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Frost

[[File:Saint-Amant 16 Gelée blanche 2008.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|A patch of grass showing three zones. 1.

2. crystalline frost in the below-freezing shade (blue, lower right)

3. frost in the warming but still below freezing strip most recently exposed to sunlight (white, center)

4. frost-free region: here, the previous frost has melted from a more prolonged exposure to sunlight (green, upper left.)]]

Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor that deposits onto a freezing surface. Frost forms when the air contains more water vapor than it can normally hold at a specific temperature. The process is similar to the formation of dew, except it occurs below the freezing point of water typically without crossing through a liquid state.

Air always contains a certain amount of water vapor, depending on temperature. Warmer air can hold more than colder air. When the atmosphere contains more water than it can hold at a specific temperature, its relative humidity rises above 100% becoming supersaturated, and the excess water vapor is forced to deposit onto any nearby surface, forming seed crystals. The temperature at which frost will form is called the dew point, and depends on the humidity of the air. When the temperature of the air drops below its dew point, excess water vapor is forced out of solution, resulting in a phase change directly from water vapor (a gas) to ice (a solid). As more water molecules are added to the seeds, crystal growth occurs, forming ice crystals. Crystals may vary in size and shape, from an even layer of numerous microscopic-seeds to fewer but much larger crystals, ranging from long dendritic crystals (tree-like) growing across a surface, acicular crystals (needle-like) growing outward from the surface, snowflake-shaped crystals, or even large, knifelike blades of ice covering an object, which depends on many factors such as temperature, air pressure, air motion and turbulence, surface roughness and wettability, and the level of supersaturation. For example, water vapor adsorbs to glass very well, so automobile windows will often frost before the paint, and large hoar-frost crystals can grow very rapidly when the air is very cold, calm, and heavily saturated, such as during an ice fog.

Frost may occur when warm, moist air comes into contact with a cold surface, cooling it below its dew point, such as warm breath on a freezing window. In the atmosphere, it more often occurs when both the air and the surface are below freezing, when the air experiences a drop in temperature bringing it below its dew point, for example, when the temperature falls after the Sun sets. In temperate climates, it most commonly appears on surfaces near the ground as fragile white crystals; in cold climates, it occurs in a greater variety of forms. The propagation of crystal formation occurs by the process of nucleation, in specific, water nucleation, which is the same phenomenon responsible for the formation of clouds, fog, snow, rain and other meteorological phenomena.

The ice crystals of frost form as the result of fractal process development. The depth of frost crystals varies depending on the amount of time they have been accumulating, and the concentration of the water vapor (humidity). Frost crystals may be invisible (black), clear (translucent), or, if a mass of frost crystals scatters light in all directions, the coating of frost appears white.

Types of frost include crystalline frost (hoar frost or radiation frost) from deposition of water vapor from air of low humidity, white frost in humid conditions, window frost on glass surfaces, advection frost from cold wind over cold surfaces, black frost without visible ice at low temperatures and very low humidity, and rime under supercooled wet conditions.

Plants that have evolved in warmer climates suffer damage when the temperature falls low enough to freeze the water in the cells that make up the plant tissue. The tissue damage resulting from this process is known as "frost damage". Farmers in those regions where frost damage has been known to affect their crops often invest in substantial means to protect their crops from such damage.

Formation
If a solid surface is chilled below the dew point of the surrounding humid air, and the surface itself is colder than freezing, ice will form on it. If the water deposits as a liquid that then freezes, it forms a coating that may look glassy, opaque, or crystalline, depending on its type. Depending on context, that process may also be called atmospheric icing. The ice it produces differs in some ways from crystalline frost, which consists of spicules of ice that typically project from the solid surface on which they grow.

The main difference between the ice coatings and frost spicules arises because the crystalline spicules grow directly from desublimation of water vapour from air, and desublimation is not a factor in icing of freezing surfaces. For desublimation to proceed, the surface must be below the frost point of the air, meaning that it is sufficiently cold for ice to form without passing through the liquid phase. The air must be humid, but not sufficiently humid to permit the condensation of liquid water, or icing will result instead of desublimation. The size of the crystals depends largely on the temperature, the amount of water vapor available, and how long they have been growing undisturbed.

As a rule, except in conditions where supercooled droplets are present in the air, frost will form only if the deposition surface is colder than the surrounding air. For instance, frost may be observed around cracks in cold wooden sidewalks when humid air escapes from the warmer ground beneath. Other objects on which frost commonly forms are those with low specific heat or high thermal emissivity, such as blackened metals, hence the accumulation of frost on the heads of rusty nails.

The apparently erratic occurrence of frost in adjacent localities is due partly to differences of elevation, the lower areas becoming colder on calm nights. Where static air settles above an area of ground in the absence of wind, the absorptivity and specific heat of the ground strongly influence the temperature that the trapped air attains.

Hoar frost

Hoar frost, also hoarfrost, radiation frost, or pruina, refers to white ice crystals deposited on the ground or loosely attached to exposed objects, such as wires or leaves. They form on cold, clear nights when conditions are such that heat radiates into outer space faster than it can be replaced from nearby warm objects or brought in by the wind. Under suitable circumstances, objects cool to below the frost point of the surrounding air, well below the freezing point of water. Such freezing may be promoted by effects such as flood frost or frost pocket. These occur when ground-level radiation cools air until it flows downhill and accumulates in pockets of very cold air in valleys and hollows. Hoar frost may freeze in such low-lying cold air even when the air temperature a few feet above ground is well above freezing.

The word "hoar" comes from an Old English adjective that means "showing signs of old age". In this context, it refers to the frost that makes trees and bushes look like white hair.

Hoar frost may have different names depending on where it forms:
 * Air hoar is a deposit of hoar frost on objects above the surface, such as tree branches, plant stems, and wires.
 * Surface hoar refers to fern-like ice crystals directly deposited on snow, ice, or already frozen surfaces.
 * Crevasse hoar consists of crystals that form in glacial crevasses where water vapour can accumulate under calm weather conditions.
 * Depth hoar refers to faceted crystals that have slowly grown large within cavities beneath the surface of banks of dry snow. Depth hoar crystals grow continuously at the expense of neighbouring smaller crystals, so typically are visibly stepped and have faceted hollows.

When surface hoar covers sloping snowbanks, the layer of frost crystals may create an avalanche risk; when heavy layers of new snow cover the frosty surface, furry crystals standing out from the old snow hold off the falling flakes, forming a layer of voids that prevents the new snow layers from bonding strongly to the old snow beneath. Ideal conditions for hoarfrost to form on snow are cold, clear nights, with very light, cold air currents conveying humidity at the right rate for growth of frost crystals. Wind that is too strong or warm destroys the furry crystals, and thereby may permit a stronger bond between the old and new snow layers. However, if the winds are strong enough and cold enough to lay the crystals flat and dry, carpeting the snow with cold, loose crystals without removing or destroying them or letting them warm up and become sticky, then the frost interface between the snow layers may still present an avalanche danger, because the texture of the frost crystals differs from the snow texture, and the dry crystals will not stick to fresh snow. Such conditions still prevent a strong bond between the snow layers.

In very low temperatures where fluffy surface hoar crystals form without subsequently being covered with snow, strong winds may break them off, forming a dust of ice particles and blowing them over the surface. The ice dust then may form yukimarimo, as has been observed in parts of Antarctica, in a process similar to the formation of dust bunnies and similar structures. Hoar frost and white frost also occur in man-made environments such as in freezers or industrial cold-storage facilities. If such cold spaces or the pipes serving them are not well insulated and are exposed to ambient humidity, the moisture will freeze instantly depending on the freezer temperature. The frost may coat pipes thickly, partly insulating them, but such inefficient insulation still is a source of heat loss.

Advection frost
Advection frost (also called wind frost) refers to tiny ice spikes that form when very cold wind is blowing over tree branches, poles, and other surfaces. It looks like rimming on the edges of flowers and leaves, and usually forms against the direction of the wind. It can occur at any hour, day or night.

Window frost
Window frost (also called fern frost or ice flowers) forms when a glass pane is exposed to very cold air on the outside and warmer, moderately moist air on the inside. If the pane is a bad insulator (for example, if it is a single-pane window), water vapour condenses on the glass, forming frost patterns. With very low temperatures outside, frost can appear on the bottom of the window even with double-pane energy-efficient windows because the air convection between two panes of glass ensures that the bottom part of the glazing unit is colder than the top part. On unheated motor vehicles, the frost usually forms on the outside surface of the glass first. The glass surface influences the shape of crystals, so imperfections, scratches, or dust can modify the way ice nucleates. The patterns in window frost form a fractal with a fractal dimension greater than one, but less than two. This is a consequence of the nucleation process being constrained to unfold in two dimensions, unlike a snowflake, which is shaped by a similar process, but forms in three dimensions and has a fractal dimension greater than two.

If the indoor air is very humid, rather than moderately so, water first condenses in small droplets, and then freezes into clear ice.

Similar patterns of freezing may occur on other smooth vertical surfaces, but they seldom are as obvious or spectacular as on clear glass.

White frost
White frost is a solid deposition of ice that forms directly from water vapour contained in air.

White frost forms when relative humidity is above 90% and the temperature below −8 °C (18 °F), and it grows against the wind direction, since air arriving from windward has a higher humidity than leeward air, but the wind must not be strong, else it damages the delicate icy structures as they begin to form. White frost resembles a heavy coating of hoar frost with big, interlocking crystals, usually needle-shaped.

Rime
Rime is a type of ice deposition that occurs quickly, often under heavily humid and windy conditions. Technically speaking, it is not a type of frost, since usually supercooled water drops are involved, in contrast to the formation of hoar frost, in which water vapour desublimates slowly and directly. Ships travelling through Arctic seas may accumulate large quantities of rime on the rigging. Unlike hoar frost, which has a feathery appearance, rime generally has an icy, solid appearance.

Black frost
Black frost or ("killing frost") is not strictly speaking frost at all, because it is the condition seen in crops when the humidity is too low for frost to form, but the temperature falls so low that plant tissues freeze and die, becoming blackened, hence the term "black frost". Black frost often is called "killing frost" because white frost tends to be less cold, partly because the latent heat of freezing of the water reduces the temperature drop.

Damage
Many plants can be damaged or killed by freezing temperatures or frost. This varies with the type of plant, the tissue exposed, and how low temperatures get; a "light frost" of -2 to 0 C damages fewer types of plants than a "hard frost" below -2 C.

Plants likely to be damaged even by a light frost include vines—such as beans, grapes, squashes, melons—along with nightshades such as tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. Plants that may tolerate (or even benefit from) frosts include: Even those plants that tolerate frost may be damaged once temperatures drop even lower (below -4 C). Hardy perennials, such as Hosta, become dormant after the first frosts and regrow when spring arrives. The entire visible plant may turn completely brown until the spring warmth, or may drop all of its leaves and flowers, leaving the stem and stalk only. Evergreen plants, such as pine trees, withstand frost although all or most growth stops. Frost crack is a bark defect caused by a combination of low temperatures and heat from the winter sun.
 * root vegetables (e.g. beets, carrots, parsnips, onions)
 * leafy greens (e.g. lettuces, spinach, chard, cucumber )
 * cruciferous vegetables (e.g. cabbages, cauliflower, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, radishes, kale, collard, mustard, turnips, rutabagas)

Vegetation is not necessarily damaged when leaf temperatures drop below the freezing point of their cell contents. In the absence of a site nucleating the formation of ice crystals, the leaves remain in a supercooled liquid state, safely reaching temperatures of -4 to -12 C. However, once frost forms, the leaf cells may be damaged by sharp ice crystals. Hardening is the process by which a plant becomes tolerant to low temperatures. See also Cryobiology.

Certain bacteria, notably Pseudomonas syringae, are particularly effective at triggering frost formation, raising the nucleation temperature to about -2 C. Bacteria lacking ice nucleation-active proteins (ice-minus bacteria) result in greatly reduced frost damage.

Protection methods
Typical measures to prevent frost or reduce its severity include one or more of: Such measures need to be applied with discretion, because they may do more harm than good; for example, spraying crops with water can cause damage if the plants become overburdened with ice. An effective, low cost method for small crop farms and plant nurseries, exploits the latent heat of freezing. A pulsed irrigation timer delivers water through existing overhead sprinklers at a low volumes to combat frosts down to -5 C. If the water freezes, it gives off its latent heat, preventing the temperature of the foliage from falling much below zero.
 * Deploying powerful blowers to simulate wind, thereby preventing the formation of accumulations of cold air. There are variations on this theme. One variety is the wind machine, an engine-driven propeller mounted on a vertical pole that blows air almost horizontally. Wind machines were introduced as a method for frost protection in California during the 1920s, but they were not widely accepted until the 1940s and 1950s. Now, they are commonly used in many parts of the world. Another is the selective inverted sink, a device which prevents frost by drawing cold air from the ground and blowing it up through a chimney. It was originally developed to prevent frost damage to citrus fruits in Uruguay. In New Zealand, helicopters are used in similar fashion, especially in the vineyard regions such as Marlborough. By dragging down warmer air from the inversion layers, and preventing the ponding of colder air on the ground, the low-flying helicopters prevent damage to the fruit buds. As the operations are conducted at night, and have in the past involved up to 130 aircraft per night in one region, safety rules are strict. Although not a dedicated method, wind turbines have a similar (although smaller) effect of vertically mixing air layers of different temperature.
 * For high-value crops, farmers may wrap trees and use physical crop coverings.
 * For high-value crops grown over small areas, heating to slow the drop in temperature may be practical.
 * Production of smoke to reduce cooling by radiation
 * Spraying crops with a layer of water releases latent heat, preventing harmful freezing of the tissues of the plants that it coats.

Frost-free areas
Frost-free areas are found mainly in the lowland tropics, where they cover almost all land except at altitudes above about 3000 m near the equator and around 2000 m in the semiarid areas in tropical regions. Some areas on the oceanic margins of the subtropics are also frost-free, as are highly oceanic areas near windward coasts. The most poleward frost-free areas are the lower altitudes of the Azores, Île Amsterdam, Île Saint-Paul, and Tristan da Cunha.

In the contiguous United States, southern Florida around Miami Beach and the Florida Keys are the only reliably frost-free areas, as well as the Channel Islands off the coast of California. The hardiness zones in these regions are 11a and 11b.

Permafrost
Permafrost is a layer of frozen earth underground which never heats above freezing even during summer months, remaining frozen year round. Although not frost in the atmospheric sense, it consists of dirt, soil, sand, rocks, clay, or organic matter (peat) bound firmly together by ice crystals, making the material very hard and difficult to penetrate. Permafrost exists in the colder climates of the Arctic and Antarctic, such as Russia, Canada, Alaska, Norway, Greenland, or Antarctica, where the warmer conditions of summer are insufficient to penetrate the insulation of the Earth to reach deep enough to thaw the permafrost layer. The permafrost may begin from the surface of the ground or many meters beneath it, and may extend from just a meter to over a thousand meters in thickness. Permafrost contains a significant portion of the Earth's water and carbon, and prevents surface water from penetrating very deep into the ground, making it responsible in part for the typical taiga and spruce bog environments common in northern latitudes.

Personifications
Frost is personified in Russian culture as Ded Moroz. Indigenous peoples of Russia such as the Mordvins have their own traditions of frost deities.

English folklore tradition holds that Jack Frost, an elfish creature, is responsible for feathery patterns of frost found on windows on cold mornings.

On other planets
In 2024, two European Space Agency spacecraft, Exomars TGO and Mars Express, discovered a thin but very wide layer of water frost on the peak of Olympus Mons, the highest mountain on Mars. This layer of frost appears for a few hours around sunrise, and then evaporates into the atmosphere for the rest of the Martian day. This was the first instance of frost discovered in the equatorial region of Mars.

title: Frost


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Franz Schmidt (composer)

Franz Schmidt, also Ferenc Schmidt (22 December 1874 – 11 February 1939) was an Austro-Hungarian composer, cellist and pianist.

Life
Schmidt was born in Pozsony/Pressburg, in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary (today Bratislava, Slovakia) to a half-Hungarian father – with the same name, born in the same city – and to a Hungarian mother, Mária Ravasz. He was a Roman Catholic.

His earliest teacher was his mother, Mária Ravasz, an accomplished pianist, who gave him a systematic instruction in the keyboard works of J. S. Bach. He received a foundation in theory from Felizian Josef Moczik, the organist at the Franciscan church in Pressburg. He studied piano briefly with Theodor Leschetizky, with whom he clashed. He moved to Vienna with his family in 1888, and studied at the Vienna Conservatory (composition with Robert Fuchs, cello with Ferdinand Hellmesberger, and, for a few lessons, counterpoint with Anton Bruckner, who was already seriously ill at that time ), graduating "with excellence" in 1896.

He obtained a post as cellist with the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra, where he played until 1914, often under Gustav Mahler. Mahler habitually had Schmidt play all the cello solos, even though Friedrich Buxbaum was the principal cellist. Schmidt was also in demand as a chamber musician. Schmidt and Arnold Schoenberg maintained cordial relations despite their vast differences in eventual outlook and style (Schmidt certainly shows a perceptible influence from Schoenberg's early, tonal works such as Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4, in whose Viennese première he participated as cellist, the Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 and the gigantic cantata Gurre-Lieder. Unable to procure a teaching position for Schoenberg at the Academy, Schmidt rehearsed his students in a performance of Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 which Schoenberg warmly praised). Also a brilliant pianist, in 1914 Schmidt took up a professorship in piano at the Vienna Conservatory, which had been recently renamed Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts. (Apparently, when asked who the greatest living pianist was, Leopold Godowsky replied, "The other one is Franz Schmidt." ) In 1925 he became Director of the Academy, and from 1927 to 1931 its Rector.

As teacher of piano, cello and counterpoint and composition at the Academy, Schmidt trained numerous instrumentalists, conductors, and composers who later achieved fame. Among his best-known students were the pianist Friedrich Wührer and Alfred Rosé (son of Arnold Rosé, the founder of the Rosé Quartet, Konzertmeister of the Vienna Philharmonic and brother-in-law of Gustav Mahler). Among the composers were Walter Bricht (his favourite student), Theodor Berger, Marcel Rubin, Alfred Uhl and Ľudovít Rajter. He received many tokens of the high esteem in which he was held, notably the Order of Franz Joseph, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Vienna.

Schmidt's private life was in stark contrast to the success of his distinguished professional career. His first wife, Karoline Perssin (c. 1880–1943), was confined in the Vienna mental hospital Am Steinhof in 1919, and three years after his death was murdered under the Nazi euthanasia program. Their daughter Emma Schmidt Holzschuh (1902–1932, married 1929) died unexpectedly after the birth of her first child. Schmidt experienced a spiritual and physical breakdown after this, and achieved an artistic revival and resolution in his Fourth Symphony of 1933 (which he inscribed as "Requiem for my Daughter") and, especially, in his oratorio The Book with Seven Seals. His second marriage in 1923, to a successful young piano student Margarethe Jirasek (1891–1964), for the first time brought some desperately needed stability into the private life of the artist, who was plagued by many serious health problems.

Schmidt's worsening health forced his retirement from the Academy in early 1937. In the last year of his life Austria was brought into the German Reich by the Anschluss, and Schmidt was feted by the Nazi authorities as the greatest living composer of the so-called Ostmark. He was given a commission to write a cantata entitled The German Resurrection, which, after 1945, was taken by many as a reason to brand him as having been tainted by Nazi sympathy. However, Schmidt left this composition unfinished, and in the summer and autumn of 1938, a few months before his death, set it aside to devote himself to two other commissioned works for the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein: the Quintet in A major for piano left-hand, clarinet, and string trio; and the Toccata in D minor for solo piano. Schmidt died on 11 February 1939.

Musical works
As a composer, Schmidt was slow to develop, but his reputation, at least in Austria, saw a steady growth from the late 1890s until his death in 1939. In his music, Schmidt continued to develop the Viennese classic-romantic traditions he inherited from Schubert, Brahms, and Bruckner. He also takes forward the "gypsy" style of Liszt and Brahms. His works are monumental in form and firmly tonal in language, though quite often innovative in their designs and clearly open to some of the new developments in musical syntax initiated by Mahler and Schoenberg. Although Schmidt did not write a lot of chamber music, what he did write, in the opinion of such critics as Wilhelm Altmann, was important and of high quality. Although Schmidt's organ works may resemble others of the era in terms of length, complexity, and difficulty, they are forward-looking in being conceived for the smaller, clearer, classical-style instruments of the Orgelbewegung, which he advocated. Schmidt worked mainly in large forms, including four symphonies (1899, 1913, 1928 and 1933) and two operas: Notre Dame (1904–6) and Fredigundis (1916–21). A CD recording of Notre Dame has been available for many years, starring Dame Gwyneth Jones and James King.

Fredigundis
No really adequate recording has been made of Schmidt's second and last opera Fredigundis, of which there has been but one "unauthorized" release in the early 1980s on the Voce label of an Austrian Radio broadcast of a 1979 Vienna performance under the direction of Ernst Märzendorfer. Aside from numerous "royal fanfares" (Fredigundis held the French throne in the sixth century) the score contains some fine examples of Schmidt's transitional style between his earlier and later manner. In many respects, Schmidt seldom ventured so far from traditional tonality again, and his third and final period (in the last decade-and-a-half of his life) was generally one of (at least partial) retrenchment, consolidation and the integration of the style of his opulently scored and melodious early compositions (the First Symphony, "Notre Dame") with elements of the overt experimentation seen in "Fredigundis", combined with an economy of utterance born of artistic maturity. New Grove encyclopaedia states that Fredigundis was a critical and popular failure, which may be partly attributable to the fact that Fredigundis (Fredegund, the widow of Chilperic I), is presented as a murderous and sadistic feminine monster. Add to this some structural problems with the libretto, and the opera's failure to make headway – despite an admirable and impressive score – becomes comprehensible.

The Book with Seven Seals
Aside from the mature symphonies (Nos. 2–4), Schmidt's crowning achievement was the oratorio The Book with Seven Seals (1935–37), a setting of passages from the Book of Revelation. His choice of subject was prophetic: with hindsight the work appears to foretell, in the most powerful terms, the disasters that were shortly to be visited upon Europe in the Second World War. Here his invention rises to a sustained pitch of genius. A narrative upon the text of the oratorio was provided by the composer.

Schmidt's oratorio stands in the Austro-German tradition stretching back to the time of J. S. Bach and Handel. He was one of relatively few composers to write an oratorio fully on the subject of the Book of Revelation (earlier works include Georg Philipp Telemann: Der Tag des Gerichts, Schneider: Das Weltgericht, Louis Spohr: Die letzten Dinge, Joachim Raff: Weltende, and Ralph Vaughan Williams: Sancta Civitas). Far from glorifying its subject, it is a mystical contemplation, a horrified warning, and a prayer for salvation. The premiere was held in Vienna on 15 June 1938, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Oswald Kabasta: the soloists were Rudolf Gerlach (John), Erika Rokyta, Enid Szánthó, Anton Dermota, Josef von Manowarda and Franz Schütz at the organ.

Symphonies
Schmidt is generally regarded as a conservative composer, but the rhythmic subtlety and harmonic complexity of much of his music belie this. His music combines a reverence for the Austro-German lineage of composers with innovations in harmony and orchestration (showing an awareness of the output of composers such as Debussy and Ravel, whose piano music he greatly admired, along with a knowledge of more recent composers in his own German-speaking realm, such as Schoenberg, Berg, Hindemith, etc.).

Written in 1896 at age 22. The scherzo (which shows a mature absorption of Bruckner and Richard Strauss) is especially noteworthy, while Schmidt demonstrates his contrapuntal skills in the Finale. Written in 1913 in a style reminiscent of Strauss and Reger, with homage to the grandiosity of Bruckner. This is Schmidt's longest symphony and it employs a huge orchestra. The central movement (of three) is an ingenious set of variations, which are grouped to suggest the characters of slow movement and scherzo. The complex scoring renders it a considerable challenge for most orchestras. A sunny, melodic work in the Schubert vein (although its lyricism and superb orchestration do much to conceal the fact that it is one of the composer's most harmonically advanced works). Winner of the Austrian section of the 1928 International Columbia Graphophone Competition (the overall winner was Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg with his 6th Symphony), it enjoyed some popularity at the time (1928). Written in 1933, this is the best-known work of his entire oeuvre. The composer called it "A requiem for my daughter". It begins with a long 23-bar melody on an unaccompanied solo trumpet (which returns at the symphony's close, "transfigured" by all that has intervened). The Adagio is an immense ABA ternary structure. The first A is an expansive threnody on solo cello (Schmidt's own instrument) whose seamless lyricism predates Strauss's Metamorphosen by more than a decade (its theme is later adjusted to form the scherzo of the symphony); the B section is an equally expansive funeral march (unmistakably referencing the Marcia Funebre from Beethoven's Eroica in its texture) whose dramatic climax is marked by an orchestral crescendo culminating in a gong and cymbal crash (again, a clear allusion to similar climaxes in the later symphonies of Bruckner, and followed by what Harold Truscott has described as a "reverse climax", leading back to a repeat of the A section).
 * Symphony No. 1 in E major.
 * Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major.
 * Symphony No. 3 in A major.
 * Symphony No. 4 in C major.

Schmidt and Nazism
Schmidt's premiere of The Book with Seven Seals was made much of by the Nazis (who had annexed Austria shortly before in the Anschluss), and Schmidt was seen to give the Nazi salute (according to a report by Georg Tintner, who revered Schmidt and whose intent to record his symphonies was never realised). His conductor Oswald Kabasta was apparently an enthusiastic Nazi who, being prohibited from conducting in 1946 during de-nazification, committed suicide. These facts long placed Schmidt's posthumous reputation under a cloud. His lifelong friend and colleague Oskar Adler, who fled the Nazis in 1938, wrote afterwards that Schmidt was never a Nazi and never antisemitic but was extremely naive about politics. Hans Keller gave a similar endorsement. Regarding Schmidt's political naivety, Michael Steinberg, in his book The Symphony, tells of Schmidt's recommending Variations on a Hebrew Theme by his student Israel Brandmann to a musical group associated with the proto-Nazi German National Party. Most of Schmidt's principal musical friends were Jews, and they benefited from his generosity.

Schmidt's last listed work, the cantata Deutsche Auferstehung (German Resurrection), was composed to a Nazi text. As one of the most famous living Austrian composers, Schmidt was well known to Hitler and received this commission after the Anschluss. He left it unfinished, to be completed later by Robert Wagner. Already seriously ill, Schmidt worked instead on other compositions such as the Quintet in A major for piano (left hand), clarinet and string trio, intended for Paul Wittgenstein and incorporating a variation set based on a theme by Wittgenstein's old teacher, Josef Labor. His failure to complete the cantata is likely to be a further indication that he was not committed to the Nazi cause.

In a 1996 issue of The Musical Quarterly, Peter Laki argued that Schmidt was falsely associated with Nazism, although Leon Botstein disagreed.

Operas

 * Notre Dame, romantic Opera in two acts, text after Victor Hugo by Franz Schmidt and Leopold Wilk; comp. 1902–4, premiered Vienna 1914
 * Fredigundis, Opera in three acts, text after Felix Dahn by Bruno Hardt-Warden and Ignaz Michael Welleminsky; comp. 1916–21, premiered Berlin 1922

Oratorio

 * The Book with Seven Seals (Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln) for Soli, Chorus, Organ and Orchestra, Text after the Revelation of St John; comp. 1935–37; premiered Vienna, 1938

Cantata

 * Deutsche Auferstehung a Festival Song for Soli, Chorus, Organ and Orchestra, Text by Oskar Dietrich; comp. 1938–39, unfinished, prepared for performance by Dr. Robert Wagner; premiered Vienna, 1940

Symphonies

 * Symphony No. 1 in E major; comp. 1896–99, premiered Vienna 1902
 * Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major; comp. 1911–13, premiered Vienna 1913
 * Symphony No. 3 in A major; comp. 1927–28, premiered Vienna 1928
 * Symphony No. 4 in C major; comp. 1932–33, premiered Vienna 1934

Piano concertos

 * Concertante Variations on a Theme of Beethoven for Piano (left hand alone) with orchestral accompaniment; comp. 1923, premiered Vienna 1924; Two-handed arrangement by Friedrich Wührer (1952)
 * Piano Concerto in E-flat major (for left hand alone); comp. 1934, premiered: Vienna 1935; Two-handed version by Friedrich Wührer (1952)

Other orchestral works

 * Carnival music and Intermezzo from the Opera Notre Dame; comp. 1902–03; premiered Vienna 1903
 * Variations on a Hussar Song for orchestra; comp. 1930–31; premiered Vienna 1931
 * Chaconne in D minor; transcribed from the Chaconne in C-sharp minor for organ from 1925; completed 1931; Manuscript

Chamber music

 * Four Little Fantasy pieces after Hungarian National Melodies, for cello with piano accompaniment; comp. 1892; premiered Vienna 1926 (three pieces)
 * String Quartet in A major; comp. 1925; premiered Vienna 1925
 * String Quartet in G major; comp. 1929; premiered Vienna 1930
 * Quintet for piano left hand, two violins, viola and cello in G major; comp. 1926; premiered Stuttgart 1931; two-handed arrangement by Friedrich Wührer (1954)
 * Quintet for clarinet, piano left hand, violin, viola and cello in B-flat major; comp. 1932; premiered Vienna 1933
 * Quintet for clarinet, piano left hand, violin, viola and cello in A major; comp. 1938; premiered Vienna 1939; two-handed arrangement by Friedrich Wührer (1952)

Music for trumpets

 * Variations and Fugue on an original Theme in D major (King's Fanfare from Fredigundis); 3. Arrangement for Trumpets alone; comp. 1925, premiered 1925

Music for organ and trumpet

 * Variations and Fugue on an original Theme in D major (King's Fanfare from Fredigundis); 4. Arrangement for 14 Trumpets, Kettledrum and Organ; comp. 1925, premiered Vienna 1925
 * Choral overture "God preserve us" for Organ with ad libitum processional Trumpet-chorus; comp. 1933, premiered Vienna 1933
 * Solemn Fugue (Fuga solemnis) for Organ with Entrance of 6 Trumpets, 6 Horns, 3 Trombones, Bass Tuba and Kettledrums; comp. 1937, premiered Wien 1939

Piano music

 * Romance in A major
 * Christmas pastorale in A major (= Organ work, arrangement)
 * Intermezzo in F-sharp minor (2nd movement of the A major Quintet)
 * Toccata in D minor (for left hand alone); comp. 1938, premiered: Vienna 1940 (two-handed arrangement); two-handed arrangement by Friedrich Wührer (1952)

Organ works

 * Variations on a theme by Christoph Willibald Gluck (lost)
 * Variations and Fugue on an original theme in D major (King's Fanfare from Fredigundis), 1. Arrangement; comp. 1916
 * Phantasie and Fugue in D major; comp. 1923–24, premiered Vienna 1924
 * Variations and Fugue on an original theme in D major (King's Fanfare from Fredigundis), 2. Arrangement; comp. 1924, premiered Vienna 1924
 * Toccata in C major; comp. 1924, premiered Vienna 1925
 * Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major; comp. 1924, premiered Vienna 1925
 * Chaconne in C-sharp minor; comp. 1925, premiered Vienna 1925
 * Four small Chorale preludes; comp. 1926, premiered Vienna 1926
 * "O Ewigkeit du Donnerwort" (O Eternity thou Thundrous Word), F major
 * "Was mein Gott will" (What My God Wills), D major
 * "O, wie selig seid ihr doch, ihr Frommen" (O How Happy Are Ye Now, You Blessed), D minor
 * "Nun danket alle Gott" (Now Thank We All Our God), A major

 * Fugue in F major; comp. 1927, premiered Vienna 1932
 * Prelude and Fugue in C major; comp. 1927, premiered Vienna 1928
 * Four little Preludes and Fugues; comp. 1928, premiered Berlin 1929
 * Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major
 * Prelude and Fugue in C minor
 * Prelude and Fugue in G major
 * Prelude and Fugue in D major

 * Chorale Prelude, "Der Heiland ist erstanden"; comp. 1934, premiered Vienna 1934
 * Prelude and Fugue in A major, Christmas pastoral; comp. 1934, premiered Vienna 1934
 * Toccata and Fugue A-flat major; comp. 1935, premiered Vienna 1936

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Franz Schmidt (composer)


text:
Fucking

Fucking may refer to:

 * Fucking, an English profanity derived from fuck
 * Fucking, a synonym for sexual intercourse
 * Fucking Grove, Bristol, a medieval field
 * Fugging, Upper Austria, a village known as Fucking until 2021
 * Fugging, Lower Austria, a village known as Fucking until 1836

title: Fucking