100px|Henry Wood
Henry Wood (1869–1944) was an English conductor best known for his
association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as
the Proms. Wood started his career as an organist. During his studies
at the Royal Academy of Music, he came under the influence of the voice
teacher Manuel Garcia and became his accompanist. After similar work
for Richard D'Oyly Carte's opera companies on the works of Arthur
Sullivan and others, Wood became the conductor of a small operatic
touring company. From the mid-1890s until his death, Wood focused on
concert conducting. He was engaged by the impresario Robert Newman to
conduct a series of promenade concerts at the Queen's Hall, offering a
mixture of classical and popular music at low prices. By the 1920s,
Wood had steered the repertoire entirely to classical music. In
addition to the Proms, he conducted concerts and festivals throughout
the country and also trained the student orchestra at the Royal Academy
of Music. He had an enormous influence on the musical life of Britain
over his long career: he and Newman greatly improved access to
classical music, and Wood raised the standard of orchestral playing and
nurtured the taste of the public, presenting a vast repertoire of music
spanning four centuries. (more...)
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1096:
The Seljuk forces of Kilij Arslan destroyed the army of the People's
Crusade as it marched toward Nicaea.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Crusade>
1520:
The islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon were discovered by Portuguese
explorer João Álvares Fagundes, who named them "Islands of the 11,000
Virgins".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Pierre_and_Miquelon>
1805:
Napoleonic Wars: Lord Nelson signalled "England expects that every man
will do his duty" to the rest of his Royal Navy forces before they
defeated Pierre-Charles Villeneuve and his combined French and Spanish
navy at the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain's Cape
Trafalgar.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_expects_that_every_man_will_do_his_duty>
1959:
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , designed by American architect Frank
Lloyd Wright, opened in New York City.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum>
1978:
After reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft, Frederick
Valentich disappeared in unexplained circumstances while piloting a
Cessna 182L light aircraft over the Bass Strait to King Island,
Australia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentich_disappearance>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
gleek (v):
1. (archaic) To jest, ridicule, or mock; to make sport of.
2. (informal) To discharge a thin stream of liquid through the teeth
or from under the tongue
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gleek>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
If we must all agree, all work together, we're no better than a
machine. If an individual can't work in solidarity with his fellows,
it's his duty to work alone. His duty and his right. We have been
denying people that right. We've been saying, more and more often, you
must work with the others, you must accept the rule of the majority.
But any rule is tyranny. The duty of the individual is to accept no
rule, to be the initiator of his own acts, to be responsible. Only if
he does so will the society live, and change, and adapt, and survive.
We are not subjects of a State founded upon law, but members of a
society founded upon revolution. Revolution is our obligation: our hope
of evolution.
--Ursula K. Le Guin
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin>
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