Dammit, it got me again

[kiloran]

BBC Proms is currently playing Elgar's Enigma Variations. They've just played Nimrod, my dad's absolute favourite piece of music, which we played at his funeral 18 years ago.
It's just like his life... starts slowly and quietly, builds up to a wonderful crescendo, then gently fades away.

And as usual, I'm now exceedingly tearful. Happy tears, mind. Gets me every time, that music.

--kiloran

[bungeejumper]

Nice post, kiloran, and thanks. Yes, it's amazing how deeply memories are imprinted when music is played at funerals, and often they can leave you a little bit emotionally disoriented, but also proud.

I attended the funeral of my neighbour's dad, who we only knew as a kindly old buffer. We knew he'd been in the navy, but we didn't know that he had commanded warships through the Mediterranean during WW2. On one occasion he'd had his ship's rudder shot away during one encounter off Gibraltar, and he'd steered the crippled ship back to a safe harbour in Italy by firing up the left and the right engines alternately, so as to keep it moving in the right direction. While the submarines, presumably, continued to prowl down below. Saved hundreds of lives, apparently.

"For Those in Peril on the Sea", we sang at his funeral. Bloody hell, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

BJ

[stewamax]

For at least 90 years apparently, 'Nimrod' has of course been the tenth of the pieces of music played at the Cenotaph on or Armistice Day (and now Remembrance Sunday). The Powers that Be have for once had the good sense not to meddle with its sensitive mix of apposite English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh and Military Service tunes.

In passing, it is a now all-too-rare chance to hear Harris's tune "O Valiant Hearts" - tune twelve - because the forever-associated hymn "The Supreme Sacrifice" (the one item of the suite indelibly linked to the Great War) has been been sidelined by the C of E as too militaristic and because verse five sounds a mite heretical. It is a better tune for "Abide with Me" than even Monk's traditional one! Like 'Nimrod': at once rousing and hauntingly lilting, and as a result of numerous Remembrances, embedded in one psyche.

[scotia]

Yes - there are remembrances of parents that still bring a tear to the eye - but increasingly they bring a smile, as happy days are remembered, and stories involving them are passed on to our grandchildren.
I have mixed views on Nimrod - I remember it being played (in the early seventies) as the introduction to a radio adaption of C.P. Snow's "The Light and The Dark" - which was rather depressing. And its use at the Cenotaph ceremony tends to reinforce that feeling - perhaps unfairly, since it is a fine piece of music.

[AleisterCrowley]

"Nimrod"was one of the pieces played at my grandfather's funeral. He was very keen on music, being a choirmaster, and (I think) involved with the Three Choirs Festival, or he at least attended regularly.
He was also very keen on Housman - forever linked with Elgar in my mind (just the geography? Both Worcestershire born)

[bungeejumper]

I have mixed views on Nimrod - I remember it being played (in the early seventies) as the introduction to a radio adaption of C.P. Snow's "The Light and The Dark" - which was rather depressing. And its use at the Cenotaph ceremony tends to reinforce that feeling - perhaps unfairly, since it is a fine piece of music.

Strange, isn't it? I associate that piece so strongly with the Cenotaph ceremony that, whenever I hear it, I can almost smell the damp, foggy air of a November morning, with all the regimental banners and the world stopping for two minutes. Wouldn't sound quite right without the muffled echoes and the background traffic noise.

It's a different piece in the concert hall! But a near-perfect thing by any standards, and capable of bringing up strong emotions even in the likes of me, who never had to fight any war, but who knew plenty of brave men who had. What a powerful thing musical associations can be.

Elgar's cello concerto is also about the grief from lost friends during WW1, but it can't touch Nimrod for the sense of pride that it engenders. Can't wait to see how Boris handles the Cenotaph ceremony.

BJ

[tjh290633]

For at least 90 years apparently, 'Nimrod' has of course been the tenth of the pieces of music played at the Cenotaph on or Armistice Day (and now Remembrance Sunday). The Powers that Be have for once had the good sense not to meddle with its sensitive mix of apposite English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh and Military Service tunes.

In passing, it is a now all-too-rare chance to hear Harris's tune "O Valiant Hearts" - tune twelve - because the forever-associated hymn "The Supreme Sacrifice" (the one item of the suite indelibly linked to the Great War) has been been sidelined by the C of E as too militaristic and because verse five sounds a mite heretical. It is a better tune for "Abide with Me" than even Monk's traditional one! Like 'Nimrod': at once rousing and hauntingly lilting, and as a result of numerous Remembrances, embedded in one psyche.

I echo those comments about "O valiant hearts". Remembrance Day services are never the same without it. A sad day when it was proscribed.

TJH

[UncleEbenezer]

For what it's worth ...

Elgar himself used that tune more than once. Enigma is the best-known, but it also pops up in The Music Makers - where he sets it for chorus as well as his ever-ample orchestra. Though having said that, the text is (as so often with Elgar) a very weak poem.

[Rhyd6]

Alf an old soldier of 96 sadly died in January this year. His favourite hymn was "Valient Hearts" which he had always said he wanted at his funeral. We got around the ban by all waiting outside the church until the undertakers arrived with the coffin and, led by members of a local choir, we sent him into church with a rousing rendition of this great hymn.

R6

[stewamax]

... we sent him into church with a rousing rendition of this great hymn

And your homeland, Rhyd6, has some of the most hauntingly beautiful and sad hymns/tunes extant.
When I was young, singing hymns in Welsh pubs on Saturday night (and in 'wet' counties on Sunday night as well) was commonplace after around 9pm when the beer had mellowed the singers. And this would be decorous and in four-part harmony.
As the night drew on, things progressed from popular songs like Myfanwy through joyous hymns like Rachie and Sanctaidd to the slow and serious such as Llef and that saddest of sad songs Hiraeth.
On the way home one would feel both uplifted mentally drained.

[tjh290633]

... we sent him into church with a rousing rendition of this great hymn

And your homeland, Rhyd6, has some of the most hauntingly beautiful and sad hymns/tunes extant.
When I was young, singing hymns in Welsh pubs on Saturday night (and in 'wet' counties on Sunday night as well) was commonplace after around 9pm when the beer had mellowed the singers. And this would be decorous and in four-part harmony.
As the night drew on, things progressed from popular songs like Myfanwy through joyous hymns like Rachie and Sanctaidd to the slow and serious such as Llef and that saddest of sad songs Hiraeth.
On the way home one would feel both uplifted mentally drained.

From my experience, a tenor would start with Calon Lan about 8.30pm, and it would be nonstop from then on. Gwahoddiad is another good one.

TJH

[stewamax]

From my experience, a tenor would start with Calon Lan about 8.30pm, and it would be nonstop from then on. Gwahoddiad is another good one.

8.30 pm Calon Lan to Hughes's ("Rugby match") tune
9.00 pm Gwahoddiad to the eponymous tune
9.30pm Calon Lan to Blaenwern (the "Love Divine" tune)

I once heard a female Blue Riband winner sing Gwahoddiad to the haunting plangent tune Sarah*. The Saturday night mad raucous pub noise stopped dead; everyone was transported to their own personal worlds and thoughts. Of such are memories made.

* incidentally one of Aled Jones earliest solo recordings in Bangor cathedral

[Bminusrob]

Music does this to people.

For me, if you want tears and emotion, it is the final chorus of Bach's St Matthew Passion; "Wir setzen uns mit Tranen nieder" - "We sit down in tears". I can feel myself welling up, just writing this.

If it is just emotion you want, the end of Shostakovich's eleventh symphony takes some beating. A long cor anglais solo followed by a crescendo of percussion, finished off with bells (or tuned anvils), with the ringing left to die out over many seconds. Wonderful.

[UncleEbenezer]

Music does this to people.

For me, if you want tears and emotion, it is the final chorus of Bach's St Matthew Passion; "Wir setzen uns mit Tranen nieder" - "We sit down in tears". I can feel myself welling up, just writing this.

A fair candidate. But are you familiar with the final chorus and chorale of the St Johns? For my money, that's the greater tearjerker of the two.

If it is just emotion you want, the end of Shostakovich's eleventh symphony takes some beating. A long cor anglais solo followed by a crescendo of percussion, finished off with bells (or tuned anvils), with the ringing left to die out over many seconds. Wonderful.

Damn! Can't bring that to mind Could that be a Shostakovich symphony that's eluded me? On the subject of Shostakovich, have you read Sarah Quigley's The Conductor?

Music is full of high emotion. Opera lends itself to pulling the tears, and many offer the most wonderful experiences. And of course the Bach you mentioned is just one of many renditions of a powerful story from the Christian tradition: I was singing Dvořák's Stabat Mater when my own mother died, and though the roles are obviously wrong it seemed strangely appropriate.

[stewamax]

... or the end of the Amen from Handel's Messiah in a live performance, where after several minutes it reaches a final crescendo - and then complete silence - and then the huge burst of the final final final AAAAAAMEN. The choir - which when performed in cathedrals will include very young boys and girls - have been singing for three hours with one intermission and are probably exhausted, and this is the great moment. Better even than the last few bars of 'Hallelujah'.

In passing.... at Peterborough cathedral I once saw a conductor getting carried away during Hallelujah. The excellent Andrew Reid, who for eight years did much to raise the standard of the choir to new heights, turned around in the middle and started conducting the audience who, by custom during Hallelujah, were also standing.

[Bminusrob]

Damn! Can't bring that to mind Could that be a Shostakovich symphony that's eluded me?

It appears to be a proms favourite. A was in the promenade area two years ago when it was performed, and there was another performance this year, and one in 2013.
You can see the 2013 promenade concert on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9lo9ZDYuDU