Biography.

Early life.

Butler received the nickname "Geezer" at approximately age eight, because he "used to call everybody Geezer" at school. "It was just a slang term for a man."  Butler grew up in a working-class Irish Catholic family in Birmingham. The Butler family had seven children and were poor, typically having "no money whatsoever". Two of Butler's older brothers had been called upon to serve in the army, and in the Vietnam War era, Butler feared that he would be next. However, mandatory service was ended in England a couple of years before he was due to be conscripted.  Butler was heavily influenced by the writing of Aleister Crowley as a teenager. By his late teens, he had stopped attending Mass. He cited a loss of belief, and feels that everyone should sooner or later decide for themselves what to believe in. By the end "I was going to Mass every Sunday just to take a look at all the nice girls that were going there", he recalled years later.

Black Sabbath.

Butler formed his first band, Rare Breed, in the autumn of 1967, with John "Ozzy" Osbourne soon joining as lead vocalist. At that time, Butler was dating a girl who lived near Tony Iommi, and Iommi's earliest memories of Butler involved seeing him walking past his house every day to visit her. Later, Iommi and Butler became acquainted when their bands played at a nearby nightclub. Separated for a time, Osbourne and Butler reunited in the blues foursome, Polka Tulk, along with guitarist Iommi and drummer Bill Ward, both of whom had recently left the band Mythology. They renamed their new band Earth, but a band already existed in the small-time English circuit with the same name, so they were forced to change the name yet again. Inspired by the popular Boris Karloff horror film of the same name, Butler suggested the name Black Sabbath in early 1969.  Inspired by John Lennon, Butler played rhythm guitar in his pre-Sabbath days, including with Rare Breed. When Sabbath was formed, Iommi made it clear that he did not want to play with another guitarist, so Butler moved to bass. According to Butler, "I'd never played bass until I was on stage at the first gig that we played. Borrowed the bass guitar off one of my friends and it only had three strings on it." Butler lists Jack Bruce of Cream as his biggest influence as a bassist. Iommi described Butler as being "from another planet" in the band's early days; he took LSD, wore Indian hippie dresses, and was very peaceful. At the time Black Sabbath was formed, Butler was studying to become an accountant, and this training resulted in him managing the band's finances in the early days.  After Black Sabbath fired vocalist Ozzy Osbourne in 1979, Butler also briefly left the band to deal with the divorce from his first wife. The 1980 album "Heaven and Hell" was actually recorded with bassist Craig Gruber but Butler returned to the band at the last minute and re-recorded the bass parts prior to release. He again left the band in 1984 after touring in support of their 1983 album, "Born Again", though he returned months later as the band attempted a comeback with vocalist David Donato.  In 1988, Butler joined the backing band of his former Sabbath bandmate Osbourne to take part in the "No Rest for the Wicked" World Tour. He rejoined Black Sabbath in 1991 for the reunion of the "Mob Rules" line-up, but again quit the group after the "Cross Purposes" tour in 1994.  In 1995 Butler again joined Osbourne's band to perform on the "Ozzmosis" album. After recording "Ozzmosis", he formed G/Z/R, issuing "Plastic Planet" in 1995. His next solo album, "Black Science," followed in 1997. Butler returned to Sabbath once more for the 1997 edition of Ozzfest, and has remained with the band since. In 2005 he released "Ohmwork", his third solo album. In October 2006 it was announced that Butler, along with Tony Iommi, would be reforming the "Dehumanizer"-era Black Sabbath line-up with Vinny Appice and Ronnie James Dio, under the name Heaven & Hell to differentiate between the reunited touring band fronted by Osbourne, and the Dio-fronted version of the band.  He rejoined Iommi and Osbourne to record "13" and toured in support of the album, which reached its conclusion in 2017.

Personal life.

Butler is married to Gloria Butler, who managed Heaven & Hell. He was divorced from his first wife in 1980. He also shares his Los Angeles home with several cats, of whom he has posted pictures on his website. His oldest son, Biff Butler, was the frontman in the nu metal band Apartment 26. Butler says Biff is very religious and brings up his children in the Catholic faith. Butler's other son James earned a degree in social sciences from Oxford University and resides in London. Butler describes him as "very politically minded". "My youngest is extremely left-wing, and I think it's because he was brought up knowing wealth and money, whereas I was brought up having no money whatsoever. That's where the church came in and made up for the lack of money because everybody knew each other in the street and everybody used to help each other out", Butler said.  Butler is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club, and during Black Sabbath's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Butler is heard shouting "Up the Villa" as the members of the band left the stage. He has referred to football as his "religion" and has stated that Villa legend Peter McParland is his "all-time hero".  According to Osbourne, Butler "never uses foul language". He was raised on a vegetarian diet, largely due to his family being too poor to buy meat on a regular basis, and is now a vegan since approximately 1994. His mother was also a vegetarian.  Butler appeared in a promotional ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 2009 and later urged fans to boycott Fortnum & Mason until they remove foie gras from their shelves. Butler said, "I've seen some outrageous things in my time, but watching those poor birds suffer simply so that their diseased livers can be sold on your shop floor is horrific!"  Over the years, Butler has become disillusioned with politics, saying "For me, it's almost pointless voting anymore because it seems to be the same no matter what party or politics you stand for. It all seems corrupted to me. It's all the same old people that rule the world." He has also expressed concern over the increasing level of control government has in people's lives. "Every time I go back to England, there are things that totally surprise me that you never think would happen in England, just all the CCTV everywhere. There seems to be so much control over people these days", he said in 2014.  In January 2015, Butler was briefly detained after a bar brawl in Death Valley, California and charged with misdemeanor assault, public intoxication and vandalism. He was released following detoxification and a citation. In 2016 he opened up about the event: "This guy started mouthing off about something. He was, like, some drunken Nazi bloke. He [...] started going on about Jews and everything - Jews this, Jews that. My missus is Jewish and I'd just had enough, and me hand sort of met his chin. I whacked him one."

Style and legacy.

Butler is noted for his melodic playing, and as being one of the first bassists to use a wah pedal and to down-tune his instrument (from the standard E-A-D-G to the lower C#-F#-B-E), as exemplified on Black Sabbath's "Master of Reality" album, to match Iommi who had started tuning his guitar to C# (a minor third down). During the band's Ozzy Osbourne era, Butler wrote most of the band's lyrics, drawing heavily upon his fascination with religion, science-fiction, fantasy and horror, and musings on the darker side of human nature that posed a constant threat of global annihilation.  Butler is regarded as one of the most influential bassists in heavy metal. Billy Sheehan of Mr. Big said: "He’s a founding father of a whole genre of music and a man who really set the bar early on to be such an integral part of the sound and song structure of Sabbath". In Mick Wall's biography of Iron Maiden entitled "Run to the Hills", founder Steve Harris recalls: "I distinctly remember trying to play along to Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" – at first I just could not get it. I threw the guitar on my bed and walked out in a huff, but the next day I came back, picked it up and played it all the way through note-for-note! Once I got going, I started getting into bass-lines with a bit more subtlety to them...".  Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, who defined him his "number 1 influence", stated: "All true metal bassists look up to Geezer as a pioneer and Godfather of our chosen instrument. The best, ever". Rex Brown of Pantera and Kill Devil Hill asserted: "He’s a legend. He’s everything. Geezer is so much of an influence on me. Other bassists such as Cliff Burton, Les Claypool, Steve DiGiorgio, Alex Webster, John Myung, Johnny Lee Middleton, Greg Smith cited Butler as a significant influence on their style.

Equipment.

Butler currently endorses Lakland basses and has his own signature model. For amplification, Butler is endorsed by Hartke bass amplification, "Kilo" bass head and 4X10 HyDrive cabinet. In the past, he has been known to use Ampeg SVT & B-15 bass amps and Fender, Dan Armstrong Plexi, Rickenbacker, Yamaha BB, Vigier and B.C. Rich Basses.  According to the Geezer Butler Bass Rig Rundown, he used the following over the years.

Lakland basses.

From early 2000s

Signature Lakland basses.

Released in 2013

Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler (born 17 July 1949) is an English musician and songwriter. Butler is best known as the bassist and primary lyricist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. He has also recorded and performed with Heaven & Hell, GZR, and Ozzy Osbourne. He currently serves as bassist of Deadland Ritual.

Terence Michael Joseph „Geezer“ Butler (* 17. července, 1949, Aston, Birmingham, Anglie) je britský hudebník a skladatel, nejznámější jako baskytarista a hlavní textař heavy metalové skupiny Black Sabbath. Později hrál se skupinami Heaven & Hell, GZR a s Ozzym Osbournem. Od roku 2018 je členem superskupiny Deadland Ritual.


Early years.

He was born on June 26, 1891 in Háj near Opava in Austrian Silesia (today the Czech Republic), of an old non-Catholic nobility family; his parents were Václav Vojtěch Vančura, born 1856 in Čáslav, Evangelical, Director of sugar refinery in Háj and Marie Svobodová, Catholic, born 1863 in Kluky near Čáslav. In 1896, the family moved to Davle, a beautiful place on the riverside of Vltava, about 12 miles south of Prague, where they lived in a large country-house. Their broadminded father became the director of a complex of nearby stone pits and brickworks. In Davle, young Vladislav was educated by a home teacher (tutor) between 1898-1904. In 1905, he and his older sisters moved to Prague to study there; Vladislav entered the fifth class of Elementary School in Josefská Street.

First prose-works and teenage years.

In 1907 Vladislav entered the Royal Gymnasium in Prague Lesser Town, but problems with school routine and pedantry of professors made him leave the next year. Between 1909 and 1910, he attended Royal Gymnasium in a small town of Benešov, about 30 miles south-east of Prague. It was an old school founded in 1704 and formerly led by the Piarist Order, with severe discipline and rigid professors. Vančura hated this school immensely; on May 14, 1909, he published his first short story "V aleji" ("In Alley") in the literary supplement of "Horkého týdeník" ("Horký's weekly magazine").  The studies in Benešov ended in 1910 by a "consilium abeundi" because of his membership in a secret student club. His parents sent him to Vysoké Mýto to be an apprentice to a bookseller Čermák. He felt depressed and dreamed of becoming a painter. In 1911, he studied the technology of photography in Prague and also began courses at Arts and Crafts School;he was unsuccessful in his attempt to enter the Royal Academy of Arts and start a career as a painter. He considered suicide because his parents wanted him to be a marine officer or soldier. Due to the illness of his mother, Vladislav returned to Davle. In 1912 he studied privately at home and completed the exams of 4th and 5th class of the gymnasium. The next year he entered Royal Gymnasium on Křemencová Street in Prague and finished the 6th class. Between 1914 and 1915 he was again a student at Prague Lesser Town Royal Gymnasium where he took the final exam on June 6, 1915.

University studies, journalism.

In October 1915, Vladislav entered the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague, but this bored him. In the winter of 1916 he studied medicine at the same university; his family moved from Davle to a country manor Humburky, not far from Prague and Vladislav met 19-year-old Ludmila 'Lída' Tuhá, a student of medicine. In 1917, the painter group "Tvrdošíjní" (Stubborns) was founded by Josef Čapek, Jan Zrzavý, Václav Špála, Vlastimil Hofman, Bedřich Feuerstein, Zdeněk Rykr and other close friends of Vladislav. He wrote about them and Josef Čapek became the congenial illustrator of his later book "Rozmarné leto" in 1926. Between October 1 and December 31, 1918, Vladislav practiced medicine at a hospital in Německý Brod. A few days later, on October 3, he published his small prose "Ráj" (Paradise) in S. K. Neumann's magazine "Červen" (June) and worked on a fairy-tale book "Kolébka" ("Cradle") and on a play "Iason". In 1919 Vladislav returned to Prague to continue his university studies; from 1919-1920 he published many art reviews in daily newspaper "České slovo" ("The Czech Word").

1920s and great novels.

On June 2, 1921, Vladislav and Lída graduated as doctors of medicine and married on August 16, of the same year. In autumn, they moved to Zbraslav, where they opened a surgical practice. In 1923, Vladislav published a book of short stories "Amazonský proud" (Amazon Stream). More important was his second short stories book, published in 1924, "Dlouhý, Široký a Bystrozraký" (Long, Thick and Sharpsighted), containing excellent texts like "Cesta do světa" (Journey to the World) or "F. C. Ball". The third book, "Pekař Jan Marhoul" (Baker Jan Marhoul), published in 1924, introduced him as a great author to the public. It is Vančura's first novel and maybe also his best - story of tragical life of a wealthy baker who is continuously declining into destitution and death despite his gentleness and goodness. The story is written with extraordinary language and a brilliant style. In 1925, Vančura published the novel "Pole orná a válečná" ("Fields of Plough, Fields of War") and the following year the novel "Rozmarné léto" ("Summer of Caprice"), became a bestseller. It is a humorous story of three men - a colonel, a priest and a bath-keeper - during rainy summer holidays. In 1967, the book was successfully filmed as "Capricious Summer" by the Czech director Jiří Menzel who also played the role of Arnoštek in this movie. In 1928 Vančura wrote his fourth novel, "Poslední soud" ("Last Judgement"), published in 1929 and built his new white functionalistic villa in Zbraslav designed by architect Jaromír Krejcar, the husband of Franz Kafka's friend, journalist and translator Milena Jesenská.

1930s and great novels.

Vančura's fifth novel "Hrdelní pře aneb Přísloví" (Criminal Dispute or The Proverbs) published in 1930 in Aventinum Publishing House, Prague, was not very popular in its time; it is the most complicated of Vančura's novels, the genre of which lies between a detective novel and a tract on noetics. From the language point of view this book is a serious problem for translators because of hundreds of old proverbs used in text; there is only one translation today - Polish. In 1931, the novel Markéta Lazarová (Marketa Lazarova) was published and became a bestseller. The novel was inspired by a true Middle Ages story of the knights of the Vančura family who were in a private war with other noblemen and with the King's town Mladá Boleslav. Vančura dedicated this book to his cousin and friend Jiří Mahen. In 1967, the book was successfully filmed by director František Vláčil. In the same year (1931) Vančura also published a fairy-tale book "Kubula a Kuba Kubikula" (Kubula and Kuba Kubikula) that remained popular for decades. Vančura's activity continued through the next year as he published the novel "Útěk do Budína" (Escape to Budapest), a contemporary story of love, marriage and life of a Prague middle-class woman and a Slovak nobleman. In 1934, two other books were published: "Luk královny Dorotky" (Bow of Little Queen Dorothy), a collection of short stories and "Konec starých časů" (End of the Old Times) a bestseller, satirical and humorous novel about the life at a Bohemian country-chateau in the first years of the republic (this book was also successfully filmed by Jiří Menzel in 1989). In 1934 also, Vancura directed the film Marika Nevěrnice, from a story by Ivan Olbracht. With the 'End of the Old Times', the time of Vančura's best books ended too. His next two books, a play "Jezero Ukerewe" (Ukerewe Lake) from 1935 and a socialism-influenced book "Tři řeky" (Three Rivers), 1936 were not successful.

1940s, political crisis and war.

In March 1938, Adolf Hitler annexed Austria. Vančura's friend, playwright Otokar Fischer died of a heart-attack when he learned about it; Vančura wrote an obituary about him to "Literární listy" magazine. In 1938, "Rodina Horvátova" (Horvát Family), a novel about life of three generations of a gentry family was published which did not attract any reader interest, due to the political crisis. In December 1938, Vančura took part in the burial of his friend Karel Čapek, the famous writer.  Vančura entered the strong anti-Hitler cultural movement and started to write the book "Obrazy z dějin národa českého" (Pictures of the History of the Bohemian Nation); its first parts were published and then became a bestseller and symbol of resistance. On March 15, 1939, the rest of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Hitler and a week later, on May 22, Jiří Mahen committed suicide in a protest against Nazism.  Vančura was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. As a response to the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Vančura joined a secret communist resistance group in Autumn 1939. On May 12, 1942, at 5:00 a.m., the Gestapo assaulted his house in Zbraslav, arrested him and tortured him in the Prague Gestapo headquarters. On May 27, 1942, a commando of the Czechoslovak Foreign Army from Britain assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler's governor in Prague. As a result, there was a wave of reprisals: in the following weeks more than 2000 members of the Czech elite were executed. One of them was Vančura, executed by SS members in the military area Prague-Kobylisy on June 1, 1942 at 6:45 p.m. His body together with many others was disposed of secretly at Strašnice Crematorium.

Vladislav Vančura () (23 June 1891, in Háj near Opava – 1 June 1942, in Prague) was an important Bohemian (Czech) writer active in the 20th century, who was killed by the Nazis. He was also active as a film director, playwright and screenwriter.

Národní umělec Vladislav Vančura (23. června 1891 Háj ve Slezsku – 1. června 1942 Praha) byl český spisovatel, dramatik, filmový režisér, původním povoláním lékař.


Communities.

Population.

Neolithic culture and technology was established in the Near East by 7000 BC and there is increasing evidence through the millennium of its spread or introduction to Europe and the Far East. In most of the world, however, including north and western Europe, people still lived in scattered Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities. The world population is believed to have been stable and slowly increasing. It has been estimated that there were perhaps ten million people worldwide at the end of this millennium, growing to forty million by 5000 BC and 100 million by 1600 BC, an average growth rate of 0.027% p.a. from the beginning of the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age.

Europe.

Neolithic culture and technology reached modern Turkey and Greece c. 7000 BC; and Crete about the same time. The innovations, including the introduction of farming, spread from the Middle East through Turkey and Egypt. There is evidence of domesticated sheep or goats, pigs and cattle together with grains of cultivated bread wheat. The domestication of pigs in eastern Europe is believed to have begun c. 6800 BC. The pigs may have been descended from European wild boar or more probably were introduced by farmers migrating from the Middle East. There is evidence, c. 6200 BC, of farmers from the Middle East reaching the Danube and moving into Romania and Serbia. Farming gradually spread westward and northward over the next four millennia, finally reaching Great Britain and Scandinavia c. 3000 BC to complete the transition of Europe from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic.

Near East.

The Ubaid period (c. 6500–3800 BC) began in Mesopotamia, its name derived from Tell al-'Ubaid where the first significant excavation took place.  By the end of this millennium, Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) had become a large agricultural settlement with some eight to ten acres within its walls. Kathleen Kenyon reckoned that it was home to about three thousand people. Construction was done using stone implements to mould clay into breaks. The main crop was wheat.

Geologic and climatic change.

The Northgrippian.

In the geologic time scale, the "Northgrippian" succeeded the "Greenlandian" c. 6236 BC (to c. 2250 BC). The starting point for the Northgrippian is the so-called 8.2 kiloyear event, which was an abrupt climate change lasting some four centuries in which there was a marked decrease in global temperatures, possibly caused by an influx of glacial meltwater into the North Atlantic Ocean.

Creation of Great Britain and Ireland.

The influx is believed to be one factor in the creation of Great Britain and Ireland as islands separate from the European continent. After the Last Ice Age ended c. 9700 BC, increasing sea levels gradually inundated Doggerland, a land bridge which linked Great Britain to Denmark and the Netherlands. This process began the formation of the North Sea and the English Channel. Further west, another low-lying land area was being flooded to form the Irish Sea and create Ireland. Sometime in the second half of the 7th millennium, the Storegga Slides occurred off Norway to generate a huge tsunami which completely overwhelmed Doggerland and its Mesolithic community of an estimated 5,000 hunter-gatherers. By about 6100 BC, Great Britain had become an island.

The 7th millennium BC spanned the years 7000 BC to 6001 BC (c. 9 ka to c. 8 ka). It is impossible to precisely date events that happened around the time of this millennium and all dates mentioned here are estimates mostly based on geological and anthropological analysis. Towards the end of this millennium, the islands of Great Britain and Ireland were severed from continental Europe by rising sea water.

V 7. tisíciletí př. n. l. se zemědělství rozšířilo z Anatolie na Balkán. Světová populace se v podstatě ustálila asi na 5 milionech lidí, rozptýlených po světě v malých kmenech lovců a sběračů. V rozvinutých zemědělských komunitách na Středním Východě byl domestikován skot, osli a včely. Hrnčířství se šířilo do Evropy a Jižní Asie, byly také vyráběny první kovové (zlaté a měděné) ozdoby.


Early years and career.

Fischer was born in Euskirchen, near Cologne, the son of Laurenz Fischer, a businessman, and his wife Julie Poensgen. After graduating he wished to study natural sciences, but his father compelled him to work in the family business until determining that his son was unsuitable. Fischer then attended the University of Bonn in 1871, but switched to the University of Strasbourg in 1872. He earned his doctorate in 1874 under Adolf von Baeyer with his study of phthaleins, and was appointed to a position at the university.  After eight years at Strasbourg, he was appointed to the chair of chemistry successively at the universities of Erlangen (1882) and Würzburg (1885). In 1892 he succeeded von Hofmann as professor of chemistry at the University of Berlin.  Fischer married Agnes Gerlach in 1888. She died seven years later leaving him a widower with three sons. The younger two died during their military service in World War I. His oldest, Hermann, became an organic chemist. He died in Berlin on July 15, 1919.

Research.

In 1875, the year following his engagement with von Baeyer, he published his discovery of the organic derivatives of a new compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, hydrazine. He investigated their derivatives, establishing their relation to the diazo compounds, and he noted the readiness with which they entered into combination with other substances, giving origin to a wealth of hitherto unknown compounds. Of such condensation products undoubtedly the most important are the hydrazones, which result from the interaction with aldehydes and ketones. His observations, published in 1886, that such hydrazones, by treatment with hydrochloric acid or zinc chloride, yielded derivatives of indole, the parent substance of indigo, were a confirmation of the views advanced by von Baeyer on the subject of indigo and the many substances related to it.  He next turned to the fuchsine (then called "rosaniline") magenta dyes, and in collaboration with his cousin Otto Fischer, he published papers in 1878 and 1879 which established that these dyes were derivatives of triphenylmethane. Emil Fischer's next research was concerned with compounds related to uric acid. Here the ground had been broken by von Baeyer, but Fischer greatly advanced the field of knowledge of the purines. In 1881 and 1882 he published papers which established the formulae of uric acid, xanthine, caffeine (achieving the first synthesis), theobromine and some other compounds of this group. After purine itself was isolated, a variety of derivatives were prepared, some of which were patented in view of possible therapeutical applications.  Fischer is particularly noted for his work on sugars. Among his early discoveries related to hydrazine was that phenyl hydrazine reacted with sugars to form substances which he named osazones, and which, being highly crystalline and readily formed, served to identify such carbohydrates more definitely than had been previously possible. Later, among other work, he is noted for the organic synthesis of -(+)-glucose. He showed how to deduce the formulae of the 16 stereoisomeric glucoses, and prepared several stereoisomerides, helping to confirm confirming the Le Bel–Van 't Hoff rule of the asymmetric carbon atom.  In the field of enzymology, Fischer is known for his proposal of "the lock and key" model as a mechanism of substrate binding.  Fischer was also instrumental in the discovery of barbiturates, a class of sedative drugs used for insomnia, epilepsy, anxiety, and anesthesia. Along with the physician Josef von Mering, he helped to launch the first barbiturate sedative, barbital, in 1904. He next carried out pioneering work on proteins. By the introduction of new methods, he succeeded in breaking down the complex albumins into amino acids and other nitrogenous compounds, the constitutions of most of which were known, and by bringing about the recombination of these units, he prepared synthetic peptides which approximated to the natural products. His researches made from 1899 to 1906 were published in 1907 with the title "Untersuchungen über Aminosauren, Polypeptides und Proteine".

Honours, awards, and legacy.

In 1897 he put forward the idea to create the International Atomic Weights Commission. Fischer was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1899. He was awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize in chemistry "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his work on sugar and purine syntheses."  Many names of chemical reactions and concepts are named after him: (The Fischer–Tropsch process is named after Franz Emil Fischer a chemist who was no relation, head of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Muelheim.)

Hermann Emil Louis Fischer FRS FRSE FCS (9 October 185215 July 1919) was a German chemist and 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He discovered the Fischer esterification. He also developed the Fischer projection, a symbolic way of drawing asymmetric carbon atoms.He also hypothesized lock and key mechanism of enzyme action. He never used his first given name, and was known throughout his life simply as Emil Fischer.

Hermann Emil Fischer (9. října 1852, Euskirchen – 15. července 1919) byl německý chemik, nositel Nobelovy ceny za chemii v roce 1902. Fischer syntetizoval cukry a určil jejich strukturu. Je podepsán i pod řadou jiných syntéz a objevů. Je také autorem Fischerovy projekce.


History.

Cedar Point opened in 1870 as a recreational area. The park was developed over the years rarely changing management. The park belonged to the Cedar Point Pleasure Company. In 1974, Cedar Point Pleasure Company proposed building an amusement park in Cambridge Township, Michigan on the former Frontier City amusement park site. Those plans were abandoned in 1975. Three years later, Cedar Point acquired Valleyfair. The name Cedar Fair then was derived from the names of both parks, "Cedar" coming from Cedar Point and "Fair" coming from Valleyfair. Cedar Fair was founded in 1983 then went public on April 29, 1987.

Dick Kinzel era.

The first acquisition of the new Cedar Fair company came in 1992 when Cedar Fair bought Dorney Park from Harris Weinstein. Cedar Fair also bought Worlds of Fun from Hunt-Midwest in 1995. One of the biggest acquisitions came in 1997 when Cedar Fair bought Knott's Berry Farm from the Knott family. This marked the first time Cedar Fair operated a year-round amusement park. The acquisition included operations of the Camp Snoopy indoor park at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. In 2005, Cedar Fair withdrew from the lease arrangement leaving Mall of America to manage the park on its own. Mall of America formed a partnership with the Nickelodeon franchise in 2007 and continues to operate under the name Nickelodeon Universe. Several new water park properties named Knott's Soak City opened around the southern California area since the acquisition which included Buena Park in 1999, Chula Vista in 2000 and Palm Springs in 2001. Michigan's Adventure in Muskegon, Michigan was purchased for $27.6 million in 2001.  Cedar Fair opened its first indoor water park in November 2004, Castaway Bay. It was added to the former Radisson Hotel which was then renamed. The indoor waterpark resort is open year-round.  Larger acquisitions followed in 2004 with Six Flags World of Adventure. Cedar Fair purchased the park for $145 million, reverting its name to Geauga Lake, as it was before its Six Flags branding in 2000. All Looney Tunes and DC Comics references were removed. The amusement park remained in Cedar Fair's portfolio through 2007, and the water park continued to operate as Wildwater Kingdom through 2016.  On May 22, 2006, Cedar Fair announced it had outbid competitors and intended to purchase all five parks in the Paramount Parks chain, including at the Las Vegas Hilton and the management agreement of Bonfante Gardens. On June 30, 2006, Cedar Fair announced that it had completed its acquisition of Paramount Parks from CBS Corporation in a cash transaction valued at US$1.24 billion. Shortly following the transfer of ownership, Cedar Fair began the process of integrating the two companies. With the purchase of the Paramount Parks, Cedar Fair LP announced that it would do business under the name Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. Cedar Fair LP remains the legal company name. The individual parks continued to operate under their Paramount names during the 2006 season, however Cedar Fair began removing the Paramount name and logo from the parks in January 2007. The names of the parks were changed back to their original pre-Paramount names (the Paramount's prefix was removed) with the Cedar Fair corporate logo added. Bonfante Gardens was changed to Gilroy Gardens. Cedar Fair began removing references to Paramount Pictures Although the acquisition granted Cedar Fair a ten-year licensing deal for Paramount names and icons, such as Star Trek, Cedar Fair opted to terminate the agreement and not pay an annual licensing fee. All references to Paramount/CBS-licensed properties were removed before the beginning of the 2008 season.  In December 2009 it was announced that Apollo Global Management would offer Cedar Fair $11.50 per share, a 28 percent premium over the market price, as part of a takeover plan which would also make Cedar Fair a private company. The deal included a cash payment of $635 million in addition to assuming Cedar Fair's debt of over US$1.7 billion putting the total value of the transaction close to US$2.4 billion. Cedar Fair planned to hold a shareholder meeting on March 16, 2010 to vote on the transaction but postponed the meeting to April 8, 2010, implying that two-thirds of the shareholder vote needed for approval wasn't yet secured. On April 6, 2010, the deal was terminated, and Cedar Fair paid $6.5 million to reimburse Apollo for expenses incurred from the proposed transaction. Cedar Fair also adopted a unitholder rights plan as a preventative measure to help protect unitholders in the event of any future hostile takeover.  On September 16, 2011, JMA Ventures, LLC entered into an agreement to purchase California's Great America from Cedar Fair and take ownership of the Gilroy Gardens management contract. The agreement required approval of Santa Clara's city council which was scheduled to vote on the matter on December 6, 2011. However, JMA cancelled its plans to purchase Great America and bowed out of the agreement.

Matt Ouimet & Richard Zimmerman era.

On June 20, 2011, Cedar Fair announced that long term CEO Dick Kinzel would retire on January 3, 2012, and that Matt Ouimet would take his spot as the CEO of Cedar Fair. Ouimet had been employed by The Walt Disney Company for 17 years, including serving as president of Disney Cruise Line and president of the Disneyland Resort. He officially became CEO on January 3. Cedar Fair launched new websites for their parks in 2012 as well as a new marketing campaign, "Thrills Connect".  On November 20, 2012, Cedar Fair announced it had sold its "Knott's Soak City: San Diego" location to SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. About nine months later, Cedar Fair announced it had sold its "Knott's Soak City: Palm Springs" location to CNL Lifestyle Properties.  On September 5, 2016, Cedar Fair closed Wildwater Kingdom, the last operating part of the former Geauga Lake & Wildwater Kingdom. All land that once contained both properties is now available for redevelopment.  On October 4, 2017, Cedar Fair announced that Ouimet would step down as CEO and be succeeded by COO Richard Zimmerman on January 1, 2018. Ouimet would remain with the company, taking the newly created position of executive chairman of the board of directors.  On March 27, 2019, Cedar Fair announced the purchase of the land beneath California's Great America from the City of Santa Clara. The 112 acres beneath the park cost $150 million. Cedar Fair had been previously leasing the land for 6 to 7 million per year.  In April, 2019, Cedar Fair announced a partnership with Feld Entertainment to bring a Monster Jam Thunder Alley Area to select Cedar Fair parks.  On June 13, 2019, it was announced that Cedar Fair had signed a $261 million deal with Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts to buy their Galveston and New Braunfels locations, with the option to buy Schlitterbahn Kansas City for an additional $6 million, and the rights to the Schlitterbahn name.  On July 2, 2019, it was announced that Cedar Fair had acquired the Sawmill Creek Resort in Huron, OH. The property cost $13.5 million.

Fast Lane.

Fast Lane is Cedar Fair's version of a virtual queue system. It was first announced for Kings Island on July 18, 2011. The park served as the testing park for it. For $50, visitors get a wrist band which gives them the ability to get to the front of the line on the park's most popular attractions. Originally, it could only be used from noon to 7:00 PM, but it was soon expanded to be available all day. On January 19, 2012, it was announced that Fast Lane would be rolled out at all the Cedar Fair parks for the 2012 season. There is also Fright Lane, which is Fast Lane for the haunted attractions during the Halloween events. For the 2016 season, Cedar Fair began testing all season Fast Lane at Valleyfair and Dorney Park. By the 2019 season, all parks offered all season Fast Lane. For the 2020 season, Cedar Fair began offering all season all park Fast Lane for $849.

Attendance.

Cedar Fair has some of the most visited seasonal parks in North America with a combined 27.9 million people visiting their parks in 2019. Cedar Fair's most visited park is Knott's Berry Farm while the most visited seasonal park is Canada's Wonderland.  Parks by annual attendance.

Cedar Fair, L.P., doing business as the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates twelve amusement parks, four outdoor water parks, one indoor water park, and five hotels in the US and Canada. Cedar Fair also manages Gilroy Gardens under contract with the city of Gilroy, California.

Cedar Fair Entertainment Company je americká firma provozující síť zábavních parků, v čele s parkem Cedar Point v Sandusky, Ohio, USA. Společnost byla založena roku 1983 a sídlí v prostorách zábavního parku Cedar Point. V současné době provozuje 12 zábavních parků (11 v USA a 1 v Kanadě).


Overview.

A bioindicator is an organism or biological response that reveals the presence of pollutants by the occurrence of typical symptoms or measurable responses and is, therefore, more qualitative. These organisms (or communities of organisms) can be used to deliver information on alterations in the environment or the quantity of environmental pollutants by changing in one of the following ways: physiologically, chemically or behaviourally. The information can be deduced through the study of:  The importance and relevance of biomonitors, rather than man-made equipment, are justified by the observation that the best indicator of the status of a species or system is itself. Bioindicators can reveal indirect biotic effects of pollutants when many physical or chemical measurements cannot. Through bioindicators, scientists need to observe only the single indicating species to check on the environment rather than monitor the whole community.  The use of a biomonitor is described as biological monitoring and is the use of the properties of an organism to obtain information on certain aspects of the biosphere. Biomonitoring of air pollutants can be passive or active. Experts use passive methods to observe plants growing naturally within the area of interest. Active methods are used to detect the presence of air pollutants by placing test plants of known response and genotype into the study area.  The use of a biomonitor is described as biological monitoring. This refers to the measurement of specific properties of an organism to obtain information on the surrounding physical and chemical environment  Bioaccumulative indicators are frequently regarded as biomonitors. Depending on the organism selected and their use, there are several types of bioindicators.

Use.

In most instances, baseline data for biotic conditions within a pre-determined reference site are collected. Reference sites must be characterized by little to no outside disturbance (e.g. anthropogenic disturbances, land use change, invasive species). The biotic conditions of a specific indicator species are measured within both the reference site and the study region over time. Data collected from the study region are compared against similar data collected from the reference site in order to infer the relative environmental health or integrity of the study region.  An important limitation of bioindicators in general is that they have been reported as inaccurate when applied to geographically and environmentally diverse regions. As a result, researchers who use bioindicators need to consistently ensure that each set of indices is relevant within the environmental conditions they plan to monitor.

Plant indicators.

The presence or absence of certain plant or other vegetative life in an ecosystem can provide important clues about the health of the environment: environmental preservation. There are several types of plant biomonitors, including mosses, lichens, tree bark, bark pockets, tree rings, and leaves. Fungi too may be useful as indicators.  Lichens are organisms comprising both fungi and algae. They are found on rocks and tree trunks, and they respond to environmental changes in forests, including changes in forest structure – conservation biology, air quality, and climate. The disappearance of lichens in a forest may indicate environmental stresses, such as high levels of sulfur dioxide, sulfur-based pollutants, and nitrogen oxides. The composition and total biomass of algal species in aquatic systems serve as an important metric for organic water pollution and nutrient loading such as nitrogen and phosphorus. There are genetically engineered organisms that can respond to toxicity levels in the environment; "e.g.", a type of genetically engineered grass that grows a different colour if there are toxins in the soil.

Animal indicators and toxins.

Changes in animal populations, whether increases or decreases, can indicate pollution. For example, if pollution causes depletion of a plant, animal species that depend on that plant will experience population decline. Conversely, overpopulation may be opportunistic growth of a species in response to loss of other species in an ecosystem. On the other hand, stress-induced sub-lethal effects can be manifested in animal physiology, morphology, and behaviour of individuals long before responses are expressed and observed at the population level. Such sub-lethal responses can be very useful as "early warning signals" to predict how populations will further respond.  Pollution and other stress agents can be monitored by measuring any of several variables in animals: the concentration of toxins in animal tissues; the rate at which deformities arise in animal populations; behaviour in the field or in the laboratory; and by assessing changes in individual physiology.

Frogs and toads.

Amphibians, particularly anurans (frogs and toads), are increasingly used as bioindicators of contaminant accumulation in pollution studies. Anurans absorb toxic chemicals through their skin and larval gill membranes and are sensitive to alterations in their environment. They have a poor ability to detoxify pesticides that are absorbed, inhaled, or ingested by eating contaminated food. This allows residues, especially of organochlorine pesticides, to accumulate in their systems. They also have permeable skin that can easily absorb toxic chemicals, making them a model organism for assessing the effects of environmental factors that may cause the declines of the amphibian population. These factors allow them to be used as bioindicator organisms to follow changes in their habitats and in ecotoxicological studies due to humans increasing demands on the environment.  Knowledge and control of environmental agents is essential for sustaining the health of ecosystems. Anurans are increasingly utilized as bioindicator organisms in pollution studies, such as studying the effects of agricultural pesticides on the environment. Environmental assessment to study the environment in which they live is performed by analyzing their abundance in the area as well as assessing their locomotive ability and any abnormal morphological changes, which are deformities and abnormalities in development. Decline of anurans and malformations could also suggest increased exposure to ultra-violet light and parasites.  Pond-breeding anurans are especially sensitive to pollution because of their complex life cycles, which could consist of terrestrial and aquatic living. During their embryonic development, morphological and behavioral alterations are the effects most frequently cited in connection with chemical exposures. Effects of exposure may result in shorter body length, lower body mass and malformations of limbs or other organs. The slow development, late morphological change, and small metamorph size result in increased risk of mortality and exposure to predation.

Crustaceans.

Crayfish have also been hypothesized as being suitable bioindicators, under the appropriate conditions.

Microbial indicators.

Chemical pollutants.

Microorganisms can be used as indicators of aquatic or terrestrial ecosystem health. Found in large quantities, microorganisms are easier to sample than other organisms. Some microorganisms will produce new proteins, called stress proteins, when exposed to contaminants such as cadmium and benzene. These stress proteins can be used as an early warning system to detect changes in levels of pollution.

In oil and gas exploration.

Microbial Prospecting for oil and gas (MPOG) is often used to identify prospective areas for oil and gas occurrences. In many cases, oil and gas is known to seep toward the surface as a hydrocarbon reservoir will usually leak or have leaked towards the surface through buoyancy forces overcoming sealing pressures. These hydrocarbons can alter the chemical and microbial occurrences found in the near-surface soils or can be picked up directly. Techniques used for MPOG include DNA analysis, simple bug counts after culturing a soil sample in a hydrocarbon-based medium or by looking at the consumption of hydrocarbon gases in a culture cell.

Microalgae in water quality.

Microalgae have gained attention in recent years due to several reasons including their greater sensitivity to pollutants than many other organisms. In addition, they occur abundantly in nature, they are an essential component in very many food webs, they are easy to culture and to use in assays and there are few if any ethical issues involved in their use.  "Euglena gracilis" is a motile, freshwater, photosynthetic flagellate. Although "Euglena" is rather tolerant to acidity, it responds rapidly and sensitively to environmental stresses such as heavy metals or inorganic and organic compounds. Typical responses are the inhibition of movement and a change of orientation parameters. Moreover, this organism is very easy to handle and grow, making it a very useful tool for eco-toxicological assessments. One very useful particularity of this organism is gravitactic orientation, which is very sensitive to pollutants. The gravireceptors are impaired by pollutants such as heavy metals and organic or inorganic compounds. Therefore, the presence of such substances is associated with random movement of the cells in the water column. For short-term tests, gravitactic orientation of "E. gracilis" is very sensitive. Other species such as "Paramecium biaurelia" (see "Paramecium aurelia") also use gravitactic orientation.  Automatic bioassay is possible, using the flagellate "Euglena gracilis" in a device which measures their motility at different dilutions of the possibly polluted water sample, to determine the EC (the concentration of sample which affects 50 percent of organisms) and the G-value (lowest dilution factor at which no-significant toxic effect can be measured).

Macroinvertebrates.

Macroinvertebrates are useful and convenient indicators of the ecological health of water bodies and terrestrial ecosystems. They are almost always present, and are easy to sample and identify. This is largely due to the fact that most macro-invertebrates are visible to the naked eye, they typically have a short life-cycle (often the length of a single season) and are generally sedentary. Pre-existing river conditions such as river type and flow will affect macro invertebrate assemblages and so various methods and indices will be appropriate for specific stream types and within specific eco-regions. While some benthic macroinvertebrates are highly tolerant to various types of water pollution, others are not. Changes in population size and species type in specific study regions indicate the physical and chemical state of streams and rivers. Tolerance values are commonly used to assess water pollution and environmental degradation, such as human activities (e.g. selective logging and wildfires) in tropical forests.

Benthic Indicators for Water Quality Testing.

Benthic macroinvertebrates are found within the benthic zone of a stream or river. They consist of aquatic insects, crustaceans, worms and mollusks that live in the vegetation and stream beds of rivers. Macroinvertebrate species can be found in nearly every stream and river, except in some of the world's harshest environments. They also can be found in mostly any size of stream or river, prohibiting only those that dry up within a short timeframe. This makes the beneficial for many studies because they can be found in regions where stream beds are too shallow to support larger species such as fish. Benthic indicators are often used to measure the biological components of fresh water streams and rivers. In general, if the biological functioning of a stream is considered to be in good standing, then it is assumed that the chemical and physical components of the stream are also in good condition. Benthic indicators are the most frequently used water quality test within the United States of America. While benthic indicators should not be used to track the origins of stressors in rivers and streams, they can provide background on the types of sources that are often associated with the observed stressors

The Global Context.

In Europe, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) went into effect on October 23rd, 2000. It requires all EU member states to show that all surface and groundwater bodies are in good status. The WFD requires member states to implement monitoring systems to estimate the integrity of biological stream components for specific sub-surface water categories. This requirement increased the incidence of biometrics applied to ascertain stream health in Europe A remote online biomonitoring system was designed in 2006. It is based on bivalve molluscs and the exchange of real-time data between a remote intelligent device in the field (able to work for more than 1 year without "in-situ" human intervention) and a data centre designed to capture, process and distribute the web information derived from the data. The technique relates bivalve behaviour, specifically shell gaping activity, to water quality changes. This technology has been successfully used for the assessment of coastal water quality in various countries (France, Spain, Norway, Russia, Svalbard (Ny Alesund) and New Caledonia).  In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published "Rapid Bioassessment Protocols," in 1999, based on measuring macroinvertebrates, as well as periphyton and fish for assessment of water quality.  In South Africa, the Southern African Scoring System (SASS) method is based on benthic macroinvertebrates, and is used for the assessment of water quality in South African rivers. The SASS aquatic biomonitoring tool has been refined over the past 30 years and is now on the fifth version (SASS5) in accordance with the ISO/IEC 17025 protocol. The SASS5 method is used by the South African Department of Water Affairs as a standard method for River Health Assessment, which feeds the national River Health Programme and the national Rivers Database.  The imposex phenomenon in the dog conch species of sea snail leads to the abnormal development of a penis in females, but does not cause sterility. Because of this, the species has been suggested as a good indicator of pollution with organic man-made tin compounds in Malaysian ports.

A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. For example, copepods and other small water crustaceans that are present in many water bodies can be monitored for changes (biochemical, physiological, or behavioural) that may indicate a problem within their ecosystem. Bioindicators can tell us about the cumulative effects of different pollutants in the ecosystem and about how long a problem may have been present, which physical and chemical testing cannot.

Bioindikátor je organismus nebo soubor organismů, užívaný ke sledování určitých vlastností životního prostředí nebo ekosystému. Jako bioindikátor označujeme například organismy, jejichž činnost, populace nebo stav může být použita k posouzení stavu životního prostředí. Příkladem mohou být některé druhy lišejníků, které se vyskytují jen na místech s čistým ovzduším.


Life.

Early years.

Nielsen was born on 9 June 1865, the seventh of twelve children in a poor peasant family, at Sortelung near Nørre Lyndelse, south of Odense on the island of Funen. His father, Niels Jørgensen, was a house painter and traditional musician who, with his abilities as a fiddler and cornet player, was in strong demand for local celebrations. Nielsen described his childhood in his autobiography ("My Childhood on Funen"). His mother, whom he recalls singing folk songs during his childhood, came from a well-to-do family of sea captains, while one of his half-uncles, Hans Andersen (1837–1881), was a talented musician.  Nielsen gave an account of his introduction to music: "I had heard music before, heard father play the violin and cornet, heard mother singing, and, when in bed with

Studies and early career.

In 1881, Nielsen began to take his violin playing more seriously, studying privately under Carl Larsen, the sexton at Odense Cathedral. It is not known how much Nielsen composed during this period, but from his autobiography, it can be deduced that he wrote some trios and quartets for brass instruments, and that he had difficulty in coming to terms with the fact that brass instruments were tuned in different keys. Following an introduction to Niels W. Gade, the director of the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, by whom he was

Marriage and children.

While travelling, Nielsen discovered and then turned against Richard Wagner's music dramas, heard many of Europe's leading orchestras and soloists and sharpened his opinions on both music and the visual arts. Although he revered the music of Bach and Mozart, he remained ambivalent about much 19th-century music. In 1891 he met the composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni in Leipzig; they were to maintain a correspondence for over thirty years. Shortly after arriving in Paris in early March 1891 Nielsen met the Danish sculptor Anne Marie Brodersen, who was also travelling on a scholarship. They toured Italy together and married in St Mark's English Church, Florence, on 10 May 1891 before returning to Denmark. According to Fanning, their relationship was not only a "love match", but also a "meeting of minds"; Anne Marie was a gifted artist and a "strong-willed and modern-minded woman, determined to forge her own career". This determination would strain the Nielsens' marriage, as Anne Marie would spend months away from home during the 1890s and 1900s, leaving Carl, who was susceptible to opportunities with other ladies, to

Mature composer.

At first, Nielsen's works did not gain sufficient recognition for him to be able to support himself. During the concert which saw the premiere of his First Symphony on 14 March 1894 conducted by Svendsen, Nielsen played in the second violin section. The symphony was a great success when played in Berlin in 1896, contributing significantly to his reputation. He was increasingly in demand to write incidental music for the theatre as well as cantatas for special occasions, both of which provided a welcome source of additional income. Fanning comments on the relationship which developed between his programmatic and symphonic

Final years and death.

Nielsen's final large-scale orchestral works were his Flute Concerto (1926) and the Clarinet Concerto (1928), of which Robert Layton writes: "If ever there was music from another planet, this is surely it. Its sonorities are sparse and monochrome, its air rarefied and bracing." Nielsen's last musical composition, the organ work "Commotio", was premiered posthumously in 1931.  During his final years, Nielsen produced a short book of essays entitled "Living Music" (1925), followed in 1927 by his memoir "Min Fynske Barndom". In 1926 he wrote in his diary "My home soil pulls me more and more like a long sucking kiss. Does it mean that I shall finally return and rest in the earth of Funen? Then it must be

Music.

Nielsen's works are sometimes referred to by CNW numbers, based on the "Catalogue of Carl Nielsen's Works" (CNW) published online by the Danish Royal Library in 2015. The CNW catalogue is intended to replace the 1965 catalogue compiled by Dan Fog and Torben Schousboe (FS numbers).

Musical style.

In his "Lives of the Great Composers", the music critic Harold Schonberg emphasizes the breadth of Nielsen's compositions, his energetic rhythms, generous orchestration and his individuality. In comparing him with Jean Sibelius, he considers he had "just as much sweep, even more power, and a more universal message". The Oxford University music professor Daniel M. Grimley qualifies Nielsen as "one of the most playful, life-affirming, and awkward voices in twentieth-century music" thanks to the "melodic richness and harmonic vitality" of his work. Anne-Marie Reynolds, author of "Carl Nielsen's Voice: His Songs in Context", cites Robert Simpson's view that "all of his music is vocal in origin", maintaining that song-writing strongly influenced Nielsen's development

Symphonies.

Nielsen is perhaps most closely associated outside Denmark with his six symphonies, written between 1892 and 1925. The works have much in common: they are all just over 30 minutes long, brass instruments are a key component of the orchestration, and they all exhibit unusual changes in tonality, which heighten the dramatic tension. From its opening bars, Symphony No. 1 (Op. 7, 1890–92), while reflecting the influence of Grieg and Brahms, shows Nielsen's individuality. In Symphony No. 2 (Op. 16, 1901–02), Nielsen embarks on the development of human character. Inspiration came from a painting in an inn depicting the four temperaments (choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, and sanguine).  The title of Symphony No. 3, "Sinfonia Espansiva" (Op. 27, 1910–11), is understood by the English composer Robert Simpson to refer to the "outward growth of the

Operas and cantatas.

Nielsen's two operas are very different in style. The four-act (Saul and David), written in 1902 to a libretto by Einar Christiansen, tells the Biblical story of Saul's jealousy of the young David while (Masquerade) is a comic opera in three acts written in 1906 to a Danish libretto by Vilhelm Andersen, based on the comedy by Ludvig Holberg. "Saul and David" received a negative press when it was premiered in November 1902 and did no better when it was revived in 1904. By contrast, in November 1906 "Masquerade" was a resounding success with an exceptional run of 25 performances over its first four months. Generally considered to be Denmark's national opera, in its home country it has enjoyed lasting success and

Concertos.

Nielsen wrote three concertos: the Violin Concerto, Op. 33 is a middle-period work, from 1911, which lies within the tradition of European classicism, whereas the Flute Concerto (without opus number) of 1926 and the Clarinet Concerto, Op. 57 which followed in 1928 are late works, influenced by the modernism of the 1920s and, according to the Danish musicologist Herbert Rosenberg, the product of "an extremely experienced composer who knows how to avoid inessentials." Unlike Nielsen's later works, the Violin Concerto has a distinct, melody-oriented neo-classical structure. The Flute Concerto, in two movements, was written for the flautist Holger Gilbert-Jespersen,

Orchestral music.

Nielsen's earliest work composed specifically for orchestra was the immediately successful Suite for Strings (1888), which evoked Scandinavian Romanticism as expressed by Grieg and Svendsen. The work marked an important milestone in Nielsen's career as it was not only his first real success but it was also the first of his pieces he conducted himself when it was played in Odense a month later.  The "Helios Overture", Op. 17 (1903) stems from Nielsen's stay in Athens which inspired him to compose a work depicting the sun rising and setting over the Aegean Sea. The score is a showpiece for orchestra, and has been amongst Nielsen's most popular works. ("Saga Dream"), Op. 39 (1907–08) is a tone poem for orchestra based on the Icelandic Njal's Saga. In Nielsen's words: There are among other things four cadenzas for oboe, clarinet, bassoon and flute which run quite freely

Chamber music.

Nielsen composed several chamber music works, some of them still high on the international repertoire. The Wind Quintet, one of his most popular pieces, was composed in 1922 specifically for the Copenhagen Wind Quintet. Simpson, explaining that Nielsen's fondness of wind instruments was closely related to his love of nature, writes: "He was also intensely interested in human character, and in the Wind Quintet composed deliberately for five friends; each part is cunningly made to suit the individuality of each player." Nielsen wrote four string quartets. The First String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13 (1889, revised 1900) contains a "Résumé" section in the finale, bringing together themes from the first, third and fourth movements. The Second String Quartet No. 2 in F minor, Op. 5 appeared in 1890 and the Third String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 14 in 1898. The music historian Jan Smaczny suggests that in this work "the handling of texture is confident and far less derivative than in earlier works... [the quartet] prompts the most regret

Keyboard works.

Although Nielsen came to compose mainly at the piano, he only composed directly for it occasionally over a period of 40 years, creating works often with a distinctive style which slowed their international acceptance. Nielsen's own piano technique, an echo of which is probably preserved in three wax cylinders marked "Carl Nielsen" at the State Archives in Aarhus, seems to have been mediocre. Reviewing the 1969 recording of works by the pianist John Ogdon, John Horton commented on the early pieces: "Nielsen's technical resources hardly measure up to the grandeur of his designs", whilst characterising the later pieces as "major works which can stand comparison with his symphonic music". The anti-romantic tone of the "Symphonic Suite", Op. 8 (1894) was described by a later critic as "nothing less than a clenched fist straight in the

Songs and hymns.

Over the years, Nielsen wrote the music for over 290 songs and hymns, most of them for verses and poems by well-known Danish authors such as N. F. S. Grundtvig, Ingemann, Poul Martin Møller, Adam Oehlenschläger and Jeppe Aakjær. In Denmark, many of them are still popular today both with adults and children. They are regarded as "the most representative part of the country's most representative composer's output". In 1906, Nielsen had explained the significance of such songs to his countrymen:With certain melodic inflections we Danes unavoidably think of the poems of, for example, Ingemann, Christian Winther or Drachmann, and we often seem to perceive the smell of Danish landscapes and rural images in our songs and music. But it is

Editions.

Between 1994 and 2009 a complete new edition of Nielsen's works, the "Carl Nielsen Edition", was commissioned by the Danish Government (at a cost of over 40 million kroner). For many of the works, including the

Reception.

Unlike that of his contemporary, the Finn Jean Sibelius, Nielsen's reputation abroad did not start to evolve until after World War II. For some time, international interest was largely directed towards his symphonies while his other works, many of them highly popular in Denmark, have only recently started to become part of the world repertoire. Even in Denmark, many of his compositions failed to impress. It was only in 1897 after the first performance of "Hymnus amoris" that he received support from the critics, to be substantially reinforced in 1906 by their enthusiastic reception of "Masquerade".  Within two months of its successful premiere at the Odd Fellows Concert Hall in Copenhagen on 28 February 1912, the Third Symphony ("Espansiva)" was in the repertoire of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and by 1913 it had seen performances in Stuttgart, Stockholm and Helsinki. The symphony was the most popular of all Nielsen's works during his lifetime and was also played in Berlin, Hamburg, London and Gothenburg. Other works caused some uncertainty, even in Denmark. After the premiere of the Fifth Symphony (1922) one critic wrote: "The treasure of Danish symphonies and Carl Nielsen's own output have been enriched by a strange and highly original work." Another, however, described it as a "bloody, clenched fist in the face of an unsuspecting snob audience", also qualifying it as "filthy music from trenches".  At the end of the 1940s two major biographies of Nielsen appeared in Danish, dominating opinion of the composer's life and work for several decades. Robert Simpson's book "Carl Nielsen, Symphonist" (first edition 1952) was the earliest large-scale study in English.  An international breakthrough came in 1962 when Leonard Bernstein recorded the Fifth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for CBS. The

Legacy.

From 1916, Nielsen taught at the Royal Academy where he became director in 1931, shortly before his death. He also had private students in his earlier days in order to supplement his income. As a result of his teaching, Nielsen has exerted considerable influence on classical music in Denmark. Among his most successful pupils were the composers Thorvald Aagaard, remembered in particular for his songs, Harald Agersnap, both a conductor and orchestral composer, and Jørgen Bentzon who composed choral and chamber music mainly for his folk music school (Københavns Folkemusikskole). Among his other students were the musicologist Knud Jeppesen, the pianist Herman Koppel, the academy professor and symphony composer Poul Schierbeck, the organist Emilius Bangert who played at Roskilde Cathedral, and Nancy Dalberg, one of Nielsen's private students who helped with the orchestration of "Aladdin". Nielsen also instructed the conductor and choirmaster Mogens Wöldike, remembered for his interpretations of Baroque music, and Rudolph Simonsen, the pianist and composer who became director of the Academy after Nielsen's death.  The Carl Nielsen Society maintains a listing of performances of Nielsen's works, classified by region (Denmark, Scandinavia, Europe apart from Scandinavia and outside Europe) which demonstrates that his music is regularly performed throughout the world. The concerti and symphonies feature frequently in these listings. The Carl Nielsen International Competition commenced in the 1970s under the auspices of the Odense Symphony Orchestra. A four-yearly violin competition has been held there since 1980. Flute and clarinet competitions were later added, but these have now been discontinued. An international Organ Competition, founded by the city of Odense, became associated with the Nielsen competition in 2009, but from 2015 will be organized separately, based in Odense Cathedral.  In his home country, the Carl Nielsen Museum, in Odense, is dedicated to Nielsen and his wife, Anne Marie. The composer is featured on the 100 kroner note issued by the Danish National Bank from 1997 to 2010. His image was selected in recognition of his contribution to Danish music compositions such as his opera "Maskarade", his "Espansiva" symphony and his many songs including "Danmark, nu blunder den lyse nat".  Several special events were scheduled on or around 9 June 2015 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Nielsen's birth. In addition to many performances in Denmark, concerts were programmed in cities across Europe, including London, Leipzig, Kraków, Gothenburg, Helsinki and Vienna, and even further afield in Japan, Egypt and New York. For 9 June, Nielsen's birthday, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra presented a programme in Copenhagen's DR Concert Hall featuring "Hymnus amoris", the "Clarinet Concerto" and "Symphony No. 4" for a broadcast extending across Europe and the United States. The Danish Royal Opera has programmed "Maskarade" and a new production (directed by David Pountney) of "Saul og David". During 2015, the Danish Quartet scheduled performances of Nielsen's string quartets in Denmark, Israel, Germany, Norway and the UK (at the Cheltenham Music Festival). In the UK, the BBC Philharmonic prepared a concert series on Nielsen beginning on 9 June in Manchester. Nielsen's "Maskarade" overture was also the first item for the opening night of the 2015 BBC Promenade Concerts in London, while his compositions featured in five other concerts of the Prom season. The city of Odense, which has strong connections with Nielsen, developed an extensive programme of concerts and cultural events for the anniversary year.  Minor planet 6058 Carlnielsen is named in his honor.

Carl August Nielsen (; 9 June 18653 October 1931) was a Danish composer, conductor and violinist, widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer.

Carl August Nielsen (9. června 1865, Nørre-Lyndelse – 3. října 1931, Kodaň) byl dánský dirigent, houslista a skladatel období romantismu, nejznámější a jedna z nejdůležitějších osobností dánské hudby, která je známa především svými šesti symfoniemi. Výjimečné a známé jsou i jeho sólové koncerty pro housle, klarinet a flétnu a několik dalších skvělých kusů.


Description.

The wood of "D. zibethinus" is reddish brown.

Ecology.

"D. zibethinus" flowers are visited by bats which eat the pollen and pollinate the flowers. The flowers open in the afternoon and shed pollen in the evening. By the following morning, the calyx, petals, and stamens have fallen off to leave only the gynoecium of the flower.

Food uses.

Over the centuries, numerous durian cultivars, propagated by vegetative clones, have arisen in southeast Asia. They used to be grown with mixed results from seeds of trees bearing superior quality fruit, but now are propagated by layering, marcotting, or more commonly, by grafting, including bud, veneer, wedge, whip or U-grafting onto seedlings of randomly selected rootstocks. Different cultivars may be distinguished to some extent by variations in the fruit shape, such as the shape of the spines. Durian consumers express preferences for specific cultivars, which fetch higher prices in the market.  Most cultivars have a common name and a code number starting with "D". For example, some popular clones are Kop (D99 ), Chanee (D123, ), Berserah or Green Durian or Tuan Mek Hijau (D145 ), Kan Yao (D158, ), Mon Thong (D159, ), Kradum Thong ( ), and with no common name, D24 and D169. Each cultivar has a distinct taste and odour. More than 200 cultivars of "D. zibethinus" exist in Thailand.  Mon thong is the most commercially sought after for its thick, full-bodied creamy and mild sweet tasting flesh with relatively moderate smell emitted and smaller seeds, while Chanee is the best in terms of its resistance to infection by "Phytophthora palmivora". Kan Yao is somewhat less common, but prized for its longer window of time when it is both sweet and odorless at the same time. Among all the cultivars in Thailand, five are currently in large-scale commercial cultivation: Chanee, Mon Thong, Kan Yao, Ruang, and Kradum. There have been more than 100 registered cultivars since the 1920s in Malaysia and up to 193 cultivars by 1992. Many superior cultivars have been identified through competitions held at the annual Malaysian Agriculture, Horticulture, and Agrotourism Show. In Vietnam, the same process has been achieved through competitions held by the Southern Fruit Research Institute. A recently popular variety is Musang King.  By 2007, Thai government scientist Songpol Somsri had crossbred more than ninety varieties of durian to create Chantaburi No. 1, a cultivar without the characteristic odour. Another hybrid, Chantaburi No. 3, develops the odour about three days after the fruit is picked, which enables an odourless transport yet satisfies consumers who prefer the pungent odour. On 22 May 2012, two other cultivars from Thailand that also lack the usual odour, Long Laplae and Lin Laplae, were presented to the public by Yothin Samutkhiri, governor of Uttaradit Province, from where these cultivars were developed locally, and announced the dates for the yearly durian fair of Laplae District, and the names given to both cultivars.  In addition to the pulp being edible, the seeds can be eaten after being roasted.

Durio zibethinus is the most common tree species in the genus "Durio" that are known as durian and have edible fruit also known as durian.

Durian cibetkový ("Durio zibethinus") je stálezelený tropický strom se žlutými oboupohlavnými květy z čeledi slézovité ("Malvaceae") pocházející z Malajsie. V současné době se pěstuje hlavně v jihovýchodní Asii (Malajsie, Indonésie, Indočína) pro ovoce, v menší míře se používá jako zelenina. Durian se vyznačuje kauliflorií, kdy květy vyrůstají přímo na větvích a kmenech. Kvete od března do dubna, dozrává 3-4 měsíce po odkvětu. Plodem je šedozelená pukavá tobolka s pěti švy. Má ježkovitý vzhled a až 5 kg. Míšek plodu se podává syrový, nebo se připravuje s rýží v pokrmu zvaném „lempog“. Semena se pojídají pražená.


Distribution.

The various species cover a vast area, occurring through Africa, the Indian subcontinent, to China, the Ryukyu Islands in southern Japan, south to Southeast Asia to Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Australia, and islands of the Indian Ocean, and the South China Sea. The West Nile monitor is now found in South Florida and in Singapore.

Habits and diet.

Most monitor lizards are almost entirely carnivorous, consuming prey as varied as insects, crustaceans, arachnids, myriapods, mollusks, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Most species feed on invertebrates as juveniles and shift to feeding on vertebrates as adults. Deer make up about 50% of the diet of adults of the largest species, "Varanus komodoensis". In contrast, three arboreal species from the Philippines, "Varanus bitatawa", "Varanus mabitang", and "Varanus olivaceus", are primarily fruit eaters. Although normally solitary, groups as large as 25 individual monitor lizards are common in ecosystems that have limited water resources.

Biology.

The genus "Varanus" is considered unique among animals in that its members are relatively morphologically conservative, yet show a very large size range. Finer morphological features such as the shape of the skull and limbs do vary, though, and are strongly related to the ecology of each species.  Monitor lizards maintain large territories and employ active-pursuit hunting techniques that are reminiscent of similar-sized mammals. The active nature of monitor lizards has led to numerous studies on the metabolic capacities of these lizards. The general consensus is that monitor lizards have the highest standard metabolic rates of all extant reptiles.  Monitor lizards have a high aerobic scope that is afforded, in part, by their heart anatomy. Whereas most reptiles are considered to have three-chambered hearts, the hearts of monitor lizards – as with those of boas and pythons – have a well developed ventricular septum that completely separates the pulmonary and systemic sides of the circulatory system during systole. This allows monitor lizards to create mammalian-equivalent pressure differentials between the pulmonary and systemic circuits, which in turn ensures that oxygenated blood is quickly distributed to the body without also flooding the lungs with high-pressure blood.  Anatomical and molecular studies indicate that all varanids (and possibly all lizards) are partially venomous. Monitor lizards are oviparous, laying from seven to 37 eggs, which they often cover with soil or protect in a hollow tree stump. Some monitor lizards, including the Komodo dragon, are capable of parthenogenesis.

Evolution.

The family Varanidae probably originated in Asia at least 65 million years ago, although some estimates are as early as the late Mesozoic (112 million years ago). Monitor lizards probably expanded their geographic range into Africa between 49 and 33 million years ago, possibly via Iran, and to Australia and the Indonesian archipelago between 39 and 26 million years ago.  Varanids last shared a common ancestor with their closest living relatives, earless "monitors", during the Late Cretaceous.  During the Late Cretaceous era, monitor lizards or their close relatives are believed to have evolved into amphibious and then fully marine forms, the mosasaurs, some of which reached lengths of or more.  Snakes were believed to be more closely related to monitor lizards than any other type of extant reptile; however, snakes have been more recently proposed to be the sister group of the clade of iguanians and anguimorphs. Like snakes, monitor lizards have forked tongues, which they use to sense odors.  The genus "Varanus" first emerged in Laurasia. During the late Oligocene to early Miocene the group had dispersed to Australia, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands three separate times. By the late Miocene, the genus was also present in Africa, Arabia, Asia, and Eastern Europe.  By the Pleistocene epoch, giant monitor lizards lived in Southeast Asia and Australasia, the best known fossil being the megalania ("Varanus priscus", a giant goanna formally known as "Megalania prisca"). This species is an iconic member of the Pleistocene megafauna of Australia, thought to have survived up until around 50,000 years ago.  Many of the species within the various subgenera also form species complexes with each other:  "V. indicus" species complex ("V. indicus, V. cerambonensis, V. caerulivirens, V. colei, V. obor, V. lirugensis, V. rainerguentheri, V. zugorum")  "V. doreanus" species complex ("V. doreanus, V. finschi, V. semotus, V. yuwonoi")  "V. gouldii" species complex ("V. gouldii, V. rosenbergi, V. panoptes")  "V. bengalensis" species complex ("V. bengalensis, V. nebulosus")  "V. acanthurus" species complex ("V. acanthurus, V. baritji, V. primordius, V. storri")  "V. exanthematicus" species complex ("V. exanthematicus, V. albigularis, V. yemenensis")  "V. timorensis" species complex ("V. timorensis, V. auffenbergi, V. scalaris, V. similis, V. tristis)"  "V. niloticus" species complex ("V. niloticus, V. stellatus")  "V. salvator" species complex ("V. salvator, V. cumingi, V. nuchalis, V. togianus, V. marmoratus")  The tree monitors of the "V. prasinus" species complex ("V. prasinus, V. beccarii, V. boehmei, V. bogerti, V. keithhornei, V. kordensis, V. macraei, V. reisingeri, V. telenesetes") were once in the subgenus "Euprepriosaurus", but as of 2016 form their own subgenus "Hapturosaurus".  "V. jobiensis" was once considered to be a member of the "V. indicus" species complex but is now considered to represent its own species complex.

Name.

The generic name "Varanus" is derived from the Arabic word "waral/waran" ورن/ورل, from a common Semitic root "ouran", "waran", or "waral", meaning "dragon" or "lizard beast".  In English, they are known as "monitors" or "monitor lizards". The earlier term "monitory lizard" became rare by about 1920. The name may have been suggested by the occasional habit of varanids to stand on their two hind legs and to appear to "monitor", or perhaps from their supposed habit of "warning persons of the approach of venomous animals".  In Austronesia, where varanids are common, they are known under a large number of local names. They are usually known as "biawak" (Malay and Indonesian), "bayawak" (Filipino), "binjawak" or "minjawak or nyambik" (Javanese), or variations thereof. Other names include "hokai" (Solomon Islands), "bwo" or "puo" or soa(Maluku), "halo" (Cebu), "galuf" or "kaluf" (Micronesia and the Caroline Islands), "batua" or "butaan" (Luzon), "alu" (Bali), "hora" or "ghora" (Komodo group of islands), "phut" (Burmese) and "guibang" (Manobo).  In South Asia, they are known as "hangkok" in Meitei,"ghorpad" घोरपड in Marathi, "udumbu" in Tamil and Malayalam, "gohi" (गोहि) in Maithili, in Sinhala as කබරගොයා (), in Telugu as "udumu" (ఉడుము), in Punjabi and Magahi (and other Bihari languages) as गोह (goh), in Assamese as "gui xaap", and in Odia as ଗୋଧି (godhi), and in Bengali as গোসাপ (goshaap) or গুইসাপ (guishaap) and गोह (goh) in Hindi.  Due to confusion with the large New World lizards of the family Iguanidae, the lizards became known as "goannas" in Australia. Similarly, in South African English, they are referred to as "leguaans", or "likkewaans", from the Dutch term for the Iguanidae, "leguanen".

Intelligence.

Some species of varanid lizards can count; studies feeding "V. albigularis" varying numbers of snails showed that they can distinguish numbers up to six. "V. niloticus" lizards have been observed to cooperate when foraging; one varanid lures the female crocodile away from her nest, while the other opens the nest to feed on the eggs. The decoy then returns to also feed on the eggs. Komodo dragons, "V. komodoensis," at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, recognize their keepers and seem to have distinct personalities. There have also been cases of monitors being trained through encouraging wanted behaviour

Uses.

As pets.

Monitor lizards have become a staple in the reptile pet trade. The most commonly kept monitors are the savannah monitor and Ackies monitor, due to their relatively small size, low cost, and relatively calm dispositions with regular handling. Among others, black-throated monitors, timor monitors, Asian water monitors, Nile monitors, mangrove monitors, emerald tree monitors, black tree monitors, roughneck monitors, dumeril's monitors, peach-throated monitors, crocodile monitors, and Argus monitors have been kept in captivity.

Medicinal.

Monitor lizard meat, particularly the tongue and liver, is eaten in parts of India and Malaysia, and is traditionally considered to also be an aphrodisiac.  In parts of Pakistan and southern India, different parts of monitor lizards are used for a variety of medical purposes. The flesh is eaten for the relief of rheumatic pain, abdominal fat is used as a salve for skin infections, oil and fat are used to treat hemorrhoids or chronic pain, and the oil is used as an aphrodisiac lubricant ("sande ka tel").  However, consuming raw blood and flesh of monitor lizards has been reported to cause eosinophilic meningoencephalitis as some monitors are hosts for the parasite "Angiostrongylus cantonensis".

Leather.

"Large-scale exploitation" of monitor lizards is undertaken for their skins, which are described as being "of considerable utility" in the leather industry. In Papua New Guinea, monitor lizard leather is used for membranes in traditional drums (called "kundu"), and these lizards are referred to as "kundu palai" or "drum lizard" in Tok Pisin, the main PNG trade language.

Food.

The meat of monitor lizards is eaten by some tribes in India, Philippines, Australia and in West Africa as a supplemental meat source. Both meat and egg also being eaten in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam and Thailand as a delicacy. The meat of monitor lizards is used in Nepal for medicinal and food purpose.

Music.

The skin of monitor lizards is used in making a carnatic music percussion instrument called a "kanjira".

Protected status.

According to IUCN Red List of threatened species, most of the monitor lizards species fall in the categories of least concern, but the population is decreasing globally. All but five species of monitor lizards are classified by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora under Appendix II, which is loosely defined as species that are not necessarily threatened with extinction, but may become so unless trade in such species is subject to strict regulation to avoid use incompatible with the survival of the species in the wild. The remaining five species – "V. bengalensis", "V. flavescens", "V. griseus", "V. komodoensis", and "V. nebulosus" – are classified under CITES Appendix I, which outlaws international commercial trade in the species.  The yellow monitor, "V. flavescens" is protected in all range countries except Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.  In Tamil Nadu and all other parts of South India, catching or killing of monitor lizards is banned under the Protected Species Act.

Classification.

Genus "Varanus"  Subgenus Empagusia:  Subgenus Euprepiosaurus:  Subgenus Hapturosaurus  Subgenus Odatria:  Subgenus Papusaurus  Subgenus Philippinosaurus: Subgenus Polydaedalus:  Subgenus Psammosaurus:  Subgenus Solomonsaurus:  Subgenus Soterosaurus:  Subgenus †Varaneades: Subgenus Varanus:

Monitor lizards are large lizards in the genus Varanus. They are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, but are now found also in the Americas as an invasive species. There are about 80 recognized species.

Varan ("Varanus") je podle některých názorů (Lee et al. 1998, Vidal et al. 2012) jediným recentním rodem monotypické čeledi varanovití (Varanidae), podle jiných názorů (Estes, de Queiroz a Gauthier 1988, Conrad et al. 2008, Gauthier et al. 2012) do zmíněné čeledi patří ještě rod varanovec ("Lanthanotus") s jediným recentním druhem varanovec bornejský "(Lanthanotus borneensis)". Rod varan zahrnuje cca 70 druhů ještěrů se štíhlým tělem, dlouhýma silnýma nohama a velmi dlouhým ocasem. Patří mezi ně největší v současnosti žijící ještěři - varan komodský ("Varanus komodoensis"), varan Salvadoriův ("Varanus salvadorii") a varan obrovský ("Varanus giganteus").