Elgar's Hillside

[Elgarian Redux]

Right. Here's page 1 of my Elgar cycling journal. The chief aim was to cycle to Birchwood. Dora Penny described one of her rides there - which explains my reference in the journal to being sure that she would have had to get off and push.

[Elgarian Redux]

Help please, someone. When I attach a photo I'm told there's a limit of 1000K. Is that a limit for that particular post? Or is it a total limit for me personally?

[Karl Henning]

Help please, someone. When I attach a photo I'm told there's a limit of 1000K. Is that a limit for that particular post? Or is it a total limit for me personally?

Per post.

[Florestan]

Help please, someone. When I attach a photo I'm told there's a limit of 1000K. Is that a limit for that particular post? Or is it a total limit for me personally?

It's the general limit and applies to any post by anyone.

[Elgarian Redux]

Per post.

Thanks Karl. So I didn't need to reduce my image of the cycle map at all, actually, and have wasted everybody's time! My apologies, one and all. I'd better put my unreduced map up ...

[Elgarian Redux]

Finally, here is the unreduced scan of the map. Sorry for all the messing about. I am all but rusted up on these things.

[Elgarian Redux]

Page 2 of the cycling journal. I was obsessed with Dora Penny at the time - she too being a keen cyclist. The Kettle Sings, referred to here, is a tea room built on the west side of the Hills, with fantastic views to the west.

[Karl Henning]

Thanks Karl. So I didn't need to reduce my image of the cycle map at all, actually, and have wasted everybody's time! My apologies, one and all. I'd better put my unreduced map up ...

Not the shade of any apology is called for. You have never wasted any time of mine that I'm aware of.

[Luke]

Right. Here's page 1 of my Elgar cycling journal. The chief aim was to cycle to Birchwood. Dora Penny described one of her rides there - which explains my reference in the journal to being sure that she would have had to get off and push.

I absolutely love this post. Fantastic! Fascinating, too.

[Luke]

Page 2 of the cycling journal. I was obsessed with Dora Penny at the time - she too being a keen cyclist. The Kettle Sings, referred to here, is a tea room built on the west side of the Hills, with fantastic views to the west.

This page equally. Thank you very much for sharing.

(By the way, your maps are also beautifully drawn)

[Elgarian Redux]

Page 3 of the journal. The Kettle Sings featured quite a lot during these days, as you see.

[Luke]

It is, and I was eventually going to get around to asking about it. Luke, please tell me more. And Karl, well spotted! Thank you.

It is an account of a project I began not that long after the last COVID lockdown. That fact might have been part of my wish to get out and about around the country. But more profoundly than that, I was feeling particularly strung out and pained at the time by my long-standing composer's block and something - I think it may actually have been John Ireland's Legend, the piece Roasted Swan alluded to earlier and a favourite since childhood that has always made me feel a peculiar pang for these music-haunted places - made me want to visit this and other locations whose influence - more than that, whose specific, unique aura - had caused music to flow forth. I think, in a symbolic way, I wanted to induce it to flow for me, too, once again.

But my time is limited, my finances straitened, my life is full and often quite stressful, and so the required journeying could not be done at leisure but squeezed into free mornings or afternoons, initially. As I got further from home, these morning and afternoons became carefully carved-out days. Eventually, once the journeys got too long to get there and back again in a day, I began to need to sleep away from home, but, my timetable being so tight and my resources so meagre, I found the best plan of action was simply to drive until I could drive no more, and then to sleep in the car, in verges, car parks, laybys... People scoffed at me for this, but it felt like the right thing to do and indeed, spending all this time alone with my thoughts, with the tension of making sure I saw everything I needed to see and got home in time, with little comfort and warmth, waking up with great mountains or seas directly before me as I opened my eyes, combined with the emotional force of experiencing these special places, all increased the intensity of the experience to something unforgettable. Knowing what I know now, I would never do this sort of thing in a more conventional or comfortable way again, were I to embark on a similar project.

So the book is an account of all of this, and of my search to break the composer's block. The account of each visit is preceded by a historical/musical account of the composer/piece under discussion. I went to over 70 locations and considered about 30 composers (IIRC) with some - the obvious ones - cropping up a few times.

My editor is a busy man, so publication keeps getting postponed - latest date is early next year, but don't count on it! - but it is coming, I promise. The title is to be The Sound of the Place.

[Roasted Swan]

Page 2 of the cycling journal. I was obsessed with Dora Penny at the time - she too being a keen cyclist. The Kettle Sings, referred to here, is a tea room built on the west side of the Hills, with fantastic views to the west.

That is wonderful in every respect - again thankyou for sharing.  Talking of Malvern Tea_Rooms (well kind of talking about them) - my mother-in-law (who was a blue badge guide) absolutely loved St. Anne's Well.  I suspect that was still a well/spa in Elgar's time - I'm sure he must have visited that often in some capacity too.....

[Elgarian Redux]

Elgar cycling journal no. 4. One of the most memorable days of my life, starting from the Elgar Birthplace Museum. 'Chris' in the journal was the lovely chap who ran the place before the National Trust took it over. I shall never forget getting back to the museum after the downpour described herein, both of us drenched to the skin, and being cosseted by Chris and supplied with cups of hot coffee.

[Elgarian Redux]

My editor is a busy man, so publication keeps getting postponed - latest date is early next year, but don't count on it! - but it is coming, I promise. The title is to be The Sound of the Place.

I can tell you right now that you can add 1 more to your list of definite sales. How fabulous!

[Elgarian Redux]

Page 5 of the journal. Getting tired and saddlesore ....

[Elgarian Redux]

Various sketches along the way...

[Luke]

Still loving these. What a treasure that notebook is!

[Elgarian Redux]

That is wonderful in every respect - again thankyou for sharing.  Talking of Malvern Tea_Rooms (well kind of talking about them) - my mother-in-law (who was a blue badge guide) absolutely loved St. Anne's Well.  I suspect that was still a well/spa in Elgar's time - I'm sure he must have visited that often in some capacity too.....

I can't offhand remember any specific reference in the literature, but I bet he did, too.

[Karl Henning]

It is an account of a project I began not that long after the last COVID lockdown. That fact might have been part of my wish to get out and about around the country. But more profoundly than that, I was feeling particularly strung out and pained at the time by my long-standing composer's block and something - I think it may actually have been John Ireland's Legend, the piece Roasted Swan alluded to earlier and a favourite since childhood that has always made me feel a peculiar pang for these music-haunted places - made me want to visit this and other locations whose influence - more than that, whose specific, unique aura - had caused music to flow forth. I think, in a symbolic way, I wanted to cause it to flow for me, too, once again.

But my time is limited, my finances straitened, my life is full and often quite stressful, and so the required journeying could not be done at leisure but squeezed into free mornings or afternoons, initially. As I got further from home, these morning and afternoons became carefully carved-out days. Eventually, once the journeys got too long to get there and back again in a day, I began to need to sleep away from home, but, my timetable being so tight and my resources so meagre, I found the best plan of action was simply to drive until I could drive no more, and then to sleep in the car, in verges, car parks, laybys... People scoffed at me for this, but it felt like the right thing to do and indeed, spending all this time alone with my thoughts, with the tension of making sure I saw everything I needed to see and got home in time, with little comfort and warmth, waking up with great mountains or seas directly before me as I opened my eyes, combined with the emotional force of experiencing these special places, all increased the intensity of the experience to something unforgettable. Knowing what I know now, I would never do this sort of thing in a more conventional or comfortable way again, were I to embark on a similar project.

So the book is an account of all of this, and of my search to break the composer's block. The account of each visit is preceded by a historical/musical account of the composer/piece under discussion. I went to over 70 locations and considered about 30 composers (IIRC) with some - the obvious ones - cropping up a few times.

My editor is a busy man, so publication keeps getting postponed - latest date is early next year, but don't count on it! - but it is coming, I promise. The title is to be The Sound of the Place.

This all delights me beyond words.