Edward Elgar (1857–1934) was an English composer. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works such as the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924. Although his works are regarded as quintessentially English, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. A self-taught Catholic composer from a poor background, he nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British army officer. He struggled to achieve success until his forties, when his Enigma Variations proved immediately popular. His following work, The Dream of Gerontius (1900) remains a core repertory work in Britain and elsewhere. One of the first composers to take the gramophone seriously, he conducted a series of recordings of his works between 1914 and 1925. Elgar's music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing chiefly to British audiences. More recently, some of his works have been taken up again internationally, but the music remains more played in Britain than elsewhere.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1805:

Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish fleet recaptured Diamond Rock , an uninhabited island at the entrance to the bay leading to Fort-de-France, from the British. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Diamond_Rock

1910:

Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited, became the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rolls

1919:

First Red Scare: Anarchist followers of Luigi Galleani set off eight bombs in eight cities across the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings

1983:

After an emergency landing because of an in-flight fire, twenty-three passengers aboard Air Canada Flight 797 were killed when a flashover occurred as the plane's doors opened. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Canada_Flight_797

1999:

Bhutan ended its status as the only country in the world to prohibit television when the state-run Bhutan Broadcasting Service came on the air. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan_Broadcasting_Service

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

supervacaneous (adj): Added beyond what is necessary; superfluous, redundant http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/supervacaneous

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The ancient pulse of germ and birth

Was shrunken hard and dry, And every spirit upon earth Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among The bleak twigs overhead In a full-hearted evensong

Of joy illimited; An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small, In blast-beruffled plume,

Had chosen thus to fling his soul Upon the growing gloom. So little cause for carolings

Of such ecstatic sound Was written on terrestrial things Afar or nigh around,

That I could think there trembled through His happy good-night air

Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew And I was unaware. --Thomas Hardy http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy