FRIDAY MUSIC: Béla Bartók, by JD

It is good to get away from the famous names to explore the lesser known names of classical music. Even better when they draw on traditional folk melodies of their homeland so here is a selection from the Hungarian Béla Bartók.

Béla Bartók was born in the Hungarian town of Nagyszentmiklós (now Sînnicolau Mare in Romania) on 25 March 1881, and received his first instruction in music from his mother, a very capable pianist; his father, the headmaster of a local school, was also musical.

Bartók’s earliest compositions offer a blend of late Romanticism and nationalist elements, formed under the influences of Wagner, Brahms, Liszt and Strauss, and resulting in works such as Kossuth, an expansive symphonic poem written when he was 23.

Around 1905 his friend and fellow-composer Zoltán Kodály directed his attention to Hungarian folk music and, coupled with his discovery of the music of Debussy, Bartók’s musical language changed dramatically: it acquired greater focus and purpose. But as he absorbed more and more of the spirit of Hungarian folk songs and dances, his own music grew tighter, more concentrated, chromatic and dissonant – and although a sense of key is sometimes lost in individual passages, Bartók never espoused atonality as a compositional technique.

His interest in folk music was not merely passive: Bartók was an assiduous ethnomusicologist, his first systematic collecting trips in Hungary being undertaken with Kodály, and in 1906 they published a volume of the songs they had collected. Thereafter Bartók’s involvement grew deeper and his scope wider, encompassing a number of ethnic traditions both near at hand and further afield: Transylvanian, Romanian, North African and others. Bartók died from polycythemia (a form of leukemia) on 26 September 1945 in New York.

https://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main?composerid=2694&ttype=BIOGRAPHY

Today’s topic: what three words?

You’ll know of a simple, ingenious system called What3words. https://what3words.com/ A trio of words will identify your location anywhere in the world to within 3 square metres; so useful in an emergency.

What if we try to do the same for a period of time?

For example ‘god.king.country’ recalls an entire bygone age of collective identity and established authority. More precisely, Henry V’s 'harry.england.george' pinpoints both time and place – Agincourt, 25 October 1415. 

The signing of the US Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia on 2 August 1776 is defined by 'life.liberty.happiness’ – a flag for the individual’s rights and self-determination, now tattered and fading in the scorching light of global money and power.

For here and now, ‘covid.mask.jab’ is weak, covering two years and much of the world.

What better combination would you suggest, for us or yourself?

WOKEWATCH (3): Saint Vlod and the Devil's Advocate

Before officially confirming someone as a saint the Catholic Church used to employ a 'Devil's advocate' who would argue against it, citing possible misdeeds and character flaws.

For some reason President Zelenskyy has been 'canonised' by the West following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, despite the years-long aggression of the Ukrainian government against the people of Donetsk and Lukhansk. Now either the latter are Ukrainians, in which case Zelenskyy has indeed been 'attacking his own people' (an allegation the Google Adsense Team forbids), or they are not, in which case Ukraine is guilty of the very thing of which Russia stands accused, i.e. 'waging aggressive war', which is against international law.

Zel is good-looking, superficially a charming young man and has excellent presentational skills; we had one of those in Number Ten a few years ago and one way or another we are still paying the cost. Our news media has fallen about Zelenskyy's neck like James I around Buckingham's, to a degree I would not have thought possible until the last few weeks. Will no-one here act the Devil's advocate?

Despite Silicon Valley efforts to block out coverage from the Russian side there are still voices querying Zel's saintliness. Here for example is The Grayzone, alleging his tyrannous behaviour:

'Zelensky has outlawed his opposition, ordered his rivals’ arrest, and presided over the disappearance and assassination of dissidents across the country...Western media has looked the other way, however, as Zelensky and top officials in his administration have sanctioned a campaign of kidnapping, torture, and assassination of local Ukrainian lawmakers accused of collaborating with Russia.'

https://thegrayzone.com/2022/04/17/traitor-zelensky-assassination-kidnapping-arrest-political-opposition/

Speaking of 'one less traitor' I am interested to learn more about what has happened, or will happen, to the two generals Zel sacked on March 31, calling them traitors:

The Daily Mail quotes him as saying 'Regarding antiheroes. Now, I do not have time to deal with all the traitors. But gradually they will all be punished.' 

Punished how?

Another site says he added... 'That is why the ex-chief of the Main Department of Internal Security of the Security Service of Ukraine, Naumov Andriy Olehovych, and the former head of the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Kherson region, Kryvoruchko Serhiy Oleksandrovych, are no longer generals.' 

Naumov fled the country just before the Russian incursion; but will he be safe from further retribution?

Here's a curious vid that YouTube deleted but has reappeared on the, let us say more broad-minded, Brand New Tube; it is suggested that the white lines on Zel's desk are narcotics, though by today's standards in political circles perhaps that is unexceptional. I should like a translation of what he is saying, though:

https://brandnewtube.com/watch/zelensky-high-as-kite-must-need-it-evil-is-no-walk-in-the-park_XuxhCZy9tVWvo6r.html

Anyhow, I think it's rather too early to admit Vlod to the community of the saints.

What is a Conservative? by Sackerson

‘Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role,’ said Dean Acheson sixty years ago. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00000015 

Perhaps I can help.

Our greatness is not in Empire; not even in joining someone else’s, as we did so disastrously in 1973. You can tell it was an awful mistake by the way that around the time of the Maastricht Treaty John Major assured us we would continue to be ‘the country of long shadows on county grounds, warm beer, etc.’ He did pride himself, didn’t he, on being able to talk to the man in the four-ale bar (loading up on Hooky as old maids cycle past to Holy Communion.)

What could be a better role than ‘being at the heart of Europe’ and ruling us in conclave with bibulous bureaucrats? How about being the best-run country in the world? One that works for all its people, without the Blairite ‘many not the few’ garbage?

Please don’t splutter, but unions and the Welfare State did make a huge difference in their time. However, I’d like to suggest that paradoxically, the next step forward towards moderate prosperity for all is not on the traditional socialist path. 

Also sixty years ago was a speech by Hugh Gaitskell to the Labour Party Conference, warning against the enthusiasm for membership of the Common Market. https://www.cvce.eu/en/obj/speech_by_hugh_gaitskell_against_uk_membership_of_the_common_market_3_october_1962-en-05f2996b-000b-4576-8b42-8069033a16f9.html He laid his finger on the tension in the socialist movement between international brotherhood and promoting the interests of working people at home; a tension that has never been adequately resolved and which has been clouded over with dreamy rhetoric from bloviators on both sides of the Commons debating chamber.

The key, I think, is in control of the rate of economic change. It is not in our interest to have a trade war with e.g China (even if we could do it); on the other hand, it has certainly not been in our long-term interest to let the World Trade Organisation break down all the lock gates on the money canal and see multinational businesses become insanely rich while Western workforces struggle in the mire left behind by the outrushing floodwater.

My understanding of Conservatives (not the ‘hard-faced men who had done well out of war’ but the ones who were brought up short by the 1945 landslide and realised that the game had changed) is that they would like a country in which individuals can improve their lives by industry and thrift. That involves setting rules for their economic environment so that it is possible to work and save money.

The Welfare State will crash if we allow claimants to multiply; we have to tackle economic immigration when there is so much structural unemployment and under-employment, and we have to tackle the latter by negotiating trade arrangements that allow for benefits on both sides. Is our political establishment sufficiently aware of how the system works, and could be made to work; and is it willing to tackle systemic challenges systemically?

If not, I have to be thankful that our airport is only twenty minutes away.

WOKEWATCH (2): Private Eye goes partisan

In the days of Richard Ingrams' editorship no-one was safe from satire - not even Albert Schweitzer, at one time considered an uncanonised saint. Private Eye was a frequent flier to the libel courts; but the threat of criminal libel from Sir James Goldsmith decided Ingrams that the game was no fun any more.

Now, as regards Ukraine, it seems to have taken sides. It's not as bad as the Daily Mail, for me now unreadable (the articles by e.g. Ian Birrell deserve to be in some kind of propaganda museum); even The Spectator last week featured a cartoon cover depicting Putin's scowling Slavic head as made up of a mountain of skulls (some Russophilic commentators perceive Western attitudes as racist and have taken to referring to themselves as 'steppen*gg*rs.)

Coming back to the once-fearless Eye: perhaps Ian Hislop has been a 'safe pair of hands' for too long; perhaps he has become too comfortable, too occupied with other projects. Here are the relevant cartoons from issue 1570 (the one before this week's); judge for yourself who is getting the easy ride here.

General

'Won't somebody help?

A personal dig

Warmonger, butcher, N*zi and devil

A tiny tease for Zelenskyy

... Maybe I'm wrong; maybe PE will get round to doing a thorough feature on all the parties who have long been pushing for this dreadful confrontation; and a critical profile of Vlod. Maybe.

WEEKENDER: Who really governs us? by Wiggia

This is another of those statements that a few years ago would be laughed at and consigned to a conspiracy theory bin. Today, not so much, as one item after another post Covid unravels; despite scant reporting in the MSM we should be asking questions on who, what and why certain actions were taken almost universally across the western world.

Was it just coincidence with lockdowns being prescribed by everyone at the same time, or was it just  a reaction from an indolent political class following the course that China had embarked on and thinking ’we have no other solution so let's follow that’? Anything sounds plausible in this clown world we currently live in.

Well in retrospect nothing really worked in the way that was described other than delaying everything to save the NHS, which needs saving from itself.

It has been interesting during the Covid period to see how groups have used the distraction to further their own aims, something I have alluded to in previous pieces. Nowhere has it been more evident than with the unelected WEF who have seemingly never been off the front pages with their ‘you will own nothing and be happy’ slogan. In normal circumstances they could be ignored, even laughed at and to a degree have been for years, yet suddenly during the pandemic they were anything but ignored; they took a centre stage role. Western leaders flocked in private jets to their forums and returned never explaining to the populace that elected them why they went in the first place and Klaus Schwab in his Ming the Merciless outfit has started to recruit ‘young global leaders’ to his WEF gang.

What is going on? If he is as insignificant as many say why do the political elite all make pilgrimages to his Davos forums? Something is not very democratic about all this and when you see Macron making WEF signs in public like an outed masonic lodge member one does start to think there is more to this than meets the eye.

Should we be concerned? I have no idea but an organisation that attracts Bono and private-jet-addicted Leonardo de Caprio to its fold is a bit worrying for reasons that don’t need explaining.

He set up his Young Global Leaders program in 2004 and now it includes actual leaders of western countries, the most prominent being Justin Trudeau, and half his cabinet are also adherents to the WEF; did anyone know this when they voted for him?

Emmanuel Macron, currently in the running to win another term as French president is also an advocate of the WEF and a YGL. How much of that was included in his speeches to the nation in recent times? Yet here he is making along with others the sign of the WEF:

                     

And never far away from all this are George Soros and Bill Gates. Soros has been pouring money into the pockets of organisations he approves of or wants to influence for decades, Bill Gates more recently

and in a much more public fashion. Again, why is he sitting in on a government team dealing with Covid? The blank given to a FOI request is telling:

And why did Boris give the Gates foundation several hundred million for vaccine development when we were developing our own? One would have thought that Gates' allegedly disastrous Indian vaccine campaign would have excluded him from anything to do with vaccines. Whatever the truth the Indian government have rolled back the program:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/healthcare/controversial-vaccine-studies-why-is-bill-melinda-gates-foundation-under-fire-from-critics-in-india/articleshow/41280050.cms

If nothing else there appears to be no justification for governments to wed themselves to organisations that are unelected, in this way. All governments take advice from experts in various fields of manufacturing business and the sciences, but when money is being taken from the same it should be transparent at the very least; but despite government assurances on being ever more transparent they are anything but in many areas.

So how much clout do these individuals and organisations have from outside of government? This goes further than lobbying Parliament which itself has become tainted with backhanders and non-disclosure.

The fact that huge sums of money have disappeared in fraudulent companies and individuals during the pandemic with just a nod to the actuality again gives the impression rightly that politics is now out of the little people's hands. Whoever and whatever we vote for we get an ever more watered down version of democracy, hence the immediate slamming of anything that is populist: after all, we can’t have anything the people who pay for it all having something they actually want, so populism becomes grouped with far right and probably Hitler.

It does seem that globalisation has become in itself a form of government. Huge financial clout on the world stage gives ever more power in the political arena to those who pull the strings behind the screen and now ever more in front of it. The demise of the West that is currently gaining pace might just see a great reset of a sort not envisaged by the WEF or any of its adherents.

Who is pulling his strings…?

FRIDAY MUSIC: Dancing with joy, by JD

Roger Scruton understood the value of dancing; it is essentially about what he called 'withness' i.e. dancing with as opposed to dancing apart from other people. 

Interestingly he prefers the modern 'rock an roll' energetic dancing of couples in preference to the degeneracy of stiff formal ballroom dancing. He sees the former as having a natural link with to older style of traditional dance in the Mediterranean. 

"The dance is a social activity, in which we exalt and idealise our rational nature. It shows freedom and discipline united in a single gesture, and at the same time made subject to the demands of social order..... it is an occupation of the whole person, and a display of the grace and completion of the soul."

• https://www.roger-scruton.com/homepage/about/music/understanding-music/173-the-lost-love-of-dancing
• https://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2016/01/britain-is-no-country-for-old-dancing_4.html

All of that is a long winded way of intruducing these dance videos showing loosely choreographed and (mostly) spontaneous displays of 'social cohesion' or 'withness' as Scruton describes it.

And finally.......... the painting which illustrates this last video refers to the 'heretical' text known as The Acts of John which tells how Jesus led his disciples in a round dance before the crucifixion as described here - http://gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/grsm_hymnofjesus.htm

The Hymn of Jesus was set to music by Gustav Holst and there are one or two versions elsewhere on YouTube.

Lord Of The Dance Hymn (Contemporary Worship Song)