In the meantime...

[Pabmusic]

While I have a (short?) enforced abscence, here's the latest piece of mine I've prepared for publication. It's called A Boat Easy To Pull and I wrote it in 1989 as an In Memoriam for my father-in-law.

It's about 16 minutes.

https://soundcloud.com/pabmusic-445605675/a-boat-easy-to-pull

[ardcarp]

Great stuff, Pabs. Love to hear it with 'real' players. Any reason (personal or otherwise) for the title?

[french frank]

Delightful little bit at 6.46 - I played it again straight away

[Pabmusic]

Delightful little bit at 6.46 - I played it again straight away

Thank you; it's my favourite bit.

[Pabmusic]

Great stuff, Pabs. Love to hear it with 'real' players. Any reason (personal or otherwise) for the title?

I have heard the piece on which it's based with real players - a Chaconne I wrote in 1980 and which we played at the Tudor Merchants' Hall in Southampton with an ensemble that included both his daughters. That became the basis for what is effectively a series of musings on the bass tune.

As for the title, it's a reference t a passage fron Three Men in a Boat that I read at his funeral in 1988. I cut it down, but here's the full thing:

George said:

“You know we are on a wrong track altogether. We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can’t do without.”

George comes out really quite sensible at times. You’d be surprised. I call that downright wisdom, not merely as regards the present case, but with reference to our trip up the river of life, generally. How many people, on that voyage, load up tahe boat till it is ever in danger of swamping with a store of foolish things which they think essential to the pleasure and comfort of the trip, but which are really only useless lumber.
How they pile the poor little craft mast-high with fine clothes and big houses; with useless servants, and a host of swell friends that do not care twopence for them, and that they do not care three ha’pence for; with expensive entertainments that nobody enjoys, with formalities and fashions, with pretence and ostentation, and with—oh, heaviest, maddest lumber of all!—the dread of what will my neighbour think, with luxuries that only cloy, with pleasures that bore, with empty show that, like the criminal’s iron crown of yore, makes to bleed and swoon the aching head that wears it!

It is lumber, man—all lumber! Throw it overboard. It makes the boat so heavy to pull, you nearly faint at the oars. It makes it so cumbersome and dangerous to manage, you never know a moment’s freedom from anxiety and care, never gain a moment’s rest for dreamy laziness—no time to watch the windy shadows skimming lightly o’er the shallows, or the glittering sunbeams flitting in and out among the ripples, or the great trees by the margin looking down at their own image, or the woods all green and golden, or the lilies white and yellow, or the sombre-waving rushes, or the sedges, or the orchis, or the blue forget-me-nots.

Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.

You will find the boat easier to pull then, and it will not be so liable to upset, and it will not matter so much if it does upset; good, plain merchandise will stand water. You will have time to think as well as to work. Time to drink in life’s sunshine—time to listen to the Æolian music that the wind of God draws from the human heart-strings around us—time to—

I beg your pardon, really. I quite forgot...

[greenilex]

Thank you, and I hope the absence will not be a long one.

Tudor Merchants Hall is a great venue.

[Beef Oven!]

I have heard the piece on which it's based with real players - a Chaconne I wrote in 1980 and which we played at the Tudor Merchants' Hall in Southampton with an ensemble that included both his daughters. That became the basis for what is effectively a series of musings on the bass tune.

As for the title, it's a reference t a passage fron Three Men in a Boat that I read at his funeral in 1988. I cut it down, but here's the full thing:

George said:

“You know we are on a wrong track altogether. We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can’t do without.”

George comes out really quite sensible at times. You’d be surprised. I call that downright wisdom, not merely as regards the present case, but with reference to our trip up the river of life, generally. How many people, on that voyage, load up tahe boat till it is ever in danger of swamping with a store of foolish things which they think essential to the pleasure and comfort of the trip, but which are really only useless lumber.
How they pile the poor little craft mast-high with fine clothes and big houses; with useless servants, and a host of swell friends that do not care twopence for them, and that they do not care three ha’pence for; with expensive entertainments that nobody enjoys, with formalities and fashions, with pretence and ostentation, and with—oh, heaviest, maddest lumber of all!—the dread of what will my neighbour think, with luxuries that only cloy, with pleasures that bore, with empty show that, like the criminal’s iron crown of yore, makes to bleed and swoon the aching head that wears it!

It is lumber, man—all lumber! Throw it overboard. It makes the boat so heavy to pull, you nearly faint at the oars. It makes it so cumbersome and dangerous to manage, you never know a moment’s freedom from anxiety and care, never gain a moment’s rest for dreamy laziness—no time to watch the windy shadows skimming lightly o’er the shallows, or the glittering sunbeams flitting in and out among the ripples, or the great trees by the margin looking down at their own image, or the woods all green and golden, or the lilies white and yellow, or the sombre-waving rushes, or the sedges, or the orchis, or the blue forget-me-nots.

Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.

You will find the boat easier to pull then, and it will not be so liable to upset, and it will not matter so much if it does upset; good, plain merchandise will stand water. You will have time to think as well as to work. Time to drink in life’s sunshine—time to listen to the Æolian music that the wind of God draws from the human heart-strings around us—time to—

I beg your pardon, really. I quite forgot...

Time for another reread, I think.

It’s on my summer holiday list - thanks for the reminder of this wonderful book.

P.S. I don’t recall that passage at all. Even more than The Diary Of A Nobody, TMIAB (TSNOTD) reveals new ideas on every reread, IMV.

[Pabmusic]

Time for another reread, I think.

It’s on my summer holiday list - thanks for the reminder of this wonderful book.

P.S. I don’t recall that passage at all. Even more than The Diary Of A Nobody, TMIAB (TSNOTD) reveals new ideas on every reread, IMV.

It's well worth many re-reads: there's such a lot in it. Three Men on the Bummel, too.

[french frank]

It's well worth many re-reads: there's such a lot in it. Three Men on the Bummel, too.

And The Diary of a Pilgrimage which, I now see but had forgotten, has a section: ' "The Question of Luggage" - conflicting advice on what to pack for the trip'

[Beef Oven!]

It's well worth many re-reads: there's such a lot in it. Three Men on the Bummel, too.

Yes, I’ve read Three Men on the Brummell, but I didn’t enjoy it much BUT I realise that I was expecting TMIAB (TSNOTD) again, word for word!!

I will dig it out and put it in the suitcase - thanks again!

[Beef Oven!]

And The Diary of a Pilgrimage which, I now see but had forgotten, has a section: ' "The Question of Luggage" - conflicting advice on what to pack for the trip'

I can’t believe I have never come across this book

Hope it’s available on Kindle, suitcase getting heavy!

[Pabmusic]

This I’ve just finished (‘recording’ is not that good because I can’t be bothered…). It’s a ‘symphony’ comprising 4 wind quintet pieces written by Elgar in 1878. I’ve called it “Shed” Symphony No. 1 in C [ASIDE: now tell me, Sir Arthur, are you called “two sheds” because you wrote your music in your shed?]

Elgar and friends met on Sundays and plated music in a shed in the back yard of Elgar Bros in Worcester High Street. The wind quintet was idiosyncratic (two flutes, oboe, clarinet and bassoon) so Edward wrote or arranged the music himself.

These pieces are:

Mvt 1:Harmony Music 4 (“shed 4”)
Mvt 2:Mrs Winslow’s Soothing Syrup & Promenade No. 4
Mvt 3:Harmony Music 1 (“shed 1”)

“Shed” Symphony No. 2 will appear later in the year – an orchestration on Harmony Music 5 (“shed 5”).

https://soundcloud.com/pabmusic-445605675/sets/elgar-shed-symphony-no-1-in-c

[Bryn]

I can’t believe I have never come across this book

Hope it’s available on Kindle, suitcase getting heavy!

Gor blimey. Didn't you see the link.