Word: nepomuk
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...deceased, who shared their secrets with their gifted acolyte. Photos of Vernon and Miller can be seen on the bookcase of the fin-de-siecle gaming room that serves as the show's sole set, and a carte de visite featuring a picture of the 19th century illusionist Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser actually shows up in a prop for one of the show's loveliest effects...
...built a wooden dove that was reputed to have flown. In the 2nd century B.C., Hero of Alexandria wrote a book, De Automatis, that described a mechanical theater with robot figures that marched and danced in various temple ceremonies. But the king of all robotmakers was Johann Nepomuk Maelzel (1772-1838), creator of the metronome, who also constructed an automatic orchestra called the Panharmonicon, which could simulate violins, cellos, clarinets, flutes, trumpets, drums, cymbals and triangle. For this contraption, the inventor commissioned Beethoven to compose his Vittoria Symphony, Maelzel also toured America with a robot chess player that was actually...
...German flimflam man named Johann Nepomuk Maelzel appeared in the U.S. and began wowing the natives with his traveling show of mechanical marvels. His treasures included an automated trumpet player, a device called the panharmonicon that could duplicate the sound of a 40-piece orchestra (playing Beethoven) and an elaborate diorama showing the burning of Moscow. But Maelzel's star attraction was a hoax: a chess automaton nicknamed the Turk that took on all comers-and was every bit as talented as the human player cleverly concealed within it. That role was filled by William Schlumberger, an Alsatian hunchback...
Philharmonic No. 3 felt free to mark its debut with a novelty-packed program: the Beethoven Fifth (which New York had heard only once before), arias from Weber and Rossini operas, and assorted works by composers who ranked among the innovators of the time, including Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Johann Wenzeslaus Kalliwoda. Founded by the eccentric but talented violinist-conductor Ureli Corelli Hill, the orchestra gave only three concerts its first year. It charged the astronomical price of $1.11 a ticket (the going price for 20 Ibs. of beef). Unlike the Vienna Philharmonic, though, which was founded the same year...
...lithograph exhibitions ever assembled opened in Munich. There were Munchs and Noldes. Daumiers and Lautrecs, Chagalls and Picassos. But the real star of the show was one of Munich's own sons. His works are a bit clumsy, and he was not really much of an artist. Johann Nepomuk Franz Aloys Senefelder, born in 1771, was lithography's inventor...