Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[cloughie]

We have Lady Walker next week I see ……..

The R3 super-sub - did a cracking job on In Tune recently.

[ardcarp]

Snakes were the topic for today's 'playlister' sequence. I'd just like to correct a bit of mis-information about the serpent, a wooden instrument often leather-covered, made in a twisty shape, hence the name. It was blown like a brass instrument, i.e. with a mouthpiece, but had finger holes, and is sometimes thought of as a bass cornetto. It was a staple of the English gallery choir and used to reinforce the bass-line. It's exact proportions were variable, but it NEVER twined around the body of the player as stated by Georgia Mann today. (The twists were merely to shorten the height of the instrument so that a long tube could be played in a sitting position.)

There are several examples in museums ad even the occasional church in Hardy country. https://blog.laymusic.org/groups/west-gallery-quire/
scroll down, no picture, but....

......from the Museum of Somerset rural life: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Locati...t_England.html

Photo taken by Mrs A.

The only instrument I know which actually encircles the player's body is the much more recent Sousaphone.

[Serial_Apologist]

Snakes were the topic for today's 'playlister' sequence. I'd just like to correct a bit of mis-information about the serpent, a wooden instrument often leather-covered, made in a twisty shape, hence the name. It was blown like a brass instrument, i.e. with a mouthpiece, but had finger holes, and is sometimes thought of as a bass cornetto. It was a staple of the English gallery choir and used to reinforce the bass-line. It's exact proportions were variable, but it NEVER twined around the body of the player as stated by Georgia Mann today. (The twists were merely to shorten the height of the instrument so that a long tube could be played in a sitting position.)

There are several examples in museums ad even the occasional church in Hardy country. https://blog.laymusic.org/groups/west-gallery-quire/
scroll down, no picture, but....

......from the Museum of Somerset rural life: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Locati...t_England.html

Photo taken by Mrs A.

The only instrument I know which actually encircles the player's body is the much more recent Sousaphone.

It must have been especially difficult finding branches of acceptable twistiness for making these instruments!

[ardcarp]

It must have been especially difficult finding branches of acceptable twistiness for making these instruments!

Googling for serpents throws up bizarre sites! But I found this.....

The wood body (often walnut) is sometimes made from several fairly short pieces joined together and covered with leather; other times, glued up from two complete halves of hollowed out blocks of wood.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's exact proportions were variable, but it NEVER twined around the body of the player as stated by Georgia Mann today...


The only instrument I know which actually encircles the player's body is the much more recent Sousaphone.

Correct on both counts. I do wish they'd replace guesswork and assumptions with research. It's a bit like the fairly common belief that alphorns are required for the Strauss work of a similar name.

[cloughie]

Googling for serpents throws up bizarre sites! But I found this.....

The wood body (often walnut) is sometimes made from several fairly short pieces joined together and covered with leather; other times, glued up from two complete halves of hollowed out blocks of wood.

What a wonderful title that would be for an autobigraphy or an album title!

[Jonathan]

Or a book for those interested in Herpetology!

[Bryn]

Correct on both counts. I do wish they'd replace guesswork and assumptions with research. It's a bit like the fairly common belief that alphorns are required for the Strauss work of a similar name.

[Bryn]

We have Lady Walker next week I see ……..

Followed, immediately, by a repeat of George of that ilk as Composer of the week.

[underthecountertenor]

Correct on both counts. I do wish they'd replace guesswork and assumptions with research. It's a bit like the fairly common belief that alphorns are required for the Strauss work of a similar name.

Or that Strauss’s “Morgen!” is a song all about morning. Michael Berkeley agreed with a recent PP guest that that’s what it means, and Tom McKinney fell into the same trap a few days later.

[oddoneout]

Googling for serpents throws up bizarre sites! But I found this.....

The wood body (often walnut) is sometimes made from several fairly short pieces joined together and covered with leather; other times, glued up from two complete halves of hollowed out blocks of wood.

Not always wood http://www.serpentwebsite.com/CBS_gallery.htm scroll down to "American Anaconda"

I knew one of the London Serpent Trio's members, and knew of Christopher Monk through a friend's interest in the cornett. While a student in Kingston I was able to attend a couple of the entertaining recitals they put on.

[Nick Armstrong]

Or that Strauss’s “Morgen!” is a song all about morning. Michael Berkeley agreed with a recent PP guest that that’s what it means, and Tom McKinney fell into the same trap a few days later.

That bugs me too

[Ein Heldenleben]

Or that Strauss’s “Morgen!” is a song all about morning. Michael Berkeley agreed with a recent PP guest that that’s what it means, and Tom McKinney fell into the same trap a few days later.

Yes has a title and song ever been more replete with ambiguity ? Will it happen tomorrow ? Or is tomorrow perpetually a day away?

[ardcarp]

Wonderful pic!

[french frank]

Wonderful pic!

But can you imagine him with it twined round his body?

On Strauss's Morgen, I wanted to find something about the poet and fed the first line into google. It came up with the weather forecast for Bristol