30 November 2015

Sunday walk

The Climate Change march through town
 past Trafalgar Square
 turning down Whitehall
 past Horse Guards
towards the Parliament buildings
 with a little monumental sightseeing along the way

 and, retreating from the blare of the rally, some architectural details in the back streets
 not to mention these crazy trees
 and other plant life
 on the way to Tate Britain.

The big central space looked bare - but it's a listening place, not a looking place, with an installation of speakers playing Susan Philipsz's reconstruction of The Last Post, or rather, drawn-out notes from it, using war-damaged instruments.
 A film shows the instruments, which now rest in museums, being played and recorded. Some are so badly damaged that only the breath of the player is heard -


A thoughtful and affecting piece, I thought. That tuba, recovered from the German trenches in 1915, brings to mind my father's (German) cousin, who played the tuba though he had a finger missing, and also my grandfather, who fought in Belgium in that war.

The instruments are listed here; hear them till 3 April.

2 comments:

beatrice De said...

Hope is beautiful !
Kisses. Béatrice

Unknown said...

Thanks for the instruments list! The tuba seems to be damaged a bit, but still it preserves the historical outlook of its time. I've never heard it actually, until I found it on http://essaykings.me/. There was a power point presentation of all the instruments and their sounds. Great fund, I should say - instruments from all over the world.
Regards, Oscar