Carnatic music

Carnatic music, known as or in the South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and Sri Lanka. It is one of two main subgenres of Indian classical music that evolved from ancient Sanatana dharma sciences and traditions, particularly the Samaveda. The other subgenre being Hindustani music, which emerged as a distinct form because of Persian or Islamic influences from Northern India. The main emphasis in Carnatic music is on vocal music; most compositions are written to be sung, and even when played on instruments, they are meant to be performed in "gāyaki" (singing) style. The heptatonic scale of Western musical notation is said to have its origins in Carnatic music, having been picked up by Pythagoras during his visit to India to learn mathematics, thus introducing it to the west. The circle of fifths and several other popular concepts in western classical music have their origins in the theory of Carnatic classical music.
Although there are stylistic differences, the basic elements of (the relative musical pitch), (the musical sound of a single note), (the mode or melodic formulæ), and (the rhythmic cycles) form the foundation of improvisation and composition in both Carnatic and Hindustani music. Although improvisation plays an important role, Carnatic music is mainly sung through compositions, especially the kriti (or kirtanam) – a form developed between the 14th and 20th centuries by composers such as Purandara Dasa and the Trinity of Carnatic music. Carnatic music is also usually taught and learned through compositions. Telugu predominates in the evolution of Carnatic Music as most compositions are in Telugu or Sanskrit.
Carnatic music is usually performed by a small ensemble of musicians, consisting of a principal performer (usually a vocalist), a melodic accompaniment (usually a violin), a rhythm accompaniment (usually a mridangam), and a tambura, which acts as a drone throughout the performance. Other typical instruments used in performances may include the ghatam, kanjira, morsing, venu flute, veena, and chitraveena. The greatest concentration of Carnatic musicians is to be found in the city of Chennai. Various Carnatic music festivals are held throughout India and abroad, including the Madras Music Season, which has been considered to be one of the world's largest cultural events.
Origins, sources and history.
Like all art forms in Indian culture, Indian classical music is believed to be a divine art form which originated from the Devas and Devis (Hindu Gods and Goddesses), and is venerated as symbolic of . Ancient treatises also describe the connection of the origin of the swaras, or notes, to the sounds of animals and birds and man's effort to simulate these sounds through a keen sense of observation and perception. The Sama Veda, which is believed to have laid the foundation for Indian classical music, consists of hymns from the Rigveda, set to musical tunes which would be sung using three to seven musical notes during Vedic yajnas. The Yajur-Veda, which mainly consists of sacrificial formulae, mentions the "veena" as an accompaniment to vocal recitations. References to Indian classical music are made in many ancient texts, including epics like the "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata". The "Yajnavalkya Smriti" mentions "वीणावादन तत्त्वज्ञः श्रुतीजातिविशारदः ताळज्ञश्चाप्रयासेन मोक्षमार्गं नियच्छति" ( "vīṇāvādana tattvajñaḥ śrutijātiviśāradaḥ tālajñaścāprayāsena mokṣamārgaṃ niyacchati", "The one who is well versed in "veena", one who has the knowledge of srutis and one who is adept in tala, attains liberation (moksha) without doubt"). Carnatic music is based as it is today on musical concepts (including "swara", "raga", and "tala") that were described in detail in several ancient works, particularly the Bharata's "Natya Shastra" and "Silappadhikaram" by Ilango Adigal.
Owing to Persian and Islamic influences in North India from the 12th century onwards, Indian classical music began to diverge into two distinct styles — Hindustani music and Carnatic music. Commentaries and other works, such as Sharngadeva's "Sangita Ratnakara", further elaborated on the musical concepts found in Indian classical music. By the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a clear demarcation between Carnatic and Hindustani music; Carnatic music remained relatively unaffected by Persian and Arabic influences. It was at this time that Carnatic music flourished in Vijayanagara, while the Vijayanagar Empire reached its greatest extent. Purandara Dasa, who is known as the "father ("Pitamaha") of Carnatic music", formulated the system that is commonly used for the teaching of Carnatic music. Venkatamakhin invented and authored the formula for the melakarta system of raga classification in his Sanskrit work, the "Chaturdandi Prakasika" (1660 AD). Govindacharya is known for expanding the melakarta system into the sampoorna raga scheme – the system that is in common use today.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Carnatic music was mainly patronised by the local kings of the Kingdom of Mysore, Kingdom of Travancore, and the Maratha rulers of Tanjore. Some of the royalty of the kingdoms of Mysore and Travancore were themselves noted composers and proficient in playing musical instruments, such as the veena, rudra veena, violin, ghatam, flute, mridangam, nagaswara and swarabhat. Some famous court-musicians proficient in music were Veene Sheshanna (1852–1926) and Veene Subbanna (1861–1939), among others.
During the late 19th century, the city of Chennai (then known as Madras) emerged as the locus for Carnatic music. With the dissolution of the erstwhile princely states and the Indian independence movement reaching its conclusion in 1947, Carnatic music went through a radical shift in patronage into an art of the masses with ticketed performances organised by private institutions called sabhās.
Nature.
The main emphasis in Carnatic music is on vocal music; most compositions are written to be sung, and even when played on instruments, they are meant to be performed in a singing style (known as "gāyaki"). Like Hindustani music, Carnatic music rests on two main elements: , the modes or melodic formulæ, and , the rhythmic cycles.
Today, Carnatic music is presented by musicians in concerts or recordings, either vocally or through instruments. Carnatic music itself developed around musical works or compositions of phenomenal composers (see below).
Important elements.
Śruti.
"Śruti" commonly refers to musical pitch. It is the approximate equivalent of a tonic (or less precisely a key) in Western music; it is the note from which all the others are derived. It is also used in the sense of graded pitches in an octave. While there are an infinite number of sounds falling within a scale (or raga) in Carnatic music, the number that can be distinguished by auditory perception is twenty-two (although over the years, several of them have converged). In this sense, while sruti is determined by auditory perception, it is also an expression in the listener's mind.
Swara.
"Swara" refers to a type of musical sound that is a single note, which defines a relative (higher or lower) position of a note, rather than a defined frequency. Swaras also refer to the solfege of Carnatic music, which consist of seven notes, "sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-da-ni" (compare with the Hindustani "sargam:" sa-"re"-ga-ma-pa-"dha"-ni or Western do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti). These names are abbreviations of the longer names "shadja", "rishabha", "gandhara", "madhyama", "panchama", "dhaivata" and "nishada". Unlike other music systems, every member of the solfege (called a swara) has three variants. The exceptions are the drone notes, "shadja" and "panchama" (also known as the tonic and the dominant), which have only one form; and "madhyama" (the subdominant), which has two forms. A 7th century stone inscription in Kudumiyan Malai in Tamil Nadu shows vowel changes to solfege symbols with ra, ri, ru etc. to denote the higher quarter-tones. In one scale, or raga, there is usually only one variant of each note present. The exceptions exist in "light" ragas, in which, for artistic effect, there may be two, one ascending (in the "arohanam") and another descending (in the "avarohanam").
Raga system.
A "raga" in Carnatic music prescribes a set of rules for building a melody – very similar to the Western concept of mode. It specifies rules for movements up ("aarohanam") and down ("avarohanam"), the scale of which notes should figure more and which notes should be used more sparingly, which notes may be sung with "gamaka" (ornamentation), which phrases should be used or avoided, and so on. In effect, it is a series of obligatory musical events which must be observed, either absolutely or with a particular frequency.
In Carnatic music, the "sampoorna ragas" (those with all seven notes in their scales) are classified into a system called the "melakarta", which groups them according to the kinds of notes that they have. There are seventy-two "melakarta ragas", thirty six of whose madhyama (subdominant) is shuddha (perfect fourth from the tonic), the remaining thirty-six of whose madhyama (subdominant) is prati (an augmented fourth from the tonic). The "ragas" are grouped into sets of six, called "chakras" ("wheels", though actually segments in the conventional representation) grouped according to the supertonic and mediant scale degrees. There is a system known as the "katapayadi sankhya" to determine the names of "melakarta raga"s.
"Raga"s may be divided into two classes: "janaka raga"s (i.e. melakarta or parent ragas) and "janya raga"s (descendant ragas of a particular janaka raga). Janya ragas are themselves subclassified into various categories.
Tala system.
"Tala" refers to a fixed time cycle or metre, set for a particular composition, which is built from groupings of beats. "Tala"s have cycles of a defined number of beats and rarely change within a song. They have specific components, which in combinations can give rise to the variety to exist (over 108), allowing different compositions to have different rhythms.
Carnatic music singers usually keep the beat by moving their hands up and down in specified patterns, and using their fingers simultaneously to keep time. "Tala" is formed with three basic parts (called "anga"s) which are "laghu", "dhrtam", and "anudhrtam", though complex talas may have other parts like "plutam", "guru", and "kaakapaadam". There are seven basic "tala" groups which can be formed from the "laghu", "dhrtam", and "anudhrtam":
A "laghu" has five variants (called "jaathi"s) based on the counting pattern. Five "jaathis" times seven tala groups gives thirty-five basic "tala"s, although use of other "anga"s results in a total of 108 "tala"s.
Improvisation.
Improvisation in "raga" is the soul of Indian classical music – an essential aspect. ""Manodharma Sangeetam" or "kalpana Sangeetam"" ("music of imagination") as it is known in Carnatic music, embraces several varieties of improvisation.
The main traditional forms of improvisation in Carnatic music consist of the following:
Raga Alapana.
An alapana, sometimes also called ragam, is the exposition of a raga or tone – a slow improvisation with no rhythm, where the raga acts as the basis of embellishment. In performing alapana, performers consider each raga as an object that has beginnings and endings and consists somehow of sequences of thought.
The performer will explore the ragam and touch on its various nuances, singing in the lower octaves first, then gradually moving up to higher octaves, while giving a hint of the song to be performed.
Theoretically, this ought to be the easiest type of improvisation, since the rules are so few, but in fact, it takes much skill to sing a pleasing, comprehensive (in the sense of giving a "feel for the ragam") and, most importantly, original raga alapana.
Niraval.
Niraval, usually performed by the more advanced performers, consists of singing one or two lines of text of a song repeatedly, but with a series of melodic improvised elaborations. Although niraval consists of extempore melodic variations, generally, the original patterns of duration are maintained; each word in the lines of text stay set within their original place ("idam") in the tala cycle. The lines are then also played at different levels of speed which can include double speed, triple speed, quadruple speed and even sextuple speed. The improvised elaborations are made with a view of outlining the raga, the tempo, and the theme of the composition.
Kalpanaswaram.
Kalpanaswaram, also known as swarakalpana, consists of improvising melodic and rhythmic passages using "swaras" (solfa syllables). Like niraval, kalpanaswaras are sung to end on a particular swara in the raga of the melody and at a specific place ("idam") in the tala cycle.
Kalpanaswaras have a somewhat predictable rhythmical structure; the swaras are sung to end on the "samam" (the first beat of the rhythmical cycle). The swaras can also be sung at the same speed or double the speed of the melody that is being sung, though some artists sing triple-speed phrases too.
Kalpanaswaram is the most elementary type of improvisation, usually taught before any other form of improvisation.
Tanam.
Tanam is one of the most important forms of improvisation, and is integral to Ragam Tanam Pallavi. Originally developed for the veena, it consists of expanding the raga with syllables like "tha, nam, thom, aa, nom, na," etc.
Ragam Tanam Pallavi.
Ragam, Tanam, and Pallavi are the principal long form in concerts, and is a composite form of improvisation. As the name suggests, it consists of raga alapana, tanam, and a pallavi line. Set to a slow-paced tala, the pallavi line is often composed by the performer. Through niraval, the performer manipulates the pallavi line in complex melodic and rhythmic ways. The niraval is followed by kalpanaswarams.
Tani Avartanam.
Tani Avartanam refers to the extended solo that is played by the percussionists in a concert, and is usually played after the main composition in a concert. The percussionist displays the full range of his skills and rhythmic imagination during the solo, which may take from two to twenty minutes.
Compositions.
In contrast to Hindustani music of the northern part of India, Carnatic music is taught and learned through compositions, which encode many intricate musical details, also providing scope for free improvisation. Nearly every rendition of a Carnatic music composition is different and unique as it embodies elements of the composer's vision, as well as the musician's interpretation.
A Carnatic composition really has two elements, one being the musical element, the other being what is conveyed in the composition. It is probably because of this fact that most Carnatic music compositions are composed for singing. In addition to the rich musical experience, each composition brings out the knowledge and personality of the composer, and hence the words are as important as the musical element itself. This poses a special challenge for the musicians because rendering this music does not involve just playing or singing the correct musical notes; the musicians are expected to understand what was conveyed by the composer in various languages, and sing musical phrases that act to create the effect that was intended by the composer in his/her composition.
There are many types/forms of compositions.
"Geethams" and "swarajatis" (which have their own peculiar composition structures) are principally meant to serve as basic learning exercises.
Compositions more commonly associated with Indian classical dance and Indian devotional music have also been increasingly used in the Carnatic music repertoire. The performance of the Sanskrit "sloka", Tamil "viruttam" and Telugu "padyamu" or "sisapadya" forms are particularly unique. Though these forms consist of lyric-based verses, musicians improvise "raga" phrases in free rhythm, like an alapana, so both the sound value, and the meaning of the text, guide the musician through elaborate melodic improvisations. Forms such as the "divya prabandham", "thevaram" and "ugabhoga" are often performed similarly, however, these forms can also have a set melody and rhythm like the "devaranama", "javali", "padam", "thillana" and "thiruppugazh" forms.
The most common and significant forms in Carnatic music are the "varnam" and the "kriti" (or "kirtanam").
Varnam.
Varnams are short metric pieces which encapsulate the main features and requirements of a "raga". The features and rules of the raga (also known as the "sanchaaraas" of a raga) include how each note of the raga should be stressed, the scale of the raga, and so on. All varnams consist of lyrics, as well as swara passages, including a "pallavi", an "anupallavi", "muktayi swaras", a "charanam", and "chittaswaras".
Known for their complex structure, varnams are a fundamental form in Carnatic music. Varnams are practised as vocal exercises in multiple speeds by performers of Carnatic music, to help develop voice culture, and maintain proper pitch and control of rhythm. In Carnatic music concerts, varnams are often performed by musicians as the opening item – acting as a warm up for the musicians, and as a means of grabbing the attention of the audience.
Kriti.
Carnatic songs (kritis) are varied in structure and style, but generally consist of three units:
This kind of song is called a "keerthanam" or a "kriti". There are other possible structures for a "kriti", which may in addition include swara passages named "chittaswara". A "chittaswara" consists only of notes, and has no words. Still others have a verse at the end of the "charana", called the "madhyamakāla". It is sung immediately after the "charana", but at double speed.
Prominent composers.
There are many composers in Carnatic music. Purandara Dasa (1484–1564) is referred to as the "Pitamaha" (the father or grandfather) of Carnatic music as he formulated the basic lessons in teaching Carnatic music, and in honour of his significant contribution to Carnatic music. He structured graded exercises known as "Swaravalis" and "Alankaras", and at the same time, introduced the "Raga" Mayamalavagowla as the first scale to be learnt by beginners. He also composed "Gitas" (simple songs) for novice students.
The contemporaries Tyagaraja (1767– 1847), Muthuswami Dikshitar, (1776–1835) and Syama Sastri, (1762–1827) are regarded as the Trinity of Carnatic music because of the quality of Syama Sastri's compositions, the varieties of compositions of Muthuswami Dikshitar, and Tyagaraja's prolific output in composing "kritis".
Prominent composers prior to the Trinity of Carnatic music include Sripadaraja, Vyasatirtha, Kanakadasa, Vadiraja Tirtha, Arunachala Kavi, Annamacharya, Narayana Theertha, Vijaya Dasa, Jagannatha Dasa, Gopala Dasa, Bhadrachala Ramadas, Sadasiva Brahmendra and Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi. Other composers are Swathi Thirunal, Gopalakrishna Bharathi, Neelakanta Sivan, Patnam Subramania Iyer, Mysore Vasudevachar, Koteeswara Iyer, Muthiah Bhagavathar, Subramania Bharathiyar, Kalyani Varadarajan, M. Balamuralikrishna and Papanasam Sivan. The compositions of these composers are rendered frequently by artists of today.
Composers of Carnatic music were often inspired by religious devotion and were usually scholars proficient in one or more of the languages Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Tamil, or Telugu. They usually included a signature, called a "mudra", in their compositions. For example, all songs by Tyagaraja (who composed in Telugu) have the word "Tyagaraja" in them, all songs by Muthuswami Dikshitar (who composed in Sanskrit) have the words "Guruguha" in them; songs by Syama Sastri (who composed in Telugu) have the words "Syama Krishna" in them; all songs by Purandaradasa (who composed in Kannada) have the words "Purandara Vittala"; while Gopalakrishna Bharathi (who composed in Tamil) used the signature "Gopalakrishnan" in his compositions. Papanasam Sivan, who has been hailed as the "Tamil Tyagaraja" of Carnatic music, composed in Tamil and Sanskrit, and used the signature "Ramadasan" in his compositions.
Learning.
Carnatic music is traditionally taught according to the system formulated by Purandara Dasa. This involves "sarali swaras" (graded exercises), "alankaras" (exercises based on the seven talas), "geetams" or simple songs, and Swarajatis. After the student has reached a certain standard, "varnams" are taught and later, the student learns kritis. It typically takes several years of learning before a student is adept enough to perform at a concert.
The learning texts and exercises are more or less uniform across all the South Indian states. The learning structure is arranged in increasing order of complexity. The lessons start with the learning of the "sarali varisai" (solfege set to a particular raga).
Carnatic music was traditionally taught in the gurukula system, where the student lived with and learnt the art from his guru (perceptor). From the late 20th century onwards, with changes in lifestyles and need for young music aspirants to simultaneously pursue a parallel academic career, this system has found few takers.
Musicians often take great pride in letting people know about their Guru Parampara, or the hierarchy of disciples from some prominent ancient musician or composer, to which they belong. People whose disciple-hierarchies are often referred to are Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar, Syama Sastri, Swathi Thirunal and Papanasam Sivan, among others.
In modern times, it is common for students to visit their gurus daily or weekly to learn music. Though new technology has made learning easier with the availability of quick-learn media such as learning exercises recorded on audio cassettes and CDs, these are discouraged by most gurus who emphasize that face-to-face learning is best for students.
Notations.
Notation is not a new concept in Indian music. However, Carnatic music continued to be transmitted orally for centuries without being written down. The disadvantage with this system was that if one wanted to learn about a kriti composed, for example, by Purandara Dasa, it involved the difficult task of finding a person from Purandara Dasa's lineage of students.
Written notation of Carnatic music was revived in the late 17th century and early 18th century, which coincided with rule of Shahaji II in Tanjore. Copies of Shahaji's musical manuscripts are still available at the Saraswati Mahal Library in Tanjore and they give us an idea of the music and its form. They contain snippets of solfege to be used when performing the mentioned ragas.
Melody.
Unlike classical Western music, Carnatic music is notated almost exclusively in tonic sol-fa notation using either a Roman or Indic script to represent the solfa names. Past attempts to use the staff notation have mostly failed. Indian music makes use of hundreds of ragas, many more than the church modes in Western music. It becomes difficult to write Carnatic music using the staff notation without the use of too many accidentals. Furthermore, the staff notation requires that the song be played in a certain key. The notions of key and absolute pitch are deeply rooted in Western music, whereas the Carnatic notation does not specify the key and prefers to use scale degrees (relative pitch) to denote notes. The singer is free to choose the actual pitch of the tonic note. In the more precise forms of Carnatic notation, there are symbols placed above the notes indicating how the notes should be played or sung; however, informally this practice is not followed.
To show the length of a note, several devices are used. If the duration of note is to be doubled, the letter is either capitalized (if using Roman script) or lengthened by a diacritic (in Indian languages). For a duration of three, the letter is capitalized (or diacriticized) and followed by a comma. For a length of four, the letter is capitalized (or diacriticized) and then followed by a semicolon. In this way any duration can be indicated using a series of semicolons and commas.
However, a simpler notation has evolved which does not use semicolons and capitalization, but rather indicates all extensions of notes using a corresponding number of commas. Thus, "Sā" quadrupled in length would be denoted as "S,,".
Rhythm.
The notation is divided into columns, depending on the structure of the "tāḷaṃ". The division between a "laghu" and a "dhrutam" is indicated by a।, called a "ḍaṇḍā", and so is the division between two "dhrutams" or a "dhrutam" and an "anudhrutam". The end of a cycle is marked by a॥, called a "double ḍaṇḍā", and looks like a caesura.
Performance.
Carnatic music is usually performed by a small ensemble of musicians, who sit on an elevated stage. This usually consists of, at least, a principal performer, a melodic accompaniment, a rhythm accompaniment, and a drone.
Performances can be musical or musical-dramatic. Musical recitals are either vocal, or purely instrumental in nature, while musical-dramatic recitals refer to Harikatha. But, irrespective of what type of recital it is, what is featured are compositions which form the core of this genre of music.
Instrumentation.
The "tambura" is the traditional drone instrument used in concerts. However, tamburas are increasingly being replaced by "śruti" boxes, and now more commonly, the electronic "tambura". The drone itself is an integral part of performances and furnishes stability – the equivalent of harmony in Western music.
In a vocal recital, a concert team may have one or more vocalists as the principal performer(s). Instruments, such as the Saraswati veena and/or venu flute, can be occasionally found as an accompaniment, but usually, a vocalist is supported by a violin player (who sits on his/her left). The rhythm accompanist is usually a mridangam player (who sits on the other side, facing the violin player). However, other percussion instruments such as the ghatam, kanjira and morsing frequently also accompany the main percussion instrument and play in an almost contrapuntal fashion along with the beats.
The objective of the accompanying instruments is far more than following the melody and keeping the beats. The accompaniments form an integral part of every composition presented, and they closely follow and augment the melodic phrases outlined by the lead singer. The vocalist and the violinist take turns while elaborating or while exhibiting creativity in sections like raga, niraval and kalpanaswaram.
Unlike Hindustani music concerts, where an accompanying tabla player can keep beats without following the musical phrases at times, in Carnatic music, the accompanists have to follow the intricacies of the composition since there are percussion elements such as eduppu in several compositions.
Some concerts feature a good bit of interaction with the lead musicians and accompanists exchanging notes, and accompanying musicians predicting the lead musician's musical phrases.
Contemporary concert content.
A contemporary Carnatic music concert (called a "kutcheri") usually lasts about three hours, and comprises a number of varied compositions. Carnatic songs are composed in a particular "raga", which means that they do not deviate from the notes in the "raga". Each composition is set with specific notes and beats, but performers improvise extensively. Improvisation occurs in the melody of the composition as well as in using the notes to expound the beauty of the "raga".
Concerts usually begin with a "varnam" or an invocatory item which will act as the opening piece. The "varnam" is composed with an emphasis on "swaras" of the raga, but will also have lyrics, the "saahityam". It is lively and fast to get the audience's attention. An invocatory item may usually follow the "varnam".
After the "varnam" and/or invocatory item, the artist sings longer compositions called "kirtanas" (commonly referred to as "kriti"s). Each kriti sticks to one specific "raga", although some are composed with more than one raga; these are known as "ragamalika" (a garland of "ragas").
After singing the opening "kriti", usually, the performer sings the "kalpanaswaram" of the "raga" to the beat. The performer must improvise a string of "swaras" in any octave according to the rules of the raga and return to beginning of the cycle of beats smoothly, joining the "swaras" with a phrase selected from the "kriti". The violin performs these alternately with the main performer. In very long strings of "swara", the performers must calculate their notes accurately to ensure that they stick to the "raga", have no awkward pauses or lapses in the beat of the song, and create a complex pattern of notes that a knowledgeable audience can follow.
Performers then begin the main compositions with a section called "raga alapana" exploring the "raga". In this, they use the sounds "aa, ri, na, ta", etc. instead of "swaras" to slowly elaborate the notes and flow of the raga. This begins slowly and builds to a crescendo, and finally establishes a complicated exposition of the "raga" that shows the performer's skill. All of this is done without any rhythmic accompaniment, or beat. Then the melodic accompaniment (violin or veena), expounds the "raga". Experienced listeners can identify many ragas after they hear just a few notes. With the "raga" thus established, the song begins, usually with lyrics. In this, the accompaniment (usually violin, sometimes veena) performs along with the main performer and the percussion (such as a mridangam). In the next stage of the song, they may sing "niraval" or "kalpanaswaram" again.
In most concerts, the main item will at least have a section at the end of the item, for the percussion to perform solo (called the "tani avartanam"). The percussion artists perform complex patterns of rhythm and display their skill. If multiple percussion instruments are employed, they engage in a rhythmic dialogue until the main performer picks up the melody once again. Some experienced artists may follow the main piece with a "ragam thanam pallavi" mid-concert, if they do not use it as the main item.
Following the main composition, the concert continues with shorter and lighter songs. Some of the types of songs performed towards the end of the concerts are "tillanas" and "thukkadas" – bits of popular "kriti"s or compositions requested by the audience. Every concert that is the last of the day ends with a "mangalam", a thankful prayer and conclusion to the musical event.
Audience.
The audience of a typical concert will have some understanding of Carnatic music. It is also typical to see the audience tapping out the "tala" in sync with the artist's performance. As and when the artist exhibits creativity, the audience acknowledge it by clapping their hands. With experienced artists, towards the middle of the concert, requests start flowing in. The artist usually sings the requests, and it helps in exhibiting the artist's broad knowledge of the several thousand kritis that are in existence.
Festivals.
Various music festivals featuring Carnatic music performances are held in India, and throughout the world.
With the city of Chennai (then known as Madras) emerging as the locus for Carnatic music during the 19th century, its musicians founded the Tyagaraja Aradhana festival in 1846. The Aradhana festival is an annual death-anniversary celebration of the prolific Carnatic music composer, Tyagaraja. Held in the city of Thiruvayaru, thousands of musicians attend the festival to perform his compositions. Since its inception, other festivals were started in a similar manner throughout India and abroad, such as the Chembai Sangeetholsavam in the Indian city of Guruvayur, and the Aradhana in the US city of Cleveland.
The city of Chennai also holds a six-week-long grand "Music Season", which has been described as the world's largest cultural event. The Music Season was started in 1927, to mark the opening of the Madras Music Academy. It used to be a traditional month-long Carnatic music festival, but since then it has also diversified into dance and drama, as well as non-Carnatic art forms. Some concert organisers also feature their own Carnatic music festivals during the season. Thousands of performances are held by hundreds of musicians across various venues in the city.
The Karnataka Ganakala Parishat is an annual conference of Carnatic music, held in February every year, which has lectures and demonstrations in the morning, and performances in the afternoons and evenings.


Dasima

Dasima is a 1940 film from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) directed by Tan Tjoei Hock and produced by The Teng Chun. It is the third adaptation of G. Francis' 1896 novel "Tjerita Njai Dasima".
Plot.
A merchant named Winata is building up his wealth, and though rarely at home, he provides his wife Dasima and their daughter whatever they desire. However, his jealous neighbours have spread rumours about him. Meanwhile, Dasima feels ignored by her husband's lack of time for her and his inability to get along with her father. This comes to a head when a neighbour, knowing that Winata is attending a business meeting at a nearby restaurant, says that he is womanising there. Dasima believes this, and she and Winata fight.
Dasima eventually leaves home to return to her parents' house, while her father finalises the divorce proceedings. In her hometown, Dasima is seen by Samioen, a gambling addict who is stricken by her flaunted wealth. He and his friend Poeasa arrange to meet her on the road, and over subsequent meetings Samioen works his way into Dasima's heart. Although they are eventually married, Dasima is heartbroken to be treated like a servant by Samioen's mother Saleha and sister Hajati. Samioen, meanwhile, rapidly loses Dasima's wealth gambling. Eventually, Samioen sells all of Dasima's possessions.
A melancholic Dasima realises that she has been deceived. She reminisces on her marriage with Winata, regretting her decision and hoping to make amends. She ultimately attempts to escape, with Samioen and Poeasa giving chase. When she is cornered on a bridge, she jumps into the river in an attempt to escape. After Samioen and Poeasa leave, Dasima is recovered from the river by two fishermen, who bring her to Winata's home. After a month of futile treatment, she gathers the last of her strength and requests her ex-husband's forgiveness before dying.
After Dasima's funeral, Winata vows revenge. He reports the crimes of Samioen and Poeasa to the police, with his report supported by testimony from the two fishermen and a man who had worked with Samioen. However, desiring personal revenge, Winata races ahead of the police to Samioen's home and battles Samioen and Poeasa, emerging victorious. The police arrest Samioen and Poeasa, who are sentenced to life in exile. Saleha and Hajati, meanwhile, fall into poverty.
Production.
"Dasima", produced by The Teng Chun for Java Industrial Film (JIF), was the directorial debut of Tan Tjoei Hock. had discovered Tan whilst the latter worked as an unpaid assistant at a drama troupe which frequently performed at Prinsen Park (now Lokasari). Impressed, asked Tan to join JIF. Though Tan had never been involved in film, he accepted.
Tan adapted the story for "Dasima" from G. Francis' 1896 novel "Tjerita Njai Dasima", which had previously been adapted to the silver screen twice, once in 1929 and once in 1932. These earlier productions, both by Tan's Film, had been similar to extant stage versions of the story. This production, however, was advertised as a "modern version" as it had been brought in accordance to more "modern" tastes. As a result, there were several changes to the story, including the removal of the term "njai" from the title, a shift from a "njai" (a concubine) to an ordinary woman as the central character, and the removal of mystical elements present in the original work.
The black-and-white film featured cinematography by WT Wei, with HB Angin as artistic director. It starred S. Soekarti, Mohammad Mochtar, and M. Sani. It also featured S. Talib, Djaleha, Toehamsa, and Habibah. Mochtar had been with Tan's since 1939's "Alang-Alang". In these earlier films he had been partnered with Hadidjah as the romantic leads. "Dasima" was his first film without her; she was replaced by Soekarti, who had no previous acting experience.
Legacy.
The film was released in 1940. Tan went on to become the most active film director in the Indies between 1940 and 1941, directing nine films in the time. JIF and its two subsidiaries, Action Film and Jakarta Pictures, released over a dozen further films before all were shut down following the Japanese occupation of the Indies in 1942. Mochtar and Soekarsih acted in one further film together, a 1940 adaptation of Swan Pen's "Melati van Agam", before Soekarsih left acting.
The film is likely lost. The American visual anthropologist Karl G. Heider writes that all Indonesian films from before 1950 are lost. However, JB Kristanto's "Katalog Film Indonesia" ("Indonesian Film Catalogue") records several as having survived at Sinematek Indonesia's archives, and Biran writes that several Japanese propaganda films have survived at the Netherlands Government Information Service.


Sneha

Sneha () is a Hindu Indian popular feminine given name, which means "Affection".


Ancient Order of St. George

The Ancient Order of St. George (German: "Alter Orden vom St. Georg"), also known as the Order of the Four Roman Emperors (German: "Orden der Vier Römischen Kaiser") or Order of the Ancient Nobility (German: "Orden des Alten Adels"), is a historic secular order of chivalry.
Early history.
The history of the Ancient Order of St. George dates back to the two knightly associations of the House of Luxembourg in the 14th and 15th century, when in 1308 King of Germany (and later Holy Roman Emperor) Henry VII endowed the “Order of the Ancient Nobility” and in 1408 the King of Hungary (and later Holy Roman Emperor) Sigismund instituted the “Order of the Dragon”. Both founders were striving to fortify Christendom and knightly virtues.
As a result of his defeat by the Ottomans at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, Sigismund placed the so-called “Confraternity With the Dragon” (ref. Ouroboros) of Ancient Nobility under the protection of Saint George, from which the Order still today derives its name of two components.
Following the extinction of the House of Luxembourg in the middle of the 15th century, the Order remained affiliated to the Holy Roman Emperors of the House of Habsburg. Since the 19th century the Order has upheld a firm loyalty to the archducal House of Austria. Accordingly, Dr. Otto von Habsburg was patron of the Ancient Order of St. George from 1972 until his death in July 2011.
Modern times.
On 6 December 1768 the Order was newly founded as a secular order of chivalry by Philipp Ferdinand Count von Limburg-Styrum. Among its aims was the preservation of the memory of the Four Roman Emperors of the House of Luxembourg, Henry VII (ruled 1308-1313), Charles IV (ruled 1347- 1378), Wenceslas (ruled 1378-1410) and Sigismund (ruled 1410-1437).
The members of the essential ecumenical Order stemmed predominantly from the German, Flemish, Walloon and French aristocracy. Its division into German and French speaking parts was laid down in the first reorganization of the Order in 1789. In 1806, as consequence of the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire the sovereignty over the County of Styrum by the House of Limburg-Styrum was mediatised. Thereby the Order lost its status as a Dynastic Order and, in the absence of a Grand Master, the Order went into abeyance.
A second reorganizational convention was called in 1838 by the vice-chancellor Dr. Joseph Vicomte de Kerckhove-Varent, which opened the membership of the Order to those of non-aristocratic descent, while emphasizing however conservative objectives. Its official language became now German, since French had widely ceased its currency, as a result of the French Revolution.
History in the 20th century until the present day.
Based on the reorganizational convention of 1926 in Hanover, Germany, the statutes were adapted under the guidance of the Order's Governor, Count Bernhard zu Stolberg-Stolberg, to consolidate the life within the Order. From then on it was called the Ancient Chivalric Order of St. George, also referred to as the Order of the Four Roman Emperors, with bailiwicks of Wendland (along the river Elbe), Lower Saxony, North-Rhine-Westphalia and Austria-Hungary. As a visual expression of the renewal of the Order and in the spirit of its founders and patrons, the image of St. George the dragon slayer was incorporated into the Order's insignia.
Because of the political situation in the German Reich, in 1935 the seat of the Order was transferred to Salzburg in the bailiwick of Austria-Hungary, from where it engaged actively against the National Socialism, for an independent Austria and for the reinstatement of its archducal House of Habsburg. Three years later, following the so-called “Anschluss” (Austria's annexation by the German Reich), the Order was prohibited for political reasons by the Nazis. Like many other Christian associations, the Order was officially dissolved, its assets confiscated and its activities forbidden (as it had already happened in Germany in 1934, after the National Socialists had seized power. The dissolution had taken place under the Governor of the Order, Prince Johannes von und zu Liechtenstein (a former Captain in the Austro-Hungarian Navy), who, after the irrevocable resignation of his predecessor, Count Bernhard zu Stolberg-Stolberg, had been unanimously elected (“per acclamationem”) at the knights´ general convention on 19 June 1937.
While continuing to be recognized as governor by the remaining Knights of the Order during World War II, Prince Johannes safeguarded the continuity of the Order and immediately after the war began building it up again with its seat in Vienna, Austria. His efforts of consolidation resulted in his official registration of the Order in 1951 as “St. George´s Club” which he led as its president. This step was necessary, because of the still unclear legal situation of secular orders, which had been closed down during the Third Reich.
Under the next Governor of the Order, Count Karl von und zu Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg, who had updated the order's statutes, which had officially been confirmed by the authorities in 1960, the “St. George´s Club”, was renamed the “Ancient Order of St. George”, as the Order is called today. Since then, its head and chief representative again carries the title “Ordensgouverneur” (Governor of the Order). As such, the Ancient Order of St. George successfully exists to this day.
In 1999 Prince Gundakar von und zu Liechtenstein was elected Governor of the Order. Since 2001 Count Peter zu Stolberg-Stolberg has assisted him as Vice Chancellor, and since 2004 as the Order's Chancellor.
Certain persons who had left the Ancient Order of St. George at the end of 2007 founded an association with a similar name in January 2008. In 2011 it was renamed "“St. Georgs-Orden – Ein europäischer Orden des Hauses Habsburg-Lothringen”."
Principles.
According to its statutes, the Ancient Order of St. George is open to members of all levels of society, professions and Christian denominations. In both public and private life, they fight against the roots and implications of the “eight evils”: illness, desolation, homelessness, hunger, unkindness, guilt, indifference and disbelief. The Order expects from its members impeccable conduct, respectability, sense of true nobility, Christian charity and morals, as well as strict adherence to law and order. Furthermore, the Order acknowledges Christian natural justice and ethics as the source of all rights. The aims of the Order are also reflected in its Latin motto “Illustrioribus et Nobilitati” (for the distinguished and noble).
St. George, patron saint of chivalry and the English Lord Chancellor, St. Thomas More (1487-1535), patron saint of lawyers, Christian statesmen and politicians, serve for members of the Order as symbolic paragons for the conduct of life.
Life within the Order.
Knights of St. George are there for one another until the end of their lives, especially when another is in need of help and protection in a difficult situation in life. Besides its charitable activities, the Order sees itself today as an opinion-forming think tank, hosting regular gatherings with professionals speaking about relevant social, cultural and political matters. The admission of novices as full members takes place at the Order's festive Annual General Convention, around the memorial day of St. George (23 April). At the same time, selected members are recognized for special merits. Since the year 2000, the Order arranges every summer a 2-day philosophical symposium with high-level speakers on socio-politically relevant themes (e.g. 2012: "“Natural Law vs. Legal Positivism”," 2013: "“Truth or Everything is Relative”," 2014: "“From the Nation State to Supranationality”)."
Governors of the Order in recent times.
The governors of the Ancient Order of St. George since its reorganizational convention in 1926:
Insignia of the Order.
The Order's badge is a white-enamelled, eight-pointed cross with golden flames in the corners and topped with the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire. On the four arms of the cross the initial letters (H, C, W, S) of the four emperors from the House of Luxembourg are located (Henry VII, Charles IV, Wenceslas I and Sigismund). In the middle of the cross there is a light blue medallion, depicting in gold St. George on horseback, slaying the dragon. The light blue medallion on the back of the cross blazons in gold the Order's motto: “ILLUSTRIORIBUS ET NOBILITATI” (or abbreviated “ILLUSTR ET NOB”). Wearing the insignia, it is affixed to a golden-edged light blue cordon. Officers of the Austrian Army are permitted to wear the Order's insignia on their uniforms, as per decree of the Austrian Ministry of Defence. The Order's insignia and its Latin motto are officially registered as trademarks in Austria (Reg. Nos. 246973 and 247000), Germany (Reg. Nos. 302008053367 and 302008053400) and the European Union (CTMs 011307311 and 011307287).


Elizabeth Mayer

Elizabeth Wolff Mayer (1884– 14 March 1970) was a German-born American translator and editor, closely associated with W. H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, and other writers and musicians. After emigrating to the United States in the 1940s she used her homes in Long Island and New York City as salons for visiting artists.
Biography.
Elizabeth Mayer was born in Germany and spent her early life in Munich. Her father had been chaplain to the Grand Duke of Mecklenberg; she studied music and was a skilled pianist. She was married to the psychiatrist, William Mayer, with whom she had two sons and two daughters. She worked as a translator in Germany, and visited D.H. Lawrence in Irschenhausen in 1927, where they discussed translation techniques. The Mayers moved to the United States in 1936 in order to flee Nazi persecution.
Her homes in Long Island and New York City were used as a salon for artists. Between 1939 and 1940, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears stayed at her Long Island Home. Britten described her as "one of those grand people who have been essential through the ages for the production of art; really sympathetic and enthusiastic, with instinctive good taste". W.H. Auden wrote about "a house in Amityville, Long Island, the home of Dr. William and Elizabeth Mayer, where Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears stayed ... a house which played an important role in the lives of all three of us. It was during this period that Britten wrote his first opera, and I my first libretto".
Mayer died on March 14, 1970.
Work.
In collaboration with Marianne Moore she translated Adalbert Stifter's "Bergkristall" ("Rock Crystal" 1945). "The Philadelphia Inquirer" wrote that their translation "reflects the classic perfection of the original." Hannah Arendt also found the translation perfect.
In collaboration with Louise Bogan she translated Ernst Jünger's "The Glass Bees" (1961), Goethe's "Elective Affinities" (1963) and "The Sorrows of Young Werther" and "Novella" (both in 1 vol., 1971). One reviewer of "Elective Affinities" found the beginning "promising": by "tak[ing] liberties with the original text, .. [they] thereby win the modern reader's interest", but considered it "colorless, rather than timeless" overall. A "New York Times" reviewer wrote that the work on "Elective Affinities" was an "excellent translation--the only readable one I have come across", while a "Washington Post" reviewer wrote that their translation was his favorite.
With W. H. Auden, she translated Goethe's "Italian Journey" (1962). Douglas Pringle wrote in the "Sydney Morning Herald" that this was a "very lively translation." She also translated Hans Graf von Lehndorff's "Token of a Covenant: Diary of an East Prussian Surgeon, 1945-47" (1965).
With Peter Pears, Mayer also prepared translations for Benjamin Britten, for inclusion in programs or scores of songs in Italian, German and Russian which he had set to music.
She was the dedicatee and recipient of Auden's poem "New Year Letter" and the book that included it, "The Double Man" (1941). In "New Year Letter", Auden described her "learned peacefulness"; he regarded her the emotional equivalent of a mother, and was close to her for many years. Near the end of her life he wrote about her (without naming her) in his poem "Old People's Home", and in "Lines for Elizabeth Mayer", in "About the House".
Elizabeth Mayer is the dedicatee of “Hymn To St. Cecilia,” Op. 27, as well as the sixth section, titled "Interlude," of Britten's "Les Illuminations," Op. 18, settings of Rimbaud for high voice and string orchestra.
She was a friend and admirer of Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement.


Breaking the News

Breaking the News is a 1912 Australian melodrama film directed by W. J. Lincoln based on John Longstaff's 1887 painting of the same name.
It is considered a lost film.
Plot.
A prospector looks for a wife to live with him and eventually gets married. While he is in town, the mine floods and miners need to be rescued. The main scenes were:
Production.
The film was shot at Diamond Creek, near Melbourne.
Reception.
The movie was a popular success with critics drawing particular attention to a scene of an underground mine being flooded. In March 1912 "The Bulletin" wrote "cheers for the big black and white item, “Breaking the News.” The yarn is excellently acted and photographed, but the plot is not too conspicuous for common-sense."


Arkady Shilkloper

Arkady Shilkloper (born October 17, 1956) is a Russian multi-instrumentalist (horn, alphorn, flugelhorn, vogelhorn, ELEPHANT-Horn, corno da caccia, corno pastoriccio, shells, didgeridoo) and composer, currently living in Berlin. He is also known as one of the best jazz performers on horn and alphorn in the world.
Biography.
Shilkloper was born in Moscow and started playing alto horn at the age of six. and switched to horn in 1967. At the age of eleven he entered the Moscow Military Music School. After two years of military service (1974 - 1976) he studied at the Moscow Gnessin Institute (Gnessin Russian Academy of Music) from 1976 to 1981. At the same time he began his career in the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre (1978 - 1985) and also began his first jazz activities.
In 1984, he formed a duo with his colleague from the Bolshoi Theatre, bassist Mikhail Karetnikow, with whom he recorded the LP "Move". (Melodiya, С60 26043 003)
"Horncall", 1988, by Jeffrey Agrell (Professor of Horn at the University of Iowa School of Music)
“Shilkloper and his bass player swing like nobody’s business. He rips and riffs and goes places that horn players aren’t supposed to go without a net, map, seat belt, crash helmet, overhead air support, and a note from their mothers. And he does so with extraordinary ease and musicality. I think maybe nobody ever told him ‘Jazz playing on horn is very difficult, and probably not natural or perhaps the phrase does not translate into Russian.’ I’d walk a camel a mile to hear this guy.”
From 1985 to 1989 he played with A. Kirichenko and S. Letov in the band Tri-O (LP "Three Holes").
At the same period he was a member of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.
Since 1986 he collaborates with pianist Mikhail Alperin. Their first album "Wave of Sorrow" (1990) was the first Russian album on ECM. Later Shilkloper participated in three more Alperin recordings for ECM: «North Story» (1997), «First Impression» (1999) and «Her First Dance» (2008).
The «First Impression» was recorded in December 1997 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo. Tyran Grillo wrote in his review: "Ukrainian pianist and composer Misha Alperin joins forces for the first time in session with British reedist John Surman (a last-minute replacement for Tore Brunborg) in this melodious, spontaneous set. Augmented by Arkady Shilkloper on horn and flugelhorn, Terje Gewelt on bass, and Jon Christensen on drums, their hypnotic nexus breathes ounces of thematic life into the “Overture” in watery, stepwise motion. Surman’s reptilian soprano takes us in some unexpected directions throughout a holistic introduction, while his unmistakable baritone threads resilient cables through “Twilight house” and “City Dance.” The first of these is where the session truly comes to life through his interactions with Alperin, while the latter serves a touch of groove in a veritable trill buffet (think "Snakeoil"). “Movement” features classical percussionist Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen (heard previously on "No Birch") in a spindly improv, the pointillism and melancholy draw of which only thinly veil its composed undercurrent. A lovely solo from Shilkloper on horn rises like a paper lantern lit and offered to the sky. Yet these are but the roofing to the album’s five “Impressions,” each a pillar in the dust."
In 1990, the Alperin-Shilkloper duo invites Sergey Starostin, a Moscow Conservatory-educated clarinetist and a researcher of Russian authentic folklore music, which results in the creation of "Moscow Art Trio". The trio tours regularly, though its members now live in three different countries; it is one of the most interesting and well-known Ethno Jazz groups from Russia. In Russia, their albums were released by Boheme Music; in Europe, by Jaro.
In 1990, Shilkloper visited US for the first time. According to Leonard Feather from the "Los Angeles Times", "the Soviet horn virtuoso was one of four Jazzmen from the Soviet Union who arrived here last week to take part in the 23rd annual University of Idaho Jazz Festival at his home town's namesake city. Shilkloper, 33, on his first visit to the United States was the artistic sensation of the four-day event."
Since 1995, Arkady Shilkloper plays in "Pago Libre" with Austrian violinist Tscho Theissing, Swiss pianist John Wolf Brennan and Austrian bassist Georg Breinschmid (since January 2012, new member on double bass: Tom Götze from Dresden).
Since 1998, Arkady also plays alphorn, quite an unusual instrument for improvised music. Arkady rates one of the best of the few existing jazz performers on alphorn. His "Pilatus", "Presente Para Moscou" and "Zum Gipfel und zurück" albums feature a lot of his alphorn playing.
In 1998 - 2002 Arkady Shilkloper performed with Europe's leading big band, the Vienna Art Orchestra.
In 2000, Arkady put together the "Mauve Trio" with "Alegre Corrêa" (guitar) and Georg Breinschmid (double bass). Their debut album "Mauve" (Quinton Records, 2002) was awarded the prestigious Hans Koller Prize of Austria as the "CD of the Year".
In 2004, he gave the first performance of the Concerto for Alphorn and Orchestra of Daniel Schnyder, a work commissioned by the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad.
In 2012, he started a collaboration with overtone singer Christian Zehnder and John Wolf Brennan
In 2015, Jazzahead presented his duet with the young Ukrainian jazz pianist Vadim Neselovskyi.
Shilkloper has mastered extended techniques for both the horn and the alphorn. According to Leonard Feather, his control of the horn and his creativity have set a new standard.
Discography.
Solo albums.
With Misha Alperin.
With Vadim Neselovskyi
2013 — Arkady Shilkloper / Vadim Neselovskyi «Last Snow» (ArtBeat Music AB-CD-06-2013-052) Russia
2015 — Arkady Shilkloper / Vadim Neselovskyi «Krai» (Neuklang NCD4109) Germany
2017 — Arkady Shilkloper / Vadim Neselovskyi «Lustrum» (Neuklang NCD4147) Germany


The Case of Lena Smith

The Case of Lena Smith is a 1929 American silent drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Esther Ralston and James Hall, and released by Paramount Pictures.
"The Case of Lena Smith" is ranked by film critics as among the “lost masterpieces” of the silent era and the Holy Grail for archivists who sift through film repositories. The last remaining prints were destroyed by Paramount Pictures shortly after the end of the Second World War for tax purposes. In 2003, Japanese film historian Komatsu Hiroshi unearthed a four-minute fragment of "The Case of Lena Smith" in Manchuria, China, reviving interest in the film.
The work was the last of Sternberg's eight silent films and one of three in his career set in the city of his birth and childhood: Vienna. The two other movies are "Dishonored" (1931) and "The King Steps Out" (1936). American film-maker Curtis Harrington was among the latter people to view a print from the Paramount vaults. Commenting on the experience in "Sight & Sound" (February 17, 1949), Harrington wrote:
Plot.
The following plot summary is derived from the 10-page “Sequence Summary” issued by Paramount’s Story Department (October 28, 1928). The narrative is framed between a prologue and an epilogue, both set in a small Hungarian village. The main story occurs in a flashback, presented in sequences A through M (each containing a number of scenes), all of which are set in fin-de-siècle Vienna. The focal character is Lena Smith (the name an Austrian bureaucrat bestowed on her to shorten her Hungarian given name).
"Prologue": The tale opens in August 1914 and World War I has been declared. The middle-aged Lena, and her elderly husband Stephan, a prosperous peasant farmer, anxiously take leave of Franz Jr. the son of Lena's first (now deceased) husband. The young man is deploying to fight on the frontlines.
"Sequences A-M summary": A flashback takes the viewer 20 years in the past to 1894. The young Lena has just spurned her suitor, Stephan, who has arranged their marriage with the consent of Lena's father. Despite Stephan's declaration of devotion, she departs gaily on foot toward Vienna, accompanied by two other adventurous peasant girls. They all hope to find pleasant work in the big city and escape the dreary hardships of farm labor.
In Vienna, the three country girls stroll through the Prater at night. Each of them pairs off with a soldier, Lena with the cadet officer, Franz Hofrat. She surrenders to his seductions and they begin an affair – which we will discover in time has produced a child. They secretly are married, and Franz reassures her “Don’t worry Lena, I will look after you.”
The scene shifts to Vienna four years hence. Lena performs menial tasks as a house servant, as do many other young woman in the neighborhood. Her master and mistress are Herr and Frau Hofrat, the parents of their only son, Franz. The young officer has arranged employment for Lena in his parent's petty-bourgeois household, who know nothing of their servant's clandestine marriage to their son, nor that they are grandparents a little Franz. Lena and her spouse Franz are estranged and refrain from associating with each other – on the young husband's insistence. The young Hofrat's moral cowardice is compounded by gambling, the debt payments which he extorts from his father. Nor is the prideful officer faithful to Lena: He sleeps with other men's wives.
Lena visits her 3-year-old son Franz at the house of Stephan's sister, who lives in Vienna – secretly, and only after nightfall. The elder Hofrat is alerted to Lena's nocturnal excursions and suspects she may be involved with his son. Herr Hofrat is relieved when he visits his son's apartment, unannounced, and Lena is not there. Nonetheless, Herr Hofrat confines Lena to her room at night, and sternly reminds her that he is the chief of Vienna's Bureau of Morals.
On her day off, Lena – ostensibly an unmarried woman - takes her little boy to the Prater. There she has an unpleasant encounter with the janitor who serves at the Hofrat apartments. Maliciously, the laborer reports the matter to the elder Hobrat, who instantly assumes that the child is illegitimate. He summons Lena and fires her on the spot. As police councilor, he orders the child seized and placed in an orphanage for the poor.
When Lena, distracted, appeals to administrators at the Bureau of Morals to discover the whereabouts of her little Franz, they disclose that she has been deemed an “unfit” mother. To regain custody of her child from the poor house, she must pay a fee of 1,000 crowns.
When Lena informs her husband about the crisis, he lightly dismisses the matter as on one that might bring disgrace to his name. He declines to intervene on the child's behalf.
When Lena returns to the home of Stephan's sister, she discovers that Stephan himself has arrived from the countryside. His sister has told him everything and he is determined to rescue Lena from her plight. Lena demurs, but Stephan presents her with 700 crowns – his life savings – and insists that she demand 300 crowns from her husband, that “uniformed poodle” so as to free the child. Lena approaches her husband to a café and reveals that she possesses 700 crowns and demands he contribute another 300. In her desperation, Lena relinquishes the funds to Franz, who promises to use it to win a fortune at the gambling tables.
When Officer Franz rejoins his fellow officers at the café, he discovers a surly peasant has taken his chair: Stephan. The farmer scurrilously insults the honor of the military man and an altercation ensues. Franz knows his is outmatched when he realizes that the farmer is Lena's true champion. A policeman separates the two rivals.
That evening at home, Franz pens a letter to his family – a self-pitying farewell. Lena arrives to retrieve the money, but her disgraced Franz retreats to his bedroom and takes his own life with a pistol. Lena attends the inquest for her husband's death. The elder Hofrat, intent on casting blame on Lena for her son's suicide, attempts to interrogate her. Lena reacts by submitting her marriage license to the court. The elder Hofrat is faced with the fact that Lena is his daughter-in-law and little Franz his grandchild. He reacts harshly, insisting on adopting the child and denying any visitation rights to Lena. When she threatens to go public with facts of the marriage, the court punishes her outburst with a six-month term in the workhouse.
Lena brutally is dragged into the prison upon her arrival and whipped by the head matron in an attempt tame her. Lena makes a desperate escape over a barbed wire fence, barely eluding the guards. She reaches the asylum where little Franz is held and flees with the boy from Vienna and back to the Hungarian countryside – and freedom.
"Epilogue" – The story flashes back to 1914 as Franz, Jr. bids farewell to his distraught mother Lena. She is devoid of any patriotic fervor. Her intuition tells her that the boy will not survive the war, and that all the suffering she has endured has been in vain.
Background.
Elements of the film's narrative and creative character have been reconstructed from archival material from multiple sources, including the Paramount film files.
The main story of the movie unfolds in Vienna of 1894 (the year of von Sternberg's birth) during a period which saw a doubling of the city's population as agricultural workers from the realms of the decaying Austria-Hungary empire - Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia and Hungary – migrated to the urban centers. The ethnically diverse newcomers found employment as industrial workers in factories and domestic servants for the bourgeoisie.
Sternberg presents the full range of social types who inhabited “the ethnic melting pot of the Viennese population” at the turn of the century. The character of Lieutenant Franz Holrat, Lena's first husband, is based on the novelist Arthur Schnitzler’s protagonist in Leutnant Gustl (1901).
The Prater comprises the Wurstelprater – the theme park, a mingling place for all of Vienna’s social strata at the fin-de-siècle. Film historian Andrew Sarris reports that Sternberg's depiction of the Prater is "one of the most admired sequences in the film" and quotes at length the director's vivid recollection of the Wurstelprater in his memoirs:
Sternberg was not the only director of the silent era to invoke Vienna's famous Prater. Erich von Stroheim’s "Merry-Go-Round" (1923) and "The Wedding March" (1928) “probably contributed to the conception of "Lena Smith"” and contemporary film critics recognized von Stroheim's influence.
Sternberg first worked with actress Esther Ralston when he re-shot some scenes on the Famous Players-Lasky film "Children of Divorce" (1927). Samuel Ornitz submitted a story about a young unwed mother who fights to keep her illegitimate child. The earliest scripts of the film is marked “Brief Synopsis of a Ralston-Mother Story” indicating that Sternberg had the actress in mind from the start.
The framing components (prologue and epilogue) of the film were “the last thing[s] added in the script” by screenwriter Jules Furthman and director Sternberg, and comprised “the heart of the film, ending on a tone of utter bleakness and helplessness in the face of state authority.” Indeed, the final script and contemporary reviews describe a scenario of such tragic proportions as to have "risked the commercial success" of the film.
Reception.
United States.
While American film enthusiasts were very impressed with "The Case of Lena Smith", the trade papers offered mixed reviews. "Variety" (January 16, 1929) considered the film's story, theme, acting and production “admirable” but regretted that “its realism is pretty remote from the tastes of most movie-goers” and “the picture hasn’t a spark of light to relieve the shadow.” The "Los Angeles Times" (January 20, 1929) appreciated Sternberg's original style, but complained that ""Lena Smith" fails to satisfy, for it reaches no rounded-out conclusion." "The Film Daily" (January 20, 1929) described the film as “a psychological study of a woman’s reactions to the injustices of class and caste in aristocratic and military Vienna before the war." "Motion Picture News" reported that Sternberg's "Lena Smith" “missed the mark” as a form of “mass entertainment...the title misleading. The tale is one of mother love; it is not a murder-trial thriller.”
"The New York Times"’s critic Mordaunt Hall (January 15, 1929) described the films scenario as unnecessarily deterministic, such that the female protagonist’s “destiny is controlled at all times by the author’s pen, irrespective of what happens in everyday life” and chastening Sternberg for failing to present his “child reminisces” with “any suggestion of whimsicality.”
Mary Porter Russell, writing for the "Washington Post" (February 25, 1929) thought the film “strikingly original in its treatment...Not once did it become stickily sentimental over Lena’s plight or make a deliberate effort to play on the emotions...An excellent picture, unless you insist on a good time.” Lacking “simple themes” and “uncomplicated action”, the movie was not a box-office success, and like most silent films distributed during the transition to sound, "The Case of Lena Smith" "fell by the wayside."
Germany.
German film critic Gero Gandert provided an overview of the lively commentary among cinephiles that met the release of "The Case of Lena Smith" (German Title: "Eine Nacht im Prater" – One Night in the Park) when it opened Berlin on January 29, 1930.
Critic and novelist Hans Sahl of the "Montag Morgan" (February 3, 1930) approvingly called the movie “one of the sharpest, most embittered settling of accounts with the spirit of the dapperly uniformed pre-war Habsburg monarchy.”
Editor Heinz Pol of the "Vossische Zeitung" (February 3, 1930) praised Sternberg for transforming an otherwise light love story into a tragic tale of a woman's struggle to regain custody of her child. Pol's estimate of Sternberg's talent included praise for “that razor-sharp line between art and non-art.”
Politically conservative critics expressed displeasure with the films depiction of the Viennese social order, particularly the scenes portraying Austrian petty-bourgeois under the Habsburg monarchy. The "Deutsche Tageszeitung" of January 31, 1930 criticized Sternberg for indulging “in his blind (possibly self-inflicted) hate of pre-war Austria.” The journal "Der Montag" (February 3, 1930) accused the director of “portraying the inhabitants of Vienna as “cold-hearted...which does not seem to us to be the most prominent Viennese characteristic.”
Austria.
The Vienna censorship board briefly barred "The Case of Lena Smith" in May 1929 during the initial review due to its "unsuccessful portrayal of milieu" and "unsuitable intertitles in Viennese dialect."” In June 1929 (eight months before reaching Vienna theatres) the film received their imprimatur: "Overall qualification – Passable, average film" and a genre category of "moral drama in 8 acts."
Unlike Berlin reviewers, Viennese commentators did not address any pro- or anti-Austrian perceptions regarding the film. The major factor affecting reception in Austria was related to the shift in public enthusiasm toward sound films that was underway when "The Case of Lena Smith" – a silent film – opened in Vienna on February 8, 1930. Vienna, with a weaker film culture than the vibrant cinephile associations in Berlin, virtually guaranteed the film "was hardly noticed or reviewed at all."
Sternberg's "The Blue Angel", with its innovative use of sound effects and dialogue would open in the city just 10 weeks later.
The multiple titles, and their unwieldy length created a degree of confusion among reviewers and the public as what the film was about: “moral drama”, “American crime thriller” or “tragedy of a single mother.” Lacking “simple themes” and “uncomplicated action”, the movie was not a box-office success and like most silent films distributed during the transition to sound, "The Case of Lena Smith" “fell by the wayside.”
France.
Paramount Pictures screened "The Case of Lena Smith" (French title - "La Calvaire de Lena X" - The Calvary (mental suffering) of Lena X) at its flagship theatre in Paris on May 23, 1930. Within a week all showings were discontinued and replaced with "Wolf Song", a Gary Cooper and Lupe Vélez vehicle: “Suburban theatre operators wanted productions suitable to show off their new sound reproduction equipment.” Of Sternberg's "The Case of Lena Smith", “the daily papers in France took hardly any notice.”
Preservation status.
This is now considered a lost film. A four-minute fragment was shown at the 2003 Giornate del cinema muto festival in Pordenone, Italy.
The sole extant fragment of "The Case of Lena Smith" has been published on DVD by the Austrian Film Museum.
Assembling 150 original stills and set designs, numerous script and production documents and essays by eminent film historians, the book "Josef von Sternberg. The Case of Lena Smith" published by the Austrian Film Museuma and SYNEMA tries to reconstruct Sternberg's drama.


Bee County Courthouse

The Bee County Courthouse, at 105 W. Corpus Christi St. in Beeville, Texas, United States, was built in 1912. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
It was designed by architect William C. Stephenson in Beaux Arts style.
Besides the courthouse, the listing included a contributing structure and a contributing object.


Norfolk Herald Extraordinary

Norfolk Herald of Arms Extraordinary is an officer of arms in England. As an officer extraordinary, Norfolk is a royal herald, though not a member of the corporation of the College of Arms in London. Beginning in 1539 this officer was a herald to the dukes of Norfolk, though the first holder, John James, was paid a salary by King Henry VIII. Subsequent Norfolk heralds have been officers extraordinary, though the office has not always been filled but rather revived when required. The badge of office, assigned in 1958, is blazoned as "Two Ostrich Feathers saltirewise each charged with a Gold Chain laid along the quill". It derives from the ostrich feather badge granted by King Richard II around 1387 as a mark of special favor to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, Marshal of England. Mowbray was also the first to be styled Earl Marshal.
The current Norfolk Herald of Arms Extraordinary is Maj. David Rankin-Hunt, CVO, MBE, KCN, TD. Rankin-Hunt was appointed by Royal Warrant in October 1994 and is the ninth person to hold the office. Following the retirement of Sir Conrad Swan as Garter King of Arms in 1995 he assumed some responsibility for advising certain Commonwealth Realms and a few non-Commonwealth Countries on Honours and Awards. In the last fifteen years he has designed and instituted Honours systems and individual Orders, Decorations and Medals for over eight countries. These include Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Lucia, Tonga, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Barbados and Albania.


Dror (name)

Dror is Hebrew for "freedom" or "sparrow" and may either be a surname or given name.
Surname.
Note: Some Israelis hebraicized the Ashkenazi surname Friedman to Dror


Jake Nava videography


Crockett County Courthouse

The Crockett County Courthouse is a historic courthouse built in 1902 at 907 Ave D, Ozona, Texas, United States. The Second Empire style building was designed by Oscar Ruffini of San Angelo. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 27, 1974.
Crockett County was organized in 1891and named after Davy Crockett. The first courthouse was a wood frame structure built in 1891. The building served the county until 1902 when the present hand cut native limestone courthouse and jail were built. The estimated cost of the courthouse was $30,000 paid for by bonds issued by the county. In its first few decades of existence, the two-story structure also served as a community center for social events and weekly dances.


List of former Cultural Properties (Japan)

This list is of former Cultural Properties of Japan that have been struck from the register as a result of heavy damage or total destruction during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, as identified and catalogued by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Structures.
101 properties
Castles.
17 properties
Mausolea.
15 properties
Miscellaneous structures.
1 property
Shrines.
19 properties
Temples.
40 properties
Residences.
9 properties
Works of Fine Art.
74 properties
Paintings.
12 properties
Sculptures.
34 properties
Crafts.
16 properties
Calligraphic works.
10 properties
Stone monuments.
2 properties


The Magic Cup

The Magic Cup is a lost 1921 American silent adventure film directed by John S. Robertson and written by E. Lloyd Sheldon. It stars Constance Binney, Vincent Coleman, and Blanche Craig.
Plot.
Every time Mary Mallory needs money she pawns a silver cup which her mother left to her. The Patrician, a crook, tells Abe the pawn broker, that Mary must be the granddaughter of Lord Fitzroy, an Irish nobleman. One of the crooks impersonates Fitzroy and Mary is established in a beautiful Long Island home as the long lost granddaughter. Bob, a reporter known to Mary in her dishwasher days, falls in love with her but is suspicious of her "relatives". He cables to Ireland and the real Fitzroy arrives. He recognizes the butler as his son, but at his request Mary never knows that he is her father. The man dies, Mary pleads for the freedom of the crooks and then goes back to Ireland with Bob and her real grandfather.


Knowing Men

Knowing Men is a 1930 British romantic comedy film directed by Elinor Glyn and starring Carl Brisson, Elissa Landi and Helen Haye. It was made at Elstree Studios and based on one of Glyn's own novels. Originally shot using an experimental colour system, it was eventually released in plain black-and-white.


Sonjuk Bridge

Sŏnjuk Bridge is a Koryo-dynasty stone bridge located in Kaesong, North Korea. Built in 1290, it is famous as the place where famed Confucian scholar and statesman Jeong Mong-ju was assassinated, allegedly on the orders of the Yi Bang-won, son of the first king of the Joseon Dynasty, Yi Seong-gye. The bridge was closed to all traffic in 1780 and has since been a national monument. It is 8.35m long and 3.36m wide. It was originally named the Sonji Bridge, but was renamed Sonjuk Bridge after the assassination of Mong-ju because bamboo grew where he was killed ("juk" being the Korean word for bamboo).
Assassination of Jeong Mongju.
A famously loyal advisor to the king of Goryeo, Jeong was a staunch political opponent of Yi Seonggye. On his way home after a party held for him by the future king, he was ambushed by five men on the bridge and brutally murdered with an iron hammer. Later canonized as a Korean sage, and revered even by Joseon monarchs, Jeong's death came to symbolize unwavering loyalty. A brown spot on one of the stones is said to be Jong's bloodstain, and to become red when it rains. A famous poem of his records his final thoughts:
"Even if I may die, die a hundred times,"

"Even if my skeleton may become dust and dirt,"

"And whether my spirit may be there or not,"

"My single-hearted loyalty to my lord will not change."
Pyochung Pavilion.
Built during the Joseon dynasty, this small wooden structure houses two enormous stone stele mounted on the backs of lion-turtles, one erected in 1740 by King Yeongjo and the other by King Gojong in 1872. Both commemorate Jeong Mongju's assassination, and praise his loyalty to the Goryeo dynasty.


Basilica of St. John the Baptist

The Basilica-Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador is the metropolitan cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John's, Newfoundland and the mother church and symbol of Roman Catholicism in Newfoundland. The building sits within the St. John's Ecclesiastical District, a National Historic District of Canada.
The Basilica-Cathedral was the largest building project to its date in Newfoundland history. Construction lasted from the excavation of the ground in May 1839, through the laying of the cornerstone in May 1841, until the completion and consecration on September 9, 1855. At this time, it was the largest church building in North America and remains the second largest church in Canada after Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal and the largest cathedral church in Canada. The Basilica-Cathedral is one of the few buildings in St. John's to survive the Great Fire of 1892.
On October 17, 2007, Bishop Martin Currie of the Diocese of Grand Falls was appointed archbishop of St. John's. He assumed his position on November 30, 2007, and retired on 29 January 2019. On December 12, 2018, Bishop Peter Hundt of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador was appointed archbishop of St. John's. He took canonical possession of the diocese on 29 January 2019.
History.
Built between 1839–1855, the basilica is located on the highest ridge overlooking the city of St. John's. The church is not oriented on an east-west axis, nor does it face toward the narrows that form the entrance to St. John's harbour, but rather, it was constructed on an orientation with its facade facing the line of the rising sun on the Winter Solstice, and the setting sun at the Summer Solstice, just as the medieval Chartres Cathedral is oriented on a solstitial axis.
The Basilica-Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is built in the form of a Latin cross and in the Lombard Romanesque style of a Roman basilica. It was designed for Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming by the architect of the Danish government, Ole Joergen Schmidt, resident at Altona on the Elbe (Hamburg) though Fleming also had some plans prepared by the distinguished Irish architect John Philpot Jones of Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland, and also consulted with James Murphy, a native of Dublin, Ireland on plans for the cathedral. Construction was initially supervised by the Waterford contractor Michael McGrath, but later superintended by stonemason and sculptor James Purcell of Cork, Ireland, who also designed and built a small wooden church, Christchurch, at Quidi Vidi near St. John's.
Construction took place under the watchful eye of the Irish-born Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming, the Vicar-Apostolic and first Bishop of Newfoundland and later under the eye of his successor, Bishop John Thomas Mullock. The Basilica-Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is unusual among North America's 19th century public buildings in that it was constructed using limestone and granite imported from Galway and Dublin, Ireland, as well as 400,000 bricks from Hamburg, as well as local sandstone and Newfoundland bluestone quarried from St. John's and Kelly's Island in Conception Bay, giving the Cathedral its characteristic grey colour.
The St. John's Basilica-Cathedral was contemporary with and part of the great boom in church construction which surrounded the era of Daniel O'Connell and Catholic emancipation in Ireland and Newfoundland. For its day, the St. John's Basilica was the largest Irish cathedral anywhere outside Ireland. No other building of the Irish diaspora in North America can boast of such intimate influences from or upon Ireland, and no other building had such an international reputation in its day.
During its centenary celebration in 1955, Pope Pius XII raised the cathedral to the rank of minor Basilica.
The Basilica was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1983, to recognize its architectural uniqueness as one of the earliest North American examples of the Romanesque revival style, and its central role as the spiritual and cultural home of Newfoundland Roman Catholics. The building has also been designated as a Registered Heritage Structure and Provincial Historic Site by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. Its builder, Michael Anthony Fleming, was designated a Person of National Historic Significance in 2005.
Architecture.
The Basilica-Cathedral is built in the Lombard Romanesque style, based on visual features typically associated with the churches of northern Italy. The building is built with grey limestone and white granite quarried in Galway and Dublin, Ireland and grey sandstone from St. John's and Kelly's Island, Conception Bay, Newfoundland. The exterior is 260 ft (85 m) long and 220 ft (65 m) wide; the two towers rise 150 ft (48 m) from street level. The total capacity of the Basilica is around 2,500 people, though during the visit of Pope John Paul II in September 1984, 3600 educators gathered in the Basilica-Cathedral to greet the Roman Pontiff. When completed in 1855, the Basilica-Cathedral of St. John The Baptist was the largest church building in North America.
The East Tower contains a single bell, the largest in the church. Called the St. John Bell, this two-ton bell was purchased by Bishop Mullock in February 1850. Cast by John Murphy of Dublin, it was the largest ever cast in Ireland at that time, and won a Gold Medal at the Dublin Exhibition of Irish Manufacturers. There are eight bells in the West Tower. The three largest bells were cast by Murphy in 1854 and 1857. The five smaller bells were cast in 1906 by Matthew O'Byrne of the Fountain Head Bell Foundry in Dublin, Ireland.
The Basilica-Cathedral contains twenty-eight stained glass windows which adorn the upper walls (clerestory) and are of English and French workmanship. The windows were the gifts of patrons and religious societies, such as the Society of the Holy Rosary and were installed between 1859 and 1905. The 35 stained glass windows in the ambulatory all date from 1954-55 and were the work of Gerald Earley and Company of Dublin; they constitute the largest collection of mid-20th Century Irish Arts and Crafts style stained glass windows in one building in the western hemisphere.
Interior.
The Altar of Sacrifice, which stands at the front of the Sanctuary, enshrines one of the most revered and valuable pieces of statuary in the Basilica, "The Dead Christ", sculpted in Carrara marble by renowned Irish sculptor John Hogan in 1854. Having seen an earlier version of this work by Hogan in Dublin, Bishop Fleming left funds and directions in his last will and testament that a "Dead Christ by Hogan" be purchased for the Cathedral. Prior to coming to Newfoundland, Fleming's successor, Bishop Mullock, also had a version of the Hogan "Dead Christ" installed in his own chapel, the South Chapel {St. Finbar's} in Cork. Mullock commissioned a new rendering of the statue and placed it beneath the table of the High Altar on 19 March 1855. The statue is Hogan's greatest masterpiece and is the final of three similar statues created by Hogan in the early 19th century and the only one located outside Ireland. The Basilica also features works by Ireland's most eminent expatriate sculptor, John Edward Carew, whose famous bas-relief "The Death of Nelson" may be seen on the plinth at the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London.
The Sacred Heart Altar and the Altar of the Immaculate Conception, located on the west and east sides of the High Altar in the Sanctuary, respectively, are constructed from the same Egyptian travertine that was used by Pope Gregory XVI, to decorate the high altar of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. A small quantity of this stone remained in Rome and, of this, two portions were offered by the Pope to Bishop Mullock, who subsequently brought the stone to St. John's in 1856 to complete the interior of the Basilica.
In 1955 a great pipe organ from the world-renowned Casavant Frères firm of St-Hyacinthe, Québec was installed as a memorial to the parishioners who died in World War I and World War II. The 66 stop organ with 4,050 pipes is the largest instrument in Newfoundland, and is one of the largest pipe organs east of Montreal.
Basilica Museum.
The Basilica Museum is open seasonally, and is located in the Episcopal Library attached to the Archbishop's Palace. Exhibits include religious art, historic and religious artifacts of the Basilica, pictures of bishops and archbishops of St. John's, and furniture and decorations of several period rooms in the Palace. Both the Episcopal Library and Archbishop's Palace are in their own rights National Historic Sites of Canada


Munakata Taisha

 is a collection of three Shinto shrines located in Munakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is the head of the approximately 6,000 Munakata shrines all over the country. Although the name Munakata Taisha refers to all three shrines—Hetsu-gū, Nakatsu-gū and Okitsu-gū—it is commonly used to refer to Hetsu-gū alone. As documented in Japan's second oldest book, "Nihon Shoki", the shrines are devoted to the .
These "kami" are believed to be daughters of the goddess Amaterasu, the ancestress of the imperial family or to be the daughters of Susanoo, who has also been worshipped there for many years as the god of mariners, and he has come to be worshipped as the god of traffic safety on land as well.
Munakata Taisha is also home to many Japanese treasures. Hetsu-gū's "honden" (main shrine) and "haiden" (main prayer hall) are both designated Important Cultural Properties and the precincts are a Historic Site. The , the shrine's treasure hall located on the southwest corner of Hetsu-gū's grounds, houses many important relics including six National Treasures of Japan. Over 120,000 artifacts housed in the Shinpō-kan were unearthed on Okinoshima.
It was formerly an imperial shrine of the first rank (官幣大社, "kanpei taisha") in the Modern system of ranked Shinto Shrines.
Three shrines.
All three shrines are located in Fukuoka Prefecture, yet they are all on separate islands. The main shrine, Hetsu-gū, is located on the mainland of Kyūshū. Nakatsu-gū is established at the foot of Mt. Mitake on the island of Ōshima off the west coast of Kyūshū. The final shrine, Okitsu-gū, is on the island of Okinoshima located in the middle of the Genkai Sea. The shrine occupies the entire island, therefore women are not allowed to set foot on the island and men must perform a purification ceremony before landing.
In 2009 the three shrines were submitted for future inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the serial nomination Okinoshima Island and Related Sites in Munakata Region.
In July, 2017 Japan's Okinoshima Island gained UNESCO World Heritage Status.


Bavarian Order of Merit

The Bavarian Order of Merit () is the Order of Merit of the Free State of Bavaria. It is awarded by the Minister-President of Bavaria as a "recognition of outstanding contributions to the Free State of Bavaria and the Bavarian people".
The order was instituted by law on 11 June 1957. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet can nominate awardees.
Hemmerle, a German jewellery house based in Munich founded in 1893, is the exclusive maker of the Bavarian Order of Merit since it was instituted in 1957.


Pine Brook Country Club

Pine Brook Country Club began when Benjamin Plotkin purchased Pinewood Lake and the surrounding countryside on Mischa Hill in the historic village of Nichols, Connecticut. Plotkin built an auditorium with a revolving stage and forty rustic cabins and incorporated as the Pine Brook Country Club in 1930. Plotkin's dream was to market the rural lakeside club as a summer resort for people to stay and enjoy theatrical productions. The Club remained in existence until major fighting broke out in Europe in the mid-1940s and was reorganized as a private lake association in 1944.
Pine Brook is best known for having been the 1936 summer rehearsal headquarters of the most important experiment in the history of American theatre. The Group Theatre (New York) was formed in New York City in 1931 by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg and was made up of actors, directors, playwrights and producers. During this summer the artists "s[a]ng for their supper" while taking classes, attempting to reorganize their structure, and beginning rehearsals on "Johnny Johnston", their next Broadway production.
Including and in addition to the Group Theatre, some of the artists who are known to have spent the summer at Pine Brook at one time or another were: Stella Adler, Leonard Bernstein, Marc Blitzstein, Roman Bohnen, Phoebe Brand, Morris Carnovsky, Carol Channing, Montgomery Clift, Lee J. Cobb, Imogene Coca, Betty Comden, Howard Da Silva, Frances Farmer, John Garfield, Betty Garrett, Michael Gordon (film director), Will Geer, Adolph Green, Paul Green (playwright), Judy Holliday, Lena Horne, Elia Kazan, Arthur Laurents, Canada Lee, Lotte Lenya, Robert Lewis (actor), Sanford Meisner, Harry Morgan, Clifford Odets, Luise Rainer, John Randolph (actor), Jerome Robbins, Irwin Shaw, Anna Sokolow, Ralph Steiner, Paul Strand, Franchot Tone, Nancy Walker and Kurt Weill.
During the summer of 1936, Paul Green, Cheryl Crawford, Kurt Weill and Weill's wife Lotte Lenya rented an old house at 277 Trumbull Avenue located two miles from Pine Brook in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It was here that Green and Weill wrote the play and music for the controversial Broadway play Johnny Johnson (musical), which was titled after the most frequently occurring name on the American casualty list of World War I. It was also during this time that Lotte Lenya had her first American love affair with Paul Green.
In 1944 Pine Brook went into receivership and was sold, reorganized and chartered as the Pinewood Lake Association, a private lake association.