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Dec. 3rd, 2004
New-created world
Dec. 3rd, 2004 11:21 amLast night was our choir's concert, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
edge_of_ruin and I dutifully turned up to do our bit for the alto section. We were singing Haydn's Creation. I think it went very well. It's a non-audition choir and orchestra (turn up and sing or play), mostly students, and we rehearse and put on the concert in the space of eight weeks. So sometimes we can sound a bit flaky, but it's all done for fun. The choirmaster is very young, and relentlessly enthusiastic and encouraging, so you end up belting things out so that it makes him happy. He looked very happy by the end of last night's concert, I'm glad to say. The soloists were excellent, and we blasted out the last chorus in particular.
While I was surfing around this morning looking for interesting links about the piece, I stumbled across this site, which has hypertext editions of various texts from the Romantic era. I found a brief mention of The Creation in their online edition of Mary Shelley's The Last Man. There are some short sound clips of one of the choruses, 'A New-Created World'.
I have spent a pleasant hour or so poking around some of the other texts on the site, such as British War Poetry in the Age of Romanticism, 1793-1815. John Black's Ode, To the Sons of Britain and America is written in 1812, so hardly about a coalition, but an interesting call for peace nonetheless. The author spends three verses appealing to reason, the thought of widows and orphans, and then cuts to the chase:
Reflections on the Present War by W.W. Deacon (1795) has a couple of interesting verses:
I did not know the word 'crimp', and the dictionary told me that as a verb it means 'to pressgang' so, as a noun, 'one who pressgangs'. This site was more particular: "What the press gang was to the navy, the crimp was to the merchant service – a kind of universal provider. But the methods used, while the gang used the hanger or cudget, the crimp used dollars – and rum."
Unbelievably, that site turned out to be written by someone interested in local history in the Merseyside area, and contains a list of St Helens pubs. It lists both the Gerard Arms and the Lingholme Arms, at either end of the long road on which my mother's house is situated. The Lingholme pub is situated on a crossroads, and we used the phrase 'the Lingholme' to refer to the meeting of the roads and not just the pub. Once again, all roads lead to my home town - or, at least, Internet searches always end there.
edge_of_ruin and I dutifully turned up to do our bit for the alto section. We were singing Haydn's Creation. I think it went very well. It's a non-audition choir and orchestra (turn up and sing or play), mostly students, and we rehearse and put on the concert in the space of eight weeks. So sometimes we can sound a bit flaky, but it's all done for fun. The choirmaster is very young, and relentlessly enthusiastic and encouraging, so you end up belting things out so that it makes him happy. He looked very happy by the end of last night's concert, I'm glad to say. The soloists were excellent, and we blasted out the last chorus in particular. While I was surfing around this morning looking for interesting links about the piece, I stumbled across this site, which has hypertext editions of various texts from the Romantic era. I found a brief mention of The Creation in their online edition of Mary Shelley's The Last Man. There are some short sound clips of one of the choruses, 'A New-Created World'.
I have spent a pleasant hour or so poking around some of the other texts on the site, such as British War Poetry in the Age of Romanticism, 1793-1815. John Black's Ode, To the Sons of Britain and America is written in 1812, so hardly about a coalition, but an interesting call for peace nonetheless. The author spends three verses appealing to reason, the thought of widows and orphans, and then cuts to the chase:
Yet will not Interest's voice prevail?
Reflect, how Commerce must decline,
The loom stand still, and Want assail
The many that must starving pine;
And burdens weigh each nation down,
And wild Despair with fury frown.
Reflections on the Present War by W.W. Deacon (1795) has a couple of interesting verses:
While men the Corpus Act suspend,
On which our Liberties depend,
Who can from prison get?
Since Freedom's brightest gem is gone,
The rays which once with lustre shone,
Is now for ever set?
If Crimps and Spies, both night and day,
Are suffer'd on mankind to prey,
And families divide;
Ah! where is now that sacred claim!
That made with joy each Briton name
His cot, his castle's pride?
I did not know the word 'crimp', and the dictionary told me that as a verb it means 'to pressgang' so, as a noun, 'one who pressgangs'. This site was more particular: "What the press gang was to the navy, the crimp was to the merchant service – a kind of universal provider. But the methods used, while the gang used the hanger or cudget, the crimp used dollars – and rum."
Unbelievably, that site turned out to be written by someone interested in local history in the Merseyside area, and contains a list of St Helens pubs. It lists both the Gerard Arms and the Lingholme Arms, at either end of the long road on which my mother's house is situated. The Lingholme pub is situated on a crossroads, and we used the phrase 'the Lingholme' to refer to the meeting of the roads and not just the pub. Once again, all roads lead to my home town - or, at least, Internet searches always end there.
Reading...
Dec. 3rd, 2004 02:08 pmMore not very good reviews written mainly so that I have a record of what I've been reading in the past few months.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )