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From today's featured article

Pages of the Magnificat from the copy in the Vatican Library

Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin) by Claudio Monteverdi is an extended composition for the evening vespers on Marian feasts, printed in 1610. The composer set the usual Latin psalms and Magnificat, but also solo concertos in the style of the emerging opera. The ambitious composition, which uses traditional Gregorian chant as cantus firmus, is scored for soloists, choirs of up to ten parts, and orchestra. Monteverdi wrote it when he was maestro di capella in Mantua, where he served as musician and composer for the Gonzagas, the Dukes of Mantua. He had it printed in Venice, with a dedication to Pope Paul V dated 1 September 1610 (pages from a copy pictured). He then travelled to Rome to deliver it to Pope Paul in person. Monteverdi became director of music at San Marco in Venice in 1613. His Vespers represent a milestone of music history at the transition from Renaissance to Baroque styles. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Earth Dome II under construction

... that the first superadobe earth dome (replacement pictured) at the Pomona College Organic Farm was built by students without authorization and was demolished by the college administration?
... that Ulster Unionist Party politician Rosemary Barton highlighted concerns of intimidation from Gaelic football fans towards those who do not follow the sport?
... that the Casa Fuerte de Adeje was built in Tenerife in the 1550s to protect a sugar mill against pirates, but the complex was destroyed by fire in 1902 and has yet to be rebuilt?
... that before the Sunday Service Choir's "Revelations 19:1" rendition was released, Kanye West sampled it on his song "Selah"?
... that despite its name, Napoleon's Champ de Mai ceremony took place in June?
... that almost a century after African-American brothers Irving and Herman Arthur were burnt alive at a fairground in Paris, Texas, their names were listed on a lynching memorial?
... that the tower of St. Michael, a church begun in the 12th century, dominated Fürth's skyline for centuries?
... that Royal B. Lord collected money for the 1931 Army–Navy Game at Yankee Stadium in Evangeline Booth's tambourine?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; Testing; Impact; Portal

Shinzo Abe

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (pictured) of Japan announces his intention to resign due to medical concerns.
Hurricane Laura kills at least 50 people across the Caribbean and the United States.
The Africa Regional Certification Commission declares that wild polio has been eliminated in Africa.
Two bombings in Jolo, Philippines, kill 15 people and wound 75 others.

On this day

September 1

Illuminated Guru Granth Sahib folio

1604 – The Guru Granth Sahib (folio depicted), the religious text of Sikhism, was installed in Harmandir Sahib.
1774 – Under orders from royal governor Thomas Gage, British soldiers removed gunpowder from a magazine in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, causing Patriots to prepare for war.
1902 – The first science fiction film, titled A Trip to the Moon and based on From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, was released in France.
1967 – At the Arab League summit, eight nations issued the Khartoum Resolution, declaring "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, [and] no negotiations with it".
2019 – Hurricane Dorian, the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record outside of the tropics, made landfall in the Bahamas at Category 5 intensity.

Giacomo Torelli (b. 1608)
Hannah Glasse (d. 1770)
Yvonne De Carlo (b. 1922)

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Today's featured picture

Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West, such as this oil-on-canvas painting, entitled Among the Sierra Nevada, California, created in 1868. He painted the landscape in his Rome studio, and exhibited it in Berlin and London before shipping it to the United States. His choice of grandiose subjects was matched by his entrepreneurial flair; his exhibitions of individual works were accompanied by promotion, ticket sales, and, in the words of one critic, a "vast machinery of advertisement and puffery". This work is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Painting credit: Albert Bierstadt

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