Sarah Orne Jewett

by Peter Cates

Sarah Orne Jewett

The October 1904, Atlantic Monthly, out of Boston, Massachusetts, had an article, The Art of Miss Jewett, on South Berwick Maine’s own Sarah Orne Jewett (1849 – 1909) , via which Charles Miner Thompson (1864-1941) stated the following:

“…I always think of her as of one who, hearing New England accused of being a bleak land without beauty, passes confidently over the snow, and by the gray rock, and past the dark fir tree, to a southern bank, and there, brushing away the decayed leaves, triumphantly shows to the faultfinder a spray of the trailing arbutus. And I should like, for my own part, to add this: that the fragrant, retiring, exquisite flower, which I think she would say is the symbol of New England virtue, is the symbol also of her own modest and delightful art.”

Thompson’s statement might be encrusted by a bit too much purple scrub brush prose but he did show a discerning appreciation of a writer for her gifts at endowing the “bleak land…gray rock…[and] decayed leaves ” of our Pine Tree State and conveying its own special beauties and truths in this at times very scary universe.

As with William Faulkner’s hot dusty roads in Mississippi and Willa Cather’s Nebraska wheat fields, Jewett’s Southern Maine was transformed into a microcosm that resonated with so many readers.

In her short story collection The Country of the Pointed Firs, one story in particular, The Flight of Betsey Lane, has an opening paragraph that conveys in its simple narrative just how much Miss Jewett absorbed into her “little piece of dirt” in Southern Maine (She lived in South Berwick most of her life and, as a child, traveled with her father on his rounds as a country doctor.); since it’s too long to quote in its entirety, I offer a few sentences that hopefully will convey the spirit of the author :

“One windy morning in May, three old women sat together near an open window in the shed chamber of Byfleet Poor-house. The wind was from the northwest, but their window faced the southeast, and they were only visited by an occasional waft of fresh air.

“There was a cheerful feeling of activity, and even an air of comfort, about the Byfleet Poor-house. Almost every one was possessed of a most interesting past, though there was less to be said about the future.

“There was a sharp-faced, hard-worked young widow with seven children, who was an exception to the general level of society, because she deplored the change in her fortunes. The older women regarded her with suspicion, and were apt to talk about her in moments like this, when they happened to sit together at their work.”

Faulkner wrote, “A writer needs three things – experience, observation and imagination, any one or two of which can supply the lack of the others.”

Willa Cather, who was a friend, wrote of Sarah Orne Jewett, “She early learned to love her country for what it was. What is quite as important, she saw it as it was. She happened to have the right nature, the right temperament, to see it so- and to understand by intuition the deeper meaning of all she saw.”

Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg

An RCA Victor cassette contains Edvard Grieg’s a minor Piano Con­certo and two of his solo Lyric Pieces; and the Con­certo of Robert Schumann, also in a minor, as performed by Artur Rubinstein, with Alfred Wallenstein conducting a studio pickup orchestra for the Grieg and Carlo Maria Giulini directing the Chicago Symphony in the Schumann.

Rubinstein played with his wondrously expressive musicianship that he brought to a wide range of composers from Mozart and Beethoven to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff and they can be heard via YouTube. He could at odd moments smother the music with his personalized individuality but in general he conveyed the spirit of each composer in his many recordings.

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Harold Breau

by Peter Cates

Harold John Breau

Born in Pea Cove, Maine, Harold John Breau (1916-1977), better known as Hal Lone Pine, was a popular country singer for almost 40 years, especially throughout Maine, New Brunswick and the Canadian prairies, and recorded several songs for RCA Victor during the early 1950s with his wife Betty Cody (1921-2014) . For several years, the couple was a regular on radio and TV in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

After the couple divorced in 1960, Lone Pine formed a partnership with Winnipeg singer Jeannie Ward; the two recorded an LP, Hymns and Heart Songs, in 1964 for the Toronto label Arc. As an example of the sacred music genre, the album is quite good and has a mix of such familiar hymns as Beyond the Sunset and Abide with Me, and some lesser known hymns.

Lone Pine and Betty had two sons who became successful jazz guitarists – Lenny Breau (1941-1984) and younger brother Denny, who is still performing in Maine venues.

Have Gun Will Travel

Richard Boone

I have started to watch episodes of Have Gun Will Travel, a popular western TV series that ran from 1957 to 1963. Richard Boone (1917 starred as Paladin, a man who was quick on the draw yet would not use his revolver for any gun-slinging purposes. He would simply have it handy if needed on his various good Samaritan trips.

Paladin is wealthy and lives at a luxury San Francisco hotel. He is also well read – in one episode he quotes the naturalist of ancient Rome, Pliny.

Guest stars have included Hawaii 5-O’s Jack Lord, Charles Bronson of Death Wish fame, and Claude Akins and Leo Gordon (both of whom portrayed cold-blooded villains in movies and television on numerous occasions) in somewhat ominous character roles, a couple of whom change for the better by the end of the episode.

Highly recommended for unpredictable storylines and morally uplifting situations.

Amadeus

The 1985 movie classic Amadeus centered on the relationship between the great composer Mozart and the not so great composer Salieri. One particularly memorable scene, and one which might not be true, has Mozart on his death bed, singing notes for his final masterpiece, the Requiem, as Salieri writes them down.

A 1986 CBS Masterworks cassette of the Requiem featuring a French early music ensemble conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire (1940-2018) is a good one, but not as good as ones conducted by Davis, Giulini and Karajan with larger orchestras.

Back in 2000, a community chorus in Thomaston gave a very enjoyably spirited performance of the music.

Anne Bronte

Anne Bronte

The youngest of the three super talented sisters, Anne Bronte (1820-1849) published her 1848 novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, using the pen name Acton Bell be­cause of the condescending attitude then against women writers, as with sister Charlotte’s Currier Bell and Emily’s Ellis Bell.

The novel depicts a woman, Helen Huntingdon, who is fed up with the detestable behavior of her husband and abandons him to live the life of independence she finds well worth living.

As with Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Emily’s Wuthering Heights, this novel has a searing power and originality that challenges the conventions of society during the mid-1800s.

In a July 22, 1848, preface to the second edition, the author stated:

“My object in writing the following pages was not simply to amuse the Reader, neither was it to gratify my own taste, nor yet to ingratiate myself with the Press and the Public: I wished to tell the truth, for truth always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it.”

Later in the novel itself, Bronte describes a countryside morning, “when roused by the flutter and chirp of the sparrows, and the gleeful twitter of the swallows-all intent upon feeding their young, and full of life and joy in their own little frames.”

When Anne was four years old, her father asked her what she most wanted. The little girl replied, “Age and experience!”

Ladislas Farago

by Peter Cates

Ladislas Farago

A 1954 book War of Wits, by journalist Ladislas Farago (1906-1980), is an account of intelligence networks during World War II. What gave Farago’s book interest was his own work in South Am­erica and his access to many spies and agents who were eager to tell their stories.

One such incident tells of an elderly German couple who owned an inn along the Kiel Canal which connected the Baltic Sea with the North Sea.

Sailors and officers from Nazi submarines would often drop in for a glass of beer before going on a dangerous mission against the allies which the innkeeper offered free to them as a patriotic gesture. In return, these men would sign their names in a guest book as a memento of their visit.

When the coast was clear, the innkeeper would take the guest book down into the cellar and through a tunnel to a neighboring house where British agents had radio transmitters to relay information on these U boats from the names in the register.

On a different topic yet having some relevance to the hospitality industry of inns along German canals, Ten Restaurants that Changed America, a 2016 book by Paul Freedman, chose the hotel/restaurant chain of Howard Johnson’s as one of the ten topics and mentions one item dear to the appetites of so many Mainers – “The fried clams…were originally quite unusual…not an easy sell at first…Virtually unknown outside of New England…promoted…at the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair. It took a further concerted campaign to win acceptance – this was not a case of simply providing what people already were accustomed to consuming. The fact that the class would become a fondly regarded signature item of Howard Johnson’s was an accomplishment, not an accident.”

Scandal

I recently finished binging on all seven seasons of the ABC television series Scandal, which ran from 2012 to 2018. The most memorable character was Eli Pope, who, under the code name of Rowan, ran an off the books black ops agency known as Control.

Rio Bravo

A 1959 classic western, Rio Bravo, had Howard Hawks directing and an all star cast of John Wayne, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond and Claude Akins.

Dimitri Shostakovich

Dimitri Shostakovich had completed his 4th Symphony in 1936 just when Joseph Stalin was beginning his bloody purges of millions. That same year the dictator had attended the premiere of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth and stormed out in a rage before the presentation was finished.

Given the circumstances, the composer held off on the world premiere of the 4th Symphony until 1961.

The work is scored for more than 100 instruments , including extra brass and percussion. It is powerful music with some very loud climaxes but it ends with about 5 minutes of the quietest , most exquisitely heavenly notes scored for hushed strings, muted trumpet and the celeste which looks like a small piano but sounds like chimes.

A 2005 youtube video features Semyon Bychkov conducting the WDR Orchestra in Cologne . It is a very exciting performance.

Since 2017, Maestro Bychkov has been Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic . Born in 1952, he grew up in the former Soviet Union but, due to the growing anti-semitism of the government – Bychkov is Jewish- he left the country in 1974 with 100 dollars in his pocket, settling in Vienna to further his musical studies.

David Thomson

by Peter Cates

England in the 20th Century

England in the Twentieth Century, by David Thomson, (1912-1970) is a very fine example of the brilliance in clarity, readability and thorough scholarship to be found quite often among historians from the British Isles. One could open this book anywhere and be drawn into the narrative alone.

A passage on Winston Churchill’s predecessor, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1869-1970), is a good example:

“By experience and qualities alike Chamberlain was cast to be a vigorous, efficient Premier in home affairs. It was his personal tragedy to be Premier during three years in which, more than at any other time since 1918, international affairs assumed national importance. ‘Masterful, confident, and ruled by an instinct for order, he would give a lead, and perhaps impart an edge, on every question. His approach was arduous careful but his mind, once made up, hard to change. ‘ [Quote from unknown source.]”

By seemingly conceding Chamberlain’s good qualities, Thomson conveys why due to stubborn pride, this prime minister may have been naïve and clueless in trusting Hitler and Mussolini at the 1938 Munich “Peace” Talks just before Germany invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia (Poland to follow in September 1939), its military arsenal already stronger than all the other European countries and the U.S. put together.

When I attended Kent’s Hill School, I remember a teacher showing a documentary on the Holocaust; an opening newsreel shows Chamberlain returning to London from Munich and proudly stating that there would be “peace in our time.”

However, reading further, one finds out that, when Japan was beginning its own build-up by 1930 and its own government leaders were being frequently assassinated when they wouldn’t kowtow to the military, the U.S. was in the throes of the Great Depression and could care less about the Far East – in response to this attitude, Chamberlain stated in 1934, seven years before Pearl Harbor, that the “U.S.A. will give us no undertaking to resist by force any action by Japan, short of an attack on Hawaii or Honolulu. ”

Sir Neville Chamberlain died in late 1940 from cancer; he was 71.

In the bibliography, Thomson writes that “Biographies are often strongly partisan, though their bias is strongly evident “, a rather puzzling statement in his use of the word “though” but this book’s 300 pages would make for a good beginning to end read, if one could live to the age of 200.

Beethoven’s 9th Sypmphony

I own a batch of recordings of the Beethoven 9th Symphony, referred to as the Choral Symphony because of the use of a chorus and four soloists in the final movement. Among these are four different 78 sets of tremendous merit – Leopold Stokowski/Philadelphia Orchestra, Felix Weingartner/ ViennaPhilharmonic, SergeKoussevitzky/BostonSymphony, and Eugene Ormandy/again Philadelphia, Ormandy being Stokowski’s successor (I will always find that the three to five minute sides of 78 records make for very active listening because I have to get up from the recliner to change the record whereas the 80-minute CDs make for sleepy listening); each one is different from the others.

Recently, I reheard the Ormandy for the first time in 25 years and found it even more exciting. Ormandy adopted fast tempos for movements 1, 2 and 4 and slower ones for the ecstatic beauty of the 3rd movement Adagio. And it can be heard on YouTube.

The symphony received its world premiere in Vienna on May 7, 1824, the composer being totally deaf by then. Sitting on stage with his back to the audience, he had to be turned around by a soprano to see the jubilant applauding of everyone.

May 7 was later to be the birthdays of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).

by Peter Cates

Bill Clinton

President William J. Clinton

An acquaintance from my years living in Houston, Texas, attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and he told of meeting then-Governor Bill Clinton twice during a two-year period and shared a couple of observations.

First, the encounters didn’t last much more than five minutes and this individual was one of thousands Clinton would have met during his years of leadership. Yet during the repeat visit, the former Governor/President remembered his name and had phenomenal eye contact and listening skills.

Bill Clinton had more than the usual number of admirers and detractors. Historian David McCullough considered Clinton one incredibly brilliant thinker while another historian, Christopher Hichens, labeled him a habitual liar.

As with every other former president and just about everyone else, William Jefferson Clinton was and is a complicated individual.

Quotables

A quote from Oscar Wilde: “In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.”

Author/notorious wit Dorothy Parker penned the following lines:

“By the time you’re his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying-
Lady make a note of this:
One of you is lying.”

So as not to end on a totally cynical note, I once read that the mother of novelist W. Somerset Maugham was one of the most beautiful women in London society while his father was very homely. When his mother was asked by her social friends why she ever married him, let alone stayed married to him, she replied, “Because he’s never said an unkind word to me!”

The Little Church Around the Corner

A 1940s Columbia Records 78 set, The Little Church Around The Corner (Columbia C-169, four 10 inchdiscs), contains eight sides of religious music ranging from Bach, Mendelssohn and Bizet to such hymns as All Hail the Power of Jesus’s Name and Now the Day is Over. The selections are performed by this New York City Church’s Choir, soloists and organist Franklin Coates.

The Here Comes the Bride Chorus from Wagner’s Lohengrin is given the most beautiful performance I have ever heard, the voices and organ blending exquisitely in presenting music that has been so insufferably corny on most every other recording.

Since its founding in 1848, the Church has been a sanctuary for African-Americans and so many others among the poor and oppressed where, within its walls, rich and poor worshipped and fellowshipped on an equal basis. In 1850, the Church moved from East 24th to its present location at East 29th and the building has been enlarged considerably since then. Its official name is the Church of the Transfiguration but it has generated more affection and financial support from the thousands who have visited there.

Wilhelm Furtwangler

Wilhelm Furtwangler

A ten LP set, Deutsche Grammophon 2721202, Das Vermachtnis – (The Legacy) – Wilhelm Furtwangler, contains studio recordings and broadcasts of Maestro Furt­wangler conducting the Berlin Philhar­monic in symphonies and other orchestral works from Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Wagner, Brahms, Bruckner, Richard Strauss and the conductor himself. A record of interviews with the conductor from between 1950 to 1954, the year of his death, is missing.

I have found it difficult to put into words what made Furtwangler one of the most divinely inspired conductors who ever lived. He gave performances in which precision of phrasing, instead of precision of rhythm like other great conductors of his generation, was the key quality.

Instead of confusing readers further, I would suggest looking up one or more of the many YouTubes of the Maestro, relaxing at the computer and letting the performance happen.

Two special favorites on this set are the live May 25, 1947, Beethoven 5th Symphony and the studio May 14, 1953, Schumann 4th Symphony, which had a ferocious power and beauty from its first note to its last.

Both performances can be heard on YouTube.