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Books by Bill Wall |
In 1763, Giambattista Lolli (1698-1769) published Osservazioni teorico-pratiche sopra il giuoco degli scacchi (Theoretical-practical views on the game of chess) in Bologna, Italy. It was printed in Italian at the printing office of Saint Thomas Acquinas. The book contains 632 pages. He was first to describe a flank opening as fianchetto (pronounced fyanketto). In 1763, William Jones (1746-1794) wrote a poem called Caissa (ky-ee-sah), the muse of chess. The nymph (dryad) Caissa initially repels the advances of the god of war, Mars. Spurned, Mars seeks the aid of the god Euphron (Jones's invention), brother of Venus, who creates the game of chess as a gift for Mars to win Caissa's favor. Jones wrote it in 1763 at the age of 17, but did not publish his poem in 1772. On June 19, 1763, Johann Baptist Allgaier (1763-1823) was born in Germany. He was a German-Austrian chess master. He authored the first chess handbook in German. In 1763, Philidor composed the music for the opera comique Le bucheron, ou Les trois souhaits (The Lumberjack or The Three Wished). The text was written by M. Guichard. It first premiered at the Comedie-Italienne, Hotel de Bourgogne, in Paris, on February 28, 1763. In 1763, Philidor composed Ariette pour le Davin du Village. In 1763, Philidor composed the music for the opera comiqies La bagarre and Les fetes de la paix (The Festival of Peace). Both premiered at the Comedie-Italienne, Hotel de Bourgogne, in Paris, on July 4, 1763. In 1763, Philidor composed the music for the popular opera Le Sorcier (The Sorcerer). It first premiered at the Comedie-Italienne, Hotel de Bourgogne, in Paris, on January 2, 1764. Philidor was the first French composer to be applauded in person after the premier of Le Sorcier . Philidor was later accused of plagiarism for the music on Le Sorcier, stealing note for note from Christoph Gluck's (1714-1787) Orfeo ed Euridice , written in 1762. Later on, it was Gluck that was accused of plagiarism as Philidor's opera was performed in public in Paris before Gluck's opera was performed in public in Vienna. Philidor sometimes wrote down music as his own that had actually been composed by others. One music critic wrote, "Our musical savants claim that Philidor has stolen from Italians. What does it matter, if he enriches our nation with the beautiful things of foreign lands which we should perhaps never have known without him?" (source: Heartz, Music in European Capitals , 2003, p. 752)
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Bill Wall
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