This blog is about the entrants in the year 1960, to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ceylon, Colombo. The email address for communications is, 1960batch@gmail.com. Please BOOKMARK this page for easier access later.Photo is the entrance porch of the old General Hospital, Colombo, still in existence. Please use the search box below to look for your requirement.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Für Elise
Please click on each of the web-links below with your speakers on:-
Beethoven - Für Elise - Piano & Orchestra
https://youtu.be/e4d0LOuP4UwPiano version
The Story Behind Für Elise
Für Elise (which is German for For Elise) was composed by
Ludwig van Beethoven around 1810 when he was 40 years old and firmly
established as one of the greatest composers in history. It is named "Für
Elise" because a Beethoven researcher named Ludwig Nohl claimed to have
seen this dedication on the original autograph which has been missing since,
and this has been the cause of some speculation. The piece was not published
until 1865 well after Beethoven's death in 1827, and no distinct records,
letters, or accounts from people at the time make mention of an
"Elise" in the composer's life. Beethoven was in love with a woman
named Therese Malfatti around the time he created the work, and one of the
theories that has circulated for a long time has been that Ludwig Nohl misread
the composer's poor handwriting which then would have said "Für
Therese". That's quite a stretch in my own humble opinion. It is also
unreasonable to expect that all aquaintances from 200 years ago can be
accounted for, especially when the subject is a man who increasingly withdrew
himself from the world because of his hearing loss.
In 2009 a Beethoven researcher named Klaus Martin Kopitz
made the claim that "Elise" may have been the nickname of opera
singer Elisabeth Röckel whom the composer met a few years prior to writing the
piece. The two enjoyed a close friendship according to stories told by Röckel
herself, but she would later marry Beethoven's on-and-off friend and rival
Johann Nepomuk Hummel. According to Kopitz, the church records for the christening
of Röckel's first child in 1814 give her own name as Maria Eva Elise. He found
the records in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, suggesting that Röckel may
indeed have been known as "Elise" at least in Viennese circles.
After researching this piece I also came across other
theories to explain the dedication, although I am personally quite intrigued by
the recent discoveries of Kopitz. One less well documented theory claims that
the name "Elise" was used as a general term for "sweetheart",
but I have been unable to substantiate this claim despite seeing it a few
places. In my own opinion it would not fit well with Beethoven's composing and
dedication history. However, whether Elise was misread, a known or unknown love
or a woman who simply inspired Beethoven to write this piece, it remains one of
many unsolved mysteries left to ponder.
It is interesting to note that Ludwig van Beethoven
re-visited the piece in 1822, but it remained as sketches that were never
released in his lifetime. The intentions behind picking up the work more than
decade later are not known. While the revised version appears somewhat
incomplete there are significant changes to the accompaniment as well as new
material added.
Free Für Elise MIDI File Download
» Learn More and Dow
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
Christmas Song (12 songs) - Jim Reeves (1923 1964)
https://youtu.be/A7_yyrr8ojQSri Lankan ‘Balangoda man' dated to 37,000 years ago.
- National Paeleontology | Examiner.com
Inbox
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05:43 (35 minutes ago)
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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
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
Johann Strauss, jr. "An der schönen blauen
Donau"
15 year old Julie Andrews - The Blue Danube
Blue Danube Dream with English Lyrics
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