Ramesses II becomes Pharaoh of Egypt ~ May 31, 1279 B.C.E.

Image:Abu_Simbel.comeseeegypt.com

Ramesses II (also known as Ramesses the Great and alternatively transcribed as Ramses and Rameses *Riʕmīsisu; also known as Ozymandias in the Greek sources, from a transliteration into Greek of a part of Ramesses' throne name, User-maat-re Setep-en-re) was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as Egypt's greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh. His successors and later Egyptians called him the "Great Ancestor".

He was born around 1303 BC and at age fourteen, Ramesses was appointed Prince Regent by his father Seti I. He is believed to have taken the throne in his early 20s and to have ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC for a total of 66 years and 2 months, according to Manetho. He was once said to have lived to be 99 years old, but it is more likely that he died in his 90th or 91st year. If he became Pharaoh in 1279 BC as most Egyptologists today believe, he would have assumed his throne on May 31, 1279 BC, based on his known accession date of III Sheu day 27. Ramesses II celebrated an unprecedented 14 sed festivals during his reign—more than any other pharaoh. On his death, he was buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings; his body was later moved to a royal cache where it was discovered in 1881, and is now on display in the Cairo Museum.

Ramesses II led several expeditions north into the lands east of the Mediterranean (the location of the modern Israel, Lebanon and Syria). He also led expeditions to the south, into Nubia, commemorated in inscriptions at Beit el-Wali and Gerf Hussein.

The early part of his reign was focused on building cities, temples and monuments. He established the city of Pi-Ramesses in the Nile Delta as his new capital and main base for his campaigns in Syria. This city was built on the remains of the city of Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos when they took over, and was the location of the main Temple of Set.

Text:wikipedia.com

Founding of St. Petersburg ~ May 27, 1703

Photo of Winter Palace courtesy Robert Breuer: wikipedia.com

H.M.S. PINAFORE London Opening ~ May 25, 1878

Image from a D'Oyly Carte Opera Company souvenir programme, dated 23 January 1886:wikipedia.com

Just before moving to San Francisco in 1973, I directed a church production of H.M.S. Pinafore and played Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., First Lord of the Admiralty, with the delightful song "When I was a lad." (I polished up the handle of the big front door.) That was for the Wednesday School at my Dad's church, Grace United Methodist in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

GUSTAV MAHLER ~~ July 7, 1860 ~ May 18, 1911

Gustav Mahler; (7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was a late-Romantic Bohemian-Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer, he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.

Born in humble circumstances, Mahler showed his musical gifts at an early age. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism from Judaism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press. Nevertheless, his innovative productions and insistence on the highest performance standards ensured his reputation as one of the greatest of opera conductors, particularly as an interpreter of the stage works of Wagner and Mozart. Late in his life he was briefly director of New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.

Mahler's oeuvre is relatively small—for much of his life composing was a part-time activity, secondary to conducting—and is confined to the genres of symphony and song, except for one piano quartet. Most of his ten symphonies are very large-scale works, several of which employ soloists and choirs in addition to augmented orchestral forces. These works were often controversial when first performed, and were slow to receive critical and popular approval; an exception was the triumphant premiere of his Eighth Symphony in 1910. Mahler's immediate musical successors were the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955, to honour the composer's life and work.

Image & text:wikipedia.com

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Mahler is one of my favorite composers. I sang in the chorus for the Second Symphony with the Yale Symphony Orchestra back in college. Later I sang it again with the San Francisco Symphony. I sang in the chorus for the Eight Symphony for the opening of Davies Symphony Hall, I think in 1980. Both of those are thrilling choral-orchestral works. My favorite sections of Mahler, however, are the Adagios, particularly the last movement of the Third and Ninth Symphonies -- also the slow movement of the Sixth.

JOHN PAUL II ~ May 18, 1920 ~ April 2, 2005

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ERIK SATIE ~ May 17, 1866 ~ July 1, 1925

Image: wikipedia.com

Éric Alfred Leslie Satie (Honfleur, 17 May 1866 – Paris, 1 July 1925) was a French composer and pianist. Starting with his first composition in 1884, he signed his name as Erik Satie.

WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING ENDS ~ May 16, 1943

Photo: wikipedia.com