Without music, life would be a mistake — Friedrich Nietzsche
I decided that my Reflections in 2021 would take on a different spin. That spin is music. Each week my Reflection will revolve around a piece of music, a song or some such. Something that has personal meaning. Or comes to mind because of an event. Or it might be a new musical discovery.
This first Reflection is my early realisation that I enjoyed classical music. There is one piece that stands out in my memory from that realisation — Intermezzo from the opera Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni.
I was seven years of age, and that piece of music was from my grandparents’ record collection. That collection was my introduction to recorded music. My first listening to Pirate Radio would come a year or so later. Radio One would not broadcast for another few years from then.
The material used to make those records was Shellac. The forerunner of Vinyl. Such records also carried the nickname, ‘78s’ because they played at 78 RPM.
My grandparents’ record player formed part of a Radiogram — a substantial piece of furniture. Theirs stood below the large single window of what everyone I then knew called the ‘Room’. A sitting room or lounge if you like. Given its size, both those descriptions sound overly grand.
The ‘Room’, a kitchen, and a bathroom constituted my grandparents’ small, terraced house’s downstairs rooms. You got to the bathroom from the kitchen. Sounds basic but at least it was indoor plumbing. I should add that the house in which I grew up was the same. They lived at number 7 Burns Avenue and I lived at number 23.
The houses were those ‘Homes Fit for Heroes’ built after the Great War. My grandfather, a wounded veteran of that war, moved into his in 1923 and would spend the better part of his working life paying off the mortgage of £100. In 1985, the year he died, the house’s value had risen to £12K.
Anyway, I digress. As a small boy, I prized that my grandparents allowed me to play some of their 78s. I saw this as a rare treat. I now look back on those occasions as golden moments in my grandparents’ company as they coaxed me to be gentle (no mean feat for a 7-year-old) with what were fragile treasures. I would gently place the pick-up needle into the first groove. A pick-up needle that required changing after 30 plays or so. Then, accompanied by a gentle background hiss, the music would emerge.
I’m not alone enjoying this piece of music as some report it as the most well-known piece of classical music in the world. Filmmakers especially made much use of it. Two notable examples are the ‘Godfather III’ and, the most striking to me, the opening of the film ‘Raging Bull’. The moment I heard the elegant tranquillity of Intermezzo, juxta-positioned against the brutal violence of a boxing match, I knew the film would be a masterpiece.
From my travels over the years, I have fond memories of the Villa Monastero’s botanical garden in Varenna on Lake Como. As the Villa’s name suggests, it was once a monastery. My visits to the gardens trigger the Intermezzo to ‘play’ in the back of my mind. The music is a perfect complement to the floral beauty and calls to mind a loving memory of my grandparents.
Stay safe and here’s the music …