Peter Warlock was the pseudonym of Philip Heseltine (1894–1930), a
British composer and music critic. The Warlock name, which reflects
Heseltine's interest in occult practices, was used for all his published
musical works. Best known as a composer of songs and other vocal music,
he also achieved notoriety through his unconventional and often
scandalous lifestyle. As a schoolboy at Eton College, Heseltine came
under the spell of the British composer Frederick Delius, with whom he
formed a close friendship. After a failed student career in Oxford and
London, he turned to musical journalism, while developing interests in
folk-song and Elizabethan music. His first serious compositions date
from around 1915. A lasting influence arose from his meeting in 1916
with the Dutch composer Bernard van Dieren. Heseltine composed songs in
a distinctive, original style, and built a reputation as a combative and
controversial music critic. He made a pioneering contribution to the
scholarship of early music, published under his own name, and produced a
full-length biography of Delius. He died in his London flat of coal gas
poisoning in 1930, probably by his own hand.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Warlock>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1806:
War of the Fourth Coalition: Believing they were massively
outnumbered, the 5,300-man German garrison at Stettin, Prussia (now
Szczecin, Poland), surrendered to a much smaller French force without a
fight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitulation_of_Stettin>
1863:
Seventeen-year-old Danish Prince Vilhelm arrived in Athens to
become George I (pictured), King of Greece.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_I_of_Greece>
1888:
King Lobengula of Matabeleland granted the Rudd Concession to
agents of Cecil Rhodes, setting in motion the creation of the British
South Africa Company.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudd_Concession>
1961:
The Soviet hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon
ever detonated, was set off over Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic
Ocean as a test.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba>
1991:
The Madrid Conference, an attempt by the international
community to start a peace process through negotiations involving Israel
and the Arab countries, convened in Madrid.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid_Conference_of_1991>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
trainiac:
(informal) A railway enthusiast.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trainiac>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is no such thing as a normal period of history. Normality
is a fiction of economic textbooks.
--Joan Robinson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joan_Robinson>