Symphony/Composer Bravely Condemns Evil
It was while I was enjoying a quiet pint at work when I happened upon this lively article about the Symphony No. 7, by Shostakovich.
Music Review: BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Peter Collins, South Wales Echo, July 21, 2010
IT was while I was enjoying a quiet pint during the interval of this gripping Welsh Prom concert that I eavesdropped on a lively conversation about the Symphony No 7, by Shostakovich.
Beer is about the only way I know to prepare for that symphony, too.
The symphony, known as Leningrad, occupied the whole of the second half of the concert.
As symphonies tend to do from time to time.
So, what of their lively conversation.
The thrust of the tete-a-tete was whether the massive work was Shostakovich's nationalistic symbol of Russian resistance and defiance to Nazi totalitarianism, or a more general depiction and condemnation of totalitarianism, with the brutality of Stalin as its driving force. As always with Shostakovich it is an interesting but ultimately futile debate.
God, how incredibly fascinating. Did his music actively hate Nazis, or just passively hate them?
figure argument: Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a contrary position.
Also, futile? Really? Let's ask wikipedia, they know everything.
In its time, the symphony was extremely popular in both Russia and the West as a symbol of resistance and defiance to Nazi totalitarianism and militarism. As a condemnation of the German invasion...
Okay, so in its time, it was a "symbol of...resistance and defiance to Nazi totalitarianism".
Hmmm...that seems strangely familiar. Hey, wait a minute!
...[rereads article...then wikipedia entry...then article again...then takes a shot of whiskey]...
Wikipedia seems to suggest that the symphony both condemns AND resists Nazi totalitarianism!
How can that be? Don't keep us in suspense...which is it? Who won the argument?
Nevertheless, it was fascinating to see which view conductor Thierry Fischer would take as he picked up his baton to lead BBC NOW.
Good call...let the conductor decide. So, which is it: resistance or condemnation?
It seemed to me that Fischer, who was in command of the music and the orchestra from start to finish, was inclined to view the opus as more of a general condemnation of evil.
Really? The symphony condemns evil in general? Not just Nazi totalitarianism, but all evil?
Maybe the Eighth symphony is a statement that the children are our future.
[sigh...]
Also, copying from wikipedia is lazy, and such.
figure copying: Thank you, Al Gore, for the internets.
Posted by Gustav at 3:58 PM 3 comments
Labels: Monty Python, music condemns evil, Nazis, Peter Collins, Plagiarism, Shostakovich, Shostakovich Seventh, South Wales Echo, WalesOnline.com
The Ketchup Is too Spicy for My Tater Tots
You think the title is on the ridiculous side? Well, have I a review for you!
The Seattle Chamber Music Festival is beloved by its fans for its Romantic sweet spot, but even the most ardent champions of easy-on-the-ear melody would have had to reconsider the merits of dissonance last Sunday night.
Damn! That, indeed, sounds spicy. So spicy, in fact, I might reconsider renewing my subscription to Earplugs-R-Us, the Anti-modernist Relief Association's bi-annual magazine that caters to concertgoers who are routinely subjected to unresolved fourths. The magazine also comes with complimentary earplugs, duh.
But, really, who am I kidding? Bring on the pain! Bring on the pain!!
The evening opened with Mozart's crisp and deceptively melodious Piano Trio in B-flat Major...
Bring on the p...
Uh, surely, the Mozart isn't the spicy bit; it doesn't even hit the "Romantic sweet spot." It makes me wonder, then, what, if anything, could make one "reconsider the merits [really, merits?] of dissonance"?
Compared to the pleasant, cuppa-tea-with-milk-and-honey Mozart...
(Does your stomach churn when you see "cuppa," too?)
Compared to the [...] Mozart, Prokofiev's Quartet No. 2 in F Major is a stiff shot of vodka.
Prokofiev? You're shitting me.
F friggin' major!?
And dissonant to the point that it makes one wonder if dissonance is overrated? Huh? What are you? Eight years old?!
To jog our memories, maybe we should give it a listen.
Example 1: Movement I
Oh! Now I get it. Because Russians drink vodka, see, unlike Mozart. And they're all bears, bears who drink vodka. So, they're un-bear-ably dissonant.
Wait. That doesn't make any damned sense. What's really going on, here?
Maybe the rest of the review will explain.
The starting Allegro is a stolid contraption of levers and pulleys, a steel factory producing energy in the form of audible vibrations.
Not to ruin your nice little story, but did you ever consider that the actual, in-front-of-you string quartet is, you know, making real, audible vibrations?
Maybe it's just me, but confusing the real for the simulation (metaphoric description) is, well, a detrimental symptom of postmodernism that nobody needs; not here, anyway.
It seemed impossible that the night could get any better, but after intermission it did.
I'll cut to the chase: it was Lalo. Lalo's Piano Trio in A friggin' minor. (The descriptive writing is a bit over the top, here, so it is omitted) Anyway...
End of dissonance inquiry.
I don't get it. Either our author has a weak stomach or...I just don't get it.
Maybe the title and hook left us some clues.
Review: Stiff shot of dissonance vibrates at Seattle chamber-music fest
Sumi Hahn
Special to the Seattle Times
No help here.
Dissonance in music is a taste acquired over time.
If only Bach wrote dissonant music...
Like a craving for coffee or scotch, the appetite for such harmonics is also culturally conditioned.
That's part of it, sure, I guess.
One man's song may well be another man's noise.
There you have it: dissonance.
And now: Mozart, Prokofiev, and Lalo. Enjoy!
Labels: dissonance, Earplugs-R-Us, Lalo, Mozart, Postmodern Fun, Prokofiev, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Seattle Times, Sumi Hahn
Lutoslawski's Too Wild for Words
Symphony Review: Sublime opener launches Mozaic
James Cushing, San Luis Obispo Tribune, July 19th, 2010
See, Dallas Morning News, this is how you do a review title for a festival.
Whether you think of it as Festival Mozaic or The San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, 2010 marks the 40th year of this annual bounty.
Way to go Fesitval Mozart Festival guys. 40 years is a lot!
If Thursday's sublime opening concert was any indication, this summer might be the most adventurous music festival in recent memory.
Sublime adventure? Interesting. What's on the concert?
Two ambitious chamber works by Rachmaninoff and a wild ride by Polish modernist Witold Lutoslawski left the opening night's near-capacity audience at the Cuesta College Cultural and Performing Arts Center with a lot to think about and feel grateful for.
Ooh. I love Lutoslawski. And it's wild! How very exciting.
figure festival patron: A motorcar Lutoslawski. Gad! What have I been missing.
We've come to expect intelligent programming from Music Director Scott Yoo,...
Bor-ing...
The piece, scored for piano, violin and cello,...
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Cellist Trevor Handy, familiar to Festival Mozaic audiences,...
Uh-huh. [skimming some more...]
In the last movement,...
Last? Well, that means we're surely getting close now...I can feel it.
figure lutoslawski: Mr. Toad's wild ride.
The second half of the concert explored the two-piano repertoire with Rachmaninoff's "Suite No. 2 in C major" and Lutoslawski's wild Paganini variations.
Wild, yes. And...?
The 1901 suite is structured symphonically and maintains an optimistic mood in contrast to the dark sorrows of the trio. The second movement,...
Bah...
...a waltz, sped along as brightly as it does under the hands of Argerich and Meyer in their celebrated recording.
Surely, the last paragraph will mention something about the wildness of Lutoslawski.
The concert was sponsored by Ron and Ann Alers. The festival continues through Sunday.
Fine. Whatever. I'm sure there's nothing interesting about that piece--like that it was originally composed in 1941 in Nazi-occupied Poland for performance in bars and cafés as a means of financial survival. Or that it's a variation on the last of the famous 24 Caprices by Paganini for unaccompanied violin -- the piece that probably originated the legend of Paganini's deal with the Devil -- which also served as the basis for musical treatments by composers such as Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Szymanowski, and even Andrew Lloyd-freakin'-Webber.
I agree. Wholly uninteresting.
embeddence paganini variations: Witold's Wild Ride.
Posted by Gustav at 9:36 AM 5 comments
Labels: James Cushing, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, San Luis Obispo Tribune, Witold Lutoslawski
In Which I Am Proven Wrong...by Science!
So I was saying that Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps is surely an excellent piece, but that given the 70 or so years since its inception, it isn't really astonishing anymore.
"Nuh uh," my interlocutor insisted. "It's still astonishing."
I mean, I guess. But not really astonishing. It's well known and widely performed and studied, so how astonishing can it really be? Perhaps this is a semantic or rhetorical squabble, but still...
"Nuh uh. I'll prove it."
Mimir Chamber proves 'Quartet for the End of Time' still has power to astonish
Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News, 7/14/2010
Aw, fiddlesticks.
But wait. What's a "Mimir Chamber"?
Figure 1: One imagines a secret meeting room where shadowy, powerful men negotiate the fate of the world. ("You can't fight in here! This is the war room!")
...Nearly 70 years on, the eight-movement, 45-minute work still astonishes. And so it did again Tuesday night at Texas Christian University's PepsiCo Recital Hall, thanks to the Mimir Chamber Music Festival.
Okay. Title-writing guy? Couple-a things.
"Mimir Festival" or even simply "Mimir" would have been perfectly clear shorthand for "Mimir Chamber Music Festival." Although one is thankful your preferred truncation was not some nouveau-cable station abbreviation like "MimFest," "Mimir Chamber" is bad and dumb and unclear to boot.
Second, and through fault of neither author nor inept title-writer:
...Texas Christian University's PepsiCo Recital Hall...
Fucking hell, people. Way to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.
Figure 2: A parable, of sorts, for those with eyes to see.
Posted by Sator Arepo at 9:40 AM 5 comments
Labels: Bad Article Titles, Dallas Morning News, Mimir Chamber Festival, Olivier Messiaen, TCU
Symphony Programs Beethoven, Staff Critic Approves
A season preview in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, simply attributed to the Staff Reports.
Richmond Symphony: On the Knees
Seems like a difficult way to perform, but whatever...on their knees it is.
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has established itself as the most beloved work in the repertoire.
Ah, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, no other piece is so universally praised and loved.
I think super-duper composer Louis Spohr summed it up nicely in his autobiography:
"I confess freely that I could never get any enjoyment out of the Beethoven's last works. Yes, I must include the among them even the much-admired Ninth Symphony, the fourth movement of which seems to me so ugly, in such bad taste, and in the conception of Schiller' Ode so cheap that I cannot even now understand how such a genius as Beethoven could write it down. I find in it another corroboration...that Beethoven was deficient in esthetic imagery and lacked the sense of beauty."
Thanks in large part to its choral finale, known as the "Ode to Joy,"
"Ode to..." what now?
...it serves as the anthem for Europe...
What an oddly nonspecific way of saying that it is recognized as a European Anthem by both the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe.
...and is played during momentous occasions throughout the world.
Oh yes, the "Ode to Joy"! Quite the famous tune, indeed.
And, thanks to the music in the piece, it's the European Anthem and is used to underscore momentous occasions? Really, could it have been any other way?
But, "Ode to Joy" -- who doesn't love that tune. As Philip Hale so eloquently extolled its virtues for the Musical Record in 1899:
"But oh, the pages of stupid and hopelessly vulgar music! The unspeakable cheapness of the chief tune, 'Freude, Freude!' Do you believe way down in the bottom of your heart that if this music had been written by Mr. John L. Tarbox, now living in Sandown, N.H., any conductor here or in Europe could be persuaded to put in rehearsal?"
embeddence Ode: "Ode to Joy", anthem of Europe and jingle to help sell tickets!
The symphony celebrates triumph and offers consolation during times of sorrow.
And has accompanied some of the most heart-warming cinematic moments:
So, to what do you attribute to this piece's success?
Although not overtly religious -- and Beethoven himself does not seem a man of the creed -- it strikes many souls.
O...kay. That all seems fairly reasonable.
And if the Ninth resembles a secular prayer, then Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" may be a mass scored not only for believers but for doubters and perhaps even for scoffers.
...Good point?
But now that you've randomly brought it up, I should say that I love the "Missa Solemnis". As was written in the London Morning Chronicle in 1845:
"The Missa Solemnis was generally regarded as an incomprehensible production, the depths of which (if they really were depths) it was impossible to fathom."
Greatest mass ever? I think so.
In both compositions, music is the medium and the message.
So...not a secular prayer, nor mass for the believers and friends?
But why did you bring up the Missa Solemnis?
The pieces came to mind when the Richmond Symphony released its schedule for 2010-2011.
I was just wondering this. Why did these two pieces come to mind when the schedule was released? I'm going to guess it was the stirring words of John Ruskin (yes, that John Ruskin) in a letter to John Brown (in 1881), who wrote:
"Beethoven always sounds to me like the upsetting of bags of nails, with here and there an also dropped hammer."
Steven Smith's first season as music director will open with the Ninth and close with the "Missa Solemnis."
Ah...makes sense. But really, you've already told us sooo much about this music, I feel like I've heard them already. Why bother performing them?
Words cannot fully explain music because music would not be necessary if words sufficed.
Yeah, you're totally right -- well, as long as you don't actually think about it.
But, circular logic aside...are you really sure? How about an analogy?
Descriptions of tunes usually prove as insightful as those wine reviews that detect about 73 distinct flavors in a jug of red. Just listen.
I must say, as a classical music lover, I have been known to take part of jug of red from time to time. Words just won't suffice. Say no more.
But you've gotten to the point so quickly, surely there's a word minimum for this article. Maybe you cram in some random quotes supporting your thesis about the awesomeness of Beethoven? And maybe an odd transition while we're at it?
The finale of the Ninth may convey universals,...
To be sure. But universal what? Universal remotes? Universal Studios? Oh, I know...universal truths? I hope so, because that's how I like my truths.
...but the preceding movement is sublime.
The third movement doesn't have universals, but is sublime?
And, by the way, excellent job on the odd transition here.
So, go on, what ya got on the Adagio movement?
In his charming and rewarding The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824, Harvey Sachs writes of the Ninth's third movement: "[N]othing more beautiful than this movement has ever been written for the symphony orchestra."
Well, Sachs definitely proves his objectivity on the subject by not allowing himself to become victim to hyperbole.
And Sachs is totally right, of course. As the Boston Daily Atlas put it in 1853:
"The Adagio certainly possessed much beauty, but the other movements, particularly the last, appeared to be an incomprehensible union of strange harmonies. Beethoven was deaf when he wrote it."
So, what ironclad evidence does Sachs provide?
Sachs cites Arturo Toscanini's passionate comments that the movement "lifts me off the earth, removes me from the field of gravity, makes me weightless. One becomes all soul. One ought to conduct it on one's knees."
Fascinating. The laws of physics actually cease to exist while the third movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is being performed?
I was aware of the rumors surrounding the mystical powers of Beethoven's music, but never before had I seen it proven.
In Witness, Whittaker Chambers testifies to the transformational presence inherent in the adagio.
Wait? What?
Whittaker Chambers? The Soviet Spy who defected to the US prior to World War II?
The same Whittaker Chambers who testified against Alger Hiss in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee?
That Whittaker Chambers? What did he have to say about the third movement?
Whittaker Chambers testifies to the transformational presence inherent in the adagio.
So, if I may be permitted to read between the lines a bit, not only is the Adagio the most beautiful movement ever written, with powers to break down earth's gravity, but it contains the transformational powers to turn...capitalists into...communists?
And if the third movement is, as Sachs says, the most beautiful symphonic movement ever composed,...
If?
...then the Sanctus from the "Missa Solemnis" stakes a claim for ultimate beauty, too.
Really, how do you figure? Are you suggesting that the Missa Solemnis' beauty is directly tied to our opinion of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, third movement?
That'd be pretty strange, wouldn't it? Wouldn't really expect that, but what the hell do I know? I didn't even know that there really could be a piece that was the most beautiful symphonic movement ever.
During its coming season, the Richmond Symphony will give music-lovers a chance to decide for themselves.
That the 'Sanctus' can stake a claim of ultimate beauty?
And those unfamiliar with the concert scene will find the programming an accessible introduction to the purest of the arts.
Wait, what were you saying about the communists again?
Posted by Gustav at 12:48 PM 6 comments
Labels: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Everybody Knows Beethoven, Harvey Sachs, Missa Solemnis, Ode to Joy, Richmond Symphony, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Friday Quickie: Suffering from an excess of good taste?
An interesting dichotomy is often created between the technical prowess of a performance and the depth of the emotional narrative. It is commonplace that some performances are maligned as being cold and technical, while less-than-perfect performances are excused and even lauded because of a sense of greater emotional involvement.
Richard Storm, reviewing the Sarasota Music Festival for the Herald-Tribune, has one such review.
REVIEW: Sarasota Music Festival faculty artists touch the heart
Every music student has been there: Listening while a beloved teacher illustrates the way a particular composition should go, exploring the heart and soul of the piece, possibly slighting some of its technical requirements.
Hehe. Yep, those who can't -- teach. Right?
Which is more important: note-perfect execution or an exploration of the composer's intentions?
That's a tough one. It really seems to allude a deeper philosophical question: what makes a piece of music what it is...the information in the score or the manner in which player performs it?
It's a complicated question, to be sure, which requires quite a bit of nuance in answering. However, before answering we should ask, more fundamentally, why should these two be diametrically opposed? It seems that a piece could be performed note-perfect and to the composer's intention. If not, then there would seem to a fundamental flaw, a Catch-22 of sorts, in the composition to begin with. Right?
But it's your rhetorical question, so...
No-brainer: The soul wins every time.
I'm guessing the "soul" is the composer's "intention", not the actual notes he wrote. From the point of view of the listener I can understand this feeling.
So, having attended the concert, enlighten us to the "soulful" rendering of the evening's performances.
So, while the faculty artists who performed at the Sarasota Music Festival Artist Showcase Thursday afternoon did not always achieve technical perfection, they fulfilled their roles as mentors and teachers of the fine young musicians who are training with them at the festival.
Huh? Because the faculty performed, and didn't achieve technical perfection, they were mentors and teachers?
The best example of this important distinction...
That performing all the right notes isn't important?
...was found in John Perry's intensely engaging rendition of Robert Schumann's moving and challenging Fantasy in C Major, an extended reaction to forced separation from his beloved Clara.
Which is why he dedicated the work to Franz Liszt? (note: link is to a pdf of the score)
And which (the infallible) wikipedia claims was composed in part as a monument to Beethoven, even quoting Beethoven in the work?
But whatever, I get it...all great composers get boiled down to one or two simple storylines: Mozart's all-consuming genius, Beethoven's deafness/savior of concerts with new music, Schumann's love of Clara/going crazy, and Brahms' love of the corn dog pizza.
figure corn dog pizza: And people say America doesn't invent anything anymore.
But we were talking about how great the interpretation of the piece was...
Perry's performance was by no means technically perfect...
Yeah, I think you've mentioned that. If there's one thing performers love, it's having wrong notes pointed out to them.
...but it was touching in its intensity, powerful in its commitment to communication.
And this intensity and commitment to communication was enhanced by the lack of concern for right notes and technical perfection?
It's an interesting theory, but I'm going to need some convincing as to how the "heart and soul" of the piece was enhanced at the expense of the technical aspects of the piece.
Tell us more about how the performer plumbed the emotional depths of Schumann's desperation over his separation from his beloved Clara?
Yes, notes were missed,...
No, no, we get it. Ix-nay on the ong-wray otes-nay.
...there were messy and muddy moments,...
(This sure is a funny looking positive review.)
...but the final result was an appreciation of both the genius of Schumann and the influence of Perry on his students.
Please pardon me if I'm asking an obvious question, but how was this muddy, messy, technically imperfect performance an appreciation of the influence of Perry on his students?
I'm not sure we're getting anywhere, how about we check in on some of the other faculty performances.
The same evaluations...
Again, the technical and emotional battle for supremacy.
...applied to an over-cautious performance of Gioachino Rossini's youthful "indiscretion" — his String Quartet No. 1, in an arrangement for winds, performed with great skill but very little witty spirit by Leone Buyse, flute; Franklin Cohen, clarinet; Frank Morelli, bassoon; and William Purvis, horn.
Okay, let's summarize...the Schumann had wrong notes, but was ultimately a good performance. And by contrast, the Rossini was played with "great skill" (which I can only assume means all the right notes), but wasn't spirited, and therefore not as satisfying a performance.
Hmmm...I'm beginning to see your point. This is indeed a conundrum.
Where was the mischievous wit for which Rossini was famous,...
It was probably lost in all the right notes being played...
...even at the age of 12,...
Wait, pardon the interruption -- Rossini was famous for his mischievous wit when he was 12? Famous with who -- his mom?
figure Rossini: Getting a lecture from his parents after his famous mischievousness caused him to trample Mr. Wilson's newly planted begonias.
...when he is alleged to have written this charming piece? Perhaps the performance suffered from an excess of good taste.
Just like the corn dog pizza.
That caution may also have affected the first piece on the program;...
The way they performed the Rossini may have affected the first piece? I'm assuming the "first piece on the program" was performed before the Rossini...right?
...Erno Dohnanyi's "Aria," performed by Buyse and Jonathan Spivey, piano, in which cautious good taste may have resulted in flute tone slightly under pitch.
Sounds like another excellent teaching moment for the kiddies. Intonation, just like accurate notes, aren't as important as the soul. Right?
Also, I have no idea what "cautious good taste" means. But it obviously is something to avoid. ...or not?
But back to our exploration of technical versus emotional. It seems what we have here, with the Dohnanyi, is a less than technically perfect performance, that was at the same time also suffering from "good taste" (e.g. not a satisfying emotional performance).
Does this suggest a flaw in our basic premise?
Hmmm...one more example maybe?
Yasha Heifetz's clever arrangements of arias from George Gershwin's glorious folk opera, "Porgy and Bess," performed by Alexander Kerr, violin, and Jean Schneider, piano, was much more like the expectations of the students in the audience in its energy and swing.
Wait, I thought all these wrong notes, lack of wit, and bad intonations were what we expect when our beloved teachers perform for us? But I guess I should have assumed that when you said it had "energy and swing", that meant it was "exploring the heart and soul of the piece, possibly slighting some of its technical requirements." However, I'm not quite sure how the example of this dichotomy was a positive learning experience for the kiddies -- I guess we're teaching them priorities?
But, perhaps your larger point stands, that technical blemishes aren't as detrimental to the success of a performance as are cautious, unspirited performances. I suppose that there is some truth to this notion when it comes to live performances. How these two facets of musical performance became inversely intertwined remains a mystery to me. But I suppose there's a logic to it, that people wished to be moved by music, not impressed by it.
And while I'm certain that the case has yet to be proven, I think there is sufficient evidence that emotional performances are the greater performances. And for that reason, I am ordering that technical perfection keep at least 500 yards from the "heart and soul" of a piece at all times.
Labels: Friday Quickie, Richard Storm, Robert Schumann, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, technical vs emotional
A Challenge to the Challenging, or: Just enough thinking for me to confirm what I already think
I'll begin today with the ending.
Life's too short.
Ah, yes. Gather ye rosebuds, carpe diem, just do it. Or, for our purposes, don't waste your fucking time on modernism!
"You have turned your back on common men, on their elementary needs and their restricted time and intelligence," H.G. Wells complained to Joyce after reading "Finnegans Wake." That didn't faze him. "The demand that I make of my reader," Joyce said, "is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works." To which the obvious retort is: Life's too short.
Besides the distinct possibility that Joyce was yanking Wells' chain—Joyce's quote was actually taken from an interview with Max Eastman in Harper's Magazine by Richard Ellmann (1959), Wells' (d.1946) from a personal letter to Joyce—besides that, there's several interesting points of note, before we get going.
The first is the contrasting points of view, illustrating continuing dichotomies between high and low art, commercial and non-commercial, accessible and inaccessible, etc., etc. (Surely, this is simplified, but something I think the author of today's article intends)
The second is our author's obvious retort. He questions the worth of investing time in a complicated aesthetic (to be contrasted with complex, below).
Okay. Now, let's poop on modernism from the beginning.
Too Complicated for Words: Are our brains big enough to untangle modern art?
Literary types recently celebrated Bloomsday, a "holiday" not generally recognized by those who haven't read James Joyce's "Ulysses," a novel whose principal character is named Leopold Bloom and that takes place in Dublin on June 16, 1904.
How could I have forgotten, dear Detritusites?
Happy Bloomsday!
As always, the celebrations included a marathon bash at New York's Symphony Space during which excerpts from "Ulysses" were read. One participant was Stephen Colbert, who admitted to a reporter: "Performing 'Ulysses' on Bloomsday at Symphony Space is the only way I'll ever finish the damn book."
Very funny—but also very much to the point.
Is the point that one TV pundit-parodist can't finish reading Joyce? That's not a very good point.
The novels of Joyce and Gertrude Stein, the poetry of Ezra Pound and John Ashbery, the music of Pierre Boulez and Elliott Carter, the paintings of Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock: All have at one time or another been dismissed as complicated to the point of unintelligibility.
Uh oh. Now no one can figure out when to be happy or sad.
Modern art comes in many varieties, and countless works once thought to be unintelligible now strike most of us as clear.
Excellent point. End of article, right? I mean, time put it into perspective and, lo, it made sense. Enough said. Happens all the time.
End of article. Right?
I wish it were so.
But I have yet to notice a collective change of heart when it comes to such exercises in hermetic modernism as Joyce's "Finnegans Wake," which contains thousands of sentences like this: "It is the circumconversioning of antelithual paganelles by a huggerknut cramwell energuman, or the caecodedition of an absquelitteris puttagonnianne to the herreraism of a cabotinesque exploser?"
I have to be honest, Microsoft Word didn't like that sentence very much, either. So what's the deal?
Are certain kinds of modern art too complex for anybody to understand?
The authors of the Wikipedia article, faulty though they may be, seem to understand Finnegans Wake pretty well. They even seem to embrace Joyce's difficulties.
Fred Lerdahl [This year's Pulitzer runner-up] thinks so, at least as far as his chosen art form is concerned.
Hmm. I like music.
Let's give it a go. What does Fred say?
Twenty-two years ago. Or the difference in age between Gustav Mahler and Igor Stravinsky. Or the difference in age between me and someone born in 2000.
In 1988 Mr. Lerdahl, who teaches musical composition at Columbia University…
Ivy League? I thought we were going to be arguing against having to think too hard. Was I wrong?
In 1988 Mr. Lerdahl, who teaches musical composition at Columbia University, published a paper called "Cognitive Constraints on Compositional Systems," in which he argued that the hypercomplex music of atonal composers like Messrs. Boulez and Carter betrays "a huge gap between compositional system and cognized result."
A very good argument, too—one worth thinking hard about!
And Mr. Teachout is also kind enough to give us a link to the online article. I recommend it; it's a good read.
"Much contemporary music," [Lerdahl] says, "pursues complicatedness as compensation for a lack of complexity."
Okay. Let's take a step back and clarify what Mr. Lerdahl meant, because cherry-picking quotes that fit your thesis is usually considered a bad practice.
Throughout the cited article, Lerdahl builds upon his 1983 book, A generative theory of tonal music, co-authored with R. Jackendoff, in which they outline, à la Chomsky, a grammar of listening, which is broken down into rules, preferences, and constraints that must be present for musical structures to be intelligible (cognizable). Complexity and complicatedness are, thus, semantically differentiated for reasons we will see below.
An important thing to note is that, "[Lerdahl is] not interested in passing judgement on the composers and compositions that are mentioned, particularly not on the remarkable work by Boulez that [he uses] as a representative example. The thrust of [his] argument is psychological rather than aesthetic."
So, to get back to Mr. Teachout's point: there is no guarantee that a compositional system will be intelligible. Fair enough.
Mr. Lerdahl's paper isn't widely known outside the field of music theory.
You don't say.
But it stirred up a huge stink when it was published, and it continues to make certain of his colleagues understandably angry. For if he's right, then a fair amount of classical music written in the past century is too complicated for ordinary listeners to grasp—meaning…
Ordinary listeners can't grasp the notion of a sound cloud?
…meaning it is never going to find an audience.
Yikes. "Never" is a little harsh, don't you think? Didn't you just say:
You did just say that. What gives?
Can there be any doubt that "Finnegans Wake" is "complicated" in precisely the same way that Mr. Lerdahl has in mind when he says that a piece of hypercomplex music like Mr. Boulez's "Le marteau sans maître" suffers from a "lack of redundancy" that "overwhelms the listener's processing capacities"?
"Precisely"? Uh, highly doubtful. I mean, can't you reread a sentence?
The word "time" is central to Mr. Lerdahl's argument…
Right! You can't just ask the orchestra to replay that complicated bit of Atmospheres before moving on; but you can reread a sentence whenever you wish.
…for it explains why an equally complicated painting like Pollock's "Autumn Rhythm" appeals to viewers who find the music of Mr. Boulez or the prose of Joyce hopelessly offputting.
No. You're doing it wrong.
While a book may be laid out linearly, you can reread it at will—it's not time dependent. With Pollack, or painting in general, you are afforded the luxury of focusing your attention on whatever you wish, at any time, whether one strain of dripped paint or the total cacophony. But Boulez? Not so much.
If time is the question, then the pairing of Pollack and Joyce has more in common than Boulez and Joyce.
Unlike "Finnegans Wake," which consists of 628 closely packed pages that take weeks to read, the splattery tangles and swirls of "Autumn Rhythm" […] can be experienced in a single glance.
You're still doing it wrong.
Is that enough time to see everything Pollock put into "Autumn Rhythm"? No, but it's long enough for the painting to make a strong and meaningful impression on the viewer.
Wait. How is that analogous to a piece of music? It isn't.
Does our author wish it to be analogous? Is this the call to arms for an aesthetic reappraisal?
Should all music strive to be a sound bite, ready for mass consumption? Is this a Wall Street Journal thing? Should I blame capitalism?
That is why hypercomplex modern visual art is accessible in a way that hypercomplex literature and music are not.
See, you're still doing it wrong.
You can't get through a complicated novel faster by turning the pages more quickly.
You're. Still. Doing. It. Wrong.
Reading demands a greater investment of time than looking at a complicated painting…
You just said it's not! Remember?!
Is that enough time to see everything Pollock put into "Autumn Rhythm"? No [..].
Remember that? I did.
So, are you insinuating that maybe we don't (shouldn't?) want (need?) to see everything that Pollack put into it?
…and the average reader is not prepared to invest that much time in a book, no matter what critics say about it.
…because critics often have it dead wrong.
Oh. You didn't mean what I meant. Sorry.
I suppose I could get to the bottom of "Finnegans Wake" if I worked at it—but would it be worth the trouble?
The scholars [sic] of the Wikipedia entry think it's totally worth the troub…
Wait a goddamned minute! You haven't read Finnegans Wake but are perfectly happy to criticize it?!
Or would I be better served by spending the same amount of time rereading the seven volumes of Marcel Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past," a modern masterpiece that is not gratuitiously complicated but rewardingly complex?
First, is more better? I mean, I could read the entire Twilight Saga in the same amount of time it takes to read the first volume of Proust. And I hate vampires.
Second, my argument, by contrast, is this: that the complicatedness of artworks serves other exigencies, not just unintelligibility. Or, put another way, intelligibility is another criteria with which a composer may play.
And it's here, too, where I somewhat disagree with Lerdahl. At the end of his article, he contemplates aesthetic value. He first claims that, "The best music utilizes the full potential of our cognitive resources," which he is careful to qualify. It leads him to make the distinction between "complexity" and "complicatedness" we saw above.
Complexity refers not to musical surfaces but to the richness of the structures inferred from surfaces and to the richness of their (unconscious) derivation by the listener.
A musical surface is complicated if it has numerous non-redundant events per unit time.
However, as I proposed above, I think that complicatedness can be just as valuable to an aesthetic position as intelligibility. In this sense, the artist may choose to play with or against intelligibility as a means of expression, rather than following a cognitively-prescribed formula. If we obey the later, we cease to seek anything beyond our baser intuitions. That is, if what is desirable is immediacy, then thinking becomes unnecessary, superfluous, and merely an afterthought.
And, because this is coming from the Wall Street Journal, I have to think: if music is indeed a commodity, then you don't want the consumer to think too hard about it--just get 'em to pay the entry fee and move 'em along. That is not a reason for aesthetic realignment.
Anyway, Lerdahl goes on to make his second aesthetic claim:
The best music arises from an alliance of a compositional grammar with the listening grammar.
Again, quite elegant. And given his definition of "complex," this makes a lot of sense—it strikes an efficient balance between compositional grammar and listening grammar.
Still, is he asserting that he knows what the "best music" looks like? That would be arrogant, for sure.
Instead, what if what he meant by "best" is as I suggested above, efficient, then to whom is it efficient and complicatedness not worth the time? As we've seen earlier, Mr. Teachout doesn't have the time; he finds immediacy valuable.
More importantly, if "efficient" is indeed what Lerdahl intends, he's still fastidiously avoiding polemics, which is commendable. (Though I have my doubts to whether or not this is the case.) However, this is not Mr. Teachout's goal. He's not exploring cognitive and aesthetic issues; he's using a cherry-picked article to justify the disparaging of complicatedness simply because it's difficult and time consuming. It's just another attack on thinking, which attempts to value art on its cognitive (market?) efficiency—a lazy reason to like what one already likes, and an excuse to be intellectually insufficient.
Mr. Teachout's aesthetic prescription is then fervently echoed by a commenter who, to my delight, recalled some of his previous thoughts on the matter.
I can't quite work up sufficient enthusiasm (or courage) to read in full or closely the hugely detailed and technical 25-page PDF file of Fred Lerdahl's treatise cited and linked by Mr. Teachout…
[Seriously, dear Detritusites, if you read the article, you would have noticed that the "treatise" is not very detailed nor is it technical. In fact, six of the nine figures are simple flow charts. (And for the record, I love flow charts, because, if done right, they increase intelligibility and dispense with unnecessary complicatedness!)]
Figure 1. A simple flow chart
…but I did skim through enough of it to get the impression that Dr. Lerdahl is saying essentially what I said…
How sure are you about that?
…Dr. Lerdahl is saying essentially what I said in a 2008 post on my blog…
Except he said what you think he said twenty years earlier...or the difference in age between Antonio Salieri and Anton Reicha.
…on my blog, Sounds & Fury…
Mmmm.
…titled, "On Music And Gibberish". Herewith, an excerpt.
I actually remember this one very well. I wanted to comment but couldn't.
"In the wake of yet another wave of outraged attacks by New Music's defenders, supporters, and champions against The New York Times's [sic] longtime classical music critic, Bernard Holland, one of this crowd's favorite MSM whipping boys, for his latest critique of atonal music, we started to think afresh concerning what it is about much of the atonal music of our experience that we found so, well, unmusical — worse, found to be non-music.
"We" is only one person, in case you were confused; it sounds less authoritarian that way.
That reminds me of…
What was that thing that Obi-Wan said to Anakin?
It's not atonality per se — i.e., the music's lack of a triadic tonal center(s); a 'home base,' so to speak — nor is it the almost unrelenting, unresolved harmonic dissonance that's the hallmark of the atonal.
I'm sure it'll come to me. You know what he said, right?
It's something much more fundamental: the lack of a perceptible and coherent musical narrative from work's beginning to end, which is to say the lack of the work's saying comprehensibly something beyond and exclusive of commentary on its own processes and methods which are — or ought to have been and be — but mere tools used in its making.
It's at the tip of my tongue. It was in the third one, toward the end, I think. Uh…
"To put the matter ... bluntly ... a composition absent a perceptible and coherent musical narrative from beginning to end is gibberish and not music."
Oh, right! "Only a Sith deals in absolutes."
Get it?! Because life's too short for anything but simple, cozy stories.
Posted by Empiricus at 11:20 AM 29 comments
Labels: Bloggers are Stupid, Fred Lerdahl, James Joyce, Modernism Sucks, music cognition, oh snap, Pierre Boulez, Terry Teachout, thinking is stupid, Twilight, Wall Strret Journal, Youre Doing It Wrong
Friday Quickie: Stravinsky best used to remove lingering flavors, avoid heartburn and promote good digestion
Opinions are important. They make a critic, or a critique, what they are -- an educated, reflective review and discerning examination of the relative value of a given piece of music or concert. They can also be fun, primarily in challenging standard orthodoxies and bringing new perspectives to common pieces and experiences.
Then again, some opinions are just...inexplicable.
Review | Chamber orchestra season has powerful conclusion
John Heuertz, Kansas City Star, June 13, 2010
The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra's last concert of the season featured Mozart's last work. The Mozart piece, his 1791 Requiem Mass, was preceded by Igor Stravinsky's 1938 "Dumbarton Oaks" chamber concerto.
An interesting combination of pieces. While certainly accessible for a chamber ensemble, the Mozart Requiem (with a very sizable choral component) seems a very large scale work by comparison to the Stravinsky. But, whatever...I'm game.
Conductor Bruce Sorrell kept the 15 or 16 instrumental voices in the score in good balance.
That's good. Plus specifics are overrated.
He conducted with precision and gave the music an appropriately playful feel.
Appropriate is nice.
This cheery little item...
the Stravinsky?
...is often compared to Bach's Brandenburg concerti.
Yes, I've heard that. In fact, I think Stravinsky even mentioned this himself:
"I played Bach very regularly during the composition of the concerto,and I was greatly attracted to the Brandenburg Concertos. Whether or not the first theme of my first movement is a conscious borrowing from the third of the Brandenburg set, however, I do not know. What I can say is that Bach would most certainly have been delighted to loan it to me; to borrow in this way was exactly the sort of thing he liked to do."
Yes..."borrow".
Anywho, so one would do well to compare to this piece to the Bach Brandenburg concerti I would say. Go on...
A better comparison might be to music from the mid-18th century Mannheim school.
A better comparison, eh? Even better than the piece the composer even admitted he stole, er...borrowed themes from?
Mannheim composers wrote the same kind of elegant, polished,...
Elegant, polished...yes yes. These were indeed traits of the neo-classical style, which was the style at the time, that Stravinsky embraced while composing this piece. What else...?
...the same kind of elegant, polished, commercially successful music that Stravinsky did.
Yes, commercially succ...wait...what?
Stravinsky wrote commercially successful music? "Dumbarton Oaks" is a commercially successful piece?
I have no idea what this means. I guess compared to Henri Pousseur Stravinsky wrote commercial music...
figure pousseur: Was always secretly disappointed that his Dichterliebesreigentraum (1992-3) didn't even crack the Billboard Hot 100, but UB40's crappy remake of "Can't Help Falling in Love" was #1 for 7 weeks.
And, like Stravinsky's music, Mannheim music is easy to forget before intermission.
Forgettable?! Stravinsky's music is forgettable? I apparently don't know what the word 'forgettable' means.
Are we talking about the same Stravinsky?
But that matrix of forgettable music has to be there for unforgettable music to be written — and Mozart's Requiem is unforgettable.
Whew. I thought you were being a tad dismissive at first, but I think I get it now. We need Stravinsky's forgettable music so we can fully appreciate good music from a composer who never wrote forgettable music.
Good call. Really, we should have a term for music like this. Any thoughts?
Thus Sorrell aptly described the Stravinsky as a "palate cleanser" for the Mozart.
Perfect. Stravinsky's music is like an unsalted cracker, or even better, a fruit sorbet.
figure palate cleanser: Bottled Stravinsky. Available in 6, 12 and 24 packs.
Labels: Friday Quickie, Henri Pousseur, John Heuertz, Kansas City Star, opinion, Palate Cleanser, Stravinsky
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Doctor discusses treatment options for the Omicron variant – archyde
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WAVE) – Doctors continue to learn more about the Omicron variant, including how to treat it.
Dr. Valerie Briones-Pryor of the University of Louisville Health said getting help early is key.
"The most important thing I tell people is if you feel sick and it just doesn't get better, please seek help," she pleaded.
As of Thursday, UofL Health has 113 COVID-positive patients, 25 of whom are in the intensive care unit, 12 of whom are ventilated. Dr. Briones-Pryor said about 89 percent of these patients were unvaccinated.
She said the problem is that many people wait too long before seeking help.
"You are young, you are healthy, and I understand you want to wait and see. But then a week goes by, two weeks go by and the problem with COVID is that some people have that period where they actually get worse a week after their symptoms started, "she explained.
Dr. Briones-Pryor said one treatment that needs to be done early is treatment with monoclonal antibodies.
She said early data suggests the current treatment for Omicron may not be as effective, but it's worth trying.
"We'll try anyway, if you're a candidate, hoping it'll work," said Briones-Pryor. She said a newer version of the monoclonal antibody treatment is being used, which is expected to fight Omicron better than previous versions.
Dr. Briones Pryor said UofL Health is still awaiting shipments of it, along with two COVID treatment pills that have been FDA cleared for emergency use.
"I think it will be great to have another weapon in our arsenal against COVID," she said. "It's not a cure, but there is other treatment out there and available so people don't get too sick and end up in the hospital to see me."
Dr. Briones Pryor said Omicron appears to be mild in people who have been vaccinated. Individuals treating it at home should take vitamins, antipyretic drugs, and drink plenty of water.
Copyright 2021 WAVE 3 news. All rights reserved.
Video with "misinformation" about the COVID-19 vaccination "a great disservice to our children": MOH – Nach Welt
Epiphany: The three astronomers from Babylon | BR.de


> Royalty
Kate Middleton shares her thoughts during rare Q&A
The Duchess of Cambridge delivered a milestone speech on Friday
November 28, 2020 - 17:10 CET Danielle Stacey The Duchess of Cambridge took to social media on Saturday to answer the public's questions about her early years survey.
The Duchess of Cambridge shared her thoughts with royal fans about one of her biggest passion projects in a rare Q&A on Saturday.
Kensington Palace shared a video of Kate answering questions from members of the public after insights from her '5 Big Questions on the Under Fives' survey were published on Friday.
READ: Kate Middleton's gorgeous Reiss dress has a very sentimental story behind it
When asked during the session what sparked her interest in the Early Years, the Duchess replied: "I actually get asked this question a lot. I think people assume because I am a parent, that's why I've taken an interest in the Early Years.
"I think this really is bigger than that. This isn't about – just about – happy healthy children, this is about the society I hope we could and can become. Right from the early days, meeting lots of people who are suffering with addiction or poor mental health, and hearing time and time again that their troubles now in adulthood stem right back from early childhood experience."
WATCH: Kate Middleton shares her thoughts with royal fans in a rare Q&A
The doting mum was then asked: "How do you manage toddler tantrums in your household – especially with multiple children?" and her response was priceless!
"Yes, that's a hard one. I'd also like to ask the experts myself!"
The video then cut to Alice Haynes, who is Deputy Head of Early Years Programme.
Alice said: "As a mum of a two-year-old, tantrums are something I'm very familiar with. When my son has a tantrum, I try to put into words how I think he might be feeling, in a slow, and calm and gentle way."
The royal even opened up about her own childhood after being asked: "What did you like most in your childhood?"
"That's a very good question," started Kate. "I loved spending time outside and that has stuck with me for my whole life."
On Friday, the Duchess delivered her biggest keynote speech from her royal career to date.
Speaking during the Royal Foundation's early years online forum, Kate said: "People often ask why I care so passionately about the early years. Many mistakenly believe that my interest stems from having children of my own."
The Duchess during her keynote speech on Friday
The royal, who is mother to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, continued: "While of course I care hugely about their start in life, this ultimately sells the issue short.
"Parenthood isn't a prerequisite for understanding the importance of the early years.
"If we only expect people to take an interest in the early years when they have children, we are not only too late for them, we are underestimating the huge role others can play in shaping our most formative years too."
Throughout Friday, Kensington Palace posted clips of the Duchess sharing the five key insights from the landmark survey, including that only one in four people recognise the key importance of the first five years of a child's life.
MORE: Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla welcome cute additions to Scottish home
MORE: Princess Beatrice to mark very special milestone this Christmas
Kate at the early years survey briefing
Although 90 per cent see parental mental health and wellbeing as critical to a child's development, only ten per cent of parents took time to look after themselves when they prepared for the arrival of their baby, the research states.
The study – which has produced five key insights – also showed that the Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically increased parental loneliness, with 38 per cent experiencing this before the crisis, and 63 per cent – almost two-thirds – after the first lockdown, a jump of 25 per cent.
More than 500,000 people responded to the questionnaire at the start of 2020, making it the largest ever response to a public survey of its kind.
Kate promoted the survey between 22 January and 21 February, making visits to Cardiff, Birmingham, Woking, London, Belfast and Aberdeen.
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The New Shit Showcase III
support WOES + møl + Grusom + Oxx + Crueltys Heart + Gaia
author AP date 09/01/16 venue Pumpehuset, Copenhagen, DEN
Every second month, the Danish metal blog Blastbeast selects from a pool of demos sent to them a band whom the two bloggers believe could become the next breakthrough metal artist in Denmark. Each is given a spot on Anders Bøtter's Sort Søndag radio show that month, and the six artists are then ultimately collected at an annual event dubbed The New Shit Showcase, where they are given the opportunity to test their live worth against a typically largish audience in festive weekend spirits. One of the big draws about the showcase is the huge variety of music on offer, with never more than one representative of a specific genre chosen, and, usually, the opportunity to see some genuine up-and-coming talent with little prior to show for it. This year's edition took us from downtempo doom at one end to high octane hardcore at the other, and as always, the mood was festive, the event a resounding success. In the paragraphs to follow, you can read about how each of the evening's six bands fared according to our grade book.
Photos courtesy of Marika Hyldmar
Gaia, a revenant from last year's festivities, was brought in as a replacement for the now defunct stoner outfit The Hyle, the first band to be booked for this third edition of the showcase almost one year ago. The Valby based trio makes a fitting substitute though, given their practice of 'cosmic doom', and although their 2015 performance was lacklustre, it is with a sense optimism that I position myself near the front to catch their opening set — they have had some time to hone their sound and musicianship since then, after all. And judging by the song choices — the first an as yet unreleased track clocking in at roughly 15 minutes in length, the second their latest single "A Cure for Time" ditto — much has changed over the year, with the scorching stoner doom sound exchanged for a heavier, darker and more psychedelic variant centred on hypnotic repetition. The music is simple, yet oddly captivating given what must be no more than 3 chords constituting the bulk of the initial song, with the occasional wah-wah solo the only source of relief from Gaia's atavistic stomp.
Fortunately, the three musicians have developed immensely in the art of performance between tonight and that last time, and by providing a visual aesthetic to complement the music, Gaia are significantly more interesting to watch now. The bassist, with his low-slung instrument and dreadlocks, has that perfect, druggy vibe to his rocking out, while the guitarist plods the stage with Yeti-like steps to the slow beat of the tunes. There is a primal feel to the proceedings, distilled as much from the antics of these two caveman-looking beings as from the low end lumbering of the music, that inspires deep headbanging, loud applause and cries of approval from an audience that has grown much fonder of the band as time has passed. For me personally though, Gaia's songs could use a little more colour and depth in order to cash in their full potential.
Cruelty's Heart
Not knowing what to expect from a band with such a moniker — cheesy power metal or cringeworthy hard rock? — it comes to me as a genuine surprise that Cruelty's Heart is neither of those things. Originally founded in Southampton, United Kingdom by vocalist / guitarist Philip Butler but now resident in Roskilde, the group rather plays a frosty, melodic style of pagan metal with a touch of black colouration, sadly muddled by a suboptimal mix which has little mercy for Butler's shrill screams. Sometimes reminiscent of Kalmah, other times Amon Amarth, these boys have a penchant for grandiose melodies (sans the brief lapse into thrashy, Darkthrone-y black metal in the third song), but as much as they have this tradecraft down, there is no escaping the fact that Cruelty's Heart have yet to develop one hundred percent confidence in their own abilities. What this translates to in the live setting is a static performance with all of the instrumental musicians' eyes firmly fixed onto their instruments, tongue in the center of the mouth so as to achieve perfect execution of music that admittedly does not sound very easy to play. There is promise here, certainly. But for now, Cruelty's Heart emit an amateurish aura which belies their capabilities as musicians.
By far the most eccentric of the evening's entertainment, Oxx plays an avant-garde and jazzy form of metal difficult to latch onto at first, but which then transforms into groovy sludge every now and then to ensure that most brains can still compute what the band is trying to achieve. With guitar, drums, rumbling samples and the occasional oboe (played over blast beats, no less) as the tools, it would be an understatement to call the music of Oxx a little strange, an acquired taste, as witnessed by the loud chatter resonating across the venue courtesy of patrons unable to find head or heel in what the trio is trying to convey. The musicians have an energetic way about them though, and a passion that burns in their eyes whether they are spazzing out, settled into a driving groove, or enjoying a moment of tranquillity during one of the more tempered instrumental passages. What is needed is an anchor of cohesion in the actual music so that Oxx might be able to make a lasting impression — a catchy chorus, a soaring riff… you get the gist. They are fun to watch, but I have no idea what the fuck is going on half of the time.
Grusom
As the only band billed tonight, heritage rock act Grusom have already released a debut album, which we reviewed here. Said effort was rather excellent, and as a result, my expectations for the Svendborg-born six piece are significantly higher than for the rest of the acts (with møl coming in on a close second place). Despite the pressure however, Grusom swiftly and effectively establish themselves as worthy of my trust with one of the most qualified showings of the evening, looking every bit prepared for the throes of international touring. With beaming smiles, a retro rocking style and dexterous execution, the band not only delivers a highly entertaining performance, but also impresses with a selection of smartly crafted songs delicately balanced between the energetic and the kaleidoscopic. The lights are rather dim much to our photographer's disgust, but to me the low key visuals only strengthen the feeling of days gone by being reanimated by the band. Indeed, from the smoky riffs of Dennis Warburg & Thomas Ulrik to the poncho looking sweater of keyboardist Peter Pørtner, Grusom look, sound and feel genuinely like someone picked them up from an analogue recording session and ushered them through a time portal to this moment. They are not in the same league as, say, Kadavar just now — they don't have the same intrinsically catchy songs, and they would need to up the ante even more on stage to get there — but there is nonetheless huge potential here.
møl
Firm believers in the trendy black metal / shoegaze fusion, møl have already graced us with two EPs ("møl" and "møl II") and can thus rightfully count themselves among the most experienced artists booked for this showcase. The amount of rehearsal also means that the quintet is at once engaging; the songs are well written mixings of black metal, post-rock and shoegaze, the lighting is professional and considered, and each of the five members knows how to put on a show. As it should be in this genre, there is an air of mystery to the proceedings, with most of the light delivered from behind thus generating a cool silhouette effect on the musicians, each of whom spends most of the set hiding behind a veil of hair. The atmospheric nature of the music, and the possessed dancing of vocalist Steffen Rasmussen only adds to the entrancing sensation, which reaches a climax amidst the rolling drums, cascading melodies and piercing screams of the second last song (the title of which escapes me). The only constructive criticism I can muster is that many of the songs still lack the killer edge, the elusive it to make an instant and unforgettable impression similar to, say, Deafheaven. Still, based on my observations here, møl seem to have the necessary class to become at least a small international success, pleasing to anyone with an affinity for this hip new era of black metal.
WOES
Whatever energy dispensed by the five preceding acts is shamed when blackened hardcore upstarts WOES take the stage. Mildly put, their show borders on hysteria, with vocalist Nicholas Meents often charging into the heart of the audience to mosh and scream in our faces, hoping to incite an equally frenzied reaction. When he is not on the floor, he's kneeling, lying on his back, or thrusting from side to side, always attaching a visual component to his furious expression. His three colleagues on guitar, bass and drums are almost as wild themselves, resulting in the sort of spectacle that hardcore show should be. As tends to be the case in this genre however, the band's songs seem primarily to be designed for this exact purpose — to provide an appropriate soundtrack for their crazed antics — and as such one must succumb to the realisation that virtually every song sounds exactly the same: a compact discharge of fury with few nuances. But then, it is not with innovative designs that WOES are hoping to forge some success; rather, like The Chariot, their music seems to be a vessel for expressing emotion in a physical way. In that sense certainly, WOES succeed.


On Earth Overshoot Day (August 2), calculate your own Overshoot Day and #movethedate
Redesigned to work on all devices, new Footprint calculator highlights solutions just in time for Earth Overshoot Day
(OAKLAND, CA, USA) — JULY 31, 2017 — Global Footprint Network, an international research organization, is marking Earth Overshoot Day with the launch of a new mobile-friendly Footprint calculator at www.footprintcalculator.org.
Earth Overshoot Day is the date when humanity's annual demand on nature exceeds what Earth can regenerate over the entire year. This year Earth Overshoot Day falls on August 2, the earliest date yet.
The costs of this global ecological overspending include deforestation, drought, fresh-water scarcity, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The new Footprint Calculator allows users to measure their own demand on nature (Ecological Footprint) and assess their personal Earth Overshoot Day. A user's personal Earth Overshoot day is the date Earth Overshoot Day would be if all people had their Footprint.
A personal Earth Overshoot Day earlier than August 2 means your demand on nature is higher than the world average. If it is earlier than April 24, it is higher than Germany's average; if it is earlier than March 14, it is higher than the US average. (See here for all countries.)
#movethedate Solutions
For Earth Overshoot Day this year, Global Footprint Network, along with 30+ partners, is highlighting solutions and individual pledges to #movethedate. If we moved Earth Overshoot Day back 4.5 days every year, we would return to living within the means of one Earth before 2050; we are currently using 1.7 Earths. Reducing the carbon component of the global Ecological Footprint by 50% would move Overshoot Day by 89 days.
Food is another major Ecological Footprint driver. This year, Global Footprint Network collaborated with the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition to create an infographic that showcases food-based solutions to lower the Ecological Footprint. Cutting food waste in half worldwide could move the date of Overshoot Day 11 days; eating less protein-intensive food worldwide could move Overshoot Day 31 days. A list of existing solutions that can collectively get us out of overshoot is available here.
"Our planet is finite, but human possibilities are not. Living within the means of one planet is technologically possible, financially beneficial, and our only chance for a prosperous future," said Mathis Wackernagel, CEO of Global Footprint Network and co-creator of the Ecological Footprint. "We hope our new Footprint Calculator enables millions more people around the world to explore sustainability solutions and gain an uplifting sense of the possibilities available to society."
More than 2 million people around the world used Global Footprint Network's calculator last year, including students and educators.
New Calculator
The new Footprint Calculator goes beyond assessing users' impact on the planet and carbon emissions. It allows users to play with options, learn about solutions, and connect to brief facts about sustainability. A person's Ecological Footprint is the amount of productive surface area required to provide all he or she uses, including areas to produce food, fibers, and timber; to accommodate urban infrastructure, and to absorb carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuel.
The new calculator, still a beta version, is only available in English, but future iterations will become country-specific, multi-lingual, and more playful. This first phase of the new calculator, was funded by MAVA Foundation and developed in partnership with Free Range Studios.
The new calculator is based on the latest data and methodology from Global Footprint Network, which tracks the ecological resource use and resource capacity of more than 200 countries and regions from 1961 to the present. These resource accounts draw primarily on United Nations data sets.
To calculate your own Overshoot Day and Ecological Footprint, go to: www.footprintcalculator.org
More on Earth Overshoot Day: www.overshootday.org
Social media: #movethedate
Earth Overshoot Day infographics: http://www.overshootday.org/newsroom/infographics/
Video: https://youtu.be/oPO2-KCyFvc
Ecological Footprint Explorer open data platform: data.footprintnetwork.org
About Global Footprint Network
Global Footprint Network is changing how the world manages its natural resources to enable thriving lives for all within the means of one planet. It does this through:
METRICS that are simple, meaningful, empowering, and scalable;
ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS about natural resource demand and availability; and
TOOLS and analysis to guide decisions informed by our resource context.
Ronna Kelly (English) – California, United States (PDT)
Director, Marketing & Communications
+1 (510) 839-8879 x 302 (office)
+1 (510) 834-2563 (mobile)
ronna.kelly@footprintnetwork.org
Laetitia Mailhes (English and French) – France (CEST)


Randox Grand National Festival
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Membership & Offers
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AINTREE RACECOURSE TEAMS UP WITH PARK PALACE PONIES TO OFFER LOCAL FAMILIES A LIFELINE DURING THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS
Press Release 28th July 2021 Aintree
Local children now have the opportunity to attend a free summer riding school at the iconic Aintree Racecourse during the school holidays, thanks to a new community programme in the city designed to provide healthy food and activities.
The scheme sees Park Palace Ponies, an inner-city riding school based in Toxteth, join forces with the home of the Randox Grand National Festival to provide a pop-up summer riding school at the racecourse for six weeks, running from July 24th to September 5th.
Seven ponies are housed and cared for in special stables on the racecourse throughout that period, allowing for a total of 120 children a week aged between five and 10 to be able to have riding and pony care sessions without charge.
The scheme is aimed at those who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals during term time and parents are able to book slots for their children on a week-by-week basis, providing them with both healthy meals and free holiday club provision throughout the summer holidays.
Along with the pony riding and care sessions, the children are provided with a "Guided Tour" of the world famous racecourse, while a handful of older volunteers from Park Palace aged from 11 to 17 are on hand to help out with duties such as tacking up and mucking out the ponies.
The initiative is part of Liverpool City Council's wider goal to engage local children in the community and will run every day, with Thursdays being dedicated to the older volunteers.
Dickon White, Regional Director for Jockey Club Racecourses, commented: "It's fantastic to be able to team up with Park Palace Ponies once again and provide some really meaningful support to the local community during the summer holidays.
"We've really enjoyed hosting Park Palace for their graduation ceremonies in the past and it's great to be able to give children what we hope will be an unforgettable experience, spending time with ponies and riding at the home of the world's most famous horse race."
Keith Hackett, Chair of the Board at Park Palace Ponies, added: "We're thrilled to take what we do to the next level by offering a free summer riding school at one of the most iconic venues in both horseracing and equestrian sport.
"It really is wonderful to be able to offer children from the inner city opportunities like this and so far the uptake has been fantastic. The summer holidays can be a long time for families who rely on the support of free school meals and I can't thank both The Jockey Club and Liverpool City Council enough for their help in getting this off the ground."
ENTRIES FOR BETWAY GRAND SEFTON
TREVOR HEMMINGS CVO 1935 – 2021
GRAND SEFTON HANDICAP CHASE MOVES FORWARD A MONTH TO HEADLINE AINTREE'S NOVEMBER MEETING
Community Programme
Racing Replays
Email aintree.racecourse@thejockeyclub.co.uk or to book tickets, call 0344 579 3001.
Ormskirk Rd, Aintree, Merseyside, L9 5AS, UK


Persil Powder
Persil Power Gel
Persil Duo Caps
Persil White
Persil Abaya Shampoo
Washing Tips
Laundry symbols
About Persil
What it stands for
The history of Persil
Discover the Persil story from 1907 to today
Persil, Germany's first self-acting detergent.
The Weisse Dame [white lady] launches her advertising campaign for Persil.
The war is over, Persil is back.
Persil 59 – the best Persil there's ever been.
Persil 70 – quite clearly "Our best".
Persil. You know what you've got.
Persil phosphate-free – progress for the environment.
Persil turns 100.
Persil Abaya Shampoo: even black is a highlight.
Persil Power Gel – the alternative to powder.
Persil Sensitive: for people with sensitive skin.
Simply perfect: the Persil Duo Caps.
In 1907 the chemists at Henkel succeed in revolutionizing laundry. They combine sodium silicate with sodium perborate, which when boiling the laundry releases fine pearling oxygen. This not only has the effect of – in contrast to the chlorine used up to then – an especially textile-friendly and odourless bleach. It also takes away the strenuous and time-consuming rubbing, swinging and scrubbing of the laundry for the housewives. The first self-acting detergent is born: Persil. The first announcement advert appears on 6 June 1907 in the Düsseldorf newspaper. Then Persil makes its way into the retail trade packaged in thin cardboard cartons with printed paper wrapping made and filled by hand.
Who does not know her, the lady all in white with a Persil package in her left hand? She stems from the studio of Berlin artist Kurt Heiligenstaedt, a known cartoonist. In 1922 he is asked to design a Persil poster. The Weisse Dame is by no means a figure of his imagination, however, rather the artist's 18-year-old girlfriend. Together with her, Heiligenstaedt buys a white dress in a fashion house on Alexanderplatz and has her model with a Florentine hat and a product package. From then on the result decorates enamelled signs, posters, gable ends and street clocks. The Weisse Dame with its changing types of women and fashion directions remains the central advertising figure of Persil across many decades.
Everybody just seems to have been waiting for it: Scarcely is Persil back in the stores after the end of the Second World War, it is quickly sold out up to 75 percent. For many Persil means getting back to normalcy, to peace. "Persil once again comes from Düsseldorf" announces a gigantic banner over the Rhine bridge. The product name is again brought to mind all over Germany with neon signs, pennants and posters. The detergent formula was changed only very slightly: Visual brighteners were added that were to lend the laundry an even purer white.
The first synthetic heavy-duty detergent in Germany also comes from Henkel. Fitting the year of its introduction, it's called Persil 59. Synthetic anionic surfactants, a foam enhancer and a fresh scent are the new ingredients of the best Persil there's ever been. At least that's the advertising promise that is being conveyed to the consumer in a broadly based print, radio and TV campaign. For the first time a professional advertising agency is responsible for the brand appearance. Besides the formula, the Persil packaging was also visibly changed.
In 1970 the promotion "Our best" is conducted for the first time with overwhelming success. It's impossible to think of Persil advertising without the red ribbon ever since, now regularly decorating the best Persil of its time. When Persil 70 comes into stores with a changed packaging design, it's not only available in Germany but almost all over Europe by now.
With the introduction of this new Persil, the product name on the packaging appears without the addition of a year, as had been the rule up to now. Instead a new slogan is introduced into the branding, one that will stay with the consumer for the long term: Persil. You know what you've got.
Environmental protection is becoming an ever-more relevant topic in the 1980s. At Henkel it already has a long history: Already at the beginning of the 1950s, attempts were undertaken to research the biological biodegradability of surfactants. In 1966 the research project "Phosphate Replacement" was born. Because both surfactants, which release the dirt from the laundry, and phosphates, which make the water soft, pollute the waters. They succeed in developing surfactants that are more and more biodegradable. And for phosphates the researchers even find a substitute material: Zeolith A (Sasil®). A patent is registered in 1973.
Persil is celebrating its 100th anniversary and is showing up on the market with a new, modern design and with improved formulas.
Thanks to its special long-lasting black formula, the innovative Persil Abaya Shampoo offers special protection for dark and black textiles. They are protected from bleaching out even after several wash cycles and thus keep their colour longer. All to enjoy the beautiful black of your favourite pieces for a long time to come.
Persil White is the first ever liquid detergent specially made for white clothes/thobes from Persil with the German "Opti-Brite" technology, which ensures that your white clothes/thobes not only are cleaned, but also have the brightest whiteness wash after wash.
Once again Henkel expands its Persil range – this time by a product that is to revolutionize an already existing niche area of the detergent market: Persil Power Gel.
Specially for people who tend to have sensitive skin or suffer from allergies, Henkel together with the German Allergy and Asthma Alliance [Deutscher Allergie- und Asthmabund e.V.] developed a product that in addition to the customary washing performance is very skin tolerant: Persil Sensitive.
With the Persil Duo Caps Henkel is setting another milestone in the research and development of innovative detergents. For the first time it's possible to put pre-measured liquid detergent directly into the drum. The small pads completely dissolve during the wash cycle and provide a perfect washing result.
More Henkel brands:
Persil Abaya
© 2019 Henkel AG & Co. KGaA


delirium's library (2009)
http://deliriumslibrary.blogspot.com/2009/06/jorie-graham-sea-change.html
Jorie Graham, Sea Change
Ariel: Full fadom fiue thy Father lies,
Of his bones are Corrall made:
Those are pearles that were his eies,
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a Sea-change
Into something rich, & strange:
Sea-Nimphs hourly ring his knell.
William Shakespeare, The Tempest (First Folio, from Project Gutenberg)
Pulitzer Prize-winner. Successor to Seamus Heaney at Harvard. Regarded as hermetic, even mantic, Jorie Graham is a difficult poet to review. Investigating the "sea-change" of global ecological devastation (resulting, in turn, from "sea-changed" carbon) and the political sea-change after 9/11 in the US, Graham speaks with a voice of quiet assurance and devastating (literally, laying waste to vistas in her incredible feel for detail) observation that - echoing Shakespeare and the Psalms (and, in its cadences, the New York Times) - has an almost devotional quality. It's a difficult poetry to answer back. It's a poetry that pushes itself further through the repeated gesture of "& how," an exploratory — even axcavatory — development that draws the reader deeper into the mysteries.
Graham creates chinks in the poems with her frequent tactic of an assertion followed by "no", yet these confound the reader into further dumb awe y enhancing — even staging — her control of specificity. I found myself writing out phrases and stanzas in a rapture (not easy considering the intense length of her lines — so long that Carcanet had to produce an unusually square book to accommodate them), reading poems three or four times, sometimes backwards. Some — particularly in the middle section — are legible and lovely lyrics about ageing, seasons, and intimacy. But the breadth and density of her poetry is like that of the oceans. Rather than leading me to coherence, to an essay, her poetry makes me want to revel in it, to swim and dive and splash.
So here are some watermarks from my reading — partial and scattered. I imagine reading this book again and again — and feel almost shy of asserting to cohesive a reading. I want to hold onto the white space that striates the pages.
How does Graham's book concern itself with The Tempest? It's poetry as oceanography. It pairs the sea and death, counterpointing the constancy of death with the sea's mutability. It's concerned with the magic of making — especially the late magic of Prospero's final speech — and "this inch of finishing." But Prospero is also "the torturer" (and the poet Ariel) in "This," which speaks of "the sound of / servants not being / set free". And the torturer is Bush — especially in the extraordinarily angry "Guantánamo" and in the spine-tingling "Full Fathom":
those were houses that are his eyes— those were lives that
eyes—those are families those are privacies, those are details—those are reparation
agreements, summary
judgements, those are multiplications
on the face of the earth that are—those are the forests, the coal seams, the
carbon sinks that are his—
as they turn into carbon sources—his—
. Those "eyes" are also Graham's interrogation of the lyric I (and the personal I that is attacked, and dismantled, by torture), equalled by her savage and direct invocation of Bush, the torturer, as "you" in "Guantánamo."
Sea Change recognises very directly, in the stretch and elasticity of its long-line poetics, that Guantánamo, climate change and the credit crunch come from the same monolithic (and monotheistic) neo-conservative mindset. "Futures" and "Loan" use the poetic economy of repetition to essay/assay the way in which the "this / message 'I'", money and water all depend on circulation (and are eroded by exploitation). The book is predicated on a moment of crisis that is personal (ageing), political (the US' loss of credibility under Bush), ecological — and linguistic, concerned with the redaction and devaluation of language under the Bush government and in the era of texting. Sample from "Futures":
I your speck tremble remembering money
where "speck" suggests "speculation" — the act of imagination itself reduced to mean monetary mind-games — and further to a mote in the eye/I that produces the tears that flow through the poem:
wind which the eye loves so deeply it
would spill itself out and liquefy
to pay for it
"Just Before" torques speculation further (or in reverse) to present a speculative poetry: "a pool. Of / stillness" opens out into a science-fiction in which
... there was no standing army anywhere,
& the sleeping bodies in the doorways in all
the cities of
what was then
just planet earth
were lifted up out of their sleeping
bags, & they walked
away, & the sensation of empire blew off the link
like pollen—just like that
The words are short, simple, plangent but the vision they offer is expansive, utterly original. This is science fiction that is "far from un- / earthly, it was full of earth." Immanence is one of the big themes of the book, delinking the maker from any grand Maker. And on the subject of making, Graham is constantly pressing and examining the act of writing and the status of poetic language.
In "Loan," thinking about how poetry uses the world, she writes: "all this taking is not our taking", asserting that poetry is exactly the work of circulation, of giving and returning, rather than keeping (or more, accruing) meaning. Similarly, "Loan" reminds us that
irrigation returns only as history, a thing made of text,
& yet, listen,
rain, then the swift interval before evaporation, & the stillness
of brimming,
Despite the long lines and the many vocabularies, this is a poetry that seems to aspire towards something beyond words, or at least beyond their accumulative nature and economics of meaning. In "Day Off", Graham foresees
the day of
days, where all you have named is finally shunted aside, the whole material man-
ifestation of so-called definitions, imagine
that, the path of least resistance wherein I grab onto the immaterial and christen it
thus and thus &
something over our shoulders says it is good, yes, go on, go on, and we did.
There's the echo of Molly Bloom's soliloquy and of Beckett in that final line that takes up the play on "day of/f judgement" to suggest an ending as release from meaning rather than entry into it.
That turn is encoded from the first poem of the book "Sea Change," which exhibits two of the recurring tropes in the book: Graham's hyphenation of and caesura on "in-" and her exact use of the ampersand. The former allows her to invent words such as "in-clingings" and query words such as "in- / dispensable," asking what the inwardness — or inversion — of each might be, and how internality and refusal/reversal might be related. The ampersand is curioser, littering the page like a Celtic loveknot, at once less and more than the word "and": it opens up the word that links "rich and strange" to suggest we might, culturally, delink them. It asks us to sea-change its knotted notation into and out of language.


Home/Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page, Palaeontological articles/New Ichthyosaurus Species Honours Mary Anning
New Ichthyosaurus Species Honours Mary Anning
Dorset to Doncaster – New Species of Ichthyosaurus Described
It might be one of the best known of all the genera of Mesozoic marine reptiles, but the Ichthyosaurus genus has been becalmed in terms of new additions to the species list. That is, until a remarkable discovery in the fossil collection of the Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery led to the naming of a new species. Ichthyosaurus anningae, the first "new" Ichthyosaurus for 127 years. A paper describing this new species is due to be published in the prestigious academic publication "The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology" and it is great to see that the trivial name honours Dorset fossil collector Mary Anning, it was Mary along with her brother Joseph, who found the first Ichthyosaurus fossils to be scientifically studied (1811).
The First New Species of Ichthyosaurus to be Described Since the 19th Century
Dolphin-like prehistoric marine reptiles.
The fossil, representing a sub-adult specimen, had resided in the collection of the Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery since it had been acquired sometime in the early 1980's. It was excavated from Lower Jurassic strata of West Dorset, but we at Everything Dinosaur, are unable to provide further information as to who exactly discovered it. The fossil is believed to have come from the Lower Pliensbachian Stonebarrow Marl Member (Charmouth Mudstone Formation), which forms part of the geology of southern England's famous "Jurassic Coast". The specimen, which measures around 1.5 metres in length is nearly complete, there is a beautifully preserved skull, much of the front portion of the body including ribs and preserved stomach contents. The assigned holotype (DONMG:1983.98) had been mislabelled as a plaster cast replica. Team members at Everything Dinosaur recall seeing the image of the fossil used to help promote children's holiday activities at the Museum, it emphasises the importance of regional museums and their collections. There are probably a significant number of new species awaiting discovery, not in the cliffs of Monmouth Beach, Lyme Regis, but in the draws and cabinets of museums.
Newest Ichthyosaurus on the Block (I. anningae)
A new species of Ichthyosaurus.
Picture Credit: Dean Lomax and Judy Massare
This is not the first time that a new Mesozoic species has been identified from a museum collection. Back in 2007, Everything Dinosaur wrote about the discovery made by then PhD student Mike Taylor at the Natural History Museum (London), which led to the naming of a new species of Sauropod dinosaur.
To read the article: How to Find a New Dinosaur – Look in a Museum
Dean Lomax, Honorary Scientist at The University of Manchester, examined the specimen in 2008. He noticed a number of anatomical differences between this specimen and other types of Ichthyosaur. Working with Professor Judy Massare (Brockport College, New York), Dean spent over five years comparing and contrasting the Doncaster Ichthyosaur that had been nicknamed "Fizzy" with other museum specimens from around the world. Unusual features in the humerus and femur (upper limb bones) along with the humerus length to femur ratio led him to believe that the Doncaster fossil represented something not seen before. Over 1,000 other Ichthyosaurus fossils were examined during the course of the research, a further four fossils (three most likely of juveniles), were identified as having the same anatomical features as "Fizzy".
Dean commented:
"After examining the specimen extensively, both Professor Massare and I identified several unusual features of the limb bones that were completely different to any other Ichthyosaur known. That became very exciting. After examining over a thousand specimens we found four others with the same features as the Doncaster fossil."
Professor Massare has worked on a number of Ichthyosaur specimens, most notably a remarkable fossil found in Wyoming. She used her knowledge of Ichthyosaur anatomy and locomotion to compare and contrast the fossil material. The strata from which this fossil was extracted dates from the Early Jurassic (Lower Jurassic – Hettangian/Sinemurian–Pliensbachian). It has been estimated that this fossil material is around 189 million years old. (Pliensbachian faunal stage). Most Ichthyosaur fossils that date from this stage of the Jurassic are fragmentary, very few articulated specimens with cranial material are known. The Doncaster fossil is the most complete Ichthyosaur fossil that dates from this time interval.
The upper arm bone (humerus) is short and robust. The femur (thigh bone), in comparison is very much smaller. The morphology of the fossil specimens ascribed to this new species, suggest that there were differences in the limb bones of males and females. Such differences have not been identified before in Ichthyosaurs. The species name pays tribute to Mary Anning (1799-1847), it was Mary along with other family members who found the fossils of the first scientifically described "fish lizard". The very first formal, academic paper describing an Ichthyosaur was published in 1814, the study being based on fossil material found in the Lyme Regis area by the Anning family. Last year, Everything Dinosaur wrote a short article commemorating the 200th anniversary of this event.
To view this article: Two Hundred Years of Ichthyosaurs
Dean explained:
"Mary worked tirelessly to bring Ichthyosaurs, among other fossils, to the attention of the scientific world. It is an honour to name a new species, but to name it after somebody who is intertwined with such an important role in helping to sculpt the science of palaeontology, especially in Britain, it is something that I'm very proud of. In fact, one of the specimens in our study was even found by Mary herself! Science is awesome."
It has been a very busy couple of years for Dean, as well as helping to increase our understanding of British marine reptiles, in 2014, his book "Dinosaurs of the British Isles", co-authored with Nobumichi Tamura was published. This book provides a comprehensive account of the dinosaur fossils associated with the British Isles and we at Everything Dinosaur strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in dinosaurs.
"Dinosaurs of the British Isles" – A First, Comprehensive Account of British Dinosauria
A comprehensive guide to British dinosaurs over 400 pages.
Picture Credit: Siri Scientific Press
For more details about the book and to order a copy: Dinosaurs of the British Isles Available Here
This new specimen, helps palaeontologists to understand in greater detail the evolution and radiation of the Ichthyosauria. I. anningae adds to the number of Ichthyosaurus known from the Pliensbachian faunal stage. There has now been recorded at least three species (possibly as many as five species) from this time interval. This is significant, as the discovery of this new species falls between two of the three known major radiations of Ichthyosaur genera. The numbers and types of Ichthyosaur seemed to have increased around 200 million years ago (Triassic/Jurassic boundary) – Neoichthyosaurian radiation. A second major radiation occurred around 175 million years ago (Aalenian faunal stage), the Ophthalomosaurid radiation, when many new kinds of "fish lizard" also evolved.
By Mike| 2015-02-21T11:49:40+00:00	February 20th, 2015|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments