The coversheet to Beethoven's 5th Symphony. The dedication to Prince J. F. M. Lobkowitz and Count Rasumovsky is visible.

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 was written in 1804–08. This symphony is one of the most popular and well-known compositions in all of European classical music, and one of the most often-played symphonies.^[1] It comprises four movements: an opening sonata allegro, an andante, and a fast scherzo which leads attacca to the finale. First performed in Vienna's Theater an der Wien in 1808, the work achieved its prodigious reputation soon afterwards. E.T.A. Hoffmann described the symphony as "one of the most important works of the time".

It begins by stating a distinctive four-note "short-short-short-long" motif twice: (listen (help·info))

The symphony, and the four-note opening motif in particular, are well known worldwide, with the motif appearing frequently in popular culture, from disco to rock and roll, to appearances in film and television.

History

Composition

Beethoven in 1804, the year he began work on the Fifth Symphony. Detail of a portrait by W.J. Mähler

The Fifth Symphony is notable for the amount of time it spent in gestation. The first sketches date from 1804, following the completion of the Third Symphony.^[2] However, Beethoven repeatedly interrupted his work on the Fifth to prepare other compositions, including the first version of Fidelio, the Appassionata piano sonata, the three Razumovsky string quartets, the Violin Concerto, the Fourth Piano Concerto, and the Fourth Symphony. The final preparation of the Fifth Symphony, which took place in 1807–1808, was carried out in parallel with the Sixth Symphony, which premiered at the same concert.

Beethoven was in his mid-thirties during this time; his personal life was troubled by increasing deafness.^[3] In the world at large, the period was marked by the Napoleonic Wars, political turmoil in Austria, and the occupation of Vienna by Napoleon's troops in 1805.

Premiere

The Fifth Symphony was premiered on December 22, 1808 at a mammoth concert at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna consisting entirely of Beethoven premieres, and directed by Beethoven himself.^[4] The performance took more than four hours. The two symphonies appeared on the program in the reverse order of what we know them today: the Sixth was first, and the Fifth appeared in the second half.^[5] The program was as follows:

• the Sixth Symphony
• Aria: "Ah, perfido", Op. 65
• The Gloria movement of the Mass in C Major
• the Fourth Piano Concerto (played by Beethoven himself)
• (intermission)
• the Fifth Symphony
• the Sanctus and Benedictus movements of the C Major Mass
• a solo piano improvisation played by Beethoven
• the Choral Fantasy

Beethoven dedicated the symphony to two of his patrons, Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz and Count Rasumovsky. The dedication appeared in the first printed edition of April 1809.

The Theater an der Wien as it appeared in the early 19th century

Reception and influence

There was little critical response to the premiere performance, which took place under adverse conditions. The orchestra did not play well—with only one rehearsal before the concert—and at one point, following a mistake by one of the performers in the Choral Fantasy, Beethoven had to stop the music and start again.^[6] The auditorium was extremely cold and the audience was exhausted by the length of the program. However, a year and a half later, another performance resulted in a rapturous review by E.T.A. Hoffmann in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung. He described the music with dramatic imagery:

Radiant beams shoot through the deep night of this region, and we become aware of gigantic shadows which, rocking back and forth, close in on us and destroy all within us except the pain of endless longing—a longing in which every pleasure that rose up amid jubilant tones sinks and succumbs. Only through this pain, which, while consuming but not destroying love, hope, and joy, tries to burst our breasts with a full-voiced general cry from all the passions, do we live on and are captivated beholders of the spirits.^[7]

The symphony soon acquired its status as a central item in the repertoire. As an emblem of classical music, as it were, the Fifth was played in the inaugural concerts of the New York Philharmonic on December 7, 1842, and the National Symphony Orchestra on November 2, 1931. Groundbreaking both in terms of its technical and emotional impact, the Fifth has had a large influence on composers and music critics,^[8] and inspired work by such composers as Brahms, Tchaikovsky (his 4th Symphony in particular),^[9] Bruckner, Mahler, and Hector Berlioz.^[10] The Fifth stands with the Third Symphony and Ninth Symphony as the most revolutionary of Beethoven's compositions.

Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for piccolo (fourth movement only), 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat and C, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon (fourth movement only), 2 horns in E flat and C, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones (alto, tenor, and bass, fourth movement only), timpani (in G-C) and strings.

Lore

A great deal has been written about the Fifth Symphony in books, scholarly articles, and program notes for live and recorded performances. This section summarizes some themes that commonly appear in this material.

Fate motif

The initial motif of the symphony has sometimes been credited with symbolic significance as a representation of Fate knocking at the door. This idea comes from Beethoven's secretary and factotum Anton Schindler, who wrote, many years after Beethoven's death:

The composer himself provided the key to these depths when one day, in this author's presence, he pointed to the beginning of the first movement and expressed in these words the fundamental idea of his work: "Thus Fate knocks at the door!"^[16]

Schindler's testimony concerning any point of Beethoven's life is disparaged by experts (he is believed to have forged entries in Beethoven's conversation books).^[17] Moreover, it is often commented that Schindler offered a highly romanticized view of the composer. Thus, although we cannot know whether Schindler actually fabricated this quotation, it seems a strong possibility.

There is another tale concerning the same motif; the version given here is from Antony Hopkins's description of the symphony^[2]. Karl Czerny (Beethoven's pupil, who premiered the "Emperor" Concerto) claimed that "the little pattern of notes had come to [Beethoven] from a yellow-hammer's song, heard as he walked in the Prater-park in Vienna." Hopkins further remarks that "given the choice between a yellow-hammer and Fate-at-the-door the public has preferred the more dramatic myth, though Czerny's account is too unlikely to have been invented."

Evaluations of these interpretations tend to be skeptical. "The popular legend that Beethoven intended this grand exordium of the symphony to suggest 'Fate Knocking at the gate' is apocryphal; Beethoven's pupil, Ferdinand Ries, was really author of this would-be poetic exegesis, which Beethoven received very sarcastically when Ries imparted it to him."^[11] Elizabeth Schwarm Glesner remarks that "Beethoven had been known to say nearly anything to relieve himself of questioning pests"; this might be taken to impugn both tales.

By Charlotte Cuthbertson

Epoch Times Staff Nov 22, 2008

(Clearwisdom.net) On the night of April 23, 2008, the Benxi City police conducted a large-scale arrest of more than forty Falun Dafa practitioners, including elderly practitioners in their seventies, and young mothers. That was part of their "Safe Olympics" plan.

That night, officers from the Mingshan District Police Station stormed into Mr. Xiong Anming's home, beat on the door, and tried to break it open. Mr. Xiong and his wife Zhang Yulan tried to escape arrest by jumping from their third-floor apartment. Ms. Zhang's lower spine was fractured, and she was taken to the hospital. The police ransacked their home, took their cash and belongings, and arrested Mr. Xiong.

Ms. Zhang was released from the hospital before she had fully recovered, due to not being able to pay the medical expenses. The police kept harassing her at home. They threatened her, saying that the Mingshan Police Station, Mingshan District Police Department, and Benxi City Level Law Enforcement would arrest her again to put her on trial. In order to avoid being arrested, Ms. Zhang fled home with her two sons. She died in the extreme pain of her injury on November 15, 2008. Her younger son is only 7 years old. Both of her children have no one taking care of them.

Mr. Xiong Anming is still detained and facing trial. On November 17, 2008, his father took his two grandsons and went to Mingshan District Court to request his release. The court only allowed the detained Mr. Xiong to see his wife's body briefly in the funeral home, under surveillance.

The police have harassed Mr. Xiong's parents several times. Mr. Xiong's mother is bedridden from being overly threatened and worried. His parents do not have the money to hold a funeral for their daughter-in-law.

By Minghui report Li Jingfei

(Clearwisdom.net) On November 16, 2008, Chinese leader Hu Jintao ended his three-day visit to Washington D.C. Falun Gong practitioners from D.C. were assembled in front of the hotel where Hu stayed, and held banners reading "Falun Dafa is good," "Bring Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang and Liu Jing to Justice," "Help to stop the persecution of Falun Gong." Practitioners demonstrated the exercises and more people learned about Falun Gong.

On November 16, the temperature dropped dramatically. Almost one hundred Falun Gong practitioners demonstrated in front of the Marriott Hotel. The peaceful protest attracted many people who asked for information. People who were organized by the Chinese Embassy to say goodbye to Hu were also watching practitioners' actions.

Ms. Li, a practitioner, told reporters that a Western couple said they saw policemen arresting Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing. When Hu's car passed by, the group organized by the Chinese Embassy tried to block practitioners' banners from being seen. That couple stopped them, saying "You are in America."

Ms. Ge, a practitioner, said that in the last three days, Hu's car passed by practitioners several times. He saw the banners. Many Chinese and American people also had chance to learn more about Falun Gong.

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 in B Flat Major, Op. 60, was written in 1806.

The work was dedicated to Count Franz von Oppersdorff, a relative of Beethoven's patron, Prince Lichnowsky. The Count met Beethoven when he traveled to Lichnowsky's summer home where Beethoven was staying. Von Oppersdorff listened to Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in D Major, and liked it so much that he offered a great amount of money for Beethoven to compose a new symphony for him. The dedication was made to "the Silesian nobleman Count Franz von Oppersdorf".^[1]

Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in B flat and E flat, 2 trumpets in B flat and E flat, timpani and strings.

Form

There are four movements:

1. Adagio – Allegro vivace
2. Adagio
3. Allegro – vivace
4. Allegro ma non troppo

The work takes about 33 minutes to perform.

Reception

Although all nine of Beethoven's symphonies are widely performed, the Fourth is less often performed than some of the others. Robert Schumann described Symphony No. 4 as a "slender Greek maiden between two Norse gods", referring to the 3rd and 5th Symphonies, both with towering reputations.

By Li Jingfei and Zheng Haishan in Washington DC

(Clearwisdom.net) On the afternoon of November 14, 2008, the head of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Jintao and his entourage arrived in Washington DC to attend the G20 Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy (G20 summit). In response, Falun Gong practitioners in the greater Washington DC area held banners reading "Immediately Stop the Chinese Communist Party's Persecution of Falun Gong," and "Bring Criminals Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan and Their Followers to Justice" near the White House and the meeting venue to express their opposition to the nine-year persecution.

On both sides of several major streets leading to the White House, Falun Gong practitioners held banners calling for an end to the persecution and bringing the chief criminals to justice

It rained for two straight days in Washington DC, a phenomenon which is rarely seen. At dusk on November 13, the world leaders successively arrived in their motorcades at the White House in the rain to attend a dinner. Local Falun Gong practitioners stood on both sides of several major streets to the White House, holding banners.

On November 14, the G20 summit continued at the National Museum, and Falun Gong practitioners continued their peaceful protests near the meeting venue. Coordinator Ms. Ge said, "The motorcades of all the world leaders could see our banners, including Hu Jintao's."

Mr. Jiang engages in biological research at a university in Washington DC. He said, "We hope Hu Jintao will see the truth: Every day, it can be seen from the Minghui/Clearwisdom website that many Falun Gong practitioners in China are still subject to persecution. At present, the calmness on the surface in China is nothing but an illusion, as the Chinese Communist Party has covered up the number of people who have been persecuted, and the degree of the persecution is therefore unknown to the outside world. When the truth of the persecution is one day revealed, the public will be shocked. So we advise Hu Jintao not to bear the blame for Jiang Zemin, but choose a bright future for himself."

Seventy-eight year-old Ms. Zhang was an engineer when she was in China. She handed out a Falun Gong truth-clarification flyer to everyone passing by. She said, "We hope to immediately stop the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong, and immediately have all illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners released, because they are good people. They have not committed any crimes, and should not have been sentenced to forced labor and suffered other persecutions."

Passersby and people in vehicles honked their horns to express their support. Some people thanked Falun Gong practitioners after having learned the true situation.

Chinese people learn the truth

A tourist surnamed Tang had traveled from New York State to Washington DC. He lingered for quite a long time near the gate of the White House. He carefully read the messages on the banners. Mr. Tang said that he had some friends in China who practice Falun Gong. They are all law-abiding good people. He felt it inconceivable that Jiang Zemin launched the persecution. Mr. Tang believed that as more and more Chinese people travel abroad, they will see the true situation, and make their own judgment.

A Chinese professional person who had come from the Mid-US to attend an academic conference in Washington DC also walked by the G20 meeting venue. He said he had received a notice to go to the hotel where Hu Jintao would be staying in the morning to welcome him, but he was not interested and did not go. Later he was curious and came to the meeting venue to take a look. He met with Falun Gong practitioners there.

Ms. Ge, who works in a government department in the US, introduced to this professional person how her whole family practices Falun Gong. She especially shared that her husband used to suffer from a rare type of headache before practicing Falun Gong, and had spent a lot of money but could not cure it. His life was danger, but he was completely cured six months after he practiced Falun Gong. The man said, "It seems that I will also practice Falun Gong after I retire."

Unique "welcoming" group

There was an interesting phenomenon outside the G20 meeting venue: except for the Chinese Communist Party, there were no crowds either protesting or welcoming the other 19 countries.

Regarding this phenomenon, Mr. Chen, a software engineer from Virginia said, "The Chinese Communist Party knows that it is not welcome abroad, so whenever an official visits a country, the Chinese Embassy stationed in the country will spend money organizing overseas students to create an illusory scene of an official being warmly received overseas, and then CCTV and the entire propaganda apparatus inside China will use the news to deceive the Chinese people. If people in the Western countries were to learn that taxpayers' money was being used to create a false scene to deceive them, that government would definitely be criticized. Only the Chinese Communist Party is capable of such a thing."

Mr. Chen continued, "I hope these overseas students think independently why there are no crowds welcoming the leaders of other countries, as there are no crowds protesting them. Don't people in other nations love their countries? Even though the Chinese Embassy takes care of all their food, transportation and even gives them subsidies, they only work as a propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party, and help organizers in the Chinese Embassy earn some political capital from their masters."

A sudden cold snap brought snow to London in October

By an Israeli practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) On October 15, 2008, a group of Israeli Falun Gong practitioners went to Sackler Gan Park in the centre of Jerusalem to attend Israel's annual Sukkoth Traditional Festival Parade.

Although the parade was scheduled for the afternoon, tens of thousands of people gathered in the park in the morning, including many foreign tourists who came to Israel to wholly participate in the festival celebrations.

Practitioners displayed various photos and demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises. A continuous flow of people came to watch. Many already knew about the persecution in China, and many more learned. A large number of signatures was gathered on a petition against the persecution.

After lunch, the grand parade set off from Sackler Gan Park. The Falun Gong procession was eye-catching, with a dance group, drummers, and groups of practitioners holding banners announcing Falun Gong, with themes including "The world needs Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance" and "Falun Gong is spread in over 80 countries in the world".

The group was met with widespread applause and happy smiles from the crowds of onlookers.

With all the frightening news over bee losses throughout the world, it appears that one tiny minor piece of information was overlooked: the losses are occurring in colonies besieged with chemicals and artificial additives. Organic bees are fairing quite nicely, thank you. From the article,

“‘I’m on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list,’ said Sharon Labchuck. ‘The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they feed antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies.’”

In our efforts to make larger bees that are resistant to more predators or diseases — have we crossed the line in how far we could go? As the article states, “Who should be surprised that the major media reports forget to tell us that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we coax into a larger than normal body size? It sounds just like the beef industry. And, have we here a solution to the vanishing bee problem? Is it one that the CCD Working Group, or indeed, the scientific world at large, will support? Will media coverage affect government action in dealing with this issue?”

Or, even better: Would this current administration dare trample on the industry that has risen to supply the pesticides and inorganic alternatives to these bee keepers? Can they afford not to?

Check out the article for more information — but if we’ve already pushed bees too far, imagine what we’re doing to other aspects of the environment….

By a Dutch practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) The libraries of the Dutch city Apeldoorn frequently organize cultural information days to keep the public informed about wellness issues and social developments. For this purpose they invite different local organizations to make presentations to the public. The local contact person for Falun Gong received an invitation to present Falun Gong in one of the five libraries on September 25, 2008.

Visitors of all ages and professions received Falun Gong brochures and flyers and watched a video that demonstrated the exercises. They were informed about the profound Chinese culture that Divine Performing Arts is bringing to the world. Some visitors knew about Falun Gong from the news, while others talked about the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

A retired physicist was surprised to learn that, just prior to the Olympic Games, the Chinese Communist Party prohibited satellite dishes that could receive the independent TV channel NTDTV and gave orders to have these dishes removed. He wanted to get further information about this by reading more about it on the Internet. He became interested in Falun Gong and asked if he could read the Falun Gong books. He had a long conversation with a practitioner after he heard about the persecution of Falun Gong.

At the end of the day, he and others asked for the CD with the melodious Dafa music they had been hearing all day.

(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Fan Yanli, 36, lived in Nanyang City, Henan Province. On April 24, 2008, she was arrested along with more than a dozen other Falun Gong practitioners in one of their homes. The police ransacked her home, and she was detained in the Nanyang City First Detention Center for more than six months. Due to the hard labor, malnutrition, lack of sleep, and constant threats, she became very weak and often vomited.

Ms. Fan Yanli

On October 9, 2008, at around 10:00 a.m., Wolong District Court put Ms. Fan Yanli and ten other practitioners on trial. She passed out in the courtroom and was taken back to the detention center. After extorting more than 10,000 yuan from her family, she was released on October 11, 2008. Only 16 days after her release, she died on October 27, 2008, at 4:00 p.m.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 100 practitioners in Nanyang City were sent to forced labor camps, several dozen practitioners were sentenced to prison, and there have been 19 confirmed deaths in the past nine years of persecution.

(wikipedia)

Here is the two-part symphony on YouTube conducted by Herbert Von Karajan:

Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFltqVS8d9I

Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVQtcd0clu4&feature=related

The Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (Op. 55) by Ludwig van Beethoven (known as the Eroica which is Italian for "heroic") is a musical work sometimes cited as marking the end of the Classical Era and the beginning of musical Romanticism.

Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat, 2 bassoons, 3 horns in E flat and C, 2 trumpets in E flat and C, timpani and strings.

 Structure

The piece is in four movements:

1. Allegro con brio
2. Marcia funebre: Adagio assai
3. Scherzo: Allegro vivace
4. Finale: Allegro molto

Performances run between 40 and 60 minutes, but typically around 45.^{[citation needed]}

In the first movement, Beethoven indicates that the exposition is to be repeated. This repeat, generally omitted in performances before the late 1950s, has often been observed in recent years.

 Overview

Beethoven in 1804, when he was composing the Eroica Symphony.

 Dedication and premiere

Beethoven had originally conceived of dedicating the symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte. The biographer Maynard Solomon relates that Beethoven admired the ideals of the French Revolution, and Napoleon as their embodiment. In the autumn the composer began to have second thoughts about that dedication. It would have deprived him of a fee that he would receive if he instead dedicated the symphony to Prince Franz Joseph Maximillian Lobkowiz. Nevertheless, he still considered giving the work the title of Bonaparte.

When Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor of the French in May 1804, Beethoven became disgusted and went to the table where the completed score lay. He took hold of the title-page and scratched the name Bonaparte out so violently with a knife that he created a hole in the paper.^[1] He later changed the title to Sinfonia eroica, composta per festeggiare il sovvenire d'un grand'uomo ("heroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man"). His assistant Ferdinand Ries tells the story in his biography of Beethoven:

However, the road to titling of the work Eroica had further turns. After completing the work, Beethoven wrote to his publisher in the summer of 1804 that "The title of the symphony is really Bonaparte." The final title was not applied to the work until the parts were published in October, 1806. In fact, Schindler tells us that upon hearing of the French Emperor's death in Saint Helena in 1821, Beethoven proclaimed "I wrote the music for this sad event seventeen years ago" - referring to the Funeral March (second movement).

Beethoven wrote most of the symphony in late 1803 and completed it in early 1804. The symphony was premiered privately in summer 1804 in his patron Prince Lobkowitz's castle Eisenberg (Jezeri) in Bohemia. The first public performance was given in Vienna's Theater an der Wien on April 7, 1805 with the composer conducting.

 Critical reception

The work is a milestone in the history of the classical symphony for a number of reasons. The piece is about twice as long as symphonies by Haydn or Mozart — the first movement alone is almost as long as many Classical symphonies. The work covers more emotional ground than earlier works had, and is often cited as the beginning of the Romantic period in music.^{[citation needed]} The second movement, in particular, displays a great range of emotion, from the misery of the main funeral march theme, to the relative solace of happier, major key episodes. The finale of the symphony shows a similar range, and is given an importance in the overall scheme which was virtually unheard of previously^{[citation needed]} — whereas in earlier symphonies, the finale was a quick and breezy finishing off, here it is a lengthy set of variations and fugue on a theme Beethoven had originally written for his ballet music The Creatures of Prometheus.

Music critic J. W. N. Sullivan writes^[3] that the first movement is an expression of Beethoven's courage in confronting his deafness, the second, slow and dirgelike, depicting the overwhelming despair he felt, the third, the scherzo, an "indomitable uprising of creative energy" and the fourth an exuberant outpouring of creative energy.

Richard Strauss's mourning music Metamorphosen is based on the theme of the funeral march from the Eroica, and combines harmonically distorted variants of its main motifs. At the very end the opening bars of the funeral march are quoted literally in the bass.

 Horn solo anecdote

In the first movement, the solo horn enters with the main theme four bars before the "real" recapitulation. Beethoven's disciple Ferdinand Ries recounted:^[4]

(Clearwisdom.net) On the night of March 21, 2008, five Falun Gong practitioners from Jiansanjiang, Heilongjiang Province were arrested and taken to the local police station, when they were explaining the truth about Falun Gong to people at the Qinglong Mountain Farm. That night, practitioners Mr. Shi Mengwei, Mr. Chen Dong and Mr. Tian Baoyu were locked up separately, and mercilessly beaten by seven or eight policemen. When the policemen became tired, they took a break by interrogating Ms. Yu Fengxian and Ms. Sun Yan, and then continued beating the three male practitioners. The next day, these practitioners were transferred to the Qianjin Farm Detention Center.

Five Falun Gong practitioners were detained at that detention center for six to seven days. Every time officers from the Jiansanjiang Administrative Bureau 610 Office came to visit, they were subjected to brutal torture with vicious means, including electric batons, leather whips and iron rods. The bodies of Shi Mengwei, Chen Dong and Tian Baoyu had turned black, and at least one male practitioner had blood in his urine as a result of these torture methods.

This event was led primarily by Wang Jialin, the party committee assistant secretary and politics and judiciary secretary for Jiansanjiang. The implementation of these torture methods was organized by Peng Yong, head of the Domestic Security Division of the Administrative Public Security Bureau in Jiansanjiang.

On July 28, 2008, officials from the Jiansanjiang Agricultural Settlement Court in Heilongjiang Province again put five Falun Gong practitioners on trial. Shi Mengwei was sentenced to five years and six months, Chen Dong and Tian Baoyu to four years, and Yu Fengxian and Sun Yan to three years. In the court, Shi Mengwei, Chen Dong and Tian Baoyu refused to accept their sentences and requested appeals.

Personnel from the Agricultural Public Security Bureau in Jiansanjiang ordered police officers from the Qixing Farm Sub-bureau to forcibly break door locks, ransack several practitioners' homes and arrest them, which took place at 8:00 p.m. on July 21, 2008. Falun Gong practitioners Shi Mengchang, Zhang Xizeng, Zhang Yanqiu, Zhao Fengrong and elderly Ms. Song were arrested, and detained at the brainwashing center in the Jiansanjiang sub-bureau, which was set up by the Agricultural Settlement Bureau.

On July 23, 2008, Shi Mengchang requested an unconditional release, and went on a hunger strike, which he has been conducting for three days. He had been sent to a forced labor camp twice, for a total period of five years. He became critically ill while in the Suihua Forced Labor Camp in Heilongjiang Province, and required medical treatment, and was thus released on bail the second time. Officials at the forced labor camp sent a fax to personnel of the Jiansanjiang Agricultural Public Security Bureau, asking them to pick him up. However, officials of the local public security bureau ignored it, and he was not released until early 2005, after he had served three years. Zhang Xizeng has been detained many times.

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

The wave of unrest has led China's most senior police official to urge officers to avoid inflaming protests at a time when tensions were high Photo: AFP

A "press law" that would help to free Chinese journalists from the tight control imposed by the ministry of propaganda, has been suggested by Hu Jintao, the Chinese president.

Mr Hu visited the offices of the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, and gave warning that the rising number of "large-scale public incidents" should be "accurately, objectively and uniformly reported, with no tardiness, deception, incompleteness or distortion."

In the past week there have been major strikes in three Chinese provinces which have led to scenes of violence and multiple arrests.

Meanwhile, in Shenzen, the accidental death of a motorcyclist last weekend triggered a riot in which 400 people attacked the local police station for hours, burning a squad car. Figures released yesterday showed that 600 individuals had been arrested in Shanghai alone this year for attacking the police, who are the most public face of the government.

Yang Jia, a 28-year-old man from Beijing who stabbed six policemen to death has become a cult hero, with huge crowds assembling outside his trial.

The wave of unrest has led Meng Jianzhu, China's most senior police official, to urge officers to avoid inflaming protests at a time when tensions were high.

"The chief tasks of the public security authorities are to ease conflicts, avoid excessive steps and prevent the situation from getting out of control," he said.

"Absolutely avoid exacerbating conflict and any incidents of bloodshed, injury or death," he added.

China has admitting publicly that almost 90,000 riots occur in the country each year. However, with the Chinese economic miracle unravelling and millions of workers finding themselves unemployed, the government has acknowledged that allowing citizens to vent some anger could help prevent major social problems.

A recent front-page editorial in the People's Daily, written by Hua Qing, the propaganda chief of the State Council, hinted that a press law was being drafted.

"Our country is at a crucial stage of development, with new problems and circumstances emerging constantly," said Mr Hua.

"We must accelerate legislation in the press sector in order to provide a legal guarantee for effective press work and for the improvement of public opinion guidance capacity," he added.

By a Bulgarian Falun Dafa practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) Psychologists from Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey gathered in the city of Blagoevgrad to attend the "Create Your Universe" Project. Bulgarian Falun Dafa practitioners were invited to share the benefits they obtained from practicing Falun Gong.

Project participants are studying the Falun Gong exercises

On October 2, 2008 Bulgarian Falun Dafa practitioners introduced Falun Gong to the group. After a short demonstration of the first video lecture by Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of the practice, a lively discussion was held as a result of the psychologists' desire to know about the practitioners' personal experiences regarding mental and physical health benefits. They were interested in how practitioners found out about Falun Dafa and why they started practicing, as well as why exactly this practice is persecuted in China. A Macedonian participant shared that she had read about Falun Gong, but in her country there aren't any practitioners yet.

Practitioner interviewed by a reporter

Earlier, the practitioners held an information display in the center of Blagoevgrad, in front of the main building of American University in Bulgaria, and also at Southwestern University. They distributed informational leaflets to the locals and exposed the persecution of Falun Gong in China by the Chinese Communist Party.

Nov. 6, 2008
Courtesy Nature
and World Science staff

The ge­nome of the can­cer­ous tis­sue of an in­di­vid­ual pa­tient has been de­coded for the first time, iden­ti­fy­ing mu­tat­ed genes with a likely a role in de­vel­op­ment of the can­cer, re­search­ers say.

The da­ta came from a pa­tient with acute my­e­loid leu­kae­mia, a can­cer of white blood cells that af­fects around 13,000 adults yearly in the Un­ited States alone and kills about a third.

The gene se­quenc­ing tech­nique used in the study could be ap­plied to oth­er can­cers and aid the de­sign of tar­geted treat­ments, ac­cord­ing to the re­search­ers, who re­ported their find­ings in this week’s is­sue of the re­search jour­nal Na­ture.

Can­cer, really a group of dis­eases rath­er than one, oc­curs when ge­net­ic muta­t­ions cause cells to be­come ab­nor­mal and start re­pro­duc­ing out of con­trol. This leads to a some­times deadly growth of dis­eased tis­sue.

The re­search­ers, Elaine Mar­dis of the Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­s­ity School of Med­i­cine in St. Lou­is, Mo. and col­leagues, se­quenced can­cer­ous and nor­mal tis­sue from the pa­tient and com­pared the two se­quences, or full sets of ge­net­ic code.

Ten mu­tat­ed genes were iden­ti­fied, ac­cord­ing to Mar­dis and col­leagues. Of these, they said, two were pre­vi­ously re­ported to be as­so­ci­at­ed with the dis­ease; the oth­ers pro­b­ably rep­re­sent new­found genes in­volved in the de­vel­op­ment of the ill­ness.

“Our study es­tab­lishes whole-ge­nome se­quenc­ing as an un­bi­ased meth­od for dis­cov­er­ing can­cer in­i­ti­at­ing muta­t­ions in pre­vi­ously un­iden­ti­fied genes,” the re­search­ers wrote. The tech­nique may be “the only ef­fec­tive means for dis­cov­er­ing all of the muta­t­ions” rel­e­vant to the dis­ease pro­cess, they added, not­ing that some of the muta­t­ions “may re­spond to tar­geted ther­a­pies.”

Beethoven's Second Symphony was mostly written during Beethoven's stay at Heiligenstadt in 1802, which was near the time that he began to realize he was becoming deaf. Beethoven wrote the Second Symphony without having a standard minuet; a scherzo took its place, which gave the composition even greater scope and energy. After the symphony's premiere, critics noted the absence of the traditional minuet, and claimed the composition had great strength, but was altogether too eccentric^{[citation needed]}.

The work was premiered in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on April 5, 1803, and was conducted by the composer. It is one of the last works of Beethoven's so-called "early period".

Orchestration

The symphony is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in A, two bassoons, two horns in D and E, two trumpets in D, timpani and strings. The composer also made a transcription of the entire symphony for piano trio which bears the same opus number.

Form

This symphony consists of four movements:

1. Adagio molto — Allegro con brio
2. Larghetto
3. Scherzo: Allegro
4. Allegro molto

Its duration is thirty-six minutes.

First movement

The Introduction, Adagio molto, begins in D major, changing to B♭ major in measure 11. In measures 26-28, it briefly modulates to A major and immediately back to D. The exposition (Allegro con brio) begins in D major with the A theme lasting until measure 57. A transition towards the B theme lasts until measure 72, modulating to A minor at measure 61. The B theme begins in A major at 73, moving to A minor again at 113 with a codetta from measure 117-136 (moving to D major in measure 120). The development uses material from the A theme, going through several modulations throughout and making use of the main idea from Theme A in sequence. At measure 216, the A theme returns in the recapitulation, lasting until measure 228. There is a retransition from 229-244, bringing back the B theme at measure 245, this time in the tonic key. At 327, B♭ major returns briefly, moving back to D in 334 with a Coda from measures 340-360.

Second movement

This movement, Larghetto, is in A Major (dominant) and is one of Beethoven's longest symphonic slow movements. There are clear indications of the influence of folk music and the pastoral, presaging his Symphony No. 6 ("Pastoral").

Third movement

This movement, Scherzo: Allegro, encloses a melodious oboe and bassoon quartet within typical-sounding Austrian side-slapping dance.

Fourth movement

The fourth movement, Allegro molto, is comprised of very rapid string passages.