Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[teamsaint]

Member Lordgeous might well take exception to half of that and who could blame said Member?

apologies of course.he is one of the good guys, with or without his "title".

I imagine that in the days before Tabloid, the announcement of his peerage was in the that fine broadsheet, the Big Express....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Also, I have heard (although I have no hard and fast corroboration of it) that HM QEI positively squirmed when uttering the words "arise, Sir Harrison"

That'll be a tricky one to corroborate!

[ahinton]

That'll be a tricky one to corroborate!

Aaarg[eric?]h!!! How rihgt you are! I fear that I will never leran to tpye proprely! I have duly amended the reference to the same name as the famous cruise liner!

And trust you to be the first to find this ghastly gaffe!

Anyway, though, what's your view of the prospect of Sir Brian Ferneyhough?...

[Serial_Apologist]

Aaarg[eric?]h!!! How rihgt you are! I fear that I will never leran to tpye proprely! I have duly amended the reference to the same name as the famous cruise liner!

And trust you to be the first to find this ghastly gaffe!

Anyway, though, what's your view of the prospect of Sir Brian Ferneyhough?...

Has he composed incidental music for a Conservative Party political broadcast, then?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anyway, though, what's your view of the prospect of Sir Brian Ferneyhough?...

Unlikely for so many reasons - the three most prominent being that, in a world where Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jeffrey Archer have been made "Lords", what adequate "honour" could one give genuine Artists of Ferneyhough's calibre? (Deity, perhaps?) And who, from the select company which decides these things, would have ever heard of him? And finally, from my (admittedly limited) knowledge of the man, I don't get the idea that he sets much value to such "honours".

No, we shall have to remain contented with his honouring us with his work - as with so many figures - and, if we seek a monument; listen up!

[ahinton]

Has he composed incidental music for a Conservative Party political broadcast, then?

Good question; I may be a nested tuplet away from the correct answer, but he did write Cameron's Dream Song and, given the frequently encountered complaints that, whether or not as a consequence of Margaret Thatcher's desire to pull all parties to the right, it's become ever more difficult to distinguish between the "main" ones today, The Doctrine of Similarity might likewise be taken as such (albeit admittedly in a less party-specific manner)...

Anyway, in the meantime, we do at least have Sir James McDillon...

[ahinton]

Unlikely for so many reasons - the three most prominent being that, in a world where Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jeffrey Archer have been made "Lords", what adequate "honour" could one give genuine Artists of Ferneyhough's calibre? (Deity, perhaps?) And who, from the select company which decides these things, would have ever heard of him? And finally, from my (admittedly limited) knowledge of the man, I don't get the idea that he sets much value to such "honours".

No, we shall have to remain contented with his honouring us with his work - as with so many figures - and, if we seek a monument; listen up!

I didn't see your post here before posting mine. I take your point about ALW (give me JLW any day!) and the Archer person (although at least he can write entertainingly on occasion, even if real substance is almost nowhere to be found in his outpourings), but they've also Lorded Michael Berkeley as they earlier did his godfather Benjamin Britten and just as they "sired" Harry, Max
and Richard Rodney...

I also take your point that the powers that be (who hopefully are still endowed with insufficient clout to "award" Deity!) would not likely have heard of him and, even if some had, they'd probably decline such a proposal on the spurious if not specious grounds that BJPF has wilfully rejected his home environs throughout most of his professional life in favour of other less provincialist climes (as he saw them); one could describe that aspect of his life as having sent himself from Coventry, perhaps. Personally, I'd just like to hear (and then have the pleasure of decoding) his speech after receiving such an "honour" although, like you, I doubt that he would place much value on those kinds of "honour" and, in that, he no doubt strikes a chord (sorry!) with quite a few other living composers; after all, you'd have thought that there'd be Sir Anthony Payne by now, but it is not so (has he ever turned such a thing down, one might wonder?)...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

"Vocalist"

[ahinton]

"Vocalist"

Hmmm - not so sure about this one, even if only becase I imagine that "instrumentalist" would be as likely to have that effect on you or most other people...

[jean]

"Vocalist"

You wouldn't want these people called singers, would you?

[Bryn]

You wouldn't want these people called singers, would you?

Indeed, I would not demean the likes of Phil Minton by referring to them as mere singers.

[Keraulophone]

in a world where Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jeffrey Archer have been made "Lords", what adequate "honour" could one give genuine Artists of Ferneyhough's calibre? (Deity, perhaps?)

Perhaps BJPF would rather await an OM or CH. Some find it more acceptable to receive an honour that does not bestow a title or Precedence.

Both Britten and RVW turned down knighthoods but later accepted the OM (and CH in BB's case, as did, for example, Harold Pinter and Paul Scofield). However, BB did finally accept a peerage months before his death.

It is said that Francis Bacon refused all honours, allegedly on the grounds they "were so ageing"(!). J G Ballard rejected a CBE, damning the whole thing as a "preposterous charade". The record for refusing the most state honours is held by L.S. Lowry, who declined OBE in 1955, CBE in 1961, knighthood in 1968, and CH in 1972 and 1976.

Apparently, Simon Preston (CBE) arguably the finest organist/choirmaster of his generation, didn't bother to sit the Fellowship examination of the Royal College of Organists (an exam with a notoriously high failure rate) after obtaining his Associateship, but waited until they gave him an honorary one (and, last year, the college's highest honour, the RCO Medal)!

BTW, I winced at 'suididality' on the Today programme this morning, but it seems that it is indeed a proper word.

[Beef Oven!]

Indeed, I would not demean the likes of Phil Minton by referring to then as mere singers.

[french frank]

I winced at 'suididality' on the Today programme this morning, but it seems that it is indeed a proper word.

What does it mean?

[jean]

Could be a variant of suicidiality?