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.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Elgar>
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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>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
supervacaneous (adj):
Added beyond what is necessary; superfluous, redundant
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/supervacaneous>
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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>
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