Probably the greatest writer of canons in the eighteenth century was Johann Sebastian Bach. Many of his organ works have canons. He wrote a famous set of "Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her"" which have several canons at different intervals and inversions. He probably wrote this to show young composers how to write good canons. Bach also wrote a work called the "Musical Offering" which has what he calls a “canon per augmentationem contrario motu” (canon in augmentation and contrary motion i.e. backwards) as well as a “canon per tonos”. This last one is a modulating canon which means that the tune changes key. This is hard to compose well so that it sounds good because when the first voice has just changed key the other one is still catching up in the other key.
Bach was a great master at writing canons and other very complicated musical forms. After 1750 composers became less interested in writing music which was all polyphonic, although many composers still showed an interest in counterpoint. Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven all wrote canons and even Romantic composers like Schumann and Brahms showed an interest. César Franck wrote a canon for the fourth movement of his Sonata for Violin and Piano. It is quite easy to hear this canon, because the violin plays the tune an octave higher than the piano, and the piano holds on to a long note every other bar while the violin catches up.
In the 20th century composers such as Schoenberg who wrote serial music were fond of canons. Modern composers like Pierre Boulez have written rhythmic canons: canons in which, for example, the rhythm of one part is the retrograde (backwards) version of another.
Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812) was a British statesman and Prime Minister. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated.
Perceval was the seventh son of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont by his second wife. His father, a close friend of Frederick, Prince of Wales and King George III, had served in the Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty.
Perceval was Prime Minister when William Wilberforce passed his Bill (law) ending the slave trade.
The Orders in Council against trade which Perceval had written in 1807 became unpopular. In the winter of 1811 the Luddite riots started. They were also a cause of the War of 1812 with the United States of America. Perceval was forced to have an inquiry by the House of Commons.
On 11 May 1812, Perceval was on his way to attend the inquiry. In the lobby of the House of Commons he was shot through the heart by John Bellingham. Perceval's body lay in 10 Downing Street for five days before burial. Bellingham gave himself up immediately. Tried for murder, he was found guilty and hanged a week later.
Bellingham had a grievance, but it was not political. Bellingham petitioned the United Kingdom government for compensation over his imprisonment in Russia. This had been caused by his employer, but Bellingham blamed the British government for not getting him compensation.
Perceval was an Anglican and considered Anglicanism to be essential to the security of the state. He opposed Catholic emancipation. He is buried at St Luke's Church in Charlton, south-east London.
Canon
The word canon may mean:
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778) was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who created the binomial nomenclature. In this system, every kind of animal and plant is given a name consisting of two Latin words, for its genus and species. This became used by biologists all over the world, so he is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". He was a good linguist, and famous in his time. He was made a noble by the Swedish king.
Carl was born in Sweden. He was going to be a priest, but did not do well enough in school for that. Instead, Carl studied at a college for botany because he liked it. He studied in Lund and tried to improve the garden there. He later went to another college..
In 1735, Linnaeus moved to the Netherlands for three years. There, he earned his degree in medicine. He also published his book on plant classification. His book was called Systema Naturæ. His book explained how to classify living things by putting them into groups. Some of these groups are bigger than others.
Later he moved to Stockholm and practiced as a doctor. In 1739, Linnaeus married Sara Morea in Stockholm. Throughout the 1740s he conducted many field trips to places in Sweden to name plants and animals. When not on travels, Linnaeus worked on his classification, so it would work for plants, animals, and minerals.
The Swedish king Adolf Fredrik made Linnaeus a noble in 1757, and Linnaeus took the last name "von Linné", later often signing just "Carl Linné".
After he was made a noble, he continued teaching and writing. His reputation had spread over the world, and he talked with many different people. Linnaeus was upset by weak health, and he had gout and tooth aches. A stroke in 1774 weakened him, and two years later he had another, losing the use of his right side. He died on January 1778 and was buried in Uppsala cathedral.
Linnaeus classified man as among the primates, which was already well understood by anthropologists like Blumenbach and natural historians like Buffon. It attracted the criticism of the Swedish church. The Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala accused him of "impiety".
Linnaeus recognised four races in the human species. These were European whites, American reds (Native Americans), Asian browns, and African blacks. Blumenbach's classification was similar, with the addition of a Mongolian (= Chinese) or yellow race. Thus recognition of man's position as a primate and the existence of races was quite widespread before the theory of evolution was formulated.
Botanist
A botanist is a scientist who studies plants, including flowering plants, and plant-like things such as moss and seaweed. Botany is a scientific study of plants along with their growth, structure, evolution, and uses.
Botanists may specialize in certain areas of botany. Some important areas of study include:
Modulation (music)
Modulation, in music, means that the music changes key. A piece of music might, for example, be "in the key of C major" (meaning that it uses the notes of a C major scale, and the C sounds like the "home key" or "tonic" as it is called in music theory). Then it could modulate to G major so that the G now feels like the home key and the notes of a G major scale are used (the Fs will be F sharps).
Modulations like the one above are very common, because G is closely related to C (it is the 5th note in a C major scale: the "dominant"). A modulation to the subdominant (4th note of the scale) is also common (e.g. from C major to Fmajor). Music often modulates to the relative minor (e.g. C major to A minor).
A modulation that goes to a key whose tonic is not part of the original key is called a "chromatic modulation". Modulating from C major to A flat major would be a chromatic modulation because A flat is not a note in the C major scale.
Most pieces of music will modulate, especially if they are long pieces. It gives the music variety and helps to give it shape: the farther away from the tonic it goes the more tension there is. When the music eventually returns to the original key it feels like a homecoming.
Member of parliament
A member of parliament (usually shortened to MP) is a person in the United Kingdom or in Canada who represents the people of an area (called a "constituency") in the House of Commons. They are voted for by the people in a general election. The Prime Minister chooses when to hold a general election, but must have an election at least once every five years. MPs are usually members of a group called a political party.
In the UK, the main political parties are:
In Canada, the main political parties are: