Magnificient Musicians

Domenico Scarlatti
By Rachel
Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, Italy in 1685 during the last few years of the baroque period. His father was a famous opera composer, so it is no surprise that he went in to music. He composed over 550 sonatas for the harpsichord, along with many Operas and cantatas. In 1719, Scarlatti moved to Portugal to teach the princess music. When she married a Spanish prince, he moved with her to Spain. Scarlatti was 72 when he died in 1757 in the country of Spain. Domenico Scarlatti was a great composer

Magnificient Musicians

Francois Couperin
By Rachel
Francois Couperin was born in Paris in 1668 during the baroque period. Most of his music was written for the harpsichord because it was the most popular instrument back then. He was the music teacher for the children of King Lois XIV. Couperin often performed for the royal court and the King of France at the palace Versailles. He died at age 65 in the year of 1733. Couperin was a great musician.

Hysteric History

The Salem Witch Trials
By Rachel

The Salem Witch Trials caused a lot of hysteria in Salem Town and Salem Village. Innocent people were accused of being witches every day. The jails were always full of innocent men, women, and even children.
The Salem Witch trials were a time in history when everyone was in hysterics. Many things contributed to this terrible event. Puritan culture was very strict at the time and girls were only to do their chores and never play and have fun. For Anne Putnam and her friends, this was very true.
They had fun listening to Anne’s servant Tituba tell them stories and show them future telling games. This was against the puritan laws. When the girls started going in to fits, they screamed out three names and Tituba was one of them. When she was tried for witch craft, she faked a confession saying she did it and that there were other witches in Salem. This is one of the reasons.
The witch hysteria was used by the church to control the people and get them to do what the church wanted. They said that if you did certain things, you wouldn’t fall ill.
When people did fall ill, mostly they blamed the Quakers. Quakers don’t go to church and puritans believed that that was a sin. Puritans never learned to accept the Quakers, and when someone fell ill, it was easiest to blame someone who no one liked, so Quakers were blamed for no reason.
The Salem witch trials caused a lot of hysteria and no one was safe from being accused. Innocent people were accused of being witches just because either they were not liked, or they had a low social standard. The Salem Witch trials condemned many people to death.

Amazing Art

Vermeer
By Rachel
Vermeer was born in Holland in 1632. Vermeer was known for painting simple objects, men and women playing piano, dancing or talking. Vermeer also made young women doing simple things like holding a picture. One of his most famous pictures is of a young woman reading a letter Vermeer lived in the baroque period. Surprisingly enough, even though Rembrandt Van Rijn and Vermeer never met, the two young men painted with the same style, they never met. Vermeer was 43 years old when he died on 1675. Vermeer was a great painter.

Catastrophic Colonies

Rhode Island
By Rachel
The Rhode Island colony was founded in 1636 by a man named Roger Williams. He was a prime minister for the Massachusetts colony, but he didn’t like the strict laws the Puritans had and if you didn’t follow the Puritan religion exactly, they through you out of the colony. Roger Williams and five of his followers tried to start a colony what he thought was outside the Plymouth colony’s boundaries, but when he found out that it wasn’t, Roger had to move again. They moved to what is now Rhode Island and purchased the land from the Indians. Once the colony was set up, many settlers started arriving. They came for religious freedom, and in 1644, Rhode Island gained a Royal Charter saying that it was its own colony.

Poetry Portraits

The Indian Raid
By Rachel
(This is what I think one of the soldiers who killed the Natives might be feeling)

As I sit,
Gazing into the fire,
I think of the people that used to be here.
I think of the culture that is lost,
And wish I had not done what I did.

The sun was blazing up above,
And my heart was fluttering.
My brain did not know what to think at the sight of the cowering women and children.
But they are gone now to where ever their souls go.
Why are the other men rejoicing,
When I can’t bring a smile to my lips?

Life will go on, Life will go on,
But I will always remember this terrible day,
Where My heart is Thumping,
At the site of our dead enemies.

Poetry Portraits

The Cemetery
By Rachel

People come every day,
Bringing their dead in coffins,
People walk by laughing and joking about death,
While others stand crying at graves.

In the quiet morning,
It will be empty here,
And people will forget their loved ones.
The sun will still rise and set each day,
And the moon will always be offering its lonesome rays of ghastly light when the sun has gone.

The rain will still rain,
The snow will still snow,
The hail will still hail,
The fog will still float in the morning air,
And the sun will still shine each day.

Poetry Portraits

Carl Sandburg
By Rachel

Carl Sandburg was born on January 6, 1878 in Galesburg, Illinois. When he was 18, he had several jobs, but none of them suited him. He loved reading and writing, so it’s no surprise that he became a poet. Sandburg never went to high school because his family only had enough to send his sister Mary, but she shared her books with him and he learned enough to be admitted to college. When Sandburg was out of college, he married a woman named Paula. They had 3 children, but their first had epilepsy (an incurable disease), and although there their two youngest children were healthy, one of them was very slow at learning. Two of their children never moved out of their house. Despite all Sandburg’s troubles, he was a magnificent poet.

Magnificient Musicians

George Frideric Handel
By Rachel Donka

George Frideric Handel was born on February 23, 1685 in the town of Halle, Saxony in northern Germany. His father wanted him to be a wealthy man, so Handel was enrolled in law school to be a lawyer. Handel’s father was so intent on Handel being a lawyer that he did not allow musical instruments in their house. But Handel was determined to play music, so he managed to hide a harpsichord in the attic and he taught himself to play. Handel composed operas for a while, but he got sick of composing them and turned to compose oratorios instead. Oratorios were operas with out costumes and solos. His most famous chorus was the Hallelujah Chorus. In 1712, Handel moved to London, England where he died on April 14th, 1759.

PAWS

Today me and my mom went to the PAWS center. We got a tour of the facility and some volunteers told us what paws is about. We got to see all the dogs and cats they had for adoption. That was sad. Then we found out that the animals are only there for about 10 days before they're adopted. PAWS also has a foster care program. I want to foster kittens. I think it would be lots of fun.

Amazing Art

Harmensz Van Rijn Rembrandt
By Rachel
Harmensz Van Rijn Rembrandt was born in 1606 in Leiden, Holland (this is where the Pilgrims lived before they left for America in 1620). Rembrandt studied with multiple artists throughout his life. He became famous for his ability to make biblical figures seem heavenly, and also still human. He had an outstanding ability to portray light in his pictures. Rembrandt, although he was one of the most popular artists in Europe, started losing money as an adult. He bought pictures from other artists that he could barely afford. He also started painting for himself instead, so he did his job, but for no one, which lost him a lot of money. Harmensz Van Rijn Rembrandt died on October 4, 1669. He was one of the most skilled artists in the Baroque Period.

Poetry Portraits

Edgar Allen Poe
By Rachel

11/5/2008

Edgar Allen Poe was born in the year 1809. His parents both died before he was 3 years old. He was taken to live with John Allen, who had been a wealthy friend of his mother. When Poe was 13, he could read Latin poetry fluently, and he started writing poetry of his own. When he was in college, he wrote his first happy story, but when he read it to his friends, they teased him about it. Poe’s life had been riddled with sadness. He was an Alcoholic and he had to end college early due to the several thousand dollars he was in debt. He had some trouble with money and he fought with John Allen. When he was 18 he enlisted in the army saying he was 22. When he got back from the war, he went to live with his relatives that had taken his brother William in. He wrote very sad poetry, as he was a drunkard and was deeply disturbed in mind and thought. Edgar Allen Poe died on October 3, 1849. He might have been insane, but he still was a good poet. Some of his most famous poems and stories are “The Raven” and “The Tell Tale Heart”. Poe may be dead, but a part of him will always live on in American poetry.