HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

As masterly Alexander Pope proclaimed in An Essay on Man:

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Man never is, but always to be blessed:

I have received some flak for my Panglossian optimism, believing It'll be Alright on the Night and generally seeing The Sunny Side of the Street, but I am unrepentant and, especially as the New Year dawns, I wish to dispense good cheer to all my readers. In 2017 many of our fondest hopes will be realised, no doubt a few will be disappointed, yet our world will be even better than in 2016.

Voltaire, rationalist creator of optimistic Dr Pangloss

I know that our fate probably depends in part on the antics of the terrible trio of Theresa May, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin and some familiar landmarks are probably fading away – Angela Merkel, David Cameron and (at last) Bill and Hillary Clinton. One or two iconic but flawed figures like Fidel Castro, not to mention David Bowie and George Michael, are now history, while lauding the relevance of Jeremy Corbyn and Francois Hollande will strain to breaking point the ingenuity of spin doctors.

Catholic, Muslim and Copt in harmony

  Lifting our eyes from the banalities of politicians and celebrities, what can we dare to hope from 2017?  The top prizes are Toleration, Peace and Progress. Toleration is the blessing conferred on religious, sexual and political minorities throughout the world. Western nations broadly observe this but Chinese and Islamic persecution of Christians appals us. Egypt can be expected to protect her Coptic minority and even Assad gave room to Syria’s scattered and historic Christian communities, now displaced: Buddhist persecution of Royhingya Hindus in Burma or Islamic pogroms of Christians in Aceh, Indonesia or in Northern Nigeria are abhorrent. Strong and enlightened central governments have a vital role to play and Europe and America are good but not perfect. Discrimination of all kinds should be pushed back everywhere in 2017.   

Recent years have seen an upsurge in nationalism, that notorious curse of the 1930s, but often too a strong unifying force. In part this is due to the remoteness and policy errors of supra-national bodies like the EU, the IMF and the UN who tend to ride rough-shod over opposition. There was undoubtedly a nationalistic element in the Brexit decision made sharper by the influx of alien immigrants. The dangers of this element are exaggerated: the British will always be scrupulously fair to those who observe the law.

The pronouncements of Donald Trump on international politics and on trade matters can sound alarming yet the US has a civilised bedrock and an established history of alliance and generosity, which will not be discarded – her self-interest requires no less. The 2016 election delivered a strong Republican government and Congress – let them work together fruitfully and rationally for the benefit of all Americans.

The various groups participating in the dreadful Syrian civil war have fought themselves to a standstill; it is time the Security Council and local players like Turkey and Iran imposed a settlement. This would end this conflict which has sickened the world. The only maniac left to threaten us is Kim-Jong-un of North Korea and a 2017 palace coup there to depose him cannot come too soon. Africa and the Middle East are inherently unstable and we can but hope they will not threaten world peace.

At least we do not live under this charmer!

 The March of Progress is often invisible but remember that every day a clinic opens where none was before, a sickness is overcome or a condition treated where help was once absent. New schools bring literacy and hope to the poorest, new roads open up new horizons, clean water can be a great boon. All these things are apolitical, simply a demonstration that people can live together in harmony, indeed at last in equality too, as women are increasingly given precisely the same opportunities as men.

Closer to home our prosperity will also be shared. A growing British economy, boosted by the Living Wage, slowly closes the earnings gap. Brexit will give us new perspectives and rich opportunities. I hope in 2017 the Remainers cast off their sulks, their gloating at any national misfortune and their sour-pusses – it is unnatural and ugly, as basically they are talented high achievers who simply backed the wrong horse. Their positive contribution could be game-changing. I expect we will know the main features of a deal with the EU or any counter-option during 2017. Let’s get on with it!

Progress is a quicksilver concept upon which few people are in total agreement. To my mind progress consists of better educational attainment at all levels, better nutrition for everyone, 24/7 access to competent medical assistance, a government responsive to its electorate and public money carefully spent to benefit all the people. I expect all those to deliver in 2017 and if in addition the SNP foul up and lose support and Arsenal wins the Premiership, so much the better!

A lot less of this lady, please, in 2017

 

We will face the challenges of 2017 with valiant hearts, clear heads and blithe spirits.

SMD

30.12.16

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2016

MAN OF THE YEAR - NIGEL FARAGE

                                

Sometimes an oddball figure dominates our politics for a period and then fades away. Historic examples would be Robert Lowe, who led the Liberal opposition to parliamentary reform (the so-called “Adullamites”) in 1866, brilliantly frustrating the plans of Russell and Gladstone, though opening the door to Disraeli’s 1867 Reform Act. Lowe was an albino in poor health yet a man of intellect and eloquence dominating politics in 1866. Similar dominance could be attributed to Tony Benn, the archetypical “Loony Leftist” who rallied Labour’s more extreme elements to espouse many a wild lost cause and was a loquacious thorn in the flesh of every Labour leader from 1980 – 1997. He was dubbed The Bertie Wooster of Marxism. Into this colourful company I introduce Nigel Farage, erstwhile leader of UKIP, whose barn-storming populism did so much to persuade the British electorate to embrace the Brexit cause, making 23 June 2016 his great day of triumph and apotheosis.

Robert Lowe

Tony Benn

  

Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage, born in 1964, comes from a solidly prosperous middle-class background. His father was an allegedly alcoholic City stockbroker who left his family when Nigel was 5 but he entered the fine public (i.e. private) school Dulwich College which has many famous alumni. He may have been inspired in his argumentative talent by the lawyers Hartley Shawcross and the Silkins, Sam and John; his humour perhaps derives from matchless P G Wodehouse or more broadly from comedian Bob Monkhouse (expelled!). In politics he was influenced by school visits from soberly thoughtful Keith Joseph and above all by incisive and driven Enoch Powell.

Maverick Tory and inspirational intellectual Enoch Powell

Nigel chose not to go to university but entered the City in 1983 as a commodity trader with 4 employers up to 2004. Initially a Conservative, Nigel could not support the UK signing the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 which created the EU, planned the introduction of the Euro, pushing for “ever closer” European integration.  He became a founder member of UKIP, committed to the restoration of UK independence from the EU  and after many failed UK electoral campaigns he became leader of UKIP for almost all of 2006-16, being elected as a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to the present day. Steadily support for UKIP has grown with many local councillors but only 2 MPs, (via by-elections): the first-past-the-post electoral system in the UK heavily penalises small parties – UKIP still garnered 3m votes in the 2015 general election, even though the party is fractious and disorganised.

Farage has changed the tone of political debate in the UK, often in a manner offensive to the squeamish. He makes no secret of his contempt for senior Eurocrats greeting the luckless Herman van Rompuy in 2010 with “You have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low grade bank clerk!” and enquired “Who are you, nobody in Europe has ever heard of you?” This was a little hard on erstwhile Belgian Prime Minister van Rompuy, then newly appointed and unelected President of the Council, a civilised, if unprepossessing, old cove fond of composing poetry in the Japanese Haiku fashion. Farage was fined 10 day’s expenses when he declined to apologise – he insisted his words were basically true. My neighbours and TV viewers in Greece were thrilled by Farage – at last someone was mocking European pretensions.

Farage’s views on immigrants are equally direct. He echoes many widely-held but seldom-expressed fears when he states that the refugee influx admitted “a fifth column of Islamic extremists” – recent terrible events in France, Belgium and Germany give credence to such opinions. Much stricter control of immigration seems simple common sense but the bien-pensant elite calls it Fascism, which is nonsense. Farage offends some others when he says the NHS should concentrate on tending to UK citizens, rather than “caring for recent immigrants with HIV”, an unnecessarily extreme example perhaps. Some in UKIP and in the Tory party are undoubtedly racist but the worst I heard from Farage himself is his would-be horror “if a group of Romanians moved next door.” Impoverished East Europeans are a growing migrant problem – Farage can hardly be called prejudiced as his (second) wife is a German from Hamburg.

Farage as Man of the People

Farage after the Referendum

He agitated for a referendum on EU membership which was conceded by an overconfident David Cameron – believing a Remain verdict was easily achievable. Farage had already shown his debating mettle when he demolished Europhile Nick Clegg in a debate during the 2015 election. The Tories split with Boris Johnson and Michael Gove leading the Leave faction but Farage was left on the sidelines, cold-shouldered from sharing a platform with them. But his passionate barn-storming struck a chord with the provincial, the under-privileged and the marginalised and the 52%-48% victory would never have been achieved without Farage. His blokeish beer-drinking image, practised oratory and patriotic appeal were irresistible.

Nigel with his pal Donald

Without a visible power base and no longer UKIP leader, Farage is looking for a new role. An earlier generation would have made him at least a Viscount for his services to the nation but our current Establishment is not generous to its antagonists and he is woefully undervalued. He has clearly much in common with Donald Trump – a fake tan and the adulation of the underprivileged to name two – and he wowed his audience at a Trump rally in Jackson, Miss.  His ambition at least to help along a trade deal between the US and UK should be warmly embraced. I say, Bravo Nigel – you are the Hero of 2016!

SMD, 
19.12.16
Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2016

A TOPSY-TURVY WORLD

That the world was destined for a “topsy-turvy” period was, in retrospect, clearly augured by mysterious and unexpected events earlier in 2016 - America cosied up to a Cuba still dominated by the long-demonised Castro brothers, two entirely new species of tree-frog were discovered in the remote rainforests of Madagascar and normally humdrum Leicester City Football Club contrived convincingly to win the English Premiership. Strange spirits had obviously been loosened!

Notorious Fidel (RIP) and Raul Castro of old

New Tree-frog species

                                     

Triumphant Leicester City

The adjective “topsy-turvy” is often associated with the comic work of W S Gilbert whose plots of judges marrying plaintiffs, aristocratic lords becoming enamoured of fairies and pirates discovering their noble birth were carried forward to their deadpan conclusion to the delight of Victorian audiences. Gilbert’s witty lines were put to tuneful melody by the talented composer Sir Arthur Sullivan and the 14 G&S “Savoy” comic operas, presented by the acutely commercial impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte amused and heartened British and American theatre-goers for at least 100 years and still retain the affection of a horde of amateur singers and comic actors.

Arthur Sullivan and W S Gilbert

W S Gilbert would have had rich pickings in our world - as what could be more topsy-turvy

than the astounding triumph of the 3 Brexiteers, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove

(Three little maids from school are we… filled to the brim with girlish glee), or the shock-horror

election of Donald Trump (Stick close to your desk and never go to sea, And you become

the Ruler of the States’ Navy), not to mention today’s defeat on a referendum of Matteo Renzi,

Italian Premier:

He sent his resignation in,

The first of all his corps, O!

That very knowing,

Overflowing,

Easy-going

Paladin ,

The Duke of Plaza-Toro!

The British Brexit struggle has moved this week to the Supreme Court, (The law is the true embodiment of everything that's excellent. It has no kind of fault or flaw and I, my lords, embody the law, sang the Lord Chancellor). It will pronounce on the issue of whether the government can simply exercise prerogative powers to trigger Article 50 or whether it has to seek the approval of a vote in both houses of Parliament. While the government may be able to win in the Commons, the Lords would be a higher hurdle as it is stuffed full of establishment figures hostile to what they see as a Peasants’ Revolt:

Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!
Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses!

So quite a lot hinges on the verdict of the Supreme Court. As for the Lords, that only partially reformed body needs reminding:

And while the House of Peers withholds its legislative hand,

 And noble statesmen do not itch

To interfere with matters which

 They do not understand,

 As bright will shine Great Britain’s rays

 As in King George’s glorious days!

As a Brexiteer and a democrat, I see every merit in the final deal being subject to parliamentary approval, but it is a step too far to expect the government to expose its negotiating hand in advance – the certain way to a bad deal, especially with Anglophobic EU representatives Michel Barnier and Guy Verhofstadt lurking in the shadows itching to chastise the UK with their (EU regulated) rubber truncheons.

Mr Renzi’s fall is most inopportune if you are an Italian banker or defender of the euro. The European electorate is highly volatile but not at all ideological, as the rejection of Herr Hofer in Austria demonstrates: one Austrian-born fascist tyrant per century is quite sufficient, thank you very much!  I wish Europe well and hope it finds a sensible modus vivendi: I just know that the UK does not fit in and must stride steadily to the exit door.

Donald J. Trump in America is frankly beyond parody – astonishing reality overwhelming wild fantasy every day. This orange-coloured apparition, with the bizarre hair-do, living in ormolu palaces, plans to pass the running of his property empire to his go-go family thus avoiding the perils of nepotism. We will read all about them in tasteful OK! or Hello! magazine. His search for a credible administration has resulted in some highly partisan appointments and with Marine General James “Mad-Dog” Mattis (“It’s fun to shoot some people”) the new Defence Secretary, it is hard to be re-assured even by those who tell us that Mattis is that elusive exemplar “an intellectual general like Patton or Petraeus”. The blood will curdle when the Donald is handed the nuclear codes unless he has two beefy men in white coats beside him ready to cram him quickly into a strait-jacket at the moment critique.

Trump at full throttle

More than any Lord High Executioner, Donald Trump will have A Little List of those who offend him and his supporters. Included will be Washington-centred Republicans, celebrities who fawned over Hillary, anyone in the liberal media, atheists, Moslems, Mexicans, cheating Europeans and expansionary Chinese.

You can put them on the List, you can put them on the List

And they’ll none of them be missed, they’ll none of them be missed!

SMD

5.12.16

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2016

AN UNEXPECTED CORONATION

Settling down by my TV on Tuesday evening at about 11pm, I expected to be watching a leisurely but decisive victory for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. While Hillary failed to inspire me I could not give any credit to her opponent, The Donald, a loud-mouthed, egotistical demagogue who seemed quite incapable of articulating any policy proposal with conviction or lucidity. Well, I staggered to bed at 8am on Wednesday having seen Trump overwhelm Hillary with famous victories in Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, Florida and Pennsylvania leaving the political complexion of America radically changed, nay revolutionised, to global astonishment.

The Winner, Donald Trump

Trump’s triumph is just another amazing dénouement in the labyrinthine world of US politics, the Greatest Comic Show on Earth. The Donald has a well-honed showbiz persona and oozes a kind of dark charisma, cocky and thick-skinned, emitting tons of chutzpah like the bouncy New Yorker he is. The fact that he has precisely nil experience of politics, few considerable allies and an invisible knowledge of the world outside property development has not deterred the American electorate.

The loser, Hillary Clinton at bay

   

All this speaks volumes on Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and campaign which must have been peculiarly inept. She spent much more than Trump but for all her admitted experience and for all the liberal values she paraded, she failed to ignite the enthusiasm of her supporters. Fewer women, fewer Hispanics and fewer African-Americans than expected rallied to her standard. She is an indifferent orator and too well-known a face. The prospect of 8 years of Hillary did not appeal, as she represented the old guard carrying all the baggage of scandals in Arkansas, Bill Clinton’s pock-marked presidency, a controversial tenure as Secretary of State and a belief in her own divine right to privacy even in office with her illegitimate e-mails. She lived in a privileged cocoon of elitist entitlement (just like the diehard opponents of Brexit) and did not survive the populist tsunami bearing down on her.

I think some lessons will be derived from this debacle. The Americans are not great royalists and recently two Bushes, father and son and two Clintons, husband and wife, have more than sated their taste for dynasties. People are talking up Michelle Obama as a Democratic runner in 2020, but she should forget it – she is attractive and articulate but Barack Obama was a one-off, an exceptionally eligible and magnetic candidate even though in office he has been frustrated. The Papandreou and Mitsotakis dynasties have despoiled and ruined Greece, the French LePen family is not much admired while Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier drove Haiti into the mire – keep the family out of it!

There was a strong whiff of nostalgia about Trump’s candidacy – a yearning for a time, say in the 1950s, when America really was the greatest nation, when jobs abounded and foreigners were kept in order. Born-again Mike Pence invoked God and wandered into religiosity on victory night. Those old days of motherhood and apple-pie and Norman Rockwell certainties, will never return. The same note can be heard in Brexit, evoking days when Britain was stronger, the beer weaker and communities were happier. It is a mirage, alas; the real world is a tough old place.

Saying Grace by Norman Rockwell (1951)

Hillary’s defeat has been ascribed to misogyny – that hostility to women every feminist sniffs out in the most innocent males. Nothing in the Trump campaign struck me as misogynistic – of course Trump’s groping crudities about women were well documented, but far from glorified – and the failure to crack the “glass ceiling” was down to Hillary not to the system. A better lady candidate will seize the Presidency soon enough.

What metropolitan Britain and America forgot was that there are plenty “peasants” and “rednecks” about who have a vote and cannot now be dragooned into supporting Establishment politics. These are the former shipyard workers in Sunderland or steel workers in Pennsylvania who experience job insecurity, pay cuts and worry about immigration. They hope to gain from radical change in the system. Brexit sees Britain turn away from Europe’s ingrained mediocrity but the Brits would not choose a Philip Green wheeler-dealer type as their leader. Trump questions free trade, NATO and onerous foreign commitments. Fortress America often plays well in harder times and such a policy will be damaging to the outside world. We can only hope Trump surrounds himself with vigorous and well-informed lieutenants (names like Gingrich and Giuliani seem long in the tooth to me) to guide his administration through the global minefield.

Hold your hats – we are in for a roller-coaster ride!

SMD

11.11.16

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2016

AN INCOMPLETE MUSICAL EDUCATION

It was well observed by Sir Thomas Beecham (1878-1961) that The English may not like music but they love the noise it makes and, although I am Scottish, this remark resonates with me. I do love much classical music but I am a complete layman, incapable of reading or playing a note. I have become ever more conscious of the yawning gaps in my musical education and of those composers of whose works I am sadly ignorant.  I am particularly ignorant of middle to late 19^th century composers, the Late Romantics; I admire Brahms, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky, can tolerate small doses of Wagner and love Elgar and Sibelius. Slipping through the cracks however is any appreciation of César Franck, Camille Saint-Saëns, Anton Bruckner and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – all four, I now realise, considerable contributors to the blessed harmony of our world.

Sir Thomas Beecham conducting

This winter the wonders of modern technology will allow me to slip on my earphones, switch on my laptop, download and listen, as millions have done before me, to recordings of great performances of all the classics, all in the cosy haven of my own dwelling. Bliss! Searching for a change from my favourites Purcell, Handel and Mozart I turn to exploring the four composers above.

César Franck (1822-90) was born a Walloon in Liège, then in the Netherlands but soon in Belgium, though he spent most of his life in France. His domineering father was ambitious for him and César excelled at the Paris Conservatoire as a pianist. He broke with his father when he married the daughter of an acting family. His early compositions were badly received and he became a poorly paid organist at various Parisian churches, latterly at St Clotilde and yet with his cherished Cavaillé-Coll organ, he revitalised French organ playing and added to its repertoire, notably with his Trois Chorals.

Cesar Franck composing for the organ

 

His 1888 D Minor Symphony, he only wrote one, is much admired for its vigour and melodiousness as is his Violin Sonata. His communion anthem Panis Angelicus (what Beecham would call a “Lollipop”) is a popular favourite among the tender-hearted and is much sung by Irish tenors and College choirs. Franck pushed at some musical barriers with his complex polyphony and his Wagnerian influences; he became a revered teacher at the Conservatoire and a prominent flag-bearer for French music after the 1871 Franco-Prussian war.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9srAs4ss2kU Franck D Minor Symphony

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), a proud Parisian, was a leading figure of the French musical establishment and effortlessly rose to be regarded as the greatest French composer of his time. He was born with perfect pitch and was a child prodigy at the piano on a par with Mozart. His first public concert was given at the age of 10 and his output was prolific - symphonies, concertos, chamber music, operas, oratorios and sacred music flowing from his highly efficient, if not always stretchingly creative, pen.

                                            Saint-Saëns at the piano in about 1910

He is best known for his suite The Carnival of the Animals, his 3^rd “Organ” Symphony, the 2^nd Piano Concerto and the Danse Macabre. He wrote three excellent cello concertos and it was perhaps at a rehearsal of one of these that Thomas Beecham rebuked an under-performing lady soloist in these indelicate terms: Madame, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands and all you do is scratch it!

Saint-Saëns had championed Brahms as against Wagner and had not embraced Modernism in the controversies of the time: he was latterly considered a reactionary by some – I would warmly sympathise with the gifted Frenchman on this issue.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVCvJZtzkqQ Saint-Saëns 2^nd Piano Concerto

Anton Bruckner (1824-96) was such an odd-ball personally that this gets in the way of appreciating his music. Born in Linz, Austria, he was physically unprepossessing and wholly lacking in self-esteem and confidence. His inferiority complex led him to change the scores of his works constantly if they were criticised, so definitive versions are elusive, creating what musicologists call The Bruckner Problem. He hero-worshipped Wagner in the most obsequious manner. His inability to find a wife led him to stalk adolescent girls. A pious Catholic, Bruckner is much associated with the St Florian Monastery near Linz, where he was organist and composed sacred music in inspiring surroundings. His friend, Gustav Mahler, described him as Half simpleton, half God.

He created 11 symphonies – the 4^th (the Romantic) and the 7^th being particularly admired for their harmonic language, his orchestrations in the style of Wagner and his structure following Beethoven. Their length is noteworthy, perhaps an influence from Mahler, one of whose symphonies a wit dubbed The Interminable! Bruckner also produced a large body of sacred music, motets, masses, Te Deums etc. His music was judged particularly German and it was usurped and glorified by the Nazis who played the solemn but undeniably impressive Adagio from the 7^th Symphony on the radio to mark the fall of Stalingrad and the death of Hitler.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjJprIS4zQE Adagio from the 7^th Symphony by Bruckner

Anton Bruckner

Bruckner's organ at St Florian, Linz

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was a largely self-taught composer, born into a naval family East of St Petersburg. He went to naval college, but his talent for music soon manifested itself, even though he pursued a naval career until the 1880s. He became a founder of The Five, a group of brilliant nationalist composers admiring Glinka, comprising their leader and mentor Balakirev, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Cesar Cui and Rimsky-Korsakov. They enjoyed the encouragement of Tchaikovsky and embodied Russian folk-songs and rhythms in their work. Western traditions and themes were not neglected and Rimsky-Korsakov joined a course at the Conservatoire at St Petersburg to catch up on his formal musical education. The orchestrations of Rimsky-Korsakov helped create a distinctive Russian School: He wrote a substantial body of work including 15 operas but is best known for his orchestral suites Scheherazade (1889), describing the Arabian Nights, Capriccio Espagnol, with lively Spanish themes, and The Russian Easter Festival Overture, incorporating tunes from the Orthodox liturgy. His Beechamesque “lollipop” The Flight of the Bumble-bee (1899) is from one of his Oriental operas.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh6mDL-VwYw Capriccio Espagnol by Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

It is always difficult to write about music – to describe the inexpressible. It is doubly difficult when the writer has scant expertise and only “knows what he likes”. My tastes are conservative and yet I cannot support Beecham’s jibe when asked if he had conducted Stockhausen No, I have not conducted any, but I once trod on some! Innovation and experiment must be encouraged in music as in most other spheres. My four composers will surely reward further study.

SMD

3.11.16

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2016

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Halloween is an ancient festival marking the end of the harvest, the onset of winter, the loosing of demons on the eve of All Hallows on 31 October and the honouring of the dead on All Hallows Day itself on 1 November. Much Americanised by the introduction of “Trick or Treat” in the last 40 years, some old codgers may resent persistent child visitors and noisy fun on a dark autumn evening but I say any excuse for a bit of unbuttoned revelry is fine by me and I hope youngsters have a great time.

Halloween - Snap-apple Night- in 19th century Ireland

In my childhood in the early 1950s, my rural Scottish prep-school made a big deal of Halloween. Every boy made his own “neep” (turnip) lantern in the preceding days, (the turnips donated by a local farmer), hollowing out the hard raw turnip and over-eating this delicious but rather indigestible vegetable. Ghoulishly carved and painted with a candle inside, they made an impressive sight arrayed on shelves and tables, decorated with witches, bats and “bogles” (ghosts).

Turnip Lanterns

  

Pumpkin Jack o' Lantern

If memory serves me right, we ate traditional potato scones that night and had fruit cake adorned with my favourite marzipan. We ducked (“dooked”) for apples, a wet activity as you had to spear the apple floating in a bucket of water with a fork held in your teeth – or if you were daring, you immersed your head in the bucket and tried to bite your target apple. If there was a bonfire, you were treated to hot roasted chestnuts. Sometimes people went “guising”, going from house to house in weird or comic costumes and being rewarded with a cake or a small coin.  A good time was had by all. This kind of Halloween was most celebrated in once rural societies in Scotland and Ireland but rather less so in England.

The only unkindness I recall was when the Sun newspaper dubbed England’s football manager, highly competent Graham Taylor, Turniphead in 1993 after a run of dud results caused England to fail to qualify for the World Cup.

Graham "Turniphead" Taylor

The US, with its farming tradition, had long celebrated Halloween and the festivities spread to urban citizens. Pumpkins were used for lanterns rather than turnips – much easier to hollow out the soft seedy interior and pumpkins are larger and more impressive. Unknown in the UK till recently, I believe American make a soup and a pie from this useful comestible. The “guising“ tradition morphed into the rather more aggressive “trick or treat”, young visitors threatening mischief unless bought off with candy or cash (or both!).

Inevitably the ghoulish side of Halloween became heavily commercialised and ushered in a new genre of “slasher” movie epitomised by John Carpenter’s 1978 Halloween about the return home from 15-year’s confinement of child-murderer Michael Myers. It was a box-office sensation, creating its own franchise and spawned similar gruesome productions like Friday the 13^th or Nightmare on Elm Street.

Michael Myers dispensing horror in Halloween (1978)

The Halloween festival no doubt encourages superstition, but it should be a joyful and warming family holiday. I despair when I hear about supposedly homicidal characters dressed up as clowns terrorising neighbourhoods and the purpose of the lantern is to scare off demons, not to frighten the populace. The children should have innocent fun and the adults should eat, drink and be merry.

It is not easy to shake off gloom at present – Brexit worries, Syria’s agony, Russian aggression, the prospect of a Hillary Clinton Presidency, Arsenal’s erratic form – I found myself robotically researching Suicide on the internet last week. Nothing is actually further from my mind and I wish you all a safe and Happy Halloween!

S.M.D.

26.10.16

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2016

STRONG SONGS, SENTIMENTAL SONGS

Tastes in popular music have changed hugely in the last 70 years and one reason is that the music market has quite rationally “followed the money”. Since the 1950s the target audience has increasingly become youthful fans with surplus cash, a hitherto unknown species. The busy breadwinner with a bulging midriff and his romantic lady of a certain age have been rather neglected. Their love of tuneful ballads, often sung at family gatherings and delivered with gusto, once ruled the roost and I recall 10 such songs mainly from our fathers’/grandfathers’ generation. Sing along, folks!

1.      Vilia (more properly Vilja) from The Merry Widow by Franz Lehar. The Merry Widow was a huge 1905 hit in the German-speaking world and it became very popular in Britain and America. Provincial theatres would await regular revivals of this lavishly dressed show packed full with memorable tunes. Vilia was a certain show-stopper in its time.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_e8g4LhAOA

2        I’ll see you again by Noel Coward from Bitter Sweet (1929). Coward was a many-sided talent and loved to sing although he did not sing very well, he loved to try and his only operetta of 1929 contained this moving, wistful number.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=io1_BxYAbBI

3        You are my Heart’s delight by Franz Lehar from Land of Smiles (1931), English lyrics by Harry Graham. I choose this as it is best sung by Richard Tauber who sang for years in Austria and Germany but later in 1939 moved to London, after persecution for his Jewish ancestry. He became enormously popular and the clarity of his tenor voice was astonishing.

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtgmKpcgQ30

4        I’ll Walk beside you by Alan Murray sung by Webster Booth. This is a lovely sentimental song written in 1939. The most famous recording is by John McCormack, but I find his over-precise version rather precious and I prefer the song sung by Webster Booth. He was a regular second-on- the-variety-theatre-bill usually accompanied by Anne Ziegler and they performed such golden oldies perfectly.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrLBbznmCt8

5.   Be my Love by Nicholas Brodsky and Harry Cahn from The Toast of New Orleans (1950). This song was the hit of Mario Lanza’s debut in films. Mario was certainly the world’s loudest tenor but he was not perhaps the most refined. He had an enormous success with The Great Caruso (1951) but went off the rails drinking and eating to excess and playing the diva. He was sacked while making The Student Prince in 1953 and fled to Italy where he died of a heart attack in 1959 aged 38 – but in his prime he sang with great energy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t_D9zqyphw

6.  You’ll Never Walk alone from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel (1945). This number is an anthem of the old school, most effectively delivered in the 1956 film starring Gordon McRae and Shirley Jones. It is of course Liverpool FC’s anthem and like many others I blub every time I see this, proof of the old softie I am.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC0lOHBxreg

7.  Someday my Heart will awake by Ivor Novello from Glamorous Nights (1949). This is a quintessential romantic song leaving the hearts of the susceptible a-flutter. Ivor was a huge star, although he did not sing in his own operettas. Sadly after he died in 1951 he and his music were forgotten commercially except by his vast legion of devotees.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w4644MT1Ss

8. And this is my Beloved adapted from Alexander Borodin for Kismet (1953), by Robert Wright and George Forrest. Kismet was a success both on Broadway and in London but twisting an earlier composer’s work into a coherent modern musical is generally not a great idea. Imagine Bach or Mozart being so treated! Nevertheless, this song worked well in my view, thanks to Borodin.

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ8GH-sQ060

9. I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables by Claude-Michel Schoenberg and 4 lyricists. Premiered in Paris in 1980, the show has had an uninterrupted run in London since 1985, being known colloquially as Lez Miz and while the song is another anthem, it clearly strikes a chord with a modern audience. Susan Boyle popularised the song further among the BGT fans while Ruthie Henshall does it justice in the link below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p6OH7FoWoQ

10. I will Always Love You written by Dolly Parton (1974) recorded by Whitney Houston (1992). This became Whitney’s signature tune and featured in The Bodyguard, her film with Kevin Costner The song gave ample scope for Whitney’s warm yet strong voice and it is in the long tradition of dramatic romantic songs, bringing on the goose-pimples. Tragic but lovely Whitney deserves a photograph!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JWTaaS7LdU

SMD,

20.10.16.

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2016.