“The ceramic shell at first appeared to be one of a kind. One hypothesis was that it might have been a cheese strainer. Then, similarities were found with two other objects, found near Naples, that had been convincingly identified as sound boxes for musical instruments.” One doctoral student determined that it was either a bowed lute or a lyre, and she made speculative reconstructions of each, using a copy of the ceramic shell and materials that were available circa 3,000 B.C. (includes sound clips)
Blog
Brahms: Rhythms That Fight (That’s The Secret)
Polyrhythms run through Brahms’s music like an obsessive-compulsive streak. You don’t have to be musically literate to know the bumpy feel of a cross-rhythm. Two-against-three can be a parent strolling hand in hand with a skipping child. Triplets on top of eighth notes are like a slow canter next to a trot: The two horses might move at the same speed, but you wouldn’t want them pulling a carriage together.
Anthea Bell, Who Translated Kafka And Astérix, Dead At 82
She was a widely admired translator of German literature in particular, introducing works by Sebald, Zweig, and Freud as well as Kafka to anglophone readers. But she’s best known for her translations of children’s books from German and French, especially the Asterix series of comics, whose puns she cleverly rendered in English.
The First Pop-Up Books Weren’t For Kids — They Taught Adults Science
“From about 1450 to 1750, most pop-ups appeared in scientific books. Movable paper parts were once used to explain the movements of the moon, the five regular geometric solids, the connections between the eye and the brain, and more.”
Cicely Berry, Legendary Voice Coach For Actors, Dead At 92
“[She] was the best-known voice coach of her generation, though the term vastly underrates what she did and her attitude towards it.” In three books and 45 years at the Royal Shakespeare Company (along with extensive work elsewhere), she transformed the way that voice work for actors was taught, and even conceived.
The New American Songbook: The 30 Hits Of The Past 25 Years That We’ll Be Hearing For The Next 100
“Separating the most durable tunes from the millions of other would-be classics is no easy task. So we asked critics, musicians, and industry professionals to predict which [ones will last].Some of these songs our children will belt in sports arenas. Others our grandchildren will dance to at their weddings.”
Walton Family Foundation Funds New Teaching Program To Increase Diversity In Museum Staff
The charitable foundation of the family that founded Walmart has given $5.4 million to Spelman College, a historically black institution in Atlanta, and the Atlanta University Center to create an art history and curatorial studies undergraduate program.
Ballet Culture Is Finally Changing, Because It Has To: Two New York Times Critics Reflect On #MeToo And The City Ballet Lawsuit
A pair of essays, by Gia Kourlas on how New York City Ballet’s dancers are standing up for decency and respect rather than defending the behavior of their now-departed colleagues, and by Siobhan Burke, wondering why the union that’s supposed to represent all the dancers is fighting for the two who were fired rather than the colleagues they demeaned in their texts.
Sotheby’s Didn’t Know About Banksy’s Hidden Shredder, But They Did Get Very Specific Instructions From Him
Two execs from the auction house talked to reporter Anny Shaw about the now-world-famous self-shredding painting. They insist that Sotheby’s was not warned in advance — and Banksy himself issued a statement that said “no collusion” [sic]. But there were some suspicious stipulations for the sale.
Banksy Really Meant To Shred The Entire Painting, But The Shredder Jammed
“In [a] video posted on Tuesday entitled Shred the Love (the director’s cut), Banksy shows himself constructing the shredding mechanism inside a frame. It then cuts to the auction room and the moment of partial destruction. At the end, the video notes: ‘In rehearsals it worked every time …’ as it shows the piece going the whole way through the shredding machine.”