Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Google doodle celebrates leap year!

Google's latest doodle celebrates the leap year and Italian composer Gioachino Antonio Rossini's 220th birthday. The doodle showcases four frogs, each closely associated to one of Rossini's best-known comic-opera "The Barber of Seville'.

In the doodle, while one of the frogs seems to be playing piano, another one looks like a leaping soprano. The third frog is the barber, Figaro, and the frog getting a shave is Almaviva. Interestingly, frogs, from a very long time, are associated with 'leap year'. Born on February 29, 1792, in Itlay, Rossini wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs and several instrumental and piano pieces. Nicknamed "The Italian Mozart," he joined Bologna's Philharmonic School (now GB Martini State Conservatory of Music) when he was just 14.

There he composed his first opera seria - Demetrio e Polibio. During his teens, he learnt violin, horn, and harpsichord and often sung in public to earn money. Between 1815 and 1823 Rossini produced as many as 20 operas.

Google doodles are the decorative changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists and scientists. The first doodle was created by Larry Page and Sergy Brin in the year 1998 to mark the celebrations of the Burning Man Festival. Google currently has over 1000 doodles. Google recently revamped its doodle site, which features largely all doodles created by the company. The website also gives a peek into the creative process that goes into creating these doodles.

No comments:

Post a Comment