Introduction and Welcome

Welcome to All Things Bright and Beautiful. If you are new to this site, I would recommend that you read my very first entry - which is an introduction and welcome to this blog. You can view it here

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Robert Bateman - Tree Sparrow and Teasal

Another lovely painting by Robert Bateman.
It feels almost as if you can see the snow crystals, feel the cold and hear the dry Teasal rattling in the breeze. 
Tree Sparrow and Teasal - © Robert Bateman


I've chosen a lovely choir piece this week by Franz Joseph Haydn, it is sung in Latin.  The title is taken from its opening Latin words, Te Deum laudamus, which means "Thee, O God, we praise"
 Te Dium No 2 in C.

Here is a link to Wikipedia's article on this piece of music. 


Phillis Wheatley's 
   Ode to Neptune

(On Mrs. W-----'s Voyage to England.)

While raging tempests shake the shore,
While Aelus' thunders round us roar,
And sweep impetuous o'er the plain
Be still, O tyrant of the main;
Nor let thy brow contracted frowns betray,
While my Susanna skims the wat'ry way.


The Pow'r propitious hears the lay,
The blue-ey'd daughters of the sea
With sweeter cadence glide along,
And Thames responsive joins the song.
Pleas'd with their notes Sol sheds benign his ray,
And double radiance decks the face of day.

To court thee to Britannia's arms
Serene the eclimes and mild the sky.
Her region boasts unnumber'd charms,
Thy welcome smiles in ev'ry eye.
Thy promise Neptune keep record my pray'r,
Not give my wishes to the empty air.

Here is a recording of Claire D. Phillipe quoting this poem



Thursday, July 24, 2014

Robert Bateman - Tiger Portrait, Franz Joseph Haydn - Trumpet Concerto in D, and Phillis Wheatley - Recollection

As with so many of the animals Robert Bateman painted he has more than one wonderful painting to choose from.  I liked this particular one.
Tiger Portrait - © Robert Bateman

Franz Joseph Haydn Trumpet Concerto in D and if you want to listen to more of Haydn's wonderful  music as background music - here is a link to The Best of Haydn .



Phillis Wheatley's poem today is about memory, a gift or a curse depending on the life we live.... (Mneme is the Greek muse of memory, there were nine muses).

              Recollection


MNEME* begin. Inspire, ye sacred nine,
Your vent'rous Afric in her great design.
Mneme, immortal pow'r, I trace thy spring:
Assist my strains, while I thy glories sing:
The acts of long departed years, by thee
Recover'd, in due order rang'd we see:
Thy pow'r the long-forgotten calls from night,
That sweetly plays before the fancy's sight.
Mneme in our nocturnal visions pours
The ample treasure of her secret stores;
Swift from above the wings her silent flight
Through Phoebe's realms, fair regent of the night;
And, in her pomp of images display'd,
To the high-raptur'd poet gives her aid,
Through the unbounded regions of the mind,
Diffusing light celestial and refin'd.
The heav'nly phantom paints the actions done
By ev'ry tribe beneath the rolling sun.
Mneme, enthron'd within the human breast,
Has vice condemn'd, and ev'ry virtue blest.
How sweet the sound when we her plaudit hear?
Sweeter than music to the ravish'd ear,
Sweeter than Maro's entertaining strains
Resounding through the groves, and hills, and plains.
But how is Mneme dreaded by the race,
Who scorn her warnings and despise her grace?
By her unveil'd each horrid crime appears,
Her awful hand a cup of wormwood bears.
Days, years mispent, O what a hell of woe!
Hers the worst tortures that our souls can know.
Now eighteen years their destin'd course have run,
In fast succession round the central sun.
How did the follies of that period pass
Unnotic'd, but behold them writ in brass!
In Recollection see them fresh return,
And sure 'tis mine to be asham'd, and mourn.
O Virtue, smiling in immortal green,
Do thou exert thy pow'r, and change the scene;
Be thine employ to guide my future days,
And mine to pay the tribute of my praise.
Of Recollection such the pow'r enthron'd
In ev'ry breast, and thus her pow'r is own'd.
The wretch, who dar'd the vengeance of the skies,
At last awakes in horror and surprise,
By her alarm'd, he sees impending fate,
He howls in anguish, and repents too late.
But O! what peace, what joys are hers t' impart
To ev'ry holy, ev'ry upright heart!
Thrice blest the man, who, in her sacred shrine,
Feels himself shelter'd from the wrath divine! 


* In Greek mythology the muse of memory

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Robert Bateman - Shrike Pair and Hawthorne, Franz Joseph Haydn - Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor "Farewell", Phillis Wheatley - An Hymn to the Evening

Robert Bateman has so many wonderful bird paintings - you may want to look up Google Images - Robert Bateman - Birds I liked the foliage and berries as well as the birds in this painting.
Shrike Pair and Hawthorne - © Robert Bateman
Here is a link to the Picassa Web Album of Robert Bateman Paintings  that we are using this season.  The Robert Bateman Foundation has graciously granted us permission to copy them for educational use.

Today's piece by Franz Joseph Haydn is Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor "Farewell"  It is an intense but beautiful piece of music.  And a link here to about two hours of The "Best" of Haydn  It actually starts with this week's piece of music.


Phillis Wheatley - An Hymn to the Evening

SOON as the sun forsook the eastern main
The pealing thunder shook the heav'nly plain;
Majestic grandeur! From the zephyr's* wing,
Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.
Soft purl the streams, the birds renew their notes,
And through the air their mingled music floats.
Through all the heav'ns what beauteous dies are spread!
But the west glories in the deepest red:
So may our breasts with ev'ry virtue glow,
The living temples of our God below!
Fill'd with the praise of him who gives the light,
And draws the sable curtains of the night,
Let placid slumbers sooth each weary mind,
At morn to wake more heav'nly, more refin'd;
So shall the labours of the day begin
More pure, more guarded from the snares of sin.
Night's leaden sceptre seals my drowsy eyes,
Then cease, my song, till fair Aurora* rise.

*Zephyr - A light wind or west wind

*Aurora - Roman goddess of the dawn



Thursday, July 10, 2014

Robert Bateman - Chipmunk, Franz Joseph Haydn - Suprise Symphony, Phillis Wheatley - On the Death of A Young Lady of Five Years of Age

Robert Bateman obviously loved nature.  This cute little creature is captured so well you think if you move he'll dash off the page.
© Robert Bateman
 A reader kindly let me know that the link to my Picassa Web Album of Robert Bateman Paintings wasn't coming up.  I had not realized that I needed to set it to a public viewer setting, so I am sorry to any of you who tried earlier and found it inaccessible it should be accessible now.  Also the Robert Bateman foundation has graciously given copies of the paintings we are using in a larger format with more pixels so they should be better for printing for your educational use.  Sorry to any of you who have previously tried and had trouble and thank you to the reader who let me know the difficulties.  

Today's piece by Franz Joseph Haydn is fun.  It's called the Surprise Symphony. Following is a quote from Wikipedia, "Haydn's music contains many jokes, and the Surprise Symphony includes probably the most famous of all: a sudden fortissimo chord at the end of the otherwise piano opening theme in the variation-form second movement. The music then returns to its original quiet dynamic, as if nothing had happened, and the ensuing variations do not repeat the joke." - children enjoy listening for the "surprise".  Hadyn's Suprise Symphony.


Our Poem by Phillis Wheatley 



On The Death Of A Young Lady Of Five Years Of Age


FROM dark abodes to fair etherial light
Th' enraptur'd innocent has wing'd her flight;
 
On the kind bosom of eternal love
She finds unknown beatitude above.
This known, ye parents, nor her loss deplore,
She feels the iron hand of pain no more;
The dispensations of unerring grace,
Should turn your sorrows into grateful praise;
Let then no tears for her henceforward flow,
No more distress'd in our dark vale below,
Her morning sun, which rose divinely bright,
Was quickly mantled with the gloom of night;
But hear in heav'n's blest bow'rs your Nancy fair,
And learn to imitate her language there.
"Thou, Lord, whom I behold with glory crown'd,
"By what sweet name, and in what tuneful sound
"Wilt thou be prais'd? Seraphic pow'rs are faint
"Infinite love and majesty to paint.
"To thee let all their graceful voices raise,
"And saints and angels join their songs of praise."
Perfect in bliss she from her heav'nly home
Looks down, and smiling beckons you to come;
Why then, fond parents, why these fruitless groans?
Restrain your tears, and cease your plaintive moans.
Freed from a world of sin, and snares, and pain,
Why would you wish your daughter back again?
No--bow resign'd. Let hope your grief control,
And check the rising tumult of the soul.
Calm in the prosperous, and adverse day,
Adore the God who gives and takes away;
Eye him in all, his holy name revere,
Upright your actions, and your hearts sincere,
Till having sail'd through life's tempestuous sea,
And from its rocks, and boist'rous billows free,
Yourselves, safe landed on the blissful shore,
Shall join your happy babe to part no more.
 

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Robert Bateman - Daylilies and Dragonflies


Daylilies and Dragonflies by Robert Bateman is such a fun painting for summer!  His work is so realistic it is better than a photograph. 
© Robert Bateman


A reader kindly let me know that the link to my Picassa Web Album of Robert Bateman Paintings wasn't coming up.  I had not realized that I needed to set it to a public viewer setting, so I am sorry to any of you who tried earlier and found it inaccessible it should be accessible now.  Also the Robert Bateman foundation has graciously given copies of the paintings we are using in a larger format with more pixels so they should be better for printing for your educational use.  Sorry to any of you who have previously tried and had trouble and thank you to the reader who let me know the difficulties. 

A lively happy piece of music today by Franz Joseph Haydn, "Sunrise"



Our poem today by Phillis Wheatley goes nicely with our music -

An Hymn To The Morning

ATTEND my lays, ye ever honour'd nine,
Assist my labours, and my strains refine;
In smoothest numbers pour the notes along,
For bright Aurora now demands my song.
Aurora hail, and all the thousand dies,
Which deck thy progress through the vaulted skies:
The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays,
On ev'ry leaf the gentle zephyr plays;
Harmonious lays the feather'd race resume,
Dart the bright eye, and shake the painted plume.
Ye shady groves, your verdant gloom display
To shield your poet from the burning day:
Calliope awake the sacred lyre,
While thy fair sisters fan the pleasing fire:
The bow'rs, the gales, the variegated skies
In all their pleasures in my bosom rise.
See in the east th' illustrious king of day!
His rising radiance drives the shades away--
But Oh! I feel his fervid beams too strong,
And scarce begun, concludes th' abortive song.