Monthly Archives: November 2019
A new-created world
Our next concert it Haydn’s Creation, this Sunday (December 1st) at the Guildhall, Plymouth. A work so well-known it should need no introduction. Should be a decent concert for those in the area.
After the two great Bach Passions, this is a third piece we’re singing in a new translation. Again, there’s no new value, but this time there’s another rationale: supposedly the German text isn’t authoritative either. The original text should be the Bible (Genesis) – which gives more-or-less unlimited scope to pick-a-translation – and Paradise Lost.
My view: while it’s true that the German text leaves something to be desired, this translation isn’t it any more than the well-known translation – which is more singable. But there’s very little change: this is again a long way from new.
Necrofelia
I was motivated to write this when I saw a reference to our prime minister’s onanism in an online forum. He threw the press that word, and successfully distracted them – and it seems others – from discussing real issues. In other words, a classic dead cat.
It is now well-known that Boris is the master of the dead cat. He’s not the first, but we didn’t use the phrase when (for example) Blair used them, and in some ways he’s taken it to a new level. We need a word for it.
We have a kind-of precedent in his predecessor Cameron’s necroporcophilia. And now the onanism reference tells us Boris doesn’t merely like a dead cat, but takes gratification in it. So we should speak of him as our necrofeliphiliac prime minister. But that word seems ugly and confusing. I propose contracting it to necrofeliac, or the root necrofelia.
Can I claim the coinage? I guess a quick google will tell me if someone’s already coined it. Dammit, either way the fact I’m talking about it tells us it’s homological.
niq's soapbox 