(no subject)

Yesterday was a day of extremes. Shrewsbury Battlefield 1403 gave me possibly the strongest history feels I've had since realizing explicitly that Henry V was a real person who might actually have said and felt some of the things Shakespeare put in his mouth. It was barely a hill, with a ridge in the distance, and some information; not a building, not a ford, not a river or anything, just a field where many people (for the age) died and we remember some of their names.

And then a drive to Worcester Cathedral, where there was a decent antique shop and a King's Singers concert. Here follows their program:

Sing Joyfully - Byrd
O Lord, Make Thy Servant Elizabeth - Byrd
Hard By A Crystal Fountain - Morley
Come Again Sweet Love - Dowland
Now Is the Month of Maying - Morley

A Lover's Journey - Libby Larsen
-In the Still Garden
-Ophelia's Song
-Will You, Nil You
-Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day

Songs & Sonnets from Shakespeare - George Shearing
-Live with me and be my love
-When daffodils begin to peer
-It was a lover and his lass
-Spring
-Who is Silvia?
-Fie on sinful fantasy
-Hey, ho, the wind and the rain

Interval

Who Is Sylvia? - Schubert
Wenn ich in deine Augen seh - Schumann
Mandoline - Fauré
Comme tu dois avoir froid - Auric (from the Brahms film score)

Cheek to Cheek (L'Estrange)
Steal Away (Chilcott)
Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill (Lightfoot)
O My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose (Carrington)
Little David, Play On Your Harp (Roberts)

At Last (L'Estrange)


And we stayed afterward to talk to the boys and apparently Paul has moved past the emotions of leaving (not everyone else has; there were no few tears upon his feature in the encore).

It's hard to describe the effect of the cathedral on a King's Singers concert. Or on the hanging-about afterwards. It was good to see them all, though.

The drive up to Edinburgh was an extreme in the other direction; so much time, and in the dark for once (we'd avoided it so far on this trip), and some tractors blocking the roads, and going the long way to avoid small roads and roundabouts. It was good to arrive and see Talitha and talk and sleep.

Today, on the other hand, has been oddly level. It was fun to see a formal kilt and tux jacket in the grocery store (uniquely Scottish), and to go to Talitha's Renaissance Dance club/class. The instruments were of course charming; they had a lute and a rebec and a gamba. I got to dance a bit more this time than I did last year, and I think I did pretty well. It was fun, at least. And the company was good, at the small meal-hangout afterwards. Some of them even remembered us.