IF writing about music is like dancing about architecture, then, in 816, Bai Juyi, a Chinese poet, made one of the boldest imaginative leaps in his Song of the Lute (translated here by Burton Watson). It describes hearing a woman playing from a boat, the sound drifting across the water:
The big strings plang-planged like swift-falling rain,
The little strings went buzz-buzz like secret conversations,
Plang-plang, buzz-buzz mixed and mingled in her playing
Like big pearls and little pearls falling on a plate of jade.
Most musical instruments have evolved from earlier versions of themselves and alongside these are ancient-or original or historic (terms vary)-ones that hold a particular fascination for some of today's players. Of these, the lute is probably the most familiar, described by writers down the centuries and cropping up in poems by Anacreon in Greece in the 6th century BC, by Thomas Wyatt and Shakespeare in the 16th century, Emily Dickinson and Paul Laurence Dunbar in the 19th and Elizabeth Bishop in the 20th.
Lutenist Paula Chateauneuf started off by playing the guitar, but, at university in Connecticut, US, she met a music professor who happened to be mad about the viola da gamba, or viol, a family of stringed instruments played upright. The early-music revival was beginning and he'd formed a Collegium Musicum of players. 'I asked if I could join,' recalls Ms Chateauneuf. 'He stood up, went into a back room, pulled out a lute and handed it to me.
Denne historien er fra April 17, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 17, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
