Sunday 19 September 2010

MATINS, MONTEVERDI'S VESPERS OF 1610, XII. Ave maris stella

0 From an earlier post

Dick the Prick said...

Monterverdi's Vespers at 7.30 tonight and it's the end of Big Brother too which i'll miss quite a bit perhaps.

callmeishmael said...

I saw the Monteverdi, mr dtp, bewitched. Birmingham's Symphony Hall was built to be tuned, one adjustment ot the auditorium for the Vienna Boys Choir, another for Joan Baez, panels and stuff, whole walls moving, a responsive or interactive or something auditorium; the Monteverdi, however, moved performers around the Albert Hall to the same effect. One shouldn't but one does reproach oneself for one's ignorance, maybe it's because so many bullying lawyerbastards so smugly intone that ignorance of the law is no excuse, as tho8gh they were Eichmann, selecting those who might work, for a week or two, those who must die, as though there was some higher order which fixed things up, just so, and even if you could never hope to understand it, much less adhere to it, you were its prey, by God, stand in line when I'm talking to you.

Reproach myself endlessly, I did, though, for not knowing about Monteverdi; me, who posts evensongs as though I had some special knowledge, pig ignorant. It's tough, working on cyberstreet.

8 comments:

mrs narcolept said...

Nothing wrong with saying just listen to this! The Sanctus always makes me shiver, dark angels calling to each other across the abyss. I think we sang before we spoke.

call me ishmael said...

It was the Sanctus or this, mrs n. It is interesting, that, speech or song. One can make a case for both. Does anyone here know?

Anonymous said...

Probably the "Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis" movement, which usually appears slightly earlier

mongoose said...

A strange conjunction, Mr I, vespers and the Eichmann savage. Back in the day, we used to have vespers of an Easter Saturday (I think. It's all a very long time ago. Is Evensong just vespers for poor Protestant folk? I hope so.) Incense and the sun streaming thought the windows. You could almost believe it all. It was certainly something to be experienced and respected.

Respected too were the Israelis who said "Well, fuck that. We will go off to Brazil and drag the bastard's arse back here and hang him from the highest tree in Jerusalem." And so said all of us in those days. And look at what they are become - USS Battlestation Israel. Operation Desert Storm - Tehran Edition coming to you any day now. A few vespers wouldn't be wasted. A bit of humility before God, eh? Before the sun goes down.

V nice noise BTW.

call me ishmael said...

I hope to review the "Lord" Levy book, shortly, if I can finish it. I don't know if he speaks for contemporary Jewry or if he is a cunt of a unique water but his smug certainty of his specialness to God - a God whose commandments he ignores with Blair-like elastic morality - is utterly repellent. And utterly dangerous.

I think hanging Eichmann, incidentally, was an early step on the road to the characteristic self-righteous demagoguery of the modern Israel. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Dick the Prick said...

Demigogues are fine just as long as it ain't over here. It just seems so much effort to give a shit.

Seriously, just watched 5 hours of Lib Dem 'news' and fuck me sideways with a pineapple, i'm still none the wiser.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you back in the good fight, Mr Ishmael. When you fall back exhausted, try some Robert Carver. I'm afraid I can only find a minutes worth of sample of 'O bone Jesu' at the foot of this site, but it might whet your appetite for one of Scotlands finest, strutting a while before yer Claudio.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=173777

Sang the whole work a couple of years ago, but had never heard of the man before doing so. And how many had heard of Claudio Monteverdi before 1950?

I don't think Ignorance is not knowing, I think it's not wanting to know. That's my pig ignorant definition - and if you accept it, you're well in the clear, Mr Ish.

We've just started rehearsing 'The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610', as it tends to be called, and I hope I enjoy singing it as much as the Carver, which, imho, was also class stuff. And I hope you enjoy listening to the Carver as much.

I'm not sure that God bothers me, and I certainly don't bother him (her, it) but music is the one of the things that makes me seriously question his non existence - that and the kindness of strangers.

And the warmth of friends and the warmth of my memories of them.

call me ishmael said...

Thank you, mr anonymous and I second all that you say....but also mind that one of Scotland's greatest treasures sang that Music is so much less than what you are...even the birds, when they sing, it's not everything.....