GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL COMPLETES HIS 'MESSIAH'

Today, The Grandma has been listening Messiah, the oratorio that George Frideric Handel completed on a day like today in 1741.

George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685-14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. 

Handel received his training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of his career and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. 

He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by composers of the Italian Baroque. In turn, Handel's music forms one of the peaks of the high baroque style, bringing Italian opera to its highest development, creating the genres of English oratorio and organ concerto, and introducing a new style into English church music. 

He is consistently recognized as one of the greatest composers of his age.

Handel started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera.

In 1737, he had a physical breakdown, changed direction creatively, addressed the middle class and made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah (1742), he never composed an Italian opera again. His orchestral Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks remain steadfastly popular. One of his four coronation anthems, Zadok the Priest, has been performed at every British coronation since 1727. Almost blind, he died in 1759 a respected and rich man, and was given a state funeral at Westminster Abbey.

Handel composed more than forty opere serie over a period of more than thirty years. Since the late 1960s, interest in Handel's music has grown. The musicologist Winton Dean wrote that Handel was not only a great composer; he was a dramatic genius of the first order. His music was admired by Classical-era composers, especially Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.

Handel was born in 1685 (the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti) in Halle, in the Duchy of Magdeburg, then part of Brandenburg-Prussia.

More information: English National Opera

Messiah (HWV 56) is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. The text was compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. 

It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.

Handel's reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established through his compositions of Italian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s in response to changes in public taste; Messiah was his sixth work in this genre. Although its structure resembles that of opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are no impersonations of characters and no direct speech. 

Instead, Jennens's text is an extended reflection on Jesus as the Messiah called Christ. The text begins in Part I with prophecies by Isaiah and others, and moves to the annunciation to the shepherds, the only scene taken from the Gospels. In Part II, Handel concentrates on the Passion of Jesus and ends with the Hallelujah chorus. In Part III he covers Paul's teachings on the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in heaven.

Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional alternate settings for many of the individual numbers. In the years after his death, the work was adapted for performance on a much larger scale, with giant orchestras and choirs. In other efforts to update it, its orchestration was revised and amplified, such as Mozart's Der Messias. 

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the trend has been towards reproducing a greater fidelity to Handel's original intentions, although big Messiah productions continue to be mounted. A near-complete version was issued on 78 rpm discs in 1928; since then the work has been recorded many times.

The autograph manuscript of the oratorio is preserved in the British Library.

More information: Smithsonian Magazine

 I should be sorry if I only entertained them.
I wish to make them better.

George Frideric Handel

SHERWOOD ANDERSON, WRITING AFTER A BREAKDOWN

Today, The Grandma has been reading some books written by one of her favourite writers,  the American novelist Sherwood Anderson, who was born on a day like today in 1876.

Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876-March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and Elyria, Ohio.

In 1912, Anderson had a nervous breakdown that led him to abandon his business and family to become a writer.

At the time, he moved to Chicago and was eventually married three additional times. His most enduring work is the short-story sequence Winesburg, Ohio, which launched his career. Throughout the 1920s, Anderson published several short story collections, novels, memoirs, books of essays, and a book of poetry. Though his books sold reasonably well, Dark Laughter (1925), a novel inspired by Anderson's time in New Orleans during the 1920s, was his only bestseller.

Sherwood Berton Anderson was born on September 13, 1876, at 142 S. Lafayette Street in Camden, Ohio, a farming town with a population of around 650, according to the 1870 census.

Anderson suffered the breakdown that has remained paramount in the myth or legend of his life.

On Thursday, November 28, 1912, Anderson came to his office in a slightly nervous state. But even before returning home, Anderson began his lifelong practice of reinterpreting the story of his breakdown.

While diagnoses for the four days of Anderson's wanderings have ranged from amnesia to lost identity to nervous breakdown, his condition is generally characterized today as a fugue state. Anderson himself described the episode as escaping from his materialistic existence, and was admired for his action by many young male writers who chose to be inspired by him.

Anderson's first novel, Windy McPherson's Son, was published in 1916 as part of a three-book deal with John Lane. This book, along with his second novel, Marching Men (1917), are usually considered his apprentice novels because they came before Anderson found fame with Winesburg, Ohio (1919) and are generally considered inferior in quality to works that followed.

In 1920, he published Poor White, which was rather successful.

In 1923, Anderson published Many Marriages; in it he explored the new sexual freedom, a theme which he continued in Dark Laughter and later writing. Dark Laughter had its detractors, but the reviews were, on the whole, positive. F. Scott Fitzgerald considered Many Marriages to be Anderson's finest novel.

In his later years, Anderson lived on his Ripshin Farm in Troutdale, Virginia, which he purchased in 1927 for use during summers. While living there, he contributed to a country newspaper, columns that were collected and published posthumously.

Just weeks before his death, Anderson started on a radio script for The Free Company, a group of which Anderson was a founding member in early 1941. The Free Company consisted of a group of prominent writers and Hollywood and stage stars which is presenting a series of thirteen radio plays dealing with Civil Liberties over the Columbia Broadcasting System. Anderson drafted the story titled Above Suspicion, but died before finishing the radio play. Members of the company completed the script, and produced it May 4, 1941, in tribute to his memory.

Anderson died on March 8, 1941, at the age of 64, taken ill during a cruise to South America. His epitaph reads, Life, Not Death, Is the Great Adventure.

More information: Literariness

That in the beginning when the world
was young there were a great many thoughts
but no such thing as truth.
Man made the truths himself and each truth
was a composite of a great many vague thoughts.
All about in the world were truths
and they were all beautiful.

Sherwood Anderson

IAN HOLM CUTHBERT, ENGLISH TELEVISION & CINEMA

Today, The Grandma has been watching some films interpreted by Ian Holm, the English actor who was born on a day like today in 1931.

Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931-19 June 2020) was an English actor. 

After graduating from RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and beginning his career on the British stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he became a successful and prolific performer on television and in film. He received numerous accolades including two BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for services to drama.

Holm won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in the Harold Pinter play The Homecoming. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role in the 1998 West End production of King Lear. For his television roles he received two Primetime Emmy Awards for King Lear, and the HBO film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2003).

He gained acclaim for his role in The Bofors Gun (1968) winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and won a second BAFTA Award for his role as athletics trainer Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire (1981). Other notable films he appeared in include Alien (1979), Brazil (1985), Dreamchild (1985), Henry V (1989), Naked Lunch (1991), The Madness of King George (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), and The Aviator (2004). He played Napoleon in three different films. He gained wider appreciation for his role as the elderly Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. Holm's appearance was used posthumously via CGI in 2024 film Alien: Romulus.

Ian Holm Cuthbert was born on 12 September 1931 in Goodmayes, Essex, to Scottish parents.

Holm was an established actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company before he gained notice in television and film. He began in 1954 with minor roles, progressing to Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream and the fool in King Lear.

Holm's first film role to gain much notice was that of Ash, the "calm, technocratic" science officer -later revealed to be an android- in Ridley Scott's science-fiction film Alien (1979).

Holm raised his profile in 1997 with two prominent roles, as the priest Vito Cornelius in Luc Besson's sci-fi The Fifth Element and the lawyer Mitchell Stephens in The Sweet Hereafter.

In 2001, he followed up his radio role as Frodo by appearing as Frodo's older cousin Bilbo Baggins in the blockbuster film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. This brought him wider fame, somewhat overshadowing the rest of his acting career. He returned for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). He later reprised his role as the elderly Bilbo Baggins in the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Martin Freeman portrayed the young Bilbo in those films.

Holm died in hospital in London on 19 June 2020 at the age of 88.

More information: The Guardian

All performances are different.
I don't think it's necessary to compare one with another.
I am just me playing the role of Lear.
You're bound to get a Holm approach to it,
whatever that may be. I just got out there and did it.
I'm very much a doer in my acting.

Ian Holm

DONEC PERFICIAM, UNTIL WE ACHIEVE THE FINAL VICTORY

Donec perficiam is a Latin motto that means until you succeed, until you achieve it.

It was the motto of the Royal Catalan Guards (Reials Guàrdies Catalanes)  -the body guard of King Charles III -during the War of Succession. 

The Royal Catalan Guards were under the command of the Marquis of Foix, Colonel Antoni de Peguera i d'Aimeric, an enlightened military man who had been a member of the Academy of the Distrusted (Acadèmia dels Desconfiats), and framed the brave Vigatans who on the day of Santa Creu de Crist in 1705 (May 3) started the military uprising to overthrow Philip V of Bourbon.

The motto signified the idea that, despite the setbacks and defeats, they would never give up, but would persist in the fight until they succeed, that is, until the final victory is achieved.

The Catalan Black Flag or Black Star is based on the black flag of the Catalan Austrian side during the War of Succession and the siege of Barcelona in 1714, as a sign of not giving up and fighting without respite. They added the five-pointed star of the estelada, and a sautor (cross) like the one on the Santa Eulalia de Barcelona flag.

It represents relentless struggle. Therefore, the color is the opposite of the white flag, the traditional signal of surrender.

Donec Perficiam

1640, JUNTA DE BRAÇOS LEAD TO THE CATALAN REPUBLIC

Today, The Grandma has been reading about La Junta de Braços, the Assembly of Estates of the Principality of Catalonia that assumed the sovereignty and enacted a series of revolutionary mesures which had to lead to the Catalan Republic in 1640.

The Reapers' War, in Catalan Guerra dels Segadors, also known as the Catalan Revolt or Catalan Revolution, was a conflict that affected the Principality of Catalonia between 1640 and 1659, in the context of the Franco-Spanish War of 1635-1659.

Being the result of a revolutionary process carried out by Catalan peasantry and institutions, as well as French diplomatic movements, it saw the brief establishment of a Catalan Republic and the clash of Habsburg and Bourbon armies on Catalan soil over more than a decade.

It had an enduring effect in the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), which ceded the County of Roussillon and the northern half of the County of Cerdanya to France, splitting these northern Catalan territories off from the Principality of Catalonia.

The Junta de Braços or Braços Generals (States-General) was, during the early modern age, an institution of the Principality of Catalonia, convened by the Generalitat of Catalonia in cases of emergency or urgency. It was composed by the representatives of the Catalan Courts who at that time were in Barcelona.

The decision to convene the Junta de Braços was to be taken by the three deputies and the three oïdors that formed the Generalitat. It was constituted following the same system of the Catalan Courts, that is, by bringing together the members of the three estates of the realm: the ecclesiastic formed by the clergy, the military formed by the nobility, and the popular formed by royal towns and cities of the country. Only those who lived in Barcelona (or who were at that time) were summoned, due to the urgent nature of the issues that had to be raised and the precarious communications of the time made it impossible for a general call for all of Catalonia. This favored the presence of a majority of Barcelona residents, and of a greater number of nobles who lived in the city; and the presence of the ciutadans honrats (honorable citizens) of Barcelona was accepted, even though on an individual basis.

The Principality of Catalonia, in Catalan Principat de Catalunya, was a medieval and early modern state in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. During most of its history it was in dynastic union with the Kingdom of Aragon, constituting together the Crown of Aragon.

Between the 13th and the 18th centuries, it was bordered by the Kingdom of Aragon to the west, the Kingdom of Valencia to the south, the Kingdom of France and the feudal lordship of Andorra to the north and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east.

The term Principality of Catalonia was official until the 1830s, when the Spanish government implemented the centralized provincial division, but remained in popular and informal contexts. Today, the term Principat (Principality) is used primarily to refer to Catalonia, as distinct from the other Catalan Countries, and usually including the historical region of Roussillon in Southern France.

The first reference to Catalonia and the Catalans appears in the Liber maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus, a Pisan chronicle (written between 1117 and 1125) of the conquest of Mallorca by a joint force of Northern Italians, Catalans, and Occitans.

At the time, Catalonia did not yet exist as a political entity, though the use of this term seems to acknowledge Catalonia as a cultural or geographical entity. The counties that eventually made up the Principality of Catalonia were gradually unified under the rule of the count of Barcelona.

In 1137, the County of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon were unified under a single dynasty, creating what modern historians call the Crown of Aragon; however, Aragon and Catalonia retained their own political structure and legal traditions, developing separate political communities along the next centuries. Under Alfons I the Troubador (reigned 1164-1196), Catalonia was regarded as a legal entity for the first time. Still, the term Principality of Catalonia was not used legally until the 14th century, when it was applied to the territories ruled by the Courts of Catalonia.

Its institutional system evolved over the centuries, establishing political bodies analogous to the ones of the other kingdoms of the Crown (such as the Courts, the Generalitat or the Consell de Cent) and legislation (constitutions, derived from the Usages of Barcelona) which largely limited the royal power and secured the political model of pactism.

Catalonia contributed to further develop the Crown trade and military, most significantly their navy. The Catalan language flourished and expanded as more territories were added to the Crown, including Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, and Athens, constituting a thalassocracy across the Mediterranean. The crisis of the 14th century, the end of the rule of House of Barcelona (1410) and a civil war (1462-1472) weakened the role of the Principality in Crown and international affairs.

The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1469 laid the foundations of the monarchy of Spain. In 1492 the Spanish colonization of the Americas began, and political power began to shift away towards Castile. Tensions between Catalan institutions and the monarchy, alongside the peasants' revolts, provoked the Reapers' War (1640-1659), who saw the brief establishment of a Catalan Republic. By the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) the Roussillon was ceded to France.

During the War of Succession (1701-1714), the Crown of Aragon supported the Archduke Charles of Habsburg. 

After the surrender of Barcelona in 1714, King Philip V of Bourbon, inspired by the French model, imposed absolutism and a unifying administration across Spain, and enacted the Nueva Planta decrees for every realm of the Crown of Aragon, which suppressed the main Catalan, Aragonese, Valencian and Majorcan political institutions and rights and merged them into the Crown of Castile as provinces, ending their status as separate political entities.

More information: Barcelona Metropolitan

Catalunya triomfant,
tornarà a ser rica i plena.
Endarrere aquesta gent
tan ufana i tan superba.

Catalonia triumphant
Shall again be rich and abundant.
Drive away these folks
Who are so proud and arrogant.

Els Segadors, National Catalan Anthem

JAMES EARL JONES, THE EGOT & DARTH VADER'S VOICE

Today, The Grandma has received sad news. James Earl Jones, the American actor, has passed away.

James Earl Jones (January 17, 1931-September 9, 2024) was an American actor known for his film roles and his work in theater. 

He was one of the few performers to achieve the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985, and was honoured with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009, and the Academy Honorary Award in 2011.

Born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, in 1931, he had a stutter since childhood. Jones said that poetry and acting helped him overcome the challenges of his disability. A pre-med major in college, he served in the United States Army during the Korean War before pursuing a career in acting. His deep voice was praised as a stirring basso profondo that has lent gravel and gravitas to his projects.

Jones made his Broadway debut in the play Sunrise at Campobello (1957). He then gained prominence for acting in numerous productions with Shakespeare in the Park including Othello, Hamlet, Coriolanus, and King Lear.

Jones worked steadily in theater, winning the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as a boxer in The Great White Hope (1968), which he reprised in the 1970 film adaptation, earning him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

Jones won his second Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as a working class father in August Wilson's Fences (1987). He was a Tony award nominee for his roles as the husband in Ernest Thompson's On Golden Pond (2005) about an aging couple, and as a former president in the Gore Vidal play The Best Man (2012). His other Broadway performances included Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2008), Driving Miss Daisy (2010–2011), You Can't Take It with You (2014), and The Gin Game (2015-2016). He received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017.

Jones made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964). He received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Claudine (1974). Jones gained international fame for his voice role as Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, beginning with the original 1977 film. Jones's other notable films include The Man (1972), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Matewan (1987), Coming to America (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Sneakers (1992), The Sandlot (1993), The Lion King (1994), and Cry, the Beloved Country (1995). 

On television, Jones received eight Primetime Emmy Awards nominations winning twice for his roles in thriller film Heat Wave (1990) and the crime series Gabriel's Fire (1991). He also acted in Roots (1977), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), Picket Fences (1994), Homicide: Life on the Street (1997), and Everwood (2004).

James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on January 17, 1931.

Jones began his acting career at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan. In 1953, he was a stage carpenter, and between 1955 and 1957, he acted and was a stage manager. In his first acting season at the Ramsdell, he portrayed Othello.

Jones died at his home in Pawling, New York, on September 9, 2024, at the age of 93.

More information: The Guardian

And it was the idea that you can do a play
-like a Shakespeare play, or any well-written play,
 Arthur Miller, whatever -and say things
you could never imagine saying,
never imagine thinking in your own life.

James Earl Jones

TV SERIES STAR TREK PREMIERES ITS 1ST EPISODE IN 1966

Today, The Grandma has been watching one of her favourite TV Series, Star Trek, whose first episode was ired on a day like today in 1966.

Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. 

Since its creation, the franchise has expanded into various films, television series, video games, novels, and comic books, and it has become one of the most recognizable and highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

The franchise began with Star Trek: The Original Series, which debuted in the US on September 8, 1966, and aired for three seasons on NBC. It was first broadcast on September 6, 1966, on Canada's CTV network.

The series followed the voyages of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise, a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century, on a mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. 

In creating Star Trek, Roddenberry was inspired by C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series of novels, Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels, the 1956 film Forbidden Planet, and television westerns such as Wagon Train.

The Star Trek canon includes the Original Series, 11 spin-off television series, and a film franchise; further adaptations also exist in several media. After the conclusion of the Original Series, the adventures of its characters continued in the 22-episode Star Trek: The Animated Series and six feature films. A television revival beginning in the 1980s saw three sequel series and a prequel: The Next Generation, following the crew of a new starship Enterprise a century after the original series; Deep Space Nine and Voyager, set in the same era as the Next Generation; and Enterprise, set before the original series in the early days of human interstellar travel. The adventures of the Next Generation crew continued in four additional feature films.

In 2009, the film franchise underwent a reboot, creating an alternate continuity known as the Kelvin timeline; three films have been set in this continuity. The newest Star Trek television revival, beginning in 2017, includes the series Discovery, Picard, Short Treks, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds, streaming on digital platforms.

More information: Star Trek

Star Trek has been a cult phenomenon for decades. Fans of the franchise are called Trekkies or Trekkers. The franchise spans a wide range of spin-offs including games, figurines, novels, toys, and comics. 

From 1998 to 2008, there was a Star Trek–themed attraction in Las Vegas. At least two museum exhibits of props travel the world. The constructed language Klingon was created for the franchise. Several Star Trek parodies have been made, and viewers have produced several fan productions.

Star Trek is noted for its cultural influence beyond works of science fiction. The franchise is also notable for its progressive civil-rights stances. The Original Series included one of the first multiracial casts on US television.

As early as 1964, Gene Roddenberry drafted a proposal for the science fiction series that would become Star Trek. Although he publicly marketed it as a Western in outer space -a so-called Wagon Train to the stars -he privately told friends that he was modeling it on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, intending each episode to act on two levels: as a suspenseful adventure story and as a morality tale.

Most Star Trek stories depict the adventures of humans and aliens who serve in Starfleet, the space-borne humanitarian and peacekeeping armada of the United Federation of Planets. The protagonists have altruistic values, and must apply these ideals to difficult dilemmas.

Many of the conflicts and political dimensions of Star Trek are allegories of contemporary cultural realities. Issues depicted in the various series include war and peace, the value of personal loyalty, authoritarianism, imperialism, class warfare, economics, racism, religion, human rights, sexism, feminism, and the role of technology.

Roddenberry intended the show to have a progressive political agenda reflective of the emerging counter-culture of the youth movement, though he was not fully forthcoming to the networks about this. He wanted Star Trek to show what humanity might develop into, if it would learn from the lessons of the past, most specifically by ending violence.

The Star Trek media franchise is a multibillion-dollar industry, owned by Paramount Global. Gene Roddenberry sold Star Trek to NBC as a classic adventure drama; he pitched the show as Wagon Train to the Stars and as Horatio Hornblower in Space.

The opening line, to boldly go where no man has gone before, was taken almost verbatim from a U.S. White House booklet on space produced after the Sputnik flight in 1957.

Star Trek and its spin-offs have proven highly popular in syndication and was broadcast worldwide. The show's cultural impact goes far beyond its longevity and profitability. 

Star Trek conventions have become popular among its fans, who call themselves trekkies or trekkers.

An entire subculture has grown up around the franchise, which was documented in the film Trekkies. 

Star Trek was ranked most popular cult show by TV Guide. The franchise has also garnered many comparisons of the Star Wars franchise being rivals in the science fiction genre with many fans and scholars.

More information: Smithsonian Magazine

 By creating a new world with new rules,
I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam, politics,
and intercontinental missiles.
Indeed, we did make them on Star Trek:
we were sending messages and fortunately
 they all got by the network.
If you talked about purple people on a far off planet,
the television network never really caught on.
They were more concerned about cleavage. T
hey actually would send a censor down
to the set to measure a woman's cleavage
to make sure too much of her breast wasn't showing.

Gene Roddenberry