Monday, August 15, 2011

David Macaulay's Book City

The book City is about a make believe Roman city. The author David Macaulay based it on a bunch of other Roman cities.

One of the cities he based it on was Carsulae. I know this because I wrote him a letter, but I didn’t think he would write me back because he’s famous. But he did send me a letter, and it was hand written. I have scanned a copy of the letter just click here if you wish to read it.

Two parts of City I liked the most:

  1. The second thing they built was the trench for the city walls so they would soon have protection, and they would not over extend themselves.
  2. Their roads were built very cleverly so they could allow drainage, and would last a long time. In some ways they were a lot better than the ones we have today. They made the road by digging a trench then filling it with small stones. Then on top they put large flat stones that were slightly curved to force rain water into gutters on the side of the road. Any cracks in between the stones were filed with small stones or scrap iron.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Giacomo Puccini

BORN: 22cd of December 1858 in Luca Tuscany, Italy.

DIED: 29th November 1924 Brussels, Belgium.

BURIED: A specially built chapel in the grounds of his estate in Torre del Lago, Toscana, Italy.

TYPE OF MUSIC: classical music from the romantic period [mainly opera].

SOME FAMOUS Arias:

  • Nessun dorma [none shall sleep], from the opera Turandot.
  • Un bel di [one fine day] from the opera Madama Butterfly [Madam Butterfly] .
  • O Mio Babino Caro [oh my dear papa] from the opera Gianni Schicchi.


SOME GREAT operas:

  • Manon Les Caut
  • La Boheme [ The Bohemians]
  • Tosca
  • Madama Butterfly
  • Gianni Schicchi – one of the three operas making up ll trittico [the Triptych].

SOME INTERESTING FACTS:

  1. His music is very popular, especially in Italy.
  2. His music is full of long and beautiful lines.
  3. His operas really are what people imagine operas to be – lots of emotion, lots of women singing very loud and high, and lots of main characters dying at the end!
  4. Gianni Schicchi is different from his other operas – it’s a comedy!
  5. His last opera, Turnadot, wasn’t finished when he died! It was finished instead by Franco Alfano.
  6. He died very rich.

Romantic music isn’t just all about love – it’s also about how the composers express their feelings. It’s the kind of music that comes after the classical music period.