What is this? Some sort of diary!?
Anyway, typical grey bank holiday activities. With Kate's help I strung together a set of 15 or so 30-second excerpts (try typing that one quickly!) of classical music designed to express/portray/exemplify (I'm not going to go into the philosophy of art at this point, as I don't understand it!) emotions from very miserable up to moderately happy. This was to assist a history teacher friend from church who has asked her class to present their verdict on the debate over Southern Slavery in the US: how decent were the slaves' conditions, and how well off were they?
I trust that the kids will be able to make use of the opening 60 seconds of...
Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No.6, 1st mvt (busy and cheery)
Kabelevsky, Piano Concerto No.3, 1st mvt (madcap and busy)
Rachmaninov, Suite for 2 Pianos, Romanza (yearning and wistul)
Sibelius, Symphony No. 5, 3rd mvt (noble and positive, but laborious)
Brumel, Lamentations (ambiguous; reflective but no strong minors)
Bliss, Adam Zero, The Stage (ambivalent)
Dvorak, Symphony No. 8, 1st mvt (sad but sometimes hopeful)
Bach, Violin Sonata in D minor, Allemande (busy and fairly grim)
Tallis, Lamentations I (slow and mournful)
Glass, Facade (slow and mournful)
Doyle, Sense and Sensibility, Combe Magna (sighs and darkness, but not unmitigated)
Reich, Eight Lines (hammer and tongs)
Khachaturian, Piano Concerto, 1st mvt (melodrama, noise and brutality)
Brahms Symphony No.1, 1st mvt (relentless, slow, effort)
Brahms, Symphony No. 4, 4th mvt (crash bang, hard work)
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No.6, 4th mvt (despair)
What would your sliding scale of 16 have been?
Then I assisted Kate in sorting out all the photos we used to decorate our wedding reception almost 4 years ago, returning them to their albums. Nothing like procrastination to make a job ultimately very satisfying. And nothing like old university and family photos to make me misty-eyed, sometimes sad, usually laughing, and grateful to God for his goodness over the last 27 years.
While that was going on we watched Hitchcock's Notorious with one eye each (just as stylised as Rushmore though without surprises), were occasionally interrupted by visits from friends, visits to the garden centre and food.
