Unthinkable Wings

Article about Leonard Cohen from today's Grauniad. Am really looking forward to hearing the new album (Guardian review here).

I've just realised that I never posted the answers to the song meme I posted a while back. They are as follows:


1. Put a candle in the window, but I feel I’ve got the blues.
2. To sail on a dream on a crystal clear ocean, to ride on the crest of the wild raging storm. (Not one of my favourites, I must admit).
3. It’s autumn in Gothenburg, I want it all to myself.
4. Oh my bags are packed, I’m ready to go.
5. I’m going higher, I’m soaring higher, far above the clouds of doubt and fear.
6. Walk a lonely foreign street, hunger sets the pace.
7. Called you so many times today, I guess it’s all true what your girlfriends say.
8. No I would not give you false hope, on this strange and mournful day.
9. Well you wonder why I always dress in black.
10. Grab your ticket and your suitcase, thunder’s rolling down the tracks.
11. Come rede me dame, come tell me dame, my dame come tell me truly…
12. I was lost in the lakes and the shapes that your body makes.
13. In dem Kerker saßen zu Frankfurt an dem Main.
14. If you want a lover, I’ll do anything you ask me to.
15. One dark and stormy winter’s night the snow lay on the ground.
16. I had a little gramophone, I’d wind it round and round.
17. Didn’t know what time it was, the lights were low.
18. Walking out on the resurrection trail, going nowhere slowly.
19. Jetzt ist der Unsinn bald vorbei, es war auch allerhöchste Zeit.
20. Come gather round people wherever you roam.
21. I wish, I wish, I wish in vain.
22. Woke up from a dream Thursday morning.
23. Te Deum Patrem colimus, Te laudibus prosequimur.
24. She’s taking up her time making up the reasons to justify the hurt inside.
25. Just as the sand made everything round

( Read more... )

Via eponyomous_rose. Like her, I got fed up and cut the list of songs down to twenty-five.


1. Open up your music player. Hit shuffle.
2. Record the first few lines of the first thirty (I did 25 because I am lazy and want to go to sleep) songs that come up that do not give away the name of the song. Skip instrumentals, but don't skip the embarrassing ones.
3. Make hapless LJ denizens guess the song names and artists. Google is cheating. For musical songs, the name of the musical is acceptable in place of the artist.
4. Least hapless LJ denizen wins admiration. That's right, just like a lobbyist in budget season, the points don't matter.

I also omitted most of the choral stuff, because ‘Guess the Mag and Nunc and Ave Verum” is not a particularly fun game... The folk songs are arguably a bit unfair, but as there is no actual prize, I feel less than guilty.

1. Put a candle in the window, but I feel I’ve got the blues.
2. To sail on a dream on a crystal clear ocean, to ride on the crest of the wild raging storm. (Not one of my favourites, I must admit).
3. It’s autumn in Gothenburg, I want it all to myself.
4. Oh my bags are packed, I’m ready to go.
5. I’m going higher, I’m soaring higher, far above the clouds of doubt and fear.
6. Walk a lonely foreign street, hunger sets the pace.
7. Called you so many times today, I guess it’s all true what your girlfriends say.
8. No I would not give you false hope, on this strange and mournful day.
9. Well you wonder why I always dress in black.
10. Grab your ticket and your suitcase, thunder’s rolling down the tracks.
11. Come rede me dame, come tell me dame, my dame come tell me truly…
12. I was lost in the lakes and the shapes that your body makes.
13. In dem Kerker saßen zu Frankfurt an dem Main.
14. If you want a lover, I’ll do anything you ask me to.
15. One dark and stormy winter’s night the snow lay on the ground.
16. I had a little gramophone, I’d wind it round and round.
17. Didn’t know what time it was, the lights were low.
18. Walking out on the resurrection trail, going nowhere slowly.
19. Jetzt ist der Unsinn bald vorbei, es war auch allerhöchste Zeit.
20. Come gather round people wherever you roam.
21. I wish, I wish, I wish in vain.
22. Woke up from a dream Thursday morning.
23. Te Deum Patrem colimus, Te laudibus prosequimur.
24. She’s taking her time making up the reasons to justify all the hurt inside.
25. Just as the sand made everything round.

A while ago, wemyss challenged my to list five songs (interpreting songs fairly liberally) I loved which began with L.

( Music below the cut! )

We sang a particularly fun anthem this morning at the parish Eucharist - a recentish composition by Hamilton, "Ye Gates Lift Up Your Heads." I'm not sure how it sounded, as we were very short-handed, and some of us (including myself) were battling colds and rather struggling with top Gs, but at any rate, it was fun to sing.

We did a final run-through in the nave just before the service, and one of the congregation came up to me and said "That was a very nice noise you were making, it wasn't Stanford, was it?"

The Long Spear is a rather nice vid - general tribute to Star Trek as a whole, in the light of the new movie. In general, I'm not a fan of vids with additional sound added to the base song, and at first I really couldn't see why "The Boxer" was an appropriate choice - other than vaguely so for teenie-delinquent-rebootverse-Jim - but then they used the original final verse, which Simon and Garfunkel never recorded, and suddenly everything fell into place...

Somewhat more slick, and an awful lot of fun: Swing, by marycrawford. TOS, ensemble, but with a heavy emphasis on Uhura.

I promised a review of this, but it will be a brief one, as my brain appears to have died.

The opera is an adaptation by Swann and his librettist, Donald Marsh, from the second volume of CS Lewis' science fiction trilogy. As this is mostly set on an archipelago of floating islands, and the two most important characters spend most of the novel naked (and the fact that the villain of the piece doesn't illustrates his villainy), it will be appreciated that it poses certain challenges to the adaptor, and that's before we consider the fact that much of the action consists of a series of theological arguments and fun and games with translation and semantic inadequacy, followed by a prolonged physical combat between hero and villain (both unarmed).

The opera had a somewhat chequered history; it was not particularly successful in its day, at least partly because Swann's music is resolutely unfashionable - I don't know all that much about music in the sixties, but I was more reminded of Korngold or Walton than anything else. We heard a concert version, with linking narrative, which I must admit I found irksome, especially given the rather pantomime intonation of the narrator (John Amis, a friend of Swann's)†. It gave me a new appreciation for the art of the recitative... Swann and Marsh leave the basic structure of the novel unchanged, though they opens on a note of light comedy as "Lewis" and "Dr Harvard" crash about in Ransome's deserted cottage, by contrast to the novel's opening with Lewis, frightened out of his wits and not sure whether Ransom is telling the truth, insane, or perhaps in league with aliens bent on invading earth.* (The effect of the changes, perhaps unintentionally, was to make Lewis mostly competent and in control, and Harvard the comic relief; whereas novel! Lewis cuts a much poorer figure, and Harvard appears much more professional). There's also a new scene introducing Weston, plummeting towards Perelandra and swearing at the unfortunate technicians at home (Weston is not a nice person, even when he's not crossing Bergsonism with gnosticism or being possessed by the Devil) and the chorus recited his CV - at least, I think that's what they were doing; alas, the acoustics in Keble chapel were so muddy that most of the lyrics vanished under the orchestra.

The orchestration is excellent; the vocal line perhaps less so, though I did wake up with one of the act one duets between Ransom and the Lady embedded in my brain, and there is a spine-chilling solo for choirboy towards the end of the piece, "No man may shorten the way".

The most characterful singing came from Leon Berger, who sang Weston; the other soloists were good enough, but didn't stand out, and I wondered if the choirboy had a sore throat.

It was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a largely American run affair (Lewis' fans seem to be typically American Evangelicals, which is in many ways odd). The tickets gave the work's title as "Perelandra the Opera. Donald Swan's masterpiece, based on the novel by CS Lewis". I somehow suspect an American wrote that....

A Telegraph columnist doesn't quite review it here.

† Even more unfortunately, during his description of the Green Lady, I had a mental image of Gaila from Reboot Trek, and couldn't shake the association for the rest of the piece. This is really unfortunate.
* As would surely have been the case if this were Doctor Who.

Honestly, my main response to "Lucia di Lammermoor" could be summed up as "squee!" It was marvellous - very compellingly staged, acted, and sung (oh, and the orchestra played well, too).

However, that's a rather unexciting review ;)

Anna Netrebko was a marvellous Lucia - the mad scene was breathtaking, and totally convincing; her confrontation with her villainous brother Arturo (Colin Lee) in act II sc 1 was excellent, too (albeit with a rather weird subtext...). Lee was deliciously evil. Piotr Beczela, who had taken over as Edgardo at fairly short notice occasionally seemed a bit lost, I thought - in terms of acting rather than singing. He was quite good at being tender, and quite good at being emo, but I didn't really feel his anger; he was a bit polite at times. His duet with Edgardo, when they discuss the duel, was nonetheless compelling viewing. I rather liked the Chaplain, Raimondo (Ildar Abdrazkov), though I'm a little confused; the interval interviews seemed to suggest that he was supposed to be a villain, but my reading of the role was that he was well-meaning, but gives Lucia bad advice because he too has been duped (though I'm not sure of the legality of breaking an engagement in Scots law at the time - on the other hand, I'm not convinced Donizetti knew there was a difference. Scott would have, of course). As you can tell, I am a total noob at Donizetti...

The production and set design were fabulous. The ghost in Act I was a great touch - Ravenswood is a haunted and unhappy place tainted by violence and hatred, and Lucia is doomed from the start - the woodland set was just unbelievably well-executed, and I liked the ninetenth century gothic costumes (the peasantry was got up rather Highland for the Lammermuirs, but never mind). Rather unexpected to see Culzean Castle popping up, but why not... The staircase, and otherwise non-naturalistic set in the mad scene worked well, as did the graveyard with the enormous moon. I liked the way the sets became steadily more abstract and les naturalistic as the opera progressed, and Lucia descends into desperation and madness...

The experience of seeing an opera at a cinema is a slightly strange one. It was certainly the most grey and well-spoken audience I have ever seen - the Bildungsbürgertum was out in force - and the conversations during the intermission ranged from Other Great Productions of Our Time to how to deal with applying for benefits for your elderly mother. Equally, I've never seen so much wine drunk in a cinema. The coverage itself was extremely engaging - it was mostly extremely well directed, and the choice of shot made sense. I'm less sure about the interval elements. The backstage vox pops were intermittently interesting, but they did consist of asking rather banal questions to people you felt would rather have been in their dressing rooms; Marco Armiliato, the conductor is adorable, though.

The mp3 found poetry meme. It doesn't really work, it seems:

Put your MP3 player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first is the title.

Softhu únga ástin mín.

Dream, dream, dream, dream, dream.
When I die, and they lay me to rest.
Many men have loved the bells.
I can see the planets are aligning for me.

It’s a still life water colour, on a now-late afternoon,
If I could make a wish, I think I’d pass.
This time of endless night
I’m going to tell a story, and it’s sad but true:

If it hadn’t been for Cotton-Eyed Joe,
Giant steps are what you take
Oh I can’t forget this evening,
The Angel Gabriel from heaven came,

Three Kings from Persian Lands afar,
Gaudete, Gaudete, Christus est natus!
Ho ho ho to the bottle I go,
You get a shiver in the dark.

( Sources under the cut )
( What the heck: I shall do two (can you tell my writing is going badly? )

It's been in my head, despite all reservations about the nature of politics and the problems of the world. (I wish I could find the Hamish Henderson version, though).



For those of you who struggle with Scots, there's the lyrics and a (slightly flat) translation here