THINKING OF CHRISTMAS

Hello, Music Lovers!

I have it on good authority that today is the birthday of the founding artistic director of the Elora Festival, Noel Edison. Congratulations, Noel, and Happy Birthday. It is also on good authority that I stick out my neck and say that the music on which this next square is based is a favourite of Noel's, Like as the Hart, by Herbert Howells. Noel, I hope you enjoy this flowery quote from a BBC music reviewer, who will remain nameless because I'm afraid I have lost the reference.

“Herbert Howells has probably touched more lives more deeply than any composer with twice his standing in the hierarchies of modern music. Howells was central to the Oxbridge Anglican aesthetic: a supreme manipulator of the theatre of transcendent ceremonial and dignified nostalgia that the Church of England does like no one else.
 But what makes him interesting is that he gave that market more than it bargained for. Scratch the surface of a typical Howells choral work and you find decidedly un-Anglican qualities. One is smouldering sensuality (the rhythm of Like as the Hart, the most sublime of all Howells anthems, comes close to a slow tango, its harmony is thick with 'blue' notes), another is a lacerating, masochistic pain even in ostensibly joyful music. To understand why they are there you need to look beyond the music to the man...” etc.

And now to another reminder of Christmas, the famously Canadian Huron Carol, originally written in native Huron/Wendat, probably in 1642 by Père Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Canada. The words were set to a traditional French folk song, "Une Jeune Pucelle" ("A Young Maid"). In 1926 Jesse Edgar Middleton set the well-known English lyrics "Twas in the Moon of winter-time" to the same tune.

The English version of the hymn uses imagery familiar in the early 20th century, in place of the traditional Nativity story, but Kathy (who made this lovely square) and I were not sure how to portray the "lodge of broken bark", when Algonquin long houses were quite large, and the bark was carefully cut in very long strips. So Kathy decided to tell part of the story on a winter teepee, having researched suitable petroglyph images from Peterborough sites. The rest of the story is on the other side, but now you know what Gitchi Manitou looks like!

Starting to think about Christmas, and it won't be long before carols are heard everywhere.

Susan

AN ANTHEM FOR REMEMBRANCE DAY

Hello Music Lover,
Thanks to Bonnie for finishing and delivering this square so quickly after a one-day workshop last week, in time for Remembrance Day. Where Have All the Flowers Gone? is for me an even better anti-war anthem than Give Peace a Chance, and it was named in 2010 by the New Statesman as one of the Top 20 Political songs of all time. Written by Pete Seeger in 1960, it was inspired by a few lines from a Cossack poem he had seen in "And Quiet Flows the Don." However, it was Don Hickerson who added verses four and five, and then a repeat of verse one, turning it into the circular message that war is a just terrible wasteful cycle.

Bonnie wanted to use a small embroidery she has kept safe for some time and she worked out a way to use it as the centerpiece of a log cabin design. Careful seaming and just enough random placement of elements to keep it interesting have combined to make this a great addition to our quilt. Way to go, Bonnie!

Remember the Fallen while you listen to your music today.

Susan

FROM BACH TO MURRAY SCHAFER

Dear Music Lover,
In the profile to the right of this column, there is a mention of Robert's Quilt, which was based on the Goldberg Variations by J.S.Bach. This was the quilt that started this project - the idea of making a piece of visual art where every part was based on a different piece of music. So this quilt would not be complete without a square based on Bach's magnificent work: I could listen to Angela Hewitt play it over and over again.

Here is my 8" square version. Thirty variations on our two colours, emerald green and coral, with a lovely melody running through them all and touching each one. I used some stretch stitches so the finished square would resemble a crazy quilt in miniature.

Our second square today is a donation from Judy, based on one of her favourite pieces of music, Snowforms by R. Murray Schafer. "Murray Schafer composes avant-garde musical pieces and sometimes uses graphic notation", says Judy. "This quilt square uses some of  the graphic symbols from his a cappella choral piece Snowforms. The score, in white on a turquoise background, is almost as beautiful as the music. If you can't attend a concert to hear this piece, you will find 3 or 4 versions of it on Youtube."

Thanks, Judy. It definitely makes one think of snow!

Happy listening, everyone.

Susan