I’m supposed to be reading the Rough Guide to Classical Music but it’s just too hot and bothersome today.
I say ‘supposed to be’ but it’s all self-imposed now, this quiz revision, particularly as there is now no quiz to go to! It seems unlikely that anyone will rush up to me to ask me when Chopin was born as a matter of urgency. And, as I’ve observed many times, it’s called trivia for reason.
The Rough Guide is over 600 pages long. It’s my latest library book, and when I reserved it, I didn’t know what kind of tome it was. I was hoping it would be a sort of chronological unfolding of everything from Monteverdi to Mozart, the story of how diatonic music swirled its way through the renaissance, the baroque and romantic eras. I wanted a chapter on Liszt avoiding his fans like the Beatles in the mid 60s, or Beethoven attaching wires to his mouth so he could hear what he was playing through his bones. Angry Berlioz stalking an actress, Handel moving to England for some reason, and the great mystery of what happened to Haydn’s head? None of that drama.
This is more of a dictionary - but a dictionary with too much detail and not enough story. I don’t feel like reading it tonight.
I don’t feel like doing much to be honest. I’m zapped by the remarkable weather. I can’t cope with the humidity. I’m also at the end of a tricky week.
There will be a quiz. I’m sure of it. Maybe next year, maybe not, but some time. Whether anything in the Rough Guide to Classical Music comes up is another matter.
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