Alphabet associations - I

[Nick Armstrong]

-

I was thinking of E Satie, who promenaded with a lobster

I don't think he did take his constitutionals with a lobster... He was a big walker (cf that nice little programme on R3 on Christmas day) and crustacea feature in his 'Embryons desséchés', but I think that's as far as it went....

The lobster-walker was Gerard de Nerval who did take his ten-legged best friend (whom he called Thibault) for strolls... cf: "Nerval was seen one day taking his pet lobster for a walk in the gardens of the Palais-Royal in Paris. He conducted his crustacean about at the end of a long blue ribbon."

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/10/hbc-90003665

[vinteuil]

I don't think he did take his constitutionals with a lobster... He was a big walker (cf that nice little programme on R3 on Christmas day) and crustacea feature in his 'Embryons desséchés', but I think that's as far as it went....

The lobster-walker was Gerard de Nerval who did take his ten-legged best friend (whom he called Thibault) for strolls... cf: "Nerval was seen one day taking his pet lobster for a walk in the gardens of the Palais-Royal in Paris. He conducted his crustacean about at the end of a long blue ribbon."
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/10/hbc-90003665

Caliban - of course, you're right - I'm slapping my forehead in frustration because of course I knew it was Nerval... Many thanks for the correction!

[vinteuil]

That's the set. Over to you for an F.

well... what F might connect Stendhal's favourite vegetable with a spring festival and a singer who could reach an even higher F ??

[Don Petter]

The lobster-walker was Gerard de Nerval who did take his ten-legged best friend (whom he called Thibault) for strolls... cf: "Nerval was seen one day taking his pet lobster for a walk in the gardens of the Palais-Royal in Paris. He conducted his crustacean about at the end of a long blue ribbon."
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/10/hbc-90003665

That's reminded me of Donald Swann's setting of Nerval's sonnet "Je Suis le Ténébreux" in At the Drop of a Hat. As they say - thanks for the memory.

[Don Petter]

well... what F might connect Stendhal's favourite vegetable with a spring festival and a singer who could reach an even higher F ??

Here's my usual wrong tack, I suspect.

The only F vegetable I can think of at the moment is fennel. So we also have Shepherd Fennell's Dance by Balfour Gardiner, based on Thomas Hardy's character in The Three Strangers, who was having a christening party in March, and American soprano Phoebe Fennell, 'well known for her exceptional versatility', so I expect she'd manage an F as high as you want?

[vinteuil]

Here's my usual wrong tack, I suspect.

The only F vegetable I can think of at the moment is fennel. So we also have Shepherd Fennell's Dance by Balfour Gardiner, based on Thomas Hardy's character in The Three Strangers, who was having a christening party in March, and American soprano Phoebe Fennell, 'well known for her exceptional versatility', so I expect she'd manage an F as high as you want?

Don - most ingenious, but you're off on a totally different track...

To help (?) - the vegetable doesn't start with an F...

[Simon]

I think nonetheless that Don deserves a coconut at least for his amazing logic!

[Don Petter]

Don - most ingenious, but you're off on a totally different track...

To help (?) - the vegetable doesn't start with an F...

I didn't really think it fitted, but these questions do send you off on some flights of fancy, which is part of the attraction, is it not?

[Nick Armstrong]

I didn't really think it fitted, but these questions do send you off on some flights of fancy, which is part of the attraction, is it not?

And you've just triggered a memory from my time in Paris which has given me the name of the vegetable in question. But what the "F" has "F" got to do with it... ?!?!? More thinking required...

[Don Petter]

And you've just triggered a memory from my time in Paris which has given me the name of the vegetable in question.

Which is still more than I've got. Oh well... always the bridesmaid.

[sigolene euphemia]

Is the vegetable sorrel ? For Stendahl. I have eaten this on the island of Oland, Sweden, after an afternoon of gathering, O! no I am wrong it was nettles which we made into soup. Most bitter.

Just a clarification; way back on B for Baltic, I have only been in attendance to the two places of music, Gotland and Gdynia, that is why I offered no more, for I know, no more.

And a sacrelidge suggestion, depart BBC Radio 3's Mozart and go to http://kusc.org and listen to Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road on their Morning program for 12.01.11

The Morning Show
with Dennis Bartel
(Weekdays 5-9 AM)



For over a decade the Silk Road Ensemble has been performing around the world, after it was formed by Yo-Yo Ma at the Tanglewood Music Center. The ensemble includes performers and composers from more than 20 countries, including Iran, Armenia, India, Mongolia, Spain, Lebanon, Switzerland, Israel, Syria, Canada, Japan and China. Silk Road has also commissioned more than 60 chamber music works. Wednesday morning at 8:15 as part of our weeklong survey of Yo-Yo Ma's recorded repertoire, we'll hear his performances with the Silk Road Ensemble of music from China.

Ta,

siggy

[Don Petter]

All rather quiet round here?

I have been toying with asparagus. It was widely regarded in France in the nineteenth century as an aphrodisiac, which is where and when Stendhal was widely regarded as quite a womaniser, so he surely viewed it with a lot of favouritism. There are many Spring asparagus festivals, both in this country (as at Evesham) and abroad. But this is where my trail peters out, unfortunately, as I’m lost for a high singer. I can’t even work in a bad pun for ‘a Sparafucile’, as he was pretty low, in every sense. Not to mention the complete lack of an F … I’ll tiptoe out again, I think.

[vinteuil]

perhaps time for a big clue.

Stendhal was famous for his love of spinach - as he says in his autobiographical "Vie d' Henry Brulard" - 'Les épinards et Saint-Simon ont été mes seuls goûts durables, après celui toutefois de vivre à Paris avec cent louis de rente, faisant des livres.' [ 'Spinach and Saint-Simon have been my only lasting pleasures, that is however, after that of living in Paris with a private income of a hundred louis and writing books.'

[vinteuil]

Was our F singer born in Wilkes-Barre?

yes indeedy...

[vinteuil]

I thought she was better known for not reaching the high notes

ah, but despite being famous for her complete lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability, after a taxicab crash in 1943 she found she could sing "a higher F than ever before." Instead of a lawsuit against the taxicab company, she sent the driver a box of expensive cigars...