One Minute Wonders (piano) One Minute Wonders (piano) One Minute Wonders is the name given to a series of piano pieces by leading British composers, commissioned by the pianist Clive Williamson in association with the University of Surrey. The challenge, laid down to all contributing composers, was that submitted compositions had to last no longer than 60 seconds (although, in practice, several pieces exceeded the time limit). Contributing composers included Colin Matthews, John Woolrich, Julian Anderson, Matthew King, Tansy Davies, Steve Goss and Michael Finnissy. Many of the compositions were premiered at a concert at the University of Surrey in 2005. Anthony Payne, writing
History of longitude A decade later, Nevil Maskelyne, who as the newly appointed Astronomer Royal was on the Board of Longitude, armed with Mayer's tables and after his own experiments at sea trying out the lunar distance method, proposed annual publication of pre-calculated lunar distance predictions in an official nautical almanac for the purpose of finding longitude at sea. Being very enthusiastic for the lunar distance method, Maskelyne and his team of computers worked feverishly through the year 1766, preparing tables for the new Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris. Published first with data for the year 1767, it included daily tables of the