Remembrance Sunday

[Nick Armstrong]

Mary - it's a piece I've heard and performed a number of times (though I'm sure you've been involved in many more) and I suppose one of the things that made it so moving was the sense of discovery by these young musicians, which felt like an inspired kind of rediscovery for those of us who know it so well. Incidentally, good to see the RFH absolutely packed for the performance, and good too that all the tickets were £10.00, so there were many, many young people in the (rapt) audience as well as on the stage.

[Nick Armstrong]

the Remembrance thing

It's the 100 year aspect, I think. I am usually against overkill... but in this instance, widespread remembrance of that cataclysm seems appropriate to me. Then again, I haven't caught most of it, and am perhaps less keenly aware of how it's taken over the airwaves...

[Mary Chambers]

Without wishing disrespect to anyone [and I'm listening to one of my favourite St John's CDs right now...includes Howells' Reqiem and Take Him Earth] hasn't BBC TV overdone the Remembrance thing just a bit? Isn't it debased when almost every programme from The Antiques Roadshow to Countryfile has to be 'themed' around it, the presenters assuming a grave persona so much at odds with 'normal' as to becomes almost a caricautre?

Absolutely. I hope it's just for the centenary and won't be every year.

[jean]

I found this evening's Sunday feature fascinating:

God and the Great War

Frank Cottrell Boyce explores the impact of the First World War on religious belief and practice on the military front and at home...

[Pabmusic]

Here's Wilfred Gibson on news of the loss of his friend, William Denis Browne, in the Dardanelles:

Night after night we two together heard
The music of the Ring,
The inmost silence of our being stirred
By voice and string.
Though I to-night in silence sit, and you
In stranger silence sleep,
Eternal music stirs and thrills anew
The severing deep.

[Nick Armstrong]

Thanks pabs. I hadn't been aware of Wilfred Gibson till this evening, when getting into the Finzi...

[Pabmusic]

Thanks pabs. I hadn't been aware of Wilfred Gibson till this evening, when getting into the Finzi...

I'm not sure, but I suspect he was part of the Cambridge set that included Browne, Arthur Bliss, C. Armstrong Gibbs, E. J. Dent and Rupert Brooke.

[Correction] No he wasn't, he was a friend of Brooke's who got to know Browne and the Cambridge set through Brooke. Apparently.

[mercia]

Absolutely. I hope it's just for the centenary and won't be every year.

being pedantic and not wishing to depress you but the centenary of the war (as opposed to just the start of the war) will last until 11th November 2018

[Pabmusic]

being pedantic and not wishing to depress you but the centenary of the war (as opposed to just the start of the war) will last until 11th November 2018

Being really pedantic, the war didn't end until 28 June 1919, when Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles. Quite a lot of war memorials have the dates 1914-1919.

[mercia]

Being really pedantic, the war didn't end until 28 June 1919, when Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles. Quite a lot of war memorials have the dates 1914-1919.

yes I'd forgotten that. Doing some family research recently I noticed that a great-uncle wasn't discharged from the army until June '19. I assume we stopped killing eachother back in November '18 though.

[Pabmusic]

yes I'd forgotten that. Doing some family research recently I noticed that a great-uncle wasn't discharged from the army until June '19. I assume we stopped killing eachother back in November '18 though.

Yes. Except for those who invaded Russia (most of the allies).

[MrGongGong]

Being really pedantic, the war didn't end until 28 June 1919, when Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles. Quite a lot of war memorials have the dates 1914-1919.

And (as an expert on these things reliably tells me) the fighting was prolonged so that it could stop on the "auspicious" 11th hour, 11th day, 11th month.
Tastelessness isn't just a new phenomenon.

[Beef Oven!]

And (as an expert on these things reliably tells me) the fighting was prolonged so that it could stop on the "auspicious" 11th hour, 11th day, 11th month.
Tastelessness isn't just a new phenomenon.

Indeed, tastelessness has been around as long as people have. Who is the expert on these things that told you that interesting take on the 11th hour?

[Flosshilde]

And (as an expert on these things reliably tells me) the fighting was prolonged so that it could stop on the "auspicious" 11th hour, 11th day, 11th month.
Tastelessness isn't just a new phenomenon.

I've heard this, too, but it isn't really borne out by Wikipedia's account of the signing of the armistice - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armisti...ompi%C3%A8gne)

(which also says that peace wasn't ratified until January 1920 - so there could be an even longer centenary commemoration than Pabs suggests)

[amateur51]

I've heard this, too, but it isn't really borne out by Wikipedia's account of the signing of the armistice - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armisti...ompi%C3%A8gne)

(which also says that peace wasn't ratified until January 1920 - so there could be an even longer centenary commemoration than Pabs suggests)

Wasn't the announcement of the news of the conquering of Everest delayed by a day or so in order that it should coincide with Queen Elizabeth II's coronation?