15 Minutes of Fame: Regina Strinassachi

By Carrie Lofty

On April 29, 1784, a young woman performed with Mozart for Joseph II, the Holy Roman Emperor. But that woman, Regina Strinassachi, did not play pianoforte as most ladies were wont to do. She played violin, with Mozart on piano. Together they debuted Mozart's newest composition, Sonata in B flat for Violin and Keyboard (K. 454), which he had written for her.

By all accounts, K. 454 is a rather difficult piece, which speaks to Mozart's high opinion of Strinassachi as a performer. He often wrote "puff" pieces for influential patrons' children who had mediocre talent, but this was not one of them. In a letter to his father, Mozart wrote: "We now have here the famous Strinasacchi from Mantua, a very good violinist. She has a great deal of taste and feeling in her playing. I am this moment composing a sonata which we are going to play together on Thursday at her concert in the theater."

The concert was noted, however, not for Strinassachi's virtuosic performance, but because Mozart performed from blank pages. He had been in too great a hurry to write down his part, instead performing from memory. Later years would elevate this duet to the stuff of legend, with Mozart reputed to have composed his portion on the spot.

But who was Strinassachi?

The nuns at Venice's famous Ospedale della Pietà--founded by Antonio Vivaldi as a refuge for orphan girls, or perhaps for the illegitimate daughters of wealthy nobleman--constantly obscured the year of Strinasacchi's birth. As a child prodigy, if she could pass for ten years old, that would wow the audiences more than if she was actually 16. The fact she had a surname adds to the mystery of her origins, because most of the girls at the Pietà took on the names of their preferred instruments--Anna della Violin from Barbara Quick's Vivaldi's Virgins is one famous example.

Strinasacchi toured Italy, France and Germany, performing on both violin and guitar, before arriving in Vienna in 1784, where she met Mozart. In 1785, she married Johann Conrad Schlick, a famous cellist and konzertmeister of the Gotha ducal band. Some speculate that her marriage may have been one of a professional nature, because she became the first woman in Europe to perform full-time with an orchestra, rather than as an occasional soloist. She may have also composed. Their daughter Caroline, born in 1786, grew up to play piano as part of a family trio, and they split their time between Gotha and tours that reached as far as Russia.

Here I imagine Mathida Heidel, the heroine of my first book with Carina Press, SONG OF SEDUCTION, meeting Regina before a concert.

The pair reached Arie where he stood next to an elegant woman in her early forties. She wore an exquisite gown of ice-blue silk and ivory lace trim. Gray-streaked black hair arranged in an elaborate coiffure of spirals and curls accentuated the graceful lines of her neck and slender face. Magnetic black eyes shone from beneath heavy dark lashes. An oblong bruise along her left jaw marred her otherwise flawless olive skin.

Mathilda had never seen such an arresting woman.

"De Voss, there you are," Haydn said.

"Gute Abend, Kapellmeister. And Frau Heidel. Lovely to see you." Arie bowed deeply, his air bright and amused. He turned to present the elegant woman. "Allow me to present Frau Regina Schlick."

"I am honored to meet you both," the woman said. Her lilting Italian accent created melody out of plain speech. "Herr De Voss has told me you perform exquisitely."

"Thank you." She smiled broadly at the unexpected compliment. That he would speak of her in glowing terms to this exotic woman warmed Mathilda from top to toes. "The maestro flatters me."

"Nonsense. He recognizes talent almost as well as he composes."

Their son Johann was born in 1801--when Strinassachi would have been nearly 40--and became a cellist and instrument maker. Caroline married and became an actress. Upon her husband's death in 1818, Strinassachi moved with her son to Dresden. She died in 1839, having lived through 80 tumultuous years--from the old Georgian and Classical periods, through the Napoleonic era, and into mid-19th century Victorian Europe.

But few remember Regina Strinassachi today. In fact, I was the person who wrote her Wikipedia entry, based on my research for SONG OF SEDUCTION. If the prodigal female violinist is remembered at all, it's because of that fateful day in 1784 when she found out what it meant to play second to Mozart.

SONG OF SEDUCTION's sequel from Carina Press, PORTRAIT OF SEDUCTION, is now available! Later this year watch for Carrie's new Victorian series from Pocket, as well as her "Dark Age Dawning" romance trilogy from Berkley, co-written with Ann Aguirre under the name Ellen Connor. "Historical romance needs more risk-takers like Lofty." ~ Wendy the Super Librarian

Tragic Tales: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

By Zoe Archer

Born in London in 1875, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was the son of an African man from Sierra Leone and an Englishwoman. His father, Daniel Taylor, was a London-trained doctor who lived five years in England. Britain, unlike the United States at this time, had no formalized segregation, and Dr. Taylor studied medicine at King's College in London, later qualifying as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, England. By contrast, Coleridge-Taylor's mother was the illegitimate daughter of a domestic servant. There is no evidence that Dr. Taylor and Alice Holmans ever married, but they did have a romantic relationship. She gave birth to Samuel on August 15, 1875.

It's worth noting that, during the Victorian period, interracial relationships were far more common in Britain than in the United States and the Caribbean--and, due to migration patterns and other factors, the majority of these interracial couples were comprised of black men and white women. The greater concern arose from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's possible illegitimacy rather than his biracial heritage, a fact which later biographers attempted to obscure.

Seven months before Samuel's birth, his father left England. It's entirely possible he never knew Alice was pregnant, and he never had any communication with his son. Samuel was raised by his mother and maternal grandfather in Croydon, a suburb of London. A family member was a professional musician, and music lessons were provided for the boy. Coleridge-Taylor showed an unusual aptitude for music, and was sponsored to the Royal College of Music at the age of fifteen. Despite this sponsorship, a large social gap existed between him and the other students, living, as he did, next to the railroad tracks and downwind from the slaughterhouse, and had never played a single note on a piano until he entered the college. Most of the other students had homes with their own pianos. Even after he began attendance, Coleridge-Taylor's instruments, such as his violin, were loaned to him.

He continued to show an exceptional musical ability, and in 1891, his composition In Thee, O Lord was published by the music publisher Novello. The company went on to publish a series of Coleridge-Taylor's pieces. He began to conduct the Croydon Conservatory Orchestra in 1895, and, following his graduation a year later, taught privately in Croydon, at Trinity College and at the Rochester Choral Society. The next few years saw Coleridge-Taylor producing a number of celebrated musical works, including Ballade in A Minor for the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival, which also received tremendous acclaim for its London premier at the Crystal Palace.

Only weeks later, Coleridge-Taylor's piece Hiawatha's Wedding Feast premiered at the Royal College of Music. An ill Sir Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert & Sullivan, pushed himself to attend. The performance of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast made Coleridge-Taylor an international celebrity virtually overnight. Unfortunately, he never earned any royalty payments. Little knowing the success the piece would have, he had already sold the rights to Novello for the paltry sum of fifteen guineas.

Coleridge-Taylor composed two companion pieces to form the Hiawatha Trilogy, known as The Song of Hiawatha. His popularity continued to rise, and his original works were performed both in Britain and abroad. He took on numerous teaching, writing, composing, festival judging and performance engagements, as well as becoming a Professor of Composition at Trinity College of Music in London and conductor to the Handel Society. In the midst of this whirlwind of activity, he married Jessie Fleetwood-Walmisely (though her family objected to his mixed-race heritage), and the couple had two children, including a son aptly named Hiawatha.

He toured extensively in the United States, meeting privately with President Roosevelt, and was hailed by the black American community as a symbol of hope over oppression. He worked continuously in his many roles as teacher, composer, conductor and adjudicator.

In 1912, Coleridge-Taylor collapsed on the West Croydon train platform. He managed to make it home, but four days later, he succumbed to pneumonia brought about by exhaustion. At the time of his death, he was only 37. Hundreds turned out for his funeral, but because royalty payments to composers were both slight and rare, a memorial concert was held to raise money for his widow and children.

Jessie Coleridge-Taylor insisted that Novello refused to reliably grant her royalties on The Song of Hiawatha, her late husband's most commercially successful work. Two years later, the Performing Rights Society was formed in Great Britain. Its goal was to ensure musicians were paid fairly for their work. King George V granted Jessie Coleridge-Taylor an annual Civil List Pension of £100.

From 1928 until 1939, The Song of Hiawatha was lavishly performed every summer at the Royal Albert Hall. Coleridge-Taylor's reputation faded over the years, his work dismissed as "too commercial," but recently new attention and appreciation has arisen for the man hailed as "the Black Mahler."

Tragic Tales: Ludwig Loses His Hearing

By Carrie Lofty

Composer and musician Ludwig van Beethoven was only 26 years old when he began to lose his hearing. By this time he had already established himself as a fine pianist and teacher, but he had only published a few piano sonatas. His first symphony would not be published and performed until 1801. Thus his early-onset deafness affected almost the entire span of his musical career.

His symptoms began as a minor annoyance but developed into full-blown tinnitus, a ringing noise medically defined as "the perception of sound within the human ear in the absence of corresponding external sound" (Wikipedia). Historians and doctors have since debated the cause of his tinnitus, which could have originated with syphilis, typhus, lupus, or even lead poisoning.

(I adore this picture of Gary Oldman as Beethoven from Immortal Beloved. It helped inspire my June 2010 Carina Press release, SONG OF SEDUCTION. There is nothing sexier than a man consumed by his passions!)

Beethoven admitted to his growing deafness as early as 1801, when he described the difficulties he had in appreciating music and following conversations. After retreating to Austria in an to attempt to come to terms with his condition, he wrote to his brothers--the famous Heiligenstadt Testament, in which he vowed to live life through his art. This initiated his prolific and profound "Middle Period" of composition, but marked a significant decline in his ability to perform in public.

Because public performances and piano competition had been a lucrative part of his income--a financial mainstay of his contemporaries--he suffered lapses into poverty when between patrons. Frustration and embarrassment may have contributed to his reputation for being grumpy, loud, unmanned, and generally unpleasant. His close friends knew the cause, but few others did.

After a disastrous interpretation of his 5th Symphony in 1811, Beethoven never played in public again. He was completely deaf by 1814. Quite famously, he could not hear the overwhelming applause when his masterful 9th Symphony was debuted in 1824. Here the scene is portrayed in Immortal Beloved:


Although Beethoven left us with a staggering catalog of some of the best music ever composed, he was unable to appreciate his creations as we do. He heard his music only in his mind. To communicate with people, he used notebooks that continue to offer musical scholars priceless insight into his opinions and thought processes. But Anton Schindler, an associate and early biographer of Beethoven, burned 264 of the 400 notebooks in an attempt to clean up the composer's image and maintain a sense of aura around his process--so not even that aspect of Beethoven's tale escaped a tragic ending.

Good Times: The USO

By Carrie Lofty

Contrary to popular opinion, the USO (United Service Organization) wasn't entirely about WWII-era dances and popular entertainment. Formed in 1941, it was established as a private non-profit organization devoted to providing morale-building services of all kinds to members of the armed forces. This included religious needs, games and recreation, temporary lodging, postage services, the distribution of books and magazines, and food stations in cities, ports and railway stations. Particularly famous were USO doughnuts. If USO volunteers were handing out food, doughnuts were sure to be involved!

The USO was chartered by Congress to bring a variety of hitherto separate units under one united banner, but it was and remains technically independent of the US government. I say "technically" because the USO worked very closely in conjunction with the War Department, and continues to coordinate its efforts today with the Department of Defense and Homeland Security. No matter how nominally independent, the organizers of USO events and services were never going to put their people in harm's way or compromise military operations.

A USO canteen dance in 1943
USO dances became a staple of life of wartime life. Girls considered to be of the best character were chosen to host and participate in these canteen dances, both at home and in foreign nations such as Britain. Morale was buoyed by the girls' clean-washed hair, pretty smiles, and patient conversations. Because of how near this skirted toward hints of offering their bodies of comfort--eep! almost prostitution!--the USO was especially strict to enforce their chosen boundaries of propriety.

Girls were trained in how to talk with servicemen, how to make them feel included, and how to firmly tell them "no" at the end of the night. Volunteers were discouraged from dancing too frequently with the same man, and they were forbidden from leaving the premises with servicemen. Even the exchange of phone numbers so that eager young people could arrange an after-work rendezvous was prohibited. (Not to say some folks didn't get around the restrictions!)

Bob Hope performing on a USO tour
Camp Shows also became widely recognized aspects of USO morale. Entertainers from all walks--from Bob Hope and other tremendous stars, to independent troupes of acrobats, singers, poets, classical musicians, and ballerinas--all made the rounds. Homefront shows were organized to keep restless men in training camps from becoming too bored and destructive to local towns. "Foxhole Circuit" tours of the the European and Pacific Theaters soon followed, from Alaska to Egypt to New Guinea. These intrepid performers traveled at their own risk, but they also performed under the USO's very strict watch. Anyone who deviated from an approved show schedule and script could be sent home instantly, contract canceled.

Contrary to what you might expect of entertainment aimed at hundreds of hard-up, lonely soldiers, USO performers were expressly forbidden from making their shows too vulgar or sexual. In fact, the longer a man had been in the field--such as Marines who had not been home for two years or more--the more eager he was for wholesome entertainment. They had seen enough vulgarity and had experienced far too much degradation and shame to want that reflected in their entertainment. Pretty girls in good Sunday dresses who sang songs of home were the most appreciated entertainers--the sorts of girls they were fighting for, the sort of girls waiting for them to return.

The Andrews Sisters on tour for the USO

Arts and Music: Boys on Stage

By Zoe Archer

Female actors did not start appearing on the English stage until the middle of the Seventeenth Century. Prior to this date, women's roles were played exclusively by male actors, often adolescent members of the acting troupes, whose smooth, beardless faces and higher-pitched voices made for more convincing females. This is a fairly well-known fact about English theater history. But what many people don't know is that there were, in truth, entire Elizabethan acting companies comprised entirely of boys.

Some boy acting companies had their origins as choir boys performing in royal pageants up through the reign of Henry VIII. Yet it wasn't until after Elizabeth I took the throne that these groups became professional acting companies. In 1576, The Chapel Children (or Children of the Chapel) moved into a playhouse in the Blackfriars area (pictured above) in London--the same year the first adult players' theater was constructed. At around the same time, the Children of Paul's, or St. Paul's Boys, performed plays by John Lyly. Various changes of management occurred, and in 1582, the two boy companies united. They lost their commercial stage in 1584, but continued giving royal performances until 1590.

The boys were between the ages of eight and twelve. Just as in an adult acting troupe, the boys' companies had a repertory group of actors who each performed specific "type" roles. Sometimes, performing in the troupe was not a matter of choice, but rather the boys could be conscripted into the company if they had good voices and attractive faces. The companies had masters, including Richard Farrant, Henry Evans, Sebastian Westscott and Thomas Giles. These masters were responsible for training the boys in all aspects of theatrical performance as well as education. In addition to these responsibilities, the masters served as directors, costumers, set designers and theatrical managers. Boy troupes performed with their companies, and also acted alongside adult troupes, wherein they would often take the female roles.

In Hamlet, Rosencrantz does not look favorably on this trend of boy actors, perhaps voicing Shakespeare's feelings toward rival theatrical companies:

...there is, sir, an aerie of children, little eyases, that cry out on top of the question and are most tyrannically clapped for't. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills and dare scarce come thither. (II.ii.)

The success of the boy troupes continued until 1589. The Martin Marprelate religious controversy caused Lyly and his acting troupe to be officially disowned by the crown. They stopped performing in 1590, and didn't resurface for many years.

Two boy companies returned in 1598. Theater impresario Richard Burbage rented the second Blackfriars Theater to the Chapel Children. With the accession if James I in 1603, the company received a new patent and a name change, when the troupe became Children of the Queen's Revels. The plays the troupe performed were not "dumbed down" versions of plays, nor were the plays altered in order to accommodate the child performers. The company performed plays by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, Thomas Middleton and John Marston and specialized in satirical, witty plays that appealed to a genteel audience.

Controversy continued to afflict the troupe. The play Eastward Ho, by Jonson and Chapman, caused the authors to be jailed and the company to lose its royal patent. More name changes followed, and yet more scandals due to the political and satiric nature of the works performed. They won, then lost royal favor, then regained it once more. Eventually, with profits declining and interest in child acting troupes waning, the boys' companies were incorporated into adult acting troupes. The group Lady Elizabeth's Men, granted a patent in 1615 was comprised largely of adult veterans of the boys' companies.

One of the last famous stage boys, Edward Kynaston
Later attempts to revive the boys' companies followed. One such attempt came in 1637 when Christopher Beeston founded the King and Queen's Young Company. The company was known more informally as Beeston's Boys. This company was variably successful, and was managed by Beeston's son after the elder's death, until the closing of all English theaters in 1642. After the theaters were reopened in the Restoration, Beeston's Boys performed again, but only briefly. Female actors had already begun to be seen on English stages, and the era of the child acting troupes was over.

Arts and Music: The Stradivarius Violin

By Lisa Marie Wilkinson

Wurlitzer organ. Steinway piano. Les Paul, Gibson, and Fender Stratocaster guitars.

Some musical instrument maker names represent the gold standard of musical instruments, and at the top of the list is the Stradivarius.

The term "Stradivarius" refers to stringed instruments--including guitars, violas, cellos, harps and violins--created by members of the Stradivari family, beginning with craftsman Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737). Stradivari set up shop in the small Italian city of Cremona in 1680 and soon gained a reputation for the quality of his handcrafted string instruments. The "Golden Age" of the Stradivari violin, during which the highest quality violins were produced, is generally conceded to be from 1698 to 1720.

Stradivari experimented with form, construction methods, and the types of wood employed in the creation of his instruments throughout his career. Spruce was used for the top, willow for the internal workings of the instrument and maple for the neck and back. It has long been speculated that he treated the wood with various minerals, and used a custom varnish consisting of honey, Arabic gum, and egg white as the finishing touch.

Nearly 400 years later, we can still only speculate about what it is that makes the sound of a Stradivarius so unique in quality. A number of disparate theories have been explored, including the rumor that the wood used to make the Stradivari instruments had been removed from old cathedrals, or that the dense wood came from trees whose growth had been stunted during what is referred to as "The Little Ice Age" that affected Europe from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Whether the sound quality results from the shape of the instrument, the minerals used to prepare the wood, irregularities in the wood itself, the special recipes used for the glue and varnishes, or some undefined "something" contributed by the art of the instrument maker has provided fodder for lively debate for centuries.

The one thing the world has been able to agree upon is that an instrument bearing the Latin inscription "Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis Faciebat Anno (date)" is special, and the belief that there are fewer than 700 surviving genuine Stradivari instruments in existence today has created a high demand for them, resulting in steep prices at auction. Depending upon the condition of the instrument and the year it was made, a Stradivarius sold at auction can fetch anywhere from several hundred thousand to several million dollars. Famous musicians who have owned and played a famed Stradivari violin include Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, who owns a model referred to as The Soil of Strad of 1714, which is considered one of the finest of all the Stradivari violins.

In 2009, the famed Stradivarius lost in a competition against a modern engineered violin in a five-violin blind play-off held during a German forest husbandry conference. The Stradivarius, whose name has come to represent the modern standard of excellence, came in second.

Arts and Music: Medieval Dance

By Lindsay Townsend

Four husbands into her career, Chaucer's Wife of Bath was still young and a lively soul:

Yong and ful of ragerie,
Stibourn and strong, and joly as a pie [magpie].
How koulde I daunce to a harpe smale
And singe, ywis, as any nightingale,
Whan I had dronke a draughte of sweete wyn!

So how would she have danced?

Dancing in circles has gone on for who knows how long, and the medieval carol--a circular dance and the songs that went with it--was popular with everybody but the church. The songs, involving a leader who sang the verse, music from harp, pipe and tabor or the vielle (a predecessor to the violin) and the dancers providing the chorus, could get distinctly rowdy, and clerics could impose sanctions against those who moved in an unseemly fashion or sang colourful lyrics in churchyards.

The lyrics from early carols are hard to come by, but one popular carol from the thirteenth century, Angelus ad virginem, whose English version begins "Gabriel fram Heven-king/Sent to the maide swete," has a bouncy tune ideal both for accompaniment with pipe and tabor and for the circular carol-dance. The music can be heard here, and possible steps have been suggested here.

Many dances thought of as medieval--such as the basse danse, branle and pavane--really belong to the Renaissance, when the first collections of dance music were made, but we can trace some formal dances like the saltarello, with its triple time and extravagant hop, back to the thirteenth-century.

If a solo dancer or tumbler took part in social dancing, there could be some seriously gymnastic capering. The sight of women dancing on their hands may have led to an emphasis on modesty in later instruction books such as Guglielmo Ebreo's fifteenth century Art of Dance, but in earlier times things were more freewheeling. A poem from the Benediktbeuren Manuscript of c. 1230 (Obmittamus studia) has a young student longing to abandon his lessons and go down into the street to watch the maidens dancing, 'white limbs moving/Light in wantonness,' as Helen Waddell translated it.

Now that would have appealed to Chaucer.

Arts and Music: Medieval Stained Glass

By Lisa Yarde

Glass artists learned to mix sand and wood ash, and introduced color from metallic salts and oxides when the glass was still molten, to produce shades of red, blue, yellows and gold and green. In the hands of medieval glaziers and glass painters, stained glass became admired for both its utility and splendor, the best examples of which are seen in churches and cathedrals.

With its use of natural light to enhance the myriad, jewel-toned colors, stained glass windows have depicted religious scenes since at least the tenth century. A union of form and function, the windows served the dual purposes of making the church a special, sacred building, and teaching the largely illiterate masses about the Bible through its visual representations.

A twelfth century monk, Theophilus, wrote On Diverse Arts, in which he explained the technique of stained glass window construction:

...If you want to assemble simple windows, first mark out the dimensions of their length and breadth on a wooden board, then draw scroll work or anything else that pleases you, and select colors that are to be put in. Cut the glass and fit the pieces together with the grozing iron [a tool with a hardened steel point]. Enclose them with lead cames [a soft metal used to divide small pieces of glass]...and solder on both sides. Surround it with a wooden frame strengthened with mails and set it up in the place where you wish.

Europe has some of the oldest and finest examples of stained glass windows, in its great cathedrals. Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England showcases twelfth to fifteenth century glasswork (above) with biblical themes in its western and southern windows, including the Miracles of St. Thomas and images from the Old and New Testaments. Some of the artwork is high and difficult to see, especially the Ancestry of Christ, which depicts biblical figures interspersed with saints and the coat of arms of several noble families in the south window.

To the north of the country in Yorkshire, York Minster's Great East Window remains the largest medieval stained glass window in the world (above) and features biblical scenes from Genesis and Revelation. It is the size of a tennis court. The Five Sisters Window has glass from 1250, while the South Rose window glass dates from 1490. France's great cathedrals also have beautiful installations of glasswork, the most famous of which (below) is on display at the Gothic cathedral of Chartres, fifty miles outside of Paris. Most of its windows date from the early thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, including subjects such as the Last Judgment in the west Rose Window, prophets and saints depicted in the south Rose Window that dates from the 1230s, and the glorification of the Virgin and Christ.

Arts and Music: The Falcon in Medieval Art

By Blythe Gifford

As I researched HIS BORDER BRIDE, my May release, I studied the ancient sport of falconry for the first time and became so fascinated that I used it as a symbol throughout my story.

In medieval times, hawking, whether with a falcon or another bird of prey, was not just a leisure pastime. It was a status symbol and the height of "conspicuous consumption." The imagery and language of the hunt permeated art, poetry, language, and even Shakespeare's plays.

Once you become aware of it, you can see references to this "noble sport" in many pieces of medieval art.

First, I'm including an image of a French tapestry from 1500 called Leaving for a Solitary Hunt. (Often, hunts were not solitary jaunts, but huge, elaborate affairs, more like processions than sport.) This beautiful tapestry shows the lord with his falcon, dogs, and an attendant and includes the beautiful millefleur, or "thousand flower" style of background. In this case, the subject is what it seems: the lord going on a hunt alone.

But in other cases, the art carried hidden meaning, for the complex dance of the falcon and the quarry was an oft-used symbol of love. Both men and women participated in the sport, though the most prized hunting falcons were female, not male. In an image, the bird could stand for the woman, the man, or love in the abstract.

The second example here, about 100 years earlier than the previous one, shows a woman holding a falcon being approached by a man who carries a small heart. Because she is holding the falcon, the interpretation is that she has control--that is he loves her more than vice versa, since he is bringing her his heart.

Those symbols may seem obvious, but some of the others in this work are less so. The falcon here represents the noblest of man's aspirations; the flower, the woman's virginity. We also see the lady's dog leaping up on her lap. This would have been understood to stand for male sexuality, as the "lap dog" was where the lover would like to be.

In addition, there are three rabbits woven into the scene. Why? Because in the French of that day, rabbits were called con, which was also the French word for the female sexual organ. (Think of a four letter word in English beginning with 'C' and you'll get the idea.) So while this lovely scene seems chaste, it carries an explicit message about love and sex.

The next image comes from a codex, or a series of bound medieval pages. Here, the woman holds the man and he holds the falcon, who seems to be nibbling on a snack. The interpretation is less clear here. She is in the "dominant" position, but he has control of the falcon, so it may be that he's in charge and has bent her to his will, e.g. she eats at his hand.

These examples are from France, the Netherlands, and Germany. But my book is set on the Scottish border, far from where such beautiful and costly pieces were created. I did discover an image, however, that captured my imagination and served as an important symbol for my book, and my heroine.

This final piece is a fragment of an aumônière, or pouch, embroidered with gilt thread, silk, and satin. It was created in the first half of the fourteenth century, and I like to think that something very much like it could have found its way to Scotland.

Labeled "The Falcon's Return," it shows a lover flying back to his mistress as a falcon would return to her. His arms are long and distorted; his hood and her cloak billow like wings.

To me, the piece is a reminder that even the most well-trained bird is still a wild thing, no more "owned" by the hunter than a lover. Each time the bird returns to the falconer's fist is a choice, as is each return of a faithful lover. No amount of training or force can capture a wild heart.

It must be given. Was this what the artist intended? Well, this is my interpretation. Read into it what you will.

Some of the analyses here were gleaned from THE MEDIEVAL ART OF LOVE, by Michael Camille, published by Harry N. Abrams, New York, in 1998.

Arts and Music: Roman Wall Painting

By Michelle Styles

When most people think of Rome and art, they think about white marble statues, generally copies of Greek or busts of Roman senator. White on white. A bleached landscape.It is a shame because Rome was a city of vibrant colour. The place to see this colour is not in the statues but in the remaining mosaics and frescoes.

Until the Venetians invented painting on canvas, everything was either painted on wood or directly on plaster. The painting directly on to fresh plaster is known as a fresco. The Romans were masters at creating illusions with paint--trompe d’oeil.

The Romans did not live in a world of pastels but one where colour played an important part. Most of the frescoes that we can see today come from either Pompeii or Herculaneum. Some like the Maritime Villas from the House of Marcus Lucretius Fronto depict actual scenes. In this case, the seafront of Baia. (I found it very helpful when I was writing THE ROMAN'S VIRGIN MISTRESS as I had picture of the actual frontage from the right time period to use.) Others depict scenes from plays, or events or even idealised gardens.

Because of the very real problem of looting, most of the important frescoes have been removed from the sites and are now displayed in Naples. The ones left in Pompeii tend to be fragmentary. The other problem is that of conservation. The colours have become bleached with the passage of time.

However, the most evocative frescoes come not from Pompeii but from Rome, from the underground dining room of Livia's villa. The frescoes depict an idealised view of Livia's above ground garden in full bloom. From the paintings, scholars have been able to determine many of the plants that were being grown in Rome at the time. These include the bay laurel (Livia's favourite plant), the strawberry tree, oleander, date figs and cypress trees.

The frescoes were uncovered in the late 19th century and moved to the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome. You can only see them through timed ticket but it is worth taking the time. The tour also takes you through some of the better mosaics and a few other painted rooms but it is Livia's dining room which is the real highlight.

The frescoes were kept underground and never exposed to the light, and are completely intact, it is possible to get a sense of what the Romans, in particular Augustus and Livia must have actually experienced. Photographs do not do it justice (or indeed any fresco) and tend to bleach out the vibrant greens and blues. In fact, unless you have special permission are not allowed to take photographs of the walls.

Standing in that room, surrounded by paintings which go from the ceiling to the floor, you suddenly realise how much colour the Romans used and how vibrant their walls were. There is also a depth to the frescoes which is lacking in modern reconstructions. I know when I stood in that room, my whole conception of what Roman life must been like changed.

Michelle Styles's Roman set A NOBLE CAPTIVE is out now at eharlequin and will be available as an ebook everywhere from April.

Arts and Music: The Farting Man

By Jennifer Linforth

So. I was going to blog on opera until I added dates wrong in my third book and all hell broke loose. This led to the discovery of a major historical event that I now must write around. After much cussing and a husband who ran for the hills (for a dyscalculic author on a research rampage is never a pretty picture)I stumbled upon the farting man.

I will pause here to let that sink in.

Yes...the farting man. He was famous in 19th century Paris. So famous, he sold out the Moulin Rouge time and time again because of his unique--instrument.

Joseph Pujol was Le Petomane. He was an ordinary man, apprenticed to a baker at age 13, and owned his own business. While a young man in the national service, he entertained his friends by his unusual talent of inhaling water through his bum and shooting in out in a giant stream. Later he discovered he could do the same with just air.

If you can imagine for a moment a man headlining this act in a century where you didn't even speak of such things, let alone place them in print. But nonetheless, in 1892 Pujol convinced M. Vidler of the Moulin Rouge to put him on stage.

He wore a flamboyant costume of red and took the state prefacing each...act...with a description. Such as "this is a bride on her wedding night" (a small passing of air). Or..."this is a cannon" (loud thunderous...um...sound). Reports say the audience didn't know what to make of it until, once it settled in, they were rolling in the aisles in laughter. Women apparently had to be escorted outside for air. They were laughing so hard they were passing out in their corsets.

Pujol billed at the Moulin until 1914. Twenty-two years of farts. (Yes, I did that math right.) Upon his retirement, when he toured Europe and North Africa with his act, he settled in Toulon and opened a thriving biscuit factory.

You can't make this stuff up!

It all makes me wonder what the audience was thinking especially since this has been a important week for the stage. After all, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom sequel Love Never Dies premiered in London to rather unsatisfactory reviews. I wonder what folks were tweeting about as they sat through that show.

I lay odds if the folks were tweeting in their seats at Pujol's performance they'd say: "It's a gas."

Arts and Music: Elaine Duillo

By Anna C. Bowling

Elaine Duillo has romance covered!

When illustrator Elaine Duillo first began her career in the 1950s, she often signed her work with male pseudonyms, as paperback illustration was, at the time, not a venue for women. Elaine certainly had a hand in changing that outlook, with over one thousand covers between the start of her career and her retirement in the 1990s. Best known for her romance covers for authors such as Bertrice Small, Johanna Lindsey and Rebecca Brandewyne, Elaine's repertoire includes covers for many genres, including westerns, mysteries, pulp, gothics and even 1960s editions of works by Emile Zola and Jack London.

Born in 1928 and a graduate of the Pratt School of Design, Elaine found her own personal hero in husband John Duillo, known as the king of western illustration. The two never collaborated on illustration, but produced two daughters, Melissa, and Bettina. Both daughters followed artistic paths of their own; Melissa in commercial illustration for a time, and Bettina using art in education. She has produced two art calendars, and is a member of the American Society of Illustrators.

Though many talented graphic artists of today create imaginative and innovative covers via computer technology, Elaine's work was done by hand. Preferring to work with acrylics for the final project, Elaine's dedication to her craft shone through in her attention to detail. The design elements on the back cover illustrations were often her favorite parts of an assignment, and alert readers will be able to spot locations and characters as described within the pages. She is quick to remind those who note the long, flowing hair of her heroines (and some heroes) that each strand was painted by hand. Art directors would sometimes request that Elaine use a particular model depicted with a prodigious mane, only to be told that the hair was all Elaine's creation.

No mention of Elaine Duillo would be complete without mentioning her role in the modeling career of Fabio Lanzoni (blame or thank her as you will.) Elaine spotted the Italian model's picture in a pile of head shots, and used him first on the back cover of Bertrice Small's Enchantress Mine and the front cover of Johanna Lindsey's Hearts Aflame. The rest, as they say, is history, including a national discount chain refusing to carry Bertrice Small's A Love For All Time, due to its supposedly racy cover illustration...which would have been an appropriate pose for a portrait of the period in which the book was set.

Now retired, Elaine is still active in mentoring younger artists and has turned her talents to non-figurative art with "very large brushes" and her enthusiasm for her art, in all its forms, shines through, and she speaks of her romance illustration career with great fondness.

Arts and Music: Chinese Calligraphy

By Jeannie Lin

How do you express yourself when there are very specific rules? That's the crux of Chinese calligraphy--a limited set of brushstrokes, with an infinite number of ways they can be expressed. The art of calligraphy, called shu, is one of the four principal disciplines in Chinese culture along with painting, music, and strategy games.

The order of the strokes is important when drawing Chinese characters, so a student must not only learn what a character looks like, but also the proper way to write it.

There are seven basic brush strokes though up to 32 total strokes have been categorized. Calligraphy experts also study and classify different styles of calligraphy. Here are examples of two different styles of calligraphy from the same artist.

Calligraphy is considered to be the art form that is most revealing of character. Swordsmen, scholars, and statesmen were all expected to study calligraphy and, through it, learn both discipline and expression. Master calligraphers receive the same recognition an artist such as Da Vinci receives in Western culture.

Rubbing of a work of master calligrapher Ouyang Xun (557-641) from the Tang Dynasty
It's said that the appearance of the writing can be appreciated the way you can appreciate abstract art. Without understanding what the characters mean, the audience should still be able to sense the energy and spirit behind the technique. Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse declared that their work was influenced by the art of calligraphy. Perhaps by the concept of capturing the essence of an idea in a few lines and shapes?

Can you see any connection?
When the shape and style of the words themselves are such a beautiful art form, it's no wonder that Chinese poetry and literature contains such rich symbolism!