Mystery and Intrigue on the Danube

I like to listen to our local cable music channel. It's a place to hear new selections, and then go get them for your collection. With a pending trip to Broadway, I recently tuned into the "Stage and Screen" channel, and heard the theme from "The Third Man", the classic British film noir of 1949, directed by Carol Reed, starring Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli, Orson Welles and Trevor Howard. This film is considered, like Citizen Kane (also with Welles), to be one of the best of the genre. The entire soundtrack is played on the zither, and the zither alone, played by Anton Karas, and it really sets the mood.

The Zither is part of the "kithara" (Greek) family of instruments, a forerunner of the guitar. It has a kind of haunting, twangy, bell-like quality, and sets the mood of post-war Vienna, with its dark, mysterious streets and the rubble left from the war.

Vienna is an old and extremely interesting place, the capital of Austria. The city has its light-hearted side especially where music is concerned (remember the Strauss waltzes), but it is also part of Eastern Europe. The word Austria has its roots in the German word "osterreich", or eastern realm. Eastern Europe is a world of its own, rather moody, with an underlying heavy atmosphere, with connections to the ottoman empire.

For our purposes here, I look at the 1700's, with Vienna becoming a baroque city, with significant achievements in architecture by Johann von Erlach and Johann von Hildebrandt. Opulent palaces like the Schwarzenberg and the Liechtenstein were built. Though the city suffered a plague in those years, by 1790, the population had reached 200,000. The city began industrialization with the first factory running in Leopoldstadt, Vienna's 2nd district.

In 1804, during the Napoleonic wars, Vienna was invaded twice during that time, when three French marshals crossed the Danube River and told the Austrian commander that the war was over. Vienna became the capital city, and played a major role in world politics, including the hosting of the Congress of Vienna, in 1814. The Congress included a series of international meetings to forge a peace and balance of powers in Europe. It served as a model for the League of Nations and the United Nations, much later. So, when you want to immerse yourself in a bit of mystery and intrigue, check out The Third Man. It makes me now want to take a trip on the Orient Express.

An Amazing Find!

In the Summer of 2010, archeologists discovered the remains of an 18th Century ship at the World Trade Center's new construction site. Can you imagine the amazement?!

The ship was unearthed and after study, it is determined that it pre-dates the American Independence! Scientists at Columbia University found that the wood used in the ship's construction came from a Philadelphia-area forest from 1773, before the Declaration of Independence was signed. It was further investigated that the ship was fashioned from the same kind of oak that was likely used to build Philadelphia's Independence Hall.

 

It is a sloop ship, designed by the Dutch, to carry passengers and cargo. Finding show that after sailing for 20-30 years, pieces of the 32-foot ship were used for landfill to extend lower Manhattan.

Currently, The majority of the ship's remains are being kept at Texas A&M University, and owned by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. There is talk of preservation or a recreation of the sloop, but time will tell. There are no plans at present.

Ancient Technologies for Today!

I just finished watching a wonderful lecture series about Greek and Roman technologies from the catapult to the Pantheon. It was fascinating, not only to hear about ancient buildings and machinery, but to see their employ in modern application. The course instructor is Dr. Stephen Reseller, a professor at West Point Academy. He makes the subject come alive. His enthusiasm is contagious.

The last lecture shows how very much alive all these ancient methods are in modern or near modern history. One building caught my eye, as it was produced in the 18th Century, that of Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, which he designed and built. He was a bit of a Renaissance man, with interests in science, art, architecture, politics, history. After the fussiness and over-the-top decor of the Baroque era, it was time to scrape away the icing on the cake, and get to the heart of the matter. Hence there was a revival of the classical era design, now called Neo Classical, a getting back to basics, as it were. Monticello, placed side by side with Rome's famed Pantheon gives an interesting picture of classical themes brought to life once again. Note the colonnaded entry, the triangular tympanum over the pediment and the domed section of roof.

 

Jefferson designed and built his home in 1772, located in Albermarle County, near Charlottesville, Virginia. He studied the works of the ancients for inspiration. He used contemporary materials, including the bricks typical of the Federal style which had become so popular in Colonial America, but the walls and proportions reflect the order of the original ancient building.
That's why classics are classics; why they are timeless. Good taste lasts forever!

Belle

Recently I saw the movie "Belle" based on the true account of Dido Elizabeth Belle, daughter of a West Indian slave, and Captain John Lindsay, British naval officer. Dido's mother died, and John, who spent most of his time on the high seas for the Royal British Navy, placed his child in the hands of his Aunt and Uncle back in England.  His uncle was William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, who brought up Dido as a free gentlewoman, who lived with them for 30 years. Her father, upon his death, left her with an annuity of several hundred pounds, which actually made her a rich woman for the times, and an independent one as well.

In the movie, of course, artist license is used, with Dido given a better place within the household, than in real life. Though it did not detract from the story, in reality, Dido kind of assumed a role as a lady's companion, taking dictation for the Earl's letters, managing the dairy and poultry yards on the estate. She was given an annual allowance of £30, several times the wage of a domestic servant.

Not only was she illegitimate, but also her race played a role in her adult life. She was truly never quite accepted as an equal, but there is an interesting twist to the story. The Earl's family had a gallery of paintings of family members and ancestors, and one of the paintings depicts Dido along with another young family member, quite equally honored and depicted of equal status. Today it hangs in Scone Palace in Scotland.

Eventually Dido was married John Davinier in 1793, a Frenchman who worked as a gentlemen's steward, and she had three sons.

The painting was painted in 1779, of Dido and her cousin Elizabeth Murray, the Earl's niece, attributed to Johann Zoffany, a German neo-classic painter.