8 results
Troupe of Musicians Playing Traditional Chinese Instruments. Shanghai, China, 1874
In 1874-75, the Russian government sent a research and trading mission to China to seek out new overland routes to the Chinese market, report on prospects for increased commerce and locations for consulates and factories, and gather information about the Dungan Revolt then raging in parts of western China. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Iulian A. Sosnovskii of the army General Staff, the nine-man mission included a topographer, Captain Matusovskii; a scientific officer, Dr. Pavel Iakovlevich Piasetskii; Chinese and Russian interpreters; three non-commissioned Cossack soldiers; and the mission photographer, Adolf Erazmovich ...
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National Library of Brazil
Man with Musical Instrument. China, 1874-75
In 1874-75, the Russian government sent a research and trading mission to China to seek out new overland routes to the Chinese market, report on prospects for increased commerce and locations for consulates and factories, and gather information about the Dungan Revolt then raging in parts of western China. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Iulian A. Sosnovskii of the army General Staff, the nine-man mission included a topographer, Captain Matusovskii; a scientific officer, Dr. Pavel Iakovlevich Piasetskii; Chinese and Russian interpreters; three non-commissioned Cossack soldiers; and the mission photographer, Adolf Erazmovich ...
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National Library of Brazil
Dancing Zamba, Argentina
This photograph shows a couple in traditional costumes dancing the zamba, one of Argentina's most popular dance forms. The dance originated in Peru in the Creole genre known as the zamacueca, which was adopted in Chile as the cueca. The zamba is a slow dance in three-quarter time played primarily on guitar and bombo legüero (the indigenous Argentine bass drum). The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45,000 photographs illustrating life and culture in the ...
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Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Playing the Marimba
This photograph from Costa Rica shows a marimba player accompanied by two guitarists. The marimba, believed to have originated in southern Africa, was brought to South America in the early 16th century by Africans taken there as slaves. In the 1890s, the Guatemalan marimba builder Sebastian Hurtado made an instrument with a wooden resonator pipe instead of a gourd, an innovation that formed the basis of the modern marimba. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45 ...
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Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States
Amazing Grace
“Amazing Grace” is arguably the best-known Christian hymn. John Newton (1725-1807), a former British slave trader who became an Anglican clergyman and joined the campaign for abolition of the slave trade, wrote the hymn, most likely around Christmas of 1772. Its words express Newton’s personal journey from despair to peace and joy through the gift of grace. Newton believed that in the course of his life at sea and on the African coast he had been miraculously spared on many occasions from death and spiritual ruin. About 60 years ...
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Library of Congress
The Magic Flute
Die Zauberflöte (The magic flute) is among the best known of the 22 operas written by the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91). Mozart composed the opera in the spring and summer of 1791, with the exception of the Overture and the March of the Priests at the beginning of Act II. These parts were completed only a few days before the premiere on September 30 of that year. Shown here is Mozart’s original manuscript score. During the initial phase of work, Mozart normally wrote only the melody ...
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Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Christmas Oratorio
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) composed six cantatas for the Christmas holidays in 1734, one to be performed on each of the individual feast days during the services in Leipzig’s main churches, Saint Thomas and Saint Nicolai. The running narrative of the Gospel, as well as the keys in which the framing musical statements were composed, give the cantatas the character of a self-contained cycle. For most of the arias and choruses, Bach added new text to music derived from his earlier compositions, most notably from two congratulatory cantatas ...
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Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Moroccan State Trumpeters, 1864
This original gouache painting of 1864 is by the celebrated British artist, Sir John Gilbert (1817–97). It originally was thought to depict Moroccan state trumpeters, but many of Gilbert’s paintings are indistinct in terms of time and place and their exact subjects difficult to determine. Gilbert never traveled beyond Europe, but like many Victorian painters he was attracted to exoticism and to tales from Arabia, such as the story of Aladdin, and this piece reflects this interest in the exotic. One of the most prolific painters of his ...
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Brown University Library