On Becoming a Hermit, Sort of ... Days 63 to 67

Days 63 to 67
(Monday 18th to Friday, 22nd May 2020)

The days have slipped by in a blink. What happened!? Lots of Zoom meetings have happened and I read a poem (about Barbershop) to my Hallmark colleagues, at the end of rehearsal on Tuesday evening! An unexpected first ... particularly at short notice. It hadn't seen the light of day before then. Not sure how it was received and may never know, because, whilst poetry is even more left field, marginal and unappreciated than Barbershop is (outside the wedding and funeral business) we are also manly men, who don't necessarily 'do' poetry, at least that we'd be prepared to admit. Although over the last few months there have been two or three members who’ve come up to me on a Tuesday evening to say they enjoyed reading my poetry.

New cases of Coronavirus, deaths and struggle continue as I sit and listen to music and write. How long can this go on? As long as we have to bear it, each in our own way, each in our own corner of the World, in our own unique minds, along our own paths to resolution. We shall come to look back on this period in our own history as something else, perhaps not what it seems to be right now: purgatory for some, respite for others, destitution for a few, grief and sadness for many, separation for many more, maybe like a kind of imprisonment that we could not have imagined before the pandemic. Whatever we come to view it as, whenever that may be, perspectives will have changed.

The weather's good, though. Temperatures have been increasing over the past two or three days. Yesterday and Wednesday were almost unseasonably warm. 

Five Zoom meetings so far this week: Wentworth Castle Archive team Tuesday am, Hallmark Tuesday evening), Tai Chi Wednesday am, Fox Valley Voices Wednesday evening (that no one turned up to for the first time!) and Guide Dogs Puppy Class Thursday morning. Another one on Saturday morning with the family will make it six this week! 

Nearly forgot to mention we took the dogs out in the car on Monday for a walk in Wharncliffe Woods. A pleasant change and not too crowded and a very warm day, with barely a breeze through the trees to cool us. It was a refreshing change. The car has managed around 40 miles in the past two months! That must be a first. Saving money no going anywhere, whilst the Treasury is mounting up huge national debt that we're going to have to pay back to someone, some time. Let's hope we don't have to sell our souls to the devil in order to do that.

I've been reviewing the business of how to progress with our boiler replacement, whether to go with the Air Source Heat Pump or to get a modern efficient gas boiler to replace our old G rated juggernaut of a gas guzzler! The latter is still working very well, but we are consuming more than twice the national average in in gas (28,000 KWh vs 12,000 Kwh per year). There's also the decision as to whether we should get battery storage as well.The aim is not only to future proof ourselves, but also to make best use of renewable energy sources; make best use of what we've got. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Or should we simply not make any decision at all until such time as we know how the current crisis begins to unfold and resolve itself, one way or the other? Or until the current boiler finally gives up the ghost, which would be bad if it happened in the midst of Winter! Then there's the tricky business of how you deal with installation team tramping all over the house, whilst trying to maintain appropriate distancing and hygiene. Oh I don't know! Let's play some music and sleep on it for the weekend.

Saturday evening will see the BABS Live event on YouTube, which Hallmark will gather to watch. This is the accumulation of material, chat and music put together by the British Association of Barbershop Singers to replace the cancelled Convention weekend, at which we would have done a show and enjoyed the swan song of a championship year, but that has to wait another year now. It'll be on at 8pm. An indulgence in barbershop for a couple of hours.

Speaking of music, five days worth, now, from Clemency Burton-Hill’s “Year of Wonder”, now. 


Monday: "Der Trunkene im Frühling" (The Drunkard in Spring) from Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of The Earth) by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). A work that hoisted him out of the gloom of being deposed from his position as Director of the Vienna Court Opera because of rampant anti-semitism at the time. A friend had sent him some ancient Chinese poetry, which he used to compose this, one of his best symphonies. Mahler died on this day in 1911 ...

And when I came to sing no more,
I fall asleep again,
for what is Springtime to me?
Let me be drunk!

Tuesday: "Symphony No.1 in C minor" 4: Allegro maestoso by Alice Mary Smith (1839-1884). Smith was unusually a woman, who, it seems, was a bit a trailblazer in 19th Century music circles. This is one of two major orchestral symphonies she produced. 

Wednesday: "Scherzo No.2 in C minor, Op.14" by Clara Schumann (1819-1896). Clara, wife of Robert, was a force of nature and prevailed to write some astonishingly great music, despite dealing with an over-protective father and with Roberts debilitating mental illness. This would be an achievement even today, let alone in the midst of the 19th Century, when woman were not considered by social 'norms' capable of such things. So she published much of her work under a male pseudonym. Clara Schumann also died on this day in 1896.

Thursday: "Vesti la Giubba" (Put on your costume) from Pagliacci by Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1857-1919). This was a controversial opera style known as 'Verisimo', which meant literally 'true'. It spoke on subjects not normally deemed suitable for this level of high art. Here it is in all its glory sung by the inimitable Luciano Pavarotti. It is very moving. Prepare to shed a tear.

Put on you costume, powder your face.
People are paying and come to laugh.
Laugh, clown, at your fractured love!
Laugh at the grief that poisons your heart!

Friday: "Au Gre des Ondes" (Along the waves) 5: 'Hommage a Bach' by Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013). Dutilleux died on this day in 2013 and, despite a long and illustrious career, he left behind relatively few pieces to remember him by. This is one of six pieces he was commissioned to write in 1946 as, albeit classy 'jingles' for French radio. This suite, as Clemency puts it, 'prefigures much of the music that was to come. 

Enjoy your weekend.

However you may be affected by anything I've written here, do let me know by leaving a comment below or, if you prefer not to, share your thoughts with a trusted friend or someone you love.