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John Stanley (composer)

John Stanley (composer)

Charles John Stanley (January 17, 1712 – May 19, 1786) was an English composer and organist. Stanley, who was blind from an early age, studied music with Maurice Greene and held a number of organist appointments in London. He was a friend of George Frideric Handel, and following Handel's death, Stanley joined first with John Christopher Smith and later with Thomas Linley to continue the series of oratorio concerts Handel had established. In 1779, Stanley succeeded William Boyce as Master of the King's Musick. Stanley's works include the opera Teraminta, the dramatic cantata The Choice of Hercules, twelve other cantatas with texts by John Hawkins, the oratorios Jephtha, The Fall of Egypt and Zimri, and instrumental music.

External links


- [http://www.rslade.co.uk/stanley/ bio]
- [http://www.hoasm.org/VIIJ/Stanley.html bio]
- [http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxstanley.html bio and music samples]
- Google [http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Music/Composition/Composers/S/Stanley,_John/ directory entry] Stanley, John Stanley, John Stanley, John Stanley, John Stanley, John

January 17

January 17 is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 348 days remaining (349 in leap years).

Events


- 1562 - France recognized the Huguenots under the Edict of Saint-Germain.
- 1648 - England's Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Address, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.
- 1746 - Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie", defeats a Hanoverian army at Falkirk in his ultimately unsuccessful campaign to recover the throne for the Jacobite dynasty.
- 1771 - Johann Friedrich Struensee and Queen Caroline Matilda are arrested, leading to his execution and her banishment from Denmark
- 1773 - Captain James Cook becomes the first explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle.
- 1781 - Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina.
- 1819 - Simón Bolívar proclaims the Republic of Colombia.
- 1852 - United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Boer colonies of the Transvaal.
- 1873 - First Battle of the Stronghold in the US Modoc War.
- 1885 - A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan.
- 1893 - American planters led by the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety overthrow the government of Queen Liliuokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
- 1899 - The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.
- 1912 - Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.
- 1916 - The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) is formed.
- 1917 - The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
- 1929 - Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, first appeared in a newspaper comic strip.
- 1941 - Kuomintang forces under the order of Chiang Kai-Shek opened fire at communist force, Chinese Civil War resumes after WWII.(This event is known as 皖南事变).
- 1945 - Soviet forces capture the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw. The Liberate of Warsaw.
- 1945 - The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.
- 1945 - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg disappears in Hungary while in Soviet custody.
- 1946 - The UN Security Council holds its first session.
- 1949 - The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, airs.
- 1950 - The Great Brinks Robbery - 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1966 - Simon and Garfunkel release their second album, Sounds of Silence, on Columbia Records.
- 1966 - A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea.
- 1966 - Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident on a routine mission which amputates his leg.
- 1973 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes "President for Life" of the Philippines.
- 1974 - Joni Mitchell releases Court and Spark, arguably her most mainstream album.
- 1975 - Bob Dylan releases Blood on the Tracks, often considered one of his best albums.
- 1977 - Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on the death penalty in the United States.
- 1982 - "Cold Sunday" in the United States sees temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years in numerous cities.
- 1985 - British Telecom announces the retirement of Britain's famous red telephone boxes.
- 1991 - Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm began early in the morning. Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.
- 1991 - Harald V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father, Olav V.
- 1992 - Punk rock band Green Day releases their second full-length album, Kerplunk.
- 1994 - A magnitude 6.7 earthquake occurs in Northridge, California; see 1994 Northridge Earthquake.
- 1995 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake called "the Great Hanshin earthquake" occurs near Kobe, Japan, causing extensive property damage and killing 6,433 people.
- 1996 - The Czech Republic applies for membership of the European Union.
- 1998 - Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
- 2002 - Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.

Births


- 1463 - Friedrich III, Elector of Saxony (d. 1525)
- 1484 - George Spalatin, German reformer (d. 1545)
- 1501 - Leonhart Fuchs, German physician and botanist (d. 1566)
- 1504 - Pope Pius V (d. 1572)
- 1560 - Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist (d. 1624)
- 1600 - Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Spanish playwright (d. 1681)
- 1612 - Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English Civil War general (d. 1671)
- 1686 - Archibald Bower, Scottish historian (d. 1766)
- 1706 - Benjamin Franklin American writer, inventor, publisher, and ambassador (d. 1790)
- 1712 - John Stanley, English composer (d. 1786)
- 1719 - William Vernon, American merchant (d. 1806)
- 1761 - James Hall, Scottish geologist (d. 1832)
- 1763 - John Jacob Astor, American entrepreneur (d. 1848)
- 1789 - August Neander, German theologian (d. 1850)
- 1811 - Joshua A. Norton, "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico" (d. 1880)
- 1820 - Anne Brontë, British author (d. 1849)
- 1832 - Henry Martyn Baird, American historian and educationalist (d. 1906)
- 1851 - A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)
- 1860 - Douglas Hyde, President of Ireland
- 1863 - David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1945)
- 1867 - Carl Laemmle, German-born film executive (d. 1939)
- 1871 - David Earl Beatty British admiral (d. 1936)
- 1871 - Nicolae Iorga, Romanian writer (d. 1940)
- 1880 - Mack Sennett, Canadian film director and producer (d. 1960)
- 1881 - Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician (d. 1941)
- 1882 - Noah Beery, American actor (d. 1946)
- 1899 - Al Capone, American gangster (d. 1947)
- 1899 - Nevil Shute, English author (d. 1960)
- 1905 - Guillermo Stábile, Argentine footballer (d. 1966)
- 1911 - George Joseph Stigler, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
- 1914 - William Stafford, American poet and essayist (d. 1993)
- 1921 - Antonio Prohias, Cuban cartoonist (d. 1998)
- 1922 - Luis Echeverría Álvarez, President of Mexico
- 1922 - Nicholas Katzenbach, American politician
- 1922 - Betty White, American actress
- 1925 - Robert Cormier, American author (d. 2000)
- 1925 - Abdul Kardar, Pakistani cricketer
- 1926 - Newton N. Minow, American telecommunications lawyer and statesman
- 1926 - Moira Shearer, Scottish actress and dancer
- 1927 - Eartha Kitt, American actress and singer
- 1928 - Jean Barraqué, French composer (d. 1973)
- 1928 - Vidal Sassoon, English cosmetologist
- 1929 - Jacques Plante, Canadian hockey player (d. 1986)
- 1931 - James Earl Jones, American actor
- 1931 - Douglas Wilder, Governor of Virginia
- 1931 - Don Zimmer, baseball coach
- 1933 - Dalida, French singer (d. 1987)
- 1933 - Ray Dolby, American inventor
- 1933 - Sadruddhin Aga Khan, French UN High Commissioner for Refugees (d. 2003)
- 1933 - Shari Lewis, American puppeteer (d. 1998)
- 1933 - Sheree North, American actress
- 1935 - Ruth Ann Minner, Governor of Delaware
- 1937 - Troy Donahue, American actor
- 1939 - Maury Povich, American talk show host
- 1940 - Kipchoge Keino, Kenyan runner
- 1942 - Muhammad Ali, American boxer
- 1942 - Cus D'Amato, boxing manager (d. 1985)
- 1942 - Ulf Hoelscher, German violinist
- 1942 - Nancy Parsons, American actress (d. 2001)
- 1943 - René Préval, President of Haiti
- 1944 - Françoise Hardy, French singer
- 1948 - Davíð Oddsson, Prime Minister of Iceland
- 1948 - Mick Taylor, British musician (The Rolling Stones)
- 1949 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (d. 1984)
- 1952 - Darrell Porter, American baseball player (d. 2002)
- 1955 - Steve Earle, American musician
- 1956 - Paul Young, English musician
- 1959 - Susanna Hoffs, American musician (The Bangles)
- 1959 - Momoe Yamaguchi, Japanese singer and actress
- 1962 - Jim Carrey, American actor and comedian
- 1966 - Shabba Ranks, Jamaican singer
- 1968 - Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Dutch writer
- 1969 - Lukas Moodysson, Swedish film director
- 1970 - Jeremy Roenick, American hockey player
- 1970 - Genndy Tartakovsky, Russian-born animator
- 1970 - James Wattana, Thai snooker player
- 1971 - Kid Rock, American singer
- 1972 - Ken Hirai, Japanese singer and songwriter
- 1980 - Zooey Deschanel, American actress
- 1981 - Scott Mechlowicz, American actor
- 1982 - Jodie Sweetin, American actress
- 1982 - Alex Varkatzas, American singer (Atreyu)
- 1982 - Dwyane Wade, American basketball player
- 1986 - Chloe Rose Lattanzi, American actress and singer
- 1988 - Nikki Reed, American actress

Deaths


- 395 - Theodosius I, Roman Emperor
- 1229 - Albert of Buxhoeveden, German soldier
- 1369 - King Peter I of Cyprus (murdered) (b. 1328)
- 1468 - Skanderbeg, Albanian leader (b. 1405)
- 1617 - Faust Vrancic, Croatian inventor (b. 1551)
- 1654 - Paulus Potter, Dutch painter (b. 1625)
- 1705 - John Ray, English naturalist (b. 1627)
- 1718 - Captain Benjamin Church, Plymouth Colony settler
- 1737 - Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, German architect (b. 1662)
- 1751 - Tomaso Albinoni, Italian composer (b. 1671)
- 1826 - Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, Spanish composer (b. 1806)
- 1861 - Lola Montez, Irish-born adventurer (b. 1821)
- 1884 - Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist (b. 1804)
- 1886 - Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (b. 1834)
- 1893 - Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States (b. 1822)
- 1961 - Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1925)
- 1964 - T.H. White, English author (b. 1906)
- 1967 - Evelyn Nesbit, American actress (b. 1884)
- 1972 - Betty Smith, American writer and singer (b. 1896)
- 1977 - Gary Gilmore, American murderer (executed) (b. 1940)
- 1983 - Doodles Weaver, American actor (b. 1911)
- 1991 - King Olav V of Norway (b. 1903)
- 1993 - Albert Hourani, English historian (b. 1915)
- 1994 - Helen Stephens, American runner (b. 1918)
- 1996 - Barbara Jordan, American politician (b. 1936)
- 1997 - Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (b. 1906)
- 2001 - Gregory Corso, American poet (b. 1930)
- 2001 - Laurent-Desire Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1939)
- 2002 - Camilo Jose Cela, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
- 2003 - Richard Crenna, American actor (b. 1926)
- 2004 - Czeslaw Niemen, Polish musician (b. 1939)
- 2004 - Ray Stark, publicist, actor's agent, and producer (b. 1915)
- 2004 - Noble Willingham, American actor (b. 1931)
- 2005 - Charlie Bell, American fast food executive (b. 1960)
- 2005 - Virginia Mayo, American actress (b. 1920)
- 2005 - Albert Schatz, American microbiologist (b. 1920)
- 2005 - Zhao Ziyang, Premier of the People's Republic of China (b. 1917)

Holidays and observances


- Ancient Latvia - Zirgu Diena observed
- Catholicism - Feast day of St. Anthony.
- 2005 - USA - Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/17 BBC: On This Day] ---- January 16 - January 18 - December 17 - February 17 — listing of all days ko:1월 17일 ms:17 Januari ja:1月17日 simple:January 17 th:17 มกราคม

1712

Events


- Treaty of Aargau signed between Catholic and Protestants. Introduced Protestant faith in Switzerland.
- Thomas Newcomen builds the first piston-operated steam engine at Tipton, Staffordshire, UK.
- The delivering of the infamous William Lynch Speech, which helped exert submissiveness on the African American slaves in Virginia.

Ongoing events


- Great Northern War (1700-1721)
- War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713)

Births


- January 17 - John Stanley, English composer (d. 1786)
- January 24 - King Frederick the Great of Prussia (d. 1786)
- January 28 - Tokugawa Ieshige, Japanese shogun (d. 1761)
- February 28 - Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French military commander (d. 1759)
- March 8 - John Fothergill, English physician (d. 1780)
- March 22 - Edward Moore, English writer (d. 1757)
- March 27 - Claude Bourgelat, French veterinary surgeon (d. 1779)
- May 13 - Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (d. 1772)
- June 21 - Luc Urbain de Bouexic, comte de Guichen, French admiral (d. 1790)
- June 28 - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher (d. 1778)
- October 5 - Francesco Guardi, Italian artist (d. 1793)
- October 12 - William Shippen, American physician and delegate to the Continental Congress (d. 1801)
- October 14 - George Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1770)
- October 21 - Sir James Denham Steuart, British economist (d. 1780)
- November 25 - Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French philanthropist and developer of signed French (d. 1789)
- December 11 - Francesco Algarotti, Italian philosopher (d. 1764)
- December 12 - Prince Charles of Lorraine, Austrian military leader (d. 1780)

Deaths


- February 2 - Martin Lister, English naturalist and physician
- February 18 - Louis, Duke of Burgundy, heir to the throne of France (b. 1682)
- March 25 - Nehemiah Grew, English naturalist (b. 1641)
- April 11 - Richard Simon, French Biblical critic (b. 1638)
- April 30 - Philipp van Limborch, Dutch protestant theologian (b. 1633)
- June 11 - Louis Joseph, duc de Vendôme, Marshal of France (b. 1654)
- July 1 - William King, English poet (b. 1663)
- July 12 - Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland (b. 1626)
- July 26 - Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English statesman (b. 1631)
- August 3 - Joshua Barnes, English scholar (b. 1654)
- August 18 - Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers, English soldier
- August 29 - Gregory King, English statistician (b. 1648)
- September 12 - Jan van der Heyden, Dutch painter (b. 1637)
- September 14 - Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Italian-French astronomer and engineer (b. 1625)
- September 15 - Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, English politician
- November 15 - James Douglas, 4th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish nationalist (b. 1658)
- November 15 - Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun, English politician (b. 1675) Category:1712 ko:1712년

1786

1786 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events


- May 21 - Trial of the Necklace affair ends in Paris
- August 8 - Mont Blanc was climbed for the first time by Dr. Michael-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat.
- August 29- Shays Rebellion begins
- September 2 – Hurricane in England.
- November 7 - The oldest musical organization in the United States was founded as the Stoughton Musical Society.
- November 30 - Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgates a penal reform making his country the first state to abolish the death penalty. November 30 is therefore commemorated by 300 cities around the world as Cities for Life Day.
- Choctaw Treaty
- Chickasaw Treaty
- Robert Burns publishes Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
- Francis Light acquires the island of Penang from the Sultan of Kedah on behalf of the British East India Company. It is the first British colony in South-East Asia.
- Anglo-Spanish treaty gives Belize to Britain
- First ship of convicts leaves Britain for Botany Bay, Australia - 820 out of 1138 aboard are convicts
- The trade with Iceland is opened to all Danish and Norwegian traders.
- The Mozart opera "The Marriage of Figaro" is premiered in Vienna
- Goethe undertakes his 'Italian Journey' throughout September-December (published in 1817)

Births


- January 8 - Nicholas Biddle, President of the Second Bank of the United States (d. 1844)
- January 12 - Sir Robert Inglis, Bt, English politician (d. 1855)
- January 23 - Auguste de Montferrand, French architect (d. 1858)
- February 24 - Wilhelm Grimm, German philologist and folklorist (d. 1859)
- March 22 - Joachim Lelewel, Polish historian (d. 1861)
- June 13 - Winfield Scott, American general and Presidential candidate (d. 1866)
- August 17 - David "Davy" Crockett, American frontiersman (d. 1836)
- August 25 - King Ludwig I of Bavaria (d. 1868)
- September 11 - Friedrich Kuhlau, German composer (d. 1832)
- September 18 - King Christian VIII of Denmark (d. 1848)
- September 24 - Charles Bianconi, Italian-Irish entrepreneur
- December 12 - William L. Marcy, American statesman (d. 1857)
- Henry Bishop, English composer
- Kim Jeonghui, Korean epigrapher (d. 1856)
- Alexander Bryan Johnson, American philosopher (d. 1867)
- Carl Maria von Weber, German composer (d. 1826)
- Jean Francois Barriere, French historian

Deaths


- January 7 - Jean-Étienne Guettard, French physician and scientist (b. 1715)
- January 14 - Meshech Weare, Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1713)
- February 28 - John Gwynn, English architect and engineer (b. 1713)
- March 11 - Charles Humphreys, American delegate to the Continental Congress (b. 1714)
- April 10 - John Byron, Britsh naval officer (b. 1723)
- May 19 - John Stanley, English composer (b. 1712)
- May 21 - Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (b. 1742)
- May 25 - Pedro III of Portugal, consort of Queen Maria I of Portugal (b. 1717)
- August 17 - King Frederick the Great of Prussia (b. 1712)
- September 5 - Jonas Hanway, English merchant, traveler, and philanthropist (b. 1712)
- October 2 - Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, British admiral (b. 1725)
- October 17 - Johann Ludwig Aberli, Swiss artist (b. 1723)
- December 26 - Gasparo Gozzi, Italian critic and dramatist (b. 1713) Category:1786 ko:1786년 ms:1786

Composer

A composer is a person who writes music. The term refers particularly to someone who writes music in some type of musical notation, thus allowing others to perform the music. This distinguishes the composer from a musician who improvises. However, a person may be called a composer without creating music in documentary form, since not all musical genres rely on written notation. In this context, the composer is the originator of the music, and usually its first performer. Later performers then repeat the musical composition they have heard. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians also varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music. For example, in the development of classical music in Europe, the function of composing music initially had no greater importance than the function of performing music. The preservation of individual compositions received little attention, and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. Over time, however, the written notation of the composer has come to be treated as strict instructions, from which performers should not deviate without good reason. This notion is often seen as a purist one. The term "composer" is often used specifically to mean a composer in the Western tradition of classical music. In popular and folk music, the composer is typically called a songwriter (since the music generally takes the form of a song.)

Lists of composers


- List of composers
- List of opera composers
- List of uncategorized composers
- List of soundtrack composers

By style, time period, or technique


- List of classical music composers
- List of 20th century classical composers
- List of 21st century classical composers
- List of modernist composers

By nationality, culture, or identity


- List of French composers
- List of Dutch and Flemish composers
- List of Indonesian composers
- List of Italian composers
- List of Russian composers
- List of Polish composers
- List of Indian composers
- List of female composers
- List of gay, lesbian or bisexual composers
- List of composers of African descent

By chronology


- [http://members.chello.nl/epzachte/Wikipedia/EasyTimeline/Introduction.htm Timeline of classical composers] Category:Classical music Composers Category:Occupations in music ko:작곡가 ja:作曲家 th:คีตกวี

Blindness

:This article is about the visual condition. For a novel by the same name, see here. Blindness can be defined physiologically as the condition of lacking visual perception. The definition as it applies to people thus legally classified is, however, more complex. "Blindness" also applies to partial visual impairment: In North America and most of Europe, legal blindness is defined as visual acuity (vision) of 20/200 (6/60) or less in the better eye with best correction possible. This means that a legally blind individual would have to stand 20 feet from an object to see it with the same degree of clarity as a normally sighted person could from 200 feet. In many areas, people with average acuity who nonetheless have a visual field of less than 20 degrees (the norm being 180 degrees) are also classified as being legally blind. Approximately ten percent of those deemed legally blind, by any measure, are fully sightless. The rest have some vision, from light perception alone to relatively good acuity. Those who are not legally blind, but nonetheless have serious visual impairments, possess low vision. By the 10th Revision of the WHO International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Death, low vision is defined as visual acuity of less than 6/18, but equal to or better than 3/60, or corresponding visual field loss to less than 20 degrees, in the better eye with best possible correction. Blindness is defined as visual acuity of less than 3/60, or corresponding visual field loss to less than 10 degrees, in the better eye with best possible correction. Visual impairment includes low vision as well as blindness.

Causes of blindness

Serious visual impairment has a variety of causes:

Diseases

Most visual impairment is caused by disease and malnutrition. According to WHO estimates in 2002, the most common causes of blindness around the world are:
- cataracts (47.8%),
- glaucoma (12.3%),
- age-related macular degeneration (AMD) (8.7%),
- trachoma (3.6%),
- corneal opacity (5.1%), and
- diabetic retinopathy (4.8%), among other causes. People in developing countries are significantly more likely to experience visual impairment as a consequence of treatable or preventable conditions than are their counterparts in the developed world. While vision impairment is most common in people over age 60 across all regions, children in poorer communities are more likely to be affected by blinding diseases than are their more affluent peers. The link between poverty and treatable visual impairment is most obvious when conducting regional comparisons of cause. Most adult visual impairment in North America and Western Europe is related to age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. While both of these conditions are subject to treatment, neither can be cured. In developing countries, wherein people have shorter life expectancies, cataracts and water-borne parasites—both of which can be treated effectively—are most often the culprits. Of the estimated 40 million blind people located around the world, 70–80% can have some or all of their sight restored through treatment.

Abnormalities and injuries

Eye injuries, most often occurring in people under 30, are the leading cause of monocular blindness (vision loss in one eye) throughout the United States. Both of these conditions, injuries and cataracts, affect the eye itself. Abnormalities such as optic nerve hypoplasia affect the nerve bundle that sends signals from the eye to the back of the brain, which can lead to decreased visual acuity. People with injuries to the occipital lobe of the brain can, despite having perfectly normal eyes and optic nerves, still be legally or totally blind.

Genetic defects

People with albinism often suffer from visual impairment to the extent that many are legally blind, though few of them actually cannot see.

Adaptive techniques

Visually impaired and blind people have devised a number of techniques that allow them to complete daily activities using their remaining senses. These might include the following:
- Adaptations of banknotes so that the value can be determined by touch. For example:
  - In some currencies, such as the euro and pound sterling, the physical size of a note increases with value.
  - A lot of banknotes from around the world have a tactile feature to indicate denomination in the upper right corner. This tactile feature is a series of raised dots, but it is not standard Braille [http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/banknotes/accessibility.html].
  - It is also possible to fold notes in different ways to assist recognition.
- Labeling and tagging clothing and other personal items
- Placing different types of food at different positions on a dinner plate
- Marking oven, dishwasher, and dryer dials for ease of use Most people, once they have been visually impaired for long enough, devise their own adaptive strategies in all areas of personal and professional management.

Tools

Designers, both visually impaired and sighted, have developed a number of tools for use by blind people.

Mobility

People with serious visual impairments can travel independently using a white cane, the international symbol of blindness. A long cane is used to extend the user's range of touch sensation, swung in a low sweeping motion across the intended path of travel to detect obstacles. However, some visually impaired persons do not carry these kinds of canes, opting instead for the shorter, lighter identification (ID) cane. Still others require a support cane. Each of these is painted white for maximum visibility, and to denote visual impairment on the part of the user. In addition to making rules about who can and cannot use a cane, some governments mandate the right-of-way be given to users of white canes or guide dogs. A small number of people, about one percent, employ guide dogs. These companions are trained to lead blind individuals around obstacles on the ground and overhead. Though highly intelligent, guide dogs neither interpret street signs nor determine when the team ought to cross a street. Visually impaired people who employ these animals must already be competent travelers.

Reading and magnification

Most blind and visually impaired people read print, either of a regular size or enlarged through the use of magnification devices. A variety of magnifying glasses, some of which are handheld while others rest on desktops, can make reading easier for those with decreased visual acuity. The rest read Braille and Moon type or rely on talking books and readers. They use computers with special hardware such as scanners and refreshable Braille displays as well as software written specifically for the blind, like optical character recognition applications and screen reading software. Some people access these materials through agencies for the blind, such as the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped in the United States, the National Library for the Blind or the RNIB in the United Kingdom. Closed-Circuit Televisions, equipment that enlarge and contrast textual items, are a more high-tech alternative to traditional magnification devices. So too are modern web browsers, which can increase the size of text on some web pages through browser controls or through user-controlled style sheets.

Computers

Access technology such as Freedom Scientific's JAWS for Windows screen reading software enable the blind to use mainstream computer applications. Most legally blind people (70% of them across all ages, according to the Lighthouse for the Blind) do not use computers. Only a small fraction of this population, when compared to the sighted community, have Internet access. This bleak outlook is changing, however, as availability of assistive technology increases, accompanied by concerted efforts to insure the accessibility of information technology to all potential users, including the blind. The movement towards greater web accessibility is opening a far wider number of websites to adaptive technology, making the web a more inviting place for visually impaired surfers. Experimental approaches such as the seeing with sound project are beginning to provide access to arbitrary live views from a camera.

Other aids

People may use talking thermometers, enlarged or marked oven dials, talking watches, talking clocks, talking scales, talking calculators, talking compasses and other talking equipment.

Social attitudes towards blindness

Historically, blind and visually impaired people have either been treated as if their lack of sight were an outward manifestation of some internal lack of reason, or as if they possessed extrasensory abilities. Stories such as The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens provided yet another view of blindness, wherein those affected by it were ignorant of their surroundings and easily deceived. The authors of modern educational materials (see: blindness and education for further reading on that subject), as well as those treating blindness in literature, have worked to paint a truer picture of blind people as three-dimensional individuals with a range of abilities, talents, and even character flaws. Certain individuals are gifted, and others licentious, but nothing definitive can be said of the blind as a class but that they cannot see well.

See also


- Accessibility
- Amaurosis
- Blind musicians
- Braille
- Cortical blindness
- International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness - Global Blindness Prevention
- List of blind people
- List of eye diseases
- Low vision
- Night blindness
- Scotoma
- Snow blindness
- Visual loss

External links


- [http://www.accesswatch.info Access Watch: Blind users review accessibility of mainstream software]
- [http://www.question-mark.ca ?.Ca: A Comprehensive Directory of Blindness Information]
- [http://www.acb.org American Council of the Blind]
- [http://www.afb.org American Foundation for the Blind]
- [http://www.blindaccessjournal.com Blind Access Journal: Visual impairment in the real world]
- [http://www.v2020.org VISION 2020: The Right to Sight]
- [http://www.iapb.org International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB)]
- [http://www.braille.org International Braille Research Center]
- [http://www.growingstrong.org/bvi/resource.html Literature Bibliography and Resources List]
- [http://www.nbp.org National Braille Press]
- [http://www.nfb.org National Federation of the Blind: Civil rights and consumer advocacy]
- [http://www.nlb-online.org/ National Library for the Blind]
- [http://www.loc.gov/nls National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped]
- [http://www.rfbd.org Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic]
- [http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/code/InternetHome.hcsp Royal National Institute for the Blind]
- [http://www.ssc.mhie.ac.uk/ Scottish Sensory Centre]
- [http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/ WHO Fact Sheet on Visual Impairment]
- ja:失明 simple:Blindness

Maurice Greene (composer)

Maurice Greene (August 12, 1696 - December 1, 1755) was an English composer and organist. Born in London, the son of a clergyman, Greene became a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral under Jeremiah Clarke and Charles King. He studied the organ under Richard Brind, and after Brind died, Greene became organist at St Paul's. With the death of William Croft in 1727, Greene became organist at the Chapel Royal, and in 1730 he became professor of music at Cambridge University. In 1735 he was appointed Master of the King's Musick. At his death, Greene was working on the compilation Cathedral Music, which his student and successor as Master of the King's Musick, William Boyce, was to complete. Many items from that collection are still used in Anglican services today. Greene wrote a good deal of vocal music, both sacred and secular, including the oratorio The Song of Deborah and Barak (1732), settings of sonnets from Edmund Spenser's Amoretti (1739), and a collection of anthems (1743), of which the best-known is Lord, let me know mine end.

References

#Johnstone, H. Diack. "Greene, Maurice", [http://www.grovemusic.com Grove Music Online] ed. L. Macy (Accessed 4 October 2004). Greene, Maurice Greene, Maurice Greene, Maurice Greene, Maurice Greene, Maurice ja:モーリス・グリーン (作曲家)

George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel (German Georg Friedrich Händel), (February 23, 1685 – April 14, 1759) was a German Baroque music composer who lived much of his life in Great Britain, a leading composer of concerti grossi, operas and oratorios. His best-known works are Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks and especially Messiah, an oratorio set to texts from the King James Bible. He was also deeply influential on many composers after him, including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Beethoven

Biography

Handel was born at Halle in Saxony in 1685, coincidentally in the same year that Johann Sebastian Bach was born. He displayed considerable musical talent at an early age, by the age of seven he was a skilful performer on the harpsichord and organ, and at nine he began to compose music. However his father, a barber-surgeon to the court of Saxe-Weissenfels, opposed George Frideric pursuing a musical career, preferring him to study law. Nevertheless, the young Handel was permitted to take lessons in musical composition and keyboard techniques from Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau, the organist of Liebfrauenkirche, Halle. In 1702, in obedience to his father's wishes, he began the study of law at the University of Halle, but after his father's death the following year, he abandoned law for music, becoming the organist at the Calvinist Cathedral. The following year he moved to Hamburg, accepting a position as violinist in the orchestra of the opera-house at Hamburg. Here his first two operas, Almira and Nero, were produced early in 1705. Two other early operas, Daphne and Florindo, were produced at Hamburg in 1708. During the years 1707-1709 Handel traveled and studied in Italy. His Rodrigo was produced at Florence in 1707, and his Agrippina at Venice in 1708. Two oratorios, La Resurrezione and Il Trionfo del Tempo, were produced at Rome in 1709 and 1710, respectively. In 1710 Handel became Kapellmeister to George, Elector of Hanover, who would soon be George I of Great Britain. He visited London in 1710 and settled there permanently in 1712, receiving a yearly income of £200 from Queen Anne. In 1726 Handel's opera Scipio (Scipione) was performed for the first time, the march from which remains the regimental slow march of the British Grenadier Guards. He was naturalised a British subject in the same year. In 1727 Handel was commissioned to write four anthems for the coronation ceremony of King George II. One of these, Zadok the Priest, has been played at every coronation ceremony since. Handel was director of the Royal Academy of Music 1720-1728, and a partner of J. J. Heidegger in the management of the King's Theatre 1729-1734. Handel also had a long association with the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, where many of his Italian operas were premiered. Handel gave up operatic management entirely in 1740, after he had lost a fortune in the business. In 1751 he became blind, and died some eight years later in London. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. He never married. His personal life was very private. Westminster Abbey

Works

Handel's compositions include some fifty operas, twenty-three oratorios, and a large amount of church music, not to speak of his superb instrumental pieces, such as the organ concerti, the Opus 6 Concerti Grossi, the Water Music, and the Fireworks Music. After his death, Handel's Italian operas fell into obscurity, save the odd fragment, such as the ubiquitous aria from Serse, "Ombra mai fu"; his reputation throughout the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, particularly in the anglophone countries, rested primarily on his English oratorios, which were customarily performed by enormous choruses of amateur singers on solemn occasions. These include Esther (1720); Saul (1739); Israel in Egypt (1739); Messiah (1742); Samson (1743); Judas Maccabaeus (1747); Solomon (1748), and Jephtha (1752). Since the 1960s, with the revival of interest in baroque music and original instrument playing styles, interest has revived in Handel's Italian operas, and many have been recorded and performed onstage. Of the fifty he wrote between 1705 and 1738, Alcina (1735), Ariodante (1735), Orlando (1733), Rinaldo (1711, 1731), Rodelinda (1725), and Serse (also known as Xerxes) (1738) stand out and are now performed regularly in opera houses and concert halls. Arguably the finest, however, is Giulio Cesare (1724) which, thanks to its superb orchestral and vocal writing, has entered the mainstream opera repertoire. Also revived in recent years are a number of secular cantatas and what one might call secular oratorios or concert operas, Of the former, Ode for St. Cecilia's Day (1739) (set to texts of John Dryden) and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (1713) are particularly noteworthy. For his secular oratorios, Handel turned to classical mythology for subjects, producing such works as Acis and Galatea (1719) Hercules (1745), and Semele (1744). In terms of musical style, particularly in the vocal writing for the English-language texts, these works have close kinship with the above-mentioned sacred oratorios, but they also share something of the lyrical and dramatic qualities of Handel's Italian operas. As such, they are sometimes performed onstage by small chamber ensembles. Semele With the rediscovery of his theatrical works, Handel, in addition to his renown as instrumentalist, orchestral writer, and melodist, is now perceived as being one of opera's great musical dramatists. Handel adopted the spelling "George Frideric Handel" on his naturalization as a British citizen. His name is spelled "Händel" in Germany and elsewhere, and "Haendel" in France, which causes no small grief to cataloguers everywhere. There was another composer with a similar name, Handl, who was a Slovenian (without umlaut; so not Händel). He was usually known as Jacobus Gallus. Handel's works were edited by S. Arnold (40 vols., London, 1786), and by F. Chrysander, for the German Händel-Gesellschaft (100 vols., Leipzig, 1859-1894). Handel lived at 25 Brook Street, London from 1723 until his death in 1759. It was here that he composed Messiah, Zadok the Priest, and Fireworks Music. In 2000 the upper stories of 25 Brook Street were leased to the Handel House Trust, and, after an extensive restoration program, the Handel House Museum opened to the public on 8 November 2001.

Media

Trivia


- Asteroid 3826 Handel was named after the composer by the astronomer Freimut Börngen in 1973.
- Handel is the owner of Garfield in a past life of the TV special Garfield: His 9 Lives.

See also


- Compositions by George Frideric Handel
- Operas by Handel

External links


- [http://www.mutopiaproject.org/ The Mutopia Project] provides free downloading of sheet music and MIDI files for some of Handel's works.
- [http://www.handelhouse.org/ The Handel House Museum]
- [http://www.gfhandel.org/ GFHandel.org]
- [http://www.haendel.it/ Haendel.it]
- [http://www.haendelfestspiele.halle.de/en/index.html Handel Festival in Halle]
- [http://www.haendelhaus.de/ENGLISH/haendelhaus_e.htm Handel House in Halle] Handel, George Frideric Handel, George Frideric Handel, George Frideric Handel, George Frideric Handel, George Frideric Handel, George Frideric Handel, George Frideric Handel, George Frideric ko:게오르크 프리드리히 헨델 ja:ゲオルク・フリードリヒ・ヘンデル th:จอร์จ เฟรดริก ฮันเดล

Thomas Linley

Thomas Linley (1732–November 19, 1795), English musician, was born at Wells, Somerset, and studied music at Bath, where he settled as a singing-master and conductor of the concerts. From 1774 he was engaged in the management at Drury Lane theatre, London, composing or compiling the music of many of the pieces produced there, besides songs and madrigals, which rank high among English compositions. His eldest son Thomas (1756-1778) was a remarkable violinist, and also a composer, who assisted his father; and he became a warm friend of Mozart. His works, with some of his father's, were published in two volumes, and these contain some lovely madrigals and songs. Another son, William (1771-1835), who held a writership at Madras, was devoted to literature and music and composed glees and songs. Three daughters were similarly gifted, and were remarkable both for singing and beauty; the eldest of them Elizabeth Ann (1754-1792), married Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 1773, and thus linked the fortunes of her family with his career. ---- Linley, Thomas Linley, Thomas Linley, Thomas

Oratorio

An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, vocal soloists and chorus. It differs from an opera in that it does not have scenery, costumes, or acting. Oratorio closely mirrored opera in all ages in musical style and form, except that choruses were more prominent in oratorio than in opera. The peak period for composition of oratorios was the 17th and 18th centuries. Most oratorios from the common practice period to the present day have biblical themes, but a number of composers, notably George Frideric Handel, wrote secular oratorios based on themes from Greek and Roman mythology. Whether religious or secular, the theme of an oratorio is meant to be weighty, and can include such topics as the creation of the world, the life of Jesus, or the career of a classical hero or biblical prophet. The plot of an oratorio is often minimal, and some oratorios are not narratives at all. While operas are usually based on a dramatic narrative, in oratorios the aesthetic purpose of the narrative is more often to provide organization and significance to a large musical work. Oratorios usually contain:
- An overture
- Various arias, sung by the vocal soloists
- Ensemble singing
- Recitative, usually employed to advance the plot
- Choruses, often monumental and meant to convey a sense of glory. Frequently the instruments for oratorio choruses include timpani and trumpets. Probably the best known oratorio in the English-speaking world is Handel's Messiah. Other well known oratorios include Handel's Samson, the Christmas Oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, The Creation by Joseph Haydn, and Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah.

See also


- Passion
- Requiem
- Mass
- Mass (as a musical form)
- Cantata

External link


- [http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/g_oratorio.html History and development of the musical form.]
- [http://www.tis-usa.com/2004/06/project.html Thiruvasakam In Oratorio by Maestro Illayaraja.] Category: Musical forms ko:오라토리오 ja:オラトリオ

William Boyce

William Boyce (September 1, 1711 – February 7, 1779) is widely regarded as one of the most important English-born composers of the 18th century. Born in London, Boyce was a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral before studying music with Maurice Greene after his voice broke. His first professional appointment came in 1734 when he got a job as an organist. He went on to take a number of similar posts before being appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1755 and becoming organist at the Chapel Royal in 1758. When Boyce's deafness became so bad that he was unable to continue in his organist posts, he retired and worked on completing the compilation Cathedral Music that his teacher Greene had left incomplete at his death. This led to Boyce editing works by the likes of William Byrd and Henry Purcell. Many of the pieces in the collection are still used in Anglican services today. Boyce is best known for his set of eight symphonies, his anthems and his odes. He also wrote the masque Peleus and Thetis and songs for John Dryden's Secular Masque, incidental music for William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Cymbeline, Romeo and Juliet and The Winter's Tale, and a quantity of chamber music including a set of twelve trio sonatas. Boyce was largely forgotten after his death and he remains a little-performed composer today, although a number of his pieces were rediscovered in the 1930s and Constant Lambert edited and sometimes conducted his works. Boyce, William Boyce, William Boyce, William Boyce, William Boyce, William Boyce, William



Opera

's Opéra, Paris, opened 1875]] Opera refers to a dramatic art form, originating in Europe, in which the emotional content is conveyed to the audience as much through music, both vocal and instrumental as it is through the lyrics. From the beginning of the form about 1600, there has been contention whether the music is paramount, or the words, a theme that Richard Strauss took up in his final opera, Capriccio (1942). By contrast, in musical theater an actor's dramatic performance is primary, and the music plays a lesser role. Comparable art forms from various parts of the world are usually prefaced with an adjective indicating the region; examples include Chinese opera and Beijing opera. The drama is presented using the primary elements of theatre such as scenery, costumes, and acting. However, the words of the opera, or libretto, are sung rather than spoken. The singers are accompanied by a musical ensemble ranging from a small instrumental ensemble to a full symphonic orchestra. Besides words and music, opera draws from many other art forms. The visual arts, such as painting, are employed to create the visual spectacle on the stage, which is considered an important part of the performance, in the Baroque "English opera" or Restoration spectacular even the dominant aspect of it. Finally, dancing is often part of an opera performance, particularly in France. Singers and the roles they play are classified according to their vocal ranges. A particular singer's classifications change drastically over his or her lifetime, rarely reaching vocal maturity until the third decade, and sometimes not until middle age. Male singers are classified as bass, bass-baritone, baritone, tenor and countertenor. Female singers are classified, as contralto, mezzo-soprano and soprano. Each of these classifications has subcategories, such as lyric soprano, coloratura, soubrette, spinto, and dramatic soprano, which associate the singer's voice with the roles most suitable to the vocal timbre and quality and its range, or tessitura. The German Fach system is an especially organized system of classification. Traditional opera consists of two modes of singing: recitative, the dialogue and plot-driving passages often sung in a non-melodic style characteristic of opera, and aria, during which the movement of the plot often pauses, with the music becoming more melodic in character and the singer focusing on one or more topics or emotional affects. Short melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of what is otherwise recitative are also referred to as arioso; in the late 19th century, many composers abolished much of the distinction between recitative and aria, writing opera which is essentially presented in a restlessly melodic arioso style throughout. All types of singing in opera are accompanied by musical instruments, though until the late 18th century generally, and persisting until even later in some regions, recitative was accompanied by only the continuo group (harpsichord and 'cello or bassoon). During the period when composers often used both methods of recitative accompaniment in the same opera, the continuo-only practice was referred to as "secco" (dry) recitative, while orchestral-accompanied recitative was called "accompagnato" or "stromentato." Some genres of opera use spoken dialogue accompanied or unaccompanied by an orchestra rather than recitative. Such dialogue also is the essential feature of melodrama, in its original 19th century sense. Such melodrama grew partly from the practice that seems to have originated in the 16th century of writing incidental music to stage plays, either those already existing or newly composed. The most familiar example of such to most readers will probably be Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream; this work is almost certainly the most frequently performed of the genre in a context separate from its accompanying play, and has been transcribed for nearly all imaginable chamber combinations, as well as concert band. The pit orchestra underscoring the dramatic action in 19th century melodrama survives in today's tradition of film scores, and spectacular films incorporating serious music can be considered the direct heirs of melodrama. Perhaps such film scores can in some sense even be considered both the heirs and the competitors of grand opera.

History

Origins

The word opera means simply "works" in Latin, the plural of opus suggesting that it combines the arts of solo & choral singing, declamation, and dancing in a staged spectacle. The earliest work considered an opera in the currently used sense of the word dates from around 1597. It is Dafne, (now lost) written by Jacopo Peri largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the "Camerata". Significantly Dafne was an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the Renaissance. In this case, members of the Camerata felt certain that the "chorus" parts of Greek dramas had been originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles; opera was thus conceived as a way of "restoring" this situation. A later work by Peri, Euridice, dating from 1600, is the first opera score to have survived to the present day. Peri's works, however, did not arise out of a creative vacuum in the area of sung drama. An underlying prerequisite for the creation of opera proper was the practice of monody. Monody is the solo singing/setting of a dramatically conceived melody, designed to express the emotional content of the text it carries, which is accompanied by a relatively simple sequence of chords rather than other polyphonic parts. Italian composers began composing in this style late in the 16th century, and it grew in part from the long-standing practise of performing polyphonic madrigals with one singer accompanied by an instrumental rendition of the other parts, as well as the rising popularity of more popular, more homophonic vocal genres such as the frottola and the villanella. In these latter two genres, the increasing tendency was toward a more homophonic texture, with the top part featuring an elaborate, active melody, and the lower ones (usually these was three-part compositions, as opposed to the four-or-more-part madrigal) a less active supporting structure. From this, it was only a small step to fully-fledged monody. All such works tended to set humanist poetry of a type that attempted to imitate Petrarch and his Trecento followers, another element of the period's tendency toward a desire for restoration of principles it associated with a mixed-up notion of antiquity. The solo madrigal, frottola, villanella and their kin featured prominently in semi-dramatic spectacles that were funded in the last seventy years of the 16th century by the opulent and increasingly secular courts of Italy's city-states. Such spectacles, called intermedi, were usually staged to commemorate significant state events; weddings, military victories, and the like, and alternated in performance with the acts of plays. Like the later opera, an intermedi featured the aforementioned solo singing, but also madrigals performed in their typical multi-voice texture, and dancing accompanied by the present instrumentalists. The intermedi tended not to tell a story as such, although they occasionally did, but nearly always focused on some particular element of human emotion or experience, expressed through mythological allegory. Another popular court entertainment at this time was the "madrigal drama," later also called "madrigal opera" by musicologists familiar with the later genre. This, as can probably be guessed, consisted of a series of madrigals strung together to suggest a dramatic narrative. In addition to opera in Italy, developing concurrently in the late 16th-early 17th centuries were the English masque and the French ballet au court, which were similar to the Italian intermedi in many respects. In both cases, the main difference apart from local musical style was a greater degree of audience (at this time, of course, the audience consisted only of invited nobles and courtiers) participation in the form of staged or processional dances. The English masque also featured a culminating "revel," in which the performers drifted into and cavorted with the audience. Opera was imported into both countries before the middle of the 17th century, where it fused with the local incipient genres. This led to the dominance of ballet in opera of the French tradition, while the thriving English tradition of incidental music, as well as the totalitarian Cromwell regime at mid-century, made it difficult for Italian-style opera to take hold there. In earlier times, music had been part of medieval mystery plays, with the composer of these best-known to modern audiences being Hildegard of Bingen. Whether these are to be regarded as possible progenitors of opera is highly debatable. At the time of their original performance, they were easily regarded as liturgical accretions. Such accretions to the generally prescribed system of chants were quite common, and the liturgical ceremony was itself dramatic to a degree, often featuring elaborate processions, to which the actions associated with liturgical drama may have been considered merely a minor addition. A new, 17th century form of religious drama, the oratorio did arise shortly after the advent of opera, though it owes at least as much to the (originally secular) non-dramatic recititive-aria form of the cantata.

Baroque opera

Opera did not remain confined to court audiences for long; in 1637 the idea of a "season" (Carnival) of publicly-attended operas supported by ticket sales emerged in Venice. Influential 17th century composers of opera included Francesco Cavalli and Claudio Monteverdi whose Orfeo (1607) is the earliest opera still performed today. Monteverdi's later Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (1640) is also seen as a very important work of early opera. In these early Baroque operas, broad comedy was blended with tragic elements in a mix that jarred some educated sensibilities, sparking the first of opera's many reform movements, sponsored by Venice's Arcadian Academy (not a physical school, but rather a group of like-minded aristocrats and pedants), but which came to be associated with the poet Pietro Trapassi, called Metastasio, whose librettos helped crystallize so-called opera seria's moralizing tone. Once the Metastasian ideal had been firmly established, comedy in Baroque-era opera was reserved for what came to be called opera buffa. Before such elements were forced out of opera seria, many librettos had featured a separately unfolding comic plot as sort of an "opera-within-an-opera." One reason for this was an attempt to attract members of the growing merchant class, newly wealthy, but still less cultured than the nobility, to the public opera houses. These separate plots were almost immediately resurrected in a separately developing tradition that partly derived from the commedia dell'arte, (as indeed, such plots had always been) a long-flourishing improvisitory stage tradition of Italy. Just as intermedi had once been performed in-between the acts of stage plays, operas in the new comic genre of "intermezzi", which developed largely in Naples in the 1710s and '20s, were initially staged during the intermissions of opera seria. They became so popular, however, that they were soon being offered as separate productions. Italian opera set the Baroque standard. Italian libretti were the norm, even when a German composer like Handel found himself writing for London audiences. Italian libretti remained dominant in the classical period as well, for example in the operas of Mozart, who wrote in Vienna near the century's close.

Bel canto and Italian nationalism

The bel canto opera movement flourished in the early 19th century and is exemplified by the operas of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. Literally "beautiful singing", bel canto opera derives from the Italian stylistic singing school of the same name. Bel canto lines are typically florid and intricate, requiring supreme agility and pitch control. Following the bel canto era, a more direct, forceful style was rapidly popularized by Giuseppe Verdi, beginning with his biblical opera Nabucco. Verdi's writing demanded vocal endurance and strength more than the agility required in bel canto; his works were also more demanding dramatically. Verdi's operas resonated with the growing spirit of Italian nationalism in the post-Napoleonic era, and he quickly became an icon of the nationalist movement (although his own politics were perhaps not quite so radical).

French opera