A Lark Ascending

I noticed yesterday that he wrote that as a novel. The book got some very good reviews on Amazon.

With contemporary music (I know Berg is hardly contemporary) opera can be a way of getting a handle. You're not dealing with pure abstraction so there are visuals there to keep your attention even where the music might lose you. It's why I moved away from buying operas on CD to DVD. I appreciate the skill and craft that goes into making a high level classical singer but I can't say I spend much time comparing them. Though every now and then there's a voice that just appeals in the same way a jazz or folk singer might. We've discussed this before but the whole performance side of classical music - interpretations, different singers, conductors etc - has never engaged me. My interest is always in what is going on in the music written by the composer. Not being musically trained I probably miss things that a musician would hear instantly. So most of my attention goes into following the structure and trying to work out with music that has a huge reputation exactly why it has that reputation. I don't have a great aural memory - for example I was listening to Beethoven's Op. 131 String Quartet a couple of days back with the help of a guide book and in the last movement it commented how the second subject was closely related to the opening fugal theme of the first. When I got there I had no aural memory of the opening fugue. That sort of thing to me seems of most interest as there are clear reasons why the composer did it and the interrelation or development of themes are clearly central to why the music has its reputation. You don't need to hear them to enjoy the music...but you do to understand the music's reputation. Obviously repeated listening will change that. But it leaves me little brain space to think about different versions. Again, I appreciate those who've been listening for ages will have a good grip on what is happening in the music so the whole interpretation side of thing will add extra layers of interest. 'Lulu' is quite interesting in that respect in that I understand that at least parts of it are formally very precise, using traditional structural devices, palindromes etc. I've never heard it at that level but would like to think I could at least get a ghost of it at some point.

I saw Showboat in Sheffield in December. Really enjoyed it - more 'musical' or maybe 'operetta' than 'opera' but what's in a genre? Not dissimilar to Porgy and Bess. One where you could bring the family - loads of well know tunes (as I'm sure you know). 'Old Man River' is guaranteed to get the hairs on the back of your neck standing. I share your problem with classical singing. Even after 40 years I still find it artificial and have to suspend disbelief. Especially in English where it just fires my class chipiness...why do they have to sound so posh? But after a time I get used to it and let the beauty of the music take over. The only reason I started to listen to opera was because some of my favourite composers - Strauss, Janacek, Britten - did so much in that area. There's a great DVD of 'Lulu': I'm waiting on a reasonably modern Wozzeck. Would have been an impossibility before I retired. Don't really know about that. I've yet to find a way to get my computer to project to the TV. It takes in standard online links like BBC iPlayer but I wouldn't know how to get something like those streaming sites. Can't sit at the computer watching for long. Would be nice to access them. I either purchase DVDs when on sale or hire them via something called Lovefilm here (I know, sounds really dodgy) where I get most of my access to films.

Not that brave - 25 years ago I did a 10 week evening course on The Ring when I knew little more than the famous 'bleeding chunks'. The course was brilliant, possibly the last time my brain was thoroughly challenged (the philosophy rather than the music). By the third week I had the records out of the library and was listening well ahead. I'd wake up in the night with Wagner tubas and 'Annunciation of Death' motifs ringing in my head. I find Wagner to be narcotic (probably why many treated him with such suspicion in the mid-20thC). I've never 'got' Verdi (I say that once every 3 months). Don't know why. Very nearly went to see a cinema screening of La Traviata last Sunday but chickened out. One day. The only Mozart I've seen on stage is The Marriage of Figaro (wonderful!). Must do Don Giovanni sometime soon. My preference is for 20th C operas; though I got a thing for Rameau a couple of years back. I strongly recommend the Glyndebourne production of Purcell's 'The Fairy Queen' on video - a really humorous performance. Worth it for the bonking bunny scene (you can find the clip on YouTube).

I don't think Berkeley had much time for the 'pastoral' side of early 20thC English music - he generally seems to have more in common with inter-war French composers. But this still sounds wonderfully evocative of the open air.

One of the advantages of watching on DVD. You can take breaks as long as you like between acts, go and do something else, eat crisps etc. I'll often watch a longer opera over a couple of days. 1 Act in the afternoon, Act II in the evening and Act III the following evening. 90 minuters like the Janaceks or Puccinis make perfect one bite operas. Of course going to a live performance is a different and equally enjoyable experience. I'm booked in for the mother of all endurance tests in June - Opera North's semi-staged complete Ring over four nights (Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat) in Nottingham (although I have a feeling Stockhausen did something bigger). Saw 'Gotterdammerung' a couple of years back in Leeds and it was stunning. So I'm really looking forward to the full monte (I know it reasonably well so know what I'm letting myself in for).

Right up my street - enjoyed this very much. Although I knew about the Hollywood 10 and HUAC I'd never heard of Trumbo before seeing the trailer last week, nor of the background to 'Roman Holiday', 'Spartacus' and 'Exodus'. Very prescient given the current antics of Dalton Trumbo's near namesake.

I played this again yesterday as I ambled into town to buy my Radio Times. Really enjoyed it - especially the more 70s keyboard sounds. Although I suspect the pension class are not its target audience!

'Happy Valley' Series II got off to a good start last night - my, Catherine is hard! Surprised to see Prince Andrei in prison...he only died on Sunday. Michael Wood - The Story of China: Episode I (BBC 2) Michael Wood first appeared as a new type of presenter for TV history the year I started teaching ('In Search of the Dark Ages', I think). He might be responsible for the presenter wandering around in every shot approach to TV documentary (or was that Alan Whicker?). Anyway, his series are always interesting and informative (and there's a motorway service station named after him on the M5 near Bristol). Enjoyed this one - suffered from that first-episode-of-a-series-covering-thousands-of-years-where-we-have-virtually-no-evidence problem of whizzing through a lot of change very quickly. I suspect it will slow down as we get into better documented times. Amazed to see how much of China's tradition has returned after the disruptions of the Mao/Cultural Revolution years. A bit like the return of prog rock after punk supposedly blow-torched the landscape. Beautifully photographed. And, mercifully, we got Wood rather than Michael Portillo.

I'm off to see Cosi Fan Tutti in Nottingham (Opera North production) in a few weeks. The high and mighty tend to get very precious about this opera but it's a wonderful piece for the earthbound too (even if the plot is ludicrous even by opera standards ['Ah, but the sublime exploration of the human condition...']). I strongly recommend this DVD if you want to get to know it better:

Thank you, Soulpope, for alerting me to that last one. Reminded me very much of my Dad. Amazed at how well I knew these pieces even though I could only put a name to the Puccini ones. Though they missed a trick in not going for the vocal version of "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh". I compensated.

Persephone Op 131 (Though my copy has an unfashionable EMI label on) 2 hours of wonderfully mellifluous treacle (though the big number comes very early on). Nice Art Deco staging too.

Caspar David Friedrich - Meadows near Greifswald My favourite painter. Just had a mouse mat delivered from Amazon Germany with this on. Pretentious? Ich? https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Meadows_near_Greifswald_-_WGA8267.jpg

Never drunk the stuff, I'm afraid. Don't ever recall seeing it to be honest - I only know about it from a couple of northern friends at (a southern) university in the mid-70s who used to bring bottles back after their return from the wilderness for holidays. I don't do Sellafield peas with mint sauce either!

Hope other UK'ers (and probably those further afield in Europe) are not getting wrecked by Storm Imogen...very windy and wet today here, though as nothing to the near 100 mph winds on some coasts. Newhaven, East Sussex, UK: Waves crash over the lighthouse as Storm Imogen batters the country. Follow our live news on the storm - Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/feb/08/photo-highlights-carnival-rio-taiwan-rescue

I most certainly am - have the monster packs of pork scratchings and Vimto in already.

Nice scenery and passed the time but not one I'll remember for long. According to family myth my parents took me to see this when I was 4 or 5 and I sang 'True Love' to anyone who would listen for months afterwards. Louis Armstrong playing jazz and Bing playing concertina clearly influenced my musical taste. Did seem to be a 'rich people are human too' apology. What rot! Last part of War and Peace which was very good. Apparently the series has been a huge success in Britain (except, I suspect, in the Russian Lit-er-a-tuh Department at Oxford where they've had to get the defibrillators out). In fact drama is supposedly making something of a comeback after some years where it looked as if we were going to sink under game shows, reality TV and If You Aim For The Stars You Can Be Madonna type programmes (nothing wrong with those, but, proportion please!). http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/06/broadcasters-big-budget-tv-boom-drama-bbc-itv Nice review here in the great British tradition of taking the p**s out of excessive intellectualism: http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2016/feb/07/war-and-peace-recap-episode-six-bows-out-with-a-bonkers-prisoner-beard

There's a bit here about the influence of the Briggs/Jansch; also mentions where Briggs got it from (Mary Doran via A..L Lloyd): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_by_Blackwaterside The first version I heard was the Sandy Denny on her first solo album...one of the places I first got hooked on 'folk' music. That Acoustic Routes programme is excellent - I saw it on a rented DVD a couple of years back. The CDs from it are good too. There's also a 'tribute' album from around the same time that I've enjoyed: There was an all-star tribute to Jansch a week or so back in Glasgow - fellow players plus influencees from Plant to Blur! http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/01/bert-inspired-concert-bert-jansch-old-fruitmarket-glasgow-celtic-connections Nice to see Martin Simpson there - any Jansch fans who've never come across Simpson should give him a listen. Jansch is very clearly an influence but he then strolls his own highway.

Finally finished this after a long trek from early December. Interesting enough to keep me to the end though can't say I was enthralled. I don't think it was the author's fault (it's part bio of Dodgson and Alice Liddell, part exploration of the influence of the books on contemporary culture) - more that Carroll led a pretty uneventful life. Once you get beyond the two Alice books and his dodgy (!) and well known obsession with young girls there really isn't a great deal to reveal. Finished this afternoon. Superb book - kept me gripped throughout. My knowledge of Washington never went much beyond the national mythology - this book only deals with his military career but it was interesting to discover an ordinary human being. Ferling writes a very balanced analysis of him, highlighting his strengths and successes but clearly spelling out his weaknesses and frequent indecision. I've got Ferling's political history of the period on the shelf to read later in the year.

Enthralling hour of (mainly) short pieces - zany modern pieces mixed in with little known snippets from the past.

Nah, that's Bullingdon boys looking for a pig's head.

Is there a scene where he plays to a bunch of posh folks who initially look outraged and then start to tap their feet? Jazz aficionados are going to be able to lunch out for weeks on how unimpressed they were with this new film. I feel a Ken Burns situation a'comin' on.