THE COMFORTS OF BRITISH MUSIC AND POETRY

There is no better tonic for low spirits and loneliness than a stiff dose of rousing or serene music and poetry and I set out here a programme which will, I trust, move and inspire my deserving readers. My selection is almost all of very familiar pieces to warm and comfort us.

(1)    This Sceptred Isle by William Shakespeare from Richard II, John of Gaunt’s speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlCAy9FX6D0

Best to set the scene, brimming with patriotic pride from this famous speech, epitomising all those factors which make us love our country and our people.

(2)    Welcome, welcome Glorious Morn! by Henry Purcell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSnV6IXBIQ4&list=RDiSnV6IXBIQ4&start_radio=1&t=541

This Welcome Ode, composed for Queen Mary II’s Birthday in 1691, demonstrates the versatility of Henry Purcell, arguably England’s finest composer. The first 7 minutes or so served as an alarm clock from my tape-deck when working in the City of London in the 1970’s!  The Kings Singers perform in the Banqueting House, Whitehall, with its stunning Rubens ceiling celebrating The Apotheosis of James I. Anyway, it provides a great start for the day.

(3)    The Bonnie Lass of Ballochmyle by Kenneth McKellar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzMGHuWazUQ.

This 1781 Scottish air written by Robert Burns is less well-known than others but it has a lovely tune suited to the discreetly passionate nature of my fellow Scots! Ballochmyle is an area near the village of Catrine in East Ayrshire. Burns farmed nearby and Robert Adam designed a house there for the Alexander family in the 1760s.

(4)    For unto us a Child is born by G.F.Handel from Messiah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS3vpAWW2Zc

Handel, although as German as Sauerkraut, is certainly an honorary Englishman as he did his finest work here. Messiah, composed in 1741, is a national institution, beloved by many generations. I had sons in 1970,1971 and 1978 and every time, on returning from the maternity ward, I played this wonderful chorus. What joy!

(5)    Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, recited by Dominick Cumberbatch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfrx_JQcIsI

Coleridge’s exotic vision and majestic diction cannot fail to impress. His genius, more or less contemporary with Wordsworth, Byron, Keats and Shelley, reminds us of the astonishing richness of English literature, which gives and gives. All five poets had very distinctive flavours but their best work reached imaginative corners unattainable by us laymen, and expressed thoughts and moods well beyond our routine eloquence.

(6)    I’ve got a Little List by Gilbert and Sullivan sung by Thomas Allen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlOb0XMxt84

As some light relief, I propose this famous “patter-song” from The Mikado listing various undesirables who merit the attention of the Lord High Executioner. Often up-dated, I am sure a 2020 version would have plenty to say about Covidiots, President Trump and the lost souls of the Liberal Democratic persuasion!

(7)    Come down, O Love Divine. music by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Tune; Down Ampney, words by Bianco da Siena, translated by Richard Littledale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgUFay0th9A

I was tempted to present Lark Ascending as RVW’s contribution but this lovely hymn tune is unmissable and the verse beginning “Let holy charity, thine outward vestment be” never fails to move even my sceptical being. Truly the essence of England, evoking so many generous reflections.

(8)    Keep right on to the End of the Road, by Sir Harry Lauder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go6PFNhLzr8

A popular song of comfort to many, it became a revered Scottish institution. Written by Harry Lauder soon after his son was killed on the Somme in 1916, it was always sung as the finale of his theatrical act. He often played at our then family-owned theatre in Aberdeen in the 1930s and my father remembered the strong emotion this song created with copious tears and faintings from the many war widows, before they too sang along, praising hope and fortitude.

(9)    Nimrod from Enigma Variations by Sir Edward Elgar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUgoBb8m1eE

Elgar had a wonderful ear for the rueful, wry British character, best heard in his matchless, elegiac Cello Concerto. His Nimrod is the essence of remembrance and tribute, stirring our gratitude, pride and love for those who have gone before us.

(10) Jerusalem, words by William Blake, music by Sir Hubert Parry, The Last Night of the Proms 2012.

And The National Anthem, God Save the Queen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=041nXAAn714

 We end on a glorious note with the visionary words of Blake framed by Parry’s stirring Anthem. Look at how enthusiastic the audience is, inside and outside the Albert Hall! Phrases like “England’s green and pleasant land” “chariots of fire” even “dark satanic mills” resound with and inspire all Britons.

At this time of trouble, Her Majesty, steadfast, loyal and ever dutiful, even at 94, unites the nation and uplifts our spirits. Long may she reign!

SMD

23.04.20

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2020

THE TRIUMPH OF HOPE

Oh my God, what we Scots call “Dismal Jimmies” are out in force spreading doom and gloom throughout the land. They groan that Civilisation is supposedly on the point of collapse, the pain of coronavirus is only just starting, allege others, while some other scaremongers tell us the economic shock will be the worst for 300 years, looking back to the South Sea Bubble of 1720! Their own bubble actually needs pricking as it is all “Bollocks”, the outpourings of the professionally miserable, those projecting dire long-term conclusions from dubious assumptions – the very same mischief-making we saw in spades over Brexit. Yes, we face real difficulties, but those who wallow in others’ suffering or who knowingly seek to dampen our proud spirits at this desperate time, only deserve contempt.

We humans live in hope, that spur to our strivings and struggles. It is hope for a better future that animates and stimulates us in dark days. Sometimes indeed that hope is more important than actually reaching the goal. As Pope puts it in his Essay on Man;

Hope springs eternal in the human breast:

Man never is, but always to be blest.

Hope sustains us in adversity. Nelson Mandela lived through 27 years of harsh incarceration yet emerged a positive and conciliatory leader. Our nation was unified during the Blitz, inspired by Churchill’s rhetoric, confident of ultimate victory. After years of hideous communism, the Russian spirit shone through the writings of Solzhenitsyn and the defiance of nuclear scientist Sakharov, providing hope for a better world. And that world is surely coming.

Churchill, the bearer of Hope

Our leaders in the UK have not yet inspired us. The absence of convalescing Boris leaves a gap, which his charisma could fill. Get well soon! Dominic Raab, that boxer and karate black belt, cuts a timid tongue-tied figure, unsure of the way forward, in awe of the experts flanking him. Too often they speak the dim language of officialdom, cautious and unrevealing. No doubt some of their ideas are mistaken, but I know nothing of epidemiology and cannot cavil. The notion that we can do little until a vaccine is developed sounds defeatist and lazy to me – our economy cannot wait in limbo very long. Our politicians must master their brief and make firm decisions in all our interests.

Many like me are born optimists, often echoing Voltaire’s Pangloss in claiming that All’s for the best, in the best of all possible worlds. Even Voltaire did not believe that! In my optimistic mood I can think that HS2 will bring boom-times to the North, that Arsenal can win the League and that the Saudi purchase of Newcastle United is a wise move! I can dream cosily that Trump will lose in November, that Erdogan will repent his wicked ways and that Kim Jong-un will embrace a gentle school of Buddhism!

Alas, none of this is likely and we just soldier on in heartfelt hope. We can seek to live up to the high poetic diction of Shelley:

“To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, not falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory”

Onwards and upwards!

SMD

16.04.20

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2020

A CHALLENGING EASTER

It has been an Easter like no other. Confined to one’s home, directed to have no social contact, shops, offices, workplaces, churches, pubs and restaurants almost completely closed. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacted a heavy price – some 10,000 dead already in the UK and currently 900+ dying every day. These are times of grief and worry for our people, with uncertainty clearly besetting the government, made more acute by leader Boris’ illness but hopefully in his early stages of recovery. In summary, these are hard times needing defiant optimism coupled with concrete good news. All mankind and every nation are suffering as we are.

              Dali’s vision

Yet even at this grim time, there are positives emerging, many changes in attitude are in prospect and warming hopes for the future may be taking root.

It has been striking that that black and Asian communities in the UK have made disproportionate sacrifices in terms of general deaths and in terms of deaths within the medical, nursing and caring professions. Their sacrifice may be partly related to genetic factors or to poverty in early age or to many simply living in crowded London – but in any event this sacrifice must be appreciated and blest by the rest of us. Any disadvantages in education, in social wellbeing, in employment and in acceptance must be swept away. They are truly our brothers and sisters with a cherished place in the British family.

The world pandemic has underlined the importance of international cooperation. Nations operate in different ways but European tribal spats are decidedly inappropriate. Italy needed help, but the EU did not respond – only demonised China first stepped up to the plate. Hungary and Poland have human rights issues with the EU in Brussels (the EU have a strong case) but all sides need to modify their rhetoric and resolve their differences. The US pursues an America First agenda but the coronavirus is no respecter of tight borders, high walls, trade embargos or exclusion orders. America will, I hope, soon return to the global role it has long played and re-engage with her friends in the UK and elsewhere. The EU obviously needs to strengthen its institutional framework so that corona-bonds can be issued underwritten by the 27 nations in full confidence, despite the doubts of Germany and the Netherlands. A reformed and uncorrupt UN (and WHO) could earn the respect of the US and many doubters in the developed world, bringing great benefits to all mankind.

Our politics in the UK will change forever. The knock-about political pantomime at Westminster PMQs cannot continue – it is an insult to the intelligence of the electorate and needs overhaul. Maybe when Parliament closes down for a major refurbishment in 2 years (?) time, the builders may be asked to construct a crescent chamber like most Continental legislatures and dispense with the adversarial opposing benches which, though time-honoured, emphasise the divisions in our nation and not what unifies us. Conservative, Labour and LibDem have new leadership and their policies will evolve, hopefully in a more conciliatory direction, without being a meaningless fudge. In time, electoral reform will give more scope for smaller parties and hence increase the use of coalition governments around which more voters can unite.

The 8pm Thursday clapping for carers

Our government will invest heavily in the NHS which has been sorely stretched by the virus crisis. At first, I thought clapping every Thursday at 8pm for the NHS and carers was a bit naff, but I was wrong, and now join in enthusiastically in tribute to their efforts. Reforms can await the end of the crisis.

I see no prospect of the UK seeking to unravel Brexit. The EU and its successors play a different game to us and the gulf is unbridgeable; our destiny is clearly within the Anglophone and wider world where we have already trusted allies.

Meanwhile we can only rally round, protect our nearest and dearest while keeping social distance. It is not heroic but it may save many lives. Let us earnestly hope we emerge, blinking in the sunlight, into a happier and better world.

SMD

12.04.2020

Text Copyright ©Sidney Donald 2020

PESTILENTIAL CONFUSION

   

We are all in a terrible tizzy, hardly knowing which way resolutely to march. Our ‘experts’ tell us to practice social distancing – keeping at least 2 metres from our fellow human beings and avoiding all social intercourse, abandoning cherished relatives, friends, shop-keepers and bookies. Our favourite barbers, chiropodists, shrinks and cosmetic surgeons fall off the radar. Very rarely we venture out to the local pharmacy (deliveries not readily available), and we otherwise live in an impersonal e-universe communicating efficiently enough via the web, mobile or Skype. But it is all weirdly unnatural.

We are strictly confined to our homes, fortunately ours is warm and cosy, but others will have many difficulties. An overcrowded house hosting several generations can be a ticking time-bomb, replete with strained relationships! Supermarket deliveries, made by politely obliging drivers, sustain us golden oldies and swell our already excessive waist-lines.  Somehow, we all must make the best of it and invoke the legendary spirit of Dunkirk, the Blitz and the Armada, so that we finally prevail.

Boris looking decidedly peaky

So far, we have not received much Churchillian inspiration. Our proto-Winston, Boris Johnson, has sadly himself been laid low by the coronavirus and his recovery is slow. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, had the virus and has bounced back creditably. The other senior ministers, Michael Gove, Dominic Raab and Alok Sharma flounder in this unfamiliar territory and struggle to find the right encouraging note. Her Majesty has dutifully tried to buck us up, yet she is a self-isolating elderly lady, far from the front-line. The expert health officials are guarded in their predictions and unspecific about their plans. Meanwhile the UK economy faces meltdown if this crisis is a prolonged one.

We hope for a clear plan and comprehensible policies but, as in so many professions, there is a profusion of opinions from the pandemic doctors. One sect, currently favoured and identified with Imperial College, London, believes strict social distancing will check the virus and minimize fatalities. Another sect, connected to Oxford University, would tolerate some spread of the virus, with its associated higher casualties despite suppression measures, to achieve a degree of “herd immunity” protecting much of the population from this year’s virus and alleviating any recurrence. I probably mis-state the core and ignore the nuances of both positions!

Time to join the Herd, Dumbo

I have some sympathy with our politicians, not normally a deserving group. Their world is topsy-turvy; Tories have launched a state intervention programme of which Lenin would be proud. Labour’s championing of workers’ rights is almost redundant. At least we have seen the back of dismal Jeremy Corbyn though new boy (Sir) Keir Starmer no doubt also harbours many venerable socialist fantasies, after all, his parents, in ideological devotion, named him Keir after Labour founder Keir Hardie whom he rather resembles.

Keir Hardie

Keir Starmer

     

Meanwhile the world is beset by blunders and “Covidiots”. The UK was slow to gear up to the pandemic and it was unwise to allow the mid-March Cheltenham Festival to proceed, attracting thousands of racegoers over 4 days; Trump poo-pooed the virus as being like the flu and said “the crisis will be over by Easter”; The Germans and the Americans fell out over alleged “face-mask piracy” by the USA; the EU ignored pleas for help from stricken Italy although China sent aid; London parks were flooded by sunbathers, football games, and groups of youngsters; Athens enforced a draconian lockdown but street-markets were tolerated populated by scruffy traders and old-age pensioners by the barrel-full. UK police are spat at and nurses abused by louts proclaiming civic liberties.

Our benighted SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon takes the final biscuit. In her hatred of England, she rejects the name” NHS Nightingale Glasgow” for a proposed emergency field hospital, preferring  Scottish nurse Louisa Jordan’s name. The other 6 other temporary hospitals all carry the Nightingale name. It is a small, petty matter. Sturgeon does Scottish history a disservice. History remembers the sacrifices of the Scottish Highland Division at Alma and Balaclava in 1854 and we all remember The Thin Red Line, where The Sutherland Highlanders so distinguished themselves.

        The Sutherland Highlanders stand firm in the Thin Red Line

For sure, their casualties at the Scutari military hospital would have blessed the name of Nightingale as the Lady with the Lamp who hugely improved hospital hygiene and the tending of the wounded.

SMD

05.04.20

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2020