In the never-ending search for interesting historical letters to bring to Arts in Letters subscribers, the best letters lead to interesting stories. In this week’s story, engraver John Pye, hoping to expand into photography is frustrated by restrictions involving the patent for Louis Daguerre’s photographic process.
Why is Pye being frustrated? Arts in Letters subscribers will find out next week!
Have you ever wondered when the first Christmas card was created or who made it? The first printed Christmas card was the idea of British inventor Sir Henry Cole. In 1843 Cole commissioned illustrator John Callcott Horsley to create the design, then sold the printed cards for a shilling each. Three years before that he had helped establish the Universal Penny Post, a postal system that enabled people to send letters throughout England for a penny each. Over 4,000 of his Christmas cards were purchased that first year. So he made some money for himself and encouraged people to use the postal service at the same time!
The first Christmas Cards printed in America were produced by Polish immigrant Louis Prang. Prang founded a printing company that specialized in the newest techniques in lithography. He used these techniques to reproduce works of art, then expanded into printing greeting cards.
He printed the first Christmas cards in America in 1874 and by the 1880’s was printing more than 5 million Christmas cards a year. Other companies started printing Christmas cards and eventually Prang & Co. was forced out of the Christmas card market.
Currently over 2 billion Christmas cards are sent every year in the US alone. That’s a lot of stamps! Now e-cards are becoming part of the Christmas tradition. Over 5 billion e-christmas cards will be sent this year, so check your email!
Do you have a favorite Spooky Soundtrack? Some tune that instantly conjures images of imminent doom when you hear it?
The Dies Irae is one seriously spooky melody that you’ve probably heard in dozens of soundtracks for movies, TV shows, and even video games. You may not think you know it, but once you become aware of it, you’ll hear it everywhere!
The Dies Irae melody is centuries old. The tune is actually a Gregorian chant which can be traced back to at least the 13th century when the melody and pre-existing text together were included in the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, the Mass for the Dead. The text, for which the title translates to ‘Day of Wrath’ by itself speaks of the imminent doom of death and the judgment that follows.
W. A. Mozart may have been one of the first composers to incorporate the melody into new compositions. The context was still similar, as he used it in a Requiem, but this provided the link to composers using the melody outside the Catholic church service.
In the 19th century, the Romantic Era in music, the artistic emphasis was on the expression of emotion and fantasy, evoking moods and feelings, telling stories with the music alone. What better way to evoke images of death and impending doom than to use a familiar melody already associated with death and judgment?
The Dies Irae melody began showing up in the music of Romantic composers such as Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, and Hector Berlioz, (all composers whose letters have been featured in Arts in Letters!) from whose Symphonie Fantastique the above clip was excerpted. Take a listen to it now if you haven’t already so you can hear the melody in action, on authentic instruments no less!
!) from whose Symphonie Fantastique the above clip was excerpted. Take a listen to it now if you haven’t already so you can hear the melody in action, on authentic instruments no less!
!) from whose Symphonie Fantastique the above clip was excerpted. Take a listen to it now if you haven’t already so you can hear the melody in action, on authentic instruments no less!
Like so many of the best themes, the Dies Irae melody can be easily identified from the first few notes. The tune is very simple, with a narrow range and rhythm. This simplicity lends itself to endless variation, probably one of the reasons so many composer have used it.
After finding multiple examples in film scores, I’m left with the impression that the list of composers who haven’t made use of the Dies Irae is shorter than the list of those who have! There have so many that several compilations of examples have been made. Not surprisingly, these are especially popular this time of year. Here links to just a couple.
A Musical History of Death: ‘Exit Music’ by Tom Allen
I’m warning you, though, once you know the tune, you’ll find it everywhere, from Star Wars to Harry Potter, The Fellowship of the Ring to Game of Thrones, from Friday the 13th to Nightmare Before Christmas, it’s everywhere!!
Arts in Letters has featured the historical letters of a few 19th century photographers, including Matthew Brady, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Charles Dodgson. Since early photographic processes involved working with complex chemical solutions and reactions, these photographers had to be scientists as well as artists.
Cameron’s letter mentioned working with a collodion emulsion. She would have mixed this herself, meaning that she had to become comfortable working with potentially dangerous chemicals.
Here is an example of how a collodion solution might be prepared, according to Wikipedia:
Whew, what a lot of work! Preparing the collodian solution was just one part of the lengthy and complex process of creating a photographic image. The light levels, time of exposure, preparation and processing of the glass plates, photographers had to be willing to do much more than try to catch pretty pictures!
In fact, many of the earliest photographers were as interested in the science of photography as they were in the photographs they created. It was photographers such as Cameron who saw the potential for using photography to create art, and a new artistic genre quickly became popular.
The largest collection of Cameron’s photographs is held at the Albert and Victoria Museum, where she was also given the distinction of being the Museum’s first artist-in-residence. You can see an overview of the collection here.
You’ll also see and hear Cameron’s letter featured in Arts in Letters. The letter was addressed to Sir Henry Cole, who happened to have produced the first commercial Christmas cards. But that’s a story for another day!
You might be surprised to learn that for a long time letters were sent without envelopes. Perhaps you’ve noticed this in period movies and TV shows. Someone is told that ‘A letter has come for you!’ and the recipient is handed a folded paper packet sealed with wax, glue, or even tied with string. The packet usually looked more like a kid’s love note than an historic letter that could change the course of history, .
This is what letters looked like until the late19th century. Paper was expensive, and mail services charged by the page, so sending a letter could be a pricey thing. Letter writers economized by using a single sheet of paper, leaving a blank space on the paper for the address and folding the letter with the address to the outside.
This made for some interesting configurations! It’s common to find historic letters where the writing goes in several different directions, trying to make use of every last square inch while still leaving space for the address. Imagine trying to put all those differently sized packets through today’s mail sorting machines!
The introduction of the penny stamp in Great Britain in 1837 changed everything. Previously the letter recipient was charged per page and according to distance travelled. (If they didn’t have the money, they didn’t get the letter!) Now the sender prepaid the postage by buying a pre-gummed stamp and putting it on the letter. With the ‘Penny Black’ stamp, letters weighing up to 1/2 would be delivered anywhere in Britain.
This also made it less costly for letter writers to either include more pages in their letter OR use an envelope. The invention of the first envelope-folding machine in 1840 made economical mass production of envelopes possible. Envelopes became cheaper and more readily available and more people began using the mail services. These developments induced people to open stationery shops to supply writing materials, and a whole new industry was born!
So first came the stamp, then the practice of mailing letters in envelopes. This in turn affected what letters looked like since letter writers no longer had to worry about leaving space for the address or folding the letter so the address showed. Instead letter pages are folded to fit the envelopes!
Last week we came across two instances of famous men receiving admiring letters from women who insisted that they never meet. Here is a brief account of the first’s story.
The first was Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who sustained a thirteen-year relationship with Nadezhda von Meck. She initiated their relationship by commissioning pieces to be played in her home. She later became his patron, providing him with a generous yearly pension that allowed him to quit his teaching job and concentrate on composing full-time. Their letters show that they were very close, sharing many confidences, but she insisted that they never meet. And they never did, even when both were in residence at her estate at the same time.
Check back later to find out about the other letter writer’s story ; )
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