Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men to contemplate, and fools to pass by without consideration.
Izaak Walton
If you can’t be content with what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped
Izaak Walton
No man can lose what he never had
Izaak Walton
Part One
As always, what follows is just something prescribed by my youngers and betters, for relief of my occasional mental ills. These had their inception, I’m told, in my youth as so many of these things do. I suppose I was discovering of the joys of life, so wonderfully described by Thomas Traherne in Dies Natalis, while I was still under wise parental control. My own thoughts, however, began to be accompanied even at that age by feelings of doubt and insecurity. Unfortunately, these accosted me, in their various guises, more or less simultaneously, at the age of around fifteen and a half. Otherwise known as ‘O’ Levels.
As I write I am listening to the Last Night of the Proms. Louise Alder’s singing, we are told, has been recommended by doctors as a method for the immediate lifting of the gloom, and it certainly had that effect on me. If one adds the perfect embouchure of Alison Balsom to the mix, in her impeccable and exciting performance of the Hummel tonight, I appear to have the perfect remedy. There are treats to come. But by the time this is written the very long Prom will have finished.
My first discovery were the brooks and rivers where I would try and usually fail to catch trout. It became a little easier with practice, as things do. Second was the reading of the books of P G Wodehouse, of which Joy in the Morning was the first. Asking why my father was chuckling over this book, he duly pronounced me ready for PGW, a man whose fictional world was as unreal as mine was becoming real. Wodehouse’s characters all lived in a world that, if it had ever existed, which is dubious, was now certainly utterly unimaginable to a baby-boomer such as me. Hilariously funny though. I soon weaned myself off The Beano.
The third discovery was of the music of Peter Warlock (I remember trying to find the right harmonies in Pieds en l’air on the piano), and then of Frederick Delius (Beecham and the RPO of course) had a disastrous effect on my irregular French verbs. Even Music, although I didn’t realise the significance at the time, could be said to have a curious connection to Fishing (‘Nature’ Music) and Wodehouse (Wit). Not the Trout Quintet, though. Delius’s music was to me, not just not contemporary, but somehow ‘set’ in the world of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Some argue that it is an imagined parallel world which, like Thomas Traherne’s ‘orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown’.
Both God haters, Warlock and Delius were entranced and influenced by the philosophy and ideas of specific ‘modern’ writers and thinkers. Delius’ youth was coloured by a father, doubtless well-meaning though he was, who would not let him study music, but instead installed him as manager of an orange grove on the banks of the St Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. This early disappointment was joined by his discovery years later of the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, whose pronouncements were partly to do with the dichotomy between ‘Master’ and ‘Slave’ mentalities. He did not intend to pronounce that the one was ‘good’ and the other ‘bad’, but rather that one had the character and talents of a natural warrior or leader, and that the other was equally naturally to be of a lower order, thus weaker, and leadable by his/her superiors, Nietzsche, of course, pronounced that ‘God is Dead’ in 1882, apparently more interested in Apollo than Jesus. He did cite examples of religious, specifically Christian cruelty through the ages. Nevertheless, his philosophies were somewhat misinterpreted after his death, owing the editing of his unpublished writings by his sister. Nietzsche himself was in fact opposed to Antisemitism and Fascist beliefs, but this subsequent misleading reassessments and publishing of his notes by his sister led to further interpretations and misconceptions, and were taken up by the Nazis and Fascists after the Great War. The worst of them were to give the Ūbermensch meaning a very literal interpretation, in essence returning to one of the original meanings of the word Spartan, i.e. rather than resilient and determined, more Severe, or Win by Any Means. But the sincerity of his nihilistic writings appealed strongly to Delius. Interestingly Nietzsche, who died in his fifties and Delius were both to become physically disabled and somewhat resentful in middle age.
Delius was immediately entranced by his natural surroundings, and, after early harmony lessons in Florida, his music soon began to reflect this, and continued to do so after he settled in Grez-sur-Loing in France. We hear the results of his Florida experience in the early ‘Florida Suite’ of 1887, and Appalachia. In the latter he was deeply influenced by the singing – in harmony – of the emancipated slaves who worked the plantation. One might say that that his artistic character was partly fashioned first by an unpromising Nurture, then by a love of Nature, and finally by an appreciation of Nietzsche.
‘Writing it down’ has been recommended to me as a sort of mental feather-duster, designed to eliminate, or at least sweep problems into a corner behind the sofa until an optimistically imagined, and beady-eyed, cleaning-lady arrives with the permanent removal equipment.
The trouble is that I soon find myself telling everyone what they already know, i.e., that the world outside appears to be in such a terrible mess at the moment, and nearer to home things are also somewhat disputatious. Things are becoming expensive, (I tried to buy a pillow the other week and found that even Down was Up. there are growing numbers of redundancies in the hospitality sector and the poor and stateless (90% genuine and potentially hard-working – given the chance) immigration applicants, are being automatically judged as potential trouble-makers, and worse, terrorists – not even potential terrorists – and deserving, without any investigation into their circumstances, worthy of deportation. What happened to Britain as a ‘welcoming country?’ I know there are thousands of them paddling over every week. We also know that there are nearly 2 million unemployed in Britain. An increase of nearly a quarter of a million more than last year. But, there are also 730,000 job vacancies as well. And plenty of opportunities to create more work if we actually thought creatively. Yet the government spends much less on Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services per annum than on any other budget expense.
Living in such an uncertain world is the last thing needed by an ageing codger who’s always been a little confused by life anyway.
A short list of things I’ve always been confused by: Why is some honey runny and some set? When we are young, are we supposed to ask to ‘get up’ from the table or to ‘get down’ from it? Do we pull the curtains or draw them? Why do we buy bananas and end up with half of them being too overripe to eat, when the sensible thing would be to buy green bananas and wait for them to become perfectly ripe? Why don’t I do this? And of course, the old toast/butter/marmalade-side down question. And – Is it possible to know whether an egg and cress sandwich (with salad cream obviously) tastes exactly the same to everyone else as it does to me? And more seriously, I wonder whether anything can indeed be shown to be an undisputed fact until, finally, the body-mass-challenged opera singer of the female persuasion performs her aria?
And why are we more keen to talk about ourselves than to ask about the other person? And maybe learn something. If someone does something clearly unsociable, and shouts at one, rather than shouting at them, surely it must be wiser to ask them what would make their life better? Because nearly all aggressive behaviour is caused by fear of one sort or another, however well it is disguised.
(never start a sentence with) But, wading in off the riverbank for a moment I will first ask myself whether there, are among the leaders of the countries of the world that are in the news at the moment, any actual statesmen? One accepts that each head of state’s decisions must always be motivated by a bundle of considerations. In the world of Big Business and World politics, the priorities seem usually to involve and often stem from questions of Productivity and Consumerism, which, if uncontrolled, or controlled unjustly, have the potential to result in some sort of destructive outcome. If only the ideals of these people were concerned with Cohesion and Creativity, perhaps this sensibly controlled discipline could lead to more lasting benefits to Mankind. Teslar cars are of course a wonderful idea, but the firm is not, as far as I know, called Teslar and Partners, as is John Lewis. Wealthy people like Andrew Carnegie spent much of his life thinking of others, as do Bill Gates, Bono and Dolly Parton. Life-enhancing creativity in those blessed to deliver it is a wonderful thing.
Some of the extremely wealthy men that do lead their country are very good at finding historical precedents for current situations. While they are pointing them out to the populace too many of them are merely proving that they are actually incapable of learning from the very past they are quoting.
Instead, by their words they think that the ‘answer’ to is encourage confrontation. It has even been suggested that some of them are mad, pretending to be sane; some are actually sane, pretending to be mad; and some are merely stupid, saying the first contradictory thing that comes to mind, knowing that some will believe it, which makes it right.
In this way, the latter push out (in the form of tweets) their views to a wider, and luckily for them increasingly easily influenced section of the population. Crowds gather, tens of thousands – over 100,000 of them did so recently in London as I write. In this case the figurehead was in the form of an Übermensch-imitator, accompanied by a number of anti-Islamic right-wingers. Very many of them were in fact people who were simply protesting about different matters, in different ways. Which is their right. As it is in France, Germany and the USA. The huge crowd was confronted by another, smaller, right-minded (wingless) group. When faced by the police, no doubt many of the former will use their wings. So often, the leaders of these protests hides, vaguely, behind a sort of misplaced ‘Christian’ ethos The smaller anti-fascist counter demonstration group was for lawful immigration and a fair and multi-cultured society. Any confrontation will lead to more violence, and in turn, almost inevitably to injuries and possibly death. But it has been conclusively shown that very few of the 150,000 in London were bent on violence.
From this we might infer that some powerful leaders of what they innocently call the ‘Free World’ are only interested in history at the time it is being made. Well, whether a certain American denies it or not, climate change is happening. Cina has announced steps to counter the dangers withing the next decades. Guss Speth of Yale University says that the top environmental problems stem from and actually are selfishness, greed, and Apathy. I don’t think that they apply only to the environment. Personally, the only historical facts I can trust are those on the TV programme, Horrible Histories. For some reason when a small notice appears with the word True in it briefly appears, I believe it.
If some influencers do not consider the wisdom of learning from the past, they would be wise to listen to those that promote the increasing of the budget of schools to include the teaching of music as a main subject (Some only include it ‘incidentally’). Consider this: The German tradition in Classical music before Johann Sebastian Bach was enormouslyimportant. It contained the names Schütz, Scheidt, Pachelbel, Telemann, Buxtehude and Förster, as well as countless others. Bach famously looked back to these, listening and learning. But his genius was that, knowing these influential figures’ influence on him, he also looked forward at the same time, as was seen in parts of the B Minor Mass, and ensured that, though his music went through the periods of neglect after his death, as so many others’ have, Bach’s status is now unrivalled, and assured.
Moreover, those who, on the other hand, refuse to listen to the lessons from ‘past’ history. rather than the supposed self-induced lessons form their ‘own’ history, are destined to repeat its mistakes. While history hardly ever repeats itself exactly, it does often nearly rhyme, in a rather weird way, although the versifiers are unlikely ever become Poets Laureate. One thing they have in common is that they not only make sure they never demonstrate weakness; they show by their every decision that they are afraid of no one. In fact, the very signs that they are demonstrating are that they are incapable of loving anyone either. Like the Popes of old they believe that, because the more powerful they become, the more incapable they become of appearing fallible. The higher the monkey climbs, the more of its behind it exhibits. The biggest xxxxs (please excuse my proto-Germanic) are always the first to rise to the surface of the cess-pit.
Some leaders – We must not name names – proclaim the value of free speech while taking pains to suppress the sort of free speech they do not like. ‘All pigs are equal, but some are more equal than others’. There have been some pf the centuries that, while loudly proclaiming the concept of freedom, simply make sure that it is stifled at birth. Society has ever been full of these, across the world.
If the owning of guns was illegal, President Trump who has said in the past that he believed in Free Speech, would not have been shot at, and Charlie Kirk who spoke freely albeit often contentiously on many subjects, would not have been shot. Presumably by some extremely powerful person that does not believe in Free Speech. These people fear that generosity and Love, in their eyes, would demonstrate weakness. It takes far-sighted and brave people to see through the mischief of too powerful people. There are many regimes that are answerable for mischievous behaviour, concluding those responsible for the deaths of Litvinenko and Navalny.
When a stupidly educated man reaches a position of great authority, his first instinct is to surround himself with equally stupid people, all of whom have practised the art of promising their voters wealth and untold happiness. These people are themselves probably wealthy. When they say that they have ‘seen the light’ it is like that it is one of the secular variety. They do not explain that the danger of their policies and promises, if managed badly, will lead to untold misery, social separation and deprivation, bad mental and physical health. That is why all governments should have an properly elected opposition.
Misery can lead to the eventual possibility, even likely occurrence, of civil unrest. (Never start a sentence with) Although some seem to promise (and are sadly sometimes believed) that any unrest comes from stupid people (i.e. those stupid people who disagree with their views), and will simply lead to their imprisonment and/or deportation
Summing up; where would the Free World after WW2 have been without the resourcefulness and bravery of Juan Pujol Garcia in 1944? Strangely enough, I have only recently heard of him. An inspirational man. He was a Spaniard that truly helped blight one man’s life. That man fully deserved it.
Part Two
Which takes me inevitably, of course, to resourcefulness in Horn playing. And then perhaps back again to further – more or less uninformed – thoughts on the world. I thought you’d never get there, I hear you mutter.
When young players (not I, anymore) play a wrong note on the horn, they are told to repeat the note and try again. They then either get it right the second time or get it wrong again. A common and understandable reaction from the teacher is to say ‘Concentrate, play it until you get it right’. When, the second, third or fourth time, they do get it right (for reasons sometimes only an analyst could explain, but we probably can’t) the teacher has been known to exclaim, encouragingly, ‘There you are! Now you can play it!’. It’s called Repetition of Skills. Repetition curiously enough means, in French, Rehearsal. In English, it so often just means ‘doing it again’. And we all know that repetition is a vital part of one’s practice. But does the player necessarily learn anything from this short exercise, simply repeating a group of notes? It is sometimes doubtful. We cannot repeat without thinking. This was shown to be true by an esteemed colleague, who once heard his student miss a note in a lesson at one of our London seats of learning. He said to the offender “Please continue to play that wrong note just like that for twenty of thirty minutes. I am repairing to the canteen for coffee’’. You can guess the aspects of the brilliant outcome.
(Never start a sentence with a comparative) Which shows that if we can practise how to get a note wrong for long enough, it probably quite soon shows us how to get it right. The more mistakes you make the quicker you learn, uncomfortable but in some , but not all,people true. It has its parallels in history, perhaps. In T.S. Eliot’s play, Murder in the Cathedral Thomas Becket did the ‘right deed, but for the wrong reason’ (in other words seeking Sainthood by deliberately making himself a martyr). In my esteemed friend’s case, despite what anyone outside the door may have thought, it was the ‘Wrong Thing but for the Right Reason’.
In a different scenario, let’s say that our student had thoughtfully looked back at the note they’d just played wrong. With the help of the teacher they could learn, simply by thinking about it, what they’d done wrong, and precisely why. It may well have been a question of technique. Most likely it would have been more to do with ears than lips. And then they had decided, with that teacher’s persuasive help and advice, what they would try to do next time. And then, importantly, first thought about it for a minute. The result would be a 90% chance that they would play it correctly the next time. The routine would have been as follows; they would, with help, a) have worked out what was wrong, then b) thought what they wanted to do differently, and c) formed a confident and technically simple plan and finally d) conceived a mental picture of a perfect note in their head. This is precisely what must have eventually happened in the mind of the student in the case of my esteemed friend. Once this skill has been refined, over a length of time, the second, correct version of the note, would, in the 2 or fewer minutes of thinking, have improved their whole playing, and not just that one note (let’s call it top a’’, usually a bit sharp on the B flat side, but it could be any easier note, of course, but we won’t go into that).
I could go even further and say that, if the learning skill became ingrained, she/they would get to the stage where they would not actually have needed to play it again. Because they knew what they’d done wrong. When a similar phrase came a little later in the piece they’d say to themselves, if they had truly learned from the previous experience, ‘Cripes, (or some such old-fashioned word) here’s that note/phrase/slur/soft high note/loud low note again! I’m not going to do that wrong thistime’.
(Never start with) And at the end of the lesson, the extra long Mars bar, and the – probably now illegal – pat on the back would be theirs and deservedly so. Then they would routinely to start to practise in this way. And, if their problem had been simply a ‘split’ note, they would be advised to repeat the note, but mindfully this time. It may be the beginning of a long-held note, in order to master the problem. But short-soft, short-loud, short-accented, short-not accented, too. All have their different characteristics. After all, it was that split-second start to the note that was the issue. Split being the operative word. Having mastered the start, one can then continue to hold it to any length that the lungs can withstand.
Sceptics would see a flaw in the above. Surely there are other reasons other than the technical ones why the poor boy/girl keeps making that same mistake.
That sceptic is of course right to question any method of improvement and to test it for flaws. We are all human after all. If 2 plus 2 always made 4, life would be simple. I would answer that at my second school, the Maths teacher did in fact have a brilliantly simple equation which proved that 2 plus 2 equals 5. We never saw through it. Because he knew how he did it, he wasn’t going to confide in us. I have been plagued by these apparent anomalies all my life, in many situations in which I have found myself.
Yes, there are indeed reasons to consider other than the purely technical. And in fact they are infinitely more important than the technical. Because without them we cannot learn the art of being a musician. The teacher’s job, as I tried to say many paragraphs ago is to tell students that they need to encourage the neurons in their brain to sort themselves out into an order they can summon up at will, as the occasion demands. They must practise doing this. And (sorry) to first tell our brain to agree that there if there is a problem there must be an answer, and, more importantly, the answer begins – surprise, surprise – to come to us as soon as we realise that there is a problem. In horn playing, the answers are as mental (brain) as they are physical (lip). As Rumi said, ‘When you start to walk on the way the way appears’. This is as true for one’s first day in school, or preparing the right ingredients for Lamb Casserole, as for the first horn part of the third act of Strauss’ Arabella.
Which takes me, from Repetition, to the word Probe. Probe means in English, to investigate, and in German, to test, which is essentially the same thing. (It also translates as Rehearsal, of course). Therefore, both meanings have the same Latin root, Probare, to test. We see the inevitable connection implied by the French word. People probe, test, prove, and repetitively investigate silver and gold to determine how pure it is. Horn players use mindful experiencing to determine the purity of their top a’’. I will bring this discussion to an end (don’t say it!) with this:
The note that is heard to have the perfect quality of pureness and intonation, can be any of the 49 between fundamental C and high c’’’. An experiential (‘Try -think-try-think-try) approach to practice will test and prove our skill. There is always an answer somewhere. And it may take time to work it out. Some answers can be discovered in ten minutes, some in ten years, Say, for example, any time between the ages of ten and twenty. Malcolm Gladwell tells us this and he is correct. After all, Mozart wrote his first symphony at the age of 8, but, for me, one of his first masterpieces at the age of 18, was his 29thsymphony. Between those two ages he was getting better and better, just like the imaginative and well taught horn player. PS. It may be of interest that his first symphony contains the sequence of notes, Doh, Re, Fa, Mi. The same notes are displayed prominently at the end of the Jupiter symphony, numbered number 41, and his last. Or was it? Only 40 were completely written by him. And It is attested that two of his very early symphonies were, although copied out by the young Wolfie, actually written by Abel. Some maintain there are less than this. (He did of course, write dozens and dozens of extra ‘bits’ as well) End of horn playing rant.
To sum up, I can’t help feeling that the world would be a better place to live in, if perhaps there should be a movement to teach Horn playing, Experiential Learning and Musical History to all the leaders of the world – Free or not. One enforced hour a week after the cabinet meeting. Our own leader should have a head start, as he was brought up to play the flute.
Back to my earlier rantings:
I was brought up in the cold war, on this side of the iron curtain. We heard of the Cuban missile threat and heavy hints dropped about nuclear spies being captured here and there, but we were also then implored to believe in the power of Good, once JFK and other ethical politicians had done their stuff. Alec Douglas-Home, apart from being a good salmon fisher on his stretch of the Tweed (my best was a measly 13 pounds – I would have made a dreadful politician), was a powerful but pragmatic international negotiator. He said the Khrushchev’s motives in the 60’s were simply to test the will of the American President. Funny how history repeats itself.
When I was getting up or down from the table, the fates of 6 million Jews, together with any other types of human being classified as a threat to mankind, were not discussed over the Boiled Beef and Carrots very frequently. The modern breakfast conversation equivalent would, or perhaps not, be the tens of thousands of civilians killed in Gaza. Quite rightly we see Israelis, Germans and Russians and Iranians as the most delightful and welcoming peoples one could imagine. And, of course, as 99.99% of them are humans who are not in a position of power, they are.
But is it not merely as a result of historically induced ‘human nature’ and nurture (but not Nietsche) that we feel traditionally a tiny bit different about, and instinctively not show the quite the same type of appreciation and warmth to our close allies the French, and maybe some American tourists-in-the-street?
In the case of the second group, it is because my generation were brought up to believe they were wealthier than us, and we resented that, stupidly. I remember getting ‘food Parcels’ from an American ‘uncle’ after the war. Wonderful – they had pink marshmallows in them. And the chocolate tasted different.
There has been a long-lasting, close proximity-related, or imagined, mistrust of the French. This was expressed in Britten’s Billy Budd (1962) where Mr Redburn and Mr Flint sing ‘Don’t like the French, Don’t like the French’. But that’s just historical fiction based on fact and we’re talking about 1797. The English had warred with France intermittently from 1109 up to 1815 for a total period of 694 years. Given our love/hate relationship over the years, it can’t be a coincidence that until relatively recent times what we called ‘The French disease’ was called by the French ‘The English disease’.
This is in the past thank Heaven. and, personally, I actually love the French , and have had wonderfully generous, wise and friendly relations-by-marriage with them. Any mistrustful feelings such as this must never again rear their heads, however much putative leaders of new political parties try to reignite them. They have no excuse. The planet is suffering enough in one way or another. It is the Ubermenschen that must see to this. Let’s hope we can soon still love and respect all our neighbours, even though, sadly, we are no longer in the EU and the price of holiday homes across La Manche has rocketed. We must remember the true reason we sympathised with the French at the time of their defeat in 1940. And the practical reasons for the sinking of the French Fleet by the British Navy in the same year, which was simply to prevent it falling into the hands of the enemy. Churchill’s feelings toward De Gaulle were not always of the warmest, and Macmillan described him as ‘having all the rigidity of a poker without its occasional warmth’, but at the moment that is all very different.
Production and consumption. Creation and well-deserved elation. These four really could conceivably co-exist in equal measure. I think that there were times – pre-Industrial Revolution – that they did. No wonder people still sometimes just want to escape from where they live. But too often to where, sadly, they soon realise the powers that be are misguidedly intent on sending them back.
We have always been prey to the temptation of inventing stereotypes. How about the old music-hall (sorry, vaudeville) ‘Spaniard that blighted my Life’? A comic song from 1911. Long before the exploits of Juan Pujol. We sing – or used to sing – these types of songs, and there are some these days that think that it opens us up to accusations of racial prejudice. Of course it shouldn’t, because just singing it doesn’t mean we have good cause to hate people with an Hispanic background. If we behave in these traditional stereotypical ways, it does not mean we are prejudiced, It means we like a good laugh. We used to smile at Irish, ‘Polak’ and Hungarian jokes. Any really bad, or more obvious, example of racist humour might actually mean that we are a bit stupid. And why are we so – to use a couple of good old British metaphors – a bit 12 cans short of a 6-pack, and not the sharpest knives in the drawer?
Stupidity comes from ignorance and ignorance springs from a poor education. There should be a principle that education teaches (i.e. shows) people how to learn. And that it should be explained as something experiential for the benefit of the educatees. (See rant on hornplaying, above). Experiential learning cannot be taught. It can only be explained as a concept. Where are these ethically-driven and motivated people? In fact, they are everywhere if they did not but know it. Sadly, they are not always within the education system. But sometimes, just when you least expect them to appear they are in evidence, thank goodness. Teaching Music (especially Singing) throughout the school from Reception to ‘A’ Level would help too, as I said previously.
When a stupidly educated man reaches a position of great authority, his first instinct is to surround himself with equally stupid people, all of whom have practised the art of promising their voters wealth and untold happiness. These people are themselves probably wealthy. When they say that they have ‘seen the light’ it is like that it is one of the secular variety. They do not explain that the danger of their policies and promises, if managed badly, will lead to untold misery, social separation and deprivation, bad mental and physical health. That is why all governments should have an properly elected opposition.
Misery can lead to the eventual possibility, even likely occurrence, of civil unrest. (Never start a sentence with) Although some seem to promise (and are sadly sometimes believed) that any unrest comes from stupid people (i.e. those stupid people who disagree with their views), and will simply lead to their imprisonment and/or deportation.
(Never start a sentence with) So, that takes care of Education. Although not quite. Moving further back from the riverbank, at this stage in my life I find that I too am finding, if not precedents, certainly connections – real or possibly imagined, between people and events in my rather distant past. For instance, I am reading two books at the moment. One, a murder mystery, written by a man who, as Bruce Montgomery, was a good pianist and composer. He wrote choral music, while at Oxford as organ scholar at St John’s, during the war. He went on to write a number of good scores for the first few Carry On films. But he was also a thriller-writer, under the pseudonym Edmund Crispin, writing entertaining full-length books as well as collections of short stories. The murder/mystery book I am reading immediately reminded me of some of the school buildings at my school, Including the bank leading down to the River Severn. The fictional school is called Castrevenford, which includes, anagrammatically, the letters of ‘Severn’, and ‘Catford’. I can see no relevance in the latter. This and his other books have a recurring character, Gervase Fen, who reminds me a little of a master who taught me at school. I’ve discovered that this man, Frank McEachran, (known by all as KeK) was teaching at the school at the same time as Bruce Montgomery was briefly an English and Music master there, from 1943-45. Most of us have a favourite teacher from our youth, and he was one.
He also taught the wonderful historian Mary Beard, in Shrewsbury. Born in Much Wenlock, home of the best pork pies in Shropshire and, conceivably the home of the first Olympic Games (discuss), she describes KeK as ‘Eccentric and inspirational. He was the perfect example of someone who encouraged people how to teach themselves to learn. It may be called Positive Determinism, but I am not quite sure what that means.
The other book I am reading, by contrast, is by someone who fills the pages with wonderfully witty anecdotes about fishing, over many continents. I learned to fish while at my school, and by pure chance the writer in question also taught briefly at my school, albeit not while I was there. As I say, the past is beginning to catch up with me.
I have previously stated in these writings, that I am seeing links everywhere. Quite soon I predict that I will be meeting, in my dreams, another famous name from the school. In the Unitarian Church in Shrewsbury, there are two plaques on the wall; one announces that Charles Darwin worshipped there for a time in his youth. And the other, nearby, announces that a very good friend of mine played the organ there for forty years.
I’m a great fan of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s music, but it would be stretching things rather if I linked him with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the opium-devotee minister and poet, who preached in the same church just three times, before he was offered a better job by Josiah Wedgwood, who himself was – wait for it – the great Grandfather of Ralph Vaughan Williams, who was also a great grand-nephew (if there is such a thing) of Charles Darwin. Please forgive me, and do not send a postcard, if I have some of these facts wrong. For one thing, the stamp would be very expensive now, like those holiday homes in France.
Personally, I’m not related to anyone of whom you, dear reader, may have heard, except my children whose talents would fill a book. Not written by me – so relax, put this down and go back to sleep.
The Last Prom has now been finished for some days. It was as moving as always, with so many unexpected treats in it (although in my humble opinion, with many fast treats played a little too quickly, and much more leisurely treats not played as leisurely as originally intended, as has been the fashion the last few years). Outside, not far away, there had been the now only – we’re told – second wealthiest person in the world, over a video link from over the Atlantic, demanding a change of government in the UK, at that so-called ‘far-right’ demonstration. As I mooted, it appears that in fact, there were many more thoughtful, rightminded and reasonable folk among their number. We didn’t hear their more reasoned arguments in the TV clips though, of course, as they are less sensational, simply well-intended, and less ‘extreme’. A very different atmosphere in the Royal Albert Hall, where dissent was being, for a few hours, replaced by warmth and happiness.
