Tag: Christian

Claude Debussy: La Cathédrale Engloutie

Prelude for solo piano written by the French composer Claude Debussy, published in 1910. To quote wikipedia:
“This piece is based on an ancient Breton myth in which a cathedral, submerged underwater off the coast of the Island of Ys, rises up from the sea on clear mornings when the water is transparent. Sounds can be heard of priests chanting, bells chiming, and the organ playing, from across the sea. Accordingly, Debussy uses certain harmonies to allude to the plot of the legend, in the style of musical symbolism.”

The assumed location of Ys can be found in my map.

Saint Guénolé, abbé de Landévennec, sauvant le roi Gradlon lors de la submersion de la ville d’Ys

Stained glass window from 1917 representing “Saint Guénolé, abbé de Landévennec, sauvant le roi Gradlon lors de la submersion de la ville d’Ys” in the Church of Saint-Germain in Kerlaz.

Information about the legend of the sunken kingdom Ys and it’s assumed location.

Ar Roue Gralon ha kear Is

A bretonic folksong about the sinking of the City Ys on the Atlantic Coast of Brittany.
Original Lyrics
French Translation

Detlev von Liliencron (1844-1909): Trutz Blanke Hans

Ein einziger Schrei – die Stadt ist versunken,
Und Hunderttausende sind ertrunken.
Wo gestern noch Lärm und lustiger Tisch,
Schwamm andern Tags der stumme Fisch.
Heut bin ich über Rungholt gefahren,
Die Stadt ging unter vor sechshundert Jahren.
Trutz, Blanke Hans?

(Excerpt)

full text and info:
https://www.deutschland-lese.de/streifzuege/balladen/trutz-blanke-hans/

Germany; 19. Century; Christian; Poetry; City: Rungholt

The little Hero of Haarlem

Apparently an anglo-american invention, this story about the boy who rescues a Dutch city by sticking his finger in a hole in the dyke, has been republished in various versions since the mid 1800s . This is the earliest published version of the story and it starts with the words, ” A long way off, across the ocean, there is a little country where the ground is lower than the level of the sea…”

full text

The view back

To see your city, you have to get out and look back. In many disaster movies, that’s a car ride onto a bridge. In this scene from Geostorm, the look back is directed towards Hong Kong.
USA; 21. Century; Christian; Movie; City: Hong Kong

Gustave Doré: The New Zealander

Last image from Gustave Doré‘s Book “London – A Pilgrimage” (1872). Detailed Information.

France; 19. Century; Christian; Illustration; City: London

Franz Karl Basler-Kopp (1879–1937): Der Schimmelreiter

German painter Basler-Kopp painted two images in 1924 after Thodor Storm’s novel “Rider on the White Horse” one of the best knows examples of German literary realism of late 19. Century. Contrary ot the genre of the text, these images are clearly rooted in romanticism but also show the influence of early expressionism. (Basler-Kopp was best knwon for his fairytale illustrations.) They give a good example of the allure of flooding and extreme coastal weather events had on the visual arts at the time.