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Leevi Madetoja

Leevi Antti Madetoja (17 February 1887 – 6 October 1947) was a Finnish composer, music critic, conductor, and teacher of the late-Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely recognized as one of the most significant Finnish contemporaries of Jean Sibelius, under whom he studied privately from 1908 to 1910.

The core of Madetoja's oeuvre consists of a set of three symphonies (1916, 1918, and 1926), arguably the finest early-twentieth century additions to the symphonic canon of any Finnish composer, Sibelius excepted. As central to Madetoja's legacy is Pohjalaisia (The Ostrobothnians, 1923), proclaimed Finland's "national opera" following its successful 1924 premiere and, even today, a stalwart of the country's repertoire. Other notable works include an Elegia for strings (1909); Kuoleman puutarha (The Garden of Death, 1918–21), a three-movement suite for solo piano; the Japanisme ballet-pantomime, Okon Fuoko (1927); and, a second opera, Juha (1935). Madetoja's fourth symphony, purportedly lost in 1938 at a Paris railway station, never materialized.

Acclaimed during his lifetime, Madetoja today is seldom heard outside the Nordic countries, although his music has in recent decades enjoyed a renaissance, as the recording projects of a number of Nordic orchestras and conductors evidence. His idiom is notably introverted for a national Romantic composer, a blend of Finnish melancholy, folk melodies from his native region of Ostrobothnia, and the elegance and clarity of the French symphonic tradition, founded on César Franck and guided by Vincent d'Indy. His music also reveals Sibelius's influence.

Madetoja was also an influential music critic, primarily with the newspaper Helsingin sanomat (1916–32), in which he reviewed the music scenes of France and Finland, praising Sibelius in particular. In 1918, he married the Finnish poet L. Onerva; their marriage was tempestuous and remained childless. His health failing due to alcoholism, Madetoja died from a heart attack on 6 October 1947 in Helsinki.

Childhood
Madetoja was born in Oulu, Finland, on 17 February 1887, the third son of Anders Antinpoika Madetoja (1855–1888) and Anna Elisabeth, née Hyttinne (1858–1934). To provide for his family, Madetoja's father, a first mate on a merchant ship, had earlier emigrated in 1886 to the United States, only to die in 1888 of tuberculosis along the Mississippi River. Leevi thus never met his father, and his mother raised him and his brother, Yrjö (1885–1918). (Madetoja's oldest brother, Hjalmar, had died as an infant in 1883.) The family lived in poverty and struggled with hunger, and as a boy Leevi worked variously as a street cleaner and as a laborer at a sawmill.

Although his first attempts at composition were at the age of eight, Madetoja was by no means a musical prodigy. He studied the violin and piano on his own and played the mouth organ as a boy. Additionally, Madetoja became a skilled kantele player: he received a 10-string kantele on his tenth birthday, and in secondary school at the Oulu Lyceum, he upgraded to a 30-string version. (Madetoja is certainly the only notable classical composer in history whose primary instrument was the kantele.) At the Lyceum, Leevi sang in, and eventually directed, the school's male and mixed choirs.

Student years
In 1906, Madetoja enrolled at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki Music Institute, where he studied music theory, composition, and piano under Armas Järnefelt and. A year later, in the summer of 1907, the Finnish Literature Society sponsored Madetoja's trip to the Inkeri region in Russia so that he could collect folk songs. Additional good fortune arrived in 1908, when Jean Sibelius, Finland's most famous composer, accepted Leevi for private instruction. Although his lessons with Sibelius at Ainola were unstructured and sporadic, Madetoja valued his time with the master and assimilated some of Sibelius's unique idiom. The two studied together until 1910. (For more see: Madetoja and Sibelius.)

At the Music Institute, Madetoja's premiered his first compositions at student concerts: in December 1908, the Op. 2 songs, Yksin and Lähdettyäs; and on 29 May 1909, the Piano Trio, Op. 1 (second and third movements only). His public introduction arrived in January 1910 when Robert Kajanus, chief conductor of the Helsinki Orchestral Society, conducted Madetoja's Elegia (from the four-movement Symphonic Suite, Op. 4) to great success; critics described the Elegia as the "first master work" of a budding "natural orchestral composer".

After graduating from the Music Institute and the University of Helsinki in 1910, Madetoja took up a career as a music critic, penning essays and reviews for the Säveletär magazine and, later, the. Additional praise followed Madetoja's first composition concert in Helsinki on 26 September 1910, at which he conducted the Piano Trio and excerpts from the Symphonic Suite and Chess, Op. 5 (excerpted from incidental music Madetoja had composed for Eino Leino's play). The positive reviews did, however, contain a note of concern: given Madetoja's plans to travel to Paris for additional education, the critic of Uusi Suometar worried about the negative influence "French modern atonal composition" could have on "this fresh northern nature [Madetoja]".

Madetoja's interest in the Paris music scene was a result of the enthusiastic reports of his composer-friend, Toivo Kuula, who had earlier studied in the city. With funding from the Finnish government and a letter of introduction from Sibelius, Madetoja applied to be a student of Vincent d'Indy, who headed a school of thought founded upon the symphonic principles of César Franck. The two only met for one lesson, however, as d'Indy took ill and Madetoja's plans collapsed; he would spend the rest of his time in Paris without a teacher, attending concerts and working on his own compositions (the result was the Concert Overture, Op. 7).

After a brief stay in Oulu (where he composed and premiered on 29 September 1911 a short cantata for mixed choir and piano, Merikoski, Op. 10), Madetoja undertook a second trip abroad, this time to Vienna and Berlin, in the autumn of 1911. Sibelius again aided his pupil, arranging for Madetoja to study under his former teacher, Robert Fuchs. While in Vienna, Madetoja audited composition and conducting courses at the Conservatory, observed Franz Schalk's rehearsals, and composed Dance Vision, Op. 11.

Conductorships
In 1912, Kajanus appointed Madetoja and Kuula—who had together returned to Helsinki from Berlin—as assistant conductors of the Helsinki Orchestral Society, Madetoja's term lasting until 1914. The appointment put Madetoja in the middle of Helsinki's "orchestra feud", as Kajanus' Orchestral Society squared off against Georg Schnéevoigt's newly created Helsinki Symphony Orchestra, which consisted mainly of foreign musicians. Madetoja's position with the Orchestral Society provided him the opportunity to perform a number of his compositions: on 12 October 1912, Dance Vision premiered under Madetoja's baton, and even more importantly, he had his second composing concert on 14 October 1913, where he premiered the Concert Overture and Kullervo, Op. 15, a symphonic poem based on the Kalevalic tragic hero of the same name. Madetoja earned little as an assistant conductor and thus supplemented his income as a music critic for Uusi Suometar, becoming well known for his articles on the French music scene and his recurring travels to Paris.

The dawn of the First World War in July 1914 brought an end to the feud between the two rival orchestras: the Helsinki Symphony Orchestra collapsed after the German musicians who formed its backbone were expelled from the country, and Kajanus and Schnéevoigt divided conducting duties for a joint orchestra, the Helsinki City Orchestra, that consisted of forty players surviving on starvation wages. The merger rendered Madetoja (and, a year later, Kuula) superfluous, and Madetoja pawned his metronome to stave off penury. Despite the hostilities, he traveled to Russia in September 1914 to take up the conductorship of the Viipuri Orchestra (1914–1916). Madetoja found the group in a state of devastation: he was able to piece together 19 musicians, a reality that forced him to spend much of his time finding and arranging material for such an undersized ensemble.

A new Finnish symphonist
While juggling his responsibilities in Viipuri, Madetoja worked on his most first major compositions, the First Symphony in Helsinki (Kajanus the dedicatee), conducting the premiere on 10 February 1916; apparently he completed the finale just before this performance. The critics, some of whom—for example in Hufvudstadsbladet—noted the influence of Sibelius, received the work warmly. Buoyed by this success, Madetoja relocated to Helsinki and began composing a second symphony in the summer. To support himself, he began work as a music critic for the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper (1916–32) and as a teacher of music theory and history at the Music Institute (1916–39). In 1917, the Finnish government granted Madetoja a three-year artist's pension, which allowed him to focus more on composing. (In 1918, the pension was extended for life.)

In 1918, the embers of the First World War ignited into civil war (27 January – 15 May 1918) between socialist Red Guards and the nationalist Whites. The war brought personal tragedy to Madetoja: On 9 April, Red Guards captured and executed Yrjö Madetoja, Leevi's brother, during the Battle of Antrea in Kavantsaari. It fell to Leevi to inform his mother:

"I received a telegram from Viipuri yesterday that made my blood run cold: 'Yjrö fell on the 13th day of April' was the message in all its terrible brevity. This unforeseen, shocking news fills us with unutterable grief. Death, that cruel companion of war and persecution, has not therefore spared us either; it has come to visit us, to snatch one of us as its victim. Oh when will we see the day when the forces of hatred vanish from the world and the good spirits of peace can return to heal the wounds inflicted by suffering and misery?"

A month later, during May Day celebrations, Kuula got into an altercation with a group of White Army officers, one of whom shot him to death. These two losses deeply upset Madetoja and likely found expression in the symphony, a composition in which he had already been contemplating Finland's fate in the wake of world war and a revolution in Russia; the epilogue Madetoja affixed to the work is one of pain and resignation: "I have fought my battle and now withdraw".

The 17 December 1918 premiere of the Second Symphony under Kajanus's baton was extraordinarily well received. Katila, for example, proclaimed Madetoja's latest work to be "the most remarkable achievement in our music since the monumental series of Sibelius". (Upon his mother's death in 1934, Madetoja retroactively dedicated the Second Symphony to her.) Around this time, Madetoja also published in Lumikukkia magazine a piece for solo piano, originally titled Improvisation in Memory of my Brother Yrjö. In 1919, Madetoja expanded the piece into a three-movement suite, renaming it The Garden of Death, Op. 41, and removing the reference to his brother; the suite shares melodic motifs with the Second Symphony.

The 1920s found Madetoja financially stable but stretched thin. In addition to his teaching responsibilities at the Music Institute and criticism for Helsingin Sanomat, by June 1928 Madetoja had added the position of music teacher at his other alma mater, the University of Helsinki. Despite the trifling salary, the post held great prestige, having previously been the chair of Fredrik Pacius (1835–69), (1870–96), and (controversially) Kajanus (1897–27), and included among its tasks the conductorship of the Academic Orchestra. He also took on administrative roles in the music profession: in 1917, he was a founding member of the Finnish Composers' League (Suomen Säveltaiteilijain Liitto; forerunner to the, or Suomen Säveltäjät, founded in 1945), serving as its secretary and, later, president; in 1928, moreover, he helped establish the Finnish Composers' Copyright Society (Säveltäjäin Tekijänoikeustoimisto; TEOSTO), serving on its board of directors from 1928 to 1947 and as its chairman from 1937 to 1947. Despite manifold commitments, Madetoja (somehow) found time to compose three of his most important, large-scale works: an opera, The Ostrobothnians, Op. 45 (1918–23); the Third Symphony, Op. 55 (1925–26); and a ballet-pantomime, Okon Fuoko, Op. 58 (1925–27). When taken together, these three works solidified his position as Finland's premiere, post-Sibelian composer.

A Finnish national opera

The Ostrobothnians commission, first offered to Kuula in November 1917, was for an opera based upon the popular 1914 folk play by the Ostrobothnian journalist and writer, Artturi Järviluoma. Although Kuula viewed the play as a strong candidate for a libretto, its realism conflicted with his personal preference for fairy tale or legend-based subject matter, in keeping with the Wagnerian operatic tradition. When Kuula refused the opportunity, the commission fell to Madetoja, who had also expressed interest in the project. The composition process, begun in late December 1917, took Madetoja much longer than expected; letters to his mother indicate that he had entertained hopes of completing the opera by the end of 1920 and, when this deadline passed, 1921 and, eventually, 1922. In the end, the opera was not completed until September 1923, although it would be another full year until the opera premiered. Nevertheless, some of the music (from Acts I and II) did see the light of day sooner, as Madetoja had pieced together a five-number orchestral suite at the behest of Kajanus, who premiered the suite on 8 March 1923 in Bergen, Norway during his orchestra tour; the reviews were positive, describing the music as "interesting and strange".

The first performance of the complete opera on 25 October 1924 at the Finnish National Opera (which, incidentally, was also the one-thousandth performance in the history of the Opera House) was, perhaps, the greatest triumph of Madetoja's entire career. Indeed, with The Ostrobothnians, Madetoja succeeded where his teacher, Jean Sibelius, famously had failed: in the creation of a Finnish national opera, a watershed moment for a country lacking an operatic tradition of its own. In Helsingin sanomat, Katila wrote on behalf of many Finns, calling The Ostrobothnians "the most substantial work in the whole of Finnish opera". The Ostrobothnians immediately became a fixture of the Finnish operatic repertoire (where it remains today), and was even produced abroad during Madetoja's lifetime, in Kiel, Germany in 1926; Stockholm in 1927; Gothenburg in 1930; and, Copenhagen in 1938.

Two final masterworks
After the success of The Ostrobothnians, Madetoja departed for France, staying for six months in Houilles, a small town just outside of Paris. Here, in the quiet of the Parisian suburbs, Madetoja began to compose his Third Symphony, Op. 55, and upon returning to Finland in October (due to financial worries), his work on the project continued. The new symphony received its premiere in Helsinki on 8 April 1926, and although Madetoja received the usual praise, the audience and critics found the new work somewhat perplexing: with the monumental, elegiac Second Symphony having set expectations, the optimism and restraint of the Third came as a surprise, its (subsequent) significance eluding nearly everyone. Some years later, the French music writer, Henri-Claude Fantapié, described the cheerful, pastorale Third Symphony as a "sinfonia Gallica" in spirit and explained the premiere as thus: "The listeners expected the opera [The Ostrobothnians] to be followed by a nationalistic anthem and were disappointed to hear something that seemed to them to be hermetic and that, to crown it all, was lacking in pomposity and solemnity … the properties the majority of Finnish music-lovers always expect in a new work." Nevertheless, today the Third Symphony is widely regarded as Madetoja's "masterpiece", the rare Finnish symphony equal in stature to Sibelius's seven essays in the form.

While on his way to Paris in 1925, Madetoja had met a music publisher from Copenhagen, Wilhelm Hansen, who placed him into contact with the Danish playwright Poul Knudsen. A libretto for a new ballet-pantomime, based upon "exotic" Japanese themes, was on offer and Madetoja accepted the project with alacrity. Having outlined his plan for the new commission while staying in Houilles, Madetoja he more or less composed the Third Symphony and Okon Fuoko simultaneously, although the pressure to complete the former was so great that Madetoja was compelled to place the ballet-pantomime aside until December 1926. Although Madetoja completed the score in late 1927, scheduling the ballet-pantomime's premiere in Copenhagen proved difficult, despite the enthusiasm of the chief conductor of the Royal Danish Orchestra, Georg Høeberg, who after a test rehearsal had proclaimed the score a "masterpiece". The primary cause of the delay appears to have been the difficulty of casting a lead actor, as the part required both singing and miming; Knudsen insisted upon—and opted to wait for—an actor then on leave from the theatre, Johannes Poulsen.

The production languished unperformed until it (finally) received its premiere on 12 February 1930, not in Copenhagen, but rather in Helsinki, at the Finnish National Opera under the baton of. The performance was the first significant setback of Madetoja's career: although the critics "unanimously praised" Madetoja's music, the consensus opinion was that Knudsen's libretto—with its awkward mixture of song, melodramatic spoken dialogue, dance, and pantomime—was a dramatic failure. In the end, Okon Fuoko received only three performances total and the Danish premiere never took place. Seeking to salvage his score, Madetoja in 1927 pieced together the six-number Okon Fuoko Suite No. 1, which proved a success; the composer's plans to set two additional suites never materialized.

Declining fortunes
For Madetoja, the 1930s brought hardship and disappointment. During this time, he was at work on two new major projects: a second opera, Juha, and a fourth symphony, each to be his final labor in their respective genres. The former, with a libretto by the famous Finnish soprano, Aino Ackté (adapted from the 1911 novel by writer Juhani Aho), had fallen to Madetoja after a series of events: first, Sibelius—ever the believer in "absolute music"—had refused the project in 1914; and, second, in 1922, the Finnish National Opera had rejected a first attempt by Aarre Merikanto as "too Modernist" and "too demanding on the orchestra", leading the composer to withdraw the score. Two failures in, Ackté thus turned to Madetoja, the successful The Ostrobothnians of whom was firmly ensconced in the repertoire, to produce a safer, more palatable version of the opera.

The death of Madetoja's mother, Anna, on 26 March 1934, interrupted his work on the opera; the loss so devastated Madetoja that he fell ill and could not travel to Oulu for the funeral. Madetoja completed work on the opera by the end of 1934 and it premiered to considerable fanfare at the Finnish National Opera on 17 February 1935, the composer's forty-eighth birthday. The critics hailed it as a "brilliant success", an "undisputed masterpiece of Madetoja and Finnish opera literature". Nevertheless, the "euphoria" of the initial performance eventually wore off and, to the composer's disappointment, Juha did not equal the popularity of The Ostrobothnians. Indeed, today Juha is most associated with Merikanto, whose modernist Juha (first performed in the 1960s) is the more enduringly popular of the two; having been displaced by Merikanto's, Madetoja's Juha is rarely performed.

The lost symphony
The composition of the Fourth Symphony remains a mystery, although Madetoja's chief biographer, Erkki Salmenhaara, has unearthed the key details. In the spring of 1930, Madetoja told Karjala newspaper that he had begun a new symphony with the themes derived from "Finnish folk song". An eight-year gestation ensued. Plans to complete the symphony in time for his fiftieth birthday on 17 February 1937 did not come to fruition, and in July 1937, Madetoja retired to the spa town of in Iisalmi to focus further on the symphony. As the Fourth's finish line neared in the spring of 1938, Madetoja traveled to Nice hoping that France, as it had a decade earlier with the Third Symphony, would stoke his creative fires.

Misfortune quickly dashed Madetoja's hopes: while passing through Paris on his way to Southern France, his suitcase—which contained the Fourth Symphony—was stolen at a railway station in the city; the near-completed manuscript was never recovered. With his inspiration and memory in decline, Madetoja never undertook a reconstruction of the lost score, notwithstanding his (unsuccessful) 1941 application for a stipend to "finish my fourth symphony that is underway". When a student of his,, asked whether Madetoja could recreate the symphony, he replied, "Do you think that I could rewrite something that a thief has taken"? By January 1942, he was hospitalized for alcoholism. During his treatment, Madetoja occupied himself with old issues of Musiikkitieto magazine and, when he came across a story about his time in Runni, he did not recall having composed the Fourth. ("I wonder if anything has been written at all"?)

Death

In the 1940s, Madetoja battled poor physical health, depression, a collapsing marriage, and waning artistic inspiration; his already less-than-prolific pace declined to a crawl. During this time, Madetoja orchestrated his song cycle for soprano and piano, Autumn, Op. 68, a setting of his wife's poems he had completed eight years earlier. With its mature idiom and mournful outlook on the human experience, some sources describe Autumn as Madetoja's "testament". Otherwise, Madetoja occupied himself with smaller forms, primarily for choir a cappella; the seven Op. 81 songs for male choir were completed in 1946, as were the two Op. 82 songs for mixed choir. His final completed piece was Matkamies (Wayfarer) for female choir, written in the year of his death (sketch completed by Olavi Pesonen).

Madetoja died at approximately 11:00 am on 6 October 1947 at the Konkordia Methodist hospital in Helsinki. Although some sources attribute his death to heart attack, no surviving record indicates a conclusive cause of death. The Madetoja funeral took place five days later on 11 October at the Helsinki Old Church; the president of Finland, Juho Kusti Paasikivi, supplied a wreath, as did the Ministry of Education, the City of Oulu, and other institutions and mourners. Critics praised Madetoja in obituaries and Onerva published a memorial poem. Madetoja left (very early) plans for a number of never-realized works, including a violin concerto, a requiem mass, a third opera (a "Finnish Parsifal"), and Ikävyys (Melancholy), a composition for voice and piano after Aleksis Kivi.

Madetoja (joined by Onerva in 1972) is buried at Hietaniemi cemetery (Hietaniemen hautausmaa) in Helsinki, a national landmark and frequent tourist attraction that features the graves of famous Finnish military figures, politicians, and artists. Unveiled in 1955, the gravestone—located on block V8 in the Old Area (Vanha alue), near the cemetery wall (circle marker 48 on the following map; approx. 60.16778°N, 24.91639°W)—is by the Finnish sculptor Kalervo Kallio and is courtesy of TEOSTO. Also buried in the cemetery are Madetoja's friend, Toivo Kuula (d. 1918; block U19), as well as Onerva's onetime paramour, Eino Leino (d. 1926; block U21).

Personal life

In February 1910, Madetoja—while composing the incidental music for Eino Leino's play, Chess—made the acquaintance of the Finnish poet Hilja Onerva Lehtinen (a.k.a., L. Onerva), a friend and lover of the playwright. Although Madetoja was five years Onerva's junior, their relationship deepened and in 1913 they began telling others of their marriage; in fact, however, they formally married in 1918. Their financial situation precarious, an orchestral rehearsal in Turku doubled as honeymoon. Their marriage was childless (even though they wished to have children) and plagued by quarrels; each suffered from chronic alcoholism. In the final years of Madetoja's life, Onerva was confined to a mental institution—it appears against her will, as the letters she wrote to her husband asking for him to retrieve her were not successful. In 2006, the couple's correspondence was published in Finnish under the title, Night Songs: L. Onerva and Leevi Madetoja's Letters from 1910 to 1946 (eds. Anna Makkonen and Tuurna Marja-Leena).

Student and teacher
Madetoja, 22 years Sibelius's junior, began to study composition privately under the Finnish master in 1908, a unique opportunity with which only one other individual prior to Madetoja had been presented: his friend, Toivo Kuula. Later in life, during Sibelius's fiftieth birthday celebrations, Madetoja recounted the way in which he had, as a young man, reacted to the news:

"I still clearly remember with what real feeling of joy and respect I received the information that I had been accepted as a student of Sibelius—I thought I was seeing a beautiful dream. Jean Sibelius, that master blessed by the Lord, would be bothered to read the pieces written by me!"

Sibelius seems to have discounted his own pedagogical skills, telling Madetoja, "I am a bad teacher.". First, he had little patience for pedagogy or the quotidian nature of instruction, resulting in a teaching style that was "too haphazard" and "anything but systematic or disciplined". This was not lost on Madetoja, who in January 1910 wrote to Kuula in Paris, "Sibelius has been tutoring me. You know from your own experience that his tutoring is anything but detailed." Madetoja recalled, for example, that Sibelius's method consisted of "short, striking remarks" (for example, "No dead notes. Every note must live"), rather than "instruction in the ordinary pedagogic sense".

Second, Sibelius's "deeply idiosyncratic" idiom was too "personal" to serve adequately as a "foundation" upon which to build a school of musical thought. That Madetoja's own musical style shows the mark of Sibelius is a testament to the longer duration and greater depth of his instruction under Sibelius; Kuula, who only briefly studied with Sibelius, shows no such influence. Finally, Sibelius—prone to periods of self-doubt and ever-concerned with his standing in artistic circles—was mistrustful of the next generation of composers, fearing one might displace him from his perch. "Youth has a right to make its voice heard. One sees oneself as a father figure to them all", Sibelius confided to his diary. "[But] they don't give a damn about you. Perhaps with reason."

Despite these issues, Madetoja found his instruction under Sibelius enriching and the two men enjoyed a "harmonious" relationship, notwithstanding occasional irritations. Madetoja was clearly fond of his teacher and enjoyed Sibelius's counsel and company:

"Are you coming to Paris soon? I would be very pleased if you did. I am very lonely here. And my spirits are often low, because I have not yet been able to settle down to work. But I hope to do so very soon when my appetite for composition returns … I want to thank you yet again for all the kindness and goodwill you have shown me. You have inspired my work; you have given a faltering youngster courage to set out on the right path, albeit a thorny path but one that leads to the sun-clad and richly coloured heights. I shall always feel deeply grateful to you for all that you have done."

Madetoja continued to feel this way throughout his life. A decade later, he sought to defend Sibelius against the (growing) conventional wisdom that he was a poor teacher around whom no appreciable school of thought had formed (unlike, for example, Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School). In Aulos, a volume published on the occasion of Sibelius's sixtieth birthday in 1925, Madetoja argued for a more nuanced, less "superficial" definition of the word 'teacher' and recounted with fondness his personal experiences as one of Sibelius's pupils.

Colleagues

Sibelius followed Madetoja's rise with the pride of a teacher. Early on he recognized his pupil's potential as a symphonic composer ("What you wrote about your symphonic business delights me exceedingly," Sibelius wrote to Madetoja. "I feel that you will achieve your greatest triumphs in that genre, for I consider that you have precisely the properties that make a symphonic composer. This is my firm belief."), and the 10 February 1916 premiere of Madetoja's First Symphony found Sibelius's remarking on its beauty. The 17 December 1918 premiere of Madetoja's Second Symphony similarly impressed Sibelius, who was again in attendance.

Nevertheless, Sibelius also eyed Madetoja's maturation somewhat wearily. For example, when some reviews of the First Symphony discerned within Madetoja's music the influence of Sibelius, he worried his former pupil might take offence at the comparison and mistook Madetoja's characteristic "melancholia" for "sulkiness". Suddenly, Sibelius found Madetoja arrogant and watched with concern as he drew closer to Kajanus, with whom Sibelius had an on-again-off-again friendship/rivalry. "Met Madetoja, who—I'm sorry to say—has become pretty bumptious after his latest success," Sibelius fretted to his diary. "Kajanus smothers him with flattery and he hasn't the breeding to see it for what it is." A second complication for the Madetoja-Sibelius relationship was the master's fear that his former pupil eventually might "supplant him in public esteem". Certainly Madetoja's rise coincided with Sibelius's increasing sense of isolation:

"Despite how my 'stock', so to speak, has risen with the people, I feel completely uncertain about myself. I see how the young lift their heads—Madetoja higher than others—and I have to admire them, but my inner self needs more egotism and callousness than I am presently capable of. And my contemporaries are dying."

Madetoja was "scarcely aware" of Sibelius's private musings to his diary, and for his part, he continued as a critic and writer to champion actively his former teacher. In July 1914, for example, Madetoja praised Sibelius's tone poem, The Oceanides, writing in Uusi Suometar that rather than "repeat endlessly" the style of his previous works, Sibelius had yet again shown his penchant for "renewing himself musically … It is the sign of life … always forward, striving for new aims." He also had kind words for Tapiola, describing it as "a beautiful work", and among others, Sibelius's Third, Fourth, and Fifth symphonies.

Despite his conducting duties in Viipuri and the stress of composing his First Symphony, Madetoja sought to take on yet another commitment: to write the first Finnish language biography of Sibelius in honor of the master's fiftieth birthday in 1915. Notwithstanding his initial misgivings, Sibelius consented to the project; certainly, he could not have found a biographer more sympathetic and sensitive than Madetoja. The interviews at Ainola, however, came to nothing: to the embarrassment of both men, publishers were uninterested in the biography. As Madetoja wrote to Sibelius:

"I have now received refusals from every publisher. For me this is totally incomprehensible. Things have come to a pretty poor state when our publishers are so cautious, and think only of their wretched balance sheets, when a project of this importance concerning our greatest composer is proposed. I hope, however, you won't be angry with me, even though I have troubled you so much over this project."

As a result, the biography was abandoned and Madetoja settled for a piece in Helsingin sanomat in which he took other critics to task for having overlooked the "absolute, pure" qualities of Sibelius's music. Sibelius outlived Madetoja by almost ten years.

Idiom
Stylistically, Madetoja belongs to the national Romantic school, along with Finnish contemporaries Armas Järnefelt, Robert Kajanus, Toivo Kuula, Erkki Melartin, Selim Palmgren, and Jean Sibelius; with the exception of Okon Fuoko, Madetoja's music, darkly colored but tonal, is not particularly modernist in outlook, certainly not when compared directly with the outputs of Uuno Klami, Aarre Merikanto, Ernest Pingoud, and Väinö Raitio. For a Romantic composer, however, Madetoja's music is notably "introverted", avoiding the excesses characteristic of that art movement in favor of the "balance, clarity, refinement of expression, and technical polish" of classicism.

Stylistically, Madetoja's idiom is unique and deeply personal, a blend of three distinct musical ingredients: 1) Finnish nationalism, as evidenced by Madetoja's use of folk melody (especially from his native region, Ostrobothnia) and literary sources, such as the Kalevala; 2) the musical language of Sibelius, under whom Madetoja privately studied; and finally, 3) the "elegance" of the French symphonic tradition, founded on César Franck and formally organized by Vincent d'Indy as the Schola Cantorum de Paris. Madetoja and Kuula—having both studied in Paris—represent the first two significant Finnish composers to show the influence of French music. Nevertheless, the two friends would travel different paths: whereas Kuula adopted the language and techniques of the French Impressionists headed by Claude Debussy.

Notable works
In total, Madetoja's oeuvre comprises 82 works with opus numbers and about 40 without. While he composed in all genres, Madetoja was most productive—and found his greatest success—with the orchestra: symphonies, operas, cantatas, and orchestral miniatures all flowed from his pen; indeed, for Salmenhaara, Madetoja's work in this genre places him "on a par with his European colleagues" as a composer for orchestra. Curiously, he composed no concerti, although at various times in his career he hinted at plans for a violin concerto. Madetoja was also an accomplished composer for voice, as his numerous choral pieces and songs for voice and piano evidence; he found less success with—and composed sparingly for—solo piano, The Garden of Death notwithstanding. Finally, Madetoja wrote little for chamber ensemble after his student years, although it is unclear if this was due to insufficient skill or waning interest in the genre.

Symphonies
The core of Madetoja's oeuvre is his set of three symphonies, perhaps the most significant contribution to the genre of Finnish national Romantic composers, post-Sibelius. Each of Madetoja's symphonies is "unique and distinct", a testament to his "true talent for symphonic composition". The First Symphony, although late-Romantic in style, carefully eschews the extravagance and overindulgence typical of debut efforts, placing it among the most "mature" and restrained of first symphonies. Accordingly, Madetoja's First, in F major, is most concentrated of his three essays in the form and, at three movements rather than the traditional four, it is also the shortest. Madetoja's Second, in E-flat major is a dramatic "war symphony" in which the composer contemplates personal loss during the Civil War. It is Madetoja's longest and most elegiac symphony and, perhaps for this reason, it is also the most enduringly popular of the set. Although in four movements, Madetoja links movement I to II and movement III to IV; moreover, the symphony also features solo oboe and horn in distanza (offstage) in movement II. The Third, in A major, is optimistic and pastorale in character, as well as "more restrained" than the Second, is today considered one of the finest symphonies in the Finnish orchestral canon, indeed a "masterpiece ... equal in stature" to Sibelius's seven essays in the form. Although technically his penultimate symphonic composition (a fourth symphony was lost and thus never completed), the Third is would be Madetoja's final addition to the symphonic canon.

Operas and ballets
The success of The Ostrobothnians was due to a confluence of factors: the appeal of the music, tonal but darkly colored; the use of folk melodies (blended with Madetoja's own idiom) familiar to the audience; a libretto (also by Madetoja) based upon a well-known and beloved play; a story about freedom from oppression and self-determination, the allegorical qualities of which were particularly salient in a country that had recently emerged from a war for independence; and, the skillful combination of comedic and tragic elements. The introduction to Act I (No. 2: Prisoner's Song in the suite), for example, is based upon a famous Ostrobothnian folk song, Tuuli se taivutti koivun larvan (The Wind Bent the Birch), which was one of the 262 folk songs Kuula had collected during his travels and which made its way into Madetoja's nationalistic opera, becoming its signature leitmotif. Relative to The Ostrobothnians, with Juha Madetoja takes a "more symphonic, refined" approach, one that eschews folk tunes, despite the nationalistic themes of the libretto.

Reception and recordings

Acclaimed during his lifetime, Madetoja is today seldom heard outside the Nordic countries (the Elegia perhaps excepted). A few commentators, however, have described such neglect as unfortunate and undeserved, as Madetoja is one of the most important post-Sibelian Finnish symphonists. Part of this neglect is not unique to Madetoja: the titanic legacy of Sibelius has made it difficult for Finnish composers (especially his contemporaries), as a group, to gain much attention, and each has had to labor under his "dominating shadow". However, with respect to the neglect of Madetoja in particular, something else might also be at play: Madetoja's eschewal of Romantic excess in favor of restraint, perhaps, has made him a tougher sell to audiences. According to one music critic:

"Because Madetoja never makes any concessions to the listener, his music has not gained the position it deserves in the public's awareness. People are now beginning to open their ears to it. But that he deserves far greater attention, and that his music is both rare and precious and not simply a poor edition of the music of Sibelius—that is something they have not yet learnt."

In recent decades, Madetoja has begun to enjoy the renaissance Parland foresaw, as the recording projects of numerous Nordic orchestras and conductors evidence. Petri Sakari and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (Chandos, 1991–92) and John Storgårds and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (Ondine, 2012–13) have each recorded the symphonies and a few of the more famous orchestral miniatures. Arvo Volmer and the Oulu Symphony Orchestra (, 1998–2006), the largest of the projects, has recorded nearly all of Madetoja's works for orchestra, featuring the world premiere recordings for many pieces, among them the complete Symphonic Suite, Op. 4 (as opposed to just the Elegia), the Chess Suite, Op. 5; Dance Vision, Op. 11; the Pastoral Suite, Op. 34; the Barcarola, Op. 67/2, and Rustic Scenes, Op. 77. All three of Madetoja's stage works, furthermore, have now been recorded in their complete, unabridged form—two recordings of The Ostrobothnians (Finlandia, 1975: Jorma Panula and the Finnish National Opera Orchestra; and, Finlandia, 1998: Jukka-Pekka Saraste and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra) and one each of Juha (Ondine, 1977: Jussi Julas and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra) and of Okon Fuoko (Alba, 2002: Volmer and the Oulu Symphony Orchestra).

Nordic vocalists, virtuosos, and ensembles have preserved many of Madetoja's non-orchestral pieces as well. In 2004, Mika Rannali and Alba teamed to record Madetoja's complete works for solo piano, while in 2001–02, and Helena Juntunen covered the complete lieder for solo voice and piano for Ondine (, piano accompaniment). Madetoja's works (with opus numbers) for choir a cappella have also received systematic treatment; in the 1990s, the YL Male Voice Choir and Finlandia recorded (across three volumes) those for male choir, while in 2006–07, the Tapiola Chamber Choir and Alba tackled many of those for mixed choir. Despite these projects, a large portion of Madetoja's oeuvre nevertheless remains unrecorded, the most notable omissions being the cantatas, a few neglected pieces for voice and orchestra, and the handful of compositions for chamber ensemble.

Modern-day critics have received the Madetoja revival with enthusiasm. The American Record Guide's Tom Godell, for example, has applauded the recording efforts of both Volmer and Sakari, in particular praising Madetoja for his "beautiful, swirling rainbows of vivid [orchestral] color" and his "uncanny ability to instantly establish a mood or rapidly sketch vast, ice-covered landscapes". Writing for the same magazine, William Trotter reviews Volmer's "absorbing" five-volume set, pronouncing Madetoja a "first-rate composer, touched sometimes with genius … who had to wait a long, long time before his work could emerge from under the dominating shadow of his teacher's [Sibelius's] seven symphonies". Reviewing the Ondine song collection for Fanfare, Jerry Dubins notes music's nuanced emotional range, as Madetoja achieves "moments of soaring ecstasy and searing pain", but without recourse to "sentimental" or "cloying" ornamentation. "It is, quite simply", Dubins continues, "some of the most gorgeous song-writing I have encountered in a very long time". Similarly, the American Record Guide's Carl Bauman has kind words for the Rannali interpretations of Madetoja's "carefully written and polished ... unique" solo piano miniatures, but in an echo of Parland, notes that Madetoja's "natural, unpretentious tone" means that "one has to listen carefully in order to fully appreciate Madetoja's genius". A notable detractor in the sea of praise, however, has been Donald Vroon, chief editor of the American Record Guide. Arguing that Madetoja's three symphonies "reflect the influences of Sibelius—but … without his blazing inspiration", Vroon describes Madetoja's music as "bland" and "brooding … very Nordic, maybe written in winter when the sun is seldom seen". He concludes, "I can't imagine anyone being thrilled by them [the symphonies] or considering Madetoja a great discovery".

Memorials

A number of buildings and streets in Finland bear Madetoja's name. In Oulu, Madetoja's hometown, the Oulu Symphony Orchestra has performed since 1983 in the (Oulun musiikkikeskus) Madetoja Hall (Madetojan sali), located on Leevi Madetoja Street (Leevi Madetojan katu). A second landmark in the city, directly adjacent to the Music Center, is the (Madetojan musiikkilukio), a special music high school founded in 1968 and renamed in the composer's honor in 1981. Oulu is also home to a bronze statue of the composer (approx. 65.015°N, 25.47056°W), which stands in a park near Oulu City Hall; the statue was unveiled in 1962 and is by the Finnish sculptor. Finally, in addition to the Madetoja-Onerva gravesite, Helsinki boasts two streets named after the composer (Madetojanpolku and Madetojankuja), both of which are near an urban park (Pukinmäki).

An additional honor arrived in 1987, when the Finnish government issued a postage stamp of Madetoja's likeness in commemoration of the centennial anniversary of the composer's birth. The centennial also marked the arrival of the Finnish musicologist Erkki Salmenhaara's Finnish-language biography of the composer, titled Leevi Madetoja (Helsinki: Tammi), which three decades later remains the definitive account of Madetoja's life and career. A year later in 1988, the Society of Finnish Composers established the for outstanding achievement in the performance of contemporary Finnish music; the Finnish conductor, Susanna Mälkki, is the current honoree (2016).

In addition, every three years, the Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Oulun ammattikorkeakoulu) hosts—together with the (Oulun konservatorion) and the Northern Ostrobothnia Association of Art and Culture (Pohjois-Pohjanmaan taiteen ja kulttuurin tuki ry)—the Leevi Madetoja Piano Competition (Leevi Madetoja pianokilpailu), which is one of Finland's premier music competitions for students. The Finnish Male Voice Choir Association (Suomen Mieskuoroliitto) is organizing quinquennial International Leevi Madetoja Male Voice Choir Competition, held for the first time in Turku in 1989. VII International Leevi Madetoja Male Voice Choir Competition will be organized at the Helsinki Music Centre on 10 April 2021.

Honors and titles

 * 1910: Master of Arts, University of Helsinki
 * 1910: Diploma in Composition, Helsinki Music Institute
 * 1912–14: Assistant conductor, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (principal conductor: Robert Kajanus)
 * 1914: Editor, Uusi Säveletär (music magazine)
 * 1914–16: Conductor, Viipuri Music Society Orchestra
 * 1916–39: Music teacher, Helsinki Music Institute (theory and history of music)
 * 1916–32: Music critic, Helsingin sanomat (national daily newspaper)
 * 1917: Founding member, Society of Finnish Composers
 * 1917–47: Board member
 * 1933–36: Chairman
 * 1918–28: Secretary, State Commission of Music
 * 1928–47: Committee member
 * 1936–47: Chairman
 * 1919: Grant recipient, State composer's pension
 * 1926–39: Music teacher, University of Helsinki
 * 1928–36: Lecturer
 * 1937–47: Honorary Professor (more or less emeritus after 1939)
 * 1928–47: Board member, Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society (TEOSTO)
 * 1937–47: Chairman
 * 1936: Grant recipient, 100th anniversary of the publication of the Kalevala grant
 * 1947: Honorary award of the Finnish Cultural Foundation
 * Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music

title: Leevi Madetoja


text:
John Wayne Glover

John Wayne Glover (26 November 1932 – 9 September 2005) was an English-Australian serial killer convicted of the murders of six elderly women (aged from 60 to 93), over a period of 14 months from 1989 to 1990 including Winifreda, Lady Ashton, widow of the English-Australian impressionist painter Sir Will Ashton, in suburbs located in Sydney's North Shore. The fact that the victims were all elderly women led to Glover attaining the nickname by the press of The Granny Killer. Following his arrest in 1990, he admitted to the murders and was sentenced to consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He hanged himself in prison on 9 September 2005.

Background
Originally from a working-class family in Wolverhampton, England, Glover was convicted of many petty crimes dating back to 1947 for stealing clothing and handbags. He left school at 14. He served in the British army but was ejected when these crimes were discovered. Later, he emigrated to Australia in 1956 or 1957 with no qualifications where he first lived in Melbourne. Shortly after emigrating from England to Australia, Glover (who would take up naturalised Australian citizenship) was convicted on two counts of larceny in Victoria, and a stealing charge in New South Wales. In 1962, he was convicted on two counts of assaulting women in Melbourne, two counts of indecent assault, one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and another four counts of larceny. He was sentenced to a three-year good-behaviour bond.

He had a troubled relationship with older women in his life, especially his mother Freda (who had several husbands and many boyfriends), and after 1968, his mother-in-law when he married Gay Rolls and moved into his parents-in-law's house in Mosman, Sydney. Glover's mother moved to Australia in 1976; she died of breast cancer in 1989. Later that year, Glover was diagnosed with male breast cancer. Glover separated from his wife, who took their daughters to New Zealand. Before John Glover began his killings in the late 1980s, he was a volunteer at the Senior Citizens Society, and was considered among his friends a friendly and trustworthy man. He was married with two daughters, and lived a contented lifestyle in Mosman. Glover worked as a sales representative for the Four'N Twenty meat pie company.

Murders
No proof has been found of Glover killing before 1989, when he was 56. At this stage, he had been married for 20 years with children, and his wife had no knowledge of his previous offences. Glover admitted to the killings when confronted with the police evidence. He denied responsibility for other crimes in which he was a prime suspect, including the bashing murder of 78-year-old artist Florence Broadhurst in her Paddington studio in 1977. A number of years after his conviction, Glover admitted that he never worried about who his victims were, or why he killed them. He said he wanted to stop killing, but could not. After each murder, he apparently went about his normal life.

Pre-murder offence
On 11 January 1989, 84-year-old Margaret Todhunter was walking down Hale Road, Mosman, where she was seen by Glover. After parking his car, he walked up to the victim. He punched Todhunter in the face, and stole the contents of her purse, including $209. Glover then went to the Mosman Returned and Services League (RSL) club, where he spent Mrs Todhunter's money. Investigating police concluded the crime was a mugging and held little hope of finding the perpetrator.

Gwendolin Mitchelhill
On 1 March 1989, as Glover left the Mosman RSL in Military Road, he saw 82-year-old Gwendolin Mitchelhill walking down the street. Glover returned to his car and put a hammer under his belt. He followed Mitchelhill to the entry foyer of her Military Road apartment building. As she went to open the front door, he hit her with the hammer on the back of her head. He then continued to strike her about the head and body; several of her ribs were broken. Glover fled the scene, taking her purse containing $100. Mitchelhill was still alive when she was found by two schoolboys, but died shortly after the police and ambulance arrived. The police had no eyewitnesses or leads and nothing concrete linked this attack with the previous attack on Margaret Todhunter. No forensic evidence was available, either, as well-intentioned neighbours, believing she had merely fallen, had washed the crime scene. The police assumed that it was another mugging gone wrong.

Lady Winfreda Isabel Ashton (Hoggard)
On 9 May 1989, Glover was walking along Military Road when he saw 84-year-old Lady Ashton, widow of English-Australian impressionist artist Sir John William Ashton, walking towards him. She was on her way home to nearby Raglan Street. Glover put on a pair of gloves and followed her into the foyer of her apartment, where he attacked her with his hammer. He then threw her to the ground and dragged her into a rubbish bin alcove, where he repeatedly hit her head on the pavement. Glover recalled that she had almost overpowered him, until he fell on top of her and started to hit her head on the pavement. After she was knocked unconscious, John Glover removed her pantyhose and strangled her. He placed Lady Ashton's walking stick and shoes at her feet. He then left with her purse containing $100. Glover headed for the Mosman RSL, where he commented to staff that he hoped the sirens outside were not because of another mugging.

The police found Lady Ashton lying face down diagonally across the concrete floor of the small bin alcove. A pool of blood was around her head. The pantyhose was strung so tightly around her neck that it cut through the skin. Her bare legs were crossed and her arms were placed by her sides. She had a thin trickle of blood running out of her mouth. At this point, the police concluded they were facing a serial killer. To date, all three victims were wealthy elderly women, from the same suburb, and were all assaulted or killed in the same manner before being robbed of their handbags.

A post mortem examination was carried out and no sign of semen was found. The ligature mark around her neck measured 9 cm. She had bruises on her nose and temple, on her neck, and both her eyelids. At some stage during the struggle, she bit her lips, causing damage to the inner lining of her mouth. A wound was on her cheek, which was an open cut that had a small, semicircular abrasion which was a few centimetres away from it. The examiner noted the victim's diamond ring was still present, suggesting that she had not been killed for money.

Further offences

 * On 6 June 1989, Glover molested 77-year-old Marjorie Moseley at the Wesley Gardens Retirement Home in Belrose. The victim reported to hospital staff and police that a man had put his hand under her nightgown, but that she could not remember what the man looked like.
 * On 24 June 1989, Glover visited the Caroline Chisholm Nursing Home in Lane Cove, where he lifted the dress of an elderly patient and fondled her buttocks. In a neighbouring room, he slid his hand down the front of another patient's nightdress and stroked her breasts. The woman cried out for help and Glover was briefly questioned by staff at the hospital before leaving.
 * On 8 August 1989, Glover assaulted the elderly Effie Carnie in a back street of Lindfield, on Sydney's upper North Shore.
 * On 6 October, Glover pretended to be a doctor and ran his hand up the dress of Phyllis McNeil, a patient at the Wybenia Nursing Home in the lower North Shore suburb of Neutral Bay. Glover left when the blind McNeil called for help. At the time, Glover was apparently never suspected of, or identified as being responsible for the molestations.
 * On 18 October 1989, Glover followed 86-year-old widow Doris Cox along Spit Road, Mosman, to her retirement village. In the secluded stairwell at the front of the house, he attacked her, ramming her face into a brick wall, where she fell. Although she survived the assault, she was not able to provide a clear description or recollection of events – probably due to her dementia. According to her, the attacker was a young man, possibly a teenager or skateboarder. Cox assisted police with an identikit drawing, but again, the scene had been cleaned by neighbours before investigators arrived.

Margaret Pahud
On 2 November 1989, Glover approached 78-year-old Lane Cove resident Dorothy Beencke while she was walking home in a quiet back street, just off Longueville Road, Lane Cove (about 10 km from Mosman). Glover then engaged her in conversation, and offered to carry her groceries home for her. Beencke invited him inside her house for a cup of tea. Glover declined the tea, but on the return down the laneway to the main street, he passed another old woman, and then assaulted her from behind.

The victim this time was 85-year-old widow Margaret Pahud (also on her way home from grocery shopping), and the police were certain this was the work of the "granny killer". She was hit on the back of the head with a blunt instrument, and when she collapsed, he struck her again on the side of the head. Glover rearranged her clothing, shoes, and walking stick, took her handbag, and left. Again, nobody saw the attack, but within a few minutes, her body was found by a young schoolgirl, who at first thought the body was a pile of clothing dumped in the laneway. Neighbours yet again washed down the crime scene. As the police and ambulance were on their way, Glover rummaged through the contents of Pahud's purse on the grounds of a nearby golf club. He then headed off to the Mosman RSL Club to again spend $300 he had stolen from Pahud.

Olive Cleveland
Within 24 hours of the Pahud murder, on 3 November, 81-year-old Olive Cleveland became the fourth woman killed by the now so-called "granny killer". Glover struck up a conversation with Cleveland while she was sitting on a bench just outside the Wesley Gardens Retirement Village, where she lived in the suburb of Belrose. When Cleveland became uncomfortable, she got up and proceeded to walk to the main building; Glover seized her from behind and forced her down a ramp into a secluded side lane, where he hit her and repeatedly pushed her head into the concrete before he removed her pantyhose and tied it tightly around her neck. Once again, Glover rearranged her clothing, shoes, and walking stick, then left, taking money ($60) from her handbag. Once again, the old woman's injuries were initially attributed to a heavy fall, and the crime scene was yet again washed down. No eyewitnesses were found. Shortly afterwards, the state government doubled the reward to $200,000.

Muriel Falconer
On 23 November 1989, Glover was sitting in the Buena Vista Hotel in Middle Head Road, Mosman, when he saw 93-year-old widow Muriel Falconer walking opposite the hotel (returning home with her shopping). Glover returned to his car (parked opposite the police station), to retrieve his hammer and gloves. He followed Falconer to the exterior of her home in Muston Street. He quietly moved up behind her while the partially deaf and blind Falconer opened her front door. He put his hand around her mouth to silence her, before repeatedly hitting her around the head and neck with his hammer. When she fell to the floor, Glover began to remove Falconer's pantyhose. As he did this, she began to regain consciousness and cried for help. This prompted Glover to hit her multiple times with the hammer until she finally passed out. He removed her undergarments and used them to strangle her. He searched her purse and the rest of her house for valuables before leaving with $100, again after rearranging her shoes. The following afternoon, the body was discovered by a neighbour, who entered using a spare key. The crime scene was left undisturbed and investigators were able to collect forensic evidence, including bloody shoe prints. A neighbour described a suspect as middle-aged, portly, and grey-haired. The reward was increased to $250,000 by Christmas.

Police investigation
On 11 January 1990, Glover visited the Greenwich Hospital in River Road, Greenwich, on his pie sales round. He was in his work uniform and carried a clipboard, and entered the hospital's palliative care ward, which held four elderly and ill women, including 82-year-old advanced-cancer patient Daisy Roberts. Glover asked if she was losing any body heat, he then pulled up her nightgown and touched her in an indecent manner. Roberts panicked and called for help, upon which a nurse found Glover in the ward. When confronted, Glover ran from the ward and the nurse was able to record his car's registration number, and notified police.

The hospital staff were able to identify and name Glover, as he was known from doing his pie rounds. A week later, the police returned with a photograph of Glover, which both the nurse and Roberts positively identified. Although this was a significant breakthrough, the hospital assaults were not linked to the murders, nor reported to the murder task force for three weeks. Detectives from Chatswood police station contacted and confirmed Glover's name via his employers. Detectives contacted Glover and requested he attend an interview at the station the following day. When Glover failed to appear, the police rang his home and were informed by his wife that he had attempted suicide by overdose and was recovering at the Royal North Shore Hospital. Police went to the hospital to see Glover, but he declined to be interviewed although he did permit them to take a photograph. Staff at the hospital handed police a suicide note that was written by Glover, in the middle of the page on Four'N Twenty Pies business paper, that contained the words "no more grannies ... grannies" and "Essie [Glover's mother-in-law] started it".

Two weeks later, the suicide note and photo were passed onto the task force (now numbering some 70 members), whereupon detectives believed immediately that Glover was the killer, although they had no evidence. The head of the detective task force said, If he had said to us, "I don't want to talk," we couldn't have proved a thing. Still, the photo matched the descriptions of the gray-haired suspect and in his job as a pie salesman, Glover could have been at any of the murder scenes.

Glover was interviewed over the nursing-home assaults and denied all accusations. Police had limited evidence and decided not to question him over the murders, which would have let Glover know of the police suspicions. Glover was put under constant police surveillance, including at one stage, with an automatic tracking device. To make sure that he was not being followed, Glover would drive around the block more than once, or drive the wrong way up one-way streets.

Joan Sinclair
On 19 March 1990, Glover killed his sixth and final victim in Mosman. She was 60-year-old divorcee Joan Sinclair from Beauty Point, with whom Glover had a platonic relationship. By this stage, police had Glover under constant surveillance and watched as Sinclair let Glover into her home around 10:00am. By 1:00pm, no sign of Glover or movement within the house was seen. Police and the surveillance team became concerned around 5:00pm, and got permission to enter the house at 6:00pm. Two uniformed police knocked on the front door (ostensibly to check on barking dogs) to no answer, and when looking through the rear glass door, saw a hammer lying in a pool of dry blood on a mat. Four detectives searched the house and found Sinclair's battered head wrapped in a bundle of blood-soaked towels. She was naked from the waist down and her pantyhose were tied around her neck. Her genitals were damaged, but Glover later denied raping her. After finding Sinclair's body, they then searched the house for Glover, who was found unconscious in the filled bathtub.

Glover later told police he murdered Joan Sinclair and explained they had been having a relationship for some time. He said that he beat her about the head with his hammer, removed her pantyhose, and strangled her with it. Glover rolled the body onto a mat, wrapped four towels around her extensive head wounds to stem the flow of blood, then dragged her body across the room, leaving a trail of blood. He then ran the bath, swallowed a handful of Valium with a bottle of Vat 69, slashed his left wrist, and lay in the tub to die.

Trial
At the trial, commencing 28 March 1990, Glover pleaded not guilty to his crimes on the grounds of diminished responsibility. A psychiatrist said Glover had built up hostility and aggression since his childhood against his mother and then against his mother-in-law, who was said to "trigger" him. When she died, he had to take out his aggression on someone else. The psychiatrist who studied the case also added that this was a very unusual case because very few serial killers exist, and most of them are mentally ill, and/or have an organic disease of the brain; Glover was sane at the time of the murders, but a psychiatrist at the trial, John Shand, said Glover had a severe personality disorder.

The Crown prosecutor maintained that Glover was well aware of his actions. When he killed, he was also planning what to do with the victim's money, and also took time to clean the hammer with acid. Glover was impotent and had no interest in sex. So, tying the pantyhose so tightly around his victims' necks was to make sure they were dead, at the same time trying to trick the police into thinking that this was the work of a sexually motivated killer.

Glover was addicted to poker machines, and the easiest way for him to get more money was to steal. After the guilty verdict was delivered, Justice Wood stated that he was dealing with an extremely dangerous prisoner: He is able to choose when to attack and when to stay his hand. He is cunning and able to cover his tracks. It is plain that he has chosen his moments carefully. Although the crimes have been opportunistic, he has not gone in where the risks were overwhelming.

The period since January 1989 has been one of intense and serious crime involving extreme violence inflicted on elderly women, accompanied by theft or robbery of their property. On any view, the prisoner has shown himself to be an exceedingly dangerous person and that view was mirrored by the opinions of the psychiatrists who gave evidence at his trial.

I have no alternative other than to impose the maximum available sentence, which means that the prisoner will be required to spend the remainder of his natural life in jail.

It is inappropriate to impose any minimum term to be served before release on parole. Having regard to those life sentences, this is not a case where the prisoner may ever be released pursuant to any order of this court.

He is never to be released.

"Confession" sketch
Days before Glover killed himself, he handed his last outside visitor a sketch of a park. Glover pointed out two pine trees in the image. In the middle of the right pine tree, the number "nine" could be seen between leaves and branches. The number nine is said to either represent the total number of murders or the number of unsolved murders committed by Glover.

Unsolved murders that may have been committed by Glover include:
 * 1) Emmie May Anderson, 78, East Melbourne (19 October 1961)
 * 2) Irene Kiddle, 61, St Kilda, Victoria (22 March 1963)
 * 3) Elsie Boyes, 63, Prahran, Victoria (3 June 1967)
 * 4) Christina Yankos, 63, Albert Park (9 April 1968)
 * 5) Florence Broadhurst, 78, Paddington, New South Wales (16 October 1977)
 * 6) Josephine McDonald, 72, Ettalong, New South Wales (29 August 1984)
 * 7) Wanda Amundsen, 83, Umina, New South Wales (21 November 1986)

Imprisonment and death
Glover was imprisoned at Lithgow Prison, where he was held in a maximum-security prison cell.

In May 2005 Glover collapsed in his cell and was placed on suicide watch after telling prison officers "I've had enough – I want to kill myself." He was examined by a mental health review team, and monitored by closed circuit television. He was also given medical examinations as a follow-up to the two cancer surgeries he had undergone the year before.

On 10 September 2005, Glover was found dead in his Lithgow maximum security prison cell and pronounced dead at 1:25 pm. The 72-year-old serial killer was confirmed to have hanged himself.

Media
Glover's serial murders were the focus of the Crime Investigation Australia series-one episode "No More Grannies / The Granny Killer", the series-two episode of Forensic Investigators entitled "Granny Killer" and an episode of Under Investigation hosted by Liz Hayes

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

title: John Wayne Glover


text:
Talk:Perpetual check

old talk
I must have lost a point somehere, but isn't the knight on g5 ? How can it jump to g4 ? Is there aomething wrong somewhere ? (if what's wrong is in my head, I'd be glad to know what... ^^;; )
 * someone changed the diagram Arvindn 19:39, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

historical perpetual-check rule
I have been Googling for a while and haven't found anything saying that "perpetual check used to be in the laws of chess". The best I could find was a mention by Staunton that it is a special case of the threefold repetition rule (which is the same status perpetual check has now - a tactic, not an independent drawing method). However, I haven't found a citable source saying there was never such a rule (just a lot of forum posts). I don't discount that whoever said there used to be a perpetual-check rule might have had some basis for saying that, so I am asking for a source citation.JoeJust 21:49, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

 * Official Chess Rulebook by Kenneth Harkness, 1970, page 46, says "...commonly known as the draw 'by repetition of moves.' It includes perpetual check" but it doesn't specifically list perpetual check. However, the way it is worded seems to imply that there had been a perpetual check rule.  I'll look for older rulebooks.  Bubba73 (talk), 22:16, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

 * I finally found a book old enough to have the perpetual check rule - a 1954 Reinfeld book. Citation added to article.  Bubba73 (talk), 00:36, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Additional information: on a chess newsgroup, someone said that the 1951 edition of "The Offical Blue Book and Encyclopedia of Chess" by Kenneth Harkness, page 51 states the old rule covering draw by perpetual check has been abandoned. A player who can subject his opponent's King to an endless series of checks can force a third repetition of the position and claim the draw. . However, I don't have a copy of that book to confirm it.

Also, the 1940 book How to play Chess Endings by Eugene Znosko-Borovsky, page 259 says "Thanks to perpetual check, Black succeeds in drawing the game." I think there is ample evidence that perpetual check was once a rule. Bubba73 (talk), 14:58, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't set much store on the Reinfeld quote. Explanations of the rules of chess outside chess rulebooks are often inaccurate in this kind of subtle detail. The Znosko-Borovsky quote has absolutely nothing to do with the question of whether perpetual check was ever a rule. For example, the same book probably says something like, Because he reaches a Philidor position, Black succeeds in drawing the game. But nobody would assume that this means that there is (or used to be) a rule that says that, if a Philidor position is reached, the game is automatically drawn. Dricherby 13:56, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

 * I'll rephrase it slightly. But it is a verfyable statement from a WP:RS.  Bubba73 (talk), 15:29, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

 * I've ordered a copy of Kenneth Harkness's 1967 rulebook to see what it says. And note that above, someone told me that his 1951 rulebook says "the old rule covering draw by perpetual check has been abandoned. A player who can subject his opponent's King to an endless series of checks can force a third repetition of the position and claim the draw.".  Bubba73 (talk), 03:46, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Now there is also the reference from Staunton. That sufficies for references. Bubba73 (talk), 14:46, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

 * It would be interesting to hear thge justification for removing the rule. I suspect that someone on the rules commitee raised the question of "How can one prove that something is 'endless' in a finite period of time?"  It may be obvious to anyone and everyone, but proven?  Not in the strict mathematical or logical sense.  So, they let it go, as there was no practical effect: the draw would eventually be confirmed by one of the other rules. WHPratt (talk) 16:25, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

 * I think you must be right about that. In some cases perpetual check is obvious - in others it isn't so clear and there could potentially be a way out.  The objective threefold and fifty-move rules will eventually be used, or a draw by agreement.  I think that the FIDE rules committee wanted to make everything objective - no judging necessary.  I think this applied to when a player's time runs out too.  In FIDE rules, if one player's time runs out, the other must possibly be able to checkmate in order to win.  In the case of Monica Socko it got down to K&N vs. K&N when one person's time expired.  Checkmate is possible but the opponent has to help!  They initially ruled a draw, but by the rules it was changed to a win.  But no judgment is needed.  Instead, the USCF has the "insufficient losing chances" rule, which makes more sense - except that it requires a judgement. Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 18:04, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Hamppe-Meitner
The article gives a slightly erroneous impression about this game, actually White's best outcome is a draw following 12.Kxc5 (moves following that other than those actually played lead to material disadvantage [13.Qg4?] or mate [14.Be8?? etc.]). As written in the article and in the caption for the position it seems to be implied that Black just manages to salvage a draw after White's 16th move. Mallocks 15:41, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

 * That was added by user:Krakatoa on Oct 28, 2006. Bubba73 (talk), 19:14, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

 * I've toned down the sheer amount of excited commenting but I'm still dubious as to whether the game should be included at all. Certainly it's beautifully played but the perpetual check at the end is just about the least exciting bit about it, so I question the particular relevence. Mallocks 11:03, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Well, it does illustrate a perpetual check, so I'm in favor of keeping it. Bubba73 (talk), 15:47, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

 * I've tried to clear it up. Mallocks 17:19, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Examples
The example pic with the queen is wrong. The black king can block with a pawn move to G6, stopping perpetual check. The pic needs to be altered/removed/replaced. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.4.178.155 (talk) 03:41, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. 160.39.226.24 (talk) 03:46, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Example cut: not necessarily perpetual check
I cut this example from the article:

 * In the second position, Black draws by giving perpetual check:
 * 1... Qa1+!
 * 2. Kd3 Qd1+
 * 3. Ke3 Qg1+!
 * 4. Ke4 Qg4+
 * 5. Kd5 Qd7+
 * 6. Kc5 Qa7+
 * 7. Kc4 Qa4+
 * 8. Kc3 Qa1+, etc.
 * By checking on the marked squares (including a4), White has no chance to stop the checks.

This is a draw but not necessarily a draw by perpetual check; white can avoid the checks and still draw the game by a sequence like this:

 * 1... Qa1+
 * 2. Kc2 Qxd4
 * 3. g8=Q

You can confirm this by entering the original position (8/6P1/8/8/q2Q4/2K5/8/7k b - - 0 0) to the Nalimov Tablebase server. Gdr 19:47, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

 * Yea, well... White either has to give in to a perpetual check or give away his queen, and obviously he doesn't want to do that. Remember it is Black that is trying to draw, not White.  Bubba73 (talk), 05:07, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Is this a normal meaning of "perpetual check"? That is, it doesn't mean "inescapable sequence of checks" but "sequence of checks that can only be escaped with disadvantage?" If this is the case, then the example could be restored to the article with an explanation and a reference to a chess writer who uses the phrase with this meaning. Gdr 11:39, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

 * I'll look up some precise definitions later and see, But here White can escape the perpetual check by giving up his queen.  But since White wants to play for a win, he obviously doesn't want to do that.  Bubba73 (talk), 16:20, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

 * The Oxford Companion to Chess simply says "an unstoppable series of checks usually instigated to avoid loss of the game", which doesn't clear it up. Golombek's Encyclopedia isn't any more helpful.  But I think it is implied that if he has to give up his advantage (or even get checkmated) to get out of the perpetual check, it is still basically perpetual check.  Bubba73 (talk), 02:20, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

 * The only way White can escape the checks is by hanging his queen, resulting in a dead-drawn Q v. Q ending after Black takes White's queen and White promotes her pawn to a new queen. I think under those circumstances it's reasonable to describe the position as one where Black draws because of perpetual check. Krakatoa (talk) 03:58, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

 * Yes, in this case I think it is safe to say that the perpetual check forces a draw, one way or the other. I don't think Black can draw without it.  Bubba73 (talk), 04:55, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

No-one doubts, I think, that this position has perpetual-check-like features. I have three questions: (1) Can we verify that chess writers use the term "perpetual check" to include positions like this? In particular, what does Speelman say in the cited work? (2) How common is it for chess writers to use the term broadly? Is it a majority or minority position? Can we find examples other than Speelman? (3) Even if we can find several chess writers who use the term broadly, is it a good idea for pedagogical reasons to place this example second in the article? Might it not be better towards the end, with an introduction along the lines of "some chess writers, e.g. X and Y, define the term more broadly, including positions where a sequence of checks can be escaped, but the escape leads to disadvantage for the escaping player." Gdr 12:51, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

 * For #1, Speelman has a section "Perpetucal check and perpetual attack". He says "In a sense perpetual check is only one example of perpetual attack - any manoeuvre whereby the weaker side forces the stronger side to repeat a position.  First some examples of perpetual check." Then he gives that position, with the caption "example of perpetual check".  Then he continues "Perpetual check, or the threat of it, is one of the defender's main resources in queen and pawn endgames.  In diagram 60 Black can give perpetual check immediately..." and he gives moves.  "By checking on the squares which mark out the perimeter of a square Black gives White no chance to vary."  He says nothing about giving up the white queen to end the perpetual check.  But even if White does this, Black can either have a perpetual check or force the exchange of queens.  Chess writers make some assumptions about what the reader will understand. Bubba73 (talk), 15:10, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

 * What if we change it to "White cannot stop this series of checks except by giving up his queen." Bubba73 (talk), 15:16, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that sounds like a good way to phrase it. Gdr 15:28, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

first example
Moved from the article page: "This is for anyone who looks at this page, but if I'm not mistaken, when the Queen moves to F5, the pawn at G7 can just move to G6, blocking the Queen and actually preventing perpetual check. Would anyone like to provide a better example of perpetual check? "

 * Black does move the pawn to g6 on his fourth move to stop the checks, but then the white queen captures the pawn on f7 with check, perpetual check. Perhaps the example should show the pawn already on g6.  Bubba73 (talk), 20:43, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Unzicker versus Averbakh
h in step 3 should be p for pawn--L
 * Nope. "P" for pawn is not used in algebraic notation; specifying the starting file as done here is the correct way to notate a pawn capture. Double sharp (talk) 11:30, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Perpetual pursuit
We should probably give an example of perpetual attack / perpetual pursuit that is not check, come to think of it. A nice study is this one by S. Birnov (1928) given in Seirawan's Winning Chess Tactics). 1.a6 Bxc4 2.e4+! (restricting the bishop to half the diagonal) 2...Kxe4 3.a7 Bd5 4.c4 Ba8 5.Kb8 Bc6 6.Kc7 Ba8 and the perpetual pursuit is achieved. (An immediate 1.e4+? fails to 1...Ke5! 2.a6 Bh7 3.a7 Bxe4 and the pawn is stopped.) Double sharp (talk) 08:56, 2 October 2021 (UTC)
 * (Bilek vs Schussler 1978 is a real-game example.) Double sharp (talk) 12:25, 2 October 2021 (UTC)

 * I think that is OK. It probably needs a little explanation of what will happen from there in the 1978 game. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 16:26, 2 October 2021 (UTC)
 * I added it. Strangely Seirawan and Silman don't attribute the Bilek vs Schussler game, so I should probably find a source for that. Double sharp (talk) 08:53, 5 October 2021 (UTC)

P.S. Also possible is reciprocal pursuit when both sides have nothing better than to chase each other. See the study to the right. I'd like to add it (probably without the lead-in), if I can find an actual sourced annotation for what's going on. Mainline from Roycroft's The Chess Endgame Study: A Comprehensive Introduction (it's #375 there): 1.f7 Bd6+ 2.Kb2 Nh6 3.f8=Q+ Bxf8 4.Nxf8 Rf4 5.Ng4 Nxg4 and the pursuit starts: 6.Ne6 Re4 (6...Rf6 7.Nc7+ Kb7 8.Nd5 and 9.hxg4) 7.Ng5 (7.Nc5? Rxc4 8.Nd7 Rd4 9.Nb6+ Kb7 10.Kc3 Rd8 11.Nc4 Nh6; 7.Nc7+? Kb8 8.Na6+ Ka7 9.Nc5 Rxc4 and wins) 7...Re5 8.Nf3 Rf5 9.Nd4 Rf4 10.Ne6 Re4 11.Ng5 and drawn. Double sharp (talk) 09:04, 5 October 2021 (UTC)

Larry Kaufman's Kaufman's New Repertoire for Black and White uses "perpetual 'check' to the queen" to refer to such a perpetual pursuit in his opening analysis of the Marshall: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.d4 Bd6 13.Re1 Qh4 14.g3 Qh3 15.Qf3 Bg4 16.Qg2 Qh5 17.Be3 Rae8 18.Nd2 Re7 19.a4 Rfe8 20.axb5 axb5 21.Bxd5 cxd5 22.Qf1 f5 23.f3 Bh3 24.Qxb5 f4 25.Bf2 fxg3 26.hxg3 Bd7 27.Qf1 Bh3 28.Qd3 Bf5 and there is nothing better than to repeat. Double sharp (talk) 23:22, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Perpetual check


text:
Michael Brook

Michael Brook (born 1951) is a Canadian guitarist, inventor, music producer, and film music composer. He plays in many genres, including rock, electronica, world music, minimalism and film scores. His collaborations with musicians around the world have made him "one of the most sought-after producers in the music industry." Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Brook lives in Los Angeles. He is the creator of the Infinite Guitar.

Career
Brook studied music and electronics at York University and worked as an engineer at the Grant Avenue studios, then owned by the Lanois brothers. Here he worked with Brian Eno, The Edge, Jon Hassell and Harold Budd. In 1985 he released his first solo album Hybrid, containing instrumental tracks with Indian and African elements.

Another notable collaboration was Sleeps with the Fishes with Clan of Xymox member Pieter Nooten (4AD, 1987). He worked on the album Set by Youssou N'Dour, Miss America by Mary Margaret O'Hara and collaborated with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on the album Mustt Mustt.

He toured as a member of the Sylvian and Fripp tour group, with the final concert at the Royal Albert Hall in December 1993 documented on the album Damage: Live. He also opened the concerts with a solo set, featuring the Infinite Guitar with effects and sequencer backing. In 1998, he produced the album "Volcán: Tributo a José José", a tribute album to singer Jose Jose. In 2006, the solo album RockPaperScissors was released, with an ambient remix version following in 2007. Brook toured small venues in Canada and the United States in late January/early February, 2007. In writing about his score for the film 2015 film Brooklyn, Variety said the film was "buoyed along by a beautiful Michael Brook score and The Hollywood Reporter praised his "evocative scoring."

Awards and honors
He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1996 for his production work and as a co-artist on Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's album Night Song.

Brook's soundtrack to Into the Wild was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 2008.

He also contributed a track to The Edge's soundtrack for the film Captive (1986). Brook's Infinite Guitar was later utilized by The Edge on U2's The Joshua Tree (1987).

Two films that he scored, Brooklyn and Aloft, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015.

He won ASCAP awards in 2011 for The Fighter and 2013 for The Vow. He won the Havana Film Festival award for best music in 2011 for El Infierno.

Soundtracks

 * Captive (1986) – co-writer/producer with The Edge.
 * Heat (1995)
 * Albino Alligator (1996)
 * Affliction (1997)
 * Crime and Punishment in Suburbia (2000)
 * Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
 * Black Hawk Down (2001) - music composed by Hans Zimmer
 * Charlotte Sometimes (2002)
 * India: Kingdom of the Tiger (2002)
 * An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
 * Tre (2007)
 * Into the Wild (2007)
 * Americanese (2008)
 * Road, Movie (2009)
 * Morning (2010)
 * 9500 Liberty (2010)
 * The Fighter (2010)
 * Country Strong (2010)
 * El Infierno (2010)
 * Darwin (2011)
 * Undefeated (2011)
 * The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
 * Cas and Dylan (2013)
 * Aloft (2015)
 * Brooklyn (2015)
 * Tallulah (2016)
 * Stronger (2017)
 * My Days of Mercy (2017)
 * Le Brio (2017)
 * Giant Little Ones (2019)

title: Michael Brook


text:
Alfred Pringsheim

Alfred Pringsheim (2 September 1850 – 25 June 1941) was a German mathematician and patron of the arts.

Family and academic career

Pringsheim was born in Ohlau, Province of Silesia (now Oława, Poland). He came from an extremely wealthy Silesian merchant family with Jewish roots. He was the first-born child and only son of the Upper Silesian railway entrepreneur and coal mine owner Rudolf Pringsheim (1821–1901) and his wife Paula, née Deutschmann (1827–1909). He had a younger sister, Martha.

Pringsheim attended the Maria Magdalena Gymnasium in Breslau, where he excelled in music and mathematics. Starting in 1868 he studied mathematics and physics in Berlin and at the Ruprecht Karl University in Heidelberg. In 1872 he was awarded a doctorate in mathematics, studying under Leo Königsberger. In 1875, he moved from Berlin, where his parents lived, to Munich to earn his habilitation. Two years later he became a lecturer at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

In 1886 Pringsheim was appointed associate professor of mathematics there, and in 1901 full professor. He retired as emeritus professor in 1922. He was elected a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1898, a position he held until 1938, and was a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. He was also awarded membership in the Leopoldina, Germany's oldest academy of natural sciences.

Pringsheim considered himself to be a German citizen who no longer followed the "Mosaic belief" (meaning conservative or orthodox Judaism). He repeatedly declined to have himself baptized.

In 1878 Pringsheim married the Berlin actress Gertrude Hedwig Anna Dohm (1855–1942), whose mother was the Berlin advocate of women's rights Hedwig Dohm (1831–1919). They had five children: Erik (born 1879), Peter (born 1881), Heinz (born 1882) and twins born in 1883, Klaus and Katharina, known as Katia. His first-born son, Erik, was exiled to Argentina because of his dissolute life and gambling debts and died there at an early age. His sons Peter and Klaus followed him in pursuing academic careers, obtaining professorships in physics and musical composition. One musician in the family was enough, so his third son, Heinz, became an archaeologist with a doctorate in that field, but soon changed course, becoming a successful conductor and critic in Berlin and Munich. His daughter Katia was the first female in Munich to earn the qualifications for university admission and was one of the first active women students at Munich University. She later became the wife of the author and Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann.

In 1889 Pringsheim and his family moved into a Neo-Renaissance villa at Arcisstrasse 12 designed by the Berlin architects Kayser & von Großheim with interior furnishings provided by Joh. Wachter and the court furniture manufacturer O. Fritsche of Munich. On major social nights the Munich elite was hosted here in what was known as the Pringsheim Palace. There he had the Romantic painter Hans Thoma, of similar political affiliation, decorate the music room.

Besides mathematics, ever since his youth Pringsheim was also intensively occupied with music, and adapted various compositions of Richard Wagner for the piano.

Later he became interested in the theory and history of art, building up important collections of majolica earthenware and silver. His was the largest and most important private collection of majolica in Germany consisting of 440 pieces. He also collected enamels, stained-glass panels, tapestries, and paintings by Franz von Lenbach.

In his novel Royal Highness, Thomas Mann portrayed his father-in-law as the character Samuel Spoelman.

Mathematical investigations
In mathematical analysis, Pringsheim studied real and complex functions, following the power-series-approach of the Weierstrass school. Pringsheim published numerous works on the subject of complex analysis, with a focus on the summability theory of infinite series and the boundary behavior of analytic functions.

One of Pringsheim's theorems, according to Hadamard earlier proved by E. Borel, states that a power series with positive coefficients and radius of convergence equal to 1 has necessarily a singularity at the point 1. This theorem is used in analytic combinatorics and the Perron–Frobenius theory of positive operators on ordered vector spaces.

Another theorem named after Pringsheim gives an analyticity criterion for a C∞ function on a bounded interval, based on the behaviour of the radius of convergence of the Taylor expansion around a point of the interval. However, Pringsheim's original proof had a flaw (related to uniform convergence), and a correct proof was provided by Ralph P. Boas.

Pringsheim and Ivan Śleszyński, working separately, proved what is now called the Śleszyński–Pringsheim theorem on convergence of certain continued fractions.

Besides his research in analysis, Pringsheim also wrote articles for the Enzyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften on the fundamentals of arithmetic and on number theory. He published papers in the Mathematische Annalen. As an officer of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, he recorded the minutes of its scientific meetings.

He also proved a significant part of the Abel–Dini–Pringsheim theorem, a convergence test for a series in which the nth term is divided by the nth partial sum.

Acquaintance with the Wagner family
Pringsheim had a deep, early interest in music and was especially fascinated by the works of Richard Wagner. He corresponded with Wagner personally, and he took Wagner's letters with him when he went into exile to Switzerland. His musical inclinations led to the publication of several arrangements of Wagner's work, and he also wrote on subjects in the field of music.

His association with Wagner was so intense that Pringsheim supported Wagner financially to a significant extent, and also backed the Bayreuth music festival. In gratitude, he received a certificate designating him as a patron, which guaranteed him a seat at certain performances. In her memoirs about this acquaintance with Wagner, his granddaughter, Erika Mann, wrote that Prof. Pringsheim was even once involved in a duel because someone had insulted Wagner.

Financial situation
His family's fortune left Pringsheim a wealthy man. He also had a sizeable monthly income as a full professor at the university. After the death of the family patriarch in 1913 he had at his disposal assets amounting to 13 million marks and an annual income of 800,000 marks, which is today equivalent to 10.5 million euro and 646,000 euro, respectively.

Pringsheim's financial decline began with World War I. As a “German patriot” he subscribed to war loans which lost their nominal value after the war, which meant the loss of a major part of his capital. The disastrous inflation of 1923 and 1924 resulted in additional high losses. As a result, he had to sell part of his art collection, which probably included a mural by Hans Thoma. He commented, ironically, “I live from wall to mouth”. He also had to sell his marvellous mathematics library which contained many precious books dating back to the sixteenth century. The auction catalogue is still preserved in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Nazi persecution
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Pringheim was persecuted because of his Jewish origins. In 1933, the Nazis seized the Pringsheim Palace. In 1934, he refused to take a loyalty oath to Hitler's Nazi government. The Pringheim's passports were canceled by the Nazi authorities in early 1937.

Primarily because of his age (he was in his mid-80s) he did not want to go abroad, as did most of his family, and remained in Germany. One of many antisemitic pieces of Nazi legislation, the Namensänderungsverordnung which came into effect 1 January 1938, forced him to legally change his name into Alfred Israel Pringsheim at age 87. At first, he was not allowed to leave the country. Winifred Wagner was not able to help the elderly Wagner devotee in this respect. Through the intervention of the then-rector of Munich University (LMU), his former neighbor Karl Haushofer, who was a friend of Rudolf Hess, and the professor of mathematics Oskar Perron, one of Alfred Pringsheim's former students, as well as through the initiative of a courageous member of the SS who arranged for passports at the last minute, he and his wife were able to leave for Zürich, Switzerland on 31 October 1939 after suffering further grave humiliations.

During Kristallnacht, in November 1938, the SS seized Pringsheim's maiolica collection from his home in Munich. His world famous collection of majolica was sold in a forced sale by the Nazis at Sotheby's in London in 1939 in exchange for permission to emigrate. .The fate of his goldsmith collection is less well known.

Pringsheim's house was forceably sold to the Nazi party. It was torn down and replaced by a party administration building. The files of all German Nazi party members were stored there until 1945. Today it houses the Institute of Art History of Munich University (LMU) and the offices of the Munich State Collection of Antiquities, among others entities.

Pringsheim died on 25 June 1941 in Zürich. His wife then apparently burned all of the personal effects which had been brought to Switzerland, including the letters from Richard Wagner. She died one year later.

Restitution claims
Pringheim's heirs have requested that artworks looted by the Nazis and sold in forced sales be returned to the family. According to Christie's some of the works were restituted in 1953. However, other sources specify that there was a financial settlement with the German government. In 2008 Pringheim's heirs asked the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Foundation to restitute to them seven pieces of Italian maiolica that the museum had acquired by the collector J.N. Bastert. Research into paintings and other objects is ongoing. More than 400 artworks are registered with the German Lost Art Foundation in its Lostart database.

Publications

 * Entehrt. Ausgeplündert. Arisiert: Entrechtung und Enteignung der Juden 2005
 * Daniel Bernoulli – Versuch einer neuen Theorie der Wertbestimmung von Glücksfällen, 1896
 * Irrationalzahlen und Konvergenz unendlicher Prozesse, Leipzig 1898
 * Über Wert und angeblichen Unwert der Mathematik – Address presented at a public meeting of the royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich, on the occasion of the 145th Endowment Day on 14 March 1904
 * Uber Konvergenz und Funktionentheoretischen Charakter Gewisser Limitar-Periodischer Kettenbruche, Munich 1910
 * Majolica, Leiden 1910
 * Über den Taylorschen Lehrsatz für Funktionen einer reellen Veränderlichen, offprint of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 1913
 * Majolikasammlung Alfred Pringsheim in München, Leiden 1914
 * Vorlesungen über Zahlenlehre – first volume, part 2 (I.2) Unendliche Reihen mit Reellen Gliedern, Leipzig 1916
 * Über singuläre Punkte gleichmässiger Konvergenz – presented on 6 December 1919 in Munich at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Minutes of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Mathematical-Physical Division; offprint 1919)
 * Grundlagen der allgemeinen Funktionenlehre
 * Vorlesungen über Funktionslehre. Erste Abteilung: Grundlagen der Theorie der analytischen Funktionen einer komplexen Veränderlichen, Leipzig and Berlin 1925
 * Vorlesungen über Zahlen- und Funktionenlehre, 2 vol. (Bibliotheca Mathematica Teubneriana, volumes 28,29). Leipzig, 1916–1932
 * Kritisch-historische Bemerkungen zur Funktionentheorie, Reprint 1986 ISBN 3-7696-4071-3

Films

 * Frau Thomas Mann, film script and director: Birgit Kienzle, first broadcast: ARD, 9 August 2005
 * Die Manns – Ein Jahrhundertroman, film script: Horst Königstein and Heinrich Breloer, director: Heinrich Breloer, WDR 2001

title: Alfred Pringsheim


text:
Disco Bloodbath

Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous but True Tale of Murder in Clubland is a 1999 memoir written by James St. James about his life as a Manhattan celebutante and Club Kid. The book specifically chronicles his friend Michael Alig's rise to fame, and Alig and his roommate's subsequent murder of fellow club kid and drug dealer Andre "Angel" Melendez. St. James was Alig's mentor, rival, and collaborator in the Manhattan party scene and was familiar with many of its key figures. The memoir was later retitled Party Monster after the 2003 motion picture of that name starring Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, Chloë Sevigny, and Marilyn Manson.

Disco Bloodbath has since gone out of print and often goes for several hundred dollars in auctions. It was only printed three times: in 1999, twice in paperback with different colored jackets, and once in hardcover. It was reprinted in 2003 under the title Party Monster - The Fabulous but True Tale of Murder in Clubland (ISBN 0-684-85764-2); paperbacks are widely available.

Michael Alig
Michael Alig was a founder of the notorious Club Kids, a group of young clubgoers led by Alig in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1996, Alig and his roommate, Robert D. "Freeze" Riggs, were convicted of murdering Andre "Angel" Melendez in a confrontation over a delinquent debt.

DJ Keoki
Superstar DJ Keoki is an electronic music DJ who was born in El Salvador but raised in Hawaii. He had no experience as a DJ when he was branded "Superstar DJ Keoki". It was infamous partykid (later, murderer) Michael Alig who helped in the early promotion of his then boyfriend DJ Keoki

James St. James
James St. James (born James Clark) was a Club Kid of the Manhattan nightclub scene in the late 1980s/early 1990s, Alig's mentor, and the author of the book. He was notorious for a lifestyle of excess that included heavy drug use, partying, and bizarre costumes. St. James continues to work with World of Wonder, the production company that produced the films Party Monster: The Shockumentary (1998) and Party Monster (2003), both based on St. James' memoirs, Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous but True Tale of Murder in Clubland.

Andre Melendez
Andre Melendez, better known as Angel Melendez, was a Club Kid and purported drug dealer who lived and worked in New York City. Melendez and his family arrived in New York from Colombia when Melendez was 8 years old. Melendez became a drug dealer during the early 1990s after meeting Peter Gatien, owner of The Limelight and several other prominent nightclubs in New York City, and became a regular dealer in Gatien's clubs. He was frequently seen at Manhattan clubs wearing his trademark feathered wings.

title: Disco Bloodbath