Scones

Part the second in an occasional series- Recipes for Berenike.

Scones

preheat oven to 220C, 425F or Gas mark 7
baking trays at the ready, greased if need be.

book says makes 16, depends how you cut up the dough, say I.

500g/1lb self raising flour
pinch of salt (I ignore that bit)
125g/4oz butter (or margarine - no thanks says Leutgeb. some of my Mother's folks are dairy farmers.)
2 eggs
300ml/ 1/2 pint of milk

sift flour into bowl
rub in butter (think crumble, think bread crumbs)
beat together eggs + milk
pour into flour+butter
recipe says, ' draw together to make a soft but not sticky dough.'
I say pour in, get a spoon out twirl around a bit and bingo dough.
kneed lightly for a few moments until smooth.
lightly flour worktop and roll out dough.
I splat it onto the flour and squish it into a shape 1 inch thick.
They say use a 2 inch pastry cutter, I say find a suitable mug to stamp out rounds.
Place on baking tray and bake in your preheated oven for 10-12 mins until risen and golden.

Eat immediately.

Or put in tin and put into the oven for a few moments to 'freshen' them up.
They need that just baked outer crispiness before you get to the butter, jam, cream, whatever filling you and your guests are diving into.

Disappear into the garden for afternoon tea.

A happy ending

After my HoD fired off his missive, two sleepless nights, much shifting of music stands and checking of music and a concert. After the concert the Mother apologised and boy will be playing next week.

And the scary Russian piano teacher turned out to be very nice in the rehearsal today. Orchestra played well, given that they were all very tired and it was very humid. Then as soon as she went they lost the plot, so we played through something we aren't playing next week and called it a day. They will come up with the goods when needed.

In other news 4 very small tomatoes have ripened in my garden and an un-named insect, maybe a red ant, bit my foot (ouch.)

Et tu Brute?

One of the occupational hazards of being a Music Teacher, any teacher, anyone really, is people letting you down. A week before a concert I put together in February and have been rehearsing since then a boy (or is it his Mother?) wants him to go on a school trip. After a wishy washy conversation with me on the phone, I set my HoD on the case, who has put his foot down on my behalf, which is great. Btw both this boy's parents are pro musicians, so there is no possibility that they don't understand what they are doing and which all makes it even more gob smacking. Basically, I would have had to fix a pro dep. Brill. Other colleague was having a similar rant at the end of lunch time too about a similar situation and a different concert next week. What happened to loyalty?

By the end of the Summer Term, I am so worn out accommodating other people's whims that I start getting cynical about people. By no means all people, but lots of folks really only consider themselves it seems. Other people, of course, spend all their time considering others and are a real tonic.

Music teaching presents two career options, the nervous breakdown route or the coming out fighting path. I opted for the second, but I have to say it never seems to get any easier. 16 years down, 24 to go.

Gregorian Semiology

by Dom Eugene Cardine is, as my Music Teacher would have said, a slim volume, but as I would say a dense text. So a lot to learn. I blame Hoppin Medieval Music, the set text for my early early Music History Course, for giving the impression that pre Guido d'Arezzo the squiggles were just an aide memoire. Au contraire, there was a method. The Solesmes folks do give the impression that the stave is not the best thing since sliced bread, which is interesting because the usual history of Western Music goes

lots of squiggles from the Ancient Greeks and a few Roman Trumpets and Egyptian ones too, not sure what they played, can't read the music.

Guido d'Arezzo that Antiphon that goes Ut...Re...Mi... etc and bingo, now we know the notes and btw the Medieval guys got all the Greek modes that Plato went on about a bit wrong. Pitch is where it's at folks.

Solesmes is all very different and much more respectful of the past. Like the people (people rather like them, Benedictines for example,) did know what they were up to and it did work. But that's a Catholic interpretation. People in the past told the truth, were not stupid etc.

I've met a few early music bods recently and they have a funny attitude to the music. On the one hand they assume that no-one else has a clue about the people producing it whilst showing that they aren't really in sympathy with them themselves. It's rather like an article I read in The Catholic Herald recently about how people curating exhibitions do not understand the significance of the religious objects they are displaying. They don't know what they are for or even what they are called. I feel more connection with these people in the past. After all they went to the same Mass I'm going to. They were singing the same texts etc.

Enough ramblings. My shoulder is hurting after the kindly (?!) physio wrenched it around a bit this morning. But I have been promoted to Shoulder Class! Still can't reach the C string on the viola quite right, but we are getting there.

Still Alive

Just finished a hectic period of rehearsals, concerts and school stuff.

Time to draw breath before the next onslaught.

Half the horn section is leaving the orchestra. One to Brussels and one to Australia. Sniff. That's sad as they be nice people. We have one replacement lined up and no doubt will find another. Or we will have to do the Eroica!

Anyway, Mozart 25 passed off OK. My usual tactics worked and though both I and horn 1 had a moment of transposition failure, where you recalculate the note into a different key, usually the previous movement. We quickly righted ourselves. Horn parts often have the key written against entries following lots of rests, so you don't do that. Often pencilled in with lots of !!!!!

Bara brith, being the home of music, home-baking and Catholicism, it's time to bake a Victoria Sponge for my Dad before going to Mass. Bon Dimanche and Happy Year of Priests.

Music in my case

Strange but true. Though sometimes I don't actually practise somthing between one rehearsal and the next, having the music in my possession always makes me feel more secure.

Thus, the fact that I now have a copy of Dom Eugene Cardine's 'Gregorian Semiology' makes me feel a whole lot better. All I have to do is read it, understand it and internalise it all and I'll be able to cope in Solesmes. In the meantime, I shall put it in my rucksack and take it to work and back everyday.

I must say the copy of Mozart 25 has been out every day. We had a horn section humorous 'domestic' at the back on the rehearsal on whether it's horn in Bb alto or basso at the w/e. Alto, alas which means that me mere low horn player has to go all clarino suddenly and play top Bbs. My basic approach to not splitting notes is practice, breath, punch from the diaphram and apply a large quantity of bloody mindedness. (I don't go for the betablocker approach to performing.)What I like to think of as a trumpet player mentality, which is apt because Bb alto is the same transposition as a Bb trumpet. Tim, section principal, will no doubt bring his Bb/f-alto horn ( a dual bore double descant horn, no less,) but I have two of the bog standard full doubles and will use my old one because it feels safer. The Alex, see below, will have the night off.

If that all makes no sense to you, worry not, we horn players spend our time essentially playing a different note to the one in front of us, putting things up and down fixed amounts. This concert includes horn in D, E, Eb, Bb alto. The important thing is to remember which key you are transposing into otherwise accidents occur. The rest of the world, particularly string players, think it's crazy. Ah well.

You'll be happy to know that we have lunch in the pub as a section and talk about oo, horns, music, but only the horn parts, horns, mouthpieces, cases, mutes, valve oil, bikes (everyone else is into cycling,) and horns.

The Allotment

Having planted my first early potatoes on the Feast of the Annunciation, they have now reached new potato size and whatever the weather are being lifted today. All of the seven remaining plants. Since I have been unable to do much for the last 8 weeks, on account of my poorly shoulder, I have very little ground in cultivation. The couch grass grows high..... Carrots need to go somewhere. The broad beans are a little small, but edible and the parsnips have actually germinated. Tip plant when the ground is warmed up a bit, or give them a hot water bottle. I have many packets of seeds still to plant and really no time til the end of term to do much. Sigh.

On a very positive note, I have been given five blackcurrant bushes by the father of a friend. How lucky is that? Very. Looking at other plot holder, many have a great deal of space given over to fruit, this being Kent, so I'm very pleased. Friends wheeled 2 over on Thursday on the way to vote and gave me 5 eggs from their hens. We have the makings of a cooperative. They returned with a few cuttings. I'll have to give them some potatoes.

Meantime in the back garden next door's plum tree is heaving with fruit and most of it is over hanging into my garden. I can't wait for it to be ripe. Yum. Will make Ruby (neighbour) some jam and things.