Bach Essay -- essays research papers fc

Johanna Sebastian Bach was a composer of the Baroque era, the most celebrated member of a large family of northern German musicians. Although he was admired by his contemporaries primarily as an outstanding harpsichordist, organist, and expert on organ building. Bach is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time and is celebrated as the creator of the Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, and numerous other masterpieces of church and instrumental music. Appearing at a propitious moment in the history of music, Bach was able to survey and bring together the principal styles, forms, and national traditions that had developed during preceding generations and, by virtue of his synthesis, enrich them all. J.S. Bach was born at Eisenach, Thuringia, on March 21, 1685, the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach and Elisabeth Lammerhirt. Ambrosius was a string player, employed by the town council and the ducal court of Eisenach. Johann Sebastian started school in 1692 or 1693 and did well in spite of frequent absences. Of his musical education at this time, nothing definite is known; however, he may have picked up the rudiments of string playing from his father, and no doubt he attended the Georgen Church, where Johann Christoph Bach was organist until 1703. This Christoph had been a pupil of the influential keyboard composer, Johann Pachelbel and he apparently gave Johann Sebastian his first formal keyboard lessons. The young Bach again did well at school, until in 1700 his voice secured him a place in a select choir of poor boys at the school at the Michaels Church, Luneburg. He seems to have returned to Thuringia in the late summer of 1702. By this time he was already a reasonably pro ficient organist. His experience at Luneburg, if not at Ohrdruf, had turned him away from the secular string-playing tradition, though not exclusively, a composer and performer of keyboard and 2 sacred music. The next few months are wrapped in mystery, but by March 4, 1703, he was a member of the orchestra employed by Johann Ernst, Duke von Weimar. This post was a mere stopgap; he probably already had his eye on the organ then being built at the New Church in Arnstadt. When it was finished, he helped test the organ in August 1703 he was appointed organist at the age of 18. Arnstadt documents imply that he had been court orga... ... contemporary Handel, Bach was the last great representative of the Baroque era in an age which was already reflecting the Baroque style. For about 50 years after Bach's death, his music was neglected. This was only natural; in the days of Haydn and Mozart, no one could be expected to take much interest in a composer who had been considered old-fashioned even in his lifetime—especially since his music was not readily available, and half of it, the church cantatas, was fast becoming useless as a result of changes in religious thought. At the same time, musicians of the late 18th century were neither so ignorant of Bach's music nor so insensitive to its influence as some modern authors have suggested. Emanuel Bach's debt to his father was considerable, and Bach exercised a profound and acknowledged influence directly on Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Works Cited Farb, Peter. Great Lives Great Deeds. New York: Readers Digest Association. 1964. Kirby, F.E. A short History of Keyboard Music. New York: The Free Press. 1966. Kupferberg, Herbert. Basically Bach. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1985. Schonberg, Harold. The Lives of the Great Composers. New York: W.W. Norton. 1970.

The Rosetta Stone Essay -- Hieroglyphs Egyptian Writing System Essays

The Rosetta Stone In 1799, when Napoleon’s army was dismantling a wall in Rashid, Egypt, they discovered the Rosetta Stone. Little did they know that this 11-inch thick piece of rock would be one of the greatest discoveries in history! It contained Egyptian scripture, with Greek also on the stone. This was used to decode the once lost Egyptian writing system. Before the 1800’s, attempts at trying to uncover the secrets held by the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics found on walls inside numerous tombs were useless. The pictures were falsely believed to be symbolic, representing some sort of object or idea. Something soon changed all of this misconception. 1799 was the year of a great breakthrough in Egyptology. French troops, under Napoleon’s command, were destroying a wall when they found a black, basalt stone. The stone was inscribed with three different forms of writing: Egyptian hieroglyphics, a shorthand form of hieroglyphs, and Greek written in 196 BC. The Rosetta Stone then be came instrumental in decrypting the long forgotten Egyptian writing system. The stone was first discovered near Rosetta, Egypt, by one of Napoleon's soldiers, named variously as Bouchard, during his expedition to Egypt in August of 1799. In no time, this discovery was mentioned to all the top scholars who were immensely interested since there was no way to decode the hieroglyphs. In 1802, Johan David Akerblad was the first to break ground in identifying the first demotic symbols. He identified a few of the proper names in the demotic text, after comparing them with the same names found in the Greek text. (Ogg 78) Next on the scene was Thomas Young, an English physicist, who took an interest to the deciphering the Rosetta Stone as well. After much researching, Young was able to prove that the proper names in the hieroglyphics section of the stone did in fact have phonetic value, and were not made up of symbols. He then introduced the idea of the proper names being written with ovals around them, known as cartouches. In reality, the hieroglyphs only contained six. Of the phonetic values that he assigned to hieroglyphs, five were correct (p, t, i, n, and f). (Budge 54) In 1814, he revealed the way in which the hieroglyphic signs were to be read by studying the direction in which the birds and other animals were all facing. He also was able to correctly identify some single-consonant... ...y death due to a stroke. The whereabouts of the Rosetta Stone today is the British Museum, in London. Without this old, black, basalt rock, we may never have deciphered the ancient egyptian scriptures. Still, there are many other writing systems of numerous lost civilizations that have yet to be deciphered. Until then, we can only make well thought inferences, and educated guesses until the next Rosetta Stone is unearthed. Works Cited 1. Budge, Sir E.A. Wallis. Egyptian Language- Easy Lessons in Egyptian Hieroglyphs. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1991. 2. Ogg, Oscar. The 26 Letters. New York: Thomas C. Crowell Company, 1962. 3. Claiborne, Robert. The Birth of Writing. New York: Time Inc., 1974. 4. Andrews, Carol. The British Museum Book of The Rosetta Stone. New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1985. 5. Giblin, James Cross. The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone - Key to Ancient Egypt. New York: Harper & Row Publishers,1990. 6. Frimmer, Steven. The Stone That Spoke- and other clues to the decipherment of lost languages. Toronto, Canada: Longmans Canada Limited, 1969. 7. Jean, Georges. Writing- The Story of Alphabets and Scripts. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1992.

The Life Of Mozart Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My book report is from the biography of Mozart written by Robert W. Gutman. It was illustrated by the Jacket art courtesy of Music Lovers Society and was published by Harcourt Brace and Company. It was printed in New York City and the year of publication was 1999.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, the son of composer, musical author, and violinist, Leopold Mozart and his wife, Anna Maria Pertl. His given names were Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Theophilus, the last of which is Gottlieb in German, and Amadeus in Latin. He used Wolfgang and Amadeus in his signature, so he is generally known by these two names.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  He displayed marked musical gifts very early, playing the keyboard confidently when aged four, composing his first pieces for it aged five, and quickly mastering the violin. Leopold was keen to exhibit his son's extraordinary talents, along with those of his gifted pianist-daughter, Maria-Anna (called Nannerl) (1751--1829), and he undertook a series of tours across Europe with them when Mozart was just six years old.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1767 the family went to Vienna for five months, where Mozart wrote an opera buffa (comic opera) for the Emperor, La finta semplice (trans, the Pretend Simpleton); and a Singspiel (a German-language opera with some spoken dialogue), Bastien und Bastienne (1769), commissioned by Dr Franz Anton Mesmer. However, in Vienna, the Italian musicians at court, including the composer Antonio Salieri, made it difficult for him to produce his operas. He returned to Salzburg, and was appointed honorary Konzertmeister to Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There followed three extended visits by father and son to Italy (1770--2). Musical experience gained on these tours helped mold Mozart's style, especially in dramatic music. He was prolific, writing sacred vocal pieces and instrumental works too. By 1772 he had written about 25 symphonies (some are lost), and his first quartets. Further quartets and symphonies followed during and after a visit to Vienna in 1773, when he came into contact with Haydn's music. Between 1775--6 he composed two operas: La finta Giardiniera (trans The Lady Who Disguised Herself as a Gardener) and Il Re Pastore (The Shepherd King); five... ...apellmeister of St Stephen's Cathedral. His last complete works were the masonic Singspiel, Die Zauberflote (1791, The Magic Flute); an opera seria, La clemenze di Tito (1791, The mercy of Tito), and a clarinet concerto for Leopold's coronation. Commissioned by an unknown stranger to compose the Requiem Mass, Mozart became obsessed with the idea that it was for his own death, and he died before the work was finished after a three-week fever. No convincing evidence about the cause of death has come to light, although there has been much speculation about it. Deeply in debt at the time of his death, Mozart did not live long enough to enjoy the financial rewards from the success of The Magic Flute, and was buried in a pauper's grave.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even though I did not get a chance to read the whole entire book, I thought that Mozart’s life was interesting and worthwhile. He seemed a little kooky at times, but his music is very beautiful. I thought that Robert W. Gutman did a very good job interpreting Mozarts’ life. The book was a little hard to follow but it gave me much to write about him and learned more about his work.

James Madison Essay

James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788 â€Å"In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate governments, Hence a double security rises to the rights of the people. The different governments will each control each other, at the same ume that each will be controlled by Itself. † Note: Madison’s Idea of division of power between central and state governments is known as Federalism, Specific power divisions can be seen in the chart below. Document Analysis 1. A â€Å"compound† is something made of two or more pieces. What are the two pieces that make up Madison’s compound government? The central/national government and the state governments 2. What word ending in â€Å"ism† is another word for this kind ot compound government? Federalism . How does this compound government provide â€Å"double security’ to the people? The central and state governments will check each other’s power. Also, the branches within each level of government will provide checks and balances. 4. Using the chart above, can you see a pattern In the types of power the Constitution reserved for the State governments? States seem to have power over the more local and personal issues (school. marriages†¦ ). These personal liberties were too important for the framers to put into the hands of the national government. Governments closer to the people (the state overnments) would be more in tune with the feelings and cultures of their arem 5. How does federalism guard against tyranny? By distributing certain powers between the central government and the states neither could tyrannize (gain absolute power) over the nation or the nation’s people. Document

Before 1905 the opposition to the government of Tsar Nicholas II was of no consequence Essay

The Tsar was not in serious Jeopardy in 1905 Throughout his time as Tsar, Nicholas II was faced with constant threats due to terrorist groups such as the peoples will. Many of these groups were oppressed by ‘The reaction’ that began under the reign of Alexander III, however not all opposition was destroyed. This meant that Nicholas was in constant Jeopardy. This essay will discuss whether or not Tsar Nicholas II was truly in serious Jeopardy during the events of 1905. The Russian revolution which began in 1905 was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian empire. Factors such as industrialisation, urbanisation, bouts of economic depression and a rapidly increasing population all contributed to undermine the order and stability of the regime. In light of the opposition he received, Nicholas created a Duma as a result of the October Manifesto in order to appease the masses. Before the creation of the Duma in 1905 however, political parties were illegal in Russia because Nicholas was a strict autocrat. There were three main groups which opposed tsardom during the period 1881-1905: the Populists, the Social revolutionaries and the Social Democrats. This essay will discuss whether these three groups were of any consequence to the government of Nicholas II before 1905. Populism began in the 1870’s. It was a revolutionary movement that thought the future of Russia was in the hands of the peasantry. The Populist’s were not peasants themselves, but members of the middle and upper classes. The Populist’s began to try and teach the peasantry about how they were going to lead the revolution by beginning a scheme called â€Å"going to the people†, however this did not work as well as they thought as many of the peasants did not understand or accept the revolutionary message being preached to them. This caused, in desperation, some members of the populist’s to turn to terrorism. In 1879 members of the Populist’s broke off and formed a separate group â€Å"the peoples will† with intention of killing members of the ruling class. This group, with little over 400 members, was responsible for t he assassination of Alexander III in 1881; however this act of violence weakened, rather than strengthened the movement. The Populist’s were of little consequence for the government of Nicholas II during his reign, however by the late 19th century most other revolutionary groups were inspired by Populist theories and methods as well as their challenge to tsardom, which would have posed a problem for  Nicholas. The second group that opposed tsardom were the social revolutionaries (SR’s). The SR’s grew directly out of the Populist movement. It extended the idea of the ‘people’ beyond the peasantry, to incorporate a growing urban workforce. However, as with most revolutionary groups in Russia, The SR’s were torn apart by disagreements with themselves, and soon emerged a right and left wing element to the party. One side wanted to follow on with the violent methods of the people’s will, and the other saw revolution as their primary goal and used peaceful methods such as working with other parties in order to achieve their goals. Between the years 1901-1905 the SR’s were responsible for over 2000 assassinations, including the Tsar’s uncle, Grand Duke Sergei. This suggests that the SR’s were of some consequence for the government of Nicholas II as the assassination of Grand Duke Sergei as well as many other important people, without a ny retribution from the Tsar, would have portrayed him as weak and therefore the citizens of Russia may have lost respect for him. The final group to oppose Nicholas II’s government were the Social Democrats. The All-Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was formed in 1898. It was a Marxist party, which meant that it accepted the theories of German revolutionary Karl Marx. Marx believed history was an on-going class struggle and that two classes existed, the working class and the proletariat. Marx said that the workers were exploited by the proletariat in order to make them wealthy. They worked long hours for poor pay and would never be in a position to own anything. A deep divide soon occurred within the party however, this became known as the Bolshevik/Menshevik split. The Bolshevik’s and the Menshevik’s soon became two opposing Marxist parties. The Social Democrats, or the Bolshevik’s and Menshevik’s had little consequence for the Government of Nicholas II prior to the 1917 revolution and played a very little party in anything before 1905. In Conclusion the opposition to Nicholas II’s government prior to 1905 was of some consequence however it was not enough to instigate any major change. This lasted until 1917 when the Bolshevik’s eventually took power and turned autocratic rule into communist rule.

Handling Efl Learners’ Unexpected Behaviors in Class Essay

For the sake of providing the best services to their students, English teachers arrange their English language teaching and learning activities as perfect as possible. They spend most of the time to make preparation for their teaching. However, along with the process of such preparation, they sometimes do not consider the importance of also preparing the unplanned teaching. Consequently, when things go wrong, they often get difficulties on what they should decide to do. Therefore, this study is crucial to be conducted as its result would be able to give knowledge to English teachers on how to appropriately respond when such phenomenon comes into surface. The purposes of this study were 1) to observe the categories of EFL learners’ unexpected behaviors in the process of learning English in class and 2) to identify the efforts of English language teachers in handling such behaviors. This study utilized the qualitative design in which observation and interview were used as the main instruments in carrying out the research. To be the respondents of this present study, three English teachers from three different state junior high schools in Bogor were purposively chosen. The findings showed that there were four major categories of the EFL learners’ unexpected behaviors, namely learners’ psychological problems, uncooperative attitude, learners’ intelligence level and learners’ native language use. Some solutions in handling such behaviors were also recommended. One of which was to give different materials when dealing with learners with different level of capability. Keywords: unplanned teaching, EFL learners’ classroom behaviors Introduction For English language teachers, planning lessons has become a crucial action that needs to be carried out since it helps guide them during and after the lesson (Spratt, Pulverness & William, 2005). Further, it enables them to make the language teaching process more systematic and well-organized so that they would be on the right track of what they are going to teach and what kind of teaching methods they are about to employ in classroom activities. Therefore, as an effort to provide the best services to their students, English teachers frequently spend most of their times arranging their English language teaching and learning activities as perfect as possible before conducting the act of teaching in the classroom. In fact, only few teachers are aware of the importance of also making attempts to think of and list the solution handling the EFL learners’ ‘unexpected’ behaviors that may probably appear in the classroom when English language teaching is in action. As the result, they will face problems which could seriously block the flow of the teaching process. Thus, the unplanned teaching needs to be paid a particular attention within the consideration when teachers plan the lesson. Brown (2001) explains that the unplanned teaching can occur when the midstream of the lesson changes; going out of the plan that has been set earlier. Further, such phenomenon may happen at anytime. In conclusion, teachers are daily called upon to deal with the ‘unexpected’. 1 Methods This study was principally aimed at identifying the categories of the EFL learners’ unexpected behaviors that might exist during the English language teaching and learning process inside the classroom. Additionally, the investigation was also led upon the identification of the teachers’ effort in handling the behaviors. This present study employed qualitative research design using observation and interview as the instruments in collecting the data. Additionally, three English teachers from three different state junior high schools in Bogor were purposively chosen. The observation was conducted to capture and observe the behavior of the EFL learners when learning English at the classroom. Further, it also functioned to identify how the teachers reacted towards the existing behavior of the learners which were categorized ‘unexpected’. The interview was done to verify what has been witnessed during the observation. The Categories of the Unexpected Behaviors Having completed with the data analysis process, the categories of the EFL learners’ unexpected behavior could then be revealed. It could be seen from the table below. Table 1 EFL Learners’ Unexpected Behaviors No 1 Categories Learners’ Psychological Problem Sample of Phenomenon Learners had less confident and did not want to participate within the language class activities Learners did not pay attention and kept on talking with their friends when teachers were explaining the materials Learners were not well-motivated to learn Learners did not do the tasks ssigned Learners did not want to work in a group Some learners were slow and some were fast Learners asked question which was far ahead the topic being discussed at the mean time Learners kept on using their native language when the teachers wanted them to speak English 2 3 Uncooperative Attitude Learners’ Level Intelligence 4 The Learners’ Native Language Use Solutions in Handling the Behaviors After knowing the categories of the unexpected behaviors of the EFL learners when learning English, solutions on how to appropriately rea ct towards the phenomenon were discovered. Firstly, when dealing with the learners’ psychological problems, teachers, in the beginning of the class, were required to put a strong emphasis on the positive side of having high motivation in the process of learning language. This would build their learning enthusiasm. Second, in handling the learners who were uncooperative such as did not do their homework, teachers could explain the benefit of doing their homework to help them get progress in their language learning process. Third, to teach learners who were at different level of capability, teachers could give special attention to the slow learners while fast learners were given other materials to work with. This was in line with the theory proposed by Harmer (2007) in which he suggested the use of different materials when facing students with different levels. The last, to handle learners who kept using their native language, as found in the interview, teachers were strongly suggested to only respond to the English use. This was supported by Harmer (2007) in which he indicated to ignore what students said in their own language. 2 Conclusion Considering the unexpected things that perhaps may exist in the language learning and teaching process is really important for the language teachers to take into account in the process of planning the lesson. Therefore when things go wrong, they would at least have options on how to handle it, as they are well-prepared. After all, four major categories of the EFL learners’ unexpected behaviors were recognized. They were learners’ psychological problems, uncooperative attitude, learners’ intelligence level and the learners’ native language use. Some solutions in handling such behavior were also recommended. One of which was to give different materials when dealing with learners with different level of capability. These findings are expected to be able to give knowledge to English teachers on how to appropriately respond when such phenomenon comes into surface so that the act of English language teaching and learning will keep on successfully moving forward.

Romeo: Static Character

Throughout the play we see that Romeo’s impulsive decisions land him in onerous situations. His capricious behavior is demonstrated through his rash love when he immediately moves on, without remorse or second thoughts, from Rosaline to Juliet whom he falls in love with instantly after laying eyes on her. Prior to seeing Juliet, Romeo talks about his infatuation with Rosaline, and the torment he suffers when he finds she does not love him back. Upon searching for her at the Capulet’s party, sees Juliet, when he says, â€Å"Did my heart love till now?Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night,† (i. V. 51). His immediate transition between lovers proves that his love for Juliet was impulsive and irrational. When Romeo hears of Juliet’s death, he says to himself, â€Å"Well Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. Let’s see for means. † (V. i. 34). His first thought is that if Juliet is dead, he must dies too. Without co nsidering any other options or going to Friar Laurence for further details, he acts on a whim and kills himself, when in reality Juliet isn’t actually dead.These actions prove Romeo as a static character because throughout the course of the play, when his love for Juliet ignites, comes to an end, and in other situations, Romeo does not think his decisions through and acts on impulse. Romeo is in love with the idea of being in love. Instead of using his head, Romeo only defines love with his eyes and heart. When it comes to emotions, Romeo is ardent about being in love. Because he unconditionally loves many characters throughout the play, it causes major conflicts.This makes him static because during the play he always lets love, and other emotions, get in the way and never learns from his mistakes. When Tybalt wants a duel Romeo says, â€Å"To such a greeting. Villain am I none,† (III. i. 63) and backs down. After Tybalt starts to insult Romeo, Mercutio gets in between them and is then killed by Tybalt. â€Å"Now, Tybalt, take the ‘villain’ back again that late thou gav’st me; for Mercutio’s soul,† (III. i. 125) Romeo bellows before he stabs Tybalt.Because Romeo loves his friend, he lets his emotions take over and without thinking through his actions, carries them out no matter the consequences. To further prove that this is a static behavior, when Romeo goes to see the Friar and tells him about his love for Juliet the Friar says, â€Å"Women may fall, when there’s no strength in men. † (II. iii. 76) By this the Friar means that *women can be excused for being weak, since mean are not stronger. * This has happened to Romeo many times, and this makes him weak and irresponsible when it comes to love.