Dance of the Knights

I’ve seen Romeo and Juliet ages ago, I can only recall certain parts of it, think I need to go and see it again. The Dance of the Knights is quite fresh in my mind…I’ve found the music for you to download too if you want to! Take a listen and enjoy the youtube movie. You can also read about the “Knight’s tour” in chess…almost like the “Dance of the Knights”;) The music was composed by Prokofiev and was also the theme music of the tv program  “The Apprentice”. If you click on links, it will open in a new window.

Download the music here.

Images: Wikipedia
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History..links open in a new window.
The pattern of a Knight’s Tour on a half-board has been presented in verse form (as a literary constraint) in the highly stylized Sanskrit  poem Kavyalankara written by the 9th century Kashmiri poet Rudrata, which discusses the art of poetry, especially with relation to theater (Natyashastra). As was often the practice in ornate Sanskrit poetry, the syllabic patterns of this poem elucidate a completely different motif, in this case an open knight’s tour on a half-chessboard.

The first algorithm for completing the Knight’s Tour was Warnsdorff’s algorithm, first described in 1823 by H. C. Warnsdorff. Read more on this link.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight’s_tour

 

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Waldo de los Rios

Some of you will remember the post entry about the Symphony of Toys by Mozart — and not Haydn, as many people think. I’ve also blogged the Toy Symphony music, but in the same breath I said I’ve ordered the CD, which has now arrived!

Waldo de los Ríos (7 September 1934 – 28 March 1977) was an Argentinian composer, conductor and arranger.

De los Rios was born as Osvaldo Nicholas Ferrara in Buenos Aires into a musical family; his father was a musician and his mother a well known folk singer; he studied composition and arranging at the National Conservatory of Music under Alberto Ginastera and Teodoro Fuchs. He was inspired by an eclectic range of music and formed a musical group called “The Waldos” which crossed folk music with electronic sounds. De los Rios turned to work in cinema and film sound tracks where his compositions were heard in the 1967 film Pampa Salvaje, for which he received a prestigious award from the Argentine Cinemagraphic Association. He relocated to the USA in 1958 and then to Spain in 1962.
Please read HERE more about him.

Unfortunately, I have to be a bit “nasty” and I’ve uploaded only 1min+ of each of the 2 audio files from this CD. 

The first track is called…Symphony No. 101 in D..”The Clock” part 3 “Rondo” and it is actually a four min piece of music. You really have to turn your sound up with the start of this track, otherwise you’re going to miss the clock!! The clock can be heard throughout the music, but  the music starts with only the clock playing. The second track is of course the Toy Symphony -Minuetto -but I’ve discovered it was composed by Mozart’s dad, Leopold, and not by Haydn. This cd indicates it was composed by Haydn. Do enjoy and if you compare the music here with my post about the Toy music and the audio files on that post. This second track was also the theme song of a program I used to listen when I was a child, it was called “Jongspan Atteljee”…”Children’s Studio” and I think I loved the program more for the music! 
And now, I’ve decided to spoil you with a third track! Beethoven’s Symphony no 6 in F opus 68 ‘Pastorale’ part 5! This is such wonderful music, but sadly, this is only almost half of the track, think you know why I can’t upload the whole track, although I would love to! but since I’ve discovered how to go about to upload only a “taster”, I will stick to the rules! Make sure the volume is turned on full volume! 

Other composers’ music on this cd… Mozart (also Eine Kleine Nachtmusik), Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Verdi, Donizetti and Rossinni.

My favourite – Haydn’s clock movement!

 

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