Genevieve's Journeys

These two movies were on back to back on Sunday. They both date from 1978 or so. They both feature John Williams' scores, which came up recently in the BBC4 feature about Music of the Movies (tying in nicely with the Proms).

It occurred to me that both movies were both upbeat and optimistic: in the face of cynicism and doubt, the earnest and genuine characters, the 'believers' if you like, prevail.

Christopher Reeve plays Superman utterly straight, gentle and untroubled by the aggressiveness of Metropolis. He manages lines like, 'Not at all commissioner, we're on the same side!' with a totally straight face...and carries it off.

In Close Encounters, the innocents emerge unhurt (the lead woman gets her toddler back), and noone is shot by the military - they're gassed but it's to put them to sleep, not kill them.

It occurred to me that it would be very hard to make the same movies with the same tone today.

Partly because of watching these on the weekend I've had the Superman overture running through my head (blaring trumpets BAAA-BA-BA-BA-BAAAAAAH, BAAAAA-BAAAAA-BAAAAAAH....); and I just picked up Robert humming one of the Star Wars tunes, also by J. Williams.

Last Friday evening, Robert and I rounded out our week of culture with a concert at St Bartholomew the Great church (the one behind St. Barts hospital, featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral, and also where the KWHS tour stopped for an impromptu visit a couple of years ago).

This was a citole concert - the feature of a citole workshop going on during Friday and Saturday, and we had the pleasant company of Master Otto of Gaita, who was in Thamesreach to attend the workshop at the British Museum.

The citole is a little-known medieval stringed instrument, looking a bit like a ukelele in size, like a guitar or lute in layout, but with a huge solid neckpiece. The only surviving example is at British Museum, and it's not a great one at that, having been reworked into a sort of violin sometime in the 16th c, and not very successfully at that, according to Otto; it made a poor violin, but extremely decorative.

However, there's enough documentary and pictorial evidence for them existing in the 13-14th c, before giving way to lutes and other instruments, and the sole example was enough for a woodworker to recreate models with - two of which were being played at the concert. The performers were early music specialists all visiting from the US, where they each had areas of expertise and academic accolades. 

The concert was splendid - a mix of instrumental and vocal performances, a mix of familiar tunes that Gaita and others have recorded along with unknowns. The gent singing was a countertenor (which Otto says is contraversial in medieval music circles: lacking evidence for the practice, and possibly influenced by post-period vocal conventions like opera) - medieval or not, a very polished and confident performer. The women sang with him, but didn't usually sing alone for these pieces.

One, according to Otto, was supporting the performance almost entirely with embellishment, rather than from arranged sheet music. He said that he now knows so many of the pieces so well, the fun for him is in hearing live performances - to see what experienced musicians do with a piece, rather than listening to a favourite recording over and over.

The were clapped to a very civil encore - not another performance, but an acknowledgement of thanks - graciously saying that it was a thrill, as three New World musicians, to perform in such a lovely Old World setting. St Barts has a wonderful mix of Romanesque and early Gothic features, excellent accoustics, plus of course, lots of heraldry.