When I was a Child . . .

Dear Music Lover,
When I was a child, I listened to music like a child, to paraphrase a famous Paulism. I was closer to this piece's original intention then, with my reportedly goofy clown reaction, than when I listened to it again two months ago at our first workshop, with my serious adult ear! Before putting the square together, I consulted Professor Wikipedia and discovered that Grieg had indeed written this as a satirical piece for Ibsen's play, Peer Gynt. Trolls are parading into the Hall of the Mountain King to party with him and to impress/frighten Peer Gynt.

The music was requested by Judy, who also did the sketch development and interpretation at our April workshop. Judy chose this piece by Grieg because her husband is Scandinavian and they had recently had a wonderful trip to Norway. So, for you, Judy, I have carefully painted the Coat of Arms for the King of Norway. The portcullis is drawn from the great gate into Edinburgh Castle where interestingly, the coat of arms above it also shows a rampant lion, although in red, against a white background. Who would have thought they'd be so similar?

The next square is for Anne: Bells Across the Meadow by William Ketelby. This is a pretty tune, and deeply evocative of Anne's childhood when she could hear the church bells from her home. Ann wanted this to look very English and she hinted that sheep would be nice as well. The piece is in 4/4, and when the bells appear in the music, there are four of them. So the different sizes of the bells is hopefully about right for those four different notes!

It's hard to portray the sound of bells without showing bells, but English ones are usually hidden in a belfry, in a tangle of upside-downs and sideways that are not at all as picturesque or bucolic as the church surroundings. It is a bit inapposite, but my solution was to paint a bell tower redolent of Spain or a Mexican village, and then Anglicize it with Gothic arches and Victorian brick. I hope it doesn't look too odd!

How could not end one's endeavours with Bach? This one, Sheep May Safely Graze was requested by Ellen, and once again, listening to it with a child-like ear reminds me of how I must have heard it the first time. When the second tune comes in, or rather a variation on the theme, I'm sure I would have thought "hey, I know this part!" and then realized I had already heard it earlier in the piece. And "wow, how cool to listen to two tunes at once". So it was important to me to somehow honour the genius of Bach's contrapuntal invention by conveying two messages. 

The obvious one is of sheep calmly grazing without fear from predators, but underlying that is the message that they are safe for a reason. And that is because of the bravery of the armed forces who guard the land and the leaders who rule fairly and get along with their neighbours. I think this is also suggested by the words "where the shepherd guards them well and the rulers govern well" in addition to being an obvious reference to Christ.

We have a new artist joining the team of square makers. Welcome, Lyn Cowan! Lyn was inspired by Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and here is a lovely representation of them.

Thank you, Lyn, and see you all soon,

Susan

Sound the Trumpet!

Hello Music Lover,
I've been working on this one for a while. It's so joyful, I was almost afraid to begin designing it. It's been requested by Quentin, whose favourite version of it is not as written, sung by a counter tenor and a tenor, but with the tenor part transcribed for trumpet by new trumpeter star Alison Balsom with counter tenor friend Iestyn Davies. I think Quentin is right - it's a perfect transcription. None of the text is left out by dropping one of the voices and the trumpet's tone is an amazing blend with the countertenor tone. I believe she plays the baroque trumpet, as depicted here, which has to be extraordinarily difficult (valveless, as I understand it). And she does it faultlessly, seemingly effortlessly and she looks gorgeous at the same time. No Satchmo chipmunk cheeks or anything - even her blonde hair doesn't fall out of place - it's not fair!

The two waves of colour represent the way the two melodies play off each other, and the colour is a bit childlike intentionally. For it is playful - they are having so much fun! Purcell is gazing out from the trumpet, looking a bit pleased with himself, as well he should.

And then, from the truly sublime to the .....  well, unlikely! Another Beatles song to belt out in the car on a long journey. Octopus' Garden. To go along with the Yellow Submarine. Hmm - bath toys - that gives me an idea for my grandson's first birthday in a couple of weeks .....

Thanks to Kathy for the great embroidery, especially the tree-like seaweed, which as the text suggests, keeps the octopus gardener in the shade!

More requests coming up next week - see you then.

Happy listening in the meantime,

Susan