meanfreepath (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meanfreepath) wrote2006-08-11 09:59 pm
meanfreepath) wrote2006-08-11 09:59 pm
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Of late, I've been devouring Robert Massie's Castles of Steel, a naval history of World War I. I've been reading it intensely in the evenings, during lunch, and in the occasional brief moments between barrages of phone calls at work. Massie writes well and tells a compelling story of the men and ships involved.
Today I got up to the part about the British-led campaign in the Dardanelles, in Turkey. It was not long before I had the Turkish March section from the last movement of Beethoven's 9th stuck in my head, along with the Rondo alla Turca from Mozart's Piano Sonata in A, K. 331. The Beethoven much more so, though, from having performed in it. I can still see the grin on Tom Whitman's face as he banged on the bass drum during the College Chorus's performance in 2005. Just me, I guess...
As you probably know, the naval campaign to seize the strategically important straits, which provided access to the Black Sea and thus to a warm-water port for Russia, failed and was followed by bloody ground fighting at Gallipoli. Thousands of British and Commonwealth troops, as well as Turks, lost their lives. It was at Gallipoli that Henry Moseley, the brilliant English physicist who discovered the physical basis for atomic numbers, was killed in action by a Turkish sniper. The Physics 14 lab handout for the Moseley x-ray spectra experiment included a not-so-subtle biographical blurb dwelling on Moseley's decease, and his insistence on volunteering for combat duty against the opposition of his colleagues. I should keep this firmly in mind whenever I am seized by passions inspired by current events, not that I claim to be as good of a physicist as Moseley.
Today I got up to the part about the British-led campaign in the Dardanelles, in Turkey. It was not long before I had the Turkish March section from the last movement of Beethoven's 9th stuck in my head, along with the Rondo alla Turca from Mozart's Piano Sonata in A, K. 331. The Beethoven much more so, though, from having performed in it. I can still see the grin on Tom Whitman's face as he banged on the bass drum during the College Chorus's performance in 2005. Just me, I guess...
As you probably know, the naval campaign to seize the strategically important straits, which provided access to the Black Sea and thus to a warm-water port for Russia, failed and was followed by bloody ground fighting at Gallipoli. Thousands of British and Commonwealth troops, as well as Turks, lost their lives. It was at Gallipoli that Henry Moseley, the brilliant English physicist who discovered the physical basis for atomic numbers, was killed in action by a Turkish sniper. The Physics 14 lab handout for the Moseley x-ray spectra experiment included a not-so-subtle biographical blurb dwelling on Moseley's decease, and his insistence on volunteering for combat duty against the opposition of his colleagues. I should keep this firmly in mind whenever I am seized by passions inspired by current events, not that I claim to be as good of a physicist as Moseley.
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I've heard war is a lot less passionate when it's not in books or accompanied by dramatic background music... save the world by doing what you're best at doing.
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