A beautiful Debussy podcast by Oannes. Τρία Πρελούδια από το Δεύτερο Βιβλίο του Claude Debussy.Αποδίδει συναρπαστικά ο Φινλανδός πιανίστας Paavali …
Claude Debussy : Préludes Book II – performed by Paavali Jumppanen
So let’s take a quick look at his birth chart. He has Cancer rising, with a wide Mars Neptune conjunction near the ascending degree, the latter being closely trine his Sun and a retrograde Mercury on either side of the Scorpio/Sagittarius cusp. Sounds complicated?
As I have noted before, Neptune is very often prominent in some way in the charts of creative artists and composers.
I suspect this is the source of much inspiration. Britten was from Lowestoft in Suffolk in the east of England, he was brought up by the sea and had a strong connection to it. One of his most famous pieces, the opera ‘Peter Grimes’ was inspired by this.
Neptune in Cancer in his first house symbolises this, with the added emotional force of Mars, which may have been difficult to control at times.
In my own mind, I equate that wonderful sound in music of the rolling waves releasing on the beach from the ‘Four Sea Interludes‘ of ‘Peter Grimes’, to the Neptune Mars in Cancer conjunction. It’s beautiful, imaginative, and slightly disquieting. Neptune’s supportive connection to the Sun will give him further innate sensitivity.
I am also interested by the Sun conjunct a retrograde Mercury bestriding the Scorpio Sagittarius cusp, in houses 5 and 6.
It’s almost like a confusion of identity here, where the mental processes are turned more inwardly, unusually, and ‘out of the box’, and where the sense of self (the Sun in last minute of Scorpio) is always looking beyond but never quite getting there.
In some sense this may have been another prime reason for him becoming a composer and musician, in that the challenges of expressing thought conventionally with the retrograde Mercury, can be given over to creative, musical inspiration, expressed through ways alluded to above.
Mars is also ruler of houses 5 and 10, giving much energetic support and a link between his creativity and career path. And it is interesting to note that he was a fine conductor and pianist too.
His ruler, the Moon, is in Virgo in house 3 but very close to the Nadir of the chart, trine to Jupiter. He clearly has a strong emotional connection to his roots, probably his mother, and he never lost that sense of ‘belonging’ to the Suffolk coast.
However, in Virgo the Moon is quite fastidious, supported by a more circumspect Jupiter in Capricorn, a quality which will certainly help the art of putting all that inspiration from Neptune down on paper.
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The word proms is in fact a shortening of the term Promenade Concerts, a cultural phenomena which had its origins in 18th century London, which took place in pleasure gardens where the spectators were allowed to move around the orchestras. The word promenade is a borrowing from the French language, meaning to walk.
In the 19th century this style of concert moved indoors as well, leading eventually to the establishment of ‘The Proms’ on August 10 1895 at the Queens Hall, Langham Place by the well known impresario, Robert Newman.
The idea was to offer the experience of classical music to the general public, with lower ticket prices in an informal setting. It has to be said that the idea worked, with a comprehensive schedule of performances spanning over two months.
However, the Proms do have their detractors. For instance, I have heard it said more than once that they are too English. Whilst there is certainly a great deal of flag waving, a cursory look at the famous ‘Last Night of the Proms’, will reveal flags from all over the world.
What is more, much time and energy has been put in to diversifying the content, with the inclusion of world music, as well as folk music from all over Great Britain and Ireland.
copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019
It is a masterful, yet understated and fitting tribute to those who gave their lives in the most devastating conflict yet known to mankind.
It is also a fine complement to Edwin Lutyens’ earlier, more classically styled WW1 memorial, just a few yards away.
Every May the West Lindsey region of northern Lincolnshire opens the doors of its churches to visitors for two weekends – the West Lindsey Churches Festival.
Pictured above is Scothern church, quite small but beautiful, the whole churchyard raised a few feet above the surrounding area of the village.
Once inside we had the usual very warm welcome, with residents sharing information about the church, the village, their lives in general. And of course we had to partake in the coffee and cake on offer.
What made Scothern a little unusual was the organ and piano recitals going on over the weekend.
Another interesting feature was the exhibition of childhood toys.
And perhaps the greatest feature of the church is the wonderful 16th century Dutch panel painting called ‘The Adoration of the Magi’.
Ciscography 