Rhone
River
View over the Rhone flowing from Valais into Lake Geneva
Countries	Switzerland, France
Source	Rhone Glacier
Mouth	Mediterranean Sea
- elevation	0 m (0 ft)
- coordinates	43°19′51″N 4°50′44″E / 43.33083°N 4.84556°E / 43.33083; 4.84556
Length	813 km (505 mi)
Basin	98,000 km2 (37,838 sq mi)
Area	54 km2 (21 sq mi)
Discharge
- average	1,710 m3/s (60,388 cu ft/s)
- max	13,000 m3/s (459,091 cu ft/s)
- min	360 m3/s (12,713 cu ft/s)

The Rhone (French: Rhône, IPA: [ʁon]; German: Rhone; Walliser German: Rotten; Italian: Rodano; Arpitan: Rôno; Occitan: Ròse) is one of the major rivers of Europe, rising in Switzerland and running from there through southeastern France. At Arles, near its mouth on the Mediterranean Sea, the river divides into two branches, known as the Great Rhone (French: Grand Rhône) and the Little Rhone (Petit Rhône). The resulting delta constitutes the Camargue region.

In French, the adjective derived from the river is rhodanien, as in le sillon rhodanien (literally "the furrow of the Rhone"), which is the name of the long, straight Saône and Rhone river valleys, a deep cleft running due south to the Mediterranean and separating the Alps from the Massif Central.

Navigation[link]

Before railroads and highways were developed, the Rhone was an important inland trade and transportation route, connecting the cities of Arles, Avignon, Valence, Vienne and Lyon to the Mediterranean ports of Fos, Marseille and Sète. Travelling down the Rhone by barge would take three weeks. By motorized vessel, the trip now takes only three days. The Rhône is classified as a class V waterway^[1] from the mouth of the Saône river to the sea. The Saône, which is also canalized, connects the Rhône ports to the cities of Villefranche-sur-Saône, Mâcon and Chalon-sur-Saône. Smaller vessels (up to CEMT class I) can travel further northwest, north and northeast via the Centre-Loire-Briare and Loing Canals to the Seine river, via the Canal de la Marne à la Saône (recently often called the "Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne") to the Marne, via the Canal des Vosges (formerly called the "Canal de l'Est – Branche Sud") to the Moselle and via the Canal du Rhône au Rhin to the Rhine.

The Rhone is infamous for its strong current when the river carries large quantities of water: current speeds up to 10 kilometres per hour (6 mph) are sometimes reached, particularly in the stretch below the last lock at Valabrègues and in some of the diversion canals. The ten river locks are operated daily from 05:00 a.m. until 09:00 p.m. Night operation can be requested and is usually granted.^[2]

Course[link]

The Rhone Glacier above Oberwald, Switzerland is the source of the river. The Rhone flowing through the valleys of the Swiss Alps and arriving into Lake Geneva, in Switzerland.

The Rhone rises as an effluent of the Rhone Glacier in Valais, in the Swiss Alps, at an altitude of approximately 2,150 metres (7,050 ft).^[3]

Down as far as Brig, the Rhone is a torrent; it then becomes a great mountain river running southwest through a glacier valley. Between Brig and Martigny, it collects waters mostly from the valleys of the Pennine Alps to the south, whose rivers originate from the large glaciers of the massifs of Monte Rosa, Dom, and Grand Combin.

After Martigny, the river turns northwest towards Lake Geneva (French Lac Léman) and separates the Chablais Alps from the Bernese Alps. With a mean discharge of 165 m³/s it enters Lake Geneva near the Swiss town of Bouveret and exits it at the city of Geneva before entering France. The average annual discharge from Lake Geneva is 251 m³/s (8,900 cu ft/s).^[4] After a course of 290 kilometers the Rhone leaves Switzerland.

At Lyon, which is the biggest city along its course, the Rhone meets its biggest tributary. The Saône carries 400 m³/s and the Rhone itself 600 m³/s. From here the Rhone follows the southbound direction of the Saône. Along the Rhone Valley, it is joined on the right (western) bank by the rivers Eyrieux, Ardèche, Cèze, and Gardon coming from the Cévennes mountains; and on the left bank by the rivers Isère (350 m³/s), Drôme, Ouvèze, and Durance (188 m³/s) from the Alps.

At Arles, the Rhone divides into two major arms forming the Camargue delta, both branches flowing into the Balearic Sea, part of the Mediterranean Sea, the delta being termed the Rhone Fan. The larger arm is called the "Grand Rhône", the smaller the "Petit Rhône". The average annual discharge at Arles is 1,710 m³/s (60,000 cu ft/s).^[4]

History[link]

Mouth of the Rhone

The Rhone has been an important highway since the times of the Greeks and Romans. It was the main trade route from the Mediterranean to east-central Gaul.^[5] As such, it helped convey Greek cultural influences to the western Hallstatt and the later La Tène cultures.^[5] Celtic tribes living near the Rhone included the Seduni, Segobriges, Allobroges, Segusiavi, Helvetii, Vocontii and Volcae Arecomici.^[5]

Navigation was difficult, as the river suffered from fierce currents, shallows, floods in spring and early summer when the ice was melting, and droughts in late summer. Until the 19th century, passengers travelled in coches d'eau (water coaches) drawn by men or horses, or under sail. Most travelled with a painted cross covered with religious symbols as superstitious protection against the hazards of the journey.^[6]

Trade on the upper river used barques du Rhône, sailing barges, 30 by 3.5 metres (98 by 11.5 ft), with a 75-tonne (170,000 lb) capacity. As many as 50 to 80 horses were employed to haul trains of five to seven craft upstream. Goods would be transshipped at Arles into 23-metre (75 ft) sailing barges called allèges d'Arles for the final run down to the Mediterranean.

The first experimental steam boat was built at Lyon by Jouffroy d'Abbans in 1783. Regular services were not started until 1829 and they continued until 1952. Steam passenger vessels 80 to 100 metres (260–330 ft) long made up to 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph) and could do the downstream run from Lyon to Arles in a day. Cargo was hauled in bateau-anguilles, boats 157 by 6.35 metres (515 by 20.83 ft) with paddle wheels amidships, and bateaux crabes, a huge toothed 'claw' wheel 6.5 metres (21 ft) across to grip the river bed in the shallows to supplement the paddle wheels. In the 20th century, powerful motor barges propelled by diesel engines were introduced, carrying 1,500 tonnes (3,300,000 lb).

In 1933, the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR) was established to tame the river. Some progress was made in deepening the navigation channel and constructing scouring walls, but World War II brought such work to a halt. In 1942, following the collapse of Vichy France, Italian military forces occupied southeastern France up to the eastern banks of the Rhône, as part of the Italian Fascist regime's expansionist agenda.

In 1948, the government started construction on a series of locked barrages and canal cuts, to improve navigation and generate electricity, with locks raising boats up to 23 metres (75 ft). Approximately 8% of France's electricity supply is now provided by these power stations.^{[citation needed]}

Etymology[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2011)

Starry Night Over the Rhone, by Vincent van Gogh (1888)

The word "Rhone" comes from Latin Rhodanus, which itself comes from Greek Ῥοδανός Rhodanos, the Greek rendering of the Gaulish (Celtic) name of the river, as heard by Greeks' living in the colony of Massalia (Marseille). The Celtic name of the river was something like Rodonos or Rotonos (Great River) (-onos/-ona is a suffix meaning Great). Rodo/Roto, literally "that which rolls", or "that which runs", is a frequent name of rivers in the ancient Celtic tongue. It was also the name of the lower Seine, as well as several other rivers of western Europe. The Celtic name comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *ret- ("to run, roll"), which yielded the word rota ("wheel") in Latin, from which is derived "rotate" and "to roll" in English. Cognates in modern Celtic languages are Irish rith (in some dialects ruth or ruith, Scottish ruith/rith and Welsh rhedeg, both meaning "to run", as well as the Gaelic noun roth wheel.

Some scholars^[who?] posit that the root rot- or rod- found in the name "Rhone" as well as in the name of many western European rivers, and whose original meaning seems to be "river", is in fact Pre-Indo-European. It would then be only a coincidence that it resembles the Proto-Celtic verb reto ("to run"). Further research is needed to decide between these two theories.

Along the Rhone[link]

Cities and towns along the Rhone include:

The Rhone through Geneva, Switzerland.		The Rhone (left) meeting the Arve River in Geneva.

Switzerland[link]

• Oberwald (Valais)
• Brig (Valais)
• Visp (Valais)
• Leuk (Valais)
• Sierre (Valais)
• Sion (Valais)
• Martigny (Valais)
• St. Maurice (Valais)
• see Lake Geneva for a list of Swiss and French towns around the lake
• Geneva (Geneva)

France[link]

The Rhone in Lyon under the Boucle's Bridge. The Rhone at Avignon.

• Lyon, (Rhône (département))
• Vienne (Isère)
• Tournon-sur-Rhône (Ardèche) opposite Tain-l'Hermitage (Drôme)
• Valence (Drôme) opposite Saint-Péray and Guilherand-Granges (Ardèche)
• Montélimar (Drôme) opposite Le Teil and Rochemaure (Ardèche)
• Viviers (Ardèche)
• Bourg-Saint-Andéol (Ardèche)
• Pont-Saint-Esprit (Gard)
• Roquemaure (Gard)
• Avignon (Vaucluse) opposite Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (Gard)
• Beaucaire (Gard) opposite Tarascon (Bouches-du-Rhône)
• Vallabrègues (Gard)
• Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône)

See also[link]

• Rhône (département)
• Rhône (wine region)
• Witenwasserenstock (triple watershed: Rhone-Rhine-Po)

References and notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Sara B. Pritchard. Confluence: The Nature of Technology and the Remaking of the Rhone (Harvard University Press; 2011) 371 pages; a social, environmental, and technological history of the transformation of the river since 1945

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rhône River

• InfoRhone Navigation and river conditions
• CNR The Rhone Authority
• Rhone guide Places, ports and moorings on the Grand Rhone.
• Petit Rhone guide Places and moorings on the Petit Rhone.
• The Rhone-Mediterranean page of EauFrance
• Waterways in France

Oskar Freysinger
Freysinger at the 2011 Geneva Salon du Livre
Member of the National Council of Switzerland Parliament for Valais
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 December 2003
Personal details
Born	(1960-06-12) 12 June 1960 (age 52)[1] Sierre [1]
Nationality	Swiss
Political party	Swiss People's Party (UDC)
Spouse(s)	Ghislaine Héritier [2]
Children	Fanny (b. 1990) Yoann (b. 1992) Laura (b. 1995) [2]
Residence	Savièse [1]
Alma mater	University of Fribourg [2]
Occupation	High school teacher [1]
Committees	Commission for science, education and culture CN (CSEC-CN) Commission for juridical affaires CN (CAJ-CN) Redaction Committee V (CdR-V) [1]
Signature
Military service
Rank	Appointé (about Private First class)[1]

Oskar Freysinger (b. 12 June 1960 in Sierre^[1]) is a Swiss politician of the Swiss People's Party.

Biography[link]

Freysinger studied at a German-speaking school in Sion, and later studied German literature and philosophy, and French literature, obtaining a teaching degree in 1985.

Freysinger has taught at the Lycée-Collège de la Planta since 1987.^[2]

From 1997 and 2001, he was a communal counselor at Savièse for the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland.^[2] In 1999, he co-founded the Valaisan branch of the Swiss People's Party, which he headed from 1999 to 2002.^[2]

Freysinger held an MP position at the cantonal parliament of Valais from 2001 to 2003, and at the National Council of Switzerland from 2003.^[1]

His main proposals include the revocal of article 261 bis; hold naturalisation by popular vote; expulsion of foreigners convicted of crimes; and strict regulation of drugs.^[2] His political creed reads

On September 3, 2011 Freysinger gave a speech decrying multiculturalism and Muslim immigration, calling it an attempted conquest, with the statement:

If we lose this battle, there will be no second chance, for Islam does not give back what it has conquered. So I summon all the humanists of this continent not to keep their heads in the sand and to resist the Islamic dogma’s drive to conquest. Let us stand together and uncompromisingly insist upon the primacy of our civil law over any religious dogma. Let us find our way back to our precious intellectual heritage. Islam is only as strong as we are weak.

This speech quickly made him an international celebrity.^[4]

Works[link]

• Brüchige Welten, Rotten Verlag, 2004.
• Outre-pensées, éditions de la Matze, 2005
• Schachspirale, éditions de la Matze, 2006
• Le nez dans le soleil, 2009
• "L'évasion de C.B.", fiction satirique sur le 12 décembre, 2008

Notes and references[link]

• personal website

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John Greaves (1602 – 8 October 1652) was an English mathematician, astronomer and antiquary.

Life[link]

He was born in Colemore, near Alresford, Hampshire. He was the eldest son of John Greaves, rector of Colemore, and Sarah Greaves.^[1] His brothers were Nicholas Greaves, Thomas Greaves and Sir Edward Greaves, physician to Charles II.

His father ran a school for sons of the neighbouring gentry, where Greaves began his education.^[2] Aged 15, he went to Balliol College, Oxford between 1617–1621, gaining a B.A. degree. In 1624 he was the first of five newly-elected Fellows of Merton College, becoming M.A. in 1628.^[3] He began to study astronomy and oriental languages, and especially the works of the ancient eastern astronomers. In 1630 Greaves was chosen professor of geometry at Gresham College, London. Through his predecessor, Peter Turner, he later met archbishop William Laud, the chancellor of Oxford University and Visitor (patron) of Merton College. Laud was keen to make English editions of Greek and Arabic authors, and Greaves' later travels abroad involved collecting manuscripts and books for presentation to his new patron.

Greaves enrolled at University of Leyden in 1633, where he became friends with Jacob Golius, professor of Arabic at Leyden. He enrolled at the University of Padua in 1635 along with George Ent, meeting the Dane Johan Rode (John Rhodius), an expert on ancient weights and measures, who also made a commentary on Celsus. A brief return to England was followed by a second European journey; in 1636 he sailed via Livorno (Leghorn) to Rome, dining with Ent on 5 October at the English College, Rome; he also met William Harvey, who was entertained at the College on the 12th, Gasparo Berti, Lucas Holstenius and Athanasius Kircher. Probably in the same month he met and consulted with the Earl of Arundel's art-collecting agent, William Petty (who dined at the College on 14 October), on the Earl's attempted acquisition of the Obelisk of Domitian, then still lying broken in the Circus of Maxentius. Though 'now it is broken into 5 stones' he measured these and including a sketch of the obelisk as hypothetically repaired in his almanac-notebook (Bodleian Library Savile MS 49,1). Though Arundel paid a 60 crown deposit for the obelisk, pope Urban VIII vetoed its export and it was erected by his successor Innocent X above Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers in the Piazza Navona.^[4]

Greaves toured the Catacombs and made drawings of the Pantheon and Pyramid of Cestius. During his stay in Rome he instituted inquiries into the ancient weights and measures that are among the early classics of metrology.

In 1637 he made a journey to the Levant, one (unfulfilled) intention being to fix the latitude of Alexandria where Ptolemy had made his astronomical observations. He sailed from England to Livorno in the company of Edward Pococke; after a brief visit to Rome, he arrived in Istanbul (Constantinople) around April 1638. There he made the acquaintance of the English ambassador Sir Peter Wyche. He procured various manuscripts there, including a copy of Ptolemy's Almagest ("the fairest work I ever saw").^[5] Greaves ended up owning two copies of the Almagest. He was going to have visited the many monastic libraries at Mount Athos, in order to make a catalogue of their MSS and unprinted books. Athos was normally open only to members of the Orthodox church, but thanks to a special dispensation from the Patriarch of Constantinople Cyril Lucaris, Greaves would have had access; but the execution of the patriarch by strangulation in June 1638 for treason against Sultan Murad IV prevented his journey.^[3]

Instead, Greaves continued on to Alexandria, where he collected a number of Arabic, Persian and Greek manuscripts. He was an inveterate note-taker, making countless observations in notebooks and on blank pages of other books he bought; he also visited Cairo twice, and made a more accurate survey of the pyramids of Egypt than any traveller who had preceded him. He returned to England in 1640.

On the death of John Bainbridge in 1643, Greaves was appointed as Savilian professor of astronomy and senior reader of the Linacre lecture at Oxford; but he was deprived of his Gresham professorship for having neglected its duties. In 1645 he essayed a reformation of the calendar; but although his plan of omitting the bissextile day (29 February) for the next 40 years was approved by the king, the matter was dropped owing to the turbulent times.

Ejection from Oxford[link]

In 1642 Greaves had been elected subwarden of Merton College. Merton was the only Oxford college to side with the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, through an earlier dispute in 1638 between Nathaniel Brent, the Warden of Merton, and Greaves' patron William Laud. Brent had been a hostile witness at Laud's 1644 trial. After Laud was executed on 10 January 1645, Greaves drew up a petition for Brent's removal from office; Brent was deposed by Charles I on 27 January.

However, in 1647 a parliamentary commission (visitation) was set up by Parliament "for the correction of offences, abuses, and disorders" in the University of Oxford. Nathaniel Brent was the president of the visitors.^[6] After Thomas Fairfax had captured Oxford for the Parliamentarians in 1648 and Brent had returned from London, Greaves was accused of sequestrating the college's plate and funds for king Charles.^[7] Despite a deposition from his brother Thomas, Greaves had lost both his Merton fellowship and his Savilian chair by 9 November 1648. Many of his books and MSS disappeared after his rooms were rifled by soldiers, although his friend John Selden managed to recover some of them. However, Greaves was not actually deprived of the professorship until August 1649.^[8] He was succeeded as Savilian Professor of Astronomy in that year by Seth Ward, who ensured that Greaves was paid the arrears (£500) of his salary; Greaves was unlikely to have got his money, since the Savilian professors were paid from the income of lands held in Kent and Essex, which were under control of Parliament (rather than the king). Ward also gave over a considerable amount of his own salary to Greaves.^[9]

But Greaves' private fortune more than sufficed for all his wants till his death; he retired to London, married and occupied his leisure writing and editing books and manuscripts. He died in London aged 50, and was buried in the church of St Benet Sherehog, which was destroyed during the Great Fire of London.^[7]

His brother Nicholas Greaves was his executor.^[10] He left his cabinet containing his coin collection to Sir John Marsham, and his astronomical instruments to the university, for the use of the Savilian professors.^[11] Two of his astrolabes (inscribed by his brother Nicholas) are in the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. (see External links)

Works[link]

Besides his papers in the Philosophical Transactions, the principal works of Greaves are:

• Pyramidographia, or a Description of the Pyramids in Ægypt (1646)
• A Discourse on the Roman Foot and Denarius (1647)
• Elementa Linguae Persicae (1649)

The first two above works were reprinted (together with a biographical notice of the author) as part of

• Greaves, John (1737) Miscellaneous works of Mr. John Greaves Vol. I and Vol. II. London: Published by Dr Thomas Birch, printed by J. Hughes for J. Brindley and C. Corbett. This also contains a reprint of
• Withers, Robert (ed. John Greaves) A Description of the Grand Signour’s Seraglio; or Turkish Emperours Court (1653) London: Printed for Jo. Ridley, at the Castle in Fleet-street by Ram-Alley.

Translations:

• Chorasmiae et Mawaralnahrae, etc. (1650). A description of Khwarezm and Mawarannahr (Transoxiana) translated from the Arabic of Abu'l-Fida, with tables of latitude and longitude for the principal towns.
• Abulfedae Peninsulam Arabum. This is an edited translation of part of Abu'l-Fida's History.
• Binae Tabulae Geographicae, two tables of latitude and longitude translated from the Persian of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and Ulugh Beg

The above three works appeared in Hudson, John (1712): Geographiae Veteris Scriptores Graeci Minores Vol. III, Oxon. (in Latin)

• Lemmata Archimedis, apud Graecos et Latinos iam pridem desiderata, e vetusto codice manuscripto Arabico... This is a translation of part of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's edition of the so-called Middle Books.^[12] Greaves' unpublished MS was revised and amended by Samuel Foster and appeared posthumously in 1659.
• Foster, Samuel (1659). Miscellanea sive lucubrationes mathematicae. London: printed by R. & W. Leybourn, published by John Twysden.

The following book is probably not by John Greaves, although his name appears on the title-page:

• Greaves, John. The origin and antiquity of our English weights and measures discover'd... (Google books 1745 edition) London: Printed for G. Sawbridge. This book, thrice printed in 1706, 1727 and 1745, discusses Greaves' findings and measurements: but it appears to be the work of another hand.

See also[link]

• List of Gresham Professors of Geometry
• Pyramid inch

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links[link]

• Measurer of all things: John Greaves – The great Pyramid and early Modern Metrology by Zur Shalev
• Astrolabe belonging to John Greaves, inscribed by Nicholas Greaves.
• Large astrolabe originally made for Queen Elizabeth I, Museum of the History of Science, Oxford

Peter Blegvad
Peter Blegvad with the Peter Blegvad Trio performing at a RIO Festival in Southern France, April 2007 (© Michael S. Eisenberg)
Background information
Birth name	Peter Blegvad
Born	(1951-08-14) August 14, 1951 (age 60) New York City, United States
Genres	Avant-rock, Experimental
Occupations	Musician, Lyricist, Cartoonist, Illustrator
Instruments	Guitar, vocals
Years active	1960s–present
Labels	Virgin, Recommended
Associated acts	Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, The Lodge, John Greaves, Chris Cutler

Peter Blegvad (born 14 August 1951) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and cartoonist. He was a founding member of the avant-pop band Slapp Happy, which later merged briefly with Henry Cow, and has released many solo and collaborative albums. He is the son of Lenore and Erik Blegvad, who are respectively, a children's book author and illustrator.

Biography[link]

Peter Blegvad's life began in America – he was born in New York City and originally raised in Connecticut. When he was 14, the Blegvad family moved to England in 1965, unhappy with the social climate of America following the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the threat posed by the Vietnam draft to Peter and his younger brother Kristoffer. Blegvad was educated at St Christopher School, Letchworth, a boarding school where he met his musical collaborator Anthony Moore. Moore and Blegvad played in various bands during their schooldays, alongside fellow musicians such as Neil Murray (then a drummer, later a well-known hard rock bass guitarist).^[1]

In 1972, Blegvad followed the itinerant Moore to Hamburg, Germany, where the two formed the avant-pop trio Slapp Happy with Dagmar Krause,^[1][2] Slapp Happy recorded two albums for Polydor Germany with krautrock group Faust as their backing band. Polydor released the first, Sort Of in 1972, but rejected the second, Casablanca Moon. This rejection prompted Slapp Happy to relocate to London where they signed up with Virgin Records and re-recorded Casablanca Moon, released in 1974 by Virgin as Slapp Happy. (The original Casablanca Moon was later released by Recommended Records as Acnalbasac Noom in 1980.) In 1974 Slapp Happy merged briefly with avant-rock group Henry Cow, recording two albums in 1975, Desperate Straights and In Praise of Learning.

Shortly after recording In Praise of Learning, first Moore and then Blegvad left Henry Cow due of incompatibilities with the other musicians in the group. Blegvad has confessed that the technical demands of Henry Cow's music were beyond him ("It was discovered – not to my surprise – that I actually couldn't play Henry Cow music. The chords and the time signatures were too complicated. And... just generally, Anthony and I felt kinda lost..."^[1]) but it was also clear that there were crucial differences in artistic approach. Blegvad would later reveal (in an interview for the Hearsay fanzine) that "the piece that got me kicked out was "Living in the Heart of the Beast". I was assigned the task for the collective to come up with suitable verbals, and I wrote two verses about a woman throwing raisins at a pile of bones. Tim Hodgkinson just said, I'm sorry, this is not at all what we want. And he wrote reams of this political tirade. I admired his passion and application but it left me cold. I am to my bones a flippant individual, I don't know why I was created thus or what I'm trying to deny, but it clashed with the extreme seriousness. People who take themselves very seriously make me giggle, unless they're pointing a weapon at me or my loved ones".^[1] Due to Krause's decision to remain with Henry Cow, Slapp Happy dissolved and the three members went their separate ways (although the group would periodically reunite in 1982–1983, 1991, 1997 and 2000).

Blegvad returned to New York to work as a cartoonist, but maintained his interest in music. In 1977 he reunited with Henry Cow bass player John Greaves to collaborate on the album Kew. Rhone. – an unusual cross-genre release combining elements of minimalism, avant-garde jazz and progressive rock. The album was also notable for its personnel, which included celebrated New York jazz musicians Carla Bley, Michael Mantler, and Andrew Cyrille among the performers. As a musical document Kew. Rhone. remains both ambitious and unclassifiable; Blegvad's literate and playful lyrics are well-matched by Greaves' complex song structures. Blegvad would later continue his collaboration with Greaves in 1995 on Unearthed, a collection of spoken word pieces set to Greaves' music.

In the 1980s, Blegvad released a number of commercially unsuccessful albums on the Virgin Records label, including The Naked Shakespeare and Knights Like This, both of which show the influence of external producers. By contrast, Downtime, an independent release in the late 1980s features mainly very simple demos, often recorded cheaply in professional studios' "downtime". King Strut and Other Stories (Virgin, 1990) is a collection of short stories set to simply arranged, professionally produced music played in many cases by noted session musicians. The album features XTC's Andy Partridge while Orpheus - The Lowdown (2003) is a whole album in collaboration with Partridge. Many of Blegvad's albums feature former members of Slapp Happy and Henry Cow.

Blegvad is a deft and literate lyricist whose lyrics frequently feature word games, literary references and complex and extended rhyme schemes. He can also claim credit for one of the world's longest grammatically correct palindromes (from Kew. Rhone.):

Peel's foe not a set animal laminates a tone of sleep.^[3]

From 1992 to 1999, The Independent ran Blegvad's strangely surreal, comic strip, Leviathan, which received much critical praise for blending some of the most interesting elements of Krazy Kat with a coming-of-age-esque story akin to Calvin and Hobbes. Some of the strips have been collected in the 2001 volume The Book of Leviathan. Other comics and illustrations by Blegvad have appeared in The Ganzfeld and Ben Katchor's Picture Story 2.

He has also conducted two- and three-week writing courses at Warwick University, England, in association with the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY), and the new University of Warwick venture for gifted and creative children, International Gateway for Gifted Youth (IGGY).

In 2011, the London Institute for 'Pataphysics published Blegvad's The Bleaching Stream, described as an "interview format biography."

Discography[link]

Solo[link]

• The Naked Shakespeare (1983, LP, Virgin Records)
• Knights Like This (1985, LP, Virgin Records)
• Downtime (1988, LP, Recommended Records)
• King Strut & Other Stories (1990, LP/CT/CD, Silvertone Records)
• Just Woke Up (1995, CD, East Side Digital)
• Hangman's Hill (1998, CD, Recommended Records)
• Choices Under Pressure (2001, CD, Voiceprint Records)

Bands and projects[link]

With Slapp Happy

• Sort Of (1972, LP, Polydor Records)
• Slapp Happy (1974, LP, Virgin Records)
  • Slapp Happy or Slapphappy (1980, LP, Recommended Records)
• Desperate Straights (1975, LP, Virgin Records) as Slapp Happy/Henry Cow
• In Praise of Learning (1975, LP, Virgin Records) as Henry Cow/Slapp Happy
• Ça Va (1998, CD, V2 Records)
• Camera (2000, CD, Voiceprint Records) as Peter Blegvad, Dagmar Krause and Anthony Moore
• Live in Japan (2001, CD, F.M.N. Sound Factory)

With John Greaves and Lisa Herman

• Kew. Rhone. (1977, LP, Virgin Records)

With National Health

• Of Queues and Cures (1978, LP, Charly Records) (recitation on "Squarer For Maud")

With John Zorn

• Locus Solus (1983, LP, Rift Records)

With The Golden Palominos

• Blast of Silence (1986, LP, Celluloid Records)

With The Lodge

• Smell of a Friend (1988, LP, Island Records)

With Dr. Huelsenbecks Mentale Heilmethode

• Dada (1992, LP, Rough Trade Records)

With John Greaves

• Unearthed (1995, CD, Sub Rosa)

With Andy Partridge

• Orpheus - The Lowdown (2003, CD, Pony Canyon)

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Peter Blegvad

• Peter Blegvad biography. The Canterbury Website.
• Peter Blegvad biography. Musician Biographies.
• Peter Blegvad at Allmusic.
• Peter Blegvad interview. Dream Magazine.
• Amateur Peter Blegvad's Amateur - a collection of his writing and art.
• Leviathan Archive
• Full Discography

Katsuhisa Hattori (服部 克久, Hattori Katsuhisa^?, born November 1, 1936) is a Japanese classical composer who also writes music for anime movies, TV series and OVAs. He is best known for his soundtrack compositions for Argento Soma and Hiroyuki Morioka's "Seikai" (stars) anime series.

Biography[link]

Hattori was born in Tokyo, Japan. He is an extremely respected composer in Japan; his style is classical, although he is experienced and respected in many other genres, such as New Age, Jazz, etc. He is the son of Ryoichi Hattori and father of Takayuki Hattori, who both are musical composers as well. In 2000 his life and musical works were honored in an hour-long Japanese television special.^[1] He has conducted many famous orchestras, but most of his own compositions are performed by the acclaimed "Tokyo Pops Orchestra".

Besides being a composer, he has been a producer and music supervisor for many years, and now has his own publishing company, "Hattori Music Publishing". He is also pianist, judge and a chairman for the Tokyo music festivals.

In 1989, Katsuhisa Hattori and his son, Takayuki Hattori, who is also a composer, produced the first orchestrated Final Fantasy music CD for critically acclaimed video game music composer Nobuo Uematsu. The CD was performed by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and entitled "Symphonic Suite Final Fantasy". In 1991, again at Nobuo Uematsu's request, he produced three Final Fantasy tracks for the first "Orchestral Game Concert" CD (tracks 13, 14 and 15) and two for the second Orchestral Game Concert.

Legal Difficulties[link]

In September 2002 the Tokyo High Court ordered Hattori to pay 9.4 million yen^[2] in damages, ruling that there was a strong similarity between his song, "Kinenju" (記念樹^?, "Memorial Tree"), and Asei Kobayashi's song "Dokomademo Iko" (どこまでも行こう^?, "Let's Go To Eternity Together").^[3]

Asei Kobayashi's music publisher, the Kanai Ongaku Shuppan company, who gave JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers) permission to manage the song "Dokomademo Iko" in 1967, claimed that JASRAC had illegally allowed the use of the sound-alike song. In December 2003, the Tokyo District Court ordered JASRAC to pay 1.8 million yen in damages, for allowing the publishing, broadcast and sale in CD form of Hattori's song. This decision was overturned by the Tokyo High Court in 2005.

Recent Works[link]

In 2005, Hattori released a three-track CD called "Seikai no Senki III ED", for the OVA Seikai no Senki III, and a non-anime related CD, "Author's Best Vol.2".

Discography Works[link]

• Champs de la Musique (1983)
• JUICY and CRISPY (1985)
• Bon Voyage (1986)
• A LA CARTE (1987)
• QUATLE SAISON (1988)
• La Monde (1989)
• Arc en Ciel (1990)
• Sports (1992)
• Nature (1994)
• Almanach (1995)
• Congratulation (1996)
• Lutus Dream (1997)
• Mon reve (1998)
• La Strada (1998)
• The Earth (1998)
• Friends (1999)
• Dissolve (2000)
• á la table (2001)
• Invitation (2002)
• Comme d' habitude (2003)
• Author's Best Vol.1 (2004)
• Author's Best Vol.2 (2005)

Movie soundtracks[link]

• Yusei oji (Planet Prince) (1959)
• Konya wa odoro (1967)
• Rio no wakadaishô (1968)
• Nanatsu no kao no onna (1969)
• Naikai no wa (1971)
• Aitsu to watashi (1976)
• Hakatakko junjô (1978)

Anime Soundtracks[link]

• Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1980)
• Swiss Family Robinson (1981)
• Wanwan Sanjushi (songs by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis) (1981)
• Fist of the North Star Movie (1986)
• Ie Naki Ko Remi (1996)
• In The Beginning - The Bible Stories (1997)
• Infinite Ryvius (1999)
• Seikai no Monshō "Crest of the Stars" (1999)
• Seikai no Danshou "Lost Chapter of the Stars - Birth" (2000)
• Seikai no Senki I "Banner of the Stars" (2000)
• Argento Soma (2000)
• Seikai no Senki II "Banner of the Stars II" (2001)
• Seikai no Senki III "Banner of the Stars III" (2005)

Notes & references[link]

External links[link]

• Official Hattori Katsuhisa Website (Japanese)
• Hattori Katsuhisa & Tokyo Pops Orchestra Website (Japanese)