time as Kollár. People translated the book into many Slavic and non-Slavic languages.
South Ossetia
South Ossetia (, ), officially the Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania, or the Tskhinvali Region, is a "de facto" independent, disputed place in South Caucasus. It declared independence from Georgia in 1990.
South Ossetia was a Soviet oblast (region) with some self-rule and controlled big parts of the region. When it declared its independence in 1990, Georgia tried to take back the region by force and it led to the 1991-1992 South Ossetia War. Georgia tried to retake South Ossetia again in 2004 and in 2008. In 2008, Ossetia's fighters were backed by Russian troops and they gained full control of the region, but its separation from Georgia has only been recognized by three other countries (Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela) and Abkhazia (a similar place), and it is de jure (officially) a part of the Georgian region (mkhare) of Shida Kartli.
The rebels were supported by Russian and Cossack forces but, Georgia itself refuses to recognize rebel South Ossetia as an independent state; the government calls it by the medieval name of Samachablo or, more recently, Tskhinvali region (after the republic's capital).
South Ossetia relies heavily on Russian aid.
Sometimes, South Ossetia, Transnistria, Artsakh, and Abkhazia are named collectively as post-Soviet "frozen conflict" zones.
South Ossetia is situated at central Caucasus, a border between Asia and Europe. It occupies a part of Greater Caucasus range and the foothills of Kartalin Valley. South Ossetia is a very mountainous region.
Soprano
A soprano is a female singer with a high voice. Young boys who sing, and also girls, are usually called trebles. The word “soprano” can also refer to the top line of choir music. This would be sung by sopranos or trebles. Soprano is also used as a name for high pitched instruments, such as a soprano saxophone.
In opera there are different kinds of soprano voices:
Alto
The word alto can mean: someone who sings lower than a soprano. Usually females with lower voices are called contraltos. A male alto is a man who sings in a special way called falsetto. In England male altos sing in church and cathedral choirs. In some countries like Germany it is tradition to have boy altos in cathedral choirs. These will probably be boys whose voices will soon be breaking and are starting to get lower.
One of the most famous contraltos was Kathleen Ferrier. There are not so many female singers who call themselves contraltos these days. It has become more fashionable to be a mezzo-soprano. It is partly because it has become fashionable to use men for the alto parts in music by Bach and other Baroque composers, like it would have been performed in those days.
Operatic roles which need a contralto include Lucretia in Britten's "Rape of Lucretia" and Erda in Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen.
The word "alto" can also mean: the second line down in 4 part choir music. In old music the alto line was written in a special clef called the “alto clef”, which is the same as the “viola clef” (a C clef in which the middle line is middle C).
Tenor
A tenor is a man with a high singing voice. In opera the role of the young male is usually sung by a tenor. Depending on characteristics such as: volume, color and style, the tenor voice is classified in following groups:
A “Heldentenor” (German for “hero tenor”) is someone with a big tenor voice. This is suitable for heroic parts like the heroes in most of Wagner's operas. Lauritz Melchior, Max Lorenz and Jonas Kaufmann are famous heroic tenors.
The Mozart tenor with characteristics including all of the previous mentioned must be able to perform within the strict borders which are laid out by the Mozart style. Anton Dermota, Fritz Wunderlich and Francisco Araiza are the three leading people as Mozart tenor.
When writing four-part choir music the tenor line will be the third line down, between alto and bass. It is usually written in the treble clef, but will sound an octave lower than written. Sometimes, it is written in the "C-clef", which is also called a tenor clef.
In barbershop singing, the tenor part is a harmony part sung predominantly higher than the melody.
Bass (sound)
Bass is a low or deep tone (low end frequency) in music. Low or deep tones are also called "low-pitched" tones, because the pitch is low. It is usually made by a bass guitar or an acoustic bass (a double bass). It can also be a deep, rumbling electronic sound made by a synthesizer, a deep singing voice, a baritone sax, or a deep bass drum. Bass gives the well-rounded depth to music. Bass almost always is used with treble sounds made by instruments such as a guitar, piano, a high singing voice, trumpet, or harmonica.
Baritone
A baritone is a man with a voice range between that of a tenor (high male voice) and bass (low male voice), typically ranging from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C. It is the most common male voice type.
Famous baritone roles in opera include: Papageno in Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and Figaro in Rossini's "The Barber of Seville".
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is often thought of as the greatest baritone of the later 20th century. He was famous as a Lieder singer as well as on the concert stage and in opera.
Some musical instruments are also called "baritone" because they create similar frequencies to a baritone singer.
Sappho
Sappho was an Ancient Greek lyrical poet. She was probably born around 630 BC on the island of Lesbos. In the ancient world, Sappho's poetry was highly thought of. Today, most of it has been lost. Sappho presumably wrote about 10,000 lines of poetry, but only around 650 lines survive today. Little is known for certain about Sappho's life.
Sappho's poetry centres on passion and love for both men and women. The narrators of her poems often speak of infatuations and love for various women. Descriptions of physical acts between women are few and open to debate. Whether these poems are meant to be autobiographical is not known, although elements of other parts of Sappho's life do make appearances in her work. It would be like her style to have these intimate encounters expressed poetically.