MUSIC SATURDAY - RAVEL

“And tears are heard within the harp I touch.” - Petrarch

Maurice Ravel was born Joseph-Maurice Ravel on March 7, 1875, in Ciboure, France, to a Basque mother and Swiss father. In 1889, at the age of 14, Ravel began taking courses at the Paris Conservatoire, a prestigious music and dance school located in the capital of France, studying under Gabriel Fauré.

Ravel continued to study at the Conservatoire until his early 20s, during which time he composed some of his most renowned works, including the “Pavane pour une infante défunte” (Pavane for a Dead Princess; 1899); the “Jeux d’eau” (1901), also known as “Fountains”, a piece that Ravel dedicated to Fauré; the “String Quartet” (1903) in F major; the “Sonatine” (circa 1904), for the solo piano; the “Miroirs” (1905); and the “Gaspard de la nuit” (1908).

Ravel's later works include the “Le Tombeau de Couperin”, a suite composed circa 1917 for the solo piano, and the orchestral pieces “Rapsodie espagnole” and “Boléro”. Possibly the most famous of his works, Ravel was commissioned by Sergey Diaghilev to create the ballet “Daphnis et Chloé”, which he completed in 1912. Eight years later, in 1920, he completed “La Valse”, a piece with varying credits as a ballet and concert work. Ravel died in Paris, France, on December 28, 1937. Today, he remains widely regarded as France's most popular composer. He is remembered for once stating: “The only love affair I have ever had was with music.”

“Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet” (French: ‘Introduction et allegro pour harpe, flûte, clarinette et quatuor’) was written by Maurice Ravel in 1905. It premiered on 22 February 1907 in Paris. It is written in the key of G-flat major and it is the first piece to explore and exploit the full resources of the chromatic harp. It is sometimes described as a miniature concerto, but it is more usually classified as a genuine chamber music work.

The Introduction and the Allegro are played without a break. The Introduction, Très lent, takes only 26 bars. The Allegro in a modified sonata form begins with the solo harp expanding the material presented before. The woodwinds expose a second theme, accompanied by pizzicato. After a fortississimo climax in the development, a harp cadenza leads to a straightforward recapitulation and a close without extensive fireworks or bombast of any kind. The work takes about 11 minutes to perform.

FOOD FRIDAY - SAVOURY ZUCCHINI MUFFINS

“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.” - Jim Davis, ‘Garfield’

Do you often have some guests popping in unexpectedly? As soon as they have hung up the telephone telling you they are on their way, it’s quite easy to prepare some of the savoury muffins below, as the ingredients are usually in stock in the fridge and it’s a pretty easy recipe to make. Nothing better than having these fresh out of the oven, while the kitchen still smells wonderful from the baking.

Savoury Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
220 g plain flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
70 g melted butter
1 egg, lightly whisked
250 ml milk
1 cup grated zucchini
1 clove garlic, minced
100 g grated tasty cheese
1 heaped tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
4 rashers bacon, cooked crisp and diced (optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 180˚C.
Spray 12 muffin cups with cooking oil spray.
Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt in a bowl.In another bowl stir together the butter, egg, milk, zucchini and garlic until well blended.
Mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring between additions, until the flour mixture is incorporated. Fold in the cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese and diced bacon then pour the batter into the prepared muffin cups.
Cook in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean; about 30 to 35 minutes.
Allow muffins to cool slightly before removing from muffin cups; serve warm. Refrigerate leftovers.

Add your favourite recipes using the linky tool below:

LITERARY QUIZ - ANSWERS

SET 1
Some authors are rather coy about using their first names on their works and we refer to them by their initials and their surname. Can you name the first names of these famous authors?
A. A. Milne (Alan Alexander)
C. S. Lewis (Clive Staples)
D. H. Lawrence (David Herbert)
G. K. Chesterton (Gilbert Keith)
H. G. Wells (Herbert George)
J. D. Salinger (Jerome David)
J. R. R. Tolkien (John Ronald Reuel)
P. D. James (Phyllis Dorothy)
P. G. Wodehouse (Pelham Grenville)
V. S. Naipaul (Vidiadhar Surajprassad!)

SET 2
Thomas Gray’s Elegy “Written in a Country Churchyard” contains these lines:
“*** **** *** ******* *****'s ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learned to stray”
Thomas Hardy wrote a famous novel whose title is the asterisked quotation from Gray’s poem. What is the title that completes the poetic couplet?
“Far from the Madding Crowd”

“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” contains the following:
“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where *** ****** ** ***** are stored”
And the title of a famous John Steinbeck novel complete the quote. Which one is it?
“The Grapes of Wrath”

In Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, the following lines appear:
“How beauteous mankind is! O ***** *** *****
That has such people in't”
The asterisks obscure the title of a famous Aldous Huxley novel.
“Brave New World”

SET 3
The following are first lines of famous novels, which ones?

“The past is a different country; they do things differently there.”
“The Go-Between” – L.P. Hartley

“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë

“Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of the tea of not - some people of course never do, - the situation is in itself delightful.”
“The Portrait of a Lady” Henry James

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
“Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austen

SET 4
Who wrote these famous novels?
“Madame Bovary” (Gustave Flaubert)
“The Last Days of Pompeii” (Edward Bulwer-Lytton)
“Death in Venice” (Thomas Mann)
“Murder on the Orient Express” (Agatha Christie)
“The Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas” (Nikos Kazantzakis)
“Don Quixote” (Miguel de Cervantes)

And of course the illustration is Charles Dickens!

LITERARY QUIZ

“Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought.” - Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Just something different today, here are some trivia questions relating to authors and books (answers are here)

SET 1

Some authors are rather coy about using their first names on their works and we refer to them by their initials and their surname. Can you name the first names of these famous authors?

A. A. Milne

C. S. Lewis

D. H. Lawrence

G. K. Chesterton

H. G. Wells

J. D. Salinger

J. R. R. Tolkien

P. D. James

P. G. Wodehouse

V. S. Naipaul

SET 2

Thomas Gray’s Elegy “Written in a Country Churchyard” contains these lines:

“*** **** *** ******* *****'s ignoble strife

Their sober wishes never learned to stray”

Thomas Hardy wrote a famous novel whose title is the asterisked quotation from Gray’s poem. What is the title that completes the poetic couplet?

“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” contains the following:

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;

He is trampling out the vintage where *** ****** ** ***** are stored”

And the title of a famous John Steinbeck novel complete the quote. Which one is it?

In Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, the following lines appear:

“How beauteous mankind is! O ***** *** *****

That has such people in't”

The asterisks obscure the title of a famous Aldous Huxley novel.

SET 3

The following are first lines of famous novels, which ones?

“The past is a different country; they do things differently there.”

“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”

“Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of the tea of not - some people of course never do, - the situation is in itself delightful.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

SET 4

Who wrote these famous novels?

“Madame Bovary”

“The Last Days of Pompeii” 

“Death in Venice”

“Murder on the Orient Express”

“The Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas”

“Don Quixote”

And who is the famous 19th century author in the illustration above?

POETS UNITED - GRAVITY

“The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.” - Confucius

This week, Poets United is rather ponderous, with its mid-week motif being “gravity”. I went back to basics with this one, especially after being disappointed by the 2013 film “Gravity”… Here is my contribution:


Forgotten Meanings

Gravitas, pietas, dignitas and virtus:

The wise and good Roman held them in high esteem,

And lived his life informed by their good counsel,

Knowing that his house was ordered and his life was balanced.

Gravitas: Decorum and seriousness, where it was apt –

Respect of place and of other people, solemnity of occasion.

Gravity lacked by our bickering politicians, our judges and our lawmakers

Its meaning forgotten as they cachinnate and waste time

In pointless debate over trifles, while matters of import are adjourned…

Pietas: Devotion, respect to country, God and parents,

Deference to the holy, to sacred institutions and beliefs.

Piety lacked by our paedophile priests who make a mockery of their vows;

Defilement of country and heritage by the money grubbing traitors,

Children who turn parricides, repaying love with murder.

Dignitas: Nobility and authority, good reputation

And ability to command the high esteem of others.

Dignity lacked by lacklustre royalty whose scandals shock the world,

Corrupt business people whose lack of ethics harm people and planet,

Academics whose impartiality is sold to the highest bidder.

Virtus: Valour and strength, courage and manliness,

Excellence of character and high moral fibre.

Virtue lacked by the wife-basher and man who abuses women,

The drunk, the calumniator, the envious and the unworthy,

All who live life as dictated by Mammon.

Gravitas, pietas, dignitas and virtus:

Forgotten meanings in our modern world and wondrous civilisation;

Words that are quaint, passé, irrelevant and curiously obsolete…

   "Oh, wonder!
   How many goodly creatures are there here!
   How beauteous mankind is!
   O brave new world,
   That has such people in ’t!"

NEMESIS & NIOBE

“And though circuitous and obscure, The feet of Nemesis how sure!” - William Watson

The ancient Greeks believed that Nemesis, the daughter of Nyx (goddess of Night), represents that power which adjusts the balance of human affairs, by awarding to each individual the fate which his actions deserve. She rewards, humble, unacknowledged merit, punishes crime, deprives the worthless of undeserved good fortune, humiliates the proud and overbearing, and visits all evil on the wrong-doer; thus maintaining that proper balance of things, which the Greeks recognised as a necessary condition of all civilised life.

Although Nemesis, according to her original character attributes, was the distributor of rewards as well as punishments, the world was so full of sin, that she found but little occupation in her first capacity of rewarding good, that she became finally regarded as the avenging goddess exclusively.

A striking instance of the manner in which this divinity punishes the proud and arrogant is demonstrated in the case of Niobe. Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, and wife of Amphion, king of Thebes, was the proud mother of seven sons and seven daughters, and exulting in the number of her children, she, upon one occasion, ridiculed the worship of Leto, because she had but one son and daughter (the gods Apollo and Artemis), and desired the Thebans, for the future, to give to her the honours and sacrifices which they had hitherto offered to the mother of Apollo and Artemis.

The sacrilegious words had scarcely passed her lips before Apollo called upon his sister Artemis to assist him in avenging the insult offered to their mother, and soon their invisible arrows sped through the air. Apollo slew all the sons, and Artemis had already slain all the daughters save one, the youngest and best beloved, whom Niobe clasped in her arms, when the agonised mother implored the enraged deities to leave her, at least, one out of all her beautiful children; but, even as she prayed, the deadly arrow reached the heart of this child also. Meanwhile the unhappy father, unable to bear the loss of his children, had destroyed himself, and his dead body lay beside the lifeless corpse of his favourite son.

Widowed and childless, the heart-broken mother sat among her dead, and the gods, in pity for her unutterable woe, turned her into a stone, which they transferred to Siphylus, her native Phrygian mountain, where it still continues to shed tears. Apollo and Artemis were merely the instruments for avenging the insult offered to their mother; but it was Nemesis who prompted the deed, and presided over its execution.

Homer makes no mention of Nemesis; it is therefore evident that this goddess was a conception of later times, when higher views of morality had prevailed among the Greek nation. Nemesis is represented as a beautiful woman of thoughtful and benign aspect and regal bearing; a diadem crowns her majestic brow, and she bears in her hand a rudder, balance, and cubit; fitting emblems of the manner in which she guides, weighs, and measures all human events. She is also sometimes seen with a wheel, to symbolise the rapidity with which she executes justice. As the avenger of evil she appears winged, bearing in her hand either a scourge or a sword, and seated in a chariot drawn by griffins.

Nemesis is frequently called Adrastia, and also Rhamnusia, from Rhamnus in Attica, the chief seat of her worship, which contained a celebrated statue of the goddess. Nemesis was worshipped by the Romans, (who invoked her on the Capitol), as a divinity who possessed the power of averting the pernicious consequences of envy.

Nemesis in English is used to denote the inescapable agent of someone’s or something’s downfall: “Injury, consistently his nemesis, struck him down during the match.” The word nemesis is derived from the ancient Greek verb ‘nemein’, which means ‘give what is due’. Hence nemesis, means ‘retribution’.

MOVIE MONDAY - THE LAST DAYS ON MARS

“Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.” - Ray Bradbury

I like watching science fiction movies. No, let me qualify that. I like watching science fiction movies, provided they are intelligent, mind-challenging, do not contravene blatantly laws of nature and they are capable of making you think that what is impossible today may well be possible tomorrow (thank you, Mr Bradbury). “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury is an excellent science fiction novel that was made into an excellent film. That is the sort of Science Fiction I like.

Unfortunately, the film we watched last weekend was a science fiction film that we did no particularly like. It was more of a horror film dressed in astronaut costumes. As such it pandered to the teen market and was not a satisfying movie for a thinking, critical viewer. It was Ruairi Robinson’s 2013 film “The Last Days on Mars” based on a short story by Sydney J. Bounds and a screenplay by Clive Dawson. It starred Liev Schreiber, Elias Koteas, Romola Garai and Olivia Williams.

The plot is set on Mars, where the first human Mars base has been established in the non so distant future. On the last day of that first manned mission to Mars, a crew member of Tantalus Base believes he has made an astounding discovery: Fossilised evidence of bacterial life discovered in a rock sample he has collected. Unwilling to let the relief crew claim all the glory, he disobeys orders to pack up and goes out on an unauthorised expedition to collect further samples. But a routine excavation turns to disaster when the porous ground collapses and he falls into a deep crevice and near certain death. His devastated colleagues attempt to recover his body. However, when another vanishes, they start to suspect that the life-form they have discovered is not without danger…

And so starts a misadventure, which in typical horror movie fashion pulls all the right strings for thrills and spills. Mars is a bit of a furphy, as the story could have as easily been set in deep underground cavern, or the South Pole, or the Jungle of the Amazon (hmmm, I think similar films have in fact been made in all of those locations!). The film is quite unoriginal and it’s a bit of a mystery as to how it got made, given that it trod such familiar ground.

The beginning of the film had some good potential. The acting was OK, the sets and costumes fine, the cinematography captivating, some good characters that began to develop well. However, it soon slips and slides downhill where the inconceivable becomes impossible and ludicrous. OK, I won’t spoil it for you if you want to watch it, except to say that it is more in the fantasy/horror genre rather than the science fiction genre. Watch at your peril. It’s B-grade matinée material…

ART SUNDAY - CAILLEBOTTE

“Pioneers may be picturesque figures, but they are often rather lonely ones.” - Nancy Astor

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), whose personal works were forgotten until recently, was a respected artist and a generous patron of the Impressionist movement. He was born in 1848 in a very rich family, which made its fortune in the textiles industry and then in real estate as Baron Haussmann was rebuilding Paris.

Engineer by profession, but also former student of the Fine Arts School of Paris where he studied with Léon Bonnat, he met Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Pierre Auguste Renoir in 1874 and helped them organise their first group exhibition in Paris this same year. In 1873, he inherited the great fortune of his father and was financially independent for the rest of his life.

In 1875, as he wished to make his official debut as a painter, he submitted a work to the Official Salon which was refused, thus encouraging him to exhibit in 1876, with the aid of Renoir, at the second exhibition of the Impressionist group. His works, and in particular the “The floor scrapers”, were noticed and appreciated. He took part in the subsequent exhibitions of the Impressionist Group thereafter.

Caillebotte was rich and generous and throughout his lifetime aided financially his Impressionist friends by buying their works at high prices and by paying the expenses of their exhibitions. He was a co-organiser and co-financier of the third, fourth, fifth and seventh Impressionist exhibitions, in which he took part.

In 1881, he bought a house with a garden in Petit-Gennevilliers where he created a number of his works. He was a highly skilled horticulturist, and he corresponded with Monet at Giverny and cultivated orchids in his greenhouses.

A man with a complex character and multiple facets, Caillebotte also was a racing yachtsman who had a passion for speed and sought to improve the performance of his boats. As a naval architect, he designed and built his boats in a workshop located on SNECMA's present site. There he created truly innovative boats, with silk saiil, external ballast, aerodynamic hulls, with which he gained many international distinctions.

Caillebotte painted some 500 works in a style often more realistic than that of his Impressionist friends. The painter liked particularly views of Paris streets made from high balconies, painted many scenes of working life, landscapes of gardens and parks, and nautical scenes (on the Seine in Argenteuil and Yerres). His penchant for realistic painting, his vivid colour, and his treatment of light make him well a great Impressionist painter whose work is original and diverse.

Caillebotte donated his collection of paintings, in his will written in 1876, in these terms:

“I give to the French State the paintings which I have; nevertheless, since I want that this donation be accepted and in such a manner that the paintings go neither in an attic nor in a province museum, but well in the Luxembourg Museum and later in the Louvre Museum, it is necessary that a certain time passes before execution of this clause until the public, I do not say understand, but admit this new painting. This time may be twenty years at the maximum. Until then, my brother Martial, and at his defect another of my heirs, will preserve them. I request Renoir to be my executor...”

Caillebotte died in 1894 of an attack of apoplexy. The Academists, led by Gérôme, then tried to prevent the acceptance of Caillebotte’s legacy of Impressionist works in collection of the artistic inheritance of France, a stance supported by the Official Salon. A particular sticking point were works of Cézanne, which were seen to be worthless artistically. The Institute of France initially refused the Caillebotte legacy to the French National Museums.

In 1896, however, the French State authorised the National Museums to select some paintings of the embarrassing Caillebotte legacy, works which might be exhibited in the Musée du Luxembourg. They refused among these “drifts of an unhealthy art” 27 paintings out of the 67 of the collection and accepted: Seven pastels of Degas, eight Monets, six Renoirs, seven Pissarros, five Sisleys, two Cézannes and two Caillebottes (the last two added to the legacy by Martial Caillebotte, after the death of his brother).

These works were presented in an annex of the Musée du Luxembourg in 1897. The exhibition caused violent movements and a political scandal at the instigation of Gérôme and seventeen of his colleagues, members of the Institute. Thus the Senate became embroiled in this controversy. Nevertheless, it is Caillebotte’s legacy, which Renoir had the merit to impose to the French State after the death of the artist, that allowed France to have in its possession major works of Monet, Degas, Sisley and Renoir.

Most of the works of the legacy that were refused were repurchased by a certain Doctor Barnes whose collection of Impressionists is now envied by the French national museums (an exhibition of the Barnes Foundation took place at the Musée d’Orsay in 1993-94). The Caillebotte collection was integrated into the Louvre Museum only in 1928, and is today in the Musée d’Orsay.

“Les raboteurs de parquet” [The Floor Planers] above, is one of the first representations of urban proletariat. Whereas peasants (“Gleaners” by Millet) or country workers (“Stone Breakers” by Courbet) had often been shown, city workers had seldom been painted. Unlike Courbet or Millet, Caillebotte does not incorporate any social, moralising or a political message in his work. His thorough documentary study (gestures, tools, accessories) justifies his position among the most accomplished realists.

Caillebotte presented his painting at the 1875 Salon. The Jury, no doubt shocked by its crude realism, rejected it (some critics talked of “vulgar subject matter”). The young painter then decided to join the impressionists and presented his painting at the second exhibition of the group in 1876, where Degas exhibited his first “Ironers”. Critics were struck by this great modern tableau, Zola, in particular, although he condemned as a “painting that is so accurate that it makes it bourgeois”.