On a more positive note (and to change the subject), there was a lovely programme on Radio 4 this morning hosted by pianist and academic (and occasional Radio 3 presenter) David Owen Norris on the musical interests of the 'peasant poet' John Clare.
This episode, the first in a new series called The Playlist Series, had a fascinating subject, a likeable presenter, and three interesting (and interested) guests - and the music the presenter unearthed included a pleasant folksong, a delightfully smutty song and a particularly beautiful arrangement of another folksong as arranged by Clare himself in his late asylum years - a song with charms to sweeten anyone's solitude. I liked this latter piece so much I even tweeted him to ask him if it could be recorded. (Well, you can only ask.)
IN HILLY-WOOD
How sweet to be thus nestling deep in boughs,
Upon an ashen stoven pillowing me;
Faintly are heard the ploughmen at their ploughs,
But not an eye can find its way to see.
The sunbeams scarce molest me with a smile,
So thick the leafy armies gather round;
And where they do, the breeze blows cool the while,
Their leafy shadows dancing on the ground.
Full many a flower, too, wishing to be seen,
Perks up its head the hiding grass between.-
In mid-wood silence, thus, how sweet to be;
Where all the noises, that on peace intrude,
Come from the chittering cricket, bird, and bee,
Whose songs have charms to sweeten solitude.
