The Misty Miss Christy

                                             June Christy  1925-1990

    Probably one of  the best female singers of cool silky jazz of all time.

 In her husky voice can be detected shades and echoes of Ella Doris and Peggy
Yet keeping her individual style within a sophisticated framework.
 
 Standing at five foot two the whimsical" misty miss Christy" as she was known

won top female vocalist four times though she cared little for fame. 

 

 In her career June Christy owed a lot to not only Stan Kenton but also the great

arranger and composer Pete Rugolo she sang for years with Kenton's band at a

time when he and Rugolo took big band music to the peak of its possibilities.

 

 Remember when listening to these early recordings that the sound studios

of the day were far removed from modern day acoustics. 

 

 June Christy

June with Stan Kenton

 

 

 

    http://youtu.be/L33LYC0n5rA         Softly as in a morning sunrise

 

  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWLUgP5bGqk&feature=share&list=PL0A1B5753793C9E56

 

With Kenton  This is a lovely way to spend an evening.

 

 http://youtu.be/A0xhL0jVXTU       Something Cool

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Cosslett (Oil Painter)

   Born in Cardiff in 1927 Peter Cosslett spent his early life in the Merchant Marines,where he became fascinated by the power and drama of the sea.
   After the war he worked as a salesman, but found difficulty in coping after the loss of a leg through cancer. As a challenge he took up painting and despite early setbacks, persisted.
  Completely self taught, he learnt by trial and error, but by 1971 he was receiving regular enquires for his work and demand enabled him to become a full time artist.
  Peter specialises in control subjects, he is a realist painter whose work contains no gimmicks, but takes many hours to complete.
  He now spends all his time painting to meet the constant demand for his work and is considered to be the finest contemporary painter of British seascapes.

 

The Founder of Celebrity

               Joshua Reynolds (1723 - 1792)

 

 



    Born in Devon in 1723,Reynolds was an 18th century English painter.He was an intellectual, and a friend of Dr Johnson and his circle.

   

    Reynolds believed in the art of history painting, but accepted that in those times the only art in demand was that of portraiture.He could equal the best of the portrait painters of the time and he liked to add an extra interest to his paintings of people to bring out their character and their role in society,stating that painters should perceive their subjects through idealisation rather than reality.

 

This, of course, had the great and the good flocking to his door to have their imperfections painted out,and Reynolds was in business, creating celebrities.

  

Most of the high society portrait backgrounds were painted by others .leaving the master to concentrate on the subjects themselves,and to satisfy the elegant society of eighteenth century England.

 

 Though a man about town,Reynolds never married,though many female clients visited his house for more sittings than were strictly necessary. However, claims to this end are purely speculative. 

 

Admiral Hood 1783

Edward Cornwallis 1756

The age of innocence.1788

     

 

  

Jessica Ennis

    One of the problems with having heroes or heroines is that you are constantly searching for excuses for their failings. No such problem with Jessica Ennis. "The Golden Girl".
   

    Jessica Ennis MBE was born in Sheffield on the 28th January 1986.
She is a British track and field athlete and winner of both outdoor and indoor world championships
With a degree in psychology,the 5ft 5in athlete is well able to deal with the pressure involved in top-class competition and won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2012 London Olympics.

Hans Holbein (The Younger) 1497-1543.



Self Portrait of Hans Holbein

   Born 1497 in Augsburg Germany and into a painting family,Holbein became one of the greatest portrait painters of the sixteenth century. After an early career in mainland Europe,and on the recommendation of Erasmus, Holbein came to England, in 1526, where he quickly built up a reputation as a great painter.

   With the friendship of Sir Thomas More and the patronage of Anne Boleyn, Holbein became the royal painter to Henry VIII, where his task was to paint portraits of the Royal Household, and it is due to Holbein that we can see today the vivid pictures of the men and women of Henry VIII's period.

   Painted without fear or favour and a certain indifference to conventional beauty, Holbein always maintained a perfect balance of composition and his attention to detail was immaculate.

Henry VIII

  "Holbein remains unsurpassed for sureness and economy of statement, penetration into character and a combined richness and purity of style".

John Barry (predergast) Film music composer of renown.

                                                 3 Nov.1933  -- 30 Jan 2011

In a career spanning 50 years, John Barry composed the scores for eleven Bond films,plus countless other films including "Out of Africa," "Dances with Wolves," "The Lion in Winter", "Born Free", and Zulu,"     

http://youtu.be/xYQ7dxwRkUM

Compilation

  Born in York, Barry spent his early life with his Irish father, touring the cinemas of northern England and it was this experience which influenced his musical tastes. In 1957 he formed his own band (The John Barry Seven)Which came to the attention of record producers E.M.I. and resulted in a few hits.

http://youtu.be/wUi2jaV0Xr4

"Hit and Miss"

 However, it was in 1962 when Barry really broke through with his style of music which developed as he matured, using lush strings and extensive brass and it was this brassy and moody style which appealed to the film aficionados of the time. he was approached by the producers of a new film called "Dr No", and the rest, as they say, is history.

Barry went on to become one of the most celebrated film composers of all time,winning countless awards including five Academy Awards. In 1975,Barry moved to America to avoid paying tax,(reputedly) and thereafter spent most of his time there.

In his private life, the emotional Barry was married four times , the first three ending in divorce and was the father of four children, but he will be most remembered for the music which gave so many people so much pleasure.

Sadly he died in New York in 2011.

http://youtu.be/Jde-NT7vfn0

     The Lion in Winter

 In 2001 The University of York gave Barry an honorary degree, and in 2002 he was made An honorary freeman of York----------- But no knighthood?

      

George Frederick Handel 1685-1759

The German-British musician is regarded by many to be the greatest composer of all time. his many works include The Messiah,  The Water Music, The Royal Fireworks and Zadoc the Priest.

http://youtu.be/76RrdwElnTU
Although of German birth,Handel spent most of his life in England,becoming naturalised.The Messiah was produced in Dublin in 1742,and was immediately recognised as one of the worlds greatest masterpieces of music.Handel was commissioned to write an anthem for the coronation of George 11, and since then Zadoc the Priest has been played at every British coronation since.

http://youtu.be/EXjY6w1KQMo

http://youtu.be/jI0YOPoj4t0

However,fortune did not always smile on Handel,but he survived to restore his reputation.He was never married and kept his personal life private.

http://youtu.be/7U8YVsW9I8U


In 1759,Handel died and was buried in Westminster Abbey, still held in high esteem by his fellow composers,Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.

"The music catches breath, and disturbs memory"

Alexander Borodin composer and chemist 1833-1887

Perhaps better known as a composer, Borodin was in fact one of 19th century Russia's top people in the science of elements and compounds. Born and died in Saint Petersberg, Borodin became a member of "The Five" all composers whose aim was producing original rather than imitative music. In his teens Borodin could speak four languages and could play three instruments.

Borodin's music is full of romantic and enticing melody much of it also rings with the pageantry and landscape of onion-domed churches,richly decorated icons and the vastness of the land. Although Borodin wrote many works, he was most noted for his opera "Prince Igor".

http://youtu.be/t8C8frqCKKg

The opera takes place in twelfth-century Russia. Prince Igor heads a campaign against the Polovtsi a war-like tribe of central Russia who are causing raiding problems. However,he is defeated and taken prisoner. The head of Polovtsi,surprisingly,treats Igor as an honoured guest and entertains him on a lavish scale with feasting and dancing in the Polovtsian manner.

Polar Bears

Satiated,Polar Bears rarely attack humans unless severely provoked,whereas starving bears are extremely unpredictable and are known to kill, and sometimes eat humans. Due to warming air temperatures,ice-flow breakup is currently occurring three weeks earlier than thirty years ago,reducing dramatically the duration of the Polar bears feeding season.
Polar bears hunt seals from a platform of sea-ice. Rising temperatures cause the sea-ice to melt earlier in the year, driving the bears to shore before they have built sufficient fat reserves to survive the period of scarce food,in the late summer and early autumn. Reduction in sea-ice cover also forces bears to swim longer distances which further depletes their energy stores and occasionally leads to drowning.

       The greed and overpopulation of humans is causing this global warming change, so, bearing in mind the recent sad news,let us not be too hard on the starving polar bears.

Rene Descartes (pronounced Dacart) 1596-1650

Born 31 march 1596 in central France,Rene Descartes lived to become not only a soldier,but also a brilliant mathematician and philosopher.
As a soldier, Descartes joined the catholic army in 1612 and was present at the battle of White Mountain in 1620 when the Holy Roman Emperor routed the protestants during the thirty year war.He was also present in 1627 at the infamous siege of La Rochelle by Cardinal Richelieu.

Cardinal Richelieu at the siege of La Rochelle.

As a mathematician, he is best known for inventing the cartesian coordinate system in 1637.This introduced the idea of specifying the position of a point or object on a surface using two intersecting axes as measuring guides with the origin at the centre. this not only simplified many mathematical calculations, but also provided the first systematic link between geometry and algebra.

As a philosopher,Descartes is best known for the sentence "cogito ergo sum" which is translated as I think therefore I am, or  I am thinking therefore I exist, or  I do think therefore I do exist. Descartes proceeded on a system of acquiring knowledge based on deduction and perception with limited senses.

"And so something which I thought I was seeing with my eyes is in fact grasped solely by the faculty of judgment which is in my mind."

Rene Descartes

Descartes, chasing the impossibility of original thought, left in his wake ideas that others developed into what is now modern philosophy and mathematics.he spent many years in the Dutch Republic, and it is there that he wrote most of his major works.

He died of pneumonia in 1650 in Stockholm where he was tutor to Queen Christina of Sweden.

Queen Christina with Descartes

The Huguenots

"The Edict of Nantes" (1598)

  In an effort to end the years of religious wars,Henry 1V of France issued an Edict which  granted
Protestants of France(known as Huguenots) substantial rights, in a predominately Catholic nation.
Through the Edict, Henry,in the hope of national unity,offered a path of tolerance and freedom to the
Huguenots.

"The Edict of Fontainbleau." (1685)
 
   In 1685 LouisX1V, by issuing the Edict of Fontainbleau revoked the Edict of Nantes and ordered the wholesale persecution of all Huguenots in an attempt to intimidate them to convert to Catholicism.This policy backfired as almost a million Huguenot artisans left France which caused a vacuum that was not filled for years.

  These Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) relocated in Protestant countries all over the world,
and as skilled craftsmen were welcomed and encouraged by the recipient countries.One such country which benefited greatly from the techniques and styles of the immigrants, was England.



   It is estimated that over 50.000 Huguenots fled to England during the persecutions.these immigrants were not slow to set up industries in Metalwork, Watchmaking, Cabinet making, Plateglass ,Silk, Lace, Gardening and Weaving.In time this helped to bring England into the forefront of European industry: much to the chagrin of the short-sighted French Catholics.In fact many of these Huguenots fought with England against France in a series of wars.

Huguenot weavers houses in Canterbury

   An example of this development can be found in Metal working with the arrival in England of a first generation refugee and brilliant silversmith Pierre Platel (1659-1719). He set up shop and later
gave work as an apprentice to one, Paul de Lamerie.

  Paul de Lamerie (1688-1751) became the greatest silversmith working in England in the 18th
century. As a Huguenot,Paul came to England with his parents,fleeing the persecution in France.
His success as a silversmith lay not only in his exceptional powers of invention and creation, but also in his ability as a businessman,retailing some astonishingly spectacular silverware from his own workshop and also using the best external silversmiths,such as Paul Crespin and the" Maynard Master."

Cup an Cover 1736

Ralph Vaughan Williams (The most English of Englishmen.)

Though born (12 Oct 1872 ) into the privileged intellectual upper middle class, with family connections to both Josiah Wedgewood and Charles Darwin, and friend of Gustaf Holst,Vaughan Williams never took it for granted,and worked all his life for the democratic ideals.As a private in the medical Corp,he saw action as a stretcher bearer in the Great War.

As an English composer of Symphonies,film and choral music,and an avid collector of English Folk music, Williams became a central figure in British music because of his long career as teacher,lecturer and friend to so many younger musicians.his writings on music remain thought-provoking, particularly his oft-repeated call for all persons to make their own music,however simple,as long as it their own.

  http://youtu.be/HWwBh0dzgi4   "A Lark ascending"
http://youtu.be/rsT0KFZZ3lM     " A London Symphony "

Though intrinsically involved with religion and Church music,Vaughan Williams was an atheist, yet characteristically his music can seem familiar to all. Deep and mystical as well as lyrical and melodic his style expresses a deep regard for,and fascination with not only English folk tunes, but also the early music of people like Thomas Tallis.

On the 26 August Vaughan Williams died and was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey.


        "One is never quite sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new"

      Film scores
          http://youtu.be/VFZyJ956sJk       "Scott of the Antarctic"
          http://youtu.be/3Y5x3bWdTTQ   "Coastal Command"

Trumpet call for a very uncommon man. Aaron Copland. 1900-1990

Born in Brooklyn of Eastern European stock, Aaron Copland rose to be a composer of a type of music that combined simplicity with originality. His style and breadth of vision was considered by many to evoke the vastness and spirit of eighteenth century America." The sound of a continent".

After a comprehensive musical education (theory,harmony and composition) Copland spent a few years in Europe, rounding his expertise and on his return to America, based himself in New York. However,Aaron was not an instant success and it was during these hard times that he learnt to modify the pure artistic music he was composing with a touch of commercialization.

Creating music with a wide appeal and a love of wide canvases Copland's world wide fame was soon established with a string of compositions .

       Hoe Down (Rodeo)    http://youtu.be/er8JloGJhAQ
       Appalachian Spring.   http://youtu.be/7U7hPHSkNJo
       El Salon Mexico.     http://youtu.be/PMHDpp_CUPw
       Prairie Journal.        http://youtu.be/sE6yTE9FX6c
       John Henry.            http://youtu.be/Gu06sqSIRdE
       Quite City.             http://youtu.be/Gu06sqSIRdE

And of course  Fanfare for the common man.    http://youtu.be/whI85ovsTIs

During this time of success Copland not only amassed a fortune, but also exerted a major influence on a generation of American composers . In the American western, for instance, you can still hear the echoes of Aaron in the compositions of modern composers.

                 "I have spent a lifetime trying to get the right note in the right place"
    

Something that counts for something.

Do not be averted by detractors.

"If you believe that something in life counts for something,then remember that at the end of the day,what counts is counted,therefore that that is counted,counts"..

Emile Galle " Poetry in Glass" 1846-1904

Meisenthal hand blown

Artistically,Emile Galle was at the forefront of the art of studio glass production.He learned his trade at Meisenthal,a commune in north east France that invented Christmas glass decorations.He then travelled throughout Europe, studying the work of influential glass makers of the time.

From these experiences, Galle would become the greatest Art Nouveau period glass producer (mainly vases and table lamps). Abandoning the old ideas and introducing original concepts of plants,insects and flowers.


He discovered metallic foils could give a desired effect when applied in the glass making
process, applying the metallic foils between the coloured glass sheets.

Using Thistles,Fuchsias,Clematis and Chrysanthemums, the stunning effects are that the subject matter look as though they are growing around the vessel.

Galle was a humanist and supported many controversial causes during his lifetime.


Cameo carved glass was also Galles forte in relief with design in different colours from the background.

Engraved Crystal Vase

The trademark of Galle was the air of mystery he created by carving or sealing a poetic sentence within each vessel.He had a passion for naturalistic designs,innovative techniques, and introduced a heavy Japanese opaque glass,cut,carved and etched with motifs.

The Dragonfly Bowl (Nancy 1903)

After his death,his widow operated the glass works,but all the produced glass,whilst bearing his signature had a star alongside.

"I have sought to make crystal yield forth all the tender or fierce expression I can summon when guided by a hand that delights in it."    Emile Galle.

.

Johnny Dankworth ( The early years.)

Born in Woodford,Essex on the twentieth of September 1927, John Dankworth grew up to become one of the greatest jazz musicians this country has ever produced. In his early years his brand of modern jazz, played on the alto saxophone was soon to bring him fame and coupling this talent with  perfect pitch ensured his career at the very top both as a performer and composer/arranger. After being voted Musician of the Year in 1949 Dankworth formed a small group., the much famed Dankworth Seven.After three successful years, the group was wound up, although it reformed for several reunions over the years.
Nota bene; on the Utube audio record label,the original personnel of the Seven.

http://youtu.be/YJnBtoY2eUU

   

        For in depth biography    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dankworth

Mozart

Mozarts life,with the exception of the early years of childhood, was one of sorrow and disappointment and a constant struggle against intrigue and poverty. In spite of his genius he was not sufficiently recognized by his contemporaries and he was allowed to die at the early age of 35 in the direst poverty and was buried in the common paupers grave in Vienna.
http://youtu.be/df-eLzao63I

Queen of the divas Cleo Laine.

The voice that has stood astride of the musical world,and won countless awards,over sixty years,belongs, of course, to Cleo Laine.(lady dankworth).
Cleo is famed for not only her unique style,but also her four octave range and vocal adaptability.As well as hitting deep soulful notes, Cleos thrilling scatting and crystalline top notes have become, over the years, her signature.

Cleo did not take up singing professionally until her mid-twenties. She auditioned for a band led by John Dankworth, whom she later married,and with whom she performed for fifty years or more.

For a complete in depth biography please click the link.  for the home page,then click Cleo in the top right bar.

To hear Cleo at her best please click the video.
http://youtu.be/e48tmnqg5bc

 for in depth biography      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_Laine