In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
that mark our place, and in the sky
the larks, still bravely singing, fly
scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
loved and were loved, and now we lie
in Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from falling hands we throw
the torch: be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
we shall not sleep, though poppies grow
in Flanders fields.
- John McCrae
Goooooood evening!
I said when I started this that I wouldn't post often.... thus far this has definitely been proven true, but this last week has been absolutely manic for me - I don't even know where to begin.
I'm going to start by stating the obvious. It's remembrance Sunday. This is the one day of the year that has always struck a nerve with me, not least because of all the beautiful music and poetry that have resulted from its existence, but also because we do not give enough thought to the thousands and thousands of men over history who have died so that we could have better lives. Later on I will share some of my favourite excerpts of music and poetry with you, but above is possibly the best known remembrance poem; In Flanders Fields by John McCrae.
On Monday morning I acquired a new pet...
This is my new hamster, Bobby. I got him for free from Cardiff market - he was a part of a very bad litter, all his siblings had died except one who was riddled with tumours. Bobby himself couldn't open his eyes at the time, and the market seller thought he was blind, and also said that he had a stiff back. However since he has been home his eyes have opened fine, and I am almost 100% sure he's not blind - maybe just a little short sighted. As for the bad back, he doesn't run in his wheel, but thats the only sign that he's different to an average hamster, and that could just be because he doesn't want to. I will say this though, HE IS ABSOLUTELY MENTAL. he won't ever stop moving, he leaps off any surface he's on, no matter how high, and I've lost track of how many times he's been lost down the back of the sofa. And so this his how he got his name, Bobby, after Robert Schumann, who himself went mental after contracting syphillis. (I'm a musician, it was always going to be related to music somehow) So that's the story of how I acquired a partially blind and exceedingly retarded hamster.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent preparing for a rather spectacular concert in celebration of the 50th birthday of James Bond. Now I'm not going to claim to be a big James Bond fan, as it would be a complete lie - I've never seen a single film, BUT I have alway loved the soundtracks. THIS track right here, is one of my favourite things to listen to ever, and so actually playing it as part of a huge orchestra that included Mike Lovatt, a trumpeter who has actually played on some of the James Bond soundtracks, was incredible - Give this a read, Wednesday was a very special day.
Another factor that made Wednesday special was the first visit of my Dad this term. He came to watch the James Bond concert (which coincidentally he loved), and then he bought me my Christmas present... I know that sounds terrible, but it's really not. I used to have a 160GB iPod classic that was basically attached to my body, almost a body part. I took it everywhere with me, and I was always listening to it. It was full of music, completely full - 20,000 tracks of magic. However, unfortunately about six months ago it got damp, and ever since then it would not switch on. I swear when it would no longer work, I felt like a part of me had died. I literally did not know what to do, and it was only made worse by the fact that I didn't even have back up copies of the music on it (not a mistake I will ever make again!), but then I discovered a wonderful apple recycling scheme. If you make an appointment in any apple store, and you take your old broken iPod, no matter whether its under warranty or not, they will replace it for you at a discounted price. Hence why I got an early Christmas present of a new iPod classic, 160GB, and only £95. I think it's magical. Now however I have the daunting task of trying to refill it, for the most part this is easy, but there were a few rare gems and remixes on there that I doubt I will ever find again, which is pretty much gutting. It's not just music that I lost - it was memories, the rare tracks, the unknown bands, and the remixes that were accompanied by a story or a memory of a person who showed me it. The only possible help I've got is my last.fm account, but I've listened to so much music over the years that it would be ridiculous to try and put everything listed on there on it.
The biggest task related to this, is getting my CD library on to it... this will literally take about a week...
Another big event this week was the release of Foals first single off their third album. YEAHYEAHYEAHHH! Check it out here. There are very different vibes coming from the first two Foals album - Total Life Forever feels very different to Antidotes, but the first single from TLF - Spanish Sahara, was a great characterisation of the rest of the album, so does that mean that the vibes from this single are a representation of the whole album? On the other hand, another single released form TLF - Miami, was very different to the rest of the album, so who knows. Either way, what I get from this is that their new ish direction is more heavy on the guitar side of things. I adored Spanish Sahara as a single, but I also loved Cassius off Antidotes, and they're both very different tracks, and this is very different again, but so far I like it. I've pre-ordered the album, and I can't wait to get my ears around the rest of it.
Yesterday I went to Wales v Argentina. I love rugby, I love the atmosphere, I love the game, I love the fans, I love the songs; I love rugby. However, yesterdays game was a complete shambles. Neither team played especially well, but Wales played especially bad. I don't know if they were still feeling smug about winning the six nations (i certainly hope that if this is true then they all woke up this morning feeling very different!), or perhaps, what I suspect most likely, is that the loss of Warren Gatland has left them feeling very much uncertain. I suspect that players were picked on reputation as opposed to current form - Priestland has quite the reputation but I would say his current form is pretty poor. Whatever the case, they played so badly. The ref didn't really help either, but he got quite the boo at the end of the match.
I am a people watcher by nature, I absolutely love to watch people, and I think rugby stadiums such as the Millenium Stadium are the prime place for it. From the man behind me who obviously has played some of his best games of rugby from the stands - the men who reckon that they know better than everyone else, and if they shout loudly enough, regardless of how far away they are, they will be heard, and the players will obviously do what he has suggested - to the small child who climbed on her seat and got her leg stuck, to the little boy who's chosen phrase for that 80 minutes was 'Score a try!' I don't know what he thought they were doing, but I'm pretty sure the main aim is to score trys, to my little brother who doesn't have a clue what's going on, to my mum who just likes to watch the substitutes do their stretches then gets a book out, to my dad who won't speak at all, he just watches in silence. People go to matches for so many different reasons, and react in so many different ways, it's really, really interesting.
'Calon lan yn llawn daioni,
Techach yw na'r lili dios,
Dim on calon lan all ganu
Canu'r dydd a chanu'r nos.'
So that was my week, my busy, busy week. And this next week doesn't seem set to be much better. I have to have my short performance assessment ready by Friday, because after that I literally won't have any chance to work on it. I am also beginning rehearsals for the pitband for a production of Spring Awakening, rehearsing and performing in a huge Children In Need event on Friday - an orchestra with a choir of 1000 children in Cardiff Motorpoint Arena, and then I am in Bedford for the weekend rehearsing and taking part in two radio 4 broadcasts. these can be heard live on Sunday, the first at 8.10am from a women's prison in a special programme for Prisons Week, and the second at 4pm in an evensong broadcast from St Paul's Church. And then after that, rehearsal begin for symphony orchestra - Verdi's Requiem. BUSY.
I obviously cannot write a post of this length and not talk much about Remembrance Sunday. I was always very involved in Remembrance Day activities in school and when I was in church choir. There has been some truly beautiful words and music written in honour, respect and remembrance of some very brave people. Peter Aston wrote a beautiful anthem 'And So They Gave Their Bodies', and there is no better time indeed to enjoy Faure's Requiem. Today however, I found something new. A poem that I have always found very touching and highly appropriate on this day is:
'Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the mornings hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I did not die.'
And so today I was looking for musical settings of this, and there are many of them.
But then I found something completely different on spotify, and I recommend if you've got an hour to spare, you stop what you're doing and you listen to this album. Just listen. It actually literally moved me to tears. The album is called The Snow Queen, and it is a collection of songs, narratives and poems set to music by Paul K Joyce. Track 8 is the track relevant to this, but the whole album is so incredibly beautiful, and it just made me so emotional.
I'm going to conclude this blog with some beautiful Remembrance Sunday related things, and I am going to go and watch Songs Of Praise, because I bet it was cracking...
'You never lived to see
What you gave to me
One Shining dream of hope and love
life and liberty.
With a host of brave unknown soldiers
For your company, you will liver forever
here in out memory.
In fields of sacrifice
Heroe's paid the price
YOung men who dies for old men's wars
Gone to paradise.
We are all one great band of brothers
and one day you'll see we can live together
when all the world is free.
I wish you'd lived to see
all you gave to me
Your shining dream of hope and love,
life and liberty.
We are all one great band of brothers
and one day you'll see - we can all live together
when the world is free.
The Crosses
I stood there before the crosses
glowing white in row on row.
Every one a young life cut short
as the names upon them show.
The dates they died below the names
tell of wars now past and gone.
Passchendaele, the Somme, and Mons,
of battles fought and won.
History remembers as it should
these men who fought and died,
whilst for their families left behind
a dull sorrow tinged with pride.
The faces of boys now held in Sepia
who died in days long gone
yet living on in memories
and hearts, still holding on.
Yet despite the hurt and grief here
what with horror makes me fill
is that when I look behind me
there are more new crosses growing still.
- Bill Mitton
My friend you would not tell with such high zest
to children ardent for some desperate glory
The Old Lie; DULCE ET DECORUM EST
PRO PATRIA MORI.
- an extract from Dulce Et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen.
We promised them glory.
We offered them the world.
We said they'd be heroes.
Did we forget to mention that might be dead heroes?
They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.
For the Fallen, Laurence Binyon.
When you go home, tell of us and say,
For their tomorrow we gave our today.
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