J.S. Bach Is The Summation Of Music

Today is the birthday - in 1685 (Old Style calendar) - of  Johann Sebastian Bach, often named as the greastest composer of all time. I was introduced to his music as an infant at Mount Calvary Lutheran Church in my little hometown in the mountains of Maryland. My interest in music grew and broadened quite a lot over the years but my awe and appreciation of Bach never waned.

J.S. Bach portrait at age 61 Elias Haussmann, Germany, 1746

He gave us some of the most sublime music in western culture and it would be an oversight, especially as a Lutheran, not to honor this master of the Baroque and pillar of Lutheranism. His music was largely forgotten for a few generations following his death (1750), but had been restored by the first quarter of the 19th century. The new-found popularity of Bach was due largely to the composer-performers, Felix Mendelssohn and Ludwig van Beethoven, and the publication of many of Bach's works.

In this post commemorating the 337th anniversary of his birth, Bach's music is the real content. No need for names, dates, places, and details. Let the music speak for him.

The late Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould, was perhaps the most technically perfect interpreter of Bach's keyboard music in our lifetime. His performances were filled with eccentricities - see his Wikipedia enry for more details - including his well-known vocal accompaniment that drove sound engineers mad and some classical music purists away from his concerts. At the same time no one could deny that Gould was a magician at the keyboard. Here he is playing several of Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. Bear with the soft sound for the first three minutes. The magic along with Gould's vocal noises fills the rest of the video.

From the St. Matthew Passion, here is the final recitative and chorus, a lullaby to Jesus as he lies in his tomb:

Here is a familiar piece attributed to Bach, Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, performed by young Dutch organist, Gert van Hoef. He had his first lesson at the keyboard when he was thirteen and made this video at eighteen. Van Hoef has a Facebook page that often links to many of his live performances.  

And finally here is Bach played by the irrepressible American cellist, Yo Yo Ma.

Bach's music has been a part of me for so long that I couldn't begin to tell you when I first heard it other than to say it had to be in church at a very early age. The preludes. fugues, harmonies, the shear wonder of his work, it's all in my blood. And I can't play a single note of it. Wouldn't have it any other way. I simply listen and let it flow.

Music’s ultimate end or final goal…should be for the honor of God and the recreation of the soul.

                                                              Johann Sebastian Bach - Leipzig, 1738







Sources


Text; title taken from a quote by Johannes Brahms, “Study Bach: there you will find everything.”

Northern Lights Alert For Tonight

 

If you live north of a latitude of 40 degrees in the US - that's a line from Maryland through Illinois and northern California - there is a good chance you can see the northern lights late tonight. On Monday the sun produced two Class M coronal mass ejections (CME) aimed at our planet and they're going to merge just before washing over our upper atmosphere tonight. Look toward your northern horizon for the show. We shouldn't have any impacts on electronic devices with this ejection; however, there is a more powerful Class X CME occurring today which could impact communications, navigation, and computer chip performance. We'll know more by the weekend when the ejection arrives.  You can follow the story at spaceweather.com.

Below is a post from last month where I addressed some history and significance of CMEs as we have become reliant on electricity and its applications is almost every aspect of our daily lives. 

If you follow this blog for a few years you'll find that I have no issue with the concept of climate change. I do have some questions about the origin of the change and with how to mitigate its negative impacts. But there is a larger element when it come to climate change and that is the threat from what I would call space weather and its long-term equivalent, space climate. If you think about meteors as space rain and hail, and aurora polaris and other electrical and magnetic phenomena as space lightning, you get my point.

What raises this issue today is the potential for some serious solar flares heading toward our planet. The series of solar storms emitting these flares from the surface of the sun is about to rotate into view from Earth. That means we could soon be washed in an abundance of electromagnetic energy that, although a very, very minimal threat to life thanks to our ozone layer, could be a serious threat to a society that relies on electricity.

Solar flares are a frequent occurrence and scientists have measured their strength for a century. The last flare to seriously impact the world's electrical systems and components was in 1972. Earlier this month, Elon Musk's SpaceX program launched another series of Starlink telecommunications satellites. Before they could be moved to their final orbit the headwinds of a strong solar flare doomed them to a degrading orbit and an eventual fiery end in our atmosphere.

In 1859, the high technology of the day had a similar experience. We can only imagine the impact of that event given our reliance on electricity today. Here is more about both events.

On September 1-2, 1859 a massive wave of energy from the sun - a coronal mass ejection or CME - energized our planet to the point that it literally "turned on the lights." Our friends at spaceweather.com wrote this about the event:

. , , a billion-ton coronal mass ejection (CME) slammed into Earth's magnetic field. Campers in the Rocky Mountains woke up in the middle of the night, thinking that the glow they saw was sunrise. No, it was the Northern Lights. People in Cuba read their morning paper by the red illumination of aurora borealis. Earth was peppered by particles so energetic, they altered the chemistry of polar ice.

Orange dots mark sighting of auroras on the morning of September 2, 1859

The geomagnetic storm that day was so powerful that telegraph keys sparked and caught fire. Even with power lost in the lines, the storm electrified them to the point that messages could still be sent. Given our dependence on technology today, such storms pose a significant threat. Here's more on the story from NASA's Science News page:

. . . a huge solar flare on August 4, 1972, knocked out long-distance telephone communication across Illinois. That event, in fact, caused AT&T to redesign its power system for transatlantic cables. A similar flare on March 13, 1989, provoked geomagnetic storms that disrupted electric power transmission from the Hydro Québec generating station in Canada, blacking out most of the province and plunging 6 million people into darkness for 9 hours; aurora-induced power surges even melted power transformers in New Jersey. In December 2005, X-rays from another solar storm disrupted satellite-to-ground communications and Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation signals for about 10 minutes.

Read more about past CME events in this link on the spaceweather.com page.

There is one certainty and that is the more our knowledge expands the more we understand how little we really know. Perhaps it is time to pay as much attention to coronal mass ejections and solar flares as we do to climate change. Both could pose significant world-wide threats. Both deserve more study. Enough for now. I'll let you explore the very new issue of near earth objects (NEO) on you own for now and leave my comments for another day.

National Vietnam War Veterans Day 2022

 

Today is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. The date, March 29. was chosen because the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) was disbanded on this day in 1973 and the last U.S. combat troops left the chaos and devastation that was Vietnam. On March 28, 2017, President Trump signed the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 officially recognizing the day. The Act also states that the US flag should especially be displayed in their honor.

Vietnam has left a huge footprint on American society. Our involvement began in 1955. Over 2,7 million men and women served served in Vietnam over the next eighteen years. The average age of a soldier was nineteen. One-third of them had been drafted. One-third of the draftees would be killed in the conflict. After spending one trillion dollars in today's economy the US for the first time in its history would return home without achieving its military objective.

In 1968 I had not yet formed a strong opposition to our nation's war against communist influence in Vietnam. My focus that summer targeted a new and narrow direction in behavioral studies involving geography, cartography and psychology. By early 1969 with no end in sight for what appeared to be a hopeless and seemingly endless struggle many friends immersed themselves in opposition to the war.  I watched from the sidelines until my closest friend, a promising mathematician, elected to leave the country rather than face the increasingly troubling national crisis unfolding on the home front. 

The day before he left he asked if I could drive him to his family home in the idyllic farm country near Emmitsburg, Maryland. He wanted to say "good-bye" to his family. For an hour I sat alone and still in an overstuffed chair in a comfortable, dimly lit parlor straight out of 1910. I heard them talking quietly in the distance. Sometimes I still hear them. On the return to Washington not a word was shared between us. It remains one of my strangest and darkest days. It was also the last day of my support for a military solution in Vietnam. The following day, Dave and his girlfriend left for Canada. I never heard from them again.

 To the best of my knowledge, all but one of my classmates and friends who served in Vietnam survived.  They returned to a conflicted nation that wanted so hard to forget the war that they often forgot the soldier. It's taken all of us a long time to correct that oversight. The average age of a Vietnam veteran is 68. It's well beyond time to thank them, to talk to their family members, and to donate to organizations that support them. 

Today I look back on those memories of military parades, memorial activities of my childhood, and a career infused with military history from the colonial wars through Vietnam. I'll never experience how military service shapes a person inside but I know the cost of freedom is not free. Every Vietnam veteran has paid a price that enables us to enjoy life in this bountiful nation. I offer up to all of them my sincerest admiration and thanks on this, their day.

Paul Whiteman Brought Jazz Into America's Living Room

We've had quite a few significant musical birthdays this week. The honor today is reserved for "The King of Jazz," Paul Whiteman. A strong-willed innovator and perfectionist, he became the most popular band leader in the U.S. during the Roaring Twenties. Whiteman encouraged many talented artists and composers through his interest in fusing jazz with other musical styles. He appreciated experimental music and sponsored several concerts featuring new compositions and artists. Historian Glenn T. Eskew says this about him:

Alert to the emerging style, Whiteman pioneered standardized settings of the songs, capturing the melodies on paper and leaving room for improvisation while making jazz appear "respectable" for dancing by using symphonic arrangements. Whiteman made recordings in 1920 of "Avalon" and "Whispering" songs that inspired Johnny Mercer. By 1924, in a bid to blend the "serious" with the "popular," Whiteman conducted his Palais Royale Orchestra in the world premier of George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue,' which revealed the omnipresence of syncopation. Indeed, Whiteman's various approaches to jazz gained him his crown, for he mastered a jazz-inflected light-sweet music that while never the hot music of [Louis] Armstrong nonetheless popularized the genre in the United States. From the cabaret to the symphony hall, musicians embraced the rhythm and blues of playing as Americans consumed Whiteman's liberating jazz.

In his most notable experimental concert he asked his friend and collaborator, George Gershwin, to compose a "jazz concerto" for his series of experimental music concerts. Though faced with a short performance deadline, Gershwin reluctantly agreed. In two weeks, he completed the new piece and entitled it Rhapsody in Blue. After two weeks of orchestration and eight days of rehearsal, Whiteman premiered the piece at the Aeolian Hall in New York in February 1924 with Gershwin at the piano.

Today Rhapsody in Blue is beloved throughout the world, but Whiteman is all but forgotten as the man behind the music. There is a backstory here worth knowing. After all, Whiteman gave early exposure to some of the best, including Bing Crosby, Mildred Bailey, Bunny Berigan, Jack Venuti, Bix Beiderbecke, and Jack Teagarden. Many people today won't recognize most of these names but they should be aware that these unknowns helped shape much of the music - especially jazz and vocal pop - we hear today.

Here's an important interview with Whiteman about Gershwin and the creation of Rhapsody in Blue. It's well worth every second of talk and includes about three minutes of music:

Whiteman was quite the showman as can be viewed in this excerpt from the 1930 film, King of Jazz. The film was the first to use a prerecorded studio soundtrack "made independently of the actual filming." It was also one of the earliest Technicolor films. 

And we can't let Whiteman's birthday pass without an opportunity to hear his celebrated orchestra performing the popular music that made them famous. This 1928 recording features 25 year-old Bing Crosby singing his first number one hit. Crosby would go on to shape popular

singing for the rest of the century.

 

That's happy music. Tap your feet, did you?

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Whiteman photo, photographer uncredited, archive.org

Text:
Glenn T. Askew, Johnny Mercer: Southern Songwriter for the World, University of Georgia Press: Athens and London, 2013

The Extraordinary Sound Of Divine And Sassy Sarah Vaughan

 

Sarah Vaughan, 1946

The American jazz singer, Sarah Vaughan, known as "Sassy" and "The Divine One," performed for almost fifty years. She was a performer if not a magician who could wring the emotion from a song with her warmth and three-octave range. Indeed she was a symphony of sound. The introductory paragraph of her Wikipedia entry quotes the music critic, Scott Yanow, as saying she had "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century." When coupled with the greatest of songwriters from 1930 on I think she could be matched only by Ella Fitzgerald for her vocal magic in popular music and jazz. Thirty-two years after her passing fans still wait for a singer who can approach her amazing voice. I must say that Jane Monheit has done a fine job of blending the Vaughan recipe with her own spices to bring us much of the magic we remember so well. Here is Sassy performing the signature song from late in her career, Send In The Clowns:

That is performance in song. It was recorded twenty years before Auto-Tune and other pitch correction and vocal tuning software could turn tone deaf studio metrosexuals and assorted hotties of any sex into so-called stars. We've come down a long way in what passes for both talent and popular music over the past generation. Of course, there are exceptions but for the most part real singing has become subordinate to other aspects of presentation, performance, and spectacle. And once more I ask the question, "Where is jazz, a genre birthed in the United States?" It is alive in many small markets across the country but it remains a small portfolio in the financial departments of our corporate music industry.

So as the Jane Monheits, Diana Kralls and others keep jazz alive let us honor the memory of one of its greatest interpreters, Sarah Vaughan, who was born on March 27, 1924. For another taste of her magic, here she is near the close of her career performing Misty.

A three octave vocal range, no Auto-Tune, singular perfection.

Sources


Photos and Illustrations:
opening photo, William P. Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

One Birthday, Two Literary Icons, An Infinity Of Separation

They may share March 26 as a birthday and the receipt of literary prizes but that is about all Robert Frost (1874- 1963) and Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) have in common. 

Robert Frost in 1941

 The Academy of American Poets has this to say about Frost:

Though his work is principally associated with the life and landscape of New England—and though he was a poet of traditional verse forms and metrics who remained steadfastly aloof from the poetic movements and fashions of his time—Frost is anything but merely a regional poet. The author of searching and often dark meditations on universal themes, he is a quintessentially modern poet in his adherence to language as it is actually spoken, in the psychological complexity of his portraits, and in the degree to which his work is infused with layers of ambiguity and irony.

 

Read the full article here.

Tennessee Williams in 1964

The Public Broadcasting Service's American Masters series online biography of Williams opens with this paragraph:

He was brilliant and prolific, breathing life and passion into such memorable characters as Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski in his critically acclaimed A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. And like them, he was troubled and self-destructive, an abuser of alcohol and drugs. He was awarded four Drama Critic Circle Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was derided by critics and blacklisted by Roman Catholic Cardinal Spellman, who condemned one of his scripts as “revolting, deplorable, morally repellent, offensive to Christian standards of decency.” He was Tennessee Williams, one of the greatest playwrights in American history.

The full article on Williams is available here.

Frost left us with "The Road Not Taken," "The Gift Outright," "After Apple Picking," "Nothing Gold Can Stay," "Fire and Ice," "Mending Wall," and many more that we heard even in elementary school.

Williams contributed The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, and scores of other works. For most of us those titles were reserved for adulthood.

Today Frost and Williams are bound by a birthday and that's about as close as we'll ever find them. Together their American experience may be so broad as to admit no exception. Let the research begin!




Sources:


Photos and Illustrations:
Frost photo, Frank Palumbo, World Telegraph, Library of Congress, New York-World Telegraph and Sun Collection;
Williams photo, Orlando Fernandez, World Telegraph, Library of Congress, New York-World Telegraph and Sun Collection

Flannery O'Connor: The Voice Of The Refiner's Fire

One of the most significant writers in America, Flannery O'Connor, was born on this day in Savannah, Georgia in 1925. She spent her early childhood as a devout Catholic there in a home just off Lafayette Square.  The square features moss-draped live oaks, colorful azaleas, and an abundance of birds, all sitting in the shadows of the towering spires of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Things haven't changed much in this beautiful space. It still has its interesting spectrum of regular visitors: fast-walking pedestrians, lovers holding hand, lunch hour diners, retirees enjoying the benches, touring families, people waiting for the bus, runners and bikers, and children at play. And every day for the last 120 years, the cathedral casts its shadow over the O'Connor home while its bells remind the people of God's grace and their obligations as His children. I think as long as you can visit Lafayette Square, say on any pleasant Sunday afternoon, you can know O'Connor well.

Her family moved to Atlanta in 1938, where her father was diagnosed with lupus, a chronic disease involving the destruction of healthy tissue by the body's immune system. Shortly thereafter they moved 100 miles southeast to her mother's family home in Milledgeville. When her father died in 1941, O'Connor moved a few miles north of town to her uncle's farm where she lived with her mother. Eventually, the farm would be called Andalusia, and it became a refuge following her own diagnosis with lupus in 1950. At Andalusia, she would raise her beloved peacocks and weave her experiences and memories of people, ethics, morals, and religion into her novels, Wise Blood, and The Violent Bear It Away, and scores of short stories published in two collections in her lifetime, A Good Man is Hard to Find, and Everything That Rises Must Converge. Her Complete Stories appeared posthumously in 1971.

Main house at Andalusia

O'Connor's office-bedroom at Andalusia

Lupus took Flannery O'Connor from us in 1964 when she was in her 39th year. You can visit both her childhood home and Andalusia thanks to foundations that preserve the landscapes and memories she cherished. And, thanks to her, you can visit the South anytime by simply opening one of her books.

Many years ago the management at Andalusia removed scores of the offspring of O'Connor's beloved peacocks to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, a large Trappist estate about two and a half miles from our ridge top home. At that time the area was still quite rural and the peacocks flourished in and around the monastery grounds.

Thirty years ago on quiet evening when the wind was right it was not unusual for us to hear them calling faintly in the distance. Eventually, they were removed and for some years now there has been no call to break the silence. But we do remember those urgent and sometimes fearful calls in the dusk. Today the woods remain a gallery of sounds. Some we know well. Others we may not recognize so easily. Those of us who know O'Connor's work well may find it difficult to distinguish between the peacock, the author's veil, or the rich spirit world that inhabits her American South. After all, in the ancient traditions of the Catholic world the peacock is the symbol of immortality.

I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. The Southerner who isn’t convinced of it is very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God. Ghosts can be very fierce and instructive. They cast strange shadows, particularly in our literature. In any case, it is when the freak can be sensed as a figure for our essential displacement that he attains some depth in literature.






Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

Childhood photo, Andalusia Farm, Inc. Photo courtesy of the Flannery O'Connor Collection, Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia.
House, deepsouthmagazine.com
Bedroom, photo courtesy of Emily Elizabeth Beck
Adult portrait, openculture.com


Text:


Flannery O'Connor entry, Sarah Gordon, et al, georgiaencyclopedia.org
quotation from Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, selected and edited by Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, New York; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969

When Warthogs Fly Or, A-10s In The Air

 

Long-time readers know how much I enjoy airplanes and aviation history. For newer reader, let it be said that I spent most of my first nine summers in an around a recycled World War II Quonset hut in West Virginia. It served as the hub of the small fixed base operation known as Baker's Air Park. After that experience, I never saw an airplane I didn't like. Any hint of sound in the air or sight of a contrail and my eyes were skyward. That's what happened earlier this week when I thought I spotted an A-10 Warthog, one of the most innovative aircraft flying in today's Air Force. After some research it seemed more likely to be a small business jet. Don't mind waiting to see one here as they are around for several regional airshows. I can always enjoy Atlanta's air traffic and its almost endless opportunities for looking up.

When we lived on the great salt marshes east of Savannah and under a magnificent sky dome, it was great fun watching the endless air traffic on the Northeast to Florida jet route. Closer to sea level, we saw any number of military aircraft, but watching the training flights of A-10s was always an air show. That aircraft was the A-10 Thunderbolt, fondly known as the Warthog. For 45 years it is still above the battlefront as an essential close air support weapon.

The Warthog is quiet, nimble and deadly. The aircraft was developed because the military tacticins wanted a Gatling gun in the sky. General Electric built the gun (GUA-8/A Avenger rotary cannon) and Fairchild-Republic built the airplane around it. Beautiful in its own way, it's loved by pilots and mechanics alike as a reliable flying cannon that almost always returns to base, even when missing parts and filled with holes. 

For the aviation enthusiasts among us, here's a video on the aircraft's history.

And here's one for fun.

Rules For Our Election Merry-Go-Round 2022

I noticed something different about You Tube last night. The political ads are back. They're brief, repetitive. and best described as ten second lies. Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda for the National Socialist Party during the Hitler years, would be proud. In Georgia we're facing several contentious campaigns over the next seven months. I don't look forward to it because the nation's collective anger and unrest translates easily into more confrontational election tactics. For a long time leftist democrats had the edge because they had a modern day playbook for such contests. It wasn't until the last decade of the last century that conservatives took serious notice. Today the playbook, Rules For Radicals, is required reading for any candidate at any government and corporate executive level. 

Around 1513 Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a guidebook advising those in power on how to keep it. Four and a half centuries later, Saul Alinsky wrote Rules For Radicals advising those out of power on how to take it from those in charge. It's all about keeping and holding power. We have a struggle for that power coming in November. You'll have to read Machiavelli for yourself. It can be a challenge. On the other hand, Alinsky's book is nicely structured, very readable as a playbook, and an aid to the critical thinking you'll need to navigate the battlefield.

If you read this blog frequently you've likely encountered similar posts but regardless of how many times you read the rules a quick refresher can only make you better prepared. Many of the tactics have been a feature of American elections for well over a century. It took the experience and mind of Alinsky, long recognized as the founding father of community organizing, to best articulated them in his 1971 book. As a Chicago native trained at the University of Chicago and a veteran organizer and political activist in the city's neighborhoods he was well prepared for the task.

My copy purchased in 1971 during my revolutionary days

Here are the twelve rules or tactics we'll see at work every day until the election and beyond. My condensation of supporting information from the book is in brackets.



1. Power is not only what you have, it's what the enemy thinks you have. [Power is derived from two main sources - money and people.]

2. Never go outside the expertise of your people. [It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.]

3. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. [Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.]

4. Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. [You can kill them with this because nobody can possibly obey all of their own rules.]

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. [There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating.]

6. A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long become a drag. [Don't become old news. Even radical activists get bored.]

8. Keep the pressure on. Never let up. [Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, recover, regroup or re-strategize.]

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. [Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.]

10. If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. [Violence from the other side can become a positive because the public sympathizes with the underdog.]

11. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. [Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.]

12. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. [Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people, not institutions, people hurt faster than institutions.]




Any way you look at these words there is rough play, play for keeps. We've read and heard them daily and watched their consequences unfold on our national stage especially since 2016. Time and experience have taught me well and today I see it as an unsettling and potentially dangerous book now that it has become mainstream. I trust readers will benefit from this information as we face what may well be one of the most significant national elections in our time.

Spring 2022

About one hour ago the plane of our planet passed through the center of the sun. That means today is an equinox day: the sun is directly overhead on the equator at midday and the the length of light and darkness are just about equal anywhere on the planet. This year I don't care to get more technical about the facts. What really matters is it's the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere. Metro Atlanta could not have a more perfect day to mark the arrival. The deep blue skies, no wind, bone-dry air, and a temperature flirting with 68 degrees will soon have me outside and surrounded with signs of a new season.

When it comes to calendars and changing seasons, I'm always reminded of the French Revolutionary Calendar (1793-1805) teasing us with the warmth and color of Spring. The calendar itself wiped away all references to the past, the old French regime, and a return to  an Edenic world. For starters the spring equinox marks the first day of the month of Germinal. Every day had a name appropriate for the season. A revolutionary idea, I'd say. So here are the fecund thirty days of Germinal (March 21 - April 19)

1. Primevere - Primrose

2. Plantane - Plane Tree

3. Asperge - Asparagus

4. Tulipe - Tulip

5. Poule - Hen

6. Bette - Chard Plant

7. Bouleau - Birch Tree

8. Jonquille - Daffodil

9. Aulne - Alder

10. Couvoir - Hatchery

11. Pervenche - Periwinkle

12. Charme - Hornbeam

13. Morille - Morel

14. Hetre - European Beech Tree

15. Abielle - Bee

16. Laitue - Lettuce

17. Meleze - Larch

18. Cigue - Hemlock

19. Radis - Radish

20. Ruche - Hive

21. Gainier - Judas Tree

22. Romaine - Lettuce

23 Marronnier - Horse chestnut

24. Roquette - Arugula or Rocket

25. Pigeon - Pigeon

26. Lilas - Lilac

27. Anemone - Anemone

28. Pensee - Pansy

29. Myrtille - Blueberry

30. Greffor - Knife

Wonderful imagery about the season of renewal in those thirty words. The remaining eleven months are equally impressive. Alas, even the best elements of most cultural revolutions are apt to fail. The French Revolutionary Calendar was one of them, disappearing along with the First French Republic in the early days of the Napoleonic Era.  

Enough with history for now. May your first day of spring be the harbinger of warm weather and wind in your sails. Here is some beautiful imagery in sound to help you on your way.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations: Allegory of Germinal, public domain, wikipedia.fr, French National Library and Bureau of Measures, Paris

The Gifts Of Charles Marion Russell, The Cowboy Artist

 

When the Land Belonged to God                 C. M. Russell, 1914

In 2009 my wife and I made a detailed journey along the Missouri River following the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It took us from the mouth of the river to its headwaters at the continental divide on the Montana-Idaho state line. One of our destinations was the very appropriately named city of Great Falls, Montana. The Lewis and Clark expedition reached this same series of forbidding obstacles to navigation in June 1805 and spent a month portaging around them. A century later, the city that grew up around the falls was the home to artist and writer, Charles M. Russell, one of the finest interpreters of the landscape of the American West, its Indian inhabitants, and the cowboy.

Photo portrait of Russel taken around 1900

Russell was born on March 19, 1864, in St. Louis, Missouri, and developed a fascination with the West as a young boy. It never left him. When his parents sent him to boarding school in New Jersey to overcome his obsession, he merely filled his notebooks with sketches of cowboys and Indians until his parents relented and sent him to the frontier with a trusted friend. As a participant-observer, Russell captured Montana in a brief period of perhaps thirty years when boundaries separating the sublime natural setting, Native American culture, and western frontier cowboy culture began to dissolve. In that period his work developed depth and detail and by 1910 he was well-known among art circles from coast to coast. In addition, he had a huge influence on the interpretation of western culture in print and especially in film making. For many years he was the nation's highest earning artist. When he died in 1926, he left a legacy of thousands of illustrations, paintings, sculptures, letters and other material documenting the three themes. Much of that work is displayed today at the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls. Within the museum, visitors can see the nature of the Northern Rockies and High Plains and the full range of cultures of those who lived and worked in this beautiful and challenging place. One can see and feel the full range of Russell, the man, from serious to whimsical, exploring his home and studio.

Russell's Christmas greeting in 1914

In the last century, any boy or girl who has played "cowboys and Indians," enjoyed stories, illustrations, films and televisions programs with western themes has linked to Russell. He is an illustration of the reality and mythology of a man who has lived his dream and planted the seeds for others to follow in their own way. And for citizens of the United States, he is a national treasure. For Big Sky Montana, he is a beloved favorite son.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

When the Land Belongs to God, replica, Montana Historical Society, public domain

portrait, public domain

Christmas greeting, Montana Historical Society, public domain

Text:

C. M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana

wikipedia.org

C. M. Russell and the American West, An Unfinished Work, Montana Public Broadcasting Service

The Unforgettable Nat King Cole

The inimitable American jazz pianist and singer, Nat King Cole, was born on this day in 1919 in Birmingham, Alabama. He spent most of his childhood in Chicago where he became a successful club performer in his early teens. Like many promising performers, Cole relocated to Los Angeles and its booming film and recording industry. His newly formed King Cole Trio met with continued success in clubs throughout southern California. Savannah's favorite son, the singer-songwriter, Johnny Mercer, is credited with recognizing Cole's talent and potential in the entertainment in industry. In 1943 Mercer signed Cole to record for Capitol Records a recording company founded by Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn Wallichs the previous year. Over a five month period beginning in July 1943 Mercer produced five Nat King Cole Trio recordings. They were superb examples of jazz and popular music fusion that appealed to a broad American market. The recording sold in the millions, placed Cole in the national spotlight, and ensured huge success for Capitol Records.  The songs were: Tea For Two, Body and Soul, Straighten Up and Fly Right, Sweet Lorraine, and Embraceable You.  All of them were embedded in American music history and remain popular today. Here is a sample of that history in sound from the trio before 1955:

Cole developed a close friendship with Mercer as well as a business relationship with Capitol Records that lasted for the rest of his life. What a pleasure it is to watch these two extraordinary artists enjoying themselves in a fun performance on Cole's NBC television show from the 1950s:

Cole's success brought wealth to Capitol Records, made him an international star, and enriched the world of music. His death at 45 left a world shocked and saddened but the recording have kept his talent very much alive almost sixty years after his passing.

Sources

Photos and Illustration:
Cole at the piano, June 1947, William Gottleib Photo Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Text:
Glenn T. Eskew, Johnny Mercer: Southern Songwriter for the World, Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2013.

  

St. Patrick's Day 2022

Happy St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Breastplate

I bind unto myself today

the strong Name of the Trinity,

by invocation of the same,

the Three in One, and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever,

by power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;

His baptism in the Jordan river;

His death on cross for my salvation;

His bursting from the spicèd tomb;

His riding up the heavenly way;

His coming at the day of doom:

I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today

the power of God to hold and lead,

His eye to watch, his might to stay,

His ear to hearken, to my need;

the wisdom of my God to teach,

his hand to guide, his shield to ward;

the word of God to give me speech,

His heavenly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me,

Christ within me,

Christ behind me,

Christ before me,

Christ beside me,

Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort

and restore me.

Christ beneath me,

Christ above me,

Christ in quiet,

Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of

all that love me,

Christ in mouth of

friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself today

the strong Name of the Trinity,

by invocation of the same,

the Three in One, and One in Three.

Of whom all nature hath creation,

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

praise to the Lord of my salvation,

salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Pleasant surprises abound across this great country, some of them in the most unexpected places. Savannah will host one of those wonderful annual surprises today. At 10:15, rain or shine, the Saint Patrick's Day parade will step off as it has for almost every year for the last 198 years. Almost half a million people will line the streets and squares of this historic city to watch a family-friendly event. Organizers have worked hard over the past years to keep the "Saint" and sanity in the holiday, confining most of the adult revelry to River Street following the parade. That was fine with me even in my early thirties during a second adolescence. It's only since the arrival of "the book"- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - and the discovery of Savannah as a significant tourist destination that issues with irreverent activities became serious on St. Patrick's Day. [See "A Night[and Day] in Old Savannah," August 23, 2008, for details.]

My first parade there was in 1978 when I lived in the historic district. Over the years, I lost count as the events merged one into the other during my tenure in the Coastal Empire. Eventually, our children became Irish for a day and were part of the parade. They sat on the folded top of a hot convertible and waved their green, white and orange flags to the crowds. They have plenty of ancient Celtic ancestry from Scotland and Wales, but nothing from Ireland. Fortunately, even Savannah's old Irish families happily forgive that sin. They seek only great fun for themselves and their neighbors, often complemented with fine spring weather and thousands of azaleas blooming throughout the city.

Were those the good old days? To be honest, the parade is a fond memory. Life has moved on but I wouldn't pass on an opportunity to enjoy the day again. In fact, this historic event is so enjoyable it should be on every one's list at least once. That said, better make your reservations tomorrow before March 17, 2017 becomes "No Vacancy."

May you have a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day wherever the day finds you!




Sources


Photos and Illustrations:
St. Patrick photo, oca.org
postcards, author's family archive

Atlanta's WSB Radio Celebrates 100 Years

In the early days of the 20th century the call sign "WSB" was assigned to a ship for communications with land-based stations and nearby ships. When that vessel sank, the letters were assigned to another ship that was quickly lost. Mariners are very superstitious about such happening and soon the marked call sign was reserved for land based operators. The year was 1919. Civilian radio use - almost exclusively with a crystal set - began a robust recovery from prohibitions in World War I. At that time there were around 8000 licensed amateur radio operators in the U.S. They shared the airways with fewer than half a dozen licensed radio stations broadcasting brief, intermittent programs featuring concerts, news, and special sports events, especially boxing.

By 1922 technological improvements led to a large expansion in the number of broadcast stations - commercial operations - including the landmarks established by Westinghouse (KDKA Pittsburgh, WJZ Newark, WBZ Springfield/Boston. and KYW Chicago) and American Telephone and Telegraph (WJY Hoboken/New York). It is in this wave of enthusiasm for radio that the owners of the Atlanta Journal established WSB, the oldest station in the Southeast. The first broadcast, eagerly awaited by the city's one thousand wireless radio enthusiasts, took place on March 15, 1922, at a power of 100 watts. They beat their competition, the Atlanta Constitution and WGST, by two days. In its first decades the station was known as "The Voice of the South" but in time management adopted the slogan, "Welcome South, Brother." It was a perfect fit for call letters that had been randomly selected and assigned by the Federal Radio Commission.

In its 100 years WSB has played significant roles in the American experience. They range from the popularizing of Southern gospel music to the advocacy for civil rights through a pioneering editorial policy faced by broad and often hostile opposition. Today, the WSB family serves its listeners as a national talk radio leader, the driving companion for millions of metro Atlanta commuters, and the University of Georgia flagship station for football and basketball.

In retirement I don't listen to local radio much these days unless the Bulldogs are on the gridiron and there's no video media at hand. At the same time, I'm never far removed from the magic of radio because my great uncle Charles's 1921 Westinghouse RC Regenerative Receiver sits in an honored place in our den next to my desk.

It was built by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The radio was dated by its very low serial numbers (2239 and 4004). My uncle lived about 75 miles from KDKA in Pittsburgh and I know he enjoyed listening to that station on his radio because he told me so. There's written evidence on the radio manual as well. As for WSB, I can't say with certainty that he ever heard the station but he was an avid radio fan from the very beginning of its commercial era when it had thirty stations. With so few choices it's hard to imagine him missing Atlanta on the air and that warm greeting, "Welcome South, Brother!"


Happy birthday, WSB!



Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
logo, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WSB_NewsTalkLogo.jpg
radio, OTR photo collection

Text:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSB_(AM)
eh.net/encyclopedia/the-history-of-the-radio-industry-in-the-united-states-to-1940
earlyradiohistory.us

Pi Day 2022

 

Today is Pi Day. The day was founded in San Francisco in 1988 at the Exploratorium by its resident physicist, Larry Shaw. Pi itself has been with us much longer. Its first written approximations appear in Babylon and Egypt as early as 1660 BCE. Most of us are more familiar with the polygonal determination for pi that was first derived by the Greek mathematician, Archimedes, around 250 BCE. You can explore several subsequent calculations and mathematical applications here. Granted, I don't understand most of them but their stories are rather interesting.

Archimedes      Giuseppe Nogari (1699-1766)

Today, you have an opportunity to celebrate, celebrate, celebrate morning and night. Yes, that's three official celebrations:

1. Pi Day - today is March 14 or 3.14;

2. Pi Minute - official designation is March 14 at 1:59 PM or 3.14159; and;

3. Pi Second - official designation is March 14 at 1:59:26 PM or 3.1415926

If you're a night owl you could get away with minute and second celebrations in the A.M.

One could say it's an opportunity for "constant" enjoyment.

If you can't celebrate today or happen to live in a world using the day/month/year calendar all is not lost. You can celebrate Pi Approximation Day on 22 July or 22/7 = 3.142857.

Geek or not, may your Pi Day be filled with transcendence.

Source:

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prince-of-pi.jpg

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi

The Department Of Everything Else Turns 173

When Congress established the Department of the Interior on this date in 1849, the nation had celebrated a mere sixty years of operation under the Constitution. By mid-century settlement expanded well beyond the Mississippi River across the Great Plains and the Rockies to the Pacific. Virtually all Indians had been resettled in the west. The discovery of gold in California heightened interest in mineral wealth and the expansion of mining. Manifest destiny, the idea that all of North America should be part of the United States, was active in the Pacific Northwest and by 1848 had already redefined Mexico from California to Texas. Indeed the interior had become a busy and diversified aspect of the American experience and one that demanded some form of federal oversight. Is it any wonder that the organization was referred to as "the department of everything else" in its early years?

We've come a long way from "everything else" to a rather awesome department for someone who enjoys applied history, science, and geography across the American landscape. The department's current interests are expressed quite well in its organization chart:

I feel very fortunate to have worked almost 37 years for Interior in that little box on the lower left that bears the label, "National Park Service." The Service has a noble mission carrying out what has been described as "the best idea America ever had." It was a wonder- filled experience that took me to the far corners of the country in terms of both geography and history. Not sure I could do it today due to the agency's deterioration over the last 25 years but my experience that began around 1970 was a fulfilling adventure. It's one I'd do over without hesitation. So here's a big thank you to Interior for giving me such an opportunity, and a happy birthday wish for enhanced support and continued careful stewardship of everything else.

Ash Wednesday 2022

This is one of the most solemn and discomforting days in the Christian world for we are marked with ashes and made so very much aware of our sin. This day also marks the beginning of forty days of prayer and abstinence leading us to Christ's death and resurrection.

Although the ashen cross we bear today will fade over the hours we can take hope knowing that God's love for us will never fade.

Psalm 51

 

Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness; According to the multitude of Thy mercies do away mine offences.Wash me throughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my faults: and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged. Behold, I was shapen in wickedness: and in sin hath my mother conceived me. But lo, Thou requirest truth in the inward parts: and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly.
Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness: that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. Turn Thy face from my sins: and put out all my misdeeds.
Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.Cast me not away from Thy presence: and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.O give me the comfort of Thy help again: and stablish me with Thy free Spirit.
Then shall I teach Thy ways unto the wicked: and sinners shall be converted unto Thee. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou that art the God of my health: and my tongue shall sing of Thy righteousness. Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord: and my mouth shall shew Thy praise. For Thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it Thee: but Thou delightest not in burnt-offerings. The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt Thou not despise.
O be favourable and gracious unto Sion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness, with the burnt-offerings and oblations: then shall they offer young bullocks upon Thine altar.

                                                English Book of Common Prayer, 1662



Here is a legendary performance of Gregorio Allegri's Miserere, the Latin setting of Psalm 51 composed around 1638.

St. David's Day 2022

Happy Mardi Gras, readers! You think I'd display something purple, green, and gold so why is a Welsh national flag flying at our front door today?

In the Christian world in the West, March 1 is celebrated as St. David's Day. He was born in Wales in the 6th century, attained sainthood in the 12th century, and today is recognized as the patron saint of Wales. The traditional day of his death is March 1 with the years 589 or 601 recognized as the most likely years. Dewi San (St. David) was buried in the cathedral bearing his name in Pembrokeshire. In his lifetime he was recognized as an extraordinary force for Christian evangelism as well as Welsh nationalism. I doubt there could ever be a better day to celebrated the National Day of Wales than March 1.

Although the red dragon on a green and white field has been associated with Wales since the 15th century the design was not adopted officially as the national flag until 1959.

German traditions may remain strong in my family but I'm equally proud to say that I have Welsh ancestors - and their big Viking infusion -  thanks to the bloodline introduced by my grandmother's parents. They immigrated to the United States from Cardiff, Wales, in the early 1870's. Although I don't remember my grandmother - she died before my second birthday - my father always reminded me of her Celtic pride and Welsh ancestry expressed especially in a love for song and singing.

The nation they left is a small, ancient country located southwest of England between the Bristol Channel and the Irish Sea south of the Isle of Man. The region has a rich cultural heritage beginning with Celtic peoples in the early Iron Age. Its isolation left them with strong genetic identifiers as the "last of the 'true' Britons." There are only 3 million people living in Wales today. Historically, the population was never large but there was a limited diaspora beginning two centuries ago particularly with the Industrial Revolution and its need for coal. 

Only half of one percent of Americans claim Welsh ancestry. I'm pleased to be among them.

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus

Sources


Photos and Illustrations:
Welsh flag, public domain image, Open Clipart Library

Text:
wales.com
wikipedia.com