Reading queue

I like having a few books on the go at the same time. Or, if not that, some queued up ready for once I have finished my present read.

I am currently reading the final book of The Three Body Problem trilogy - Death's End. Sounds gloomy? It's not; it's inspiring.The whole trilogy is captivating, genuine science fiction. Brief summary (slight spoiler): an alien civilization (Trisolaris - the three suns of the title) is discovered four light years away. They are struggling with constant sequences of planetary destruction and reconstruction, as a result of being "thrown" between the three suns, and will eventually be subsumed into one of the suns. Once they get 'pinged' by an Earth signal, they figure out it might be a nice place to settle so they send an invasion fleet, which will arrive on Earth in 400 years. There is a lot of astrophysical text ("hard science fiction") and we follow (sometimes changing times forwards and backwards) Earth's scientific development and the scientists involved.

One of the my best reads in a long time. It's a fascinating study of how humanity deals with an alien threat and how it evolves as a result. Written by Liu Cixin and translated by Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen, the books have won many awards. 

Next will be Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

To be followed by Claire Tomalin's biography of Samuel Pepys "The Unequalled Self".

Lockdown can lead to cultural exploration!

Dukes Of Hazzard

Why do we need dukes? Do they serve any purpose today? If so, should we create more of them? By we, of course, I mean Her Maj. Who may be reading this some time soon. So some advice perhaps...

Historically, dukedoms have been used by monarchs of various countries to reward a valued service performed by someone. A military commander, for instance, who won a key battle. They become high nobles in the monarch's virtual court, below princes but above earls [there are technically marquesses in between but I don't think we have had one of those since the 16th century]. They are generally hereditary, and attached to some locality, over which they nominally "rule" - their Duchy.

So you would imagine that the Dukes themselves would feel a responsibility to live in their duchy, much like Members of Parliament often (well maybe sometimes) move to their constituencies. So how are we in the UK doing on that test?

Start from the top - the Queen is technically Duke of Lancaster. Why? Did she go to Uni there? No constituency residence.

The Duke of Edinburgh clearly thought "that's a cool place; the Athens of the North, they had dukes in  Athens didn't they? [they did]; I'll go and live there". But he didn't.

The Duke of York obviously thought "there's a great train museum there; I'll go and live next door". But he didn't.

The Duke of Cambridge  presumably studied at the Uni there. No he didn't.

The Duke of Sussex lives in California. Enough said.

The Duke of Gloucester [who he? you ask] lives in Kensington Palace and has a country home [obv] in Northamptonshire.

The Duke of Kent also lives in the very-crowded Kensington Palace, with a country home ...oh who cares?

Any more? Yes, there are 24 other Dukes in the UK. Mostly in England and Scotland but a couple in Ireland (one of those in the Republic, which is weird). None in Wales - just how united is our kingdom, your maj?

It is notable that there is no Duke of St Austell - there's definitely an opportunity here for a new appointment, ma'am. I'm available. But there is a Duke of Cornwall; it's a rather seedy pub not far from me, opposite a very decent BYO Indian restaurant. Oh, wait, I'm terrible sorry, Prince of Wales, that's you! I didn't realise you had two titles.

[Comment from the heir to the throne: I have eight]

What a ridiculous little country we are! Rich people who are related to the Queen get to live where they want and lord it over a distant community with which they have no connection.

Do I have some advice for our monarch? It kind feels a bit late for that; these things have been going for six hundred years or so.

Come the revolution...

There once was a man named Picard

There once was a man named Picard
Who was fond of quoting the bard
He flew to the the skies
On the Enterprise
And we hold him in high regard.

On board was an android called Data
A pretty darn good debater
He was really in
to playing the violin
Or so said a spectator.

Will Riker was Number One
He really had lots of fun
He played the trombone
With wonderful tone
To Picard he was like a son.

They explored every star
Checked them out from afar
They had a great trip
In the best ever ship
And will always be remembered.

Police fine plenty of joyful citizens but Cummings gets a weak little telling off

No comment necessary.

Opera trivia

OK, so who wrote the most operas? Which is the longest opera? What is my favourite opera?

There are many who believe that opera is the supreme musical and theatrical art form - gesamptkunstwerk, as the Germans say. Wagner was certainly of the opinion that opera should be more than just the "monstrosities" of Grand Opera and Bel Canto, with its emphasis on bravura singing and "meaningless plots". Take that, Guiseppe Verdi! Although for meaningless plots try watching Richard's final opera, Parsifal.

Wagner was certainly a competitor for the longest opera, Die Meistersinger von Nűrnberg coming in at over 5 hours. Of course, some might consider his Ring cycle (18 hours) of four operas as really one gigantic work.

But Wagner was a mere novice in comparison with 20th century composers. Karlheinz Stockhausen composed his Licht cycle of 7 operas, subtitled Die sieben Tage der Woche (The Seven Days of the Week), totalling 29 hours. Suffice to say, not many performances have occurred. But the winner is...

Robert Wilson's The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin, listed by Guinness World Records as the longest single opera ever performed, at 15 hours and 15 minutes. My guess is that, at this very moment, there is an American composer trapped in a White House basement, tapping away at his keyboard and writing "Trump - the Opera", coming in at 15 hours and 16 minutes, enabling our hero to say "I am the longest. The very longest. So long." (and I think we can all echo those last two words)

Who composed the most operas? Many would cite Donizetti at 75. But the Austrian Wenzel Müller (1767-1835) apparently wrote 166. There's one for the pub quiz.

Verdi's La Traviata, definitely not on Wagner's Spotify playlist, was cited by OperaBase in 2016 as being the most performed opera, with 4,190 to that point. A distant second was the opera most people would guess at for the title was Mozart's Magic Flute, with a mere 3,310. Karlheinz, you have no chance...

My favourite opera? It has to be Wagner. I enjoy the pre-Ring and post-Ring operas (to be fair, they are a bit intermingled so don't pick me up on chronology) more than the Ring itself. I absolutely love the music of Parsifal but the plot is drivel. So it has to be Tristan und Isolde.

Thanks for reading; feel free to share your favourites in the Comments.

Symphony trivia

Ever since Beethoven write 9 symphonies, that has been the benchmark for many later composers.

Of course, before then symphonies were two a penny - Haydn wrote 104 (or so; some say 106, but there are 104 numbered ones); that's 3 a year between 1759 (no. 1) and 1795 (no. 104). One can only imagine Beethoven in 1824, after finishing his 9th, thinking "only another 95 to go..."

Plenty of 9ers then followed - Dvorak, Bruckner, Mahler, Vaughan Williams come to mind easily.  Schubert completed 7, numbered 1-6 and 9, with an unfinished no. 8. No. 7 exists in draft and part orchestration. There are various unfinished symphonies, which well-meaning musicians "finished". Nice work if you can get it.

There is (or probably was) the "Curse of the Ninth" superstition, that a composer would die after writing nine symphonies. It didn't stop Dmitri Shostakovitch powering through to 15.

Wagner wrote one symphony and then gave up; writing operas was easier. If you switch off the vocals they sound like symphonies.

People like Brahms (4), Mendelssohn (5), Tchaikovsky (6), Elgar (2), Copland (3) and Sibelius (7) were a little more discerning - or maybe scared of the curse.

Berlioz wrote 4 but gave them names rather than numbers.

Schoenberg wrote 2 chamber symphonies but then decided he only needed 12 notes for the rest of his output.