Fin de siècle (French pronunciation: [fɛ̃ də sjɛkl]) is French for "end of the century". The term sometimes encompasses both the closing and onset of an era, as it was felt to be a period of degeneration, but at the same time a period of hope for a new beginning. The "spirit" of fin de siecle often refers to the boredom, cynicism, pessimism and the widespread belief that civilization leads to decadence, that were recognized as prominent in the 1880s and 1890s.
“Fin de siècle” is most commonly associated with French artists, especially the French symbolists, and was affected by the cultural awareness characteristic of France at the end of the 19th century. However, the expression is also used to refer to a European-wide cultural movement. The ideas and concerns of the fin de siècle influenced the decades to follow and played an important role in the birth of modernism.
The themes of “fin de siècle” political culture were very controversial and have been cited as a major influence on fascism. The major political theme of the era was that of revolt against materialism, rationalism, positivism, bourgeois society and liberal democracy. The fin-de-siècle generation supported emotionalism, irrationalism, subjectivism and vitalism. The fin-de-siècle mindset saw civilization as being in a crisis that required a massive and total solution.
Bertrand Lucien Bruno Cantat (born 5 March 1964) is a French singer and songwriter. He was the frontman for the rock band Noir Désir.
Cantat was born in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The son of a Navy officer, he spent his childhood in Le Havre. His family moved when he was an adolescent to Bordeaux and at the lycée Saint-Genès he met Denis Barthe, Serge Teyssot-Gay, and Frédéric Vidalenc, who would soon become members of his band. At the end of Cantat's first performance in March 1981, when he was still 16, he threw himself into the crowd and suffered cranial trauma. In 1991 he suffered a black out, and in 1993 he had to undergo an operation on his vocal cords and then follow a series of vocal classes. Self destructive behaviour, cigarettes and alcohol, had taken a toll.
At the height of Noir Désir's success in the 1990s, he was one of the most prominent figures of French music. His left-wing political views caused him to take a position against globalisation, fascism, desertification of urban areas in Bordeaux and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, among other topics.
Paul Buchanan (born 23 October 1981 in Newcastle upon Tyne) is a professional boxer, fighting out of West Denton. He turned pro on 31 January 2001.
Buchanan has faced strong opposition early in his career, winning a controversial decision over Jason McKay in 2004—Buchanan's gloves touched the canvas in the 5th round, according to published reports, but the referee neglected to score the knockdown—and his lone draw against Wayne Pinder in 2005.
After a nearly year-and-a-half layoff, he is scheduled to box in The Contender Challenge: UK vs. USA, facing Jerson Ravelo.
Jean Michel André Jarre (born 24 August 1948 in Lyon) is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and New Age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.
Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and grandparents, and trained on the piano. From an early age he was introduced to a variety of art forms, including those of street performers, jazz musicians, and the artist Pierre Soulages. He played guitar in a band, but his musical style was perhaps most heavily influenced by Pierre Schaeffer, a pioneer of musique concrète at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales.
His first mainstream success was the 1976 album Oxygène. Recorded in a makeshift studio at his home, the album sold an estimated 12 million copies. Oxygène was followed in 1978 by Équinoxe, and in 1979 Jarre performed to a record-breaking audience of more than a million people at the Place de la Concorde, a record he has since broken three times. More albums were to follow, but his 1979 concert served as a blueprint for his future performances around the world. Several of his albums have been released to coincide with large-scale outdoor events, and he is now perhaps as well known as a performer as a musician.
Judith Lang Zaimont (born 8 November 1945) is an American music educator, music writer and composer.
Judith Ann Lang was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Bellerose, Queens, New York. She began studying piano at age five, and performed on The Lawrence Welk Show at age eleven. She studied music at Queens College, CUNY, with George Perle, Hugo Weisgall and Leo Kraft, already winning prizes for her compositions. She continued her education at Columbia University, studying composition with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson. She later studied orchestration in Paris with André Jolivet.
After completing her studies, Zaimont taught music at Queens College, Peabody Conservatory, Adelphi University, and the University of Minnesota. She married musician and music educator Gary Edward Zaimont in 1967 and had one son. She has published professional articles, essays and texts, and received grants for research in musicology.
Selected compositions include:
Her published works include:
Faith, religion, leader, chaos,
Fear
As in future, as in past
Will this darkness come to last?
Hear the voices cry for hope
The ideas for the new era
Call for leader, loss of faith
The desire for a generation pure
Call for leader, loss of faith
The desire of a generation lost
Decadence in religion
Leader through chaos
Faith,
Desire,
Confusion,
Afraid of the future, desire for past
Will these fears ever come to last?
See the people act in decadence
Pride will have a fall
War, faith, religion and chaos
Faith, religion, leader, chaos,
Fear
As in future, as in past
Will this darkness come to last?
Hear the voices cry for hope
The ideas for the new era
Call for leader, loss of faith
The desire for a generation pure
Call for leader, loss of faith
The desire of a generation lost
Decadence in religion
Leader through chaos
Faith,
Desire,
Confusion,
Afraid of the future, desire for past
Will these fears ever come to last?
See the people act in decadence
Pride will have a fall
War, faith, religion and chaos
now my child, you would be five; through everything by my side
in this fin de siècle spirit; this age of selfishness
did we permit everything to slip away?
did i lose everything i believed in?
is there no tomorrow? only thoughts for today
is there no tomorrow? i trusted you
should you have been brought into this cold dark world
fatherless, abandoned with our child within
in this life there are no fathers not on heaven nor on earth
we spend our life searching for this lost fragment of our soul
immersed in self-indulgence is there no hope for beauty?
whose arms are big enough to hold my fears?
already i have more than i can bare.
this life i once opened to joy
now lies twisted in pain
this is dying and not loving
the honey now flows with blood