1555
A Scottish widow’s lullaby for her fatherless child inspired his music, but Brahms’s message struck closer to home.
Johannes Brahms never came to Britain, apparently because he was so idolised here that the modest composer found every excuse to avoid it. Nonetheless his ‘Three Intermezzi’ Op. 117 were inspired by a Scottish folksong, and are a reflection on his complex relationship with Clara Schumann and her children, whom he supported financially and emotionally after Clara’s husband (and Brahms’s friend) Robert was taken from them.
Posted March 13 2015
1557
James, brother of John the Evangelist, was executed for his faith by a close friend of the Emperor Caligula.
In Acts, Luke refers only briefly to how James, one of Zebedee’s ‘sons of thunder’ and brother of St John the Evangelist, met his end. History and tradition, however, can tell us a little more of the story.
Posted March 13 2015
1558
When Parliament sent the Army against American colonists, people still calling themselves ‘British’ had to decide very quickly what that meant to them.
Paul Revere, a Massachusetts silversmith and professional courier, was in the city of Concord when news came that Parliament had ordered the Army to move against its own people. With no time to lose, he was despatched on an errand which proved to be the spark that ignited a revolution.
Posted March 13 2015
1559
Three fishermen let their tongues run away with them, and were left counting the cost.
On August 15th each year, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Falling Asleep of the Mother of God, that is, the death of the Virgin Mary. One of the oldest churches in the world, the Panagia Ekatontapyliani on Paros, was involved in a remarkable series of events on this day in 1931.
Posted March 13 2015
