Just a few images from Friday’s trip to Inverary. As we previously have mentioned, it poured buckets all day, so we were stuck in the castle, which was fairly typical as Scottish castles go — walls full of rifles and pistols and axes in artsy circles, old coronation gowns trimmed in ermine, paintings of relics and relatives, rooms stuffed with expensive tchotkes and the ubiquitous antique castle kitchen with the five hundred copper gelatin molds. (Those swords and axe thingies pictured are a real trip; the blades are inscribed “Sans Peur” {no fear in French. You’d think Gaelic, but no, French = fashionable even in the 17th century} and “Ne obliviscaris” {Never forget} – a how-to primer on holding a grudge?) T. says the worst thing about castles is that they remind her of her grandmother’s house — floral wallpaper, and rooms full of things like naked cherubs on clocks, floral arrangements under glass domes, and …ceramic animals. Sure they’re by Limoges, but they’re ceramic animals. !…
We had a thoroughly lovely guide, if nothing else. He answered our obscure questions, and talked candidly — after a cautious glance around the corner — about the Duke’s family, and allowed us to photograph a reproduction 17th century card game that was sitting in the drawing room. The original game was in German, and the gist of the game is that the players apparently had to play or sing the music on the back of the card if they couldn’t put down the proper face card or something like that. These are small playing cards, quite tiny, and the scores on back are complicated and …Mozart. Apparently the nobility in the Duke’s household was quite gifted!
Perhaps because the castle itself is still used as a residence, it’s the grounds which are the real draw, and the town of Inverary itself, neither of which we really were able to appreciate, as the rain was falling sideways. Only a few adventurous international students went hill climbing above the castle with the waterfalls gushing down the granite and making the trails slippery, and they got exceedingly muddy and wet. Those in our merry band took advantage of the winter clearance sales in the smaller shops and bought hats and coats — and were relieved to change into something warm and dry!!
Meanwhile, we can’t regret our loss of seeing the castle grounds at Inverary too much; we have a day trip planned for later in July in hopes of getting better weather, and the grounds are on a trail just off the esplanade, and are free. We also plan to go to a castle on the Isle of Mull, which should be a real adventure, as it will take us a bus trip, a ferry trip and a train to get there!
Each summer, the Scottish Arts Council subsidizes a music workshop which involves amateur choirs from all over the country. Glasgow musicians this year were invited to take part in a day long workshop designed to teach them the basics of Bach’s Mass in B minor. A subsequent rehearsal is for those who want to perform with a professional company and an orchestra, and city choirs from all over the country will perform collaboratively in Glasgow next weekend. It sounded like a fun challenge — learn a full mass in a day — and so we signed up.
The workshop was …grueling. Bach is an intense composer, and seven hours of sight-reading is exhausting in any event. What made it worse was that it wasn’t an all-learn-together deal like we thought; those who were willing to shell out extra funds had gone on a weekend retreat with the co-directors of the professional chorus and had gotten individual instruction, tutorials and the like. Those of us who showed up having never clapped eyes on the score were in the minority, and quickly felt ridiculously out of place, as other whizzed through the tricky chord progressions and complicated vocal gymnastics with relative ease.
Further ridiculousness was the us vs. them vibe that many of the group members felt regarding Edinburgh University. Apparently there were a large number of faculty involved — the woman next to T. was a veterinary school faculty member, and a great many “Hurray for Our Side!” comments were made. It was a very “patron of the arts” sort of vibe going on, that left some obviously subdued and giving each other wry and overwhelmed looks. The sole other occupant of the room under forty gave up and left halfway through. It was a very odd gathering.
We may go back for the Friday rehearsal and performance, but probably not — it was fun to say we did it, but not to say we’d do it again!
– D & T
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What a cool game.