classical

Apr

2024

Is it THURSDAY already?

Today is Peace Day in Angola. Día da Paz, the Day of Peace and Reconciliation commemorates the end of the Angolan Civil War on this day in 2002.

Independence from Portugal came to Angola in 1975. Two guerrilla groups had been instrumental in the armed struggle against the Portuguese colonisation – the communist People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). Almost immediately after independence, a power struggle between the two groups led to the Angolan Civil War. The MPLA seized power in the capital Luanda.

With only a few interludes in the fighting, the war was to last 27 years. The conflict is estimated to have cost the lives of more than 500,000 civilians with over a million being displaced and the damage to the country’s infrastructure suppressing economic growth for decades.

The war was seen as a proxy conflict for the Cold War, with MPLA being supported by the Soviet Union, with UNITA siding with the USA. Though while the thawing of the Cold War in the early 1990s saw MPLA reject some of its Communist ideology, the war was to continue for another decade.

In February 2002, government troops killed the leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi. This prompted the government to stop its military operations. This brought the combatants to the negotiating table. The war finally came to an end with the signing of a peace agreement between the armed forces of Angola and the armed faction of the UNITA party on April 4th 2002.

I’M NOT NOSY!!! (PET VERSION)

Yesterday was the birthday, in 1833, of Johannes Brahms, German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the “Three Bs” of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzo3atXtm54

Mar

2024

Mid-Lent THURSDAY

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Hamilton Lavity Stout in 1929 – a public holiday in the British Virgin Islands. He was the first and longest serving Chief Minister of the British Virgin Islands.

Classic paintings meet modern life…

Today is the birthday, in 1875, of French composer, pianist and conductor, Maurice Ravel. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France’s greatest living composer. His most famous work is undoubtedly Bolero. While on vacation at St Jean-de-Luz, Ravel went to the piano and played a melody with one finger to his friend Gustave Samazeuilh, saying, “Don’t you think this theme has an insistent quality? I’m going to try and repeat it a number of times without any development, gradually increasing the orchestra as best I can. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwLABSm0yYc

Mar

2024

Smells like MONDAY

Today is Guam History and Chamorro Heritage Day. Most of us may be aware that Guam is a former Spanish colony. Others may recognize it as the home of several U.S. military bases. But what many don’t know is the story of the island itself — the incredible people, culture, and heritage. Guam is the largest island in Micronesia and home to the indigenous Chamorro people. Over centuries of colonialism and turmoil, the songs, language, and soul of the Chamorro lie forgotten, but Guam History and Chamorro Heritage Day reclaims some of these lost narratives. It is a day of traditional song, dance, food, and storytelling and isn’t just a celebration of the Chamorro identity but provides a vision for their future.

Guam History and Chamorro Heritage Day was once a commemoration of the anniversary of the island’s discovery by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Over the years, the spirit and tenor of the day have evolved. Magellan’s discovery of Guam signaled the beginning of the end for the island’s indigenous Chamorro people. For every Guamanian, it’s a painful reminder of 400 years of colonization as Spain, the U.S., and Japan battled each other for administrative control. Eventually, the islanders paid the highest price. The Chamorro all but lost their culture and identity. After World War II, Guam became an unincorporated territory of the U.S. and is a strategic U.S. naval base in the Pacific today.

Take that apartment 813B!

Moon Pie

And who or what (besides AI)

has created these works of

pure architectural genius?

In future posts, would you like

to go inside for a tour?

Today is the birthday, in 1678, of Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, Vivaldi ranks amongst the greatest Baroque composers and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe, giving origin to many imitators and admirers. He pioneered many developments in orchestration, violin technique and programmatic music. He consolidated the emerging concerto form into a widely accepted and followed idiom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LiztfE1X7E

Feb

2024

XTRA DAY this year is on THURDAY

Shockingly, no national holidays seem to fall on February 29, so we’ll look ahead to March 1 when Korea will celebrate Independence Movement Day.

The Korean Independence movement was an ongoing campaign to liberate Korea from Japan since 1910. The campaign reached a high point on March 1st, 1919. On this day, a series of public demonstrations happened when Japan was still occupying Korea. These were public demonstrations against the Japanese Government. It was a nationalistic show of strength and resistance against Japanese military rule in Korea.

The March 1st Movement Day, known in Korea as 삼일절 (Samiljeol).

The name 삼일절 (samiljeol) can be broken into three parts:

삼 (sam) = 3

일 (il) = day / 1

절 (jeol) = festival day (word suffix)

The direct translation is “3-1 Festival Day.” This celebration reminds Koreans what happened during the public resistance on March 1st.

On March 1st, 1919, 33 Korean Movement core activists read the Korean Declaration of Independence. Their goal was to put an end to the Japanese occupation in Korea.

Following that, over 2 million Koreans participated in over 1500 demonstrations nationwide, which the Japanese military police attempted to control. This became the biggest national protest against foreign dominance in Korean history. In the end, there were approximately 7,000 people killed, 16,000 wounded, and 46,000 were arrested by the Japanese police force and soldiers. On top of these, many houses, churches, and buildings were burned.

SIGNZZZZZZZZZ

There are no national holidays on February 29, but fortunately there are musician birthdays. Today is the birthday, in 1792, of Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his popularity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3T8-aeOrbg

Dec

2023

THRSDY

Today is Incwala Day in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). The date is based on ancestral astrology. The Eswatini National Trust Commission gives the date as the fourth day after the full moon nearest the longest day, December 21st. This unique date rule means the festival can take place in December or January.

Incwala is Eswatini’s most important cultural event and celebrates the start of the harvest season. In the run-up to the festival, men journey to the coast of Mozambique to gather water.

It is only after the king eats the first fruit that the people can partake of the harvest. This is why the festival is sometimes called the ‘First Fruits Festival’, but that event takes place on the fourth day and the festival extends over six days, full of rituals and traditions developed over many centuries:

Day 1: Fetching the Lusekwane (sickle bush)

Unmarried male youths set off from the Queen Mother’s village and march 50 kilometres to cut branches of the “lusekwane” under the light of the full moon.

Day 2: Dropping the Lusekwane

The boys place their “lusekwane” branches in the national cattle byre/kraal. The elders weave these branches in between the poles of the “inhlambelo” – the king’s private sanctuary.

Day 3

In the morning, young boys cut branches of the “black imbondvo” (red bushwillow) and these are added to the “inhlambelo”. In the afternoon, the king is receives traditional medicines in his sanctuary.

Day 4: Eating the First Fruits and Throwing the Gourd

The main day and the public holiday: all the key players perform in a spectacular pageant inside the cattle byre; the king and regiments appear in full war-dress.

Day 5: Day of Abstinence

After the spectacle, excitement and noise of the main day, today is set aside to gather breath and reflect upon the year. During the daylight hours, there is no sexual contact, touching water, wearing decorations, sitting on chairs/mats, shaking hands, scratching, singing or dancing.

Day 6: Day of the Log

The regiments march to a forest and return with firewood. The elders prepare a great fire in the center of the cattle byre. On it, certain ritual objects are burnt, signifying the end of the old year, while the key players dance and sing inside the byre. The king remains in seclusion until the next full moon, when the “lusekwane” branches are removed and burnt.