An experienced French ballet dancer Charles Didelot had a steady position of an instructor in dance at the Swedish Opera in the 18th century. His son, future famous dancer and choreographer Charles-Louis Didelot was born right here in Stockholm in 1786, and during his adolescence years studied dance with his father.
Young Charles was definitely very gifted and talented dancer, that is why when he was 19 years old he debuted in 1786 in Royal Swedish Ballet theater called Bollhuset. He did not spend much time there though, because he needed to hone and polish his dancing skills. So he moved to Paris where he studied with Jean Dauberval, the Ballet Master and creator of famous ballet La Fille mal gardée.
Charles was lucky enough to have as his next teacher Jean-Georges Noverres, who revolutionized dancing with the invention of the ballet d’action. Under the lead of the great master Charles Didelot debuted in London in 1788.
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Friday, February 13, 2009
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Printing was expensive and not accessible
The world of antiquity was famous for its large libraries, the most famous and largest of which was the Library of Alexandria. There is a certain irony that most of the scrolls that were kept in these huge storage all over the ancient world were lost forever. They were either burnt in fire or destroyed during wars and turmoil.
Yet, there was another reason for the loss of all those invaluable scrolls. Generally, papyrus scrolls don’t last more than a couple of centuries. Those scrolls that were chosen not to be copied on parchment during the times of Christianity did not survive.
Even with the invention of printing European hand-written manuscript writing kept on going for another century. Printing was expensive and not accessible for everybody at those times. Each time when a copy of a document was created more and more errors were introduced with each copy. That is why, specialists have to compare different versions of the same document to figure out the most authentic parts of a document. As for private and governmental documents, they remained handwritten until the invention of the typewriter in the 19th century.
Yet, there was another reason for the loss of all those invaluable scrolls. Generally, papyrus scrolls don’t last more than a couple of centuries. Those scrolls that were chosen not to be copied on parchment during the times of Christianity did not survive.
Even with the invention of printing European hand-written manuscript writing kept on going for another century. Printing was expensive and not accessible for everybody at those times. Each time when a copy of a document was created more and more errors were introduced with each copy. That is why, specialists have to compare different versions of the same document to figure out the most authentic parts of a document. As for private and governmental documents, they remained handwritten until the invention of the typewriter in the 19th century.
Hand-written manuscripts
Originally, all documents and books were written by hand. This type of manuscripts lasted until the invention of printing in China in the 7th century and later in Europe in about 1450. The material used for hand-written ancient manuscripts differed depending on the geographical location. The ones that were preserved till our days included papyrus, various parchments, and even palm leaves and birch bark documents.
First ancient manuscripts were discovered in Egyptian tombs and mausoleums. They were either located inside the sarcophagi or even reused as mummy wrappings. Archeologists and adventurers were discovering scrolls of manuscripts in bizarre places like dry caves, desert burials, or within the secretly buried jars.
Read on ...
First ancient manuscripts were discovered in Egyptian tombs and mausoleums. They were either located inside the sarcophagi or even reused as mummy wrappings. Archeologists and adventurers were discovering scrolls of manuscripts in bizarre places like dry caves, desert burials, or within the secretly buried jars.
Read on ...
Monday, October 27, 2008
Medieval manuscript the Chantilly Codex
From Avignon this musical style spread to Southern France, Paris and Northern Spain. In the beginning of the 15th century it reached England and established itself there too. Ars subtilior music was exclusively secular. Its songs were telling of courtly love, war, chivalry and even praise of public figures.
The majority of what we know about ars subtilior French composers comes from a single invaluable and extremely rare medieval manuscript the Chantilly Codex. It is the most important source of information, because we don’t know anything else about many of these music creators, including their biographies, dates of life and death. Brief texts that accompany the music and some of its lyrics allowed us to discover great composers of that time like Solage, Borlet, Grimace, Trebor, Senleches and others. The Chantilly Codex contains 112 polyphonic pieces, mostly ballads, motets, and rondeaus, that represent the most popular courtly dance styles of its time.
The majority of what we know about ars subtilior French composers comes from a single invaluable and extremely rare medieval manuscript the Chantilly Codex. It is the most important source of information, because we don’t know anything else about many of these music creators, including their biographies, dates of life and death. Brief texts that accompany the music and some of its lyrics allowed us to discover great composers of that time like Solage, Borlet, Grimace, Trebor, Senleches and others. The Chantilly Codex contains 112 polyphonic pieces, mostly ballads, motets, and rondeaus, that represent the most popular courtly dance styles of its time.
Monday, October 13, 2008
A new musical style
In the end of the 14th century a new musical style emerged. Specialists call it ars subtilior. It is of extremely complex and experimental nature, hard to sing and produce and with super refined musical notation. Obviously, only a small circle of true composers and music lovers could enjoy this musical style.
Overall, it was the avant-garde music of the late medieval period. However, as a specialist and web analyst I find some controversy in this issue. Even though the ars subtilior music is highly refined, it was not merely a dead-end artistic movement. Even more, it seems that some of ars subtilior music was widely known and distributed because many of the devices first used by its composers became standard compositional techniques in the Renaissance.
The center of ars subtilior was Avignon when it was a residence of a Pope who was fighting the opposing fraction in Rome headed by another Pope.
Read on ...
Overall, it was the avant-garde music of the late medieval period. However, as a specialist and web analyst I find some controversy in this issue. Even though the ars subtilior music is highly refined, it was not merely a dead-end artistic movement. Even more, it seems that some of ars subtilior music was widely known and distributed because many of the devices first used by its composers became standard compositional techniques in the Renaissance.
The center of ars subtilior was Avignon when it was a residence of a Pope who was fighting the opposing fraction in Rome headed by another Pope.
Read on ...
Priceless document
What’s so special about this document, you may ask? Well, first of all, it is the single largest primary source of music of the early Italian Renaissance that took place in the 14th century, known to the experts and specialists as Trecento. This treasure contains of 216 parchment folios, richly illuminated and in good condition. All complete pieces of music are preserved. 353 compositions in the Codex are all secular and belongs to the famous composers of the Trecento such as Francesco Landini, Bartolino da Padova, Niccolò da Perugia, Andrea da Firenze, Jacopo da Bologna, Lorenzo da Firenze, Gherardello da Firenze, Donato da Cascia and others.
The document is priceless. Imagine, that somewhere in the 27th century new generations of people would discover something similar, like all-star catalog of all truly famous composers of the 20th century. And that would be the only book around at this distant future!
The document is priceless. Imagine, that somewhere in the 27th century new generations of people would discover something similar, like all-star catalog of all truly famous composers of the 20th century. And that would be the only book around at this distant future!
Truly invaluable manuscript
In the middle of the 15th century through the ways unknown to us, famous organist Antonio Squarcialupi got hold of truly invaluable manuscript. On his death bed Antonio passed this manuscript to his nephew, then the latter passed it to his inheritors. So the document was still in the family until it found its way into the estate of Giuliano de’ Medici, who gave it to the Biblioteca Palatina in the early 16th century. And at the end of the 18th century the manuscript passed into the ownership of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana.
Although the manuscript still says in gold letters that its owner is Antonio Squarcialupi and even bears currently his name as the Squarcialupi Codex, originally, it had nothing to do with him. The manuscript was compiled in the Florentine monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, probably in the beginning of the fifteenth century. At least this is what the archives of my local web analytics company claim.
Read on ...
Although the manuscript still says in gold letters that its owner is Antonio Squarcialupi and even bears currently his name as the Squarcialupi Codex, originally, it had nothing to do with him. The manuscript was compiled in the Florentine monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, probably in the beginning of the fifteenth century. At least this is what the archives of my local web analytics company claim.
Read on ...
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