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Characters
Eurydice
In Greek mythology, Eurydice was an oak nymph or one of the daughters of Apollo (the god of music, prophecy, and light, who also drove the sun chariot, 'adopting' the power as god of the Sun from the primordial god Helios). She was the wife of Orpheus, who tried to bring her back from the dead with his enchanting music.
Orpheus
For the Greeks, Orpheus was a founder and prophet of the so-called "Orphic" mysteries. He was credited with the composition of the Orphic Hymns, a collection of which only two have survived.He was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centred on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music, his attempt to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, from the underworld, and his death at the hands of those who could not hear his divine music. As an archetype of the inspired singer, Orpheus is one of the most significant figures in the reception of classical mythology in Western culture, portrayed or alluded to in countless forms of art and popular culture including poetry, film, opera, music, and painting.
Musical
First Movement (p9)
A movement in music is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession. A movement is a section, "a major structural unit perceived as the result of the coincidence of relatively large numbers of structural phenomena."
Rhythm (p11 etc)
In the performance arts, rhythm is the timing of events on a human scale; of musical sounds and silences, of the steps of a dance, or the meter of spoken language and poetry. Rhythm may also refer to visual presentation, as "timed movement through space"and a common language of pattern unites rhythm with geometry.
Music Theory
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. Specifically, there are three overlapping senses in which the word is used: (1) Colloquially, music theory refers to fundamental elements of music such as pitch, rhythm, harmony, and form; (2) music theory also refers to performed and written traditions regarding the nature and structure of music; and (3) music theory as a scholarly discipline in twentieth-century academia.
The Structure of a Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often written by composers for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are scored for string (violin, viola, cello and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30–100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts.
Mythology
Lethe
In Greek mythology, Lethe was one of the five rivers of the underworld of Hades. Also known as the Ameles potamos (river of unmindfulness), the Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld, where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness. Lethe was also the name of the Greek spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion, with whom the river was often identified.
In Classical Greek, the word lethe literally means "oblivion", "forgetfulness", or "concealment". It is related to the Greek word for "truth", aletheia (ἀλήθεια), which through the privative alpha literally means "un-forgetfulness" or "un-concealment".
Some ancient Greeks believed that souls were made to drink from the river before being reincarnated, so they would not remember their past lives. The Myth of Er at the end of Plato's Republic tells of the dead arriving at the "plain of Lethe", through which the river Ameles ("careless") runs. A few mystery religions taught the existence of another river, the Mnemosyne; those who drank from the Mnemosyne would remember everything and attain omniscience. Initiates were taught that they would receive a choice of rivers to drink from after death, and to drink from Mnemosyne instead of Lethe.
Underworld
The Underworld is a place in religion and mythology where the souls of the recently departed go. The Greek underworld, in mythology, is an otherworld where souls go after death, and is the original Greek idea of afterlife. At the moment of death the soul is separated from the corpse, taking on the shape of the former person, and is transported to the entrance of the Underworld.
Lord of the Underworld
Hades was the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. After the overthrow of their father, Cronus, he drew lots with them to share the universe. He drew poorly, which resulted in becoming lord of the underworld and ruler of the dead. Nevertheless, he was not considered to be death itself, as this was a different god, called Thanatos. Greedy like his brother Poseidon, he was mainly interested in increasing his subjects, and anyone whose deeds resulted in people dying was favoured by him. The Erinnyes (the Furies) were welcomed guests in his kingdom. Source
Sacred stones
Lapis manalis (Latin: "stone of the Manes") was either of two sacred stones used in the Roman religion. One covered a gate to Hades, abode of the dead; Festus called it ostium Orci, "the gate of Orcus". The other was used to make rain; this one may have no direct relationship with the Manes, but is instead derived from the verb manare, "to flow". Source
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece and the second highest mountain in the Balkans. Olympus was notable in Greek mythology as the home of the Greek gods, on the Mytikas peak. In Greek mythology, Mount Olympus was the dwelling of the Olympian Gods and it was created after the Titanomachy, the battle during which the Olympians defeated their predecessors, the Titans. The peak Mytikas was then called Pantheon and was the venue where all the fiery discussions among the deities took place. Source
In-Text References
Jitterbug
A fast dance popular in the 1940s, performed chiefly to swing music, and a nickname for a later version of the popular 1920's dance, the Lindy Hop.
The Lindy Hop used eight (not the usual four) beats of music to complete a figure. Popular in the late ’20s, it originated in 1927 after Lindbergh's flight to Paris, when some young black dancers began improvising eccentric off-beat steps in a corner of the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. The couple would start together in ballroom position, then the man would fling his partner away and improvise on a “solo hop,” reminiscent of Lindbergh's then-recent flight across the Atlantic.
Jitterbug, which was popular in the 1930s, speeded the dance up, says Craig Hutchinson of Potomac Swing (emphasizing that no two people will agree on these definitions), using six beats of music for each figure. Both the lindy and jitterbug used acrobatics, aerials (e.g., flipping the woman over the man’s back), and breakaways (where the partners break apart from each other and do different things). “In the forties,” says Hutch, “the dance schools tamed the jitterbug and Lindy Hop — took out all the bumps and grinds, squats and aerials — and the music changed, too. They started playing swing music and came up with a much smoother, more sophisticated form of dance called swing.
Deleted Jitterbug Scene from Wizard of Oz
Lindy Hop/Jitterbug the same thing
Tabula rasa
A Latin phrase often translated as "blank slate" in English and originates from the Roman tabula used for notes, which was blanked by heating the wax and then smoothing it.