Jean Racine

Jean Racine (French: [ʒɑ̃ ʁasin]), baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine (22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699), was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France (along with Molière and Corneille), and an important literary figure in the Western tradition. Racine was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre,Andromaque, and Athalie, although he did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy,Esther, for the young.

Racine's plays displayed his mastery of the dodecasyllabic alexandrine; he is renowned for elegance, purity, speed, and fury, and for what Robert Lowell described as a "diamond-edge", and the "glory of its hard, electric rage". The linguistic effects of Racine's poetry are widely considered to be untranslatable, although many eminent poets have attempted to do so, including Lowell, Ted Hughes, and Derek Mahon into English, and Schiller into German. The latest attempt to translate Racine's plays into English earned a 2011 American Book Award for the poet Geoffrey Argent. Racine's dramaturgy is marked by his psychological insight, the prevailing passion of his characters, and the nakedness of both the plot and stage.

Cantique de Jean Racine (Fauré)

Cantique de Jean Racine (Chant by Jean Racine), Op. 11, is a composition for mixed choir and piano or organ by Gabriel Fauré. The text, "Verbe égal au Très-Haut" ("Word, one with the Highest"), is a French paraphrase by Jean Racine of a Latin hymn from the breviary for matins, Consors paterni luminis. The nineteen-year-old composer set the text in 1864–65 for a composition competition at the École Niedermeyer de Paris, and it won him the first prize. The work was first performed the following year on 4 August 1866 in a version with accompaniment of strings and organ. The style shows similarities with his later work, Requiem. Today, the two works are often performed together.

History

Fauré entered the school of church music École Niedermeyer in Paris in 1854, when he was nine years old. There he received training in piano, theory, composition, and classical languages. Weekly choir singing was part of the curriculum for all students. Fauré's teacher in advanced piano was Camille Saint-Saëns, who encouraged him to compose. In 1861 Fauré participated first composition competition at the school. In 1863 he submitted a setting of Psalm 126, Super flumina Babylonis, for five vocal parts and orchestra. He received an award but no prize because he had not strictly adhered to all conditions. At age 19, in 1864–65, he composed Cantique de Jean Racine, scored for four vocal parts and piano or organ and that time he received the first prize in the 1865 contest.

Racine

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College

College (Latin: collegium) is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. Usage of the word college varies in English-speaking nations. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate university, or an institution offering vocational education.

In the United States and Italy, "college" formally refers to a constituent part of a university, but generally "college" and "university" are used interchangeably, whereas in Oceania and South Asia, "college" may refer to a secondary or high school, a college of further education, a training institution that awards trade qualifications, or a constituent part of a university (See this comparison of British and American English educational terminology for further information).

Etymology

In ancient Rome a collegium was a club or society, a group of people living together under a common set of rules (con- = "together" + leg- = "law" or lego = "I choose" or "I read").

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Higher education

Racine College

Racine College was an Episcopal preparatory school and college in Racine, Wisconsin, founded in 1852. Most boys enrolled at Racine College were secondary (or grammar) school students preparing for the Bachelor of Arts course.

Racine College's most notable warden was the Rev. Dr. James DeKoven. DeKoven was a major exponent of High Church and Anglo-Catholic views in the Episcopal Church. One of the best-known preachers and orators of his day, he died in 1879 at age 49.

Racine was directly influenced - especially after DeKoven was elected Warden in 1856 - by the Grammar School and College of Saint James in Maryland, which in turn was part of the "Church school" movement inaugurated by William Augustus Muhlenberg and his proteges in 1828. When the American Civil War drove Saint James out of business, several important teachers and professors joined DeKoven at Racine. Racine College was sometimes called "the Sewanee of the North", since both were Oxonian-like, church-operated institutions. The grammar school and college at Sewanee, Tennessee were closely linked to Racine in the postbellum era; the Chancellor of the University of the South, Bishop Charles Todd Quintard, served on the Racine Board of Trustees, and an early leader of Sewanee, Thomas F. Gailor, was prepared at Racine.