Angels, Kings, Composers And Lots Of Other Things

[poliphilo]

I made an icon of the melancholy angel but she looks even glummer when she's small, so I don't think I'll use her much. In truth she looks like a zombie, which is not at all the effect I was after.

Fallen from our high estate and with death in our hearts, we are all melancholy angels- discuss.

My mother has Andre Maurois' Guide to Living on her shelves. I read a little of it last night. He quotes Conrad as saying we pass a "shadowline" at 40- after which old age begins. Maurois opines that by the time he was writing (in 1939-40) the bar had been raised to 50. I wonder if we've raised it any higher since? Personally, I think not. 50 was the difficult birthday for me. I hardly turned a hair at my 60th.

Then I flipped through a few more pages and lit upon the sentence in which Maurois calls Hitler "a prophet". Ooh er.

Talking about right wing bastards, I've been watching (because my mother likes him) David Starkey talking about Royalty and Music. It's one of the few good things one can say about the Hanoverians that they patronized (and genuinely appreciated) Handel. George IV and Rossini- two vulgar little fat men- were best buddies and used to sing duets together.  The last royals to care a fig about music were Victoria and Albert (Albert was as good a composer as Henry VIII- which is to say not at all bad.) Edward VII liked No No Nanette and George V thought Fidelio was "d*mned dull". A discreet veil was drawn over the tastes of the two most recent occupants of the throne. My trust in Starkey as a guide took a beating when he described Elgar as a "northerner". Worcester a northern city? Really? Does the BBC not have fact checkers? Or is Starkey too grand to submit his scripts for vetting before they're shot?

Some rolling-in-it BBC executive deserves to have his or her inflated bonus pricked for this.

(I'm sorry Starkey didn't end his grand historical survey with Elton John rocking the Abbey. Or Brian May thrashing his guitar on the Palace roof. That was a missed trick I think.)

Nights are closing in. When I went out to feed the rabbits at nine it was almost dark. I'll miss this sunny summer when it's gone.

I was turning the lights off last thing and a bulb exploded. Phut.

Comments

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Eh, it's north of Watford. ;)

Neither 40 nor 50 bothered me, so I hope 60 is a doddle in a few years time. The birthday that did me in was 25.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Starkey is an arse and a pretty poor historian to boot but he sucks up to Lizzie Windsor and co so gets a free ride with little challenge to his more egregious nonsense.

To be fair, said Lizzie had a soft spot for Sir Edward whom she knew as a child. The Elgars were childless and Sir E loved children.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

"Just as a line drawn on water with a stick will quickly vanish and will not last long; even so, friends, is human life like a line drawn on water. It is short, limited, and brief; it is full of suffering. One should do good and live a pure life; for none who is born can escape death.”

~ The Buddha

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

I raised eyebrows at a university interview by saying that Manchester was "almost in the South".

I take the view that there was perhaps a metaphorical element to his description of Elgar - after all, he also highlighted his background as being outside of the Establishment. Certainly with regard to today's London-centric culture there is probably a sense that anything outside of London and the South-East counts as "the North".

Starkey himself hails from Kendal. And Walton got a mention as coming from Oldham. One can only presume that's somewhere beyond "the North" ;)

It's been an interesting series. William Lawes was a discovery for me.