"A QUESTION OF MUSIC CRITICISM" a talk by Bryce Morrison at our January meeting

Bryce Morrison is best known as a music critic and broadcaster.  But he is also a pianist, teacher, and adjudicator of piano competitions.  In the course of this multi-faceted career he has met a great many well-known people, a generous selection of whom he mentioned in the autobiographical conclusion of his talk, which focussed finally on his friendship with two pianists, the late Eileen Joyce, whose performance legacy he is intent on preserving, and Alfred Brendel, despite the latter’s acerbic opinion of composers whom Mr Morrison admires such as Mendelssohn, Fauré , Grieg (“music for chambermaids”) and Rachmaninov.

For Mr Morrison, who detests the expression “classical music”, and claims to dislike musical snobbery (a dig perhaps at his friend Brendel?), “music is about everything”, and he began his talk by citing Mendelssohn’s view that “music isn’t too vague for language; it’s too precise”.  Hence there will always be a question about music criticism. Members of an audience may well express their views about a concert they’ve just heard, for or against, but ephemerally.  Critics on the other hand publish their views, and thus expose themselves to criticism of their criticism, with subjectivity difficult to avoid.

Many writers and musicians, including Iris Murdoch, John Fowles, Sibelius and Noel Coward, saw no point in criticism, while others, including D H Lawrence, T S Eliot and Dr Johnson, regarded it as indispensable, if elusive, with music criticism, in Mr Morrison’s view, the most elusive of all.  He suggests that critics should themselves be performers and should avoid criticising works that they themselves have never performed (conditions that could surely rule out much of the critical fraternity, as well as discussion of premieres?).  Music, he believes, is for ever as new as it was when it was composed; thus lofty denigration of “old hat” composers is merely snobbish and consequently worthless.

A good critic is knowledgeable, committed, enthusiastic, able to write well, with talent and understanding, and a desire to point people in the right direction rather than merely to score points.  Many pianists, obsessed with their own genius or technique, find it hard to be objective.  But there have been exceptions, all of them excellent critics, including Schumann, Barenboim, Debussy and even Liszt – and presumably Bryce Morrison, though he was modest enough not to point this out. 

Richard Thomas

Rother Books: a New Bookshop In Battle

In November Ian Cawley, who used to work at Waterstone's in Hastings with Lizzie Lee, opened an independent bookshop in Battle. 59 - 60 High Street, TN33 0EN. Details of events there, such as book signings, will appear on the blog.

Here is a link CLICK HERE to their Facebook page. 

STANZAS

STANZAS, now in its third year (No 10 has just been published, four numbers a year) is a literary magazine devoted almost entirely to poetry.  Although it is based in Cape Town, the magazine publishes poems from anywhere in the world, including translations.  An international sub. costs less than £30 a year (SAR 452) and may be obtained from www.stanzas.co.za

The editors are Douglas Reid Skinner (who gave an excellent talk to the Winchelsea Literary S ociety last year) and  Patricia Schonstein. Both are working hard to extend the range of the contributions, and are beginning to attract work from younger black writers such as Tshepiso Mabula  and Medzani Musandiwa, as well as publishing the poems of more established writers like Tony Voss, Fiona Zerbst and John Eppel. The latest editorial says that “the editorial team have always viewed Stanzas as a kind of co-operative and we are grateful to everyone whose contributions of ideas, skills and writing have enabled us to reach the first bend, get around it and as far down the road as the first milestone.”

 

Here, with the permission of the editors, are a couple of "tasters":

 

 

This Turning (by Athol Williams)

My mother kisses me

on the lips,

leaf to leaf.

My sister wraps her head in a scarf

wherever she goes, like a meatball

wrapped in cabbage.

My father crushes and rolls

dried leaves, then adds a flame

to make smoke, to make merry.

My neighbour abducts worms

from their homes on leaves

for his dinner—the worms, not the leaves.

I don’t eat worms or meatballs

but my diet is more than leaves—

pumpkin, mango, tofu, pasta.

I am almost fifty, yet still

my mother kisses me

on the lips, leaf to leaf;

I wish she wouldn’t

but the earth turns

and the wind blows

and the leaves come and go

and I am part of this turning

my mother, sister, father, neighbour,

all of us, part of this turning.

RHYMES for a friend in trouble (by C J Driver)

We seldom get what we deserve:

luck, like light, travels in a curve.

Yet how we wish this were the norm:

to promise what we then perform.

The world’s a complicated place,

where grief walks hand in hand with grace,

a paradigm of love unearned,

revenge reserved, reward returned,

a kind of chaos thickly sprayed

to thwart the best plans ever made

and all advice the old can give

subsumed in  this:  you learn to live.

BBC4: James Joyce - A Shout in the Street, by Angelica Huston

 
On Monday 15 January Angelica Huston presented on BBC 4 a fascinating hour-long TV documentary on James Joyce. Her involvement with the author's work had included acting in the film, "The Dead" (1987). The screenplay was by her brother, Tony, and the film was last directed by her late father, John Huston. In the opinion of some, "The Dead", which was the last story in Joyce's "Dubliners" is one of the best short stories ever written. The documentary included contributions from Edna O'Brien, Colm Toibin, Ann Enwright and several other contemporary Irish writers. Archive film was used to illustrate the biographical and historical background to Joyce's work, including his education by Jesuits, his marriage to Nora Barnacle, his schizophrenic daughter and the family's "exile" to Trieste, Switzerland, (twice) and Paris. If you didn't catch it live, it's not too late. It should be available on BBC iPlayer until the second week in February.

Lawrence Youlten

News and Events, January 2018

Last 2017 meeting: On 8 January a much-appreciated speaker returned to talk about "Jane Austen". John Davison (for it was he) has enlightened us on several previous occasions and his talks are always keenly anticipated. After his first talk to us some years ago, the discussion was started by someone saying "I wish I'd had an English teacher like you". This sums up his appeal. "Jane Austen" was up to our great expectations (yes, I know that was Dickens, not Jane Austen), and we look forward to John's next visit. His friend, and former colleague at Berkhamsted School, Jonty Driver, was unable to be with us for John's talk, as he had recently undergone major surgery. Jonty is now making a good recovery and I'm sure all members will wish him well. We hope he will be able to get to the next meeting on 19 January when we can thank him at the AGM for all the great speakers he has persuaded to visit us over the years.



Our next meeting: on Friday 19 January, will be a talk, illustrated by music recordings, by Bryce Morrison, a distinguished music critic. You can find out more about him by visiting his web site CLICK HERE  On the subject of his talk, he writes: "The topic of my talk is 'A Question of Music Criticism.' Behind this is the assumption that there is always a question regarding criticism whether literary, musical etc. Much of this is autobiographical, much of it hilarious, (well, in retrospect). To end, we can listen to three short recordings of truly great piano playing. A reminder that in the long term you cannot really talk or write about music(something I have been doing as long as I can remember!), you can create it, play it and listen to it."

Reminder: On 20 January, local author and Winchelsea Literary Society member Guy Fraser-Sampson will be signing copies of his books, including his latest novel 'A Death in the Night', at the Rye Bookshop.

The Book Group has now been going for 10 years, and has read, or at least discussed, over a hundred books in many different categories, including fiction, biography, poetry, etc. To mark the anniversary, Howard Norton put together a booklet listing all the books that have been discussed, and all the individuals who have contributed by choosing books and leading discussions. To mark the occasion, it was proposed by Howard, and enthusiastically agreed by the members present at our last meeting in 2017, to call the group "The Robert Hargreaves Book Group" in honour of his contribution to the founding of the Winchelsea Literary Society and its associated Book Group. Here is a link to Robert's obituary from the Guardian in 2010: CLICK HERE
The provisional 2018 programme appears on the right.