Artemy Vedel (1767–1808) was a Ukrainian-born Russian composer of military and liturgical music. He made major contributions to the music of Ukraine, producing works based on Ukrainian folk melodies, and is one of the greatest composers of Ukrainian and Russian classical music of his era. Born in Kyiv, he studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, after which he was appointed its conductor. The army general Andrei Levanidov acquired his services to lead Kyiv's regimental chapel and choir, where he reached the peak of his creativity as a composer. He was then based in Kharkiv but returned to Kyiv when cultural life was affected by Tsar Paul I's decrees. He became a novice monk of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, but was accused of threatening the royal family and incarcerated as a mental patient. His work was censored while Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. More than 80 of his works are known, including 31 choral concertos, but many of his compositions are lost.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemy_Vedel
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1720:
War of the Quadruple Alliance: Spanish forces began a failed assault on the British settlement of Nassau in the Bahamas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Nassau_%281720%29
1809:
After having stood for only 15 years, London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, the third building of that name, burned down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_Royal,_Drury_Lane
1968:
Vietnam War: South Vietnamese forces led by Ngô Quang Trưởng recaptured the citadel of Huế. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hu%E1%BA%BF
1978:
Five men disappeared after attending a college basketball game in Chico, California; the bodies of four of them were discovered in June that year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuba_County_Five
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
embattled: 1. (also figuratively) 2. Armed or prepared for battle. 3. Of a place: occupied or surrounded by armed troops. 4. Of a place: strengthened so as to withstand attacks; fortified. 5. (figuratively) Subject to or troubled by attacks, controversy, or pressure. 6. (architecture) Of a fortress or other building, a wall, etc.: having battlements or crenellations; battlemented, crenellated. 7. (by extension, heraldry) Having an edge or outline of alternating square indentations and extensions like battlements. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/embattled
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Ще не вмерла України і слава, і воля, Ще нам, браття молодії, усміхнеться доля. Згинуть наші воріженьки, як роса на сонці. Запануєм і ми, браття, у своїй сторонці. The glory of Ukraine has not yet perished, nor the will. Still upon us, young brothers, fate shall smile. Our enemies shall vanish, like dew in the sun. We too shall rule, brothers, our country. --State Anthem of Ukraine https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ukraine