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First Performances

David Manning

in Vaughan Williams on Music

One hears much of the noble work that Henry Wood did for young British composers; the list of “first performances” at the “Promenade Concerts” by British composers, usually young and unknown, ... More

One hears much of the noble work that Henry Wood did for young British composers; the list of “first performances” at the “Promenade Concerts” by British composers, usually young and unknown, occupies several pages. Henry went out into the highways and hedges and invited all and sundry to the banquet, in the hopes that occasionally a guest would appear wearing the wedding garment—then the Woodian policy was justified. A scheme that was responsible for the first appearance of such works as Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance marches, Arnold Bax's In the Faery Hills, Roger Quilter's Children's Overture, and, in England, of Balfour Gardiner's Shepherd Fennel's Dance would justify itself even if all the other novelties had been still-born. A publisher who had to show a balance sheet would be quite satisfied if he had as many good sellers on his catalogue as appear in the list of “Prom Premières.”Less

Introduction

in Apology for the Woman Writing and Other Works

This chapter discusses Marie le Jars de Gournay's “The Apology for the Woman Writing.” The “Apology” is, in essence, a profuse autobiographical self-justification, with “apology” meaning “defense,” ... More

This chapter discusses Marie le Jars de Gournay's “The Apology for the Woman Writing.” The “Apology” is, in essence, a profuse autobiographical self-justification, with “apology” meaning “defense,” on the model—invoked self-consciously and rather grandiosely—of Plato's Apology of Socrates. In defending herself, like the persecuted Greek philosopher, against slanders that menaced her reputation and, if not her life, her livelihood (by thwarting her prospects for patronage), Gournay composed what is undoubtedly the most revealing, on several levels, of her three major autobiographical pieces. It takes the readers to her very origins as a writer in the Promenade of Monsieur de Montaigne, where her quasi-mystical ideal of communion among grands esprits—those of antiquity joining with Michel de Montaigne himself—was already at loggerheads with the imperatives of histoire tragique.Less

Leipzigerstrasse No. 3 (1825–1828)

R. Larry Todd

in Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn

The passing of Bella Salomon—daughter of Daniel Itzig, matriarch of the Mendelssohns’ wealth, and, in her declining years, mother reconciled through Fanny Hensel with her apostate son—precipitated a ... More

The passing of Bella Salomon—daughter of Daniel Itzig, matriarch of the Mendelssohns’ wealth, and, in her declining years, mother reconciled through Fanny Hensel with her apostate son—precipitated a momentous event for her granddaughter. Upon reviewing the deceased's will, Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy discovered that Bella Salomon had bequeathed a fortune of 150,000 thalers, comprising among other assets the residence at Neue Promenade and the old Meierei, to Jacob Bartholdy, the children of two granddaughters, and Lea's unborn grandchildren. As a result, the Mendelssohns could remain at Neue Promenade no. 7 only by purchasing or renting it. Instead, Abraham began searching for a new residence and found it in an 18th-century baroque mansion imposing enough but deteriorating from neglect—Leipzigerstrasse no. 3, near the Leipzigerplatz, Fanny's principal residence from 1825 until her death in 1847.Less

Dedicatory Epistle

in Apology for the Woman Writing and Other Works

This dedicatory epistle, written by Marie le Jars de Gournay on November, 26, 1588, is intended for her father, Michel de Montaigne, for whom she named her book, The Promenade of Monsieur de ... More

This dedicatory epistle, written by Marie le Jars de Gournay on November, 26, 1588, is intended for her father, Michel de Montaigne, for whom she named her book, The Promenade of Monsieur de Montaigne. Gournay named the book his promenade and derived its plot from a little book that she happened to read about a year previously, whose title and author she could not remember. The reason that impelled her to write the story down was to give Montaigne a greater opportunity to recognize in it the faults of her style than he would have had in her recounting it.Less