German 19th Century Composers

I chose to write my blog on the 19th Century German Composers. I chose this topic because this era was very famous in music for the style and the famous composers. The group that has the slideshow on the 19th Century Fine Arts, did a very well job on providing facts and making an appealing presentation. I was familiar with many of the composers that were listed but I still wanted to know more about the fine arts of the 19th century. 

Previous Presenters:
     John Beuning
     Mari Navarro
     Joe Albers

1. Who were some famous 19th century German composers?

• Some of the famous German composers of the 19th century were; Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Johann Strauss, Franz Schubert, and Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven was the most famous composer of the 19th century. He was mostly famous for creating unusual and brave rhythms and harmonies for many different instruments. Franz Shubert was famous in the 19th century for creating a new field of romantic and artistic poetry, titled, lied. All of these composers made an impact, not only in German music and composition during the 19th century, but world wide.  

2. Why was Ludwig van Beethoven so famously known world-wide?

• Ludwig Van Beethoven was so nationally accredited due to his immense amounts of talent. Beethoven is famous for his compositions of 9 symphonies, 5 concertos for piano, 32 piano sonatas, and 16 string quartets. He has composed other pieces of choral, chamber, and songs as well. Beethoven had published his first piece of work by the age of 12. Beethoven even continued to conduct after he had lost his hearing which contributed to his success even more. 

3. How did German Composers in the 19th century change from composers in the 18th century? 

• All fine arts and music began to change in the 19th century. This period was known as the Romantic Era or period. This was because composers, artists, and writers were all trying to break from the traditionalist mold of the previous eras and create more emotions into their work. Richard Wagner was one of the composers that hated the traditional styles of music. Other composers began to mix romantic elements with some classicalness.

4. What is Romanticism?

• The 19th century was also known as the Romantic Era. Romanticism was referred to as the era of intellectual, artistic, and literary movement. This period was partly due to the Industrial Revolution and a revolt against some of the social and political norms. The Romantic movement placed new emphasis on emotions such as horror, awe, and apprehension. Romanticism was like a revival to the fine arts.

5. How did composers fit into the Romantic Era or 19th century?

• Romanticism musically was a German sensation. Other countries sought to take after German composers. Composers would transition into this style by taking emotions and creating gorgeous symphonies from them. In the Romantic Era, much of the symphonies were "darker" or more melancholy. They expressed an array of emotions.   

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Germany
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven

20th Century German Fine Arts, Music, & Theatre

Copy of Arts of Germany on Prezi

By Tess Hamre, Cody Kvamme, Haitam Aldaij

My 5 Talking Points on "All Quiet on the Western Front"

• A key theme in the novel is isolation.
• Through Paul Bäumer's character, the novel shows the perspective of how young boys personalities and characters where changed and negatively affected by war.
• A novel that demonstrates the "Lost Generation."
• The novel has a melancholy plot and fate, the movie follows the book's plot and chapters very well. 
• There are parts in the novel that illustrate how the young boys have lost parts of their youth by being in the war. For example, the chapter where they meet the French girls. These young men haven't gotten the chance to experience dating and the thrill of being with a girl.

All Quiet on the Western Front

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Bäumer is the main character and narrator. Prior to the war, Paul was close to his family, thoughtful, sensitive, and enjoyed writing poetry. But during the war, Paul’s personality and emotions changed with the trauma of the war. He is unable to cope with the death of his fellow friends/soldiers and feel the same way  as he once did at home. Paul finds it hard to express his negative experiences associated with the war and think about his future. Through fighting in the war, Paul’s character endures hardship and the loss of many people who were close to him.

Paul’s character changes more towards the end of the book. An example of this is when Paul gives away the jam and potato cakes his mother made for him to the Russian prisoners. This is because the cakes remind Paul of his mother’s pain and suffering. Paul’s views on death start to change as the war goes on. Paul has to kill a French soldier who jumped in his shell. He describes the experience as agonizing, since the soldier didn’t pass away until several hours later. Paul had bandaged the soldier and given him water. After the soldier passed away, Paul talks with the dead soldier, explaining that he didn’t want to kill him. Later on, Paul then witnesses the death of one of his closest friends, Kat, while Paul was trying to save him.

Throughout the novel, Paul’s character changes from being a content guy before the war to a lost and haunted soldier after the war. Paul is the only survivor of the original group of classmates. He feels he is left with a bleak future after he receives leave from the war from inhaling poison gas. While Paul’s on leave, he thinks about his fellow soldiers and what their generation will face. Paul has basically lost all hope in himself and his generation. Paul is killed on a peaceful October day. His face seemed to express relief as if it was alright for himself to let go.

Chapter 7

                  In chapter seven, the narrator of the story, Paul, reveals some of the most powerful moments of the book. Two distinct events occur in this chapter: Paul and his friends chase French girls, and Paul goes on a leave of absence. Many of Paul’s friends have died; in fact 120 men had died up to this point in the book.
                  After gawking over a poster of a pretty young girl, Paul and his friends hang out near the canal. They see a few French girls across the canal, and begin yelling in broken French. Throughout the book, the boys talk about women quite a bit. They make up stories of sexual experience to impress the other soldiers. Because the boys had only limited access to women for such long periods of time, it was an outlet for their budding adolescent sensations. Tjaden even offered the girls some bread as a bribe to get them to come across the canal. Food is another recurring theme in the book. As young men, the soldiers are desperate for more food each day that the war runs on. They are even willing to barter rations out for equipment or clothing when they become extremely desperate. The boys decide to visit the girls at night, and end up getting Tjaden so drunk that he can not walk. After meeting up with the girls, Paul realizes that he will not be able to hold on to the girl that he is with, and his mood turns grim. He can not take his mind off of the horror of the war.
                  Paul gets seventeen days for his leave of absence. He goes home for the few days of travel time that he receives. His mother is very sick, but his family is happy to see him. Paul gets angry at the way some of the civilians treat him. He doesn’t enjoy the fact that they feel a sense of honor when serving him, especially when one train tenant refers to him as her ‘comrade.’ Paul is extremely happy to be eating food that differs from the plain, tasteless military food. Basically, everyone is who is not involved with the war continues to ask Paul questions, and he gets upset. His mother is the only one who refrains from these questions. Paul explains that he would like to please the civilians with heroic battle stories, but he simply can not put it all into words. And if he did find a way to word it, he feels he would lose control completely. The civilians perceive the war front completely different. They believe its better fighting the battles than it is at home. Paul brushes off many of the upsetting comments. Surprisingly, Paul states that he wished he’d never come home on leave. He felt that he was hopeless, and that he was a man of war, nothing else.


Tess Hamre, Cody Kvamme, Will Wacholz, Mustafa Al-Abbad

My Work on the SPD Topic

When I saw I was assigned to the group studying Germany's Social Democratic Party, I thought to myself, that I knew nothing about the party. The first thing I did was Google it and came across the political party on Wikipedia. Right away it informed me that the SPD is a social-democratic political party in Germany. It also is one of the two major political parties in Germany and is led by chairman Sigmar Gabriel. This was the brief information that I looked at on Wikipedia. I then ventured to Britannica.com to view more information on the SPD of Germany. This site informed me that the SPD is the oldest political party in Germany. Sadly, this is about as much as I learned until I had to sign up for a free 7 day trial and decided to look elsewhere. I then waited until my group met up to learn more about the SPD and to see what topic I was assigned to talk about.

My group was very prompt and we all wanted to be given a good grade on the presentation. Within my group, I was assigned to look at the SPD's political platforms. I went searching on the internet to find more about the party's platforms. I liked how the present aim of the SPD is towards the working class. I came across a site with the article, Where Do They Stand, that said in 2003, former SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, made very unpopular cuts to welfare. This costed the SPD's status of Germany's largest party to CDU. I did not agree with how the chancellor had made unfair cuts to welfare. It also stated that the SPD was looking to decommission all of Germany's nuclear power stations by 2020. I thought this could be good, especially concerning the environment. It was hard to find sites that talked about the political platform for the SPD that was currently updated. For most of the stuff that I read on the SPD, I can agree with a good amount and see why they would make certain decisions based upon other articles I have read. 

All together, Germany's Social Democratic Party was very interesting to learn about. I had not even heard about them prior to taking German 110 but then I had not known much about Germany either. Like any political party there is stuff that I agree on and then a few things I might not entirely see eye-to-eye with. The SPD party I could see eye-to-eye on a few topics. This was an interesting topic and I had a very good group that knew how to evenly divide the work and was going to be hard workers to learn more about the SPD to inform the class on Wednesday when we will present our Powerpoint.

Here is a link to our group presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1igAFBeu2S4hYtyugOA9J9WwstRHz3OybNAXFBhe1Oz0/present#slide=id.p

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/where-do-they-stand-a-quick-guide-to-germany-s-political-parties-a-651388.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/551135/Social-Democratic-Party-of-Germany-SPD

North Rhine-Westphalia

• Capital Düsseldorf
• Located in Western Germany, bordering Belgium and the Netherlands.
• Population total was 17,845,154 as of 2010.
• This makes the North Rhine-Westphalia the most populous state of Germany.
• North Rhine-Westphalia can claim that it has the most foreign direct investments than any other state in Germany.
• Rhine-Ruhr region is the primary mining and energy-producing area in Germany.
• Heavy industry has been the staple for the state's economy.
• Chemical, textiles, glass, heavy machinery, electrical equipment, precision instruments, and beer are all produced in Rhine-Ruhr. 
• In the southern part of the Rhine-Ruhr region, in the Berg area, iron and metallurgical textiles and industries play a huge role.
• The North Rhine-Westphalia has business deals within Germany and other companies abroad.
• It contains 30 out of Germany's 80 largest cities. 
• Some small cities in the state include: Bielefeld, Bonn, and Münster.
• Outside of the Ruhr, much of the state's land is committed to gardens, orchards, and commercial farmland. 
• The state was created in 1946 by the process of the former Prussian providence of Westphalia and the northern part of the Prussian Rhine providence. Then the former state of the Lippe was incorporated in 1947.
• GamesCon is hosted in Cologne. GamesCon is the largest video game convention in the world.
• North Rhine-Westphalia is home to 14 universities and 50 partly post graduate colleges.
• North Rhine-Westphalia has hosted the 1974 and 2006 FIFA World Cups and the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Rhine-Westphalia

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/419381/North-Rhine-Westphalia