A Lark Ascending

Don't know that one. I think I first came across Spencer on the cover of a Penguin Modern Classics version of T.F. Powys' 'Mr Weston's Good Wine' (most of my painting education came off book or classical LP sleeves!). I tend to also get drawn by pictures with historical connections - so the First World War paintings have always struck me (they are brilliant for using in teaching). This one is pretty amazing: I like his curious figures too: Definitely more interesting than the pictures I recall illustrating the religious books of my childhood.

He spent a great deal of time trying to bridge troubled waters which might explain it. With bright eyes like his you'd think he'd be able to steer clear. But of course. We've got to be good at something. We used to be very good at invading other countries. Even better at making out that we were doing it for their own good. *************** If my phone is to be believed it really is time to start building that Ark.

My interest in painting is very superficial but I've always enjoyed Nash and Piper. Sutherland and Spencer appeal too - in fact I intended to go to the gallery at Cookham last week but plans got blown by the weather.

No. It's Art.

Glower? Typo, dialect or poetic licence? You're not going all Grammar Police on me, Bill? http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/glower

Thanks for your comments, Jeff. I've just been listening to the last three you mentioned - there is no way I'd ever have noticed what you have to say about the voicings. 'Harry Carney's baritone takes the melody, with Paul Gonsalves' tenor scored below the bari. It's an unusual sound, and it works wonderfully.' I love having things like that pointed out. 'A Gatherin’ In A Clearin' Hometown' seems to have the ghost of 'I Let a Song Go Out of my Heart' about it. And 'Black Beauty' is just a pearl. Passion Flower 1941 Surprised this hasn't got more attention. I know it best from the version on the Ellington/Rosemary Clooney disc 'Blue Rose' where Hodges does this gorgeous downward glissando thing. I've had this record for over 30 years - I think it might have been one of the first to really make be hear JH. The original 1941 seems to have a much less florid intro and the glissando descent is less pronounced but there's still that gliding between the notes. I really like this track...has me thinking of a night time Whistler painting. I know there was some comparison between Ellington and Delius in the 30s - this piece seems to inhabit that sort of impressionism. I love the track but it seems others don't: http://www.jazz.com/music/2009/3/16/duke-ellington-passion-flower

RIP Enjoyed his playing with a number of bands over the years, especially those associated with Dune.

Lots of flooding at present though all it's done in the Midlands is glower. The south east seems to have got the worst of it. Friday looks dreadful! And yet: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18391200 Must be a barbecue summer just up ahead!

A good one volume history. Neither romanticises nor demonises. Just started:

Thanks, Roger. Didn't know about this. One I'll pick up for the summer holidays. Ideal reading (and accompanying listening) for my trip to Devon/Cornwall.

6CDs for £15 on Amazon, a bit more elsewhere. http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/EMI/4404712 It's all been out in various permutations before but looks like a good 'thorough immersion' set for anyone not familiar with Holst beyond 'The Planets'.

JRR A lovely Scott Hamilton 'Stella By Starlight' followed by... Well, Andy Sheppard's playing on 'I Wish I Knew' is lovely too - but the drum machine laying down a rhythmic straight-jacket underneath is straight for Room 101.

What does "cowpat Classical" mean? I've never heard that phrase before.... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/arts/music/13smit.html?pagewanted=all A derogatory term used by composer Elizabeth Lutyens with regard to the romantic, folk-song influenced English classical music of the early 20thC - Vaughan Williams, Holst, Howells etc (i.e. the stuff you can whistle [well, maybe not the Tallis Fantasia]).

This bit is funny too: I wonder how many other Brits recall the teacher tuning into 'Singing Together'* in primary school where we would learn to sing rather prim versions of English folk songs - 'Oh, No John' can still make me shudder. I suspect that was also to engender a sense of national pride. Could have put me off folk songs for life. The Beatles with their 'yeah, yeah, yeahs' were much more appealing. Though given my taste for both English folk music and English cowpat classical, maybe the programmes were more successful subliminally. [*Not on a tape or replayer - the school day had to be built round the timings of these programmes.]

That's not how I came to any of the musics that I subsequently became besotted by. Part of the appeal was finding your own path away from what those who knew better told you was good for you.

Awesome!

Maybe this will soften your apprehension: http://www.john-adams.info/bands/druids.htm Maybe not! I've come across a few of those names in other groups from later on. Part of a very strong Derbyshire folk scene.

Amazon UK has a very good general deal at present:

The greatest song ever about the British Monarchy: Lyrics Take the time to listen. Amazing to think this was written about the 1977 Jubilee and nothing has changed. I recall seeing Rosselson and Roy Bailey doing this in a pub in Nottingham in the early 80s and the atmosphere was electric - Thatcher, Reagan, the arms race etc on the rise and the Miners' Strike just around the corner. Favourite lines:

Anyone ever heard this curiosity?: Seems like a collision between Early Music, folk and jazz. Details St. George’s Canzona, The Druids Trevor Crozier’s Broken Consort, Jeff Clyne (bass guitar) Dave MacRae (electric piano) Trevor Tomkins (drums). Not due for imminent reissue - I just stumbled on it searching for the Elizabethan/Jacobian composer Giles Farnaby.

I've heard they had a raid by the Grammar Police. They're having to sort out the punctuation on all those ultra budget labels that have flooded the place.

This has appeared as a download - probably later to appear in CD, memory stick and God only knows what other format: If you don't know Bridge there's a marvellous journey there from Edwardian sub-Brahmsianism through Impressionism to the edge of the world of Berg and Bartok. Got to be better than yet another 900 CD Celebrity Conductor Ancestor Worship box playing all the usual suspects!

Only for upper-class pissers! An awful lot of them where I was!