Ralph Vaughan Williams (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an
English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music,
secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions,
including nine symphonies, written over 60 years. Strongly influenced by
Tudor music and English folk-song, his work marked a decisive break in
British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century. He
was musically a late developer, not finding his true voice until his
late 30s, when his studies with the French composer Maurice Ravel helped
him clarify the textures of his music. His symphonies express a wide
range of moods: from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious
to exuberant. His other concert works include Fantasia on a Theme by
Thomas Tallis (1910) and The Lark Ascending (1914). His ballet Job: A
Masque for Dancing (1930) has been frequently staged. He insisted on
the traditional English pronunciation of his first name, "Rafe".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Vaughan_Williams>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1810:
Juan José Castelli ordered the execution of Santiago de
Liniers, during the Argentine War of Independence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Jos%C3%A9_Castelli>
1928:
At a cafe in Paisley, Scotland, a woman found the remains of a
snail in her bottle of ginger beer, giving rise to the landmark civil
action case Donoghue v Stevenson.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donoghue_v_Stevenson>
1968:
The U.S. Democratic Party's National Convention opened in
Chicago, sparking four days of clashes between anti-Vietnam War
protesters and police.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Democratic_National_Convention>
2008:
More than a week after a ceasefire was reached in the Russo-
Georgian War, Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_Abkhazia_and_South_Ossetia>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
rakhi:
(chiefly South Asia) An ornamental cotton wristband tied by a girl or
woman on to the wrist of her brother, or of one who takes on the
responsibilities of a brother, particularly during the Raksha Bandhan
festival.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rakhi>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
They have planned a life for you — from the cradle to the grave
and beyond — which it would be easy, fatally easy, to accept. The
least wandering of the attention, the least relaxation of your
awareness, and already the eyelids begin to droop, the eyes grow vacant,
the body starts to move in obedience to the hypnotist’s command. Wake
up, wake up — before you sign that seven-year contract, buy that house
you don’t really want, marry that girl you secretly despise. Don’t
reach for the whisky, that won’t help you. You’ve got to think, to
discriminate, to exercise your own free will and judgment. And you must
do this, I repeat, without tension, quite rationally and calmly. For if
you give way to fury against the hypnotists, if you smash the radio and
tear the newspapers to shreds, you will only rush to the other extreme
and fossilize into defiant eccentricity.
--Christopher Isherwood
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Isherwood>