The music of Gustav Mahler repeatedly engages with Romantic notions of redemption. This is expressed in a range of gestures and procedures, shifting between affirmative fulfilment and pessimistic negation. In this groundbreaking study, Stephen Downes explores the relationship of this aspect of Mahler's music to the output of Benjamin Britten, Kurt Weill and Hans Werner Henze. Their initial admiration was notably dissonant with the prevailing Zeitgeist - Britten in 1930s England, Weill in 1920s Germany and Henze in 1950s Germany and Italy. Downes argues that Mahler's music struck a profound chord with them because of the powerful manner in which it raises and intensifies dystopian and utopian complexes and probes the question of fulfilment or redemption, an ambition manifest in ambiguous tonal, temporal and formal processes. Comparisons of the ways in which this topic is evoked facilitate new interpretative insights into the music of these four major composers.
Initial remote sensing survey at Tlachtga, Co. Meath in 2011–12 highlighted the presence of multiple, partially overlapping phases of enclosure at the site. Three subsequent seasons of excavation provided critical interpretive evidence, with over 15,000 fragments of animal bone, human remains, charred plant material, evidence of metalworking, and a hoard of Anglo-Saxon silver coins dating to the late 10th century AD. The main activity at the site spans four broad periods and two main phases of monumental construction: a late Bronze Age to early Iron Age ‘Hillfort Phase’ (1100–400 BC) and a late Iron Age to early medieval (AD 400–600) ringfort phase associated with a smaller foundation enclosure – the ‘Southern Enclosure’. This ringfort phase was remodeled later in the early medieval period (9th–10th century AD) and augmented by a phase of mound construction in the mid-10th century AD. This is contemporary with the deposition of the coin hoard east of the main complex in an apparent craft-working area. The final phase of the central mound indicates the construction of a timber stockade, most likely in the 12th century, again with significant craft activity. This volume represents the excavation of at least four loci within the broader monumental landscape of Tlachtga, charting its progression from Bronze Age hillfort to pre-Anglo Norman power display mound. The excavations at the Hill of Ward and this publication were made possible through funding by the National Monuments Service via the Royal Irish Academy archaeological research excavation grants, and by Meath County Council, with additional support by the Office of Public Works and the Heritage Council.
First published in 1977, The Samurai has long since become a standard work of reference. It continues to be the most authoritative work on samurai life and warfare published outside Japan. Set against the background of Japan's social and political history, the book records the rise and rise of Japan's extraordinary warrior class from earliest times to the culmination of their culture, prowess and skills as manifested in the last great battle they were ever to fight - that of Osaka Castle in 1615.
In March 2011, people in a coastal Japanese city stood atop a seawall watching the approach of the tsunami that would kill them. They believed—naively—that the huge concrete barrier would save them. Instead they perished, betrayed by the very thing built to protect them. Erratic weather, blistering drought, rising seas, and ecosystem collapse now affect every inch of the globe. Increasingly, we no longer look to stop climate change, choosing instead to adapt to it. Never have so many undertaken such a widespread, hurried attempt to remake the world. Predictably, our hubris has led to unintended—and sometimes disastrous—consequences. Academics call it maladaptation; in simple terms, it’s about solutions that backfire. Over the Seawall tells us the stories behind these unintended consequences and about the fixes that can do more harm than good. From seawalls in coastal Japan, to the reengineered waters in the Ganges River Delta, to the artificial ribbon of water supporting both farms and urban centers in parched Arizona, Stephen Robert Miller traces the histories of engineering marvels that were once deemed too smart and too big to fail. In each he takes us into the land and culture, seeking out locals and experts to better understand how complicated, grandiose schemes led instead to failure, and to find answers to the technologic holes we’ve dug ourselves into. Over the Seawall urges us to take a hard look at the fortifications we build and how they’ve fared in the past. It embraces humanity’s penchant for problem-solving, but argues that if we are to adapt successfully to climate change, we must recognize that working with nature is not surrender but the only way to assure a secure future.
Knowledge of the origin and spread of farming has been revolutionised in recent years by the application of new scientific techniques, especially the analysis of ancient DNA from human genomes. In this book, Stephen Shennan presents the latest research on the spread of farming by archaeologists, geneticists and other archaeological scientists. He shows that it resulted from a population expansion from present-day Turkey. Using ideas from the disciplines of human behavioural ecology and cultural evolution, he explains how this process took place. The expansion was not the result of 'population pressure' but of the opportunities for increased fertility by colonising new regions that farming offered. The knowledge and resources for the farming 'niche' were passed on from parents to their children. However, Shennan demonstrates that the demographic patterns associated with the spread of farming resulted in population booms and busts, not continuous expansion.
Introduction Steve Reich pitched up in San Francisco in September 1961. He was a young musician, one who had been taken by the early-century work of the Hungarian composer and folklorist Béla Bartók, and he had journeyed west from New York in the hope of studying with Leon Kirchner, a composer in the rough-lyric Bartók tradition who'd been teaching at Mills College. But Kirchner had just left for Harvard, so Reich ended up working at Mills under Luciano Berio. Over the course of the previous decade, Berio had become identified as a figurehead of the European post-war avant-garde: his ultramodern serialist work was quite a different proposition to Kirchner's own"--
On May 23, 1957, US Army Sergeant Robert Reynolds was acquitted of murdering Chinese officer Liu Ziran in Taiwan. Reynolds did not deny shooting Liu but claimed self-defense. Reynolds's acquittal sparked a series of riots across Taiwan. In 'American Justice in Taiwan' author Stephen G. Craft provides the first comprehensive study of the causes and consequences of the Reynolds trial and the ensuing protests.
Euphausiids, or krill, have been harvested since at least the 19th century and possibly earlier (Fisher et al. 1953). It is, however, only in the last 50 years that large scale commercial harvesting of krill has occurred. Despite the widespread distribution of euphausiids throughout the oceans of the world and their undoubted abundance, they have only been harvested in large quantities in two areas - in Antarctic waters and in the coastal waters off Japan. There are, however, experimental or small-scale krill fisheries in other areas and there has been speculation about the potential for such fisheries in still further areas. This report summarises the available knowledge about the existing fisheries and draws together information on other species of euphausiids that have been thought to have commercial potential. A number of other reports have been written on the commercial potential of krill, particularly Antarctic krill (Budzinski et al. 1985; Eddie 1977; Everson 1977; Grantham 1977). Another relatively recent review (Neal and Maris 1985) asessed the harvest of krill in the context of fisheries biology of other shrimps and shrimp-like animals. This report provides additional material to that provided in these reports but no attempt has been made to summarise their content except where it is necessary to understand new developments. Much of the information on the fisheries for Euphausia pacifica is published in Japanese or is published in reports of fisheries agencies. For this reason, the biology of, and the fisheries on, this species are dealt with in some detail utilising these information sources which have not previously been readily available.
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