The organ symphonies of Louis Vierne

Louis Vierne stood in an exceedingly favorable position in the matter of the influences which were at work upon him. Though he profited immeasurably by his study with both Widor and Guilmant, he himself possessed an advantage which was not given to either of these two men. For almost two years Vierne was in the organ-class of César Franck; and in that time he was able to add his own share to the almost legendary love, respect, and admiration that Franck's students bore him. There are, in fact, many points of similarity between the careers of Franck and of Vierne. Each spent a goodly portion of his life in the service of the church: Franck at Ste. Clothilde, Vierne at Notre-Dame. Each man devoted his entire life to music; each was a devout believer with a keen sense for beauty and the creation of it; both were superb improvisers; the students of both were avid disciples of their masters; both suffered the results of intrigue at the hands of others, and both had the necessary fortitude to rise above their troubles, taking refuge in their art. As the assistant and close friend of both Wider and Guilmant, Vierne came to know the esthetic creed of each artist in an intimate fashion. Vierne modeled his own compositions upon the general lines of the work of these two men. With the added impetus and the inspiration that came to him through his contact with Franck, be was able to advance in scope, in grandeur, and in emotional content to that point which places his works in the forefront of modern organ composition. Vierne was perhaps more fortunate than bis contemporaries, for he was able to profit greatly by bis association both with Franck and with Wider and Guilmant. His greater point of advantage lay in the fact that he was in such close personal relationship with the latter two men. Vierne had the inestimable advantage of an ability to produce a long melodic line, the intensity of which he was able to modify at will. The short-breathed phrases of Franck do not appear in the work of his student. Vierne used a widely-varied phraseology. In countless movements the phrase organization is quite regular, with perfect balance of periods. In other instances, there are phrases of all degrees of length and of very odd balance. He possessed a fine ability for the building of tremendous climaxes. In this connection must be mentioned his use of chain-phrases and his intriguing manner of extending phrases so that the moment of cadence of resolution is delayed, to the end that climaxes seem more impressive by reason of their delayed entrances. One device in particular contributes to his ability for constructing a stunning climax. The ostinato, the effectiveness of which he may have learned from Widor's use of it in the Toccata of the Fifth Symphony, is used with carillon-like results in many movements in which the effect is gained almost by monotony--much in the manner of Ravel's Bolero. It is true that Vierne exhausted nearly all of the contrapuntal and harmonic devices in the course of writing his symphonies. It is possible that many of these tricks of the musician's trade will remain to be appreciated only by those who have the knowledge and the will to examine the scores themselves. Vierne's use of cyclic construction seems for the most part to be valuable in its strictest sense only to the practiced organist. The paces of the movements where there is identity of thematic material are usually too slow or too rapid to afford the unaided ear any opportunity of grasping the essential cyclic meaning. It remains for the eye to appreciate the tremendously skilful manipulation of the themes. There seems to be no excellence of one type of writing over another in Vierne's work, unless it be in his writing of scherzi. Some of the most charming pages) of the symphonies are to be found in these swift, light-footed movements. The grandeur of some of the dramatic passages is notable. Especially to be commended is the jagged, Gothiclike beginning of the Second Symphony, and the final summing up of the themes which occurs at the end of the first movement. The succeeding Choral and the Romance of the Fourth Symphony contain passages of lyrical loveliness. The training of Franck appears nowhere more noticeably than in the Fourth Symphony with its extreme chromatic style, unless it be in the last two symphonies with their cyclical structure. To Widor's influence can be credited the use of the symphonic form itself, as well as the tremendously difficult passages with which some of the symphonies are filled. It is possible that these bristling technical difficulties would never have been written had it not been for the thorough schooling in organ technique that Vierne received at the hands of Widor. The purist may be comforted by the fact that Vierne’s symphonic writing comes closer to the classical ideal than does that of Widor. The variety and unity achieved by Vierne in the symphonies is not far removed from that demanded by the thorough-going classicist. Vierne has truly built upon the foundation provided by the Widor symphonies, and his own personal manner of expression has given his work an individuality and a breadth of vision that are lacking in the Widor works. The organ symphonies of Louis Vierne represent a substantial and valuable contribution to modern organ literature because of their own intrinsic value; because they are the well-considered works of one of the preeminent members of the modern French organ school, and because they represent the vision and the work of an organist directly descended through one of the finest lines of schooling. As for their permanence in the repertoire, it remains for time and for capable organists to say.--Conclusion

How do practitioners characterize land tenure security?

Improving land tenure security (LTS) is a significant challenge for sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Goals and other recent global initiatives have renewed and increased the need to improve LTS to address climate change, biodiversity loss, food security, poverty reduction, and other challenges. At the same time, policymakers are increasingly interested in evidence- based policies and decisions, creating urgency for practitioners and researchers to work together. Yet, incongruent characterizations of LTS (identifying the key components of LTS) by practitioners and researchers can limit collaboration and information flows necessary for research and effective policymaking. While there are systematic reviews of how LTS is characterized in the academic literature, no prior study has assessed how practitioners characterize LTS. We address this gap using data from 54 interviews of land tenure practitioners working in 10 countries of global importance for biodiversity and climate change mitigation. Practitioners characterize LTS as complex and multifaceted, and a majority of practitioners refer to de jure terms (e.g., titling) when characterizing it. Notably, in our data just one practitioner characterized LTS in terms of perceptions of the landholder, contrasting the recent emphasis in the academic literature on landholder perceptions in LTS characterizations. Researchers should be aware of incongruence in how LTS is characterized in the academic literature when engaging practitioners.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155485/1/csp2186.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155485/2/csp2186_am.pd

Remaking the self in John Dunton’s The Life and Errors of John Dunton (1705)

© 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. John Dunton (1659–1732) is a bookseller and writer best known today as a tireless self-promoter whose I-centred and experimental work contributed to the development of the novel and autobiography in the eighteenth century. This article is the first full-length study of his own autobiographical record, The Life and Errors of John Dunton (1705). Dunton the showman is in plentiful evidence in this text, but he also presents another, more sober and serious-minded version of the self by following accounts of earlier stages of his life with their reformed versions. His coupling of religious-led self-examination with a commitment to literary novelty makes The Life a most unusual form of spiritual autobiography in its early stages. Yet The Life is a composite text in an even more obvious sense than this. For around half-way through the text Dunton abandons his close focus on the self for hundreds of cursory character sketches of his contemporaries, and in doing so swaps spiritual considerations for indirect comments on his own social activities and commercial concerns. This article studies these two main, ostensibly opposed, sections of The Life–its autobiographical and biographical material–and suggests points of contact between them

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance.

Investment in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing in Africa over the past year has led to a major increase in the number of sequences that have been generated and used to track the pandemic on the continent, a number that now exceeds 100,000 genomes. Our results show an increase in the number of African countries that are able to sequence domestically and highlight that local sequencing enables faster turnaround times and more-regular routine surveillance. Despite limitations of low testing proportions, findings from this genomic surveillance study underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic and illuminate the distinct dispersal dynamics of variants of concern-particularly Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron-on the continent. Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve while the continent faces many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Letters from and to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe.

Contains a number of letters from Sir Walter Scott.Head and tail pieces.Contains a number of letters from Sir Walter Scott.Mode of access: Internet

"The Educational Care" of Patients With Congestive Heart Failure

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67564/2/10.1177_001789696702600305.pd