title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook took a typically idiosyncratic line with regard to the Cold War, holding out hopes in the editorial line of the "Daily Express" until 1948 that the wartime "Big Three" alliance of the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom should continue after the war. It was only after the Berlin blockade began in 1948 that Beaverbrook had the "Daily Express" take an anti-Soviet line, but even then he continue to hold out hopes that the Cold War would not be permanent and it might be possible to revive the "Big Three" alliance. Beaverbrook had Wilfred Burchett, an Australian journalist of extreme left-wing views based in East Berlin to run a column in "The Daily Express" entitled "The Russian Window" starting in October 1948. The nature of Burchett's "Russian Window" reports about life behind the Iron Curtain such as his claims that there was a surplus of luxury goods on sale in shops in Moscow led to accusations that he was engaged in propaganda for the Soviet Union, a nation that Burchett clearly admired. When Beaverbrook asked the editor of the "Daily Express", Arthur Christiansen about Burchett after reading several of his "Russian Window" columns, he was told: "He is, I think, a fellow traveler, but nevertheless an able chap". Even after the "Russian Window" column was terminated, Burchett continued to work as a free-lancer for "The Daily Express" based in Budapest, where he denied in one article that Cardinal József Mindszenty had confessed at his show trial under the influence of "truth drugs". In 1950, Christiansen turned down a chance to publish photographs of South Korean policemen engaged in a mass execution of suspected Communists because to do so would had "given our enemies a chance to say we are playing the Communist game and did the "Daily Worker" propaganda for them". The photographs were later published in "The Daily Worker" which presented the executions as typical of justice in South Korea, and led to Beaverbrook to complain that it was a shame that "The Daily Express" did not have those "real fine pictures".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook used his newspapers to campaign against Mountbatten being appointed First Sea Lord under the grounds that he "gave away" India in 1947. When Mountbatten was appointed First Sea Lord, the Beaverbrook newspapers went out of their way to portray the Royal Navy under Mountbatten's leadership in a negative light. As part of his campaign against Mountbatten, Beaverbrook used his newspapers to make allegations to the effect that Mountbatten had deliberately launched the Dieppe raid of 19 August 1942 - in which the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division had taken heavy losses - in the full knowledge that it would fail to prevent a second front from being opened in 1942. Beaverbrook angrily told Mountbatten at a dinner party hosted by Harriman in London: "You murdered my Canadians to wreck my Second Front campaign!" Tom Driberg, the Labour MP who also worked as the gossip columnist for the "Daily Express" detailed these allegations in a manuscript of a biography of Beaverbrook he wrote in the mid-1950s, but the threats of a libel suit from Mountbatten led the allegations being removed from the published book. The British historian Adrien Smith argued that the real reason for Beaverbrook's feud with Mountbatten was because one of his various mistresses, Jean Norton, had shared her affections with Mountbatten. Beaverbrook was frequently unfaithful towards his wife, but he was possessive of his mistresses.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In 1956, Beaverbrook used the "Daily Express" to clamor for war against Egypt after President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the partly British-owned "Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez", an act that Beaverbrook considered to be intolerable. When the invasion of Egypt began in October 1956, Beaverbrook had the "Daily Express" support the war as a justified assertion of British national interests. Beaverbrook regarded the end of the Suez crisis with Britain being forced to withdraw under strong American-Soviet pressure to be a national humiliation, and much of the anti-Americanism he was to express in his last years related to bitterness over the Suez crisis. Beaverbrook likewise favored a hawkish line on the Cyprus Emergency as he used his newspapers to support keeping Cyprus a British colony and regarded the decision to grant Cyprus independence in 1960 again as a national humiliation.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Aitken continued to live lavishly. Ascherson noted: "His life became a progress like a medieval king’s, cruising on Atlantic liners and luxurious yachts with a great retinue of servants, cronies, henchmen, useful politicians and pretty women. But the Beaver did not forget old comrades. The ageing Churchill was free to stay and paint in the sun at La Capponcina whenever he pleased, and their friendship grew closer until Beaverbrook’s death in 1964. He used his money and connections quietly to rescue many other lesser figures in trouble. A.J.P. Taylor justly called him ‘a foul-weather friend".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: He opposed both Britain's acceptance of post-war loans from America and Britain's application to join the European Economic Community in 1961. In 1953 he became chancellor-for-life of the University of New Brunswick through an Act of the local legislature. In 1960, the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan decided to have the United Kingdom join the Economic Europan Community (EEC) as the European Union was then called, but he waited until July 1961 to formally make the application at least in part out of the fear over the reaction of the Beaverbrook newspapers. Beaverbrook was strongly opposed to the application and used his newspapers to offer ferocious criticism of Macmillan's application to join the EEC, accusing him of a betrayal of the Commonwealth whom Beaverbrook continued to insist were Britain's natural allies. In 1960, the "Daily Express" was selling 4,300,000 copies per day, making it into Britain's most popular newspaper.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: He became the university's greatest benefactor, fulfilling the same role for the city of Fredericton and the province as a whole. He would provide additional buildings for the university, scholarship funds, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Beaverbrook Skating Rink, the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel, with profits donated to charity, the Playhouse, Louise Manny's early folklore work, and numerous other projects. He bought the archive papers of both Bonar Law and David Lloyd George and placed them in the Beaverbrook Library within the Daily Express Building. Beaverbrook was always proud of his New Brunswick roots, and liked to claim in his last years that four of the most outstanding men of his generation were from New Brunswick, by which he meant Bonar Law, R.B. Bennett, Sir James Hamet Dunn and himself.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: On 29 January 1906, in Halifax, Aitken married Gladys Henderson Drury, daughter of Major-General Charles William Drury CB (a first cousin of Admiral Sir Charles Carter Drury) and Mary Louise Drury (née Henderson). They had three children before her death on 1 December 1927. Their son Max Aitken Jr. became a fighter pilot with 601 Squadron, rising to Wing Commander with 16 victories in World War II. Their daughter Janet Gladys Aitken was married to Ian Campbell, who later became the 11th Duke of Argyll. Together they had one daughter, Lady Jeanne Campbell.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook remained a widower for many years until 1963 when he married Marcia Anastasia Christoforides (1910–1994), the widow of his friend Sir James Dunn. Beaverbrook was rarely a faithful husband, and even in old age was often accused of treating women with disrespect. In Britain he established the then-married Jean Norton as his mistress at Cherkley. Aitken left Norton for a Jewish ballet dancer named Lily Ernst whom he had rescued from pre-war Austria.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: After the First World War, Beaverbrook had written "Politicians and the Press" in 1925, and "Politicians and the War" in two volumes, the first in 1928 and the second in 1932, republished in one volume in 1960. Upon their original publication, the books were largely ignored by professional historians and the only favourable reviews were in Beaverbrook's own newspapers. However, when the combined edition of "Politicians and the War" came out, the reviews were more positive. A. J. P. Taylor said it was "Tacitus and Aubrey rolled into one".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Later Taylor said: "The enduring merits of the book are really beyond cavil. It provides essential testimony for events during a great political crisis...It contains character sketches worthy of Aubrey. On a wider canvas, it displays the behaviour of political leaders in wartime. The narrative is carried along by rare zest and wit, yet with the detached impartialty of the true scholar". Sir John Elliot in 1981 said the work "will remain, despite all carping, the authoritative narrative; nor does the story want in the telling thereof".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: "Men and Power 1917–1918" was published in 1956. It is not a coherent narrative, but is divided by separate episodes centred on one man, such as Carson, Robertson, Rothermere and others. The reviews were favourable, with Taylor's review in "The Observer" greatly pleasing Beaverbrook. The book sold over 23,000 copies.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: When "The Decline and Fall of Lloyd George" was published in 1963, favourable reviewers included Clement Attlee, Roy Jenkins, Robert Blake, Lord Longford, Sir C. P. Snow, Lady Violet Bonham Carter, Richard Crossman and Denis Brogan. Kenneth Young said the book was "the finest of all his writing".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook was both admired and despised in Britain, sometimes at the same time: in his 1956 autobiography, David Low quotes H.G. Wells as saying of Beaverbrook: "If ever Max ever gets to Heaven, he won't last long. He will be chucked out for trying to pull off a merger between Heaven and Hell after having secured a controlling interest in key subsidiary companies in both places, of course."


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook was of an imperialist mindset, with the quote, "There are countries so underdeveloped today that the gift of independence is like the gift of a razor to a child" attributed to him in a panel discussion on Canadian TV.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Lord Beaverbrook died in Leatherhead in 1964, aged 85. He had recently attended a birthday banquet organised by fellow Canadian press baron, Lord Thomson of Fleet, where he was determined to be seen on his usual good form, despite suffering from cancer.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: A bust of him by Oscar Nemon stands in the park in the town square of Newcastle, New Brunswick, not far from where he sold newspapers as a young boy. His ashes are in the plinth of the bust.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: The Beaverbrook Foundation continues his philanthropic interests. In 1957, a bronze statue of Lord Beaverbrook was erected at the centre of Officers' Square in Fredericton, New Brunswick, paid for by money raised by children throughout the province.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook and his wife Lady Beaverbrook left a considerable legacy to both New Brunswick and the United Kingdom. In 2014, he was named a National Historic Person on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. His legacy, and memorials, includes the following buildings:


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: For a period of time Beaverbrook employed novelist Evelyn Waugh in London and abroad. Waugh later lampooned his employer by portraying him as Lord Copper in "Scoop" and as Lord Monomark in both "Put Out More Flags" and "Vile Bodies".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: The Kinks recorded "Mr Churchill Says" for their 1969 album "Arthur", which contains the lines: "Mr Beaverbrook says: 'We've gotta save our tin/And all the garden gates and empty cans are gonna make us win...'."


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook was one of eight notable Britons cited in Bjørge Lillelien's famous "Your boys took a hell of a beating" commentary at the end of an English football team defeat to Norway in 1981, mentioned alongside British Prime Ministers Churchill, Thatcher and Attlee.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In the alternate history novel "Dominion" by C. J. Sansom, Beaverbrook serves as the collaborationist Prime Minister of a Nazi-occupied Britain.


title: Dabke

text: Dabke ( also spelled "dabka", "dubki", "dabkeh", plural "dabkaat") is a Levantine Arab folk dance. Dabke combines circle dance and line dancing and is widely performed at weddings and other joyous occasions. The line forms from right to left and leader of the "dabke" heads the line, alternating between facing the audience and the other dancers. In English, it can be transcribed as "dabka", "dabki", "dabkeh".


title: Dabke

text: The etymology of 'dabke' is uncertain but is thought to be derived from the Levantine Arabic word "dabaka" () meaning "stamping of the feet" or "to make a noise".


title: Dabke

text: The dabkeh jumps may have originated in ancient Canaanite fertility rituals related to agriculture, chasing off evil spirits and protecting young plants. According to Lebanese historian Youssef Ibrahim Yazbec, the dabke descends from Phoenician dances thousands of years old.


title: Dabke

text: Another theory is that dabke started out as a way of solidifying roofs made of mud. People would stomp on the rooftops of houses together to help compress the material to compact it to prevent cracks from forming. This eventually evolved into the dancing form of dabke that is known today.


title: Dabke

text: Dabke is popular across the Levant, where there are about twenty types of dabke, including but not limited to:


title: Dabke

text: Amongst Palestinians, two common types of dabke are the "shamaliyya" and "sha'rawiyya" – which have six measure phrases – and the "karaadiyya" which has square phrases (of four or eight measures). Another type is the "dabke niswaniyyah", danced specifically by women. Each type of dabke dance has its own corresponding set of songs, the theme of which is often love.


title: Dabke

text: The "Oxford International Encyclopedia of Dance" also mentions these additional kinds of line dances in its entry under "Middle East":


title: Dabke

text: The "Murdah" was originally performed by women in Eastern Arabia, while the men of the community were away on extended fishing and pearling expeditions. It involves two lines of dancers who move toward each other with small steps and then retreat while singing rhymed couplets. These couplets were largely laments for absent loved ones. Although seafaring is no longer economically important in the region, women continue to perform this dance at social gatherings.


title: Dabke

text: The "Ahwash" (Fr., ahouache) performed by Berber tribes of the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains, includes one or several curved lines of men and one or several curved lines of women, the whole forming a circle or ellipse around male drummers (Jouad and Lortat-Jacob, 1978; Lortat-Jacob, 1980). One line recites a poem that the other line responds to with another poem; then all move to the beat of the drums. Customarily, the whole community participates. While performing, women dancers hold themselves very straight and move with staccato steps, holding onto the weaving rod of the house. Women as well as men compose the poetry that is recited. A similar dance reported for Morocco is the dukkala. In one variation a man and woman facing each other compete to see which one can dance the longest (Mercier, 1927).


title: Dabke

text: There are numerous kinds of songs that are sung during and specifically for dabke, by both men and women respectively, depending on the occasion, song, and audience. Some of the most popular of these songs, such as "Dal Ouna" "(دلعونا)", "Al Jafra" "(الجفرا)", "Al Dahiyya" "(الدحية)", and "Zareef il-Tool" "(ظريف الطول)", are actually entire genres in themselves, in the sense that lyrics can vary significantly in each performance but the basic rhythm of the music is consistent and recognizable. This variation can be seen in the hundreds of lyrical variations heard and recorded of these songs which regardless of specific lyrics, are recognized by their rhythm and at times, a single phrase, as in "Ala Dal Ouna, Jafra", and others. For example, even though one might have heard "Ala Dal Ouna" sung previously telling a different story in this famous love song, people will still call another song ascribing to the same rhythm and theme as "Dal Ouna".


title: Dabke

text: The Oud "(عود)", from which the English word "lute" comes, is shaped like half a pear with a short non-fretted neck. It has six courses of two strings and played with a plectrum, usually a trimmed eagle's feather. This instrument creates a deep and mellow sound.


title: Dabke

text: The mijwiz "(مجوز)" which means “double” in Arabic is very popular in Levantine music. It is a type of reed clarinet that is played by breathing smoothly through a circular aperture at the end and by moving the fingers over the holes down the front of the tube in order to create the different notes. The minjjayrah is similar to the mijwiz, an open ended reed flute played in the same style.


title: Dabke

text: The tablah "(طبلة)" is a small hand-drum also known as the durbakke. Most tablahs are beautifully decorated, some with wood, tile or bone inlay, etched metal, or paintings in designs typical of the Near East. One of the most commonly played of the percussion instruments; the tablah is a membranophone of goat or fish skin stretched over a vase-shaped drum with a wide neck. Usually made of earthenware or metal, it is placed either under the left arm or between the legs and struck in the middle for the strong beats and on the edge for the sharp in-between beats. Though today fishskin heads are rarely used due to the climate. When used it becomes loose, you would have to heat the head to get the correct sound back. The membrane or head of the drum is now made out of plastic. The most common head is from Alexandria, Egypt.


title: Dabke

text: The daff "(دف)", also known as the Riq "(رق)", is similar to the tambourine. It consists of a round frame, covered on one side with goat or fish skin. Pairs of metal discs are set into the frame to produce the jingle when struck by the hand. The sounds of this percussion instrument set the rhythm of much Arab music, particularly in the performances of classical pieces.


title: Dabke

text: The arghul, "(يرغول)" also known as the "yarghoul", is commonly used in solos, often accompanied by singers, that begin dabke performances. Unlike the "mijwiz", it only has finger holes in one of its pipes/reeds. (see "Al-Shamaliyya", under Types).


title: Dabke

text: The Shubabeh, (شبابة) is a woodwind instrument traditionally made from reed cane. It differs from the Mijwiz and Arghul in that it does not have a reed, instead the musician blows against the side of the instrument at an angle to produce the tone. The Shubabeh is traditionally played by herders in the wilderness.


title: Dabke

text: "Dabke" competitions or shows often consist of different cultural dances and various troupes performing "dabke." For example, the International Fiesta, a well known festival at the University at Buffalo, consists of a series of clubs performing their cultural dances. This competition occurs every semester in the main stage theater of the UB Center for the Arts during the spring time, usually at the end of February or beginning of March. This allows the Organization of Arab Students to participate and promote the cultural awareness of "dabke".


title: Dabke

text: Many universities host events called Arab Night or a title to that effect. When these shows occur, "dabke" is either performed on stage (inside or outside), in a hall on the floor, or outside on the floor. There are different steps that comprise the "Dabke" dance: the belbel, the inzel, shemmel and taxi; a combination of each of these steps as well as the occasional jump and turn make the dance complete.


title: Dabke

text: In America, the tradition has not been lost and is held in the same places as it would in the original homeland and the dance music is also commonly played in America at Arab-community cultural centers and conventions such as the annual convention hosted by the American Federation of Ramallah Palestine.


title: Dabke

text: In her study titled Syrian Radical Dabka, ethnomusicologist Shayna Silverstein described the changes in social interpretations and performances of "dabke" as performed in Syria. In the 20th century and beyond, "dabke" has both been interpreted as an element of nationalist ideologies or as a modern and aesthetic form of folk dance, performed by academically trained dancers from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts. To reinforce these interpretations and the continuation of "dabke" in rural as well as in urban settings, performances have been promoted countrywide by government-sponsored folk dance ensembles as well as in educational programs disseminated by the Ministry of Culture. Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, dabke performances as a manifestation of community gatherings have futher accompanied protest meetings and demonstrations against the ruling government of Syria.


title: Dabke

text: In August 2011, a group in a Lebanese village Dhour El Choueir, Lebanon set a new world record. Organized by Dhour El Choueir Summer Festival, a human chain of 5,050 was made and currently holds the world record. This event broke the record set by Tollab, the Lebanese Student Federation in Montreal, with the participation of "La Troupe Folklorique Les Chevaliers du Liban" that had made a human chain of 4,475 people dancing the "dabke" for more than five minutes straight at Montreal's Marcelin Wilson Park. Tollab had itself broken a record of 2,743 set by a group of Israeli Arabs in Acre, Israel. An earlier record of 1,700 had been set in Toronto.


title: Microtonal music

text: Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of twelve equal intervals per octave. In other words, a microtone may be thought of as a note that falls between the keys of a piano tuned in equal temperament. In "Revising the musical equal temperament," Haye Hinrichsen defines equal temperament as “the frequency ratios of all intervals are invariant under transposition (translational shifts along the keyboard), i.e., to be constant. The standard twelve-tone "equal temperament" (ET), which was originally invented in ancient China and rediscovered in Europe in the 16th century, is determined by two additional conditions. Firstly the octave is divided into twelve semitones. Secondly the octave, the most fundamental of all intervals, is postulated to be pure (beatless), as described by the frequency ratio 2:1.”


title: Microtonal music

text: "Microtonal music" can refer to any music containing microtones. The words "microtone" and "microtonal" were coined before 1912 by Maud MacCarthy Mann in order to avoid the misnomer "quarter tone" when speaking of the srutis of Indian music. Prior to this time the term "quarter tone" was used, confusingly, not only for an interval actually half the size of a semitone, but also for all intervals (considerably) smaller than a semitone. It may have been even slightly earlier, perhaps as early as 1895, that the Mexican composer Julián Carrillo, writing in Spanish or French, coined the terms "microtono"/"micro-ton" and "microtonalismo"/"micro-tonalité".


title: Microtonal music

text: In French, the usual term is the somewhat more self-explanatory "micro-intervalle", and French sources give the equivalent German and English terms as "Mikrointervall" (or "Kleinintervall") and "micro interval" (or "microtone"), respectively. "Microinterval" is a frequent alternative in English, especially in translations of writings by French authors and in discussion of music by French composers. In English, the two terms "microtone" and "microinterval" are synonymous. The English analogue of the related French term, "micro-intervalité", however, is rare or nonexistent, normally being translated as "microtonality"; in French, the terms "micro-ton", "microtonal" (or "micro-tonal"), and "microtonalité" are also sometimes used, occasionally mixed in the same passage with "micro-intervale" and "micro-intervalité".


title: Microtonal music

text: Ezra Sims, in the article "Microtone" in the second edition of the "Harvard Dictionary of Music" defines "microtone" as "an interval smaller than a semitone", which corresponds with Aristoxenus's use of the term "diesis". However, the unsigned article "Comma, Schisma" in the same reference source calls comma, schisma and diaschisma "microintervals" but not "microtones", and in the fourth edition of the same reference (which retains Sims's article on "Microtone") a new "Comma, Schisma" article by André Barbera calls them simply "intervals". In the second edition of "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", Paul Griffiths, Mark Lindley, and Ioannis Zannos define "microtone" as a musical rather than an acoustical entity: "any musical interval or difference of pitch distinctly smaller than a semitone", including "the tiny enharmonic melodic intervals of ancient Greece, the several divisions of the octave into more than 12 parts, and various discrepancies among the intervals of just intonation or between a sharp and its enharmonically paired flat in various forms of mean-tone temperament", as well as the Indian sruti, and small intervals used in Byzantine chant, Arabic music theory from the 10th century onward, and similarly for Persian traditional music and Turkish music and various other Near Eastern musical traditions, but do not actually name the "mathematical" terms schisma, comma, and diaschisma.


title: Microtonal music

text: "Microtone" is also sometimes used to refer to individual notes, "microtonal pitches" added to and distinct from the familiar twelve notes of the chromatic scale, as "enharmonic microtones", for example.


title: Microtonal music

text: In English the word "microtonality" is mentioned in 1946 by Rudi Blesh who related it to microtonal inflexions of the so-called "blues scales". In Court B. Cutting's 2019 "Microtonal Analysis of “Blues Notes” and the Blues Scale", he states that academic studies of the early blues concur that its pitch scale has within it three microtonal “blue notes” not found in 12 tone equal temperament intonation. It was used still earlier by W. McNaught with reference to developments in "modernism" in a 1939 record review of the "Columbia History of Music, Vol. 5". In German the term "Mikrotonalität" came into use at least by 1958, though "Mikrointervall" is still common today in contexts where very small intervals of early European tradition (diesis, comma, etc.) are described, as e.g. in the new "Geschichte der Musiktheorie" while "Mikroton" seems to prevail in discussions of the avant-garde music and music of Eastern traditions. The term "microinterval" is used alongside "microtone" by American musicologist Margo Schulter in her articles on medieval music.


title: Microtonal music

text: The term "microtonal music" usually refers to music containing very small intervals but can include any tuning that differs from Western twelve-tone equal temperament. Traditional Indian systems of 22 śruti; Indonesian gamelan music; Thai, Burmese, and African music, and music using just intonation, meantone temperament or other alternative tunings may be considered microtonal. Microtonal variation of intervals is standard practice in the African-American musical forms of spirituals, blues and jazz.


title: Microtonal music

text: Many microtonal equal divisions of the octave have been proposed, usually (but not always) in order to achieve approximation to the intervals of just intonation.


title: Microtonal music

text: Terminology other than "microtonal" has been used or proposed by some theorists and composers. In 1914, A. H. Fox Strangways objected that "'heterotone' would be a better name for śruti than the usual translation 'microtone'". Modern Indian researchers yet write: "microtonal intervals called shrutis". In Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia in the 1910s and 1920s the usual term continued to be "Viertelton-Musik" (quarter tone music), and the type of intervallic structure found in such music was called the "Vierteltonsystem", which was (in the mentioned region) regarded as the main term for referring to music with microintervals, though as early as 1908 Georg Capellan had qualified his use of "quarter tone" with the alternative term "Bruchtonstufen (Viertel- und Dritteltöne)" (fractional degrees (quarter and third tones)). Despite the inclusion of other fractions of a whole tone, this music continued to be described under the heading "Vierteltonmusik" until at least the 1990s, for example in the twelfth edition of the "Riemann Musiklexikon", and in the second edition of the popular "Brockhaus Riemann Musiklexikon".


title: Microtonal music

text: Ivan Wyschnegradsky used the term "ultra-chromatic" for intervals smaller than the semitone and "infra-chromatic" for intervals larger than the semitone; this same term has been used since 1934 by ethnomusicologist Victor Belaiev (Belyaev) in his studies of Azerbaijan and Turkish traditional music. A similar term, "subchromatic", has been used by theorist Marek Žabka. Ivor Darreg proposed the term "xenharmonic"; see xenharmonic music. The Austrian composer Franz Richter Herf and the music theorist Rolf Maedel, Herf's colleague at the Salzburg Mozarteum, preferred using the Greek word "ekmelic" when referring to "all the pitches lying outside the traditional twelve-tone system". Some authors in Russia and some musicology dissertations disseminate the term (microchromatics), coined in the 1970s by Yuri Kholopov, to describe a kind of 'intervallic genus' () for all possible microtonal structures, both ancient (as enharmonic genus—γένος ἐναρμόνιον—of Greeks) and modern (as quarter tone scales of Alois Haba); this generalization term allowed also to avoid derivatives such as "микротональность" (microtonality, which could be understood in Russian as a sub-tonality, which is subordinate to the dominating tonality, especially in the context of European music of the 19th century) and "микротоника" (microtonic, "a barely perceptible tonic"; see a clarification in Kholopov [2000]). Another Russian authors use more international adjective 'microtonal' and rendered it in Russian as 'микротоновый', but not 'microtonality' ('микротональность'). However, the terms 'микротональность' and 'микротоника' are also used. Some authors writing in French have adopted the term "micro-intervallique" to describe such music. Italian musicologist Luca Conti dedicated two his monographs to "microtonalismo", which is the usual term in Italian, and also in Spanish (e.g., as found in the title of Rué [2000]). The analogous English form, "microtonalism", is also found occasionally instead of "microtonality", e.g., "At the time when serialism and neoclassicism were still incipient a third movement emerged: microtonalism".


title: Microtonal music

text: The term "macrotonal" has been used for intervals wider than twelve-tone equal temperament, or where there are "fewer than twelve notes per octave", though "this term is not very satisfactory and is used only because there seems to be no other". The term "macrotonal" has also been used for musical form.


title: Microtonal music

text: Examples of this can be found in various places, ranging from Claude Debussy's impressionistic harmonies to Aaron Copland's chords of stacked fifths, to John Luther Adams' "Clouds of Forgetting", "Clouds of Unknowing" (1995), which gradually expands stacked-interval chords ranging from minor 2nds to major 7thsm. Louis Andriessen's "De Staat" (1972–1976) contains a number of "augmented" modes that are based on Greek scales but are asymmetrical to the octave.


title: Microtonal music

text: The Hellenic civilizations of ancient Greece left fragmentary records of their music, such as the Delphic Hymns. The ancient Greeks approached the creation of different musical intervals and modes by dividing and combining tetrachords, recognizing three genera of tetrachords: the enharmonic, the chromatic, and the diatonic. Ancient Greek intervals were of many different sizes, including microtones. The enharmonic genus in particular featured intervals of a distinctly "microtonal" nature, which were sometimes smaller than 50 cents, less than half of the contemporary Western semitone of 100 cents. In the ancient Greek enharmonic genus, the tetrachord contained a semitone of varying sizes (approximately 100 cents) divided into two equal intervals called dieses (single "diesis", δίεσις); in conjunction with a larger interval of roughly 400 cents, these intervals comprised the perfect fourth (approximately 498 cents, or the ratio of 4/3 in just intonation). Theoretics usually described several diatonic and chromatic genera (some as chroai, "coloration" of one specific intervallic type), but the enarmonic genus was always the only one (argumented as one with the smallest intervals possible).


title: Microtonal music

text: Guillaume Costeley's "Chromatic Chanson", "Seigneur Dieu ta pitié" of 1558 used 1/3 comma meantone and explored the full compass of 19 pitches in the octave.


title: Microtonal music

text: The Italian Renaissance composer and theorist Nicola Vicentino (1511–1576) worked with microtonal intervals and built a keyboard with 36 keys to the octave known as the archicembalo. While theoretically an interpretation of ancient Greek tetrachordal theory, in effect Vicentino presented a circulating system of quarter-comma meantone, maintaining major thirds tuned in just intonation in all keys.


title: Microtonal music

text: In 1760 the French flautist published a treatise, "L'Art de la flute traversiere", all surviving copies of which conclude with a composition (possibly added a year or two after the actual publication of the volume) incorporating several quarter tones, titled "Air à la grecque", accompanied by explanatory notes tying it to the realization of the Greek enharmonic genus and a chart of quarter tone fingerings for the entire range of the one-keyed flute. Shortly afterward, in a letter published in the "Mercure de France" in September 1764, the celebrated flautist Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin mentioned this piece and expressed an interest in quarter tones for the flute.


title: Microtonal music

text: Jacques Fromental Halévy composed a cantata "Prométhée enchaîné" for a solo voice, choir and orchestra (premiered in 1849), where in one movement ("Choeur des Océanides") he used quarter tones, to imitate the enharmonic genus of Greeks.


title: Microtonal music

text: In the 1910s and 1920s, quarter tones (24 equal pitches per octave) received attention from such composers as Charles Ives, Julián Carrillo, Alois Hába, Ivan Wyschnegradsky, and Mildred Couper.


title: Microtonal music

text: Alexander John Ellis, who in the 1880s produced a translation of Hermann Helmholtz's "On the Sensations of Tone", proposed an elaborate set of exotic just intonation tunings and non-harmonic tunings. Ellis also studied the tunings of non-Western cultures and, in a report to the Royal Society, stated that they used neither equal divisions of the octave nor just intonation intervals. Ellis inspired Harry Partch immensely.


title: Microtonal music

text: During the Exposition Universelle of 1889, Claude Debussy heard a Balinese gamelan performance and was exposed to non-Western tunings and rhythms. Some scholars have ascribed Debussy's subsequent innovative use of the whole-tone (six equal pitches per octave) tuning in such compositions as the "Fantaisie for piano and orchestra" and the Toccata from the suite "Pour le piano" to his exposure to the Balinese gamelan at the Paris exposition, and have asserted his rebellion at this time "against the rule of equal temperament" and that the gamelan gave him "the confidence to embark (after the 1900 world exhibition) on his fully characteristic mature piano works, with their many bell- and gong-like sonorities and brilliant exploitation of the piano's natural resonance". Still others have argued that Debussy's works like "L'isle joyeuse", "La cathédrale engloutie", "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune", "La mer", "Pagodes", "Danseuses de Delphes", and "Cloches à travers les feuilles" are marked by a more basic interest in the microtonal intervals found between the higher members of the overtone series, under the influence of Helmholtz's writings. Emil Berliner's introduction of the phonograph in the 1890s allowed much non-Western music to be recorded and heard by Western composers, further spurring the use of non-12-equal tunings.


title: Microtonal music

text: Major microtonal composers of the 1920s and 1930s include Alois Hába (quarter tones, or 24 equal pitches per octave, and sixth tones), Julián Carrillo (24 equal, 36, 48, 60, 72, and 96 equal pitches to the octave embodied in a series of specially custom-built pianos), Ivan Wyschnegradsky (third tones, quarter tones, sixth tones and twelfth tones, non octaving scales) and the early works of Harry Partch (just intonation using frequencies at ratios of prime integers 3, 5, 7, and 11, their powers, and products of those numbers, from a central frequency of G-196).


title: Microtonal music

text: Prominent microtonal composers or researchers of the 1940s and 1950s include Adriaan Daniel Fokker (31 equal tones per octave), Partch (continuing to build his handcrafted orchestra of microtonal just intonation instruments), and Eivind Groven.


title: Microtonal music

text: Digital synthesizers from the Yamaha TX81Z (1987) on and inexpensive software synthesizers have contributed to the ease and popularity of exploring microtonal music.


title: Microtonal music

text: Electronic music facilitates the use of any kind of microtonal tuning, and sidesteps the need to develop new notational systems. In 1954, Karlheinz Stockhausen built his electronic "Studie II" on an 81-step scale starting from 100 Hz with the interval of 5 between steps, and in "Gesang der Jünglinge" (1955–56) he used various scales, ranging from seven up to sixty equal divisions of the octave. In 1955, Ernst Krenek used 13 equal-tempered intervals per octave in his Whitsun oratorio, "Spiritus intelligentiae, sanctus".


title: Microtonal music

text: In 1979–80 Easley Blackwood composed a set of "Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media," a cycle that explores all of the equal temperaments from 13 notes to the octave through 24 notes to the octave, including 15-ET and 19-ET. "The project," he wrote, "was to explore the tonal and modal behavior of all [of these] equal tunings..., devise a notation for each tuning, and write a composition in each tuning to illustrate good chord progressions and the practical application of the notation".


title: Microtonal music

text: In 1986, Wendy Carlos experimented with many microtonal systems including just intonation, using alternate tuning scales she invented for the album "Beauty In the Beast". "This whole formal discovery came a few weeks after I had completed the album, "Beauty in the Beast", which is wholly in new tunings and timbres".


title: Microtonal music

text: In 2016, electronic music composed with arbitrary microtonal scales was explored on the album "Radionics Radio: An Album of Musical Radionic Thought Frequencies" by British composer Daniel Wilson, who derived his compositions' tunings from frequency-runs submitted by users of a custom-built web application replicating radionics-based electronic soundmaking equipment used by Oxford's De La Warr Laboratories in the late 1940s, thereby supposedly embodying thoughts and concepts within the tunings.


title: Microtonal music

text: Finnish artist Aleksi Perälä (Rephlex) works exclusively in a microtonal system known as the Colundi sequence.


title: Microtonal music

text: The General MIDI Specification does not directly support microtonal music, because each note-on and note-off message only represents one chromatic tone. However, microtonal scales can be emulated using pitch bending, such as in LilyPond's implementation.


title: Microtonal music

text: Although some synthesizers allow the creation of customized microtonal scales, this solution does not allow compositions to be transposed. For example, if each B note is raised one quarter tone, then the "raised 7th" would only affect a C major scale.


title: Microtonal music

text: A form of microtone known as the blue note is an integral part of rock music and one of its predecessors, the blues. The blue notes, located on the third, fifth, and seventh notes of a diatonic major scale, are flattened by a variable microtone. Joe Monzo has made a microtonal analysis of the song "Drunken Hearted Man", written and recorded by the delta blues musician Robert Johnson.


title: Microtonal music

text: Musicians such as Jon Catler have incorporated microtonal guitars like 31-tone equal tempered guitar and a 62-tone just intonation guitar in blues and jazz rock music.


title: Microtonal music

text: English rock band Radiohead has used microtonal string arrangements in its music, such as on "How to Disappear Completely" from the album "Kid A".


title: Microtonal music

text: American band Secret Chiefs 3 has been making its own custom "microtonal" instruments since the mid 1990s. The proprietary tuning system they use in their "Ishraqiyun" aspect is ratio-based, not equal temperament. The band's leader Trey Spruance, also of Mr. Bungle challenges the terminology of "microtonality" as a development that instead of liberating tonal sensibility to a universe of diverse possibilities, both new and historical, instead mainly serves to reinforce the idea that the universal standard for "tone" is the (western) semitone.<ref><nowiki>


title: Saani Kaayidham

text: Saani Kaayidham () is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language action crime film directed by Arun Matheswaran. The film stars Keerthy Suresh and director Selvaraghavan in lead roles. Siddharth Ravipati produced the film while the musical score and cinematography were handled by Sam C. S. and Yamini Yagnamurthy respectively. In the film, a generational curse comes true when Ponni and her family face a senseless act of injustice. She and her brother Sangaiah decide to seek justice.


title: Saani Kaayidham

text: It was released on Amazon Prime Video on 6 May 2022 and received positive reviews from critics and audience.


title: Saani Kaayidham

text: Ponni is a hardworking police constable without any real higher aspirations in life. All she wants is to ensure that her daughter Dhanam is raised well and receives a good education. Ponni's husband Maari, a mill worker, aspires to break free from the rampant caste-issues and poverty in their village by getting involved in local elections. This leads to a minor conflict with one of the mill owner's relatives, Anbu, after which he is fired from the mill. When he returns the next day to apologize and get his job back, the mill owner Perumal and his relatives, driven by their senseless casteism and misogyny, humiliate him by making degroratory remarks about Ponni.


title: Saani Kaayidham

text: In retaliation, Maari attacks and humiliates them in return. Overcome with shame after being retaliated by a lower-caste person, whom they consider an inferior specimen, Perumal and his relatives burn down Ponni's house while her husband and daughter are sleeping inside. Ponni herself is assaulted by them after her superior officer Deva leads her to them on false pretenses. However, Ponni is left alive since she is a policewoman and her death might lead them to legal trouble for them. When Ponni seeks justice for Maari and Dhanam’s deaths, the culprits use their influence and receives a minor sentence and leave for hiding in order to escape. A traumatized Ponni teams up with her half-brother Sangayya to seek vengeance against the upper-caste landlords.


title: Saani Kaayidham

text: Ponni was not on good terms with Sangayya due to a past conflict between their respective mothers and grew apart from each other. Sangayya empathizes with Ponni due to a similar incident in his own past and how he formed a close bonding with Dhanam. The duo manage to hunt down and kill the culprits. One of them is killed by his own younger brother Giri due to an inheritance dispute (Giri was also in charge of helping the group hide out in different areas). Giri's blind son, Sudalai (who the duo knew beforehand and was Dhanam's close friend) survived and is taken by Sangayya, despite Ponni's adamant insistence that Sudalai had also assaulted her on that fateful night.


title: Saani Kaayidham

text: The duo manage to find and finish off Perumal and Deva. Sangayya is seriously wounded after singlehandedly holding off several of Perumal's men. Upon his insistence, Ponni leaves him in the van in order to bring Sudalai, whom she had instructed to hide nearby. The reinforcements led by Giri arrive and chases after the van, which Sangayya had anticipated. Sangayya sacrifices himself by blowing up the van after lighting up several gas cylinders which he had stowed inside, killing the reinforcements and leaving Ponni devastated. After taking some time to recover herself, Ponni leaves with Sudalai, where it is revealed that Sudalai was not involved in the assault and was innocent.


title: Saani Kaayidham

text: The music of the film was supposed to be composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, but he was replaced by Sam CS.


title: Saani Kaayidham

text: The film was released on Amazon Prime Video on 6 May 2022 alongside its dubbed versions in Telugu and Malayalam, with the Telugu version titled "Chinni". The film's teaser was released on 22 April 2022.This film was sold by Kalaignar TV.


title: Saani Kaayidham

text: "Saani Kaayidham" received positive reviews from critics and audience, who praised the cast performances (particularly Suresh and Selvaraghavan), direction, action sequences and technical aspects but received criticism for excessive graphic violence.


title: Saani Kaayidham

text: M Suganth of "The Times Of India" rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "It is ultimately the performances of Keerthi Suresh, who is terrific as the revenge-obsessed Ponni and Selvaraghavan, who superbly turns Sangayya into the film's beating heart, that hold the film aloft and prevent it from sinking into a mindless violent movie". Ashameera Aiyappan of "Firstpost" rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Saani Kaayidham is a solid revenge drama that achieves its humble aspirations". Janani K of "India Today" rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Saani Kaayidham is a neat revenge thriller which lacks depth in writing. If only Arun added more punch to the story, the film could have been flawless". A Reviewer from "Pinkvilla" rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "This film is worth watching for the performances by the lead actors, and of course, a story that needs to be told. Latha Srinivasan wrote in "Moneycontrol" that “Saani Kaayidam' rests firmly on the shoulders of Keerthy Suresh and Selvaraghavan, and works to a great extent only because of them.” Haricharan Pudipeddi of "The Hindustan Times" stated "The film pushes Keerthy Suresh out of her comfort zone while Selvaraghavan contributes in not making the film end up as a blood-soaked tale of vengeance". Bharathy Singaravel of The News Minute wrote "Filmmakers need to stop, just simply stop using sexual violence as a cinematic prop. Normally, in Tamil films, a woman’s life is “over” after she has been sexually assaulted. Saani Khaayidham tries to deviate from that, but ends up reinforcing another trope - that a woman, who is otherwise primarily the wife, daughter, or mother, needs to go through something as traumatic as a sexual assault to become “stronger”. Srivatsan S of The Hindu wrote "He (Arun Matheswaran) needs to direct his violence towards the audience and not be content with exploiting it for “shock” value. He needs to direct his violence towards making standout sequences".


title: Lords Spiritual

text: The Lords Spiritual are the bishops of the Church of England who serve in the House of Lords of the United Kingdom. 26 out of the 42 diocesan bishops and archbishops of the Church of England serve as Lords Spiritual (not counting retired archbishops who sit by right of a peerage). The Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, and the Anglican churches in Wales and Northern Ireland, which are no longer established churches, are not represented. The Lords Spiritual are distinct from the Lords Temporal, their secular counterparts who also sit in the House of Lords.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: The Church of England comprises 42 dioceses, each led by a diocesan bishop. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, as Primate of All England and Primate of England, respectively, have oversight over their corresponding provinces. The occupants of the five "great sees"—Canterbury, York, London, Durham and Winchester—are always Lords of Parliament. Of the remaining 35 bishops, the 21 most senior sit in the House of Lords, although the normal operation of this rule was suspended in 2015 (following the decision of the Church to begin to appoint women as bishops), instead meaning that until 2025 every woman appointed as a bishop will automatically be appointed as a Lord Spiritual when a vacancy next arises, regardless of seniority, so as to balance out the representation of female Bishops in the House. Otherwise, seniority is determined by total length of service as an English diocesan bishop (that is to say, it is not lost by translation to another see). The Bishop of Sodor and Man and the Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe may not sit in the House of Lords regardless of seniority as their dioceses lie outside both of England and of the United Kingdom. (The former, however, sits on the Legislative Council of the Isle of Man "ex officio".)


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Theoretically, the power to elect archbishops and bishops is vested in the diocesan cathedral's college of canons. Practically, however, the choice of the archbishop or bishop is made prior to the election. The Prime Minister chooses from among a set of nominees proposed by the Crown Nominations Commission; the sovereign then instructs the college of canons to elect the nominated individual as a bishop or archbishop.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: One of the Lords Spiritual is appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to be the "convenor" of the bench; he or she coordinates the work of the bishops in the House. Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans, was appointed the current convenor on 23 September 2022.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Even during the early years of the Peerage, the position of bishops was unclear. During the reign of King Richard II, the Archbishop of Canterbury declared, "of right and by the custom of the realm of England it belongeth to the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time being as well as others his suffragans, brethren and fellow Bishops, Abbots and Priors and other prelates whatsoever, — to be present in person in all the King's Parliaments whatsoever as Peers of the Realm". The claim was neither agreed nor disagreed to, however, by Parliament.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: The Lords Spiritual at first declared themselves entirely outside the jurisdiction of secular authorities; the question of trial in the House of Lords did not arise. When papal authority was great, the King could do little but admit a lack of jurisdiction over the prelates. Later, however, when the power of the Pope in England was reduced, the Lords Spiritual came under the authority of the secular courts. The jurisdiction of the common courts was clearly established by the time of Henry VIII, who declared himself head of the Church of England in place of the Pope, ending the constitutional power of the Roman Catholic Church in England.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Despite their failure to be tried as temporal peers in the House of Lords, it remained unclear whether the Lords Spiritual were indeed peers. In 1688, the issue arose during the trial of the Seven Bishops—William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury; Sir Jonathan Trelawny, 3rd Baronet, Bishop of Winchester; Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells; John Lake, Bishop of Chester; William Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester; Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely and Thomas White, Bishop of Peterborough—by a common jury. The charge was that a petition sent by the Bishops constituted seditious libel; the Bishops argued that they had the right to petition the Sovereign at any time, while the prosecution charged that such a right was only permissible when Parliament was in session (which, at the time of the delivery of the petition, it was not). If the bishops were only Lords of Parliament, and not peers, their right to petition would be vitiated while Parliament was dissolved. Peers, however, were and still are counsellors of the Sovereign whether Parliament is in session or not; therefore, if the bishops were indeed peers, they would be free to send petitions. Since there was no doubt that the petition was actually sent, while the Court still ruled the bishops not guilty, it appears that it was taken for granted that the bishops were counsellors of the Crown.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Nevertheless, the "Standing Orders of the House of Lords" provide, "Bishops to whom a writ of summons has been issued are not Peers but are Lords of Parliament."


title: Lords Spiritual

text: In the early history of the Parliament of England, the Lords Spiritual—including the abbots—outnumbered the Lords Temporal. Between 1536 and 1540, however, King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, thereby removing the seats of the abbots. For the first time and thereafter, Lords Spiritual formed a minority in the House of Lords.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: In addition to the 21 older dioceses (including four in Wales), Henry VIII created six new ones, of which five survived (see historical development of Church of England dioceses); the Bishops of the Church of England were excluded in 1642 but regained their seats following the Restoration; from then until the early nineteenth century no new sees were created, and the number of lords spiritual remained at 26.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Bishops, abbots, and priors, of the Church of Scotland traditionally sat in the Parliament of Scotland. Laymen acquired the monasteries in 1560, following the Scottish Reformation, and therefore those sitting as "abbots" and "priors" were all laymen after this time. Bishops of the Church of Scotland continued to sit, regardless of their religious conformity. Roman Catholic clergy were excluded in 1567, but Episcopal bishops continued to sit until they too were excluded in 1638. The bishops regained their seats following the Restoration, but were again excluded in 1689, following the final abolition of diocesan bishops and the permanent establishment of the Church of Scotland as Presbyterian. There are no longer bishops in the Church of Scotland, and that church has never sent any clergy to sit in the House of Lords at Westminster.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Bishops and archbishops of the Church of Ireland were entitled to sit in the Irish House of Lords as Lords Spiritual. They obtained representation in the Westminster House of Lords after the union of Ireland and Great Britain in 1801. Of the Church of Ireland's ecclesiastics, four (one archbishop and three bishops) were to sit at any one time, with the members rotating at the end of every parliamentary session (which normally lasted approximately one year). The Church of Ireland, however, was disestablished in 1871, and thereafter ceased to be represented by Lords Spiritual.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: The Bishop of Sodor and Man, although a Bishop of the Church of England, has never been included among the English Lords Spiritual, as the Isle of Man has never been part of the Kingdom of England or of the United Kingdom. The Lord Bishop is the holder of the oldest office in Tynwald (the oldest continuous parliament in the world) and remains an "ex officio" member of Tynwald Court and of the island's Legislative Council.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: In the 19th century, the dioceses of the Church of England began gradually to come under review again. However an increase in the bench of bishops was not considered politically expedient, and so steps were undertaken to prevent it. In 1836, the first new bishopric was founded, that of Ripon; but it was balanced out by the merger of the Bishoprics of Bristol and Gloucester. (They were later divided again.) The creation of the Bishopric of Manchester was also planned but delayed until St Asaph and Bangor could be merged. They never were; but the Bishopric of Manchester Act 1847 went ahead anyway with an alternative means to maintain the 26-bishop limit in the House of Lords: the seniority-based proviso which has been maintained to this day. However, the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 gives any woman appointed a diocesan bishop in England during the next decade priority in terms of succeeding those among the current 21 who retire during that period. Rachel Treweek became Bishop of Gloucester and the first woman Lord Spiritual under the Act in 2015; Christine Hardman became the second later that year.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: In 1920, with the independence of the Church in Wales from the Church of England and its disestablishment, the Welsh bishops stopped being eligible for inclusion.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: The 26 seats for the Lords Spiritual are approximately 2600/round1% of the total membership of the House of Lords.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Although the Lords Spiritual have no party affiliation, they do not sit on the crossbenches, their seats being on the Government side of the Lords Chamber, on the right-hand side of the throne. Though in a full sitting the Bishops occupy almost three rows, the Lords Spiritual's front bench is subtly distinguished by being the only one in the House with a single armrest at either end; it is on the front row, close to the throne end of the chamber, indicating their unique status.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: By custom, at least one of the Bishops reads prayers in each legislative day (a role taken by the Chaplain to the Speaker in the Commons). They often speak in debates; in 2004 Rowan Williams, then Archbishop of Canterbury, opened a debate into sentencing legislation. Measures (proposed laws of the Church of England) must be put before the Lords, and the Lords Spiritual have a role in ensuring that this takes place.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Other religious figures have sat in the House of Lords as Lords Temporal in recent times: Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits was appointed to the House of Lords (by the Queen, who acted on the advice of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher), as was his successor Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. In recognition of his work at reconciliation and in the peace process in Northern Ireland, Robin Eames, the Church of Ireland (Anglican) Archbishop of Armagh, was appointed to the Lords by John Major.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Other Christian clergy appointed include the Methodist minister Donald Soper, the Anglican priest Timothy Beaumont, the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster ministers the Rev. Ian Paisley and the Rev. William McCrea, and, to date, the only Church of Scotland cleric to have been elevated to the upper house, the Very Rev. George MacLeod.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: There have been no Roman Catholic clergy appointed since the Reformation, though it was rumoured that Cardinal Basil Hume, the Archbishop of Westminster, and his successor, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, were offered peerages by James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair respectively, but declined. Hume later accepted the Order of Merit, a personal appointment of the Queen, shortly before his death. O'Connor said he had his maiden speech ready, but ordained Roman Catholics are prohibited by the internal canon law of the Roman Catholic Church from holding major offices connected with any government other than the Holy See.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Former archbishops of Canterbury and of York, who revert to the status of regular bishop, and are no longer diocesans, are customarily offered life peerages, so that they can continue to sit as Lords Temporal.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Under the 2011 Coalition Government draft proposal for Lords reform, the Lords would be either 80% elected and 20% appointed, or 100% elected. In the former case, there would be 12 Church of England bishops in the reformed Upper House. The total of 12 bishops would include the five "named Lords Spiritual" (the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishops of Durham, London and Winchester, entitled as they are to sit "ex officio") plus seven other "ordinary Lords Spiritual" (diocesan bishops chosen by the church itself through whatever device it deems appropriate). The reduction from 26 to 12 bishops would be achieved in a stepped fashion: up to 21 bishops would remain for the 2015–2020 period and up to 16 for the 2020–2025 period. The ordinary Lords Spirituals' terms would coincide with each "electoral period" (i.e., the period from one election to the next), with the church able to name up to seven to serve during each electoral period. These reforms were later dropped.


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Under the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 whenever a vacancy arises among the Lords Spiritual during the ten years (18 May 2015 – 18 May 2025) following the Act coming into force, the vacancy has to be filled by a woman, if one is eligible. The Act does not apply to the sees of Canterbury, York, London, Durham and Winchester, the holders of which automatically have a seat in the House of Lords. Five women have consequently become Lords Spiritual as a result (one of whom has since retired), as of October 2022. (Additionally, Sarah Mullally entered the Lords "ex officio" when appointed Bishop of London in 2018.)


title: Lords Spiritual

text: The presence of the Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords has been criticised, with some media commentators and organisations arguing that the system is outdated and undemocratic. The British Humanist Association has described it as "unacceptable" that "the UK is the only Western democracy to give religious representatives the automatic right to sit in the legislature". There has also been criticism of the "anomaly of having religious representation from one of the four nations of the United Kingdom but not from the other three"; while the appointment procedures have been described as "secretive and flawed".


title: Lords Spiritual

text: Richard Chartres, then Bishop of London, defended the bishops in 2007, saying they are "in touch with a great range of opinions and institutions", and suggesting the inclusion of "leading members in Britain's [other] faith communities".


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: USS "South Dakota" (BB-57) was the lead vessel of the four fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1930s. The first American battleships designed after the Washington treaty system began to break down in the mid-1930s, the "South Dakota"s were able to take advantage of a treaty clause that allowed them to increase the main battery to guns. However, congressional refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to the Washington limit of . A requirement to be armored against the same caliber of guns as they carried, combined with the displacement restriction, resulted in cramped ships. Overcrowding was exacerbated by wartime modifications that considerably strengthened their anti-aircraft batteries and significantly increased their crews.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: "South Dakota" saw extensive action during World War II; immediately upon entering service in mid-1942, she was sent to the south Pacific to reinforce Allied forces waging the Guadalcanal campaign. The ship was damaged in an accidental grounding on an uncharted reef, but after completing repairs she returned to the front, taking part in the Battle of Santa Cruz in October and the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November. During the latter action, electrical failures hampered the ability of the ship to engage Japanese warships and she became the target of numerous Japanese vessels, sustaining over two-dozen hits that significantly damaged her superstructure but did not seriously threaten her buoyancy. "South Dakota" returned to the United States for repairs that lasted into 1943, after which she was briefly deployed to strengthen the British Home Fleet, tasked with protecting convoys to the Soviet Union.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: In mid-1943, the ship was transferred back to the Pacific, where she primarily operated with the fast carrier task force, contributing her heavy anti-aircraft armament to its defense. In this capacity, she took part in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign in late 1943 and early 1944, the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign in mid-1944, and the Philippines campaign later that year. In 1945, she participated in the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and bombarded Japan three times. Following the end of the war in August 1945, she took part in the initial occupation of the country before returning to the United States in September. She later moved to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where she was laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until 1962, when she was sold for scrap.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: The "South Dakota" was ordered in the context of global naval rearmament during the breakdown of the Washington treaty system that had controlled battleship construction during the 1920s and early 1930s. Under the Washington and London treaties, so-called treaty battleships were limited to a standard displacement of and a main battery of guns. In 1936, following Japan's decision to abandon the treaty system, the United States Navy decided to invoke the "escalator clause" in the treaty that allowed displacements to rise to and armament to increase to guns. Congressional objections to increasing the size of the new ships forced the design staff to keep displacement as close to 35,000 LT as possible while incorporating the larger guns and armor sufficient to defeat guns of the same caliber.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: "South Dakota" was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . She displaced as designed and up to at full combat load. The ship was powered by four-shaft General Electric steam turbines and eight oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers rated at , generating a top speed of . The ship had a cruising range of at a speed of . She carried three Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes for aerial reconnaissance, which were launched by a pair of aircraft catapults on her fantail. Her peace time crew numbered 1,793 officers and enlisted men but during the war the crew swelled to 2,500.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: The ship was armed with a main battery of nine 16-inch /45 caliber Mark 6 guns in three triple gun turrets on the centerline, two of which were placed in a superfiring pair forward, with the third aft. The secondary battery consisted of sixteen /38 caliber dual purpose guns mounted in twin turrets clustered amidships, four turrets on either side. This was two fewer turrets than her sisters, a reduction in weight and magazine space to accommodate the extra personnel and equipment for her use as a flagship. To compensate for the reduction in medium anti-aircraft firepower, she received light anti-aircraft guns. As designed, the ship was equipped with an anti-aircraft battery of twenty /75 caliber guns and twelve .50-caliber M2 Browning machine guns in single mounts, but she was completed with a battery of seven quadruple Bofors guns, seven quadruple 1.1 in guns, thirty-four Oerlikon autocannon in single mounts, and eight of the .50-cal. guns.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: The main armored belt was thick, while the main armored deck was up to thick. The main battery gun turrets had thick faces, and they were mounted atop barbettes that were thick. The conning tower had 16 in thick sides.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: "South Dakota" received a series of modifications through her wartime career, consisting primarily of additions to her anti-aircraft battery and various types of radar sets. The first addition was the installation of SC air search radar, ordered in 1941, that was fitted in the fore mast. It was later replaced with an SK type set. At the same time, an SG surface search radar was installed on the forward superstructure; a second SG set was added to the main mast after experiences during the Guadalcanal campaign in 1942. During fitting out in 1942, she received a Mark 3 fire control radar, mounted on her conning tower to assist in the direction of her main battery guns and Mark 4 radars for the secondary battery guns. The Mark 3 was quickly replaced with more modern Mark 8 fire control radar, and Mark 4 radars for the secondary battery guns. She later received Mark 12/22 sets in place of the Mark 4s. "South Dakota" also received a TDY jammer. In 1945, her traditional spotting scopes were replaced with Mark 27 microwave radar sets, and she received an SR air search radar and an SK-2 air search dish.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: The ship's light anti-aircraft battery was gradually expanded. In November 1942, eight more .50-cal machine guns were installed and during repairs in late 1942 and early 1943, two of her 1.1 in quadruple mounts were replaced with 40 mm quadruple mounts. By February 1943, all of her 1.1 in guns were removed and thirteen more 40 mm quadruple mounts were added. By this time, her 20 mm battery had been increased to 80 barrels, all in individual mounts. By the end of the war, eight of these had been removed.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: The keel for "South Dakota" was laid down on 5 July 1939, at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey. She was launched on 7 June 1941 and was commissioned into the fleet on 20 March 1942. She was then towed across the river to the Philadelphia Navy Yard and began fitting out; Captain Thomas Leigh Gatch was her first commanding officer. This work was completed by 14 May, and over the next two days she did machinery tests in the Delaware River, followed by more fitting out work that lasted until 3 June. Two days later, she began her shakedown cruise, escorted by four destroyers owing to the threat of German U-boats operating off the east coast of the United States. Over the following two days, she tested her engines at various speeds and test fired her guns to check for structural problems. Training in the area continued until 17 July and the next day, she departed for Hampton Roads, Virginia with four destroyers as escort. From there, she cruised back north to meet the battleship off the coast of Maine before anchoring at Casco Bay on 21 July. There, she engaged in further firing practice before steaming to Philadelphia and being declared ready for active duty on 26 July.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: As the fighting between American and Japanese forces in the Guadalcanal Campaign intensified, particularly after the Allied defeat at the Battle of Savo Island, Admiral Ernest King, the Chief of Naval Operations, ordered "South Dakota", "Washington", the light cruiser , and six destroyers to deploy to the south Pacific to reinforce the American fleet there. Rear Admiral (RADM) Willis Lee took command of the ships, designated Battleship Division (BatDiv) 6 on 14 August, hoisting his flag aboard "South Dakota". The next day, she got underway escorted by three destroyers, but her progress was delayed by an engine breakdown that necessitated repairs that were completed the following morning. After steaming south through the Caribbean, Lee detached the escorting destroyers, passed through the Panama Canal, and picked up three other destroyers on the Pacific side of the canal.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: Later in August, while still en route to the Guadalcanal area, "South Dakota" rendezvoused with "Juneau", the ships proceeding together to Nukuʻalofa, Tongatapu which they reached on 4 September. After refueling there, they left the port on 6 September, but "South Dakota" was badly damaged when she struck an uncharted reef in the Lahai Passage. Divers from the repair ship inspected the hull and discovered a length of plating had been damaged. Workers from "Vestal" patched the hull, allowing her to depart for Pearl Harbor on 12 September, where permanent repairs were effected. She joined the aircraft carrier , which had been torpedoed by a Japanese submarine south of Guadalcanal, and her escorts for the voyage. Repairs lasted from 23 to 28 September, and the work also included removing the 1.1-inch guns, adding four 40 mm quad mounts and twenty-two 20 mm guns.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: After loading ammunition and supplies, "South Dakota" was pronounced ready for sea on 12 October. She conducted anti-aircraft training through the following day before returning to Pearl Harbor on 14 October. She departed for the south Pacific later that day in company with Task Force 16 (TF), which included the aircraft carrier , with nine escorting destroyers. Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, the South Pacific Area commander, ordered TF 16 to sweep for Japanese naval forces north of the Santa Cruz Islands before turning south-west toward the Solomon Islands to block the Japanese path to Guadalcanal. For the operation, TF 16 was reinforced by TF 17—centered on the carrier —which were combined to form TF 61 under the command of RADM Thomas C. Kinkaid. The force was supported by Lee with TF 64, which comprised "Washington", two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and six destroyers.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: Japanese and American reconnaissance aircraft discovered each other's fleets on 25 October, and "South Dakota"s crew prepared for a night surface action that night, though the anticipated Japanese attack did not materialize. Japanese reconnaissance aircraft that had spotted Lee's force east of Rennell Island had drawn the Japanese fleet in his direction, away from TF 61. The next morning, aircraft from "Enterprise" located the Japanese aircraft carriers minutes before a Japanese seaplane located TF 61; both sides immediately launched air strikes, leading to the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. The first Japanese wave struck "Hornet"s group, inflicting serious damage on the carrier and forcing her to withdraw, though "South Dakota" and "Enterprise" were left unmolested. "Hornet"s withdrawal allowed the Japanese carriers to concentrate their attacks on "Enterprise"s group.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: A second strike later that morning, shortly after 10:00 targeted the "Enterprise" group, and "South Dakota" provided heavy anti-aircraft fire to drive off the attackers; the ships shot down seven Japanese aircraft and fighters claimed another three. A third wave hit the task force an hour later, and at 11:48, a group of Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers attacked "South Dakota". She evaded the torpedoes and shot down one of the attackers. A fourth strike arrived over the fleet half an hour later, and several Aichi D3A dive bombers attacked "South Dakota". Most of the bombs fell harmlessly in the sea, but one scored a hit on her forward main battery turret roof, though it exploded without penetrating. Gatch, who was out on the bridge wing to spot the bombers so he could try to maneuver the vessel away, was wounded by a bomb splinter and the concussion from the blast threw him into the wall and knocked him unconscious. Two men were killed and over fifty were wounded by fragments from the bomb. Splinters from the bomb damaged the center and left gun of the number two turret. The gun crew was eventually informed by the Bureau of Ordnance that the gouges were deep enough that the barrels should not be fired.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: A miscommunication while transferring steering control to the executive officer's (XO) station caused "South Dakota" to haul out of formation, briefly headed toward "Enterprise" before the XO corrected the mistake. The two fleets then disengaged as night approached. "South Dakota"s gunners claimed to have shot down 26 Japanese aircraft, but only 13 had actually been shot down by all of the ships of TF 16 combined. The ship suffered two fatalities and around sixty wounded between the bomb hit and strafing runs from Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters. The effectiveness of "South Dakota"s anti-aircraft fire was exaggerated in the press after the battle; the 5-inch, 1.1-inch, and 40 mm guns had difficulty tracking targets through the low clouds. The 20 mm guns, with their shorter effective range, were not hampered by the reduced visibility and accounted for two-thirds of the aircraft "South Dakota" shot down, according to the ship's after action report.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: Though the Japanese carriers survived the battle and "Hornet" eventually had to be scuttled, the Japanese had lost 99 aircraft, nearly half of the carriers' complement, devastating Japanese naval aviation, which relied on a small number of highly trained veterans that could not be easily replaced. While attempting to avoid a submarine contact on the return trip to Nouméa, "South Dakota" collided with the destroyer on 30 October. Both "South Dakota" and "Mahan" suffered significant damage, with "Mahan"s bow deflected to port and crumpled back to Frame 14. Both warships continued to Nouméa, where "Vestal" repaired "South Dakota"s collision and battle damage.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: The repair team flooded some of "South Dakota"s internal compartments to induce a list to expose the damaged hull plating; the work lasted from 1 to 6 November, and Gatch had returned to duty the previous day. By this time, "Enterprise" was the only active carrier in the Pacific, and so Halsey ordered "Washington" to join "South Dakota" as part of the escort force to protect the valuable carrier. TF 16 now consisted of "South Dakota", "Enterprise", "Washington", the heavy cruiser , and nine destroyers. The ships sortied on 11 November to return to the fighting off Guadalcanal. The cruiser and two more destroyers joined them the following day. On 13 November, after learning that a major Japanese attack was approaching, Halsey detached "South Dakota", "Washington", and four of the destroyers as Task Group 16.3, again under Lee's command. "Enterprise", her forward elevator damaged from the action at Santa Cruz, was kept to the south as a reserve. The ships of TG 16.3 were to block an anticipated Japanese bombardment group in the waters off Guadalcanal.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: As Lee's task group approached Guadalcanal, his Japanese counterpart Admiral Nobutake Kondō steamed to meet him with his main bombardment force, consisting of the fast battleship , the heavy cruisers and , and a destroyer screen. While en route, TG 16.3 was re-designated as TF 64 on 14 November; the ships passed to the south of Guadalcanal and then rounded the western end of the island to block Kondō's expected route. Japanese aircraft reported sighting Lee's formation, but identification of the ships ranged from a group of cruisers and destroyers to aircraft carriers, causing confusion among the Japanese commanders. That evening, American reconnaissance aircraft spotted Japanese warships off Savo Island, prompting Lee to order his ships to general quarters. The four destroyers were arrayed ahead of the two battleships. The American task force, having been thrown together a day before, had not operated together as a unit, and both of the battleships had very limited experience shooting their main battery, particularly at night.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: At around 23:00 on 14 November, the leading Japanese destroyers in a screening force commanded by RADM Shintarō Hashimoto sent ahead of Kondō's main force spotted Lee's ships and turned about to warn Kondō. At about the same time, "Washington"s search radar picked up one of Hashimoto's cruisers and a destroyer. The ships' fire control radars then began tracking the Japanese vessels and Lee ordered both of his battleships to open fire when ready. "Washington" fired first at 23:17 at a range of , followed quickly by "South Dakota", though she was limited to four of her six forward guns owing to the damage to two of the barrels sustained at Santa Cruz. The ships used their radars to determine the range but their optical directors to aim the guns. "South Dakota" initially targeted the destroyer ; "South Dakota" missed, but "Shikinami" immediately turned to open the range. "South Dakota" then shifted fire to the destroyers and ; her spotters claimed "South Dakota" had hit both and set them on fire, but she scored no hits during this period. The former approached "Washington" too closely, however, and was quickly reduced to a flaming wreck, which was scuttled later.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: Shortly thereafter, at about 23:30, an error in the electrical switchboard room knocked out power aboard "South Dakota", disabling her radar systems and leaving the ship all but blind to the Japanese vessels approaching the force. By this time, Hashimoto's ships had inflicted serious damage on the American destroyer screen; two of the destroyers were torpedoed (one of which, , survived until the following morning) and a third was destroyed by gunfire. This compounded "South Dakota"s problems, as she had to keep clear of the burning wrecks. By being forced to turn in front of the burning destroyers, the fires backlit "South Dakota" and highlighted her presence to the Japanese ships. At 23:40, she engaged Hashimoto's ships with her rear turret, which accidentally set her Kingfishers on fire, but a second salvo knocked two of the three burning aircraft overboard and blew out the fire on the third. Power was restored and she fired five salvos from her main battery at a range of , but the shock of firing the guns caused further electrical failures, disabling her gunnery and search radars for five minutes shortly before midnight. Upon reactivating her search radar, "South Dakota" picked up numerous Japanese vessels directly ahead. These were Kondō's ships, and they immediately launched a volley of torpedoes at "South Dakota", though they all missed.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: Having inadvertently closed to within of Kondō's force, "South Dakota" bore the brunt of Japanese attacks during this phase of the battle. Japanese destroyers illuminated the ship and the rest of Kondō's vessels concentrated their fire on "South Dakota". She received 27 hits during this phase, including a 14-inch shell from "Kirishima" that hit the rear turret and failed to penetrate the armor, though it damaged the training gear. Most of the hits came from the medium-caliber guns of the cruisers and destroyers, though they were largely confined to the superstructure, where they did not threaten the ship's survival. They nevertheless inflicted significant damage, destroying radar sets, disabling radio systems, and knocking out other systems, leaving the ship in Lee's words "deaf, dumb, blind, and impotent."


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: Focused on "South Dakota", the Japanese left "Washington" unengaged, allowing her to attack "Kirishima" without any disruption. "South Dakota" fired two or three salvos at the next Japanese ship in the line before shifting fire to target "Kirishima" as well, firing five salvos in total before checking her fire as her gun directing equipment had been disabled; her secondary battery nevertheless kept up a heavy fire. "Washington" quickly inflicted fatal damage on "Kirishima", destroying two of her four main battery turrets, holing her below the waterline, and starting numerous fires. Shortly after midnight, Kondō turned his ships to bring them back into torpedo range, leaving the stricken "Kirishima" to steam out of control. At 00:05, the Japanese ceased firing at "South Dakota" and she increased speed to and checked her fire at 00:08. Since her radios had been disabled by gunfire, Gatch could not communicate with Lee, so he turned south and disengaged. A hit below the waterline caused minor flooding and a list of 0.75 degrees, though that was quickly corrected. Fires that shell hits had started were suppressed by 01:55. At around 02:00, "South Dakota" restored radio contact with "Washington" and Gatch informed Lee of his ship's condition. Lee ordered Gatch to withdraw at high speed. "South Dakota"s crew had suffered heavy casualties, with 40 killed and 180 wounded. Among the injured was 12-year-old Calvin Graham, who had lied about his age to enlist; he was the youngest American to fight in the war. By 09:00, "South Dakota" had formed back up with "Washington", "Benham", and the destroyer to withdraw from the area. "South Dakota" received the Navy Unit Commendation for her role in the battle.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: "Washington" joined "South Dakota", and the two battleships withdrew to Nouméa, which they reached on 17 November. There, the repair ship repaired some of "South Dakota"s damage, the work lasting until 25 November. During that period, she received replacements for her destroyed Kingfishers. On 25 November, she got underway, headed to Nukuʻalofa escorted by a pair of destroyers. After refueling there on 27 November, she proceeded with the destroyers until the 29th, when she detached them to return to the fleet. "South Dakota" steamed northeast to the Panama Canal, which she reached on 11 December. She refueled on the Pacific side of the canal, passed through the locks, and steamed north to New York. Once she was in the Atlantic, she picked up an escort of two destroyers.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: After arriving in New York on 18 December, "South Dakota" went into dry-dock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for permanent repairs and a refit. The ship was heralded in the press and credited with the victory off Guadalcanal instead of "Washington", despite her poor performance in the action. For security purposes, she was referred to as "Battleship X". Captain Lynde D. McCormick relieved Gatch on 1 February 1943, and the ship went to sea on 25 February to begin sea trials. In March, she began operations in the north Atlantic with the carrier . The British Home Fleet deployed battleships to the Mediterranean to support the Allied invasion of Sicily, and "South Dakota" was in turn sent to reinforce the Home Fleet. Her primary responsibility during this period was protecting the Arctic supply convoys being sent to the Soviet Union through the Arctic Ocean; a powerful German squadron consisting of the battleships and and several heavy cruisers threatened these convoys.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: The American contribution to the convoy escort was designated TF 61, commanded by RADM Olaf M. Hustvedt, and consisted of "South Dakota", her sister , and five destroyers. The ships arrived in Scapa Flow on 19 May and joined the battleships and , with which they frequently operated over the next three months. The ships protected convoys going back and forth between Britain and the Soviet Union, and in July, they conducted a demonstration to distract German attention during the Sicily invasion, though the Germans took no notice of the ships. At the end of the month, "South Dakota" was recalled to Norfolk with five destroyers as escort; they arrived there on 1 August. After her arrival, RADM Edward Hanson, the commander of BatDiv 9, came aboard "South Dakota", making her his flagship.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: "South Dakota" departed Norfolk on 21 August and reached Efate in the south Pacific on 14 September. From there, she steamed to Fiji on 7 November, where she joined the rest of BatDiv 9, which had been assigned to the support force for TG 50.1, designated the Carrier Interceptor Group. The American fleet embarked on a campaign to conquer the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, beginning with Operation Galvanic, the seizure of Tarawa later in November. On 19 November, the carriers launched raids on Tarawa and nearby islands in advance of the amphibious assault. "South Dakota" once again came under the command of Lee in December, who commanded TG 50.4, which also included the battleships "Alabama", "Washington", , and two carriers. The ships were sent to attack Nauru early in the month, and on 6 December they were reinforced by the battleships and , now being re-designated TG 50.8. The ships arrived off Nauru two days later and bombarded it with gunfire from the battleships and strikes from the carriers' aircraft. The Americans achieved little of significance, as the Japanese forces on the island were light and had few aircraft to be targeted. The ships returned to Efate and began preparations for the next major offensive, including loading ammunition and other supplies. She loaded ammunition from the transport on 5 January 1944 and went to sea in company with "Indiana" and three destroyers for gunnery training on 16 January.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: The next operation in which "South Dakota" participated was the invasion of the Marshalls, code-named Operation Flintlock; "South Dakota" was now part of TG 37.2, Third Fleet, which included "Indiana", "Massachusetts", "North Carolina", and "Washington", escorted by six destroyers. They departed Efate on 18 January, bound for Funafuti. Heavy seas injured several men aboard "South Dakota" and swept one man overboard, who was not recovered. The ships met the carriers and on the way, and on arriving in Funafuti two days later, the group was re-numbered as TF 58.8, as Fifth Fleet had taken command of the fast carrier task force. The ships refueled and departed on 23 January, and on the morning of 25 January, "South Dakota", "North Carolina", and "Alabama" were detached to form TG 58.2.2. The fleet continued on to its objective over the next several days, the voyage marked by false submarine sightings and radar contacts. The ships reached Roi-Namur on 29 January, and the carriers launched major air strikes on the islands in preparation for the coming assault. "South Dakota" remained with the carriers to protect them from Japanese aircraft that did not materialize. On 30 January, "South Dakota" and the rest of TG 58.2.2 were sent to shell the islands, part of the preparatory bombardment before the ground forces went ashore the following day.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: "South Dakota" steamed to Majuro to replenish fuel and ammunition on 4 February before departing on 12 February to support Operation Hailstone, a raid on the major Japanese naval base in the central Pacific at Truk. The American strikes sank a number of Japanese warships and logistics vessels in the harbor before continuing on to raid Japanese air bases in the Mariana Islands on 20 February. "South Dakota"s 5-inch gunners engaged Japanese aircraft at long range late on 21 February and into the early hours of 22 February. Heavy anti-aircraft fire from the fleet kept the Japanese aircraft from closing to attack effectively, and "South Dakota" claimed several aircraft shot down. The American carriers attacked airfields on Saipan, Guam, and Tinian over the next two days, and on 23 February the fleet came under heavy Japanese air strikes. A wave of Mitsubishi G4M land-based bombers struck the fleet and "South Dakota" shot down at least two of them, one of which had attempted to bomb the ship.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: "South Dakota", "Alabama", and a screen of destroyers were detached from the carrier raiding force to return to TG 58.2; they arrived back in Majuro on 26 February where they refueled and conducted shooting practice over the next month. Fifth Fleet got underway on 22 March for Operation Desecrate One, a series of carrier raids on islands in the western Carolines, including Palau, Yap, Woleai, and Ulithi. The raids were intended to secure the seaward flank for the landing at Hollandia in New Guinea. For the operation, "South Dakota" was assigned to TG 58.9, which included four other fast battleships, two carriers, three heavy cruisers, and thirteen destroyers; the ships were tasked with screening the main carrier task force to guard against a possible attack by heavy surface elements of the Japanese Combined Fleet, though they encountered no naval opposition.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: On 27 March, three carriers and other warships from TG 36.1 joined TG 58.2, which was re-designated 58.3. Late that evening, "South Dakota"s air search radar picked up Japanese aircraft approaching; in the ensuing battle, "South Dakota"s gunners could not identify any targets in the darkness and so she did not engage the Japanese aircraft. For their part, the Japanese inflicted no damage on the fleet. The main carrier force began their raids on 30 March, which continued into 1 April. Another Japanese air strike hit the fleet late on the 30th, and this time "South Dakota" engaged two waves of attackers but did not shoot any down. The carriers inflicted significant losses to Japanese forces in the region at little cost before further operations were interrupted by bad weather that prevented aircraft from being launched. By 6 April, the fleet had returned to Majuro to prepare for the next operation.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: Operation Desecrate Two followed the next week; this series of raids targeted Japanese positions along the coast of New Guinea to support the landing at Aitape. While underway on 19 April, "South Dakota" picked up a Japanese aircraft that was shadowing the fleet and a fighter from the combat air patrol (CAP) was sent to shoot it down. The carriers began their strikes two days later and inflicted serious losses, sinking a number of Japanese vessels in the area and destroying around 130 aircraft in the air or on the ground. Another series of raids followed the next day to support the ground forces fighting ashore. While the fleet withdrew back to Majuro, the carriers hit Truk again on 29 and 30 April, further battering the island. On 1 May, Lee took the fast battleships, including "South Dakota", and created TG 58.7, tasked with bombarding the island of Pohnpei. The ships arrived off the island that afternoon and opened fire, quickly suppressing the Japanese anti-aircraft guns that attempted to engage them. "South Dakota", "Indiana", and "North Carolina" briefly disengaged to avoid a reported submarine in the area, but after it failed to attack, they returned to their firing positions. There were few targets for the battleships, but the operation provided the crews with experience operating in the bombardment role together. The ships returned to Majuro on 4 May. "South Dakota" conducted more shooting practice at sea on 15–16 May.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: TF 58 sortied on 6 June to begin Operation Forager, the invasion of the Mariana Islands. "South Dakota" operated as part of TG 58.7, again under Lee's command. The unit now included six other battleships, four heavy cruisers, and thirteen destroyers. They were again tasked primarily with escorting the fast carrier strike force, providing protection against surface forces and their ample anti-aircraft batteries to defend against hostile aircraft. The carriers began their raids on 11 June and continued for several days. Japanese aircraft launched the first of several counter-attacks later that night and "South Dakota" used her air search radar to help vector fighters from the CAP to intercept them. As the Japanese made their approach, "South Dakota"s 5-inch guns opened fire. On 13 June, "South Dakota" and the other battleships were sent to shell Saipan and Tinian in advance of the arrival of the old battleships of the bombardment group the following day. Japanese artillery attempted to engage them but "South Dakota" and the other battleships easily outranged them. "South Dakota" bombarded the area around Tanapag Harbor for some six hours, hitting two transports in the port and starting several fires in the town. The shelling was generally ineffective, however, as the battleships were not sufficiently experienced with shore bombardment, and Japanese defenses were largely undamaged.


title: USS South Dakota (BB-57)

text: On 14 June, "South Dakota" refueled some of the escorting destroyers and employed her Kingfishers to rescue downed pilots from the carriers. The next day, the marines went ashore on Saipan, a breach of Japan's inner defensive perimeter that triggered the Japanese fleet to launch a major counter-thrust with the 1st Mobile Fleet, the main carrier strike force. While the Japanese were approaching, local counter-attacks from land-based aircraft struck the fleet. The first of these hit on the evening of 15 June, with "South Dakota" shooting down one of the attackers. The ship refueled the next day, and on 17 June the carriers and escorting battleships left the Saipan area to meet the 1st Mobile Fleet after patrolling submarines had reported its approach through the Philippine Sea. On 18 June, Lee and Admiral Marc Mitscher, the commander of the fast carrier task force, discussed strategies for the coming battle, and Lee decided to deploy his battleships with the carriers to screen them during the anticipated Japanese attack, rather than pursue the Japanese fleet in a night action, as Mitscher suggested.