Composer whose story as his music touches the depth of the heart…
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. Genius German composer oeuvre is the greatest treasure of the world culture, an epoch in the history of music. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 concertos for piano, 32 piano sonatas, and 16 string quartets.
Early life
Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770, Bonn city, German. Although his exact date of birth is uncertain, Beethoven was baptized on December 17th 1770.
Beethoven’s mother died July 17, 1787. Seventeen young man was forced to become the head of the family and take care of younger brothers.
Some time after 1779, Beethoven began his studies with his most important teacher in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe.
Music
On April 2, 1800, Beethoven debuted his Symphony No. 1 in C major at the Royal Imperial Theater in Vienna.
When Beethoven was 34 years old, Napoleon refused the ideals of the French Revolution and declared himself as an emperor. Therefore Beethoven rejected the intention to dedicate his Third Symphony to Napoleon.
Health problems
Beethoven was struggling with terrifying fact. During his composing he was losing his sense of hearing. Beethoven even couldn’t hear what people spoke to him.
Death
He died on 26 March 1827 at the age of 56 during a thunderstorm
“Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it, there is no way of life” (Angelina Jolie)
Angelina Jolie is an American actress, director and screenwriter, fashion model, UN Goodwill Ambassador, Brad Pitt’s wife and sixth children’s mother. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named as a Hollywood’s highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009, 2011, and 2013.
Early life
Angelina Jolie Voight was born on June 4, 1975, in Los Angeles, California, to actor Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand.
Angelina’s teens was one of the difficult time of her life. Family problems and endless depressions, drug use and self-harm-this is what Angelina Jolly went through. But in spite of those terrifying things, she is a real pearl of beauty and unbelievable woman.
Career
Despite her eccentricities, Jolie manages to play the most interesting diverse roles. She has shot in such popular movies as “Lara Croft”, “Taking Lives”, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”, “Tourist” and others.
Jolie starred in the thriller Salt, as CIA agent Evelyn Salt, who goes on the run after being accused of being a KGB sleeper agent. The film was an international success with revenues of $294 million.
Humanitarian Work
According to Angelina, She opened her eyes on what is happening in the third world countries with humanitarian catastrophe thanks to Cambodia. In Pakistan, she donated 1million dollar to help victims into the Commission for Refugees.
In today’s post I am going to tell you about the most genius surrealism artist of 20th century Salvador Dali!
Salvador Dali prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist was born on May 11, 1904, in Figueres, Spain.
Early life and career
Dali started to draw at four years. Despite such a small age, he did it quiet successfully. At the age of six Dali drew the image of Napoleon, identifying himself with him, he felt the need of some power.
In February 1921, Dali’s mother died of breast cancer. Dali was 16 years old.
In 1931, Dali painted one of his most famous works “The Persistence of Memory“, which introduced an unusual image of melting pocket watches.
While the majority of the Surrealist artists had become associated with left-wings politics, Dali had an ambiguous position between politics and art. One of the surrealist Andre Breton even accused Dali in the defense of Hitler. He was expelled from the Surrealist group afterwards. To this, Dali retorted, “I myself am surrealism”.
Last years
In 1980 at age 76, Dalí’s health was getting bad. He had the Parkinson-like symptoms.
Dali’s wise Gala died on June 10, 1982, at the age of 87. After her death, he had a deep depression. He moved to Pubol, in a castle that he had purchased and remodeled for Gala. In 1984, Dalí was severely burned in a fire. Due to his injuries, he was confined to wheelchair. He died January 23, 1989 of a heart attack.
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. She was born on May 4, 1929 in the capital of Belgium – Brussels.
Career
The first Audrey Hepburn’s major role took place in the movie «The Secret People» in 1951, where she was a ballet dancer. As she had been doing ballet since childhood, she won critical acclaim thanks to her talent, which she had shown in the film. However, the teacher thought she was “too high” for professional dancers, she was higher than many male dancers.
Audrey became one of the influential actress and style icon. Her roles in the movies “Sabrina“, “The Unforgiven“, “Paris When it Sizzle” and many others made her one of the best actresses of all time.
Holly Goulaytli role played by Audrey Hepburn in the romantic comedy “Breakfast at Tiffany’s“, in 1961, became one of the greets roles in American cinema of the 20th century.
In her later years, acting took a back seat to her work on behalf of children. She became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF in the late 1980s.
Personal life
She got divorced twice and had two miscarriage.
The real love came to Audrey Hepburn in her 50 years after meeting with Dutch actor Robert Uoldesom. Officially, they never married, but according to Audrey, it didn’t interfere with their happiness.
During her very short life, Marilyn Monroe had to overcome difficult life to become one of the largest and most enduring sex-symbols of all years!
Norma Jeane Mortenson (Marilyn Monroe) was born on the first of June, 1926 in Los Angeles.
Career
Norma Jeane became one of Blue Book’s most successful models. By 1946 she was on 33 magazine covers and worked with top photographers. In July of the same year Norma Jeane did a screen test at Twentieth-Century Fox, got a contract, and officially became Marilyn Monroe. She got a role in “Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay!” and her only words were ‘Hi Rad!’.
She would soon become one of Hollywood’s most famous actresses.
On May 19th, 1961, she sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to President Kennedy.
Personal life
Probably the main question that worries all biographers, and the key to understanding the life of the great actress. Monroe had three marriages, all of which ended in divorce. She also suffered two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy during her three marriages. Some researchers believe that Monroe had more than hundred lovers.
Death
On August 5, 1962, at only 36 years old, Marilyn Monroe died at her Los Angeles home. Despite all the versions the cause of her death was officially ruled as a drug overdose.
Today is the birthday of an American actor, filmmaker, comedian, musician, and playwright whose career spans more than 50 years.
He deserved a recognition thanks to his comedies, containing elements of absurdity and satire as well as psychological dramas. At the junction of these two genres, Allen created a new genre – “intellectual comedy”.
Allen has been nominated 24 times and won four Academy Awards: three for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Director.
His play “Do not drink the water,” which was presented on November 17, 1966, made him one of the most successful playwrights on Broadway.
Leonardo da Vinci, a major figure of the Italian High Renaissance – a perfect example of the universal person, talented artist. But he was not only a great artist. Leonardo da Vinci is the sculptor, musician, writer, scientist, architect, technician, engineer, inventor and philosopher.
Early life
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 near Florence, in the town of Vinci (Italy).
When Leonardo da Vinci was 4 year old he was taken to his father’s family, where he got his basic education: reading, writing, mathematics, Latin. One of the Leonardo da Vinci’s feature is his handwriting: Leonardo was left-handed and wrote from right to left, turning the letters so that the text was easier to read only with a mirror, but if the letter was addressed to somebody, he wrote traditionally.
Inventions
Thanks to Leonardo da Vinci we have such inventions like a helicopter, parachute, crossbow, car, bike and others.
Before our time, all Leonardo da Vinci’s machines and structures have been gone, but many engineering designs have been preserved in the diagrams and drawings. Most of his ideas could not be carried out in Italy in 15th century.
Among Leonardo’s hobbies were even cooking and the art of serving. He was the manager of the court of peers in Milan for 13 years. Original dish “by Leonardo” – thinly sliced stew with vegetables stacked on top – was very popular at court feasts.
In this post I am going to tell you about Pyotr Ilyich Chaikovsky. Ilyich Chaikovsky is considered as one of the greatest composers in the music history. Author of more than 80 works, including ten operas and three ballets. More than 100 songs represent an extremely valuable contribution to the world music.
Early life
Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on 7th of May, 1840, in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka, Russia.
Tchaikovsky took piano lessons from the age of five. He was passionate about music. However his parents hoped that he would grow up to work in the civil service.
When he was 21, Tchaikovsky decided to take music lessons at the Russian Musical Society. A few months later, he enrolled at the newly founded St. Petersburg Conservatory, becoming one of the school’s first composition students. After graduating from the Conservatory composer Tchaikovsky was invited by Nikolai Rubinstein at the Moscow Conservatory as a professor.
In 1885 he became a director of the department of the Russian Musical Society in Moscow. In 1893, Tchaikovsky was awarded an honorary doctorate at Cambridge University.
In 1877, in order to get rid of the gossip about his homosexuality, Tchaikovsky got married Antonina Miliukova. At the same time keeping the close contact with Nadezhda von Meck, who was in love with Tchaikovsky’s music. Not loving his wife, he unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide, and eventually fled abroad. This segment of Tchaikovsky’s biography is filled with a sense of guilt in relation to the author himself.
Tchaikovsky died of the holera in St. Petersburg on November 6, 1893.
As an admirer of Russian classic literature I want to dedicated my first post to one of greatest writer and philosopher of all time-Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy. His books such as “War and Peace“, “Anna Karenina” are well-known all over the world. But not everybody knows about all challenges he went through during his life.
Tolstoy was born in Yasnaya Polyana, the family estate in the Tula region of Russia. He became orphaned in early childhood. So he and his siblings (three brother and a sister) were taken by their relatives in Kazan where he enrolled in a university afterwards. Philosophical and Jurisprudence classes burdened young Tolstoy therefore he left the university in the middle of his studies, returned to Yasnaya Polyana. In 1851, Tolstoy joined the army where he started writing. For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anne 4th degree.
Novels
“War and Peace”
This Leo Tolstoy’s novel is one of the most significant writer’s works. He read memoirs and correspondence of Alexandr’s the first epoch, worked in the archives, studied Masonic manuscripts, went to the Borodino field, inching forward slowly through a number of editions. Leo Tolstoy had been writing this novel for 6 years (1863-1869). According to the historical information he hand-copied it 8 times and rewrote some of the episodes 26 times.
“Anna Karenina”
The novel “Anna Karenina”, one of the most widely read, and therefore popular, was started in 1873 and the last its part was published in the magazine “Russian Gazette” in 1877. Before getting started this novel Tolstoy were interested in Pushkin’s prose, which inspired Leo Tolstoy to write this novel.
Spiritual crisis
During whole life Tolstoy had been reflecting over such issues like a freedom, moral development, life purpose and understanding God. He carried out in a practice everything he was orally confessing and in the result he captured that fully renunciation from all personal desires, serving God, which he considered as a meaning and a purpose of humans’ lives.
He tried to simplify everything as mush as possible, living a life that is closer to the nature and agriculture. Step by step Tolstoy refused whims and amenities of a rich life: he did physical work a lot, dressed in simple clothes, became a vegetarian, gave all his money to the family, waived the literary property right. He denied all established forms of the government, social and religious lives.
That disconnection with the social life completely changed a personal writer’s biography, leading to the family troubles. In late autumn 1910, at night, 82-year-old Tolstoy, followed by a personal physician, left Yasnaya Polyana secretly. Getting sick in his way Tolstoy stayed in the house near the railway station where he died 7 days later.
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