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A cappella
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Barbershop style
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Barbershop style
Barbershop music is one of several uniquely American art forms. The earliest reports of this style of a cappella music involved African Americans. The earliest documented quartets all began in barber shops. In 1938, the first formal men's barbershop organization was formed, known as the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A), and in 2004 rebranded itself and officially changed its public name to the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS). Today the BHS has about 22,000 members in approximately 800 chapters across the United States and Canada, and the barbershop style has spread around the world with organizations in many other countries. The Barbershop Harmony Society provides a highly organized competition structure for a cappella quartets and choruses singing in the barbershop style.
In 1945, the first formal women's barbershop organization, Sweet Adelines, was formed. In 1953, Sweet Adelines became an international organization, although it did not change its name to Sweet Adelines International until 1991. The membership of nearly 25,000 women, all singing in English, includes choruses in most of the fifty United States as well as in Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the organization encompasses more than 1,200 registered quartets and 600 choruses.
In 1959, a second women's barbershop organization started as a break off from Sweet Adelines due to ideological differences. Based on democratic principles which continue to this day, Harmony, Inc. is smaller than its counterpart, but has an atmosphere of friendship and competition. With about 2,500 members in the United States and Canada, Harmony, Inc. uses the same rules in contest that the Barbershop Harmony Society uses. Harmony, Inc. is registered in Providence, Rhode Island.
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A cappella
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Amateur and high school
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Amateur and high school
High school groups may have conductors or student leaders who keep the tempo for the group, or beatboxers/vocal percussionists.
Since 2013, summer training programs have appeared, such as A Cappella Academy in Los Angeles, California (founded by Ben Bram, Rob Dietz, and Avi Kaplan) and Camp A Cappella in Dayton, Ohio (founded by Deke Sharon and Brody McDonald). These programs teach about different aspects of a cappella music, including vocal performance, arranging, and beatboxing/vocal percussion.
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A cappella
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A capella in popular culture
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A capella in popular culture
The popularity of a cappella was revived by television shows and movies such as Glee and Pitch Perfect, with the latter being more a capella-focused than the former, whose focus lies more on traditional musical theater. Since the release of Pitch Perfect in late 2012, the amount of coed a capella groups has risen far more sharply than in the years prior.
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A cappella
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In other countries
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In other countries
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A cappella
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Afghanistan
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Afghanistan
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has no official anthem because of views by the Taliban of music as un-Islamic. However, the de facto national anthem of Afghanistan is an a cappella nasheed, as musical instruments are virtually banned as corrupting and un-Islamic.
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A cappella
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Iran
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Iran
The first a cappella group in Iran is the Damour Vocal Band, which was able to perform on national television despite a ban on women singing.
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A cappella
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Pakistan
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Pakistan
The musical show Strepsils Stereo is credited for introducing the art of a cappella in Pakistan.
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A cappella
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Sri Lanka
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Sri Lanka
Composer Dinesh Subasinghe became the first Sri Lankan to write a cappella pieces for SATB choirs. He wrote "The Princes of the Lost Tribe" and "Ancient Queen of Somawathee" for Menaka De Sahabandu and Bridget Helpe's choirs, respectively, based on historical incidents in ancient Sri Lanka. Voice Print is also a professional a cappella music group in Sri Lanka.
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A cappella
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Sweden
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Sweden
The European a cappella tradition is especially strong in the countries around the Baltic and perhaps most so in Sweden as described by Richard Sparks in his doctoral thesis The Swedish Choral Miracle in 2000.
Swedish a cappella choirs have over the last 25 years won around 25% of the annual prestigious European Grand Prix for Choral Singing (EGP) that despite its name is open to choirs from all over the world (see list of laureates in the Wikipedia article on the EGP competition).
The reasons for the strong Swedish dominance are as explained by Richard Sparks manifold; suffice to say here that there is a long-standing tradition, an unusually large proportion of the populations (5% is often cited) regularly sing in choirs, the Swedish choral director Eric Ericson had an enormous impact on a cappella choral development not only in Sweden but around the world, and finally there are a large number of very popular primary and secondary schools ('music schools') with high admission standards based on auditions that combine a rigid academic regimen with high level choral singing on every school day, a system that started with Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm in 1939 but has spread over the country.
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A cappella
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United Kingdom
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United Kingdom
thumb|The Oxford Alternotives, the oldest a cappella group at the University of Oxford in the UK
thumb|The Sweet Nothings are one of the University of Exeter's eight a cappella groups. They are one of the oldest and most successful girl groups in the UK
A cappella has gained attention in the UK in recent years, with many groups forming at British universities by students seeking an alternative singing pursuit to traditional choral and chapel singing. This movement has been bolstered by organisations such as The Voice Festival UK and the integration of the United Kingdom into the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella.
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A cappella
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Western collegiate
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Western collegiate
It is not clear exactly where collegiate a cappella began. The Rensselyrics of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (formerly known as the RPI Glee Club), established in 1873 is perhaps the oldest known collegiate a cappella group. The longest continuously singing group is probably The Whiffenpoofs of Yale University, which was formed in 1909 and once included Cole Porter as a member. Collegiate a cappella groups grew throughout the 20th century. Some notable historical groups formed along the way include Colgate University's The Colgate 13 (1942), Dartmouth College's Aires (1946), Harvard University's Krokodiloes (1946), Cornell University's Cayuga's Waiters (1949) and The Hangovers (1968), the University of Maine Maine Steiners (1958), the Columbia University Kingsmen (1949), the Jabberwocks of Brown University (1949), and the University of Rochester YellowJackets (1956).
All-women a cappella groups followed shortly, frequently as a parody of the men's groups: the Smiffenpoofs of Smith College (1936), the Night Owls of Vassar College (1942), The Shwiffs of Connecticut College (The She-Whiffenpoofs, 1944), and The Chattertocks of Brown University (1951). A cappella groups exploded in popularity beginning in the 1990s, fueled in part by a change in style popularized by the Tufts University Beelzebubs and the Boston University Dear Abbeys. The new style used voices to emulate modern rock instruments, including vocal percussion/"beatboxing". Some larger universities now have multiple groups. Groups often join one another in on-campus concerts, such as the Georgetown Chimes' Cherry Tree Massacre, a 3-weekend a cappella festival held each February since 1975, where over a hundred collegiate groups have appeared, as well as International Quartet Champions The Boston Common and the contemporary commercial a cappella group Rockapella. Co-ed groups have produced many up-and-coming and major artists, including John Legend, an alumnus of the Counterparts at the University of Pennsylvania, Sara Bareilles, an alumna of Awaken A Cappella at University of California, Los Angeles, Mindy Kaling, an alumna of the Rockapellas at Dartmouth College, and Mira Sorvino, an alumna of the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones of Harvard College.
Jewish-interest groups such as Queens College's Tizmoret, Tufts University's Shir Appeal, University of Chicago's Rhythm and Jews, Binghamton University's Kaskeset, Ohio State University's Meshuganotes, Rutgers University's Kol Halayla, New York University's Ani V'Ata, University of California, Los Angeles's Jewkbox, and Yale University's Magevet are also gaining popularity across the U.S.
Increased interest in modern a cappella (particularly collegiate a cappella) can be seen in the growth of awards such as the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards (overseen by the Contemporary A Cappella Society) and competitions such as the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella for college groups and the Harmony Sweepstakes for all groups. In December 2009, a new television competition series called The Sing-Off aired on NBC. The show featured eight a cappella groups from the United States and Puerto Rico vying for the prize of $100,000 and a recording contract with Epic Records/Sony Music. The show was judged by Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman, and Nicole Scherzinger and was won by an all-male group from Puerto Rico called Nota. The show returned for a second, third, fourth, and fifth season, won by Committed, Pentatonix, Home Free, and The Melodores from Vanderbilt University respectively.
Each year, hundreds of collegiate a cappella groups submit their strongest songs in a competition to be on The Best of College A Cappella (BOCA), an album compilation of tracks from the best college a cappella groups around the world. The album is produced by Varsity Vocals –which also produces the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella – and Deke Sharon.). According to ethnomusicologist Joshua S. Dunchan, "BOCA carries considerable cache and respect within the field despite the appearance of other compilations in part, perhaps, because of its longevity and the prestige of the individuals behind it."
Collegiate a cappella groups may also submit their tracks to Voices Only, a two-disc series released at the beginning of each school year. A Voices Only album has been released every year since 2005.
In addition, from 2014 to 2019, female-identifying a cappella groups had the opportunity to send their strongest song tracks to the Women's A Cappella Association (WACA) for its annual best of women's a cappella album. WACA offered another medium for women's voices to receive recognition and released an album every year from 2014 to 2019, featuring female-identifying groups from across the United States. The Women's A Cappella Association hosted seven annual festivals in California before ending operations in 2019.
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A cappella
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South Asian
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South Asian
South Asian a cappella features a fusion of music from the Indian subcontinent, which places it in the category of South Asian fusion music. A cappella is gaining popularity among South Asians with the emergence of primarily Hindi-English college groups. The first South Asian a cappella group was Penn Masala, an all-male group founded in 1996 at the University of Pennsylvania. The first co-ed South Asian a cappella was Anokha, from the University of Maryland, formed in 2001. The first South Asian A Cappella competition was "Anahat," hosted by the Indus student organization at UC Berkeley. Maize Mirchi, the co-ed a cappella group from the University of Michigan became the first South Asian group to advance to ICCA finals in 2023.
The South Asian a cappella competitive circuit is governed by the Association of South-Asian A Cappella (ASA), a non-profit organization formed in 2016. The competitive circuit consists of qualifier "bid" competitions all over the United States, as well as the national championship, All-American Awaaz. The first winner of the championship title was Swaram A Cappella at Texas A&M University, who won 1st place at All-American Awaaz in 2017 in New York City as well as in 2018 in Chicago. Dhamakapella currently holds the record for most All-American Awaaz championships, winning three consecutive championships in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
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A cappella
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Emulating instruments
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Emulating instruments
In addition to singing words, some a cappella singers also emulate instrumentation by reproducing instrumental sounds with their vocal cords and mouth, often pitched using specialised pitch pipes. One of the earliest 20th century practitioners of this method were The Mills Brothers whose early recordings of the 1930s clearly stated on the label that all instrumentation was done vocally. More recently, "Twilight Zone" by 2 Unlimited was sung a cappella to the instrumentation on the comedy television series Tompkins Square. Another famous example of emulating instrumentation instead of singing the words is the theme song for The New Addams Family series on Fox Family Channel (now Freeform). Groups such as Vocal Sampling and Undivided emulate Latin rhythms a cappella. In the 1960s, the Swingle Singers used their voices to emulate musical instruments to Baroque and Classical music. Vocal artist Bobby McFerrin is famous for his instrumental emulation. A cappella group Naturally Seven recreates entire songs using vocal tones for every instrument.
Beatboxing, more accurately known as vocal percussion, is a technique used in a cappella music popularized by the hip-hop community, where rap is often performed a cappella. The advent of vocal percussion added new dimensions to the a cappella genre and has become very prevalent in modern arrangements. Beatboxing is performed often by shaping the mouth, making pops and clicks as pseudo-drum sounds.
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A cappella
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See also
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See also
Lists of a cappella groups
List of professional a cappella groups
List of collegiate a cappella groups in the United States
List of university a cappella groups in the United Kingdom
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A cappella
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Notes
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Notes
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A cappella
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Footnotes
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Footnotes
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A cappella
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References
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References
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A cappella
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External links
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External links
A Cappella Music Awards
Category:Singing
Category:Vocal music
Category:Musical terminology
Category:Medieval music genres
Category:16th-century music genres
Category:20th-century music genres
Category:21st-century music genres
Category:Italian words and phrases
Category:Choral music genres
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A cappella
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Table of Content
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short description, Early history, Religious origins, Christian, Jewish, In the United States, Recording artists, Musical theatre, Barbershop style, Amateur and high school, A capella in popular culture, In other countries, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sweden, United Kingdom, Western collegiate, South Asian, Emulating instruments, See also, Notes, Footnotes, References, External links
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Arrangement
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Short description
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thumb|John Philip Sousa's manuscript arrangement of Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman overture (page 25 of 37).
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestration in that the latter process is limited to the assignment of notes to instruments for performance by an orchestra, concert band, or other musical ensemble. Arranging "involves adding compositional techniques, such as new thematic material for introductions, transitions, or modulations, and endings. Arranging is the art of giving an existing melody musical variety".(Corozine 2002, p. 3) In jazz, a memorized (unwritten) arrangement of a new or pre-existing composition is known as a head arrangement.
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Arrangement
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Classical music
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Classical music
Arrangement and transcriptions of classical and serious music go back to the early history of classical music.
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Arrangement
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Eighteenth century
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Eighteenth century
J. S. Bach frequently made arrangements of his own and other composers' pieces. One example is the arrangement that he made of the Prelude from his Partita No. 3 for solo violin, BWV 1006.thumb|Bach Partita 3 for Violin Prelude thumb|center|500px|Bach Partita 3 for Violin Prelude
Bach transformed this solo piece into an orchestral Sinfonia that introduces his Cantata BWV29. "The initial violin composition was in E major but both arranged versions are transposed down to D, the better to accommodate the wind instruments".Mincham, J. (2016) the Cantatas of Johan Sebastian Bach. http://www.jsbachcantatas.com/documents/chapter-85-bwv-29/ Retrieved 31 August 2020.thumb|Bach Cantata 29 Sinfonia thumb|center|600px|Bach Cantata 29 Sinfonia
"The transformation of material conceived for a single string instrument into a fully orchestrated concerto-type movement is so successful that it is unlikely that anyone hearing the latter for the first time would suspect the existence of the former".Mincham, J. (2016), The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. http://www.jsbachcantatas.com/documents/chapter-85-bwv-29/ Retrieved 31 August 2020.
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Arrangement
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Nineteenth and twentieth centuries
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Nineteenth and twentieth centuries
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Arrangement
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Piano music
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Piano music
In particular, music written for the piano has frequently undergone this treatment, as it has been arranged for orchestra, chamber ensemble, or concert band.Arrangement, Encyclopædia Britannica online Beethoven made an arrangement of his Piano Sonata No. 9 for string quartet. Conversely, he also arranged his Grosse Fuge (one of his late string quartets) for piano duet. The American composer George Gershwin, due to his own lack of expertise in orchestration, had his Rhapsody in Blue arranged and orchestrated by Ferde Grofé.Greenberg, Rodney. George Gershwin, p. 66. Phaidon Press, 1998. .
Erik Satie wrote his three Gymnopédies for solo piano in 1888.thumb|Satie Gymnopedie No. 3 for piano solo thumb|center|500px|Satie Gymnopedie No. 3 for piano solo
Eight years later, Debussy arranged two of them, exploiting the range of instrumental timbres available in a late 19th-century orchestra. "It was Debussy whose 1896 orchestrations of the Gymnopédies put their composer on the map."Taruskin, R. (2010, p. 70) The Oxford History of Western Music, Music in the early Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press.thumb|Debussy Gymnopedie 1, arrangement of Satie's Gymnopedie 3. thumb|center|500px thumb|center|500px|Debussy Gymnopedie 1, arrangement of Satie's Gymnopedie 3
Pictures at an Exhibition, a suite of ten piano pieces by Modest Mussorgsky, has been arranged over twenty times, notably by Maurice Ravel.Partial list of orchestral arrangements to Pictures at an Exhibition Ravel's arrangement demonstrates an "ability to create unexpected, memorable orchestral sonorities".Orenstein, A. (2016, p. VIII. Preface to Mussorgsky-Ravel, Pictures at an Exhibition. Miniature score, London, Eulenburg. In the second movement, "Gnomus", Mussorgsky's original piano piece simply repeats the following passage:thumb|Mussorgsky Gnomus original bars 19-24 thumb|center|500px|Mussorgsky "Gnomus", original bars 19–25Ravel initially orchestrates it as follows:thumb|Mussorgsky-Ravel "Gnomus", first orchestration thumb|center|500px|Mussorgsky-Ravel "Gnomus", first orchestration
Repeating the passage, Ravel provides a fresh orchestration "this time with the celesta (replacing the woodwinds) accompanied by string glissandos on the fingerboard".thumb|Mussorgsky-Ravel Gnomus, second orchestration thumb|center|500px|Mussorgsky-Ravel "Gnomus", second orchestration
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Arrangement
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Songs
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Songs
A number of Franz Schubert's songs, originally for voice with piano accompaniment, were arranged by other composers. For example, his "highly charged" and "graphic" song "Erlkönig" ("The Erl King") has a piano introduction that conveys "unflagging energy" from the start.Newbould, B. (1997, p. 57) Schubert: the Music and the Man. London, Gollancz.thumb|Schubert "Erlkönig", piano introduction thumb|center|500px|Schubert "Erlkönig", piano introduction
The arrangement of this song by Hector Berlioz uses strings to convey faithfully the driving urgency and threatening atmosphere of the original.thumb|"Erlkönig", arrangement by Berlioz thumb|center|500px
Berlioz adds colour in bars 6–8 through the addition of woodwind, horns, and a timpani. With typical flamboyance, Berlioz adds spice to the harmony in bar 6 with an E flat in the horn part, creating a half-diminished seventh chord which is not in Schubert's original piano part.thumb|center|500px|"Erlkönig", arrangement by Berlioz
There are subtle differences between this and the arrangement of the song by Franz Liszt. The upper string sound is thicker, with violins and violas playing the fierce repeated octaves in unison and bassoons compensating for this by doubling the cellos and basses. There are no timpani, but trumpets and horns add a small jolt to the rhythm of the opening bar, reinforcing the bare octaves of the strings by playing on the second main beat.thumb|Erl King - arrangement by Liszt opening bars thumb|center|500px|Erl King – arrangement by Liszt, bars 1–4
Unlike Berlioz, Liszt does not alter the harmony, but changes the emphasis somewhat in bar 6, with the note A in the oboes and clarinets grating against rather than blending with the G in the strings.thumb|center|500px|Erl King – arrangement by Liszt, bars 5–8
"Schubert has come in for his fair share of transcriptions and arrangements. Most, like Liszt's transcriptions of the Lieder or Berlioz's orchestration for Erlkönig, tell us more about the arranger that about the original composer, but they can be diverting so long as they are in no way a replacement for the original".Newbould, B. (1997, p. 467) Schubert: the Music and the Man. London, Gollancz.
Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ("Songs of a Wayfarer") were originally written for voice with piano accompaniment. The composer's later arrangement of the piano part shows a typical ear for clarity and transparency in rewriting for an ensemble. Below is the original piano version of the closing bars of the second song, "Gieng heit' Morgen über's Feld".thumb|Mahler Gieng heut' Morgen uber's feld final bars of the piano version thumb|center|500px|Mahler "Gieng heut' Morgen uber's feld", final bars of the piano version
The orchestration shows Mahler's attention to detail in bringing out differentiated orchestral colours supplied by woodwind, strings and horn. He uses a harp to convey the original arpeggios supplied by the left hand of the piano part. He also extracts a descending chromatic melodic line, implied by the left hand in bars 2–4 (above), and gives it to the horn.thumb|Mahler Gieng heut' Morgen uber's feld final bars of the orchestral arrangement thumb|center|500px|Mahler "Gieng heut' Morgen uber's feld", final bars of the orchestral arrangement
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Arrangement
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Popular music
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Popular music
Popular music recordings often include parts for brass horn sections, bowed strings, and other instruments that were added by arrangers and not composed by the original songwriters. Some pop arrangers even add sections using full orchestra, though this is less common due to the expense involved. Popular music arrangements may also be considered to include new releases of existing songs with a new musical treatment. These changes can include alterations to tempo, meter, key, instrumentation, and other musical elements.
Well known examples include Joe Cocker's version of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends", Cream's "Crossroads", and Ike and Tina Turner's version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary". The American group Vanilla Fudge and the British group Yes based their early careers on radical rearrangements of contemporary hits.Vanilla Fudge covers (classic bands website)Close To the Edge – The Story of Yes, Chris Welch, Omnibus Press, 1999/2003/2008 pages 33-34 Bonnie Pointer performed disco and Motown-styled versions of "Heaven Must Have Sent You".Bonnie Pointer bio (IMDb website) Remixes, such as in dance music, can also be considered arrangements.The Remix Manual: The Art and Science of Dance Music Remixing with Logic, Simon Langford (Elsevier, 2011, ) page 47
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Arrangement
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Jazz
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Jazz
Arrangements for small jazz combos are usually informal, minimal, and uncredited. Larger ensembles have generally had greater requirements for notated arrangements, though the early Count Basie big band is known for its many head arrangements, so called because they were worked out by the players themselves, memorized ("in the player's head"), and never written down.Randel 2002, p. 294 Most arrangements for big bands, however, were written down and credited to a specific arranger, as with arrangements by Sammy Nestico and Neal Hefti for Count Basie's later big bands.Swing music history and the big bands (Jazz in America website)
Don Redman made innovations in jazz arranging as a part of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra in the 1920s. Redman's arrangements introduced a more intricate melodic presentation and soli performances for various sections of the big band. Benny Carter became Henderson's primary arranger in the early 1930s, becoming known for his arranging abilities in addition to his previous recognition as a performer. Beginning in 1938, Billy Strayhorn became an arranger of great renown for the Duke Ellington orchestra. Jelly Roll Morton is sometimes considered the earliest jazz arranger. While he toured around the years 1912 to 1915, he wrote down parts to enable "pickup bands" to perform his compositions.
Big-band arrangements are informally called charts. In the swing era they were usually either arrangements of popular songs or they were entirely new compositions.Giddins, Gary & Scott DeVeaux (2009). Jazz. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, Duke Ellington's and Billy Strayhorn's arrangements for the Duke Ellington big band were usually new compositions, and some of Eddie Sauter's arrangements for the Benny Goodman band and Artie Shaw's arrangements for his own band were new compositions as well. It became more common to arrange sketchy jazz combo compositions for big band after the bop era.
After 1950, the big bands declined in number. However, several bands continued and arrangers provided renowned arrangements. Gil Evans wrote a number of large-ensemble arrangements in the late 1950s and early 1960s intended for recording sessions only. Other arrangers of note include Vic Schoen, Pete Rugolo, Oliver Nelson, Johnny Richards, Billy May, Thad Jones, Maria Schneider, Bob Brookmeyer, Lou Marini, Nelson Riddle, Ralph Burns, Billy Byers, Gordon Jenkins, Ray Conniff, Henry Mancini, Ray Reach, Vince Mendoza, and Claus Ogerman.
In the 21st century, the big-band arrangement has made a modest comeback. Gordon Goodwin, Roy Hargrove, and Christian McBride have all rolled out new big bands with both original compositions and new arrangements of standard tunes."Carrington and Correa Among Jazz Winners" – LATimes Blog, Feb. 2012
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Arrangement
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For instrumental groups
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For instrumental groups
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Arrangement
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Strings
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Strings
The string section is a body of instruments composed of various bowed stringed instruments. By the 19th century orchestral music in Europe had standardized the string section into the following homogeneous instrumental groups: first violins, second violins (the same instrument as the first violins, but typically playing an accompaniment or harmony part to the first violins, and often at a lower pitch range), violas, cellos, and double basses. The string section in a multi-sectioned orchestra is sometimes referred to as the "string choir".
The harp is also a stringed instrument, but is not a member of nor homogeneous with the violin family, and is not considered part of the string choir. Samuel Adler classifies the harp as a plucked string instrument in the same category as the guitar (acoustic or electric), mandolin, banjo, or zither. Like the harp, these instruments do not belong to the violin family and are not homogeneous with the string choir. In modern arranging these instruments are considered part of the rhythm section. The electric bass and upright string bass—depending on the circumstance—can be treated by the arranger as either string section or rhythm section instruments.
A group of instruments in which each member plays a unique part—rather than playing in unison with other like instruments—is referred to as a chamber ensemble. A chamber ensemble made up entirely of strings of the violin family is referred to by its size. A string trio consists of three players, a string quartet four, a string quintet five, and so on.
In most circumstances the string section is treated by the arranger as one homogeneous unit and its members are required to play preconceived material rather than improvise.
A string section can be utilized on its own (this is referred to as a string orchestra) or in conjunction with any of the other instrumental sections. More than one string orchestra can be utilized.
A standard string section (vln., vln 2., vla., vcl, cb.) with each section playing unison allows the arranger to create a five-part texture. Often an arranger will divide each violin section in half or thirds to achieve a denser texture. It is possible to carry this division to its logical extreme in which each member of the string section plays his or her own unique part.
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Arrangement
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Size of the string section
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Size of the string section
Artistic, budgetary and logistical concerns, including the size of the orchestra pit or hall will determine the size and instrumentation of a string section. The Broadway musical West Side Story, in 1957, was booked into the Winter Garden theater; composer Leonard Bernstein disliked the playing of "house" viola players he would have to use there, and so he chose to leave them out of the show's instrumentation; a benefit was the creation of more space in the pit for an expanded percussion section.
George Martin, producer and arranger for the Beatles, warns arrangers about the intonation problems when only two like instruments play in unison: "After a string quartet, I do not think there is a satisfactory sound for strings until one has at least three players on each line . . . as a rule two stringed instruments together create a slight 'beat' which does not give a smooth sound." Different music directors may use different numbers of string players and different balances between the sections to create different musical effects.
While any combination and number of string instruments is possible in a section, a traditional string section sound is achieved with a violin-heavy balance of instruments.
+Suggested string section sizesReferenceAuthorSection sizeViolinsViolasCelliBasses"Arranged By Nelson Riddle"Nelson Riddle12 players822015 players933016 players1033020 players1244030 players18660"The Contemporary Arranger"Don Sebesky9 players702012 players822016 players1204020 players12440
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Arrangement
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Further reading
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Further reading
NameAuthorInside the score: A detailed analysis of 8 classic jazz ensemble charts by Sammy Nestico, Thad Jones and Bob BrookmeyerRayburn WrightSounds and Scores: A Practical Guide to Professional OrchestrationHenry ManciniThe Contemporary ArrangerDon SebeskyThe Study of OrchestrationSamuel AdlerArranged by Nelson RiddleNelson RiddleInstrumental Jazz Arranging: A Comprehensive and Practical GuideMike TomaroModern Jazz Voicings: Arranging for Small and Medium EnsembleTed Pease, Ken PulligArranging for Large Jazz EnsembleTed Pease, Dick LowellArranging concepts complete: the ultimate arranging course for today's musicDick GroveThe complete arrangerSammy NesticoArranging Songs: How to Put the Parts TogetherRikky Rooksby
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Arrangement
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See also
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See also
Transcription (music)
Instrumentation (music)
Orchestration
Reduction (music)
Musical notation
Musical setting
American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers
Electronic keyboard (or Electronic Music Arranger), which allows for live music arrangement
List of music arrangers
List of jazz arrangers
:Category:Music arrangers
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Arrangement
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References
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References
Sources
Kers, Robert de (1944). Harmonie et orchestration pour orchestra de danse. Bruxelles: Éditions musicales C. Bens. vii, 126 p.
Kidd, Jim (1987). Unsung Heroes, the Jazz Arrangers, from Don Redman to Sy Oliver: [text with recorded examples for a presentation] Prepared on the Occasion of the 16th Annual Canadian Collectors' Congress, 25 April 1987, Toronto, Ont. Toronto: Canadian Collectors' Congress. Photo-reproduced text ([6] leaves) with audiocassette of recorded illustrative musical examples.
Randel, Don Michael (2002). The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians. .
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Arrangement
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External links
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External links
An oral history of pop music arranging, compiled by Richard Niles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Category:Arrangement
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Arrangement
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Table of Content
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Short description, Classical music, Eighteenth century, Nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Piano music, Songs, Popular music, Jazz, For instrumental groups, Strings, Size of the string section, Further reading, See also, References, External links
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Athanasian Creed
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Short description
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thumb|Athanasius of Alexandria was traditionally thought to be the author of the Athanasian Creed, and gives his name to its common title.
The Athanasian Creed—also called the Quicunque Vult (or Quicumque Vult), which is both its Latin name and its opening words, meaning "Whosoever wishes"—is a Christian statement of belief focused on Trinitarian doctrine and Christology. Used by Christian churches since the early sixth century, it was the first creed to explicitly state the equality of the three hypostases of the Trinity. It differs from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and the Apostles' Creed in that it includes anathemas condemning those who disagree with its statements, as does the original Nicene Creed.
Widely accepted in Western Christianity, including by the Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches (it is part of the Lutheran confessions set out in the Book of Concord), Anglican Churches, Reformed Churches, and ancient liturgical churches, the Athanasian Creed has been used in public worship less frequently, with exception of Trinity Sunday. However, part of it can be found as an "Authorized Affirmation of Faith" in the main volume of the Common Worship liturgy of the Church of England published in 2000. Despite falling out of liturgical use, the creed's influence on current Protestant understanding of trinitarian doctrine is clear.
Designed to distinguish Nicene Christianity from Arianism, the Athanasian Creed traditionally was recited at the Sunday Office of Prime in the Western Church. It has not been commonly used in the Eastern Church.
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Athanasian Creed
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Origin
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Origin
thumb|The Shield of the Trinity, a visual representation of the doctrine of the Trinity, derived from the Athanasian Creed
There is a possible allusion to the Creed in Gregory of Nazianzen's (Liturgy of the Hours Volume I, Proper of Saints, 2 January. – 25 January 390),) Oration in praise of Athanasius:
"For, when all the rest who sympathised with us were divided into three parties, and many were faltering in their conception of the Son, and still more in that of the Holy Ghost, (a point on which to be only slightly in error was to be orthodox) and few indeed were sound upon both points, he was the first and only one, or with the concurrence of but a few, to venture to confess in writing, with entire clearness and distinctness, the Unity of Godhead and Essence of the Three Persons, and thus to attain in later days, under the influence of inspiration, to the same faith in regard to the Holy Ghost, as had been bestowed at an earlier time on most of the Fathers in regard to the Son. This confession, a truly royal and magnificent gift, he presented to the Emperor, opposing to the unwritten innovation, a written account the orthodox faith, so that an emperor might be overcome by an emperor, reason by reason, treatise by treatise." (Oration 21, p. 33)
A medieval account credited Athanasius of Alexandria, the famous defender of Nicene theology, as the author of the Creed. According to that account, Athanasius composed it during his exile in Rome and presented it to Pope Julius I as a witness to his orthodoxy. The traditional attribution of the Creed to Athanasius was first called into question in 1642 by the Dutch Protestant theologian Gerhard Johann Vossius.
It has since been widely accepted by modern scholars that the creed was not authored by Athanasius, that it was not originally called a creed at all and that Athanasius's name was not originally attached to it. Athanasius's name seems to have become attached to the creed as a sign of its strong declaration of Trinitarian faith. The reasoning for rejecting Athanasius as the author usually relies on a combination of the following:
The creed originally was most likely written in Latin, but Athanasius composed in Greek.
Neither Athanasius nor his contemporaries ever mention the Creed.
It is not mentioned in any records of the ecumenical councils.
It appears to address theological concerns that developed after Athanasius died (including the filioque).
It was most widely circulated among Western Christians.
The use of the creed in a sermon by Caesarius of Arles, as well as a theological resemblance to works by Vincent of Lérins, point to Southern Gaul as its origin. The most likely time frame is in the late fifth or early sixth century AD, at least 100 years after Athanasius lived. The Christian theology of the creed is firmly rooted in the Augustinian tradition and uses the exact terminology of Augustine's On the Trinity, published 415 AD. In the late 19th century, there was a great deal of speculation about who might have authored the creed, with suggestions including Ambrose of Milan, Venantius Fortunatus and Hilary of Poitiers.See for examples of various theories of authorship.
The 1940 discovery of a lost work by Vincent of Lérins, which bears a striking similarity to much of the language of the Athanasian Creed, has led many to conclude that the creed originated with Vincent or his students. For example, in the authoritative modern monograph about the creed, J. N. D. Kelly asserts that Vincent of Lérins was not its author but that it may have come from the same milieu, the area of Lérins in southern Gaul.
The oldest surviving manuscripts of the Athanasian Creed date from the late 8th century.
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Athanasian Creed
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Content
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Content
The Athanasian Creed is usually divided into two sections: lines 1–28 address the doctrine of the Trinity, and lines 29–44 address the doctrine of Christology.See for an example of that division. Enumerating the three persons of the Trinity (Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), the first section of the creed ascribes the divine attributes to each individually. Thus, each person of the Trinity is described as uncreated (increatus), limitless (Immensus), eternal (æternus), and omnipotent (omnipotens).Athanasian Creed, lines 8,9,10 and 13, respectively. See side by side the English and the Latin in
While ascribing the divine attributes and divinity to each person of the Trinity, thus avoiding subordinationism, the first half of the Athanasian Creed also stresses the unity of the three persons in the one Godhead, thus avoiding a theology of tritheism.
The text of the Athanasian Creed is as follows:
in Latin English translationThis is Schaff's emendation of the Book of Common Prayer translation. See Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith.
Which faith unless every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
And the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Essence.
For there is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Ghost.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal.
Such as the Father is; such is the Son; and such is the Holy Ghost.
The Father uncreated; the Son uncreated; and the Holy Ghost uncreated.
The Father infinite; the Son infinite; and the Holy Ghost infinite.
The Father eternal; the Son eternal; and the Holy Ghost eternal.
And yet they are not three eternals; but one eternal.
As also there are not three uncreated; nor three infinites, but one uncreated; and one infinite.
So likewise the Father is Almighty; the Son Almighty; and the Holy Ghost Almighty.
And yet they are not three Almighties; but one Almighty.
So the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet they are not three Gods; but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord; the Son Lord; and the Holy Ghost Lord.
And yet not three Lords; but one Lord.
For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity; to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;
So are we forbidden by the catholic religion; to say, There are three Gods, or three Lords.
The Father is made of none; neither created, nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created; but begotten.
The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten; but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.
And in this Trinity none is before, or after another; none is greater, or less than another.
But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal.
So that in all things, as aforesaid; the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped.
He therefore that will be saved, let him thus think of the Trinity.
Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation; that he also believe faithfully the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess; that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man;
God, of the Substance [Essence] of the Father; begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the Substance [Essence] of his mother, born in the world.
Perfect God; and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father as touching his Manhood.
Who although he is God and Man; yet he is not two, but one Christ.
One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by assumption of the Manhood into God.
One altogether; not by confusion of Substance [Essence]; but by unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man; so God and Man is one Christ;
Who suffered for our salvation; descended into hell; rose again the third day from the dead.
He ascended into heaven, he sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence he will come to judge the living and the dead.
At whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies; And shall give account for their own works.
And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil, into everlasting fire.
This is the catholic faith; which except a man believe truly and firmly, he cannot be saved.
The Christology of the second section is more detailed than that of the Nicene Creed and reflects the teaching of the First Council of Ephesus in 431, and the creed of the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The Athanasian Creed uses the term substantia (a Latin translation of the Nicene ousia: 'being' or 'substance') with respect to the relation of the Son to the Father according to his divine nature, but it also says that the Son is substantia of his mother Mary according to his human nature.
The Creed's wording thus excludes Sabellianism and Arianism and the Christological heresies of Nestorianism and Eutychianism. A need for a clear confession against Arianism arose in Western Europe when the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, who had Arian beliefs, invaded at the beginning of the 5th century.
The final section of this Creed also moved beyond the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds in making negative statements about the people's fate: "They that have done good shall go into life everlasting: and they that have done evil into everlasting fire." That caused considerable debate in England in the mid-19th century, centred on the teaching of Frederick Denison Maurice.
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Athanasian Creed
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Uses
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Uses
thumb|Detail of a 13th-century manuscript illustration for William Perault's Summa Vitiorum, depicting a knight carrying the "Shield of the Trinity"
Composed of 44 rhythmic lines, the Athanasian Creed appears to have been intended as a liturgical document, the original purpose of the creed being for it to be spoken or sung as a part of worship. The creed itself uses the language of public worship by speaking of the worship of God rather than the language of belief ("Now this is the catholic faith: We worship one God"). In the medieval Catholic Church, the creed was recited following the Sunday sermon or at the Sunday Office of Prime. The creed was often set to music and used in the place of a Psalm.
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Athanasian Creed
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Protestantism
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Protestantism
Early Protestants inherited the late medieval devotion to the Athanasian Creed, and it is considered to be authoritative in many Protestant churches. The statements of Protestant belief (confessional documents) of various Reformers commend the Athanasian Creed to their followers, including the Augsburg Confession, the Formula of Concord, the Second Helvetic Confession, the Belgic Confession, the Bohemian Confession and the Thirty-nine Articles.See , , , ,
A metric version, "Quicumque vult", with a musical setting, was published in The Whole Booke of Psalmes printed by John Day in 1562. Among modern Lutheran and Reformed churches adherence to the Athanasian Creed is prescribed by the earlier confessional documents, but the creed does not receive much attention outside occasional use, especially on Trinity Sunday.
In Reformed circles, it is included, for example, in the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia's 1991 Book of Forms. It is sometimes recited in liturgies of the Canadian Reformed Churches and in the Protestant Reformed Churches. The Four additional ancient creeds that they adhere to would be Apostles, Athanasian, Creed of Chalcedon, and Nicene Creed.
The text of an abbreviated form—based on the 1990s Christian Reformed Church's translation, arranged as a three-part responsive creed for congregational use—is as follows:
We worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity.
The person of the Father is a distinct person,
the person of the Son is another,
and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one. Their glory equal; their majesty co-eternal.
What quality the Father has,
the Son has,
and the Holy Spirit has.
The Father is uncreated,
the Son is uncreated,
the Holy Spirit is uncreated.
The Father is immeasurable,
the Son is immeasurable,
the Holy Spirit is immeasurable.
The Father is eternal,
the Son is eternal,
the Holy Spirit is eternal.
And yet there are not three eternal beings. There is but one eternal being. So too there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings. There is but one uncreated and immeasurable being.
The Father is almighty,
the Son is almighty,
the Holy Spirit is almighty.
Yet there are not three almighty beings.
There is but one almighty being.
Thus the Father is God,
the Son is God,
the Holy Spirit is God.
Yet there are not three gods.
There is but one God.
In the successive Books of Common Prayer of the reformed Church of England, from 1549 to 1662, its recitation was provided for on 19 occasions each year, a practice that continued until the 19th century, when vigorous controversy regarding its statement about 'eternal damnation' saw its use gradually decline. It remains one of the three Creeds approved in the Thirty-Nine Articles, and it is printed in several current Anglican prayer books, such as A Prayer Book for Australia (1995). As with Roman Catholic practice, its use is now generally only on Trinity Sunday or its octave. An Anglican devotional manual published by The Church Union, A Manual of Catholic Devotion: For Members of the Church of England, includes the Athanasian Creed with the prayers for Mattins, with the note: "Said on certain feasts at Mattins instead of the Apostles' Creed".
The Episcopal Church, based in the United States, has never provided for its use in worship, but added it to its Book of Common Prayer for the first time in 1979, where it is included in small print in a reference section, "Historical Documents of the Church". The Anglo-Catholic devotional manual Saint Augustine's Prayer Book, first published in 1947 and revised in 1967, includes the Athanasian Creed under "Devotions to the Holy Trinity".
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Athanasian Creed
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Lutheranism
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Lutheranism
In Lutheranism, the Athanasian Creed is, along with the Apostles' and the Nicene Creed, one of the three ecumenical creeds and is placed at the beginning of the 1580 Book of Concord, the historic collection of authoritative doctrinal statements (confessions) of the Lutheran Church. It is still used in the liturgy on Trinity Sunday.
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Athanasian Creed
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Catholicism
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Catholicism
In Roman Catholic churches, it was traditionally said at Prime on Sundays when the Office was of the Sunday. The 1911 reforms reduced that to Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost and on Trinity Sunday, except when a commemoration of a double feast or a day within an Octave occurred. The 1960 reforms further reduced its use to once a year, on Trinity Sunday.
It has been effectively dropped from the Catholic liturgy since the Second Vatican Council. It is maintained in the rite of exorcism of the Roman Rite. Opus Dei members recite it on the third Sunday of every month. Consistent with its presence in Anglican prayer books, it is preserved in Divine Worship: Daily Office, the official breviary approved for use in the personal ordinariates for former Anglicans.
A common visualization of the first half of the Creed is the Shield of the Trinity.
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Athanasian Creed
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References
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References
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Athanasian Creed
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Citations
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Citations
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Athanasian Creed
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Sources
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Sources
Category:Book of Concord
Category:Ecumenical creeds
Category:5th-century Christian texts
Category:Texts in Latin
Category:Trinitarianism
Category:Christian statements of faith
Category:Christian terminology
Category:Western Christianity
Category:Nature of Jesus Christ
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Athanasian Creed
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Table of Content
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Short description, Origin, Content, Uses, Protestantism, Lutheranism, Catholicism, References, Citations, Sources
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Alicante
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Short description
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Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: / ) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in the Valencian Community.
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Alicante
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Toponymy
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Toponymy
The name of the city echoes the Arabic name Laqant (), al-Laqant (اللَّقَنْت) or Al-qant (), which in turn reflects the Latin Lucentum and Greek root Leuké (or Leuka), meaning "white".
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Alicante
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History
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History
The area around Alicante has been inhabited for over 7,000 years. The first tribes of hunter-gatherers moved gradually from Central Europe between 5000 and 3000 BC. Some of the earlier settlements were made on the slopes of Mount Benacantil. By 1000 BC, Greek and Phoenician traders had begun to visit the eastern coast of Spain, establishing small trading ports and introducing the native Iberian tribes to the alphabet, iron, and the pottery wheel. The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca established the fortified settlement of Akra Leuké (Greek: , meaning "White Mountain" or "White Point"), in the mid-230s BC, which is generally presumed to have been on the site of modern Alicante.
thumb|left|Archeological site of Tossal de Manises, ancient Iberian–Carthaginian–Roman city of Akra Leuké or Lucentum
Although the Carthaginians conquered much of the land around Alicante, the Romans eventually ruled Hispania Tarraconensis for over 700 years. By the 5th century AD, Rome was in decline, and the Roman predecessor town of Alicante, known as Lucentum (Latin), was more or less under the control of the Visigothic warlord Theudimer and thereafter under Visigothic rule from 400 to 700 A.D. The Goths did not put up much resistance to the Arab conquest of Medina Laqant at the beginning of the 8th century. The Moors ruled southern and eastern Spain until the 13th century Reconquista (Reconquest). Alicante was conquered again in 1247 by the Castilian king Alfonso X, but later passed to the Crown of Aragon in 1296 with King James II of Aragon. It gained the status of Royal Village (Vila Reial) with representation in the medieval Valencian Parliament (Corts Valencianes).
After several decades of being the battlefield where the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon clashed, Alicante became a major Mediterranean trading station exporting rice, wine, olive oil, oranges, and wool. But between 1609 and 1614 King Felipe III expelled thousands of Moriscos who had remained in Valencia after the Reconquista, due to their cooperation with Barbary pirates who continually attacked coastal cities and caused much harm to trade. This act cost the region dearly; with so many skilled artisans and agricultural labourers gone, the feudal nobility found itself sliding into bankruptcy.
Conditions worsened in the early 18th century; after the War of Spanish Succession, Alicante went into a long, slow decline, surviving through the 18th and 19th centuries by making shoes and growing agricultural produce such as oranges and almonds, and thanks to its fisheries. The end of the 19th century witnessed a sharp recovery of the local economy with increasing international trade and the growth of the city harbour leading to increased exports of several products (particularly during World War I when Spain was a neutral country).
During the early 20th century, Alicante was a minor capital that took profit from the benefit of Spain's neutrality during World War I, and it provided new opportunities for local industry and agriculture. The Rif War in the 1920s saw numerous alicantinos drafted to fight in the long and bloody campaigns in the former Spanish protectorate (northern Morocco) against the Rif rebels. The political unrest of the late 1920s led to the victory of Republican candidates in local council elections throughout the country, and the abdication of King Alfonso XIII. The proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic was much celebrated in the city on 14 April 1931. The Spanish Civil War broke out on 17 July 1936. Alicante was the last city loyal to the Republican government to be occupied by General Franco's troops on 1 April 1939, and its harbour saw the last Republican government officials fleeing the country. Vicious air bombings were targeted on Alicante during the three years of civil conflict, most notably the bombing by the Italian Aviazione Legionaria of the Mercado on 25 May 1938 in which more than 300 civilians perished.
The port of Alicante was the site of the heroic episode of the British ship SS Stanbrook in 1939 at the end of the Spanish Civil War. Her captain Archibald Dickson decided to rescue thousands of Spanish Republicans families during the night of 28 March 1939 under the bombing of the Nazis.
From 1954 onward, many pied-noirs settled in the city (as many as 30,000, although other sources decrease the amount tenfold). Alicante had fostered strong links with Oran in the past, and a notable share of the population of the latter city during the French colonial period had ancestry in the province of Alicante. The immigration process accelerated after the independence of Algeria in 1962.
thumb|right|El Postiguet beach in 1957
The late 1950s and early 1960s saw the onset of a lasting transformation of the city by the tourist industry. Large buildings and complexes rose in nearby Albufereta, e.g. El Barco, and Playa de San Juan de Alicante, with the benign climate being the biggest draw to attract prospective buyers and tourists who kept the hotels reasonably busy. New construction benefited the whole economy, as the development of the tourism sector also spawned new businesses such as restaurants, bars, and other tourist-oriented enterprises. Also, the old airfield at Rabasa was closed and air traffic moved to the new El Altet Airport, which made a more convenient and modern facility for charter flights bringing tourists from northern European countries.
When Franco died in 1975, his successor Juan Carlos I played his part as the living symbol of the transition of Spain to a democratic constitutional monarchy. The governments of regional communities were given constitutional status as nationalities, and their governments were given more autonomy, including that of the Valencian region, the Generalitat Valenciana.
The Port of Alicante has been reinventing itself since the industrial decline the city suffered in the 1980s (with most mercantile traffic lost to Valencia's harbour). In recent years, the Port Authority has established it as one of the most important ports in Spain for cruises, with 72 calls to port made by cruise ships in 2007 bringing some 80,000 passengers and 30,000 crew to the city each year. The moves to develop the port for more tourism have been welcomed by the city and its residents, but the latest plans to develop an industrial estate in the port have caused great controversy.
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Alicante
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Geography
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Geography
Alicante is located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Some orographic features rise over the largely flat terrain where the city is built on including the Cabo de la Huerta, the Serra Grossa, the Tosal and the Benacantil hills.
Located in an arid territory, Alicante lacks any meaningful permanent water stream. There are however several stream beds correspondent to intermittent ramblas. There was a swamp area in the northeast of the municipality, l'Albufereta, yet it was dried up in 1928.
The municipality has two exclaves in the mainland: Monnegre (between the municipalities of San Vicente del Raspeig, Mutxamel, Busot and Jijona), and Cabeçó d'Or; the latter comprises part of the namesake Cabeçó d'Or mountain (including the summit, 1209 metres above sea level). The small island of Tabarca, 8 nautical miles to the south of the city, also belongs to the municipality.
The foot of the main staircase of the City Hall Building (Ayuntamiento) is the zero point (cota cero), used as the point of reference for measuring the height above or below sea level of any point in Spain, due to the marginal tidal variations of the Mediterranean sea at Alicante.
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Alicante
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Economy
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Economy
thumb|left|Port of Alicante
Until the Great Recession, Alicante was one of the fastest-growing cities in Spain. The boom depended partly on tourism directed to the beaches of the Costa Blanca and particularly on the second residence-construction boom which started in the 1960s and revived again by the late 1990s. Services and public administration also play a major role in the city's economy. The construction boom has raised many environmental concerns and both the local autonomous government and city council are under scrutiny by the European Union. The construction surge was the subject of hot debates among politicians and citizens alike. The latest of many public battles concerns the plans of the Port Authority of Alicante to construct an industrial estate on reclaimed land in front of the city's coastal strip, in breach of local, national, and European regulations. (See Port of Alicante for details).
thumb|right|Ciudad de la Luz
The city serves as the headquarters of the European Union Intellectual Property Office and a sizeable population of European public workers live there.
The campus of the University of Alicante lies in San Vicente del Raspeig, bordering the city of Alicante to the north. More than 25,000 students attend the university.
Between 2005 and 2012 Ciudad de la Luz (Ciutat de la Llum), one of the largest film studios in Europe, had its base in Alicante. The studio shot Spanish and international movies such as Asterix at the Olympic Games by Frédéric Forestier and Thomas Langmann, and Manolete by Menno Meyjes. It was shut down in 2012 for violating European competition law.
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Alicante
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Government and administration
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Government and administration
Luis Barcala of the People's Party has been the mayor of Alicante since 19 April 2018. He became mayor after the resignation of Gabriel Echávarri, when the councillor Nerea Belmonte defected from Guanyar Alacant and refused to support the Socialist Party replacement candidate Eva Montesinos.
thumb|right|Plenary hall where the municipal council meets.
Gabriel Echávarri of the Socialist Party (PSOE) was the mayor of the city from 13 June 2015 until April 2018, following the municipal elections on 24 May 2015. He was supported by the votes from his group (6), plus those from leftist parties Guanyar Alacant (6) and Compromís (3), as well as from the centre-right party Ciudadanos (6). The People's Party (Partido Popular, PP), with only 8 elected seats, lost the majority. On April he resigned due to various judicial issues and was temporarily substituted by the councillor Eva Montesinos.
In the previous municipal elections of May 2011, Sonia Castedo of People's Party won the elections with an absolute majority, but resigned in December 2014 due to her involvement in several corruption scandals, at present being under investigation. Her fellow party member Miguel Valor went on to become mayor up until Echávarri's election.
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Alicante
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Climate
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Climate
Alicante has mild winter temperatures, hot and sultry summers, and little rain, concentrated in equinoctial periods. Like the rest of the Province of Alicante itself, which has a range of dry climate types, the city has a hot semi-arid climate (BSh) according to the Köppen climate classification. It is one of the driest cities in Europe. Daily variations in temperature are generally small because of the stabilising influence of the sea, although occasional periods of westerly wind can produce temperature changes of or more. Seasonal temperature variations are also relatively small, meaning that winters are mild and summers are hot. During the summer, due to the evaporation of warm Mediterranean waters, air humidity levels are high, making the day and night stuffy for much of the season. These high humidity levels increase the heat index.
The average rainfall is per year. The cold drop means that September and October are the wettest months. Rarely, the rainfall can be torrential, reaching over in a 24-hour period, leading to severe flooding. Because of this irregularity, only 35 rainy days are observed on average per year, and the annual number of sunshine hours is more than 3,000.
The record maximum temperature of was observed on 13 August 2022. The record minimum temperature of was recorded on 12 February 1956. The worst flooding in the city's modern history occurred on 30 September 1997 when of rain fell within six hours. Temperatures below are very rare; the last recorded snowfall occurred in 1926. Alicante enjoys one of the sunniest and warmest winter daytime temperatures in mainland Europe. Alicante also recorded the highest temperature ever recorded in peninsular Spain and one of the highest in Europe for a month of January, which was .
+ Climatological normals for Alicante (period 1981–2010) Parameter Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Average number of Storm days0.20.4 0.41.6 2.31.50.7 1.1 2.7 2.1 0.50.4 Mean number of days with fog0.20.5 0.60.2 0.00.0 0.10.00.1 0.10.1 0.0 Average number of frost days0.40.30.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.1 Average number of clear days86.1 6.55.5 5.49.915.2 12.76.55.4 5.77
+Average sea temperature:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYear
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Alicante
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Demographics
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Demographics
thumb|right|Alicantinos at the Rambla Méndez Núñez
The official population of Alicante in 2022 was 338,577 inhabitants and 768,194 in the metropolitan area "Alicante-Elche". As of 2022, about 17.7% of the population is foreign, 62195 people, most of them immigrants who have arrived in the previous 20 years. Besides which, there is an estimation of additional thousands coming from countries outside the EU (mostly from the African continent) that are under illegal alien status and therefore are not accounted for in official population figures.
+Nationalities with more than 1000 inhabitants (2022)Country of Birth Men Women Total 4845 3047 7892 2695 3234 5929 2720 2104 4824 2252 1819 4071 1829 2097 3926 1176 1799 2975 1075 1404 2479 1239 1226 2465 946 1285 2231 1037 1092 2129 940 960 1900 801 616 1417 646 621 1267 642 448 1090 543 542 1085
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Alicante
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Transport
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Transport
Alicante Airport outranks the Valencia Airport, being the busiest airport in the Valencian Community, and among the busiest airports in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Málaga. It is connected with Madrid and Barcelona by frequent Iberia and Vueling flights, and with many Western European cities through carriers such as Ryanair, EasyJet and Jet2. There are also regular flights to Algeria.
Alicante railway station is used by Cercanías Murcia/Alicante commuter rail services linking Alicante with suburbs and Murcia. Long-range Renfe trains run frequently to Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia. In 2013, the Madrid–Levante high-speed rail network was extended to Alicante station, allowing AVE high-speed rail services to link to Madrid via Villena AV, Albacete-Los Llanos and Cuenca-Fernando Zóbel.
Alicante Metropolitan-Tram connects different parts within the city, its metropolitan area and with outlying settlements along Costa Blanca as well. , electric tram-trains run up to Benidorm, and diesel trains go further to Dénia.
The city has regular ferry services to the Balearic Islands and Algeria. The city is strongly fortified, with a spacious harbour.
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Alicante
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Main sights
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Main sights
Amongst the most notable features of the city are the Castle of Santa Bárbara and the port of Alicante. The latter was the subject of bitter controversy in 2006–2007 as residents battled, successfully, to keep it from being changed into an industrial estate.
The Santa Bárbara castle is situated on Mount Benacantil, overlooking the city. The tower (La Torreta) at the top, is the oldest part of the castle, while part of the lowest zone and the walls were constructed later in the 18th century.
The promenade Explanada de España, lined by palm trees, is paved with 6.5 million marble floor tiles creating a wavy form. The Promenade extends from the Port of Alicante to the Gran Vía and ends at the famous statue of Mark Hersch. For the people of Alicante, the promenade is the meeting place for the traditional Spanish paseo, or stroll along the waterfront in the evenings, and a venue for outdoor musical concerts. At the end of the promenade is a monument by the artist Bañuls of the 19th century.
Barrio de la Santa Cruz is a colourful quarter of the old city, situated southwest of Santa Bárbara castle. Its small houses climb up the hill leading to the walls and the castle, through narrow streets decorated with flags and tubs of flowers.
L'Ereta Park is situated on the foothills of Mount Benacantil. It runs from the Santa Bárbara castle down to the old part of Alicante and consists of several levels, routes, decks, and rest stops which offer a panoramic view overlooking the city.
El Palmeral Park is one of the favourite parks of Alicante's citizens. It includes walking trails, children's playgrounds, ponds and brooks, picnic tables, and an auditorium for concerts.
Just a few kilometres from Alicante, on the Mediterranean Sea, lies Tabarca island. What was once a haven for Barbary pirates is now a tourist attraction.
Other sights include:
Basilica of Santa María (14th–16th centuries), built-in Gothic style over the former main mosque. Other features include the high altar, in Rococo style, and the portal, in Baroque style, both from the 18th century.
Co-cathedral of St. Nicholas of Bari (15th–18th centuries), also built over a mosque. It is the main church of Alicante and the bishop's seat.
Monastery of Santa Faz (15th century), located outside the city, in Baroque style.
Defence towers of the Huerta de Alicante (15th–18th centuries), built to defend against the Barbary pirates. Today some 20 towers are still extant.
Baroque Casa de La Asegurada (1685), the most ancient civil building in the city. (c. XVII). Today it is home to the Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante.
Casa consistorial de Alicante (18th century), also in Baroque style.
Convent of the Canónigas de San Agustín (18th century).
Gravina Palace (1748–1808), nowadays hosting Gravina Museum of Fine Arts.
Castle of San Fernando.
There are a dozen museums in Alicante. On exhibition at the Archaeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ) are local artifacts dating from 100,000 years ago until the early 20th century. The collection is divided into different rooms representing three divisions of archaeological methodology: ground, urban and underwater archaeology, with dioramas, audiovisual and interactive zones. The archaeological museum won the European Museum of the Year Award in 2004. Gravina Museum of Fine Arts presents several paintings and sculptures from the 16th century to the 19th century. Asegurada Museum of Contemporary Art houses a major collection of twentieth-century art, composed mainly of works donated by Eusebio Sempere.
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Alicante
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Festivals
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Festivals
The most important festival, the Bonfires of Saint John (Hogueras de San Juan / Fogueres de Sant Joan), takes place during the summer solstice. This is followed a week later by five nights of firework and pyrotechnic contests between companies on the urban beach Playa del Postiguet. Another well-known festival is Moors and Christians (Moros y Cristianos) in Altozano or San Blas district. Overall, the city boasts a year-round nightlife for the enjoyment of tourists, residents, and a large student population of the University of Alicante. The nightlife social scene tends to shift to nearby Playa de San Juan during the summer months.
Every summer in Alicante, a two-month-long programme of music, theatre and dance is staged in the Paseo del Puerto.
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Alicante
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Sport
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Sport
For the 2023/24 season Alicante has two football clubs in the top 4 levels of Spanish football; Hércules CF and CF Intercity. For the 2023/24 season Hércules compete in Segunda Federación, the 4th level and are well known as they played in La Liga (the Spanish Premier Division) during the 1996/1997 season and again in 2010/2011. They have had many famous players such as David Trezeguet, Royston Drenthe and Nelson Valdez. Hércules are also known for their victory over Barcelona in 1997 which led to Real Madrid winning the league. Home games are played at the 30,000-capacity José Rico Pérez Stadium.
The city's other club, Alicante CF, who played in the Third Division, was dissolved in 2014 due to economic problems. They were replaced the same year by newly formed club CFI Alicante.
Basketball club (HLA Alicante) Lucentum Alicante participates in the Spanish basketball league. It plays in the Centro de Tecnificación de Alicante.
Alicante serves as headquarters and the starting point of the Volvo Ocean Race, a yacht race around the world. The latest race sailed in January 2023.
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Alicante
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Notable people
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Notable people
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Alicante
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Twin towns – sister cities
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Twin towns – sister cities
Alicante is twinned with:
Alexandria, Egypt
Brighton and Hove, England, UK
Carloforte, Italy
Herzliya, Israel
León, Nicaragua
Matanzas, Cuba
Nice, France
Oran, Algeria
Toyooka, Japan (1996)
Wenzhou, China
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Alicante
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See also
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See also
Castrum Album
Saint Nicholas Day
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Alicante
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Notes
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Notes
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Alicante
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References
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References
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Alicante
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Bibliography
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Bibliography
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Alicante
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External links
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External links
Official website of the Diputación Provincial de Alicante
Postal codes in Alicante
Category:Populated places in the Province of Alicante
Category:Mediterranean port cities and towns in Spain
Category:Municipalities in the Province of Alicante
Category:Seaside resorts in Spain
Category:Tourism in Spain
Category:Greek colonies in Iberia
Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Spain
Category:Populated coastal places in Spain
Category:Populated places established in the 4th century BC
Category:Roman sites in Spain
Category:324 BC
Category:320s BC establishments
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Alicante
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Table of Content
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Short description, Toponymy, History, Geography, Economy, Government and administration, Climate, Demographics, Transport, Main sights, Festivals, Sport, Notable people, Twin towns – sister cities, See also, Notes, References, Bibliography, External links
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August 4
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pp-move
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August 4
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Events
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Events
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August 4
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Pre-1600
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Pre-1600
598 – Goguryeo-Sui War: In response to a Goguryeo (Korean) incursion into Liaoxi, Emperor Wéndi of Sui orders his youngest son, Yang Liang (assisted by the co-prime minister Gao Jiong), to conquer Goguryeo during the Manchurian rainy season, with a Chinese army and navy.Samguk Sagi, Vol. 20.
1265 – Second Barons' War: Battle of Evesham: The army of Prince Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, killing de Montfort and many of his allies.
1327 – First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas leads a raid into Weardale and almost kills Edward III of England.
1578 – Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir: The Moroccans defeat the Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is killed in the battle, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.
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August 4
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1601–1900
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1601–1900
1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of champagne; it is not clear whether he actually invented champagne, however he has been credited as an innovator who developed the techniques used to perfect sparkling wine.
1701 – Great Peace of Montreal between New France and First Nations is signed.
1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.
1781 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, a fleet of six East India Company ships sets sail from Fort Marlborough to raid the Dutch VOC factories on the West coast of Sumatra including the major port of Padang.
1783 – Mount Asama erupts in Japan, killing about 1,400 people (Tenmei eruption). The eruption causes a famine, which results in an additional 20,000 deaths.
1789 – France: abolition of feudalism by the National Constituent Assembly.
1790 – A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
1791 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon leads the French Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato.
1821 – The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
1854 – The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.
1863 – Matica slovenská, Slovakia's public-law cultural and scientific institution focusing on topics around the Slovak nation, is established in Martin.
1873 – American Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Cheyenne and Lakota people near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.
1887 – Granny, a sea anemone, died in Edinburgh after nearly 60 years in captivity. Her death was reported in The Scotsman and The New York Times.
1889 – The Great Fire of Spokane, Washington destroys some 32 blocks of the city, prompting a mass rebuilding project.
1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. She will be tried and acquitted for the crimes a year later.
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August 4
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1901–present
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1901–present
1914 – World War I: In response to the German invasion of Belgium, Belgium and the British Empire declare war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality.
1915 – World War I: The German 12th Army occupies Warsaw during the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive and the Great Retreat of 1915.
1921 – Bolshevik–Makhnovist conflict: Mikhail Frunze declares victory over the Makhnovshchina.
1924 – Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.
1936 – Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime.
1944 – The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.
1944 – Under the state of emergency law, the Finnish Parliament elects Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim as the President of Finland to replace the resigned Risto Ryti.
1946 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. One hundred are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.
1947 – The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
1964 – Civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.
1964 – Second Gulf of Tonkin Incident: U.S. destroyers and mistakenly report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1965 – The Constitution of the Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand.
1969 – Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuân Thuỷ begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
1972 – Ugandan President Idi Amin announces that Uganda is no longer responsible for the care of British subjects of Asian origin, beginning the expulsions of Ugandan Asians.
1974 – A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people and wounding 22.
1975 – The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish Chargé d'affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya.
1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
1983 – Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, president of the military government of Upper Volta, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Captain Thomas Sankara.
1984 – The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.
1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to give equal time to opposing views.
1995 – Operation Storm begins in Croatia.
2006 – A massacre is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).
2007 – NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is launched.
2018 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expel the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border, concluding the second phase of the Deir ez-Zor campaign.
2018 – Crisis in Venezuela: Seven people are injured when two drones detonate explosives on Avenida Bolívar, Caracas while president Nicolás Maduro is giving a speech to the Venezuelan National Guard.
2019 – Nine people are killed and 26 injured in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio. This comes only 13 hours after another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed.
2020 – Beirut Port explosion: At least 220 people are killed and over 5,000 are wounded when 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate explodes in Beirut, Lebanon.
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August 4
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Births
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Births
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August 4
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Pre-1600
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Pre-1600
1222 – Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester, English soldier (d. 1262)
1281 – Külüg Khan, Emperor Wuzong of Yuan (d. 1311)
1290 – Leopold I, Duke of Austria (d. 1326)
1463 – Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, Florentine patron of the arts (d. 1503)
1469 – Margaret of Saxony, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1528)
1470 – Bernardo Dovizi, Italian cardinal (d. 1520)
1470 – Lucrezia de' Medici, Italian noblewoman (d. 1553)
1521 – Pope Urban VII (d. 1590)
1522 – Udai Singh II, King of Mewar (d. 1572)
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August 4
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1601–1900
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1601–1900
1604 – François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French cleric and author (d. 1676)
1623 – Friedrich Casimir, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (1641–1680) and Hanau-Münzenberg (1642–1680) (d. 1685)
1701 – Thomas Blackwell, Scottish historian and scholar (d. 1757)
1704 – Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans (d. 1752)
1719 – Johann Gottlob Lehmann, German mineralogist and geologist (d. 1767)
1721 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician, Lord President of the Council (d. 1803)
1755 – Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French soldier, painter, balloonist, and inventor (d. 1805)
1792 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet and playwright (d. 1822)
1805 – William Rowan Hamilton, Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (d. 1865)
1821 – Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer, founded Louis Vuitton (d. 1892)
1821 – James Springer White, American religious leader, co-founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church (d. 1881)
1834 – John Venn, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1923)
1836 – Jens Vilhelm Dahlerup, Danish architect (d. 1907)
1839 – Walter Pater, English author, critic, and academic (d. 1894)
1844 – Henri Berger, German composer and bandleader (d. 1929)
1853 – John Henry Twachtman, American painter, etcher, and academic (d. 1902)
1859 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1952)
1861 – Daniel Edward Howard, 16th president of Liberia (d. 1935)
1867 – Jake Beckley, American baseball player and coach (d. 1918)
1868 – Master C. V. V., Indian philosopher, yogi and guru (d. 1922)
1870 – Harry Lauder, Scottish actor and singer (d. 1950)
1871 – William Holman, English-Australian politician, 19th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1934)
1876 – Giovanni Giuriati, Italian lawyer and politician (d. 1970)
1876 – John Scaddan, Australian politician, 10th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1934)
1877 – Dame Laura Knight, English artist (d. 1970)
1884 – Béla Balázs, Hungarian poet and critic (d. 1949)
1884 – Henri Cornet, French cyclist (d. 1941)
1887 – Albert M. Greenfield, Ukrainian-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1967)
1888 – Taher Saifuddin, Indian religious leader, 51st Da'i al-Mutlaq (d. 1965)
1890 – Dolf Luque, Cuban baseball player and manager (d. 1957)
1893 – Fritz Gause, German historian and curator (d. 1973)
1898 – Ernesto Maserati, Italian race car driver and engineer (d. 1975)
1899 – Ezra Taft Benson, American religious leader, 13th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)
1900 – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (d. 2002)
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August 4
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1901–present
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1901–present
1901 – Louis Armstrong, American trumpet player and singer (d. 1971)
1902 – Bill Hallahan, American baseball player (d. 1981)
1904 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish author and playwright (d. 1969)
1905 – Abeid Karume, 1st President of Zanzibar (d. 1972)
1906 – Eugen Schuhmacher, German zoologist, director, and producer (d. 1973)
1908 – Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
1909 – Glenn Cunningham, American runner and academic (d. 1988)
1910 – Anita Page, American actress (d. 2008)
1910 – William Schuman, American composer and educator (d. 1992)
1910 – Hedda Sterne, Romanian-American painter and photographer (d. 2011)
1912 – Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician, physicist, and mountaineer (d. 1999)
1912 – David Raksin, American composer and educator (d. 2004)
1912 – Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish architect and diplomat (d. ~1947)
1913 – Wesley Addy, American actor (d. 1996)
1913 – Robert Hayden, American poet and educator (d. 1980)
1915 – Warren Avis, American businessman, founded Avis Rent a Car System (d. 2007)
1917 – John Fitch, American race car driver and engineer (d. 2012)
1918 – Brian Crozier, Australian-English historian and journalist (d. 2012)
1919 – Michel Déon, French novelist, playwright, and critic (d. 2016)
1920 – Helen Thomas, American journalist and author (d. 2013)
1921 – Herb Ellis, American guitarist (d. 2010)
1921 – Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2000)
1922 – Mayme Agnew Clayton, American librarian (d. 2006)
1922 – Luis Aponte Martínez, Puerto Rican cardinal (d. 2012)
1926 – George Irving Bell, American physicist, biologist, and mountaineer (d. 2000)
1926 – Perry Moss, American football player and coach (d. 2014)
1928 – Gerard Damiano, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2008)
1928 – Nadežka Mosusova, Serbian composer
1928 – Clarke Reed, American businessman and politician (d. 2024)
1929 – Kishore Kumar, Indian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1987)
1929 – Vellore G. Ramabhadran, Mridangam artiste from Tamil Nadu, India (d. 2012)
1930 – Ali al-Sistani, Iranian-Iraqi cleric and scholar
1931 – Naren Tamhane, Indian cricketer (d. 2002)
1932 – Frances E. Allen, American computer scientist and academic (d. 2020)
1932 – Liang Congjie, Chinese environmentalist, founded Friends of Nature (d. 2010)
1934 – Dallas Green, American baseball player and manager (d. 2017)
1935 – Carol Arthur, American actress and producer (d. 2020)
1935 – Hans-Walter Eigenbrodt, German footballer and coach (d. 1997)
1935 – Michael J. Noonan, Irish farmer and politician, 25th Minister of Defence for Ireland (d. 2013)
1936 – Giorgos Zographos, Greek singer and actor (d. 2005)
1937 – David Bedford, English keyboard player, composer, and conductor (d. 2011)
1938 – Ellen Schrecker, American historian and academic
1939 – Jack Cunningham, Baron Cunningham of Felling, English politician, Minister for the Cabinet Office
1939 – Frankie Ford, American R&B/rock and roll singer (d. 2015)
1940 – Coriún Aharonián, Uruguayan composer and musicologist (d. 2017)
1940 – Robin Harper, Scottish academic and politician
1940 – Larry Knechtel, American bass player and pianist (d. 2009)
1940 – Frances Stewart, English economist and academic
1940 – Timi Yuro, American singer-songwriter (d. 2004)
1941 – Martin Jarvis, English actor
1941 – Andy Smillie, English footballer
1941 – Cliff Nobles, American musician (d. 2008)
1941 – Ted Strickland, American psychologist and politician, 68th Governor of Ohio
1942 – Don S. Davis, American actor (d. 2008)
1942 – Cleon Jones, American baseball player
1942 – David Lange, New Zealand lawyer and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 2005)
1943 – Vicente Álvarez Areces, Spanish politician, 6th President of the Principality of Asturias (d. 2019)
1943 – Barbara Saß-Viehweger, German politician, lawyer and civil law notary
1943 – Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper and footballer
1944 – Richard Belzer, American actor (d. 2023)
1944 – Doudou Ndoye, Senegalese lawyer and politician
1945 – Paul McCarthy, American painter and sculptor
1945 – Alan Mulally, American engineer and businessman
1946 – Aleksei Turovski, Estonian zoologist and ethologist
1947 – Klaus Schulze, German keyboard player and songwriter (d. 2022)
1948 – Johnny Grubb, American baseball player and coach
1949 – John Riggins, American football player, sportscaster, and actor
1950 – Caldwell Jones, American basketball player and coach (d. 2014)
1950 – N. Rangaswamy, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Chief Minister of Puducherry
1951 – Peter Goodfellow, English geneticist and academic
1952 – James Arbuthnot, English lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
1952 – Moya Brennan, Irish singer-songwriter and harp player
1952 – Gábor Demszky, Hungarian sociologist, lawyer, and politician
1953 – Hiroyuki Usui, Japanese footballer and manager
1954 – Anatoliy Kinakh, Ukrainian engineer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Ukraine
1954 – Steve Phillips, English footballer
1954 – François Valéry, Algerian-French singer-songwriter
1955 – Alberto Gonzales, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 80th United States Attorney General
1955 – Billy Bob Thornton, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1957 – Rupert Farley, British actor and voice actor
1957 – Brooks D. Simpson, American historian and author
1957 – Valdis Valters, Latvian basketball player and coach
1957 – John Wark, Scottish footballer and sportscaster
1958 – Allison Hedge Coke, American-Canadian poet and academic
1958 – Mary Decker, American runner
1958 – Silvan Shalom, Tunisian-Israeli sergeant and politician, 30th Deputy Prime Minister of Israel
1958 – Brian Voss, American bowler"The Natural", an interview with Brian Voss in Bowling Digest, February 2002.
1959 – Robbin Crosby, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2002)
1959 – John Gormley, Irish politician, Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government
1960 – Chuck C. Lopez, American jockey
1960 – Dean Malenko, American wrestler
1960 – José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spanish academic and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Spain
1960 – Bernard Rose, English director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
1960 – Tim Winton, Australian author and playwright
1961 – Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate
1962 – Roger Clemens, American baseball player and actor
1962 – Paul Reynolds, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1963 – Keith Maurice Ellison, 30th Attorney General of Minnesota
1964 – Andrew Bartlett, Australian social worker and politician
1965 – Vishal Bhardwaj, Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, music composer and playback singer
1965 – Adam Afriyie, English businessman and politician
1965 – Dennis Lehane, American author, screenwriter, and producer
1965 – Fredrik Reinfeldt, Swedish soldier and politician, 42nd Prime Minister of Sweden
1965 – Michael Skibbe, German footballer and manager
1967 – Michael Marsh, American sprinter
1968 – Daniel Dae Kim, South Korean-American actor
1968 – Lee Mack, English comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
1969 – Max Cavalera, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1970 – John August, American director and screenwriter
1970 – Bret Baier, American journalist
1970 – Kate Silverton, English journalist
1971 – Jeff Gordon, American race car driver and actor
1972 – Stefan Brogren, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1973 – Eva Amaral, Spanish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1973 – Xavier Marchand, French swimmer
1973 – Marek Penksa, Slovak footballer
1973 – Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis, Brazilian footballer
1974 – Kily González, Argentine footballer
1975 – Andy Hallett, American actor and singer (d. 2009)
1975 – Nikos Liberopoulos, Greek footballer
1975 – Jutta Urpilainen, Finnish politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Finland
1975 – Daniella van Graas, Dutch model and actress
1976 – Paul Goldstein, American tennis player
1976 – Andrew McLeod, Australian footballer
1976 – Trevor Woodman, English rugby player and coach
1977 – Frankie Kazarian, American wrestler
1977 – Luís Boa Morte, Portuguese footballer and manager
1978 – Jeremy Adduono, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1978 – Luke Allen, American baseball player (d. 2022)
1978 – Kurt Busch, American race car driver
1978 – Agnė Eggerth, Lithuanian sprinter
1978 – Ricardo Serrano, Spanish cyclist
1978 – Per-Åge Skrøder, Norwegian ice hockey player
1978 – Satoshi Hino, Japanese voice actor
1979 – Robin Peterson, South African cricketer
1980 – Richard Dawson, English cricketer and coach
1981 – Marques Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1981 – Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, American member of British Royal Family, media personality and actress
1983 – Greta Gerwig, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
1984 – Terry Campese, Australian rugby league player
1984 – Mardy Collins, American basketball player
1985 – Crystal Bowersox, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1985 – Robbie Findley, American soccer player
1985 – Mark Milligan, Australian footballer
1985 – Ha Seung-jin, South Korean basketball player
1985 – Antonio Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer
1986 – Nick Augusto, American drummer
1986 – Leon Camier, English motorcycle racer
1986 – Cicinho, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Iosia Soliola, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player
1986 – David Williams, Australian rugby league player
1987 – Marreese Speights American basketball player
1988 – Kelley O'Hara, American soccer player
1989 – Jessica Mauboy, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
1989 – Wang Hao, Chinese chess grandmaster
1992 – Daniele Garozzo, Italian fencer
1992 – Domingo Germán, Dominican baseball player
1992 – Cole Sprouse, American actor
1992 – Dylan Sprouse, American actor
1994 – Bobby Shmurda, American rapper
1995 – Bruna Marquezine, Brazilian actress
1998 – Lil Skies, American rapper
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August 4
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Deaths
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Deaths
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August 4
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Pre-1600
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Pre-1600
221 – Lady Zhen, Chinese empress (b. 183)
966 – Berengar II of Italy (b. 900)
1060 – Henry I of France (b. 1008)
1113 – Gertrude of Saxony, countess and regent of Holland (b. c. 1030)Vice, Tyranny, Violence, and the Usurpation of Flanders (1071) in Flemish Historiography from 1093 to 1294, Jeff Rider, Violence and the Writing of History in the Medieval Francophone World, ed. Noah D. Guynn, Zrinka Stahuljak, (Boydell & Brewer, 2013), 65.
1265 – Peter de Montfort, English politician (b. 1215)
1265 – Henry de Montfort (b. 1238)
1265 – Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, French-English soldier and politician, Lord High Steward (b. 1208)
1265 – Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer, English politician (b. 1223)
1266 – Eudes of Burgundy, Count of Nevers (b. 1230)
1306 – Wenceslaus III of Bohemia (b. 1289)
1345 – As-Salih Ismail, Sultan of Egypt (b. 1326)
1378 – Galeazzo II Visconti, Lord of Milan (b. c. 1320)
1430 – Philip I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1404)
1526 – Juan Sebastián Elcano, Spanish explorer and navigator (b. 1476)
1578 – Sebastian of Portugal (b. 1554)
1598 – William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English academic and politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1520)
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August 4
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1601–1900
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1601–1900
1612 – Hugh Broughton, English scholar and theologian (b. 1549)
1639 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican actor and playwright (b. 1581)
1718 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, French-Canadian founder of Rimouski (b. 1656)
1727 – Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (b. 1647)
1741 – Andrew Hamilton, Scottish-American lawyer and politician (b. 1676)
1778 – Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial, Canadian-French politician, Governor General of New France (b. 1698)
1792 – John Burgoyne, English general and politician (b. 1723)
1795 – Timothy Ruggles, American lawyer, jurist, and politician (b. 1711)
1804 – Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, Scottish admiral (b. 1731)
1822 – Kristjan Jaak Peterson, Estonian poet and author (b. 1801)
1844 – Jacob Aall, Norwegian economist, historian, and politician (b. 1773)
1859 – John Vianney, French priest and saint (b. 1786)
1873 – Viktor Hartmann, Russian architect and painter (b. 1834)
1875 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (b. 1805)
1886 – Samuel J. Tilden, American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of New York (b. 1814)
1900 – Isaac Levitan, Russian painter and educator (b. 1860)
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August 4
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1901–present
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1901–present
1914 – Jules Lemaître, French playwright and critic (b. 1853)
1919 – Dave Gregory, Australian cricketer and umpire (b. 1845)
1922 – Enver Pasha, Ottoman general and politician (b. 1881)
1932 – Alfred Henry Maurer, American painter (b. 1868)
1938 – Pearl White, American actress (b. 1889)
1940 – Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Ukrainian-American general, journalist, and activist (b. 1880)
1941 – Mihály Babits, Hungarian poet and author (b. 1883)
1942 – Alberto Franchetti, Italian composer and educator (b. 1860)
1944 – Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Polish soldier and poet (b. 1921)
1957 – John Cain Sr., Australian politician, 34th Premier of Victoria (b. 1882)
1957 – Washington Luís, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 13th President of Brazil (b. 1869)
1958 – Ethel Anderson, Australian poet, author, and painter (b. 1883)
1959 – József Révai, Hungarian politician, Hungarian Minister of Education (b. 1898)
1961 – Margarito Bautista, Nahua-Mexican evangelizer, theologian, and religious founder (b. 1878)
1962 – Marilyn Monroe, American model and actress (b. 1926)
1964 – Nätti-Jussi, Finnish lumberjack and forest laborer (b. 1890)
1967 – Peter Smith, English cricketer (b. 1908)
1976 – Enrique Angelelli, Argentinian bishop and martyr (b. 1923)
1976 – Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, Canadian-English publisher (b. 1894)
1977 – Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, English physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889)
1981 – Melvyn Douglas, American actor (b. 1901)
1982 – Bruce Goff, American architect, designed the Boston Avenue Methodist Church (b. 1904)
1985 – Don Whillans, English rock climber and mountaineer (b. 1933)
1990 – Ettore Maserati, Italian engineer and businessman (b. 1894)
1992 – Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese author (b. 1909)
1996 – Geoff Hamilton, English gardener, author, and television host (b. 1936)
1997 – Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian; holds records for the world's substantiated longest-lived person (b. 1875)
1998 – Yury Artyukhin, Russian colonel, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1930)
1999 – Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1913)
2003 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
2004 – Mary Sherman Morgan, American chemist and engineer (b. 1921)
2004 – Hossein Panahi (Persian: حسین پناهی), Iranian actor and poet (b. 1956)
2005 – Anatoly Larkin, Russian-American physicist and theorist (b. 1932)
2005 – Iván Szabó, Hungarian economist and politician, Minister of Finance of Hungary (b. 1934)
2007 – Lee Hazlewood, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1929)
2007 – Raul Hilberg, Austrian-American political scientist and historian (b. 1926)
2008 – Craig Jones, English motorcycle racer (b. 1985)
2009 – Blake Snyder, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1957)
2011 – Naoki Matsuda, Japanese footballer (b. 1977)
2012 – Johnnie Bassett, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1935)
2012 – Brian Crozier, Australian-English journalist and historian (b. 1918)
2012 – Bud Riley, American football player and coach (b. 1925)
2013 – Keith H. Basso, American anthropologist and academic (b. 1940)
2013 – Art Donovan, American football player and radio host (b. 1925)
2013 – Olavi J. Mattila, Finnish engineer and politician, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1918)
2013 – Renato Ruggiero, Italian lawyer and politician, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1930)
2013 – Tony Snell, English lieutenant and pilot (b. 1922)
2013 – Sandy Woodward, English admiral (b. 1932)
2014 – James Brady, American activist and politician, 15th White House Press Secretary (b. 1940)
2014 – Chester Crandell, American lawyer and politician (b. 1946)
2014 – Jake Hooker, Israeli-American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1953)
2015 – Elsie Hillman, American philanthropist and politician (b. 1925)
2015 – Les Munro, New Zealand soldier and pilot (b. 1919)
2015 – John Rudometkin, American basketball player (b. 1940)
2015 – Billy Sherrill, American songwriter and producer (b. 1936)
2019 – Nuon Chea, Cambodian politician and theorist for the Khmer Rouge (b. 1926)
2023 – Dalia Fadila, Israeli educator (b. 1971/1972)
2024 – Charles Cyphers, American actor (b. 1939)
2024 – Tsung-Dao Lee, Chinese-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
2024 – Duane Thomas, American football player (b. 1947)
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August 4
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Holidays and observances
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Holidays and observances
Christian feast day:
Aristarchus
Euphronius
Blessed Frédéric Janssoone
John Vianney
Molua (or Lua)
Raynerius of Split
Sithney, patron saint of mad dogs
August 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Coast Guard Day (United States)
Constitution Day (Cook Islands); first Monday in August
Matica slovenská Day (Slovakia)
Barack Obama Day in Illinois in the United States
2020 Beirut explosion commemoration day in Lebanon
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August 4
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References
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References
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August 4
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External links
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External links
Category:Days of August
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August 4
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Table of Content
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pp-move, Events, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Births, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Deaths, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Holidays and observances, References, External links
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Albrecht Achilles
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'''Albrecht Achilles'''
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Albrecht Achilles may refer to:
Albrecht III Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg (1414–1486)
Albrecht Achilles (Korvettenkapitän) (1914–1943), U-boat commander
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Albrecht Achilles
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Table of Content
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'''Albrecht Achilles'''
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Ann Widdecombe
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short description
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Ann Noreen Widdecombe (born 4 October 1947) is a British politician and television personality who has been Reform UK's Immigration and Justice spokesperson since 2023.https://www.themoorlander.co.uk/news/home/1752596/ann-widdecombes-life-of-quiet-and-conviction.html Originally a member of the Conservative Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone and The Weald, and the former Maidstone constituency, from 1987 to 2010. She was a member of the Brexit Party from 2019 until it was renamed Reform UK in 2021, and served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 2019 to 2020; she rejoined Reform UK in 2023.
Born in Bath, Somerset, Widdecombe read Latin at the University of Birmingham and later studied philosophy, politics and economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She is a religious convert from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, and was a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship. She served as Minister of State for Employment from 1994 to 1995 and Minister of State for Prisons from 1995 to 1997. She later served in the Shadow Cabinet of William Hague as Shadow Secretary of State for Health from 1998 to 1999 and Shadow Home Secretary from 1999 to 2001. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 1997.
Widdecombe stood down from the House of Commons at the 2010 general election. Since 2002, she has made numerous television and radio appearances, including as a television presenter. A prominent Eurosceptic, in 2016 she supported the Vote Leave campaign to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU). Widdecombe returned to politics as the lead candidate for the Brexit Party in South West England at the 2019 European Parliament election, winning the seat in line with results nationally, serving until the country left the EU on 31 January 2020. In the general election of December 2019 – as with all other candidates for the Commons fielded by the Brexit Party – she did not win the seat she contested (Plymouth Sutton and Devonport), but retained her deposit and came third.
Ideologically, Widdecombe identifies herself as a social conservative and stresses the importance of traditional values and conservatism. As a member of the House of Commons, she opposed the legality of abortion, opposed granting LGBT people legal rights such as the same age of consent as heterosexuals, and opposed the repeal of Section 28. She supported reintroduction of the death penalty for murder, though more narrowly applied than previously. She is opposed to all forms of assisted dying. She has a history of supporting rigorous laws on animal protection and opposition to fox hunting.
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Ann Widdecombe
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Early life
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Early life
Ann Noreen Widdecombe was born in Bath, Somerset, the daughter of Rita Noreen (née Plummer; 1911–2007) and Ministry of Defence civil servant James Murray Widdecombe. Widdecombe's maternal grandfather, James Henry Plummer, was born to a Catholic family of English descent in Crosshaven, County Cork, Ireland in 1874.
She attended the Royal Naval School in Singapore,Ann Widdecombe set to stand down; BBC News, 7 October 2007 and La Sainte Union Convent School in Bath. She then read Latin at the University of Birmingham and later attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, to read philosophy, politics and economics. In 1971, she was the secretary of the Oxford Union for one term, and became its treasurer for one term in 1972.
While studying at Oxford, she lived next door to Mary Archer, Edwina Currie, and Gyles Brandreth's wife Michèle Brown. She worked for Unilever (1973–75) and then as an administrator at the University of London (1975–87) before entering Parliament.
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Ann Widdecombe
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Political career
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Political career
In 1974, Widdecombe was personal assistant to Michael Ancram in the February and October general elections of that year. From 1976 to 1978, Widdecombe was a councillor on Runnymede District Council in Surrey.
She contested the seat of Burnley in Lancashire in the 1979 general election and then, against David Owen, the Plymouth Devonport seat in the 1983 general election. In 1983 she, with Lady Olga Maitland and Virginia Bottomley, co-founded Women and Families for Defence, a group founded in opposition to the anti-nuclear Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.
Widdecombe was first elected to the House of Commons, for the Conservatives, in the 1987 general election as member for the constituency of Maidstone (which became Maidstone and The Weald in 1997).Maidstone and The Weald , UKPollingReport
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Ann Widdecombe
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In government
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In government
thumb|Official Portrait
Widdecombe joined Prime Minister John Major's government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security in 1990. In 1993, she was moved to the Department of Employment, and she was promoted to Minister of State the following year. In 1995, she joined the Home Office as Minister of State for Prisons and visited every prison in the UK.
In 1996, Widdecombe, as prisons minister, defended the Government's policy to shackle pregnant prisoners with handcuffs and chains when in hospital receiving prenatal care. Widdecombe told the Commons that the restrictions were needed to prevent prisoners from escaping the hospital. "Some MPs may like to think that a pregnant woman would not or could not escape. Unfortunately this is not true. The fact is that hospitals are not secure places in which to keep prisoners, and since 1990, 20 women have escaped from hospitals". Jack Straw, Labour's Home Affairs spokesman at the time, said it was "degrading and unnecessary" for a woman to be shackled at any stage.
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Ann Widdecombe
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Shadow Cabinet
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Shadow Cabinet
In May 1997, in the context of an inquiry into a series of prison escapes, Widdecombe remarked of former Home Secretary Michael Howard, under whom she had served, that there was "something of the night about him".
This much-quoted comment is thought to have contributed to the failure of Howard's 1997 campaign for the Conservative Party leadership, a sentiment shared by both Howard himself and Widdecombe. It led to him being caricatured as a vampire, in part due to his Romanian ancestry. Extract from Crick's book In search of Michael Howard. Howard became the official party leader in 2003, and Widdecombe then stated, "I explained fully what my objections were in 1997 and I do not retract anything I said then. But ... we have to look to the future and not the past."
After the Conservative landslide defeat at the 1997 general election, she served as Shadow Health Secretary between 1998 and 1999 and later as Shadow Home Secretary from 1999 to 2001 under the leadership of William Hague.
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Ann Widdecombe
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Leadership contest and backbenches
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Leadership contest and backbenches
During the 2001 Conservative leadership election, she could not find sufficient support amongst Conservative MPs for her leadership candidacy. She first supported Michael Ancram, who was eliminated in the first round, and then Kenneth Clarke, who lost in the final round. She afterwards declined to serve in Iain Duncan Smith's Shadow Cabinet (although she indicated on the television programme When Louis Met..., prior to the leadership contest, that she wished to retire to the backbenches anyway).
In 2001, when Michael Portillo was running for leader of the Conservative Party, Widdecombe described him and his allies as "backbiters" due to his alleged destabilising influence under Hague. She went on to say that, should he be appointed leader, she would never give him her allegiance. This was amidst a homophobic campaign led by socially conservative critics of Portillo.
In the 2005 leadership election, she initially supported Kenneth Clarke again. Once he was eliminated, she turned support towards Liam Fox. Following Fox's subsequent elimination, she took time to reflect before finally declaring for David Davis. She expressed reservations over the eventual winner David Cameron, feeling that he did not, like the other candidates, have a proven track record, and she was later a leading figure in parliamentary opposition to his A-List policy. At the October 2006 Conservative Conference, she was Chief Dragon in a political version of the television programme Dragons' Den, in which A-list candidates were invited to put forward a policy proposal, which was then torn apart by her team of Rachel Elnaugh, Oliver Letwin and Michael Brown.
In an interview with Metro in September 2006 she stated that if Parliament were of a normal length, it was likely she would retire at the next general election. She confirmed her intention to stand down to The Observer'''s Pendennis diary in September 2007, and again in October 2007 after Prime Minister Gordon Brown quashed speculation of an autumn 2007 general election.
In November 2006, she moved into the house of an Islington Labour Councillor to experience life on a council estate, her response to her experience being "Five years ago I made a speech in the House of Commons about the forgotten decents. I have spent the last week on estates in the Islington area finding out that they are still forgotten."
In 2007 Widdecombe was one of the 98 MPs who voted to keep their expense details secret. When the expenses claims were leaked, however, Widdecombe was described by The Daily Telegraph as one of the "saints" amongst all MPs.
In May 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons, it was reported that Widdecombe was gathering support for election as interim Speaker until the next general election. On 11 June 2009, she confirmed her bid to be the Speaker, but came last in the second ballot and was eliminated.
Widdecombe retired from politics at the 2010 general election. It was rumoured that she would be a Conservative candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in 2012, but she refused. She since spoke about her opposition to the Coalition Government and her surprise at not being given a peerage by David Cameron.
In 2016, she supported Brexit during the 2016 EU referendum and, following the resignation of David Cameron, endorsed Andrea Leadsom in her candidacy for election for the leadership of the governing Conservative Party.
Return to politics – Brexit Party
In 2019 she returned to politics as a candidate for the Brexit Party in the European parliament elections in South West England, which were held on 23 May, though she maintained that she would still vote for the Conservatives in the local elections that took place three weeks before. She was expelled by the Conservative Party immediately after her announcement. Widdecombe had considered joining the Brexit Party in March 2019, but joined later, in May.
Widdecombe said that her decision to stand resulted from the Government's failure to deliver Britain's departure from the EU on schedule. "Both major parties need a seismic shock," she said, "to see the extent of public disgust." She subsequently won her seat.
Widdecombe became a member of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).
Widdecombe stood as a candidate for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport in the 2019 UK general election, coming a distant third but just retaining her deposit with 5.5% of the vote. Nigel Farage said that she was told by the Conservative Party that she would be part of their Brexit negotiations if she stood down as a candidate.
Political views
Social issues
As an MP, Widdecombe expressed socially conservative views, including opposition to abortion; it was understood during her time in frontline politics that she would not become Health Secretary as long as this involved responsibility for abortions. Although a committed Christian, she characterised the issue as one of life and death on which her view had been the same when she was agnostic and was a member of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children while studying at Oxford. During Parliament, Widdecombe was a member of the Pro-Life All Party Parliamentary Group, which met with SPUC over concerns the organisation's more strident approach to abortion policy could alienate Protestant and atheist supporters.
She converted from the Church of England (CoE) to the Roman Catholic Church following the CoE decision to ordain women as priests.
She is an opponent of assisted dying in any form, saying that any such legislation would fail to "protect the mentally ill, disabled and the frail elderly". She further commented: "You cannot get to my age without having seen loved ones suffer [...] or having seen dear friends die in pain. And, yes, I too have thought 'We wouldn't do this to an animal'. But that emotional indignation has also to be extended to those whom any euthanasia law would threaten."
LGBT rights
Although not an MP at the time, Widdecombe did voice support for the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 in England and Wales. After that, Widdecombe consistently opposed further reforms while in Parliament. Out of the 17 parliamentary votes between 1998 and 2008 considered by the Public Whip website to concern equal rights for homosexuals, Widdecombe took the opposing position in 15 cases, not being present at the other two votes."Ann Widdecombe compared to 'Homosexuality – Equal rights'", Public Whip. Retrieved on 24 June 2009. In 1999, Widdecombe stated that "I do not think that [homosexuality] can be promoted as an equally valid lifestyle to [heterosexual] marriage, but I would say the same about irregular heterosexual arrangements."
She has consistently argued against an equal age of consent for same-sex relationships, voting against a 1994 act (which would have reduced the age of consent for some male-male sexual activity from 21 to 18), and in 1998 (arguing against a further reduction from 18 to 16, which later occurred in 2000). On the latter act, she wrote in The Mail on Sunday that "one of the sundry horrors for which this Government is likely to be remembered will be that it gave its imprimatur to sodomy at 16", She later said in 2000: "I do not believe that issues of equality should override the imperatives of protecting the young." In 2003, Widdecombe opposed the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988. In 2012, Widdecombe voiced support in the Daily Express for the practise of conversion therapy, which claims to change the orientation of homosexuals.
Widdecombe has also expressed her opposition to same-sex marriage, introduced by David Cameron's government in 2014, arguing that "the state must have a preferred model" which is "a union that is generally open to procreation". She also opposes gender self-identification for transgender people. In 2020, she expressed her opposition to same-sex dancing on Strictly Come Dancing, saying: "I don't think it is what viewers of Strictly, especially families, are looking for. But that's up to the audience and the programme."
Criminal justice
In her speech at the 2000 Conservative conference, she called for a zero tolerance policy of prosecution, with the punishment of £100 fines for users of cannabis. This was well received by rank-and-file Conservative delegates.
Over the years, Widdecombe has expressed her support for a reintroduction of the death penalty, which was abolished in the UK in 1965. She notably spoke of her support for its reintroduction for the worst cases of murder in the aftermath of the murder of two 10-year-old girls from Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002, arguing that in the five years up to 1970 when the death penalty was suspended, the national murder rate had more than doubled.
Environmental and science issues
She is a committed animal lover and one of the several Conservative MPs to have consistently voted for the ban on the hunting of foxes."Ann Widdecombe compared to 'Fox hunting – Ban'", Public Whip. Retrieved on 21 March 2009. Widdecombe was among more than 20 high-profile people who signed a letter to Members of Parliament in 2015 to oppose David Cameron's plan to amend the Hunting Act 2004.
In 2007, she wrote that she did not want to belittle the issue of climate change, but was sceptical of the claims that specific actions would prevent catastrophe. In 2008, she wrote that her doubts had been "crystalised" by Nigel Lawson's book An Appeal to Reason; in 2014, she likened Lawson's difficulty in getting the book published to the book-burnings in Nazi Germany. Later in 2008, Widdecombe claimed that the "science of climate change is robustly disputed", then, in 2009, that "There is no climate change, hasn't anybody looked out of their window recently?" She was one of the five MPs who voted against the Climate Change Act 2008.
The previous year, she voted to support a parliamentary motion in favour of homeopathy, disagreeing with the Science and Technology Committee's Report on the subject.
Controversies
In 2009, she partially defended Carol Thatcher's use of the racial slur 'golliwog' on Any Questions?, saying: "There is a generation to whom a golliwog is merely a toy, a generation which was much endeared by its golliwogs which grew up with them on jam jars ... and there is a generation, a new generation for whom that word is deeply offensive and one does have to make I think some allowance for the fact." In December 2019, WhatsApp conversations between her and Brexit Party activists were leaked to the Plymouth Herald which showed Widdecombe using the term amid rumours party campaign funding was being diverted away from Plymouth ahead of the general election of that year. Widdecombe said: "Yes, I threw all my toys of the pram. Bears and gollywogs flying everywhere!!"
In 2019 Widdecombe defended the comments she made in a 2012 article that supported "gay conversion" therapy. She told Sky News that science may yet "provide an answer" to the question of whether people can "switch sexuality". Following Widdecombe's apparent endorsement of conversion therapy, at least one venue, the Landmark theatre in Ilfracombe, Devon, cancelled a performance of her one-woman show.
Widdecombe and two other Brexit Party figures were criticised for previous appearances on the David Icke-affiliated Richie Allen Show, which has been accused of promoting Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family and Zionism. Widdecombe appeared three times between August 2017 and April 2019 and was described as an "old friend of the show" by the host during one appearance.Erich, Ben (18 August 2019). "Brexit Party figures 'appeared on show which promoted Holocaust denial'". The Jewish Chronicle. Widdecombe told Jewish Chronicle that she agreed to appear to discuss Brexit, and that she "had never heard of the Richie Allen Show until I agreed to go on" and distanced herself from its antisemitic content by, among other things, pointing to her membership of the Conservative Friends of Israel, B'nai B'rith event speeches, and her novel An Act of Treachery, which she said is set during the Holocaust.
Widdecombe was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the Brexit Party on 23 May 2019 in the European elections. On 3 July 2019 she used her maiden speech in Strasbourg to compare Brexit to slaves revolting against their owners and to a colonised country rising up against occupying forces, a stance which was criticised by members of both the European Parliament and the British House of Commons.
Media work and appearances
thumb|Widdecombe in an Any Questions? broadcast in 2016 at the Nexus Methodist Church, Bath
In 2002 she took part in the ITV programme Celebrity Fit Club. Also in 2002 she took part in a Louis Theroux television documentary, depicting her life, both in and out of politics. In March 2004 she briefly became The Guardian newspaper's agony aunt, introduced with an Emma Brockes interview. In 2005 BBC Two showed six episodes of The Widdecombe Project, an agony aunt television programme. In 2005, she appeared in a new series of Celebrity Fit Club, this time as an agony aunt. Also in 2005, she presented the show Ann Widdecombe to the Rescue in which she acted as an agony aunt, dispensing advice to disputing families, couples, and others across the UK. In 2005, she appeared in a discussion programme on Five to discuss who had been England's greatest monarch since the Norman Conquest; her choice of monarch was Charles II.
She was the guest host of news quiz Have I Got News for You twice, in 2006 and 2007. Her first appearance as guest host, in 2006, was widely regarded as a success. Following her second appearance, Widdecombe said she would never appear on the show again because of comments made by panellist Jimmy Carr which she considered filth,Ann Widdecombe in the Daily Express, as quoted by though she called regular panellists Ian Hislop and Paul Merton "the fastest wits in showbusiness". Merton later revealed that he thought Widdecombe had been "the worst ever presenter" of the show, particularly on her second appearance where Merton claimed she "thought she was Victoria Wood".
In 2007 she awarded the University Challenge trophy to the winners. In the same year, she appeared in "The Sound of Drums", the 12th episode of the third series of the science-fiction drama Doctor Who, endorsing the Master's Prime Minister campaign. In 2007 and 2008 Widdecombe fronted a television series called Ann Widdecombe Versus, on ITV1, in which she spoke to various people about things related to her as an MP, with an emphasis on confronting those responsible for problems she wished to tackle. In 2007 she talked about prostitution, social benefits, and truancy. A fourth episode was screened on 18 September 2008 in which she travelled around London and Birmingham talking to girl gangs.
In 2009, Widdecombe appeared with Archbishop John Onaiyekan in an "Intelligence Squared" debate in which they defended the motion that the Catholic Church was a force for good. Arguing against the motion were Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens, who won the debate overall.
thumb|Widdecombe at a book club hosted by Edwina Currie in Clapham, 2010
In October 2010, she appeared on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, partnered by Anton du Beke, winning the support of some viewers despite low marks from the judges. After nine weeks of routines strongly flavoured by comedy, the couple was eliminated, in the bottom two. In 2011 Widdecombe played the Lord Mayoress in an episode of Sooty.
In 2012, Widdecombe hosted the 30 one-hour episodes of Cleverdicks, a quiz show for the Sky Atlantic channel. In April 2012 Widdecombe presented an hour-long documentary for BBC Radio 5 Live, Drunk Again: Ann Widdecombe Investigates, looking at how the British attitude to alcohol consumption had changed over the previous few years. Widdecombe was in a Strictly Come Dancing special in Children in Need's 2012 appeal night. On 4 November 2012, Widdecombe guest-hosted one episode of BBC's Songs of Praise programme about singleness.
In October 2014, she appeared in the BBC series Celebrity Antiques Road Trip with expert Mark Stacey.
Widdecombe took part in a four-part BBC One television series 24 Hours in the Past, along with Colin Jackson, Alistair McGowan, Miquita Oliver, Tyger Drew-Honey and Zoe Lucker in April and May 2015, involving experiencing life as workers in a dustyard, coachhouse, pottery, and as workhouse inmates in 1840s Britain. She took part in an episode of Tipping Point: Lucky Stars in 2016. In 2017, Widdecombe took part in ITV's Sugar Free Farm.
In January 2018, Widdecombe participated in the Celebrity Big Brother twenty-first series; she was criticised over her comments regarding the Harvey Weinstein controversy and comments perceived to be anti-LGBT to her fellow housemates, most notably to drag queen Courtney Act (Shane Jenek). She finished the competition in second place, behind Jenek.
In 2019 Widdecombe appeared on the new celebrity version of The Crystal Maze, where alongside Sunetra Sarker, Wes Nelson, Matthew Wright and Nikki Sanderson, she won money for Stand Up to Cancer.
In 2020 Widdecombe travelled to Norway for three days to visit Halden Prison, for the documentary The World's Most Luxurious Prison.
Stage acting career
Following her retirement, Widdecombe made her stage debut, on 9 December 2011, at the Orchard Theatre, Dartford in the Christmas pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, alongside Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood. In April 2012, she had a ten-minute non-singing cameo part in Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera La Fille du Regiment, playing the Duchesse de Crackentorp. Widdecombe reprised her pantomime performance, again with Horwood, at the Swan Theatre, High Wycombe in December 2012.
Widdecombe stepped in at short notice to play the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, at Bridlington Spa in December 2016. She replaced injured Lorraine Chase. This was Widdecombe's first appearance as a pantomime 'baddie'; a role she told the press she had always hoped for.
In December 2017 Widdecombe played the Empress of China in the pantomime Aladdin at the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft.
Personal life and family
Until her retirement following the 2010 general election, Widdecombe divided her time between her two homes – one in London and one in the countryside village of Sutton Valence, Kent, in her constituency. She sold both upon retiring at the next general election. She shared her home in London with her widowed mother, Rita Widdecombe, until Rita's death, on 25 April 2007, aged 95. In March 2008, she bought a house in Haytor Vale, on Dartmoor in Devon, where she retired. Her brother, Malcolm (1937–2010), who was an Anglican canon in Bristol, retired in May 2009 and died in October 2010. Her nephew, Roger Widdecombe, is an Anglican priest. upright|thumb|Widdecombe in 2006She has never married nor had any children. In November 2007 on BBC Radio 4 she described how a journalist once produced a profile on her with the assumption that she had had at least "one sexual relationship", to which Widdecombe replied: "Be careful, that's the way you get sued". When interviewer Jenni Murray asked if she had ever had a sexual relationship, Widdecombe laughed "it's nobody else's business".
A 2001 report in The Guardian said that she had had a three-year romance while studying at the University of Oxford; Widdecombe confirmed this in January 2018 on the UK reality TV show Big Brother, explaining that she had ended the romance in order to prioritise her career.
Widdecombe has a fondness for cats and many other animals such as foxes; a section of her website, the Widdyweb, is about the pet cats she has lived with. Widdecombe adopted two goats at the Buttercups Goat Sanctuary in Boughton Monchelsea near Maidstone. In an interview, Widdecombe talked about her appreciation of music, despite describing herself as "pretty well tone-deaf".
Outside politics she writes novels, and a weekly column for the Daily Express.
In January 2011 Widdecombe was President of the North of England Education Conference in Blackpool, and gave a speech there supporting selective education and opposing the ban on new grammar schools being built. She also became a patron of The Grace Charity for M.E.
In April 2012 Widdecombe said that she was writing her autobiography, which she described as "rude about all and sundry, but an amount of truth is always necessary". Her autobiography Strictly Ann: The Autobiography, was published in 2013, and was variously described as "forthright", "candid", even "rude".
Widdecombe is a patron of the charity Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land (SHADH) and in 2014 visited the SHADH Donkey Sanctuary in the West Bank.
Religious views
Widdecombe became an Anglican in her 30s, after a period of being an agnostic following her departure from religious schooling. She converted to Catholicism in 1993 after leaving the Church of England, explaining to reporters from the New Statesman:
I left the Church of England because there was a huge bundle of straw. The ordination of women was the last straw, but it was only one of many. For years I had been disillusioned by the Church of England's compromising on everything. The Catholic Church doesn't care if something is unpopular.
In October 2006, she pledged to boycott British Airways for suspending a worker who refused to hide her Christian cross, until the company reversed the suspension.
In 2010, Widdecombe turned down the offer to be Britain's next ambassador to the Holy See, being prevented from accepting by suffering a detached retina. She was made a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI for services to politics and public life on 31 January 2013.
Honours
Widdecombe was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University at a ceremony held at Canterbury Cathedral on 30 January 2009.
She was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University (D.Univ) by the University of Birmingham on 5 July 2012.
: Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great (DSG) (2013)
Selected publications
Fiction
2000: The Clematis Tree. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
2002: An Act of Treachery. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
2005: Father Figure. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
2005: An Act of Peace. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Non-fiction
1999: Inspired and Outspoken: the collected speeches of Ann Widdecombe; edited by John Simmons, with a biographical preface by Nick Kochan. London: Politico's Publishing
2004: The Mass is a Mess, with Martin Kochanski. London: Catholic Writers' Guild
Further reading
2000: Kochan, Nicholas Ann Widdecombe: right from the beginning''. London: Politico's Publishing
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Ann Widdecombe
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Notes
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Notes
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Ann Widdecombe
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References
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References
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Ann Widdecombe
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External links
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External links
Official website
TheyWorkForYou.com – Ann Widdecombe MP
The Public Whip – Ann Widdecombe MP voting record
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Category:1947 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century Anglicans
Category:20th-century English women politicians
Category:20th-century English politicians
Category:20th-century Roman Catholics
Category:21st-century Roman Catholics
Category:21st-century women MEPs for England
Category:Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham
Category:Brexit Party MEPs
Category:British broadcaster-politicians
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Category:Converts to Anglicanism from atheism or agnosticism
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Category:English anti-same-sex-marriage activists
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Category:Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Category:MEPs for England 2019–2020
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Category:UK MPs 1987–1992
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Ann Widdecombe
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Table of Content
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short description, Early life, Political career, In government, Shadow Cabinet, Leadership contest and backbenches, Notes, References, External links
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Aurangzeb
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Short description
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Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, was the sixth Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707. Under his reign, the Mughal Empire reached its greatest extent, with territory spanning nearly the entirety of the Indian subcontinent.
Aurangzeb and the Mughals belonged to a branch of the Timurid dynasty. He held administrative and military posts under his father Shah Jahan () and gained recognition as an accomplished military commander. Aurangzeb served as the viceroy of the Deccan in 1636–1637 and the governor of Gujarat in 1645–1647. He jointly administered the provinces of Multan and Sindh in 1648–1652 and continued expeditions into the neighboring Safavid territories. In September 1657, Shah Jahan nominated his eldest and liberalist son Dara Shikoh as his successor, a move repudiated by Aurangzeb, who proclaimed himself emperor in February 1658. In April 1658, Aurangzeb defeated the allied army of Shikoh and the Kingdom of Marwar at the Battle of Dharmat. Aurangzeb's decisive victory at the Battle of Samugarh in May 1658 cemented his sovereignty and his suzerainty was acknowledged throughout the Empire. After Shah Jahan recovered from illness in July 1658, Aurangzeb declared him incompetent to rule and imprisoned his father in the Agra Fort.
Aurangzeb's reign is characterized by a period of rapid military expansion, with several dynasties and states being overthrown by the Mughals. The Mughals also surpassed Qing China as the world's largest economy and biggest manufacturing power. The Mughal military gradually improved and became one of the strongest armies in the world. A staunch Muslim, Aurangzeb is credited with the construction of numerous mosques and patronizing works of Arabic calligraphy. He successfully imposed the Fatawa-i Alamgiri as the principal regulating body of the empire and prohibited religiously forbidden activities in Islam. Although Aurangzeb suppressed several local revolts, he maintained cordial relations with foreign governments.
Aurangzeb was the longest reigning Mughal Emperor. His empire was also one of the largest in Indian history. However, his emperorship has a complicated legacy. His critics, citing his actions against the non-Muslims and his conservative view of Islam, argue that he abandoned the legacy of pluralism and tolerance of the earlier Mughal emperors. Others, however, reject these assertions, arguing that he opposed bigotry against Hindus, Sikhs and Shia Muslims and that he employed significantly more Hindus in his imperial bureaucracy than his predecessors.
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Aurangzeb
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Early life
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Early life
thumb|303x303px|Young Prince Aurangzeb (far left), aged 9–10, with his brothers Dara Shikoh, Shah Shuja, their father Shah Jahan (center), and maternal grandfather Asaf Khan IV (right) c.1628
Aurangzeb was born in Dahod on 3 November 1618. His father was Emperor Shah Jahan (), who hailed from the Mughal house of the Timurid dynasty, which in turn was part of the Barlas tribe. The latter was descended from Emir Timur (), the founder of the Timurid Empire. Aurangzeb's mother Mumtaz Mahal was the daughter of the Persian nobleman Asaf Khan, who was the youngest son of vizier Mirza Ghiyas. Aurangzeb was born during the reign of his patrilineal grandfather Jahangir (), the fourth emperor of the Mughal Empire.
In June 1626, after an unsuccessful rebellion by his father, eight-year-old Aurangzeb and his brother Dara Shikoh were sent to the Mughal court in Lahore as hostages of their grandfather Jahangir and his wife, Nur Jahan, as part of their father's pardon deal. After Jahangir died in 1627, Shah Jahan emerged victorious in the ensuing war of succession to the Mughal throne. Aurangzeb and his brother were consequently reunited with Shah Jahan in Agra.
As a Mughal prince, Aurangzeb received an education covering subjects like combat, military strategy, and administration. His curriculum also included areas like Islamic studies, Turkic and Persian literature. Aurangzeb grew up fluent in the Hindustani language. He was also fluent in his ancestral language of Chagatai Turkic, but similar to his predecessors, he preferred to use Persian.
On 28 May 1633, a war elephant stampeded through the Mughal imperial encampment. Aurangzeb rode against the elephant and threw his spear at its head. He was unhorsed but escaped death. For his courage, Aurangzeb's father conferred on him the title of Bahadur (brave) and presented him with gifts. When chided for his recklessness, Aurangzeb replied:
Historians have interpreted this as an unjust slur against his brothers. Shuja had also faced the elephant and wounded it with his spear. Dara had been too far away to come to their assistance.
Three days later Aurangzeb turned fifteen. Shah Jahan weighed him and presented him with his weight in gold along with other presents worth Rs. 200,000. His bravery against the elephant was documented in Persian and Urdu verses.
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Aurangzeb
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Career as prince
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Career as prince
thumb|upright|The Mughal Army under the command of Aurangzeb recaptures Orchha in October 1635.
Aurangzeb was nominally in charge of the force sent to Bundelkhand with the intent of subduing the rebellious ruler of Orchha, Jhujhar Singh, who had attacked another territory in defiance of Shah Jahan's policy and was refusing to atone for his actions. By arrangement, Aurangzeb stayed in the rear, away from the fighting, and took the advice of his generals as the Mughal Army gathered and commenced the siege of Orchha in 1635. The campaign was successful and Singh was removed from power.
thumb|A painting from Padshahnama depicts Prince Aurangzeb facing a maddened war elephant named Sudhakar.
Aurangzeb was appointed viceroy of the Deccan in 1636. After Shah Jahan's vassals had been devastated by the alarming expansion of Ahmednagar during the reign of the Nizam Shahi boy-prince Murtaza Shah III, the emperor dispatched Aurangzeb, who in 1636 brought the Nizam Shahi dynasty to an end.George Michell and Mark Zebrowski, Architecture and Art of the Deccan Sultanates, (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 12. In 1637, Aurangzeb married the Safavid princess Dilras Banu, posthumously known as Rabia-ud-Daurani. She was his first wife and chief consort as well as his favourite. He also had an infatuation with a slave girl, Hira Bai, whose death at a young age greatly affected him. In his old age, he was under the charms of his concubine, Udaipuri Mahal. The latter had formerly been a companion to Dara Shukoh.
In the same year, 1637, Aurangzeb was placed in charge of annexing the small Rajput kingdom of Baglana, which he did with ease. In 1638, Aurangzeb married Nawab Bai, later known as Rahmat al-Nisa. That same year, Aurangzeb dispatched an army to subdue the Portuguese coastal fortress of Daman, however his forces met stubborn resistance and were eventually repulsed at the end of a long siege.The Calcutta Review, Volume 75, 1882, p. 87.Sir Charles Fawcett: The Travels of the Abbarrn India and the Near East, 1672 to 1674 Hakluyt Society, London, 1947, p. 167.M. S. Commissariat: Mandelslo's Travels In Western India, Asian Educational Services, 1995, p. 57. At some point, Aurangzeb married Aurangabadi Mahal, who was a Circassian or Georgian.
Shah Jahan was outraged to see Aurangzeb enter the interior palace compound in military attire and immediately dismissed him from his position of viceroy of the Deccan; Aurangzeb was also no longer allowed to use red tents or to associate himself with the official military standard of the Mughal emperor. Other sources state that Aurangzeb was dismissed from his position because Aurangzeb left the life of luxury and became a faqir.Ahmad, Fazl. Heroes of Islam. Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraff, 1993. Print.
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Aurangzeb
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Governor of Gujarat
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Governor of Gujarat
In 1645, he was barred from the court for seven months. It is reported that he mentioned his grief about this to fellow Mughal commanders. Thereafter, Shah Jahan appointed him governor of Gujarat. His rule in Gujarat was marked with religious disputes but he was rewarded for bringing stability.
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Aurangzeb
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Governor of Balkh
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Governor of Balkh
In 1647, Shah Jahan moved Aurangzeb from Gujarat to be governor of Balkh, replacing a younger son, Murad Baksh, who had proved ineffective there. The area was under attack from Uzbek and Turkmen tribes. The Mughal artillery and muskets were matched by the skirmishing skills of their opponents which led to a stalemate. Aurangzeb discovered that his army could not live off the land, which was devastated by war. It is recorded that during the battle against the Uzbeks during this campaign, Aurangzeb dismounted from his elephant ride to recite prayer to the surprise of the opposing force commander.
With the onset of winter, he and his father had to make an unsatisfactory deal with the Uzbeks. They had to give away territory in exchange for nominal recognition of Mughal sovereignty. The Mughal force suffered still further with attacks by Uzbeks and other tribesmen as it retreated through the snow to Kabul. By the end of this two-year campaign, into which Aurangzeb had been plunged at a late stage, a vast sum of money had been expended for little gain.
Further unsuccessful military involvements followed, as Aurangzeb was appointed governor of Multan and Sindh. His efforts in 1649 and 1652 to dislodge the Safavids at Kandahar which they had recently retaken after a decade of Mughal control, both ended in failure as winter approached. The logistical problems of supplying an army at the extremity of the empire, combined with the poor quality of armaments and the intransigence of the opposition have been cited by John Richards as the reasons for failure. A third attempt in 1653, led by Dara Shikoh, met with the same outcome.
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