Alex's Historical Fiction

Top of the Pops

Preparing for the MRI scan tomorrow. Have been advised to take along a CD to listen to. They'll pipe the music through on headphones apparently, ostensibly to cover the loud sounds of the MRI machinery. What to take? Since I've got to stay still, nothing that's remotely dancey that's for sure! Or anything too emotional either. So these are the ones I rejected - actually it lead me to put my part of my CD collection in order, and I couldn't help but put these on for a quick burst as I sorted stuff out:

Britten, Serenade for tenor, horn and strings: Love the seemingly-lazy horn solo at the beginning and end of this piece. This music was used to introduce a reading of Alfred Duggan's Conscience of the King (about 5th-6th century king/tyrant Cerdic) many years ago on radio. I only found out many years later what the music was, and I rushed out to buy it. For me, it remains the epitome of the Dark Age hunting horn, though I'm sure they couldn't get all those notes then!

Tavener, The Protecting Veil: quite simply jaw-dropping and I have never failed to have a few tears falling. As intense as Part, but possibly more audacious

Holst, Oriental Suite/Beni Mora: The first dance is a sheer outbreak of early 20th century european orientalism. Great fun (as Holst invariably is). I also really like his Japenese Suite. His Planets Suite was responsible for introducing me to the moods of classical music.

Barry - Lion in Winter: Loved the film (yes, I know it's anachronism-city, but it put over all the rivalries and in-fighting quite well), and adore the music, some of the strongest that York-born John Barry has composed. When I was looking for links for this blog, I came across a website about a 2003 remake.

And the winners of my MRI CD contest are:

Sibelius - Kullervo: Yes, full heroic mode here. Good stuff: engage brain (check!) engage imagination (check!) and sit tight (hopefully)

or

Tallis - Spem in Alium: Cool, calm and collected.

Yes, I'm taking two in case there's an outbreak of 'Alex Fever' so that my first choice doesn't work for some reason best known to the gods who rule my fate. Innocent folk involved, tend to say 'That's never happened before' or 'That's unlucky', but to me it's about par for the course. Umm, perhaps I ought to take three CDs, just in case ...

posted by Alex Bordessa @ Wednesday, September 28, 2005