Last night M's choir gave a performance of Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man - it was rather wonderful - in part because it uses lots of familiar forms of music in turns - so the juxtapositions are interesting, and help one to continue to pay attention. The words are important too - there is a section from the Mahabharata called Torches - which is truly gruesome and pathetic. The music is interspersed with a series of readings... a lot of it deals with WWI - so it was a very appropriate piece to go and hear, gave me lots of thoughts about the book - and was inspiring. It did not however move me to tears. Usually this sort of thing does, and I think this is because of the medication - I miss having my emotions. Of course, when I am really upset, as I am today, it does not make any difference and I still feel sad and angry and tearful - that's another story though...
The Armed Man really was a joy, even though parts of it were difficult to listen to. I really liked the mixture of genres - an imam came and sang the call to prayer - then there was a psalm - No 56 - which I shall now be calling the feminist Psalm - since it is called "God save me from Bloody men" - it was sung as plain chant, and the opening and closing pieces were sung like a medieval marching song.... the end is beautiful and it seems an odd combination of an historical and religious piece. I wonder whether KJ is a believer? The ending is an affirmation that wouldn't suit atheist.
Apparently there was a 15thC tradition of "armed man masses" - dealing with what? Asking God's protection from them in war time? Or praying for their success? The performance last night was billed as connnected with Remembrance Sunday - and everyone wore poppies.
I was not wearing a poppy - we gave some money - the chaps all have them - but I decided this year that the pressure to wear one was getting silly and that choice in the matter was important (oh what an adolescent I am!). I am a little concerned that the nationalistic aspect is getting out of hand. Apparently this year people have sold more poppies than ever. I know it is about remembering the sacrifice of those who died in wars - our soldiers and other people's soldiers - but I can't help feeling that people aren't really sorry about all the Germans, Afghans, Iraqis and Libyans we've whacked over the years.
I think we are selling more this year because people have become very concerned about the armed forces - they are dying in smaller numbers, but in nastier little conflicts that we at home don't feel emotionally engaged with. I also think our relative poverty at the moment, and powerlessness in the world makes people keener to assert something that is very British. Other countries do other things - on different days.
My sister P and her husband J say that one should wear a poppy because one is wearing them for the right reasons... and "reclaim" the symbol from the baddies - it's a good theory - but how do people know that one is "reclaiming" it - rather than just asserting it as a nationalistic thing? All this fuss about the footballers wanting to wear poppies makes me think there is something a bit bonkers about it.
The more I read and think about WWI the more convinced I am of the horror, but at the same time it doesn't stop me feeling that our armed forces should when possible give a hand to countries trying to liberate themselves from injustice and dictatorship. Of course this can be seen as imperialist, and I am not offering to go myself.... clearly there are wars and wars... we haven't been under much threat ourselves since WW2 - so should we have fought anywhere else? Debateably we shouldn't have fought in WW1 - but we were in an alliance that called on us to do so. Would the Germans have attacked us if we'd just left them to get whichever bits of France they wanted?
The Armed Man really was a joy, even though parts of it were difficult to listen to. I really liked the mixture of genres - an imam came and sang the call to prayer - then there was a psalm - No 56 - which I shall now be calling the feminist Psalm - since it is called "God save me from Bloody men" - it was sung as plain chant, and the opening and closing pieces were sung like a medieval marching song.... the end is beautiful and it seems an odd combination of an historical and religious piece. I wonder whether KJ is a believer? The ending is an affirmation that wouldn't suit atheist.
Apparently there was a 15thC tradition of "armed man masses" - dealing with what? Asking God's protection from them in war time? Or praying for their success? The performance last night was billed as connnected with Remembrance Sunday - and everyone wore poppies.
I was not wearing a poppy - we gave some money - the chaps all have them - but I decided this year that the pressure to wear one was getting silly and that choice in the matter was important (oh what an adolescent I am!). I am a little concerned that the nationalistic aspect is getting out of hand. Apparently this year people have sold more poppies than ever. I know it is about remembering the sacrifice of those who died in wars - our soldiers and other people's soldiers - but I can't help feeling that people aren't really sorry about all the Germans, Afghans, Iraqis and Libyans we've whacked over the years.
I think we are selling more this year because people have become very concerned about the armed forces - they are dying in smaller numbers, but in nastier little conflicts that we at home don't feel emotionally engaged with. I also think our relative poverty at the moment, and powerlessness in the world makes people keener to assert something that is very British. Other countries do other things - on different days.
My sister P and her husband J say that one should wear a poppy because one is wearing them for the right reasons... and "reclaim" the symbol from the baddies - it's a good theory - but how do people know that one is "reclaiming" it - rather than just asserting it as a nationalistic thing? All this fuss about the footballers wanting to wear poppies makes me think there is something a bit bonkers about it.
The more I read and think about WWI the more convinced I am of the horror, but at the same time it doesn't stop me feeling that our armed forces should when possible give a hand to countries trying to liberate themselves from injustice and dictatorship. Of course this can be seen as imperialist, and I am not offering to go myself.... clearly there are wars and wars... we haven't been under much threat ourselves since WW2 - so should we have fought anywhere else? Debateably we shouldn't have fought in WW1 - but we were in an alliance that called on us to do so. Would the Germans have attacked us if we'd just left them to get whichever bits of France they wanted?
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