THus Spake Aristotle :
"Were you to live three thousand years, or even thirty thousand,
remember that the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is
living at the moment; and furthermore, that he can have no other life
except the one he loses. This means that the longest life and the
shortest amount to the same thing. For the passing minute is every man's
equal possession, but what has once gone by is not ours. Our loss,
therefore, is limited to that one fleeting instant, since no one can
lose what is already past, nor yet what is still to come—for how can he
be deprived of what he does not possess?"
--
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Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Bestozyme
Enzymes and carminative mix for improving digestion in children
Alpha-amylase
Fungal diastase derived from Aspergillus Oryzae
Papain IP
Anis oil
Carraway oil
Cinnamon oil
Dill oil
--
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Alpha-amylase
Fungal diastase derived from Aspergillus Oryzae
Papain IP
Anis oil
Carraway oil
Cinnamon oil
Dill oil
--
http://www.fastmail.com - Does exactly what it says on the tin
Monday, June 13, 2016
piano journee
<from the Hindu>
It's 300 years since the piano was first created in an obscure part of
Italy, says a Medici family catalogue
There is a scene from Amadeus that shows a piano recital Mozart gives al
fresco, which starts with four foot soldiers carrying the piano ahead,
while he follows them in a horse-drawn carriage. The pianos he seems to
be playing are the early prototypes, a few decades after the original
Cristofori models came into vogue. The keys are black, and the entire
instrument resembles a harpsichord rather than a pianoforte. Nearly 250
years later, we are doing the same thing metaphorically. The foot
soldiers are many, taking the instrument all over the globe.
I have had the pleasure of playing abandoned instruments in the Pacific
Northwest, in parts of Europe, and as far afield as an abandoned
warehouse in Jamaica. In New York, I got to play on a beautifully
reconditioned Steinway that Duke Ellington owned, and in Chennai, more
memorably, I got to restore, along with the wonderful craftsmen at Musee
Musicals, the grand piano at Kalakshetra that belonged to the late great
M.S. Subbulakshmi.
A month later, I had the same experience with a piano that belonged to
Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, the maharaja of Mysore. Both these
instruments had made their way to India a century previously, a journey
that must have involved mind-boggling logistics, with traverses as steep
and treacherous as the mythical one in James Hilton's Lost Horizon. The
piano has come a long way: it is 300 years old, if one goes by the first
official record of the instrument in the Medici family catalogue of May
1716, and attributed to Bartolomeo Cristofori, its creator.
In Vienna, one can see the pianos that Beethoven used across all his
turbulent years — the ones that he specially reconditioned so that the
soundboard and body of the piano lay on the ground. This way the deaf
composer could feel the vibrations as he pounded out the notes on his
beloved instrument. In Poland and in large parts of France, we see the
pianos touched by Chopin, venerated in what resemble shrines, while
across many public places all over the world, "public piano" projects
have become a rage — instruments littered across parks, airports and
even sidewalks — inviting the community to unite through music-making.
No other instrument enjoys the piano's immense popularity, and its rich
history has seen it meld with genres and cultures.
In May this year, Carnatic vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan and I were in a
primary school in San Antonio, Texas, with Indian music accompanied by
the piano. I found it significant when one child asked if I could give
him the notation, so that he could try and use it to pick up Indian
musical ideas. The piano had come full circle. From being a Western
classical instrument to being adapted for Indian music, and now a
vehicle of our music for the West.
The most accessible instrument in the world owes its origin to the
humble yet prodigious Cristofori, who was hired providentially by the
progressive and impetuous Prince Ferdinando di Medici of Tuscany.
Working his way through the existing keyboard instruments of the time,
notably the spinet and later developments on the clavichord and
harpsichord, Cristofori created several masterpieces.
The 1720 pianoforte, with almost all the features of the modern piano
save the iron frame and the composition of the hammers, sits in state at
the Metropolitan Museum of New York. That this creation from an obscure
part of Italy is now in all corners of the globe and spans a universe of
musicians, instrument makers, composers, and technologists owes in large
part to its highly dynamic tone and sonic properties and to its quick
adoption by almost all leading composers of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The piano came into its own perhaps with the romantic revolutionaries,
Liszt and Chopin.
But the piano travelled alongside history. It was the instrument that
catapulted into the world scene a statesman such as Polish premiere (and
concert pianist) Ignacy Jan Paderewski. It was the instrument around
which statesmen and nation-makers celebrated their biggest victories,
and it was the social lubricant of choice for families worldwide. It was
an integral part of the early 20th century "coffeehouse" and later
"pubhouse" cultures, the instrument around which everyone gathered, the
early breeding ground for such diverse genres as ragtime (Ernest Hogan
and then Scott Joplin, basis of the African-American march time music
and big bands of the early 20th century), early, and then, serious jazz
(which needs a separate article), and in improvisational music of any
form in the middle and late 20th centuries.
Perhaps the piano's greatest contribution is that it has always been a
great leveller. From the fingers of concert pianists to film music
composers such as M.S. Viswanathan, Ilayaraja and A.R. Rahman, it has
transformed the way we listen to and process music across the globe.
It's a journey that knows no beginning or end, exactly as Madame
Sousatzka (essayed by the incredible Shirley Maclaine in the eponymous
1988 film) said.
Here's to the next 300.
Anil Srinivasan is a Chennai-based pianist who works across genres.
--
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It's 300 years since the piano was first created in an obscure part of
Italy, says a Medici family catalogue
There is a scene from Amadeus that shows a piano recital Mozart gives al
fresco, which starts with four foot soldiers carrying the piano ahead,
while he follows them in a horse-drawn carriage. The pianos he seems to
be playing are the early prototypes, a few decades after the original
Cristofori models came into vogue. The keys are black, and the entire
instrument resembles a harpsichord rather than a pianoforte. Nearly 250
years later, we are doing the same thing metaphorically. The foot
soldiers are many, taking the instrument all over the globe.
I have had the pleasure of playing abandoned instruments in the Pacific
Northwest, in parts of Europe, and as far afield as an abandoned
warehouse in Jamaica. In New York, I got to play on a beautifully
reconditioned Steinway that Duke Ellington owned, and in Chennai, more
memorably, I got to restore, along with the wonderful craftsmen at Musee
Musicals, the grand piano at Kalakshetra that belonged to the late great
M.S. Subbulakshmi.
A month later, I had the same experience with a piano that belonged to
Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, the maharaja of Mysore. Both these
instruments had made their way to India a century previously, a journey
that must have involved mind-boggling logistics, with traverses as steep
and treacherous as the mythical one in James Hilton's Lost Horizon. The
piano has come a long way: it is 300 years old, if one goes by the first
official record of the instrument in the Medici family catalogue of May
1716, and attributed to Bartolomeo Cristofori, its creator.
In Vienna, one can see the pianos that Beethoven used across all his
turbulent years — the ones that he specially reconditioned so that the
soundboard and body of the piano lay on the ground. This way the deaf
composer could feel the vibrations as he pounded out the notes on his
beloved instrument. In Poland and in large parts of France, we see the
pianos touched by Chopin, venerated in what resemble shrines, while
across many public places all over the world, "public piano" projects
have become a rage — instruments littered across parks, airports and
even sidewalks — inviting the community to unite through music-making.
No other instrument enjoys the piano's immense popularity, and its rich
history has seen it meld with genres and cultures.
In May this year, Carnatic vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan and I were in a
primary school in San Antonio, Texas, with Indian music accompanied by
the piano. I found it significant when one child asked if I could give
him the notation, so that he could try and use it to pick up Indian
musical ideas. The piano had come full circle. From being a Western
classical instrument to being adapted for Indian music, and now a
vehicle of our music for the West.
The most accessible instrument in the world owes its origin to the
humble yet prodigious Cristofori, who was hired providentially by the
progressive and impetuous Prince Ferdinando di Medici of Tuscany.
Working his way through the existing keyboard instruments of the time,
notably the spinet and later developments on the clavichord and
harpsichord, Cristofori created several masterpieces.
The 1720 pianoforte, with almost all the features of the modern piano
save the iron frame and the composition of the hammers, sits in state at
the Metropolitan Museum of New York. That this creation from an obscure
part of Italy is now in all corners of the globe and spans a universe of
musicians, instrument makers, composers, and technologists owes in large
part to its highly dynamic tone and sonic properties and to its quick
adoption by almost all leading composers of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The piano came into its own perhaps with the romantic revolutionaries,
Liszt and Chopin.
But the piano travelled alongside history. It was the instrument that
catapulted into the world scene a statesman such as Polish premiere (and
concert pianist) Ignacy Jan Paderewski. It was the instrument around
which statesmen and nation-makers celebrated their biggest victories,
and it was the social lubricant of choice for families worldwide. It was
an integral part of the early 20th century "coffeehouse" and later
"pubhouse" cultures, the instrument around which everyone gathered, the
early breeding ground for such diverse genres as ragtime (Ernest Hogan
and then Scott Joplin, basis of the African-American march time music
and big bands of the early 20th century), early, and then, serious jazz
(which needs a separate article), and in improvisational music of any
form in the middle and late 20th centuries.
Perhaps the piano's greatest contribution is that it has always been a
great leveller. From the fingers of concert pianists to film music
composers such as M.S. Viswanathan, Ilayaraja and A.R. Rahman, it has
transformed the way we listen to and process music across the globe.
It's a journey that knows no beginning or end, exactly as Madame
Sousatzka (essayed by the incredible Shirley Maclaine in the eponymous
1988 film) said.
Here's to the next 300.
Anil Srinivasan is a Chennai-based pianist who works across genres.
--
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