It Started in Philadelphia...: July 2014

Saturday, July 26, 2014

The Sky and The Water

Sunday, July 20, 2014

CARMINA BURANA CARL ORFF - Seiji Ozawa

Carmina Burana Latin for "Songs from Beuern" ("Beuern" is short for Benediktbeuern) is the name given to a manuscript of 254^[1] poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent, and satirical.
They were written by students and clergy when the Latin idiom was the lingua franca across Italy and western Europe for travelling scholars, universities and theologians. Most of the poems and songs appear to be the work of clergy (mostly students) who set up and satirized the Catholic Church. The collection preserves the works of a number of poets, including Peter of Blois, Walter of Châtillon, and an anonymous poet, referred to as the Archpoet.
The collection was found in 1803 in the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern, Bavaria, and is now housed in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. Along with the Carmina Cantabrigiensia, the Carmina Burana is the most important collection of Goliard and vagabond songs.
The manuscripts reflect an "international" European movement, with songs originating from Occitania, France, England, Scotland, Aragon, Castile and the Holy Roman Empire.^[2]
Twenty-four poems in Carmina Burana were set to music by Carl Orff in 1936. Orff's composition quickly became popular and a staple piece of the classical music repertoire. The opening and closing movement, "O Fortuna", has been used in numerous films.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fort Fredrick State Park

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fort Frederick was built in 1756-57 by the colony of Maryland. During the French and Indian War in 1756, a £6000 appropriation was authorized by the Maryland Legislature at the request of Governor Horatio Sharpe to build a fortification on the frontier. The fort, named after Fredrick Calvert, 6th Baron, Baltimore, was completed the following year. "The fort's design, which was developed by Sebastian Vauban, a French engineer, is a large square with four diamond-shaped bastions. This is typical of 18th century fortifications. The fort is built of native sandstone."
The large stone fort was designed primarily as a place of refuge for area settlers. Between 1757 and 1758, small raids by Indians in nearby settlements caused settlers in the surrounding countryside to flee eastward. At the same time men of the 60Regimen of Foot and local militia soldiers garrisoned the fort. Ranging parties were sent from the fort to patrol the area and to deter if not prevent Indian raids.
The fort was not designed to resist artillery, as it was correctly assumed that the French would not be able to transport artillery to the remote location from the west. The fort served its purpose in 1763 during Pontiac's Rebellion; however, the fort was never directly attacked. From 1777 to 1783 the fort was used as a prisoner of war camp for as many as 1,000 captured British and German soldiers.^[6]
Fort Frederick was sold at auction in 1791 and lay abandoned until the American Civil War. The fort was garrisoned at the outbreak of war and was used as a gun emplacement to protect the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which paralleled the canal. The 1st Maryland Infantry (US) occupied the area in December 1861 and Company H fought in a skirmish at the fort against Confederate raiders on Christmas Day, 1861. The regiment left in February 1862. In October 1862, a picket from the 12th Illinois Cavalry briefly occupied the area.^[7] The military usefulness of the fort ended by 1862.
In 1922 the property was acquired by the State of Maryland for use as Maryland's first state park.^[8] The walls had deteriorated but were standing up to 8 feet (2.4 m) in places. Archeaological investigations and the discovery of the original plans allowed a complete reconstruction. Much of the restoration work of the 1930s was done by the Civilian Conservation Corps.^[6]

Dam Four on the Potomac (the near shore is Maryland the far shore is West Virginia)

Regarding the whitewashed house and the stonework above, they are remains of the C and O Canal, a National Park which parallels the river on the Maryland side for over 180 miles from D.C. to Cumberland, MD.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Nairobi Trio

The Nairobi Trio was a skit Ernie Kovacs performed several times for his TV shows. It combined many existing concepts and visuals in a novel and creative way.
People in gorilla suits have always been a comedy staple. The notion of well-known or predictable music pieces gone awry has long been practiced by artists as diverse as Stan Freberg, Spike Jones or P. D. Q. Bach. The "slow burn" of one character being annoyed by another, resulting in eventual retaliation, was not new. But the combination of all those ingredients, combined with impeccable timing, produced a unique and memorable result.