Yuan Tan (died 205)^[1] was the oldest son of the warlord Yuan Shao during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. After Yuan Shao's death, Yuan Tan split with his youngest brother Yuan Shang over the successorship to their father's realm. Yuan Tan sought help from the warlord Cao Cao and defeated Yuan Shang. The alliance, however, eventually broke and Yuan Tan was defeated and killed by Cao.

Biography[link]

Pacifying Qing Province[link]

In order to test his sons, Yuan Shao ordered Yuan Tan to leave Ye to station at Pingyuan to oversee the affairs in Qing Province. However, when Yuan Tan arrived Qing Province, the Yuan forces only controlled one city within the province, and Yuan Tan's position was only a commandant. Still, Yuan Tan soon attacked Kong Rong in the east, and expelled Tian Kai in the north to expand his domain in the province. Yuan Tan was quite successful on his expansion, and was welcomed by the common people of Qing Province.^[2] Although adept in military, Yuan Tan was inept at civil matters – the officials he picked plundered the countryside and accepted bribery, and the taxes that were collected was below one third of the estimated tax revenue.

Internal conflict within the Yuan forces[link]

In 200, Yuan Tan accompanied his father at the Battle of Guandu against Cao Cao. Yuan Shao, however, was defeated in the conflict and fell sick shortly after returning to his base city of Ye. All along, Yuan Shao had intended to pass on his legacy to his youngest son Yuan Shang, who was favoured by Yuan Shao for his good looks, but the successorship had not been clearly established by the time Yuan Shao died in 202.

Many officials intended to make Yuan Tan the successor according to seniority of the heirs but Shen Pei and Pang Ji, two influential advisors, supported Yuan Shang and pushed for him to succeed Yuan Shao.^[3] When Yuan Tan rushed back from his duty elsewhere, he could not revert the situation so instead he proclaimed himself "General of Chariots and Cavalry" (車騎將軍), his father's former title.

In autumn of the same year, Cao Cao launched an offensive against the Yuan brothers. Yuan Tan stationed his troops in Liyang (northeast of present day Xun County, Henan) against the attack but his request for more troops was turned down by his brother, who feared Yuan Tan would take over military control.^[4] Yuan Shang then left Shen Pei to defend Ye and personally led a force to Liyang to assist in the defense. For half a year the battle went on but the Yuan brothers eventually gave up the city after a major defeat, and retreated to Ye.

Alliance with Cao Cao[link]

Cao Cao's advisor Guo Jia then suggested that the Yuan brothers would fight between themselves in the absence of an external enemy. Cao Cao took the counsel and withdrew his troops to attack Liu Biao in Jing Province (present day Hubei and Hunan). Meanwhile, Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang indeed battled each other. After suffering initial defeats, Yuan Tan retreated to Pingyuan and sent out an emissary seeking to ally with Cao Cao. Cao Cao agreed, but his actual intention of allying with Yuan Tan was to make it easier to defeat Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi, and with them gone, he would then eliminate Yuan Tan easily. On the other hand, however, Yuan Tan was trying to make use of the alliance to strengthen his position. He contacted two of his father’s former generals, who had surrendered to Cao Cao, and gave them seals of authority, in hope they would defect to him at the right time after Yuan Shang was taken care of.^[5] But his plan was sensed by Cao Cao, who even promised to marry a daughter to Yuan Tan in order to let his guard down.

Death[link]

Yuan Shang soon led a force to attack his brother again but had to retreat when he heard news of Cao Cao's siege on Ye. His force tried to converge with that in the city but the attempt was foiled. The defeated Yuan Shang then escaped to Zhongshan, and was attacked by Yuan Tan. Merging Yuan Shang's surrendered troops into his own, Yuan Tan violated the alliance with Cao Cao by taking Ganling (present day Qinghe County, Hebei), Anping County, Bohai Commandery (vicinity of present day Cangzhou, Hebei) and Hejian into his realm. Cao then turned his force against Yuan Tan, who retreated to Nanpi. In 205, Yuan Tan was eventually defeated and killed in action in the Battle of Nanpi against Cao Cao.

In fiction[link]

In chapter 33 of Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Yuan Tan was said to have sent Xin Ping as an emissary to Cao Cao while besieged in Nanpi to seek surrender but was declined. When Xin returned, Yuan accused him of treason since his brother Xin Pi served in Cao Cao's camp. The undue accusation angered Xin so much that he soon died, much to Yuan's regret.

The next morning, Yuan placed the commoners, who were hastily armed during the night, in front of his troops and marched into battle with Cao Cao outside the city. Yuan was subsequently killed in battle by Cao Hong.

See also[link]

• List of people of the Three Kingdoms

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Chen Shou (2002). San Guo Zhi. Yue Lu Shu She. ISBN 7-80665-198-5. 
• Luo Guanzhong (1986). San Guo Yan Yi. Yue Lu Shu She. ISBN 7-80520-013-0. 
• Lo Kuan-chung; tr. C.H. Brewitt-Taylor (2002). Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0-8048-3467-9. 

Christopher Wheeldon (born 22 March 1973) is an English international choreographer of contemporary ballet.

Born in Yeovil, Somerset, to an engineer and a physical therapist, Wheeldon began training to be a ballet dancer at the age of 8. He attended the Royal Ballet School between the ages of 11 and 18. In 1991, Wheeldon joined the Royal Ballet, London; and in that same year, he won the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne competition. In 1993, at the age of 19, Wheeldon moved to New York City to join the New York City Ballet. Wheeldon was named Soloist in 1998 ^[1]

Wheeldon began choreographing for the New York City Ballet in 1997, while continuing his career as a dancer. He retired as a dancer in 2000 in order to focus on his choreography.

In 2001, Wheeldon became the New York City Ballet resident choreographer and first resident artist. He was productive in this position, choreographing a number of much lauded works for the troupe. He quickly developed a reputation as a talented choreographer, and several other eminent ballet companies, such as the San Francisco Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, and the Royal Ballet, London have commissioned dances from him. As of May, 2003, Wheeldon had composed at least 23 works.

In November 2006 Wheeldon announced the formation of Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, a transatlantic company with a US base at New York City Center and in the UK at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London. In its first season, the company performed in Vail, London and New York.^[2] Wheeldon completed his tenure as Resident Choreographer of New York City Ballet in February 2008.^[1] In 2009 the City Parks Foundation commissioned Wheeldon and contemporary singer/songwriter Martha Wainwright to create a new work. The piece, entitled "Tears of St. Lawrence," premiered at Central Park SummerStage on 14 and 15 August. The fifteen minute ballet, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon and Edwaard Liang, featured twelve dancers accompanied by live music and song by Wainwright, who sang while intermingling with the dancers. In February, 2010, resigned from Morphoses, which will continue to produce ballets without his name.^[3]

An Emmy award winning fly-on-the-wall TV documentary "Strictly Bolshoi" followed Christopher as he became the first Englishman to be invited to create a new work for the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet.

In 2011, Wheeldon premiered a full-length ballet "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" at the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. This was the first full-length ballet created at the Royal Ballet for over 20 years, and was jointly commissioned with the National Ballet of Canada. The work's premiere was on 28 February 2011 (with Royal Ballet principal Lauren Cuthbertson in the lead role) and featured a brand new score by Joby Talbot.^[4]

In the June/July 2009 issue of The Advocate, Wheeldon was featured on a list of artists who made the "Forty Under 40" list.^[5]

Honors[link]

See also[link]

• Morphoses productions

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Carman, Joseph. The evolution of Christopher Wheeldon, Dance Magazine, May, 2003
• Carman, Joseph. "Christopher Wheeldon: Making the Most Out of Both Ballet Worlds," Dance Magazine, November 1996.
• Christopher Wheeldon, NY Times archive

External links[link]

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Elliot Goldenthal (born May 2, 1954) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways. He is also a film-music composer, and won the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 2002 for his score to the motion picture Frida, directed by his long-time partner Julie Taymor.

Life and career[link]

Goldenthal was born on May 2, 1954, as the youngest son of a Jewish housepainter father and a Catholic seamstress mother in Brooklyn, New York City, where he was influenced from an early age by music from all cultures and genres. Both pairs of Goldenthal's grandparents emigrated to the United States from Bucharest and Iași, Romania.^[1] Goldenthal lived in a multi-cultural part of town, and this is reflected in his works.^[2] He attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn where, at the age of 14, he had his very first ballet Variations on Early Glimpses performed; he continued to display his eclectic musical range, performing with rock bands in the seventies.^{[citation needed]} He then studied music full time at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with composer John Corigliano (whom he greatly admired), to earn his Bachelor of Music degree (1977) and Master of Music (1979) in musical composition.^{[3][4][not in citation given]}

He lives in New York City "happily unmarried", as he once put it,^[5] with his partner Julie Taymor, whom he met in 1980 through a mutual acquaintance, who told him "I know a person whose work is just as grotesque as yours"; they have an office/apartment where they both live and work.^[6]

Goldenthal has written works for concert hall, theater, dance and film. His work includes music for films such as Alien 3, Michael Collins, Batman Forever, Heat and the Academy Award-winning score for Julie Taymor's "Frida", a movie in which Goldenthal had a small acting part as a "Newsreel Reporter". Incidentally he also had a small part in the stage show "Juan Darièn" as a "Circus Barker / Streetsinger".^[7] See below for links to individual score pages; some with audio samples.

The Tony-Award winning carnival mass Juan Darièn (1988/'96) and The Green Bird (1999), based on a story by Carlo Gozzi, are a few of the composer's theater works.

In 2006, Goldenthal completed his original three-act opera with Taymor entitled Grendel an adaptation of the John Gardner novel which told the story of Beowulf from the monster's point of view. It had its world premiere in early June 2006 at the Los Angeles Opera, the role of Grendel performed by Eric Owens, with an audience containing the likes of John Williams and Emmy Rossum; the opus was added to the Los Angeles Opera's permanent repertoire and earned Goldenthal a nomination in April 2007 for the Pulitzer Prize for Music.^[8][9]

In 2008 Goldenthal reunited with Michael Mann to score 1930s gangster movie Public Enemies and in 2009 he scored another Julie Taymor Shakespeare adaptation, The Tempest.^[10]

He cites acclaimed Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu as an influence and someone he styles his own career on; Goldenthal has said that the lines between traditional concert music and orchestral film score have become more blurred which is the way he thinks it should be.^[11] He has also collaborated four times with Irish director Neil Jordan, scoring movies like Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles and In Dreams.

Style[link]

Elliot Goldenthal has been called by film-music collectors the "thinking man's composer" and a generally more cerebral choice for film makers and fans of film music alike.^[12][13] He is known for his often intense experimentation, intelligent nuances and willingness to try new and unconventional techniques and processes (For two good examples of this, see Alien 3 (soundtrack) and Titus (soundtrack)). This experimental approach has led him to score movies in almost every genre from horror to action to Shakespeare adaptations;^[14] the only type of film he has not yet scored is comedy, but at the same time he has composed comedic motifs for several films such as Demolition Man and the more colorful Batman sequels, which are considered tongue-in-cheek types of movies in the first place. It is this openness to try his hand at anything which has gained him a lot of respect in the music and film communities and with fans. He is not as well known, or popular, as other film composers such as the "household names" John Williams or Hans Zimmer but he is widely appreciated among film score fans for his sheer musical abilities and distinctive style; a style, which though artistically appreciated among film music enthusiasts, some have said can be too experimental or inaccessible to the mainstream listener because of Goldenthals passion for defying the norms of contemporary classical music.^{[15][16][17][18]}

Atonal and brutal in his action music, sometimes in underscore and tends to use very fast French horn bending tones/whining; although Goldenthal himself has said that he doesn't "hear" atonal and tonal, rather "...I don't have any differentiation in my head between tonal and atonal, I either hear melody or I hear sonority — I don't hear atonal or tonal so much."^[11]

Goldenthal often works with a team he assembled after the soundtrack for Drugstore Cowboy: Teese Gohl as supervising producer, Robert Ehlai as orchestrator, Joel Iwataki as sound engineer and Richard Martinez as electronic music producer.^[19] According to Martinez, "a lot of composers want to focus on writing their music, and that's what [his] team allows Elliot to do."^[19]

At the website filmscoremonthly.com a former classmate of Goldenthals replied to a piece on the Sphere score from 1998 saying that when he and Elliot were both studying at the Manhattan School of Music in the '70s Elliot was already experimenting with unusual techniques and when studying trumpet once, Elliot asked him to "buzz into the wrong end of the mouthpiece and sing into it as well", he thought he was crazy but looking back after a decade or so of Goldenthals film and concert music he said that he "...was just way ahead of the rest of us."^[20]

Respected cultural historian and critic Piero Scaruffi found fit to mention Goldenthal in lists of honour and general overview of film music on his website,^[21] placing three of Goldenthal's theatre works in a "Brief history of music through its milestone compositions"^[22] and putting his score for "Drugstore Cowboy" at number 27 in a list of "Best musicals of all time".^[23]

Lists of works[link]

Film works[link]

• 1979 - Cocaine Cowboys
• 1980 - Blank Generation
• 1989 - Drugstore Cowboy
• 1989 - Pet Sematary
• 1991 - Grand Isle
• 1992 - Alien 3
• 1993 - Demolition Man
• 1993 - Golden Gate score
• 1994 - Interview with the Vampire (Oscar Nomination)
• 1994 - Cobb
• 1995 - Batman Forever
• 1995 - Heat
• 1996 - Michael Collins (Oscar Nomination)
• 1996 - A Time to Kill
• 1997 - The Butcher Boy
• 1997 - Batman & Robin (score not commercially released)
• 1998 - In Dreams score
• 1998 - Sphere score
• 1999 - Titus score - film directed by Julie Taymor
• 2001 - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within score
• 2002 - Frida (Oscar Winner) - film directed by Julie Taymor
• 2002 - The Good Thief score
• 2003 - S.W.A.T. score
• 2007 - Across the Universe soundtracks - film directed by Julie Taymor
• 2009 - Public Enemies
• 2010 - The Tempest - film directed by Julie Taymor

Concert music works[link]

• 1980 - Brass Quintet No. 1, Brass Quintet No. 2 (No. 2 has been recorded recently by Extension Ensemble, New York)
• 1988 - Pastime Variations
• 1990 - Shadow Play Scherzo
• 1996 - Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio (recorded in 1995, featuring Yo Yo Ma)

Theatre works[link]

• 1984 - Play, "The King Stag" (production of Carlo Gozzi's play by Andrei Serban)
• 1985 - Musical, "Liberty's Taken" (an original musical co-created with David Suehsdorf and Julie Taymor)
• 1986 - Musical, "The Transposed Heads" (adapted by Sidney Goldfarb and Julie Taymor from the novel by Thomas Mann)
• 1988 - Play (Commedia), "The Serpent Woman" (production of Carlo Gozzi's Commedia)
• 1988 - Musical, "Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass" (off-Broadway, reworked and recorded for Broadway in 1996; Co-bookwriter, lyricist, arranger of the Latin text.)
• 1998 - Ballet, "Othello" (a ballet with choreography by Lar Lubovitch)
• 1999 - Musical "The Green Bird" (on Broadway production of production of Carlo Gozzi's work)
  Stage director: Julie Taymor
• 2006 - Opera, "Grendel" (opened June at Los Angeles Opera; not released on CD yet as of October 2009)
  Libretto: Julie Taymor and J D. McClatchy, after the novel Grendel by John Gardner, and the poem Beowulf
  Stage director: Julie Taymor

Awards and nominations[link]

• (2007) Pulitzer Prize for Music in Music Nomination for his acclaimed "Grendel" opera
• (2004) Emmy Awards Nomination, "Great Performances: Dance in America" - Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Dramatic Underscore)
• (2004) ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards Win, "S.W.A.T." - Top Box Office Film Score
• (2003) World Soundtrack Awards 2003 Win, "Frida" - Best Original Soundtrack of the Year
• (2003) World Soundtrack Awards 2003 Win, "Frida" - Soundtrack Composer of the Year
• (2003) World Soundtrack Awards 2003 Nomination', "Burn It Blue" from "Frida" - Best Original Song Written for a Film
• (2002) Academy Awards Win, "Frida" - Best Original Score
• (2002) Academy Awards Nomination, "Frida", "Burn It Blue" - Best Original Song
• (2002) Golden Globes Win, "Frida" - Best Original Score
• (2002) World Soundtrack Awards 2002 Nomination, "The Dream Within" from "Final Fantasy: The Sprits Within" - Best Original Song Written for a Film
• (1999) CFCA awards Nomination, "The Butcher Boy" - Best Original Score
• (1998) ASCAP awards Win, "Batman & Robin" - Top Box Office Film Score
• (1998) Chicago Film Critics Awards Nomination, "The Butcher Boy" - Best Original Score
• (1998) Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 1998 Win, "The Butcher Boy" - Best Original Score
• (1997) Tony Awards Nomination, "Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass" (Broadway Production) - Best Original Musical Score
• (1997) ASCAP awards Win, "A Time to Kill" - Top Box Office Film Score
• (1997) Grammy Nomination, "Defile and Lament" from "A Time to Kill"
• (1996) Academy Awards Nomination, "Michael Collins" - Best Original Score
• (1996) Golden Globe Nomination, "Michael Collins" - Best Original Score
• (1996) ASCAP awards Win, "Batman Forever" - Top Box Office Film Score
• (1995) Grammy Nomination, "Batman Forever" - Best Instrumental Composition
• (1995) ASCAP awards Win, "Interview with the Vampire" - Top Box Office Film Score
• (1995) Golden Globe Nomination, "Interview with the Vampire" - Best Original Score
• (1994) Academy Awards Nomination, "Interview with the Vampire" - Best Original Score
• (1994) ASCAP awards Win, "Demolition Man" - Top Box Office Film Score
• (1990) Edinburgh Festival Critics Choice Award Win, "Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass" - Best Music
• (1990) American Academy of Arts and Letters Richard Rodgers Award Win, "Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass" - Best Music
• (1988) Obie Award Win, "Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass" (Original Production) - Best Music

Among others including the Arturo Toscanini Award, the New Music for Young Ensembles composition prize, the Stephen Sondheim Award in Music Theater and a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship.^[24]

Quotes[link]

Trailer music[link]

A number of Goldenthal's cues (as is common with a lot of composers) have been used for trailer music, below is a list of known uses up to 2004.^[26]

Interview with the Vampire (1994) was used in:

Copycat (1995) - Theatrical Trailer

Alien III (1992) was used in:

The Animatrix (2003) - Theatrical Trailer

The Matrix Reloaded (2003) - TV Trailer

The Matrix (1999) - Theatrical Trailer

The Matrix (1999) - TV Trailer

The Village (2004) - Theatrical Trailer

Batman Forever (1995) was used in:

Batman & Robin (1997) - Theatrical Trailer

Batman Forever (1995) - Theatrical Trailer

Demolition Man (1993) was used in:

Evolution (2001) - Internet Trailer

Men in Black (1997) - Theatrical Trailer

Men in Black II (2002) - Teaser Trailer

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) was used in:

The Manchurian Candidate (2004) - Teaser Trailer

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) - Teaser Trailer

Heat: (1995) was used in:

L.A. Confidential (1997) - TV Trailer

See also[link]

• Aaron Copland
• John Corigliano
• Tōru Takemitsu
• Julie Taymor
• Avant-garde
• Contemporary classical music
• Musique concrète
• Modernism (music)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Elliot Goldenthal at the Internet Movie Database
• Elliot Goldenthal at the Internet Broadway Dabatase
• Elliot Goldenthal at Rate Your Music
• Elliot Goldenthal discography at Discogs
• Elliot Goldenthal at Allmusic
• "A Website for the Composer"
• Elliot Goldenthal at Theoscarsite.com
• Elliot Goldenthal at Variety.com
• Elliot Goldenthal at Moviemusicuk.us
• An Interview with both Taymor and Goldenthal by the New York Times
• An indepth interview from 2003