Posted on 11/10/2014 5:59:48 PM PST by laurenmarlowe
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Woo-Hoo!
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Thanks for your service, gentlemen!
Prior to the American Civil War (18611865), fugitive slaves found freedom by following the Underground Railroad, a term for the secret routes from the South to the North and the abolitionists who helped them along the way. Slaves would travel at night for many miles, keeping on track by following the light of the Drinking Gourd. This was a code name for the collection of stars known as the Big Dipper, which points to the North Star. Some believe the fugitives also used encoded directions in the lyrics of the song Follow the Drinking Gourd to keep them from getting lost as they traveled.
Both the abolitionists and the drinking gourd served as points of light directing the slaves to freedom. The apostle Paul says that believers are to shine as lights in the world to show the way to those seeking Gods truth, redemption, and spiritual liberation (Phil. 2:15).
We live in a dark world that desperately needs to see the light of Jesus Christ. Our calling is to shine forth Gods truth so that others can be directed to the One who redeems and is the path to liberty and life. We point the way to Jesus, the One who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).
(STAMMERING AND LOOKING AT MY FEET)
Glad to do this little bit for our troops.
Hi Lauren, Kathy. Glad our patriots are being remembered.
Hi, Lauren! Great thread! (((hugs)))
Great job gentlemen!
Thank you for your service!
*HUGS*
Late tonight...I know.
Hi Everybody!
(((((HUGS))))
A very Blessed Veterans Day as we salute all our Vets!
Britain never recovered from the Great War. Their best and brightest marched into machine gun fire and died For King and Country in the killing fields of France. As a result, the British couldnt stand up to Hitler until it was too late, and after the next war they were forced to dismantle the Empire at the orders of the American Foreign Policy Community and the United Nations, thus turning large parts of the Third World into playgrounds for the CIA, KGB and various murderous regimes. Barry Goldwater was to condemn that decolonization as an act of folly.
British history has seen a few great leaders in the past century, such as Churchill and Thatcher, but the UK has become a shabby place of sad decay riven by incessant class warfare and addicted to the dole. Few alive a century ago could have predicted such a hard fall.
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) took German musical tradition and made it a part of English music, thus making him the great heir of Brahms. It was the Germans who first appreciated his music, which is why he had such a hard time believing the stories that came out of Rudyard Kiplings propaganda shop in the War Office about German troops raping nuns and bayoneting babies. He lived long enough to discover that the stories werent true. But as a good patriotic Brit, Elgar was conflicted about the war.
The year 1917 was a bad year for the Allied war effort, and Ed and Alice Elgar escaped from their large, drafty mansion in Hampstead to a cottage in Sussex called Brinkwells. It had an outhouse, not a WC, but other than that, its location in the countryside was restful enough to inspire Elgar to write his first chamber works in nearly 30 years.
Just outside the back yard at Brinkwells was a stand of dead trees whose twisted branches seemed to reach out menacingly to the beholder. They were a ghastly sight in the evening. Elgars friend, Algernon Blackwood, invented a legend about a group of Spanish monks who engaged in black magic and were turned into trees by an angry God. The story was to play a critical part in the work we hear tonight.
The most significant chamber work written during the final days of the war was his Quintet for Piano and Strings in A minor, his reflection on the carnage and loss of life. It was first performed in 1919 and became one of his favorite compositions. The second movement was played at his funeral.
It starts moderato in A minor. The Dies irae from the Catholic Requiem Mass, when rendered in A minor, is A, G, A, F, G, E-flat, F. Elgars Ghastly Trees motif starts with A, G, A, but then goes to a loud half note D. You lean into it expecting that F, and it doesnt arrive. The strings play octaves over the piano.
At 0:41, the second introductory motif well call it SIM which is quoted throughout the piece, features the theme on the strings with piano arpeggios.
At 1:23, the time signature switches from 2/4 to 6/8 as the first subject begins allegro. Its a manic, frenzied march to war.
At 2:02, he switches back to 2/4, moderato, and recaps a fragment of the SIM as an introduction to the second subject in A Major. Its a fine day before the war.
At 3:21, he modulates to E Major for the third subject, marked poco animato, which is a passage of English restaurant music.
At 4:37, the Ghastly Trees return moderato in E minor, starting the development section.
At 5:53, the march material, marked giusto, is developed.
At 6:54, the piano plays block chords while the strings play unison figurations derived from the Ghastly Trees.
At 7:36, the recapitulation comes with a fortissimo return of the war march in A minor in 6/8.
At 8:45, he recaps the second subject fortissimo in 2/4. Winding it down, he repeats it quietly as an introduction to the English restaurant music, first in E Major, then in the correct key of A Major. He winds it down further in A minor with the Ghastly Trees.
The coda begins at 12:03 with the piano playing pedal As tremelo while the strings play the SIM. The Ghastly Trees return. It ends, pianissimo and pizzicato, at the grave.
Elgar: Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84, first movement
Have your box of tissues ready. The second movement has the flavor of Brahms. Its an elegy to the war dead in E Major, marked adagio and 3/4. Only great composers like Schubert and Elgar can convey great sorrow in a major key.
At 2:25, with a four note grupetto, Elgar ask a question: Was it worth it? The answer is derived from the SIM: Perhaps.
At 2:56, the melody returns in C# minor to be interrupted by the question and answer, a passage that is repeated.
At 4:48, the melody returns in F Major on the viola, and then the other strings work with it in counterpoint. The key returns to C# minor as it builds to a climax.
At 5:51, its all the tears of the world set to music. Its inconsolable grief. But even tears must yield to numbness.
At 6:30, the sun comes out as the theme returns in E Major. The storm is over: Keep a stiff upper lip. But it winds down into a shadow.
At 7:41, the question is asked. Perhaps it was worth it, sir, comes the answer. The theme returns in C# minor.
At 9:12, the sun comes out in C Major, then the tonic key of E Major, with the return of the theme, but chastened and heartbreaking. A lesson has been learned.
The coda begins at 10:46. The question is asked for the last time, but now the answer is, Yes, sir, it was.
Rest well, good and faithful servant.
The finale begins with the SIM in 2/4 and andante, a clear reference to the first movement. But its only an introduction.
At 13:01, the first subject appears in 3/4 and A Major, marked allegro. Its based on the Ghastly Trees, but now its joyful.
At 14:41, the second subject begins in D Major.
At 15:51, the first subject returns.
At 16:24, the key changes to F# minor for a middle section.
At 16:50, the Ghastly Trees return, but in 3/4 time as a ghostly waltz.
At 17:36, the sun comes out in A-flat Major, and the English restaurant music returns in A Major, but from a distance. Its not that day in the restaurant anymore, but the memory.
At 18:50, he recaps the first subject with a sense of consolation: Its all right, Jack. Its over. We won.
At 19:49, the second subject recaps in E Major.
At 20:56, the first subject returns in full glory.
The coda begins in B-flat Major at 21:32 but wends its way back to A Major. The passage marked grandioso lays out the second subject in a grand summation. The first subject returns for a bravura finish.
The late Toby Saks noticed that the end comes too soon, as though the happiness is false or as though the British will have to revisit this issue in twenty years.
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