Havergal Brian.

[Dundonnell]

Why is everyone standing in that middle section in front of you?

Those are the Prommers who queue up on the day for standing tickets in the large open space between the stage and the stalls.

[Dundonnell]

Bless my sister's steady hand! Btw - that I uploaded these two vids is illegal. So we'll have to wait and see how long they'll remain where they are...

If you go to jail, Johan, we shall smuggle in appropriate cds, books and writing materials for you. Any early requests?

[cilgwyn]

A file?

[springrite]

If you go to jail, Johan, we shall smuggle in appropriate cds, books and writing materials for you. Any early requests?

We should also learn part of the choral part of the Gothic and sing it outside of the prison so he can hear it. That must be inspirational!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

A file?

A file is what got me in there in the first place!

[cilgwyn]

Good one,Johan!

[cilgwyn]

Singing outside the prison? Shades of Ethel Smyth there. Conducting the Gothic through the prison bars with a toothbrush and you're fellow Brianites outside.

[vandermolen]

A file is what got me in there in the first place!

Don't worry Johan, if the Dutch prisons are like the Dutch police in the Harry Enfield sketch it should be a fairly liberal regime - they're bound to let you keep listening to Havergal Brian and keep up contact with the forum through your cell's built-in wireless laptop system. 

[cilgwyn]

You'll probably have them all listening to Brian within a couple of weeks.

[springrite]

And the birth of the Dutch Chapter of the Havergal Brian Society!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I await my fate with much more equanimity, seeing all this support flooding in... 

And the birth of the Dutch Chapter of the Havergal Brian Society!

Who knows?!

[vandermolen]

As I said earlier, I had lunch yesterday with another friend from my schooldays-a recently retired BBC Music senior executive and former managing director of a BBC orchestra.
He listened to the radio broadcast of the Gothic and hated the music. He believes it to be disjointed and clumsy, almost completely unsingable and, essentially, a tedious bore.

Of course when I heard those views expressed I terminated the meal at once, flung my unfinished plate of food in his face, upended the table and stormed out of the restaurant in incandescent rage.

No....actually I did none of these things I listened to the views of someone whose musical experience and taste I respect with close attention, some disappointment and a measure of sadness. My principal emotion was regret that he has not 'got' the piece or the composer's music in general.

I remember dipping into this forum once during my two years sabbatical and reading a comment on a thread I had started on some Norwegian composers in which it was alleged that my purpose in posting about certain composers was to discourage others from listening to music I dislike and to disparage their tastes. That made me angry and sad.

I wrote here in the past(more than once!) and I reiterate: it is MY loss if I dislike Rachmaninov, Delius or Scriabin. Others-Johan to name but one-loves the music of Delius. That is wonderful! I wish I was attuned to the Delian soundworld. One day it may click for me; I do have virtually everything Delius wrote on my shelves.

I regret that there are folk(lots of them, no doubt!) who don't get Havergal Brian and think his music is seriously flawed in construction and/or in purpose. I shall continue to express my own love of the music without making extravagant claims for it and without comparing Brian to other composers because I find great pleasure in attempting to share an enthusiasm with others. Nothing in music has given me greater delight than in taking along to the RAH a young relative who had not heard a single note of Brian's music and finding him so visibly moved at the end of the performance.

Very interesting post Colin - I have been listening to the Gothic Symphony almost continuously since the prom.  Today it was the Boult CD in my car. I agree with what Martyn Brabbin's said - to the effect that Brian knew what he was doing.  I also think that the apparent non-sequiturs, mad juxtapositions etc in the Gothic reflect what life is actually like (well, mine anyway!) - it is not a seamless and logical progression from A to B, with a predictable sequence of events - but a more chaotic jumble  of hopes, despairs, looming catastrophes, disasters and yet with occasional and surprising moments of joy - all this, I believe is reflected in the Brian Symphony; but I also increasingly think that it can't fail to have been influenced by the times of its creation - the era of World War One - with its hopes and despair for the future - so, for me, the music makes very good sense from both a personal and impersonal viewpoint.

Now, where is that Klaus Egge CD?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

The German writer Arno Schmidt (1914-1979) also uses discontinuity and compression in his prose. That's why I have always connected him with Brian, and both have influenced me. There is one famous passage in his 'Scenes from the life of a faun' (Aus dem Leben eines Fauns, 1954) which echoes Jeffrey's observations about The Gothic uncannily:


My life?!: is not a continuum! (not simply fractured into white and black pieces by day and night! For even by day they are all someone else, the fellow who walks to the train; sits in the office; bookworms; stalks through groves; copulates; smalltalks; writes; man of a thousand thoughts; of fragmenting categories; who runs; smokes; defecates; listens to the radio; says "Commissioner, sir": that's me!): a tray full of glistening snapshots. [tr. John E. Woods]

[vandermolen]

The German writer Arno Schmidt (1914-1979) also uses discontinuity and compression in his prose. That's why I have always connected him with Brian, and both have influenced me. There is one famous passage in his 'Scenes from the life of a faun' (Aus dem Leben eines Fauns, 1954) which echoes Jeffrey's observations about The Gothic uncannily:


My life?!: is not a continuum! (not simply fractured into white and black pieces by day and night! For even by day they are all someone else, the fellow who walks to the train; sits in the office; bookworms; stalks through groves; copulates; smalltalks; writes; man of a thousand thoughts; of fragmenting categories; who runs; smokes; defecates; listens to the radio; says "Commissioner, sir": that's me!): a tray full of glistening snapshots. [tr. John E. Woods]

Very interesting Johan! One of the reasons I now have more respect for the paintings of Manet ('A Bar at the Folies Bergere' for example) is because the relationships in the painting are unclear and ambivalent - as is often the case in real life!

[Klaatu]

Good to hear that Martin Brabbins is to be the new HBS President.

I hope that he may, in due course, be able to introduce two new varieties of HB to the Prommers over the coming years:

1) The approachable, early Brian of In Memoriam (very Elgarian!) and the Burlesque Variations (which would be a good 'un for the Last Night with its great John Williams-ish rabble-rousing finale; the noble hymn-tune intoned over a sustained drumroll - very Saving Private Ryan!)

2) The mature, concise symphonist of symphonies 6, 8, 10 and 16.

The former Brian is lightweight but easy to listen to - no cause for critics to complain of "lack of a tune".

The latter Brian not only represents some of his finest work, but is moreover short, gritty and to the point - with only 20 minutes or so of music per symphony, the critics would be unable to fall back on scoring cheap points off the symphony's size, length, complexity, vulgarity etc. etc. which is such an easy, no-brainer, knee-jerk reaction to The Gothic.

They would - gosh - have to actually deal with the music. Now, they may still not like it (and there's nothing wrong with that) but they'd have to work a awful, awful lot harder to explain the reasons for their dislike. We might then get some really well-considered, thoughtful criticism instead of a flippant brush-off.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I am in complete agreement, Klaatu. Brian wrote a lot of very attractive and colourful pieces, too, that still bear his unmistakable signature. They could ease the way to the knottier and rather condensed pieces of his later years. I sincerely hope Martyn Brabbins will get the chance to show Havergal Brian's different sides. 

[Brian]

It may have been reported here already, but Chris Stock, principal percussionist of the NO Wales, was the xylophonist at the 'Gothic'. I just received a blog comment to that effect from one of the other percussion players at the Prom!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

It may have been reported here already, but Chris Stock, principal percussionist of the NO Wales, was the xylophonist at the 'Gothic'. I just received a blog comment to that effect from one of the other percussion players at the Prom!

Just checked. Yes, he was amazing.

[Dundonnell]

We should also learn part of the choral part of the Gothic and sing it outside of the prison so he can hear it. That must be inspirational!

Hmmmm? I am not sure that Johan would find my singing ANY of the choral part of the Gothic "inspirational" He would probably end up asking to be transferred to maximum security

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Hmmmm? I am not sure that Johan would find my singing ANY of the choral part of the Gothic "inspirational" He would probably end up asking to be transferred to maximum security

O, I  think you could easily manage some lala's in the 'jaunty march' section...