Saturday, January 14, 2006
In the Sixties, the youth of the protestant right tossed Beatles records into huge bonfires that evoked both Nazi Germany & witch burning, & the fanatical pulpits preached that when the puppetmaster Pope/antichrist pulled the strings, every Roman Catholic writhed like ecstatic drunken dancers at an unchaperoned teen party. Who woulda guessed then that those strange kids unburdening themselves of "I Feel Fine" & "Paperback Writer" would now be running the government of the United States of America?
Nasty outside. Still raining some, but wind shifted from southwest to northwest & that's all the difference. Frigid tomorrow. 50s forecast for Wednesday.
I'll have cds for several years before the music jumps out & grabs me. Last night it was Joseph Haydn's Symphony no. 98, Eugen Jochum & the London Symphony Orchestra. No. 98 is one of Haydn's 12 "London" Symphonies, debuted during the first of his two visits to England, 1791, where he was greeted & treated as a visiting pop star (which he was) by the cultured middle class, & feted, as entertainers still are, by British royalty. Haydn had been in the secure but provincial employ of Prince Esterhazy for three decades while his reputation grew & spread across Europe. At age 61 he was finally able to go where uncommon commoners were really appreciated & make a bit of money, too. The Brits got great new music, an incomparable bandleader, & a genial celebrity in exchange for their hospitality. It mattered little that Haydn spoke almost no English.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Nasty outside. Still raining some, but wind shifted from southwest to northwest & that's all the difference. Frigid tomorrow. 50s forecast for Wednesday.
I'll have cds for several years before the music jumps out & grabs me. Last night it was Joseph Haydn's Symphony no. 98, Eugen Jochum & the London Symphony Orchestra. No. 98 is one of Haydn's 12 "London" Symphonies, debuted during the first of his two visits to England, 1791, where he was greeted & treated as a visiting pop star (which he was) by the cultured middle class, & feted, as entertainers still are, by British royalty. Haydn had been in the secure but provincial employ of Prince Esterhazy for three decades while his reputation grew & spread across Europe. At age 61 he was finally able to go where uncommon commoners were really appreciated & make a bit of money, too. The Brits got great new music, an incomparable bandleader, & a genial celebrity in exchange for their hospitality. It mattered little that Haydn spoke almost no English.
