text:
organum
Twelfth Century
Hildegard's life (1098-1179) spans most of the twelfth century, one of the richest and most fascinating periods in cultural and intellectual history. Among the distinguished personages of this century are Dante Alighieri, Peter Abelard and his wife Helöise, Thomas á Beckett, John of Salisbury, the fresco painter Gaddo Gaddi, Leonin of Notre Dame, Bernard of Clairvaux, the Gothic architectural pioneer Suger of St. Denis and countless lesser names of philosophic, literary and artistic figures. The abbeys, monasteries, and convents had been the intellectual and artistic centers of Europe since about the year 800 A.D., but it was during the twelfth century that this began to shift to the cathedrals. And it was during this time that schools attached to the cathedrals began to develop into universities. This was how the University of Paris developed out of the Notre Dame Cathedral School and similar developments took place in the establishment of universities such as those of Bologna, Salamanca, and Oxford.
Paradoxically, the shift of intellectual activity from the cloisters to the cathedrals had the effect of bringing a secular influence into the cultural artifacts of that time. This was because the cathedrals were attended and patronized by the nobility and other wealthy and influential lay persons whereas the cloisters were peopled primarily by monks, nuns and low level clerics of the church.1 To be sure, the cloisters were often visited by traveling artists and intellectuals, but the documentation and librarianship of that time were controlled by the clerical officers of the cloisters, persons who belonged to religious orders of the Church.
In the field of musical polyphony and church music, this can be seen in the shift of significant compositional activity away from the Abbey of St. Martial at Limoges to the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. St Martial's was established in the ninth century and by the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries had become an important center for church music, particularly polyphony. Organum purum or melismatic organum was developed there, and also the note against note style which soon led to the conductus style of the thirteenth century. But by the late twelfth century the musical developments at the Cathedral of Notre Dame had begun to eclipse those of the St. Martial School, first through the rhythmic developments of Leonin, particularly in his Magnus Liber, and then through the artistry of his successor Perotin. A later manifestation of the shift of musical innovation to the cathedrals is found in the work of Guillaume de Machaut who in the fourteenth century was Canon of the Cathedral at Rheims.2
In the canon of Western music the three composers just mentioned are generally regarded as the earliest professional writers of music whose names are known to history. That is, they are the earliest who self-consciously regarded themselves as composers and who are viewed by history as the earliest Western composers known by name. While there are earlier names to be mentioned such as Odo, John Cotten (Affligamensis), Hucbald, and Guido, historians generally regard these early musical figures as theorists rather than composers even though they certainly composed. When composers became attached to cathedrals, however, they were furnishing a service to the community, not simply providing music for the canonical offices and the mass as in the cloisters. Under the patronage of secular powers, they were creating musical artifacts which began to be viewed as important commodities. They began to be public figures. Perhaps the most famous medieval manifestation of this is Machaut's production of his Mass for the coronation of Charles V of France (Charles the Wise) at Notre Dame in the year 1364, a work which every college music major for the past fifty years has learned is "the first complete musical setting of the ordinary of the mass by an individual composer." As a cathedral musician, Machaut was allowed to indulge his musical and entrepreneurial individuality far more than if he had been a cloistered monk such as Odo or Hucbald.
By contrast, Hildegard of Bingen spent all of her adult life and much of her childhood in one or another cloister and, although she traveled, her perspective on the world of international music would have been limited. In 1106 at the age of eight her affluent and noble parents placed her under the care and guidance of one Jutta, an anchorite nun of noble lineage who lived secluded in the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg in the Rhine valley. There Hildegard learned much, including a good reading knowledge of Latin, while participating in the daily canonical offices through which she certainly would have acquired skill in singing as well as musical knowledge. She took the veil at age seventeen, and when Jutta died in 1136, Hildegard became the sister superior of a group of nuns which had been gradually forming within the Benedictine monastery. It was this group which, around 1147-1150, seceded from the monastery (to the displeasure of the Monks of Disibodenberg) and established a convent at Rupertsberg near Bingen.
Although she had been composing songs to her own religious texts throughout this period, it never would have occurred to Hildegard to have thought of herself as a composer, even if she had been a man. For one thing, she was preoccupied with the writings for which she became justly renowned such as the Scivias. Her desire to reform the Church absorbed much of her time, and in her sixties she undertook several preaching tours along the Main and Rhine rivers. Although she became an international figure, she had neither the opportunity nor the inclination to promote herself as a composer or a poet.
Indeed, she would have thought it an unwomanly thing to do, for in a letter written between 1148 and 1170 to Tengswich of Andernach she quotes the Apostle Paul as follows: "The woman who is subject to the male power of her husband, joined to him through the primal rib, should have great modesty. . . " As the letter continues, she exalts the virtue of humility, especially for women, and it is clear that she possessed a feudal Weltanschauung in which every person should keep to his or her place in society (Flanagan, 1996, pp. 156-159). Both her gender and her cloistered condition argued against her music becoming known beyond a limited circle. By contrast, her contemporary, the less-than-modest Peter Abelard wrote songs and poetry as an avocation which are periodically mentioned in manuscripts as recent as the eighteenth century.
Thus, though known to literary and cultural historians as the "Sybil of the Rhine" for her prophetic and visionary writings, her achievements as a composer have been totally ignored in this century until the past decade or so. That she is now beginning to take her proper and justified place in music history is due in large part to the contemporary feminist movement and this too is a paradox, for she would have heartily disapproved of the feminine attitudes and postures of today. She was a conservative even in her own time and I believe that if she were alive today her strongly held views would have been too orthodox for the women's movement.
In illustration of her neglect as a composer until very recently, the 1969 edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica contains an informative entry for her, but makes no mention of her musical achievements. There is no mention of her in the Music History authored by Donald Jay Grout, even in the later editions produced by others. Yet even Gustave Reese, a great scholar who sometimes ventured outside of the canon into the musics of non-Western cultures, makes no mention of her in his monumental Music of the Middle Ages. One would have expected Edith Borroff, in her fine history entitled Music in Europe and the United States, to have discussed Hildegard's music had she known about it in 1971, for part of her mission in that book was to transcend the canon of Western music and to show the limitations of then-prevailing approaches to music history. It was really not until the present decade that Hildegard of Bingen began to come into her own through transcriptions of her music by Pozzi Escot, recordings by Ellen Oak, the Augsburg Ensemble, and others; as well as by the annotated translations of her writings by Baird, Ehrman and Flanagan cited in the attached Bibliography. Today, there are lengthy articles about her highly varied achievements in all of the standard references even including CD Rom encyclopedias such as Grolier and Encarta.
One of my early encounters with the name of Hildegard of Bingen was in a seventeenth century English translation of the letters of Helöise and Abelard. In his Foreword, the translator praised the intellectual achievements of Helöise—that she could read and write Latin, Greek and Hebrew and that her philosophical perceptions were at least equal to those of her teacher and husband, Peter Abelard. Then he added that Hildegard, the Sybil of the Rhine, was the only woman of Helöise's time whose intellectual achievements could conceivably equal those of the wife of Abelard. Thus, Hildegard's achievements as a scholar and mystical visionary have been known for centuries. It is only her artistic achievements3 that have been ignored, and that may be partly because they were not at the top of her own priority list.
We will perhaps never know exactly how she came to write music, but it must be remembered that music was an integral part of the daily lives of every anchorite and anchoress of the middle ages. The Divine Offices or canonical hours were celebrated with a sung service every few hours from the early morning Matins and Lauds throughout the day to Vespers. This would have been true in the out-of-the-way cloisters where Hildegard lived in the Rhine valley, just as it was in the papal centers and cathedrals. Practicing this Opus Dei on a daily basis from the age of eight in the cloister, she would have been profoundly familiar with a vast number of Gregorian chants, but might well have sung them in quite a different manner than the romanticized renderings advocated by the nineteenth and twentieth century Monks of Solesmes. She and her colleagues quite possibly sang them metrically, using the rhythmic modes.4
The appropriate rhythmic character in the performance of Gregorian chant has been the subject of learned discussion from the ninth century to the present. The generally accepted point of view is that the musical rhythm should follow the speech rhythm of the text. In Apel's discussion of rhythm in Gregorian chant, he goes so far as to say that neither he nor anyone else has any certain knowledge of rhythmic performance practice in early chant (Apel, 1958, p.126). Later research has shed some light on the subject, but it continues to be a quagmire of hypotheses and suppositions. One reason for this is that medieval musicians relied a great deal on their memory of the liturgy, so that the extant chant manuscripts in many cases do not indicate all that went into the renditions of Gregorian chant.
In modern times the Benedictine Monks of Solesmes advanced what has been the most widely accepted theory today—namely, that the neumes indicate notes of more or less equal5 duration, like modern eighth notes; and that the first note of recognizable groups of two or three notes should receive an almost imperceptible accent called the ictus. The location of the ictus is defined by a vertical episema, a short vertical line placed above the neume. The vertical episema was the most prevalent, but there were also horizontal episemata. They too were used to indicate an almost imperceptible lengthening of the tone, and sometimes also—when lengthened to encompass two or three neumes—to indicate a rhythmic grouping of two or three tones. The various theories that metrical rhythm was used in medieval chant performance are based upon these groupings of two or three notes indicated by vertical and horizontal episemata. That is, since the medieval metrical feet consisted of groupings of two or three notes, the groupings indicated by the episemata in chant notation could have been meant to indicate the use of metrical rhythm in the singing of ecclesiastical chant. The placement of the icti are explained in the Liber Usualis (p. xxviii). Many episemata can be observed in the early chant notation prior to the establishment of diastemic notation and the four line staff. They are particularly prevalent in the manuscripts of St. Gall.6
The use of metrical or poetic feet originated with the ancient Greeks. From the standpoint of the history of musical rhythm, the references to these meters in the writings of Cicero and Priscian are most significant. Thus the link between poetry, rhetoric and music is an ancient phenomenon, and all Medieval music was heir to it. It is this that has led to the assumption that a rhythmic structure similar to modern compound meters may have been used in Medieval chant performance. The Medieval rhythmic modes are realized in this way in modern notation in Figure 1.
Figure 1. The Medieval Rhythmic Modes Realized in Modern Compound Meters
The Solesmes position remains the most accepted viewpoint. It acknowledges the use of speech rhythm and the groupings of two or three neumes defined by the episemata, but does not advocate the use of meters. While the rhythm of the words and the music are in agreement when viewed in longer phrase units, the ictus does not necessarily coincide with the individual word accents (Paleógraphie Musicale, Vol. VII). Apel acknowledges the Solesmes point of view and the equalist theories. He also admits the evidence that metrical performance may have existed. Thus, it is puzzling that he gives little credence to it, especially since he offers no explanation (Ibid., p. 125, 129-132).
There are reasons to question Apel's summary dismissal of the use of measured rhythms in early Gregorian chant performance. Apparently, finding no consensus among the varied and diverging opinions of the so-called "mensuralists,"7 he concluded that Pothier, author of Les Mélodies Grégoriennes (1881) and a predecessor and teacher of Mocquereau, came closest to a plausible explanation of his favored theory of "free rhythm" (Ibid., p. 130). In point of fact, it is possible to interpret Pothier as a kind of mensuralist, for he perceives the use of breves and longs as having control over the rhythmic character of chant performances—even though there may have been considerable latitude in their relative durations to incorporate a feeling of rhythmic freedom.
The exhaustive research of the Jesuit priest J.W.A. Vollaerts (1901-56) into the rhythmic proportions of Gregorian chant was probably not known to Apel, the definitive second edition of Vollaert's book having been published in 1960—two years after the date of Apel's Gregorian Chant. In a complex but credible argument Vollaerts favors the theory that early performances of Gregorian chant utilized the rhythmic modes. He supports this premise with a vast array of medieval manuscripts which he examined as well as by writings of musicians of the time. His hypothesis is that metrical performances of Gregorian chant were the general rule in the chant performances preceding the tenth century, but that in the succeeding periods the carelessness of the singers and slovenly copying of manuscripts led to a gradual decay of this practice (Vollaerts, 1960, p. 217). He also believed that the practice of organum, which became increasingly prevalent from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, tended to equalize the tones of a chant in order for the singers to more easily match their parts to the other parts (Ibid., pp. 217-218).
Vollaerts believed that the reason that some of the later medieval manuscripts omitted indications of metrical practice is because the musicians relied heavily upon their memory of the chants (Ibid., p. XIII). He cites a large number of manuscripts—all from the Monastery at St. Gall—in which can be seen a gradual disappearance of metrical rhythmic notation from the ninth to the twelfth centuries (Ibid., pp. 12-15). Most important, however, are the writings of various well known musicians of the period—John Cotton (Affligamensis), Guido, Hermanus Contractus, and Odo—all of whom bemoaned the careless performances of singers who allowed the traditions of the past to decay (Ibid., p. 218).
One of the most telling quotes is from Hucbald.8 Since he is dealing with the performance of a Gregorian antiphon, it is concrete evidence that rhythmic-metric performance was common practice in the ninth century. It is in dialogue form as follows:
"1. Teacher: A very careful watch must be kept to ensure that every melody be performed rhythmically.
Pupil: What is 'to perform rhythmically?'
Teacher: This consists of watching to see where one must observe long sound-duration and where, short. For, just as (in poetry) one pays attention to see which syllables are short and which long, so (in music) one must see which are long sounds and which are short, in order that longs and shorts may lawfully alternate with each other, and also in order that the melody may be beaten out as by metrical verse-feet" (Ibid., p. 205; originally in Gerbert, 1784, V. II).
Later on Hucbald speaks of the 2:1 proportion by which he means the changing of a tempo to twice as fast or twice as slow. As in the case of Guido and the other medieval teacher-theorists, Hucbald was undoubtedly writing with his choir boys in mind. The terms short and long in this passage refer to the specific note values of the brevis and the longus.
While there may be no certain knowledge of rhythmic practice in early Gregorian chant performance; the existence of metrical-rhythmic chant performance (at least in the ninth and tenth centuries) cannot be doubted. Vollaerts presents a fascinating chart of several different pre-staff notations of the same melody (Tribulationes Cordis mei) using the incipient Medieval neumes which are actually rhetorical accent symbols. The chart demonstrates the use of the so-called "rhythmic letters" ("c", "a" and "t") which were abbreviations indicating various rhythmic nuances. Vollaerts emphasizes the significance of the episemata in these early examples (Ibid., pp. 147-150).
To summarize, Vollaert's hypothesis is that metrical performances of Gregorian chant were the general rule from their inception at least until the tenth century, but that after that the carelessness of the singers and slovenly copying of manuscripts gradually led to a decay of this practice, perhaps by the end of the twelfth century (Vollaerts, 1960, p. 217). He also believed that the practice of organum, which became increasingly prevalent from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, tended to equalize the tones of a chant in order that the singers could more easily match the tones of the counterpoint or vox organalis to the tones of the chant or vox principalis. It was this equalization which led to the disappearance of metrical renderings of chant, and in the nineteenth century to the codification of chant performance by the Monks of Solesmes.
To fully understand how Gregorian chant would have been performed according to Vollaerts' hypothesis, one must understand that much twelfth century music gave the overall impression of having been composed in lilting compound meters such as the modern 6/8 or 9/8. This is supported by John of Garland (fl. 1240 A.D.) whose treatise De musica mensurabili positio (Coussemaker V.I) describes Perotin's method of composing. "Anonymous IV" (fl. 1275, also in Coussemaker V.I) describes the twelfth century use of the rhythmic modes writing at considerable length of the music of both Perotin and Leonin.
We have no way of knowing whether or not organum was utilized in the cloisters inhabited by Hildegard, but it is likely that it was, since it was practiced far afield in the twelfth century, even as far away as Iceland. On the other hand, Hildegard was a powerful personality as well as one who held to conservative, even orthodox, viewpoints. Thus, it may be that as Abbess she exerted an influence to preserve the pure metric renditions of Gregorian chant unadorned by polyphony. In her own music there are few if any indications of metric practice, but this in no way indicates that meters and rhythmic modes were not used in performance. Groupings of notes in threes or twos could well indicate perfect or imperfect tempi or major or minor prolations even prior to the mensural notation that was to be codified more than a century later. Rhythmic and metric practice was constantly evolving, even as it is today.
It seems logical to presume that Hildegard was amply exposed both to metric renditions of Gregorian chant as well as to the polyphony that was becoming increasingly complex in the twelfth century along with the note against note metrical counterpoint that would later lead to the conductus and the fourteenth century motet. It should also be remembered that she traveled a great deal delivering sermons, especially when she was in her sixties, so she might well have heard a variety of musical practices in various parishes.
Modern transcriptions of chants composed by Hildegard are written in conventional chant notation like the Liber Usualis in modern notation. I am unaware of any attempts to impose a structured meter upon Hildegard's music but in light of the foregoing discussion, it might well be justified. As an experiment, I imposed a 6/8 meter upon Hildegard's Antiphon No. Nine "De Sancta Maria" using the transcription by Pozzi Escot (Escot, 1991). While it was necessary to make some discretionary and perhaps arbitrary judgments in the process, I found that the metrical version revealed a musical quality not found in the original version. In the twentieth century we have come to revere the free speech rhythm of the Solesme-style renditions of Gregorian chant, but it is a revelation to hear them sung with the metrical approach advocated by Vollaerts. There is a great need for a fresh scholarly approach to this literature.
Hildegard's musical experience may also have included secular music, for the twelfth century is one of the richest periods for the art of the aristocratic poet musicians known as Trouvères in southern Europe, especially in Provence, and a few decades later, the Minnesingers of northern Europe. Since the latter group coincided with Hildegard's life both chronologically and geographically, it is likely that she could have heard performances by composer-singers such as Spervogel, Walther von der Vogelweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Neidhart von Reuenthal, and Tannhäuser. There are others which could be named, but these are the chief figures whose lives were more or less contemporaneous with Hildegard's later years.
There is evidence in her writings that she not only knew secular music, but was familiar with certain musical instruments not ordinarily used in liturgical services. In that passage of the Scivias (1141) entitled "The Vision of the Virtues," female figures appear, the fifth and last of whom is attired in armor, a helmet, a sword at her side and carrying a spear. "And there were also people," writes Hildegard, "some of whom were sounding trumpets, and others were drolly making a noise with players' instruments, and others were playing diverse games." While the quotation sounds sympathetic to these secular amusements, as the passage concludes, the female warrior "savagely transfixed them with the spear she carried in her right hand" (Flanagan, 1996, p. 31). Hildegard would have attributed this action simply to what she had observed, for ostensibly she was merely reporting her visions. But could the passage also have indicated a disapproval of the frivolity of secular diversions?
When Hildegard writes of voices having to do with music, she often uses the metaphor of flowing waters in a mood of spirituality. Thus, singing without instruments is for her a manifestation of religious devotion. The following is from the passage "Concerning Perseverance and Holiness" from The Book of Life's Merits (1158-1163). "And their voices are as the sound of many waters, since in their praises they sound like the waters of salvation, in the concord of a single sound, and in the spiritual breath of a single will"9 (Ibid., p. 42). Yet near the beginning of the same work in the opening passage entitled "The Vision of the Cosmic Man," a "living fiery multitude" gazed upon a tablet containing secrets of God "And when they looked upon the writings, the might of God gave them the power to resound with all kinds of music in one sound as of a very loud trumpet" (Ibid., p. 40). Lip reed instruments such as sackbuts and trumpets were commonly used throughout feudal Europe as community alarms because of their loud sound. The town brass players, then, held official pseudo-military positions but also functioned in a more purely musical fashion. Turmmusik (tower music) concerts of brass ensembles are presented even today in certain cities such as Innsbruck, a vestige of medieval practice.
Another reference to secular music and an instrument never used in the Church is found in the passage entitled "Jeremiah on the Perdition of Souls," also from The Book of Life's Merits. It is an exegetical passage in which Hildegard writes of what would have happened had you (the reader) walked in God's ways. "He would have displayed you as the light of clarity in the renown of most holy deeds and made you ring like the sweet sound of a lyre" (Ibid., p. 46). This, indeed, implies a high opinion of a non-liturgical and secular musical instrument.
A later passage in The Book of Life's Merits suggests a very broad view of music associated with secular delight and joy, quite the opposite of the asceticism sometimes associated with the cloistered life of the convent. Most of Hildegard's visions are associated with a bright light and this is the case here from the passage concerning "The Heavenly Joys of Seculars . . ." She is speaking of "another intense brightness," greater and clearer than before, and "beyond human understanding" when she writes, "And in it I perceived the totality of every delight, and all kinds of music, and voices of many singers and the joy of those who rejoice, and an abundance of all gladness; . . ." Remembering that she is now speaking of secular joys, a few sentences later she adds, "And they were touched from time to time by a certain very sweet breeze, proceeding from the hidden places of God, having all the perfumes of plants and flowers; and then they gave forth the sound of sweetest harmony, and their voices resounded as the sound of many waters" (Ibid., p. 60). This certainly suggests vocal polyphony of some sort perhaps similar to the Notre Dame organum of Leonin. Thus, it is possible to conclude, at the very least, that Hildegard's musical world included not only the traditional monody of sacred chant sung in the traditional metrical fashion, but also polyphonic music as well as secular musical instruments. Since the latter were used primarily for the accompaniment of secular song, I conclude that she must also have known the music of the Minnesingers.
What then is the nature of this music which might have influenced Hildegard's own musical style? Flourishing a generation or two after the Troubadors and Trouvères, the Minnesingers also were generally of noble lineage. Some were Crusader knights and, like their south European counterparts, often traveled from place to place singing their songs. It is quite possible that some of them may have visited the cloister at Rupertsberg or that Hildegard may have heard them at some point in her travels.
The Minnesinger texts were of a more serious nature than those of the Trouvères, but their Tagelieder and Wächterlieder were similar to the Alba and Alborado—songs of early morning to warn lovers of the approaching dawn or to call them to prayer. Also the Leich was the Minnesinger counterpart of the Lai (or Lay), a strophic song with a text in praise of the Virgin Mary which later evolved into praise addressed to a lady.10
From the perspective of musical scales, the Minnesingers used modality more freely than did the Trouvères with frequent intervals of thirds presaging triadic harmony. Also, since their favorite modes were the Dorian and Phrygian, a minor quality crept into their melodies. Rhythmically, they most certainly would have used the metric modes, with a preference for duple meters such as Trochaic and Iambic. Although strophic forms were common, it appears that the Minnesingers also invented the bar form which Richard Wagner later celebrated in Die Meistersinger. This consisted of Zwei Stollen und ein Abgesang, an AAB form of two identical verses followed by an "aftersong" or refrain (Gleason, 1960, pp. 38-39).
Thus, one can speculate that Hildegard's musical world included not only the profoundly lyrical songs of the liturgy sung not in speech rhythm but in metrical fashion, but also an abundance of musical instruments used for various purposes in the secular world. Nor could she have failed to have heard at least some of the folk song and secular song which abounded during her long life in the twelfth century. Even if her visions were the result of migraines, epilepsy or some other physical or psychological phenomenon (as suggested by her biographers), the secular instruments and choral and solo voices heard therein must have had some basis in real experience. An argument to the contrary would have a Jungian or metaphysical basis and, while I am willing to grant that possibility, it is more likely that her long and productive life was enriched with real musical sounds of substantial variety.
REFERENCES AND SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Apel, Willi; Gregorian Chant; Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1958.
Baird, Joseph L and Radd K. Ehrman (Translators); The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen, Vol. I (c. 50 of c. 400 extant letters); Oxford University Press, 1995.
Coussemaker, Charles-Edmond Henri de; Scriptorum de musica mediiaevi; Durand, Paris, 1864-1876.
Flanagan, Sabina; Hildegard of Bingen: A Visionary Life; Routledge, London and New York, 1989.
Flanagan, Sabina (Translator); Secrets of God, Writings of Hildegard of Bingen; Shambhala, Boston & London, 1996.
Gerbert, Martin, ed.; Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra potissimum; St. Blasien, 1784; Modern facsimile, Milan, 1931; Reprint, Olms, Hildesheim, 1963.
Gleason, Harold; Music Literature Outlines, Series I, Music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance; Levis Music Stores, 1949.
Liber usualis; Desclée, New York and Tournai, 1962.
Newman, Barbara; Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine; University of California Press, Berkeley, 1987.
Poels, Henry; "Some Catholics who were vilified, then vindicated" National Catholic Reporter, Feb. 3, 1995, v31 n14, p. 12 cf.
Vollaerts, J. W. A.; Rhythmic Proportions in Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Chant; Second Ed., Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960.
Waite, William G.; The Rhythm of Twelfth Century Polyphony, Its Theory and Practice; University and Oxford University Press, New Haven, 1954.
White, John D; Theories of Musical Texture in Western History; Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London, 1995.
Recent Musical Editions
Davidson, Audrey; The "Ordo Virtutum" of Hildegard; Medieval Institute, Kalamazoo, 1985.
Escot, Pozzi (Ed.); Three Antiphons by Hildegard of Bingen; Antiphons 9, 16, and 53; Literal English Translations from the Latin by the Editor; Hildegard Publishing Co. 1991.
Hildegard of Bingen and Her Time, Augsburg Early Music Ensemble, Christophorus 74584 (CD), 1990 (Songs by Hildegard and Abelard).
The Lauds of St. Ursula, Early Music Institute of Indiana University, Focus 911 (CD), 1991.
Jouissance: Hildegard and Abelard, Viriditas, Spectrum Publications (CD), 1994.
1I am using the term cloister in a generic sense to denote any type of abbey, monastery or convent.
2"Canons" of cathedrals are clerical officers charged with specific responsibilities related to canon law. There might have been several canons attached to a major Diocesan center, and Machaut's duties would have been to insure that the musical liturgy was being properly implemented.
3In addition to her musical creativity, she was a skilled illuminator and poet.
4The ensuing discussion of Medieval performance practice in the metrical rendering of liturgical chant is drawn in large part from my recent book Theories of Musical Texture in Western History (Garland, New York and London, 1995).
5The related theories advancing this viewpoint have been called "equalist" theories, of which the Benedictine Monk Mocquereau was the chief proponent.
6Apel's statement that "there is no trace of the vertical episema in any of the medieval sources" is simply incorrect. (Apel, 1958, p. 125)
7Houdard, Riemann, Dechevrens, Fleury, Wagner, Jeannin, Lipphardt, and Jammers
8The authorship of Schola Enchiriadis from which this quotation is drawn remains open to question, although Vollaerts assumes that it is Hucbald.
9The italics in this and following passages appear to be Hildegard's way of highlighting certain passages.
10This mixture of lovemaking and religion has Freudian implications which are beyond the scope of this article.
Last modified on Wednesday, 17/10/2018
John White is Professor Emeritus of the University of Florida. His music is published by G. Schirmer, Galaxy, Ludwig, Lawson-Gould among others. His books include Theories of Musical Texture in Western History (Garland Press, 1995).


Rentals: Our rentals are 24 hours. It is recommended to reserve your item/s in advance, since we offer one of a kind pieces.
We offer delivery and pick up for a small fee that varies depending on the distance and truckload.
If there is something that you want but don't see it in our inventory, give us a call or send us and email, we will do our best to find it for you.
Styling: We offer styling services for photo shoots and events. We can plan the whole photo shoot or event or we can help the day of. Whatever your needs, we would love to help!
Custom Items: Big or small, if you need handmade details, let us know! We will be happy to create a one of a kind detail for you.
Prices: We work with any budget, big or small. Contact us for a consultation.
About Veronica: I am a lover of vintage and celebrations. I have been collecting vintage items since i can remember! There is nothing that makes me happier than putting a little 'environment' together to add beauty to a photo shoot or a celebration.
I have worked in corporate events and studied floral design.
But I could not do this without the help of my amazing husband, the love and inspiration from my little girl, and the cuteness from my puppy.


text:
Biz & IT —
Future of voice recognition: Assistants that learn from you
The makers of Dragon software say future voice recognition systems will …
Jon Brodkin - Mar 12, 2012 6:30 pm UTC
with 23 posters participating
Voice-activated assistants are playing an increasingly prominent role in the technology world, with Apple's introduction of Siri for the iPhone 4S and Google's (rumored) work on a Siri competitor for Android phones.
Voice-activated technology isn't new—it's just getting better because of increasingly powerful processors and cloud services, advancements in natural language processing, and improved algorithms for recognizing voice. We spoke with Nuance Communications, maker of Dragon software and one of the biggest names in voice recognition technologies, about why voice is becoming more popular and what advancements we can expect in the future.
Peter Mahoney, Nuance chief marketing officer and general manager of the Dragon desktop business, told Ars one of the most significant improvements coming in the next few years is a far more conversational voice-activated assistant that remembers everything you say. This should create better responses to casual questions.
"I think you'll see systems that are more conversational, that have the ability to ask more sophisticated followup questions and adapt to the individual," Mahoney said. "They'll be able to remember what you're talking about. Talking to one of these assistants today is like dealing with someone with no short-term memory. They don't remember what you just said. These systems over time are going to get better and better short-term and long-term memory."
Asking Dragon Go! for iPhone "Where can I eat?" results in many interesting responses
How about Thai?
As an example, Mahoney said if you ask Nuance's Dragon Go! app for iPhone to make a reservation in an Italian restaurant tomorrow night at 8pm for four people but don't like the results, you basically have to start over. "You'd like to be able to say 'how about Thai?' instead of trying to repeat the same thing over again, or 'how about next Thursday?' You should be able to follow up and the system should be able to remember your conversation. They don't do that that well today."
Siri is taking steps toward providing a natural, conversation-like experience with voice-activated assistants, as Jacqui Cheng noted in the Ars iPhone 4S review. "When given direct and clear tasks, Siri performs well, and it's nice not having to memorize a strict list of commands," Cheng wrote. "The best part about Siri is the fact that you can (or should be able to, anyway) speak to it like you would speak to a person without having to conform to a special speaking syntax—the number one turn-off for 'regular' people using voice control features."
Siri's limits
Still, the Ars review noted some shortcomings. Siri often misinterpreted casually spoken commands, making it easier in many cases to perform the tasks manually.
The limits of Siri's conversational abilities may be seen in a video by Macworld's Jason Snell. Like the example Mahoney gave, Snell asked Siri "where can I have lunch?" After receiving the results, including 12 nearby restaurants, Snell asked "how about downtown?" Siri's response: "I don't know what you mean by 'how about downtown?'"
Snell said the same request worked on a previous attempt. "Sometimes the Siri software figures out what you mean and its kind of like magic. Other times it doesn't really work that well," he said. "I think that's one of the reasons Apple called this a beta."
The maker of Dragon has many products for desktops and mobile phones, as well as industry-specific software for in-car navigation systems, health care settings, and more. There have been rumors that Nuance technology even powers Apple's Siri on the back end. Nuance told us it can't comment on "specific capabilities or devices." However, the company did confirm that "Apple licenses Nuance's voice technology for use in some of its products."
Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, Nuance has more than 1,000 engineers around the world. Research and development is divided into several categories, Mahoney explained. There's acoustic modeling, for processing audio and mapping it to sounds and words. Language modeling experts, including linguists, help build systems capable of understanding the structure of language and grammar. Natural language processing experts help extract meaningful information from the data gathered by Nuance services.
Nuance's simplest products are available in more than 70 languages. But the more complex desktop applications, such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking for PC, only support about a half-dozen.
"For each of the languages you need a good understanding of what puts the language together, how it's built and how the sounds translate into words," Mahoney said.
Apple's embrace of voice with Siri has increased consumer interest in the technology. "Apple's so strong with user experience that when they embrace voice as a core differentiator, that says to a lot of people it might be good enough, because Apple wouldn't do it if it's not great," Mahoney said.
Siri and Nuance's Dragon Go! for iPhone and Android aren't that different in the technology they use on the back end. They are different implementations, Mahoney said. "What the Siri application does is it tries to interpret what you're asking for and brings you through a very structured set of potential results Apple can deliver to you," he said. "It's very neatly controlled. It tends to be a great experience."
Dragon Go! connects users to results from more than 200 Web properties covering the most likely searches to provide information on restaurants, music and entertainment, local businesses, and other topics. For restaurant queries, Dragon takes users to Yelp for reviews and OpenTable to make reservations.
Machine learning will make voice-activated assistants smarter
Nuance has built up its user experience with various iterations over the years, but it's still a manual process. "Most of the systems require a human to define the different categories of information you're going to support," Mahoney said. "Some person has to decide what are the kinds of things people will ask… You can fool any one of these systems if you work hard enough because they can't answer every single kind of question."
Over the next few years, we'll see voice recognition technologies learn from their users and improve themselves without manual intervention, Mahoney said. "As more machine learning capability gets implemented and more of these systems sort of build themselves, you'll see better and better coverage. The systems will learn from use about what kinds of things they need to cover, and they'll get smarter over time."
Jon Brodkin Jon is Ars Technica's senior IT reporter, covering the FCC and broadband, telecommunications, wireless technology, and more.
Email jon.brodkin@arstechnica.com // Twitter @JBrodkin

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to change strokeColor between points when using DirectionsRenderer I'm using react-google-maps to render map in website. I have a problem about strokeColor for each line when using waypoints for DirectionsService. How to change strokeColor between them and how to callback after using DirectionsService . This is my source same example:

https://tomchentw.github.io/react-google-maps/#directionsrenderer

 let DirectionsService = new google.maps.DirectionsService;
 var directionsDisplay = new google.maps.DirectionsRenderer;
DirectionsService.route(
    {
        origin: new google.maps.LatLng(10.8441402, 106.76757429999999),
        destination: new google.maps.LatLng(10.8463797,106.7721405),
        travelMode: google.maps.TravelMode.DRIVING,
        optimizeWaypoints: true,

        waypoints: [
             {
                 location: new google.maps.LatLng(10.8454946,106.764759),
                 stopover : false
             }
         ]
    },
    (result, status) => {
        console.log(result);
        if (status === google.maps.DirectionsStatus.OK) {
             this.setState({directions: result})
            return (typeof callback == 'function') && callback( result);
        } else {
            console.error(`error fetching directions`, result);
        }
    }
);

Thanks about help

A: In order access DirestionsRendererOptions right in component, you need to use options prop, like that:
<DirectionsRenderer
  directions={props.directions}
  options={{
      polylineOptions: {
          strokeOpacity: 0.5,
          strokeColor: '#FF0000',
      },

  }}
/>

Please see the documentation to find out more about the options you have access to: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/reference/3.exp/directions#DirectionsRendererOptions

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
← Shit happens part IX: The fatal snake hunger of a grebe
Fossil treasures of Messel Pit part II: Crocs and gators →
Fossil treasures of Messel pit part I: Fish
The Messel pit is one of the most spectacular fossil sites of the world. It gives us an incredible insight into a subtropical ecosystem from the Eocene, about 47 million years ago. The special conditions of this Lagerstätte did not only preserve the bones of the animals which lived in and around a deep crater lake, but also in some cases hair, feathers and body silhouettes, even insects with their colors still preserved. It enables us to get a vivid view of a bygone world, from its plants to insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
It was a weird world which consisted of the survivors of the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous 66 million years ago and lineages which had just started to evolve into many animals which we know today. We find a lot of animals which appear surprisingly familiar and modern to us, yet considerably out-of-place in many cases, but also weird archaic lineages and overturned experiments of evolution. In this series I want to feature some of the fossils at the Messel pit exhibition of the Senckenberg Museum at Frankfurt, which I visited in early spring, just before the country was hit by the pandemic. I don´t want to go too much into the details of the species, as this would easily go beyond the scope of this blog article.
I will start the series with the fishes from the exhibition. The most famous fish from Messel pit are quite likely the gars, which I featured already in an earlier blog article several years ago. Today we find gars only in the New World, mainly in the east of the United states, at Cuba and parts of Mesoamerica. But 47 millions years ago gars did swim also in the area which would later become Germany. Gars have interlocking ganoid scales with a very hard layer of enamal on the surface and often fossilize particularly well. The most common species of gar from Messel was Atractosteus strausi (Syn.: A straussi, A. straußi, M. messelensis and A. kinkelini):
Atractosteus strausi, Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt, photo by Markus Bühler
This is a quite common fossil of Messel pit, and you can find similar specimens in many museums around the world. It looked quite similar to modern gars, but remained much smaller than any of the extant species, usually only 20-30 cm on average and about 40 cm at maximum. This is really tiny compared to the giant alligator gar which can reach record lengths of about 3 m. Gars are quite archaic fish which differ from most other extant bony fish in a number of anatomical traits, like their ganoid scales or the heterocercal caudal fins.
Here is another fossil, fully prepped out of the surrounding matrix:
Besides A. strausi we find also another small, yet considerably weirder gar, Masillosteus kelleri. It was somewhat bigger than A. strausi and differed from all extant gars in its short and robust jaws which were not adapted to feed on fish but to crush hard-shelled invertebrates with its big and flattened teeth. Sadly there were no fossils of this species on display, but you can see a great life reconstruction of A. strausi and M. kelleri by Joschua Knüppe here:
Fossil gars of Messel pit by Joschua Knüppe
Besides the gars was also another primeval predator, the amiid Cyclurus keheri:
Cyclurus keheri fossil, Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt. Photo by Markus Bühler
Amiids are a very ancient lineage of bony fish and are not very closely related with any other modern fish. Like the gars they have a heterocercal caudal fin. It was the large fish of this waters and large specimens reached lengths of around 70 cm.
In the Mesozioc there was a huge diversty of amiids, but today there is only one single remaining species, the bowfin (Amia calva) which is restricted to the North American continent. Besides its unusual caudal fin it doesn´t really look particular primitive, but it´s nearly some kind of freshwater analogue of the famous coelacanths of the genus Latimeria. Cyclurus keheri was quite similar to the modern bowfin in appearance, perhaps a little bit stockier. Here is a photo of a modern member of Amia calva by Arthur Kosakowski for comparison:
Modern bowfin (Amia calva), photo by Arthur Kosakowski
Take a close look at the fossil and its well developed teeth, which are very similar to those of the modern bowfin. They aren´t visible in the living fish, because they are hidden by the fleshy lips. Without living relatives for comparisons, we would quite likely only see quite toothy life reconstructions of it. Here is also another nice photo of a juvenile bowfin by Kurtis Smith:
Juvenile bowfin (Amia calva), photo by Kurtis Smith
We know similarly sized specimens from C. keheri from Messel, and tiny gars as well:
Fossil eel, juvenile bowfin, Thaumaturus intermedius and juvenile gars. Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt. Photo by Markus Bühler
The small fish below the bowfin is Thamaturus intermedius. Its taxonomical relations are still somewhat problematic, some of the sources I found say it was related with mooneyes, whereas other sources say it was a member of the Salmoniformes. There are only two remaining species of mooneyes today, which also live solely on the North American continent today, but have a good fossil record from other continents as well. Despite their unremarkable appearance they belong to a quite archaic lineage and have some quite interesting relationships with the Osteoglossiformes which include such remarkable species like arapaimas or arowanas.
On the left you can see a fossil of the eel Anguila ignota, which is the rarest of all fishes from Messel pit, known only from a single specimen.
The ichthyofauna of Messel pit is quite low in species number and appears surprisingly unexotic, unlike the oddballs which we find among the rest of the contemporary fauna (more about them in the next parts of the series). What I find really interesting is that it includes so many lineages which are now restricted the New World, North America in particular.
Another predator was Amphiperca multiformis, a small but particularly large-headed and big-mouthed perch with a deep body, which looked a bit like a small and shortened version of a warmouth (Lepomis gulosus).
Fossils of Amphiperca multiformis, Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt. Photo by Markus Bühler
I made a simple speed-painting based on a skeletal drawing of Amphiperca. I usually spend much more time to make fine details and such things, but this time I really only wanted a quick illustration which was done in little more than an hour. I used some color morphs of the highly variable warmouth as main color reference. The fins of this fish are folded, because it´s directly based on the fossil of a dead fish. When the fish was still alive they were of course flexed and looked slightly different, but I wanted to stay as close as possible to the actual proportions of the fossil, so I didn´t try to reconstruct them in a different shape.
Speed-painting reconstruction of Amphiperca multiformis by Markus Bühler
There is also another small perch known from Messel pit, Palaeoperca proxima, whose fossils are however not as common as those of Amphiperca. It was about 20 cm in total length and had a more elongated body than Amphiperca and the two dorsal fins were distinctly separated. Its proportionally much smaller mouth indicats that it also mainly feed on comparably small prey. Sadly there were no fossils of this species on display. The next part of the Messel pit series will cover the reptiles.
Dieser Beitrag wurde unter Evolution, Fische, Paläontologie veröffentlicht. Setze ein Lesezeichen auf den Permalink.


text:
Home » Scott Selph Named 2023 RPA Instructor of the Year for CGTC
Posted on January 18, 2023 January 18, 2023 by Jordyn Riedmiller-Virgillio
Selph is a Cochran-Bleckley County resident and graduated from Macon Technical College in 1990. This began a career trajectory of 33 years connected to technical education and its mission. In the 2010s, he joined the College as an adjunct instructor and in 2013 became full-time program chair.
"My number one goal every day is to be the teacher I needed when I was in school," he said. "It is not just giving the information to the students but engaging with them and finding out what makes each lesson click. Every one of them learns differently, and it is my responsibility to find out what that way is and apply it."
Selph said he feels like the panel that selected him as the RPA winner could see his passion for students and technical education, a passion that is shared with students regularly when it comes to the benefits of the program.
Precision Machining and Manufacturing, available at the Macon or Warner Robins Campus, provides an exciting and valuable career, according to Selph. Starting points are available in all three semesters, and he said, "it's always a great time to start this program."
"I genuinely believe in our mission here at CGTC and let my excitement and passion show. Since becoming a division head, my eyes have been opened to the college's bigger picture and global scope. Students should know, no matter their age, background, or economic standing, they have a path at CGTC."
Outside of work, Selph is the chairman of trustees at his church. He also coaches t-ball and football in his community. He might also be seen rocking out in several bands or getting a workout five days a week as a fitness enthusiast.
CGTC instructors are nominated by their peers for RPA and then sit through various interview panels to select the winner from a group of five finalists.  Finalists for the 2022 award were Jaqueline Farms, Computer Information System, Deryk Stoops, Electronics Technology, Eli Walker, Computer Skills, Jolie Martin, Cosmetology.
Along with seven other regional finalists, Selph will move on to the central region Rick Perkins Award for Excellence competition hosted at the CGTC Warner Robins campus in March. The 14 other RPA winners from technical colleges across Georgia will compete in north and south regional competitions, where three finalists from each region will be selected to compete in April for the title of State RPA winner.
Central Georgia Technical College, a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, offers credit instruction, adult education, and customized business and industry training through traditional and distance education delivery designed to promote community and workforce development. The College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate degrees and many programs hold industry-specific accreditations, licensure, and approvals from various state and national agencies. Campuses are located in Warner Robins, Macon, and Milledgeville, with six educational centers throughout the region, including the GA VECTR Center in Warner Robins. As one of the largest two-year colleges in the state, CGTC leads Georgia's technical colleges in graduates and awards conferred.
About the Rick Perkins Award
The Rick Perkins Award for Excellence in Technical Instruction honors the Technical College System of Georgia's most outstanding instructors. The award has been an ongoing statewide event since 1991 and is designed to recognize technical college instructors who make significant contributions to technical education through innovation and leadership in their fields. Formerly known as the Commissioner's Award of Excellence, the award was renamed in honor and memory of Thomas "Rick" Perkins, an instructor at West Georgia Technical College, formerly known as West Central Technical College, who received the Commissioner's Award of Excellence prior to his untimely death. The Technical College System of Georgia provides oversight for the Rick Perkins Award program through the system's office and the state planning committee.
Photo: Scott Selph, CGTC 2023 RPA Winner.
This entry was posted in 2023, Campus News and tagged aerospace, aerospace trade and inductry, Instructor of the Year, precision machining, Rick Perkins award, RPA, Scott selph. Bookmark the permalink.


Also new with ADO.NET are DataSet—a replacement of sorts for ADO's old Recordset—as well as DataReader, DataView, and classes such as DataRow, DataColumn, and DataRelation.
DataSet can hold multiple tables of data, all with multiple columns and rows.
DataSet also serves as a miniature facsimile of a data source, thereby enabling the development of "disconnected DataSets" for use offline.
One potentially timesaving feature is DataSet's capability to change the underlying data source—such as XML files or a specific database—to another data source without modifying your application code.
ADO supported XML through adPerisistXml. In contrast, ADO.NET lets you "load the contents of the DataSet from any XML format, and write the contents to an XML format that is much simpler and more generic than that of an ADO Recordset saved as XML," according to Microsoft.


There is something magical about chocolate. Nearly all of us grow up adoring it, and we continue to adore it as adults. In fact, our love for chocolate generally only strengthens with time.
Oddly, I was not one of those people. Sure, I liked chocolate well enough in a cake or in its chip form in some ice cream. But it was never something I truly craved until we were volunteering in Nicaragua, when my wife Emma began to buy raw cacao beans and made a rudimentary chocolate.
After Emma learned how chocolate is made, we started eating homemade cacao bars (often flavored with fresh ginger, coffee, lime zest or mint leaves) every night after dinner, sampling the richness in slivers with huge grins on our faces. It was the beginning of a new love affair for me.
I feel fortunate to have visited several cacao farms since then, and I've been to a museum about the history of chocolate as well.
As I sit writing this, I'm in a little cabin at an organic cacao-cultivating guesthouse in Belize, where I've hung my hat for the last three months.
All this exposure to cacao has taught me to have a deeper appreciation for the food. After getting a peek behind the curtain, I now understand the history of chocolate, how the tree is grown, and what it takes to transform the fruit into a delicious morsel of ecstasy.
Most people know that cacao originated in the Americas, along the Amazon some 4000 years ago. By 600 AD, it had migrated north and was an important part of Mayan life.
The Mayans are widely thought of as the original chocolatiers.
For them, cacao beans were so valuable that they were used as currency. But the chocolate beloved by the ancient Maya was quite different than what we have today.
Chocolate began as a drink, á la hot chocolate. But back then the cacao beans were ground into a paste on stones. As the paste melted in water, it was flavored with things like spicy chili peppers, honey, and cardamom.
For the Maya, the beverage wasn't consumed to warm up a winter's days, as we often do today. Instead, it served as a sacred part of their ancient religious ceremonies.
Milk and sugar weren't actually added to the mix until about 1000 years later. Once cacao made its way to Europe, its global popularity blossomed to insane proportions.
Nowadays, the world consumes about 600,000 tons of chocolate each year. It is grown in Central and the northern South America, as well as Africa and Asia, and it is consumed virtually everywhere.
A lot of people are surprised to learn that cacao grows on trees. There are three main strains: criollo, forastero, and trinitario.
The oblong fruit could possibly be likened to an autumn squash. It affixes itself along the trunk and main branches of the tree, a spindly thing spanning out horizontally and donning floppy leaves.
Inside the fruit, a few dozen cacao beans are coated in a slimy white substance. Their pulp is sweet and tasty, but it's what's inside them that ultimately makes the magic happen.
Cacao is interesting because, like coffee, the tree prefers shady spots. It's also quite finicky, preferring altitudes between 100 and 1000 feet, year-round temperatures 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit, and an annual rainfall of 60 to 75 inches. In other words, cacao won't just grow anywhere.
The Farm Inn, where I'm currently living, has an amazing method of cultivating cacao. Not wanting to disturb the old growth jungle, farmers clear away only the underbrush and plant the cacao trees beneath the existing canopy.
Oftentimes everything is cleared, and shade trees such as banana, papaya, and rubber trees are planted. Everything is done organically, with no chemicals involved.
A cacao tree typically takes three to five years to produce fruit. While their lifespans can be a century or more, it typically produces fruit for 25 to 40 years. Trees will yield up to 70 fruits annually, producing roughly six pounds of chocolate.
But fresh cacao beans are nothing like chocolate. They are bitter, unsweetened, and just beginning the arduous journey to create the sweet treat we know and love.
Before cacao beans can be converted into chocolate, they must undergo a specific process of fermentation.
The harvested, pulpy beans are piled into wood boxes or baskets, where they are fermented for several days (two days for criollos, and up to nine for the others).
The fermentation process takes away the bitterness and activates important enzymes inside.
After fermenting, the cacao is dried in the sun for several days. It is during this time that the rich, lovely chocolatey smell permeates the air. The dried beans also shed nearly half their weight, and it is in this state that they are inspected and ultimately sold.
The next (and possibly most important) step is the roasting process, where the chocolate's flavor really develops. Roasting delivers chocolate's signature taste and weakens the shells so that those popular cacao nibs can finally make their first appearance.
At this point, we're still technically working with cacao.
From the nibs, factories squeeze out cacao butter. The nibs are about 50% butter, and this fat is what makes great chocolate great, providing its flavor, smell, texture and luster.
The remaining portion of the nibs is ground to create cocoa powder. Chocolatiers then combine, heat, temper, and mold it to create chocolate bars, kisses, chips, and so on.
To make homemade chocolate, we simply leave the butter and powder as one, put in a bit of raw sugar, and add whatever flavors we wanted– chili peppers, peanuts, etc.
Unfortunately, the chocolate industry is currently in dire straights. Because cacao trees are slow to produce and demand continues to increase, we're actually beginning to consume more chocolate than we can produce each year.
As a result, companies are beginning to weaken their mixtures. They're replacing good cacao fat with other vegetable oils, and stuffing our bars with things like nougat and wafers.
So while the demand for chocolate is increasing, the quality of the chocolate we're eating collectively is in steady decline (both in terms of taste and health).
Cacao growers are working to develop more productive strains to help keep up with the need for more chocolate. But with five years to wait, it's an arduous process. Growers sample the fruit of their labor, decide if it's worthy of cultivation, and get it all planted. Then they wait five more years.
In the meantime, commercial producers like Cadbury have wisely begun decreasing the size of their bars so that they maintain the same quality. If we, as consumers, want to continue enjoying good chocolate in the years to come, we should probably consider limiting our consumption as well.


If you are facing court proceedings, it is not too late to seek legal advice from the best criminal defence lawyers. Good representation is vital if your matter proceeds to trial.
As top criminal lawyers for high net worth and high income individuals, we can help you protect your liberty, your reputation, and your career. We often work closely with our Reputation & Privacy department, our Employment department, and our Family department to provide complete legal support in every aspect of life that might be affected when you're facing criminal charges.
Our specialist criminal lawyers are available to advise and represent our clients—often entrepreneurs, professionals, sports stars, and celebrities—around the clock. We understand the impact on yourself, your family and your career that criminal charges can have, whether they be for fraud, sexual or drug crimes, or anything else.
The overall length of court proceedings will partly depend upon the nature of the offence which will in turn determine whether the matter will be heard in a Magistrates' Court or Crown Court.
If a matter at the Crown Court is to be contested at trial, it might take anything from a matter of months to in excess of 12 months to conclude whereas you are unlikely to wait longer than a couple of months for a trial in the Magistrates' Court. Crown Court cases usually involve more complex evidence and there are often a greater number of legal issues which must be resolved before trial. The trial itself will be heard before a jury and will therefore be a slower and more drawn out affair and which in turn affects court room availability and waiting times.
Vardags provide representation and advice for all types of criminal trial. We will work with you to try to bring your case to a close and quickly as possible, and will help you manage your legal issues throughout the duration of your case.
Whether an individual will be subjected to bail will first depend on how the matter reached the Magistrate Court. If the individual was summonsed to court, there is no obligation upon the court to impose bail and the court may decide to simply arrange for the individual's attendance at any further court hearings without imposing bail at all. Where a person appears at the Magistrate Court following charge at the police station however, the court must remand that person. The Court may remand on bail or in custody.
Before any decision on bail is made the court will hear representations from both the crown and the defence. It will consider factors such as the nature or seriousness of the offence and the probable sentence if convicted, the individual themselves, their life situation and any antecedents including their record for answering bail in the past and the strength of the evidence against him. The Court must also consider whether they may alleviate any concerns it has by impose any conditions on bail such as conditions to restrict the individual's movements and allow for their monitoring by police.
Vardags will advise you in relation to bail and will help you to obtain bail where possible. We will highlight the facts which boost your chances of bail, including your ability to provide a financial surety to the court.
When someone first comes into contact with the criminal justice system, there is a tendency for them to immediately think the worst without any consideration to the strength of the evidence against them, the stage of the proceedings, and most importantly the gravity of the alleged offence.
Just because an individual may accept the truth of an allegation made against them, there are a wide range of factors which will still need to be considered by the courts in arriving at an appropriate sentence. A prison sentence represents the severest of sentences reserved for the gravest of cases. They are not passed lightly and there is increasing pressure on judges to use alternative means of punishment where at all appropriate given the well documented problems of overcrowding in our prisons.
Vardags can advise you on all aspects of sentencing and will help you to provide mitigation if you are convicted. We will work with you to set out the reasons why a lesser sentence is appropriate.


text:
New Music: Lil Durk feat. Meek Mill – 'Bougie'
3nation July 19, 2019
As he gears up for Love Songs 4 the Streets II, Lil Durk teams up with Meek Mill on his new single "Bougie." The Dreamchasers MC kicks off the Beat Bully and Jahlil Beats-produced track with a heavy-hitting verse. Durk follows with his own braggadocious rhymes about his lifestyle, […]
Beyoncé's Lion King-Inspired Album Is Here, And 'Mood 4 Eva' Is Already Iconic
Beyoncé's "Lion King" inspired-album, "The Lion King: The Gift," is here. It features an already-iconic collaboration with Jay-Z and Childish Gambino called "Mood 4 Eva." Powered by WPeMatico
Ronnie Just Dropped A Jersey Shore Bombshell And Everyone Is Shook
The 'Jersey Shore: Family Vacation' crew found themselves shocked over Ronnie's potentially life-changing news. Powered by WPeMatico
Stream Nas' Album 'The Lost Tapes 2'
The wait is over. Seventeen years after the release of The Lost Tapes, Nas returns with the highly-anticipated sequel to 2002's cult classic. The Lost Tapes 2 features unreleased tracks from Nas' last four albums including Hip-Hop Is Dead (2006), Untitled (2008), Life Is Good (2012), and Nasir (2018), […]
Stream Iggy Azalea's Album 'In My Defense'
Five years since the release of her debut album The New Classic, Iggy Azalea is back with In My Defense. The project, her first since going independent, marks a return to her mixtape roots. Leading up to the release, Iggy dropped several tracks and visuals including "Sally Walker," "Started," […]
Stream Beyoncé's Album 'The Lion King: The Gift'
The Lion Queen is here. While The Lion King hits theaters, Beyoncé pay tribute to the film with her companion album The Lion King: The Gift. The musical ode to Disney's live-action reboot of the 1994 animated classic features new music from Queen Bey, who also serves as the […]
Listen to XXXTentacion's Posthumous Single 'Royalty'
Over a year after his death, XXXTentacion's music lives on. The late rapper shows his versatility on his posthumous single "Royalty" featuring KyKy-Mani Marley, Vybz Kartel, and Stefflon Don. Over the sultry dancehall rhythm, produced by Jamaican producer JonFx, X pays homage to his Jamaican roots while his co-stars […]
New Music: Tory Lanez – 'Forever'
The One Umbrella summer continues. One week after dropping "Melee," Tory Lanez unleashes his latest track "Forever." Over the Cassius Jay beat, the Toronto rapper celebrates brotherhood, loyalty, and unity—through ups and downs, legal drama, getting money, and beating cases. "If shit get wild and you kill a ni**a […]
Jason Derulo And Farruko Take Over A Nightclub With Slick Dance Moves In 'Mamacita' Video
Jason Derulo and Farruko have released an exciting new video for 'Mamacita' that finds the two artists trying to woo women in a club with tight dances and gambling prowess. Powered by WPeMatico
Tom Cruise reprises his iconic role as Maverick in the our very first look at the upcoming sequel Top Gun: Maverick. Powered by WPeMatico


text:
Men's national streetball team - bronze medalist of the II European Games
On June 24 3x3 basketball matches were held at the II European Games in Minsk. The men's national team won a bronze medal. The main sensation of the tournament is the grand victory of our team in the quarterfinal over the leader of the world basketball ranking – the team of Serbia. The winning team includes a student the Faculty of Physical Education Andrei Rogozenko, who will be awarded the title of international-class master of sports of the Republic of Belarus as a result of successful…
Team of GSU – silver medalist of Sports and Athletic contest
The opening ceremony of the Olympics for students of the Union State, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders, was held on June 18 in the memorial complex "Brest Hero-Fortress". The competition, which lasted until June 23, was attended by about 230 people. Russia was presented by about 100 students, participants of student sports clubs of 13 universities of the country. The Russian team consists of the winners of the Championship of ASSC of Russia,…
Recognition of Award Winners
Recognition of award winners of the World Championships among students 2018 and IV European University Games was held in Minsk on February 25, 2019. Minister of sports and tourism Sergei Kovalchuk, Chairmanof Belarusian association of students sports Alexander Bogdanovich, vice-head of the National Olympic committee Sergei Repkin, representatives of sports federations, students and trainers took part in the conference. Gomel State University is proud of our 2nd year student of the Faculty of…
Championship of the Republic of Belarus on free-style wrestling
Championship of the Republic of Belarus was held in Lida on January 13 – 15, 2019. About 170 sportsmen took part in the event and battled for the title of champion. Candidates for training and participation in the international contests will be chosen in accordance with the results of the Championship. The young wrestlers will conquer the heights of the European Wrestling Championships, II European games and the World Championship for selection at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
World Championship Bronze Medal
New Delhi hosted Women's World Boxing Championship on November 12 – 25, 2018. 227 sportsmen from 62 countries took part in the contest. Seven representatives of the Republic of Belarus participated in this competition, five of them are members of Gomel regional Olympic reserve center of combat sport. These are masters of sports of the Republic of Belarus of international class – Yana Burim, Victoria Kebikova, Galina Bruevich, Yulia Apanasovich, Antonina Aksenova, students of Francisk…
The future of the Gomel hockey
On March 28, the team " Gomel-2 "won the title of the Champion of the Republic of Belarus among the teams of the Higher League, confidently beating Minsk" Junior " with the score 5:2 in the away fifth match of the final series. "Gomel-2" is one of the most titled clubs of the Highest League, but since 2007 the team has not been able to conquer the top step of the podium. And now, 11 years later, the wards of Artem Senkevich and Dmitry Pantsyrev – a graduate of our University – were able to…
A worthy victory
On April 20-22, Vilnius (Lithuania) hosted the international tournament on field hockey. The sports competition was attended by teams from Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania. The honor of our country was defended by the hockey team of HC "Gomel", among whose members are students of the faculty of physical culture of the F. Skarina state University: freshmen Vadim Bondarchuk and Tseluyko Denis, third-year student Sergey Shkredov and fourth-year student Alexander Belykh. In the difficult and tense…
When sport is life
The faculty of physical culture is the faculty, the number of victories and medals to the General Treasury of which can not be counted. Every victory is important and desirable, because here is not by hearsay know that behind every success is a huge work that is not always noticeable. In the state University named After F. Skaryna trained gifted, talented and highly qualified athletes, for whom sport is life. A fourth-year student of faculty of physical culture Arslan Matkarimov is a multiple…
From Sofia with medals!
From 4 to 13 June in the capital of Bulgaria was held the European championship in women's Boxing, which was attended by 146 athletes from 33 European countries. The Republic of Belarus was represented by students of the correspondence faculty and the faculty of physical culture of our University Yana Burim (weight category 51 kg), Galina Bruevich (weight category 57 kg), Antonina Aksenova (weight category 64 kg), Yulia apanasovich (weight category 54 kg) and Victoria Kebikova (weight category…
And again the success of our pentathlon
From 17 to 23 June, the Spanish El Prat de Llobregat hosted the European championship in modern pentathlon among juniors (U 21). Do not cease to please fans of Belarusian athletes: in the men's relay the student of 1 course of faculty of physical culture, GSU named after F. Skorina Eugene the eagle and the citizen of Minsk Ivan AMCOW rose to the highest step of the podium, ahead in the lead before the final stage of the poles, who won "silver". Rounded out the top three British. In the team…
Last page Последняя »
Subscribe to Sport


text:
Q: Using anonymous function in php to change multiple variables in outer function Here is my anonymous function:
            $step = function() use ($text,$count,$new_text) {
            $new_text .= $text[$count];
            $count++;

I'm reading a long text value and scanning for bad characters. If the value of $text[$count] is ok, I want to add it to the new text variable and increase the count by calling $step(). Sure, I could just repeat the two lines over and over in my code, but using an anonymous function seemed so much simpler. The only problem is that it doesn't work. The variables aren't changing in the outer function.
What am I doing wrong. Alternatively, what's a different way to do this if there is one? There has to be a way to abstract a few lines of repeated code throughout a function.

A: You MUST pass by reference if want a modified version of variable after function is performed, like this:
<?php

$text = 'Some text';

$anon = function() use (&$text) {
    $text .= ' and more...' ;
};

$anon();

print $text; // returns: Some text and more...

The use statement just inherit variables from the parent scope.


This is crazy! In a good way I should add. New small breweries start up all the time in Western Cape these days. Bulldog Brewery in Struisbaai is waiting for their license and Brothers In Arms Brewery is just finishing their application. Honingklip Brewery and Woodstock Brewery, are hopefully going to open this year. And there are at least three more on the way.
I chatted with Cris Gush who is one of the founders of the new Brothers In Arms Brewery. He has been a home-brewer for some time and now he wants to take his brewing to another level and start a commercial brewery.
What about the name Brothers In Arms Brewery?
They did not have to wait long for that to happen but they had to travel a long way. Bia means beer in Vietnamese.
Jokes like "do they use a beer-gun", "looking forward to beers loaded with hops" and so on are prohibited!
Where will the brewery be located?
We will just have to wait and see then and hope to be able to add one new brewery to the Western Cape Brew Route later on.
Talking to Chris I realized that the old idea of making a Guide to become a commercial brewer in South Africa is not such a bad idea after all! I will start to write one and see what happens. You are more then welcome to help out!


text:
Стэнли Гленн Боумен (род. 28 июня 1973 года) — бывший вице-президент и генеральный менеджер команды Национальной хоккейной лиги «Чикаго Блэкхокс». Сын канадского хоккеиста и тренера, члена Зала хоккейной славы, а также старшего советника Чикаго Блэкхокс, Скотти Боумена. Имя получил, по словам отца, в честь Кубка Стэнли. Начав работу в должности Генерального менеджера Чикаго Блэкхокс с 14 июля 2009 года, Стэн Боумен завоевал с командой три Кубка Стэнли — в 2010, в 2013 и в 2015 годах.

Покинул все свои посты в «Блэкхокс» после расследования о сексуальных домогательствах в клубе.

Биография

Примечания

Генеральные менеджеры «Чикаго Блэкхокс»
Генеральные менеджеры — обладатели Кубка Стэнли
Выпускники Университета Нотр-Дам

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


A certain lady, who shall remain anonymous to protect the innocent, called the other day to ask about doing a Bottlebrush as a bonsai, I told her of an article in the October 2001 issue of Bonsai Magazine by Chih-Hao Hsu from Tawain on his experience with a Bottlebrush that may help her, if you have it go read it again. It made me go check on a few I pruned back last year. What about a Bottlebrush for a bonsai? Their bark has great character with deep grooves running vertically on the trunk and they flower. I think we should start a new trend and give them a try. They can be a little tricky to collect though, success rates are low, so be careful when digging up your neighbor's tree, best done at night.
Callistemon citrinus Lemon Bottle-Brush This species has many cultivars of varying colors and sizes. When you crinkle the leaves, it smells like citrus. Has smaller leaves and flowers than the others and its bark has the deepest grooves.
Callistemon viminalis Weeping Bottle-Brush With its horizontal branching and weeping habit makes styling it a little easier. Its leaves and flowers are larger that the citrinus. The trunk is much smoother than the citrinus and slower to develop than the rigidus.
Callistemon rigidus The largest with stiff leaves and larger flowers. Being the largest makes it easier to find large specimens.
PRUNING... Can be severely top pruned, leave some growth on each branch. Wait until new growth starts for any root pruning. With its deep grooves on the trunk it is sometimes better to break the branch away from the trunk instead of cutting it off. Be careful not to allow it to tear too far down the trunk, a small cut, close to where you want it to end may help.
TRAINING... The citrinus and rigidus have strong upright growth. Older branches that have become woody are very hard to bend. They are quick growers so younger branches should be wired loosely, allowing wire to stay until branch becomes woody. Keep terminal buds cut back to increase ramification, then allow to grow some for flowers. The vimanilis with it's weeping habit is best suited for the weeping style. Can be wired with one piece of wire wrapped around entire tree to enhance the first major bends in the main branches, then clip and grow for ramification.
WATERING... Keep moderately wet, does not like wet feet. Kept too moist it can develop a root fungus and/or chlorisis. Use a well draining soil.
LIGHT... Full sun for more flowers.
FLOWERS... The vimanilis and rigidus bloom mostly in spring with the citrinus blooming in spring and periodically through summer. Blooms on new growth.
INSECT/DISEASE... Mites can be a problem and aphids with the new flush of spring growth. Root rot if kept too moist.
REPOT... Spring is best, can be done through the summer. Roots can be severely cut back as long as the main root ball is not disturbed. Carefully comb out roots and remove only the largest, larger trees may best be root pruned over two seasons. Once potted they do not like to be root bound and will respond quickly to root pruning with a flush of new growth.
FERTILIZE... Use a well-balanced fertilizer throughout growing season with a little extra phosphorus in early spring for flowers.
SEASONAL... Mainly cold hardy, protect from any sustained freeze and/or heavy frost, especially the citrinus.


The Clonmel Contemporary Reclining Loveseat by Signature Design by Ashley at Royal Furniture in the Memphis, Nashville, Jackson, Birmingham area. Product availability may vary. Contact us for the most current availability on this product.


text:
Extension Office welcomes new director, agent
SUN photo/Randi Pierce
Roberta Tolan is the new director and agent at the Archuleta County CSU Extension Office. She earned her master's degree in landscape horticulture from Colorado State University, a master's degree in business from Georgia State University and a bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of Illinois.
Roberta Tolan is the new director and agent at the Archuleta County CSU Extension Office.
Roberta is new to Archuleta County, but not new to Colorado Extension. She spent seven years as the horticulture agent in Larimer County where she worked with Master Gardeners and the public to help develop sustainable landscapes, helped agricultural producers increase their income by introducing high-value crops and managed the Larimer County Farmers Market.
Her specialty is trees and shrubs and she enjoys gardening so, in addition to the many Extension programs, she is interested in learning more about the geothermal greenhouse and forest management work being done in the area.
Prior to moving to Pagosa, Roberta was the director of Quarry Hill Nature Center in Rochester, Minn., the director of education at the Denver Botanic Gardens and worked in marketing and advertising in Atlanta, Ga., where she helped to grow small and regional businesses. She earned her master's degree in landscape horticulture from Colorado State University, a master's degree in business from Georgia State University and a bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of Illinois.
"My husband, David, and I are so excited to be in Pagosa and already feel at home here," said Roberta. "Everyone has been so welcoming and we are looking forward to getting involved in the community. The Extension staff, 4-H families and volunteers that I have met are fantastic and I am anxious to do what I can to make a difference."
Roberta loves doing almost anything outdoors, so you might spot her hiking the trails, boating the rivers or skiing Wolf Creek next winter. Please stop by the Extension office and say hello.
Tent-making caterpillars
Several kinds of caterpillars form silken shelters or tents on various trees and shrubs and are beginning to draw attention in the area.
Most common in spring are various types of tent caterpillars (Malacosoma species) which can infest aspen, mountain-mahogany, fruit trees, gambel oak and cottonwoods.
A few other tent-producing insects also infest trees in Colorado including the uglynest caterpillars (Archips cerasivornana) which infest chokecherry where they produce a messy nest of silk mixed with bits of leaves and insect frass.
Tent caterpillars spend the winter in egg masses glued to twigs of the host plant. Prior to winter, the insects transform to caterpillars and emerge from the eggs shortly after bud break. The newly-emerged caterpillars move to crotches of branches and begin to produce a mass of dense silk. This silken tent is used by the developing insects for rest and shelter during the day. Most often the caterpillars leave the silk shelter to feed at night, returning by daylight, although they sometimes feed during daylight hours as well. The tent is gradually enlarged as the caterpillars grow.
Many natural enemies attack all of the tent-making caterpillars including birds, predaceous bugs, various hunting wasps and viruses. Because of these biological controls, serious outbreaks rarely last more than a single season.
The microbial insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis can be an effective and selective control of all the tent-making caterpillars. Several contact insecticides also are effective including Sevin (carbaryl) and various pyrethroids such as permethrin, cyfluthrin and esfenvalerate.
If accessible, tents may also be pulled out and removed. More severe measures such as pruning or burning are not recommended because they can cause more injury than the insects.
Often there is no need to control these insects except where there are sustained, high levels of defoliation over several years.
For more information on this topic, visit the Colorado Extension website at www.ext.colostate.edu and download Fact Sheet No. 5.583 Tent-Making Caterpillars.
Successful vegetable gardens2
The Archuleta County CSU Extension office is excited to welcome Darrin Parmenter, La Plata County CSU Extension director, to Pagosa Springs for a gardening workshop, June 12, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
The workshop will include topics such as Garden Design and Planning, Soils, Amendments, Composting, Season Extension, Crop Culture, and Storage of Harvest. $20 fee will include lunch.
Call the Archuleta County CSU Extension office at 264-5931 to register.
June 6 — 4-H Shady Pine Club meeting, 6:30 p.m.
June 7 — 4-H Rabbit Mandatory meeting, 3 p.m.
June 10 — 4-H Record Book help, 2 p.m.
June 10 — Livestock Committee, 6:30 p.m.
June 10 — Park Ditch Committee meeting, 8 p.m.
June 11 — 4-H Sewing Project meeting, 3 p.m.
June 11 — 4-H Rocky Mountain Riders Club meeting, 6 p.m.
June 11 — Farm Bureau meeting, 6:30 p.m.
June 11 — 4-H Colorado Kids Club meeting, 6:30 p.m.
June 12 — Gardening workshop, 9 a.m.
June 12 — 4-H Sports Fishing, 4 p.m.
June 12 — 4-H Pagosa Peaks Club meeting, 6 p.m.
June 12 — 4-H Animal weigh check, 6 p.m.
June 13 — Mountain View Homemakers, noon.
June 13 — 4-H Cooking Project meeting, 10 a.m.
June 13 — 4-H Poultry Project meeting, 4 p.m.
June 13 — 4-H Leaders meeting, 5:30 p.m.
June 14 — BUNCO fund-raiser, 6 p.m.
June 15 — 4-H Dog Agility Project meeting, 10 a.m.
June 17 — 4-H Scrapbooking Project meeting, 10 a.m.
Previous articlePeruse Pagosa's past at the historical society museum
Next articleChores for Quarters will bear fruit
PagosaSUN
There's always room for growth
Plant bulbs and corms now for early spring blooms