The speed of a vessel relative to the fluid in which it travels is usually measured in knots. This may be referred to as 'boat speed', 'vessel speed' and, for aircraft, 'air speed'. The speeds of relevant fluids, such as tidal streams, river currents and wind speeds, are also usually specified in knots. Knots are then also used to describe the actual speed of a vessel over the ground (SOG) and for its rate of progress toward a distant point ('velocity made good' or VMG).
One (international) knot is the same as 1.852 kilometres per hour (km·h), and is approximately equal to the following:
Although knots do not fit within the primary SI system, they are used for nautical and aviation use for navigational reasons, because the length of a nautical mile is almost identical to a minute of latitude. As a result, distance in nautical miles on a navigational chart can easily be measured by using dividers and the latitude indicators on the side of the chart.
Knot (disambiguation)
Knot could mean:
In biology:
Knot could also mean:
Knots could mean:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British orchestra based in London. It travels around to give concerts in many places.
The RPO was started just after World War II, in 1946, by the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. Beecham did not start to get his players together until three weeks before the first concert which took place in Croydon on September 15, 1946. Beecham was principal conductor until his death in 1961.
When the orchestra toured the United States in 1950 they were the first British orchestra to visit America since the London Symphony Orchestra in 1912.
Beecham controlled all the organization of the orchestra. After Beecham’s death, the orchestra was made into a self-governing group, like the other London orchestras. They went through some difficult years. In 1963 the Royal Philharmonic Society decided they would stop asking the RPO to play for their concerts, and in Glyndebourne, where the RPO had played for the opera since 1948, the London Philharmonic Orchestra became the resident orchestra instead. Sir Malcolm Sargent helped the orchestra to put on its own concerts at a cinema in north London.
The orchestra had made an agreement with the Royal Philharmonic Society about the concerts it would play. This meant it could call itself “Royal”. In the 1960s the work they were doing no longer allowed them to call themselves “Royal”, so in 1966 the Queen officially gave them the title “Royal”.
In 1992 the orchestra appointed Peter Maxwell Davies as associate conductor and composer of the RPO.
On April 7, 1994, the Royal Philharmonic had the honour of performing at the Vatican in the historic "Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust" with Sir Gilbert Levine.
The RPO give a series of concerts in the Cadogan Hall, London, and in the Royal Albert Hall. They tour all over Britain and also abroad. In the period 2002-2007 they played in 30 different countries.
The orchestra made many recordings with Sir Thomas Beecham. In 1964 Igor Stravinsky recorded his opera "The Rake's Progress" with the RPO. From 1964 to 1979 they recorded many Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.
The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra is part of the same organization. They spend their time playing lighter classical music. The RPO have also worked with pop music groups and has given its own series of children’s concerts. In 2007 they announced a series of free educational workshops for the local community.
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH (8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor.
Boult was born in Chester. He went to school in Westminster School and studied at Christ Church, Oxford. He then went to the Leipzig Conservatory where he learnt to conduct by watching the great Hungarian conductor Arthur Nikisch. He sang in choral festivals and at the Leeds Festival of 1913, where he went to watch Nikisch conduct.
During World War I he worked for the War Office, and while he was there in 1918 he planned a series of concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, which included several important new British works including Gustav Holst's "The Planets", "A London Symphony" by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Elgar's "Symphony No. 2". When Boult was a boy he had already met Elgar. Elgar now wrote to him and said he felt sure the future of his music was safe in Boult's hands. Boult was at the start of a great career in which he conducted a lot of 20th century British music.
In 1924 Boult became conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra—now the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra — and in 1930 he was made Director of Music at the BBC. When the BBC formed the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boult also became its chief conductor, combining both jobs.
Boult became famous for conducting a wide repertoire, including the very modern-sounding music of Arnold Schoenberg. In 1933 he married Ann Wilson, the ex-wife of the singer and administrator Steuart Wilson. The marriage lasted until Boult's death. Boult was knighted in 1937.
During World War II the BBC Symphony Orchestra was evacuated to Bristol. Even there it was not safe from the bombing and they moved again to Bedford.
After the war the BBC started the BBC Third Programme and Boult was involved in many new plans for concerts and recordings.
In 1948, Steuart Wilson became Director of Music at the BBC. Some people were saying that the music on the BBC was not so good and that Boult ought to retire when he became 60 in 1949. He then became conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he made many recordings.
Boult continued to conduct until he was very old. His many recordings, including music he had heard Nikisch conduct many years before. His last public performance was conducting Elgar's ballet "The Sanguine Fan" for London Festival Ballet at the Coliseum, in London on 24 June 1978.
Boult was made a Companion of Honour in 1969.
Boult wrote two books about conducting, "Thoughts on Conducting" and "A handbook on the technique of conducting." He also wrote an autobiography: "My Own Trumpet" (the expression “to blow one’s own trumpet” means: “to boast about oneself). He also gave talks on the radio. He spoke in a very polite, formal style.
Boult always conducted with a baton (conductor’s stick). His conducting was very graceful, his movements were very simple and clear.
Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár (born 30 April 1870; died 24 October 1948) was an Austrian composer of Hungarian descent. He was the leading composer of operettas in the 20th century. He is still one of the most popular composers of light music.
Lehár was born in Komáron in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today the town is called Komárno and it is in Slovakia. He was the eldest son of a bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian army. He studied violin and composition at the Prague Conservatory. Antonín Dvořák told him he should be a composer. After graduation in 1899 he joined his father's band in Vienna, as assistant bandmaster. In 1902 he became conductor at the historic Vienna Theater an der Wien, where his first opera "Wiener Frauen" was performed in November of that year.
He is most famous for his operettas. The best known one is "The Merry Widow" (in German: "Die lustige Witwe") which is probably the most popular of all operettas. He also wrote sonatas, symphonic poems, marches, and a number of waltzes, some of which come from his famous operettas. Some of the songs from his operettas have become very well-known, especially "Vilja" from "The Merry Widow" and "You Are My Heart's Delight" ("Dein ist mein ganzes Herz") from "The Land of Smiles".
The tenor Richard Tauber sang in many of his operettas. Six of them had parts especially written for him.
Lehár died in 1948 in Bad Ischl, near Salzburg where he was also buried. His villa in Bad Ischl is now a museum in his memory.
Rings of Neptune