David Vernon: Beethoven: The String Quartets As a long time Churchill fan I always find wisdom and encouragement in his sayings. One can easily discover answers in these compact one liners to almost any situation in life. No wonder, when reading David Vernon’s new book, a quote came to me: I like a man who grins when he fights. I …
In the first article on printing the focus was on printing in general, on the history and the techniques. In this second part we turn our attention to a more specific area, on printing music and music publishing. In the last part of this article there is a complete list and short history of each music publisher that were in …
Printing: a process of reproducing text or an image on paper or other materials through various techniques. Sounds simple, but its evolution has had far-reaching consequences. The history of printing is a remarkable human journey that has profoundly contributed to, and influenced human communication, knowledge distribution and consequently to the development of societies and humanity in general. In a …
Not long after the birth of Beethoven in 1770 the family moved to the house of the Fischer family in the Rheingasse, Bonn. The exact date of the move is unknown. The Beethovens occupied the upper floor, under them the Fischers lived and operated their business, a bakery. It happened many years later that a middle-aged local musician and composer …
How in the name of science Haydn’s head was stolen from his grave One of the customs that makes humans special in animal kingdom is the custom of burial or ceremony to say goodbye to the deceased. In fact, burial ceremonies and the traditions of afterlife are very much telling about the age, religion and social structure of a certain …
Every July (14th July) France celebrates its Fête nationale française, the French National Holiday. In English-speaking countries the Bastille Day (since 1789). It is the day of the storming of the Bastille, a major event during the French Revolution. Like so many social changes in history this one also was rooted in economic crisis, or hunger being the name on …