After the Merge: The Two Servers of SEA/ANZ Granado Espada

To honor one of the traditions I've started on this blog, here now is a piece on Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn and Johann Sebastian Bach, the namesakes of the new, post-Server Merge "worlds" of SEA/ANZ Granado Espada.

The facts of Rembrandt and Bach's lives were sourced mainly from Wikipedia. The videos of musical performances came from various YouTube videos and will be properly credited as they are introduced. The images of Rembrandt's work were also sourced from Wikipedia.

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[Repost] The Five Servers of SEA/ANZ Granado Espada

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After the Server Merge took place in SEA/ANZ Granado Espada, the original five servers have been compressed to two: the PK realms of Cervantes, Caravaggio, and Vivaldi were merged into Bach; the non-PK realms of Carracci and Pachelbel were merged into Rembrandt.

The previous five servers were named after just a handful of the top men of the Baroque Era: Cervantes, author of the masterpiece Don Quixote; Carracci, the paragon of Italian painters of the Baroque time; Caravaggio, the forerunner of modern painting; Pachelbel, composer of the Canon in D; and Vivaldi, composer of The Four Seasons.

The two post-Merge servers could do no less but be named after equally dominating artistic geniuses of the time - and so we have Bach, named for the man who brought Baroque music to its ultimate zenith; and Rembrandt, named for that great painter of shadow and light.


Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer and organist. He created music for both the church and for secular use, composing for choirs, orchestra, and solo instruments alike. He is best known for introducing a strong current of counterpoint, a technique in which harmony is derived from the interconnection of independent strands of melody.

Among his better-known works are the Goldberg Variations, a set of 30 variations for the harpsichord. In the works of author Thomas Harris, this is one of the musical favorites of the genius, Dr. Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter.

But certainly his most well-known piece is the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565. Just take a listen to the opening seconds of the videos below and you'll recognize it almost instantly.


Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565. Arrangement by Leopold Stokowski. Performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Wolfgang Sawallisch at the Minato-Mirai Hall, Yokohama, Japan, 1999.

Here's a more familiar performance.


Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565. Arrangement by Leopold Stokowski. Performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. The first segment of the 1940 Disney animated film Fantasia.

The opening of this work has been performed many, many times since, to the point where it has even become associated with Halloween and horror movies.

Edited to Add: And of course we hear a version of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor in Granado Espada itself, courtesy of S.F.A! Thanks to Palukz™ for commenting on this!

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Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher, generally considered once of the greatest visual artists of Europe, and certainly as the pinnacle of Dutch art. It was he who taught many of the important Dutch painters who succeeded him. He is famous for his portraits of his contemporaries, for his masterful self-portraits, for his paintings of Biblical scenes, and for the monumental painting Night Watch.


Night Watch by Rembrandt.

This painting was commissioned by a musketeer branch of a local civic militia of Rembrandt's acquaintance. It was named "The Night Watch" because when it was first discovered, it had been so darkened by age that it was thought to be a night scene. It shows Captain Frans Banning Cocq leading his group of musketeers out of their quarters. The exact nature of their errand is still unknown: are they going out on patrol? Are they going to a meeting? The girl near the center of the portrait carries many of the symbols of Cocq's group, serving as a mascot in the painting.

A little respect for your server, then, no matter what it be - it's named after a great man, so live up to its name! Forward the New World!