Clay Lane
Posts in The Copybook credited to ‘Clay Lane’
Edward Elgar suffered from depression, and ‘Nimrod’ is his token of thanks to the true friend who supported him through it.
By far the best-known of all Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’ is ‘Nimrod’, frequently played at Remembrance services and funerals. But the story behind it suggests that it was intended as music not of loss or parting, but of enduring friendship, and new hope.
Moscheles taught his adopted country how to write enchanting music for decades to come.
Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870) was a Czech composer who came to England in the 1820s and instantly felt at home. England warmed just as quickly to him, and he became a kind of godfather to a generation of Victorian composers writing particularly tuneful music.
An 18th century bon viveur and virtuoso violinist, Thomas Erskine is currently being ‘rediscovered’ by the classical music industry.
Thomas Erskine (1732-1781), 6th Earl of Kellie, was a Scottish musician and composer, who also founded a racy ‘gentleman’s club’ in Edinburgh called the Capillaire. His music has long been forgotten, and much of it is lost, but people are at last realising just how good some of it is.
Handel’s anthem sets to glorious music words sung at English coronations for over a thousand years.
George Frederic Handel’s anthem ‘Zadok the Priest’, shamelessly plagiariased for UEFA’s ‘Champions League Anthem’, has been part of every coronation in England since 1727, and the words were chosen by a saint over a thousand years ago.
Handel’s German boss fired the composer for spending all his time in London. When they met again, it was... rather awkward.
George Frideric Handel was employed to write music for the court of George, Elector of Hanover in Germany. He preferred, however, to live in London and write music for Queen Anne.