A - Z of Music - K

Well, it's all been a bit hectic lately, and I've not had time to blog. However, here's the next instalment of the A-Z, and we've reached the letter K

K is for Aram Khachaturian (June 6 1903 – May 1, 1978)who was a Soviet Armenian composer. Alongside with Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, Khachaturian is sometimes dubbed as one of the three "titans" of Soviet music. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical European music and Armenian folk music.
Born in Tiflis to a poor Armenian family from Nakhichevan, Khachaturian moved to Moscow at the age of 19. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1934.

 I guess a lot of older folk will remember the 'Onedin Line' series on TV, and the music used as the theme was his Adagio from Spartacus. You may also know his lively 'Sabre Dance'. However, I've opted for this, the Waltz from his 'Masquerade Suite'.
This is not one of your Straussian waltzes, evoking visions of handsome hussars whirling young ladies in gorgeous dresses around the floor of a Viennese ballroom. No, this is aggressive, almost violent. I don't think Mr. K knew how to write anything that wasn't dramatic and stirring!

And for the lighter side? Well, howabout Kilburn & The High Roads? What - you've never heard of them? Watch the video, and you'll recognise the vocalist. So you think you've seen him somewhere before, eh? You're right. It's no less a person than the great Ian Dury. Kilburn and the High Roads were a British rock and roll band formed by Ian Dury in 1970, and was the first band formed by Dury. The band released two studio albums and had one compilation, and separated in 1977 when Dury left to form the more prominent band The Blockheads. Here we go then, with Mumble Rumble & The Cocktail Rock

Roads to ride, Places to go, Things to see......

Just come back from a wonderful week in North Wales, but wouldn't you know it - my camera packed up as soon as I got there, so I've got no photographs :(

However, as well as revisiting some old favourites, I found lots of new places, and wonderful roads to ride.

Firstly, the Elan Valley was at the most spectacular I've ever seen it. With all the rain we've had this year, the reservoirs were full, and the water was thundering over each and every dam. It's an incredible sight. The Elan Valley is beautiful even when the water level is low, but with the water cascading over the dams, it is truly magnificent.
There's a road called the Aberystwyth Mountain Road, that runs from the top of the Elan to Aberystwyth. I've never ridden it before, because it's generally been windy when I've been down that way, and they strongly advise you not to ride it in heavy rain, or wind, and definitely not ice! There's big ice warning notices all along it.
But this year, it was a still, sunny day, so it just had to be done. The road runs around the mountains for around 20 miles, eventually coming out at Devil's Bridge, by the Mynnach waterfall. It's little wider than a car, full of free-range sheep, and decidedly tricky. There's an unfenced drop to one side just to make it a little more interesting.
But oh, the views! Staggering just does not do it justice. Mind, you're so busy watching the blind corners and undulations in the road, you find yourself doing little more than 20mph just so you can take a glance at all this spectacular scenery.

Another road I found that was new to me, was the Orme Coast Toll. Yes, they charge you a squid on a bike for the pleasure of riding this one, but it is worth it. The road runs from Llandudno to.......Llandudno, right around the outside edge of the Great Orme headland. It's cut into the cliff, with a drop down to the sea on one side, and the steep cliffs of the Orme on the other. Wonderful! You can also ride up to the top of the Orme, or go up via cable car or tram. The views from the top on a clear day are remarkable.

To my pleasure, I found that they've finally finished the rebuilding of the A487 from just outside Dolgellau to Machynlleth. Having been stuck there previously in the pouring rain, when the temporary traffic lights were stuck on red, this pleased me no end. It's a beautiful road, with awesome views.

Nearer Machynlleth, you pass the Osprey Project, with a magnificent 20 foot high metal statue of an Osprey coming in to land at the entrance. This was one of the things I wished I could have photographed. Further down, is the Corris Craft Centre, where you can watch various crafts people at work, and buy their output. There's a glass workshop, where they make the most beautiful flowers, birds, dragonflies, dragons etc., and it always grieves me that I can't bring any of them home on the bike. The Centre also has decent loos and a nice little cafe, so it's a good place to stop anyway.

Talking of the A487, it starts from a little place outside Dolgellau, called Cross Foxes. I've often wanted to stop there, but I always think, if they're that cross, they might just bite! At the moment, I wouldn't blame them for being cross little foxes, as there's an enormous road improvement scheme happening through there, where you can get held for anything up to 10 minutes, whilst they move heavy construction vehicles across the road.

As to place names, well, I found Clatter and Knockin - had I been on the LittleInsect, they might have been appropriate names, but Jack is new, and shiny, and definitely does not clatter or knock!

I found out that Rhayader - or Rhaeadr, to give it its correct, Welsh spelling, means waterfall. Quite appropriate for the town that leads down to the Elan dams. I find that, having been to North Wales quite a lot, I tend to read some of the signs now in Welsh, rather than picking out the English translation below.
I know that 'araf' means slow, 'gorsaf' is station, and 'dim parcio' means no parking. Most importantly, 'heddlu' means police..................

I really regret not having a working camera this trip, but hey, I'll just have to go back again next year, with a new one. Now that WOULD be a hardship ;)

A - Z of Music - J

Josquin Des Prez - usually referred to just as Josquin - was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. During the 16th century, Josquin gradually acquired the reputation as the greatest composer of the age, his mastery of technique and expression universally imitated and admired.
Josquin wrote both sacred and secular music, and in all of the significant vocal forms of the age, including masses, motets, chansons and frottole.
His music was so admired and imitated over the years, that, with the advancement of scholarly knowledge, a number of works have been removed from the cannon of his output and attributed to his contempories.
Because of his immense prestige in the early sixteenth century, many scribes and publishers did not resist the temptation of attributing anonymous or otherwise spurious works to Josquin. The German editor Georg Forster summed up the situation admirably in 1540 when he wrote, "Now that Josquin is dead, he is putting out more works than when he was alive."
Josquin's fame lasted throughout the 16th century, and indeed increased for several decades after his death, eventually being replaced in popularity by the works of Palestrina (we'll come to him later!)
As usual, I struggled to decide which work to protray here, but decided on this one:  Miserere Mei Deus



Now, what shall we have for J? The all too obvious choice would be Michael Jackson, the so-called 'King Of Pop', and indeed, his was an extraordinary talent, even if his life was somewhat weird. I guess when you achieve such heady fame at the age of 5, it will take its' toll on your lifestyle and personality.
However, rather than Michael, I've opted for the Jacksons as a whole.
This is the Director's Cut of their amazing (for its' time) video to an equally great song - 'Can You Feel It'

Did you know..........redundancy makes you fat!

No, I haven't been made redundant, but I stand by the title of this post!

The company I work for is going through a staff reduction programme, where about 9% of the staff are losing their jobs. It's a sad, hard time for most of them, but even so, they tend to be generous to a fault.

They buy cakes. Lots of cakes. And sausage rolls. And feed them to us as a farewell gift.

It's not so bad when one person leaves to take up a new career, but there are so many leavers every day at the moment, those of us who are staying are getting decidedly podgy.

I don't know who ever started the tradition of buying cakes when you leave, or when you have a birthday, or a new baby etc., but it always seems to be a bit incongruous to me. Surely we should buy them the cakes as a token of our respect and sorrow at their leaving, or pleasure at their good news.

However, so be it. I will stay here, and do my work.........

And get fat..............

And so.........meet 'Jack'

This is the gorgeous new bike in my life, replacing the marvellous, magical LittleInsect (see previous post).
Only just got him, and am busy running him in, so don't expect any new posts from me for a couple of weeks!

Now is he pretty - or is he pretty?

So sad to see it go..............

.............the LittleInsect.

Yes, I've finally come to terms with the fact that I've got to let it go. After all the years, miles and memories, it's reached the end of its useful life in its present form, and, as I don't have room to store it for the rest of my life, it must make room for a replacement.

However, I refuse point blank to sell it. I really could not bear to let anybody else ride it. It would absolutely break my heart. So, in two weeks time it will be de-registered and taken apart. The fate of its component parts has been decided, but will not be discussed here. (or anywhere, for that matter)

The final nail in its' coffin came via Kent Motorcycles, who are supplying me with a new Hornet with the most gorgeous one-off custom paint job. I'm not picking it up for a couple of weeks, so I'll post photos then.

No, it could never be a 'LittleInsect 2' but if it gives me half the pleasure that one did, I'll be more than happy. I've only left myself a few days after picking it up, in which to run it in and get it serviced, and then its' first long trip will be to North Wales.

Let's hope the weather improves. It would be a shame to get that beautiful paint scheme wet and muddy.

This and That

Really, I shouldn't let life interfere with writing my blog!  However, it does seem to have happened a lot lately, mostly because there always seems so much to do.

To catch up, I had a very wet week in Somerset on the LittleInsect, followed last week, by a wonderful few days with Pat and Peter on the Devon/Dorset border. If you're looking for somewhere to stay down that way, then go to my other blog 'My British Isles', link on the right - and pick up the signs for The Old Black Dog. I can promise, you won't regret it.

No matter how often I go to Dorset, I never tire of riding the Dorset roads and poking around the gentle little towns and villages. An absolute 'must' for me down there, is to ride the B road that runs from Burton Bradstock through Abbotsbury, to Chickrell on the outskirts of Weymouth. It's such a pretty route, with wide views over Chesil Beach, to Portland on one side, and rolling hills on the other.

Another 'must' is an evening down at the harbour at West Bay, where all the bikers hang out. There's a branch of Helmet City just opened up there, and I made Dick promise not to spend any money if he went in there, and then promptly bought myself some new gloves! - a mere £80 or so........

Dick had only been to Dorset a couple of times before, and hadn't seen much of the towns at all, so one day, we spent the morning poking around Dorchester. It may be the county town of Dorset, but it's not exactly huge, and has a faded, genteel quality about it.

We then took a lovely ride from there, up to Sherborn and then through to Shaftesbury, where Dick had expressed a wish to see Gold Hill, the place that pretended to be 'oop north' in a certain famous Hovis ad. My eyes lit up when he said that, and he couldn't understand why I was so keen to show him Gold Hill...that is, until we got there and found the Beadster bead shop at the top. Of course, as we were in the area, I just had to, didn't I?

Talking of beads, and my jewellery-making, I've been spending time recently, learning the art of Kumihimo, or Japanese silk braiding. I'm quite pleased with some of my efforts so far, and there are one or two necklaces in my Etsy shop (link at the top of the page). See what you think. My friend Sheila, who owns Blueberry Glass, made me a couple of stunning pendants, and I've used one with toning silk braid to create a very stylish necklace.

I've started to carry a small pad and pencil around with me, as I see things which give me an idea for a piece of jewellery, and then by the time I get home, I've forgotten it. It's my age, don't ya know! I've got designs in mind for two more necklaces in The Weather Collection - these will be 'Snow' and 'Fog'. Are you intrigued yet? There's a pretty blue bracelet just waiting for me to have time at the weekend to photograph it, and add it to my shop, and, as usual, more ideas in my head than I actually have time to produce!

Two weeks time, we're off on our travels again - this time to Northumbria and North Yorkshire, so I hope to come back with even more ideas. I'm also hoping for a change in the weather..........................

A - Z of Music - H

Oh dear me, with everything that's been going on in my life, I really haven't had the time (or the inclination) to do this.
Oh well, let's hope things improve from now on.
Right, here we go with the letter H. Some of the world's greatest composers have been H's - think Haydn, Handel, Holst, Hovhaness...................

Yes, I said Hovhaness. That's Alan Hovhaness, American, 1911-2000. Although he composed over 500 works, he was very little known until the 90s, when, partly because of the influence of Classic FM, his work suddenly began to achieve recognition.

His is a very descriptive voice, in the same way that Delius and Debussy were descriptive. He obviously had a great love of mountains, and he composed several works describing them (Mysterious Mountain, Mt. Wildcat, Farewell To The Mountains et al) He also had a large output of religious-themed music, and from these, I was torn between the Prayer Of St. Gregory, and 'And God Created Great Whales' which utilises whale song as a background 'chorus'. Both are incredibly beautiful and moving. In the end, it came down to which one I could find a decent clip of.

This then is the incredible Wynton Marsalis, with the Prayer Of St. Gregory



And so onto the lighter bit. I make no apologies for going back in time again, but, when all my friends were swooning over the Beatles, or arguing about whether the Beatles or the Rolling Stones were the best, and which one they fancied, I was quietly sitting in the corner listening to the Hollies.
I loved, and still love, the crystal clear quality of the voice of Allan Clarke, the excellent musicianship of  Graham Nash, and the excellence of the song writing.

Emotional Stress

I don't need it..........do you?

Gonna tell you a little story..............

The firm I work for announced that they were making around 9% of the workforce redundant, and this is how they did, or didn't manage it.
Obviously, I'm not going to go into specifics, but see if you think this is fair:

on date A they announced that everyone would be sorted into 'pools' according to their skill sets, and that on date B (A + 1 week), people would be told what percentage on their 'pool' was to go.
They said that after that, people would be scored according to their abilities, and then on date C (B+ 1 week), they would be told if they were at risk or not. They would then be given one of two telephone numbers to call. One would be for those losing their jobs, and the other would be for those staying. Expected date of departure date D (C+ 1 month).

OK, with me so far?

So date B came and went, 99% of the staff were informed how big their pool was, and how many were leaving. My department heard nothing. We get a bit edgy and start chewing our nails...........

Date C came and went. Still we heard nothing. Two days after Date C, we get a phone call to apologise for not having given us a phone call, and telling us nothing, except that no decision had been made regarding us. We start to tear our hair out and have nervous breakdowns.

The next day, we all receive letters telling us that we're all at risk of redundancy. Well, at least now we know.

Ah, but a couple of hours later, we get a phone call to say those letters were sent out in error, and still no decision had been made about our department.

By this time, we're all feeling sick, snapping at each other, unable to concentrate, and generally falling apart at the seams.

A few days later, the firm announce a huge contract win. Later that day, we get a request to attend an urgent phone conference later that afternoon.

Surprise surprise, we're told our jobs are safe, and that it would be confirmed to us in a letter WHICH WE STILL HAVEN'T RECEIVED.

So, I need you all to buy my jewellery, so I can successfully get a new business venture up and running, and get out of this goddam rat race, while I've still got some vestige of sanity left.

A - Z of Music - G

This week's classical composer is Philip Glass.
I'm not a huge fan of minimalist music, but for some indefinable reason, I absolutely love just about everything Glass has written to date. Whether it's his driving, insistant rhythms, or the clarity of every single note, I don't know.
What I do know, is that there's a sense of urgency behind his music, that speaks clearly of modern life.
This is the second movement of his wonderful Violin Concerto No.1....



And so to the non-classical bit for G. I had many ideas for whom I wanted to portray, but this morning, the death was announced of Robin Gibb of BeeGees fame, and I'm sure you won't mind me using the space for a tribute to a member of a vocal group that spanned more than 5 decades. The BeeGees have had many, many hits themselves, and were responsible for writing a number of hits for other artists, including Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers (Islands In The Stream) and Barbra Streisand (Guilty).

Robin was a great songwriter and had recently turned to classical-esque music, composing a piece with his son in memory of the Titanic. For me, however, the greatest BeeGees songs were the early ones, where Robin not only wrote the songs, but took lead vocals.

And the greatest? This is a live recording of him singing 'I Started A Joke'



Robin, The Day you Where born the whole world started living, The Day you have Died, the Whole world has started Crying

Rest In Peace, free from pain, and thank you for the music