Britten-fest...the aftermath

[Serial_Apologist]

A posh accent is objectionable where it appears to be there deliberately to distance the speaker from the listeners - I'm better than you are. I think this a shrinking area - look at accents within the Tory government - well spoken, but not posh - not readily distinguishable from Ed Milliband, Ed Balls.

Posh accents have changed somewhat since I were a lad and the Queen would launch a ship addressing the assembed VIPs as follows: "I nem this ship Britenniah. May Gawd bless hah, end all who sell in hah". I heard an exemplification of my own late 50s/early 60s public school-educated style of Posh on Any Questions, when Jonathan Dimbleby said the word "paw" for poor. Some of the old pre-60s pronunciation has come back, a sign of the growing wealth gap and nostalgia for the days when "the paw" doffed their hats to the "Squire" or "the Guvnor". But today you'll hear Roedean and similarly elocuted privileged young laydeez express certain vowels in a sort of little girly way, for instance "feud" for food. I myself had to undergo elocution in order to sing solos as a treble in the school choir, already having the right voice tone, and I rather imagine many of those in Britten's circle of friends and associates might well have undergone similar.

[Quarky]

I've always thought the Moore parody an affectionate one rather than an attack. It was a bit of fun enjoyed by many (even if not by BB himself) and demonstrated, as Stephen said, an understanding of the subject.

Moore also parodied Schubert lieder. Does that mean he was rubbishing that as well?

Re: parodies. Of possible interest to composers is a case going through the US courts, where the Beastie Boys claim infringement of their song Girls:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoFB2R_AUwM

by a commercial of a Toy Company Goldieblox:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i8lXBC7QTI

The defence is a parody of a work is not infringement, but fair use. Awaiting judgement (IPKat)

[Mary Chambers]

I have been given a Photobox calendar with family photos and birthdays. November has photos of Aldeburgh, and Britten's birthday is there in exactly the same way that family birthdays are. They are teasing me

[Richard Tarleton]

We had to choose the dates for our week in Suffolk next June before the Festival programme was published - as it is we went for the second week, thus missing the 4 perfs of Owen Wingrave which are in week 1. So it looks as if we'll be trying for tickets for Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Best wishes in the meantime to the poor Crown Inn in Snape which was badly flooded by the tidal surge

It seems the Maltings just escaped