An Education

May 17, 2010

I hope that from wherever you are sitting you may feel to congratulate me and Michelle. We both went running this morning… together! It was amazing that we both were able to drag ourselves out of bed. I’ve gone a few times by myself, but it was so nice to have her along. We ran through Hyde Park of course. It’s the best run we can find; endless pathways, green grass, tall shady trees, flowers, ponds. What else can you ask for? It was great to start off the day with some fresh air. We got ready and headed off for class. We've had a very educational day today with a lot of unique opportunities. Class discussion was interesting. We had a lot of catching up to do in reviewing our observations of the Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen and our experiences in Oxford. It's always unique to discuss musical aesthetics. A group of people can sit in the same concert yet can have very different experiences. For some, the freedom and fullness of the soprano section is a joy to listen to while someone else may complain about how overpowering they are. I wonder about the roots of those disagreements. I think that, as a baritone, I am much quicker to perceive strengths and weaknesses of the bass section which will add to my praise or criticism of the choir as a whole. It's difficult to remove bias. It's also difficult to remember just what you've heard. Listening to as much music as we're doing, it can sometimes get a little muddled in your head. I was happy to observe a lot more individual thought in the comments given, but there was no concordance in them at all. Simply put, everyone has very different preferences and experienced very different things at our recent concerts. We spent some time looking at more important choral works like the Bach B Minor Mass, Handel's Dixit Domino and Vivaldi's Gloria. I learned some new things particularly about Vivaldi. Apparently his music had been all but forgotten until some of his scores were discovered in the 1930's. Because of World War II, it wasn't really brought to the attention of the world until the 1950's. If it hadn't been for that discovery, no one would know the famous Four Seasons. I enjoyed getting a bit into the Bach B Minor Mass. It's such a huge important work. You could spend a year studying it and still not really get to the bottom of it. Incredible work! After class was over we went back to the flats for lunch. Michelle and I put our ingredients together and I made spaghetti while she started looking for flights to Venice for our 5 day break next week! After lunch, Michelle and I split off again just the two of us. We decided to go find the British Library. We’ve heard there are some really neat things on display there. I really like going with just Michelle. In terms of practicality, it’s so much easier to go with just one other person. It’s even better than just practical though because Michelle is such a delight to be around. We found the library fairly easily and went into the gallery. I was really unprepared for what I was about to see. We saw original manuscripts of Beowolf and also a play that Shakespeare collaborated on with several other playwrights. It was in his own hand! We saw Jane Austin’s writing desk. It was pretty small compared to the number of books she wrote. We saw a copy of the first music book ever published in England containing part songs by Taverner and his contemporaries. We saw Purcell’s autographed score book. We saw a hand written original copy of Handel’s Messiah! In addition to the classical music display, they had a display on the Beatles. They had on display the scraps of paper on which were written the lyrics for I want to hold your hand, Help, Yesterday, Ticket to ride, A Hard day’s night which was written on a birthday card and of course my favorite was Michelle written on an envelope. We saw several pages from Da Vinci’s notebooks on physics and mechanics. It was really neat to see his sketches and wonder about his incredible mind worked. On display also was the Magna Carta. I was floored to realize that I was about to see such an incredibly important historical document. Even though only 3 of the original 63 points of law that it outlined are still part of British law, it was so important for the establishment of freedom that has continued to grow throughout the world. We are so blessed to live in a land ruled by laws that protect us. It is a somber thought to consider how many of God’s children have lived under tyranny throughout the history of the world and how many of them still do. Seeing the Magna Carta left a huge impression on me. Housed in the library were 2 of the 3 most important biblical texts in the world. The codices of Sinaiticus and Alexandrines are among the most important texts in verifying correct translation of the Bible. It was such a neat experience. It ended all too quickly. We had to hurry over to meet up with the study abroad group to attend the rehearsal of the London Bach Choir. It was an impressive sight to see. The choir consists of about 200 voices. The members are auditioned but pay a fee to participate. They also purchase all of their own music and cover their own expenses when they tour. As surprising as that was, their sound was more surprising. The first and most obvious observation made was how overpowering the soprano part was. The British love the sound of melody. Essentially all the choirs we’ve heard have been treble dominated. The London Bach Choir was no exception. Despite the problems with balance, I was amazed at the ability of these singers. They were rehearsing the Bach B Minor Mass and the Brahm’s Requiem; no small feat. I was surprised at the agility of the singers. I’ve never heard such agility and accuracy in articulation from such a large choir. Generally as the size of the choir increases, articulation and agility decrease, exponentially at times. There were some issues of intonation that were never dealt with. The rehearsal was broken down slightly because they were auditioning two new conductors. David Hill rehearsed the choir for a portion of the time and the two auditioning got roughly equal portions of time. The first of the two was clearly the better choice. After watching the London Bach Choir rehearsal, Michelle and I joined with Steve and Emily to go to a Dutch pancake house. On the way we nearly had a mishap. Emily and Steve were walking ahead of us as we came to an intersection. They looked down the street and realized there was enough space for them to jaywalk if they hurried. Michelle was just a step or two ahead of me when she entered the intersection. Unfortunately, there was a motorcyclist who was coming to turn as she was going into the intersection. He honked, began swerving because he couldn’t judge what she was doing. In a panic Michelle stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the intersection which brought the motorcyclist to a complete stop. Just then the light turned red for him and green for the pedestrians. I stepped out to get Michelle and walk across and heard the motorcyclist mutter some things under his breath. We laughed pretty hard about it. I guess I just need to always hold her hand when we’re out. Once we found the pancake house we sat down to some laughs with Emily and Steve. They’re pretty fun to be around. We didn’t order much of anything because we’re trying to be smart about money. What we did order was quite scrumptious. On the way home from the pancake house Emily and Steve were several steps ahead of us again. Suddenly I realized that a bus was coming up that would take us to the tube station. Michelle and I called out to Steve and Emily but they couldn’t hear. We dashed back to the bus stop and hopped on. We thought that would be the end of it but after we got on the tube something unexpected happened. We had only gone one stop when we saw Emily and Steve just outside the train on the platform. Somehow they had walked all the way to the next tube station but didn’t quite manage to get on it before it took off. It was a pretty enjoyable night.

p.s. I'm trying to catch up. Sorry I've been bad about posting lately.