Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild ('God the Lord is sun and shield'), is a church cantata for Reformation Day by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in 1725 while Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and led the first performance on 31 October that year. It is possibly his first cantata for the occasion; the text was written by an unknown poet. Bach structured the work in six movements, with an aria following the opening chorus, and a recitative and duet following the first chorale. He scored the work for three vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble. He achieved a unity within the structure by using two horns not only in the opening but also as obbligato instruments in the two chorales, the first time even playing the same motifs. He performed the cantata again, probably in 1730. He later reworked the music of the opening chorus and a duet again for his Missa in G major and the music of an alto aria for his Missa in A major. ( Full article... )
| Nosferatu is a 1922 silent German expressionist horror vampire film directed by F. W. Murnau from a screenplay by Henrik Galeen. It stars Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on the wife (Greta Schröder) of his estate agent (Gustav von Wangenheim) and brings the plague to their town. Nosferatu was produced by Prana Film and is an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula . Various names and other details were changed from the novel, including Count Dracula being renamed Orlok. Although those changes are often represented as a defense against accusations of copyright infringement, the original German intertitles acknowledged Dracula as the source. Even with several details altered, Stoker's widow Florence sued over the adaptation's copyright violation, and a court ruling ordered that all copies of the film be destroyed. However, several prints of Nosferatu survived, and the film came to be regarded as an influential masterpiece of cinema and the horror genre. Film credit: F. W. Murnau  Recently featured:  |