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Reminiscence
Regret mingled with nostalgia for the present condition of the city, on the margins of which I have resided for over 70 years.
Regret for the urbanisation of just about everywhere via our electronic devices churning out information 24 hours a day. Do we know too much about too much...? Mobile phones – the modern curse? Train journeys made in the company of those who, instead of viewing our wonderful countryside, stare into their mobile phones, or play games on them, or just fondle them lovingly.
Memories
Hanging Almost 12.00 noon…and I remember my mother quietly remarking, as the time approached a certain hour on certain days of the years from c.1950 – 1960, “So-and-so will be for the drop soon” How did she know? Was it from the “grapevine” of local gossip or from the newspapers. Was there a column for “executions” to go alongside “births, deaths & marriages”? By whatever means the news got about, I suppose to most of us, it just seemed that justice was being done. Few disagreed with the practice- it was just accepted as one of those unfortunate results of transgressing the laws of the land. Most of the population could never (and still cannot) reconcile “an eye for an eye” with “love thine enemy”. But the “love thine enemy” faction in parliament voted to abolish the death penalty in 1965 without consulting the population as a whole, presumably because a referendum on the subject would almost certainly have resulted in favour of retaining the death penalty.
Smoking, and the odour of tobacco smoke in buses, trams, trains, cinemas etc.- is now a thing of the past. There were no health warnings on cigarette packets then, tobacco was widely advertised, and smoking was seen as “cool” as that famous photograph of Dexter Gordon wreathed in cigarette smoke during a break from a jazz session c. 1959 shows. My dad smoked 40 a day, accompanied by two or three whiskies in the evenings, that aided much to his final physical decline. To be successful in business in those days you were expected to smoke your head off and drink daily with the other chaps during business meetings in the pub at lunchtimes. Teetotallers and non-smokers were thought of as oddballs in those days. Now it’s those addicted to tobacco and the habitual drinkers that get castigated.
Radio was all we had until c1952 when we were able to purchase our first television set, a small wooden box with a screen approximately the size of an A4 envelope! I can vividly recall some of those long-forgotten “interludes” between programmes: the potter’s wheel comes to mind, as does the attractively patterned “test card” that would be on the screen before transmission began. My favourite programme was “Bill & Ben, the Flowerpot Men” (not forgetting “Weed”) which enjoyed a revival a few years back. And I was an avid watcher of just about every Western programme on screen during those years of black-and-white television: Hopalong Cassidy, the ‘Cisco Kid, the Lone Ranger et al.
LONDON’S “LAST TRAM”
This summer (2022) will mark 70 years since the last tram ran in London, on July 6th 1952 to be precise. They were certainly not beautiful. But they were imposing. Imagine 17 tons of metal, wood, fabric and glass perched on sets of metal wheels unglamorously termed “bogies”, gliding along metal tracks inset into the roads. And you had to risk life and limb to get on and off because for the most part they stopped in the middle of the road. I think I remember them… I would have been 5 years old when the last tram ran in South London. And, even if I never actually rode in one, our existences overlapped by a few years. That Last Tram to New Cross Depot could stand as a symbol of all that has disappeared, altered, and degenerated over the past 70 years and has transformed London from a cosy, tightly knit city of, predominantly, Londoners (i.e., those born and raised in the city and its environs) to the city we now seem to have, largely made up of transients and recent immigrants who probably cannot have that long-standing affection for the place that the locals have.
London then was grimy, smoky, prone to dense late autumn and winter fogs; much was decayed, crumbling away; the predominant hues were grey, brown, black and that singular shade of beige of London brick. Most of it was no more than three or four storeys high. The tower blocks, often shoddily built and now too often today’s slums, were not to come until the ‘60s.
In what was surely one of the most mistaken decisions ever made by the overseers of public transport in Britain, the trams were gradually replaced by motorbuses and electrically powered Trolleybuses – and I well remember riding on the latter on holidays in Bournemouth (they were a lovely warm yellow with brown trimmings). From my secondary school on Gunnersbury Avenue, I used to see London Transport trolleybuses running along the Great West Road at about the time when the Chiswick Flyover was under construction (c. 1960) and a couple of years before all London trolleybuses were withdrawn. Alas!
My earliest memories coincide with what were termed the “austerity years” (c. 1945-60) when, after a most expensive and debilitating war, the cost of reconstruction meant that goods, and especially luxury goods, were in short supply. The motor car was available to middle- and upper-class earners only, and our first one was an old Austin (or maybe a Morris) built about 1930 or so. Colours of cars during my childhood years were various shades of black, brighter hues being seen only on buses, trams, and delivery vehicles. Our earliest cars had the unfortunate habit of breaking down, usually in the most awkward places, and often necessitating being pushed manually out of the way of other traffic. Once, when my father was driving me the short journey to my primary school, a front wheel came loose and shot off down the road ahead of us, to the amazement of passers-by.
Austerity clothing for men was suits, jackets, and trousers in various shades of grey, brown, or black. Some sort of outdoor headgear was expected of all males of the lower middle class and upwards. My dad wore a flat cap, although he was lower-middle- rather than working-class.
Bright colours were worn only by madmen or poets, until the “swinging ‘60s” arrived in their multicoloured splendour and sudden fashionable casualness of attire. But that is another story.
A Matter of Taste…?
For several years now I have been re-evaluating types of music that I rejected when younger, but now take a keen interest in.
Why is this? I think that when I was a composition student at the old GSMD, back in the late 1960s, I was indoctrinated by my tutors to believe that the only worthwhile music was classical and contemporary “serious” music, and that all other types were, if not actually bad (whatever that may mean), at the best not long-lasting or inventive enough to warrant more than brief scrutiny.
Now (at 75) I find it difficult to make value-judgments, and believe that my former dismissive attitude to jazz, popular, folk etc., was partly because of the indoctrination outlined above and partly cultural snobbery in that I associated certain kinds of music with certain social groups. Another influence is my long-term preoccupation with the ideas of John Cage and especially his aim (in which he was not always successful) of abolishing what he called “personal preferences” and becoming open to diverse music-s and indeed to all sounds both organised and random.
I have in addition grown increasingly impatient with the apparent elitism of the arbiters of contemporary musical style (that style termed avant-garde still around today but in decline since c.1980) who have so often ignored the fact that audiences never have and, I believe, never will be very enthusiastic about that type of contemporary music that deliberately aims to mystify and alienate them.
The adult population can be divided into three classes where music is concerned. The smallest class is that of the professional musicians. Then we have a probably larger class of amateur musicians and music-lovers. The third and most certainly largest group is that of the non-musicians – the musical illiterates as it were, whose only contact with music is via the latest popular dance-craze or “hit” number and to whom even being able to read and perform from a lead-sheet would likely be regarded as something special and as demanding the kind of expert knowledge that they do not possess.
Of course, the contemporary serious music afficionado will tell you that the simple, commonplace harmonies and rhythms of popular music and jazz are somehow “out of date” and that only constant and rapidly changing dissonance and almost impossible-to-perform rhythms are now worthy of respect. And despite a more consonant style emerging over the past 20 or so years, this attitude is still with us. But why should this be? And is this all connected with that other problem of originality?
In contemporary serious music personal originality is highly valued. The idioms of popular music and jazz are styles that by their natures do not allow for very much personal originality and are, therefore, often downgraded by both the classical musician and the contemporary composer.
But there is no logic that says you must be original. There is always the freedom to work in a pre-existing idiom, as all non-serious composers do, but serious-music composers are wary of, except when writing obvious pastiche for e.g., film or television.
Just a personal preference (at the moment) but I find that, to mention one example out of many, the single chord (variations of C7) in Herbie Mann’s Memphis Underground is much more satisfying than the almost painful sounds of some recent works (no names) that I recently heard at a rehearsal of pieces by young and unestablished composers who were, it seemed, trying to outdo each other in producing the most dissonant harmonies they could devise – and all in the name of “originality”!
The contemporary serious music afficionado will add another hard-to-demolish view that works of art have to be created by long and hard work. I think that this widely held assumption began with the 19th century Romantics. Masterpieces can only be born through slow, painful labour by God-given geniuses of the Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler variety. But what about earlier epochs? One thinks of a composer such as Telemann who is reputed to have written over 1000 pieces, many of them, if not out and out masterpieces, at least very enjoyable works that are still played 300 years later. He simply could not have produced so much if every piece was the result of long and arduous work.
To return to the title of this meditation, “taste” leads us on to the subject of aesthetics, defined as
“That branch of philosophy that is concerned with the nature of beauty.”
(Wikipedia).
Now, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so we all have our own views on it. The aesthetic pleasure that we each derive from art and music therefore is peculiar to ourselves and cannot be measured objectively. It cannot be said for example that one man’s enjoyment of say “Yesterday” is less or more than that of another man’s enjoyment of a Beethoven symphony. Surely, where there is enjoyment, there is a measure of aesthetic beauty.
In conclusion, I restate my position that I cannot now evaluate in terms of “better” or “worse”. Although I might not always like what I hear, I am open to every type of music, classical, jazz, contemporary and popular, and music of non-European origin.
And it is my belief that if contemporary music is to continue to have any communication with and relevance to others outside of just composers and their very limited groups of followers, it must, in the words of sculptor and artist Sir Antony Gormley
“…speak to the whole world”.
Gormley does this by use of an archetype- the human body- that all men can identify with. In music such universally recognisable archetypes are not so easily found, but I would start with the major and minor triads and stepwise melodies, employed in ways not in accordance with tradition, but with whatever degree of freshness the composer can bring to them.
MJR 10/22
Holidays (Continued)
4th – 12th August 2022
In old age, every day, I try to achieve something, even just posting comments on my activities in the hope that someone else might find them of interest. Who knows?
Our yearly holiday - and this year, at the request of my daughter, we visited the Yorkshire Dales, a region of England that she has become very attached to, having visited twice before this, and fallen in love with.
The North. Stone everywhere you look. Sheep on bare, green, rounded hills, and, as a backdrop, ranges of low mountains, part of the Pennines. Several flat-topped peaks looking for all the world like much higher mountains whose summits have been neatly sliced off, which, geologically speaking, is pretty much what has occurred over millennia as the limestone of which these mountains are made has been eroded.
A long drive on overcrowded roads, and thoughts on how mankind must in future take to the air for private travel and say goodbye to this traffic-madness. On arriving at the village of Askrigg, after about seven hours of sitting in a car, two unfamiliar sensations: cold, and rain (not felt down south for weeks!)
6th A.m., to the Tan Hill Inn, Britain’s highest inn. Cool and windy but not actually cold – c. 12C. A good lunch here. The narrow winding roads become tiring to drive along as one must keep a constant watch for oncoming vehicles. Impatient locals just can’t wait for an opportunity to overtake at 60 mph!
P.m., Waterfalls reached by steps- tiring to negotiate. Thoughts on next year’s holiday: somewhere flat and warmer, and near a beach!
7th A.m., Hawes. A fine stone-built sprawling village, but not much of it visible beyond the huge number of cars, vans and motorcycles cluttering every available space! Bought sweets & Wensleydale cheeses.
P.m., Bolton Castle. Still just able to climb up & down its spiral staircases – but doggedly clinging to the handrails with both hands. The castle is well-preserved, and the stone flights of steps and landings just need Errol Flynn sword-fighting a few villains for completeness.
In the grounds a display of birds of prey (an owl from India and a local [?] falcon). The windy weather prevented them from flying, so we were given adequate and interesting verbal information instead.
8th A.m., Middleham Castle. About 50% complete but much has been removed. Our dog did not like this place AT ALL! She kept close to the ground and refused to go forward. Ghosts perhaps…?
P.m., Richmond, and the superb Green Howards Museum. I sympathise with pacificists, but I can also see the attraction that the military life has for some men (and women). The excitement, camaraderie and possible honours achieved for valour in battle are incentives for becoming a professional soldier (as was my paternal grandfather). Armies for defence are fine. For aggression- not so fine.
9th A quiet, relaxed day at home.
10th To Semmerwater, a natural lake surrounded by the Pennine Mountains. A gentle breeze coaxed ripples on the surface of cobalt blue waters reflecting a cloudless sky.
Then – Cotter Falls, a little-known waterfall gained by walking a long way. And in high temperatures. Probably about as warm as it gets in Yorkshire (c. 27C)
11th Our final day here. The famous and much-photographed viaduct. Hot! Then to Malham Cove and Gordale Scar, both well-known tourist attractions, but not very crowded today.
12th Returned along those overcrowded motor roads. Visions of transport of the future: personal aircraft / air taxis / a much improved public transport system using trams in cities and more use of the air between cities… maybe?
My own very personal reflections: as a Southerner, I feel that north of Birmingham is a foreign land, good to visit, but I would not want to settle there. I would miss the warmth and gentle topography of the Southlands.
(This was the 1st holiday when I felt the pangs of old age: too much walking; too much driving a car; and young ones sometimes impatient of my slowness.)
MJR 08/22
Holidays
The season of holidays has passed for most of us, leaving only memories.
Holidays -holy days- should be days during which to recover wholeness. Casting off the fragmented life of work and daily routine, we do something different. We try to achieve that wholeness of purpose that in ordinary circumstances we find almost impossible to accomplish, divided as we are between so many conflicting chores and duties of varying degrees of urgency.
My own singular purpose on holiday is to focus entirely on spending time with the family [not forgetting the dog]. I do not write music or bother about students for the one week in the year when I can be free from all that.
My holiday routine is to wake early, usually before 6.00 am and stumble my unfamiliar way to the kitchen [of our rented holiday cottage] to make a much-needed cup of coffee. Then, return to bed and allow my brain to thaw out from the chill of early dawn, helped by the coffee, of course.
I idly plan the day ahead – or at least imagine what it could be like…
Then, breakfast of egg and bacon, more coffee, and a glass of red wine [it’s never too early, and the next one will not be until evening]. Then wait for the other members of the family to emerge gradually from their respective rooms, while I check the weather, map, places to see etc. and maybe catch up on my reading.
Finally, and only after some considerable fussing about do we all head off to wherever we might have decided on.
Choosing a warm day, and on a spread towel, weighted down with pebbles at each corner to stop it blowing away in the wind, I lie with one ear to the beach.
Passers-by seem to move vertically, the crunching sound of their footsteps magnified by the expanse of pebbles. The sea, a long way off and separated from the pebble beach by 100 or more yards of damp sand, murmurs lazily. Occasional voices, children, dogs, seagulls, break the calm. An incessant wind cools the air but is less noticeable at ground level. Brightly coloured kites soar above, straining to break away from their tautly stretched cords.
Each year that this long-awaited one-week event happens, we focus our attention on a town. Last year [2020] it was Westward-Ho in Devon. This year it was Rye in East Sussex, one of England’s best-preserved medieval towns and justly popular with visitors. I think we all fell in love with this much-lauded ancient Cinque Port that still has a vestige of its original harbour and is a maze of narrow streets and narrower pavements, almost every street inclined. Architecture from several centuries [medieval to modern]. Cobblestones in the backstreets and alleyways. A hill town overlooking the flat land of the great Romney Marsh. But- it has too much traffic, being on the main road to Hastings. Needs a bypass!
We also spent one rather damp and cloudy day at Dungeness, one of Britain’s oddest landscapes and “our only desert”. Flat as the proverbial pancake. A flat-earther’s vindication perhaps. This vast expanse of shingle, much of it covered with a scrub of maritime flora, appears on the map as a blank space, but once there you see a scattering of wooden huts and more substantial structures including a disused power station, two lighthouses, odds and ends of industry, stranded boats in various stages of seaworthiness, and the Pilot Inn, described by Derek Jarman [one of the area’s more famous inhabitants] as providing the best fish and chips in Kent!