February 2nd
Candlemas Day - recorded as being celebrated (as "the Feast of St Mary" - the name "Candlemas" isn't recorded until 1012) by Bede in the 8th Century. Candle-lit processions, symbolising Christ as the Light of the World, predominated. More prosaically, weavers, cobblers and other cottage industries used the day to mark when candles need not be used during daytime work hours, and put them away until the late Autumn. Yesterday, Vinteuil posted the poem by Robert Herrick from 1648, and the idea that Christmas fun was well and truly over ("let all sports with Christmasdie") is reflected in the tradition of commencing (or terminating) farm tenancies and settling accounts.
And it has its own weather rhyme:
... in other words, whatever the weather's like today, the rest of the Winter will be the opposite.
And, not wishing to wax lyrical about Candlemas, it's also Badger's Day and Groundhog Day; the former the English equivalent of the latter (reported in Huntingdonshire in 1900),
On this day, Haydn's "London" Symphony was first performed (1795), as were Dvorak's Eighth (1890), Charpentier's Louise (1900), and Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale (1920); Queen Victoria was buried (1901), and Ulysses was first published (1922).
Birthdays on this day include those of Nell Gwyn (1650), Frederick Vanderbilt (1856), Solomon Guggenheim (1861), Fritz Kreisler (1875), James Joyce (1992), Jascha Hefetz (1901), Valery Giscard d'Estaing (1926), Stan Getz (1927), Les Dawson (1931), David Jason (1940), and both Andrew Davis and Ursula Oppens (1944).
Final days for Palestrina (1594), Tulio Serafin (1968), Boris Karloff (1969), Bertrand Russell (1970), Sid Vicious (1979), Donald Pleasence (1995), Gene Kelly (1996), Lou Harrison (2003), and Peter Seymour Hoffman (2014).
And, fifty years ago today (a Sunday) the morning schedules on Radio 3 were:
What's New?: a Weekly programme of recent records,
Haydn Piano Trios: the Oromontes continue their traversal (as they didn't call it in those days) with two works
Your Concert Choice: no details
Music Magazine: "Operatic Churchgoers by NOËL GOODWIN, Harmony and Style in Western Music: book review by STEPHEN DODGSON, Musical Profile: Lisa Della Casa by CHARLES OSBORNE, ' I cannot vouch for it' by SIDNEY HARRISON.
(Followed by a half-hour of pieces from the Well-Tempered Clavier", and then the whole of Meistersinger in the Goodall, Sadler's Wells production, which took up much of the rest of the day's programmes, with other programmes be=tween each act.)
That Goodall Meistersinger is available on youTube, should anyone wish to celebrate the Golden Anniversary:
Candlemas Day - recorded as being celebrated (as "the Feast of St Mary" - the name "Candlemas" isn't recorded until 1012) by Bede in the 8th Century. Candle-lit processions, symbolising Christ as the Light of the World, predominated. More prosaically, weavers, cobblers and other cottage industries used the day to mark when candles need not be used during daytime work hours, and put them away until the late Autumn. Yesterday, Vinteuil posted the poem by Robert Herrick from 1648, and the idea that Christmas fun was well and truly over ("let all sports with Christmasdie") is reflected in the tradition of commencing (or terminating) farm tenancies and settling accounts.
And it has its own weather rhyme:
If Candlemas day be dry and fair
The half of Winter is to come and maire;
If Candlemas Day ibe wet and foul
Th half of Winter is gone at Yule
The half of Winter is to come and maire;
If Candlemas Day ibe wet and foul
Th half of Winter is gone at Yule
And, not wishing to wax lyrical about Candlemas, it's also Badger's Day and Groundhog Day; the former the English equivalent of the latter (reported in Huntingdonshire in 1900),
On this day, Haydn's "London" Symphony was first performed (1795), as were Dvorak's Eighth (1890), Charpentier's Louise (1900), and Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale (1920); Queen Victoria was buried (1901), and Ulysses was first published (1922).
Birthdays on this day include those of Nell Gwyn (1650), Frederick Vanderbilt (1856), Solomon Guggenheim (1861), Fritz Kreisler (1875), James Joyce (1992), Jascha Hefetz (1901), Valery Giscard d'Estaing (1926), Stan Getz (1927), Les Dawson (1931), David Jason (1940), and both Andrew Davis and Ursula Oppens (1944).
Final days for Palestrina (1594), Tulio Serafin (1968), Boris Karloff (1969), Bertrand Russell (1970), Sid Vicious (1979), Donald Pleasence (1995), Gene Kelly (1996), Lou Harrison (2003), and Peter Seymour Hoffman (2014).
And, fifty years ago today (a Sunday) the morning schedules on Radio 3 were:
What's New?: a Weekly programme of recent records,
Haydn Piano Trios: the Oromontes continue their traversal (as they didn't call it in those days) with two works
Your Concert Choice: no details
Music Magazine: "Operatic Churchgoers by NOËL GOODWIN, Harmony and Style in Western Music: book review by STEPHEN DODGSON, Musical Profile: Lisa Della Casa by CHARLES OSBORNE, ' I cannot vouch for it' by SIDNEY HARRISON.
(Followed by a half-hour of pieces from the Well-Tempered Clavier", and then the whole of Meistersinger in the Goodall, Sadler's Wells production, which took up much of the rest of the day's programmes, with other programmes be=tween each act.)
That Goodall Meistersinger is available on youTube, should anyone wish to celebrate the Golden Anniversary:
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