title: Morris dance

text: The United Kingdom experienced a revival in folk dancing and Morris dancing in the 1960s. In Wales this meant, in part, a resurgence in interest in the Nantgarw tradition from sides who were looking for Welsh dances to add to their English ones. Cardiff Morris Men began piecing together a Morris dance from the notes that had been written down by Ceinwen Thomas on one particular dance that she called "Y Gaseg Eira" . After this 'original' dance had been pieced back together sides began to create more dances that were 'in the style of' this traditional Nantgarw Morris dance. Many of these new creations, such as "Y Derwydd", are now held to be just as much a part of the Nantgarw tradition as the original dance. Today there are five Morris dances that are commonly recognised as being a part of the Nantgarw tradition. The five dances in the Nantgarw tradition include: "Y Gaseg Eira" (The Snow Mare), "Hela'r Sgwarnog" (Hunting the Hare), "Ty Coch Caerdydd" (Red House of Cardiff), "Y Derwydd" (The Druid) and "Y Goron" (The Crown).


title: Morris dance

text: There are no hard and fast rules as to which Morris sides can perform dances from a tradition, but the original Nantgarw dance, "Y Gaseg Eira", is considered to be a dance for the Welsh sides. Consequently, it is often performed by the sides Isca Morris and Cardiff Morris. It was members of Cardiff Morris who developed the modern Nantgarw dances and so they are the most common performers of these dances.


title: Morris dance

text: It has been pointed out that there are "obvious" similarities between the Welsh Nantgarw style of Morris dance and the English Lichfield style of Morris dance. It is known that there were potteries in Nantgarw and these were largely staffed by workers from Staffordshire where Lichfield Morris was danced.


title: Morris dance

text: This handkerchief dance has a pattern entirely peculiar to itself and was the first Nantgarw dance to see the light of day with the Cardiff Morris. The name of the dance is a Welsh idiom for a very large snowball, and it is so named because at one point in the dance the hand waving movements resemble the movements of somebody rolling a large snowball.This is the original Nantgarw dance and was being danced by Cardiff Morris by 1974. An article in the Welsh Folk Dance Magazine published in 1959 featured an article on this dance along with a photograph of a side performing it.


title: Morris dance

text: This is the first of three dances which conform to a standard pattern; which can, with a little care, be memorised and need, therefore, no calling. Like "Y Gaseg Eira" it is a handkerchief dance. The current practise with the music is to use hornpipe time, which lends a lilt to the dance that some people find attractive. It had been added to the Nantgarw repertoire by 1984.


title: Morris dance

text: Sixteen sticks lend a certain weight to the stick bag, if not the proceedings. The sticks are held skiing-fashion (as in downhill, not slalom or cross-country) and are brought up in front of the face to clash. It was being danced by 1984.


title: Morris dance

text: Previously known as "Y Gamel" (The Camel) until it was renamed after the tune it is danced to. There are only eight sticks in this dance and no clashing except in the chorus. The dance pattern is identical to that of Hunting the Hare, even down to the half-heys in the chorus, except that the corner figures are completely replaced with Stars. It was put together in 1991.


title: Morris dance

text: This is a processional dance. Unlike the other dances which take place in one location this dance takes the dancers from one place to another. It takes its name from an old Welsh carol, the tune for which was used for the melody of "Deck the Halls".


title: Morris dance

text: The figures can be summarised as Foot Up, Corners Change, Top Hey, Bottom Hey and Circular Hey, with usually a distinctive verse figure unique to each dance.


title: Morris dance

text: There is double step throughout, except when 'chipping' (hopping in one spot whilst simultaneously rotating). The basic pattern is two double steps followed by four capers. There had been a tendency to truncate the second double step and leap straight into the capers, leading to a loss of balance and poise. The hand movements are straight up-and-down, with Adderbury-style circular movements at waist level for the capers. In the 'chipping' sequences in "Y Gaseg Eira" and "Hunting the Hare" the arms are raised in turn and in time with the single stepping which accompanies it.


title: Morris dance

text: Today, there are six predominant styles of Morris dancing, and different dances or traditions within each style named after their region of origin.


title: Morris dance

text: Abingdon, Adderbury, Ascot-under-Wychwood, Badby, Bampton, Bidford, Bledington, Brackley, Bucknell, Chipping Campden, Ducklington, Eynsham, Headington Quarry, Hinton-in-the-Hedges, Ilmington, Kirtlington, Leafield (Field Town), Longborough, Oddington, Sherbourne, Stanton Harcourt, Upton-upon-Severn and Wheatley.


title: Morris dance

text: Bacon also lists the tradition from Lichfield, which is Cotswold-like despite that city's distance from the Cotswold Morris area; the authenticity of this tradition has been questioned. In 2006, a small number of dances from a previously unknown tradition was discovered by Barry Care, MBE, keeper of The Morris Ring Photographic Archive, and a founding member of Moulton Morris Men (Ravensthorpe, Northamptonshire)—two of them danceable.


title: Morris dance

text: Other dances listed by Bacon include Border Morris dances from Brimfield, Bromsberrow Heath, Evesham, Leominster, Much Wenlock, Pershore, Upton-upon-Severn, Upton Snodsbury, White Ladies Aston, and miscellaneous non-Cotswold, non-Border dances from Steeple Claydon and Winster. There are a number of traditions which have been collected since the mid-twentieth century, though few have been widely adopted. Examples are Broadwood, Duns Tew, and Ousington-under-Wash in the Cotswold style, and Upper and Lower Penn in the Border style. In fact, for many of the "collected" traditions in Bacon, only sketchy information is available about the way they were danced in the nineteenth century, and they have been reconstructed to a degree that makes them largely twentieth-century inventions as well. Some traditions have been reconstructed in several strikingly disparate ways; an example would be Adderbury, danced very differently by the Adderbury Morris Men and the Adderbury Village Morris.


title: Morris dance

text: The North West tradition is named after the North West region of England and has always featured mixed and female sides, at least as far back as the 18th century. There is a picture of Eccles Wakes painted in 1822 that shows both male and female dancers.


title: Morris dance

text: Historically, most sides danced in various styles of shoes or boots, although dancing in clogs was also very common. Modern revivalist sides have tended more towards the wearing of clogs. The dances were often associated with rushcarts at the local wakes or holidays, and many teams rehearsed only for these occasions. While some teams continue to rehearse and dance for a single local festival or event (such as the Abram Morris Dancers), the majority of teams now rehearse throughout the year, with the majority of performances occurring in the spring and summer. The dances themselves were often called 'maze' or 'garland dances' as they involved a very intricate set of movements in which the dancers wove in and out of each other. Some dances were performed with a wicker hoop (decorated with garlands of flowers) held above the dancer's head. Some dancers were also associated with a tradition of mumming and hold a pace egging play in their area.


title: Morris dance

text: The Britannia Coconut Dancers, named after a mill not far from Bacup, are unique in the tradition, in that they used sawn bobbins to make a noise, and perform to the accompaniment of a brass ensemble. They are one of the few North West Morris groups that still black up their faces. It is said that the dance found its way to the area through Cornishmen who migrated to work in the Rossendale quarries.


title: Morris dance

text: Towards the end of the 19th century, the Lancashire tradition was taken up by sides associated with mills and nonconformist chapels, usually composed of young girls. These lasted until the First World War, after which many mutated into "jazz dancers". (A Bolton troupe can be seen in a pre-war documentary by Humphrey Jennings.) The dances have evolved stylistically and the dancers' dress has changed to include pompoms and elements from other groups, such as cheerleaders and Irish dancers. However, they refer to themselves as "Morris dancers", wear bells, and are still mainly based in the Northwest of England. This type of Morris has been around since the 1940s and is also referred to as Carnival or "fluffy Morris" dancing. They take part in many different competitions during the year and end it with a "Championship" where one dance troupe is crowned the champions. This type of Morris is also found in the north of Wales, where there are many different organizations with many different troupes. In 2008 NEMDCO (North of England Morris Dancing Carnival Organization) held a large competition at Blackpool in the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. The winner of this competition was Valencia, a troupe from Liverpool. During the folk revival in the 1960s, many of the old steps to dances such as "Stubbins Lane Garland" were often passed on by old people.


title: Morris dance

text: The term "Border Morris" was first used by E. C. Cawte in a 1963 article on the Morris dance traditions of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire: counties along the border with Wales. Characteristics of the tradition as practised in the 19th and early 20th centuries include: blackface or coloured facepaint (in some areas), use of either a small strip of bells (in some areas) or no bells at all (in others), costume often consisting of ordinary clothes decorated with ribbons, strips of cloth, or pieces of coloured paper; or sometimes "fancy dress", small numbers of traditional dances in the team repertoire, often only one and rarely more than two, highly variable number of dancers in the set and configurations of the set (some sides had different versions of a dance for different numbers of dancers), and an emphasis on stick dances almost to the exclusion of hankie dances.


title: Morris dance

text: Usually regarded as a type of Morris, although many of the performers themselves consider it as a traditional dance form in its own right, is the sword dance tradition, which includes both rapper sword and longsword traditions. In both styles the "swords" are not actual swords, but implements specifically made for the dance. The dancers are usually linked one to another via the swords, with one end of each held by one dancer and the other end by another. Rapper sides consist of five dancers, who are permanently linked-up during the dance. The rapper sword is a very flexible strip of spring-steel with a wooden handle at each end. The longsword is about 2'6" (0.8 metres) long, with a wooden handle at one end, a blunt tip, and no edge. Sometimes ribbons are threaded through a hole in the tip of the sword, and the dancers grab on to them during the course of the dance. Longsword sides consist usually of five to eight dancers. In both rapper and longsword there is often a supernumerary "character", who dances around, outside, and inside the set.


title: Morris dance

text: The English mummers play occasionally involves Morris or sword dances either incorporated as part of the play or performed at the same event. Mummers plays are often performed in the streets near Christmas to celebrate the New Year and the coming springtime. In these plays are central themes of death and rebirth.


title: Morris dance

text: Other forms include Molly dance from Cambridgeshire. Molly dance, which is associated with Plough Monday, is a parodic form danced in work boots and with at least one Molly man dressed as a woman. The largest Molly Dance event is the Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival, established in 1980, held at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire in January.


title: Morris dance

text: Another expression of the Morris tradition is Vessel Cupping. This was practised in the East Riding of Yorkshire until the 1920s. It was a form danced by itinerant ploughboys in sets of three or four, about the time of Candlemas.


title: Morris dance

text: Additionally, there is a specifically Welsh version of the art that is distinct from the Borders Morris style. This style is called Nantgarw tradition after a small village in the Taff Valley. One Nantgarw dance, Y Caseg Eira, is derived directly from notes made on traditional Welsh dances from the 1890s. These notes were made by Ceinwen Thomas in the 1950s from the childhood recollections of her mother, Catherine Margretta Thomas. Others are more modern inventions made in the style of older dances. Dances in the Nantgarw style include; Caseg Eira (The Snow Mare), Hela'r Sgwarnog (Hunting The Hare) and Ty Coch Caerdydd (The Red House of Cardiff).


title: Morris dance

text: Music was traditionally provided by either a pipe and tabor or a fiddle. These are still used today, but the most common instrument is the melodeon. Accordions and concertinas are also common, and other instruments are sometimes used. Often drums are employed.


title: Morris dance

text: Cotswold and sword dancers are most often accompanied by a single player, but Northwest and Border sides often have a band, usually including a drum.


title: Morris dance

text: For Cotswold and (to a degree) Border dances, the tunes are traditional and specific: the name of the dance is often actually the name of the tune, and dances of the same name from different traditions will have slightly different tunes. For Northwest and sword dancing there is less often a specific tune for a dance: the players may use several tunes, and will often change tunes during a dance.


title: Morris dance

text: For dances which have set tunes, there is often a short song set to the tune. This is sung by the musician(s) or by the whole side as an introduction to the tune before the dance. The songs are usually rural in focus (i.e. related to agricultural practices or village life) and often bawdy or vulgar. Songs for some dances vary from side to side, and some sides omit songs altogether.


title: Morris dance

text: Several notable albums have been released, in particular the "Morris On" series, which consists of "Morris On", "Son of Morris On", "Grandson of Morris On", "Great Grandson of Morris On", "Morris on the Road", and "Mother of all Morris".


title: Morris dance

text: A Morris troupe is usually referred to as a "side" or a "team". The two terms are interchangeable. Despite the terminology, Morris dancing is hardly ever competitive.


title: Morris dance

text: A "set" (which can also be referred to as a "side") is a number of dancers in a particular arrangement for a dance. Most Cotswold Morris dances are danced in a rectangular set of six dancers, and most Northwest dances in a rectangular set of eight; but there are many exceptions.


title: Morris dance

text: A "jig" is a dance performed by one (or sometimes two) dancers, rather than by a set. Its music does not usually have the rhythm implied by the word "jig" in other contexts.


title: Morris dance

text: Many sides have one or more "fools". A fool is usually extravagantly dressed, and communicates directly with the audience in speech or mime. The fool often dances around and even through a dance without appearing really to be a part of it, but it takes a talented dancer to pull off such fooling while actually adding to and not distracting from the main dance set.


title: Morris dance

text: Many sides also have a "beast": a dancer in a costume made to look like a real or mythical animal. Beasts mainly interact with the audience, particularly children. In some groups this dancer is called the "hobby".


title: Morris dance

text: Most Cotswold dances alternate "common figures" (or just "figures") with a "distinctive figure" (or "chorus"). The common figures are common to all (or some) dances in the "tradition"; the distinctive figure distinguishes that dance from others in the same tradition. Sometimes (particularly in "corner" dances) the choruses are not identical, but have their own sequence specific to the tradition. Nevertheless, something about the way the chorus is danced distinguishes that dance from others. Several traditions often have essentially the same dance, where the name, tune, and distinctive figure are the same or similar, but each tradition employs its common figures and style.


title: Morris dance

text: In England, an "ale" is a private party where a number of Morris sides get together and perform dances for their own enjoyment rather than for an audience. Food is usually supplied, and sometimes this is a formal meal known as a feast or ale-feast. Occasionally, an evening ale is combined with a day or weekend of dance, where all the invited sides tour the area and perform in public. In North America the term is widely used to describe a full weekend of dancing involving public performances and sometimes workshops. In the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, the term "ale" referred to a church- or dale-sponsored event where ale or beer was sold to raise funds. Morris dancers were often employed at such events.


title: Morris dance

text: The continuance of Morris is as much in the hands of independent groups of enthusiasts as it is in the nationwide groupings such as The Morris Ring or The Morris Federation. So while for some sides there is a feeling that the music and dance recorded in the 19th century should be maintained, there are others who freely reinterpret the music and dance to suit their abilities and including modern influences. In 2008 a front-page article in the "Independent Magazine" noted the rising influence of neopaganism within the modern Morris tradition. The article featured the views of Neopagan sides Wolf's Head and Vixen Morris and Hunter's Moon Morris and contrasted them with those of the more traditional Long Man Morris Men. The Morris may have become popular in neopaganism thanks to the scholarship of James Frazer, who hypothesized that rural folk traditions were survivals of ancient pagan rituals. Though this view was fiercely criticized even by Frazer's contemporaries, it was fully embraced by Sir Edmund Chambers, one of the first to produce serious writing on English folk plays and dances, and who became a major influence on popular understanding of Morris dancing in the 20th century.


title: Morris dance

text: In January 2009 "The Telegraph" published a report predicting the demise of Morris dancing within 20 years, due to the lack of young people willing to take part. This widespread story originated from a senior member of the more traditionally minded Morris Ring, and may only reflect the situation in relation to member groups of that one organisation.


title: Morris dance

text: A survey published in December 2020 identified how the profile of morris dancers had evolved since the first survey published in 2014. The number of morris dancers in the UK had increased from 12,800 in 2014 to 13,600 in 2020. The average age of a morris dancer in the UK was 55, up from 52 in 2014. The survey also reported an even balance between male and female performers by 2020.


title: Morris dance

text: The advent of the Internet in the 1990s has also given Morris sides a new platform upon which to perform. Many Morris sides now have entertaining websites which seek to reflect the public persona of the individual sides as much as record their exploits and list forthcoming performances.


title: Morris dance

text: Morris sides have traditionally raised funds by collecting cash from spectators, but in the post-Covid moves to a more cashless society, many sides now use portable card payment terminals.


title: Morris dance

text: There are also a multitude of thriving Morris-related blogs and forums, and individual sides are to be found maintaining an interactive presence on major social networking sites. Surveys in 2021 of use of social media services by morris sides found that the Westminster Morris Men YouTube channel had received over 100,00 views and the Shrewsbury Morris's Twitter account had over 100,000 followers.


title: Morris dance

text: The success of Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" novels has seen the entirely invented Dark Morris tradition being brought to life in some form by genuine Morris sides such as the Witchmen Morris and Jack Frost Morris. Dark Morris has been described as having been "evolved from the border revival of the 1970s which was part of a wider neo-traditionalist surge of interest in regional morris styles".


title: Morris dance

text: There is great variety shown in how Morris sides dress, from the predominantly white clothing of Cotswold sides to the tattered jackets worn by Border teams. Some common items of clothing are:


title: Morris dance

text: bellpads; baldrics; braces; rosettes; sashes; waistcoats; tatter-coats; knee-length breeches; wooden clogs; straw hats, top hats, or bowlers; neckerchiefs; armbands.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Acetone peroxide ( also called APEX) is an organic peroxide and a primary explosive. It is produced by the reaction of acetone and hydrogen peroxide to yield a mixture of linear monomer and cyclic dimer, trimer, and tetramer forms. The dimer is known as diacetone diperoxide (DADP). The trimer is known as triacetone triperoxide (TATP) or tri-cyclic acetone peroxide (TCAP). Acetone peroxide takes the form of a white crystalline powder with a distinctive bleach-like odor (when impure) or a fruit-like smell when pure, and can explode powerfully if subjected to heat, friction, static electricity, concentrated sulfuric acid, strong UV radiation or shock. Until about 2015, explosives detectors were not set to detect non-nitrogenous based explosives, as most explosives used preceding 2015 were nitrogen-based. TATP, being nitrogen-free, has been used as the explosive of choice in several terrorist bomb attacks since 2001.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Acetone peroxide (specifically, triacetone triperoxide) was discovered in 1895 by the German chemist Richard Wolffenstein. Wolffenstein combined acetone and hydrogen peroxide, and then he allowed the mixture to stand for a week at room temperature, during which time a small quantity of crystals precipitated, which had a melting point of .


title: Acetone peroxide

text: In 1899 Adolf von Baeyer and Victor Villiger described the first synthesis of the dimer and described use of acids for the synthesis of both peroxides.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Baeyer and Villiger prepared the dimer by combining potassium persulfate in diethyl ether with acetone, under cooling. After separating the ether layer, the product was purified and found to melt at . They found that the trimer could be prepared by adding hydrochloric acid to a chilled mixture of acetone and hydrogen peroxide. By using the depression of freezing points to determine the molecular weights of the compounds, they also determined that the form of acetone peroxide that they had prepared via potassium persulfate was a dimer, whereas the acetone peroxide that had been prepared via hydrochloric acid was a trimer, like Wolffenstein's compound.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Work on this methodology and on the various products obtained, was further investigated in the mid-20th century by Milas and Golubović.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: The chemical name, "Acetone peroxide" is most commonly used to refer to the cyclic trimer, the product of a reaction between two precursors, hydrogen peroxide and acetone, in an acid-catalyzed nucleophilic addition, although various further monomeric and dimeric forms are possible.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Specifically, two dimers, one cyclic (CHO) and one open chain (CHO), as well as an open chain monomer (CHO), can also be formed; under a particular set of conditions of reagent and acid catalyst concentration, the cyclic trimer is the primary product. A tetrameric form has also been described, under different catalytic conditions. The synthesis of tetrameric acetone peroxide has been disputed. Under neutral conditions, the reaction is reported to produce the monomeric organic peroxide.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: The most common route for nearly pure TATP is HO/acetone/HCl in 1:1:0.25 molar ratios, using 30% hydrogen peroxide. This product contains very little or none of DADP with some very small traces of chlorinated compounds. Product that contains large fraction of DADP can be obtained from 50% HO using high amounts of conc. sulfuric acid as catalyst or alternatively with 30% HO and massive amounts of HCl as a catalyst.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: The product made by using hydrochloric acid is regarded as more stable than the one made using sulfuric acid. It is known that traces of sulfuric acid trapped inside the formed acetone peroxide crystals lead to instability. In fact, the trapped sulfuric acid can induce detonation at temperatures as low as . This is the most likely mechanism behind accidental explosions of acetone peroxide that occur during drying on heated surfaces.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Triacetone triperoxide forms in 2-propanol upon standing for long periods of time in the presence of air.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Organic peroxides in general are sensitive, dangerous explosives, and all forms of acetone peroxide are sensitive to initiation. TATP decomposes explosively; examination of the explosive decomposition of TATP at the very edge of detonation front predicts "formation of acetone and ozone as the main decomposition products and not the intuitively expected oxidation products." Very little heat is created by the explosive decomposition of TATP at the very edge of the detonation front; the foregoing computational analysis suggests that TATP decomposition is an entropic explosion. However, this hypothesis has been challenged as not conforming to actual measurements. The claim of entropic explosion has been tied to the events just behind the detonation front. The authors of the 2004 Dubnikova et al. study confirm that a final redox reaction (combustion) of ozone, oxygen and reactive species into water, various oxides and hydrocarbons takes place within about 180ps after the initial reaction - within about a micron of the detonation wave. Detonating crystals of TATP ultimately reach temperature of and pressure of 80 kbar. The final energy of detonation is about 2800 kJ/kg (measured in helium) - enough to "briefly" raise the temperature of gaseous products to . Volume of gases at STP is 855 L/kg for TATP and 713 L/kg for DADP (measured in helium).


title: Acetone peroxide

text: The tetrameric form of acetone peroxide, prepared under neutral conditions using a tin catalyst in the presence of a chelator or general inhibitor of radical chemistry, is reported to be more chemically stable, although still a very dangerous primary explosive. Its synthesis has been disputed.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Both TATP and DADP are prone to loss of mass via sublimation. DADP has lower molecular weight and higher vapor pressure. This means that DADP is more prone to sublimation than TATP.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Several methods can be used for trace analysis of TATP, including gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), high performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS), and HPLC with post-column derivitization.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Acetone peroxide is soluble in toluene, chloroform, acetone, dichloromethane and methanol. Recrystalization of primary explosives may yield large crystals that detonate spontaneously due to internal strain.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Ketone peroxides, including acetone peroxide and methyl ethyl ketone peroxide, find application as initiators for polymerization reactions, e.g., silicone or polyester resins, in the making of fiberglass-reinforced composites. For these uses, the peroxides are typically in the form of a dilute solution in an organic solvent; methyl ethyl ketone peroxide is more common for this purpose, as it is stable in storage.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Acetone peroxides are unwanted by-products of some oxidation reactions such as those used in phenol syntheses. Due to their explosive nature, their presence in chemical processes and chemical samples creates potential hazardous situations. Accidental occurrence at illicit MDMA laboratories is possible. Numerous methods are used to reduce their appearance, including shifting pH to more alkaline, adjusting reaction temperature, or adding inhibitors of their production. For example, triacetone peroxide is the major contaminant found in diisopropyl ether as a result of photochemical oxidation in air.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: TATP has been used in bomb and suicide attacks and in improvised explosive devices, including the London bombings on 7 July 2005, where four suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured more than 700. It was one of the explosives used by the "shoe bomber" Richard Reid in his 2001 failed shoe bomb attempt and was used by the suicide bombers in the November 2015 Paris attacks, 2016 Brussels bombings, Manchester Arena bombing, June 2017 Brussels attack, Parsons Green bombing, the Surabaya bombings, and the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings. Hong Kong police claim to have found of TATP among weapons and protest materials in July 2019, when mass protests were taking place against a proposed law allowing extradition to mainland China.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: TATP shockwave overpressure is 70% of that for TNT, the positive phase impulse is 55% of the TNT equivalent. TATP at 0.4 g/cm has about one-third of the brisance of TNT (1.2 g/cm) measured by the Hess test.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: TATP is attractive to terrorists because it is easily prepared from readily available retail ingredients, such as hair bleach and nail polish remover. It was also able to evade detection because it is one of the few high explosives that do not contain nitrogen, and could therefore pass undetected through standard explosive detection scanners, which were hitherto designed to detect nitrogenous explosives. By 2016, explosives detectors had been modified to be able to detect TATP, and new types were developed.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Legislative measures to limit the sale of hydrogen peroxide concentrated to 12% or higher have been made in the European Union.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: A key disadvantage is the high susceptibility of TATP to accidental detonation, causing workplace accidents and "own goals" among illegal bomb-makers, which has led to TATP being referred to as the "Mother of Satan". TATP was found in the accidental explosion that preceded the 2017 terrorist attacks in Barcelona and surrounding areas.


title: Acetone peroxide

text: Large-scale TATP synthesis is often betrayed by excessive bleach-like or fruity smells. This smell can even penetrate into clothes and hair in amounts that are quite noticeable. A person who has been making TATP "smells like chemicals"; this was reported in the 2016 Brussels bombings.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: Thunder Force is a 2021 American superhero comedy film written and directed by Ben Falcone, and starring Melissa McCarthy, Octavia Spencer, Bobby Cannavale, Pom Klementieff, Taylor Mosby, with Melissa Leo, and Jason Bateman. It is the fifth collaboration between McCarthy and her husband Falcone, and follows two childhood friends who invent a way to become superheroes in a world where criminals have developed superpowers.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: The film was digitally released by Netflix on April 9, 2021. It received generally negative reviews from critics.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: In March 1983, Earth was subjected to cosmic rays that gave sociopaths superpowers, resulting in a rise of supervillains known as Miscreants. With no one able to stop the Miscreants, normal people are usually left living in fear of being attacked by them. After a Miscreant kills her geneticist parents on their way home from work, Emily Stanton becomes determined to find a way to stop Miscreants.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: By 1985, Emily has sacrificed much of her social life in favor of researching possible methods of fighting back against Miscreants. While this results in her being bullied, Lydia Berman stands up for her and becomes her best and only friend. Lydia supports Emily's dream of giving superpowers to normal people, though she tries to make sure that Emily does not overwork herself. When Lydia convinces Emily to take a half-hour nap from studying in 1993, she accidentally causes Emily to oversleep and wake up late for an AP exam, straining their relationship and causing them to drift apart.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: In 2024, Emily and Lydia have gone their separate ways, with Emily becoming a successful scientist and researcher for her own company and Lydia becoming a longshoreman. Lydia tries to reconnect with Emily when their high school reunion comes around and invites her to come. When she fails to show up on the night of the reunion, Lydia concludes that Emily is still uncomfortable attending parties by herself and goes to pick her up. Emily tells her that while she would have liked to go to the reunion, she had forgotten when the reunion was and had a project she had to work on that night, which Emily wants to show to Lydia. Unfortunately, Lydia accidentally injects herself with a serum Emily had been working on.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: Having been injected with the serum, Lydia learns from Emily that the serum was designed to give a normal person superhuman strength and that she would have to undergo special training and treatment so the serum does not kill her. Emily also joins Lydia in the treatment, although a less painful one since Emily took the serum in a pill form to take the other superpower concocted, invisibility. During the thirty-three day treatment and training, Lydia and Emily grow closer. Lydia discovers that in the years since their high school graduation, Emily had a daughter, Tracy, with one of the researchers, who could not handle the responsibility and left them.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: Once they finish their training and treatment, Emily and Lydia foil a liquor store robbery run by a Miscreant with crab arms known as the Crab, who falls in love with an equally smitten Lydia, much to Emily's concern. Emily and Lydia, known as the superhero team Thunder Force, are praised for their heroics. This brings Thunder Force to the attention of mayoral candidate William "The King" Stevens, whose campaign is built on the idea that only he can end the Miscreants' crimes.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: With the help of Laser, a Miscreant who can generate and control whip-like energy beams, the King tries to get Thunder Force to work for him, leaving Chicago at the mercy of the Miscreants unless he wins the mayoral election. Thunder Force continues to fight crime with their superpowers and support the rival mayoral candidate, thereby causing the King to lose the election. The King then sends Laser to attack Thunder Force when they're at a diner. When she tries to get away, Lydia throws a bus at her despite Emily's protests. Though nobody was hurt, Emily decides that Lydia's impulsiveness is more problematic than beneficial, once again straining their friendship.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: In an effort to make amends, Lydia goes on a date with the Crab to get some useful information. Along with how the Crab is a misunderstood person who had to turn to a life of crime, Lydia learns that the King is planning on blowing up everyone who did not vote for him in the election, along with the new mayor, at a party he's hosting under the guise of a celebration of the new mayor. She tells Emily of what she learned and makes amends with her.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: After fighting off Laser one last time, Thunder Force go to stop the King from bombing the building. When they manage to find the bomb, the King decides to fight Thunder Force himself, revealing himself to be a Miscreant with superhuman strength, though significantly stronger than Lydia. Before the King can kill Lydia, the Crab double crosses the King and gets his claws broken off. Tracy also joins the fight, having injected herself with her mother's serum, giving her the ability to run at superhuman speed. Though they manage to take the King down, Thunder Force realizes that the bomb will go off before they can disarm it.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: With no guarantee that the bomb would be stable enough to not go off while Tracy carries the bomb to somewhere safe, Lydia decides to sacrifice herself, knowing that she can at least reduce the impact of the explosion. She jumps out the building with the bomb and dives into the Chicago River, seemingly dying in the explosion. However, the paramedics manage to find her body and resuscitate her. Thunder Force, now with a stronger friendship between Emily and Lydia, are offered by the mayor the assistance of the city's resources, which they accept.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: On March 29, 2019, it was reported that Netflix had greenlit a superhero comedy film entitled "Thunder Force" to be written and directed by Ben Falcone, with Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer as lead roles.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: In lieu of eating raw chicken on-screen, which McCarthy's character is required to do to maintain her super strength, the cast ate "really thinly sliced pears treated with citric acid and food coloring."


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: In its first 28 days of release, "Thunder Force" was watched by approximately 52 million viewers worldwide.


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 21% based on 140 reviews and an average rating of 4.10/10. The critics consensus reads: "It's got a few chuckles, but "Thunder Force" is largely a superhero comedy that's neither exciting nor funny -- and an egregious waste of its co-stars' talents." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 34 out of 100 based on 34 critic reviews, meaning "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: Thunder Force (film)

text: Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, writing: "It's always a shame when a group of talented humans get together and deliver something that comes across as a halfhearted effort, even if they poured their blood, sweat and tears into it." Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave the film a "C" and wrote: "While McCarthy and Spencer do their damndest to make the family-friendly feature work — McCarthy in particular brings real texture to her charming slacker with a heart of gold, a role she's played so many times before — "Thunder Force" isn't clever enough to break new ground in the superhero milieu, nor is it silly enough to mine its material for the kind of jokes that would make it distinctive."


title: Tanabata

text: , also known as the Star Festival (星祭り, "Hoshimatsuri"), is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on 7 July of the Gregorian calendar. The celebration is held at various days between July and August.


title: Tanabata

text: The festival was introduced to Japan by the Empress Kōken in 755. It originated from , an alternative name for Qixi which is celebrated in China and also was adopted in the Kyoto Imperial Palace from the Heian period.


title: Tanabata

text: The festival gained widespread popularity amongst the general public by the early Edo period, when it became mixed with various Obon or Bon traditions (because Bon was held on 15th of the seventh month then), and developed into the modern Tanabata festival. Popular customs relating to the festival varied by region of the country, but generally, girls wished for better sewing and craftsmanship, and boys wished for better handwriting by writing wishes on strips of paper. At this time, the custom was to use dew left on taro leaves to create the ink used to write wishes. Incidentally, Bon is now held on 15 August on the solar calendar, close to its original date on the lunar calendar, making Tanabata and Bon separate events.


title: Tanabata

text: The name Tanabata is remotely related to the Japanese reading of the Chinese characters 七夕, which used to be read as "Shichiseki" (see explanation about the various kanji readings). It is believed that a Shinto purification ceremony existed around the same time, in which a Shinto miko wove a special cloth on a loom called a and offered it to a god to pray for protection of rice crops from rain or storm and for good harvest later in autumn. Gradually this ceremony merged with "Kikkōden" to become "Tanabata". The Chinese characters 七夕 and the Japanese reading "Tanabata" joined to mean the same festival, although originally they were two different things, an example of "jukujikun".


title: Tanabata

text: Like Qixi and Chilseok, Tanabata was inspired by the famous Chinese folklore story, "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl". Some versions were included in the "Man'yōshū".


title: Tanabata

text: , daughter of the , wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the . Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, Orihime was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for her to meet (also referred to as ) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa. When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and married shortly thereafter. However, once married, Orihime would no longer weave cloth for Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tentei separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tentei was moved by his daughter's tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if she worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies cannot come because of the rise of the river and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet. The rain of this day is called "The tears of Orihime and Hikoboshi".


title: Tanabata

text: Japanese scholars pointed out that some tales of the "Tanabata" cross over with the character of the "Celestial Maiden" (otherwise known in Japan as "Tennin Nyoobo" or "Hagoromo").


title: Tanabata

text: Comparative scholarship on the Japanese variants points that at the beginning of the story, the human male goes near a lake for a variety of reasons (a prayer to the gods for a wife; a vision sent in a dream; a grateful animal points him the way). Over the course of the story, the human partner reaches the celestial realm where his wife and her family live. Once there, he is forced to perform tasks before they reunite. At the end of the narrative, the husband breaks a taboo (he should not eat a certain melon/gourd, but he does and is washed away) and he and his celestial wife are separated, only to reunite again during the night of 7 July.


title: Tanabata

text: James Danandjaja relates the Japanese tale of "Amafuri Otome" ("The Woman who came from the Sky"), as a similar tale of the unmarried mortal man, named Mikeran, who withholds the kimono from a bathing lady so she cannot fly home to the sky. Years after they marry, she finds her kimono and flies home with their children. Mikeran fashions a thousand straw sandals to reach the sky world and find his wife. When he meets his parents-in-law, the father-in-law forces him to perform some tasks, and tricks the human with cutting a thousand watermelons in one day. The human's sky wife knows it is a trap, but he does it anyway and is washed away by a flood created from the watermelons. Thus, they can only meet on the night of the "Tanabata" festival.


title: Tanabata

text: Professors Masako Satō and Noriko T. Reider provided a narrative analysis of an ancient tale involving a human female and her future consort, Prince Ame-waka-hiko. In this tale of the "Otogi-zōshi" genre, the Prince takes the form of a serpent and marries a human woman. He later reveals he is a heavenly deity named Dragon Prince. After some time, he disappears and his human bride must seek him out (akin to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche), even reaching the heavenly realm, where his father, an "oni", lives. At the end of this tale, the lovers are forcibly separated by the oni father and can only reunite during the "Tanabata".


title: Tanabata

text: Noriko T. Reider draws attention to a second story of this combination: the "Qian Luwei Tale". In this version, the human wife's father is identified as Qian Luwei, and the male deity is Hikoboshi, the son of "Bontennō", Brahma.


title: Tanabata

text: In present-day Japan, people generally celebrate this day by writing wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on , small pieces of paper, and hanging them on bamboo, sometimes with other decorations (see also Wish Tree). The bamboo and decorations are often set afloat on a river or burned after the festival, around midnight or on the next day. This resembles the custom of floating paper ships and candles on rivers during Obon. Many areas in Japan have their own Tanabata customs, which are mostly related to local Obon traditions. There is also a traditional Tanabata song:


title: Tanabata

text: The original Tanabata date was based on the Japanese lunisolar calendar, which is about a month behind the Gregorian calendar. As a result, some festivals are held on 7 July, some are held on a few days around 7 August (according to the "One-Month Delay" way), while the others are still held on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the traditional Japanese lunisolar calendar, which is usually in August in the Gregorian Calendar.


title: Tanabata

text: The Gregorian dates of "the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the Japanese lunisolar calendar" for the coming years are:


title: Tanabata

text: Large-scale Tanabata festivals are held in many places in Japan, mainly along shopping malls and streets, which are decorated with large, colorful streamers. The most famous Tanabata festival is held in Sendai from 6 to 8 August. In the Kantō area, two of the largest Tanabata festivals are held in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa (around 7 July) and in Asagaya, Tokyo immediately prior to the start of the Obon holiday in mid August. A Tanabata festival is also held in São Paulo, Brazil around the first weekend of July and Los Angeles, California in the beginning of August.


title: Tanabata

text: Although Tanabata festivals vary by region, most festivals involve Tanabata decoration competitions. Other events may include parades and Miss Tanabata contests. Like other Japanese matsuri, many outdoor stalls sell food, provide carnival games, etc., and add to the festive atmosphere.


title: Tanabata

text: Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea often celebrates the Tanabata Festival featuring a greeting parade with Minnie as Orihime and Mickey as Hikoboshi.


title: Tanabata

text: The Sendai Tanabata Festival is the most famous in Japan. Tanabata has been celebrated in the region since the time of Date Masamune (1567–1636) who was the first warlord in the Sendai area. The festival began shortly after the city was founded in the early Edo Period. The Tanabata festival gradually developed and became larger over the years. Although the festival's popularity started to dwindle after the Meiji Restoration, and almost disappeared during the economic depression that occurred after World War I, volunteers in Sendai revived the festival in 1928 and established the tradition of holding the festival from 6 to 8 August.


title: Tanabata

text: During World War II it was impossible to hold the festival, and almost no decorations were seen in the city from 1943 to 1945, but after the war, the first major Tanabata festival in Sendai was held in 1946, and featured 52 decorations. In 1947, the Showa Emperor Hirohito visited Sendai and was greeted by 5,000 Tanabata decorations. The festival subsequently developed into one of the three major summer festivals in the Tōhoku region and became a major tourist attraction. The festival now includes a fireworks show that is held on 5 August.


title: Tanabata

text: At the Sendai Tanabata Festival, people traditionally use seven different kinds of decorations, which each represent different meanings. The seven decorations and their symbolic meanings are:


title: Tanabata

text: The ornamental ball (薬玉; Kusudama) often decorated above streamers in present-day Tanabata decorations was originally conceived in 1946 by the owner of a shop in downtown Sendai. The ball was originally modeled after the dahlia flower. In recent years, box-shaped ornaments have become popular alternatives to the ornamental ball.


title: Tanabata

text: In 2008, the 34th G8 summit in Tōyako, Hokkaidō coincided with Tanabata. As host, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda invited the G8 leaders to participate in the spirit of the festival. They were each asked to write a wish on a piece of paper called "tanzaku", to hang the "tanzaku" on a bamboo tree, and then to take the necessary actions to change the world for the better. As a symbolic gesture, the actual writing and the act of hanging up that note is at least a first step.


title: Tanabata

text: The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs made colored strips of paper and a bamboo tree for G8 wishes available in Roppongi during the summit. Protesting organizations in Sapporo during the G8 summit also tried to use the spirit of Tanabata to focus attention on a somewhat different set of wishes. Non-governmental organizations including Oxfam and CARE International set up an online wish petition campaign to coincide with the G8 Summit and Tanabata. Outside Japan, Fukuda's timely gesture had unanticipated consequences. For example, the Indian nationally circulated newspaper, "The Hindu", picked up on this festival theme by printing an editorial featuring unconventional Tanabata wishes.


title: Tanabata

text: Fukuda also invited his fellow citizens to try turning off the lights in their house and stepping outside to enjoy with their family the sight of the Milky Way in the night sky. On 7 July, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment anticipated that over 70,000 facilities and households across Japan would switch off their lights from 20:00 to 22:00 as a symbolic step and as a wish for the future.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Gormenghast is a fantasy series by British author Mervyn Peake, about the inhabitants of Castle Gormenghast, a sprawling, decaying, Gothic structure. Originally conceived as a single on-going novel, the series was ended by Peake's death and comprises three novels: "Titus Groan" (1946), "Gormenghast" (1950) and "Titus Alone" (1959); and a novella, "Boy in Darkness" (1956), whose canonical status is debated. Peake was writing a fourth novel, "Titus Awakes", at the time of his death in 1968. The book was completed by Peake's widow Maeve Gilmore in the early 1970s. After it was discovered by their family, it was published in 2009.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Although the first two instalments do not contain any overtly fantastical elements, "Gormenghast" is almost unanimously categorised as fantasy because of the atmosphere and pseudo-medieval setting. The series has received widespread acclaim from the speculative fiction community and mainstream literary critics.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: The series has been included in "Fantasy: The 100 Best Books", "" and "100 Must Read Fantasy Novels" as one of the greatest fantasy works of the twentieth century. Literary critic Harold Bloom has praised the series as the best fantasy novels of the 20th century and one of the greatest sequences in modern world literature. "Gormenghast" is often credited as the first fantasy of manners novel. The books have been translated into over twenty languages.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: The series consists of three books: "Titus Groan" (1946), "Gormenghast" (1950) and "Titus Alone" (1959). A short book, "Boy in Darkness" (1956), tells the story of a brief adventure by the young Titus away from Gormenghast, although it does not name the castle.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Peake had intended to write a series of books following Titus Groan through his life, as well as detailing his relationship with Gormenghast. At least two other books, tentatively titled "Titus Awakes" and "Gormenghast Revisited", were planned but Parkinson's disease and Peake's ensuing death at the age of 57 prevented him from writing more than a few hundred words and ideas for further volumes. Only three pages of "Titus Awakes" were coherently written and can be found in the Overlook Press edition of "Titus Alone" () and in the omnibus volume ().


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: In the 1970s, Peake's widow Maeve Gilmore wrote her version of "Titus Awakes", which she called "Search Without End". The Peake family rediscovered this book at the end of 2009 and it was published by The Overlook Press as "Titus Awakes: The Lost Book of Gormenghast" to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Peake's birth.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Gormenghast is a remote and reclusive earldom dominated by the huge Castle Gormenghast at its centre, and ruled by the noble family of Groan since time immemorial. The earldom derives its name from Gormenghast Mountain, and is isolated from the outside world by inhospitable regions on each side of it. To the North are marshy wastelands, to the South are grey salt marshes (and presumably then the ocean), to the East are quicksands and the tideless sea, and to the West are knuckles of endless rock.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: To the West also lies the claw-like Gormenghast Mountain, with the Twisted Woods and Gormenghast River at its foot. East of them are escarpments described as "an irregular tableland of greeny-black rock, broken and scarred and empty", then desolate swamp before the vicinity of the castle is reached. Gormenghast Mountain is said to be so large that from the castle it looks at most a few miles distant, whereas in fact it is a day's ride away on horseback. However, this is contradicted by events within the story, when various characters are able to travel on foot to the castle and back within a single day. Given that it is surrounded on three sides by watery regions, it is not implausible that the entire region can be flooded, as described in the second book, "Gormenghast".


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: At the centre of the earldom is the vast, largely deserted castle, whose remaining inhabitants centre their lives on the ritual surrounding the ruling family of Groan. The castle is described as being like an immense island of stone, its every outline familiar to the inhabitants, who know "every bay, inlet and headland of the great stone island of the Groans, of its sheer cliffs, of its crumbling outcrops, the broken line of the towers". Dominating the ivy-covered, crumbling castle is the highest tower, the Tower of Flints, which is inhabited by great numbers of owls. The castle is so huge that most of the inhabitants do not venture outside except for ceremonies. Outside the castle, clustered under the northern walls, is a hodge-podge of mud dwellings inhabited by the "Bright Carvers", villagers whose only contact with the aristocrats is their annual ritual of carving elaborate objects out of wood and presenting them to the Earl for his judging of the winning carving. They are in awe of the "Castles", as they call Gormenghast's elite inhabitants.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Some contact with the outside world is implied; Dr Prunesquallor at one point sketches an ostrich skeleton, while Steerpike procures a monkey from somewhere. Otherwise, the impression given is that Gormenghast is stagnant, insular and introspective. A recurring theme is the time-consuming, complex and pointless rituals that the inhabitants submit to regularly, the origin and purpose of which is long forgotten. Gormenghast makes a stark contrast with the industrious and technologically advanced city that is the setting of "Titus Alone".


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: The story begins with the birth of the eponymous Titus, as the heir to the throne of the House of Groan, and finishes just over a year later with his "Earling" or formal investiture as the seventy-seventh Earl of Groan, after the untimely death of his father Sepulchrave. As Titus is only an infant in this novel, he plays a minor role. The main plot therefore follows the somewhat bizarre inhabitants of Gormenghast Castle, and in particular chronicles the rise to power of Steerpike, a scheming kitchen boy. Steerpike successfully destroys the existing order of the castle by inciting the power-hungry and shunned twin sisters of Sepulchrave, Cora and Clarice, to burn Sepulchrave's beloved library. This event drives Sepulchrave into madness and eventually into taking his own life. Although Cora and Clarice are not exposed as the perpetrators of the fire, they are now under Steerpike's power. A subplot involves the feud between Sepulchrave's loyal servant Flay and the chef Swelter, which ends with them fighting and Swelter being killed.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: The second book follows Titus from the age of seven to seventeen. As the 77th earl and lord of Gormenghast, he dreads the life of pre-ordained ritual that stretches before him. His desire for freedom is awakened by the sight of his foster sister, known only as "The Thing", a feral child who lives in the woods of Gormenghast (due to her mother being banished as an outcast) and who terrorizes the Bright Carvers, the inhabitants of the mud dwellings outside the castle walls. Her life of wild freedom makes him realise that an existence is possible other than the rigid formalities and ritual of the castle. Meanwhile, Steerpike continues his rise to power by killing Barquentine, the Master of Ritual, and taking his place, but he is eventually unmasked as a traitor and murderer. The castle is flooded by a rainstorm, and in a watery duel with Titus, Steerpike is killed, leaving the way clear for Titus to reign. However, his desire to leave Gormenghast is now overwhelming, Titus flees the castle for the wider world beyond Gormenghast Mountain.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: The story follows Titus as he travels far from Gormenghast and finds a futuristic city dominated by scientists and advanced technology. He then travels to a region where a huge modern factory stands by a lake, filled with identical-looking workers. There is a smell of death from the factory and it is hinted that sinister experiments are taking place there. Titus is increasingly haunted by his memories of Gormenghast and begins to realise its importance to his identity. At the same time, the world he encounters is so different from his old home that he begins to doubt that Gormenghast ever really existed.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Titus is helped by mysterious inhabitants he meets, such as Muzzlehatch, the owner of a zoo, who drives a shark-shaped car and becomes a friend and mentor. He is also helped by Muzzlehatch's former lover, Juno, who in turn becomes Titus's lover for a brief period. However, Titus also becomes involved with Cheeta, the daughter of the scientist who runs the factory, and who grows to hate Titus and sets out to destroy him. This novel is more randomly plotted than its two predecessors, without a strong lead character or a fixed setting. A heavily edited first edition was published in 1959; a fuller version compiled by Langdon Jones from Peake's early drafts was issued in 1970 and forms the basis for all subsequent editions.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Titus Groan: The main character of the series, and heir to the Earldom of Gormenghast. He succeeds to the title of 77th Earl while still a child, but as he grows older, he develops ambivalent feelings toward his home. He is torn between pride in his lineage and the desire to escape from the castle and its traditions. Titus is born at the beginning of the first book of the series, the son of Sepulchrave and Gertrude, and is an infant throughout the whole of "Titus Groan". He grows up and reaches young adulthood in the second book "Gormenghast", which ends with him leaving Gormenghast after defeating Steerpike in battle. In the third book, "Titus Alone", Titus discovers a world outside of Gormenghast where the castle and its inhabitants are unknown. Titus also features in another book called "Boy in Darkness", which appears to take place during his youth in Gormenghast, but which is unconnected to the main story. Titus's character is one of yearning for freedom and the romance of being an ordinary person without the restrictions and responsibilities of the Earldom and the tradition that comes with it.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: As for Titus, he was almost grown now to his full height. But he was of an odd highly-strung nature -- sullen and excitable by turns. Strong as need be for his years, he was more apt to have his energy sapped by the excess of his imagination than of his body.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Lord Sepulchrave: 76th Earl and Titus's father. He is a melancholy man who feels shackled by his duties as Earl, although he never questions them. His only escape is reading. However, when the castle's Library is burnt down, he is driven insane and comes to believe that he is one of the death-owls that live in the abandoned Tower of Flints.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: ... a dark figure stole forth, closing the door behind him quietly, and with an air of the deepest dejection... His face was very long and was olive coloured. The eyes were large, and of an eloquence, withdrawn. His nostrils were mobile and sensitive. His mouth, a narrow line...


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: The Countess Gertrude: 76th Countess and Titus's mother. An immense, statuesque woman with coils of dark red hair, she pays little attention to her family or the rest of Gormenghast. Instead, she spends her time locked away in her bedroom, in the company of a legion of cats and birds, the only things toward which she shows affection. However, once given the chance to use her intelligence she turns out to be one of the cleverest people in the castle, when (along with Flay and the doctor) she recognizes and investigates the worrying changes transpiring in Gormenghast. She demonstrates unexpected leadership qualities during the flooding of the castle and hunt for Steerpike, but once the threat has passed she retreats back into her own world of isolation. According to Sepulchrave's sisters, the Ladies Cora and Clarice, Gertrude is of common blood and not of the noble bloodline of the Groans.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: As the candles guttered or flared so the shadows moved from side to side, or up and down the wall, and with those movements behind the bed there swayed the shadows of four birds. Between them vacillated an enormous head. This umbrage was cast by her ladyship, the 76th Countess of Groan. She was propped against several pillows and a black shawl was draped around her shoulders. Her hair, a very dark red color of great luster, appeared to have been left suddenly while being woven into a knotted structure on the top of her head. Thick coils still fell about her shoulder or clustered on the pillows like burning snakes. Her eyes were of the pale green that is common among cats. They were large eyes, yet seemed, in proportion to the pale area of her face, to be small. The nose was big enough to appear so in spite of the expanse that surrounded it. The effect which she produced was one of bulk...


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Lady Fuchsia Groan: Titus's sister. At times impatient, immature, and self-absorbed, she can also be extremely warm and caring. At first, she resents Titus, but gradually develops a deep bond with him. Of all Titus's family, she is the one he loves most. Fuchsia also develops a very close, but brief bond with her father, Lord Sepulchrave, during his final mental breakdown after the library fire. Broken by disappointment and disillusionment, she is killed as she accidentally slips from the windowsill where she is contemplating suicide. As she falls, she strikes her head on the stonework, and drowns unconscious in the floodwaters surrounding the Castle.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: ... a girl of about fifteen with long, rather wild black hair. She was gauche in movement and in a sense ugly of face, but with how small a twist might she not suddenly have become beautiful. Her sullen mouth was full and rich -- her eyes smoldered. A yellow scarf hung loosely around her neck. Her shapeless dress was flaming red. For all the straightness of her back, she walked with a slouch.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Cora and Clarice Groan: Titus's aunts (sisters of Sepulchrave), a pair of identical twins. Both suffered from spasms in their youth, so the left-hand sides of their bodies are paralyzed. They have virtually the same personalities and neither of them is intelligent — they are perhaps even intellectually disabled — although Cora believes that she is slightly cleverer than Clarice. During the family breakfast, the narrator notes that both sisters are thinking the same thoughts. Both crave political power and dislike Gertrude, whom they believe robbed them of their rightful place in the hierarchy of Gormenghast. Their mindless ambition and thirst for revenge lead them to become Steerpike's pawns.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: She and her sister were dressed in purple with gold buckles at their throats by way of brooches, and another gold buckle each at the end of hatpins which they wore through their gray hair in order apparently to match their brooches. Their faces, identical to the point of indecency, were quite expressionless, as though they were the preliminary layouts for faces and were waiting for sentience to be injected.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Alongside the ruling Groan family there is a large population within the castle who service its daily needs. Although the "Castles", as they are known (to distinguish them from the Bright Carvers), are all commoners, they are nevertheless highly socially stratified, from the socially respectable Dr Prunesquallor and the Professors to the lowly Grey Scrubbers, whose sole job is to clean the walls of the kitchen. However lowly the position of the "Castles" may be, they consider themselves to be far superior to the Bright Carvers who live outside the castle walls.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Steerpike: A youthful outsider, beginning as a kitchen boy, who worms his way into the hierarchy of Gormenghast for his own personal gain. Ruthlessly murderous, with a Machiavellian, highly intelligent and methodical mind, and a talent for manipulation, he can appear charming and sometimes even noble. But due to his fundamentally evil nature, he has natural personal enmity with Titus. He is finally hunted down and killed by Titus, who holds him responsible for the death of his sister, Fuchsia.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: His body gave the appearance of being malformed, but it would be difficult to say exactly what gave it this gibbous quality. Limb by limb it appeared that he was sound enough, but the sum of these several members accrued to an unexpectedly twisted total. His face was pale like clay and save for his eyes, masklike. These eyes were set very close together, and were small, dark red, and of startling concentration.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Mr Flay: Lord Sepulchrave's personal servant, who believes in strictly holding to the rules of Gormenghast. Nevertheless, he is not completely hard-hearted and cares a great deal for Titus and Fuchsia. He is eventually exiled from Gormenghast for throwing one of the Countess's cats at Steerpike. However, he secretly keeps an eye on the doings in the castle, and plays a crucial role in Steerpike's eventual unmasking as a traitor.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Mr Flay appeared to clutter up the doorway as he stood revealed, his arms folded... It did not look as though such a bony face as this could give normal utterance, but rather that instead of sounds, something more brittle, more ancient, something drier would emerge, something more in the nature of a splinter or a fragment of stone. Nevertheless, the harsh lips parted. "It's me," he said, and took a step forward, his joints cracking as he did so. His passage across a room -- in fact his passage through life -- was accomplished by these cracking sounds, one per step, which might be likened to the breaking of dry twigs.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Dr Alfred Prunesquallor: The castle's resident physician. He is an eccentric individual with a high-pitched laugh and a grandiose wit which he uses on the castle's less intelligent inhabitants. Despite his acid tongue, he is an extremely kind and caring man who also is greatly fond of Fuchsia and Titus. (Several times, Prunesquallor's first name is given as "Bernard", but this inconsistency is considered an error on Peake's part.) Although he appears at first to be foppish and weak, the doctor later shows himself to be both intelligent and courageous, and he plays an important role in defeating Steerpike.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: The doctor with his hyena laugh and his bizarre and elegant body, his celluloid face. His main defects? The insufferable pitch of his voice; his maddening laugh and his affected gestures. His cardinal virtue? An undamaged brain.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Irma Prunesquallor: Doctor Prunesquallor's sister. Though she is anything but pretty, she is considerably vain. She desperately desires to be admired and loved by men. She becomes romantically involved with Bellgrove.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Vain as a child, thin as a stork's leg, and, in her black glasses, blind as an owl in daylight. She misses her footing on the social ladder at least three times a week, only to start climbing again, wriggling her pelvis all the while. She clasps her dead, white hands beneath her chin in the high hope of hiding the flatness of her chest.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Abiatha Swelter: The fat, sadistic head chef of Gormenghast. His profound hatred for Flay leads him to attempt his murder; however, he is killed by his intended victim.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Abiatha Swelter, who wades in a slug-like illness of fat through the humid ground mists of the Great Kitchen. From bowls as big as baths, there rises and drifts like a miasmic tide the all but palpable odor of the day's bellytimber. The arrogance of this fat head exudes itself like an evil sweat.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Nannie Slagg: An ancient dwarf who serves as the nurse for infant Titus and Fuchsia before him. She is somewhat unintelligent, deeply self-pitying and has an inferiority complex. Nevertheless, she is kind and loving, and is the only figure who shows any real affection to the children when they are young.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: ... she is so minute, so frightened, so old, so querulous, she neither could, nor would, head any procession, even on paper. Her peevish cry goes out: "Oh, my weak heart! How could they?" and she hurries to Fuchsia either to smack the abstracted girl in order to ease herself, or to bury the wrinkled prune of her face in Fuchsia's side. Alone in her small room again, she lies upon her bed and bites her minute knuckles.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Sourdust: The Master of Ritual when the series begins. He is the one who coordinates the various arcane rituals that make up daily life in Gormenghast. After his death in the Library Fire, his position is taken up by his son Barquentine.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: His beard was knotted and the hairs that composed it were black and white. His face was very lined, as though it had been made of brown paper that had been crunched by some savage hand before being hastily smoothed out and spread over the tissues. His eyes were deep set and almost lost in the shadows cast by his fine brow, which for all its wrinkles, retained a sweeping breadth of bone.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Barquentine: Follows his father into the role of Master of Ritual. He is lame in one leg, hideous, and unbelievably dirty. He is a consummate misanthrope who abuses and insults everybody he meets, and who cares only for the rigid application of the laws and traditions of Gormenghast. He makes the grievous error of allowing Steerpike to become his assistant.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: The lynch-pin son of the dead Sourdust, by name Barquentine, Master of Ritual, is a stunted, cantankerous pedant of seventy, who stepped into his father's shoes (or, to be exact, his shoe, for this Barquentine is a one-legged thing who smites his way through ill-lit corridors on grim and echoing crutch).


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Bellgrove: School Professor. One of Titus's teachers, who eventually ascends to Headmaster of Gormenghast. In many respects, he is the standard absent-minded professor who falls asleep during his own class and plays with marbles. However, deep inside him there is a certain element of dignity and nobility. At heart he is kindly, and if weak, at least has the humility to be aware of his faults. He begins a rather unusual romance with Irma Prunesquallor. He becomes something of a father figure to Titus.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: He was a fine-looking man in his way. Big of head, his brow and the bridge of his nose descended in a single line of undeniable nobility. His jaw was as long as his brow and nose together and lay exactly parallel in profile to those features. With his leonine shock of snow-white hair there was something of the major prophet about him. But his eyes were disappointing. They made no effort to bear out the promise of the other features, which would have formed the ideal setting for the kind of eye that flashes with visionary fire. Mr Bellgrove's eyes didn't flash at all.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Also known as the Mud Dwellers or the Outer Dwellers, the Bright Carvers live directly outside the castle walls, crammed closely together in hovels of mud and straw. Their lives are hard and monotonous, and they live solely on jarl root (a kind of tree growing in Gormenghast forest), and crusts of bread lowered down from the castle walls each morning. Their sole obsession is the carving of beautiful wooden sculptures, brightly painted, which they present to the Groans on a particular day each year in June. Only three of these carvings are chosen by the Earl of Gormenghast to be kept and the rest are burnt. Fierce rivalry exists between the Carvers to present the best carvings, and their lives are dominated by this and by their own long-held feuds and grudges against each other. The Bright Carvers are a race apart from the Castle dwellers, living by their own cultural norms and customs, which are impenetrable to outsiders.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Keda: A woman from the Bright Carvers' village just outside the walls of Gormenghast. She is chosen to be Titus's wet nurse, but eventually leaves this position. She has two lovers, Braigon and Rantel, who fight a duel and both die for her, but not before one of them impregnates her. Eventually, she kills herself by leaping off a crag, after giving birth to a daughter — The Thing.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: The Thing: The daughter of Keda, foster sister of Titus. Due to her illegitimacy, she is an outcast who becomes a feral child living in the wilderness surrounding Gormenghast. She is fierce and untameable, living only for herself, and takes her revenge on the Bright Carvers by mutilating their carvings. Believing that she is in every way the opposite of Gormenghast, Titus becomes infatuated with her. She is killed by a bolt of lightning.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: In "Titus Alone" Titus leaves Gormenghast and after a time spent wandering comes to the city, a futuristic place of glass and steel buildings, flying machines and other modern technology. Titus is disoriented by the huge contrast between the city and his old home, particularly since none of the people he meets have ever heard of Gormenghast or show much interest in it. In his journey through the city Titus meets a large number of characters, some friendly and some hostile. Later Titus leaves the city and travels to a land dominated by a sinister factory beside a lake.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Muzzlehatch is a man who drives around the city in a large shark-like car, who comes upon Titus lying faint on the waterfront and brings him home with him. He initially helps Titus not because he cares for him, but because he hates the city's police authorities, who are pursuing Titus as a vagrant. Muzzlehatch has a zoo at his house, and when not driving his car, he rides about on some of his animals, such as a stag or a llama. Despite his initial indifference, he becomes a mentor to Titus and helps him navigate his way about the city's confusing and dangerous life.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Juno is a former lover of Muzzlehatch, who agrees to be Titus's guardian when he is captured and put on trial, in order to save him from going to an institution. Although she is twice his age, she and Titus become lovers, in a passionate but brief affair. However, after the initial excitement of their liaison, Titus feels increasingly trapped and leaves Juno to strike out into the city on his own.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Cheeta is a woman of about Titus's own age, who finds Titus wandering in a fever and nurses him back to health. In the process she becomes infatuated with him, and fascinated by his fevered ravings about Gormenghast. She is the daughter of a scientist who runs the factory where it is hinted at that sinister experiments are taking place. Although Titus is attracted to her, he spurns her advances, and she resolves to take her revenge. After hearing Titus telling many stories of Gormenghast, she arranges a mocking pageant or parade with grotesque caricatures of the inhabitants of the castle in order to humiliate him and unhinge his mind.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: The first book, "Titus Groan", was published in 1946 to ecstatic reviews and the series has continued to grow in its critical reputation since Peake's death. Contemporary reviewers praise it for its iconic imagery and characters, and it is often cited as one of the greatest fantasy novels of all time. Anthony Burgess called the series uniquely brilliant and stated that it has rightfully been hailed as modern classic. In their review "Punch" opined that the series constituted "the finest imaginary feat in the English novel since "Ulysses", while editor Langdon Jones commented that it was the sort of novel that one remembered for the rest of one's life and that he felt it should be required reading in secondary schools. "The Daily Telegraph" has described Steerpike as one of the all-time greatest villains in western literature.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation produced a dramatization of all three Gormenghast novels. It was first broadcast in 1983 as eight one-hour episodes, and repeated in 1986 in four two-hour parts. This is the first adaptation that includes "Titus Alone" in addition to "Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast".


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: In 1984, BBC Radio 4 broadcast two 90-minute plays based on "Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast", adapted by Brian Sibley and starring Sting as Steerpike and Freddie Jones as the Artist (narrator). A slightly abridged compilation of the two, running to 160 minutes, and titled "Titus Groan of Gormenghast", was broadcast on Christmas Day, 1992. BBC 7 repeated the original versions on 21 and 28 September 2003.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: In 2011, Brian Sibley, who had previously adapted the book for radio in 1984, adapted the story again, this time as six one-hour episodes broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as the Classic Serial starting on 10 July 2011. The serial was titled "The History of Titus Groan" and adapted all three novels written by Peake and the recently discovered concluding volume, "Titus Awakes", completed by his widow, Maeve Gilmore. It starred Luke Treadaway as Titus, David Warner as the Artist and Carl Prekopp as Steerpike. Also starring were Paul Rhys (Sepulchrave), Miranda Richardson (Gertrude), James Fleet (Prunesquallor), Tamsin Greig (Irma Prunesquallor), Fenella Woolgar (Clarice Groan), Adrian Scarborough (Flay) and Mark Benton (Swelter).


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: In 2000, the BBC and the PBS station WGBH of Boston produced "Gormenghast", a four-part serial based on the first two books. The cast included Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Steerpike and Christopher Lee as Mr. Flay. The series achieved success on British television.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Also made in 2000, the 30-minute TV short film "A Boy in Darkness" (adapted from Peake's novella "Boy in Darkness") was the first production from the BBC Drama Lab. It was set in a "virtual" computer-generated world created by young computer game designers, and starred Jack Ryder as "The Boy" (a teenage Titus Groan), with Terry Jones narrating.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: In 2018 it was announced that Neil Gaiman and Akiva Goldsman would adapt the series into a television series for FremantleMedia.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: A minimalist stage version of Gormenghast performed by the David Glass Ensemble, relying heavily on mime, toured theatres in the UK during 2006 and 2007.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: A stage version of "Titus Alone" was produced at the University of Sussex in 2001, using sound and physical theatre to evoke the strange world beyond Gormenghast Castle. It focused on themes of madness and the nature of reality to question whether Titus's memories of the castle are real, or merely fantasies of a damaged mind. It was particularly inspired by Mervyn Peake's loss of his mental faculties due to Parkinson's-induced dementia.


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Carabosse Theatre Company produced a stage version of the first two books of the trilogy called 'Gormenghast' in October 2014 at the Chrysalis Theatre in Milton Keynes. The project was officially endorsed by Fabian Peake (Mervyn Peake's son) and the Mervyn Peake estate. Co-writers of the company's adaptation included its director Sally Luff and the actor Tim Dalgleish. This production used projection mapping, an elaborate set (designed by the artist Shelley Wyn-de-Bank) and colourful costume. http://www.carabosse.org


title: Gormenghast (series)

text: Irmin Schmidt, founder of the seminal German experimental group Can, composed a three-act opera, "Gormenghast", based on the novels. It premiered at the Opernhaus Wuppertal in 1998 and was released on CD the following year. A number of songs, including "Stranger Than Fiction" and "Titus" by New Zealand rock group Split Enz and "The Drowning Man" by The Cure, have been inspired by Peake's work. The British progressive rock group Strawbs feature a Ford/Hudson composition called "Lady Fuschia" (sic) on their 1973 album "Bursting at the Seams", about one of the protagonists of this trilogy. Northern Irish progressive rock band Fruupp included a song called "Gormenghast", inspired by the novels, on their 1975 album "Modern Masquerades". The early 1970s folk rock band "Fuchsia" was named after the character in the novels. The song "Room of Roots" on Al Stewart's 1970 album "Zero She Flies" is inspired by the chapter in "Titus Groan" about the tree roots painted by the sisters Cora and Clarice Groan; Mervyn Peake is credited in the sleeve notes. The 1970s progressive rock band Titus Groan took their name from the first volume of the trilogy and two songs were named after two book's chapters, "Fuschia" (sic) and "Hall Of Bright Carvings".


title: Il Volo

text: Il Volo (; Italian for "The Flight") is an Italian operatic pop trio, consisting of baritone Gianluca Ginoble, and tenors Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto. They describe their music as "popera". Having won the Sanremo Music Festival 2015, they represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria. They reached third place, but achieved first-place in the televoting.


title: Il Volo

text: In 2009, Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble were among the teens competing in the Italian televised singing competition "Ti lascio una canzone", held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo and broadcast by Rai 1. During the first episodes, they performed several songs as solo artists. Among the others, Gianluca Ginoble's rendition of "Il mare calmo della sera", originally by Andrea Bocelli, won the first episode of the show, and later came in first place during the final held on 2 May 2009.


title: Il Volo

text: Director and creator of the show, Roberto Cenci, had the idea to put them together, with the purpose to create a trio similar to The Three Tenors (Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti). During the fourth episode of the show, they performed together for the first time, singing Neapolitan classic song "’O sole mio".


title: Il Volo

text: While in Los Angeles, Italian singer-songwriter and music producer Tony Renis casually discovered their performance through Rai International.


title: Il Volo

text: Impressed by the trio, he decided to call Cenci to arrange a meeting with them. Since they were under the age of 18, Cenci talked with the singers' families, and they decided to trust Renis' proposal to work with him.


title: Il Volo

text: Thanks to lawyer Peter Lopez, Renis met with Geffen Records' Jimmy Iovine and Ron Fair and they offered a recording deal to the group, which allowed them to become the first Italian artists to directly sign with an American recording label. Producer Michele Torpedine started to work with them as a manager.


title: Il Volo

text: The group was initially named "I Tre Tenorini", but their name was later changed to "The Tryo". With this name, in 2010 the group participated in the charity single "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", a remake of the 1985 hit song "We Are the World".


title: Il Volo

text: In February of the same year, they also performed the songs "Granada" and "Un amore così grande" for Queen Rania of Jordan during the 60th Sanremo Music Festival. In late 2010, their name was finally changed into "Il Volo" (English: "the flight")


title: Il Volo

text: In 2010, Il Volo started working on their first studio album, which was recorded in the Abbey Road Studios in London and produced by Tony Renis and Humberto Gatica.


title: Il Volo

text: Simply titled "Il Volo", the album is mainly composed of covers of international and Italian standards, including "Il mondo", "Un amore così grande", "’O sole mio", "El reloj" and Charlie Chaplin's "Smile", but also features original songs written by Diane Warren and Walter Afanasieff.


title: Il Volo

text: Released in Italy on 30 November 2010, it peaked at number 6 on the Italian Albums Chart, and was later certified platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry.


title: Il Volo

text: The international edition of the album was released in the United States by Geffen Records on 12 April 2011, and was promoted with a performance during the final three results show of "American Idol"'s tenth season, as well as with appearances on


title: Il Volo

text: During its first week, "Il Volo" reached the tenth spot of "Billboard" 200 and topped the Classical Albums chart, with sales of 23,000 copies. The album also entered the top ten in other countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, New Zealand and the Netherlands, and it peaked at number one on the Ö3 Austria Albums Chart.


title: Il Volo

text: In June 2011, a Spanish version of the album was released, with the title "Il Volo (Edición en Español)". The record achieved commercial success in Mexico, peaking at number six and being certified platinum by the Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas, as well as in the United States, where it topped the "Billboard" Latin Pop Albums chart and it received the RIAA Latin gold certification, denoting shipments in excess of 50,000 units in the country.


title: Il Volo

text: This also allowed the group to receive two nominations at the 12th Latin Grammy Awards, in the categories Best New Artist and Best Pop Album by a Duo or Group with Vocals, for the album "Il Volo (Edición en Español)".


title: Il Volo

text: The trio performed for the TV show "The Talk" in February 2011 and on 13 October 2011. On 31 July 2011, the trio performed "’O sole mio" and "This Time" for the President's Star Charity show in Singapore to help raise funds for the handicapped.


title: Il Volo

text: On 4 September 2011, the trio performed "’O sole mio" and "Smile" for the "MDA Labor Day Telethon". On 11 September 2011, the trio made a cameo appearance on the series finale of "Entourage".


title: Il Volo

text: On 27 October 2011, Il Volo performed live at the Detroit Opera House to tape their first concert DVD titled "Il Volo – Takes Flight – Live from the Detroit Opera House". This concert premiered on 7 December 2011, in Detroit (on PBS Channel WTVS) and 1,000 cities across Canada (that receive Detroit's PBS on their cable system). On 21 November 2011, Il Volo released, only in digital format, their first EP called "Christmas Favourites", which contains a duet with Pia Toscano. On the same date, their début album was re-released in a special edition that also includes the tracks from "Christmas Favourites". On 22 December 2011, Il Volo was the closing guest for "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, singing "The Christmas Song".


title: Il Volo

text: On 28 February 2012, Il Volo's new CD and DVD, "Il Volo – Takes Flight – Live from the Detroit Opera House", was released. This concert was shown on PBS stations across the US and Canada followed by a tour of the countries from August through October. In October and early November 2012 Il Volo performed in concert with Barbra Streisand. They sang with her the song "Smile", and "Make My Garden Grow", and performed singles "O Sole Mio" and "Un Amore Cosi Grande".


title: Il Volo

text: On 19 November 2012 Il Volo released their second album, "We Are Love" ("Billboard" 200 number 100), which include 12 tracks in three different languages (Italian, English and Spanish) and duets with Plácido Domingo and with Italian pop singer Eros Ramazzotti. The album contains eight unreleased songs, written by Diane Warren, Luis Bacalov and Latin Grammy winner Edgar Cortazar among others, and four covers. It also includes the theme song of film "Hidden Moon", "Luna Nascosta", that Il Volo recorded in 2012. "Luna Nascosta" was selected by the Academy among the seventy-five songs in the running for nominations in the Original Song category for the 2013 Oscars.


title: Il Volo

text: On 28 November 2012 Il Volo performed at the 80th annual Christmas at Rockefeller Center tree lighting in New York, which was broadcast live nationwide on NBC, and on 11 December they performed at the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, with King Harald V in attendance, singing "Il Mondo" and album title track "We Are Love".


title: Il Volo

text: On 9 April 2013 they released a Spanish version of "We Are Love", titled "Más Que Amor", which includes an additional duet with Mexican singer Belinda. The album débuted at number 1 on the Billboard Latin Pop Albums and peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums. "Más Que Amor" was certified Gold in Mexico and Argentina.


title: Il Volo

text: On 25 April 2013, they performed the song "El Triste" at the 2013 Latin Billboard Music Awards as a tribute to singer José José.


title: Il Volo

text: On 16 June Il Volo performed "Más Que Amor" during the "In Memoriam" tribute of the 40th Daytime Emmy Awards.


title: Il Volo

text: On 11 July 2013 they sang the national anthem of United States before the game between the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.


title: Il Volo

text: On 26 October 2013, they released the international version of , which includes some of the most popular American Christmas songs, as well as two songs in Latin, one in Spanish and one in German, and duets with Pia Toscano and Belinda. The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Holiday Albums and peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Classical Albums chart. The single "O Holy Night" peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. In November, a special Italian edition was released, including songs "Bianco Natale" and "Astro del ciel". Rolling Stone published on its website a cappella performances of three tracks, "O Holy Night", "White Christmas" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".


title: Il Volo

text: In February 2014, the trio received two nominations at the 2014 Latin Billboard Music Awards, as "Top Latin Albums Artist of the Year, Duo or Group" and "Latin Pop Albums Artist of the Year, Duo or Group".


title: Il Volo

text: The awards show took place at the BankUnited Center of Miami on 24 April, and broadcast live by Telemundo.


title: Il Volo

text: During the evening Il Volo is awarded as "Best Group of the year" in Latin Pop Albums category and won "El Pulso Social" award, as artist who has dominated interactions on social networking sites during the Billboard Awards.


title: Il Volo

text: During 2014 the group focused on the preparation of a new album (Musica Che Resta is the current one in 2020), set to be released in 2015.


title: Il Volo

text: In June they returned to North America for a series of 15 concerts in United States and Canada, accompanied by a band and an orchestra.


title: Il Volo

text: The set list traced their career, including the most successful songs of their repertoire, and the tour gets very positive reviews from critics.


title: Il Volo

text: On 21 August 2014, Il Volo are awarded as "Dúo or Grupo Favorito" in the Premios Tu Mundo. The awards celebrates the Latin pop culture in the United States and are broadcast live by Telemundo.


title: Il Volo

text: On 14 December 2014, is announced their participation in the 2015 Sanremo Music Festival (10–14 February 2015), performing the unreleased song "Grande amore". On 21 December 2014, they performed at the traditional Christmas Concert in the Italian Senate, in front of the highest offices of state, accompanied by a choir of children with hearing disabilities who perform the songs with sign language. At the end of the concert, the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano and the President of Senate Pietro Grasso praised the group.


title: Il Volo

text: On 14 February 2015, they took part in the Sanremo Music Festival 2015, winning 39.05% of the total vote over the 2 leading challengers. The win gave the group the opportunity to represent at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. As is a member of the Big Five, the group went straight in to the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Vienna on 23 May 2015. Grande Amore came 3rd with 292 points -winning the televote with 366 points- and won the Marcel Bezençon Press Award, as best song according to the collective voting of the accredited press. The extended play "Sanremo grande amore" was released in Italy on 20 February 2015 and was certified triple platinum by FIMI.


title: Il Volo

text: Their fourth studio album was released worldwide on 25 September 2015 by Sony Music Latin, in three different versions: an International version and a Spanish version for the Latin market titled "Grande Amore" and an Italian version titled "L'amore si muove". The album is composed of original songs and covers of international and Italian standards and it was produced by Emilio Estefan, Celso Valli, Cheche Alara and Michele Torpedine. It peaked at number 1 in Italy and on the Billboard Top Classical Albums and on the Billboard Latin Pop Albums chart. It was certified double platinum for more than 100,000 copies sold by FIMI.


title: Il Volo

text: On 30 September 2016, the group together with Placido Domingo released "Notte Magica - A Tribute to the Three Tenors". The live album features many of the songs performed by The Three Tenors (Domingo, Pavarotti and Carreras) for their iconic concert held on the eve of the Italia '90 World Cup.


title: Il Volo

text: On 4 March 2017 they debuted at the Radio City Music Hall in New York "Notte Magica – A Tribute to the Three Tenors" that will tour in the most important cities of the United States of America, in Italy, Europe and Latin America.


title: Il Volo

text: The first date was held in Firenze their concert at the Baths of Caracalla, materialized in an album and a world tour that debuted on 1 July in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence.


title: Il Volo

text: In 2019, they took part in the 69th Sanremo Festival with the song "Musica che resta". The piece, written and composed by Gianna Nannini, Emilio Munda, Piero Romitelli, Pasquale Mammaro and Antonello Carozza, ranking in third place. On February 22, 2019, Il Volo released their fifth studio album, Musica, worldwide. Later that year on November 8, they released their compilation album, Il Volo: The Best of 10 Years, to celebrate their tenth anniversary of their career. The group has also embarked on a world tour, which kicked off in May 2019 in Japan, continued in Latin America beginning on October 3, and arrived in North America the next year on January 28, 2020.


title: Il Volo

text: On June 5, 2021, they held a concert in the Arena of Verona in honor of the Italian composer Ennio Morricone. In November 2021, they released a tribute album dedicated to Maestro Morricone titled "Il Volo Sings Morricone".