Thursday, March 26, 2009

Føroya Symfoniorkestur

"Føroya Symfoniorkestur, det færøske symfoniorkester, havde sin første koncert 19. Juni 1983, 7 uger efter åbningen af Nordens Hus. Dette er et lykkeligt sammentræf. Derimod er det ikke tilfældigt, at ønsket om et orkester falder sammen med en forsøgsvis etablering af landsdækkende musikskoler. I skoleåret 1982- 83 er musikerne Kanny Sambleben og Magne Synnevåg ansatte som lærere. De får henimod skoleårets afslutning den tanke, at det ville være interessant, hvis man kunne samle de spredte færøske musikere i et symfoniorkester.

På det program, der blev lavet til lejligheden, er der en erklæring fra initiativtagerne, som er meget tankevækkende læsnig på 25 års afstand:

Føroya Symfoniorkestur er blevet til efter en impulsiv idé fra Kanny Sambleben og Magne Synnevåg. Dette er et forsøg, som de færøske amatørmusikere har sluttet op om med liv og sjæl. Koncerten løber af stabelen efter bare en måneds prøver, og vi håber, at dette arbejde kan danne spiren til et færøsk symfoniorkester i godt samarbejde med profesionelle musiklærere, som måtte komme til land"

teachrs at Tórshavn Music School, Faroe Islands

Lærarar - Tórshavnar Musikkskúli
and I see some very familiar names

Friday, March 13, 2009

The little match-seller - Hans Christian Andersen

Compare: The little match-seller (ENGLISH) - Den lille pige med svovlstikkerne (DANSK):
"It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, roamed through the streets.
It is true she had on a pair of slippers when she left home, but they were not of much use."

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Oxford English Dictionary

March 2009 revisions - Quarterly updates - Oxford English Dictionary: "Recent updates to the OED have focused alternately on alphabetical revision in the letter R and high-profile words elsewhere in the alphabet. This release concentrates on more high-profile terms, with an emphasis on words relating to humanity and life in society. In addition, several key scientific sections are revised, as are two of English’s most common prepositions and adverbs. The key words in this release include community, human, life, live, social, walk; the aceto- compounds, acid, alkali; about and above. Needless to say, long sets of adjacent, related words are revised and updated alongside these key terms.

These notes cover a range of aspects of the OED’s revision programme. Firstly, one of the revised and updated entries, absentee, is considered in some details, to see how revision has changed our view of the word. Secondly, there is a brief glimpse at the profile or ‘shape’ of several of the ‘big’ entries in the range. This looks at how old they are in the language, and how this tends to inform the way in which they have developed over the centuries. Thirdly, we investigate a rogue quotation. This is one which, for over one hundred years, the OED has offered as the earliest example in English of the word pal (= friend, mate). New research in the relevant archive shows that it was wrongly assessed back in 1904. And finally, evidence for the word playwright, which confirms our suspicions that it does date from the time of Shakespeare."