Chamber music

I handed in my essay on tradition and dissent in Shostakovich’s chamber music last week. I smile as I write that. Me… writing about classical music! This has been my unexpectedly favourite bit of the course so far. I just loved the DVD that accompanied the study guide which focussed on several of Shostakovich’s String quartets. I have since sent away for some CDs.

The course also referred to the above Piano trio No.2 – I found the following quote in Ian MacDonald’s The New Shostakovich (p. 194)

Shostakovich had begun writing his Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 late in 1943 and he dedicated it to the memory of his friend and confidante, Ivan Sollertinsky who had died in February 1944 of a heart attack at only 41 years of age. The piece, however, goes beyond being just a memorial to his friend.

The trio’s finale was possibly provoked by reports in the Soviet press of the Red Army’s liberation of Nazi death camps. Horrified by stories that SS guards had made their victims dance besides their own graves, Shostakovich created a directly programmatic image of it. This harshly realistic movement is meant to shock and, at its height, the impression of someone stumbling about in exhaustion is painfully vivid. Soon after this, death mercifully supervenes in pealing arpeggios, leaving the ghost of the main theme dancing sepulchrally in the bass, like the murdered Petrushka at the end of Stravinsky’s ballet. With a final memory of the passacaglia, the trio twitches to a stop: a broken puppet.

Complainte Pour St Catherine

Kate & Anna McGarrigle

Architecture & Morality

The rain came and washed the magic away. Colour seeped back into the landscape, notably hues of green, but the brightness has been turned down and the tarmac pathways have returned, replacing the snow tracks across the grass of the estate.

Its Saturday morning. Its a little murky as I make my way into town for an OU tutorial to be held on the 10th floor of a university building. I hope the mist does not linger as part of the morning has been set aside to gaze out of the window and explore the architecture, the built heritage of our industrial city. This is to help us with one of the options available for the next assignment.

So far, I’m doing okay with my coursework. My marks are good and I even finished the last one with more than 24 hours to spare before the deadline!. Time management is not a strong point of my study but hopefully it is improving. I was fortunate that one part of the essay was commenting on the Dalai Lama, specifically, on an exchange the Dalai Lama has with a Tibetan devotee. The aim is to see if we have an understanding of how the ordinary Tibetan people see the Dalai Lama and the essay involves commenting on some basic Buddhist doctrine, particularly how the Dalai Lama is seen as a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara. The course materials include an excellent DVD and I find this essay easy to write, unlike the one that requires a comparison of two poems from different eras and written in different forms. I get a bit tangled up in my sonnets and free verse but survive unscathed. May be I will read that Introduction to Poetry book after all.

But today I am attending the tutorial. I think the face to face tutorials have been the best part of the OU experience so far, and it is a shame that more people choose not to attend, or are unable to because of commitments or distance. Whilst notes from the mornings are circulated afterwards, it is sharing a room with other students who really want to be there despite it being a cold overcast weekend morning. It gives me a boost until the next one.

I approach the room and switch off the MP3 and smile as the same strains of Shostakovitch greet me as the tutor sets up the sound in readiness for the students. This will be the basis of the next assignment which will explore chamber music and dissent from tradition in Shostakovitch’s music. My knowledge of classical music is poor but I have enjoyed the material that has accompanied this chapter.

A morning of Pugin’s Gothic architecture, music appreciation, Jewish klezma and talk of dissent in Stalin’s Russia. The AA100 course is eclectic but with strong common themes running through it. The two hours pass very quickly indeed.

Swan in snow

Sue and I took a walk around the frozen Rother Valley lakes yesterday.  This was my favourite image.

It’s snowing…

A New Year

Snow on field

Poetry week

Another week, another arts discipline. Today I began a chapter exploring poetry. It is based around poetry from an anthology, The Faber Book of Beasts edited by Paul Muldoon. it begins by getting one to compare and contrast different poems with similar subject matter. At an earlier tutorial, our tutor had enthused over William Blakes’s work and his poem The fly was contrasted with a more recent poem in translation by Miroslav Holub of the same name.

The fly by William Blake (1757-1827)

Little fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength and breath,
And the want
Of thought is death,

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

But of course, poetry should be read aloud

So I shall be reading the Faber Book of Beasts on the tram to and from work this week, and completing the accompanying study exercises in the evenings. A fine antidote to the current pressures at work where we will have a better idea what our service will be expected to deliver when the results of the tendering process are announced this thursday.

(not quite) daily practice

A friend recently asked me about the format of my daily practice. I have been reflecting on this over the past summer. There’s a lot of information about the liturgy use within the Amida School which you can find on their Ning site here .    Dharmavidya has also offered good advice in a blog post  here.

My practice has both formal and informal elements. The basic practice is just to say the nembutsu, bring it to mind through the day, may be do some chanting whilst out walking. Say Namo Amida Bu when you recognise you are getting caught up in the drama of life. Open to the  Light.

I have tried to establish a daily practice at home usually in the morning, though sometimes in the early eveningon returning home from work. And when I say “daily” well, that’s aspirational, better to say my (not quite) daily practice!

I have experimented with a number of formats over the past summer but have settled on the following. Each element is found in the Amida Nien Fo service book but I have kept it simple.

We have a small shrine in our living room with a candle and Buddha statue as seen in the picture above.

I begin the service with a bow and then light the candle. I begin chanting  nembutsu, usually for about 10 minutes,or longer if time allows. There are a number forms of chanting nembutsu used within the Amida School and you can find some of them here. I often use a traditional Amitabha chant but I am also enjoying a new taize-inspired Namo Amida Buddha that has been introduced at The Buddhist House this autumn. If time is pressing, chanting ten Namandabus will suffice.

I then have a period of silence after the chanting, usually of a similar length of time.

I follow this with some traditional pali buddhist chants which you can find in a number of Buddhist traditions.

Homages

Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambuddhasa
Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambuddhasa
Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambuddhasa

Refuges

Buddham Saranam Gacchami
Dhammam Saranam Gacchami
Sangham Saranam Gacchami

Dutiyampi Buddham Saranam Gacchami
Dutiyampi Dhammam Saranam Gacchami
Dutiyampi Sangham Saranam Gacchami

Tatiyampi Buddham Saranam Gacchami
Tatiyampi Dhammam Saranam Gacchami
Tatiyampi Sangham Saranam Gacchami

Lay Precepts

Panatipata Veramani Sikkhapadam Samadiyami
Adinnadana Veramani Sikkhapadam Samadiyami
Kamesu Micchacara Veramani Sikkhapadam Samadiyami
Musavada Veramani Sikkhapadam Samadiyami
Surameraya Majja Pamadatthana Veramani Sikkhapadam Samadiyami

I follow this with Five Prostrations which I accompany with chanting Namo Amida Bu or simply reciting the homages -

Namo Amitabaya
Namo Buddhaya
Namo Dharmaya
Namo Sanghaya
Namo Buddhakshetraya

I end the service with an Incense Offering followed by a few moments contemplating the Buddha and close with a bow.

the service usually lasts 20-25 minutes though I can simplify it further if time is short or extend it if I have more time at the weekend.

Like a prayer…

I was surprised to find myself listening to Madonna’s Material girl and Like a Prayer on the tram into work this morning.  More surprising was that I was doing so as part of my Open University course. The first term has been looking at Reputations across a range of art disciplines and asking questions like -

• Why are some people widely remembered and others not?
• Exactly what makes a person famous, or infamous?
• How does someone acquire a reputation?
• What is the relationship between a person’s reputation and what we can discover about their life from historical record?

I am really enjoying the course. Its a whistlestop tour through various art disciplines and topics. We have covered Antony and Cleopatra; a Christopher Marlowe play, Dr Faustus; the science and faith of Michael Faraday; the art of Cezanne and the reputation of Stalin. Goodness, in only 6 weeks!

At the risk of turning into a advertisment for the OU I am overwhelmed by the support and educational materials that I have been able to access. Face to face tutorials with other students who have willingly given up their saturday mornings to come along and value studying together; telephone tutorials, guided visits to art galleries with respected art historians; books, CDs, DVDs, DVD ROMs, online resources….

Coming up is an introduction to poetry and and examination of the Dalai Lama…

As I pull into Sheffield city centre, reading the chapter on Divas, Maria Callas is singing and I am being asked how I would describe the vocal melody in the aria “Una voce poco fa” from the opera The Barber of Seville. There’s a smile on my face. Studying shouldn’t be this fun, should it?