MUSIC SATURDAY - NICOLA FIORENZA

“There are two great days in a person’s life - the day we are born and the day we discover why.” - William Barclay 

Nicola (Nicolò) Fiorenza (born after 1700 in Naples; died 13 April 1764) was an Italian violinist and composer of the Neapolitan Baroque period.

Reliable biographical information concerning Fiorenza is extremely scarce, thus little is known about his schooling. Fiorenza was educated at the Conservatory of S. Maria di Loreto, presumably also by Francesco Barbella. In 1726 Fiorenza was a cellist in the Neapolitan Royal Chapel (Court) orchestra, replacing Francesco Alborea who had moved to Vienna. He later got a steady job as a violinist.

In 1743 Fiorenza and four other equally qualified candidates were vying to become the head of the strings class at the Conservatory. The decision was to be made by drawing lots. Fiorenza drew the winning lot and became teacher of the class of the Institute that was led by Francesco Durante. However, from around 1760, claims were made against Fiorenza that he beat and mistreated his students resulting in some of them abandoning their studies. For this reason, the management of the Conservatory was forced to dismiss Fiorenza in 1762. From 1758 he held the post of concert master or head violinist of the Royal Chapel Orchestra, as successor to Domenico de Matteis.

At the end of 1762 Fiorenza was fired from the Conservatory owing to longstanding complaints about his rough treatment of musicians. Fiorenza died less than two years later, and little else is known about his life.

Fiorenza’s musical legacy consists of about thirty traditional hand-written compositions that date from the period between 1726 and 1736. However, it is assumed that during the period he taught at the Conservatory he wrote more works. His surviving works, mostly instrumental, are collected in a manuscript at the Naples Conservatory S. Pietro a Majella: Fifteen concertos for different combinations of instruments and nine symphonies, some of which are enlivened by virtuoso solos or wind instruments, which make them comparable to the concerto form. The currently available works include violin sonatas, trio sonatas, string symphonies with three and four violins and solo concerts for various instruments. Stylistically, his works range from the strict pattern of Corelli’s church sonatas to the ‘galant’ work of Durante.

Here are some of his concertos and chamber works performed by Dolce & Tempesta:

Concerto for flute, violin, viola, cello & continuo in F minor

Concerto for 2 violins, cello obbligato & continuo in D major

Concerto for 3 violins & continuo in A minor

Trio Sonata for violin & continuo in G major

Concerto for 2 violins, viola, cello obbligato & continuo in D major

Sinfonia for flute, 2 violins & continuo in A minor

The painting above is Salvatore Fergola’s (Napoli, 24 aprile 1796 – Napoli, 7 marzo 1874). “Il Vesuvio fumante con un tratto della ferrovia Torre Annunziata-Nocera”.

FOOD FRIDAY - CREAM SCONES

“Wilful waste makes woeful want.” – English proverb

Do you have some cream that has been in your fridge a few days past its use-by date? You know it’s still good, smells OK, but maybe it’s just turning? Well, use it all up by baking some scones that need some of this “turning” cream and no butter, nor eggs. They will taste wonderful and fluffy and there will be no hint of sourness! 

CREAM SCONES

Ingredients

450g self-raising flour, plus extra to dust

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons icing sugar

200mL thickened cream (“turning”)

125 mL cold water

Pinch of salt

Vanilla essence

Some sultanas (optional)

Milk, to brush 

Method

Place an oven rack in the top third of oven. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 200˚C. Lightly dust baking paper with self-raising flour and place on a metal baking sheet.

Sift flour, baking powder and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl. Add the sultanas (if you are using them) and stir to cover with flour. Add the cream, vanilla essence and the cold water. Cut and fold mixture using a spatula until it starts to come together.

Form mixture into a ball with floured hands. Place ball on baking paper, dust fingertips with flour and knead lightly until just smooth and slightly springy. Do not overwork. Mould the dough to roughly form a square, about 2cm deep.

Dust the spatula with flour and use the edge to cut the dough into scone shapes. Gently separate each scone.

Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk. Bake the scones for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Split the warm scones and serve with thick cream or butter, and jam or marmalade if desired.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme.

TRAVEL TUESDAY #86 - LOS ANGELES, USA

“Nationalism: The curious notion that barbarism becomes a virtue when it reaches tribal proportions.”― Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewsky

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Los Angeles (Spanish for “The Angels”), officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L.A., is the cultural, financial, and commercial centre of Southern California. With a U.S. Census-estimated 2016 population of 3,976,322, it is the second-most populous city in the United States (after New York City) and the most populous city in the state of California. Located in a large coastal basin surrounded on three sides by mountains reaching up to and over 3,000 m, Los Angeles covers an area of about 1,210 km2. The city is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the country. Los Angeles is the centre of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, with 13,131,431 residents, and is part of the larger designated Los Angeles-Long Beach combined statistical area (CSA), the second most populous in the nation with a 2015 estimated population of 18.7 million.

Los Angeles City Hall (above), completed 1928, is the centre of the government of the city of Los Angeles, California, and houses the mayor’s office and the meeting chambers and offices of the Los Angeles City Council. It is located in the Civic Center district of downtown Los Angeles in the city block bounded by Main, Temple, First, and Spring streets.

The building was designed by John Parkinson, John C. Austin, and Albert C. Martin, Sr., and was completed in 1928. Dedication ceremonies were held on April 26, 1928. It has 32 floors and, at 138 m high, is the tallest base-isolated structure in the world, having undergone a seismic retrofit from 1998 to 2001 so that the building will sustain minimal damage and remain functional after a magnitude 8.2 earthquake.The concrete in its tower was made with sand from each of California's 58 counties and water from its 21 historical missions.

City Hall’s distinctive tower was based on the shape of the Mausoleum of Mausolus, and shows the influence of the Los Angeles Public Library, completed shortly before the structure was begun. An image of City Hall has been on Los Angeles Police Department badges since 1940. To keep the City’s architecture harmonious, prior to the late 1950s the Charter of the City of Los Angeles did not permit any portion of any building other than a purely decorative tower to be more than 46 m. Therefore, from its completion in 1928 until 1964, the City Hall was the tallest building in Los Angeles, and shared the skyline with only a few structures having decorative towers, including the Richfield Tower and the Eastern Columbia Building.

City Hall has an observation deck, free to the public and open Monday through Friday during business hours. The peak of the pyramid at the top of the building is an airplane beacon named in honour of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, cf Lindbergh Beacon. Circa 1939, there was an art gallery, in Room 351 on the third floor, that exhibited paintings by California artists. The building was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1976. 

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

Add your own travel posts using the Linky tool below, and don't forget to be nice and leave a comment here, and link back to this page from your own post.

I am sorry this meme has been late in getting online this week, I have been very busy with work, which kind of gets in the way of doing more pleasant things...

MYTHIC MONDAY - EGYPT 18, BASTET

“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.” - Terry Pratchett 

Bastet was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion, worshiped as early as the 2nd Dynasty (2890 BCE). As Bast, she was the goddess of warfare in Lower Egypt, the Nile River delta region, before the unification of the cultures of ancient Egypt. Her name is also translated as Baast, Ubaste, and Baset. In Greek mythology, she is also known as Ailuros (Greek for “cat”, αἴλουρος). The uniting Egyptian cultures had deities that shared similar roles and usually the same imagery.

In Upper Egypt, Sekhmet was the parallel warrior lioness deity. Often similar deities merged into one with the unification, but that did not occur with these deities having such strong roots in their cultures. Instead, these goddesses began to diverge. During the 22nd Dynasty (c. 945–715 BCE), Bast had transformed from a lioness warrior deity into a major protector deity represented as a cat. Bastet, the name associated with this later identity, is the name commonly used by scholars today to refer to this deity.

What the name of the goddess means remains uncertain. One recent suggestion by Stephen Quirke (Ancient Egyptian Religion) explains it as meaning “She of the ointment jar”. This ties in with the observation that her name was written with the hieroglyph for ointment jar (bas) and that she was associated with protective ointments, among other things. The name of the material known as “alabaster” might, through Greek, come from the name of the goddess.

Bastet was originally a lioness warrior goddess of the sun throughout most of ancient Egyptian history, but later she was changed into the cat goddess, which is familiar today. Greeks occupying ancient Egypt toward the end of its civilisation changed her into a goddess of the moon. As protector of Lower Egypt, she was seen as defender of the pharaoh, and consequently of the later chief male deity, Ra. Along with the other lioness goddesses, she would occasionally be depicted as the embodiment of the Eye of Ra. She has been depicted as fighting the evil snake named Apep, an enemy of Ra.

Images of Bastet were often created from alabaster. The goddess was sometimes depicted holding a ceremonial sistrum in one hand and an aegis in the other (the aegis usually resembling a collar or gorget embellished with a lioness head). Her name was associated with the lavish jars in which Egyptians stored their ointment used as perfume. Bastet thus gradually became regarded as the goddess of perfumes, earning the title of perfumed protector. In connection with this, when Anubis became the god of embalming, Bastet came to be regarded as his wife for a short period of time. Bastet was also depicted as the goddess of protection against contagious diseases and evil spirits.

Bastet was a local deity whose religious sect was centered in the city of Bubastis, which lay in the Nile Delta near what is known as Zagazig today. The town, known in Egyptian as pr-bastt (also transliterated as Per-Bast), carries her name, literally meaning House of Bast. It was known in Greek as Boubastis (Βούβαστις) and translated into Hebrew as Pî-beset, spelled without the initial ‘t’ sound of the last syllable. In the biblical Book of Ezekiel 30:17, the town appears in the Hebrew form Pibeseth.

More than 300,000 mummified cats were discovered when Bastet’s temple was excavated. Some mummies of people have been found to have their pet cats mummified and placed in their tombs with them. The main source of information about the Bastet cult comes from Herodotus who visited Bubastis around 450 BCE after the changes in the religious sect. He equated Bastet with the Greek Goddess Artemis. He wrote extensively about the religious sect. Turner and Bateson suggest that the status of the cat was roughly equivalent to that of the cow in modern India. The death of a cat might leave a family in great mourning and those who could would have them embalmed or buried in cat cemeteries—pointing to the great prevalence of the cult of Bastet. Extensive burials of cat remains were found not only at Bubastis, but also at Beni Hasan and Saqqara. In 1888, a farmer uncovered a plot of many hundreds of thousands of cats in Beni Hasan.

Cats in ancient Egypt were revered highly, partly due to their ability to combat vermin such as mice, rats (which threatened key food supplies), and snakes, especially cobras. Cats of royalty were, in some instances, known to be dressed in golden jewelry and were allowed to eat from their owners’ plates. Because domestic cats tend to be tender and protective of their offspring, Bastet was also regarded as a good mother, and she was sometimes depicted with numerous kittens. Consequently, a woman who wanted children sometimes wore an amulet showing the goddess with kittens, the number of which indicated her own desired number of children.

ART SUNDAY - SERGEY IVANOV

“To live without hope is to cease to live.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky 

Sergey Vasilyevich Ivanov (Russian: Сергей Васильевич Иванов; 1864-1910) was a Russian genre and history painter, known for his Social Realism. His father was a tax collector for the Customs Service. Sergey displayed an early talent for art, but his father was opposed on the grounds that it would not be a secure way to make a living so, at the age of eleven, he was enrolled at the Konstantinov Land Surveying Institute.

Surveying was not to his liking and he was an indifferent student, so a family friend who was an amateur artist encouraged his father to send him to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MSPSA). With a recommendation from Vasily Perov, he began attending classes there in 1878; studying with Illarion Pryanishnikov and Evgraf Sorokin. He left there in 1882 to attend the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Dissatisfaction with the Academy’s administration, as well as financial difficulties forced him to return to Moscow in 1884. He went back to the MSPSA and graduated in 1885. At that time he started work on a series of paintings devoted to “Pereselenchestvo”, the process of resettling peasants to outlying, vacant areas (mostly in Siberia) in an attempt to ease overcrowding in the villages after the Emancipation reform of 1861. The move was often very arduous and many died on the way. From 1885 to 1889, he toured the provinces of Samara, Saratov, Astrakhan and Orenburg, documenting the migrants’ lives. This was followed by a series on convicts.

In the mid 1890s, he began to focus on historical works. In 1899, he became a member of the Peredvizhniki, but was soon dissatisfied with their emphasis on “lovely scenes”. In 1903, he was one of the founders of the “Union of Russian Artists”, temporarily replacing the better-known “Mir Isskutsva”. In 1905, the Imperial Academy conferred on him the title of “Academician”. Later that year, during the Moscow Uprising, he made numerous sketches while also helping the wounded. From 1903 to 1910, he taught at the MSPSA. He was also known as an illustrator, creating drawings for classics by Gogol, Lermontov and Pushkin, among others. He died of a heart attack at his dacha near the Yakhroma River.

The painting above is “Death of a Migrant” from 1889. The stark realism of this work draws attention to the plight of the countless peasants who were resettled willy-nilly to the under-populated Siberian plains. Many did not make it and Ivanov records in this painting the fate of the hapless family who have lost father and husband on the migration route.

MUSIC SATURDAY - MARCO UCCELLINI

“To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts—such is the duty of the artist.” - Robert Schumann 

Marco Uccellini (Forlimpopoli, Forlì 1603 or 1610 - 10 December 1680) was an Italian Baroque violinist and composer. His output of mainly secular music for solo violin is considered to have been important in the rise of independent instrumental classical music, and in the development of violin technique.

Uccellini’s life, like many composers of the 17th century, is not well documented; however, enough information exists to create a rough biography. He was born into a reasonably affluent noble family in Forlimpopoli, Forlì, who had owned land in the area since the early 14th century. Many members of the family held ecclesiastical posts locally, including Uccellini’s father Pietro Maria, and it is likely that Marco went to study at the seminary in Assisi sometime in the early 1630s. Evidence from his will suggests that Uccellini began his formal musical education there, possibly under another notable early violinist-composer, Giovanni Battista Buonamente, who was then serving as maestro di cappella at the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.

He became musical director (Capo degl’instrumentisti) of the Este court in Modena from 1641 to 1662, and was the musical director (maestro di cappella) of the Modena cathedral from 1647 to 1665. Afterwards he served as maestro di cappella at the Farnese court in Parma until his death. At the Farnese court, he composed operas and ballets, but none of this music survives; thus, he is mainly known today for his instrumental music.

Uccellini was one of a line of distinguished Italian violinist-composers in the first half of the 17th century. His sonatas for violin and continuo contributed to the development of an idiomatic style of writing for the violin (including virtuosic runs, leaps, and forays into high positions), expanding the instrument’s technical capabilities and expressive range. Like other 17th-century Italian sonatas, Uccellini’s consist of short contrasting sections (frequently dances) that flow one into another. Uccellini’s innovations influenced a generation of Austro-German violinist-composers including Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Heinrich Ignaz Biber, and Johann Jakob Walther.

It can be assumed from the highly idiomatic and virtuosic nature of Uccellini’s violin compositions that he was himself a brilliant violinist. Besides introducing several technical innovations necessary to play his difficult music, he was an early populariser of music written explicitly for solo violin and continuo; at the time, it was common for composers not to specify instruments in their works, preferring to write parts adaptable between instruments of similar ranges.

Here are Lucy van Dael (Violin); Bob van Asoeren (Harpsichord, organ); Toyohiko Satoh (Liuto-attiorbato); and Jaap ter Linden (Violoncello) playing Uccellini’s playing some of Uccellini’s violin sonatas:
1. Sonate Op 4: Sonata quarta detta ‘La Hortensia virtuosa’ 0:00
2. Sonate Op 4: Sonata seconda detta ‘La Luciminia contenta’
3. Sonate Op 4: Sonata overo Toccata quinta detta ‘La Laura rilucente’
4. Sonate Op 4: Sonata nova
5. Sonate Op 5: Sonata quarta 16:36
6. Sonate, Op 5: Sonata terza
7. Sonate, Op 5: Sonata ottava
8. Sonate, Op. 5: Sonata quinta
9. Sonate, Op 5: Sonata decimal
10. Sonate, Op 5: Sonata prima
11. Sonata Op. 9/1: Sinfonia prima 47:22
12. Compositioni armoniche, Op. 7: Sonata prima 50:34
13. Compositioni armoniche, Op. 7: Sonata seconda


The illustration above is Bartolomeo Bettera’s “Musical Instruments and Sculpture in a Classical Interior” 17th century.

FOOD FRIDAY - SAVOURY CRACKERS

“The clever cat eats cheese and breathes down rat holes with baited breath.” - W. C. Fields 

We made some savoury crackers today as we bought some great cheeses at the market and thought we would have some for lunch. It was bitterly cold this morning, and was frosty. The temperature hovered below 5˚C for much of the morning and struggled to get up to about 10˚C by lunchtime. It was good to get back home and turn the oven on to make the crackers and soon the kitchen smelt wonderful, while lunch comprised of freshly baked crackers, a selection of cheese and some nice cabernet wine... 

Savoury Herb Crackers
Ingredients
300 g plain flour
3 tbsp olive oil
≈3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp dried chopped mixed herbs
1/2 tsp dried mustard
1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
1/2 tsp ground smoked paprika
For the topping
Coarse salt
Ground sumac
Black sesame seeds 

Method
Sift the flour and make a well in its centre. Add the herbs and spices, salt, sugar and mix well. Add the olive oil and enough of the water to make a firm dough.
Knead well and lay aside for a few minutes to rest. Grease the baking trays and warm the oven to 200˚C.
Roll the dough out to 3-4 mm thick. Try to keep the thickness as even as possible. Trim the edges as they may be thinner or thicker and so they may burn or not cook in the oven before the rest of the crackers are done.
Use a cookie cutter to cut out rounds or ovals about 5 cm diameter. Place on the baking tray and brush the top with water.
Sprinkle coarse salt, and sumac or black sesame seeds on top of the crackers. Put in the oven and immediately turn down to 180˚C. Bake for about 30 minutes until golden. We tend to like them extra crispy and we done, so we let them turn golden-brown!

This post is part of the Food Friday meme.

ALL ABOUT COSTMARY

“Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.” - Francis of Assisi 

Tanacetum balsamita is a perennial temperate herb in the Asteraceae family known as costmary, alecost, balsam herb, bible leaf, or mint geranium. Costmary is a perennial herb with large, oval serrated leaves and can grow up to 2 m high. During Summer it develops small yellow, button-shaped blossoms which appear in clusters.

The English name costmary stems from “costus of Saint Mary”. Costus is another herb (Saussurea lappa), and by extension ‘costus’ used to refer to any aromatic herb or its root. In other languages, costmary is associated with the Virgin Mary, most probably because it is sometimes used to treat women’s diseases.

The plant seems to have originated in the Mediterranean. It is unclear whether the plant called balsamita described by Columella in 70 CE is the same. According to Heinrich Marzell, it was first mentioned in 812 CE in a plant catalogue. Costmary was widely grown since the medieval times in herb gardens until the late 19th and early 20th centuries for medical purposes. Nowadays it has mostly disappeared in Europe, but is still widely used in southwest Asia. Its broad leaves were pressed and used in medieval times as a place marker in Bibles. It is referred to by Nicholas Culpeper as the ‘balsam herb’.

Stiff, leafy stalks of costmary rise from spreading rhizomes. The upward-pointing, silvery-haired, pale-green leaves with fine, rounded teeth may measure as large as 30 by 5 cm. Lower leaves are stalked and large, the upper ones stalk-less and become progressively smaller. The flowers, in clusters of tiny yellow buttons at the top of 1 m stalks, bloom in very late summer in northern climates, not at all if plants are grown in shade.

Plants whose flowers have small white ray flowers (like daisies) used to be classified as C. balsamita, whereas those with no ray flowers (just yellow disk flowers like those of tansy) were assigned to C. var. tanacetoides (which means “like tansy”). Gertrude B. Foster, in Herbs for Every Garden (1966), noted that the former has a camphor scent and the latter a mint scent.

For culinary uses, the mint-scented herb is usually employed. Use sparingly as the spearmint flavour can overpower your dishes or drinks. For a subtle flavour, slightly spicy, add a few young leaves finely chopped, to salads, vegetables, young potatoes, carrot and pumpkin soup, fruit cake, game, poultry and cold meats. Add 2 leaves to a pot of stewing apples, pears and quinces. Add 1 tsp of finely chopped costmary to whipped cream and custard served with desserts. Brew as a tisane or add it to sage tea.

Leaves of the plant have been found to contain a range of essential oils. A Spanish study found the oil includes carvone as the main component (51.5%, 41.0% and 56.9% in three samples), together with minor amounts of beta-thujone, t-dihydrocarvone, c-dihydrocarvone, dihydrocarveol isomer, c-carveol, and t-carveol. Levels of beta-thujone, a toxic ketone, were 9.8%, 12.5% and 12.1% in the respective samples.

In medieval times, costmary was used for menstruation problems. In the 18th century, it was classified as laxative, against stomach problems and as astringent. It was recommended against melancholy and hysteria as well as dysentery and against gallbladder disease. The plant is known from ancient herbals and was widely grown in Elizabethan knot gardens.

In the language of flowers, costmary leaves or leaf clusters signify: “You are sweet” or “Sweetness”. A flowering stalk indicates “mild temper and fidelity”.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

TRAVEL TUESDAY #85 - BATH, ENGLAND

“To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.” - Jane Austen 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Bath is a city in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England, known for its Roman-built baths. In 2011, the population was 88,859. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, 156 km west of London and 18 km south-east of Bristol. The city became a World Heritage Site in 1987. The city became a spa with the Latin name Aquæ Sulis (‘the waters of Sulis’) ca 60 CE when the Romans built baths and a temple in the valley of the River Avon, although hot springs were known even before then. Bath Abbey was founded in the 7th century and became a religious centre; the building was rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries. In the 17th century, claims were made for the curative properties of water from the springs, and Bath became popular as a spa town in the Georgian era.

Georgian architecture, crafted from Bath stone, includes the Royal Crescent, Circus, Pump Room, and Assembly Rooms where Beau Nash presided over the city’s social life from 1705 until his death in 1761. Many of the streets and squares were laid out by John Wood, the Elder, and in the 18th century the city became fashionable and the population grew. Jane Austen lived in Bath in the early 19th century. Further building was undertaken in the 19th century and following the Bath Blitz in World War II.

The city has software, publishing and service-orientated industries. Theatres, museums, and other cultural and sporting venues have helped make it a major centre for tourism with more than one million staying visitors and 3.8 million day visitors to the city each year. There are several museums including the Museum of Bath Architecture, Victoria Art Gallery, Museum of East Asian Art, and the Holburne Museum. The city has two universities: the University of Bath and Bath Spa University, with Bath College providing further education. Sporting clubs include Bath Rugby and Bath City F.C. while TeamBath is the umbrella name for all of the University of Bath sports teams. Bath became part of the county of Avon in 1974, and, following Avon’s abolition in 1996, has been the principal centre of Bath and North East Somerset.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme. 

Add your own travel posts using the Linky tool below, and don't forget to be nice and leave a comment here, and link back to this page from your own post:

MYTHIC MONDAY - EGYPT 17, SOBEK

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” - Winston Churchill 

Sobek (also called Sebek, Sochet, Sobk, and Sobki), in Greek, Suchos (Σοῦχος) and from Latin Suchus, was an ancient Egyptian deity with a complex and fluid nature. He is associated with the Nile crocodile and is either represented in its form or as a human with a crocodile head. Sobek was also associated with pharaonic power, fertility, and military prowess, but served additionally as a protective deity with apotropaic qualities, invoked particularly for protection against the dangers presented by the Nile River. Sobek enjoyed a longstanding presence in the ancient Egyptian pantheon, from the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BCE) through the Roman period (c. 30 BCE – 350 CE).

The entire Faiyum region – the “Land of the Lake” in Egyptian (specifically referring to Lake Moeris) – served as a cult centre of Sobek. Most Faiyum towns developed their own localised versions of the god, such as Soknebtunis at Tebtunis, Sokonnokonni at Bacchias, and Souxei at an unknown site in the area. At Karanis, two forms of the god were worshipped: Pnepheros and Petsuchos. There, mummified crocodiles were employed as cult images of Petsuchos. Sobek Shedety, the patron of the Faiyum’s centrally located capital, Crocodilopolis (or Egyptian “Shedet”), was the most prominent form of the god. Extensive building programs honouring Sobek were realised in Shedet, as it was the capital of the entire Arsinoite nome and consequently the most important city in the region.

Specialised priests in the main temple at Shedet functioned solely to serve Sobek, boasting titles like “prophet of the crocodile-gods” and “one who buries of the bodies of the crocodile-gods of the Land of the Lake”. Outside the Faiyum, Kom Ombo, in southern Egypt, was the biggest cultic centre of Sobek, particularly during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Kom Ombo is located about 48 km north of Aswan and was built during the Graeco-Roman period (332 BCE – 395 CE). The temple at this site was called the “Per-Sobek”, meaning the house of Sobek.

Sobek is, above all else, an aggressive and animalistic deity who lives up to the vicious reputation of his patron animal, the large and violent Nile crocodile. Some of his common epithets betray this nature succinctly, the most notable of which being: “He who loves robbery”, “he who eats while he also mates”, and “pointed of teeth”. However, he also displays grand benevolence in more than one celebrated myth.

After his association with Horus and consequent adoption into the Osirian triad of Osiris, Isis, and Horus in the Middle Kingdom, Sobek became paired with Isis as a healer of the deceased Osiris (following his violent murder by Set in the central Osiris myth). In fact, though many scholars believe that the name of Sobek, Sbk, is derived from s-bAk, “to impregnate”, others postulate that it is a participial form of the verb sbq, an alternative writing of sAq, “to unite”, thereby meaning Sbk could roughly translate to “he who unites (the dismembered limbs of Osiris)”.

It is from this association with healing that Sobek was considered a protective deity. His fierceness was able to ward off evil while simultaneously defending the innocent. He was thus made a subject of personal piety and a common recipient of votive offerings, particularly in the later periods of ancient Egyptian history. It was not uncommon, particularly in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, for crocodiles to be preserved as mummies in order to present at Sobek’s cultic centres. Sobek was also offered mummified crocodile eggs, meant to emphasise the cyclical nature of his solar attributes as Sobek-Ra. Likewise, crocodiles were raised on religious grounds as living incarnations of Sobek. Upon their deaths, they were mummified in a grand ritual display as sacred, but earthly, manifestations of their patron god. This practice was executed specifically at the main temple of Crocodilopolis.

These mummified crocodiles have been found with baby crocodiles in their mouths and on their backs. The crocodile – one of the few non-mammals that diligently care for their young – often transports its offspring in this manner. The practice of preserving this aspect of the animal’s behavior via mummification is likely intended to emphasise the protective and nurturing aspects of the fierce Sobek, as he protects the Egyptian people in the same manner that the crocodile protects its young.

MUSIC SATURDAY - ANTONIO SALIERI

“A man calumniated is doubly injured - first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it.” - Herodotus 

Antonio Salieri (18 August 1750 – 7 May 1825) was an Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg Monarchy. Salieri was a pivotal figure in the development of late 18th-century opera. As a student of Florian Leopold Gassmann, and a protégé of Gluck, Salieri was a cosmopolitan composer who wrote operas in three languages. Salieri helped to develop and shape many of the features of operatic compositional vocabulary, and his music was a powerful influence on contemporary composers.

Appointed the director of the Italian opera by the Habsburg court, a post he held from 1774 until 1792, Salieri dominated Italian-language opera in Vienna. During his career he also spent time writing works for opera houses in Paris, Rome, and Venice, and his dramatic works were widely performed throughout Europe during his lifetime. As the Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824, he was responsible for music at the court chapel and attached school.

Even as his works dropped from performance, and he wrote no new operas after 1804, he still remained one of the most important and sought-after teachers of his generation, and his influence was felt in every aspect of Vienna’s musical life. Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, and Ludwig van Beethoven were among the most famous of his pupils. Salieri’s music slowly disappeared from the repertoire between 1800 and 1868 and was rarely heard after that period until the revival of his fame in the late 20th century.

This revival was due to the dramatic and highly fictionalised depiction of Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s play “Amadeus” (1979) and its 1984 film version. His music today has regained some modest popularity via recordings. He is popularly remembered as a supposedly bitter rival of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This includes rumours that Salieri murdered Mozart out of jealousy, when in reality, they were at least respectful peers.

Here is a series of Twenty-six Variations on the Popular Theme of “La Folìa” for orchestra written in 1815, which is astonishing by its modernity, its luminous and light orchestration (contrary to the trends of Salieri’s time). The use of the harp, the short and sharp orchestral tutti, orchestral soloists (bassoon, oboe, flute, etc), is simply brilliant. Salieri has composed here a work of an indisputable thematic solidity in turn, dreamy, dramatic, playful, romantic, seductive, and served by an impeccable orchestration.

This work is emblematic of a trend that progressed well into the nineteenth century, notably in France and Italy, from Paganini to Saint-Saëns, Rossini and Debussy, who all believed that music should be clear and simple if it carries within its foundation a clear depth and density. There are still some typical passages in classical variation form in this piece, a rather rough finish, and a very shy use of brass, but 15 years before the “Symphonie Fantastique” of Berlioz we cannot expect similar treatments that are more Romantic in their scope. On the other hand, some passages involving the harp and the violin are worthy of the finest impressionist melodies of the end of the 19th century. Enjoy!

FOOD FRIDAY - VEGETABLE TART

“Go vegetable heavy. Reverse the psychology of your plate by making meat the side dish and vegetables the main course.” - Bobby Flay

We recently had this tart made from a recipe a friend gave us and it was quite delicious. We did “tamper” a little with it to make it a trifle more agreeable to us and it all worked out very nicely!

VEGETABLE TART

Ingredients

1 Middle Eastern flatbread large enough to line the bottom of a quiche pan

Olive oil

400g butternut pumpkin, peeled, cubed

1 red capsicum, sliced

1 red onion, cut into thin wedges

1/3 cup chopped chives

4 eggs

1/4 cup cream

1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground dry mustard

1 ripe tomato

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C fan-forced. Place baking tray on top shelf of oven. Line another baking tray with baking paper.

Use olive to brush both sides of the flatbread thoroughly. Place it on the bottom of a 30 cm quiche pan.

Place pumpkin, capsicum and onion in a bowl and drizzle olive oil in it, tossing the vegetables until they are thoroughly coated with oil (but not too much!). Season with salt and pepper.

Spread the vegetables on the prepared baking tray and place on lower shelf of oven. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until vegetables are just tender. Remove vegetables from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 160°C fan-forced.

Place eggs, cream, cheese and spices in a large jug. Whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange vegetables in the quiche pan. Pour egg mix over the vegetables. Decorate with finely sliced tomato rondels. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden and just set. Serve hot.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme.

TRAVEL TUESDAY #84 - GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

“Glasgow is less polite than Edinburgh but that’s a good thing - they keep it very real.” - Nik Kershaw 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Glasgow (Scots: Glesga; Scottish Gaelic: Glaschu) is the largest city in Scotland, and third largest in the United Kingdom. Historically part of Lanarkshire, it is now one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It is situated on the River Clyde in the country’s West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as Glaswegians. Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Britain.

Expanding from the medieval bishopric and royal burgh, and the later establishment of the University of Glasgow in the 15th century, it became a major centre of the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century. From the 18th century the city also grew as one of Great Britain’s main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America and the West Indies. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, the population and economy of Glasgow and the surrounding region expanded rapidly to become one of the world’s pre-eminent centres of chemicals, textiles and engineering; most notably in the shipbuilding and marine engineering industry, which produced many innovative and famous vessels.

Glasgow was the “Second City of the British Empire” for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period, although many cities argue the title was theirs. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew in population, reaching a peak of 1,127,825 in 1938. Comprehensive urban renewal projects in the 1960s, resulting in large-scale relocation of people to new towns and peripheral suburbs, followed by successive boundary changes, reduced the population of the City of Glasgow council area to 599,650 with 1,209,143 people living in the Greater Glasgow urban area. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers about 2.3 million people, 41% of Scotland’s population.

Glasgow hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games and is also well known in the sporting world for the football rivalry of the Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers. Glasgow is also known for Glasgow patter, a distinct dialect that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

Add your own travel posts using the Linky tool below, and don't forget to be nice and leave a comment here, and link back to this page from your own post:  
 

ART SUNDAY - IVAN GODLEVSKY

“Don’t work for recognition, but do work worthy of recognition.” - H. Jackson Brown, Jr. 

Ivan Ivanovich Godlevsky (Russian: Иван Иванович Годлевский; March 9, 1908, Kholm Governorate, Russian Empire – August 20, 1998, Saint Petersburg, Russia) was born in the town of Dobromychi (then the territory of Poland) in 1908. In 1913 his parents died in the First World War and he was admitted into the shelter of Countess Veniaminova in Moscow, but after the revolution he was brought up in an orphanage.

Since his early childhood Ivan was fond of drawing and painting. In 1926 he graduated from the Mirgorod Art School and then entered the Kiev Academy, where his talent was noted by a professor at the Krichevsky Academy. After the Kiev Academy he was drafted into the army, where he served until 1935. In 1936 he was admitted to the Leningrad Art Academy for the quality of his work without exams. He studied at the studio of Alexander Aleksandrovich Osmyorkin, was his favorite student and was a friend of the master for the rest of his life.

The war found the artist in Gurzuf, where he was writing his thesis. Godlevsky went into the army, went to war, was awarded a medal and was demobilised in 1946. He was able to graduate from the Academy only in 1949 and began to teach in the famous Muchinka. At the same time he was elected chairman of the painting section of the Leningrad branch of the Union of Artists.

Party member, war hero, professor of a prestigious university and head of the painting section, Godlevsky could have had a successful career. However, he was extremely honest in his relations with art and never changed his artistic principles. Godlevsky worked not for recognition, but for art. In his diary he wrote: “Creativity is the way to absolute happiness and the only meaning of life.” In 1956 Godlevsky fulfilled an important state order and received a considerable sum of money for it. He retired as professor and completely devoted himself to his passion - painting. To create pictures for him was a vital necessity. That is why in his paintings it is easy to see not only the great talent of the artist, but also his own sense of the fullness of being. Having thoroughly studied the foundations of impressionism, the artist created his own bright, easily recognizable, individual style in painting back in the early 1950s. It is noteworthy that this style remained characteristic of the artist until the end of his life.

The most devoted admirer of Godlevsky’s creativity was his wife, Vera Dmitrievna Lyubimova. It so happened that at first she fell in love with his paintings, and then in the artist himself. They were married in 1957.

In 1961 the first solo exhibition of Ivan Godlevsky’s works was held in the exhibition hall of the Leningrad Union of Artists. As soon as it opened, people stood in line in the street in order to be admitted. Newspapers reviews were not as complimentary and the artist was criticised for “formalism and Frenchness”. Still, the exhibition was so successful that it was approved for a visiting display in 12 more cities, but after Leningrad it was held only in Lviv. The second solo exhibition was organised in the Union of Artists only in 1978.

In 1990 the artist was invited to Paris and after the first successful exhibition of 150 of his works, they were submitted for sale to the French public at the famous Parisian auction house, Drouot, where 148 were sold. Godlevsky became a famous artist in France and decided to stay there continuing his painting. He settled with his wife in the South of France in the town of Le Pradet, near St. Tropez. Subesquently, further exhibitions of Godlevsky’s works were organised in France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Sweden and Italy. In December 1996 the artist decided to return to Russia, to his studio in St. Petersburg. In 1998 he died in his native land, his work finally acknowledged as significant and original.

The painting above is “On the Banks of the Ancient Volkhov River”, painted in 1970. It is rathe rdark and brooding, contrasting with others of his works that are brighter and perhaps more decorative such as his “Fishing Boats” or some that are more exotic and reminiscent of the orientalist tradition such as his “Samarkand”.

MUSIC SATURDAY - JOHANN VIERDANCK

“Musicians own music because music owns them.” - Virgil Thomson 

Johann Vierdanck (also: Virdanck, Vyrdanck, Feyertagk, Feyerdank, Fierdanck; ca. 1605–1646) was a German violinist, cornettist, and composer of the Baroque period. Vierdanck was born near Dresden. In 1615 he joined the court chapel of Dresden, where he became a student of Heinrich Schütz and of William Brade. His instrumental works were influenced by the Italian violinist Carlo Farina, also active in the Dresden court.

After visits to Copenhagen and Lübeck, Vierdanck occupied the post of organist in Stralsund from 1635 until his death. He was buried in Stralsund on 1 April 1646.The group Parnassi Musici has recorded several of his instrumental works, from his 1641 publication, for the CD label Classic Produktion Osnabrück.

Here are some of his chamber works performed by the group Parnassi Musici.

1. Canzona in C (No. 21) [04:30]

2. Capriccio in d minor (No. 11) [00:49]

3. Capriccio in a minor (No. 17) [04:11]

4. Capriccio in a minor (No. 2) [01:33]

5. Canzona in G (No. 23) [03:32]

6. Capriccio in a minor (No. 8) [02:26]

7. Passamezzo in a minor (No. 15) [07:23]

8. La sua Gagliarda in a minor (No. 16) [01:54]

9. Capriccio in d minor (No. 3) [02:45]

10. Capriccio in a minor (No. 20) [04:41]

11. Capriccio in d minor (No. 10) [01:50]

12. Capriccio in d minor (No. 18) [03:27]

13. Sonata in d minor (No. 4) [04:11]

14. Canzona in g minor (No. 22) [03:34]

15. Capriccio in d minor (No. 9) [01:01]

16. Capriccio in g minor (No. 19) [03:35]

17. Capriccio in d minor (No. 1) [01:34]

18. Canzona in a minor (No. 24) [05:45]

19. Capriccio in a minor (No. 7) [01:12]

20. Capriccio ‘auff Quodlibethische Art’ in C (No. 25) [06:20]