Enterprise feedback management (EFM) is a system of processes and software that enables organizations to centrally manage deployment of surveys while dispersing authoring and analysis throughout an organization.  EFM systems typically provide different roles and permission levels for different types of users, such as novice survey authors, professional survey authors, survey reporters and translators. EFM can help an organization establish a dialogue with employees, partners, and customers regarding key issues and concerns and potentially make customer-specific real time interventions. EFM consists of data collection, analysis and reporting.

Modern EFM systems can track feedback from a variety of sources including customers, market research, social media, employees, vendors, partners and audits in a privatized or public manner.

EFM systems can be applied by companies operating in different fields: e.g., systems provided by  Confirmit, CXGroup, InMoment, MaritzCX, Clarabridge, Medallia, NICE Systems, Netigate, Qualtrics, QuestBack, Verint, QuestionPro, Zoho Survey, Qwary are used by more than half of the Fortune 100 companies from business services, consumer goods, financial services, government and public services, healthcare, manufacturing, media and communication, non-profit and other associations, research and professional services, retail, technology, and travel, hospitality, and restaurants industries.

Background
The term enterprise feedback management was coined by Perseus Development in 2004 and was first popularized in 2005 by Gartner. Their definition of it was "formal tools for data collection and output analysis".

Prior to EFM, survey software was typically deployed in departments and lacked user roles, permissions and workflow.  EFM enables deployment across the enterprise, providing decision makers with important data for increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty and lifetime value. EFM enables companies to look at customers "holistically" and to better respond to customer needs.

Enterprise feedback management systems root from PA technologies. It is possible to infer about the PA that they represent a part of such a vast field of knowledge as data mining. The forecast of the current and future tendencies is based on the data already acquired. PA implies various types of modeling: clustering (cluster analysis), decision trees, regression analysis, artificial neural networks, text mining, hypothesis testing, etc. Predictive Analysis technologies are actually tools to transform data to information and then to knowledge. This transformation was partly described in the article As We May Think written by Vannevar Bush in 1945.

EFM applications support complex survey design, with features such as question and page rotation, quota management and skip patterns and branching.  The software typically offers advanced reporting with statistical analysis and centralized panel management.  EFM applications are often integrated with external platforms, most typically with customer relationship management (CRM) systems but also with HRIS systems and generic web portals.

Unlike low-end survey tools, EFM applications provides a workflow process with user roles and permissions, so that users may be able to author a survey but require another user to approve it before it is published. Such workflow ensures consistent survey quality and enforces respondent privacy and IT security policies. Applications of EFM vary widely from HR, IT, Marketing, Sales and continues to expand on its corporate implementation and scope.  Departments within an organization can collaborate on feedback initiatives, sharing results and gaining insights that enable the organization to listen, learn and react to the needs of their stakeholders. A key part of the value of an EFM deployment is the development of the business rules (i.e. who needs to see what feedback info) and which parts of the customer/employee/partner facing process needs to be measured.

EFM today: current situation and emerging tendencies
Gartner projected that 40 percent of total feedback system deployments would be EFM solutions in 2008. It is worth noting that the motivation to pilot/deploy EFM is often to reduce the reliance on (or reduce the costs of) traditional satisfaction research.

Esteban Kolsky, when a research director at Gartner, described the market structure as follows: "The market for these tools is a highly fragmented one, with no single provider. It's going to jumpstart a bunch of acquisitions as larger vendors look to work EFM and surveying into their growth strategy." Since then, technology companies such as Medallia and Satmetrix have received significant backing from venture capital investors.

The EFM market grew 60% to 70% in 2005 and 2006.

Here are some of the ways in which EFM has been evolving:
 From Multi-Channel Customer Surveys to Multi-Channel Customer Feedback
In recent years, EFM solution providers have focused on rounding out their capabilities to conduct surveys across multiple deployment modes: email, website, phone, IVR, SMS, paper, fax, kiosk. The next generation of EFM solutions also enable companies to capture feedback from critical new sources including social media, online communities, call recordings, contact center notes, and more, to get a true "360-degree view" of the customer.
The ability to monitor feedback via social media has become increasingly important, as ever-growing numbers of customers are sharing their views via blogs, Facebook, Twitter, news sites, forums, review sites, and video sites. With the help of responsive touch point tracker software, it is also possible to receives reliable feedback directly at points of sale. As a result of mobile-friendliness the feedback can submitted through both tablets and smartphones.
 From Siloed Insights to Integrated Insights
Capturing feedback is only the first step. Next generation EFM solutions also have the ability to generate unique insights by integrating and analyzing multi-channel feedback. For example, users can compare sentiment in social media data side-by-side with survey satisfaction and loyalty scores, and drill deeper than ever into feedback sources at the response level (verbatim survey responses, call recordings, etc.) for greater context. These insights enable companies to more easily identify the root causes of problems, determine the most appropriate actions, and target investments to deliver the most impact on the bottom line.
 From Simple Survey Alerts to Advanced Case Management Across Feedback Channels
The next generation of EFM solutions goes far beyond basic alerts triggered by negative survey responses. Comprehensive EFM systems now offer full case management to respond efficiently to individual customers' problems and comprehensive case analytics across feedback channels.
This enables organizations to respond to individual customers in a highly efficient manner that optimizes the use of scarce front-line and executive resources.
 From Static Insights Seen by Few to Real-time Insights Accessible by All
In order to transform customer feedback into a strategic tool for driving competitive advantage, that data needs to be readily on-hand at the point of daily decision making. The next generation of EFM solutions automatically delivers the most relevant real-time feedback data to each user across the enterprise, according to his or her role – executive, manager, customer service agent, etc. – without creating undue burden for program administrators.
For example, American General Life uses action management capabilities to address service and quality issues throughout the organization in real-time, with survey responses triggering email alerts and case management tools according to business rules. Action alerts allow the company to be more proactive and more quickly address issues with customers – and because they track issues at touch point levels, customer survey scores show directly how changes impact the customer experience.

With the information from their customer feedback program, American General Life has identified opportunities to reduce technology costs, avoid expenses, and optimize business processes. They track scores and trends to understand how each business area can enhance the customer experience. As a result, they have been able to increase overall customer satisfaction and positively impact customer retention.

One of the important trends of EFM development today is its producers going mobile. For example, Verint Technologies has introduced EFM mobile app. The possibility to manage feedback using portable devices has a lot of significant advantages which will provide the company`s employees with ability of collecting and analysing data conveniently and in time. The most important innovations are:
 Optimizing Surveys for mobile devices. With these new technologies it is possible now to work with EFM on tablets and smartphones;
 Using Mobile Reporting. Necessary analysis can be carried out and managerial decisions can be taken within specific time constraints;
 Taking Advantage of Mobile Offline Surveys. While previous EFM versions have to be connected to the Internet, this mobile service lets the researcher perform the analysis partly offline and then sync the data with the Web app.
 Increasing Response Rates with SMS. Researchers can reach their customers with SMS, bulk messages, and reminders.

Criticism
Though EFM may seem a good tool for various data analysis, it has been suggested that "EFM is a description of the past". The main disadvantages of EFM could be that it focuses on the enterprise, not the customer; insight across a variety of inputs should be examined, feedback would be too narrow field here; the value of the system should derive from taking actions, not just managing surveys. The author of the article Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) Is Dead implies that "Customer Insight and Action Platforms" (CIA) should be used instead of EFM.

See also
 B2B Marketing
 Business intelligence
 Business-to-business
 Customer data management
 Customer engagement
 Customer feedback management services
 Customer Intelligence
 Customer relationship management
 Customer satisfaction
 Enterprise relationship management

References

Enterprise architecture
Survey methodology

Enterprise feedback management


The medulla oblongata (or medulla) is the lower half of the brainstem.  It is just on top of the spinal cord.  It connects the higher parts of the brain to the spinal cord (see the picture at the right of this page).

The cardiac, respiratory, and vasomotor control centers are in the medulla.  This means that the medulla controls heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and the size of the body's blood vessels.  If the medulla did not work, the person would die.

Functions
The medulla does many important things.  It relays nerve signals between the brain and spinal cord.  Signals from the brain tell the rest of the body what to do.  Signals from the spinal cord tell the brain what is going on in the body.  Without the medulla, none of these signals would get through.

The medulla also controls autonomic functions (things the body does automatically, without a person having to think about them).

The breathing control center

The medulla controls breathing.  Groups of neurons in the medulla tell the body when to breathe in, when to breathe faster, and when to breathe slower.

The medulla measures how much carbon dioxide is in a person's blood.  When the body makes energy, carbon dioxide gets left over.  The body has to get rid of extra carbon dioxide, because it is poisonous.  The only way the body can get rid of carbon dioxide is by breathing it out.

If there is too much carbon dioxide in the blood, the medulla sends signals to the breathing muscles and tells them to work harder.  This makes the person breathe faster, so they can breathe out the extra carbon dioxide.  Once the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood is normal again, the medulla tells the body to breathe slower again.

The cardiac control center

The medulla helps control the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.  The main part of the nerves that control these two systems are in the medulla.  These nerves get signals from other parts of the brain and the body.  These signals help tell the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems what to do.

Together, these two systems control many important things, like how fast the heart beats and how hard it squeezes.  In the cardiac center, there are special nerves that will make the heart beat harder and faster, called excitatory nerves.  There are also inhibitory nerves, which will make the heart beat slower and not as hard.  If a person's blood pressure gets too low, the cardiac center will send a message to the excitatory nerves, telling them to make the heart beat faster and harder.  This raises the blood pressure.  If the blood pressure gets too high, the cardiac center sends a message to the inhibitory nerves, which slow the heart down and make it not beat so hard.  This lowers the blood pressure.  In a healthy person, the cardiac center balances out the signals it sends to these sets of nerves, to keep the blood pressure normal.

The vasomotor control center
The vasomotor center controls the size of the body's blood vessels.  When a person is stressed or in danger, the vasomotor center makes the blood vessels get smaller.  This is part of the body's "fight or flight" reaction.  It causes more blood to go to the body's most important organs, like the brain, heart, and lungs.  This can help a person survive if they are in danger.  It also makes the blood pressure go up.

At other times, the vasomotor center makes the blood vessels get wider.  This makes the blood pressure go down, and makes it easier for blood to get to some parts of the body.

Reflex control centers
The medulla also controls some important reflexes, like vomiting, coughing, sneezing, and swallowing.

Other functions
Sets of neurons in the medulla help control other important things, like movement, digestion, and sleep.

Injuries to the medulla
Because the medulla controls so many important things, injuries to the medulla can cause some serious problems.

For example, an injury to the middle of the medulla can cause these symptoms:
 Paralysis on one side of the body
 Paralysis of part of the tongue
 The person may lose their sense of touch (not be able to feel anything)
 The person may lose their sense of position (not know where their body parts are)

An injury to one side of the medulla can cause these symptoms:
 Trouble swallowing
 Dizziness
 Vomiting
 The person may lose their ability to feel pain or temperature
 The person may lose their gag reflex

If a person's medulla is completely destroyed (for example, from a very bad injury, or because it did not get enough oxygen to survive), that person will die.

References

Anatomy of the brain

Medulla oblongata


Wilfred David Kiboro,  (; born 7 August 1944) is a Kenyan entrepreneur, philanthropist and golfer. He is best known for having been the Group CEO of the Nation Media Group. Kiboro is a highly respected personality in the media and business industries in Kenya. He was born in the Kenya Province of the Colony of Kenya, now Kiambu County in the former Central Province.

Kiboro has won two very significant awards in his time: the Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear and the Leadership Shines Through – Africa award.

Career

Shell International
After receiving his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Nairobi, he began his career as a Technical Sales Engineer for Shell International, and was swiftly promoted to Technical Sales Manager, in charge of the manufacturing, sales and marketing of industrial and road construction products in the East and Central Africa region.

Esso Kenya
Kiboro joined Esso Kenya Ltd. in 1974 as a Supply, Planning and Economics Manager, where he started gaining both managerial and executive recognition. He gained several positions including Personnel Director and Sales/Marketing Director.

Xerox Kenya
He joined Xerox Kenya in 1987 and was appointed the managing director of the company in 1989. He held this position until he joined the Nation Media Group in 1993.

Nation Media Group
Kiboro joined Nation Media Group (abbreviated as NMG) in 1993 as the managing director Designate of the Nation newspaper. At the time it's only two products were the Daily Nation and Taifa Leo (a Kenyan Kiswahili newspaper, meaning Nation Today).

In line with ongoing regional integration efforts, the NMG launched The East African in 1994, the most successful cross-border newspaper in East Africa, hitting the news-stands of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and now Rwanda. Kiboro became the Group CEO in 1995 and retained his position until his retirement in 2006.

In 1999, the NMG made their entry into the electronic media industry after many years of frustration due to policy inadequacies and hostility by the then Government of Kenya under Daniel arap Moi. Nation FM and Nation TV were formed that year. Since then, the NMG has developed into a respected conglomerate around East Africa under Kiboro's tenure. It is divided into:

 The Nation Newspapers Division
 The Nation Broadcasting Division
 Nation Carriers Ltd (with Courier)
 Nation Marketing & Publishing:
Business Directory
The Weekly Advertiser
Distribution of local and international publications such as the Economist, Time, Newsweek among others
 East African Magazines
 Monitor Publications Ltd.
 Mwananchi Communications Ltd.

The NMG has also taken advantage of the communications technology explosion to send news to their subscribers, in partnership with Safaricom and Airtel, leading mobile operators in Kenya.

International career

Kiboro has travelled extensively, holding numerous national, regional and international job assignments that have seen him supervise cross-national teams across continents, a vote of confidence in his abilities as a change manager. He has dedicated his life to serving his country. As evidenced by the record of posts he has held and continues to hold with a view to contributing to Kenya's growth and development. Internationally, Wilfred Kiboro is the chairman of the International Press Institute (IPI) in Kenya, the East African Business Summit and a member of the International Who's Who of Professionals. He also sits on The Rhodes Trust in Kenya as Honorary chairman and is a member of the International Organisation of Employers' Enterprise Advisory Group. He launched numerous environmental and humanitarian efforts during his tenure at NMG, two key ones being:
 The launching of the Aberdare Forest Fund in 2002
 The launching of the Nation Turkana Relief Fund in 1999/2000

Major awards
 Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear
 Leadership Shines Through – Africa
 ICT Hall of Fame – 2007 Lifetime Inductee

Retirement
Kiboro retired as the Group CEO of the NMG in 2006, but still works there as the chairman of their board of directors. The NMG labelled him as their 'Mentor, Father, Team Leader and Champion'. His dream for the NMG in the future is that it will diversify its activities to some 12 African countries within the next ten years. He also works as the Chairman of Wilfay Investments Limited and serves as a non-executive director of East African Breweries Limited and Standard Chartered Bank Kenya.

Personal life
Kiboro and his wife Fatuma live in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sources
 Profile at The Media Center @ API
 Profile at Bloomberg Businessweek
 Profile at Nation Media Group – Board of Directors

References

1944 births
Living people
Kikuyu people
Kenyan chief executives
People from Kiambu County
Elders of the Order of the Burning Spear

Wilfred Kiboro


In Greek mythology, Melinoe is the goddess of ghosts. She is the daughter of Persephone and Hades. She lives in the Underworld. She has a pale complexion and a short temper and takes after her father in almost every way, except from her beauty that she gets from her mother Persephone. Melinoe has the powers to turn any mortal insane by her phantoms.

Little is known about Melinoe, but ancient Greeks used to conduct rituals and acts of praises to her as a sign of devotion and to garner protection from ghosts.

Greek gods and goddesses

Melinoe


The Baytown Nature Center is located in Baytown, Texas,  east of Houston. It is located on a  peninsula along the Houston Ship Channel and surrounded on three sides by Burnet Bay, Crystal Bay, and Scott Bay.

The Baytown Nature Center is both a recreation area and a wildlife sanctuary that is home to hundreds of bird species, mammals, reptiles, and aquatic species. The City of Baytown created this Nature Center in 1994. The SWA Group's Houston office provided land planning and landscape architectural services.

History

The Baytown Nature Center was, for many years, a highly desirable residential neighborhood known as Brownwood with nearly 400 substantial homes on a  peninsula.

In 1961, Hurricane Carla devastated the Texas Gulf Coast, flooding most of Brownwood and ending any new development in the area. Afterwards, subsidence became a serious problem as industrial and municipal water users along the Houston Ship Channel and in the general Houston area pumped out groundwater faster than natural forces could replenish the aquifer(s). Thus, during the 1970s and 1980s, much of the Texas Gulf Coast (including most of Brownwood) sank a total of 10 to . Brownwood, which had previously been high and dry, was repeatedly inundated by high tides and storms.

In 1983, extensive damage from Hurricane Alicia finally led to the abandonment of most of Brownwood's homes. The City of Baytown started buying out the properties of neighborhood residents. In 1984, the City prepared its first master plan to transform these properties into a public park and wildlife sanctuary.

By 1990, the steadily encroaching waters had submerged many Brownwood streets. In 1991, Baytown's voters approved $300,000 in bonds for the Brownwood Marsh Restoration Project. Although the bonds were sold in 1994, the $300,000 was hardly enough to meet the master plan's $1.4 million budget.

The short-fall was made up by the French Limited Task Group, a Superfund consortium of 200 companies, headed by ARCO Chemical Company. A United States District Court had ordered the Task Group to carry out a marsh restoration project to replace natural resources that were damaged or destroyed by members' illegal dumping activities.

The City of Baytown carried out the phased restoration project. Crouch Environmental Services, a Houston-based environmental consulting firm which specializes in wetlands design and construction, was the prime consultant and contractor. The Houston office of The SWA Group—an international land planning, landscape architecture, and urban design firm based in Sausalito, California—provided land planning and landscape architectural services.

Planning and development

In 1994, the Brownwood Marsh Restoration Project's master plan, which had been prepared by Crouch Environmental Services and The SWA Group, was approved by a Project Review Group consisting of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the Texas General Land Office.

In late 1994, work on the  Brownwood Marsh Restoration Project began. First, work crews sealed the inlets into nearby Scott Bay so that they could temporarily pump the water out of the property. Then, workers removed the remaining roads, houses, and utilities from the site. Afterwards, they graded the property and dug three -wide channels through the property. Once work was complete, these channels were used to re-flood the site and provide good crosscurrent flows to encourage natural restoration activity and feed the returning wetlands wildlife. The channels also provided the necessary tidal exchange (with its nutrient-rich, oxygenated waters) to help create important "edge" habitats for crustaceans, fish, and birds.

In their grading operations, the crews also transformed two elevated areas, which included hundreds of mature trees, into islands and created four new small freshwater ponds. These freshwater ponds and the planting of cabbage palmettos, live oaks, as well as beneficial bottomland shrubs and trees like red maple and green ash, were designed to lure a wide variety of migrant and indigenous birds, reptiles, and small mammals to the site.

For the Baytown Nature Center's watery edges and its inland areas, Crouch Environmental Services and The SWA Group selected flora with high value for wildlife, like nesting areas and food. They also specified plant species like Smooth cordgrass, Sedge, Wiregrass, and live oaks that already thrived in this coastal area.

As early as Fall 1995, with just one phase of construction largely completed, deer, fish, crustaceans, and 275 bird species had already appeared in the new wetlands, including two endangered species: the Osprey, a fish-eating hawk, and the three-foot-tall wood stork.

The Baytown Nature Center today

Today, the Baytown Nature Center has two peninsulas. Absolutely all dogs/pets are banned - even those remaining within their  owners vehicle. The smaller of the two peninsulas—San Jacinto Point—is designated as a recreation area. In addition to large oak trees and grass lawns, San Jacinto Point has three fishing piers, an observation platform, a Children's Nature Discovery Area playground, picnic tables, benches, and a concrete walkway along the bay shoreline.

The much larger peninsula—known as the Natural Area—has two islands with mixed woodlands, a saltwater marsh, freshwater marsh, several ponds, as well as mixed woodlands and tall grass habitats for birds, mammals, and other wildlife. The Crystal Bay Butterfly Garden near the entrance is planted with native plants and wildflowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

The Brownwood Education Pavilion—a covered shelter atop a -high hill surrounded by wetlands—has panoramic views of the Natural Area's wetlands and the three surrounding bays. Five nature trails of varying lengths loop through the peninsula. The Natural Area's observation blinds and platforms overlook the ponds. They, along with wood duck boxes and trails, are far enough away from the islands and nesting areas to avoid disturbing the burgeoning wildlife, yet close enough for Baytown residents and visitors to observe nature's beauty and diversity.

Currently home to 317 species of resident and neo-tropical migratory birds, the Baytown Nature Center is part of the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, a  trail of bird watching sites from Beaumont to Brownsville.

Operated by the City of Baytown and open to the public (for a fee), the Baytown Nature Center has also become an important nursery area for a variety of aquatic species, including shrimp, crab, and various fish.

Notes

References

External links
 Baytown's official tourism site.
 Friends of the Baytown Nature Center.
 Baytown Chamber of Commerce.
 The SWA Group.
 Baytown Nature Center - Baytown Bert.
 Baytown Nature Center: A Jewel in the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail

Baytown, Texas
Nature reserves in Texas
Nature centers in Texas
Wildlife sanctuaries of the United States
Galveston Bay Area
Protected areas of Harris County, Texas
1994 establishments in Texas
Protected areas established in 1994

Baytown Nature Center


In botany, a bract is a modified leaf, especially one associated with a flower or inflorescence. Bracts are usually different from normal leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture. Usually, they also look different from the parts of the flower, such as the petals and/or sepals.

Variants
Some bracts are brightly colored like petals, and attract pollinators like bees,. Examples of this type of bract include Euphorbia pulcherrima (poinsettia) and Bougainvillea: both of these have large colorful bracts surrounding much smaller, less colorful flowers.

In grasses, each floret (flower) is enclosed in a pair of papery bracts, while each spikelet (group of florets) has a further pair of bracts at its base called glumes.  These bracts are the chaff removed from cereal grain during threshing and winnowing.

A prophyll is a leaf-like structure, such as a bracteole, subtending a single flower or pedicel. The term can also mean the lower bract on a peduncle.

The frequently showy pair of bracts of Euphorbia species in subgenus Lacanthis are the cyathophylls.

Bracts subtend the cone scales in the seed cones of many conifers, and in some cases, such as Pseudotsuga, they extend beyond the cone scales.

Bracts that appear in a whorl under an inflorescence are called an involucre. An involucre is a common feature beneath the inflorescences of many Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Dipsacaceae and Polygonaceae. Each flower in an inflorescence may have its own whorl of bracts.  Many asteraceous plants have bracts at the base of each inflorescence.

The term involucre is also used for a highly conspicuous bract or bract pair at the base of an inflorescence.

Epicalyx

An epicalyx, an additional whorl around the calyx of a single flower, is a modification of bracteoles. In other words, the epicalyx is a group of bracts resembling a calyx or bracteoles forming a whorl outer to the calyx. It is a calyx-like extra whorl of floral appendages. They are present in family Malvaceae, the Hibiscus family. Fragaria (strawberries) may or may not have an epicalyx.

Spathe

A spathe is a large bract that forms a sheath to enclose the flower cluster of certain plants such as palms, arums, and dayflowers.  In many arums (Araceae family), the spathe is petal-like, attracting pollinators to the flowers arranged on a type of spike called a spadix.

Gallery

References

Plant anatomy

Bract


A silhouette is an image in outline only, usually filled in as black on a white background.

The inside of a silhouette is featureless.It differs from an outline. That shows the edge of an object in line form, but a silhouette is a solid shape. Silhouette images may be made in any visual artistic medium. The word was first used to describe pieces of cut paper, which were then stuck to a backing in a contrasting colour, and often framed.

Cutting portraits, generally in profile, from black card became popular in the mid-18th century. They were a cheap alternative to the portrait miniature. Skilled specialist artists could cut a high-quality bust portrait in a matter of minutes. Other artists, especially about 1790, drew an outline on paper, then painted it in, which could also be done quickly.

From its original graphic meaning, the term silhouette has been extended to describe the sight or representation of a person, object or scene that is backlit, and appears dark against a lighter background. Anything that appears this way, for example, a figure standing backlit in a doorway, may be described as "in silhouette".

References

Art

Silhouette


Roméo et Juliette is a French opera in five acts by Charles Gounod, first performed in Paris, on April 27, 1867, libretto by Jules Barbier et Michel Carré, after Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. One of Gounod's most successful works, it contains his most beautiful and melodious music. It is still regularly performed.

Principal roles

 Juliette - soprano
 Roméo - tenor
 Frère Laurent - bass
 Mercutio - baritone
 Stephano - soprano
 Gertrude - mezzo-soprano
 Thybalt - tenor
 Capulet - baritone

Reference

 The Complete Dictionary of Opera & Operetta, James Anderson, Wings Books, 1993.

1860s operas

Roméo et Juliette


Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev (rus: Фёдор Иванович Тютчев, fyô'dər ēvä'nəvĭch tyū'chĭf) (December 5 1803 – July 27, 1873) was one of the most significant Russian poets. Almost 20 years of his life he spent in Munich and Turin. Tyutchev was a good friend of Heinrich Heine, knew Schelling as well. Tyutchev didn't want people to know him as a poet. He didn't take any part in a literary life.

Works
He has around 400 of his poems. Russian people quote them very often. His early poems are made in Russian poetic tradition of the XVIII century. In the 1830s we can find an influence of European (especially German) romanticism on Tyutchev's lyrics. He writes philosophic poems about the universe, nature and human being. In 1840s Tyutchev wrote several articles about relations between Russia and Occidental civilization. In 1850s Tyutchev created several heartfelt poems, in which we can see love as a tragedy. These poems are combined into one cycle, named "Denisievsky". "Denisievsky" means dedicated to a mistress of Tyutchev – Elena Alexandrovna Denisieva. In 1860s–1870s Tyutchev wrote mainly political poems.

The most famous Tyutchev's poem is "Silentium!". This is a hard appeal to be silent. Because a man never can understand another person. A line "A word once uttered is untrue" is one of the most popular aphorisms of Tyutchev. As well as "We can't understand Russia by the reason" and "We are not know, what will be the respond for our word".

Other websites
 Tyutcheviana (in russian)
 Translations of some poems into different languages

1803 births
1873 deaths

Russian writers
Russian poets

Fyodor Tyutchev


Cime du Gélas () is a  high mountain on the boundary between France (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region) and Italy (Province of Cuneo).

It is the highest peak of the Mercantour National Park () and of the Alpes-Maritimes department, while on the Italian side it is part of the Maritime Alps Natural Park (Parco naturale delle Alpi Marittime).

Name

The name of the mountain comes from the Occitan verb gelà that means "to freeze" because the glaciers that are in the northern side; the glaciers have reduced their sizes during the late 20th century but they are still there.

Geography
Cime du Gelàs is part of the Maritime Alps, southeast France. Geologically, it is part of the Mercantour-Argentera massif, and is mostly formed by gneiss.

The peak is composed of two smaller ones, divided by a gorge called Sella del Gelàs. The highest peak is the northern one; it is the easier to climb and has, on the top, a small wood sculpture of the Madonna and a cross on the top that was built here by order of priests from Cuneo.

History
The first recorded ascension of the peak was made on 1864 by Paolo di Saint-Robert. in 1894, Victor de Cessole was the first to climb the mountain in winter.

References

Other websites

 Cime du Gélas at Altituderando.com

Alps
Mountains of France
Mountains of Italy
Alpes-Maritimes
Province of Cuneo

Cime du Gélas


Michel Plasson (born 2 October 1933, Paris, France) is a French conductor.

Plasson was a student of Lazare Lévy at the Conservatoire de Paris.  In 1962, he was a prize-winner at the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors.  He studied briefly in the United States, including time with Charles Münch.  He became the music director of the city of Metz for 3 years.

In 1968, Plasson became principal conductor of the Orchestre et Chœurs du Capitole de Toulouse.  His recordings with the orchestra include orchestral works, and operettas of Jacques Offenbach, including Orphée aux enfers, La Vie parisienne, La Périchole and La belle Hélène, and Bizet's Carmen. Plasson resigned as principal conductor in 2003 and now has the title of "Honorary Conductor", or conductor emeritus.  From 1994 to 2001, he was principal conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic.

Guest appearances include Grand Théâtre de Genève, De Nederlandse Opera (Amsterdam) and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Plasson's son Emmanuel Plasson is also a conductor.

Selected discography
Plasson's recordings were mainly made for EMI/Virgin, and focused upon works by French composers. Among these recordings, his interpretations for the operatic works by Offenbach, Gounod and Massenet were generally considered as excellent by critics.

Berlioz
 Chansons, with Rolando Villazón, Lauren Naouri, and Nicolas Rivenq.

Bizet
L'Arlésienne - complete incidental music, with Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse.
Carmen, with Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, Thomas Hampson and Inva Mula.
Les pêcheurs de perles, with Barbara Hendricks, John Aler and Gino Quilico.

Chabrier
Orchestral Works (España (Chabrier), Suite pastorale, Joyeuse marche, excerpts from Le roi malgré lui), with Barbara Hendricks (À la musique), Susan Mentzer (La Sulamite) and Pierre Del Vescovo (Larghetto).

Debussy
Orchestral Works, with Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse.

Delibes
Lakmé, with Natalie Dessay, Gregory Kunde, and José van Dam.

Duruflé
Requiem, and other Religious Works, with Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Hampson and Marie-Claire Alain.

Fauré
Orchestral Works, with Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse.

Gardel
15 Tangos, with Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse.

Gounod
Faust, with Richard Leech (tenor), Cheryl Studer, José van Dam and Thomas Hampson.
Mireille, with Mirella Freni, Alain Vanzo and José van Dam.
Two recordings of Roméo et Juliette, the first one starring Alfredo Kraus, Catherine Malfitano, José Van Dam and Gino Quilico, the second one with Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, José van Dam and Simon Keenlyside.

Lalo
Symphonie espagnole and Violin Concerto, with Augustin Dumay.

Landowski
Montségur, with Karan Armstrong and Gino Quilico, 1987.

Magnard
Four symphonies, and orchestral works (1983, 1988, 1990)
Guercoeur, with José van Dam, Hildegard Behrens and Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, 1986.

Massenet
Don Quichotte, with Teresa Berganza, José van Dam and Alain Fondary.
Hérodiade, with Cheryl Studer, José van Dam, Thomas Hampson and Ben Heppner.
Manon, with Ileana Cotrubaș, Alfredo Kraus, Gino Quilico and José Van Dam.
Werther, with Alfredo Kraus, Tatiana Troyanos, and Matteo Manuguerra.

Offenbach
La belle Hélène, with Jessye Norman, John Aler, Charles Burles, Jean-Philippe Lafont and Gabriel Bacquier.
Orphée aux enfers, with Mady Mesplé, Jane Rhodes, Jane Berbié, Charles Burles and Michel Sénéchal.
La Périchole, with Teresa Berganza, José Carreras and Gabriel Bacquier.
La Vie parisienne, with Mady Mesplé and Régine Crespin.

Orff
Carmina Burana, with Natalie Dessay, Thomas Hampson and Gérard Lesne.

Ravel
Mélodies, with Teresa Berganza, Felicity Lott.
Saint-Saëns

 Complete Piano Concertos 1-5, Philippe Entremont, piano, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, conducted by Michel Plasson. 2 CD CBS  Masterworks 1989. Recorded 1971 & 1978.
Organ symphony n°3, op.78, Cyprès et Lauriers, op.156, La Foi, 3 tableaux symphoniques op.130, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, conducted by Michel Plasson. 2 CD Emi classics 1997

Verdi
Jérusalem, with Alan Fondary, Verónica Villarroel, Carlo Colombara, Ivan Momirov, Federica Bragaglia, Giorgio Casciarri, Teatro Carlo Felice of Genoa, Tdk DVD Video (2000)

References

External links
 Michel Plasson biography at EMI Classics
 Interview with Michel Plasson by Bruce Duffie, October 19, 1981

1933 births
French male conductors (music)
Living people
Musicians from Paris
Conservatoire de Paris alumni
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
21st-century French conductors (music)
21st-century French male musicians
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Erato Records artists

Michel Plasson


Citoyenne Henri (often called Citizen Henry in English) was a woman who accompanied André-Jacques Garnerin on a trip by balloon on 8 July 1798 from the Parc Monceau in Paris.

She was credited as the first woman "who ever had the courage to trust herself in the regions of air", although several women had already made ascents in a balloon: on 20 May 1784, the Marchioness and Countess of Montalembert, the Countess of Podenas and a Miss de Lagarde had taken a trip on a tethered balloon in Paris, and Élisabeth Thible had made an ascent in an untethered balloon on 4 June 1784.

Announcement and legal challenge
The balloonist and parachuting pioneer André-Jacques Garnerin announced in 1798 that on his next ascent he would be accompanied by a young woman. Although the public and press were in favour of Garnerin's idea, he was forced to appear in front of officials of the Central Bureau of Police to attempt to justify his project. Chief among their concerns was the effect that the air pressure might have on the organs of the delicate female body, though it appears that they were also concerned about the moral implications of a man and woman being alone in a balloon together. When questioned as to the expected results of the atmospheric pressure and what would happen if the woman was to lose consciousness, Garnerin replied that he did not expect anything untoward to occur and that he would be personally responsible for dealing with any mishaps. Unsatisfied with Garnerin's responses, the police issued an injunction against him, forbidding the ascent on the grounds that the young woman was committing herself to the venture without any idea of the possible outcome.

Garnerin refused to accept the decision handed down by the Central Bureau and appealed to the administration of the department. Consultation with the Minister of the Interior and Minister of the Police followed and the injunction was eventually overturned on the grounds that "there was no more scandal in seeing two people of different sexes ascend in a balloon than it is to see them jump into a carriage." They also concluded that the decision of the woman to take the balloon trip showed proof of her confidence in the experiment and a degree of personal intrepidity.

Citoyenne Henri had already been chosen by Garnerin to accompany him, and as result of the lifting of the ban he was immediately ready to proceed with his plan. He advertised the ascent in the L'Ami des Lois:

The balloon flight
On 8 July 1798 a large number of spectators gathered in the Parc Monceau to witness the ascent. By all accounts Citoyenne Henri was young and beautiful, and she and Garnerin took several turns around the park to the applause of the crowd before she was assisted into the basket of the balloon by the astronomer Jérôme Lalande. The balloon trip passed without incident and the journey ended at Goussainville about  to the north of Paris.

There is no record of the relationship between Garnerin and Citoyenne Henri, where he recruited her for the trip or what her motives were in accepting. Garnerin gave her a present after the trip.

Aftermath
There was fervent press interest in the beautiful young girl for a few days, but her fame did not endure.
Shortly afterwards, on 10 November 1798, Garnerin's future wife Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse was also taken up in his balloon. Subsequently, both his wife and his niece Élisa Garnerin became well known for their parachuting feats and Madame Blanchard was celebrated for her solo ballooning, relegating the less impressive exploits of Citoyenne Henri to a footnote in history.

Notes

References

Bibliography

18th-century births
French balloonists
Aviation pioneers
French aviators
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
French women aviators

Citoyenne Henri


Swan Lake is a romantic ballet in four acts. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote the music. In 1871 he wrote a little ballet about swans for his nieces and nephews. He used some of the music from this ballet for Swan Lake.  The story of the ballet is based on a German fairy tale. This tale was probably tweaked by Tchaikovsky and his friends during the ballet's early discussion stages.

Swan Lake is about a prince named Siegfried. He falls in love with the Swan princess, Odette. She is a swan by day, but a young woman at night. She is under a magic spell that can only be broken by a man who will make a promise to love her for all time. Siegfried makes the promise. He is tricked though by the magician who cast the spell. The ballet ends with the deaths of Siegfried and Odette.

The ballet was first performed on 4 March 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Critics looked upon it as a failure for many reasons. In 1895 some changes were made to the ballet. It was then performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. This time the critics thought Swan Lake a great success. Most performances today are based on this 1895 version.

Story of the ballet Story
Act 1: 1. ScèneThe curtain rises on Prince Siegfried's birthday party. He is 21. On the next evening a grand ball will be held. He is to select a bride from six visiting princesses. Wolfgang, his tutor, introduces a band of peasants to the merrymakers. 2. Valse. 3. Scène. The Queen Mother enters. She thinks Siegfried is frivolous. The Queen Mother leaves. Benno encourages the Prince to continue the fun. 4. Pas de trois.Dances for the peasants. 5. Pas de deux.Dances for the merrymakers. 6. Pas d'action.Wolfgang is drunk and collapses. 7. Sujet.The sun sets. Siegfried suggests a final dance. 8. Danse des coupes.The merrymakers dance a polonaise holding their goblets. 9. Finale.A flock of swans flies overhead. Benno suggests a hunt. The Prince agrees. They set off.

Act 2: 10. Scène.A lake shimmering in the moonlight is seen. Siegfried and his friends watch a flock of swans glide across the lake's surface. 11. Scène.The hunters take aim. The birds are transformed into maidens. Their leader asks Siegfried why he troubles  them. She says that she is the Princess Odette. She and her companions have all been changed into swans by her wicked stepmother. They are watched by her stepmother's companion Von Rothbart in the guise of an owl. Only a marriage vow can break the spell that keeps her a swan by day and a maiden by night. 12. Scène.Siegfried says he loves Odette. She promises to attend tomorrow's ball. She warns him that her stepmother is very dangerous. 13. Danse des cygnes. 14 Scène. Dawn breaks. Odette and her friends return to the lake as swans.

Act 3: Guests arrive in Siegfried's castle for the selection of the Prince's  bride. 16. Danse du corps de ballet and des nains.All dance, including a group of dwarves. 17. Scène.La sortie des invités et la Valse. The six princesses arrive. 18. Scène. Siegfried does not choose a bride from among the six princesses. Von Rothbart enters with his daughter Odile. She is disguised as Odette. 19. Pas de six. The princesses dance. 20. Danse hongroise. 21. Danse espagnole. 22. Danse napolitaine. 23. Danse Mazurka. 24. Scène.Siegfried chooses Odile as his bride, believing she is Odette. Von Rothbart flees the hall as an owl. Siegfried rushes into the night to find Odette.
 Tchaikovsky later put a pas de deux into Act 3 that is known as the "Black Swan pas de deux".

Act 4: 25. Entr'acte. 26. Scène.Odette's friends await her return to the lake. 27. Danse des petits cygnes. 28. Scène. Odette collapses into her companions' arms. She tells them what has happened. A storm rises. Siegfried reaches Odette. 29. Scène finale.He begs her to forgive him. She dies of grief in his arms. He throws her crown upon the waters. The waves overwhelm him. The swans are seen gliding away across the lake.

Libretto and score
In 1871 Tchaikovsky was passing the summer in the Ukraine with his sister Alexandra Davydova. It was in her home at Kamenka that he wrote a short ballet about swans for her children to perform. The story of the ballet was based on "The Lake of Swans", a German fairy tale. Tchaikovsky used a musical theme from this children's ballet in the mature Swan Lake. Little else is known of this ballet for children.

In 1875 Vladimir Begitchev asked Tchaikovsky to write a ballet about swans. Begitchev was the official in charge of the repertory of the Imperial Theatres. Tchaikovsky accepted his invitation to write the ballet. He told Rimsky-Korsakov, "I accepted the work, partly because I want the money, but also because I have long had the wish to try my hand at this kind of music." In August he had completed sketches for two acts. He finished the ballet on 10 April 1876.

It is uncertain who wrote the libretto of the ballet. Both Begitchev and the dancer Vasily Geltzer were credited in the programme. They likely based it upon discussions with the artists who met at Begitchev's salon. They also used tales from Johann Musäus's Volksmärchen der Deutschen (178286), a collection of German fairy and folk tales.

Composition

Tchaikovsky had no experience writing ballet music for the professional theatre when he accepted Begitchev's invitation. In 1875  he began work on Swan Lake. It was his first ballet. He studied the ballet music of other writers. He liked the music and ballets of Leo Delibes. Tchaikovsky thought Delibes's music was pretty and tuneful. Tchaikovsky however would base Swan Lake on a symphonic scale. Writing the music for Swan Lake was a way for Tchaikovsky to avoid the reality of being a homosexual in czarist Russia. Russia was a repressive state. Homosexuals were sent to prison, exiled, or banished. Symphonies did not ease the stress in the way ballet music did; he had to put too much of his inner life into symphonies. He was hired to write Swan Lake in May 1875. He completed the music in April 1876. The official responsible for the music at the Bolshoi Theatre thought Tchaikovsky's music impossible to understand. A leitmotif in Tchaikovsky's little ballet music for his nieces and nephews came to be called the "Song of the Swans". Tchaikovsky used this leitmotif in Swan Lake.

Characters in the ballet

 Odette, the Swan Princess. Odette is a swan by day (like her sister swans) and a maiden by night. She appears in Acts 2 and 4, and very briefly in Act 3.
 Prince Siegfried, Odette's lover. Prince Siegfried falls in love with Odette and promises to be true to her forever. He betrays Odette by accident. He appears in all four acts.
 Von Rothbart, is a magician who keeps Odette and her sister swans trapped in a magic spell. He takes the shape of an owl. He is defeated at the end of the ballet. He appears in Acts 2, 3, and 4. He is sometimes referred to as Rotbart. His name means "Red Beard".
 Odile, Von Rothbart's daughter. She is disguised as Odette. She tricks the prince into promising his love to her at a ball, and, in doing so, the Prince betrays Odette. She appears only in Act 3. Sometimes the ballerina playing Odette also performs the role of Odile.
 Wolfgang, the Prince's tutor. Wolfgang usually appears in Act 1. He becomes drunk on the wine. He appears in Acts 1 and 3.
 Benno, the Prince's friend. Benno suggests to the Prince and his friends that they hunt the swans in Act 1. Benno appears in Acts 1 and 3.
 Queen Mother, Siegfried's mother. The Queen Mother wants her son to choose a bride. She usually gives him a crossbow as a birthday gift in Act 1. She appears in Acts 1 and 3. The Queen Mother is a pantomime role.

Structure of the ballet

 Overture
 Act 1
 No.1: Scène
 No.2: Valse (Waltz)
 No.3: Scène
 No.4: Pas de trois
 No.5: Pas de deux
 No.6: Pas d'action
 No.7: Sujet
 No.8: Danses des couppes {Goblet Dance}
 No.9: Finale
 Act 2
 No.10: Scène
 No.11: Scène
 No.12: Scène
 No.13: Danses des cygnes
 No.14: Scène
 Act 3
 No.16: Danse du corps de ballet and des nains (Dance for the corps de ballet and the dwarves)
 No.17: Scène La sortie des invités et la Valse (Arrival of the guests and Waltz)
 No.18: Scène
 No.19: Pas de six (Dance for the six princesses)
 No.20: Danse hongroise (Hungarian dance)
 No.21: Danse espangnole (Spanish dance)
 No.22: Danse napolitaine (Neapolitan dance)
 No.23: Danse Mazurka (Mazurka)
 No.24: Scène
 At a date sometime after the first performance, Tchaikovsky inserted a spectacular pas de deux (now called the Black Swan pas de deux) after the Mazurka
 Act 4
 No.25: Entr'acte
 No.26: Scène
 No.27: Danse des petits cygnes (Dance of the baby swans)
 No.28: Scène
 No.29: Scène finale

Music

John Warrack points out that Tchaikovsky put the drama in the story into music: "By making B the key of the tragedy, he initiates a musical "plot" with the dark forces of Rothbart tending to drag the tonality down into flatter keys. The main action, on the other hand, lies on the key area of A." Tchaikovsky balanced all the musical components of the work. "The divertissements are in his lightest, most appealing musical manner", Warrack writes, "The dances that further the plot have rather greater musical substance, while the scenes of narrative and action are in what was found his "symphonic" manner." Critics said Tchaikovsky's music was "too noisy, too 'Wagnerian' and too symphonic".

First performance
Rehearsals for Swan Lake began before Tchaikovsky finished the score, and took place over 11 months. Everyone involved in the production had never heard such a complex score for a ballet. They described the music as "undanceable". Even the conductor threw his hands up in despair over the music.

The choreographer Julius Reisinger was incompetent, and the sets lacked a cohesiveness because they were designed by three different men. In addition, the Bolshoi Theatre was suffering at the time from problems including the lack of a ballet master who could develop a production based on the score. The role of Odette was not given to a first rate dancer but instead to a second rate talent. The reason may have been political.

Swan Lake was first performed on 4 March 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Julius Reisinger designed the dances. Pauline Karpakova danced Odette. She put some numbers she liked from other ballets into Swan Lake. The ballet was a failure. In 1883 the Bolshoi dropped the ballet from its repertory. At that time, the sets were falling apart. It was not until 1901 that Alexander Gorsky staged a new production of Swan Lake for the Bolshoi.

What people thought about the ballet

The first performance of Swan Lake was a disaster. Herman Laroche wrote, "I must say that I had never seen a poorer presentation on the Bolshoi stage. The costumes, decor, and machines did not hide in the least the emptiness of the dances. Not a single balletomane got out of it even five minutes of pleasure." He praised the music. He wrote that Tchaikovsky was "in excellent humour ... he was fully at the height of his genius." Tchaikovsky's brother Modest wrote, "The poverty of the production, meaning the décor and costumes, the absence of outstanding performers, the Ballet Master's weakness of imagination, and, finally, the orchestra ... all of this together permitted [Tchaikovsky] with good reason to cast the blame for the failure on others." The ballet was a moderate success with theatre-goers however. It was presented 33 times between its première at the Bolshoi in 1877 and its final performance in 1883.

St. Petersburg revision, 1895

Tchaikovsky died on 6 November 1893. People started to take more interest in his music after his death. Lev Ivanov was the assistant Ballet Master at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. He designed new dances for Act 2. This act was presented on 1 March 1894 in a concert at the Mariinsky in memory of Tchaikovsky. Pierina Legnani danced Odette. The revised act was a great success. It was presented again with even greater success.  Marius Petipa was the Ballet Master at the Mariinsky. He was impressed with the success of these two presentations. He made the decision to stage the complete ballet at the Mariinsky. He designed the dances for Acts 1 and 3 while Ivanov designed the dances for Acts 2 and 4.

Riccardo Drigo was the conductor of the Mariinsky orchestra. He dropped some numbers from the ballet. He orchestrated three piano numbers from Tchaikovsky's Op. 72. He then put them in the ballet. These three numbers were "L'Espiègle", "Valse Bluette", and "Un poco di Chopin". He then put a number into Act 3 which he may have written himself.

Tchaikovsky's brother Modest changed the ballet's story a little for the revision. He gave the ballet a happy ending.  The new Swan Lake was presented on 27 January 1895 at the Mariinsky. Pierina Legnani danced both Odette and Odile. The ballet was a great success. This version of the ballet is the one generally seen today.

Thirty-two fouettés en tournant

Swan Lake is famous for the 32 fouettés en tournant in Act 3. These fouettés are danced at the end of the "Black Swan" pas de deux by the ballerina playing Odile.  The pas was an afterthought of Tchaikovsky's. It was not included in the original production. It consists of the opening adagio followed by a variation for the male dancer. This is followed by a variation for the ballerina. The whole concludes with a brisk movement for both dancers that includes the fouettés. Pierina Legnani first danced the fouettés in the Mariinsky production of 1895.  Ballet-goers were uncertain about the 32 fouettés. Some thought they were just a stunt. Others found them exciting. These ballet-goers went to every performance to count the number of turns.

Other early productions

Swan Lake became known in Europe and the United States not long after the revised version was presented at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1895. It was first presented in Europe at Prague in June 1907. It was first presented in the United States at the Metropolitan Opera House in December 1911. Diaghilev's Ballets Russes presented a two-act Swan Lake in London in 1911.  The Ballets Russes presented a one-act version in London in 1925. The complete Swan Lake was first presented in England by the Sadler's Wells Ballet in November 1934. Ballerinas portraying Odette include Mathilde Kchessinska, Anna Pavlova, and Margot Fonteyn. Pavel Gerdt was the Prince Siegfried of the 1895 St. Petersburg production. Nijinsky and Rudolph Nureyev have also performed Prince Siegfried.

Structure
The score used in this comparison is Tchaikovsky's score. It may be different from Riccardo Drigo's score which is usually performed today.  The titles for each number are taken from the original published score. Some of the numbers are titled simply as musical indications, those that are not are translated from their original French titles.

Introduction
Moderato assai — Allegro non troppo — Tempo I

Act I
No. 1 Scène: Allegro giusto
No. 2 Waltz: Tempo di valse
No. 3 Scène: Allegro moderato
No. 4 Pas de trois
I. Intrada (or Entrée): Allegro
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Allegro semplice, Presto
IV. Moderato
V. Allegro
VI. Coda: Allegro vivace
No. 5 Pas de deux for Two Merry-makers (this number was later fashioned into the Black Swan Pas de Deux)
I. Tempo di valse ma non troppo vivo, quasi moderato
II. Andante - Allegro
III. Tempo di valse
IV. Coda: Allegro molto vivace
No. 6 Pas d'action: Andantino quasi moderato – Allegro
No. 7 Sujet (Introduction to the Dance with Goblets)
No. 8 Dance with Goblets: Tempo di polacca
No. 9 Finale: Sujet, Andante

Act II
No. 10 Scène: Moderato
No. 11 Scène: Allegro moderato, Moderato, Allegro vivo
No. 12 Scène: Allegro, Moderato assai quasi andante
No. 13 Dances of the Swans
I. Tempo di valse
II. Moderato assai
III. Tempo di valse
IV. Allegro moderato (this number later became the famous Dance of the Little Swans)
V. Pas d'action: Andante, Andante non troppo, Allegro (material borrowed from Undina)
VI. Tempo di valse
VII. Coda: Allegro vivo
No. 14 Scène: Moderato

Act III
No. 15 Scène: March – Allegro giusto
No. 16 Ballabile: Dance of the Corps de Ballet and the Dwarves: Moderato assai, Allegro vivo
No. 17 Entrance of the Guests and Waltz: Allegro, Tempo di valse
No. 18 Scène: Allegro, Allegro giusto
No. 19 Grand Pas de six.
I. Intrada (or Entrée): Moderato assai
II. Variation 1: Allegro
III. Variation 2: Andante con moto
IV. Variation 3: Moderato
V. Variation 4: Allegro
VI. Variation 5: Moderato, Allegro semplice
VII. Grand Coda: Allegro molto

Appendix I
Pas de deux for Mme. Anna Sobeshchanskaya fashioned from the original music by Léon Minkus (AKA the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux)
No. 20 Hungarian Dance: Czardas – Moderato assai, Allegro moderato, Vivace

Appendix II
No. 20a Russian Dance for Mlle. Pelageya Karpakova: Moderato, Andante semplice, Allegro vivo, Presto
No. 21 Spanish Dance: Allegro non troppo (Tempo di bolero)
No. 22 Neapolitan/Venetian Dance: Allegro moderato, Andantino quasi moderato, Presto
No. 23 Mazurka: Tempo di mazurka
No. 24 Scène: Allegro, Tempo di valse, Allegro vivo

Act IV
No. 25 Entr'acte: Moderato
No. 26 Scène: Allegro non troppo
No. 27 Dance of the Little Swans: Moderato
No. 28 Scène: Allegro agitato, Molto meno mosso, Allegro vivace
No. 29 Scène finale: Andante, Allegro, Alla breve, Moderato e maestoso, Moderato

Notes

References

Other websites

Compositions by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Ballets by Marius Petipa
Ballets by Lev Ivanov
Ballets

Swan Lake


John Elwood Bundy (May 1, 1853 – January 17, 1933) was an American Impressionist painter known as the "dean" of the Richmond Group of painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Bundy was born to a Quaker family in Guilford County, North Carolina, and moved by covered wagon to a farm near Monrovia, Indiana, with his family at the age of five.  He studied briefly in Indianapolis with Barton S. Hays but was primarily self-taught. Bundy did travel to New York to copy paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a time. He joined the art department of Earlham College in 1887 and took up painting full-time in 1895 from a studio behind his home on West Main Street in Richmond, Indiana. He was a founding member of the Society of Western Artists and was a central influence in the founding of the Richmond Art Museum in 1898.  He was known for his portrayal of Indiana landscapes and particularly for his paintings of American beech trees, though he did make brief trips to paint in California and northern Michigan.

Bundy's work continues to be sought after, and his is found in numerous private collections and museums, including the Haan Mansion Museum of Indiana Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Indiana State Museum and the Richmond Art Museum.

References
 Burnet, Mary Q. Art and Artists of Indiana. New York; The Century Co., 1921.
 Gerdts, William H. A Walk in the Woods: The Art of John Elwood Bundy
 Fedders, Kristin U.  Poetic Woodlands: The Art of John Elwood Bundy Richmond Art Museum, 2002

External links

 Bundy biography from Waynet.org

1853 births
1933 deaths
19th-century American painters
American male painters
20th-century American painters
American Impressionist painters
Painters from Indiana
People from Monrovia, Indiana
Artists from Richmond, Indiana
Earlham College faculty
Burials at Earlham Cemetery, Richmond, Indiana
People from Guilford County, North Carolina
American Quakers
Painters from North Carolina
19th-century American male artists
20th-century American male artists

John Elwood Bundy


A hadron, in particle physics, is any subatomic (smaller than the atom) particle or antiparticle which is made of quarks.

Quarks are fundamental particles which among other properties have an electrical charge and a name (e.g. 'up', 'down', 'strange'). The electrical charge of a single quark is always a fraction (e.g. 2/3). Quarks combine to make a hadron of integer charge, for example, the charges of two 'down' quarks and one 'up' quark combine like this -1/3 -1/3 +2/3 = 0 to make a neutrally charged neutron. Quarks do not appear alone, they exist in groups and are held together by the strong nuclear force. The word to describe the different types of quarks is flavours. According to the current standard model there are 6 flavours of quarks. There are two known ways quarks can combine, to give the two categories of hadrons:
 baryons, which are made of three quarks.
 mesons, which are made of one quark and one anti-quark.
Hadrons are also characterized by being affected by the strong nuclear force, which holds them tightly together over a short distance. At the center of an atom is a nucleus (a cluster of protons and neutrons).

List of hadrons

Known to exist

Baryons
 Proton, with quark structure uud ( up down', referring to the three quarks making up the proton.)
 Neutron, with quark structure udd ('up down down')

Mesons
 Pion
 Kaon
These are the most commonly discussed hadrons. There are many more: complete list of baryons, complete list of mesons.

Not yet known to exist
 Tetraquark
 Pentaquark
These are predictions for different ways quarks may be put together. There is not any solid evidence for them existing yet.

References

Subatomic particles

Hadron


Biescas is a town in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. It is on the river Gallego at and altitude of 875 m in the zone known as Tierra de Biescas. The population is 1240.

It is divided in two main neighbourhoods "San Pedro" and "El Salvador", the last one divided other two neighbourhoods called "Barrio Bajo" and "La Peña" (or "Barrio Alto").

There are two churches in the town, the first one, San Pedro's Church is in the neighbourhood of San Pedro and the second one San Salvador's Church in La Peña.

Municipality of Biescas is divided in four parts
 Tierra de Biescas, which includes the towns of Orós Alto, Orós Bajo, Oliván, Escuer Alto, Escuer Bajo and Biescas.
 Sobremonte, which includes Aso de Sobremonte, Betés de Sobremonte and Yosa de Sobremonte.
 Valley of Tena, where are the towns of Piedrafita de Jaca, Búbal, Polituara and Saqués.
 Valley of Gavín, where Gavín is the only one town.

Additionally Ainielle, Barbenuta, Bergusa, Casbas, Espierre, Susín and Javierre del Obispo are included in Biescas municipality

References

Settlements in Huesca
Municipalities in Aragon

Biescas


The griffin (also called gryphon, gryphen, griffon, griffen, and gryphin), is a legendary creature. It has the head, front legs, and wings of an eagle. The rest of the body looks like a part of a lion.

In the past griffin was a symbol of strength and dexterity. It often looked after a treasure.

The Griffin is used as the symbol for Brisbane Waters Secondary College on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. following the griffin is the Collegiate phrase "Strength Through Unity"

Legendary creatures

Griffin


is a fresco painting technique in which alkaline-resistant pigments, ground in water, are applied to wet plaster.

It is distinguished from the fresco-secco (or a secco) and finto fresco techniques, in which paints are applied to dried plaster.

Description
The buon fresco technique consists of painting with pigment ground in water on a thin layer of wet, fresh, lime mortar or plaster, for which the Italian word is intonaco. Because of the chemical makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required.

After a number of hours the plaster reacts with the air in a process called carbonatation. This chemical reaction fixes the pigment particles at the plaster's surface in a protective crystalline mesh known as the lime crust.

The advantage of buon fresco is its durability.  In fresco-secco, by contrast, the color does not become part of the wall and tends to flake off over time.  The chief disadvantage of buon fresco is that it must be done quickly without mistakes.

The painter plasters and paints only as much as can be completed in a day, which explains the Italian term for each of these sections, giornata, or a day's work.  The size of a giornata varies according to the complexity of the painting within it.  A face, for instance, might take an entire day, whereas large areas of sky can be painted quite rapidly.

History

Frescoes dating from the 17th century BC using this technique have been found in the excavations of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini in Greece, changing our beliefs about art in prehistoric times.
One of the first painters in the post-classical period to use this technique was the Isaac Master in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.
In medieval and Renaissance Italy, a wall to be frescoed was first prepared with a rough, thick undercoat of plaster known as the arriccio.  When this was dry, assistants copied the master painter's composition onto it with reddish-brown pigment or charcoal.  The artist made any necessary adjustments. Artists that used the buon fresco technique include Raphael, Masaccio, and Michaelangelo.

See also
Fresco painting (techniques)
Fresco paintings (works)

Notes

References
Stokstad, Marilyn; Art History, 2011, 4th ed.,

External links
 Fresco-techniques.com: Fresco techniques
 buonfresco101.blogspot.com

Fresco painting
Painting materials
Painting techniques

Buon fresco


Hazelnuts are nuts of the hazel genus of tree; they are also called cob nuts and filbert nuts. Filbert nuts are more elongated (twice as long as they are round). These nuts fall from their husks when ripe (that is, seven to eight months past pollination). Hazelnuts are oftentimes used as livestock feed or ground into paste. Hazelnut is produced especially in Greece, Turkey, Italy and the U.S. states Washington and Oregon. Hazelnuts are also used alongside chocolate for chocolate truffles. Moreover, hazelnut are rich in proteins and unsaturated fats.

Hazelnuts can also be used to make hazelnut butter.

References

Edible nuts and seeds

Hazelnut


Ashford is a large town in Kent in England. Many villages in are nearby and Ashford attracts lots of locals for its shopping. The Ashford international railway station is connected by the Channel Tunnel to mainland Europe. Ashford is an established and populated area of Kent with lots of houses. The UK Government is going to build many more houses in the town and will double its population in a few years. About 120,000 people live there.

There's also an Ashford Designer Outlet Shopping Centre nearby.

Towns in Kent

Ashford, Kent


A rival is a  person or group of people who are trying to do the same thing as someone else, and trying to do it better.  They are "competing" against one another.  Usually they are about equally good.

Competing in this way is called rivalry.

Two (or more) businesses may be rivals.  For example: they may be selling ice creams in the same area.

Brothers and sisters may be rivals.  For example: they may both be trying to get their mother's attention.

Countries may be rivals.  For example: they may be trying to have power over the same thing.  This can be a dangerous thing which, in some cases, can lead to war.

In sport, two teams may be rivals.  This is a more friendly kind of rivalry.

Human behavior

Rival


Hel is one of the nine worlds of Norse mythology. It is where the mortal dead gather after life if their death was dishonourable. Its ruler is the goddess Hel. Hel is located under the roots of the tree Yggdrasil. It can be reached via the river Gjöll. A bridge spans this river which is guarded by the giantess Modgrudr. Garm, a dog, guards the entrance to the castle of Hel. He only lets the dead souls enter however they cannot leave. A rooster is the companion of Garm. Its purpose in the realm of the gods is to wake them for Ragnarök, this rooster will also wake the souls of the dead.

The dragon Nidhögg eats from the corpses of deceased criminals. The wolf Fenrir also joins in on this feast.

Places in Norse mythology
Afterlife

Hel (realm)


Encryption allows information to be hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password). This is done with a secret code or cypher. The hidden information is said to be encrypted.

Decryption is a way to change encrypted information back into plaintext. This is the decrypted form. The study of encryption is called cryptography. Cryptanalysis can be done by hand if the cypher is simple. Complex cyphers need a computer to search for possible keys. Decryption is a field of computer science and mathematics that looks at how difficult it is to break a cypher.

Examples
A simple kind of encryption for words is ROT13.  In ROT13, letters of the alphabet are changed with each other using a simple pattern. For example, A changes to N, B changes to O, C changes to P, and so on. Each letter is "rotated" by 13 spaces.  Using the ROT13 cipher, the words Simple English Wikipedia becomes Fvzcyr Ratyvfu Jvxvcrqvn.  The ROT13 cipher is very easy to decrypt.  Because there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, if a letter is rotated two times by 13 letters each time, the original letter will be obtained.  So applying the ROT13 cipher a second time brings back the original text. When he communicated with his army, Julius Caesar sometimes used what is known as Caesar cipher today.  This cipher works by shifting the position of letters: each letter is rotated by 3 positions.

Most kinds of encryption are made more complex so cryptanalysis will be difficult. Some are made only for text. Others are made for binary computer data like pictures and music. Today, many people use the asymmetric encryption system called RSA. Any computer file can be encrypted with RSA. AES is a common symmetric algorithm.

One-time pad
Most types of encryption can theoretically be cracked: an enemy might be able to decrypt a message without knowing the password, if he has clever mathematicians, powerful computers and lots of time. The one-time pad is special because, if it is used correctly, it is impossible to crack. There are three rules that must be followed:
 The secret key (password) must be as long as the secret message: if the message has 20 letters then the key must also have at least 20 letters.
 The secret key must be random (e.g. KQBWLDA...)
 The secret key must only be used once. To send more than one message, a different key must be used for each one.
If these three rules are obeyed, then it is impossible to read the secret message without knowing the secret key. For this reason, during the Cold War, embassies and large military units often used one-time pads to communicate secretly with their governments. They had little books ("pads") filled with random letters or random numbers. Each page from the pad could only be used once: this is why it is called a "one-time pad".

Encryption on the Internet
Encryption is often used on the Internet, as many web sites use it to protect private information. On the Internet, several encryption protocols are used, such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), IPsec, and SSH. They use the RSA encryption system and others. The protocol for protected web browsing is called HTTPS.
URL encryption mostly uses the MD5 Algorithm. Various algorithms are used in the internet market depending upon the need.

Related pages
 FreeOTFE - Disk encryption
 Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) - Email encryption
 PuTTY - SSH encryption

Cryptography

Encryption


In computer science, a closure is a function that has an environment of its own. In this environment, there is at least one bound variable (a name that has a value, such as a number). The closure's environment keeps the bound variables in memory between uses of the closure.

Peter J. Landin gave this idea the name closure in 1964. The Scheme programming language made closures popular after 1975. Many programming languages made after that time have closures.

Anonymous functions (functions with no name) are sometimes wrongly called closures. Most languages that have anonymous functions also have closures. An anonymous function is also a closure if it has an environment of its own with at least one bound variable. An anonymous function with no environment of its own is not a closure. A named closure is not anonymous.

Closures and first-class functions
Values may be numbers or some other type of data, such as letters, or data structures made up of simpler parts. In the rules of a programming language, the first-class values are values that can be given to functions, returned by functions, and bound to a variable name. Functions that take or return other functions are called higher-order functions. Most languages that have functions as first-class values also have higher-order functions and closures.

For example, take a look at the following Scheme function:
; Return a list of all books with at least THRESHOLD copies sold.
(define (best-selling-books threshold)
  (filter
    (lambda (book) (>= (book-sales book) threshold))
    book-list))

In this example, the lambda expression (lambda (book) (>= (book-sales book) threshold)) is part of the function best-selling-books.  When the function is run, Scheme must make the value of the lambda. It does this by making a closure with the code for the lambda and a reference to the threshold variable, which is a free variable inside the lambda. (A free variable is a name that is not bound to a value.)

The filter function then runs the closure on each book in the list to pick which books to return. Because the closure itself has a reference to threshold, the closure can use that value each time filter runs the closure. The function filter itself might be written in a completely separate file.

Here is the same example rewritten in ECMAScript (JavaScript), another popular language with support for closures:
// Return a list of all books with at least 'threshold' copies sold.
function bestSellingBooks(threshold) {
  return bookList.filter(
      function(book) { return book.sales >= threshold; }
    );
}

ECMAScript uses the word function here instead of lambda, and the Array.filter method  in place of the filter function, but otherwise the code does the same thing in the same way.

A function may create a closure and return it.  The following example is a function that returns a function.

In Scheme:
; Return a function that approximates the derivative of f
; using an interval of dx, which should be appropriately small.
(define (derivative f dx)
  (lambda (x) (/ (- (f (+ x dx)) (f x)) dx)))

In ECMAScript:
// Return a function that approximates the derivative of f
// using an interval of dx, which should be appropriately small.
function derivative(f, dx) {
  return function(x) {
    return (f(x + dx) - f(x)) / dx;
  };
}

The closure environment keeps the bound variables f and dx after the enclosing function (derivative) returns. In languages without closures, these values would be lost after the enclosing function returns. In languages with closures, a bound variable must be kept in memory as long as any closure has it.

A closure need not be formed using an anonymous function. The Python programming language, for example, has limited support for anonymous functions but does have closures. For example, one way the above ECMAScript example could be implemented in Python is:
# Return a function that approximates the derivative of f
# using an interval of dx, which should be appropriately small.
def derivative(f, dx):
    def gradient(x):
        return (f(x + dx) - f(x)) / dx
    return gradient
In this example, the function named gradient makes a closure together with the variables f and dx. The outer enclosing function named derivative returns this closure. In this case, an anonymous function would work also.def derivative(f, dx):
    return lambda x: (f(x + dx) - f(x)) / dxPython must often use named functions instead because its lambda expressions may only contain other expressions (code that returns a value) and not statements (code that has effects but no value). But in other languages, such as Scheme, all code returns a value; in Scheme, everything is an expression.

Uses of closures
Closures have many uses:
 Designers of software libraries can allow users to customize behavior by passing closures as arguments to important functions.  For example, a function that sorts values can accept a closure argument that compares the values to be sorted according to a user-defined criterion.
 Because closures delay evaluation–i.e., they do not "do" anything until they are called–they can be used to define control structures.  For example, all Smalltalk's standard control structures, including branches (if/then/else) and loops (while and for), are defined using objects whose methods accept closures.  Users can easily define their own control structures as well.
 Multiple functions can be produced which close over the same environment, enabling them to communicate privately by altering that environment (in languages that allow assignment).

In Scheme

(define foo #f)
(define bar #f)

(let ((secret-message "none"))
  (set! foo (lambda (msg) (set! secret-message msg)))
  (set! bar (lambda () secret-message)))

(display (bar)) ; prints "none"
(newline)
(foo "meet me by the docks at midnight")
(display (bar)) ; prints "meet me by the docks at midnight"

 Closures can be used to implement object systems.

Note: Some speakers call any data structure that binds a lexical environment a closure, but the term usually refers specifically to functions.

References

Computer science

Closure (computer programming)


Roslyn Sulcas is a dance critic and culture writer for The New York Times. She was raised in Cape Town, South Africa, and studied English literature at university, receiving post-graduate degrees from the University of Cape Town and Paris VII (Jussieu). While finishing her thesis, she lived in Paris, where she began writing for the British Dance Theater Journal and became the Paris correspondent for Dance & Dancers, Dance Magazine and Dance International as well as writing frequently for other publications. In 1996, she moved to New York and worked as an editor at Saveur, Top Model, House & Garden and House Beautiful while continuing to write about dance. She began to review dance for The New York Times in 2005. In 2011, she moved to London. She writes about film, theatre and culture news as well as about dance for The New York Times.

External links
 Roslyn Sulcas @ The New York Times
 Roslyn Sulcas' ArtBeat blog

American dance critics
American women journalists
The New York Times writers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women

Roslyn Sulcas


Agdash () is a rayon in central Azerbaijan. Agdash rayon consists o Leki dounset an 72 veelages. This rayon haes a favorable economic an geographic location. Turyan River an Kura River alang Sooth-Wast border extend through the territory o the rayon. Upper Shirvan Channel an aw crosses Agdash region. This aurie is surroondit bi Tugay forests alang Kura river bank, an Turyanchay State Preservation tae the north.

Agdash ceety wis established in 16t century locatit at Eresh on the silk road. The ceety locatit at convenient geographic place haein propitious wather conditions such as mild an dry subtropical climate. The Turianchay river, the Kur river an the Shirvan Canal crosses the territory. Thare are unique tugai forests alang the Kur, which end in Turanchay naitional pairk. An aw thare are bonnie gardens in Agdash. The territory o the region mainly consists o plain, law muntain chain Bozdag, o aboot 700 m. hicht locatit on the north pairt.

Population
Population Agdash 93.100, Azeris mak the basic population (98 %) aurie Agdash an the basic population o ceety Agdash, ither ethnic groups basicall Lezghins, Kurds, Tats, etc.

The average population density in the ceety equals tae 91 persons per square km. The distance atween Agdash rayon an caipital Baku is 249 km.

Economy
The core economy o the region is agricultur. Cotton-growin haes stairtit tae evolve syne the 19t century. Region haes a potential o producin 20-25 tons o cotton. Anither perspective aurie o the region is vegetable an fruit growin. Mairower, it is a priority tae develop rice-paddy growin in extremely salinity steids. Silk-wirm breedin is considered tae be ane o the auncient an traditional fields at the region.

The industry is relatively developit in the rayon. The main industrial sector o the rayon is processin. Leki Ginning Factory produces seedless raw cotton which provides 75-85% o aw regional industrial production. In addition tae that, the region haes a developed plastic material an textile industry (Khosrov Metalplastmas Plant, Agdash Industrial Plant), feud industry (Agdash Bread-Makkin Plant, Agdash Foodstuffs Plant) an production o construction materials (Kukel Brick Plant). Recently, "Orelay" an "FA com BICA" sweets production enterprises, "Arash" ceulin watter an "Arshin Malchin" textile plants hae been put intae operation in the region.

The region runs eddication, heal, social, recreational an public caterin facilities.

References

Destricts o Azerbaijan

Agdash Rayon


A stored procedure (also termed proc, storp, sproc, StoPro, StoredProc, StoreProc, sp, or SP) is a subroutine available to applications that access a relational database management system (RDBMS). Such procedures are stored in the database data dictionary.

Uses for stored procedures include data-validation (integrated into the database) or access-control mechanisms.  Furthermore, stored procedures can consolidate and centralize logic that was originally implemented in applications. To save time and memory, extensive or complex processing that requires execution of several SQL statements can be saved into stored procedures, and all applications call the procedures. One can use nested stored procedures by executing one stored procedure from within another.

Stored procedures may return result sets, i.e., the results of a SELECT statement.  Such result sets can be processed using cursors, by other stored procedures, by associating a result-set locator, or by applications. Stored procedures may also contain declared variables for processing data and cursors that allow it to loop through multiple rows in a table. Stored-procedure flow-control statements typically include IF, WHILE, LOOP, REPEAT, and CASE statements, and more. Stored procedures can receive variables, return results or modify variables and return them, depending on how and where the variable is declared.

Implementation
Stored procedures are similar to user-defined functions (UDFs). The major difference is that UDFs can be used like any other expression within SQL statements, whereas stored procedures must be invoked using the CALL statement.

 CALL procedure(...)
or
 EXECUTE procedure(...)

The exact and correct implementation of stored procedures varies from one database system  to the other. Most major database vendors support them in some form. Depending on the database system, stored procedures can be implemented in a variety of programming languages, for example SQL, Java, C, or C++. Stored procedures written in non-SQL languages may or may not execute SQL statements themselves.

The increasing adoption of stored procedures led to the introduction of procedural elements to the SQL language in the SQL:1999 and SQL:2003 standards in the part SQL/PSM. That made SQL an imperative programming language. Most database systems offer proprietary and vendor-specific extensions, exceeding SQL/PSM. A standard specification for Java stored procedures exists as well as SQL/JRT.

Comparison with static SQL
Overhead Because stored procedure statements are stored directly in the database, they may remove all or part of the compiling overhead that is typically needed in situations where software applications send inline (dynamic) SQL queries to a database. (However, most database systems implement statement caches and other methods to avoid repetitively compiling dynamic SQL statements.) Also, while they avoid some pre-compiled SQL, statements add to the complexity of creating an optimal execution plan because not all arguments of the SQL statement are supplied at compile time. Depending on the specific database implementation and configuration, mixed performance results will be seen from stored procedures versus generic queries or user defined functions.

Avoiding network traffic A major advantage of stored procedures is that they can run directly within the database engine. In a production system, this typically means that the procedures run entirely on a specialized database server, which has direct access to the data being accessed. The benefit here is that network communication costs can be avoided completely. This becomes more important for complex series of SQL statements.

Encapsulating business logic Stored procedures allow programmers to embed business logic as an API in the database, which can simplify data management and reduce the need to encode the logic elsewhere in client programs. This can result in a lesser likelihood of data corruption by faulty client programs. The database system can ensure data integrity and consistency with the help of stored procedures.

Delegating access-rights In many systems, stored procedures can be granted access rights to the database that users who execute those procedures do not directly have.

Some protection from SQL injection attacks Stored procedures can be used to protect against injection attacks. Stored procedure parameters will be treated as data even if an attacker inserts SQL commands. Also, some DBMS will check the parameter's type. However, a stored procedure that in turn generates dynamic SQL using the input is still vulnerable to SQL injections unless proper precautions are taken.

Other uses
In some systems, stored procedures can be used to control transaction management; in others, stored procedures run inside a transaction such that transactions are effectively transparent to them. Stored procedures can also be invoked from a database trigger or a condition handler. For example, a stored procedure may be triggered by an insert on a specific table, or update of a specific field in a table, and the code inside the stored procedure would be executed. Writing stored procedures as condition handlers also allows database administrators to track errors in the system with greater detail by using stored procedures to catch the errors and record some audit information in the database or an external resource like a file.

Comparison with functions
 A function is a subprogram written to perform certain computations.
 A scalar function returns only one value (or NULL), whereas a table function returns a (relational) table comprising zero or more rows, each row with one or more columns.
 Functions must return a value (using the RETURN keyword), but for stored procedures this is not mandatory.
 Stored procedures can use RETURN keyword but with no value being passed.
 Functions could be used in SELECT statements, provided they do no data manipulation. However, procedures cannot be included in SELECT statements.
 A stored procedure can return multiple values using the OUT parameter, or return no value.
 A stored procedure saves the query compiling time.
 A stored procedure is a database object.
 A stored procedure is a material object.

Comparison with prepared statements
Prepared statements take an ordinary statement or query and parameterize it so that different literal values can be used at a later time. Like stored procedures, they are stored on the server for efficiency and provide some protection from SQL injection attacks. Although simpler and more declarative, prepared statements are not ordinarily written to use procedural logic and cannot operate on variables. Because of their simple interface and client-side implementations, prepared statements are more widely reusable between DBMS.

Comparison with smart contracts
Smart contract is a term applied to executable code stored on a blockchain as opposed to an RDBMS. Despite the execution result consensus mechanisms of public blockchain networks differing in principle from traditional private or federated databases, they perform ostensibly the same function as stored procedures, albeit usually with a sense of value transaction.

Disadvantages
 Stored procedure languages are often vendor-specific. Changing database vendors usually requires rewriting existing stored procedures.
 Changes to stored procedures are harder to keep track of within a version control system than other code. Changes must be reproduced as scripts to be stored in the project history to be included, and differences in procedures can be harder to merge and track correctly.
 Errors in stored procedures cannot be caught as part of a compilation or build step in an application IDE - the same is true if a stored procedure went missing or was accidentally deleted.
 Stored procedure languages from different vendors have different levels of sophistication.
 For example, Postgres' pgpsql has more language features (especially via extensions) than Microsoft's T-SQL.
Tool support for writing and debugging stored procedures is often not as good as for other programming languages, but this differs between vendors and languages.
 For example, both PL/SQL and T-SQL have dedicated IDEs and debuggers. PL/PgSQL can be debugged from various IDEs.

References

External links
Stored Procedures in MySQL FAQ
An overview of PostgreSQL Procedural Language support
Using a stored procedure in Sybase ASE
PL/SQL Procedures
Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference
SAP HANA SQLScript Reference

Database management systems
Subroutines

Stored procedure