Today's the Day

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIdJQps9fTY
Le Jazz Hot.

Superbe!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

May 15th

The Feast Day of St Dymphna, a 7th Century Irish princess, daughter of a Christian Mother and Daman, a Pagan King of Airgíalla (most of which is nowadays in Northern Ireland); after her mother died, Daman became deeply depressed, and when his advisors suggested that it was politically expedient for him to remarry, he declared that he would only remarry a woman as beautiful as his wife. Unfortunately, his maturing duaghter was the spit of her mother, and this did not escape his attention - so she escaped his court, together with her loyal supporters, fleeing to Belgium. In exile, she did work helping the sick and dying, and built a hospice in the town of Geel (near Antwerp); but the fame she achieved for her work was what enabled her father to discover her whereabouts, and when she refused to return with him, he cut off her head. She was reputedly 15 years old at the time. The locals buried her remains (and those of her confessor Gereburnus, who had died trying to protect her) in a cave, and, when they were declared martyrs, they were moved to various churches as relics - some relics are said to be held at St Dymphna's Shrine in Massilon, Ohio in the US. She is the Patron Saint of runaways, victims of incest, mental disorders, depression, anxiety, and neurological disorders.

And it's also International Day of Families (heaven help us) and International Conscientious Objectors' Day.

Also on this Date: Pope Innocent IV issues the Papal Bull Ad Extripanda, authorising the use of torture against heretics (1252 - the torture must only be applied once, when the guilt of the recipient is "virtually certain", and it must not endanger the recipient's life or cause loss of limb); the Massacre of Frankenhausen, in which the joint cavalries and infantries of the Philip of Hesse and George of Saxony slaughter more than 7,000 peasant foot soldiers, and capture the peasants' leader Thomas Muntzer, effectively ending the year-long German Peasants' Rebellion (1525); the Peace of Westphalia brings an end to the Thirty Years War [eight days too early] and other religious conflicts in Europe (1648); James Hadfield fires a shot at King George III at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane whilst the King is standing for the National Anthem (1800 - he misses); astronomer Francis Baily observes the phenomenon now known as "Baily's Beads" during a solar eclipse (1836); the US Army slaughters between 150 and 200 members of the Pomo indigenous American people in California (1850 - this is in reprisal at the Pomo rebellion against being made slaves by white Californian settlers); the current Royal Opera House, Covent Garden opens with a production of Meyerbeer's Les Hugenots (1868 - the previous two had been destroyed by fires); the US Department of Agriculture is created by Abraham Lincoln (1862); the first Salon des Refusés opens in Paris, exhibiting many of the avant-garde paintings rejected by the Paris Salon, including Manet's Dejeuner sur l'Herbe (1863); Pope Leo XIII issues the Papal Bull Rerum Novarum, calling for the amelioration of "the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class", and supported the right of workers to form and join Unions (1891); the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee is founded in Berlin by Magnus Hirschfeld (1897 - it is the first organiztion in history devoted to the civil rights of the LGBT members of society); Mexican Revolutionary troops enact an unprovoked massacre of 303 Chinese immigrants in the city of Torreon (1911); Debussy's Jeux is premiered at the Theatre de Champs-Elysees, conducted by Pierre Monteux (1913); in the Winnipeg General Strike in Canada, almost the entire labour force comes out on strike (1919 - on the same day, the Greek Army lands on Smyrna; atrocities against Turks quickly commence, losing international support for the invasion); Stravinsky's Pulcinella is premiered at the Paris Opera, conducted by Ernest Ansermet (1920); the Royal British Legion is founded (1921); Walt Disney releases Plane Crazy, the first cartoon to "star" Mickey Mouse" (1928); all German military aviation organizations are mreged to create the Luftwaffe (1933); the Nazi occupation of Holland begins (1940 - on the same day, Richard and Maurice McDonald open their first restaurant - hamburgers and fast food are not yet on the menu); to appease his new allies against Hitler, Stalin dissolves the Third International (1943 - formed by Lenin in 1919; the Second International had also been dissolved during a World War); Britain tests its first Hydrogen Bomb in Malden Island, near Kiritimati ["Christmas Island"] (1957); Cage's Concert for Piano & Orchestra is premiered in New York (1958 - on the same evening, the film version of Lerner & Loewe's Gigi, with Music arranged and conducted by Andre Previn is released); Shostakovich's 7th String Quartet is premiered in Leningrad by the Beethoven Quartet (1960 - on the same day, Antonioni's film L'Avventura is premiered at Cannes); Police officers [members of the Highway patrol] in Jackson Mississippi open fire on unarmed students protesting against the Vietnam War, killing two of them and hospitalising 12 others (1970 - on the same day, Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth Hoisington as the US army's first women Generals); forces from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine take control of a school in Israel and kill 31 of their hostages, 22 of them children (1974); the Soviet Army begins withdrawing from Afghanistan (1988 - the withdrawal is a long one, taking nine months to complete); Edith Cresson begins her 11-month period as France's first and [so far] only woman Prime Minister (1991); 16-year-old Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person [so far] to complete a solo Southern Hemisphere circumnavigation of the globe (2010); Michael Hazanavicius' silent[-ish] film The Artist premieres at Cannes (2011).

Birthdays Today include: Claudio Monteverdi (baptized 1567); "Hanging Judge" George Jeffreys (1645); Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759); Klemens von Metternich (1773); Michael William Balfe (1808); Stephen Heller (1813); Élie Metchnikoff (1845); L Frank Baum (1856); Pierre Curie (1859); Arthur Schnitzler (1862); Frank Hornby (1863); Mikhail Bulgakov (1891); Joseph Cotton (1905); Lars-Erik Larsson (1908); James Mason (1909); Max Frisch (1911); Arthur Berger (1912); Norrie Paramour (1914); Joseph Wiseman (1918); John Lanchbery (1923); Anthony and Peter Schaffer (1926); Jasper Johns (1930); Ralph Steadman (1936); Trini Lopez (1937); Brian Eno (1948); Jurg Frey and Mike Oldfield (both 1953); Sophie Raworth (1968).

Final Days for: Giovanni Croce (1609); Carl Friedrich Zelter (1832); Gottfried Semper (1879); Emily Dickinson (1886); Kazimir Malevich (1935); Kenneth J. Alford (1945); Edward Hopper (1967); Tyrone Guthrie (1971); Eric Porter (1995); June Carter Cash (2003); Alexander Courage and Will Elder (both 2008).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Thursday, 15th May, 1969 were:

Overture: gramophone records
Morning Concert: gramophone records
This Week's Composer: Mendelssohn (a selection of Lieder; and the 'cello Sonata in Bb, Op 45)
Showcase: recently released records
Music Making: Songs (sung by Jacqueline Delman, with pianist Brenda Lucas) and Piano Music (played by Viola Tunnard).

[Edgy 2]

Re #674
I’ve just been reminded that Blackpool Tower opened to the public for the first time on 14th May 1894

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Re #674
I’ve just been reminded that Blackpool Tower opened to the public for the first time on 14th May 1894

Blimey! That wasn't mentioned in any of my online sources - definitely added retrospectively, Edgy - many tas

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

May 16th

The Feast Day of St Brendan the Navigator, the early 6th Century Irish saint, the subject of the wonderful 9th Cntury Voyage of St Brendan, in which the saint and 14 of his followers undertake a marvellous sea voyage to Iceland, undergoing manty adbentures as they do so (including landing on an island and discovering, when they light a fire, that it is, in fact, a whale). The work was very popular in Europe, and 100 manuscripts of the work survive. (My own copy is a Penguin Classic.) Brendan, unsurprisingly, is the Patron Saint of seafarers, travellers, divers ... and whales.

And the Feast Day also of Coptic St Aaron - of whom I know little other than "when he was sick, he made roasted pigeons fly into his mouth", which sounds more spectacular than ... useful.

Also in this Date: Mary Queen of Scots flees from her Scottish enemies and seeks refuge in England (1568 - she is expecting her cousin Elizabeth to help her regain her throne; it didn't work out well); Samuel Johnson and James Boswell meet for the first time (1763); the first 1,000 Wagon Train emigrants from Missouri to Oregon [2,170 miles] along the Oregon Trail (1843 - the journey takes them six months); US Congress approves the replacement of the 5-cent bank note with a coin made of copper-nickel alloy; it becomes popularly known as the nickel (1866); Bedrich Smetana's opera Dalibor is premiered at the New Town Theatre in Prague (1868 - on the same day, US President Andrew Jackson survives an impeachment vote in the US Senate ... by one vote); Nikola Tesla begins a series of public demonstrations of his newly-patented invention, the Alternating Current Induction machine, which enables long-distance transmission of electricity (1888); the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement is ratified between Britain, France, Italy, and Russia, deciding how they will divide up the Ottoman Empire between them after the War (1916); the first Academy Awards ceremony is held (1929 - Best Picture is Wings; Best Actor is Emil Jannings [no, me neither]; Best Actress, Janet Gaynor - The Jazz Singer, which was eligible for an award, and nominated for "Best Adaptation", doesn't otherwise get a look in); 19-year-old Daphne Kearley becomes Britain's first [and only] Air Hostess before the Second World War (1936 - her flight is from Croydon Airport to Le Bourget in France, and she is paid £12 per month: about £840 today - and receives 299 airborne proposals of marriage in the first ten months of her job); the first performance of former semi-professional Baseball player Robert Russell Bennett's Symphony #3 in D "For the Dodgers" is broadcast, conducted by Sylvan Levin, with baseball commentator "Red" Barber providing the narration in the finale (1941); the SS blowsup the Great Synagogue of Warsaw, bringing the Warsaw Uprising to an end (1943 - about 13,000 Jews have been killed in the four weeks of the Uprising, most of them burnt alive in buildings incinerated by the Nazis); Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun premieres at the Imperial Theater on broadway with Ethel Merman (1946); regular flights between London and New York begin (1951); the first successful laser is operated by its inventor, Theodore Maiman, at the Hughes Research laboratory in Malibu, California (1960); Mao Zedong issues the May 16th Notice, initiating the Cultural Revolution in China (1966 - on several much happier notes, this is also the day that the Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds is first released); Britten's Owen Wingrave is premiered on BBC2 (1971); Helmut Schmidt becomes Chancellor of west Germany (1974); Mikhail Gorbachev flies to China to meet Deng Xiaoping and "normalise" Sino-Soviet relations (1989); the Queen becomes the first British monarch to address the US Congress (1991); 14 suicide bombers detonate four bombs in different parts of the city of Casablanca, killing 33 civilians [25 of them Moroccan Muslims] and injuring more than 100 others, [97 of them Moroccan Muslims) - 12 of the bombers also die, the two others were arrested before they could detonate their devices (2003); Nicolas Sarkozy becomes President of France (2007 - on the same day that Alex Salmond becomes First Minister of Scotland); Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its final mission (2011).

Birthdays Today include: John Bulwer (1606); Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718); Friedrich Rückert (1788); David Edward Hughes (1831); Richard Tauber (1891); Paul Pisk (1893); Henry Fonda (1905); Woody Herman (1913); Liberace (1919); Nancy Roman (1925);Betty Carter and Adrienne Rich (1929); Friedrich Gulda (1930); Jeremy Dale Roberts (1934); Yvonne Craig (1937); Robert Fripp (1946); Pierce Brosnan (1953); Olga Korbut (1955); Milton Jones (1964); David Boreanaz (1969); Gabriela Sabatini (1970);

Final Days for: Charles Perrault (1703); Matthew Lewis (1818); Joseph Fourier (1830); Django Reinhardt (1953); Clemens Krauss (1954); Eliot Ness (1957); Sammy Davis jnr and Jim Henson (both 1990); Edward Haedwicke (2011);


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Wednesday, 16th May, 1979 were:

Your Midweek Choice: Locatelli Concerto Grosso in F, Op 7 #12; Boyce Anthem: I have surely built thee an house; Haydn Pno 3o in Bb H xv 20; Cimarosa/Benjamin Oboe Concerto in C; Strauss Don Juan; Saint-Saëns Symphony No 3, in c minor.
This Week's Composer: Kurt Weill (The Threepenny Opera Acts 2 and 3)
An Organ Recital played & introduced by Alan Spedding (William Croft Voluntary in D; Purcell Evening Hymn; Arne Con spirito; William Walond Voluntary #5 in G major; Matthew Camidge Concerto #2 in g minor.
Music-Making from Birmigham: Haydn Scena di Berenice; Joan Ambrosio Dalza "Tastar de Corde"; Suite alla ventiana; Pavana - Saltarello - Piva (played on the lute); Francesco da Milano Fantasia and Ricercar (played on the lute); Alessandro Plccinini Toccata Cromatica; Gagliarda; Partite variate sopra quest'Aria francese detta l'Alemana; Correntc sopra l'Alemana (played on the theorbo); Mozart Misera dove son? (K 369)

20thC Music for 2 Pianos: Berio Memory; Stravinsky Concerto

[johncorrigan]

The Feast Day of St Brendan the Navigator, the early 6th Century Irish saint, the subject of the wonderful 9th Cntury Voyage of St Brendan, in which the saint and 14 of his followers undertake a marvellous sea voyage to Iceland, undergoing manty adbentures as they do so (including landing on an island and discovering, when they light a fire, that it is, in fact, a whale). The work was very popular in Europe, and 100 manuscripts of the work survive. (My own copy is a Penguin Classic.) Brendan, unsurprisingly, is the Patron Saint of seafarers, travellers, divers ... and whales.

Thanks ferney...St Brendan always makes me think of Shaun Davey's emotive suite 'The Brendan Voyage' with the great Liam O'Flynn on the Uilleann Pipes, here with an enthusiastic Irish Youth Orchestra in Cork.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z-3OKzUEDw

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

May 17th

International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) - for some reason, merely "National Day Against Homophobia" in Canada; World Hypertension Day; and World Information Society Day.


Also on this Date: Italian astronomer Niccolò Zucchi is credited as being the first person to observe the belts on Jupiter (1630); the New York Stock Exchange is founded (1792); publisher John Murray burns Byron's Memoirs in the Drawing Room of his publishing house (1834); Rosalía de Castro's Cantares Gallegos is published - her first book of poems in Galicean, and the first book ever published in the language (1863); Cavalleria Rusticana is premiered at the Teatro Constanzi in Rome (1890); John Philip Holland launches the first submarine to be able to travel long distance under water, and using electric motor for underwater travel, and gasolene for surface travel (1897); the Siege of Mafeking is lifted (1900 - on the same day, L Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is first published); archeologist Valerios Stais identifies an object retrieved from a seawreck as a very early [possibly 200BCE] analogue computer (1902 - the object is now known as the Antikythera Mechanism, after the Greek Island nearest the shipwreck); Ravel's song cycle Shéhérazade is premiered at the Salle Nouveau Théâtre in Paris, with Mezzo Jeanne Hatto [really] and the orchestra conducted by Alfred Cortot (1904); Vidkun Quisling forms the Nowegian Nazi Party (1933 - he later gives his name to a new insult: the kunQ); the Cantata Prokofiev made from his film score for Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky is premiered in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire by the Moscow Philharmonic Chorus & Orchestra conducted by the composer with Mezzo solo Varvara Gagarina (1939); the Nazis occupy Brussels (1940); Operation Chastise is carried out (1943 - 19 Lancaster Bombers from RAF 617 Squadron destroy dams along the Ruhr valley using special "bouncing bombs" developed by Barnes Wallis; the mission is better known as The Dambuster Raids); Shostakovich finishes his 15th String Quartet (1974); Prince Charles makes his "monstrous carbuncle" comment (1984); "homosexuality" is removed from the World Health Organization's list of psychiatric diseases (1990); a plumber from America steals a Tank from the Californian Armory, and destroys cars, fire hydrants, and a campervan, before he is shot dead by police (1995); ... and, this time last year, Gina Haspel became the first woman appointed to head the CIA.

Birthdays Today include: Bartholemwe Roberts ["Black Bart"] (1682); Edward Jenner (1749); Charlotte Barnum (1860); Erik Satie (1866); Dorothy Richardson (1873); Werner Egk (1901); Zinka milanov (1906); Maureen O'Sullivan (1911); Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner (1912); Birgit Nilsson (1918); Dennis Brain (1921); Dennis Potter (1935); Dennis Hopper (1936); Bill Paxton (1955);

Final Days for: Sandro Botticelli (1510); Shin Saimdang (1551); Johann Michael Bach (1648); Leopold Auenbrugger (1809); Paul Dukas (1935); Johanna Elberskirchen (1843); Tony Randall (2005); Frank Gorshin (2006); Wilfrid Mellers (2008); Yvonne Loriod (2010); Donna Summer (2012); and Harold Shapero (2013).


And the Radio 3 schedules for the morning of day, 17th May, 1989 were:

Morning Concert: Mozart Sinfonia concertante in Eb (Heifetz & Primrose); Brahms Pno 4et #1 in g minor; Stravinsky Scherzo fantastique.
Composer of the Week: Smetana (Wallenstein's Camp; 1st S4tet; Sarka).
Music for Guitar Duet played by Sergio & Odair Assad (Armin Kaufmann Suite; Villa-Lobosarr Sergio Assad A lenda do Caboclo and Choro #5; Sergio Assad Pinote; Cancao; Samba.
Edith Vogel: Liszt La campanella; Chopin Berceuse; Schubert Impromptu in c minor (D 899#1); Beethoven 32 Variations in c minor; Haydn Variations in f minor.
Midweek Choice: Arthur Wood, Three Dale Dances; Lecuona/Holdridge Malaguena; Francaix Clarinet Concerto; Mozart Misericordias Domini (K 222); Mendelssohn Concerto in d minor for Violin & Piano; Minkus/Lanchbery The Kingdom of the Shades.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

May 18th

The Feast Day of Saint Ælfgifu, the 10th Century English saint, Queen to Edmund I, and mother of King Eadwig [who became King at the age of 15, and who died four years later] and King Edgar [whose Coronation Ceremony laid the basis for those of all British monarchs since]. After her husband's death, she became increasingly involved in the Nunnery at Shaftesbury in Dorset, where she performed many acts of charity, and where was buried. She was canonised when stories of miraclous healings of those who went on pilgrimage to her shrine.

And it's World AIDS Vaccine Day, and International Museum Day.

Also on this Date: troops under the command of Count Emicho of Leiningen on their way to the First Crusade attack and kill over 800 Jews in the city of Worms (1096 - the depressingly familiar story: somebody spreads a rumour that Jews have murdered a Christian child, and used his corpse to poison the local water source; amongst the victims is Minna of Worms, a citizen highly respected by Christian and Jewish communities alike: the Crusaders allow her the "opportunity" to save her life if she converts to Christianity, but she refuses - the sort of thing that leads to canonization in Christianity); Henry II marries Eleanor of Aquitaine (1152); the Fall of Acre ends all Crusader control in the Holy Land (1291); the four-month long Siege of Malta, in which forces of the Ottoman Empire try [and fail] to capture the island, begins (1565); Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride is premiered at the Paris Opera (1779); the French Senate declare Napoleon Emperor of France (1804); John Bellingham is hanged for the murder of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval seven days earlier (1812); Chabrier's Le Roi Malgré Lui is premiered at the Opera Comique in Paris (1887 - after two further performances, the theatre burnt down); the US Supreme Court upholds the right for States to enforce racial segregation laws in public facilities, so long as the segregated facilities are equal in quality (1897); a stampede during the celebrations in Khodynka Field in Moscow after the Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II results in the crushing to death of 1,389 people, and about the same number of injuries (1896); Paul Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice is premiered at the Société Nationale de Musique in Paris, with the composer conducting (1897); Shree Pundalik, the first feature film made in India, is premiered at the Coronation Cinema in Bombay (1912); Satie's ballet Parade is premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris with costumes and sets designed by Picasso (1917); a 55-year-old employee of the Michigan School Board, angered by his failure to win public support in the Town Clerk elections, murders his wife, and firebombs his house, having previously planted time bombs at the Elementary School in Bath Township, Michigan - the bombs explode, killing 38 primary-school-age children and four members of staff, and injuring around 60 others - he escapes arrest by commiting suicide by detonating explosives in his truck (1927); the Battle of Monte Cassino comes to an end as German troops are driven from their positions by an alliance of British and Polish troops (1944 - on the same day, Soviet troops forcibly deport between 190,000 and 440,000 ethnic Turks from the Crimea); Apollo 10, the "dress rehearsal" mission for the first Moon landing, is launched (1969); a Soviet airliner travelling from Moscow to Chita is hijacked by a terrorist demanding to be taken to China - during the flight, his explosives detonate and the plane is destroyed mid-air, killing all 81 people on board (1973); India becomes the sixth nation to successfully detonate a nuclear weapon (1974); an earthquake in Washington State causes the largest-ever recorded landslide [so far] taking away the entire north face of volcano Mount St Helens, which causes an eruption with a thermal enrrgy equivalent to 26 megatons, killing 57 people, thousands of animals, and reducing hundreds of square miles to wasteland; a column of ash rises 15 miles into the atmosphere, depositing ash into 11 states, and melted snow, ice, and glaciers create a mudslide of over 50 miles (1980); a referendum in Denmark on the Maastricht Treaty overwhelmingly overturns the decision of the referendum on the Treaty held the year before - public frustration leads to riots in Copenhagen, and the Danish police opening fire on Danish citizens, wounding 11 of them (1993); Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza, ceding power to the Palestinian authorities (1994); the first of the Shrek films goes on general release (2001); Nix and Hydra, two hitherto unknown Moons of Pluto are photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope (2005); and, this time last year [91 years to the day after the Bath Township School murders] ten people are shot dead, and 13 others wounded at the Santa Fe High School in Texas by a 17-year-old fellow student.

Birthdays Today include: Omar Khayyam (1048); Matthew Brady (1822); Karl Goldmark (1830); Gertrude Käsebier (1852); Bernard Zweers (1854); Bertrand Russell (1972); Walter Gropius (1883); Thomas Midgley Jr (1889 - possibly the most unintentionally dangerous man who has ever lived); Ezio Pinza (1892); Frank Capra (1897); Henri Sauguet (1901); Meredith Wilson (1902); Theodor Berger (1905); Fred Perry (1909); Perry Como (1912); Charles Trenet (1913); Boris Christoff (1914); Margot Fonteyn (1919); Samson Francois (1924); Giovanni Falcone (1939); Miriam Margolyes (1941); Nobby Stiles (1942); WG Sebold (1944); Rick Wakeman (1949); Toyah Wilcox (1958); Tina Fey (1970).

Final Days for: Elias Ashmole (1617); Georg Böhm (1733); Pierre Beaumarchais (1799); Isaac Albeniz and George meredith (both 1909); Pauline Viardot (1910); Gustav Mahler (1911 - must've made Alma's celebrating her second husband's birthday a bit ... muted); Leroy Anderson (1975); Ian Curtis (1980); Elizabeth Montgomery (1995); Elvin Jones (2004); Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (2012).


And the Radio 3 schedules for the morning of Sunday, 18th May, 1969 were:

What's New? "A programme of recent records".
Bach Cantatas: BWVs 44 & 183: Sie werden euch in den Bann tun.
Your Concert Choice: "A record request programme"
Music Magazine introduced by Julian Herbage (features on The Golden Age of Polyphony [Alec Robertson]; Stravinsky & the Piano [Donald Mitchell]; Erich Kunz [Charles Osborne] Music 25 Years Ago [William Mann])

followed by a performance of Rigoletto.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

May 19th

The Feast Day of St Dunstan, the 10th Century English saint who died on this date in 988. Showing gifts for art and calligraphy as a child, he was also a gifted silversmith as a Monk, and later became Abbott of Glastonbury, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London, and, finally, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was on good terms with Saint Queen Ælfgifu (d'you remember Ælfgifu? She headlined yesterday) but had a quarrel with her teenage son, Eadwig when he became King - a quarrel which lasted the remainder of the King's life: all four years of it. It does seem that Dunstan had more trouble with Eadwig thyan he had with the Devil himself - Old Nick decided to tempt Dunstan by dressing up as a young Nicola, and attempting to seduce him; spotting the cloven hooves poking out from under the dress, Dunstan grabbed a pair of red hot tongs heating in the fire and grabbed the devil's nose with them, tugging until the devil regained his own true form - he then ran shrieking with agony from Dunstan's cell, his screams heard for many miles. On another occasion, the Devil asked Dunstan to reshoe his cloven feet - Dunstan made sure that the nails entered his foot and would only remove the horseshoe after the devil had promised never to enter any house where a horseshoe is hung over the door (beginning the idea of a horseshoe being lucky). With such a colourful history, Dunstan became the most popular Saint in England before the cult of the more sombre Thomas Becket took his place. Dunstan is the patron saint of locksmiths, blacksmiths, silversmiths, goldsmiths, Musicians, and bellringers (impossible though it might seem to reconcile the last two). And his feast day explains why Hallmark registration years used to be dated from 19th May (until 1660, when it replaced by 29th May - the birthday of Charles II).

Also on this Date: Catherine of Aragon and Prince Arthur Tudor are married by proxy (1499 - she is 13, he 12, and they do not meet for another two-and-a-half years, but they do write to each other ... in Latin; when they do finally meet, they cannot converse because their respective pronunciations of Latin are mutually incomprehensible); Anne Boleyn is beheaded (1536); Elizabeth I orders the arrest of Mary, Queen of Scots (1568); England begins its eleven-year period as a republic (1649); Napoleon establishes the Légion d'honneur (1802); Buffulo Bill's Wild West Show opens for the first time in Nebraska (1883); Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony is premiered in St James' Hall, London, with the composer conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1886); Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol (1897); Ravel's L’heure espagnole is premiered at the Opera-Comique in Paris (1911); the four-year-long War of Turkish Independence begins with the arrival of Kemal Attaturk's arrival at the Turkish city of Samsun (1919 - the date is celebrated as a national holiday in Turkey, and commemorated in Greece as Greek Genocide Remembrance Day); the US Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act, aimed at limiting the number of Jewish "and other undesirable" immigrants (1921); the Scout movement in Russia is renamed the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization ["Young Pioneers"] with the Scout motto "Be Prepared" radically replaced by "Always prepared!" (1922); Pope Pius XI canonizes Thomas More (1935); Soviet spacecraft Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly past another planet when it passes Venus (1961 - celebrations were somewhat muted - the probe intended to send back data from the planet had been destroyed on lift-off); "the late" Marilyn Monroe sings Happy Birthday to You at a public celebration at Madison Square Gardens for President Kennedy's 45th birthday (1962); the New York Post Sunday Magazine publishes Matin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail: "the Negro is Your Brother" (1963); the first episode of The Thick of It is broadcast on BBC4 (2005); over 140,000 gallons of crude oil leaks from a pipeline into the ocean at Refugio State Beach, near Santa Barbara, California (2015); EgyptAir Flight 804, travelling from Paris to Cairo crashes into the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 66 people on board (2016); and, this time last year, Michael Curry delivers the sermon at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.


Birthdays Today include: Baccio D'Agnolo (1462); Jacob Jordaens (1593); Johann Jakob Froberger (baptised, 1616); Johns Hopkins (1795); Nellie Melba (1861); Nancy Astor (1879); Kemel Attaturk (1881, officially); Ho Chi Minh (1890); Ruth Ella Moore (1901); Nicholas Winton (1909); Sandy Wilson (1924); Pol Pot and Malcolm X (both 1925); Trevor Peacock (1931); Alma Coogan (1932); Edward de Bono (1933); Herbie Flowers (1938); James Fox (1939)Pete Townsend (1945); David Helfgott (1947); Joey Ramone (1951); Victoria Wood (1953); Jodi Picault (1966).

Final Days for: Alcuin of York (804); Constanzo Porta (1601); John Stanley (1786); James Boswell (1795); Henri de Saint-Simon (1825); Nathaniel Hawthorne (1864); William Ewart Gladstone (1898); Benjamin Baker (1907); TE Lawrence (1935); Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (1936); Charles Ives (1954); Ronald Colman (1958); Coleman Hawkins (1969); Ogden Nash (1971); John Betjeman (1984); Hans Vogt (1992); Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis (1994); Tamara Brooks (2012); ... and, ten years ago today, Nicholaw Maw.


And the Radio 3 schedules for the morning of Saturday 19th May, 1979 were:

Aubade: Waldteufel Espana Waltz (after Chabrier); Faure Elegie; Woodforde-Finden Four Indian Love Lyrics; Debussy Reverie, and Golliwogg's Cakewalk; Khachaturyan Masquerade Suite.
Record Review: Byrd's Masses for four and five voices, BaLed by Gordon Reynolds; new orchestral records reviewed by Stephen Walsh.
Release: Chopin Pno Conc #2; Ballade #2.
BBC Singers at Flanders festival: Elgar O Wild West Wind, and There is sweet music; Tippett Dance, Clarion air; Walton A Litany, and Cantico del Sole; Berkeley Three Latin motets.
Robin Ray "presents for your pleasure a weekly selection of popular classics, in performances chosen from over 75 years of gramophone recordings."

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

May 20th

World Bee Day - nothing to do with washing appliances, instead it was initiated two years ago to promote understanding of bees and all pollinators, and their irreplaceable role in the ecosystem. The day was chosen as it was on this date that the "father of beekeeping", Anton Janša was baptised in 1734. And World Metrology Day - not "meteorology" as I first read, but a day to celebrate the International System of Units, marking the founding of the ISU on this date in 1875; this year standing out as the most recent fine-tunings of measurements come into force.

Also the Feast Day of St Lucifer (who would call their kid "Lucifer"?!) for those who don't dispute his sainthood - he's apparently a bit of a marmite character; and of Saint Æthelberht, the 8th Century King of East Anglia who, whilst travelling to meet his new bride, was beheaded on this date in 794 on the orders of Offa of Mercia (he of the eponymous Dyke - Offa seems to have regarded Æthelberht's minting of coins with his own image on them as a token of rebellion against his own rule). Very little is known about Æthelberht, and the grounds for his canonization originate post-mortem, when miracles started to occur near his burial ground.

Also on this Date: the first Council of Nicaea is opened (325 - on the agenda, the dating of Easter, the Divine nature of Jesus, and the first version of the Creed, which ended with the words "We believe in the Holy Spirit" and went on to say nasty things about those who didn't agree with them); Ecgfrith of Northumbria, then at the height of his powers, invades Scotland to adbance his power, only to be decisively routed by Pictish forces under the command of King Bridei III at the Battle of Dun Nechtain (685); Prince Louis VIII's claims to the English Throne are brought to a violent end when his supporters are defeated by supporters of Henry III at the Second Battle of Lincoln (1217 ); Vasco da Gama lands in Calicut, becoming the first European to reach India by sea (1498); the first modern Atlas, Abraham Ortelius' "Theatre of the World" is published in Antwerp (1570); Thomas Thorpe publishes Shakespeare's Sonnets - without Shakespeare's permission (1609); around 20,000 Protestant citizens of the population of 25,000 in the city of Magdeburg are slaughtered by the forces of the Catholic League in the Thirty Years' War (1631); the Massachusetts Government Act is given Royal Assent, giving the royally-appointed Governor of Massachusetts unprecedented powers (1774); Napoleon reintroduces slavery in the French colonies (1802 - it had been abolished by the Revolutionary Council eight years earlier); President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, by which American citizens can claim small patches of land free of charge (1862 - James Buchanan, Lincoln's predecessor, had vetoed the Bill; between 1862 and 1934 420,000 miles of government-owned land is given away to 1.6 million families); Queen Victoria lays the red Aberdeen Granite Foundation Stone of the Royal Albert Hall (1867); a US patent is for blue denim jeans with copper rivets granted to Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss (1874); the Triple Alliance between Italy, Germany, and Austria-Hungary is signed (1882 - on the same day, Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts is premiered in Illinois, Chicago [presumably in English]); Thomas Edison gives a public demonstration of his Kinetoscope machine to the convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (1891); the funeral is held of Edward VII (1910 - the largest-ever gathering of European Royalty); Charles Lindbergh sets off from Long Island, New York on a 33-hour flight across the Atlantic to Paris (1927); exactly five years to the day later, Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, taking less than half the time, although landing in Ireland (1932 - on the same day, Engelbert Dollfuss becomes Chancellor of Austria - a position he holds until his murder by the Nazis 26 months later); the first staged performance of Dallapiccola's opera Il prigioniero is given in the Teatro Comunale in Florence, with Scherchen conducting (1950 - the work had been broadcast the previous December); Henze's Elegie für Junge Liebende is premiered at the Schwetzingen Festival (1961 - Auden/Kallman's libretto translated into German); Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson make the first radiometer measurement giving clear evidence of the Cosmic Microwave Background, first predicted 16 years earlier (1964); the Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends (1969); 60% of the voters in the Quebec Independence Referendum reject proposals to seek independence from Canada (1980); the Chinese Government declare Martial Law and mobilize troops in the build-up to the Tiananmen Square massacre (1989); the Church of Scotland's ruling General Assembly votes to allow actively gay men and women to become Ministers (2013).

Birthdays Today include: Hieronymus Fabricius (1537); Toussaint L'Ouverture (1743); Honoré de Balzac (1799); John Stuart Mill (1806); William Fargo (1818); Emile Berliner (1851); RJ Mitchell (1895); Margery Allingham (1904); James Stewart (1908); Moshe Dayan (1915); Tony Cliff (1917); Louis Smith (1931); Joe Cocker (1944); Cher (1946); Greg Dyke (1947); Michèle Roberts (1949); Zbigniew Preisner (1955); Emma Johnson (1966); Louis Theroux (1970); and Jessica Raine (1982).

Final Days for: Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria (685); Christopher Columbus (1516); Hieronymus von Colloredo (boo-hiss - 1812); John Clare (1864); Clara Schumann (1896); Max Beerbohm (1956); Waldo Williams (1971); Barbara Hepworth (1975); Jon Pertwee (1996); Jean-Pierre Rampal and Wilfred Heaton (both 2000); Stephen J Gould (2002); Pierre Gamarra (2009); Robin Gibb and Eugene Polley (both 2012); Anders Eliasson (2013); Robyn Denny (2014); ... and, this time last year, Dieter Schnebel.


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Saturday, 20th May, 1989 were:

Morning Concert: Schubert, Symph #1; Debussy Printemps; Constantin Reindl Sinfonia concertante in D, for violin, 2flutes, 2oboes, 2horns, and strings.
The Week on 3: "highlights of the coming week's programmes"
BBCSSO conducted by Neil Mantle (Bax Tintagel; Sibelius Rakastava; Elgar Alassio)
Saturday Review presented by Richard Osborne (Handel Dixit Dominus, BaLed by George Pratt; Rattle's Porgy & Bess reviewed by Rodney Milnes); Record Release: Scriablin Poem of Ecstasy; Sallinen Four Dream Songs; Prokofiev Chout Suite; Scriabin, Left-Hand Prelude & Nocturne; RVW A London Symphony (the Bryden Thomas recording).

[vinteuil]

Very little is known about Æthelberht, and the grounds for his canonization originate post-mortem.. .

... they usually do.

The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. ÆÞelberhte are joint patrons of Hereford Cathedral, where the music for the Office of St Ethelbert survives in the thirteenth-century Hereford Breviary. [ ... saith wiki.]





.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... they usually do.

[vinteuil]

the Feast Day of St Lucifer (who would call their kid "Lucifer"?!) for those who don't dispute his sainthood - he's apparently a bit of a marmite character...

"Lucifer's status as a Saint is a matter of controversy. According to John Henry Blunt's 1874 Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools of Religious Thought, "The Church of Cagliari celebrated the feast of a Saint Lucifer on the 20th of May. Two Archbishops of Sardinia wrote for and against the sanctity of Lucifer. The Congregation of the Inquisition imposed silence on both parties, and decreed that the veneration of Lucifer should stand as it was. The Bollandists defend this decree of the Congregation ... contending that the Lucifer in question is not the author of the schism, but another Lucifer who suffered martyrdom in the persecution of the Vandals." ”
A chapel in Cagliari's cathedral is dedicated to a Saint Lucifer. Marie Josephine Louise of Savoy, wife of Louis XVIII of France, is buried there.
Opinions about Lucifer vary among Catholics who know of him; some consider him to have been "the champion of correct belief against Arianism and friend of St. Athanasius," while others consider him to have been a religious fanatic who ferociously berated his opponents. " [wiki again]

[oddoneout]

Hoping their kid will turn out to be a bright spark?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hoping their kid will turn out to be a bright spark?

Perhaps his mother was the village matchmaker?