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Grand Prelude and Fugue by Joseph Holbroke


Guest Hector5

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Guest Hector5

Found this piece of music while idly surfing which looks rather interesting:

 

http://imslp.org/wiki/Grand_Prelude_and_Fu...brooke,_Joseph)

 

I rather think that my interest in the piece is based on the fact that the composer seems to have been a thoroughly nasty person. There is a fascinating biography of the man that can be found at:

 

 

http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/joseph-holbrooke.pdf

 

Enjoy - or not.....................

 

H

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Found this piece of music while idly surfing which looks rather interesting:

 

http://imslp.org/wiki/Grand_Prelude_and_Fu...brooke,_Joseph)

 

I rather think that my interest in the piece is based on the fact that the composer seems to have been a thoroughly nasty person. There is a fascinating biography of the man that can be found at:

 

 

http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/joseph-holbrooke.pdf

 

Enjoy - or not.....................

 

H

 

========================

 

 

How utterly fascinating....an occult Prelude & Fugue!

 

Now far be it from me to defend Jospeh Holbrooke, but I feel that the article by Dr.David Wright is somewhat jaundiced, whether or not Holbrooke was a monster, a fanticist or a n'er do well.

 

I love the title given to him, "Cockney Wagner." It immediately conjoured up images of Brunhilda covered in pearls.

 

Dr Wright is clearly wrong in his assertion that this (probably)" 'orrid geezer" shared some sort of affinity with some very odd people, and that this was a fatal flaw in his character.

 

Which self-respecting musician or artist doesn't?

 

Auden wasn't above snogging his (male) pupils, but he inspired Banjamin Britten and others.

 

"He was my North, my South, my East and West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong."

 

 

Lord Byron was all things to all men, (and women), but he remains a literary giant, whatever his violent passions, moods swings and eventual refugee status in Europe.

 

I too adore Schubert, but not because he frequented brothels. (The composer Bonnonchini lived above one, and Brahms had a bit of a strange early life!)

 

Rosaleen Norton may have indulged in witchcraft and the occult, (usually a perfectly harmless pursuit), but there can be no denying that she had real talent, enjoyed success and left some remarkable gothic art.

 

Goossens involvement with her was more unfortunate than immoral, one must assume, and the allegation of pornography is a typical one from the 1950's, when "the law" hounded the likes of Quentin Crisp; a harmless eccentric if ever there was one.

 

Wasn't Cyril Scott the composer who was so greatly admired by that flawlsss paragon of the English musical establishment, the organist Sir Thomas Armstrong? (I met him once).

 

God knows what Apollo got up to with all those men in a boat, but again, Dr Wright takes a view with the benefit of hinsdight and a completely different world; labelling certain accepted, ancient Greek practices in the process. How puzzled the ancient Greeks would be if they were to come back to-day.

 

I don't see anything wrong in the macabre writing of Edgar Allen Poe: the "Pit and the pendelum" and "The Raven" quite magnificent works of great imagination.

 

One may take a view on the fact that he "married" his 13 year old cousin, and made an honest woman of her........eventually.

 

Didn't the "literary theologian" H G Wells write a short-story, where a man falls into a vat of molten-steel?

 

The fear of the occult has always been a favourite of the Christian strom-troopers, but actually, it is just a different way of regarding human spirituality and the way we interact with nature.

 

Above all, Holbrooke lived at a time when everything "establishment" was being challenged by whatever means, and frankly, it was long overdue.

 

Holbrooke may not be remembered much to-day, or even known, but I personally find nothing so out of place in his life that it should give rise to unproven allegation of cause, effect and personality disorder. He was a child of his time, and far less sinister than the Bloomsbury Set, into which Sir William Walton was drawn.

 

These were the great thinkers, observers and manipulators of social fashion and change; which in itself was quite an "occult" activity.

 

Like "Schrodinger's Cat," it depends on time, place and perspective, as to whether these people are dead or still very much alive.

 

In the meanwhile, who is Dr Wright, and why was he so very wrong in his assumptions?

 

MM

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I'm sure that given sufficient knowledge (especially concerning his coded diaries) it would be perfectly possible to shed equally disparate lights on Herbert Howells. It all depends on what sort of image you want to portray and your skill at doing so. Of such things are journalists made.

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I'm sure that given sufficient knowledge (especially concerning his coded diaries) it would be perfectly possible to shed equally disparate lights on Herbert Howells. It all depends on what sort of image you want to portray and your skill at doing so. Of such things are journalists made.

 

==========================

 

 

Who needs the diaries?

 

I just use the music. :rolleyes:

 

MM

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