June’s image of the month, thanks to Zel McClelland….

Intermission for the Ballerinas

LC

The newest Chicago clanswoman, Margaret Frances Smith (23 May 2009 edition)…

Peter holding Margaret

LC

The Choir of King’s College Cambridge is one of today’s most accomplished and renowned representatives of the great British choral tradition. It was created by King Henry VI, who founded the College in 1441, to provide daily singing in his glorious Chapel, and this remains the main task of the choir to this day.

Roy Goodman (born 26 January 1951, Guildford, England) is a conductor and violinist, specialising in the performance and direction of early music. He became internationally famous as the 12-year-old boy treble soloist in the March 1963 recording of Allegri’s Miserere with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge under David Willcocks. The Miserere is a setting of Vulgate Psalm 50

Allegri’s* Miserere was jealously guarded by the Papal Choir, until the occasion when Mozart (see painting of the composer as a child on left) heard it and promptly wrote it out from memory – an astonishing feat, especially for someone of only 14 years of age. This setting is especially remembered for its sensational recurring solo phrases, and there has never been a performance of these solo phrases to match the one in this classic King’s recording by the treble Roy Goodman.

The following letter from Mozart’s father Leopold to his wife is of interest:

[Sent from Rome, dated April 14, 1770. Only parts of the letter relevant to the transcription episode are given here.]

“We arrived here safely on the 11th at noon. I could have been more easily persuaded to return to Salzburg than to proceed to Rome, for we had to travel for five days from Florence to Rome in the most horrible rain and cold wind. I am told here that they have had constant rain for four months and indeed we had a taste of it, as we went on Wednesday and Thursday in fine weather to Saint Peter’s and to the Sistine Chapel to hear the Miserere during the mass, and on our way home were surprised by such a frightful downpour that our cloaks have never yet been so drenched as they then were…

You have often heard of the famous Miserere in Rome, which is so greatly prized that the performers in the chapel are forbidden on pain of excommunication to take away a single part of it, to copy it or to give it to anyone. But we have it already. Wolfgang has written it down and we would have sent it to Salzburg in this letter, if it were not necessary for us to be there to perform it. But the manner of performance contributes more to its effect than the composition itself. So we shall bring it home with us. Moreover, as it is one of the secrets of Rome, we do not wish to let it fall into other hands, ut non incurramus mediate vel immediate in censuram Ecclesiae….”

Here is the English Translation of the musical segment to be heard below:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy.
And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.
Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.
To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee:
that thou mayst be justified in thy words and mayst
overcome when thou art judged.
For behold I was conceived in iniquities;
and in sins did my mother conceive me.

Click on this link to hear this masterpiece. N.B. The exquisite Goodman treble singing is heard 1 minute 35 seconds into this snippet. Be sure to listen long enough to hear it – I’m sure it’s one of the 20th Century’s greatest vocal performances…

* Gregorio Allegri (1582 – 1652), Italian composer and priest.

LC

Our Glimpses series continues with a look at our fellow clansman Charlie Judy. Charlie was recently promoted to Senior Vice President of Shared Services for TLC Vision where he will lead the Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, Multi-National/Multi-State Payroll, Legal, and Information Services functions while providing world-class talent management, corporate governance, risk management, and technology infrastructure in optimizing the performance of this publicly traded (NASDAQ & TSX) $300M, 1,200 employee eye care services organization operating throughout the US and Canada. Charlie joined TLC a year and a half ago as their VP of HR with 15 years of experience outside of the vision industry. Most of his career is based in a diversity of internal and external client service, project management, and operations support roles for Deloitte, one of the largest professional services firms in the world with 120,000 people. While there, he built and led a number of successful infrastructure ventures across the globe – including long-term assignments in India and Belgium. Not only is he an experienced HR executive, but he is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) – a skill base which positions him to help TLC lead a variety of initiatives. He and his team of 30 will strive to support TLC’s internal constituents, field and operations teams so that they can focus on what they do best – serving their customers, patients, surgeons and partners.

TLC is in good hands – congratulations Charlie from the clan…

LC

Apropos of nothing in particular, here’s a clip to improve your mood:

Throw away the Prozac!

Cab Calloway (1907-1994) at his best. A great entertainer, you can read his bio here.

LC

William Cromie the Younger was recently in St Louis to participate in the Skinner Reunion at Moone Athy. Below he is seen astride the Arabian, Ali.
It was great fun to hear about his impressive work in cutting edge web marketing. Will is a co-founder as well as Chief Technology Officer of Nabbr, an online distributor of video/music entertainment content targeting especially Generation Y. Bill’s company advertises for and promotes entertainment talent in cleverly targeted social sites. This maximizes exposure for his clients which include movie studios, TV networks and top record labels, as well as international firms as diverse and reputable as Coca-Cola, Fox News, Honda, and Target, to mention but a few. After seeing what Bill and his firm can deliver it’s easy to understand why the news print industry is struggling. Check out this promotion for TheWhiteTieAffair. Amazing technology.

Here’s the Nabbr synopsis of their offering:

Nabbr is The Gen Y Online Video Network with exclusive video distribution on 400+ social networking “resource sites” 12-34 year olds use to customize their social network profile pages with apps, widgets, backgrounds, etc. Nabbr has 40 Million comScore unique visitors and delivers 300+ Million premium video entertainment content views/month to people actively looking to express themselves and enhance their digital personas. Nabbr delivers all the reach and engagement benefits of social networks with none of the concerns surrounding UGC* and personal pages.

*User generated content

The clan’s cyber presence is assured thanks to Will’s impressive marketing and computer programming talent.

Alphabet Generational concepts may require some remedial work on the part of clan elders. What exactly is Gen-Y? In trying to educate myself I discovered some fascinating family overlaps which you may also find of interest.

First though, a brief chronological primer.

• Gen-Y (aka The Millenials or Echo Boomers) are generally considered those born between 1980 and 1995, and these are the folks Will Cromie is communicating with.
• Generation X is that cohort born between 1961 and 1981.
• Generation Jones – a subset of Generation X and The Baby Boomers. According to Wikipedia, “Generation Jones” (1954 -1969) was a term coined by American social commentator Jonathan Pontell. It implies a large anonymous generation preoccupied by “keeping up with the Joneses.” The term “jonesing” came to mean “craving” or yearning”. In the 70′s, Wikipedia suggests, the “Jonesers were given huge expectations as children in the optimistic 1960s… and then confronted with a different reality as they came of age in the pessimistic 1970s, leaving them with a certain unrequited, jonesing quality.”
• The Baby Boom Generation, of course, we recognize as those born during the post WW-II demographic boom.

One of the first writers to think in these generational terms was Landon Y Jones, a St Louisan, and a Princeton classmate of Lemoine Skinner III. He coined the term “Baby Boomers” in his book Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation (1980, New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan). Jones went on to have a very successful career at Time Magazine and was considered responsible for considerable growth of it’s popular People Magazine. Another St Louisan, Post Dispatch reporter and friend of Lemoine Skinner Jr, Otto Fuerbringer, had been involved in the creation of People Magazine. They were of course members of The Greatest Generation…

LC