The Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120, composed by Robert Schumann , was first completed in 1841. Schumann heavily revised the symphony in 1851, and it was this version that reached publication.
93-517: Sir August Friedrich Manns (12 March 1825 – 1 March 1907) was a German-born British conductor who made his career in England. After serving as a military bandmaster in Germany, he moved to England and soon became director of music at London's Crystal Palace . He increased the resident band to full symphonic strength and for more than forty years conducted concerts at popular prices. He introduced
186-462: A curtain wall system that allowed the hanging of vertical bays of glass from cantilevered beams. The Lily House was built specifically to house the Victoria amazonica waterlily which had recently been discovered by European botanists; the first specimen to reach England was originally kept at Kew Gardens , but it did not do well. Paxton's reputation as a gardener was so high by that time that he
279-542: A choral conductor than in the orchestral repertory; his beat was eccentric and puzzling to the uninitiated. He was, nevertheless, invited to conduct all the subsequent festivals up to and including 1900. He directed the orchestral concerts of the Glasgow Choral Union for thirteen seasons in succession. He conducted the promenade concerts at Drury Lane in 1859, and was conductor of the festivals of Sheffield in 1896 and 1899, and Cardiff in 1896. After 1890
372-478: A comparable size. His submission was budgeted at a remarkably low £85,800. By comparison, this was about 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 times more than the Great Stove at Chatsworth but it was only 28% of the estimated cost of Turner's design, and it promised a building which, with a footprint of over 770,000 square feet (18 acres; 7.2 ha), would cover roughly 25 times the ground area of its progenitor. Impressed by
465-410: A controversial issue that had been a major sticking point for the vocal anti-exhibition lobby. Paxton's modular, hierarchical design reflected his practical brilliance as a designer and problem-solver. It incorporated many breakthroughs, offered practical advantages that no conventional building of that era could match and, above all, it embodied the spirit of British innovation and industrial might that
558-648: A daughter, died in 1893; his third wife, (Katharine Emily) Wilhelmina née Thellusson (b. 1865/6), whom he married on 7 January 1897, survived him. Manns became a naturalised British citizen in May 1894. He was knighted in 1903 and died in Norwood , London, just short of his 82nd birthday. He was buried at West Norwood Cemetery . The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park , London, to house
651-617: A description of the dinosaurs was entitled: 'Geology and Inhabitants of the Ancient World. Described by Richard Owen , FRS. The animals constructed by B.W. Hawkins , FGS'. In the central transept was the 4,000-piece Grand Orchestra built around the 4,500-pipe Great Organ. There was a concert room with over 4,000 seats that hosted successful Handel Festivals for many years and August Manns's Crystal Palace Concerts from 1855 until 1901. The performance spaces hosted concerts, exhibits, and public entertainment. Many famous people visited
744-419: A grid 77 modules long by 19 modules wide. As each module was self-supporting, Paxton was able to leave out modules in some areas, creating larger square or rectangular spaces within the building to accommodate larger exhibits. On the lower level, these larger spaces were covered by the floor above, and on the upper level by longer spans of roofing, but the dimensions of these larger spaces were always multiples of
837-521: A grid of cast iron beams, which was held up on slim cast iron pillars. The resulting cube, with a floor area of 24 feet (7.3 m) by 24 feet (7.3 m), formed the basic structural module of the building. By multiplying these modules into a grid, the structure could be extended virtually indefinitely. In its original form, the ground level of the Crystal Palace (in plan) measured 1,848 feet (563 m) by 456 feet (139 m), which equates to
930-620: A key inspiration. Paxton left his meeting with Cole on 9 June 1850 fired with enthusiasm. He immediately went to Hyde Park, where he walked the site earmarked for the Exhibition. Two days later on 11 June, while attending a board meeting of the Midland Railway , Paxton made his original concept drawing, which he doodled onto a sheet of pink blotting paper . This rough sketch (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum ) incorporated all
1023-490: A major gamble for Paxton, but circumstances were in his favour: he enjoyed a stellar reputation as a garden designer and builder, he was confident that his design was perfectly suited to the brief, and the commission was under pressure to choose a design and get it built, with the exhibition opening less than a year away. In the event, Paxton's design fulfilled and surpassed all the requirements, and it proved to be vastly faster and cheaper to build than any other form of building of
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#17327732639871116-505: A post that he held from 1849 to 1851, when the venue was destroyed by fire. Within weeks he was recruited by Colonel Albrecht von Roon to be the bandmaster of Roon's regiment. Manns replaced a dozen bad players, made new arrangements of classical works, including Beethoven overtures and symphonies for the wind band, and formed a string band. He resigned the position in 1854 when a junior officer reprimanded him for allowing his musicians to appear on parade with inadequately polished buttons. In
1209-472: A problem with sparrows becoming a nuisance, and shooting was out of the question inside a glass building. Queen Victoria mentioned this problem to the Duke of Wellington , who offered the solution, " Sparrowhawks , Ma'am". Paxton was acclaimed worldwide for his achievement and was knighted by Queen Victoria in recognition of his work. The project was engineered by William Cubitt ; Paxton's construction partner
1302-438: A property named Penge Place, which had been excised from Penge Common at the top of Sydenham Hill . The reconstruction of the Crystal Palace began on Sydenham Hill in 1852. The new building, while incorporating most of the constructional parts of the original one at Hyde Park, was so completely different in form as to be properly considered a quite different structure – a ' Beaux-arts ' form in glass and metal. The main gallery
1395-520: A reasonable number of bays had been completed, the columns for the upper floor were erected (longer shear-legs were used for this, but the operation was essentially the same as for the ground floor). Once the ground floor structure was complete, the final assembly of the upper floor followed rapidly. For the glazing, Paxton used larger versions of machines he had originally devised for the Great Stove at Chatsworth, installing on-site production line systems, powered by steam engines, that dressed and finished
1488-414: A self-supporting shell standing on slim iron columns, with no internal structural walls whatsoever. Because it was covered almost entirely in glass, it also needed no artificial lighting during the day, thereby reducing the exhibition's running costs. Full-size elm trees growing in the park were enclosed within the central exhibition hall near the 27-foot (8 m) tall Crystal Fountain. However this caused
1581-540: A standby design of its own, for a brick building in the rundbogenstil (round-arch style) by Donaldson, featuring a sheet-iron dome designed by Tunnel, but it was widely criticized and ridiculed when it was published in the newspapers. Adding to the committee's woes, the site for the exhibition was still not confirmed. The preferred site was in Hyde Park, adjacent to Princes Gate near Pennington Road, but other sites considered included Wormwood Scrubs , Battersea Park ,
1674-600: A week. Thanks to the simplicity of Paxton's design and the combined efficiency of the building contractor and their suppliers, the entire structure was assembled with extraordinary speed: a team of 80 men could fix more than 18,000 panes of sheet glass in a week, and the building was completed and ready to receive exhibits in just five months. According to a study by John Gardner of Anglia Ruskin University , published in The International Journal for
1767-431: A wide range of music to London, including many works by young British composers, as well as works by German masters hitherto neglected in England. Among his British protégés were Arthur Sullivan , Charles Villiers Stanford , Hubert Parry , Hamish MacCunn , Edward Elgar and Edward German . Manns performed the works of more than 300 composers, and was reckoned to have given more than 12,000 concerts during his tenure at
1860-806: Is not known. The event made a surplus of £186,000 (equivalent to £25,720,000), money which was used to found the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum in South Kensington . The Crystal Palace had the first major installation of public toilets , the Retiring Rooms , in which sanitary engineer George Jennings installed his "Monkey Closet" flushing lavatory (initially just for men but later catering for women also). During
1953-538: Is still in use as Crystal Palace , while the only remains of the High Level station are the subway under the Parade with its Italian mosaic roofing, a Grade II* listed building . The South Gate is served by Penge West railway station . For some time this station was on an atmospheric railway . This is often confused with a 550-metre pneumatic passenger railway which was exhibited at the Crystal Palace in 1864, which
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#17327732639872046-640: The Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its 990,000-square-foot (92,000 m ) exhibition space to display examples of technology developed in the Industrial Revolution . Designed by Joseph Paxton , the Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet (564 m) long, with an interior height of 128 feet (39 m), and
2139-561: The Isle of Dogs , Victoria Park , and Regent's Park . Opponents of the scheme lobbied strenuously against the use of Hyde Park (and they were strongly supported by The Times ). The most outspoken critic was Charles Sibthorp ; he denounced the exhibition as "one of the greatest humbugs, frauds and absurdities ever known," and his trenchant opposition to both the exhibition and its building continued even after it had closed. At this point, renowned gardener Joseph Paxton became interested in
2232-462: The Palm House, Kew Gardens , and the other by French architect Hector Horeau but despite the great number of submissions, the committee rejected them all. Turner was furious at the rejection and reportedly badgered the commissioners for months afterwards, seeking compensation, but at an estimated £300,000, his design (like Horeau's) was too expensive. As a last resort, the committee came up with
2325-540: The Crystal Palace concerts declined in importance. Orchestral music could be heard elsewhere in London, and the old popularity of the palace had died out. Manns conducted till the season of 1900–01, concluding on 24 April. In 1898, The Musical Times estimated that he had conducted 12,000 orchestral concerts during his first 42 years at the Crystal Palace. Manns was married three times: his first wife died in 1850 or 1851; his second, Sarah Ann née Williams, with whom he had
2418-488: The Crystal Palace especially during its early years, including the likes of Emma Darwin , the wife of Charles Darwin who noted in her diary on 10 June 1854, "Opening Crystal Pal". Symphony No. 4 (Schumann) Clara Schumann , Robert's widow, later claimed on the first page of the score to the symphony—as published in 1882 as part of her husband's complete works ( Robert Schumanns Werke, Herausgegeben von Clara Schumann, published by Breitkopf & Härtel )—that
2511-528: The Crystal Palace, between 1855 and 1901. He became a British citizen in 1894 and was knighted in 1903. Manns was born at Stolzenburg in Prussia near Stettin (now Stolec in Poland). His father was a glass-blower, with, as Manns recalled, "a pound a week and ten children," of whom August was the fifth. The family was musical, and the young August learnt to play the flute in the family's informal ensemble. At
2604-447: The Great Exhibition was intended to celebrate. The geometry of the Crystal Palace was a classic example of the concept of form following manufacturer's limitations: the shape and size of the whole building was directly based around the size of the panes of glass made by the supplier, Chance Brothers of Smethwick . These were the largest available at the time, measuring 10 inches (25 cm) wide by 49 inches (120 cm) long. Because
2697-543: The History of Engineering & Technology, the speed of the erection work was thanks to the use, for the first time, of nuts and bolts made to what was later to be known as the British Standard Whitworth (BSW), when up to that time nuts and bolts were made individually, and could not be interchanged. When completed, the Crystal Palace provided an unrivalled space for exhibits, since it was essentially
2790-403: The age of ten, August temporarily took the place of one of his brothers at the factory, but he had no liking for the work of glass-blowing. His father briefly considered that August might be trained for a career as a schoolmaster, but the youth's predisposition for music prevailed. At the age of twelve he was sent to a school, kept by his uncle, at a neighbouring village. Here he was trained to play
2883-451: The apex of the shear, the navvies hoisted the columns, girders and other parts into place. As soon as two adjacent columns had been erected, a girder was hoisted into place between them and bolted onto the connectors. The columns were erected in opposite pairs, then two more girders were connected to form a self-supporting square—this was the basic frame of each module. The shears would then be moved along and an adjoining bay constructed. When
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2976-450: The backing of Grove and the directors of the Crystal Palace he gradually expanded the band into a full orchestra, for which a new concert room was added to the Crystal Palace. Together, Grove and Manns made the Crystal Palace concerts the principal source of classical music at popular prices. The concert season ran from October to April, with concerts given on Saturday afternoons from 1855 to 1901. Within months of his appointment, Manns gave
3069-425: The band. Herr Manns has a capital opportunity of distinguishing himself. His resources are sufficient to constitute one of the finest bands in the kingdom, and we shall be glad to find the Crystal Palace orchestra achieve such a reputation under his conductorship. ... Herr Manns is too intelligent a musician not to appreciate the nature of his resources and the requirements of his public. It may be safely predicted, that
3162-420: The basic 24 feet (7.3 m) by 24 feet (7.3 m) grid unit. The modules were also strong enough to be stacked vertically, enabling Paxton to add an upper floor that nearly doubled the amount of available exhibition space. The first floor galleries were double the height of the ground floor galleries below, and the Crystal Palace could theoretically have accommodated a full second-floor gallery, but this space
3255-450: The basic features of the finished building, and it is a mark of Paxton's ingenuity and industriousness that detailed plans, calculations and costings were ready to submit in less than two weeks. (The statue of Albert, Prince Consort , in Perth, Scotland , was sculpted with the subject holding a plan of the Crystal Palace. The statue was unveiled by Queen Victoria in 1864. ) The project was
3348-503: The building parts. These included a machine that mechanically grooved the wooden window sash bars and a painting machine that automatically dipped the parts in paint and then passed them through a series of rotating brushes to remove the excess. The last major components to be put into place were the 16 semi-circular ribs of the vaulted transept, which were the only major structural parts that were made of wood. These were raised into position as eight pairs, and all were fixed into place within
3441-417: The cast iron columns, which also had an ingenious dual function: each was cast with a hollow core, allowing it to double as a concealed down-pipe that carried the storm-water down into the drains beneath the building. One of the few issues Paxton could not completely solve was leaks—when completed, rain was found to be leaking into the huge building in over a thousand places. The leaks were sealed with putty, but
3534-444: The design and construction of the exhibition building, comprising accomplished engineers Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Robert Stephenson , renowned architects Charles Barry and Thomas Leverton Donaldson , and chaired by William Cubitt . By 15 March 1850 they were ready to invite submissions which had to conform to several key specifications: the building had to be temporary, simple, as cheap as possible, and economical to build within
3627-460: The development of powered cranes ; the raising of the columns was done manually using shear legs (or shears), a simple crane mechanism. These consisted of two strong poles which were set several meters apart at the base and then lashed together at the top to form a triangle; this was stabilized and kept vertical by guy ropes fixed to the apex, stretched taut and tied to stakes driven into the ground some distance away. Using pulleys and ropes hung from
3720-420: The earliest surviving recordings of classical music. Manns retained the position of director of music until his retirement in 1901, undertaking few outside engagements. At the Crystal Palace he also conducted the triennial Handel Festivals , from 1883. He took on the 1883 festival at a few hours' notice, when the established conductor, Sir Michael Costa was unwell. He was at first regarded as less successful as
3813-723: The eastern portion in Beckenham, Kent. When built, most of the buildings were in the County of Surrey, as were the majority of grounds, but in 1899 the county boundary was moved, transferring the entire site to Penge Urban District in Kent. The site is now within the Crystal Palace & Anerley Ward of the London Borough of Bromley . Two railway stations were opened to serve the permanent exhibition: The Low Level station
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3906-455: The entire building was scaled around those dimensions, it meant that nearly the whole outer surface could be glazed using hundreds of thousands of identical panes, thereby drastically reducing both their production cost and the time needed to install them. The original Hyde Park building was essentially a vast, flat-roofed rectangular hall. A huge open gallery ran along the main axis, with wings extending down either side. The main exhibition space
3999-414: The exhibition, 827,280 visitors each paid one penny to use them. It is often suggested that the euphemism " spending a penny " originated at the exhibition, but the phrase is more likely to date from the 1890s when public lavatories, fitted with penny-coin-operated locks, were first established by British local authorities. The Great Exhibition closed on 15 October 1851. The life of the Great Exhibition
4092-542: The first London performance of Schumann's Symphony No. 4 in D minor and the British premiere of Schubert's "Great C major" Symphony . His concerts featured the music of more than 300 composers. There were more Austro-German composers (104) than those of any other nationality, but British composers (82) came a strong second. Manns was the first conductor to introduce Arthur Sullivan to the English public, when he conducted
4185-472: The first step on the ladder! I shall always think of you with gratitude and affection." Among contemporary continental composers, Johannes Brahms (in 1863), Joachim Raff (in 1870), and Antonín Dvořák (in 1879) also first became known in England through Manns's Crystal Palace concerts. Some fragments of a live performance of Handel 's Israel in Egypt conducted by Manns at Crystal Palace in 1888 are among
4278-465: The flute, clarinet and violin. At fifteen he was apprenticed for three years to Urban, the town musician of Elbing , with whom Manns learnt to make the best of limited orchestral forces, transposing and switching instrumental parts as necessary. In his third year Manns played first violin in the string-band and first clarinet in the wind-band of Urban's Town-band; and he was selected by Urban to receive special lessons in harmony and composition. When Manns
4371-409: The form of a long triangular prism, which made it both extremely light and very strong, and meant it could be built with the minimum amount of materials. Paxton set the dimensions of this prism by using the length of single pane of glass (49 inches (120 cm)) as the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle, thereby creating a triangle with a length-to-height ratio of 2.5:1, whose base (adjacent side)
4464-514: The home country and the empire. France was the largest foreign contributor. The exhibits were grouped into four main categories—Raw Materials, Machinery, Manufacturers and Fine Arts. The exhibits ranged from the Koh-i-Noor diamond, Sèvres porcelain , and music organs to a massive hydraulic press, and a fire engine. There was also a 27-foot tall Crystal Fountain. In the first week, the prices were £1; they were then reduced to five shillings for
4557-472: The interior and grounds of the building. Within two years the rebuilt Crystal Palace was complete, and on 10 June 1854, Queen Victoria again performed an opening ceremony, in the presence of 40,000 guests. Several localities claim to be the area to which the building was moved. The street address of the Crystal Palace was Sydenham (SE26) after 1917, but the actual building and parklands were mostly in Penge with
4650-446: The later, heavier, and more stately version [of 1851] was the better one." . Both Bernard Shore and Donald Tovey wrote analyses of the symphony and preferred the earlier orchestration while noting the improved integration of the revision, suggesting that the revised structure could profitably be paired with the original scoring as far as possible. Schumann's deficiencies as a conductor led to him doubling entries between parts, so that
4743-536: The light coming into the building, and acted as a primitive evaporative cooling system when water was sprayed onto them. The other part of the solution was Paxton's ingenious ventilation system. Each of the modules that formed the outer walls of the building was fitted with a prefabricated set of louvres that could be opened and closed using a gear mechanism, allowing hot stale air to escape. The flooring consisted of boards 22 centimetres (8.7 in) wide which were spaced about 1 centimetre (0.39 in) apart; together with
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#17327732639874836-427: The louvres, this formed an effective passive air-conditioning system. Because of the pressure differential, the hot air escaping from the louvres generated a constant airflow that drew cooler air up through the gaps in the floor. The floor too had a dual function: the gaps between the boards acted as a grating that allowed dust and small pieces of refuse to fall or be swept through them onto the ground beneath, where it
4929-463: The low bid for the construction contract submitted by the civil engineering contractor Fox, Henderson and Co , the commission accepted the scheme and gave its public endorsement to Paxton's design in July 1850. He was exultant but now had less than eight months to finalize his plans, manufacture the parts and erect the building in time for the exhibition's opening, which was scheduled for 1 May 1851. Paxton
5022-408: The main theme of the first movement, in different tempi. Dramatic chords from the first movement also reappear in the finale. Tovey described the overall structure as "possibly Schumann's greatest and most masterly conception". The scherzo borrows a theme from Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 7 (1824) by Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda (1801–1866), whom Schumann admired. The first and fourth movements borrow
5115-404: The music at the Crystal Palace will be one of its principal attractions within a short time after the instalment of the new director. The rest of Manns's career was almost exclusively associated with the Crystal Palace. When he took over, the permanent band was a wind ensemble, from which, with four specially engaged string players, Manns improvised an orchestra of about thirty-four performers. With
5208-695: The name of the building resulted from a piece penned by the playwright Douglas Jerrold , who in July 1850 wrote in the satirical magazine Punch about the forthcoming Great Exhibition, referring to a "palace of very crystal". After the exhibition, the Palace was relocated to an open area of South London known as Penge Place which had been excised from Penge Common . It was rebuilt at the top of Penge Peak next to Sydenham Hill , an affluent suburb of large villas. It stood there from June 1854 until its destruction by fire in November 1936. The nearby residential area
5301-449: The next three weeks, a price which still effectively limited entrance to middle-class and aristocratic visitors. The working classes finally came to the exhibition on 26 May, when weekday prices were reduced to one shilling (although the price was two shillings and sixpence on Fridays, and still five shillings on Saturdays). Over six million admissions were counted at the toll-gates, although the proportion which were repeat/returning visitors
5394-609: The opera orchestra in Edinburgh. In 1855 Manns was invited to conduct a summer season of concerts in Amsterdam, after which he returned to England to take over at the Crystal Palace when the management, led by George Grove , then secretary of the Crystal Palace Company, dismissed Schallehn for his unsatisfactory work. The Musical World wrote, The change will, we trust, lead to some necessary improvements in
5487-444: The parts could be mass-produced in large numbers, and many parts served multiple functions, further reducing both the number of parts needed and their overall cost. Because of its comparatively low weight, the Crystal Palace required no heavy masonry for supporting walls or foundations. The relatively light concrete footings on which it stood could be left in the ground once the building was removed (they remain in place today just beneath
5580-423: The pioneering public gardens at Birkenhead Park which directly influenced the design of New York's Central Park . At Chatsworth, he had experimented extensively with glasshouse construction, developing many novel techniques for modular construction, using combinations of standard-sized sheets of glass, laminated wood , and prefabricated cast iron. The "Great Stove" (or conservatory) at Chatsworth (built in 1836)
5673-440: The positions for the cast iron columns; these points were then set precisely by theodolite measurements. Then the concrete foundations were poured, and the base plates for the columns were set into them. Once the foundations were in place, the erection of the modules proceeded rapidly. Connector brackets were attached to the top of each column before erection, and these were then hoisted into position. The project took place before
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#17327732639875766-411: The project, and with the enthusiastic backing of commission member Henry Cole , he decided to submit his own design. At this time, Paxton was chiefly known for his celebrated career as the head gardener for the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth House . By 1850, Paxton had become a preeminent figure in British horticulture and had also earned great renown as a freelance garden designer; his works included
5859-410: The relatively poor quality of the sealant materials available at that time meant that the problem was never totally overcome. To maintain a comfortable temperature inside such a large glass building was another major challenge, because the Great Exhibition took place decades before the introduction of electricity and air-conditioning. Glasshouses rely on the fact that they accumulate and retain heat from
5952-401: The roof of the original Hyde Park structure had a horizontal profile, so heavy rain posed a potentially serious safety hazard. Because normal cast glass is brittle and has low tensile strength, there was a risk that the weight of any excess water build-up on the roof might have caused panes to shatter, showering shards of glass onto the patrons, ruining the valuable exhibits beneath, and weakening
6045-443: The roofing. Once completed, the channels acted both as the joists that supported the roof sections, and as guttering—a patented design now widely known as a " Paxton gutter ". These gutters conducted the rainwater to the ends of each furrow, where they emptied into the larger main gutters, which were set at right angles to the smaller gutters, along the top of the main horizontal roof beams. These main gutters drained at either end into
6138-425: The same year Henry Schallehn , who had recently established a military band at the Crystal Palace in the suburbs of London, engaged Manns as clarinettist and sub-conductor. Within months there was a rift between the two men when Schallehn passed off a composition of Manns's as his own; when Manns protested, Schallehn dismissed him. Manns then earned a living teaching the violin in the English provinces, and playing in
6231-442: The score became "playable but opaque". The symphony is highly integrated for its time, with thematic material recurring between movements. The slow introduction to the first movement reappears early in the second movement, and then has a violin arabesque based on it. A modification of this arabesque then appears in the trio section of the scherzo. The slow introduction to the finale and its main opening theme incorporate phrases from
6324-477: The short time remaining before the exhibition opening, which had already been scheduled for 1 May 1851. Within three weeks, the committee had received some 245 entries, including 38 international submissions from Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hanover , Switzerland, Brunswick , Hamburg and France . Two designs, both in iron and glass, were singled out for praise—one by Richard Turner , co-designer of
6417-415: The structure. Paxton's ridge-and-furrow roof was designed to shed water very effectively. Rain ran off the angled glass roof panes into U-shaped timber channels which ran the length of each roof section at the bottom of the 'furrow'. These channels were ingeniously multifunctional. During construction, they served as the rails that supported and guided the trolleys on which the glaziers sat as they installed
6510-439: The sun, but such heat buildup would have been a major problem for the exhibition. This would have been exacerbated by the heat produced by the thousands of people who would be in the building at any given time. Paxton solved this with two clever strategies. One was to install external canvas shade-cloths that were stretched across the roof ridges. These served multiple functions: they reduced heat transmission, moderated and softened
6603-463: The surface of the site). The modules could be erected as quickly as the parts could reach the site—some sections were standing within eighteen hours of leaving the factory—and since each unit was self-supporting, workers were able to assemble much of the building section-by-section, without having to wait for other parts to be finished. Fox, Henderson and Co took possession of the site in July 1850, and erected wooden hoardings which were constructed using
6696-481: The surrounding grounds, and two large transepts were added at either end of the main gallery. It was modified and enlarged so much that it extended beyond the boundary of Penge Place, which was also the boundary between Surrey and Kent . The reconstruction was recorded for posterity by Philip Henry Delamotte , and his photographs were widely disseminated in his published works. The Crystal Palace Company also commissioned Negretti and Zambra to produce stereographs of
6789-444: The symphony had merely been sketched in 1841 but was only fully orchestrated (" vollständig instrumentiert ") in 1851. However, this was untrue, and Johannes Brahms , who greatly preferred the earlier version of the symphony, published that version in 1891 despite Clara's strenuous objections. The work is scored for two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , timpani and
6882-406: The timber that later became the floorboards of the finished building. More than 5,000 navvies worked on the building during its construction, with up to 2,000 on site at one time during the peak building phase. More than 1,000 iron columns supported 2,224 trellis girders and 30 miles of guttering, comprising 4,000 tons of iron in all. Firstly stakes were driven into the ground to roughly mark out
6975-421: The usual strings . The 1851 (published) version of the work is in four movements which follow each other without pause: The 1841 version, however, used Italian rather than German tempo indications, with the four movements as follows: Schumann's biographer Peter Ostwald comments that this earlier version is "lighter and more transparent in texture" than the revision, but that Clara "always insisted that
7068-594: The year of re-opening, 18 handbooks were published in the Crystal Palace Library by Bradbury and Evans as guides to the new installations. Many of these were written by the specialists involved in creating and curating the new displays. So the 1854 guide to the Egyptian Court, destroyed in the 1866 fire, was entitled: 'The Egyptian Court in the Crystal Palace. Described by Owen Jones, architect, and Joseph Bonomi , sculptor'. That which included
7161-513: The young Sullivan's Tempest music in April 1862. Manns later introduced early works by William Sterndale Bennett , Charles Villiers Stanford , Hubert Parry , Hamish MacCunn , Edward Elgar , Edward German and Ethel Smyth . Thirty years after Manns introduced the Tempest music, Sullivan wrote to him, "How much do I not owe to you, my dear old friend, for the helping hand you gave me to mount
7254-464: Was 135 feet (41 m) high, with 772,784 square feet (71,794.0 m ) on the ground floor alone. The Great Exhibition was opened on 1 May 1851 by Queen Victoria. It was the first of the World's fair exhibitions of culture and industry. There were some 100,000 objects, displayed along more than ten miles, by over 15,000 contributors. Britain occupied half the display space inside with exhibits from
7347-452: Was 4 feet (1.2 m) long. By mirroring this triangle he obtained the 8-foot-wide (2.4 m) gables that formed the vertical faces at either end of the prism, each of which was 24 feet (7.3 m) long. With this arrangement, Paxton could glaze the entire roof surface with identical panes that did not need to be trimmed. Paxton placed three of these 8 feet (2.4 m) by 24 feet (7.3 m) roof units side-by-side, horizontally supported by
7440-460: Was able to design and build the largest glass structure yet created, from scratch, in less than a year, and complete it on schedule and on budget. He was even able to alter the design shortly before building began, adding a high, barrel-vaulted transept across the centre of the building, at 90 degrees to the main gallery, under which he was able to safely enclose several large elm trees that would otherwise have had to be felled—thereby also resolving
7533-588: Was approaching the age for military conscription, he avoided active service by volunteering as a member of an infantry band stationed at Danzig , for which he played the clarinet. At the same time he played the violin in the theatre, in concerts, and for the ballet. In 1848 his talent was spotted and he was invited to join Josef Gungl 's orchestra in Berlin, where he played first violin. He was then appointed conductor and solo violinist at Kroll's Gardens in Berlin,
7626-478: Was collected daily by a team of cleaning boys. Paxton also designed machines to sweep the floors at the end of each day. But in practice, it was found that the trailing skirts of the female visitors did the job well. Thanks to the considerable economies of scale Paxton was able to exploit, the manufacture and assembly of the building parts was exceedingly quick and cheap. Each module was identical, fully prefabricated, self-supporting, and fast and easy to erect. All of
7719-425: Was invited to take the lily to Chatsworth. It thrived under his care, and in 1849 he caused a sensation in the horticultural world when he succeeded in producing the first amazonica flowers to be grown in England. His daughter Alice was drawn for the newspapers, standing on one of the leaves. The lily and its house led directly to Paxton's design for the Crystal Palace. He later cited the huge ribbed floating leaves as
7812-430: Was known as the Crystal Palace pneumatic railway . Dozens of experts such as Matthew Digby Wyatt and Owen Jones were hired to create a series of courts that provided a narrative of the history of fine art. Amongst these were Augustus Pugin 's Mediaeval Court from the Great Exhibition, as well as courts illustrating Egyptian , Alhambra , Roman , Renaissance , Pompeian , and Grecian art and many others. During
7905-480: Was left open. Paxton also used longer trellis girders to create a clear span for the roof of the immense central gallery, which was 72 feet (22 m) wide and 1,800 feet (550 m) long. Paxton's roofing system incorporated his elegant solution to the problem of draining the building's vast roof area. Like the Chatsworth Lily House (but different to its later incarnation at Sydenham Hill), most of
7998-471: Was limited to six months, after which something had to be decided on the future of the Crystal Palace building. Against the wishes of parliamentary opponents, a consortium of eight businessmen, including Samuel Laing and Leo Schuster , who were both board members of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR), formed a holding company and proposed that the edifice be taken down and relocated to
8091-463: Was originally erected in Hyde Park in London to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, which showcased the products of many countries throughout the world. The commission in charge of mounting the Great Exhibition was established in January 1850, and it was decided at the outset that the entire project would be funded by public subscription. An executive building committee was quickly formed to oversee
8184-405: Was redesigned and covered with a barrel-vaulted roof; the central transept was greatly enlarged and made even higher; the large arch of the main entrance was framed by a new facade and served by an imposing set of terraces and stairways. The building measured 1,608 feet (490 m) feet in length by 384 feet (117 m) feet across the transepts. The new building was elevated several metres above
8277-875: Was renamed Crystal Palace after the landmark. This included the Crystal Palace Park that surrounds the site, home of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre , which was previously a football stadium that hosted the FA Cup Final between 1895 and 1914. Crystal Palace F.C. were founded at the site and played at the Cup Final venue in their early years. The park still contains Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins 's Crystal Palace Dinosaurs which date back to 1854. The huge, modular, iron, wood and glass, structure
8370-411: Was the first major application of his ridge-and-furrow roof design and was at the time the largest glass building in the world, covering around 28,000 square feet (2,600 m ). A decade later, taking advantage of the availability of the new cast plate glass , Paxton further developed his techniques with the Chatsworth Lily House, which featured a flat-roof version of the ridge-and-furrow glazing, and
8463-585: Was the ironwork contractor Fox and Henderson, whose director Charles Fox was also knighted for his contribution. The 900,000 square feet (84,000 m ) of glass was provided by the Chance Brothers glassworks in Smethwick. This was the only glassworks capable of fulfilling such a large order; it had to bring in labour from France to fulfil the order in time. The final dimensions were 1,848 feet (563 m) long by 456 feet (139 m) wide. The building
8556-491: Was three times the size of St Paul's Cathedral . The 60,000 panes of glass were manufactured by the Chance Brothers . The 990,000-square-foot building with its 128-foot-high ceiling was completed in thirty-nine weeks. The Crystal Palace boasted the greatest area of glass ever seen in a building. It astonished visitors with its clear walls and ceilings that did not require interior lights. It has been suggested that
8649-526: Was two stories high, with the upper floor stepped in from the boundary. Most of the building had a flat-profile roof, except for the central transept, which was covered by a 72-foot-wide (22 m) barrel-vaulted roof that stood 168 feet (51 m) high at the top of the arch. Both the flat-profile sections and the arched transept roof were constructed using the key element of Paxton's design: his patented ridge-and-furrow roofing system, which had first seen use at Chatsworth. The basic roofing unit, in essence, took
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