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.
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!!
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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This time of year many of us look forward to going to the fair. We love to indulge at the food stands with tried and true favorites of cotton candy, funnel cakes, and corn dogs (with ketchup only.) I especially love the lemonade shake-ups made with tart, fresh lemons and grainy sugar, slurp slurp! Since moving to Florida I still haven’t made the adjustment to having the state fair in February! So wrong.
Even if you don’t ride the rides or play the games, you have to take a turn around the midway and take in its flashing lights, ringing bells, and shrieking children. Among the whirling teacups, twirling octopus arms, and plunging roller coasters, you’ll find the old-fashioned Ferris Wheel. Hopefully there will be Ferris Wheels spinning near you sometime soon and that you’ll be able to enjoy the modern version of George Ferris’s invention.
One of the world’s favorite rides is named for George Washington Gale Ferris, who built the first ‘Ferris Wheel’ for one of the biggest fairs of them all, the 1892 World’s Fair held in Chicago, Illinois. Standards for great spectacles were high and Ferris didn’t disappoint. His wheel was 266 feet tall with a circumference of 825 feet. Unlike modern Wheels, the cars on his Wheel could hold up to 60 people each. With all 36 cars filled, over 2,000 could ride it at once. Wow!
Today’s Ferris Wheels are much smaller, but most of them are also portable. Ferris’s wheel had to be completely taken apart and the brick and masonry foundation broken down before it could be moved. It was only erected once or twice more, and what was once one of the world’s most exciting spectacles ended up as land fill.
English illustrator Arthur Rackham provided some of the most fantastic illustrations for children’s books, including Alice in Wonderland and Wind in the Willows. It’s no surprise that he valued fantasy as a way of expanding children’s intellect (and probably adults, too!) It’s always a joy to learn and write about such creative people for Arts in Letters subscribers.
Does listening to music cause you to see colors? And do those colors change as the notes change? If you experience this, you have something very special in common with Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky, something called ‘synaesthesia.’
Synaesthesia happens when something that normally stimulates one sense, such as hearing music, stimulates another sense, such as sight. Over 60 different types of synaesthesia have been identified. The connection of seeing and hearing is called chromaesthesia.
Having studied music as a child and experiencing chromaesthesia all his his life, Kandinsky often sought to paint music he heard. In particular he was inspired by the music of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg.
Composition III – Concert, 1911 Kandinsky osught to depict a performance of Schoenberg’s Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 11 in this painting
Supposedly only about 4% of people experience some kind of synaesthesia, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the number is much higher, and that most people have either just don’t notice it happening or their brains have turned it off as their sensory skills developed along more narrow lines. How about trying to some sensory experiments of your own to find out what a sound, color, smell, taste, or touch might make you see, hear, taste, feel, or smell?!
Polymath Gottfried Leibniz, writer Edmund Spenser, artist Kate Greenaway and composer/pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk, just a few of history’s great thinkers and creators that Arts in Letters subscribers have had the opportunity to learn about. Who will we learn about next?
Have you ever heard of a magnetic health cure, or a magnetic dispensary?
A satirical depiction of an 18th century magnetic dispensary, by painter Samuel Collins, 1790 Library Company of Philadelphia.
In the 18th and 19th centuries there were health practicianers who believed that all living beings had an inner force, a type of magnetism, that could be channeled to cure sickness. You could visit or be visited by a private practicianer or you could visit a magnetic dispensary, kind of like a clinic or doctor’s office.
There’s no proof that the treatments were effective, but they probably weren’t physically harmful, except for diverting sick people from medical doctors.
How did the Wright brothers solve the ‘flying problem’ of how to control an aircraft in flight? They answered the right question.
Wind tunnel built by the Wright brothers to test wing and propeller designs.
Most other aspiring aviators were trying to use power to overcome control problems in the air. They theorized that if enough power could be generated, the aircraft would be more maneuverable. Some thought that the airplane would behave similarly to a car, not taking into account that a body supported by air flow behaves very differently than a vehicle on the ground.
The Wright brothers succeeded because they answered the right question first, which is how to control the aircraft in the air. They studied birds in flight, built a wind tunnel to test wing designs, and reworked the math. Then they designed a control system that gave their aircraft the stability in flight the others were lacking.
What an excellent example of answering the right question to find the ‘Wright’ solution! Sorry, couldn’t resist.
