John Clare, always a champion of the underprivileged, introduces us to the gypsy culture of his day and gives us a chance to hear a sample of traditional gypsy music.
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The Song of the Earth
As the evening clouds gather round the setting sun, we close the curtains and withdraw into the warmth inside and wonder, with Wordsworth and Mahler, what the future holds for our troubled world.
Continue reading “The Song of the Earth”Vaughan Williams and the English Countryside
Vaughan Williams’ ‘Lark Ascending‘ reminds us that no summer walk on the downs in southern England would be complete without the sound of skylarks singing overhead.
Continue reading “Vaughan Williams and the English Countryside”An Elegy for our Lost Woods
The wonder and mystery of woods has always fascinated us. They are the stuff of fairy stories, legends and much of our English literature. Those that are left, like the New Forest (above), are ‘the guardians of our dreams of greenwood liberty of our wildwood, feral, childhood selves’. (Roger Deakins)
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