The origins of Halloween

Halloween began with the
ancient Celts

Halloween is one of the world's oldest celebrations
Dating back 2,000 years
The Celts celebrated a festival called Samhain (pronounced sow-in)
As a way of conquering fears
Their New Year was celebrated on November 1
Signifying the end of summer time

Druids made predictions for the
year during Samhain

It was believed that on the night of October 31

Two worlds would intertwine
The land of the living and that of the dead
Would have theirs boundaries exposed
In a transitional period that
Didn't allow ghosts to repose
Instead they revisited earth
Haunting everyone in sight
So the Celts lit a bonfire and dressed in costume
To ward the ghosts off for the night
The Celtic priests otherwise known as Druids
Used this time to make their prediction
For the year ahead comforting the people
Steering them away from feelings of affliction

What was Dadaism?

Marcel Duchamp's
Mona Lisa

A protest against World War I
Was known as Dadaism
It was started by creative types
Angry at nationalism
They regarded this as one vital part
To the beginning of the War
So a cultural movement was launched
With anger at its core
French and German creatives
Banded together to provoke
From their base in Zurich
Many emotions did they evoke
Marcel Duchamp was part of the movement
He liked to vandalise art
Like drawing a moustache on Mona Lisa

Tristan Tzara's
Dadai

And scrawling an obscene remark
Tristan Tzara was another member
He wrote a book about it all
It was called Dadai
And he would read from it wearing a monocle
Parts of Europe and America
In time followed suit
But some people were repulsed
And would have preferred them to stay mute
It began in 1916
Continuing for six years
But when mainstream art started taking notice
Dadaism died and disappeared

The life of Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

Born on 6 January in 1412
In Domremy, Champagne
Jeanne d'Arc was illiterate her whole life
But destined to lead a revolutionary campaign
At the age of three her country France was invaded
By the English which divided the nation
One half was Burgundian, the other Armagnac
The latter of which would hold Jeanne's affiliation
Her family were poor and the Armagnac's showed support
While the Burgundians sided with the English
Originally led by the Duke of Orleans
Jeanne helped Charles VII gain his distinguish
At the tender age of 12 Jeanne received visions
Of religious figures who spoke to her
They included Archangels and Saints
And they informed she'd become a key figure
In that she would rid Orleans from its shackles
On behalf of the captured Duke
And get the Dauphin Charles VII
To Rheims to stage their rebuke

Joan of Arc's visions

In 1429 when she was 17
Jeanne approached a Lord
She explained the visions she'd encountered
And with the clergy's blessing they led by the sword
With Charles Jeanne led the revolt
And regained control
Of several neighbouring villages
Held captive by English soul
As they marched towards Rheims
For Charles VII's coronation
They kept hopes alive
Of uniting their nation
During a battle in Paris
Jeanne was wounded by an arrow
So Charles immediately retreated
To prevent any further sorrow
When she'd recovered in April 1430
Jeanne went straight back into war
Her army fought for the city of Compiegne
But they failed and her lead continued no more
What's strange is Jeanne knew this was coming

Joan of Arc was
executed at the stake

She's seen it all before
She had a premonition she'd be captured
Before St John's Day, June 24
It was May 23 to be exact
When Jeanne was captured by the enemy
She was locked up for a year
And charged with heresy
She was sentenced to death on May 30 1431
And was burned at the stake
Her only wish was to have a crucifix held in front of her
Upon which she could fixate
Jeanne was only 19
When she succumbed to her extinction
She may have suffered greatly for her country
But she's now held with Saintly distinction

The history of musical instruments

The oldest musical instrument

The oldest musical instrument ever to be found
Was a flute discovered in German ground
Believed to be 35,000-years-old
The bones of a vulture shaped its mould
The dulcimer dates back to Mesopotamia
And is still popular in parts of Asia
Bronze and silver trumpets are of an old age
Some of the instruments were found in Tutankhamun's grave
Bells were created in China 4,000-years-ago
When cast in bronze they were called Bo
12th century Europe is credited with the guitar
Though this descended from the tanbur, setar and sitar
The trombone comes from Belgium circa 1450
But was named a sackbutt originally
The double bass has links to the 15th century
German composer Michael Praetorius wrote about it in his theory
French horns were used purely on the hunting ground
But the Germans developed it for musical sound

Saxophones were invented
by Adolphe Sax

The French are to thank for the oboe
As well as developing the metronome
A German named Denner invented the clarinet
Modernising the chalumeau he created a new instrument
The classic piano was made in 1720 Italy
Bartolomeo Cristofori named it pianoforte
The modern tuba exists thanks to two Prussians' invention
Stolzel and Bliimel created the piston
Adolphe Sax is a name musically well known
The Belgian created the saxophone
1829 saw the birth of the accordion
It was invented by Wheatstone, an Englishman
The voltage controlled synthesizer is fairly young
Made in 1945 by a Canadian

The philosophies of Socrates

Socrates

In the Athenian days of the fifth century
Socrates' questioning influenced Western philosophy
Through the use of critical reasoning
Socrates influenced peoples way of thinking
People believed knowledge was gained by one-upmanship
But Socrates didn't believe this, he questioned it
And it was from this simple act of defiance
That Socrates was able to form an alliance
With the greatest thinkers of those days
Such as Plato, Xenophon and Alcibiades
He made them reconsider everything
With his parallel ways of questioning
Is the pious loved by the gods because it pious
Or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?
He believed everyone's opinions varied, even the Gods

The death of Socrates

Leaving no work of his own he starred in Plato's dialogues
The Socratic method leads to greater knowledge and piety
But alas the magistrates did not agree
Aged 70 Socrates was charged with corruption
Influencing the youth and religious disruption
He was sentenced to death by the poison hemlock
Leaving friends, family and students in a state of shock
We learn not to regard anything too great or small
If we break it down and question it all  

The life of Carlo Gesualdo

Carlo Gesualdo

A brilliant composer or crazed killer
Italy's Gesualdo divides opinion like strawberry or vanilla
He murdered his wife and her lover for adultery
In 1590, the late sixteenth century
Born with a talent recognised by the state
His crime went unpunished which sealed his fate
Despite public outrage the church intervened
And although he was spared he was regarded a fiend
Gesualdo composed his first piece at 19
His style was unique never before seen
During the Renaissance he made a huge contribution
His music helped create the 'Mannerist Revolution'
Gesualdo had the power to enthral
With the intensity of his madrigal
Written with distinction far ahead of his time
They were tinged with guilty words possibly for his crime
Dissonance occurred almost frequently
Influencing music in a modernist century
His brilliance shone in the six madrigals he wrote
The latter two of which are considered extra special in note
Sacred and captivating, adored by the church
His mind may have been troubled but not so for his work
Rumoured to have killed his second son in infancy
Because he questioned his own paternity
Gesualdo fell into a deep depression
Before passing away at 47

The world's first photograph

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was a genius

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce

Who was fascinated with lithography
He began experimenting in 1816
And this led to a ground-breaking discovery
Using engravings carved on stone or glass
And making these transparent
With a layer of light-sensitive varnish
Things soon became apparent
He was able to copy an engraving
With a wireless solar telegraph
Of a man leading his horse
The instrument is known as heliograph
Niépce made his almighty breakthrough
A year later and a decade on from his start
When he used a polished pewter plate
And bitumen of Judea playing a part
Using a camera obscura which projected images
Of its surroundings on a screen
The Frenchman set up the device in his home
In order to capture the scene
At the window of his study he exposed the lens
For eight hours straight
Afterwards an image was rendered visible
When he carefully washed the plate

View from the Window at Le Gras

He gave the piece a name
Calling it 'View from the Window at Le Gras'
The piece was very special
Because it was the world's first photograph
Before passing away Niépce made a partner
A French artist named Louis Daguerre
His job was to carry on the legacy
With deserved love and care
He created the daguerrotype, a silver-plated sheet of copper
And many people did he convince
That photography existed
Including a young Louis Le Prince

The accidental discovery of Lithography

A lithograph of Senefelder
taken from Specimens of Polyautography

Lithography was discovered by a playwright in Germany
Merely by chance, however, as it happened accidentally
Alois Senefelder was the gentleman's name
Greasy crayons and limestone are what gave him his fame
Realising that if he wrote a script on a limestone slab
With a greasy crayon, which must have seemed mad
He'd be able to make more than one print
If he applied the use of some rolled-on ink
Thus a new publishing method came to life
And the copying of art soon became rife
This all occurred in 1796
And without it only originals would exist

The history of Mesopotamia

Map of Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia
Now known as Arabia
More specifically Iraq
Helped develop civilisation
With agriculture and domestication
Thus in history making their mark
They developed a language known as Sumerian
Which is the oldest on the planet
Pictures became characters known as 'cuneiform'
And was found on many a clay tablet
Language was not the only invention
That we can attribute to their credit
For the Mesopotamians were innovators
Whose developments hold merit
Glass, the column, the seeder plough

Kudurru

The arch, the dome and sanitation
The concept of numerical zero
And lest we forget irrigation
They revolutionised the way we transport
When they created the wheel
And with their astronomical observations
They could harvest crops to make a deal
They did not have money as a currency
Instead they used the crops they grew
Barley was the main source of exchange
And keeping records of transactions was 'kudurru'
They realised they could control the wind
If they used a sail
This gave them a natural source of energy
Much to their avail
They were expert architects
And formed an industry

Babylon

With bricks made from mud
Between 4000 - 3500 BC
They built themselves cities
The first of which was Eridu
For protection and irrigation
Because rain drops were so few
Mesopotamia had a special capital
The empire of Babylon
Spanning 700 miles
This was Nebuchadnezzar II's kingdom
It is amazing to think
This all occurred 8000 years ago
Because without this 'cradle of civilisation'
What would we know

First film ever made

The first film ever made was called Roundhay Garden Scene

It dates back to 1888 October 14

Filmed by Louis Le Prince who hailed from France

The recording showed the Whitley family in somewhat of a trance

Le Prince wed into the family after his move to Leeds, UK

Where he worked with John in the brass industry in the town of Roundhay

He took John’s sister Elizabeth, a talented artist, as his wife

And they founded the Leeds Technical School of Art during the course of their life

But Le Prince’s breakthrough moment came with a special invention

A 16-lens camera that took pictures to another dimension

With it he was able to capture 24 frames

Of the Whitley’s and his son in the garden of Oakwood Grange

Recorded at a speed of 12 frames per second

The film only lasts for a couple but motion picture beckoned