Surprised by beauty 2

Excellent school run this morning - just back. I like being back in the routine again after the Christmas and New Year "peace and rest".

In a previous post, Surprised by beauty, I had just been listening to Radio 4, and once again...

Desert Island Discs' repeat on Radio 4 is on a Friday and by the time I get back in the car after drop off I've just missed Kirsty Young introducing her guest. Who is it, who is it? Hmmm, I don't recognise the voice, erm, or do I? Most of the time I haven't heard of them anyway, but I always find the musical choices interesting. Today Anthony Horowitz ("prolific author") chose Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles (duh!) for his first piece. I used to listen endlessly to the Beatles as a child/teenager (I remember Mum telling me that they'd split up years previous and I was gutted...) so I know this song very well.

BUT, I sat in the car on the drive, engine off, just listening until it ended. Really listening. This thing is a work of genius. It was like hearing those strings, for example, for the first time - achingly beautiful arrangement, cryingly sad, perfectly appropriate, sometimes in unison with the melody, sometimes flitting around it or harmonising, smooth and then choppy - amazing! The chromatic descent in the chorus is one of the saddest things I've heard.

Just Googled to find the score was by George Martin. Four violins, two violas, two cellos, close mic'd and no vibrato - I never noticed that.

It's a truly great example of the music mirroring the words. They go hand in hand, they are speaking the same message and the one enhances the other.

A dance for two, but as one.