Posts

Showing posts from May, 2018

Angeli archangeli troni

Image
I don't know why, but when I was 15 Gregorian chants and early religous music got hold of me and never let me go. I used to go to the library in Biggleswade and borrow LPs of this music, record it onto audio cassettes (piracy!) and listen to the music at night alone in my bedroom. It is often great music, soul touching. That must be the reason. I didn't know Latin then and I don't know Latin now. I heard about this CD (CD? yes I'm attached to physical things), "Lucezia Borgia's Daughter "... ...somewhere and bought it. All the motets are wonderful but the last track Angeli archangeli troni is amazing. I listened to it four or five times before reading the words and translation. I almost wished I hadn't. Just in as the Bach masses it is best to listen to the music of the voices and instruments without understanding the words. The worst thing about Catholic funerals is the recited list of saints who are supposed to pray for the deceased. I

A comeuppance in Biggleswade.

Image
My Mum told me this story many years ago. The events must have taken place around 1930 I think. She lived in Sutton near Biggleswade in the UK. When she was 5 years old she would walk to school every day and be bullied every day by a nasty piece of work, a 7 year old girl. In those days bullying meant physical harm. "But," my Mum told me, with some satisfaction, "she got her comeuppance. The bully's mum put her on the child's seat on her bike, and rode them into the River Ivel, and they both drowned." I'm not sure where in the Ivel it happened, but somewhere along the stretch which runs by Biggleswade.

Untitled

Image