Word: prussia
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...resulted in the secret secularism of our times." The drama as told by them ranges through the bustling courts and cafés of some half a dozen nations, is crowded with a cast of hundreds, from Voltaire's royal on-and-off admirer, Frederick the Great of Prussia, to Lord Chesterfield, writing elegant letters on morals to his bastard...
...thus needs continuous redefinition. Prussia's Karl Clausewitz (who died in 1831 of cholera) gave the modern starting point by defining war as the extension of state policy by other means. To him, victory was "the destruction of the enemy forces," but he held an equally warm regard for the limited objective. Defense was at least as strong a position as offense, and putting the enemy off stride as valuable as knocking him flat. To that extent, generals who could forestall defeat were as honorable as those who won famous victories...
...months later, war broke out between Bavaria and Prussia, and Ludwig's untrained, ill-equipped army was crushed. Had Ludwig spent as much money for artillery as he lavished on Tristan, it is conceivable that European history might have turned out differently. As it was, Tristan signaled the birth of a new art form that changed the course of music. His music dramas, substituting daring harmonies and emotionally charged leitmotifs for set-piece arias, marked the end of "poetic" opera, and paved the way for such pioneers as Debussy and Schoenberg...
...Bach Society concert Sunday evening in Paine Hall began with a croak from the horn. The first piece on the program was Webern's arrangement of the Ricercare of Bach's Musical Offering, and the theme of Frederick of Prussia's is first stated by the horn alone; admittedly it is a dirty trick to play on the unfortunate hornist, but it is a common enough practice, and this particular player was not up to it. He also succeeded in spoiling a large part of the orchestral accompaniment to the soprano in the Beethoven aria Primo amore, piacer del ciel...
...high cost of their favors. None more so than La Belle Otero, with her jet-black hair, hourglass figure and enameled complexion. One night at the Café de Paris, five rulers of Europe offered homage at her table-Russia's Nicholas II, Britain's Edward VII, Prussia's Wilhelm II, Belgium's Leopold II and Spain's Alfonso XIII. Otero boasted, "I have been a slave to my passions, but never...