Friday, February 17, 2023
FRIDAY MUSIC: Martha Davis, by JD
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Britons: Painted People and Blue Priests
The fruit loaf called by the Welsh 'bara brith' means 'speckled bread' in their tongue.
This reminded me of the word 'Brythonic', a term coined for a group of southern Celtic languages by John Rhys, Oxford's first Professor of Celtic and a fellow of Jesus College.
Now I speculated (speckle-ated?) that the 'bryth-/brith' could be connected, since the ancient Britons painted themselves, and in an early twentieth century article I found this:
'... the name of Briton apparently comes from the word 'Brith,' painted, while Giraldus Cambrensis records that 'Glaswir,' 'blue men', was in his time the name for the Welsh clergy, probably a survival attached to the priestly caste from heathen times. It is probable that both Britons and Caledonians adopted the practice of painting from the earlier races among whom they found it observed.'
'The Pictish Race and Kingdom,' by James Ferguson, in The Celtic Review, Vol. 7, No. 25 (Feb., 1911) - page 30
https://zenodo.org/record/1570180/files/article.pdf?download=1
Thursday, February 09, 2023
FRIDAY MUSIC: Humphrey Lyttelton, by JD
Monday, February 06, 2023
The balloon goes up
Sunday, February 05, 2023
COLOUR SUPPLEMENT: Mazes, by JD
Friday, February 03, 2023
FRIDAY MUSIC: Francis Poulenc, by JD
Friday, January 27, 2023
FRIDAY MUSIC: Robert Burns, by JD
Robert Burns wrote rather a lot of songs, more then 300 as far as I can tell so this is but a very small selection!
As noted in previous posts to celebrate Burns Night, very often a Burns Supper will be held on the Friday before or following the 25th rather than on the actual day itself. It gives everyone the whole weekend to recover from any accidental overindulgence.
So for your Burns Supper this evening here are a few of his songs to set the mood....