My Hero! from The Chocolate Soldier

The RMS Titanic did not have a single band. There were, in fact, two music units aboard. There was a quintet lead by violinist Wallace Hartley which was used for routine business aboard ship—tea time and after-dinner concerts, Sunday church service and such.

• Wallace Hartley (quintet leader, violin)
• John Frederick Preston Clarke (bass violin, viola)
• W. Theodore Ronald Brailey (piano)
• Roger Marie Bricoux (cello)
• John Law Hume (violin)

In addition to the quintet, there was a trio of violin, cello and piano that played exclusively in the reception room outside the Ala Carte restaurant and the Cafe Parisien.

• George Alexandre Krins (trio leader, violin)
• Percy Cornelius Taylor (cello, piano)
• John Wesley Woodward (cello)

The musicians were not members of the Titanic crew, nor were they employees of the White Star Line. Both units were employed by Messrs. C.W. & F.N. Black of Liverpool and, though they performed in First Class venues aboard ship, they traveled and dined as Second Class passengers. Once the voyage was complete and C.W. & F.N. Black was paid, the agency would in turn pay the musicians.

The eight musicians of the RMS Titanic. Published April 1912 by the Amalgamated Musicians' Union.

As the RMS Titanic left the port of Southhampton on its maiden voyage, the quintet played a favorite air from “The Chocolate Soldier.”

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The Boys of Bluehill

The White Star Line was founded around 1850. The company managed a line of sailing vessels and was mainly engaged in trade in and around the Australian goldfields. But by the autumn of 1867 the company's debts had grown larger than its revenues and White Star Line was forced into bankruptcy. It was then that shipping businessman Thomas Henry Ismay purchased the White Star Line and eventually made it the centerpiece of his Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (OSNC), which he formed in 1869. The house flag for the Liverpool-based OSNC was the now-familiar flag of the White Star Line, with a solid red background and a five-pointed star in the center. The OSNC was the beginning of Ismay's dream to provide the highest quality of service from the United Kingdom and Europe to the United States and Canada.
       

Thomas Henry Ismay (left) and an emblem of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (right).

     

Thomas Ismay spent most of his life in robust health, but on November 23, 1899, following several months of illness, Thomas Ismay died. The leadership of the family business eventually passed to his son, Joseph Bruce Ismay.

      

The Northumberland hornpipe "Harvest Home" is another of those nautical tunes that would have been well-known to the shipbuilders and crew of the RMS Titanic.  

       

     
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Harvest Home

Her design was approved on July 29, 1908. On March 31 the following year, her keel was laid in a specially-built yard on Queen's Island in Belfast, Ireland. Her life began just fifteen weeks behind her sister, the Olympic. And like her sister, she was built by Harland & Wolff and upon completion would be passed to her owner, the White Star Line. Her name, the RMS Titanic. 

       

In this October 1910 photo the Olympic can be seen on the right in Yard number 400. Titanic can be seen on the left, in Yard number 401. This photo was taken by Robert John Welch (1859-1936), official photographer for Harland & Wolff.

     

The size of the ships was so great that no existing ship yards could hold them. So over 1907 and 1908 three existing Queen's Island yards were torn down and replaced with two new and much larger yards, numbers 400 and 401. Yard number 400 was designated for Olympic and 401 for Titanic.

     

Belfast was a center for shipbuilding and many companies produced their vessels there. The work was very dangerous, but it was expected for the life of a shipbuilder at that time. When one ship was completed, the men would sign-on with another crew and another ship. Harland and Wolff employed 15,000 men at the time of the Olympic and Titanic, and many thousands worked for about 26 months on each of the great ships.

     

The tune "Harvest Home" is an example of the hornpipes that were played on English and other sailing vessels beginning in the 16th or 17th century. This particular tune would have been well-known to the shipbuilders of Queen's Island, as it would have to most western sailors of the day.

      

    

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Bach and Handel and the Meeting that Never Happened

Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) was born at Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach (now in central Germany) to a family which in seven generations produced some sixty professional musicians. He was appointed Cantor (choirmaster) at Thomasschule (St. Thomas School) at Leipzig, in 1723.

Johann Sebastian Bach (left), painted 1748 by Haussmann.

George Frideric Handel (right), painted 1733 by Balthasar Denner.

Bach had very great esteem for German-English composer George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759), and often wished to meet with him. Since Handel, like Bach, was a great performer on the clavier and the organ, many lovers of music at Leipzig and the surrounding area also wished to hear the musical result of such a meeting between these two great men. But Handel never could find time for such a meeting. Handel came three times from London to Halle, his native town. On his first visit, about the year 1719, Bach was still at Cöthen, only for German miles from Halle. Bach was immediately informed of Handel’s arrival, and did not lose a moment in paying him a visit; but Handel left Halle the very day of his arrival. At the time of Handel’s second visit to Halle, between 1730 and 1740, Bach was at Leipzig, but ill. However, when he was informed of Handel’s arrival at Halle, Bach immediately sent his second child and eldest son, William Friedemann, with a very polite invitation to visit Bach a Leipzig. But Handel regretted that he could not come. On Handel’s third visit, approximately in 1752 or 1753, Bach was dead.

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Martin Luther and the Healing Power of Music

Religious reformer Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) was the author of many hymns and chorales that remain the foundation of Protestant church music. It is said that without Luther, there could have been no Bach.

Martin Luther in 1529, painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

In his later years, Luther suffered many ailments, including Ménière's disease, vertigo, fainting, tinnitus, and a cataract in one eye. Luther saw these as the efforts of Satan to prevent Luther from doing his important work.

Often when Luther was at work in his study, he felt that Satan was perturbing him. Once he had been locked inside for some time, not even demanding food, when Lucas Edenberger, preceptor of Duke Ernst of Saxony, arrived with some musicians to visit Luther. When he did not answer their knocking on the door, Edenberger looked through the keyhole and saw Luther lying on the floor unconscious, his arms outstretched. Edenberger broke open the door, lifted Luther up in his arms and, together with his companions, began to sing. Luther regained consciousness slowly, his melancholy departed and before long he began to sing with them. He then asked Lucas and his companions to visit him often and never to let themselves be turned away no matter what Luther was doing; for Luther believed that the Satanic influences and sadness left him as soon as he heard music.

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The Tinwhistle: What is it?

A tinwhistle is an end-blown fipple flute that has six finger holes, all on the front. It may have a conical shape or a cylindrical shape and it is often made of metal. Even so, it is considered a woodwind instrument. The tinwhistle is in the same instrument category as the flageolet, the recorder, the Native American flute, and many other woodwind instruments found in traditional music.

Variations on the tinwhistle design exist in cultures around the world. In western culture, the tinwhistle is most identified with Irish music and it is very popular in Ireland. The tinwhistle is easy to play and produces a good, loud sound, although it can be ear-piercing in the higher notes.

Other names for the tinwhistle include the tin whistle, the penny whistle, the pennywhistle, the Irish whistle, the fipple flute, and the whistle. The Irish words for the instrument are feadóg stain, meaning “tin whistle” (feadóga stáin is the plural) and feadóg, meaning “whistle” or “flute”).

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Alonso Theatre Department Does Great!

Hey, friends.

I'm taking time out to promote another blog. The Arts Council of Hillsborough County posted an article on the fantastic achievement of the Alonso High School Theatre Department, in the selection of their One-Act competition piece to represent the state of Florida in the 2010 International Thespian Festival in June. Please check out today's blog and spread the word!

http://artscouncilofhillsboroughcounty.blogspot.com/2010/04/alonso-high-thespains-mosi-kic-advisory.html

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