21 June 2016

A Musical Self-Portrait

A word-portrait of who I am would run to many pages. What if I were able to describe myself in music? The composition would include orchestral parts, and folk guitar, solo and choral voices, a ukulele and a Hammond organ. There would be richly Romantic passages, and haunting airs, driving beats and the use of silence. Such a composition would be far, far beyond my capabilities. However, what if I were able to describe myself, at least in part, by means of a thoughtful choice of music, including song? I accept that whilst there is much of me that translates into music, or has a relationship with music, there is also much of me that does not. There are many sides to who I am, and consequently there are many songs and pieces of music that mean a lot to me. Were someone to want to know and understand me better, they would have to listen to quite a lot of music.

The reasons for my choice of each piece of music may be highly varied. For example, I may favour a piece because I enjoy playing it on my ukulele, or because I have enjoyed singing it, or because I like a particular arrangement, or because I like the voice of the singer, or because I am touched by the sentiment expressed, or because I resonate with the political stance of the song, or because the song reminds me of a particular period of my life (and therefore who I was then, and still am now to some degree): each chosen song offers a different nuance, or set of nuances, of who I am or how I choose to present myself. My selection is also significant in what I choose to omit: for example, there is neither any anti-social punk rock, nor any unmelodious rap.

In a sketch of myself, I should include the Schiller's poem An Die Freude (Ode to Joy) set to music by Beethoven in his Ninth Symphony; all of Beethoven's Third, Sixth and Ninth Symphonies; Amoureuse sung by Kiki Dee; Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds by The Beatles; Kathleen Ferrier singing Blow The Wind Southerly; Sandy Denny (both with The Strawbs and with Fairport Convention) singing Who Knows Where The Time Goes?; the Percy Faith arrangement of the theme from the movie A Summer Place; Edward Elgar's orchestration of Hubert Parry's setting of William Blake's poem Jerusalem; Iris Dement singing Our Town; Dave Brubeck's Take Five; Strawbs: Queen of Dreams, You and I (When We Were Young), Another Day; Morning Has Broken sung by Cat Stevens; Gustav Holst's The Planets suite; Maddy Prior and Steeleye Span singing The Saucy Sailor, The Weaver And The Factory Maid, Dark Eyed Sailor and Thomas The Rhymer; Lara's theme from the David Lean movie Dr Zhivago; Planxty (led by Christy Moore) singing Sweet Thames Flow Softly; Supertramp singing Give A Little Bit, and Even In The Quietest Moments; Leon Rosselson singing The World Turned Upside Down, and The Last Chance; Wonderful Tonight, by Eric Clapton; the poem by John Greenleaf Whittier Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind, set to music; The Eagles singing The Last Resort; Le Quattro Stagioni by Antonio Vivaldi (especially the controversial Nigel Kennedy recording); Joni Mitchell singing Big Yellow Taxi; Rachmaninofff's Second Symphony; Dave Cousins of The Strawbs singing Grace Darling; Bob Dylan singing Blowin' In The Wind; the ensemble arrangement of Take Me Home, Country Roads (written by John Denver) sung in Japanese during the anime movie Whisper Of The Heart; Norah Jones singing Come Away With Me; Let It Be by Paul McCartney; Aaron Copland's arrangement of the Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts; Carla Bruni singing Quelqu'un M'a Dit; Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing Homeless and with Paul Simon singing Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes; Buddy Holly singing Every Day, Oh Boy and Peggy Sue; Glen Miller's In The Mood; the extended Genesis piece called Supper's Ready; Spiegel Im Spiegel by Arvo Part; Imagine by John Lennon; Jon Anderson's Olias of Sunhillow; Ewan MacColl singing Shoals Of HerringFarewell To Stromness by Peter Maxwell Davies; Simon and Garfunkel singing The Sound Of Silence, America, Homeward Bound and Bookends; Mahler's First Symphony; Leonard Cohen singing Bird On A Wire; Charles Trenet singing La Mer; Tim Hart singing Dancing At Whitsun; Philip Glass's music for Koyaanisquatsi; The Moody Blues singing Nights In White Satin; Pachelbel's Canon; John Denver singing Sunshine On My Shoulders; ELO singing Summer And Lightning and Mr Blue Sky; Messaien's Turangalila; Steve Harley and Cockney rebel singing Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me); In Paradisum from Gabriel Fauré's Requiem; George Harrison's Here Comes The Sun; Jeff Beck singing Hi Ho Silver Lining; Old Crow Medicine Show singing Wagon Wheel; Wonderful World sung by Sam Cooke; and Louis Armstrong singing What A Wonderful World; Jane Russell and Hoagy Carmichael singing My Resistance Is Low; Streets of London sung by Ralph McTell; My Ramblin' Boy (by Tom Paxton) sung by Sandy Denny; and Van Morrison singing Brown Eyed GirlBrand New Day, and the well-known version of Madame George recorded on the album Astral Weeks, the mesmerising version played live at the Holywood Bowl in 2008, and the little-known, wonderfully chaotic version (unavailable on YouTube) recorded on the album T.B.Sheets.

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