A Lark Ascending

I did not know that. I am cursed by an aural memory from the 60s of The Clitheroe Kid, my usual reference point when trying to decide if the accent is Yorkshire or Lancashire (Gracie and George work too!).

Disc 3 of the latter off Spotify...a 50 minute orchestral precis of Parsifal.

On my list for the next couple of weeks - I don't think it's out here yet. This afternoon: Very enjoyable, tense thriller in Le Carre's latter-day spying amongst the jet set style (as opposed to his 60s spying amongst dowdy, bad-tempered ex-public school boys style). Release nicely timed with the release of The Panama Papers - London as the money-laundering capital of the world.

To my ears the accent and language of Yorkshire sounds identical to that used by the kids where I used to work on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border, west of Mansfield. Yet when we used to take them to the National Mining Museum near Wakefield they used to fall about laughing for weeks afterwards at the accents/expressions of the former miners who acted as guides underground. I can only just distinguish a Yorkshire from a Lancashire accent - No problem with a North-East one though!

I pronounce the t. Don't recall ever hearing anyone told off for dropping it though my dad (the ultimate working class, Tory voting aspirational) was very quick to pick us up on things like 'better' (beh-ah). Always liked these regional variations in speech. But had some very sensitive conversations with students in the past about importing them into written essays. The use of 'uz' for 'our' - "we're gonna ger uz bags and ger uz buzzes and ger 'om' - was a common one. I'm from the south of England (sort of) so I ought to pronounce bath as 'bah-r-th' and dance as 'dah-r-nce' but for some reason I use 'b-ah-th' and 'd-ah-nce' which is supposed to be northern. Regional word usage and pronunciation seems to survive all the forces of modernisation and yet it's more scattered than often thought - probably a result of internal migration.

OK film that kept me engaged but I get the impression it just skimmed the book. Hard to compare as I read it 35 years ago. I do remember a TV serialisation that had a profound effect on me - this just seemed like a rather sad story. Last episode of 'Blue Eyes' - very much enjoyed the series but was confused by the ending. Got the gist that in the end everyone was compromised in the interest of their careers. But with so many political characters stretched over ten weeks I'd forgotten who was who so when names were mentioned I couldn't keep up with who was being referred to. Seems to be in the nature of many of these long series where things develop from episode to episode but when you stand back it's hard to see the narrative whole (very much the case with things like 'The Good Wife' (which I love) - assume they are written as they go along, picking up on strands as they emerge). Rather different from more taught three or four episode series ('Happy Valley' comes to mind). Maybe multiple 13 episode series are the prog-rock of TV. Stand-alone 30 minute TV programmes must be just around the corner.

Disc 5 of the middle one - string quartet, trio etc things. *************** After a sleep... Fans of 'The Lark Ascending' and 'Flos Campi' (RVW) should give 'Sine Nomine' a listen. No7 of Rubbra

Cusco, Peru - People walk through heavy rain in the historic capital of the Inca empire Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/AP http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/may/26/best-photographs-of-the-day-g7-leaders-tree-planting-baby-zebra

Serenades commissioned for a season of Mozart operas at the posh place back in 1991 - Jonathan Dove: "Figures in the Garden" (pairing, "The Marriage of Figaro"); Nigel Osborne: "Albanian Nights" (pairing, "Cosi Fan Tutte"); Jonathan Harvey: "Serenade in Homage to Mozart" (pairing, "The Magic Flute"); Stephen Oliver: "Character Pieces for wind octet derived from Metastasio's 'La clemenza di Tito'" (pairing, "La clemanza di Tito"); Robert Saxton: "Paraphrase on Mozart's 'Idomeneo'" (pairing, "Idomeneo") Haffner. Nothing like a few serenades on a sunny summer morning.

Episode 3 - Lol's attempted suicide. Harrowing. I thought I was getting an Episode 4 but it turned out to be out-takes and interviews - more interesting than I expected. Never realised it was shot in Sheffield. Surprised I've never bumped into the cast when I'm out getting wasted on a Saturday night.

Fighting it out with 10 as my favourite Mahler symph. Act III - glorious ending. Don't have my head round the leitmotifs in this one unlike The Ring. Luckily there are internet sites that have sound clips that I'll have to put a little time into before listening again. Very static opera - not a great deal happens. A bit like Pelleas and Melisande in that respect. The interest is all in the music (unless you're into religious philosophy!).

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/may/25/royal-mail-stamps-pink-floyd-50-years Wonder if we'll get a 'Never Mind The Bollocks' set in 2027 with the king's head on them.

No. 13, I think. Set against the backdrop supplying arms to the Republic at the time of the Spanish Civil War. Surprised more of these have not been adapted for TV/cinema - only 'Spies of Warsaw' as far as I've noticed.

"When Pop Went Epic: The Crazy World of the Concept Album". (BBC4) Nice little documentary, mainly about the 60s/70s but also mentioning more recent examples (Lady Gaga, apparently). A bit superficial but enjoyable. I much prefer Rick Wakeman as a TV presenter to his records - he nicely takes the p**s out of his own grandiloquence in the 70s whilst still standing by the music he made. 'Peaky Blinders' continues to enthral, constantly heading off down unexpected turns. Read yesterday it's been commissioned for two more series. Also 'The A Word' will have another series. BBC apparently really upping its drama focus as a way of meeting the 'distinctive' criteria arbitrarily demanded by the government. So maybe the recent 'crisis' has unwihittingdalely had positive consequences.

Authorities in south-west China have vowed to come to the aid of an isolated mountain village after photographs emerged showing the petrifying journey its children were forced to make to get to school (according to the article they are going home here). Good lord! OFSTED would have a health and safety fit. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/27/worlds-most-dangerous-school-run-chinese-children-800m-cliff The 100-metre-wide Lochnagar Crater on the Somme, created by a huge mine placed under a German fortification by the Royal Engineers in 1916. The photograph by Mike Sheil will be among those on show at an exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme to be held outside Guildhall in London from 1 June to 3 July Photograph: westernfrontphotography.com/Mary Amazing to think this was being dug 100 years ago today, prior to its (premature as it turned out) explosion just before 7.30 a.m. on July 1st. Takes your breath away when you stand on the lip - one of the sites that really sticks in kids minds from trips to the WWI battlefields. http://www.theguardian.com/world/picture/2016/may/26/eyewitness-somme-france

7th of Dvorak. Latter is harp music by: William Mathias, Gabriel Faure, Marcel Tournier, Paul Hindemith, Albert Roussel, Germaine Tailleferre, Malcolm Arnold, Benjamin Britten

Nights, Puppet Show, Psyche & Harpsichord Cto off first; Act II of last.

Boris v Dave: The Battle for Europe (Channel 4) - Rumour has it that this going to be made into a musical. Probably renamed "Entitlement!" (I can already hear the signature song). Episodes 1 + 2. What a contrast.

Froissart and In the South. Never been a great fan of the first but I really like 'In the South' - reminds me of R. Strauss. Something of the 'Ein Heldenleben' about it, Just Falstaff off first, SQ off second.

You'll find it mentioned by Sidewinder at the top of the thread - you probably missed it because the picture vanished. I've heard it but don't remember it grabbing me. Must play it again. ******************** Good piece here giving the other view of Shakespeare: http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2016/may/20/rejecting-the-cult-of-bardolatry-does-not-make-you-a-philistine I enjoy Shakespeare (but I needed to be taught how to enjoy it) but I know what he means. And what he means can be applied far more widely than Shakespeare.

No. 3 Act I Only my second time through Parsifal - found it hard to warm to first time round but was totally absorbed this afternoon. You can hear where 'The Dream of Gerontius' came from! Moral of first act - Don't kill swans.

Thanks for that - not negative at all. It's how I imagine the book might be. Perhaps the target audience lies in between the extremes you mention - someone like myself who is far from a 'newbie' yet not totally immersed with large areas that still remain obscure (I've yet to really click with Cecil Taylor...though I've had a few experiences when I've been grabbed; Brotzmann lies way outside may area of sympathy...I think I prefer the quieter end of things!). I'm not anticipating any life changing revelations....but hoping for a few pointers to focus listening in this area of music. As for French contradiction side, you're nothing compared with us Brits (as the news should be making perfectly clear!!!!).

Sorry! We've had the pasty confusion here before. A pasty is a savoury pie type thing associated with Cornwall - fast food for tin miners (in the olden days) and holidaymakers (now). With so much food eaten openly in Cornwall (south-west tip of England with beaches on three sides) in the tourist centres, the seagulls get quite aggressive and will swoop and pinch anything - pasties, ice-creams etc. Regular headline news in the local papers! Daphne du Maurier lived in Cornwall - so I imagine having her pasty pinched probably inspired 'The Birds' (though she was probably a bit too grand to eat a pasty).

Do Californian seagulls pinch your pasties like the Cornish ones do? Chengdu, China - A worker collects wheat in a field Photograph: Feature China/Barcroft Images http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/may/24/best-photographs-of-the-day-a-greasy-climb-and-a-baby-hippo

I've ordered the book. Whereas with classical music there are innumerable 'guides' that can help a non-musician understand what is going on in a piece of music, these are rarer in jazz. 'Free Jazz' is something I've become more interested in over the last 15 years (without it ever becoming my prime focus of listening) yet I still find the listening experience far more fragmentary than with structured music. I think we're hard-wired to break down the passage of time into sections - it's much less easy to keep your mind on the music without the clear guidelines that are provided by the chorus structure of a conventional jazz tune or a sonata or variation structure in a classical piece (I understand exactly why free musicians [and others] decide NOT to use such structures but that makes it harder on the listener). I find myself responding to 'excitement' and strange and beautiful sounds and timbres but I rarely have that sense of 'narrative' that you get in most music [again, in some cases that's probably because it is not there; in others because the traditional flags are not there to make it obvious]. The reviews I've read suggest this is quite a down to earth account, focussed largely on live performance. That sort of book generally helps me increase my enjoyment of music (as opposed to the excessively technical book which goes over my head or, god forbid, the sort of book which rhapsodises about 'spirituality' and music as as some sort of mystic communion [and again I know some musicians make the music driven by a belief in the latter]). Looking forward to it.