Journal Entries
Some enjoyable songs by Joseph Haydn
Posted Jan 9, 2021
sailor's song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zez2Z_Kr9UQ
Mermaid song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5m0h0OlZbA
She never told her love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83hzef34Erk
[I had wanted to find youtube links for insertion arias for Luigia Polzelli, but I could not get the name of even one. The three listed above are from Haydn's English period, when he was trying to set English texts to music. His English had been nonexistent until Salomon invited him to travel to England and write music for audiences there. Then haydn studied English like crazy! 
]
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Latest reply: Jan 9, 2021
The case of Joseph Haydn's missing head
Posted Jan 6, 2021
[I'm considering submitting the following to Peer Review as a complement to my other article about Joseph Haydn. I'd like to hear feedback before I do so]
The strange case of Joseph Haydn's missing skull
Joseph Haydn was a composer whose work was popular in its own right, as well as an inspiration for the likes of Mozart and Beethoven. He would likely have received a lavish funeral service when he died in 1809, but his Austrian countrymen were overwhelmed by Napoleon's invasion, so Haydn received a simple funeral and burial in a suburb of Vienna.
Once a person is buried, he or she usually stays put, but in Haydn's case this was not to be the case. Haydn had worked for the Esterhazy family, and in 1820 the Esterhazys tried to move his remains to their estate in Eisenstadt.
Ah, but this was easier said than done. Once Haydn's crypt was opened, it became evident that someone had stolen his skull.
It later turned out that Joseph Carl Rosenbaum, a close friend of Haydn, had bribed a gravedigger in order to make off with the composer's skull shortly after the burial. Rosenbaum was an advocate for phrenology, a popular “science” of the time. He believed that the shape of a person's skull was indicative of the person's talents and abilities. Inspecting Haydn's skull, he thought he saw the “seal of hearing.” This meant that the skull should not be left to decompose in the the ground, but be kept in a special mausoleum in bis yard.
Prince Esterhazy suspected Rosenbaum, but Mrs. Rosenbaum's wife hid the skull under her mattress and then lay on it, claiming that it was “that time of the month.” The Prince, still certain that Rosenbaum had the skull, attempted to buy it from him. Rosenbaum supplied a skull, but it obviously wasn't Haydn's. The prince tried again. Finally, a skull which was not Haydn's was put with the rest of Haydn's remains, which were duly transported to Eisenstadt.
Just before Rosenbaum died in 1829, he gave Haydn's skull to a friend, who likewise handed it to someone else, and so on over the rest of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Eminent doctors and pathologists and their families kept the skull, until finally one of the recipients decided to just donate it to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.
Finally, in 1954, there was a ceremony at the Musikverein. The skull was put on display in a lavishly decorated urn. A procession of 100 cars drove past Haydn’s birthplace in Rohrau and thence to the church in Eisenstadt, where the skull was finally reconnected with its body. So what if the ersatz skull formerly included in the burial chamber was also there. Aren't two heads better than one?
http://inmozartsfootsteps.com/2227/the-strange-story-of-haydns-missing-skull/#:~:text=After%20the%20skull%20was%20discovered,authorities%20unsuccessfully%20searched%20Rosenbaum's%20home.&text=This%20meant%20that%20on%20December,it%20to%20their%20physician%2C%20Dr.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haydn%27s_head
http://historycollection.com/composer-josef-haydns-head-missing-145-years-now-hes-buried-extra-head/
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Latest reply: Jan 6, 2021
Defying old man winter
Posted Jan 4, 2021
The winter hasn't been all that bad so far, compared to some that we've had. Nevertheless, it's my nature to want to keep it at bay. Just because it's been mild so far, that doesn't mean I want a sudden bout of really cold temps or an ice storm or two feet of snow.
In that vein, I want to use this journal to highlight some of my alliesi in the fight against wintry excess:
1. Exhibit A is the lush green Coneflower leaves in a planter on my porch. I've just gotten up from my computer to open the door and admire them. Granted, there are four other planters on the porch, and the coneflowers in them are all dormant now. These must be super-hardy. 
2. The bunny that ran under my car yesterday. Also, the geese down by the river. I give them kudos for acting as if being out in the wintry weather is the most normal thing there is.
3. The holly on the entrance ramp. Likewise the dwarf Alberta spruces. Granted, they like even colder winters than we are having now, but the current mildness seems not to phase them. And they'll do fine if it gets colder.
4. Black-eyed Susans, a.k.a. Rudbeckia. These plants are almost evergreens in the sense that by the end of every growing season they have put out a new generation of little plants from the roots. Those leaves are small but green, and they stay green even if there are leaves or snowdrifts on top of them. Matter of fact, Rudbeckia should be the subject of the next entry I submit to Peer Review. Who knows, maybe I can write such a dazzling entry that it will get to the Edited Guide in record time. (Dream on, paulh.) Well, a guy can dream....
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Latest reply: Jan 4, 2021
Walking around the park on New Year's Day
Posted Jan 1, 2021
I went outside to mail a letter at the mailbox at the next corner.
While I was out, I decided to walk around the Trailer Park and see how the plants were doing in their dormancy phase.
Well, there's not a lot to see. Just dead leaves and stems. A thick layer of snow has already come and gone, pushing the dead matter down. We won't even know where the new growth will be coming up when Spring comes. Oh, well.
Still, it's a very restful sight. The little spruces look remarkably chipper, considering that hostas were planted between them, and stole their thunder. Now the hostas are no more than mats of dead leaves and stems, while the spruces sit there like fuzzy green Buddhas, meditating on the meaning of life, the universe and everything.
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Latest reply: Jan 1, 2021
Here's to a happier New Year than 2020
Posted Dec 31, 2020
It wasn't just Covid-19 that made 2020 a problem for me.
Anxiety was building up in me from the start. Even with better meds.
It took a lot of extra work to find behavioral health clinicians to help me, because my HMOP as booked solid, and still seems to be.
In early October, my computer was hacked. I'm not certain that it is free of hacking now, though some of the initial problems seem to go into remission form time to time. I bought a new computer. The shop I bought it from won't give it a test for viruses/malware, because hey think it's extremely unlikely that any are there.
I thought that an intruder was getting into my house and rearranging ym stuff, or making strange (but harmless) substitutions. I had the locks changed. Nothing is guaranteed, but *some* of the things that I thought were done by an intruder were probably done by me, and I forgot.
I am still here, still have electricity and a working phone and an Internet service provider. My bank accounts and investments are, as far as I can tell, still intact.
I wake up every morning, am able to handle basic daily chores, and have not gotten the fever/cough/sore throat/breathing problems that would indicate the virus.
My car still works, and I drive it just enough to keep the battery charged.
Except for high blood pressure, my doctor says that I am healthy. I am taking a new blood pressure med. I hope it is working. I bought a blood pressure monitor, but can't figure out how to make it work.
Today heating oil was delivered to my tank, so I can hopefully have another six to eight weeks of heat.
There may be many people who would read this journal and think that I am doing well. In many ways they would be right.
Happy New Year, everyone!
(Did my heart just skip a beat? Well, it resumed beating, so maybe I will be all right....)
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Latest reply: Dec 31, 2020
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paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant
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