All posts by Emile Manfeldt
The Mozart Phenomenon
Goethe said:”A phenomenon like Mozart is difficult to explain.”
Mozart started life as a child protégé. His father fashioned him and his sister as genius musicians. From an early age he toured the whole of Europe with them to show them off. In this way Mozart was exposed to the greatest musicians and composers living in Europe at the time. In that era composers was in service of royalty or the church. As Leopold Mozart displayed his children the European courts, not to be outdone by the visitors, princes and kings showed off the talents of composers and musicians they had at their service. In this way Mozart was exposed to the best of European music. Continue reading The Mozart Phenomenon
The music of Shubert
I am an amateur music lover.
When getting to know a composers’ music I always try to understand the person behind the music in an attempt to understand the music better. I know about all the different philosophies of how art must exist on its own and that it is about the art, not the artist.
History of Architecture as told by Pillars
History of Architecture explained by pillars
The history of architecture is as old as civilization itself. A subject as big as the history of mankind. I decided to break it down to easier small parts.
A living space has got four elements. Roof (and floor), support for the roof and walls to keep the elements out.
The first supports for primitive roofs must have been tents supported by a pole. Unfortunately history is remembered in more permanent structures. One of our oldest man made structures to survive today is that of Stonehenge. It comprises of vertical free standing stones with a horizontal support . A basic pillar and lintel structure.
Chairs of the Twentieth Century
I am fascinated by the idea of the renaissance man. The kind of person who can do anything. Michaelangelo, who started of as a painter but branched into architecture, sculpture, poetry and architecture. Leonardo Da Vinci, the painter of the worlds most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, was sought after as a war strategist, designer of things ahead of his time like parachutes, diving boats and explosive devices, to name but a few.
In our time with major technological advances on every front it is difficult to be the best in your own field, let alone other fields of expertise. It is hart warming to still find such people. In architects I found some modern renaissance men. Especially in the field of furniture design.
Chairs is one of the most essential of household and interior decorating furniture. The end of the nineteenth century saw a big change in how people saw their surroundings. Changes in social structure caused people to discover their own worth and allowed people of all social levels to surround themselves with beautiful things. The industrial revolution with mass production made costs of many products come down. New technology made designs possible that were previously not even draemt of. All this caused an explosion of design in chairs.
The first development in chair design came from the father of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris. Morris was a designer, artist, poet and novelist. His life motto was that one should surround yourself with objects that is both useful and beautiful. The arts and Crafts movement emphasized the use of handcraft and material of high quality.
Mont Saint Michel
There are a few names of special places that conjures up magic in my brain. Names like Casablanca and Zanzibar. Mont Saint Michel sound like dreams come true to my ear. As a child I read about this island stronghold surrounded by sea, only reachable at low tide. According to the story the tide came in at the speed of a horse at full gallop. This sounded like true science fiction at the time. I was surprised to learn that the difference between high and low tide can be as much as 14 meters here. From the ramparts one can watch the process of the tide coming in. Over the wide sandbanks one can see the ocean streaming in. Continue reading Mont Saint Michel
Jean Novel, Architect
Architecture fascinate me. The city of Paris is heaven for anyone interested in architecture. From Roman ruins up to the most modern, up to date buildings can be seen.
On my last visit the architect Jean Nouvel’s buildings cought my interest. Years ago I was fascinated by the windows of the Instetut du Monde Arabe in the french city. It is located on the banks of the Seine just upstream of the Notre Dame. It was designed by Jean Nouvel.
Auswitch
A few years ago I visited the Auschwitz concentration camp, close to the Polish city of Cracow. This was part of a network of German Nazi concentration camps where Jewish people and other ‘undesirables’ were exterminated.
These extermination camps were built and operated by the Third Reich, outside German territories, like this one in annexed Poland.
Art Deco
Art Deco is an art movement that became popular after World War 1. The first appeared with the World Exhibition in 1900 but came popular from 1920 onward. Like most architectural styles it is a combination of styles (Arts an crafts movement, Machine age style as well as Neo Classisism)
Fanlights and other windows.
Very often one sees an interesting architectural feature but seldom find the reason why we see this in so many houses. Old houses often features beautiful fanlights. It is so called because it is fan shaped. Usually situated above entrance doors to houses.
