Tea at Trianon: Celtic Music, Part I

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Celtic Music, Part I

From Mark Fisher:

My first exposure to really good Irish music was on our first night in Ireland in June 2014. My wife and I just had flown into Dublin, rented a car, and navigated the narrow roads and left-hand-side-of-the-road driving. My white-knuckled wife wondered the whole way if this were her last day on earth. But lo, we did arrive safely at our B&B in Kilkenny. After a short nap and supper, we found Kyteler’s Inn, one of the oldest inns in Ireland. There we landed a seat, grabbed a Guinness, and sat down to hear the traditional Irish music of the Raglan Rogues. It’s just two guys playing guitar, mandolin, banjo, Irish flute, and sometimes the tin whistle Their stringed instruments were unknown to the ancient Celts. Nevertheless they are keeping alive the spirit, rhythm, and sound of Celtic musical culture. (Read more.)