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The first person of Hispanic heritage to lead Mission Control started working shifts as a flight director for the International Space Station at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. Ginger Kerrick completed more than 700 hours of training and began active duty in September of 2005.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: jsc2005e08483
Date: February 25, 2005
Nikolái Andréyevich Rimski-Kórsakov (Tijvin, 6 de marzo/ 18 de marzo de 1844greg. - finca Lubensk, 8 de juniojul./ 21 de junio de 1908greg.) fue un compositor, director de orquesta y pedagogo ruso miembro del grupo de compositores conocido como Los Cinco. Considerado un maestro de la orquestación, sus obras orquestales más conocidas —el Capricho español, la Obertura de la gran Pascua rusa y la suite sinfónica Scheherezade— son valoradas entre las principales del repertorio de música clásica, así como las suites y fragmentos de alguna de sus quince óperas. Scheherezade es un ejemplo de su empleo frecuente de los cuentos de hadas y temas populares.
Rimski-Kórsakov, al igual que su colega compositor Mili Balákirev o el crítico Vladímir Stásov, creía firmemente en el desarrollo de un estilo nacionalista de música clásica. Este estilo consistía en el empleo de canciones populares tradicionales rusas, así como de elementos armónicos, melódicos y rítmicos exóticos —práctica conocida como orientalismo musical—, evitando los métodos compositivos tradicionales occidentales. Sin embargo, Rimski Kórsakov llegaría a valorar también las técnicas occidentales al ocupar el puesto de profesor de composición, armonía e instrumentación (orquestación) musical en el Conservatorio de San Petersburgo a partir de 1871. Con objeto de perfeccionarse y de forma autodidacta estudió la armonía y el contrapunto occidentales, incorporando al mismo tiempo las influencias de Mijaíl Glinka y el resto de compañeros de Los Cinco. Posteriormente sus técnicas compositivas y de orquestación se vieron enriquecidas con el descubrimiento de las obras de Richard Wagner.
Rimski-Kórsakov combinó la composición y la enseñanza con la carrera militar, primero como oficial de la Armada Imperial Rusa, luego como inspector civil de bandas de música navales. Escribió en sus memorias que la pasión por el océano comenzó en su niñez, al leer libros y escuchar las hazañas de su hermano mayor en la marina. Su amor por el mar pudo haberle influido para escribir dos de sus obras orquestales más conocidas, el cuadro musical Sadkó (no confundir con su ópera posterior del mismo nombre) y Scheherezade. Su labor como inspector de bandas navales le sirvió para ampliar su conocimiento técnico de los instrumentos de viento-madera y metal, perfeccionando sus habilidades en el campo de la orquestación. Además de transmitir estos conocimientos a sus estudiantes, los pudo transmitir póstumamente a través de un manual sobre orquestación que fue finalizado por su yerno Maksimilián Steinberg.
Rimski-Kórsakov legó muchas composiciones nacionalistas rusas de gran creatividad y originalidad. Además, realizó arreglos de las obras de Los Cinco para que pudieran ser interpretadas en público, convirtiéndolas en parte del repertorio clásico (aunque existe controversia acerca de sus correcciones en las obras de Modest Músorgski). Formó una generación de jóvenes compositores y músicos durante las décadas que ejerció como pedagogo, por lo que se le ha llegado a calificar como el «principal arquitecto» de lo que el público aficionado a la música clásica considera el estilo ruso de composición.1 El estilo de Rimski Kórsakov se basaba en el de Glinka, Balákirev, Hector Berlioz y Franz Liszt, «transmitiendo este estilo directamente a dos generaciones de compositores rusos» e influyendo en compositores no rusos, tales como Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas y Ottorino Respighi.
Rimski-Kórsakov nació en Tijvin, unos 140 km al este de San Petersburgo, en el seno de una familia aristocrática con antecedentes militares. Su hermano mayor, Voin, veintidós años mayor que él, fue un conocido navegante y explorador marino.
Rimski-Kórsakov hace referencia en sus memorias que su madre tocaba un poco el piano y su padre sabía tocar de oído algunas piezas en este instrumento. Según el musicólogo Abraham, Rimski Kórsakov heredó la tendencia de su madre de tocar demasiado despacio. A la edad de seis años empezó a tomar clases de piano con varios profesores locales y mostró talento en destrezas auditivas, pero manifestaba poco interés, tocando, como más tarde escribiría, «mal, de manera descuidada,[...] manteniendo un tempo correcto a duras penas».
En el periodo en que fue a la escuela, Rimski Kórsakov tomó lecciones de piano de un hombre llamado Ulij. Estas clases recibieron la aprobación de Voin, director de la escuela en aquel entonces, porque ayudarían al joven a desarrollar sus habilidades sociales y a superar su timidez. Rimski Kórsakov escribe que mientras se mostraba «indiferente» a las lecciones, creció dentro de él el amor por la música, fomentada por las asiduas visitas a la ópera y a conciertos orquestales. Ulij se dio cuenta de que tenía un importante talento musical y le recomendó un nuevo profesor, F. A. Canille (Théodore Canillé). Empezó las lecciones de piano y composición en otoño de 1859 con Canille, del que más tarde diría ser el motivo por el que dedicó su vida a la composición. Gracias a Canille accedió a gran cantidad de música nueva para él, incluyendo la de Mijaíl Glinka y Robert Schumann. A pesar de que al joven músico le gustaban las clases de música, Voin las canceló cuando Rimski Kórsakov contaba con diecisiete años, al no parecerle ya de utilidad práctica. Canille le pidió a Rimski Kórsakov que continuara yendo a su casa cada domingo, no para clases formales, sino para tocar duetos y hablar de música. En noviembre de 1861, Canille presentó al joven de dieciocho años a Mili Balákirev. Balákirev a su vez le presentó a César Cui y Modest Músorgski. Estos tres hombres eran ya conocidos compositores a pesar de estar en la veintena. Rimski Kórsakov posteriormente escribió: «¡Con qué deleite escuchaba discusiones de temas de verdad [cursiva enfática de Rimski Kórsakov] sobre instrumentación, escritura de partes, etc.! ¡Y además, la mayor parte de lo que se hablaba era sobre asuntos musicales de actualidad! De golpe me sumergí en un nuevo mundo, desconocido para mí, del cual sólo había oído hablar en la sociedad de mis amigos diletantes. Me causó una gran impresión».
Balákirev animó a Rimski Kórsakov a que compusiera y le enseñó lo básico para empezar, aprovechando el tiempo que no pasaba en alta mar Balákirev también le urgió a que se enriqueciera leyendo libros de historia, literatura y crítica literaria. Cuando le mostró a Balákirev los primeros compases de una primera sinfonía (en mi bemol mayor) que había compuesto, éste insistió en que debía seguir trabajando en ella a pesar de su desconocimiento de las formas musicales. Durante dos años y ocho meses Rimski Kórsakov navegó en el velero clíper Almaz. A finales de 1862, ya había completado y orquestado tres movimientos de la sinfonía. Compuso el movimiento lento durante una escala en Inglaterra y le envió por correo la partitura a Balákirev antes de volver a alta mar. Al principio, el trabajo en la sinfonía mantuvo al joven ruso ocupado durante su travesía. Compró partituras en cada puerto en el que hacían escala, así como un piano para interpretarlas y ocupaba sus horas de ocio estudiando el tratado de orquestación de Berlioz. Encontró tiempo para leer las obras de Homero, William Shakespeare, Friedrich Schiller y Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, visitando Londres, las Cataratas del Niágara y Río de Janeiro durante sus escalas en puertos. Finalmente, la falta de estímulo musical exterior apagó las ansias de aprender del joven marinero y le confesó a Balákirev que tras dos años en el mar había descuidado sus clases de música por meses. «La idea de ser un músico y compositor poco a poco fue perdiendo fuerza», recordaría posteriormente, «las tierras lejanas me empezaron a seducir, de alguna forma, aunque, siendo sincero, el servicio naval nunca me gustó mucho y a duras penas se adecuaba a mi forma de ser».
De vuelta en San Petersburgo en mayo de 1865, las obligaciones de Rimski Kórsakov consistían en un par de horas de tareas de oficina cada día, pero recordaba que su deseo de componer «había sido reprimido [...] ya no tengo ningún interés por la música». En sus memorias cuenta que el contacto con Balákirev en septiembre de 1865 lo alentó «a habituarse a la música para más adelante sumergirse de lleno en ella». Siguiendo una indicación de Balákirev, compuso el trío restante del scherzo de su Primera Sinfonía y revisó la orquestación por completo. En diciembre de ese mismo año, la obra se estrenó bajo la dirección de Balákirev en San Petersburgo. Hubo una segunda interpretación en marzo de 1866 bajo la batuta de Konstantín Liádov (padre del compositor Anatoli Liádov).
El intercambio epistolar entre Rimski Kórsakov y Balákirev claramente muestra que algunas de las ideas para la sinfonía surgieron gracias a Balákirev. Este siempre iba más allá y no se limitaba a corregir la pieza musical, recomponiéndola al piano en algunas ocasiones. Rimski Kórsakov recordaba lo siguiente:
Un alumno como yo tenía que presentar a Balákirev una propuesta de composición en forma embrionaria, esto es, aunque fueran tan sólo los primeros cuatro u ocho compases. Balákirev se dedicaba a hacer correcciones, indicando cómo rehacer dicho embrión: lo examinaba de arriba a abajo, alabando y ensalzando los primeros dos compases, pero censuraba los siguientes dos, los ridiculizaba y hacía todo lo posible para que el autor se sintiera a disgusto con ellos. Que la composición fuera viva y fértil no siempre era un factor a favor, se requerían frecuentes correcciones y la tarea de componer se alargaba durante un largo periodo de tiempo bajo el frío control de la autocrítica.
Rimski-Kórsakov recuerda que «Balákirev y yo nos llevábamos bastante bien y sin problemas. A instancias de él accedí de buena gana a reescribir los movimientos sinfónicos que compuse y logré acabarlos con la ayuda de sus consejos e improvisaciones». Aunque posteriormente la influencia de Balákirev le llegó a resultar agobiante a Rimski Kórsakov y se desligó de él, esto no impidió que en sus memorias reconociera y alabara el talento de su mentor como crítico e improvisador. Bajo la guía de Balákirev, Rimski Kórsakov cambió su enfoque hacia otro tipo de composiciones. Comenzó una sinfonía en si menor, pero resultó ser demasiado parecida a la Novena Sinfonía de Beethoven y la abandonó. Completó una Obertura sobre tres temas rusos basándose en las oberturas sobre temas populares de Balákirev, así como una Fantasía sobre temas serbios, obras que se estrenaron en un concierto en honor de los delegados del Congreso Eslavo de 1867. En su artículo sobre el concierto, el crítico nacionalista Vladímir Stásov acuñaría la frase Mogúchaya kuchka para el círculo de Balákirev (Mogúchaya kuchka se suele traducir como «El Gran Puñado» o «Los Cinco»). Rimski Kórsakov también compuso las versiones primigenias (serían posteriormente revisadas) de Sadkó y Antar, que cimentaron su reputación como compositor de obras orquestales.
Rimski-Kórsakov se relacionaba y discutía sobre música con otros miembros de Los Cinco; criticaban las piezas de cada uno de ellos y colaboraban en la creación de nuevas obras. Se hizo amigo de Aleksandr Borodín —cuya música le «fascinaba»—, y cada vez pasaba más tiempo con Músorgski. Balákirev y este último tocaban música para piano a cuatro manos, Músorgski a veces cantaba y continuamente opinaban sobre la música de otros compositores, siendo sus gustos favoritos «cercanos a Glinka, Schumann y los últimos cuartetos de cuerda de Beethoven». Felix Mendelssohn no era considerado de categoría elevada, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart y Joseph Haydn «estaban pasados de moda y componían una música ingenua» y Johann Sebastian Bach era pura matemática carente de sentimientos. Berlioz «era muy apreciado», Liszt era «un minusválido pervertido desde un punto de vista musical [...] una burda caricatura» y apenas se hablaba de Wagner. Rimski Kórsakov «escuchaba estas opiniones con avidez y absorbía los gustos de Balákirev, Cui y Músorgski sin cuestionarlos ni ponerlos en duda». A menudo, las obras musicales discutidas «eran tocadas ante mí, pero sólo algunos fragmentos y no podía formarme una opinión en profundidad». Esto, escribe, no le impidió aceptar estos juicios al pie de la letra y repetirlos «como si estuviera profundamente convencido de su verdad».
Rimski-Kórsakov fue especialmente apreciado dentro de Los Cinco y por todos aquellos que visitaban el círculo, debido a su talento como orquestador. Balákirev le pidió que orquestara una marcha de Franz Schubert para un concierto en mayo de 1868; de Cui, su ópera William Ratcliff y de Aleksandr Dargomyzhski, cuyas obras eran muy apreciadas por Los Cinco y estaba a punto de fallecer, su ópera El convidado de piedra.
En el otoño de 1871, Rimski Kórsakov se trasladó al anterior apartamento de su hermano Voin e invitó a Músorgski a que fuera su compañero de habitación. Llegaron a un acuerdo de trabajo que consistía en que Músorgski usaba el piano por las mañanas mientras Rimski Kórsakov trabajaba copiando u orquestando. Cuando su compañero de habitación se iba para realizar su trabajo de funcionario civil al mediodía, el piano quedaba entonces a disposición de Rimski Kórsakov. El tiempo por las tardes se distribuyó de mutuo acuerdo. «Ese otoño e invierno los dos llegamos a un buen acuerdo», escribe Rimski Kórsakov, «con un intercambio constante de ideas y proyectos. Músorgski compuso y orquestó el acto polaco de Borís Godunov y la escena popular "Cerca de Kromy". Yo orquesté y acabé mi Dama de Pskov».
En 1871, el compositor, que contaba con 27 años, fue nombrado Catedrático de composición e instrumentación (orquestación) en el Conservatorio de San Petersburgo, así como director de la clase de orquesta. Mantuvo su puesto en el servicio naval activo e impartía sus clases en uniforme (los oficiales militares estaban obligados a llevar su uniforme durante todo el día, dado que se consideraba que siempre estaban en servicio).
Rimski Kórsakov explica en sus memorias que Mijaíl Azanchevski, al tomar el puesto de director del Conservatorio ese año, quería sangre nueva para refrescar la enseñanza de esas asignaturas, y le había hecho una generosa oferta por sus servicios. El biógrafo Mijaíl Zetlin sugiere que Azanchevski había tenido un doble motivo. En primer lugar, Rimski Kórsakov fue el miembro de Los Cinco menos criticado por sus oponentes e invitarlo a dar clases en el Conservatorio habría sido una manera segura de decir a todos los músicos serios que eran bienvenidos allí. En segundo lugar, la oferta pudo haber sido deliberada para exponerlo a un clima académico en el cual él compondría en un estilo occidental más conservador. Balákirev se oponía a la enseñanza académica de la música con tremendo vigor, pero lo animó a que aceptara el puesto para convencer a otros a que se unieran a la causa nacionalista musical.
La reputación de Rimski Kórsakov en ese momento era la de un maestro de la orquestación, sobre la base de sus obras Sadkó y Antar. Sin embargo, había compuesto esas obras en su mayor parte de manera intuitiva. Sus conocimientos de teoría musical eran elementales; nunca había escrito ningún contrapunto, no podía armonizar una simple coral ni siquiera sabía los nombres o intervalos de los acordes musicales. Nunca había dirigido una orquesta y la marina le había disuadido de que lo hiciera, porque no aprobaban que saliera al podio en uniforme. Consciente de sus limitaciones técnicas, Rimski Kórsakov pidió consejo a Piotr Ilich Chaikovski, con el que había mantenido algún contacto ocasional. Chaikovski, a diferencia de Los Cinco, había recibido enseñanzas académicas de composición en el Conservatorio de San Petersburgo, y ejercía de catedrático de Teoría Musical en el Conservatorio de Moscú. Chaikovski le aconsejó que estudiara.
Rimski-Kórsakov escribe que mientras daba clases en el Conservatorio pronto «¡me convertí posiblemente en su mejor pupilo [cursiva enfática de Rimski Kórsakov], a juzgar por la cantidad y calidad de la información que me suministró!». Para prepararse a sí mismo, y para mantenerse al menos un paso por delante de sus estudiantes, se tomó tres años sabáticos en los que no compuso nada propio, y estudió con asiduidad en casa mientras seguía impartiendo lecciones en el Conservatorio. De manera autodidacta aprendió de manuales de texto, y siguió una estricta rutina de componer ejercicios de contrapunto, fugas, corales y coros a capela.
Rimski-Kórsakov finalmente llegó a ser un maestro excelente y un ferviente defensor de las enseñanzas académicas. Revisó todo lo que había compuesto anterior a 1874, incluso obras aclamadas por el público como Sadkó y Antar, en una búsqueda de la perfección que perseguiría hasta el final de su vida. Al haber sido asignado para dirigir los ensayos de la clase de orquesta, perfeccionó el arte de la dirección orquestal. Enfrentarse a las texturas orquestales como director y el hecho de tener que hacer arreglos adecuados de obras musicales para dicha clase, lo llevó a interesarse cada vez más en el arte de la orquestación, un área que le haría descuidar sus estudios como inspector de orquestas navales. La partitura de su Tercera Sinfonía, escrita justo después de haber completado su programa de tres años de superación personal, refleja la experiencia de sus prácticas con la orquesta.
La cátedra en el Conservatorio conllevó seguridad económica para Rimski Kórsakov, lo cual le indujo a asentarse y formar una familia. En diciembre de 1871 le pidió matrimonio a Nadezhda Purgold, con quien había mantenido una estrecha relación a través de las reuniones semanales de Los Cinco en la residencia de la familia Purgold. Contrajeron matrimonio en julio de 1872, siendo Músorgski el padrino. La familia Rimski Kórsakov tuvo seis hijos; uno de los cuales, Andréi, se hizo musicólogo, se casó con la compositora Yulia Veisberg y escribió un estudio en varios volúmenes de la vida y obra de su padre.
En la primavera de 1873, la marina creó el puesto de inspector naval de bandas y designó a Rimski Kórsakov para el cargo. A pesar de que se mantuvo en la nómina de la marina y en las listas del Ministerio de la Marina, le dieron permiso para que dejara de prestar sus servicios militares. Como inspector, hacía visitas periódicas a las bandas navales de toda Rusia, supervisaba a los directores de las bandas y sus compromisos, revisaba su repertorio e inspeccionaba la calidad de sus instrumentos. Redactó un programa de estudios como complemento a los estudiantes de música que tenían una beca de la marina en el Conservatorio e hizo de intermediario entre el Conservatorio y la marina. El puesto de inspector de bandas vino con una promoción a asesor colegiado, un rango de funcionario. «Me desprendí con alegría tanto de mi estatus militar como de mi uniforme de oficial», escribió posteriormente. «Desde ese momento en adelante fui músico oficialmente y de manera indiscutible».
Rimski-Kórsakov se dedicó con celo a sus deberes y satisfizo el antiguo deseo de familiarizarse con la construcción y la técnica interpretativa de los instrumentos musicales. Estos estudios lo llevaron a escribir un libro de texto sobre orquestación. Usó los privilegios del rango para ejercitar y extender su conocimiento. Debatía sobre arreglos musicales para banda militar con los directores, animó y revisó sus esfuerzos, celebró conciertos para oír estas piezas y orquestó obras originales y de otros compositores para bandas militares.
En marzo de 1884, una orden imperial abolió el cargo de Inspector de bandas navales, y Rimski Kórsakov quedó relevado de sus funciones. Trabajó a las órdenes de Balákirev en la Capilla de la Corte como director adjunto hasta 1894, lo que le permitió estudiar la música ortodoxa rusa. También impartió clases en la Capilla y escribió un manual sobre armonía para su empleo allí y en el Conservatorio.
os estudios de Rimski Kórsakov y su cambio de actitud hacia la educación musical provocaron el desdén de sus colegas nacionalistas, que opinaban que estaba abandonando su herencia rusa para componer fugas y sonatas. Tras esforzarse «por meter el máximo contrapunto posible» en su Tercera Sinfonía, compuso obras de música de cámara adheridas estrictamente a modelos clásicos, incluyendo un sexteto de cuerdas, un cuartero de cuerdas en fa menor y un quinteto para flauta, clarinete, trompa, fagot y piano. Sobre el cuarteto y la sinfonía Chaikovski escribió a su mecenas Nadezhda von Meck que «estaban llenas de cosas inteligentes pero [...] [estaban] imbuidas de un carácter seco y pedante». Tras escuchar la sinfonía, Borodín comentó que mantuvo «la sensación de que se trata de la obra de un tipo alemán Herr Professor que se ha puesto sus gafas y está a punto de escribir Eine grosse Symphonie in C».
Según Rimski-Kórsakov, los otros miembros de Los Cinco mostraron escaso entusiasmo por la sinfonía, y menos aún por el cuarteto. Tampoco lo fue su debut en público como director en un concierto benéfico en 1874 en el cual dirigió a la orquesta con la nueva sinfonía, considerado positivamente por sus compatriotas rusos. Posteriormente escribiría que «comenzaron, de hecho, a mirarme por encima del hombro como si fuera un fracasado». Peor aún para el ruso fueron los débiles elogios dados por Antón Rubinstein, un compositor opuesto a la música y filosofía de los nacionalistas. Rimski Kórsakov escribió que después de que Rubinstein escuchara el cuarteto, este comentó que ya «podría llegar a algo» como compositor. Escribió también que Chaikovski continuó dándole apoyo moral, diciéndole que aplaudía sin reparos todo lo que hacía y admiraba tanto su modestia artística como su fuerte personalidad. De manera privada, Chaikovski le confió a Nadezhda von Meck lo siguiente: «aparentemente ahora [Rimski Kórsakov] está pasando por una crisis y cómo acabará será difícil de predecir. O bien surge de él un gran maestro o quedará atrapado al final en sus trucos contrapuntísticos».
Dos proyectos hicieron que Rimski Kórsakov se centrara menos en hacer música de estilo académico. El primero de ellos fueron dos colecciones de canciones populares en 1874. Transcribió cuarenta canciones rusas para voz y piano a partir de las interpretaciones del cantante folclórico Tvorti Filípov, a sugerencia de Balákirev. Tras esta recopilación realizó una segunda más ambiciosa de cien canciones que le proporcionaron amigos y sirvientes, o que extrajo de colecciones raras o descatalogadas. Posteriormente, Rimski Kórsakov escribiría que haber realizado este trabajo tuvo una gran influencia en él como compositor; además le proporcionó una ingente cantidad de material al cual podría recurrir en futuros proyectos, bien para citarlos directamente o como modelos para componer pasajes «fakelóricos» (del inglés fake, falso, traducido como «pseudo-folclore» o «folclore de pega»). El segundo proyecto consistió en la edición de partituras del pionero compositor ruso Mijaíl Glinka (1804–1857) con la colaboración y ayuda de Balákirev y Anatoli Liádov. La hermana de Glinka, Liudmila Ivánovna Shestakova, quería preservar el legado musical de su hermano mediante su publicación e impresión y pagó de su propio bolsillo todos los gastos del proyecto. No se había realizado ningún proyecto similar en la historia de la música rusa, y tuvieron que establecerse y ponerse de acuerdo en pautas y directrices para la edición escolástica de las obras. Balákirev era partidario de realizar cambios en la música de Glinka con el fin de «corregir» lo que él veía como defectos de composición, mientras que Rimski Kórsakov defendía un punto de vista menos intrusivo, que, finalmente, acabaría prevaleciendo. Como posteriormente escribiría: «la oportunidad de trabajar sobre las partituras de Glinka fue una inesperada fuente de aprendizaje para mí. Incluso antes de esto ya conocía y adoraba sus óperas; pero, como editor de las partituras que iban a publicarse, tuve que analizar hasta la última nota, con lo que pude apreciar el estilo e instrumentación de Glinka. Y esto fue un trabajo beneficioso para mí, conduciéndome al camino de la música moderna, tras mis vicisitudes con el contrapunto y un estilo más estricto».
Durante el verano de 1877, Rimski Kórsakov reflexionaba sobre la historia corta titulada La noche de mayo de Nikolái Gógol. Era uno de sus cuentos favoritos desde hacía mucho tiempo y su mujer Nadezhda le había estado insistiendo en que escribiera una ópera basada en dicha historia desde el día en que se comprometieron, cuando la leyeron juntos. Las ideas musicales para tal obra databan de antes de 1877, pero ahora surgían con mayor persistencia. En invierno, La noche de mayo obtuvo cada vez más su atención; en febrero de 1878 empezó a componer en serio y acabó la ópera a principios de noviembre de ese año. Rimski Kórsakov dijo de La noche de mayo que fue de gran importancia porque, a pesar de que la obra contenía bastante música contrapuntísitca, logró «liberarse de los grilletes del contrapunto [cursivas enfáticas de Rimski Kórsakov]». Ideó la ópera en un idioma que imitaba las melodías populares y la orquestó de una manera transparente, más del estilo de Glinka. Sin embargo, pese a la facilidad con la que escribió esta ópera y la siguiente, La doncella de nieve, de vez en cuando sufrió parálisis creativas en el periodo desde 1881 a 1888. Se mantuvo ocupado durante este tiempo editando las obras de Músorgski y completando la ópera de Borodín titulada El príncipe Ígor (Músorgski falleció en 1881 y Borodín en 1887).
Rimski Kórsakov escribe que entabló relaciones con el mecenas musical en ciernes Mitrofán Beliáyev en Moscú en 1882. Beliáyev pertenecía a un creciente círculo de empresarios nuevos ricos rusos que llegaron a ser mecenas de las artes a mediados y finales del siglo XIX en Rusia, entre los que se cuentan el magnate de los ferrocarriles Sava Mámontov y el fabricante textil Pável Tretiakov. Beliáyev, Mámontov y Tretiakov «querían contribuir notablemente en la vida pública». Los tres habían labrado su camino hasta lograr la fortuna y al ser «eslavófilos» en su perfil cultural creían en la gran gloria de Rusia. Debido a esta creencia, estaban más predispuestos que la aristocracia a apoyar al talento autóctono y más inclinados a ayudar económicamente a artistas nacionalistas por encima de los más cosmopolitas. Esta preferencia era paralela al resurgimiento general del nacionalismo y la «rusofilia» que era la corriente más extendida en el arte y la sociedad rusas.
Hacia el invierno de 1883, Rimski Kórsakov era asiduo a «los cuartetos de los viernes» (Les Vendredis) que tenían lugar en la casa de Beliáyev en San Petersburgo cada semana. Beliáyev, quién había mostrado un gran interés en el futuro musical del joven Aleksandr Glazunov, alquiló una sala y una orquesta en 1884 para estrenar la Primera Sinfonía (1881) de Glazunov así como una suite orquestal que dicho compositor acababa de componer. Este concierto y los ensayos del año anterior hicieron que Rimski Kórsakov tuviera la idea de ofrecer conciertos en los que las composiciones rusas fueran las protagonistas, perspectiva que a Beliáyev le parecía excelente. Los Conciertos Sinfónicos Rusos se inauguraron durante la temporada 1886–87, siendo Rimski Kórsakov codirector junto con Anatoli Liádov. Logró dar por concluida la revisión de la Una noche en el Monte Pelado de Músorgski y la dirigió en el concierto inaugural. Estos conciertos lo sacaron de su sequía creativa, para ellos compuso ex profeso sus obras más notables: Scheherezade, el Capricho español y la Obertura de la gran Pascua rusa. Hace referencia en sus memorias que estas obras «muestran un considerable desuso de recursos contrapuntísticos [...] [reemplazados] por un desarrollo poderoso y virtuosístico de cualquier tipo de figuración, sosteniendo el interés técnico de mis composiciones».
Rimski-Kórsakov recibió una petición de consejo y asesoramiento, no sólo sobre los Conciertos Sinfónicos, sino en otros proyectos en los que Beliáyev ayudaba a compositores rusos. «Dentro de las cuestiones puramente musicales resultó que yo era la cabeza del círculo Beliáyev», escribe el compositor. «También Baliáyev me consideraba así, consultándome sobre cualquier cosa y todo el mundo se refería a mí según a ese puesto». En 1884, Beliáyev creó con carácter anual el Premio Glinka y en 1885 fundó su propia editorial de partituras de música, en la cual publicó obras de Borodín, Glazunov, Liádov y Rimski Kórsakov corriendo con todos los gastos. Para elegir a qué compositores había que ayudar económicamente, publicar o interpretar sus obras de los muchos que solicitaban su asistencia, Beliáyev estableció un consejo formado por Glazunov, Liádov y Rimski Kórsakov. Su función era la de revisar todas las composiciones y solicitudes presentadas y sugerir qué compositores eran merecedores del patrocinio y la atención pública.
El grupo de compositores que aglutinaba a Glazunov, Liádov y Rimski Kórsakov era conocido con el nombre de Círculo Beliáyev, en honor a su benefactor. Dichos compositores eran nacionalistas desde el punto de vista musical como Los Cinco. Como ellos, creían en un estilo ruso singular de música clásica que empleara temas populares y elementos melódicos, armónicos y rítmicos exóticos, cuyo paradigma es la música de Balákirev, Borodín y Rimski Kórsakov. Pero, a diferencia de Los Cinco, estos compositores creían en la necesidad de una base académica influida por la música occidental a la hora de componer, la cual Rimski Kórsakov había inculcado durante los años que ejerció en el Conservatorio de San Petersburgo. En comparación con los compositores revolucionarios del Círculo Balákirev, a Rimski Kórsakov le pareció que los del Círculo Beliáyev eran «progresivos [...] eso, unido a una gran consideración a la perfección técnica, pero [..] al mismo tiempo abriendo nuevos caminos, de manera más segura, aunque no tan rápidamente [...]».
En noviembre de 1887, Chaikovski llegó al Conservatorio de San Petersburgo, y pudo asistir a varios de los Conciertos Sinfónicos Rusos. Uno de ellos incluía una interpretación completa de su Primera Sinfonía, subtitulada Sueños de invierno, en su última versión. Otro concierto estuvo protagonizado por el estreno de la Tercera Sinfonía de Rimski Kórsakov en una versión revisada. Rimski Kórsakov y Chaikovski intercambiaron correspondencia antes de la visita y pasaron mucho tiempo juntos, también en compañía de Glazunov y Liádov. Aunque Chaikovski ya había sido un huésped habitual en casa de Rimski Kórsakov desde 1876, y que se ofreció a organizar el nombramiento de Rimski Kórsakov como director del Conservatorio de Moscú, esto supuso el comienzo de una relación más cercana entre ambos. «En cuestión de dos años», escribe Rimski Kórsakov, «las visitas de Chaikovski se volvieron mucho más frecuentes».
Durante esas visitas y sobre todo en público, Rimski Kórsakov se ocultaba tras una máscara de simpatía. En privado, la situación se le antojaba complicada emocionalmente y le confesó sus miedos y temores a su amigo, el crítico musical moscovita Semión Krúglikov. Estaba fresco en el recuerdo la tensión entre Chaikovski y Los Cinco sobre las diferencias en sus filosofías musicales; tensión tan aguda que Modest, el hermano de Chaikovski, comparó su relación en esa época como «la de dos Estados vecinos y amigos [...] preparados cuidadosamente para encontrarse en terreno neutral, pero guardando celosamente sus intereses particulares». Rimski Kórsakov observaba, no sin evitar sentirse irritado, cómo Chaikovski cada vez era más y más popular entre sus propios seguidores. Esta envidia personal se tornó también en profesional, dado que la música de Chaikovski ganaba popularidad entre los compositores del Círculo Beliáyev y permaneció en conjunto más exitosa que la de él. A pesar de todo, cuando Chaikovski asistió a la fiesta del santo de Rimski Kórsakov en mayo de 1893, este le preguntó a Chaikovski personalmente si querría dirigir cuatro conciertos de la Sociedad Musical Rusa en San Petersburgo durante la siguiente temporada. Tras pensárselo detenidamente, aceptó. Su muerte repentina a finales de 1893 evitó que cumpliera con su compromiso en su totalidad, no obstante, en la lista de obras que había pensado dirigir se contaba la Tercera Sinfonía de Rimski Kórsakov.
En marzo de 1889, el «teatro ambulante Richard Wagner» de Angelo Neumann llegó a San Petersburgo, ofreciendo cuatro ciclos de El anillo del nibelungo bajo la dirección de Karl Muck. Los Cinco habían ignorado la música de Wagner, pero dicha obra impresionó a Rimski Kórsakov, que quedó asombrado con su dominio de la orquestación. Asistió a los ensayos con Glazunov e iba siguiendo la partitura. Tras escuchar estas interpretaciones, Rimski Kórsakov se dedicó prácticamente sólo a componer óperas por el resto de su vida creativa. El uso de la plantilla instrumental por parte de Wagner influyó en su orquestación, comenzando con el arreglo que Rimski Kórsakov hizo de la polonesa de la ópera Borís Godunov de Músorgski con el fin de emplearla en conciertos en 1889.
Rimsky-Korsakov mantenía su mente cerrada en lo referente a música más aventurada que la de Wagner, especialmente la de Richard Strauss y más tarde Claude Debussy. Llegó a mostrarse enojado durante días cuando escuchó al pianista Félix Blumenfeld tocar Estampes, de Debussy, tras lo cual escribió en su diario: «pobre y mezquino hasta más no poder; no hay técnica, y mucho menos imaginación.» Esto se debía a un creciente conservadurismo por su parte (su «conciencia musical», tal y cómo él mismo lo describió), bajo el cual ahora escrutaba su música, así como la de otros. Las composiciones de sus antiguos compatriotas en Los Cinco no eran inmunes a esto; en 1895, mientras se encontraba trabajando en su primera revisión de Borís Godunov, de Músorgski, le dijo a su amanuense Vasily Yastrebtsev: «Es increíble que alguna vez me hubiera podido gustar esta música y aun así parece que hubo un tiempo en que lo hizo.» En 1901 escribiría acerca de estar crecientemente «indignado con todos los desatinos [de Wagner] para el oído», sobre la misma música que había acaparado su atención en 1889.
En 1892 Rimski Kórsakov padeció una segunda sequía creativa, debido a una enfermedad psicosomática. Se le subía la sangre a la cabeza, tenía pérdidas de memoria, confusiones y desagradables obsesiones, que lo llevaron al diagnóstico médico de neurastenia. Las crisis dentro del círculo familiar de Rimski Kórsakov podrían haber sido el factor desencadenante: las graves enfermedades de su mujer y uno de sus hijos debido a la difteria en 1890, las muertes de su madre e hijo de menor edad, así como el comienzo de una prolongada y finalmente fatal enfermedad de su segundo hijo más joven. Dejó sus puestos tanto en los Conciertos Sinfónicos Rusos como en la Capilla de la Corte de San Petersburgo y se planteó dejar de componer para siempre. Tras realizar la tercera versión del cuadro musical Sadkó y la ópera La doncella de Pskov, dio por cerrada su cuenta musical con el pasado, ninguna de sus obras previas a La noche de mayo conservaba su edición original.
Otro fallecimiento, el de Chaikovski, fue sin embargo la causa que lo llevó de nuevo a componer, puesto que esta defunción se presentó como una doble oportunidad: por un lado compondría para los Teatros Imperiales y además una ópera basada en la historia corta de Nikolái Gógol titulada La noche de Navidad (Nochebuena), una obra en la que Chaikovski también se había inspirado para componer su ópera Vakula el herrero. El éxito de la ópera La noche de Navidad lo animó a completar una ópera cada 18 meses de media entre 1893 y 1908, con un total de once a lo largo de este periodo. También comenzó otro borrador sobre su tratado de orquestación que finalmente abandonó, pero hizo un tercer intento y lo dejó casi acabado en sus últimos cuatro años de vida (lo completaría su yerno Maksimilián Steinberg en 1912). El tratamiento científico y académico de la orquestación que hace Rimski Kórsakov, ilustrado con más de 300 ejemplos de su propia obra, se convirtió en referencia para los textos de su categoría.
En 1905, hubo manifestaciones en el Conservatorio de San Petersburgo como parte de la Revolución de 1905; éstas, escribe Rimski Kórsakov, fueron desencadenadas por disturbios de la misma índole en la Universidad Estatal de San Petersburgo, en la que los estudiantes solicitaban reformas políticas y el establecimiento de una monarquía constitucional en Rusia. «Fui elegido como miembro del comité que debía solventar las diferencias con los agitados pupilos», recuerda; sin embargo, tan pronto como el comité se hubo formado, «se recomendaron todo tipo de medidas para que los cabecillas fueran expulsados, alojar a la policía en el conservatorio o cerrar el conservatorio entero». Considerado a sí mismo de siempre un liberal en lo político, escribió que sentía que alguien debía proteger el derecho de los estudiantes a manifestarse, especialmente cuando las disputas y riñas con las autoridades cada vez eran más violentas. En una misiva abierta, se puso de lado de los estudiantes en contra de lo que él veía como una interferencia sin justificación alguna en la dirección del conservatorio y la Sociedad Musical Rusa. En una segunda carta, esta vez firmada por todo el cuerpo docente Rimski Kórsakov inclusive, exigía la dimisión del director del conservatorio. En parte debido a las consecuencias de ambas cartas, escribe, aproximadamente 100 alumnos fueron expulsados y él fue destituido de su cátedra. Justo antes de que la dimisión fuera efectiva, Rimski Kórsakov recibió una carta de uno de los miembros de la directiva del centro, sugiriéndole que tomara la dirección con fines de calmar el descontento estudiantil. «Probablemente el miembro de la directiva que envió la carta representaría una opinión minoritaria, pero la firmó de todas formas» escribe. «Respondí con una negativa».
No mucho después de la destitución de Rimski Kórsakov, una producción estudiantil de su ópera Kaschéi, el inmortal provocó, en lugar del concierto que estaba programado, una manifestación política, lo que causó que la policía prohibiera la obra de Rimski Kórsakov. A consecuencia, gracias en parte a la cobertura que hizo la prensa de estos eventos, inmediatamente surgió por toda Rusia y el extranjero una ola de indignación frente a la prohibición; liberales e intelectuales inundaban la residencia del compositor con cartas de apoyo y simpatía, e incluso campesinos que nunca habían oído una sola nota de la música de Rimski Kórsakov enviaron pequeñas donaciones monetarias. Varios miembros del profesorado del Conservatorio de San Petersburgo renunciaron a su empleo en señal de protesta, incluyendo Glazunov y Liádov. Al final, unos 300 estudiantes abandonaron el conservatorio en señal de solidaridad con Rimski Kórsakov Hacia diciembre había sido rehabilitado en su cargo bajo un nuevo director, Glazunov; pero se retiró en 1906. La controversia política continuó con su ópera El gallo de oro, cuya crítica implícita a la monarquía, al imperialismo ruso y a la Guerra Ruso-Japonesa daban escasas posibilidades a pasar la censura. El estreno se retrasó hasta 1909, después del fallecimiento del compositor, e incluso entonces se interpretó en una versión adaptada.
En abril de 1907, Rimski Kórsakov dirigió un par de conciertos en París, organizados por el empresario Serguéi Diáguilev, en donde se ponía de relieve la música de la escuela nacionalista rusa. Dichos conciertos tuvieron un gran éxito a la hora de popularizar la música clásica rusa de este género en Europa, particularmente la de Rimski Kórsakov. Al año siguiente, su ópera Sadkó fue puesta en escena en la Ópera de París y La doncella de nieve en la Opéra-Comique. También tuvo la oportunidad de escuchar los últimos estrenos de compositores europeos; silbó sin tapujos al escuchar la ópera de Richard Strauss Salomé y le dijo a Diáguilev tras escuchar la ópera Pelléas et Mélisande de Claude Debussy: «¡no me hagas escuchar todos estos horrores o acabarán gustándome!» El hecho de escuchar dichas obras le permitió comprender su lugar dentro de la música clásica. Admitió ser «un kuchkista convencido» —en alusión al término kuchka (puñado), una manera en ruso de referirse a Los Cinco— y que sus obras pertenecían a una era cuyas tendencias musicales ya habían quedado atrás.
Desde principios de 1890, Rimski Kórsakov venía padeciendo angina de pecho. Este mal al principio lo iba desgastando lentamente, pero el estrés que le ocasionaron los sucesos que tuvieron lugar en la Revolución de 1905 y sus secuelas aceleraron el proceso, llegando en diciembre de 1907 a ser la enfermedad de tal gravedad que ya no podía trabajar. Falleció en 1908 en su finca de Liúbensk, cerca de Luga (hoy en día Pliúski, distrito de la Óblast de Pskov), unos 200 km al sur de San Petersburgo, y fue enterrado en el Cementerio Tijvin en el Monasterio de Alejandro Nevski de San Petersburgo, cerca de las tumbas de Borodín, Glinka, Músorgski y Stásov.
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Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: Николай Андреевич Римский-Корсаков; 18 March [O.S. 6 March] 1844 – 21 June [O.S. 8 June] 1908) was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five. He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas. Scheherazade is an example of his frequent use of fairy-tale and folk subjects.
Rimsky-Korsakov believed in developing a nationalistic style of classical music, as did his fellow-composer Mily Balakirev and the critic Vladimir Stasov. This style employed Russian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements in a practice known as musical orientalism, and eschewed traditional Western compositional methods. Rimsky-Korsakov appreciated Western musical techniques after he became a professor of musical composition, harmony, and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorous three-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods, incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and fellow members of The Five. Rimsky-Korsakov's techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by his exposure to the works of Richard Wagner.
For much of his life, Rimsky-Korsakov combined his composition and teaching with a career in the Russian military—at first as an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, then as the civilian Inspector of Naval Bands. He wrote that he developed a passion for the ocean in childhood from reading books and hearing of his older brother's exploits in the navy. This love of the sea may have influenced him to write two of his best-known orchestral works, the musical tableau Sadko (not to be confused with his later opera of the same name) and Scheherazade. As Inspector of Naval Bands, Rimsky-Korsakov expanded his knowledge of woodwind and brass playing, which enhanced his abilities in orchestration. He passed this knowledge to his students, and also posthumously through a textbook on orchestration that was completed by his son-in-law, Maximilian Steinberg.
Rimsky-Korsakov left a considerable body of original Russian nationalist compositions. He prepared works by The Five for performance, which brought them into the active classical repertoire (although there is controversy over his editing of the works of Modest Mussorgsky), and shaped a generation of younger composers and musicians during his decades as an educator. Rimsky-Korsakov is therefore considered "the main architect" of what the classical-music public considers the "Russian style" of composition. His influence on younger composers was especially important, as he served as a transitional figure between the autodidactism exemplified by Glinka and The Five, and professionally trained composers which would become the norm in Russia by the closing years of the 19th century. While Rimsky-Korsakov's style was based on those of Glinka, Balakirev, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt and, for a brief period, Wagner, he "transmitted this style directly to two generations of Russian composers" and influenced non-Russian composers including Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Ottorino Respighi.
Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Tikhvin, 200 kilometers (120 miles) east of Saint Petersburg, into a Russian noble family. The Rimsky-Korsakov dynasty traced their roots to Zhigimunt Korsak, a Czech who arrived in Lithuania from the Holy Roman Empire and founded the Polish-Lithuanian Korsak coat of arms. In 1390, his sons Vyacheslav (originally Vaclav) and Miloslav escorted Sophia of Lithuania, then a wife of Vasily I Dmitriyevich, to Moscow and took Russian citizenship under the Korsakov and Miloslavsky surnames, respectively. Some of Vyacheslav's descendants were granted permission to add "Rimsky" to their surnames in 1677 to celebrate their so-called Roman roots.
Throughout history, members of the family served in Russian government and took various positions as governors and war generals. Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov was famously a lover of Catherine the Great.
The father of the composer, Andrei Petrovich Rimsky-Korsakov (1784–1862), was one of the six illegitimate sons of Avdotya Yakovlevna, daughter of a simple Orthodox priest from Pskov, and lieutenant general Peter Voinovich Rimsky-Korsakov who had to officially adopt his own children as he couldn't marry their mother because of her lower social status. Using his friendship with Aleksey Arakcheyev, he managed to grant them all the privileges of the noble family. Andrei went on to serve in the Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, then as the vice-governor of Novgorod, and then in the Volhynian Governorate. The composer's mother, Sofya Vasilievna Rimskaya-Korsakova (1802–1890), was also born as an illegitimate daughter of a peasant serf and Vasily Fedorovich Skaryatin, a wealthy landlord who belonged to the noble Russian family that originated during the 16th century.
She was raised by her father in full comfort, yet under an improvised surname Vasilieva and with no legal status. By the time Andrei Petrovich met her, he was already a widower: his first wife, knyazna Ekaterina Meshcherskaya, died just nine months after their marriage. Nevertheless, they fell in love with each other at first sight. Since Skaryatin found him unsuitable for his daughter, Andrei secretly "stole" his bride from the father's house and brought her to Saint Petersburg where they got married.
The Rimsky-Korsakov family had a long line of military and naval service. Nikolai's older brother Voin, 22 years his senior, became a well-known navigator and explorer and had a powerful influence on Nikolai's life. He later recalled that his mother played the piano a little, and his father could play a few songs on the piano by ear. Beginning at six, he took piano lessons from local teachers and showed a talent for aural skills, but he showed a lack of interest, playing, as he later wrote, "badly, carelessly, ... poor at keeping time".
Although he started composing by age 10, Rimsky-Korsakov preferred literature over music. He later wrote that from his reading, and tales of his brother's exploits, he developed a poetic love for the sea "without ever having seen it". This love, and prompting from Voin, encouraged the 12-year-old to join the Imperial Russian Navy. He studied at the School for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in Saint Petersburg and, at 18, took his final examination in April 1862.
While at school, Rimsky-Korsakov took piano lessons from a man named Ulikh. These lessons were sanctioned by Voin, who now served as director of the school, because he hoped they would help the youth to develop social skills and overcome his shyness. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that, while "indifferent" to lessons, he developed a love for music, fostered by visits to the opera and, later, orchestral concerts.
Ulikh perceived Rimsky-Korsakov's musical talent and recommended another teacher, Feodor A. Kanille (Théodore Canillé). Beginning in late 1859, Rimsky-Korsakov took lessons in piano and composition from Kanille, whom he later credited as the inspiration for devoting his life to musical composition. Through Kanille, he was exposed to a great deal of new music, including Mikhail Glinka and Robert Schumann. Voin cancelled his younger brother's musical lessons when the latter reached the age of 17, feeling they no longer served a practical purpose.
Kanille told Rimsky-Korsakov to continue coming to him every Sunday, not for formal lessons but to play duets and discuss music. In November 1861, Kanille introduced the 18-year-old Nikolai to Mily Balakirev. Balakirev in turn introduced him to César Cui and Modest Mussorgsky; all three were known as composers, despite only being in their 20s. Rimsky-Korsakov later wrote, "With what delight I listened to real business discussions [Rimsky-Korsakov's emphasis] of instrumentation, part writing, etc! And besides, how much talking there was about current musical matters! All at once I had been plunged into a new world, unknown to me, formerly only heard of in the society of my dilettante friends. That was truly a strong impression."
Balakirev encouraged Rimsky-Korsakov to compose and taught him the rudiments when he was not at sea. Balakirev prompted him to enrich himself in history, literature and criticism. When he showed Balakirev the beginning of a symphony in E-flat minor that he had written, Balakirev insisted he continue working on it despite his lack of formal musical training.
By the time Rimsky-Korsakov sailed on a two-year-and-eight-month cruise aboard the clipper Almaz in late 1862, he had completed and orchestrated three movements of the symphony. He composed the slow movement during a stop in England and mailed the score to Balakirev before going back to sea.
At first, his work on the symphony kept Rimsky-Korsakov occupied during his cruise. He purchased scores at every port of call, along with a piano on which to play them, and filled his idle hours studying Berlioz's Treatise on Instrumentation. He found time to read the works of Homer, William Shakespeare, Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; he saw London, Niagara Falls, and Rio de Janeiro during his stops in port. Eventually, the lack of outside musical stimuli dulled the young midshipman's hunger to learn.
Once back in Saint Petersburg in May 1865, Rimsky-Korsakov's onshore duties consisted of a couple of hours of clerical duty each day, but he recalled that his desire to compose "had been stifled ... I did not concern myself with music at all." He wrote that contact with Balakirev in September 1865 encouraged him "to get accustomed to music and later to plunge into it". At Balakirev's suggestion, he wrote a trio to the scherzo of the E-flat minor symphony, which it had lacked up to that point, and reorchestrated the entire symphony. Its first performance came in December of that year under Balakirev's direction in Saint Petersburg. A second performance followed in March 1866 under the direction of Konstantin Lyadov (father of composer Anatoly Lyadov).
Correspondence between Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev clearly shows that some ideas for the symphony originated with Balakirev. Balakirev seldom stopped at merely correcting a piece of music, and would often recompose it at the piano. Rimsky-Korsakov recalled,
Rimsky-Korsakov recalled that "Balakirev had no difficulty in getting along with me. At his suggestion I most readily rewrote the symphonic movements composed by me and brought them to completion with the help of his advice and improvisations". Though Rimsky-Korsakov later found Balakirev's influence stifling, and broke free from it, this did not stop him in his memoirs from extolling the older composer's talents as a critic and improviser. Under Balakirev's mentoring, Rimsky-Korsakov turned to other compositions. He began a symphony in B minor, but felt it too closely followed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and abandoned it. He completed an Overture on Three Russian Themes, based on Balakirev's folksong overtures, as well as a Fantasia on Serbian Themes that was performed at a concert given for the delegates of the Slavonic Congress in 1867. In his review of this concert, nationalist critic Vladimir Stasov coined the phrase Moguchaya kuchka for the Balakirev circle (Moguchaya kuchka is usually translated as "The Mighty Handful" or "The Five"). Rimsky-Korsakov also composed the initial versions of Sadko and Antar, which cemented his reputation as a writer of orchestral works.
Rimsky-Korsakov socialized and discussed music with the other members of The Five; they critiqued one another's works in progress and collaborated on new pieces. He became friends with Alexander Borodin, whose music "astonished" him. He spent an increasing amount of time with Mussorgsky. Balakirev and Mussorgsky played piano four-hand music, Mussorgsky would sing, and they frequently discussed other composers' works, with preferred tastes running "toward Glinka, Schumann and Beethoven's late quartets". Mendelssohn was not thought of highly, Mozart and Haydn "were considered out of date and naïve", and J.S. Bach merely mathematical and unfeeling. Berlioz "was highly esteemed", Liszt "crippled and perverted from a musical point of view ... even a caricature", and Wagner discussed little. Rimsky-Korsakov "listened to these opinions with avidity and absorbed the tastes of Balakirev, Cui and Mussorgsky without reasoning or examination". Often, the musical works in question "were played before me only in fragments, and I had no idea of the whole work". This, he wrote, did not stop him from accepting these judgments at face value and repeating them "as if I were thoroughly convinced of their truth".
Rimsky-Korsakov became especially appreciated within The Five, and among those who visited the circle, for his talents as an orchestrator. He was asked by Balakirev to orchestrate a Schubert march for a concert in May 1868, by Cui to orchestrate the opening chorus of his opera William Ratcliff and by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, whose works were greatly appreciated by The Five and who was close to death, to orchestrate his opera The Stone Guest.
In late 1871, Rimsky-Korsakov moved into Voin's former apartment, and invited Mussorgsky to be his roommate. The working arrangement they agreed upon was that Mussorgsky used the piano in the mornings while Rimsky-Korsakov worked on copying or orchestration. When Mussorgsky left for his civil service job at noon, Rimsky-Korsakov then used the piano. Time in the evenings was allotted by mutual agreement. "That autumn and winter the two of us accomplished a good deal", Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, "with constant exchange of ideas and plans. Mussorgsky composed and orchestrated the Polish act of Boris Godunov and the folk scene 'Near Kromy.' I orchestrated and finished my Maid of Pskov."
In 1871, the 27-year-old Rimsky-Korsakov became Professor of Practical Composition and Instrumentation (orchestration) at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, as well as leader of the Orchestra Class. He retained his position in active naval service, and taught his classes in uniform (military officers in Russia were required to wear their uniforms every day, as they were considered to be always on duty).
Rimsky-Korsakov explained in his memoirs that Mikhaíl Azanchevsky had taken over that year as director of the Conservatory, and wanting new blood to freshen up teaching in those subjects, had offered to pay generously for Rimsky-Korsakov's services. Biographer Mikhail Zetlin suggests that Azanchevsky's motives might have been twofold. First, Rimsky-Korsakov was the member of the Five least criticized by its opponents, and inviting him to teach at the Conservatory may have been considered a safe way to show that all serious musicians were welcome there. Second, the offer may have been calculated to expose him to an academic climate in which he would write in a more conservative, Western-based style. Balakirev had opposed academic training in music with tremendous vigor, but encouraged him to accept the post to convince others to join the nationalist musical cause.
Rimsky-Korsakov's reputation at this time was as a master of orchestration, based on Sadko and Antar. He had written these works mainly by intuition. His knowledge of musical theory was elemental; he had never written any counterpoint, could not harmonize a simple chorale, nor knew the names or intervals of musical chords. He had never conducted an orchestra, and had been discouraged from doing so by the navy, which did not approve of his appearing on the podium in uniform. Aware of his technical shortcomings, Rimsky-Korsakov consulted Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with whom he and the others in The Five had been in occasional contact. Tchaikovsky, unlike The Five, had received academic training in composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, and was serving as Professor of Music Theory at the Moscow Conservatory. Tchaikovsky advised him to study.
Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that while teaching at the Conservatory he soon became "possibly its very best pupil [Rimsky-Korsakov's emphasis], judging by the quantity and value of the information it gave me!" To prepare himself, and to stay at least one step ahead of his students, he took a three-year sabbatical from composing original works, and assiduously studied at home while he lectured at the Conservatory. He taught himself from textbooks, and followed a strict regimen of composing contrapuntal exercises, fugues, chorales and a cappella choruses.
Rimsky-Korsakov eventually became an excellent teacher and a fervent believer in academic training. He revised everything he had composed prior to 1874, even acclaimed works such as Sadko and Antar, in a search for perfection that would remain with him throughout the rest of his life. Assigned to rehearse the Orchestra Class, he mastered the art of conducting. Dealing with orchestral textures as a conductor, and making suitable arrangements of musical works for the Orchestra Class, led to an increased interest in the art of orchestration, an area into which he would further indulge his studies as Inspector of Navy Bands. The score of his Third Symphony, written just after he had completed his three-year program of self-improvement, reflects his hands-on experience with the orchestra.
Professorship brought Rimsky-Korsakov financial security, which encouraged him to settle down and to start a family. In December 1871 he proposed to Nadezhda Purgold, with whom he had developed a close relationship over weekly gatherings of The Five at the Purgold household. They married in July 1872, with Mussorgsky serving as best man. The Rimsky-Korsakovs had seven children. One of their sons, Andrei, became a musicologist, married the composer Yuliya Veysberg and wrote a multi-volume study of his father's life and work.
Nadezhda became a musical as well as domestic partner with her husband, much as Clara Schumann had been with her own husband Robert. She was beautiful, capable, strong-willed, and far better trained musically than her husband at the time they married—she had attended the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in the mid-1860s, studying piano with Anton Gerke (one of whose private students was Mussorgsky) and music theory with Nikolai Zaremba, who also taught Tchaikovsky. Nadezhda proved a fine and most demanding critic of her husband's work; her influence over him in musical matters was strong enough for Balakirev and Stasov to wonder whether she was leading him astray from their musical preferences. Musicologist Lyle Neff wrote that while Nadezhda gave up her own compositional career when she married Rimsky-Korsakov, she "had a considerable influence on the creation of [Rimsky-Korsakov's] first three operas. She travelled with her husband, attended rehearsals and arranged compositions by him and others" for piano four hands, which she played with her husband. "Her last years were dedicated to issuing her husband's posthumous literary and musical legacy, maintaining standards for performance of his works ... and preparing material for a museum in his name."
In early 1873, the navy created the civilian post of Inspector of Naval Bands, with a rank of Collegiate Assessor, and appointed Rimsky-Korsakov. This kept him on the navy payroll and listed on the roster of the Chancellery of the Navy Department but allowed him to resign his commission. The composer commented, "I parted with delight with both my military status and my officer's uniform", he later wrote. "Henceforth I was a musician officially and incontestably." As Inspector, Rimsky-Korsakov applied himself with zeal to his duties. He visited naval bands throughout Russia, supervised the bandmasters and their appointments, reviewed the bands' repertoire, and inspected the quality of their instruments. He wrote a study program for a complement of music students who held navy fellowships at the Conservatory, and acted as an intermediary between the Conservatory and the navy. He also indulged in a long-standing desire to familiarize himself with the construction and playing technique of orchestral instruments. These studies prompted him to write a textbook on orchestration. He used the privileges of rank to exercise and expand upon his knowledge. He discussed arrangements of musical works for military band with bandmasters, encouraged and reviewed their efforts, held concerts at which he could hear these pieces, and orchestrated original works, and works by other composers, for military bands.
In March 1884, an Imperial Order abolished the navy office of Inspector of Bands, and Rimsky-Korsakov was relieved of his duties. He worked under Balakirev in the Court Chapel as a deputy until 1894, which allowed him to study Russian Orthodox church music. He also taught classes at the Chapel, and wrote his textbook on harmony for use there and at the Conservatory.
Rimsky-Korsakov's studies and his change in attitude regarding music education brought him the scorn of his fellow nationalists, who thought he was throwing away his Russian heritage to compose fugues and sonatas. After he strove "to crowd in as much counterpoint as possible" into his Third Symphony,[70] he wrote chamber works adhering strictly to classical models, including a string sextet, a string quartet in F minor and a quintet for flute, clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano. About the quartet and the symphony, Tchaikovsky wrote to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, that they "were filled with a host of clever thi
Dr. Makenzie Lystrup shakes hands with NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy after being sworn-in as Director of Goddard Space Flight Center by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, left, Thursday, April 6, 2023, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Keegan Barber)
French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle. Mâcon, no. 001/29 Photo: Robert Taylor and director of photography Harry Stradling at the set of Song of Russia (Gregory Ratoff, 1944) in 1943. Caption: Famous photographer Harry Stradling submitted some rushes of the film to Robert Taylor shortly before he was drafted into the US Navy.
Robert Taylor (1911-1969) was called "The Man with the Perfect Profile". He won his first leading role in Magnificent Obsession (1935). His popularity increased during the late 1930s and 1940s with appearances in A Yank at Oxford (1938), Waterloo Bridge (1940), and Bataan (1943). He was the quintessential MGM company man until the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s.
Robert Taylor was born Spangler Arlington Brugh in 1911, in Filley, Nebraska. Taylor was the only child of Ruth Adaline (née Stanhope) and Spangler Andrew Brugh, a farmer turned doctor. During his early life, the family moved several times, and by September 1917, the Brughs had moved to Beatrice, Nebraska, where they remained for 16 years. As a teenager, Taylor was a track and field star and played the cello in his high school orchestra. Upon graduation, he enrolled at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. While at Doane, he took cello lessons from Professor Herbert E. Gray, whom he admired and idolised. After Professor Gray announced he was accepting a new position at Pomona College in Claremont, California, Taylor moved to California and enrolled at Pomona. He joined the campus theater group and was eventually spotted by an MGM talent scout in 1932 after a production of Journey's End. He signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The studio changed his name to Robert Taylor. He made his film debut on loan-out to Fox in the comedy Handy Andy (David Butler, 1934) starring Will Rogers. His first leading role came by accident. In 1934 Taylor was on the MGM payroll as "the test boy," a male juvenile who would be filmed opposite various young ingenues in screen tests. In late 1934, when MGM began production of its new short-subject series Crime Does Not Pay with the dramatic short Buried Loot (George B. Seitz, 1935), the actor who had been cast fell ill and could not appear. The director sent for the test boy to substitute for the missing actor. Taylor's dramatic performance, as an embezzler who deliberately disfigures himself to avoid detection, was so memorable that Taylor immediately was signed for feature films. In 1935, Irene Dunne requested him for her leading man in Magnificent Obsession (John M. Stahl, 1935), again on loan-out, this time to then struggling Universal Pictures. He played a happy-go-lucky party guy who inadvertently causes blindness to the young lady he wishes to impress and then becomes a doctor in order to cure her. The film was a big hit, and Taylor had a taste of instant box-office stardom. Along with his good looks, Taylor already showed solid dramatic skill in Camille (George Cukor, 1936) with Greta Garbo. Throughout the late 1930s, Taylor appeared in films of varying genres including the musicals Broadway Melody of 1936 (Roy Del Ruth, 1935) and Broadway Melody of 1938 (Roy Del Ruth, 1937), and the British comedy A Yank at Oxford (Jack Conway, 1938) with Lionel Barrymore and Vivien Leigh.
Throughout 1940 and 1941 Robert Taylor argued in favour of American entry into World War II and was sharply critical of the isolationist movement. During this time he said he was "100% pro-British". In 1940, he reteamed with Vivien Leigh in Mervyn LeRoy's drama Waterloo Bridge, a personal favorite by both Leigh and Taylor. After being given the nickname "The Man with the Perfect Profile", Taylor began breaking away from his perfect leading man image and began appearing in darker roles beginning in 1941. That year, he portrayed Billy Bonney (better known as Billy the Kid) in Billy the Kid (David Miller, 1941). The next year, he played the title role in the Film Noir Johnny Eager (Mervyn LeRoy, 1942) with Lana Turner. After playing a tough sergeant in the World War II drama Bataan (Tay Garnett, 1943), Taylor contributed to the war effort by becoming a flying instructor in the U.S. Naval Air Corps. During this time, he also starred in instructional films and narrated the documentary The Fighting Lady (Edward Steichen, 1944). After the war, he appeared in edgy roles in the Film Noirs Undercurrent (Vincente Minnelli, 1946) opposite Katharine Hepburn, and High Wall (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947). In 1949, he co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor in the Film Noir Conspirator (Victor Saville, 1949), which Hedda Hopper described as "another one of Taylor's pro-British films". Taylor responded to this by saying "And it won't be the last!" However, both Hopper and Taylor were members of the anticommunist organisation the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Taylor landed the role of General Marcus Vinicius in Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 1950) with Deborah Kerr. The epic film was a hit, grossing US$11 million in its first run. The following year, he starred in the film version of Walter Scott's classic Ivanhoe (Richard Thorpe, 1951), again with Elizabeth Taylor. It was followed by two more historical adventure films, Knights of the Round Table (Richard Thorpe, 1953) and The Adventures of Quentin Durward (Richard Thorpe, 1955), all filmed in England. Of the three only Ivanhoe was a critical and financial success. Taylor also filmed Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954) in Egypt.
By the mid-1950s, Robert Taylor began to concentrate on Westerns, his preferred genre. He starred in a comedy Western Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955) co-starring Eleanor Parker. In 1958, he shared the lead with Richard Widmark in the edgy Western The Law and Jake Wade (John Sturges, 1958). William McPeak at IMDb: "That he usually comes across on screen as having a confident, commanding presence is more of a testimony to his acting talent than his actual personality. He held rigid right-wing political beliefs that he refused to question and, when confronted with an opposing viewpoint, would simply reject it outright. He rarely, if ever, felt the need to be introspective. Taylor simply felt blessed to be working behind the walls of MGM. His affection for the studio would blind him to the fact that boss Louis B. Mayer masterfully manipulated him for nearly two decades, keeping Taylor's salary the lowest of any major Hollywood star. But this is also indicative of how much trust he placed in the hands of the studio's leaders. Indeed, Taylor remained the quintessential MGM company man and would be rewarded by remaining employed there until the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s."In 1958, he left MGM and formed Robert Taylor Productions, and the following year, he starred in the television series The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor (1959–1962). Following the end of the series in 1962, Taylor continued to appear in films and television shows, including A House Is Not a Home and two episodes of Hondo. In 1963, NBC filmed but never aired, four episodes of what was to have been The Robert Taylor Show, a series based on case files from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The project was suddenly dropped for lack of coordination with HEW. In the same year, he filmed Miracle of the White Stallions for Walt Disney Productions. In 1964, Taylor co-starred with his former wife Barbara Stanwyck in William Castle's psychological horror film The Night Walker. Taylor traveled to Europe to film the Western Savage Pampas (Hugo Fregonese, 1966), the adventure film The Glass Sphinx (Luigi Scattini, 1967), and the comedy spy-thriller The Day the Hot Line Got Hot (Etienne Périer, 1968) with Charles Boyer. In 1965, Taylor took over the role of narrator in the television series Death Valley Days when Ronald Reagan left to pursue a career in politics. Taylor would remain with the series until his death in 1969. Taylor married Barbara Stanwyck in 1939 and they divorced in 1951. Taylor met German actress Ursula Thiess in 1952. They married in 1954. The couple had two children, a son, Terrance, (1955), and a daughter, Tessa, (1959). Taylor was stepfather to Thiess' two children from her previous marriage, Manuela and Michael Thiess. On 26 May 1969, shortly before Taylor's death at only 57 from lung cancer, Ursula Thiess found the body of her son, Michael, in a West Los Angeles motel room. He died from a drug overdose. One month before his death, Michael had been released from a mental hospital. In 1964, he spent a year in a reformatory for attempting to poison his father with insecticide.
Sources: William McPeak (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Marshalls Kenworth T909 Director Series on its matching tautliner ready to depart Shell Bunker Hill. September 2015.
www.magpictures.com/riotsvilleusa/trailer
"What are we looking at?" Our narrator asks this question to our audience, and, perhaps, to the ghosts in the footage at the center of RIOTSVILLE, USA. During these last many difficult, upending, dark, and often revelatory years in the United States, that question has persisted in my mind.
I have worked extensively as an archival researcher for filmmakers and artists for the last fifteen years. And as a director of archival films, my work has focused on contending with the ways we can locate and trace structural power and white supremacism within the archives. In The Rifleman, I connect the NRA and the U.S. border control; in Graven Image, the construction, funding, and political backdrop to the building of Stone Mountain, the nation’s largest Confederate Monument; and in The Reagan Show, the manipulative PR machine and self-documentation of the Reagan administration. My goal as a filmmaker is to re-present historical material that forces us to contend with our past and reflect upon our present, and interrogate the unique ways that moving images can transmit history in this country.
Making this film was about more than detailing the precise governmental and political machinations that lead to this specific training program. It was about making sense of the Riotsville footage; for me that is what the filmmaking process always is. How do you situate Riotsville within the legacy of 1968, reconciling living memory and mythology? How do you situate it within the life of the communities most affected by the state violence the performances at Riotsville are illustrating, and within the activism organizing to oppose it? And crucially, how do you situate it within a nation founded on white supremacism, determined to launch a war against its Black citizens, on a loop for hundreds of years?
These questions informed the form and shape of the film; a mapping of structural forces that could not seem more urgent in 2022, with all the violence and possibility it contains.
– Sierra Pettengill
T-33 is filming F-16C demonstration during Heritage Flight Training
General Dynamics F-16C Block 50D Fighting Falcon
91-0376 / SW (cn CC-74)
77th Fighter Squadron "The Gamblers" (77 FS), 20th Fighter Wing (20 FW), Shaw AFB, SC
Davis-Mothan AFB (DMA/KDMA)
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva meets Alberto Fernández, the President of Argentina
IMF Photo/Kim Haughton
19 September 2022
New York, New York, United States
Photo ref: KH220919058.jpg
R370. Not the best of pictures I’d be the first to agree, but included here because colour pictures of the Great Central Directors seem to be a bit of a rarity.
The Directors, LNER class D11 4-4-0s, were introduced by John Robinson in 1919 as an improved version of the earlier D10 class. This one, 62668 JUTLAND, was built in 1922 and withdrawn in November 1960 four months after I saw it at Nottingham Victoria in July of that year.
Copyright © Ron Fisher.
Birdoswald Roman Fort was known as Banna ("horn" in Celtic) in Roman times, reflecting the geography of the site on a triangular spur of land bounded by cliffs to the south and east commanding a broad meander of the River Irthing in Cumbria below.
It lies towards the western end of Hadrian's Wall and is one of the best preserved of the 16 forts along the wall. It is also attached to the longest surviving stretch of Hadrian's Wall.
Cumbria County Council were responsible for the management of Birdoswald fort from 1984 until the end of 2004, when English Heritage assumed responsibility.
This western part of Hadrian's Wall was originally built using turf starting from 122 AD. The stone fort was built some time after the wall, in the usual playing card shape, with gates to the east, west and south.
The fort was occupied by Cohors I Aelia Dacorum and by other Roman auxiliaries from approximately AD 126 to AD 400.
The two-mile sector of Hadrian's Wall either side of Birdoswald is also of major interest. It is currently the only known sector of Hadrian's Wall in which the original turf wall was replaced, probably in the 130s, by a stone wall approximately 50 metres further north, to line up with the fort's north wall, instead of at its east and west gates. The reasons for this change are unclear, although David Woolliscroft (Woolliscroft, 2001) has plausibly suggested that it was the result of changing signalling requirements, whilst Stewart Ainsworth of Time Team suggested it was a response to a cliff collapse into the river. At any rate, this remains the only area in which both the walls can be directly compared.
As of 2005, it is the only site[citation needed] on Hadrian's Wall at which significant occupation in the post-Roman period has been proven. Excavations between 1987 and 1992 showed an unbroken sequence of occupation on the site of the fort granaries, running from the late Roman period until possibly 500AD. The granaries were replaced by two successive large timber halls, reminiscent of others found in many parts of Britain dating to the fifth and sixth centuries. Tony Wilmott (co-director of the excavations) has suggested that, after the end of Roman rule in Britain, the fort served as the power-base for a local warband descended from the late Roman garrison, possibly deriving legitimacy from their ancestors for several generations.
Inside were built the usual stone buildings, a central headquarters building (principia), granaries (horrea), and barracks. Unusually for an auxiliary fort, it also included an exercise building (basilica exercitatoria), perhaps reflecting the difficulties of training soldiers in the exposed site in the north of England.
Geophysical surveys detected vici (civilian settlements) of different characters on the eastern, western and northern sides of the fort. A bathhouse was also located in the valley of the River Irthing.
Approximately 600 metres east of Birdoswald, at the foot of an escarpment, lie the remains of Willowford bridge which carried Hadrian's Wall across the River Irthing. The westward movement of the river course over the centuries has left the east abutment of the bridge high and dry, while the west abutment has probably been destroyed by erosion. Nevertheless, the much-modified visible remains are highly impressive. Until 1996, these remains were not directly accessible from the fort, but they can now be reached by a footbridge.
The fort at Birdoswald was linked by a Roman road, sometimes referred to as the Maiden Way, to the outpost fort of Bewcastle, seven miles to the north. Signals could be relayed between the two forts by means of two signalling towers.
The fort has been extensively excavated for over a century, with twentieth century excavations starting in 1911 by F.G. Simpson and continuing with Ian Richmond from 1927 to 1933 .[6] The gateways and walls were then re-excavated under the supervision of Brenda Swinbank and J P Gillam from 1949 to 1950.
Extensive geophysical surveys, both magnetometry and earth resistance survey, were conducted by TimeScape Surveys (Alan Biggins & David Taylor, 1999 & 2004) between 1997 -2001. These surveys established that the sub-surface remains in the fort were well preserved.
An area between the fort and the escarpment was excavated by Channel 4's archaeological television programme Time Team in January 2000. The excavation detected signs of an extramural settlement (vicus), but the area is liable to erosion and the majority of the vicus could have fallen over the cliffs.
In 2021 Newcastle University, Historic England, and English Heritage launched a major new archaeological excavation at the site.
Today the fort's site is operated by English Heritage as Birdoswald Roman Fort. The visitor centre features displays and reconstructions of the fort, exhibits about life in Roman Britain, the site's history through the ages, and archaeological discoveries in the 19th and 20th centuries. Visitors can walk outside along the excavated remains of the fort.
Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of Britannia after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410.
Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by the Belgae during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies. The Belgae were the only Celtic tribe to cross the sea into Britain, for to all other Celtic tribes this land was unknown. He received tribute, installed the friendly king Mandubracius over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel on the continent, only to have them gather seashells (musculi) according to Suetonius, perhaps as a symbolic gesture to proclaim Caligula's victory over the sea. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore the exiled king Verica over the Atrebates. The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the province of Britain. By 47 AD, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way. Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward.
The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola (77–84), who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia. In mid-84 AD, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be upwards of 10,000 on the Caledonian side and about 360 on the Roman side. The bloodbath at Mons Graupius concluded the forty-year conquest of Britain, a period that possibly saw between 100,000 and 250,000 Britons killed. In the context of pre-industrial warfare and of a total population of Britain of c. 2 million, these are very high figures.
Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. Around 197 AD, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century. For much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410; the native kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that.
Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture. The Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. After the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor. Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire.
History
Britain was known to the Classical world. The Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC. The Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or "tin islands", and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 6th or 5th century BC and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. It was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed.
The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition was more a reconnaissance than a full invasion and gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but was unable to advance further because of storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry. Despite the military failure, it was a political success, with the Roman Senate declaring a 20-day public holiday in Rome to honour the unprecedented achievement of obtaining hostages from Britain and defeating Belgic tribes on returning to the continent.
The second invasion involved a substantially larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, Cassivellaunus, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul.
Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind, but he established clients and brought Britain into Rome's sphere of influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Archaeology shows that there was an increase in imported luxury goods in southeastern Britain. Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus, and Augustus's own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees. When some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in 16 AD, they came back with tales of monsters.
Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius. This policy was followed until 39 or 40 AD, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and planned an invasion of Britain that collapsed in farcical circumstances before it left Gaul. When Claudius successfully invaded in 43 AD, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, Verica of the Atrebates.
Roman invasion
The invasion force in 43 AD was led by Aulus Plautius,[26] but it is unclear how many legions were sent. The Legio II Augusta, commanded by future emperor Vespasian, was the only one directly attested to have taken part. The Legio IX Hispana, the XIV Gemina (later styled Martia Victrix) and the XX (later styled Valeria Victrix) are known to have served during the Boudican Revolt of 60/61, and were probably there since the initial invasion. This is not certain because the Roman army was flexible, with units being moved around whenever necessary. The IX Hispana may have been permanently stationed, with records showing it at Eboracum (York) in 71 and on a building inscription there dated 108, before being destroyed in the east of the Empire, possibly during the Bar Kokhba revolt.
The invasion was delayed by a troop mutiny until an imperial freedman persuaded them to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world. They sailed in three divisions, and probably landed at Richborough in Kent; at least part of the force may have landed near Fishbourne, West Sussex.
The Catuvellauni and their allies were defeated in two battles: the first, assuming a Richborough landing, on the river Medway, the second on the river Thames. One of their leaders, Togodumnus, was killed, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, who arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). Vespasian subdued the southwest, Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories, and treaties were made with tribes outside direct Roman control.
Establishment of Roman rule
After capturing the south of the island, the Romans turned their attention to what is now Wales. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli remained implacably opposed to the invaders and for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. The Silures were led by Caratacus, and he carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against Governor Publius Ostorius Scapula. Finally, in 51, Ostorius lured Caratacus into a set-piece battle and defeated him. The British leader sought refuge among the Brigantes, but their queen, Cartimandua, proved her loyalty by surrendering him to the Romans. He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. The Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius replaced Caratacus as the most prominent leader of British resistance.
On Nero's accession, Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the conqueror of Mauretania (modern day Algeria and Morocco), then became governor of Britain, and in 60 and 61 he moved against Mona (Anglesey) to settle accounts with Druidism once and for all. Paulinus led his army across the Menai Strait and massacred the Druids and burnt their sacred groves.
While Paulinus was campaigning in Mona, the southeast of Britain rose in revolt under the leadership of Boudica. She was the widow of the recently deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus. The Roman historian Tacitus reports that Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the remainder would be left untouched. He was wrong. When his will was enforced, Rome[clarification needed] responded by violently seizing the tribe's lands in full. Boudica protested. In consequence, Rome[clarification needed] punished her and her daughters by flogging and rape. In response, the Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and routed the part of the IXth Legion that was sent to relieve it. Paulinus rode to London (then called Londinium), the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St. Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Paulinus regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being outnumbered by more than twenty to one, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. During this time, the Emperor Nero considered withdrawing Roman forces from Britain altogether.
There was further turmoil in 69, the "Year of the Four Emperors". As civil war raged in Rome, weak governors were unable to control the legions in Britain, and Venutius of the Brigantes seized his chance. The Romans had previously defended Cartimandua against him, but this time were unable to do so. Cartimandua was evacuated, and Venutius was left in control of the north of the country. After Vespasian secured the empire, his first two appointments as governor, Quintus Petillius Cerialis and Sextus Julius Frontinus, took on the task of subduing the Brigantes and Silures respectively.[38] Frontinus extended Roman rule to all of South Wales, and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi.
In the following years, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78. With the XX Valeria Victrix legion, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in north-east Scotland. This was the high-water mark of Roman territory in Britain: shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans initially retired to a more defensible line along the Forth–Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.
For much of the history of Roman Britain, a large number of soldiers were garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a result, many future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.
Roman military organisation in the north
In 84 AD
In 84 AD
In 155 AD
In 155 AD
Hadrian's Wall, and Antonine Wall
There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth–Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged; others appear to have been abandoned. By 87 the frontier had been consolidated on the Stanegate. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in the Scottish Lowlands in the years before 100, indicating growing Romanisation. Some of the most important sources for this era are the writing tablets from the fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland, mostly dating to 90–110. These tablets provide evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.
Around 105 there appears to have been a serious setback at the hands of the tribes of the Picts: several Roman forts were destroyed by fire, with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (at modern Newstead, in SE Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site.[citation needed] There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune of Cyrene. Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway–Tyne isthmus around this time.
A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign): a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought the Legio VI Victrix legion with him from Germania Inferior. This replaced the famous Legio IX Hispana, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the 2nd century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.
In the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 following the military reoccupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus.
The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155–157, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor Gnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was recaptured, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antoninus's undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time: the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180.
During the twenty-year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall in 163/4, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily problems in the Danubian provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver has been found in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the Picts.
In 175, a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace, only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus's strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perennis, a Praetorian prefect who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.
The future emperor Pertinax (lived 126–193) was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control, but a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192.
3rd century
The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the emperorship emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus's support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised, Severus turned on his ally in Britannia; it is likely that Albinus saw he would be the next target and was already preparing for war.
Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195, where the provinces were also sympathetic to him, and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196, and the ensuing battle was decisive. Albinus came close to victory, but Severus's reinforcements won the day, and the British governor committed suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus's sympathisers and perhaps confiscated large tracts of land in Britain as punishment. Albinus had demonstrated the major problem posed by Roman Britain. In order to maintain security, the province required the presence of three legions, but command of these forces provided an ideal power base for ambitious rivals. Deploying those legions elsewhere would strip the island of its garrison, leaving the province defenceless against uprisings by the native Celtic tribes and against invasion by the Picts and Scots.
The traditional view is that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus's absence. Cassius Dio records that the new Governor, Virius Lupus, was obliged to buy peace from a fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae. The succession of militarily distinguished governors who were subsequently appointed suggests that enemies of Rome were posing a difficult challenge, and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report to Rome in 207 describes barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking loot and creating destruction". In order to rebel, of course, one must be a subject – the Maeatae clearly did not consider themselves such. Senecio requested either reinforcements or an Imperial expedition, and Severus chose the latter, despite being 62 years old. Archaeological evidence shows that Senecio had been rebuilding the defences of Hadrian's Wall and the forts beyond it, and Severus's arrival in Britain prompted the enemy tribes to sue for peace immediately. The emperor had not come all that way to leave without a victory, and it is likely that he wished to provide his teenage sons Caracalla and Geta with first-hand experience of controlling a hostile barbarian land.
Northern campaigns, 208–211
An invasion of Caledonia led by Severus and probably numbering around 20,000 troops moved north in 208 or 209, crossing the Wall and passing through eastern Scotland on a route similar to that used by Agricola. Harried by punishing guerrilla raids by the northern tribes and slowed by an unforgiving terrain, Severus was unable to meet the Caledonians on a battlefield. The emperor's forces pushed north as far as the River Tay, but little appears to have been achieved by the invasion, as peace treaties were signed with the Caledonians. By 210 Severus had returned to York, and the frontier had once again become Hadrian's Wall. He assumed the title Britannicus but the title meant little with regard to the unconquered north, which clearly remained outside the authority of the Empire. Almost immediately, another northern tribe, the Maeatae, went to war. Caracalla left with a punitive expedition, but by the following year his ailing father had died and he and his brother left the province to press their claim to the throne.
As one of his last acts, Severus tried to solve the problem of powerful and rebellious governors in Britain by dividing the province into Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. This kept the potential for rebellion in check for almost a century. Historical sources provide little information on the following decades, a period known as the Long Peace. Even so, the number of buried hoards found from this period rises, suggesting continuing unrest. A string of forts were built along the coast of southern Britain to control piracy; and over the following hundred years they increased in number, becoming the Saxon Shore Forts.
During the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders. Britannia apparently avoided these troubles, but increasing inflation had its economic effect. In 259 a so-called Gallic Empire was established when Postumus rebelled against Gallienus. Britannia was part of this until 274 when Aurelian reunited the empire.
Around the year 280, a half-British officer named Bonosus was in command of the Roman's Rhenish fleet when the Germans managed to burn it at anchor. To avoid punishment, he proclaimed himself emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) but was crushed by Marcus Aurelius Probus. Soon afterwards, an unnamed governor of one of the British provinces also attempted an uprising. Probus put it down by sending irregular troops of Vandals and Burgundians across the Channel.
The Carausian Revolt led to a short-lived Britannic Empire from 286 to 296. Carausius was a Menapian naval commander of the Britannic fleet; he revolted upon learning of a death sentence ordered by the emperor Maximian on charges of having abetted Frankish and Saxon pirates and having embezzled recovered treasure. He consolidated control over all the provinces of Britain and some of northern Gaul while Maximian dealt with other uprisings. An invasion in 288 failed to unseat him and an uneasy peace ensued, with Carausius issuing coins and inviting official recognition. In 293, the junior emperor Constantius Chlorus launched a second offensive, besieging the rebel port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) by land and sea. After it fell, Constantius attacked Carausius's other Gallic holdings and Frankish allies and Carausius was usurped by his treasurer, Allectus. Julius Asclepiodotus landed an invasion fleet near Southampton and defeated Allectus in a land battle.
Diocletian's reforms
As part of Diocletian's reforms, the provinces of Roman Britain were organized as a diocese governed by a vicarius under a praetorian prefect who, from 318 to 331, was Junius Bassus who was based at Augusta Treverorum (Trier).
The vicarius was based at Londinium as the principal city of the diocese. Londinium and Eboracum continued as provincial capitals and the territory was divided up into smaller provinces for administrative efficiency.
Civilian and military authority of a province was no longer exercised by one official and the governor was stripped of military command which was handed over to the Dux Britanniarum by 314. The governor of a province assumed more financial duties (the procurators of the Treasury ministry were slowly phased out in the first three decades of the 4th century). The Dux was commander of the troops of the Northern Region, primarily along Hadrian's Wall and his responsibilities included protection of the frontier. He had significant autonomy due in part to the distance from his superiors.
The tasks of the vicarius were to control and coordinate the activities of governors; monitor but not interfere with the daily functioning of the Treasury and Crown Estates, which had their own administrative infrastructure; and act as the regional quartermaster-general of the armed forces. In short, as the sole civilian official with superior authority, he had general oversight of the administration, as well as direct control, while not absolute, over governors who were part of the prefecture; the other two fiscal departments were not.
The early-4th-century Verona List, the late-4th-century work of Sextus Rufus, and the early-5th-century List of Offices and work of Polemius Silvius all list four provinces by some variation of the names Britannia I, Britannia II, Maxima Caesariensis, and Flavia Caesariensis; all of these seem to have initially been directed by a governor (praeses) of equestrian rank. The 5th-century sources list a fifth province named Valentia and give its governor and Maxima's a consular rank. Ammianus mentions Valentia as well, describing its creation by Count Theodosius in 369 after the quelling of the Great Conspiracy. Ammianus considered it a re-creation of a formerly lost province, leading some to think there had been an earlier fifth province under another name (may be the enigmatic "Vespasiana"), and leading others to place Valentia beyond Hadrian's Wall, in the territory abandoned south of the Antonine Wall.
Reconstructions of the provinces and provincial capitals during this period partially rely on ecclesiastical records. On the assumption that the early bishoprics mimicked the imperial hierarchy, scholars use the list of bishops for the 314 Council of Arles. The list is patently corrupt: the British delegation is given as including a Bishop "Eborius" of Eboracum and two bishops "from Londinium" (one de civitate Londinensi and the other de civitate colonia Londinensium). The error is variously emended: Bishop Ussher proposed Colonia, Selden Col. or Colon. Camalodun., and Spelman Colonia Cameloduni (all various names of Colchester); Gale and Bingham offered colonia Lindi and Henry Colonia Lindum (both Lincoln); and Bishop Stillingfleet and Francis Thackeray read it as a scribal error of Civ. Col. Londin. for an original Civ. Col. Leg. II (Caerleon). On the basis of the Verona List, the priest and deacon who accompanied the bishops in some manuscripts are ascribed to the fourth province.
In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales described the supposedly metropolitan sees of the early British church established by the legendary SS Fagan and "Duvian". He placed Britannia Prima in Wales and western England with its capital at "Urbs Legionum" (Caerleon); Britannia Secunda in Kent and southern England with its capital at "Dorobernia" (Canterbury); Flavia in Mercia and central England with its capital at "Lundonia" (London); "Maximia" in northern England with its capital at Eboracum (York); and Valentia in "Albania which is now Scotland" with its capital at St Andrews. Modern scholars generally dispute the last: some place Valentia at or beyond Hadrian's Wall but St Andrews is beyond even the Antonine Wall and Gerald seems to have simply been supporting the antiquity of its church for political reasons.
A common modern reconstruction places the consular province of Maxima at Londinium, on the basis of its status as the seat of the diocesan vicarius; places Prima in the west according to Gerald's traditional account but moves its capital to Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) on the basis of an artifact recovered there referring to Lucius Septimius, a provincial rector; places Flavia north of Maxima, with its capital placed at Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to match one emendation of the bishops list from Arles;[d] and places Secunda in the north with its capital at Eboracum (York). Valentia is placed variously in northern Wales around Deva (Chester); beside Hadrian's Wall around Luguvalium (Carlisle); and between the walls along Dere Street.
4th century
Emperor Constantius returned to Britain in 306, despite his poor health, with an army aiming to invade northern Britain, the provincial defences having been rebuilt in the preceding years. Little is known of his campaigns with scant archaeological evidence, but fragmentary historical sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south. His son Constantine (later Constantine the Great) spent a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn. Constantius died in York in July 306 with his son at his side. Constantine then successfully used Britain as the starting point of his march to the imperial throne, unlike the earlier usurper, Albinus.
In the middle of the century, the province was loyal for a few years to the usurper Magnentius, who succeeded Constans following the latter's death. After the defeat and death of Magnentius in the Battle of Mons Seleucus in 353, Constantius II dispatched his chief imperial notary Paulus Catena to Britain to hunt down Magnentius's supporters. The investigation deteriorated into a witch-hunt, which forced the vicarius Flavius Martinus to intervene. When Paulus retaliated by accusing Martinus of treason, the vicarius attacked Paulus with a sword, with the aim of assassinating him, but in the end he committed suicide.
As the 4th century progressed, there were increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east and the Scoti (Irish) in the west. A series of forts had been built, starting around 280, to defend the coasts, but these preparations were not enough when, in 367, a general assault of Saxons, Picts, Scoti and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, left Roman Britain prostrate. The invaders overwhelmed the entire western and northern regions of Britannia and the cities were sacked. This crisis, sometimes called the Barbarian Conspiracy or the Great Conspiracy, was settled by Count Theodosius from 368 with a string of military and civil reforms. Theodosius crossed from Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and marched on Londinium where he began to deal with the invaders and made his base.[ An amnesty was promised to deserters which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. By the end of the year Hadrian's Wall was retaken and order returned. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis to head a new civilian administration.
Another imperial usurper, Magnus Maximus, raised the standard of revolt at Segontium (Caernarfon) in north Wales in 383, and crossed the English Channel. Maximus held much of the western empire, and fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around 384. His continental exploits required troops from Britain, and it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned in this period, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. His rule was ended in 388, but not all the British troops may have returned: the Empire's military resources were stretched to the limit along the Rhine and Danube. Around 396 there were more barbarian incursions into Britain. Stilicho led a punitive expedition. It seems peace was restored by 399, and it is likely that no further garrisoning was ordered; by 401 more troops were withdrawn, to assist in the war against Alaric I.
End of Roman rule
The traditional view of historians, informed by the work of Michael Rostovtzeff, was of a widespread economic decline at the beginning of the 5th century. Consistent archaeological evidence has told another story, and the accepted view is undergoing re-evaluation. Some features are agreed: more opulent but fewer urban houses, an end to new public building and some abandonment of existing ones, with the exception of defensive structures, and the widespread formation of "dark earth" deposits indicating increased horticulture within urban precincts. Turning over the basilica at Silchester to industrial uses in the late 3rd century, doubtless officially condoned, marks an early stage in the de-urbanisation of Roman Britain.
The abandonment of some sites is now believed to be later than had been thought. Many buildings changed use but were not destroyed. There was a growing number of barbarian attacks, but these targeted vulnerable rural settlements rather than towns. Some villas such as Chedworth, Great Casterton in Rutland and Hucclecote in Gloucestershire had new mosaic floors laid around this time, suggesting that economic problems may have been limited and patchy. Many suffered some decay before being abandoned in the 5th century; the story of Saint Patrick indicates that villas were still occupied until at least 430. Exceptionally, new buildings were still going up in this period in Verulamium and Cirencester. Some urban centres, for example Canterbury, Cirencester, Wroxeter, Winchester and Gloucester, remained active during the 5th and 6th centuries, surrounded by large farming estates.
Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the 4th century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic decline, diminishing numbers of troops, problems with the payment of soldiers and officials or with unstable conditions during the usurpation of Magnus Maximus 383–87. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, but never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, though minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were very few new Roman coins going into circulation, and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Mass-produced wheel thrown pottery ended at approximately the same time; the rich continued to use metal and glass vessels, while the poor made do with humble "grey ware" or resorted to leather or wooden containers.
Sub-Roman Britain
Towards the end of the 4th century Roman rule in Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attacks. Apparently, there were not enough troops to mount an effective defence. After elevating two disappointing usurpers, the army chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become emperor in 407. He crossed to Gaul but was defeated by Honorius; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, or whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai. A letter from Emperor Honorius in 410 has traditionally been seen as rejecting a British appeal for help, but it may have been addressed to Bruttium or Bologna. With the imperial layers of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and local warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still utilizing Romano-British ideals and conventions. Historian Stuart Laycock has investigated this process and emphasised elements of continuity from the British tribes in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, through to the native post-Roman kingdoms.
In British tradition, pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts, Scoti, and Déisi. (Germanic migration into Roman Britannia may have begun much earlier. There is recorded evidence, for example, of Germanic auxiliaries supporting the legions in Britain in the 1st and 2nd centuries.) The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time, many Britons fled to Brittany (hence its name), Galicia and probably Ireland. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aetius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446. Another is the Battle of Deorham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea.
Historians generally reject the historicity of King Arthur, who is supposed to have resisted the Anglo-Saxon conquest according to later medieval legends.
Trade
During the Roman period Britain's continental trade was principally directed across the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel, focusing on the narrow Strait of Dover, with more limited links via the Atlantic seaways. The most important British ports were London and Richborough, whilst the continental ports most heavily engaged in trade with Britain were Boulogne and the sites of Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of the river Scheldt. During the Late Roman period it is likely that the shore forts played some role in continental trade alongside their defensive functions.
Exports to Britain included: coin; pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava quern-stones from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products. Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt, whilst large quantities of coin would have been re-exported back to the continent as well.
These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources. Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state's payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force (which had reached c. 53,000 by the mid-2nd century), than were extracted from the island.
It has been argued that Roman Britain's continental trade peaked in the late 1st century AD and thereafter declined as a result of an increasing reliance on local products by the population of Britain, caused by economic development on the island and by the Roman state's desire to save money by shifting away from expensive long-distance imports. Evidence has been outlined that suggests that the principal decline in Roman Britain's continental trade may have occurred in the late 2nd century AD, from c. 165 AD onwards. This has been linked to the economic impact of contemporary Empire-wide crises: the Antonine Plague and the Marcomannic Wars.
From the mid-3rd century onwards, Britain no longer received such a wide range and extensive quantity of foreign imports as it did during the earlier part of the Roman period; vast quantities of coin from continental mints reached the island, whilst there is historical evidence for the export of large amounts of British grain to the continent during the mid-4th century. During the latter part of the Roman period British agricultural products, paid for by both the Roman state and by private consumers, clearly played an important role in supporting the military garrisons and urban centres of the northwestern continental Empire. This came about as a result of the rapid decline in the size of the British garrison from the mid-3rd century onwards (thus freeing up more goods for export), and because of 'Germanic' incursions across the Rhine, which appear to have reduced rural settlement and agricultural output in northern Gaul.
Economy
Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine were probably first worked by the Roman army from c. 75, and at some later stage passed to civilian operators. The mine developed as a series of opencast workings, mainly by the use of hydraulic mining methods. They are described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History in great detail. Essentially, water supplied by aqueducts was used to prospect for ore veins by stripping away soil to reveal the bedrock. If veins were present, they were attacked using fire-setting and the ore removed for comminution. The dust was washed in a small stream of water and the heavy gold dust and gold nuggets collected in riffles. The diagram at right shows how Dolaucothi developed from c. 75 through to the 1st century. When opencast work was no longer feasible, tunnels were driven to follow the veins. The evidence from the site shows advanced technology probably under the control of army engineers.
The Wealden ironworking zone, the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills and the tin mines of Cornwall seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Mining had long been practised in Britain (see Grimes Graves), but the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry. It included hydraulic mining to prospect for ore by removing overburden as well as work alluvial deposits. The water needed for such large-scale operations was supplied by one or more aqueducts, those surviving at Dolaucothi being especially impressive. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued.
By the 3rd and 4th centuries, small towns could often be found near villas. In these towns, villa owners and small-scale farmers could obtain specialist tools. Lowland Britain in the 4th century was agriculturally prosperous enough to export grain to the continent. This prosperity lay behind the blossoming of villa building and decoration that occurred between AD 300 and 350.
Britain's cities also consumed Roman-style pottery and other goods, and were centres through which goods could be distributed elsewhere. At Wroxeter in Shropshire, stock smashed into a gutter during a 2nd-century fire reveals that Gaulish samian ware was being sold alongside mixing bowls from the Mancetter-Hartshill industry of the West Midlands. Roman designs were most popular, but rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Britain was home to much gold, which attracted Roman invaders. By the 3rd century, Britain's economy was diverse and well established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north.
Government
Further information: Governors of Roman Britain, Roman client kingdoms in Britain, and Roman auxiliaries in Britain
Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate, but those, like Britain, that required permanent garrisons, were placed under the Emperor's control. In practice imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were members of the Senate and had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected, often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military, but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility, such as maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. When not campaigning, he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops.
To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus juridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and, in time of war, probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commands carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services.
Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain, but it was soon eclipsed by London with its strong mercantile connections. The different forms of municipal organisation in Britannia were known as civitas (which were subdivided, amongst other forms, into colonies such as York, Colchester, Gloucester and Lincoln and municipalities such as Verulamium), and were each governed by a senate of local landowners, whether Brythonic or Roman, who elected magistrates concerning judicial and civic affairs. The various civitates sent representatives to a yearly provincial council in order to profess loyalty to the Roman state, to send direct petitions to the Emperor in times of extraordinary need, and to worship the imperial cult.
Demographics
Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million people at the end of the second century. At the end of the fourth century, it had an estimated population of 3.6 million people, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents.[80] The urban population of Roman Britain was about 240,000 people at the end of the fourth century. The capital city of Londinium is estimated to have had a population of about 60,000 people. Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was also cultural diversity in other Roman-British towns, which were sustained by considerable migration, from Britannia and other Roman territories, including continental Europe, Roman Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. In a study conducted in 2012, around 45 percent of sites investigated dating from the Roman period had at least one individual of North African origin.
Town and country
During their occupation of Britain the Romans founded a number of important settlements, many of which survive. The towns suffered attrition in the later 4th century, when public building ceased and some were abandoned to private uses. Place names survived the deurbanised Sub-Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, and historiography has been at pains to signal the expected survivals, but archaeology shows that a bare handful of Roman towns were continuously occupied. According to S.T. Loseby, the very idea of a town as a centre of power and administration was reintroduced to England by the Roman Christianising mission to Canterbury, and its urban revival was delayed to the 10th century.
Roman towns can be broadly grouped in two categories. Civitates, "public towns" were formally laid out on a grid plan, and their role in imperial administration occasioned the construction of public buildings. The much more numerous category of vici, "small towns" grew on informal plans, often round a camp or at a ford or crossroads; some were not small, others were scarcely urban, some not even defended by a wall, the characteristic feature of a place of any importance.
Cities and towns which have Roman origins, or were extensively developed by them are listed with their Latin names in brackets; civitates are marked C
Alcester (Alauna)
Alchester
Aldborough, North Yorkshire (Isurium Brigantum) C
Bath (Aquae Sulis) C
Brough (Petuaria) C
Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae)
Caerleon (Isca Augusta) C
Caernarfon (Segontium) C
Caerwent (Venta Silurum) C
Caister-on-Sea C
Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum) C
Carlisle (Luguvalium) C
Carmarthen (Moridunum) C
Chelmsford (Caesaromagus)
Chester (Deva Victrix) C
Chester-le-Street (Concangis)
Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) C
Cirencester (Corinium) C
Colchester (Camulodunum) C
Corbridge (Coria) C
Dorchester (Durnovaria) C
Dover (Portus Dubris)
Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) C
Gloucester (Glevum) C
Great Chesterford (the name of this vicus is unknown)
Ilchester (Lindinis) C
Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) C
Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) C
London (Londinium) C
Manchester (Mamucium) C
Newcastle upon Tyne (Pons Aelius)
Northwich (Condate)
St Albans (Verulamium) C
Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) C
Towcester (Lactodurum)
Whitchurch (Mediolanum) C
Winchester (Venta Belgarum) C
Wroxeter (Viroconium Cornoviorum) C
York (Eboracum) C
Religion
The druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain, were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). Under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such as Ancasta, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham.
The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record, but the differences in the votive offerings made at the baths at Bath, Somerset, before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the Roman emperor is widely recorded, especially at military sites. The founding of a Roman temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica. By the 3rd century, Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset was able to exist peaceably and it did so into the 5th century.
Pagan religious practices were supported by priests, represented in Britain by votive deposits of priestly regalia such as chain crowns from West Stow and Willingham Fen.
Eastern cults such as Mithraism also grew in popularity towards the end of the occupation. The London Mithraeum is one example of the popularity of mystery religions among the soldiery. Temples to Mithras also exist in military contexts at Vindobala on Hadrian's Wall (the Rudchester Mithraeum) and at Segontium in Roman Wales (the Caernarfon Mithraeum).
Christianity
It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain. A 2nd-century "word square" has been discovered in Mamucium, the Roman settlement of Manchester. It consists of an anagram of PATER NOSTER carved on a piece of amphora. There has been discussion by academics whether the "word square" is a Christian artefact, but if it is, it is one of the earliest examples of early Christianity in Britain. The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ". Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Small timber churches are suggested at Lincoln and Silchester and baptismal fonts have been found at Icklingham and the Saxon Shore Fort at Richborough. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and visible in the British Museum. A Roman Christian graveyard exists at the same site in Icklingham. A possible Roman 4th-century church and associated burial ground was also discovered at Butt Road on the south-west outskirts of Colchester during the construction of the new police station there, overlying an earlier pagan cemetery. The Water Newton Treasure is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early 4th century and the Roman villas at Lullingstone and Hinton St Mary contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. A large 4th-century cemetery at Poundbury with its east–west oriented burials and lack of grave goods has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground, although such burial rites were also becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period.
The Church in Britain seems to have developed the customary diocesan system, as evidenced from the records of the Council of Arles in Gaul in 314: represented at the council were bishops from thirty-five sees from Europe and North Africa, including three bishops from Britain, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius, possibly a bishop of Lincoln. No other early sees are documented, and the material remains of early church structures are far to seek. The existence of a church in the forum courtyard of Lincoln and the martyrium of Saint Alban on the outskirts of Roman Verulamium are exceptional. Alban, the first British Christian martyr and by far the most prominent, is believed to have died in the early 4th century (some date him in the middle 3rd century), followed by Saints Julius and Aaron of Isca Augusta. Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire by Constantine I in 313. Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the empire in 391, and by the 5th century it was well established. One belief labelled a heresy by the church authorities — Pelagianism — was originated by a British monk teaching in Rome: Pelagius lived c. 354 to c. 420/440.
A letter found on a lead tablet in Bath, Somerset, datable to c. 363, had been widely publicised as documentary evidence regarding the state of Christianity in Britain during Roman times. According to its first translator, it was written in Wroxeter by a Christian man called Vinisius to a Christian woman called Nigra, and was claimed as the first epigraphic record of Christianity in Britain. This translation of the letter was apparently based on grave paleographical errors, and the text has nothing to do with Christianity, and in fact relates to pagan rituals.
Environmental changes
The Romans introduced a number of species to Britain, including possibly the now-rare Roman nettle (Urtica pilulifera), said to have been used by soldiers to warm their arms and legs, and the edible snail Helix pomatia. There is also some evidence they may have introduced rabbits, but of the smaller southern mediterranean type. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) prevalent in modern Britain is assumed to have been introduced from the continent after the Norman invasion of 1066. Box (Buxus sempervirens) is rarely recorded before the Roman period, but becomes a common find in towns and villas
Legacy
During their occupation of Britain the Romans built an extensive network of roads which continued to be used in later centuries and many are still followed today. The Romans also built water supply, sanitation and wastewater systems. Many of Britain's major cities, such as London (Londinium), Manchester (Mamucium) and York (Eboracum), were founded by the Romans, but the original Roman settlements were abandoned not long after the Romans left.
Unlike many other areas of the Western Roman Empire, the current majority language is not a Romance language, or a language descended from the pre-Roman inhabitants. The British language at the time of the invasion was Common Brittonic, and remained so after the Romans withdrew. It later split into regional languages, notably Cumbric, Cornish, Breton and Welsh. Examination of these languages suggests some 800 Latin words were incorporated into Common Brittonic (see Brittonic languages). The current majority language, English, is based on the languages of the Germanic tribes who migrated to the island from continental Europe
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva arrives at the Convention Centre where she participates in a roundtable discussion on the subject of “Building a Resilient and Inclusive Future; Supporting Africa’s Climate Agenda” in the Convention Centre, Kigali.
IMF Photo/Kim Haughton
25 January 2023
Kigali, Rwanda
S.H.I.E.L.D. Classified Document, Level 10-Director and Need-to-Know Personnel Only
Classified Meeting between Director Fury and Agent Philip Coulson, Level 8
Log 1
Coulson: Isn’t this place great? Good food, great service, …
Fury: Not crowded, middle of nowhere, inconspicuous, yea, good place. View could be better though.
Coulson: You think so, sir? Personally, I love the view of that, warehouse, thing, over there. AIM, aren’t they some science company?
Fury: The hell would I know?
Coulson: No clue, sir. But anyways, you said you needed to talk?
Fury: Right. We need to discuss the “Program”.
Coulson: What about it, sir?
Fury: You need to pick up the pace, Phil. We don’t have much time left. They’re coming, and soon enough they’re gonna be able to take us down. We need the “Program”, it’s the only chance we have. If we don’t get it finalized before they figure out we’re onto them, we’re screwed!
Coulson: I know, sir, I know. We still have a few more candidates to analyze, and Daisy has almost finished the tests. It will be ready, sir, I promise.
Fury: I don’t doubt that one bit, Phil, I’m just worried it won’t be soon enough. I’m serious, you need to get it done!
Coulson:I understand, sir.
Fury: Good. Now, this is gonna sound contradictory, but you’re gonna want to take a few days off. I’ve got a team up north that’s found something you’ll be very interested in. At least, they think they do. Prepare to join them if anything comes of it.
Coulson: What do they think they’ve found?
Fury: You’ll see.
Coulson: Oh, come on sir! You can’t just leave me hanging like that!
Fury: What in the hell…
Coulson: I’m sorry, sir?
Fury: GET DOWN!
END LOG 1
__________________________________________________
Hey guys, Starconyx here. So, I realized that I wouldn't be able to keep the "mission" format for everything I did with this series, so I decided to have a secondary "series" type of thing for when I can't use the main mission format. Hope you guys like this one though, hopefully more than the last mission, anyway. If you did read that one, know that it is chronologically before the first one, if you didn't key in on that. Anyway, thanks for viewing, Part 2 will be out ASAP.
British postcard by GoCard. Dennis Hopper in Der amerikanische Freund/The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977).
Dennis Hopper (1936-2010) was a multi-talented American actor, director, and visual artist, but also one of the true "enfants terribles" of Hollywood. In 1970, he won a Golden Palm for Easy Rider (1969) and Hopper was also Oscar-nominated for writing this groundbreaking anthem to freedom and rebellion. In 1987, he received a second nomination for his supporting role in Hoosiers (1986).
Dennis Lee Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas, in 1936. When he was 13, Hopper and his family moved to San Diego. Hopper was voted most likely to succeed at Helix High School, where he was active in the drama club, speech, and choir. It was there that he developed an interest in acting, studying at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. He attended the Actors Studio and made his first television appearance in the TV series Medic (1954). He debuted on the big screen in 1955 with a supporting role in the film that would make James Dean famous: Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955). Dean was both his friend and mentor. They also appeared together in Giant (George Stevens, 1956), with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Dean's death in a car accident in September 1955 affected the young Hopper deeply. Jason Ankeny at AllMovie: "After Dean's tragic death, it was often remarked that Hopper attempted to fill his friend's shoes by borrowing much of his persona, absorbing the late icon's famously defiant attitude and becoming so temperamental that his once-bright career quickly began to wane." Hopper appeared in the Western Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (John Sturges, 1957), starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. After a run-in with director Henry Hathaway on the set of From Hell to Texas (1958), Hopper was reportedly blackballed from major Hollywood feature film roles until 1965, during which time he was working on television. In 1961, Hopper played his first lead role in Night Tide, an atmospheric supernatural thriller involving a mermaid in an amusement park. He returned in The Sons of Katie Elder (Henry Hathaway, 1965), featuring John Wayne. Hopper also acted in another John Wayne film, True Grit (Henry Hathaway, 1969), and during its production, he became well acquainted with Wayne. He appeared in a number of psychedelic films, including The Trip (1967) and the Monkees feature Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), but Hopper really became the symbol of the sex'n'drugs'n'rock'n'pop generation with Easy Rider (1969). He wrote the script together with co-star Peter Fonda and Terry Southern and it was also his directorial debut. Fonda, Hopper, and a young Jack Nicholson were the stars. They had less than half a million dollars in the budget and an idea about motorbikes, a drug deal, and an LSD trip. Besides showing drug use on film, it was one of the first films to portray the hippie lifestyle. Their long hair became a point of contention in various scenes during the film. Initially rejected by producer Roger Corman, the film became a countercultural touchstone. As the director, Hopper won wide acclaim for his improvisational methods and innovative editing. Easy Rider earned Hopper a Cannes Film Festival Award for "Best First Work" and he shared with Fonda and Southern a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film grossed forty million dollars worldwide and broke open the Hollywood bastion, benefiting a new generation of filmmakers from Martin Scorsese to Steven Spielberg.
Dennis Hopper's star faded considerably after the critical and commercial failure of his second film as director, The Last Movie (Dennis Hopper, 1971). Jason Ankeny calls it "an excessive, self-indulgent mess that, while acclaimed by jurors at the Venice Film Festival, was otherwise savaged by critics and snubbed by audiences." Hopper later admitted, he was seriously abusing various substances during the 1970s, both legal and illegal, which led to a downturn in the quality of his work. He acted in such interesting European films as Der amerikanische Freund/The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977) opposite Bruno Ganz. He returned to the Hollywood A-list thanks to his role as a pot-smoking, hyper-manic photojournalist in the Vietnam War epic and blockbuster Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979), alongside Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen. Hopper traveled to Canada to appear in a small film titled Out of the Blue. At the outset of the production, he was also asked to take over as director, and to the surprise of many, the picture appeared on schedule and to decent reviews and honours at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1983, Hopper entered a drug rehabilitation program, and that year he played critically acclaimed roles in Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983) and the spy thriller The Osterman Weekend (Sam Peckinpah, 1983). He created a sensation as the aggressive, gas-huffing villain Frank Booth in the eerie and erotic Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986). For this role, he won critical acclaim and several awards. That same year he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as an alcoholic assistant of basketball coach Gene Hackman in Hoosiers (David Anspaugh, 1986). Hopper's fourth directorial outing came about through the controversial gang film Colors (1988), starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall. It was followed by an Emmy-nominated lead performance in Paris Trout (1991). In 1990, Dennis Hopper directed The Hot Spot, which was not a box-office hit. Hopper had more success portraying the villain of Speed (Jan de Bont, 1994), starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Hopper received a Razzie Award for his supporting role in Waterworld (Kevin Reynolds, 1997), starring Kevin Costner. In 2001, Hopper had a role in the television series 24. His life story counted five marriages, seven directions, and over 130 film and television appearances. He also collaborated on the Gorillaz song 'Fire Coming Out Of The Monkeys Head'. He recorded the lyrics for it. In addition to his film work, Hopper was also active as a visual artist; he worked as a photographer, painter, and sculptor. Among other things, he made the cover of the album River Deep - Mountain High by Ike & Tina Turner. In 2001, his work was exhibited in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 2009, Hopper's manager announced that Dennis Hopper had prostate cancer. He underwent several treatments. Future film plans were postponed. In January 2010, it was announced that Hopper was beyond treatment. On 26 March of the same year, Hopper was honoured with a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. Dennis Hopper died in 2010, at the age of 74, at his home in Venice, California. Jason Ankeny at AllMovie: "The odyssey of Dennis Hopper was one of Hollywood's longest, strangest trips. A onetime teen performer, he went through a series of career metamorphoses -- studio pariah, rebel filmmaker, drug casualty, and comeback kid -- before finally settling comfortably into the role of character actor par excellence, with a rogues' gallery of killers and freaks unmatched in psychotic intensity and demented glee. " In 1971, Hopper had filmed scenes for Orson Welles' The Other Side of the Wind appearing as himself. After decades of legal, financial, and technical delays, the film was finally released on Netflix in 2018
Sources: Jason Ankeny (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's Acting Center Director David Mitchell hosted a town hall Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in the Hinners Auditorium in Building 8 on the Greenbelt campus. Mitchell discussed near- and long-term goals for the center and answered questions from employees along with a panel of representatives from Goddard. The panel included moderator Michelle Jones; Acting Center Director David F. Mitchell; Acting Deputy Center Director Cynthia Simmons; Associate Center Director Ray Rubilotta; Deputy of HRO Omar Williams; Chief Counsel Tom Browder; Chief Financial Officer Sherri Corbo; Director of Procurement Mary Stevens; Deputy Director Management Operations Marilyn Tolliver; and Deputy Director Information Technology Michelle Wockenfuss. (Credit: NASA/GSFC/Larry Gilbert)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Thirty-eight years of loyal service, the managing director is retiring today, here he poses for the camera with his retirement gift from the board of directors, a model of the first ship of the line.
( thanks to Keith Doubleday for re enactor photo and geheugenvannnederland.nl for background photo, dated 1951 )
Italian postcard in the Le più belle del mondo series by Tele Tutto, no. 11.
American actress, director, and producer Jodie Foster (1962) has received two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and the Cecil B DeMille Award. A child prodigy, Foster began her professional career at the age of 3. Foster's breakthrough came at 14 with Martin Scorsese's psychological thriller Taxi Driver (1976). She played a child prostitute, for which she received an Oscar nomination. As an adult she won new acclaim with The Accused (1988), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Nell (1994). She later starred in four thrillers, Panic Room (2002), Flightplan (2005), Inside Man (2006) and The Brave One (2007), which were commercially successful and well-received by critics. She has focused on directing in the 2010s.
Jodie Foster was born Alicia Christian Foster in 1962 in Los Angeles. She is the daughter of Evelyn Ella "Brandy" (Almond), a producer, and Lucius Fisher Foster III, an Air Force lieutenant colonel and real estate broker. She is the younger sister of Buddy Foster, Cindy Foster Jones and Connie Foster, who all also acted. Brandy had filed for divorce in 1959 after having three children with Lucius, but the exes had a brief re-encounter in 1962 which resulted in Alicia's birth. Her older siblings nicknamed her Jodie, a name she has used in her profession. She started her career in a Coppertone Suntan Lotion commercial when she was 3 years old and made commercials for four years. She made her debut as an actress in the TV series Mayberry R.F.D. (1968), on which her brother, Buddy Foster, was a regular. She stayed very busy as a child actress, working on television programs such as The Doris Day Show (1968), Adam-12 (1968), The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969), The Partridge Family (1970), Bonanza (1972), and Gunsmoke (1969-1972). In films, her roles included playing Raquel Welch's daughter in Kansas City Bomber (Jerold Freedman, 1972) and a tomboy in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese, 1974) starring Ellen Burstyn. She starred as Addie Pray on the short-lived television series Paper Moon (1974), which was originally a film by Peter Bogdanovich starring Tatum O'Neal. Jodie first drew attention from critics with her appearance in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) alongside Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, where she played a prostitute at the tender age of 12. Her sister, Connie Foster, was her stand-in during the more explicit scenes. She received her first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role. She was 12 turning 13 during production of The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (Nicolas Gessner, 1976), for which she won the Saturn Award for Best Actress. Foster went on to have a very successful career in her early teens with leading roles in Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker, 1976) as the mini-vamp Tallulah, and the Disney films Freaky Friday (Gary Nelson, 1976) with Barbara Harris and Candleshoe (Norman Tokar, 1977) opposite David Niven and Helen Hayes. Fluent in French by age 14, she spoke her own lines in the French film Moi, fleur bleue (Eric Le Hung, 1977) with Jean Yanne and Sydne Rome. She also co-starred in the Italian comedy Casotto (Sergio Citti, 1977) with Catherine Deneuve. The last film she made during this era was the coming-of-age drama Foxes (Adrian Lyne, 1980), before enrolling at Yale University. During her freshman year at Yale, she was attached to a worldwide scandal when a crazed and obsessed fan named John Hinckley stalked her and shot President Ronald Reagan to impress her.
In 1985, Jodie Foster graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a degree in literature. She resumed her acting career and appeared in the comedy drama The Hotel New Hampshire (Tony Richardson, 1984) opposite Rob Lowe and Nastassia Kinski, and based on the novel by John Irving. In France, she appeared in the historical drama Le sang des autres/The Blood of Others (Claude Chabrol, 1984) based on the novel by Simone de Beauvoir. Foster sought a breakthrough role that would return her to stardom. After appearing in a few obscure films with limited release, she landed an audition for The Accused (Jonathan Kaplan, 1988). She was cast in the part of Sarah Tobias, a waitress who is gang-raped in a bar during a night of partying and teams up with a lawyer played by Kelly McGillis to prosecute the attackers. This performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress, but despite the Oscar win, Jodie still hadn't re-established herself as a bankable star. Her next film, Catchfire (Dennis Hopper, 1990), went straight to video, and she had to campaign hard to get her next good role. In 1991, she starred as Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee assisting in a hunt for a serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991) with Anthony Hopkins. The film was a blockbuster hit, winning Jodie her second Academy Award for Best Actress and establishing her as an international film star. With the wealth and fame to do anything she wanted, Jodie started directing. She made her directorial debut with Little Man Tate (Jodie Foster, 1991), which was followed by Home for the Holidays (Jodie Foster, 1995) with Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft and Robert Downey Jr. These films were critically acclaimed but did not do well at the box office, and she proved to be a far more successful actress than she was a director. On the set of Sommersby (Jon Amiel, 1993) with Richard Gere, she met Cydney Bernard and was in a serious relationship with her until they broke up in 2008. 1994 was a huge triumph for her acting career. She first played a sexy con artist in the successful Western comedy Maverick (Richard Donner, 1994) with Mel Gibson and James Garner. Then, she played title role in Nell (Michael Apted, 1994), co-starring Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson. For her compelling performance as a wild, backwoods hermit who speaks an invented language and must return to civilization, Jodie was nominated for another Academy Award and won a Screen Actors Guild Award as Best Actress. Although she was working far less frequently as an adult than she did as a child, the films she turned out were commercially successful and critically acclaimed. Her next big screen role was in the science fiction drama Contact (Robert Zemeckis, 1997) opposite Matthew McConaughey. She played a scientist who receives signals from space aliens. The film was a huge hit and brought her a Golden Globe nomination. She had to pull out of Double Jeopardy (Bruce Beresford, 1999) because she became pregnant, and was replaced by Ashley Judd. In 1999, her son Charles Foster, with partner Cydney Bernard, was born. She returned to work four months later in order to begin filming Anna and the King (Andy Tennant, 1999), a non-musical remake of The King and I (Walter Lang, 1956). The film was only modestly received in the U.S. but was very successful overseas.
Jodie Foster returned to work four months after giving birth to her second son Kit Foster, but she shut down her production company Egg Pictures in late 2001 to spend more time with her children. She headlined the thriller Panic Room (David Fincher, 2002), which co-starred Kristen Stewart. The film was a smash box-office hit and gave Jodie a $30 million opening weekend, the biggest of her career yet. She then appeared in two low-profile projects: the independent film The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (Peter Care, 2002) and the French film Un long dimanche de fiançailles (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004) with Audrey Tautou and Gaspard Ulliel. She returned to making Hollywood mainstream films, first with Flightplan (Robert Schwentke, 2005), in which she played a woman whose daughter disappears on an airplane that she designed. Once again Jodie proved herself to be a box-office draw, and the film was a worldwide hit. The following year, she starred in another hit, the bank heist thriller Inside Man (Spike Lee, 2006) with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen. Jodie was on a roll. Her next film was the revenge thriller The Brave One (Neil Jordan, 2007), which once again opened at #1 at the box office and earned her another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. Following this succession of thrillers that all had her playing tough women, Jodie returned to the comedy genre in Nim's Island (Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin, 2008) with Gerard Butler and Abigail Breslin. She reunited with Mel Gibson in the comedy The Beaver (Jodie Foster, 2011). Strong roles followed in Carnage (Roman Polanski, 2011) with Kate Winslet, and the SCi-Fi film Elysium (Neill Blomkamp, 2013) with Matt Damon. In 2013, she received the Cecil B. DeMille award at the Golden Globe Awards. In April 2016, Jodie Foster married Alexandra Hedison. In July that year, John Hinckley was released after almost 35 years of commission to St. Elizabeth's Mental Institution. Lately, she focused on directing and made the film Money Monster (2016), as well as episodes for the TV series Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards, and Black Mirror. Jodie Foster's most recent film is Hotel Artemis (Drew Pearce, 2018) in which she runs a high-security, members-only hospital for high-rolling criminals in Los Angeles.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
Actor/Director/Model
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www.facebook.com/ryananthonywilliamsofficial/?pnref=story Lafreniere Park
Metairie, Louisiana
Swiss postcard by News Productions, Baulmes, no. 55726. Photo: Laurence Sudre.
Dennis Hopper (1936-2010) was a multi-talented American actor, director, and visual artist, but also one of the true "enfants terribles" of Hollywood. In 1970, he won a Golden Palm for Easy Rider (1969) and Hopper was also Oscar-nominated for writing this groundbreaking anthem to freedom and rebellion. In 1987, he received a second nomination for his supporting role in Hoosiers (1986).
Dennis Lee Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas, in 1936. When he was 13, Hopper and his family moved to San Diego. Hopper was voted most likely to succeed at Helix High School, where he was active in the drama club, speech and choir. It was there that he developed an interest in acting, studying at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. He attended the Actors Studio and made his first television appearance in the TV series Medic (1954). He debuted on the big screen in 1955 with a supporting role in the film that would make James Dean famous: Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955). Dean was both his friend and mentor. They also appeared together in Giant (George Stevens, 1956), with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Dean's death in a car accident in September 1955 affected the young Hopper deeply. Jason Ankeny at AllMovie: "After Dean's tragic death, it was often remarked that Hopper attempted to fill his friend's shoes by borrowing much of his persona, absorbing the late icon's famously defiant attitude and becoming so temperamental that his once-bright career quickly began to wane." Hopper appeared in the Western Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (John Sturges, 1957), starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. After a run-in with director Henry Hathaway on the set of From Hell to Texas (1958), Hopper was reportedly blackballed from major Hollywood feature film roles until 1965, during which time he was working on television. In 1961, Hopper played his first lead role in Night Tide, an atmospheric supernatural thriller involving a mermaid in an amusement park. He returned in The Sons of Katie Elder (Henry Hathaway, 1965), featuring John Wayne. Hopper also acted in another John Wayne film, True Grit (Henry Hathaway, 1969), and during its production, he became well acquainted with Wayne. He appeared in a number of psychedelic films, including The Trip (1967) and the Monkees feature Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968), but Hopper really became the symbol of the sex'n'drugs'n'rock'n'pop generation with Easy Rider (1969). He wrote the script together with co-star Peter Fonda and Terry Southern and it was also his directorial debut. Fonda, Hopper and a young Jack Nicholson were the stars. They had less than half a million dollars in the budget and an idea about motorbikes, a drug deal, and an LSD trip. Besides showing drug use on film, it was one of the first films to portray the hippie lifestyle. Their long hair became a point of contention in various scenes during the film. Initially rejected by producer Roger Corman, the film became a countercultural touchstone. As the director, Hopper won wide acclaim for his improvisational methods and innovative editing. Easy Rider earned Hopper a Cannes Film Festival Award for "Best First Work" and he shared with Fonda and Southern a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film grossed forty million dollars worldwide and broke open the Hollywood bastion, benefiting a new generation of filmmakers from Martin Scorsese to Steven Spielberg.
Dennis Hopper's star faded considerably after the critical and commercial failure of his second film as director, The Last Movie (Dennis Hopper, 1971). Jason Ankeny calls it "an excessive, self-indulgent mess that, while acclaimed by jurors at the Venice Film Festival, was otherwise savaged by critics and snubbed by audiences." Hopper later admitted, he was seriously abusing various substances during the 1970s, both legal and illegal, which led to a downturn in the quality of his work. He acted in such interesting European films as Der Amerikanische Freund/The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977) opposite Bruno Ganz. He returned to the Hollywood A-list thanks to his role as a pot-smoking, hyper-manic photojournalist in the Vietnam War epic and blockbuster Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979), alongside Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen. Hopper traveled to Canada to appear in a small film titled Out of the Blue. At the outset of the production, he was also asked to take over as director, and to the surprise of many, the picture appeared on schedule and to decent reviews and honours at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1983, Hopper entered a drug rehabilitation program, and that year he played critically acclaimed roles in Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983) and the spy thriller The Osterman Weekend (Sam Peckinpah, 1983). He created a sensation as the aggressive, gas-huffing villain Frank Booth in the eerie and erotic Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986). For this role, he won critical acclaim and several awards. That same year he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as an alcoholic assistant of basketball coach Gene Hackman in Hoosiers (David Anspaugh, 1986). Hopper's fourth directorial outing came about through the controversial gang film Colors (1988), starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall. It was followed by an Emmy-nominated lead performance in Paris Trout (1991). In 1990, Dennis Hopper directed The Hot Spot, which was not a box-office hit. Hopper had more success portraying the villain of Speed (Jan de Bont, 1994), starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Hopper received a Razzie Award for his supporting role in Waterworld (Kevin Reynolds, 1997), starring Kevin Costner. In 2001, Hopper had a role in the television series 24. His life story counted five marriages, seven directions, and over 130 film and television appearances. He also collaborated on the Gorillaz song 'Fire Coming Out Of The Monkeys Head'. He recorded the lyrics for it. In addition to his film work, Hopper was also active as a visual artist; he worked as a photographer, painter, and sculptor. Among other things, he made the cover of the album River Deep - Mountain High by Ike & Tina Turner. In 2001, his work was exhibited in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 2009, Hopper's manager announced that Dennis Hopper had prostate cancer. He underwent several treatments. Future film plans were postponed. In January 2010, it was announced that Hopper was beyond treatment. On 26 March of the same year, Hopper was honoured with a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. Dennis Hopper died in 2010, at the age of 74, at his home in Venice, California. Jason Ankeny at AllMovie: "The odyssey of Dennis Hopper was one of Hollywood's longest, strangest trips. A onetime teen performer, he went through a series of career metamorphoses -- studio pariah, rebel filmmaker, drug casualty, and comeback kid -- before finally settling comfortably into the role of character actor par excellence, with a rogues' gallery of killers and freaks unmatched in psychotic intensity and demented glee. " In 1971, Hopper had filmed scenes for Orson Welles' The Other Side of the Wind appearing as himself. After decades of legal, financial and technical delays, the film was finally released on Netflix in 2018
Sources: Jason Ankeny (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.
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