Chris Whiteside's Blog

"Rule Britannia by London born composer Thomas Arne was the finale of the patriotic opera "Alfred" which was, obviously, about Alfred the Great, and was first performed in August 1740 (55 years after the death of Henry Purcell.) The rest of the opera is rarely performed today, which is rather a shame as it contained some rather great music, but "Rule Britannia" soon became and has remained one of Britain's favourite and most stirring patriotic songs.

 “Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.” — Ronald Reagan

William Boyce was born in London in 1711, (so sixteen years after the death of Henry Purcell.) He was one of the most famouss composers of the 18th century. This piece is an ode to the year 1772: interesting concept, but it is a lovely bit of music.

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was born to a prominent Anglo-Irish family in Dublin in 1852. At the age of 29 he became one of he founding professors at the Royal College of Music in London, where he taught composition for the rest of his life. Some very distinguished composers including Gustav Holst, Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughn-Williams were among his pupils. He had a particularly enormous influence on English church music, and this setting of the canticles for evening prayer is still frequently sung in English cathedrals and churches, and indeed others round the world, today.

"It is bad enough that so many people believe things without any evidence. What is worse is that some people have no conception of evidence and regard facts as just someone else's opinion." — Thomas Sowell

Samuel Wesley (24 February 1766 – 11 October 1837) was one of three members of the prolific and talented Wesley family with that Christian name, and was an English organist and composer in the late Georgian period. His grandfather, also called Samuel Wesley, was a famous poet: his uncle was John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Wesley was a contemporary of Mozart (1756–1791) and was called by some of his admirers "the English Mozart", but he had a son, Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810 - 1876) who went on to be an even more famous composer than he was. Sadly the Samuel Wesley who wrote the piece below lived before the existence of recording devices, so itis impossible to compare his playing of the organ with those who lived in other centuries, but if half of what was said of his playing by his contemporaries is true he must have been one of the best organists who ever lived. Unfortunately many of his compositions do not survive, but here is one which does.

 National Highways have confirmed that they are proposing to cut the speed limit on the section of the A595 through Bigrigg in West Cumbria from 40mph to 30mph. The speed limit would be enforced by average speed limit cameras. There will be a public consultation before a final decision is taken. If approved the reduced speed limit would come into effect next year (2027.)

"Hope is no basis for a defence policy." Margaret Thatcher

Sir Hubert Parry was born in Bournemouth in 1840,  145 years after the death of Henry Purcell, and his first published major compositions appeared in 1880, nine years before Elgar's first published work. This piece, " Blest Pair Of Sirens, " was first performed on 17th May 1887, at St James's Hall, London.  

 

Politics ends at the waters' edge. Today is Ukrainian Independence day. The Chancellor, John Healey, posted the following: "For as long as it takes, Britain will stand with Ukraine in their fight against Putin's illegal invasion.  On their Independence Day today, we salute the Ukrainian people for their bravery, and fearless determination to fight for their future. Slava Ukraini"

Maurice Green was born in London in 1696, the year after Henry Purcell died. I have often posted his anthem " Lord, let me know mine end " but for a change, here is a lovely little baritone solo called " His name shall endure for ever. " (It comes from a collection called "Hearken unto me, ye holy children.")

 

 

For the avoidance of doubt, in reposting the tweet below by Peter North I am not endorsing every word of it and nor do I endorse many of the other things Peter has said in the past. Nevertheless, I think his post today on why someone who was a harsh critic of the previous Conservative government is coming round to the possibility that he might vote for Kemi's Conservatives at the next election is extremely interesting. I have published the whole thing below, leaving in a few bits which I personally disagree with - memo to the candidates' department, you don't need to purge me for not supporting Kemi on ECHR because I do support her - so that it will be clear that I am not using the all-too-common tactic of selective quotation. This is what Peter North had to say today. "There's a fact that many on the right, myself included, will not like at all. Though with caveats,  @KemiBadenoch 's Conservative Party is the party of the right most capable of forming a viab...

English organist and composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley lived from August 14, 1810, (115 years after the death of Purcell) to April 19, 1876 (13 years before the publication of Elgar's first published piece.) This lovely anthem was pulished in 1853.

I had pre-planned this post before my decision yesterday that for the next fortnight I will be publishing a daily music spot from British-born composers writing between 1695 and 1889. (after some nitwit on X seriously annoyed me by suggesting that there was a dearth of significant British born composers between the death of Purcell and the rise of Elgar.) Thomas Tallis died 110 years before Henry Purcell, so this one doesn't count, and I shall publish a second Sunday Music post today which will.

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, has described the prospect of a coalition government with Reform UK as “monstrous”. Again ruling out the prospect of a deal between the two parties, she said any agreement would “put off” as many voters as it would attract. Badenoch: Tory deal with Reform would be ‘monstrous’

"Change all laws and treaties that thwart robust border control. Detain those arriving. Sign return agreements with nations amenable to them. All the rest: deport to Rwanda or other nations willing to do a deal." Matthew Syed in today's Sunday Times on how to stop the boats:-

Today someone suggested on X that there were few British native born composers of any significance between the death of Henry Purcell and the emergence of Elgar. I strongly disagree. Granted the most distinguished composer working in Britain in that era, Handel, was German born, but he moved to London to work in Britain - and he would never in a million years have done that if the place was a musical desert. And apart from Handel some of my other favourite composers were British born and working between the death of Purcell and the rise of Elgar. So for the next two weeks I shall be publishing a music spot every day and the vast majority will be pieces which flowed from the pens of native-born Brits who were composing between 1695 and 1889 (the publication date of Edward Elgar's first published work, "Salut d'Amour.") I will include works by Thomas Arne, William Boyce, Maurice Greene, both Samuel and Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and others. ...

I am not the most enormous fan of Elon Musk, and particularly not of his impact on social media, but there is one contribution he has made to social media which has worked far better than I had dared hope and has to be put down as a positive. No fact-checking system is perfect, but the overwhelming majority of community notes I have seen on X, whether I generally agree with the position of the tweet to which the note was appended or not, have been accurate, and even where I generally agree with the point being made the community notes which qualified that position were generally balanced, fair and reasonable. Which makes some research published this week on X by a Conservative poster who uses the handle "Vodka & Selena" all the more interesting. (Hereafter I shall refer to him as "V&S") HIs thread starts  HERE . Now I've told you up front his admitted bias, and there will be some people who don't like what he says who will see that as enough reason t...

"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." ( Abraham Lincoln )

"I need a hero" (the version sung by Jennifer Saunders in Shrek II) with video from Luke Skywalker's hallway scene from the climax of "The Mandalorian" season II   

"That some achieve great success is proof to all that others can achieve it as well."  ( Abraham Lincoln. )  

Alex Massie has a good piece in The Times today in response to those who would regulate the press. Here are some extracts. "Free speech is universal or it’s worth nothing Those who want to police the press appear to like the idea of freedom of expression for themselves but not for others." Alex Massie "Anyone wishing to catch the last of the summer vibes could do very much worse than keep an eye on Zack Polanski. Earlier this week the Green Party leader objected that “once again, parts of our media are failing at the most basic part of their job — reporting the truth”. In this instance, the failure was to link wildfires in Britain with climate change at every opportunity. Last Saturday, on the other hand, Polanski was busy condemning Andy Burnham’s “spineless response” to the Jason Arday affair on the grounds that the prime minister fails to appreciate this is an opportunity “to tackle the press”. Notwithstanding the tragedy of the Arday story — for such it is, despite i...

"When the people slagging off the media for doing their job include Zack Polanski, Jolyon Maugham, Zara Sultana, Jeremy Corbyn, Hacked Off, Labour MPs who want Leveson 2, That Islamist with his lists of erring hacks, Zia Yusuf and Nigel Farage  - and those slagged off include the Times, the Telegraph, the Mail and the Guardian -  it is possible to conclude that the media is indeed doing its job properly." Tim Shipman  on X today  ( Tim Shipman on X: "When the people slagging off the media for doing their job include Zack Polanski, Jolyon Maugham, Zara Sultana, Jeremy Corbyn, Hacked Off, Labour MPs who want Leveson 2, That Islamist with his lists of erring hacks, Zia Yusuf and Nigel Farage - and those slagged off include the" / X )

“Sogno di Volare” ("The Dream of Flight") Composed by Christopher Tin Lyrics by Leonardo da Vinci, adapted by Chiara Cortez Theme from the game "Civilisation VI

As per my article yesterday: many years ago I heard a speech by Councillor Eric Pickles, then the leader of Bradford Council, later the Rt Hon Eric Pickles, MP for Brentwood and Ongar and holder of various government offices including Conservative Chiarman. He had been asked to talk about the press, and his speech included this line: "If the press is drinking in the last-chance saloon, a wise government will think long and hard before calling time."