Now Playing ( NON film / game / tv scores ) - Part ~~~~~

An excellent album. Good choice Captain

It sounds like David Bedford but not quite as assessable. I like it.

NP: SIMPLE THINGS - ZERO 7

Found a copy of this in a charity shop earlier today for just 50 pence. I lost my original purchase a couple of years ago but had it ripped to mp3s. It's nice, again, to have a physical copy of one of my favourite albums from the last decade.

Now... time to chill the fuck out.

NP : SYMPHONY # 3 'PASTORAL' - Ralph Vaughan Williams




This poem was written by Canadian Field Doctor Lt. Col. John McCrae after one of his friends had been killed at Ypres, Belgium.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Crikey. An officer, a poet and a rally car driver!

Hmm...

I should really have put JP: Just Played.

This work never fails to move me deeply and I'd hope to one day hear it performed live, it's rarely played and I'd presume that's because it's not a "showy" symphony. The version I just played was the very first Vaughan Williams recording I ever bought. Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic.

NP : SECURITY - Peter Gabriel



Excellent album of World/Experimental Rock from the early 80's ( 82? )

Note to HANS ZIMMER & BRIAN TYLER, now THIS IS DRUMMING, if you can't be arsed to listen to this whole track check it out from about 3.45 for some awesomeness!

The German Rememberance Day (Volkstrauertag) is next Sunday. Luckily my Dad - born 1932 - was too young to get involved in any military action.
German TV aired a performance of the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten from Coventry a few days ago.

Volker

Yes, I did. It's an almost overhelming work. I agree, you can't hear something that massive very often.

My Dad grew up "in the system", never having known anything else. His mother was in support of the regime. (My Grandfather died early.) She helped running a pub, so she had to be very careful about what she said there. My Dad joined the Nazi Youth Organization "Hitler Jugend". He still can sing the songs he learned there. Of cause he never does.

My father grew up in Bochum. He experianced two major bombardements of the city. They would sit in a special room in the basement and listen to the sound of the explosions drawing ever nearer. One time, the neighbouring house got a full hit. My Dad witnessed the screaming suvivours being taken away. That really traumatized him.

My Dad for a long time could not enjoy fireworks like you and I do because the sound of the explosions would remind him of these nights of terror. But he never admitted to it and went with us children anyhow. He didn't want deny us the fun. I would take him till he was 60 to really talk about his feelings.

Dad also experianced the "Kinderlandverschickung". Children in the western cities that were endangered by air strikes were taken away from their parents and sent to foster families in the eastern provinces. In the case of my Dad it was Pomerania. He was very lucky not to be sent as far east as Prussia because when the Soviet Red Army crossed the German border he was spared the full terror of the flight.

My Dad told me many more things. Now that he turned 81 last Saturday he doesn't like to talk about these times any more. I suspect that things he saw and heard back then hassle hime more now that he isn't occupied with other things so much any more.

Volker

Thank you , too, Tim.
I think we should have a thread for such (hi)stories but I don't know how to call it.

Both of those are excellent albums. I particularly love the first (as the JMJ completist that I am).

Wrong thread. This is actually film music.

Tim,

Do you have any experience with George Enescu?

If you like Debussy you're going to like him. His third symphony was released on Ondine and was composed during World War I. I'm surprised it took me this long to discover him.
Tom