Generative art refers to art that in whole or in part has been created with the use of an autonomous system. An autonomous system in this context is generally one that is non-human and can independently determine features of an artwork that would otherwise require decisions made directly by the artist. In some cases the human creator may claim that the generative system represents their own artistic idea, and in others that the system takes on the role of the creator.

"Generative art" often refers to algorithmic art (algorithmically determined computer generated artwork) and synthetic media (general term for any algorithmically generated media), but artists can also make it using systems of chemistry, biology, mechanics and robotics, smart materials, manual randomization, mathematics, data mapping, symmetry, tiling, and more.

History

The use of the word "generative" in the discussion of art has developed over time. The use of "Artificial DNA" defines a generative approach to art focused on the construction of a system able to generate unpredictable events, all with a recognizable common character. The use of autonomous systems, required by some contemporary definitions, focuses a generative approach where the controls are strongly reduced. This approach is also named "emergent". Margaret Boden and Ernest Edmonds have noted the use of the term "generative art" in the broad context of automated computer graphics in the 1960s, beginning with artwork exhibited by Georg Nees and Frieder Nake in 1965: A. Michael Noll did his initial computer art, combining randomness with order, in 1962, and exhibited it along with works by Bell Julesz in 1965.

The first such exhibition showed the work of Nees in February 1965, which some claim was titled "Generative Computergrafik". While Nees does not himself remember, this was the title of his doctoral thesis published a few years later. The correct title of the first exhibition and catalog was "computer-grafik". "Generative art" and related terms was in common use by several other early computer artists around this time, including Manfred Mohr and Ken Knowlton. Vera Molnár (born 1924) is a French media artist of Hungarian origin. Molnar is widely considered to be a pioneer of generative art, and is also one of the first women to use computers in her art practice. The term "Generative Art" with the meaning of dynamic artwork-systems able to generate multiple artwork-events was clearly used the first time for the "Generative Art" conference in Milan in 1998.

The term has also been used to describe geometric abstract art where simple elements are repeated, transformed, or varied to generate more complex forms. Thus defined, generative art was practiced by the Argentinian artists Eduardo Mac Entyre and Miguel Ángel Vidal in the late 1960s. In 1972 the Romanian-born Paul Neagu created the Generative Art Group in Britain. It was populated exclusively by Neagu using aliases such as "Hunsy Belmood" and "Edward Larsocchi". In 1972 Neagu gave a lecture titled 'Generative Art Forms' at the Queen's University, Belfast Festival.

In 1970 the School of the Art Institute of Chicago created a department called  Generative Systems. As described by Sonia Landy Sheridan the focus was on art practices using the then new technologies for the capture, inter-machine transfer, printing and transmission of images, as well as the exploration of the aspect of time in the transformation of image information. Also noteworthy is John Dunn,  first a student and then a collaborator of Sheridan.

In 1988 Clauser identified the aspect of systemic autonomy as a critical element in generative art:

In 1989 Celestino Soddu defined the Generative Design approach to Architecture and Town Design in his book Citta' Aleatorie.

In 1989 Franke referred to "generative mathematics" as "the study of mathematical operations suitable for generating artistic images."

From the mid-1990s Brian Eno popularized the terms generative music and generative systems, making a connection with earlier experimental music by Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

From the end of the 20th century, communities of generative artists, designers, musicians and theoreticians began to meet, forming cross-disciplinary perspectives.
The first meeting about generative Art was in 1998, at the inaugural International Generative Art conference at Politecnico di Milano University, Italy.
In Australia, the Iterate conference on generative systems in the electronic arts followed in 1999.
On-line discussion has centered around the eu-gene mailing list, which began late 1999, and has hosted much of the debate which has defined the field.  These activities have more recently been joined by the Generator.x conference in Berlin starting in 2005.
In 2012 the new journal GASATHJ, Generative Art Science and Technology Hard Journal was founded by Celestino Soddu and Enrica Colabella jointing several generative artists and scientists in the editorial board.

Some have argued that as a result of this engagement across disciplinary boundaries, the community has converged on a shared meaning of the term.  As Boden and Edmonds put it in 2011:

In the call of the Generative Art conferences in Milan (annually starting from 1998), the definition of Generative Art by Celestino Soddu:

Discussion on the eu-gene mailing list was framed by the following definition by Adrian Ward from 1999:

A similar definition is provided by Philip Galanter:

Around the 2020s, generative AI models learned to imitate the distinct style of particular authors. For example, a generative image model such as Stable Diffusion is able to model the stylistic characteristics of an artist like Pablo Picasso (including his particular brush strokes, use of colour, perspective, and so on), and a user can engineer a prompt such as "an astronaut riding a horse, by Picasso" to cause the model to generate a novel image applying the artist's style to an arbitrary subject. Generative image models have received significant backlash from artists who object to their style being imitated without their permission, arguing that this harms their ability to profit from their own work.

Types

Music

Johann Kirnberger's Musikalisches Würfelspiel ("Musical Dice Game") of 1757 is considered an early example of a generative system based on randomness. Dice were used to select musical sequences from a numbered pool of previously composed phrases. This system provided a balance of order and disorder. The structure was based on an element of order on one hand, and disorder on the other.

The fugues of J.S. Bach could be considered generative, in that there is a strict underlying process that is followed by the composer. Similarly, serialism follows strict procedures which, in some cases, can be set up to generate entire compositions with limited human intervention.

Composers such as John Cage, Farmers Manual, and Brian Eno have used generative systems in their works.

Visual art
The artist Ellsworth Kelly created paintings by using chance operations to assign colors in a grid. He also created works on paper that he then cut into strips or squares and reassembled using chance operations to determine placement.

Artists such as Hans Haacke have explored processes of physical and social systems in artistic context.
François Morellet has used both highly ordered and highly disordered systems in his artwork.  Some of his paintings feature regular systems of radial or parallel lines to create Moiré Patterns. In other works he has used chance operations to determine the coloration of grids. Sol LeWitt created generative art in the form of systems expressed in natural language and systems of geometric permutation. Harold Cohen's AARON system is a longstanding project combining software artificial intelligence with robotic painting devices to create physical artifacts.
Steina and Woody Vasulka are video art pioneers who used analog video feedback to create generative art. Video feedback is now cited as an example of deterministic chaos, and the early explorations by the Vasulkas anticipated contemporary science by many years.
Software systems exploiting evolutionary computing to create visual form include those created by Scott Draves and Karl Sims.
The digital artist Joseph Nechvatal has exploited models of viral contagion.
Autopoiesis by Ken Rinaldo includes fifteen musical and robotic sculptures that interact with the public and modify their behaviors based on both the presence of the participants and each other.
Jean-Pierre Hebert and Roman Verostko are founding members of the Algorists, a group of artists who create their own algorithms to create art.
A. Michael Noll, of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, programmed computer art using mathematical equations and programmed randomness, starting in 1962.
The French artist Jean-Max Albert, beside environmental sculptures like Iapetus, and O=C=O, developed a project dedicated to the vegetation itself, in terms of biological activity. The Calmoduline Monument project is based on the property of a protein, calmodulin, to bond selectively to calcium. Exterior physical constraints (wind, rain, etc.) modify the electric potential of the cellular membranes of a plant and consequently the flux of calcium. However, the calcium controls the expression of the calmoduline gene. The plant can thus, when there is a stimulus, modify its "typical" growth pattern. So the basic principle of this monumental sculpture is that to the extent that they could be picked up and transported, these signals could be enlarged, translated into colors and shapes, and show the plant's "decisions" suggesting a level of fundamental biological activity.

Maurizio Bolognini works with generative machines to address conceptual and social concerns.
Mark Napier is a pioneer in data mapping, creating works based on the streams of zeros and ones in Ethernet traffic, as part of the "Carnivore" project. Martin Wattenberg pushed this theme further, transforming "data sets" as diverse as musical scores (in "Shape of Song", 2001) and Wikipedia edits (History Flow, 2003, with Fernanda Viegas) into dramatic visual compositions.
The Canadian artist San Base developed a "Dynamic Painting" algorithm in 2002. Using computer algorithms as "brush strokes", Base creates sophisticated imagery that evolves over time to produce a fluid, never-repeating artwork.

Since 1996 there have been ambigram generators that auto generate ambigrams.

Italian composer Pietro Grossi, pioneer of computer music since 1986, he extended his experiments to images, (same procedure used in his musical work)  precisely to computer graphics, writing programs with specific auto-decisions, and developing the concept of HomeArt, presented for the first time in the exhibition New Atlantis: the continent of electronic music organized by the Venice Biennale in 1986.

Some contemporary artists who create generative visual artworks are Daniel Shiffman, Zachary Lieberman, Golan Levin, Ben Fry, and Giles Whitaker (artist).

Software art

For some artists, graphic user interfaces and computer code have become an independent art form in themselves. Adrian Ward created Auto-Illustrator as a commentary on software and generative methods applied to art and design.

Architecture
In 1987 Celestino Soddu created the artificial DNA of Italian Medieval towns able to generate endless 3D models of cities identifiable as belonging to the idea.

In 2010, Michael Hansmeyer generated architectural columns in a project called "Subdivided Columns – A New Order (2010)". The piece explored how the simple process of repeated subdivision can create elaborate architectural patterns. Rather than designing any columns directly, Hansmeyer designed a process that produced columns automatically. The process could be run again and again with different parameters to create endless permutations. Endless permutations could be considered a hallmark of generative design.

Literature

Writers such as Tristan Tzara, Brion Gysin, and William Burroughs used the cut-up technique to introduce randomization to literature as a generative system. Jackson Mac Low produced computer-assisted poetry and used algorithms to generate texts; Philip M. Parker has written software to automatically generate entire books. Jason Nelson used generative methods with speech-to-text software to create a series of digital poems from movies, television and other audio sources.

In the late 2010s, authors began to experiment with neural networks trained on large language datasets. David Jhave Johnston's ReRites is an early example of human-edited AI-generated poetry.

Live coding

Generative systems may be modified while they operate, for example by using interactive programming environments such as SuperCollider, Fluxus and TidalCycles, including patching environments such as Max/MSP, Pure Data and vvvv. This is a standard approach to programming by artists, but may also be used to create live music and/or video by manipulating generative systems on stage, a performance practice that has become known as live coding. As with many examples of software art, because live coding emphasizes human authorship rather than autonomy, it may be considered in opposition to generative art.

Blockchain

In 2020, Erick "Snowfro" Calderon launched the Art Blocks platform for combining the ideas of generative art and the blockchain, with resulting artworks created as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. One of the key innovations with the generative art created in this way is that all the source code and algorithm for creating the art has to be finalized and put on the blockchain permanently, without any ability to alter it further. Only when the artwork is sold ("minted"), the artwork is generated; the result is random yet should reflect the overall aesthetic defined by the artist. Calderon argues that this process forces the artist to be very thoughtful of the algorithm behind the art:Until today, a [generative] artist would create an algorithm, press the spacebar 100 times, pick five of the best ones and print them in high quality. Then they would frame them, and put them in a gallery. Maybe. Because Art Blocks forces the artist to accept every single output of the algorithm as their signed piece, the artist has to go back and tweak the algorithm until it's perfect. They can't just cherry pick the good outputs. That elevates the level of algorithmic execution because the artist is creating something that they know they're proud of before they even know what's going to come out on the other side.

Theories

Philip Galanter

In the most widely cited theory of generative art, in 2003 Philip Galanter describes generative art systems in the context of complexity theory. In particular the notion of Murray Gell-Mann and Seth Lloyd's effective complexity is cited. In this view both highly ordered and highly disordered generative art can be viewed as simple. Highly ordered generative art minimizes entropy and allows maximal data compression, and highly disordered generative art maximizes entropy and disallows significant data compression. Maximally complex generative art blends order and disorder in a manner similar to biological life, and indeed biologically inspired methods are most frequently used to create complex generative art. This view is at odds with the earlier information theory influenced views of Max Bense and Abraham Moles where complexity in art increases with disorder.

Galanter notes further that given the use of visual symmetry, pattern, and repetition by the most ancient known cultures generative art is as old as art itself. He also addresses the mistaken equivalence by some that rule-based art is synonymous with generative art. For example, some art is based on constraint rules that disallow the use of certain colors or shapes. Such art is not generative because constraint rules are not constructive, i.e. by themselves they do not assert what is to be done, only what cannot be done.

Margaret Boden and Ernest Edmonds

In their 2009 article, Margaret Boden and Ernest Edmonds agree that generative art need not be restricted to that done using computers, and that some rule-based art is not generative. They develop a technical vocabulary that includes Ele-art (electronic art), C-art (computer art), D-art (digital art), CA-art (computer assisted art), G-art (generative art), CG-art (computer based generative art), Evo-art (evolutionary based art), R-art (robotic art), I-art (interactive art), CI-art (computer based interactive art), and VR-art (virtual reality art).

Questions

The discourse around generative art can be characterized by the theoretical questions which motivate its development. McCormack et al. propose the following questions, shown with paraphrased summaries, as the most important:

 Can a machine originate anything?  Related to machine intelligence - can a machine generate something new, meaningful, surprising and of value: a poem, an artwork, a useful idea, a solution to a long-standing problem?
 What is it like to be a computer that makes art?  If a computer could originate art, what would it be like from the computer's perspective?
 Can human aesthetics be formalized?
 What new kinds of art does the computer enable?  Many generative artworks do not involve digital computers, but what does generative computer art bring that is new?
 In what sense is generative art representational, and what is it representing?
 What is the role of randomness in generative art? For example, what does the use of randomness say about the place of intentionality in the making of art?
 What can computational generative art tell us about creativity? How could generative art give rise to artifacts and ideas that are new, surprising and valuable?
 What characterizes good generative art? How can we form a more critical understanding of generative art?
 What can we learn about art from generative art? For example, can the art world be considered a complex generative system involving many processes outside the direct control of artists, who are agents of production within a stratified global art market?
 What future developments would force us to rethink our answers?

Another question is of postmodernism—are generative art systems the ultimate expression of the postmodern condition, or do they point to a new synthesis based on a complexity-inspired world-view?

See also
 Artificial intelligence art
 Artmedia
 Conway's Game of Life
 Digital morphogenesis
 Evolutionary art
 New media art
 Non-fungible token
 Post-conceptualism
 Systems art
 Virtual art

References

Further reading
 Oliver Grau (2003). Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (MIT Press/Leonardo Book Series). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. .
 Wands, Bruce (2006). Art of the Digital Age, London: Thames & Hudson. .
 Matt Pearson, ''Generative art : a practical guide using processing ". Manning 2011.
 Playing with Time A conversation between Will Wright and Brian Eno on generative creation.
 Off Book: Generative Art - Computers, Data, and Humanity  Documentary produced by Off Book (web series)
 Thomas Dreher: History of Computer Art, chap.III.2, IV.3, VIII.1
"Epigenetic Painting:Software as Genotype", Roman Verostko(International Symposium on Electronic Art, Utrecht, 1988); Leonardo, 23:1,1990, pp. 17–23

Visual arts media
Computer art
Digital art
New media
Electronic music
Visual arts genres
Art movements
Painting techniques
Conceptual art
Generative artificial intelligence

Generative art


Charles Carroll Marsh was a Union Army officer during the American Civil War.  He served with distinction early in the war at the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh.  He is commonly referred to as "C. Carrol Marsh" in official reports.

Early life
Charles Carroll Marsh was born in Oswego, New York in 1829. In 1853 he moved to Chicago, Illinois to study law.  The legal profession was too crowded for Marsh and his studies lasted only a year before pursuing other business ventures.  He joined the Chicago Light Guard becoming captain in that organization.

Civil War

Early Battles
Due to the reputation of the Chicago Light Guard, Captain Marsh was called to Springfield, Illinois at the outset of the Civil War.  Eager to offer his services, he responded quickly and was given command of the 20th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment.  Colonel Marsh and his command were transported to Cape Girardeau, Missouri and attached to Colonel Joseph B. Plummer's command at the Battle of Fredericktown.

Fort Donelson
Colonel Marsh and the 20th were stationed at Bird's Point, Missouri until joining Ulysses S. Grant's expedition to Fort Henry as a part of W. H. L. Wallace's 2nd Brigade in John A. McClernand's 1st Division.  At the battle of Fort Donelson Marsh was positioned on the right of the Union lines.  McClernand's entire division was hit hard during the Confederate breakout attempt on February 15.  Despite being hard pressed Marsh managed a counterattack which momentarily checked Simon B. Buckner's division and saved an Illinois artillery battery from capture.

Shiloh
Following the victory at Fort Donelson, General Ulysses S. Grant was thrust into the public eye and at the same came under attack from department commander Henry W. Halleck.  During this time Colonel Marsh and others presented Grant with an ivory-handled sword.  Marsh took the occasion to publicly profess his confidence in General Grant and denounced the "jealousy caused by his recent success".  He assumed command of the 2nd Brigade when recently promoted Brig. Gen. W.H.L. Wallace took command of the 2nd Division.  On the morning of April 6, 1862 messengers managed to alert Colonel Abraham M. Hare of the 1st Brigade that a battle was underway but news of the fighting had not reached Colonel Marsh until a cannonball soared through his brigade's camp.  Early in the fighting Marsh's brigade was forced into a disorderly retreat until he and General McClernand managed to rally units of the 1st Division behind Shiloh Church.  Marsh then led a counterattack which managed to overrun a Confederate battery but proved costly.  Once again Marsh was forced to withdraw his dwindling command.  Around 5:00pm he made a final stand supported by remnants of three other brigades.  On April 7 he led his brigade in recapturing lost ground in the vicinity of Shiloh Church where he had seen action the day before.

Post Shiloh and Resignation
Following the battle of Shiloh Colonel Marsh commanded his brigade until the beginning days of the Siege of Corinth and was transferred to command the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division stationed at Jackson, Tennessee.  He was appointed Brigadier General of U.S. Volunteers dated November 29, 1862, though his appointment was later withdrawn.  He was transferred to command the 1st Brigade in John A. Logan's 3rd Division of the XVII Corps in the opening stages of Grant's First Vicksburg Campaign.  Colonel Marsh resigned on April 22, 1863.

Sources
 Daniel, Larry J. Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. .
 Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001.
 Gott, Kendall D. Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry—Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003. .
 Wilson, James Grant Biographical Sketches of Illinois Officers Engaged in the War Against the Rebellion of 1861. Nabu Press, 2010.

Notes

Union Army generals
People of Illinois in the American Civil War
1829 births
Year of death missing

C. Carroll Marsh


A muzzle brake or recoil compensator is a device connected to, or a feature integral to the construction of, the muzzle or barrel of a firearm or cannon that is intended to redirect a portion of propellant gases to counter recoil and unwanted muzzle rise. Barrels with an integral muzzle brake are often said to be ported.

The concept of a muzzle brake was first introduced for artillery. It was a common feature on many anti-tank guns, especially those mounted on tanks, in order to reduce the area needed to take up the strokes of recoil and kickback. They have been used in various forms for rifles and pistols to help control recoil and the rising of the barrel that normally occurs after firing. They are used on pistols for practical pistol competitions, and are usually called compensators in this context.

History
The concept of a muzzle brake had been experimented with for many years prior to its successful implementation: in 1922, a US Army Ordnance Department official stated in US Congress that "the muzzle brake was used in another form 20 years ago, and even longer ago than that, but it has never been successfully applied".

Antoine Treuille de Beaulieu invented a prototype based on the idea in 1842 and had it tested in 1862, but he himself called the idea "too new". A US patent was issued for a "recoil obviator" in 1871 (there is no indication it was ever tested), while an experimental British anti-tank rifle in 1918 featured a muzzle brake, but was not adopted.

In the later 1920s, there was some limited progress: around 1926, Cutts compensator became an option in the Thompson SMG (R. M. Cutts' earliest patent is from 1925), in 1927 Škoda patented a family of muzzle brake designs, one of which was used on 8 cm kanon vz. 28, and in 1928, Schneider et Cie (which was allied with Škoda at the time) updated their 220 mm TR mle 1915/1916 with a muzzle brake patented by Eugène Schneider II way back in 1912.

In mid-1930s, Bofors designed several successful artillery pieces (e. g. 37-mm and 105-mm guns) with new perforated muzzle brakes, so called pepper-pot muzzle brakes, a design invented by then Swedish artillery staff officer, captain Harald Jentzen, in Sweden known as a "Jentzen-brake" (). The Soviet Union started modernising old artillery systems with new barrels, such as the 107 mm gun M1910/30, 152 mm gun M1910/30, 152 mm gun M1910/34, etc, predominantly featuring cylindrical muzzle brakes with long slits on each side. Several European countries started designing and producing AT rifles featuring muzzle brakes. In late 1930s and especially during World War II the device became common on both firearms and artillery pieces.

Overall, the development of the muzzle brake was a gradual process that involved experimentation and refinement over many years.

Rationale in firearms

The interchangeable terms muzzle rise, muzzle flip, or muzzle climb refer to the tendency of a handheld firearm's front end (the muzzle end of the barrel) to rise after firing. Firearms with less height from the grip line to the barrel centerline tend to experience less muzzle rise.

The muzzle rises primarily because, for most firearms, the centerline of the barrel is above the center of contact between the shooter and the firearm's grip and stock. The reactive forces from the fired bullet and propellant gases exiting the muzzle act directly down the centerline of the barrel. If that line of force is above the center of the contact points, this creates a moment or torque (rotational force) that causes the firearm to rotate and the muzzle to rise. The M1946 Sieg automatic rifle had an unusual muzzle brake that made the rifle climb downward, but enabled the user to fire it with one hand in full automatic.

Design and construction

Muzzle brakes are simple in concept, such as the one employed on the 90 mm M3 gun used on the M47 Patton tank. This consists of a small length of tubing (mounted at right angles) at the end of the barrel. Brakes most often utilize slots, vents, holes, baffles, and similar devices. The strategy of a muzzle brake is to redirect and control the burst of combustion gases following the departure of a projectile.

All muzzle brake designs share a basic principle: to partially divert combustion gases from the muzzle end of the bore at a (generally) perpendicular angle to the long axis of the barrel. The momentum of the diverted gases thus does not add to the recoil. The angle toward which the gases are directed will fundamentally affect how the brake behaves. If gases are directed upward, they will exert a downward force and counteract muzzle rise.  Any device that is attached to the end of the muzzle will also add mass, increasing its inertia and moving its center of mass forward; the former will reduce recoil and the latter will reduce muzzle rise.

Construction of a muzzle brake or compensator can be as simple as a diagonal cut at the muzzle end of the barrel to direct some of the escaping gas upward. On the AKM assault rifle, the brake also angles slightly to the right to counteract the sideways movement of the rifle under recoil.

Another simple method is porting, where holes or slots are machined into the barrel near the muzzle to allow the gas to escape.

More advanced designs use baffles and expansion chambers to slow escaping gases. This is the basic principle behind a linear compensator. Ports are often added to the expansion chambers, producing the long, multi-chambered recoil compensators often seen on IPSC raceguns.

Venting direction

Most linear compensators redirect the gases forward. Since that is where the bullet is going, they typically work by allowing the gases to expand into the compensator, which surrounds the muzzle but only has holes facing forward; like any device which allows the gases to expand before leaving the firearm, they are effectively a type of muzzle shroud. They reduce muzzle rise similarly to the mechanism by which a sideways brake does: since all the gas is escaping in the same direction, any muzzle rise would need to alter the velocity of the gas, which costs kinetic energy. When the brake redirects the gases directly backward, instead, the effect is similar to the reverse thrust system on an aircraft jet engine: any blast energy coming back at the shooter is pushing "against" the recoil, effectively reducing the actual amount of recoil on the shooter. Of course, this also means the gases are directed toward the shooter.

When the gases are primarily directed upward, the braking is referred to as porting. Porting typically involves precision-drilled ports or holes in the forward top part of the barrel and slide on pistols. These holes divert a portion of the gases expelled prior to the departure of the projectile in a direction that reduces the tendency of the firearm to rise. The concept is an application of Newton's third law; the exhaust directed upward causes a reciprocal force downward. This is why firearms are never ported on the bottom of the barrel, as that would exacerbate muzzle rise, rather than mitigate it. Porting has the undesired consequences of shortening the effective barrel length and reducing muzzle velocity, while a muzzle brake is an extension added to the barrel and does not reduce muzzle velocity. Porting has the advantage for faster follow-up shots, especially for 3-round burst operation.

Effectiveness

Although there are numerous ways to measure the energy of a recoil impulse, in general, a 10% to 50% reduction can be measured. Some muzzle brake manufacturers claim greater recoil reduction percentages. Muzzle brakes need sufficient propellant gas volume and high gas pressure at the muzzle of the firearm to achieve well-measured recoil reduction percentages. This means cartridges with a small bore area to case volume ratio (overbore cartridges) combined with a high operating pressure benefit more from recoil reduction with muzzle brakes than smaller standard cartridges.

Besides reducing felt recoil, one of the primary advantages of a muzzle brake is the reduction of muzzle rise. This lets a shooter realign a weapon's sights more quickly. This is relevant for fully automatic weapons. Muzzle rise can theoretically be eliminated by an efficient design. Because the rifle moves rearward less, the shooter has little to compensate for. Muzzle brakes benefit rapid-fire, fully automatic fire, and large-bore hunting rifles. They are also common on small-bore vermin rifles, where reducing the muzzle rise lets the shooter see the bullet impact through a telescopic sight. A reduction in recoil also reduces the chance of undesired (painful) contacts between the shooter's head and the ocular of a telescopic sight or other aiming components that must be positioned near the shooter's eye (often referred to as "scope eye"). Another advantage of a muzzle brake is a reduction of recoil fatigue during extended practice sessions, enabling the shooter to consecutively fire more rounds accurately. Further, flinch (involuntary pre-trigger-release anxiety behavior resulting in inaccurate aiming and shooting) caused by excessive recoil may be reduced or eliminated.

Disadvantages

The shooter, gun crew, or close bystanders may perceive an increase in sound pressure level as well as an increase in muzzle blast and lead exposure. This occurs because the sound, flash, pressure waves, and lead loaded smoke plume normally projected away from the shooter are now partially redirected outward to the side or sometimes at partially backward angles toward the shooter or gun crew. Standard eye and ear protection, important for all shooters, may not be adequate to avoid hearing damage with the muzzle blast partially vectored back toward the gun crew or spotters by arrowhead shaped reactive muzzle brakes found on sniper teams firing anti-materiel rifles like the Barrett M82.

Measurements indicate that on a rifle, a muzzle brake adds 5 to 10 dB to the normal noise level perceived by the shooter, increasing total noise levels up to 160 dB(A) ± 3 dB.  Painful discomfort occurs at approximately 120 to 125 dB(A), with some references claiming 133 dB(A) for the threshold of pain.

Brakes and compensators also add length, diameter, and mass to the muzzle end of a firearm, where it most influences its handling and may interfere with accuracy as muzzle rise will occur when the brake is removed and shooting without the brake can throw off the strike of the round.

Another problem can occur when saboted ammunition is used as the sabot tends to break up inside the brake. The problem is particularly pronounced when armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS), a type of long-rod penetrator (LRP) (or kinetic energy penetrator), are used. Since these APFSDS rounds are the most common armour-piercing ammunition currently, virtually no modern main battle tank guns have muzzle brakes.

A serious tactical disadvantage of muzzle brakes on both small arms and artillery is that, depending on their designs, they may cause escaping gases to throw up dust and debris clouds that impair visibility and reveal one's position, not to mention posing a hazard to individuals without eye protection. Troops often wet the ground in front of antitank guns in defensive emplacements to prevent this, and snipers are specially trained in techniques for suppressing or concealing the magnified effects of lateral muzzle blast when firing rifles with such brakes. Linear compensators and suppressors do not have the disadvantages of a redirected muzzle blast; they actually reduce the blast by venting high pressure gas forward at reduced velocity.

The redirection of larger amounts of escaping high-pressure gas can cause discomfort caused by blast-induced sinus cavity concussion. Such discomfort can especially become a problem for anti-materiel rifle shooters due to the bigger than normal cartridges with accompanying large case capacities and propellant volumes these rifles use and can be a reason for promoting accelerated shooter fatigue and flinching. Furthermore, the redirected blast may direct pressure waves toward the eye, potentially leading to retinal detachment when repeated shooting is performed with anti-materiel and large caliber weapons.

Examples

US legislation and regulation
The State of California outlaws flash suppressors on semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines, but allows muzzle brakes to be used instead.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) made a regulatory determination in 2013 that the muzzle device of the SIG Sauer MPX Carbine, adapted from the baffle core of the integrally suppressed version's suppressor and claimed by SIG to be a muzzle brake, constituted a silencer and rendered the MPX-C a Title II NFA weapon. SIG Sauer, the rifle's maker, sued the ATF in 2014 to have the designation overturned. In September 2015, Federal Judge Paul Barbadora upheld the ATF's ruling; despite SIG successfully establishing that the muzzle device did not suppress the weapon's sound, the ATF successfully established that it was intended to suppress the sound, which was legally sufficient.

See also
 Flash suppressor
 Muzzle booster
 Muzzle shroud
 Silencer (firearms)

References

External links

 High speed photography on muzzle brakes
 Chuck Hawks' article on muzzle brakes
 Pictures of various muzzle brake types
 Adventures with muzzle brakes
 Glock's page on Compensated Pistols

Firearm muzzle devices
Artillery components
Tank subassembly

Muzzle brake


Dianne Louise Haskett (born March 4, 1955) is a Canadian lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as the mayor of London, Ontario, Canada, serving from 1994 to 2000, and later ran unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate in the 2006 federal by-election in the riding of London North Centre, placing third. She served two three-year mayoral terms, making a priority of downtown revitalization, heritage preservation, economic development, neighbourhood protection, protecting the environment, international relations, trade corridors' infrastructure, family values and anti-poverty initiatives.

Early years

Haskett was born and raised in London's Kensal Park district north of Springbank Drive.

Education

Haskett earned her B.A. from the University of Waterloo in 1974, her LL.B. from the University of Western Ontario in 1977, her LL.M. from the London School of Economics in 1979 and a second LLM from The George Washington University Law School in 2005. She has also studied law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies at Cambridge University, England.

She later founded her own law firm, Haskett Menear & Associates, which grew to include seven lawyers.

Mayor

From 1991 to 1994, Haskett was a member of London's elected board of control on city council.

Once Haskett was elected mayor in November 1994, defeating Deputy Mayor Jack Burghardt by slightly more than 1,000 votes, she stepped aside from her duties as a lawyer and as a partner in her law firm. She was re-elected in 1997 with a landslide victory.

Proclamation controversy
In 1995, Dianne Haskett refused to issue a Gay Pride Proclamation on the basis that she'd previously formulated a policy of declining controversial proclamations. London City Council also declined to issue the Gay Pride Proclamation by a vote of 13-5 (Mayor Haskett abstained from voting).

Richard Hudler, president of the Homophile Association of London, Ontario (HALO), filed an official complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission in 1995, a tribunal of which ultimately determined in 1997 after a three-day public hearing that the City of London and Mayor Haskett had discriminated against HALO in the provision of a municipal service. Both the City of London and Haskett were fined $5,000.

Haskett placed a paid advertisement in The London Free Press on October 22, 1997, in which she stated that she believed the human rights case was unfairly decided and wrong in fact and law, and that the Tribunal's decision undermined the freedoms guaranteed in the Canadian Constitution, notably freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

As an act of protest, she withdrew from her duties as mayor for three weeks (without pay) by staying in her Port Stanley, Ontario, townhouse and did not campaign during the last three weeks of the 1997 election. Deputy Mayor Grant Hopcroft, who became acting mayor during her absence, became an ardent supporter of issuing the gay pride  proclamation after opposing it in 1995 in a recorded vote and refused to allow an appeal of the tribunal decision. Haskett was re-elected to a second term as mayor by a 2-1 landslide over Hopcroft.  Haskett used no campaign signs during the 1997 civic election, instead using green-and-gold ribbons.

In 1996, Haskett was invited to bring greetings at an evangelical Christian rally in London called the "March of Jesus". One of the speakers was Rev. Miguel Sanchez of the London Gospel Temple, who prayed for deliverance "from the darkness and deception of the spirit of Islam". Haskett bowed her head during the prayer, and later said, "From what I know of him, I believed Rev. Sanchez and all other participants have a great love for all people". She later described Sanchez's comments as unfortunate. Haskett's role in this event was strongly criticized at the time by some members of London's Muslim community. In an effort to make sure that Londoners of all faiths felt appreciated and respected in the city, Haskett participated in a March for Tolerance from downtown to the London Muslim Mosque on Oxford Street West, where community leaders, including Haskett, addressed the crowd. She thanked the Muslim community for the many positive contributions they made to the city and urged people of all faiths to show love and respect for one another.

Moves to Washington, D.C.

Haskett's second, three-year term as mayor ended in December 2000 after she decided not to run again for re-election. She was succeeded by deputy mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best. Haskett, her husband and daughter moved to Fairfax, Virginia, working with two D.C. area law firms in planning and implementing strategic business development and providing assistance in their immigration and estate planning work.

Haskett completed her second Master's Law Degree in the Spring of 2005 from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. She also passed the Washington D.C. Bar exam and was sworn in as an attorney and member of the D.C. Bar in December, 2005.

Haskett has also been involved in a number of other projects in the Washington, D.C. area, including speechwriting, research and marketing and acting in an advisory capacity in Senate and Congressional campaigns. She volunteered as a communications adviser and researcher for Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole.  She sat as a member of the board of trustees for the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy in Washington, D.C. and of Trinity Christian School of Fairfax, Virginia.

2006 federal by-election

On October 17, 2006, 1290 CJBK-AM, a London, Ontario radio station, and the A-Channel reported that Dianne Haskett had returned to London to seek the Conservative Party of Canada nomination in the London North Centre federal riding recently vacated by former Liberal MP Joe Fontana, who was a candidate for mayor of London in civic election 2006.  This information was confirmed by Haskett on October 18, 2006.

On October 24, Haskett defeated Tom Weihmayr for the Conservative nomination in the federal riding of London North Centre. Haskett was widely considered to be the choice of the party hierarchy. The local riding association was ordered to hold the nomination meeting on October 24, 2006, a decision Haskett was informed of before the riding association was.

Key members of Haskett's campaign team were campaign manager Ryan Sparrow (previously the communications director for Environment Minister Rona Ambrose), former law firm partner Michael Menear, former member of London city council Ted Wernham, London businessperson Randy Collins, and Dale Mackness.

Voting day for the federal by-election was November 27, 2006.  With 253 of 253 polls reporting, the official by-election results from Elections Canada are as follows:

 38,123 of 89,139 registered electors voted (42.8 per-cent turnout)

Haskett returns to Washington

A letter to Londoners appears on Haskett's "information [Web] site" dated December 28, 2006, which says that she is returning to Washington, D.C. to be with her husband Jack and to continue her life there.

See also
List of mayors of London, Ontario
 List of University of Waterloo people

Footnotes

External links
1997 London Municipal election

1955 births
Conservative Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons
Mayors of London, Ontario
University of Western Ontario alumni
George Washington University Law School alumni
Lawyers in Ontario
Alumni of the London School of Economics
University of Waterloo alumni
Living people
Women mayors of places in Ontario
Canadian women lawyers
Law firm founders
Canadian women company founders
Western Law School alumni

Dianne Haskett


Holywell Town Football Club () is a Welsh football club from Holywell, Flintshire. They are nicknamed  'The Wellmen', and play their home games at the Achieve More Training Stadium (commonly known as 'Halkyn Road'), Holywell. They currently play in the Cymru North, the second tier northern and central regional league in the Welsh football pyramid.

Holywell Town were founding members of both the Cymru Alliance and the League of Wales (now known as the Cymru Premier) and enjoyed their best period in the top flight in the early to mid-1990s, finishing as high as fifth position in the 1993-94 League of Wales table. For the 2023–24 season, they will play in the Cymru North, the fourth consecutive season competing in the second tier after winning promotion from the now-defunct Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) Premier Division in the 2019-20 season.

The 2014–15 season proved to be one of The Wellmen's best season in its history, winning the old Welsh Alliance League Division 1 title with three games to go at Llanrwst United by ending the league campaign with a goal difference of +100 and winning all but three of their league games. They also won their second FAW Trophy beating fellow Welsh Alliance team Penrhyndeudraeth 4–2 at Llandudno's Maesdu Stadium, and achieved a Mawddach Challenge Cup victory, beating Llanrug United 3–2 at the Nantporth Stadium in Bangor to complete an unprecedented treble.

In the 2022-23 season, Holywell Town achieved their highest league placement in 24 years when they finished as the runners-up in the 2022-23 Cymru North table after experiencing a 25-game winning streak throughout the league campaign.

Early History

Holywell F.C.

Foundations of the Club
The history of football in Holywell can be traced back to a club that was simply known as Holywell Football Club, which was founded on 25th September 1880 at the King's Head Hotel in the town. The club's first game came a few weeks later on 23 October when the "Holywellites" played a goalless draw at home against Denbigh, before playing their first away game versus Rhyl the following Saturday. There is no evidence of who scored the first Holywell goal in a 2-2 draw against their opponents (the very first in the club's history), but the second goal was scored by right-winger E. Bratt to level the scores. The first local derby between Holywell and their fierce, long-time rivals Flint occurred on 27 November 1880, with the Holywellites edging the "very interesting game" by a single goal from J.C. Douglas.

During the early history of the club, Holywell played their football on a ground known as Ffordd Fer ('Short Way'), which was a short distance from the town centre and located near to where the local high school is now situated. The ground no longer exists on Strand Park road with houses having been built onto top of the former football ground. Holywell FC also wore red and white colours as their home strip, the same colours that the current team wears today in its current home kit.

First Welsh Cup Appearances
Holywell F.C. made their Welsh Cup debut in 1881, almost a year to the date of their first-ever game, when they played in the first round of the 1881–82 Welsh Cup (the fifth edition of Wales' national cup competition). On 22 October 1881, they took on the 'A' team of Northwich Victoria but lost to the Cheshire side 0–3 at Ffordd Fer.

Holywell Dee Rovers (also known as Dee Rovers or Holywell Rovers) became the second Holywell-based side to appear in the national cup competition when they competed in two consecutive competitions between 1882 and 1883. In the former tournament, they lost 1-6 away to Dolgelley Idris in the first round, before suffering another first-round defeat in their latter appearance, getting comprehensively demolished 0-16 by Davenham.

It would be another five years before another Holywell-based side competed in the Welsh Cup, with Holywell F.C. returning to make their second appearance. They too failed to progress beyond the first round of the 1888-89 Welsh Cup by losing 2-4 at home to Mold. The result was repeated in the 1890-91 version of the cup competition, this time losing 2-3 away to their local rivals.

Holywell F.C. reached the third round of the 1892-93 Welsh Cup without playing a game. In the first round, they were scheduled to play Porthmadoc, but the Caernarfonshire-based club withdrew from the competition before the match. They then earned a bye in the second round and were subsequently drawn to play against Llandudno Swifts in the third round. Alas, Holywell failed to appear for their scheduled cup match in early January 1893 and were thrown out of the competition by the FAW, thus awarding the fixture to their opponents.

North Wales Coast League
In March 1893, Holywell F.C. became one of the seven founder members of the North Wales Coast League, and had 58 players registered with the club within six months of the league commencing. Holywell finished in fourth position in the inaugural season of the North Wales Coast League. This was followed by three seasons of fifth-place league finishes in the division before ending in the 1897–98 season, when the club finished in sixth place. This would be the worst position the club would end up during their time in the Coast League.

The club reached their first cup final in 1898, when they faced Bangor City for the North Wales Senior Cup (this would later become the North Wales Amateur Cup), but lost the final 3–0 to Bangor. The following season, the club would reach its highest position during their tenure within the league, earning third position in the league, although this was followed up the next season by returning to their familiar fifth place in the league. However, after being engulfed by the Baron Corvo episode of 1899, the team eventually resigned from the North Wales Coast League at the end of the 1900–01 season, and joined the Chester & District League Division One for a season. After finishing seventh in the nine-team league, the club withdrew from the league after just a season. Holywell returned back to competitive football in the 1904-05 season when they joined the local Flintshire League, but finished bottom of the table having won no games all season, drawing just four games, and suffering a two-point deduction for playing an ineligible player.

Holywell United and Holywell Victoria
During the middle of the 1900s, Holywell F.C. changed its name to Holywell United F.C. before changing its name once again to Holywell Victoria F.C. as they competed in the Flintshire League structure. After a couple years of playing in the Flintshire League, the club switched back to the Chester & District League. During their three-year stay in the regional league, The Vics competed in Division One of the structure, finishing as high as third place in the 1908-09 season.

The club later rejoined the North Wales Coast League for the 1912–13 season under the Holywell United monicker they won multiple trophies. In their debut season in the league, Holywell United finished in seventh position. However, in the following 1913–14 season, they achieved the North Wales Coast League and Amateur Cup double, by earning 15 victories from their 17 league games and also beating Colwyn Bay 1–0 in the final at Rhyl.
They almost made it a treble-winning season as Holywell United also made it to the final of the Welsh Amateur Cup, but lost 0-1 to Cardiff Corinthians at the neutral venue of Newtown.
It was during this period when Holywell United hosted their biggest game at that time, playing a friendly match against Everton XI at their Ffordd Fer ground. The Merseysiders included at least five players with English First Division experience within the team, and ran out 4–1 winners in front of a large Holywell crowd.

After World War I, Holywell United finished as the North Wales Coast League runners-up to Holyhead Railway Institute in the 1920–21 season, ending up just three points behind the league champions and scoring 92 goals that season, almost two dozen more goals than any other team in the league for that season. They also reached the final of the North Wales Coast Amateur Cup once again but lost to Holyhead 3–1. However, in the following season's NW Coast Cup final, which was to be a replay of the previous season's final, Holywell defeated Holyhead 1–0 in the final played at Llandudno, with Hewitt scoring the game's only goal.

From the 1921–22 season until the 1928–29 season, Holywell United competed in the newly formed Welsh National League (North), but could not replicate the high performances of previous years and had limited success during this period of time. Nonetheless, the club did manage to reach the semi-finals of the 1926-27 Welsh Cup - the furthest a Holywell-based club had gotten in the national cup competition up to that date (and later matched by Holywell Town's 2013-14 run to the last four. Their historic cup run was as follows before it was decisively ended by Rhyl in Colwyn Bay at the semi-final stage:
Round Three: Conway (a) 4-2
Round Four: Denbigh Town (h) 3-2
Round Five: Buckley (h) 4-0
Round Six: Lovell's Athletic (h) 2-0
Semi-Finals: Rhyl (n) 1-5

The club also reached two consecutive Welsh Amateur Cup finals in 1926 and 1927, replicating the feat of twelve years prior. On both occasions, United took on Newport-based side Lovell's Athletic in the finals held at Newtown and Flint respectively, and lost both fixtures by a 0-2 scoreline as their opponents won two of their three consecutive cups.

Holywell Arcadians

During the mid-to-late 1920s, the club first appeared under the new name of Holywell Arcadians, and competed in Division 2 (East) of the Welsh National League. For the following three seasons, Holywell Arcadians competed in the Welsh Football League, which ran alongside the North Wales Football Combination, and was the forerunner of the Welsh League (North). The Arcadians became two-time Welsh Football League champions by getting the title in the 1930–31 and 1932–33 seasons, as well as being runners-up in between.

History of Holywell Town
In 1946, former soldiers who had been demobilised and returned home from fighting in World War II established the club at Halkyn Road, where it has played its home games ever since. It was also around this period that the moniker of The Wellmen was adopted by the club, a nickname which the club still uses to this day.

Post-War Period (1945-70)

Success in the League and Cups
In 1947 Holywell Tow won both The Alves Cup and the Waterfall Cup, and the North Wales Coast FA Amateur Cup. The Wellmen beat Barmouth 2–0 in the 1949 final held at Llandudno.

Further achievements came to Holywell when they joined the Welsh League (North) in the 1949–50 season. They finished in  fifth place in their debut season and achieved a further two top-half placements in the following seasons. In the 1952-53 season when Holywell Town became the Welsh League (North) champions for the first and only time. They won by a margin of three points against Flint Town United whilst scoring 119 goals in 34 league games. Two years later Holywell Town finished six points behind the Silkmen, although the club was awarded the Alves Cup by virtue of their final league position.

Holywell Town triumphed in the North Wales Coast Amateur Cup once more in the 1957–58 campaign, nine years after their post-war cup victory, by heavily defeating Gwalchmai 6–0 at Bangor City's Farrar Road ground. Twelve months later, they would return to the NWC Amateur Cup final, for the ninth time, to defend their trophy against a strong Porthmadoc side at Bangor. The match finished 1–1 with Holywell, who had missed an 11th-minute penalty, equalising in the 83rd minute through George Davies. This led to a replay being played a week later, and it was to become a dramatic affair. Twice Holywell led the replay only for Portmadoc to come back strongly and take a 3–2 advantage in the game, and despite having centre-forward Owen Davies injured, Holywell snatched an equaliser with the last kick of normal time. Although Holywell dramatically came back into the match and forced extra time, it proved too much for Holywell's ten men, however, and Port ran in five more goals to eventually lift the cup. The two sides met again in the 1963 final, although Holywell fielded an under-strength team in the final, with goalkeeper Reg Banton playing with a broken finger. Unsurprisingly, Portmadoc won the second cup final again by a 3–0 scoreline.

Record Attendance, Yet Trophyless 1960s
Success at senior level continued to elude the club throughout the 1960s. Holywell Town managed to reach the final of the Welsh Amateur Cup in the 1961-62 season, the first final appearance in the tournament since Holywell United's loss to Lovell's Athletic in 1927. The final was a repeat of the 1914 final when they took on Cardiff Corinthians, and sadly lightning struck twice for the Holywell side as the Corries won the fixture played at Newtown 3-2. It was also during the same season that the record attendance for a Holywell game was set in 1962 when 3000 spectators packed into Halkyn Road for a 1961-62 Welsh Cup sixth-round tie with Swansea Town. Despite the record attendance, the home failed to win the tie, with the professional English Football League side winning 2–1.

The club reached another cup final two seasons later when they got to the 1963 North Wales Coast Challenge Cup final, but fell to the legendary Borough United, who also won the Welsh League (North) title, the Cookson Cup, and famously the 1962-63 Welsh Cup in a quadruple-winning season for the Llandudno Junction side. Alas, success continued to elude the Wellmen during the first half of the 1960s.

Holywell Town maintained their membership of the Welsh League (North) for 17 consecutive seasons from the 1949–50 season until the 1965–66 season, when they finished bottom of the league and just one point behind 14th-placed side Blaenau Ffestiniog. Thereafter, Holywell Town left the Welsh League (North) and played in the local football leagues.

Between the two North Wales Amateur Cup finals with Porthmadoc, the record attendance for a Holywell game was set in 1962 when 3000 spectators packed into Halkyn Road for a Welsh Cup sixth-round tie with Swansea Town. Despite the record attendance, the home failed to win the tie, with the Swans winning 2–1.

Success at senior level continued to elude the club, despite reaching both the Welsh Amateur Cup Final in 1961–62, losing 3–2 to Cardiff Corinthians and the North Wales Coast Challenge Cup Final two seasons later, losing there to Borough United.

Holywell Town maintained their membership of the Welsh League (North) for 17 seasons from the 1949–50 season until the 1965–66 season, when they finished bottom of the league just one point behind Blaenau Ffestiniog. Thereafter, Holywell Town left the Welsh League (North) and played in the local football leagues.

Return to Prominence and Becoming Founding Members (1970-92)

The Clwyd League
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Holywell played in the local football league system, most notably in the Clwyd League system which, as its name suggests, had teams from the old northeastern county of Clwyd. In the 1975–76 season, the club was competing towards the bottom end of the Welsh pyramid but managed to win that season's Welsh League (North) Division 5, before clinching the Clwyd League Division 3 title in the following season (as well as the North Wales Coast Junior Challenge Cup) and somehow got themselves immediately promoted to Division 1 for the start of the 1977-78 campaign.

In their debut season in Division 1, Holywell finished in an impressive fourth place in the table, positioned behind local rivals Courtaulds Greenfield, Flint Town United, and Point of Ayr, and conceded just 21 goals in 26 league fixtures (the league's second-best defence that season). The Wellmen continued to play in the top division of the Clwyd League system for the next nine seasons, achieving a runners-up spot in the 1980–81 season behind the undefeated league champions Connah's Quay Nomads.

However, in the 1986–87 season, the club finally earned some silverware when they won the Clwyd League Premier Division title as well as triumphing in the North Wales Coast Challenge Cup competition to earn a league and cup double. Throwing off the disappointment of cup final defeat in 1964, the Wellmen played local rivals and defending cup holders Mold Alexandra (at Flint) and won the cup 1–0, thanks to a goal after 78 minutes scored by Merfyn Edwards. The club continued to earn silverware during that period when they successfully defended their Clwyd League Premier Division title in the following season, winning it for the second time in a row.

Welsh Alliance and the Creation of the Cymru Alliance
After the success in the local football system, Holywell Town returned back to the Welsh Alliance League (the successor of the old Welsh League (North) league) in the 1988–89 season, when they achieved a creditable top-five placing. Alas, they were unable to repeat the feat the following season when they concluded their campaign in 14th position and suffered a three-point deduction.

Holywell Town were selected to become founder members of the Cymru Alliance in 1990–91, the top tier league for northern and central Welsh football clubs at that time. The Wellmen competed in the new league for two seasons, earning a 9th-place finish in Alliance's inaugural season and then achieving 11th position in the following season. In spite of Holywell's lowly league placement, they left the Cymru Alliance to ascend to become one of the founding members of the newly created national league - the League of Wales - for the 1992-93 season, with the Cymru Alliance become the northern and central second tier league in the football pyramid structure.

League of Wales Era (1992-99)

The Inaugural Season
Holywell Town won both the Clwyd League Youth Cup and the Auxiliary Youth Cup, whilst also being runners-up in the Alves Cup. However, in the league, they became one of the surprise packages of the season. Under the management of Glyn Griffiths, aided by the 17 league goals from Ian Howat, and possessing the joint-third best defence in the league with just 48 goals conceded, the club finished the first LoW season in 6th position. This made Holywell the best-performing founding member to originate from the Cymru Alliance. One of the highlights of the season was doing the league double over pre-season title favourites Bangor City by achieving a 3–0 win at home on Boxing Day, and a season record 6–0 win away at Farrar Road.

Best Ever Finish and Subsequent Relegation
Holywell improved upon their league position in the second season of the League of Wales. The Wellmen concluded their schedule in 5th position - their highest-ever league placement in the current Welsh football pyramid structure. Alas, once Griffiths' reign as manager ended, inconsistency crept into the club's results and started to slide down the table, albeit, they still ended up in a respectable 8th place at the end of the 1994-95 season. However, the reality of competing in the Welsh top flight was starting to seriously affect the club's finances, and as budgets were cut, results further diminished in the League of Wales. The 1995-96 season saw Holywell finish in the bottom half of the League of Wales table for the first time and flirt with potential relegation, ending up seven points ahead of the relegation zone in 16th position. Their tenure in Wales' top flight concluded in the following season when Holywell finished the season in a disappointing 20th position, one position ahead of Briton Ferry Athletic and ten points adrift of safety.

Promotion and Second Relegation
Even though they had been relegated for the first time from the League of Wales, Holywell Town's initial exile away from the top division was a brief period as they rebounded back in the 1997-98 season. In their season's return to the Cymru Alliance, the club managed to win that season's Cymru Alliance League Cup by beating Oswestry Town and finish as runners-up in the division, with the league's best defensive record of just 29 goals conceded in 36 league games. Although they finished four points behind league champions and local rivals Rhydymwyn (who had beaten Holywell 4-1 to confirm the championship), Rhyd were unable to accept the promotion to the League of Wales allowing Holywell to take their promotion berth and make a swift return to the League of Wales.

Their reappearance in the League of Wales became a nightmare for the club as Holywell Town finished rock bottom of the 1998-99 table and suffered a second relegation from the LoW in three seasons. From their 32-game season, the Wellmen only picked up three wins and nine draws all season, possessed the league's worst defence (86 goals conceded), and ended up five points behind the 16th-placed side Rhyl. That was the last time Holywell Town competed in Wales' top-flight league.

The New Millennium in the Cymru Alliance (1999-2006)
From the 1999–2000 season to the 2005-06 season, Holywell Town played their football back in the Cymru Alliance, the then-second tier of the Welsh football league system. Their first season back in the Alliance was a real struggle for the Wellmen although the club avoided a potential second consecutive by finishing seven points above the bottom club Corwen Amateurs after achieving a 16th-place placement in the league. Matters improved in 2000–01 when the Wellmen rose to 10th position, mid-way in the league, in a season when they were one of six former League of Wales clubs to compete in that season's Cymru Alliance.

The following season, the club returned to struggling ways in the league, and in 2001–02 the Wellmen finished a disappointing 16th position once again, narrowly avoiding relegation from the league by a margin of six points. It was at that point that the club decided to part company with their Manchester-based manager and squad in favour of a more local set-up in order to improve performances on the pitch. Unfortunately, their revised set-up fared no better when in 2002–03, they finished bottom of the table – with a nine-point deduction adding to a dismal playing record. Thankfully for the club, Holywell Town narrowly avoided relegation to the third tier despite their lowly finish as the league was short of its full complement of teams. Another bottom-half finish occurred in the next season, but were securely safe from the drop despite being 14th in the final table.

Although they saw an improvement to fortunes under the guidance of Andy Nicholls during the 2004–05 season, by finishing in 9th position, they were eventually relegated to the Welsh Alliance League in the following season when they finished 17th in the league, nine points adrift of safety, and with only their local rival Halkyn United below them. After seven seasons in the second tier, and occasional flirtations with relegation punctuated by sporadic mid-table security, Holywell Town's tenure in the Cymru Alliance concluded to return back to the Welsh Alliance for the first time since 1990.

Return to the Welsh Alliance League & Cup Success (2006-15)

Initial Struggles and Resurgence

Holywell Town initially struggled to compete within the Welsh Alliance League, finishing in the bottom half of the table for their first three seasons at the third tier. Their worst season came in the 2008-09 season when they finished as low as 14th position in the 17-team league, and were far below local rivals Rhydymwyn and Halkyn United in the table. Fortunately, the club's decision to focus on a core of local players started to prove to be a wise and fruitful one as the club's position within the Welsh Alliance continued to improve throughout the following seasons, becoming one of the strongest teams competing within the league. The 2010–11 season, under the management of Mike Thomas, would be a "breakout year" for the Wellmen as they achieved a third-place finish in the Division 1 table, and finally managed some cup success. Holywell won their first piece of silverware in thirteen years, when they sensationally came back from 0-2 down in the 89th minute, to win the prestigious FAW Trophy for the very first time by beating Conwy United 3–2 at the neutral venue of Belle Vue, Rhyl.

For the next few seasons, Holywell Town continually challenged for the Welsh Alliance Division 1 title, and ultimately promotion to the Cymru Alliance, but fell just short on every occasion. In the penultimate game of the 2011–12 season, a 1–3 defeat to title rivals, Holyhead Hotspur, ensured that the Ynys Môn-side snatched top spot and promotion away from the Wellmen, by a winning margin of just a single point. The Harbourmen also defeated Holywell 2–1 in the final of the Mawddach Barritt Cup, to leave Holywell frustratingly trophyless for the season.

For the start of the 2012–13 season, Mike Thomas was replaced as Holywell manager by their club captain, Johnny Haseldin, who adopted a player-manager role. To aid him in his first management role, Haseldine brought in both John James and Andy Lewis (who were at Denbigh Town in the 2011–12 season) into his coaching staff, with Craig Knight remaining in his role from the previous season. After losing their first two games of the season, Haseldin and Holywell went on an incredible run throughout the young manager's debut season and maintained an undefeated away record throughout that entire season. Holywell dropped away from a potential title challenge, and ultimately consoled themselves with another third-place league placement, and five points behind league champions Caernarfon Town. The Wellmen also reached the semi-finals of the FAW Trophy competition, and the final of the Cookson Cup competition, but lost both ties to fellow Welsh Alliance title rivals, Caernarfon Town, at neutral venues; 1–3 at Llandudno in the FAW Trophy, and 0–1 at Conwy after a late winner for the Cofis in the Cookson Cup.

Welsh Cup history

The 2013–14 season will be long remembered by Wellman supporters, not for their league performance, but for the cup exploits of the side. In the Welsh Alliance League, Holywell yet again found heartbreak in failing with their main aim of gaining promotion to the Cymru Alliance. They finished the season in second place to local rivals and league champions Denbigh Town who remained undefeated throughout their league campaign. However, Holywell did manage to score over 100 league goals in the season for the first time in recent history, and the team's top scorer Sam Jones picked up the Welsh Alliance Division 1's top goalscorer award as well as the league's Player of the Year award for the season.

However, it was in the cup competitions, and in particular the Welsh Cup where this particular season lives long in the memories of all Wellmen supporters. The club won the Cookson Cup for the first time in its history by demolishing Llanrug United 5-1 in the final, but they achieved the awe-inspiring feat of reaching the semi-finals of the national cup competition. The route to the Welsh Cup last four would not be easy, having to play a number of clubs competing in higher leagues in the Welsh football pyramid along the way. Victories over Cymru Alliance sides Penrhyncoch, Penycae, and Porthmadog were achieved, and most famously a fourth-round 3-2 win over Newtown, who would subsequently in fifth position in that season's Welsh Premier League, ensured the club faced another WPL team in Aberystwyth Town at the neutral venue of Latham Park, Newtown for the semi-final fixture, and it was shown live on the Welsh-language channel of S4C.

Approximately 600 supporters from the town took the long trip down the A483 to mid-Wales to see the contest take place. The match ultimately ended up becoming a play-off for a qualification place in the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League as a result of The New Saints beating Bala Town 2-1 in the other semi-final despite already earning a spot in the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League due to them winning that season's WPL title. Whoever reached the Welsh Cup final would be guaranteed European football for the following season, back when the finalists of a cup competition could qualify for Europe via that route (a qualification path which has since been stopped by UEFA). Despite taking the lead after just eight minutes through midfielder Tom McElmeel, and giving an incredibly valiant effort throughout the game, the Wellmen lost the tie 3–1. Nonetheless, Holywell Town received plaudits and credit from the Welsh media for their memorable cup campaign as they made history by becoming the first third-tier Welsh team to make it to the semi-finals of the Welsh Cup in the competition's illustrious history.

Holywell's historic route to the 2013-14 Welsh Cup semi-finals was as follows:

Qualifying Round 2: Llannerch-y-medd (h) 8-1
Round One: Penrhyncoch (h) 3-0
Round Two: Penycae (h) 3-0
Round Three: Llandrindod Wells (a) 3-1
Round Four: Newtown (h) 3-2
Quarter-Finals: Porthmadog (h) 3-2
Semi-Finals: Aberystwyth Town (n) 1-3

Treble Success

After nine years of competing in the Welsh Alliance League, the 2014–15 season became Holywell's time to shine when they finally clinched the Division 1 title. They maintained a 100% league record up until January 2015 after winning their first fourteen league games (and going on a run of twenty-three consecutive wins) and only lost their first (and only) league game in mid-March, a 1-2 away defeat to Glantraeth. Despite the loss, they wrapped up the league title with three games remaining by beating Llanrwst United 3–0, and finally earned themselves promotion back to the Cymru Alliance for the 2015–16 season. The highlights of the league campaign were the incredible home victories against Llanfairpwll and Pwllheli where the Wellmen inflicted a heavy defeat on the Anglesey side of 15–1, and beating the Llŷn Peninsula team 10–0. Such high-scoring victories like those ensured that the Wellmen ended up scoring a total of 119 league goals in their 26 league matches, and finished the league schedule with a goal difference of +100.

As well as claiming the Welsh Alliance League title, Holywell Town also earned themselves further silverware when they won another two cups. Initially, they reached the final of the Cookson Cup, but disappointingly lost 1–2 to Llanrug United at Conwy Borough's ground. Regardless of their previous cup final defeat, they won their second FAW Trophy in four years by defeating fellow Welsh Alliance team Penrhyndeudraeth 4–2 at Maesdu Park, home of Llandudno F.C. in the same week they confirmed the league title. A brace from Phil Lloyd, a goal from Steve Thomas, and a Sam Jones penalty secured Holywell's victory over the Gwynedd-based side. Finally, Holywell Town concluded an amazing season by winning the Mawddach Challenge Cup at the Nantporth Stadium in Bangor, by getting revenge on Llanrug United and winning the final 3–2 (after extra time) to complete a historic treble-winning campaign.

2015 to Present
In their first three seasons back in the second-tier Cymru Alliance, Holywell Town repeatedly finished in fifth position in the league, earning around 50 points each season. Arguably, their best season of the three came in the 2017-18 season when they concluded their campaign just four points from third position, and possessed the second-best attack (75 goals scored) and defence (37 goals conceded) in the league. Under the continued management of Johnny Haseldin, they also reached two North East Wales FA (NEWFA) Challenge Cup finals, but lost 0-2 to Cefn Druids in 2016, and 1-2 Ruthin Town in 2018, respectively.

Management Changes and Relegation

Haseldin stepped down as Holywell manager at the end of the 2017–18 season, due to increased work and family commitments. He was replaced in the role of player-manager by another Holywell centre-back, the experienced Gareth Sudlow. His debut managerial season did not start well as he only gained one win and one draw in his first six games. Haseldin returned to the coaching staff in September to provide additional coaching for the first team, although Sudlow was still in charge. Regrettably, Sudlow eventually resigned from the management role a day before the away trip to Buckley Town in late September due to family commitments, resulting in Haseldin being re-appointed into the vacant management role. Sudlow's managerial record equated to just three wins in ten games.

Unfortunately throughout the season, and prior to the games in April, Holywell had only managed to earn themselves a further three wins between October and March, although one of those victories was a confidence-boosting 2-1 result in the Boxing Day derby against Flint Town United. Nonetheless, the lack of wins naturally left the Wellmen under a severe threat of potential relegation. However, Holywell's form turned around in April as they earned eleven points within the last five games to give them a fighting chance of survival. Alas their relegation rivals, Penrhyncoch, earned just as many points as the Wellmen during that same period, to just pip the Wellmen on goal difference to clinch that final survival spot in the Cymru Alliance. Certainly, the match in April between the two teams was to prove crucially pivotal for the road to survival, with the Roosters scoring an injury-time equaliser to make the score 3-3.

What made it even more gut-wrenching to Wellmen supporters was that Penrhyncoch were losing with ten minutes remaining in their final match of the season, before scoring two late goals against Conwy Borough to confirm a 3-2 victory and escape relegation, thus condemning Holywell to third-tier football once again.

Welsh National League

It looked as if Holywell's relegation could potentially be reprieved due to Bangor City initially receiving a 42-point deduction from the FAW for a number of alleged breaches of FAW rules after the season had been completed. This would have left Bangor with just nine points, dropping the Citizens to the bottom of the Cymru Alliance table, and lifting Holywell out of the three-team relegation zone. However, after an appeal for an independent review, Bangor's punishment was halved to a 21-point deduction. This resulted in Bangor just maintaining their place within the league by goal difference, and finally confirming Holywell's relegation to the third tier.

Although Holywell Town had originally played in the Welsh Alliance League structure, being based in Flintshire meant they now dropped into the Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) Premier Division for the first time in their history as the league's geographical governance covered the clubs from the north-eastern counties of Wales. Despite agonisingly suffering relegation from the Cymru Alliance, Holywell Town's hiatus from the second tier would only last a season. They managed to clinch the WNL Premier title and gain promotion back to the now-named Cymru North, albeit on a superior points-per-game (PPG) ratio after the Welsh football season was halted and concluded due to the COVID-19 pandemic that was affecting the country at the time. The Wellmen concluded the abuptly-shortened season just ahead of Rhostyllen and Cefn Albion in the PPG table, with the latter side inflicting Holywell's only league defeat in the 17-game season.

Holywell Town became the final Premier Division champions of the Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) league before it was folded and incorporated into the reorganisation of the Welsh football pyramid, with many of its clubs either moving to either the Ardal North West or Ardal North East leagues, as part of the new regional third-tier Ardal Leagues.

Cymru North

In their first season back in the Cymru North, Holywell Town finished the 2021-22 campaign in fourth position, just three points behind Guilsfield who finished in third position, with their manager, Johnny Haseldin, also winning the Cymru North Manager of the Month award in both November and January. This was an impressive overall performance considering that the team only managed to accumulate two points from their first six league games. The Wellmen also progressed far into the Welsh League Cup defeating Colwyn Bay, Conwy Borough, and Prestatyn Town to reach the quarter-finals of the competition. Alas, they exited the competition to the eventual winners Connah's Quay Nomads losing 0-4 at the Deeside Stadium.

The 2022-23 season proved to be even more successful for Holywell as the club achieved a second-place finish in the league, their best league performance in the Welsh football pyramid since their last appearance in the League of Wales in the 1998-99 season. Despite only earning one point from their first three league games and conceding nine goals, the Wellmen finished their league schedule with the league's best defence (just 22 goals conceded) and experienced a 25-game winning streak, which included a 3-1 away victory at Colwyn Bay, inflicting the Cymru North champions' only league defeat of their season. In addition, goalkeeper Keighan Jones earned the league's 'golden glove' by keeping seventeen clean sheets throughout the season, striker Dave Forbes ended up as the league's joint top goalscorer with 22 league goals, and manager John Haseldin won three consecutive Cymru North Manager of the Month awards between January and March. They managed to progress deep into the 2022-23 Welsh Cup by reaching the quarter-finals of the national cup competition, but lost in controversial fashion to eventual cup finalists and that season's third-placed side Penybont 1-2 at Bridgend. Nonetheless, Holywell Town concluded one of their finest seasons in their recent history when they finally lifted the regional NEWFA Challenge Cup for the very first time in their history by beating fellow Cymru North side Gresford Athletic 3-1 at Ruthin.

Stadium

Holywell Town currently plays at the Achieve More Training Stadium, located on Halkyn Road (). The ground is just a short walk from Holywell's town centre and is located behind and below the town's community hospital.

The ground can accommodate 2,000 spectators with 500 seated with an additional 250 covered, with plenty of space for car parking behind the main stand. In recent times, the Halkyn Road ground has been dramatically improved, such as increasing parking facilities and better water drainage, and the stadium has been the venue for many Youth International fixtures. As with many stadiums around the area, the stadium has its own permanent floodlights which allows evening games to be played at the stadium.

The main stand is the oldest part of the ground and runs along the hospital side of the pitch. It offers both covered seating and standing areas, as well as housing both the dressing rooms and media section. Located between the main stand and the ground entrance is the clubhouse, which was constructed in the summer of 2014. It is where hot and cold drinks and snacks are available, as well as alcoholic drinks that can be consumed before and after games.

At the town end of the ground is 'The Roger Long Stand', which provides 250 covered seats as well as space for disabled supporters. The newest stand (which was installed in April 2017) is named in memory of one of the club's most loyal supporters Roger Long, who was a life-long supporter of the club and died in 2022.

Record attendance = 3,000 – 1961-62 Welsh Cup 6th round versus Swansea Town in 1962.

Overview

The Wellmen's first choice strip is their traditional red and white striped shirts, with red shorts, and red socks. The away strip for the 2023-24 season is blue and black striped shirts with blue shorts and shorts.

Although the team's nearest rivals are Greenfield, it is usually considered a friendly rivalry with good co-operation between the two clubs. Holywell's traditional and fiercest rivals are Flint Town United, which originates from the historical rivalry between the two old towns of Flintshire, and is also one of the oldest football rivalries in Welsh league football!

Holywell also has good local rivalries between fellow Flintshire sides, Mold Alexandra and Buckley Town, as well as recently having exciting competitive rivalries with Caernarfon Town, Denbigh Town (whom they played their first game against in 1880), and Holyhead Hotspur, all of which originate when the teams were competing for the Welsh Alliance League title in the 2010s.

Holywell Town produces an award-winning matchday programme for all first-team matches as it was placed first in the Soccer Club Shop Programme Awards for six consecutive seasons. The programme has also been awarded the best programme produced throughout the whole of Wales for the 2013–14 season, as well as being second-best programme produced throughout the whole of Wales for both the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons, and voted third-best in the whole of Wales for the 2012–13 season. In addition, the programme was also voted best in the 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13 & 2013–14 Welsh Alliance Season Awards by winning the Best Matchday programme award. The match programme has since ceased to be printed and is now just produced electronically every matchday.

Honours

Founding Members of North Wales Coast League
Founding Members of Cymru Alliance League
Founding Members of League of Wales

League

North Wales Coast League
Champions: 1913–14**
Runners-up: 1920–21**
Welsh Football League
Champions: 1930–31+, 1932–33+
Runners-up: 1931–32+
Welsh League (North)/Welsh Alliance League
Champions: 1952–53, 2014–15
Runners-up: 1954–55
Clwyd Premier League
Champions: 1986–87, 1987–88
Runners-up: 1980–81
Clwyd League Division 1
Champions: 1989–90
Clwyd League Division 3
Champions: 1976–77
Welsh League (North) Division 5
Champions: 1975–76
Cymru Alliance
Runners-up: 1997–98
Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) Premier Division
Champions: 2019–20
Clwyd Reserve Division
Champions: 2010–11
Welsh National League Reserves and Colts Division
Champions: 2018-19

Cups

Welsh Amateur Cup/FAW Trophy
Winners: 2010–11, 2014–15
Finalists: 1913-14**, 1925–26**, 1926–27**, 1961–62
North Wales Senior Cup
Finalists: 1898*
North Wales Coast Amateur Cup
Winners: 1913–14**, 1921–22**, 1948–49, 1957–58
Finalists: 1920–21**, 1930–31, 1958–59, 1962–63
North Wales Coast Challenge Cup
Winners: 1986–87
North Wales Coast Youth Cup
Winners: 1975–76
North Wales Coast FA Junior Challenge Cup
Winners: 1976–77
Alves Cup
Winners: 1946–47, 1953–54
Waterfall Cup
Winners: 1946–47
President Cup
Winners: 1987–88
Clwyd League Cup
Winners: 1987–88
Clwyd League Auxiliary Cup
Winners: 1992–93
Clwyd League Youth Cup
Winners: 1992–93
Cymru Alliance League Cup
Winners: 1997–98
Mawddach Challenge Cup / Barritt Trophy
Winners: 2014–15
Finalists: 2011–12
Reserve Premier Cup
Finalists: 2011–12
Horrace Wynne Cup
Finalists: 2011–12
Cookson Cup
Winners: 2013–14
Finalists: 2012–13, 2014–15
North East Wales FA Challenge Cup
Winners: 2022–23
Finalists: 2015–16, 2017–18

* = As Holywell F.C., ** = As Holywell United, + = As Holywell Arcadians

Holywell Town Board and Staff

Holywell Town Board

Holywell Town Staff

Players

First-team squad

Development Squad

Current history

* = 3pts deductedCurrent league position as of 16th July 2023

References

External links

Official Facebook page
Official Twitter account
Official Instagram page
Official YouTube channel

Welsh Alliance League clubs
Sport in Flintshire
Association football clubs established in 1880
1880 establishments in Wales
Cymru Premier clubs
Cymru Alliance clubs
Cymru North clubs
Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) Premier Division clubs
Welsh League North clubs
Clwyd Football League clubs
North Wales Coast League clubs
West Cheshire Association Football League clubs

Holywell Town F.C.


In music, polymodal chromaticism is the use of any and all musical modes sharing the same tonic simultaneously or in succession and thus creating a texture involving all twelve notes of the chromatic scale (total chromatic). Alternately it is the free alteration of the other notes in a mode once its tonic has been established.

The term was coined by composer, ethnomusicologist, and pianist Béla Bartók. The technique became a means in Bartók's composition to avoid, expand, or develop major-minor tonality (i.e. common practice harmony).  This approach differed from that used by Arnold Schoenberg and his followers in the Second Viennese School and later serialists.

The concept was indicated by Bartók's folk-music-derived view of each note of the chromatic scale as being "of equal value" and thus to be used "freely and independently" (autobiography) and supported by references to the conception below in his Harvard Lectures (1943). The concept may be extended to the construction of non-diatonic modes from the pitches of more than one diatonic mode such as distance models including 1:3, the alternation of semitones and minor thirds, for example C–E–E–G–A–B–C which includes both the tonic and dominant as well as "'two of the most typical degrees from both major and minor' (E and B, E and A, respectively) [Kárpáti 1975] p. 132)".

Bartók had realised that both melodic minor scales gave rise to four chromatic steps between the two scales' fifths and the rising melodic minor scale's seventh degrees when superimposed. Consequently, he started investigating if the same pattern could be established in some way in the beginning of any scales and came to realise that superimposing a Phrygian and a Lydian scale with the same tonic resulted in what looked like a chromatic scale. Bartók's twelve-tone Phrygian/Lydian polymode, however, differed from the chromatic scale as used by, for example, late-Romantic composers like Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. During the late 19th century the chromatic altering of a chord or melody was a change in strict relation to its functional non-altered version. Alterations in the twelve-tone Phrygian/Lydian polymode, the other hand, were "diatonic ingredients of a diatonic modal scale."

{|
|-
|Phrygian mode (C)|| C–D–E–F–G–A–B–C
|-
|Lydian mode (C)|| C–D–E–F–G–A–B–C
|-
|Twelve-tone Phrygian/Lydian polymode (C)|| C–D–D–E–E–F–F–G–A–A–B–B–C
|}

Melodies could be developed and transformed in novel ways through diatonic extension and chromatic compression, while still having coherent links to their original forms. Bartók described this as a new means to develop a melody.

Bartók started to superimpose all possible diatonic modes on each other in order to extend and compress melodies in ways that suited him, unrestricted by Baroque-Romantic tonality as well as strict serial methods such as the twelve-tone technique.

In 1941, Bartók's ethnomusicological studies brought him into contact with the music of Dalmatia and he realised that the Dalmatian folk-music used techniques that resembled polymodal chromaticism. Bartók had defined and used polymodal chromaticism in his own music before this. The discovery inspired him to continue to develop the technique.

Examples of Bartók's use of the technique include No. 80 ("Hommage à R. Sch.") from Mikrokosmos featuring C Phrygian/Lydian (C–D–E–F–G–A–B–C/C–D–E–F–G–A–B–C). Lendvai identifies the technique in the late works of Modest Mussorgsky, Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, and Giuseppe Verdi.

References

Chromaticism
Post-tonal music theory

Polymodal chromaticism


Kangra-Lambagraon was a historical princely estate (jagir) of British India located in the present-day state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1947, the estate comprised 437 villages, encompassing an area of 324 km2. It had with a Privy Purse of Rs 70,000/- and enjoyed a revenue of approx. Rs.1,76,000/-.

The rulers of the estate belonged to the ancient Katoch dynasty which had ruled the former Kangra State.  Kangra is credited with being the oldest and largest state in the Punjab Hills.

In 1846 Kangra was annexed to British India as part of the Treaty of Lahore.

History

Early history of the Kangra State
The first modern recorded mention of the state, however, is from the 11th century AD. The Katoch dynasty are reputed to have ruled the town of Kangra and its vicinity since time immemorial. Several very extended interregnums are acknowledged.

Medieval invasions

At least three rulers sought to conquer the Kangra fort and plundered the treasures of its temples: Mahmud Ghazni in 1009, Firuz Shah Tughluq in 1360 and Sher Shah in 1540.

Battle of Kangra Kangra State 1333
During Prithvi Chand II's reign, they defeated the army of Muhammad bin Tughluq which was not able to fight in the hills. Nearly all his 100,000 soldiers perished in 1333 AD and he was forced to retreat.

Conflicts with Mughals
The fort of Kangra resisted Akbar's siege. Akbar's son Jahangir successfully subdued the fort in 1620 annexing the surrounding area and reducing the Katoch rajas to the status of vassals. Kangra was at the time ruled by Raja Hari Chand Katoch of Kangra (also known as Raja Hari Chand II)

Mughal Emperor Jahangir with the help of Suraj Mal garrisoned with his troops. Under Jahangir, Murtaza Khan the governor of Punjab was directed to conquer Kangra, but he failed on account of the jealousy and opposition of the Rajput chiefs who were associated with him. Then Prince Khurram was put in charge of the command. The siege of Kangra was pushed on for weeks. Supplies were cut off. The garrison had to live on boiled dry grass. It was faced with death and starvation. After a siege of 14 months, the fort surrendered in November, 1620. In 1621, Jahangir visited it and ordered the slaughter of a bullock there. A mosque was also built within the fort of Kangra.

The Katoch Kings repeatedly looted Mughal controlled regions, weakening the Mughal control, aiding in the decline of Mughal power, Raja Sansar Chand II succeeded in recovering the ancient fort of his ancestors, in 1789.

State extinguished and annexed by Sikh empire
As the Mughal power waned, many former officers of the Mughal empire took autonomous charge of the areas under their power and this situation affected Kangra. Meanwhile, (in 1758), Ghamand Chand, a supposed scion of the dispossessed family, attained a position of power in the Punjab plains, being appointed governor of Jalandhar by Ahmed Shah Abdali.

Building upon this ascendency, Ghamand Chand's grandson Sansar Chand rallied an army, ousted the then ruler of Kangra, Saif Ali Khan, and gained possession of his patrimony. This happened in 1783, and Sansar Chand was aided by the Kanhaiya misl, one of several Sikh principalities that ruled the Punjab region in that era. During the campaign, Raja Sansar Chand and his mercenary force overran other nearby principalities and compelled the submission of their rulers. He reigned over a relatively large part of present-day Himachal Pradesh for perhaps two decades, but his ambitions brought him into conflict with the Gorkha Kingdom ruling the then nascent state of Nepal.

The Gorkhas and the recently humbled hill-states allied to invade Kangra in 1806. The Raja was defeated and left with no territory beyond the immediate vicinity of the fortress of Kangra, which he managed to retain with the help of a small force sent from the Sikh Empire by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In this despair, the Sansar Chand treated with Ranjit Singh at Jawalamukhi in 1809. By that treaty, Raja Sansar Chand surrendered his (now largely notional) state to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, in return for a substantial fief to be held under the suzerainty of the latter. This estate consisted, in 1947, of 20 villages yielding a revenue of Rs. 40,000/- and encompassing an area of 324 km2. Maharaja Ranjit Singh duly established his rule over the land; Raja Sansar Chand received in addition the estate of Lambagraon.

British era
As a result of the First Anglo-Sikh War (1846), the area between the Sutlej and Ravi rivers, including the hill states, were ceded by the Sikhs to the HEIC. Thus, Lambagraon estate was annexed by the British and was one of the feudatory estates placed under the Simla Hill States' Superintendency. In deference with the ruling dynasty's association with Kangra town (and given the fact that the estate fell within Kangra district) the estate was referred to as "Kangra-Lambagraon".

The princely estate of Kangra-Lambagraon acceded unto the Dominion of India in 1947; the following year, it was merged with its sister states of the erstwhile Simla superintendency to create a province named Himachal Pradesh, administered by a Chief Commissioner.

See also
 History of Himachal Pradesh
 Kangra district
 Kangra painting
 Trigarta

References

External links
History of Kangra
Katoch Dynasty – Oldest ruling dynasty of the world

Princely states of Himachal Pradesh
Quasi-princely estates of India
Kangra, Himachal Pradesh
1947 disestablishments in India
States and territories disestablished in 1947
Former monarchies of Asia
Rajputs

Kangra State


The Crisp Museum, formally the Rosemary Berkel and Harry L. Crisp II Museum is a U.S. museum located on the River Campus of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It features displays and exhibitions of archaeological and historical artifacts, as well as paintings and other artworks.

Originally the University Museum, the museum received its current name in 2001, and opened in its new building on the River Campus in 2007.

The museum's archaeological collections feature artifacts excavated from prehistoric effigy mounds in Missouri, including ceramic conch shell effigies, whole vessels and stone tools dating from the Paleo-Indian to the Late Mississippian periods. Other Native American items include Kachina dolls, Southwestern blankets, baskets, and decorative beadwork. The museum's history collections include military items, firearms and their accessories, clothing and hand tools.

References

External links
 Crisp Museum

Museums established in 1976
Southeast Missouri State University
Museums in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri
Archaeological museums in Missouri
University museums in Missouri
Art museums and galleries in Missouri