Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Jim Reeves.

James Travis "Jim" Reeves (August 20, 1923 – July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville sound (a mixture of older country-style music with elements of popular music). Known as "Gentleman Jim", his songs continued to chart for years after his death. Reeves died in the crash of a private airplane. He is a member of both the Country Music and Texas Country Music Halls of Fame.



Please click on the following web-sites  with your speakers on :-

Jim Reeves 25 Greatest Hits
https://youtu.be/RpK6vFc86r0

Jim Reeves Sings The Greatest Gospel and Christian Music Ever
https://youtu.be/8Sqr_JgfvbI

Christmas Song (12 songs) - Jim Reeves (1923 1964)
https://youtu.be/A7_yyrr8ojQ



Sri Lankan ‘Balangoda man' dated to 37,000 years ago.

 - National Paeleontology | Examiner.com


Inbox
x

Bernard Desilva bdesbdes@icloud.com

05:43 (35 minutes ago)
to desilvabmPattyme

PS
Three sites in central Sri Lanka have drawn attention to Pre-historic cave dwellings. They are :-
1. Beli Lena near Deraniyagala.
2. Batadomba Lena near Kuruwita.
3. Fa Hsien Lena near Horana.
All the above have had radio-active dating results ranging around 30,000 years before the present era.
There are also urn burial sites at Pomparippu near Chilaw and various places in the North of Sri Lanka.
There are also human remains dated around 100,000 years ago at Sithulpawwa in the South of Sri Lanka.
Philip G V

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE

The Blue Danube

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Blue Danube (disambiguation).
Cover
The Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 (German for "By the Beautiful Blue Danube"), a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866. Originally performed on 15 February 1867 at a concert of the Wiener Männergesangsverein (Vienna Men's Choral Association), it has been one of the most consistently popular pieces of music in the classical repertoire. Its initial performance was only a mild success however and Strauss is reputed to have said "The devil take the waltz, my only regret is for the coda—I wish that had been a success!"
After the original music was written, the words were added by the Choral Association's poet, Joseph Weyl.[1] Strauss later added more music, and Weyl needed to change some of the words.[2] Strauss adapted it into a purely orchestral version for the World's Fair in Paris that same year, and it became a great success in this form. The instrumental version is by far the most commonly performed today. An alternate text by Franz von Gernerth, "Donau so blau" (Danube so blue), is also used on occasion. The Blue Danube premiered in the United States in its instrumental version on 1 July 1867 in New York, and in Great Britain in its choral version on 21 September 1867 in London at the promenade concerts at Covent Garden.
When Strauss's stepdaughter, Alice von Meyszner-Strauss, asked the composer Johannes Brahms to sign her autograph-fan, he wrote down the first bars of The Blue Danube, but adding "Leider nicht von Johannes Brahms" ("Alas! not by Johannes Brahms").[3]

It is the most famous waltz ever written – actually not one waltz but a chain of five interlinked waltz themes. It is Austria’s second national anthem. It is the inescapable conclusion to each New Year’s Day concert in Vienna. But how many of us have ever heard Strauss’s original version? 
In 1865, Johann Herbeck, choirmaster of the Vienna Men’s Choral Society, commissioned Strauss to write a choral work; due to the composer’s other commitments the piece wasn’t even started. The following year, Austria was defeated by Prussia in the Seven Weeks’ War. Aggravated by post-war economic depression, Viennese morale was at a low and so Strauss was encouraged to revisit his commission and write a joyful waltz song to lift the country’s spirit. 
Strauss recalled a poem by Karl Isidor Beck (1817-79). Each stanza ends with the line: ‘By the Danube, beautiful blue Danube’. It gave him the inspiration and the title for his new work – although the Danube could never be described as blue and, at the time the waltz was written, it did not flow through Vienna. To the waltz, the choral society’s “poet” Josef Weyl added humorous lyrics ridiculing the lost war, the bankrupt city and its politicians: “Wiener seid’s froh! Oho! Wieso?” (“Viennese be happy! Oho! But why?”). 

Read more at http://www.classicfm.com/composers/strauss-ii/guides/story-behind-blue-danube/#mkRws2Bi3tBbYTAy.99

Please click on each of the web-links below with your speakers on :-

Johann Strauss, jr. "An der schönen blauen Donau"


https://youtu.be/IDaJ7rFg66A


15 year old Julie Andrews - The Blue Danube


Blue Danube Dream with English Lyrics


SRI LANKA BY TRAIN

Avoiding dementia by activity.