Musical Evenings With The Captain (Music from the Aubrey-Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian)
"Canned music has been with us for so long that scarcely anyone living can remember a time without at least gramophone records, to say nothing of radio, television, cassettes or CDs: and it is not at all easy to realize how much music people made for themselves in former years....
How entirely different it was in Nelson's time. He and nearly all his officers and men came from what was still a largely agricultural country studded with well-attended parish churches: and in these churches the instrumental music was very often supplied by villagers stationed in a gallery at the west end and playing violins, flutes of various kinds, oboes, sometimes clarinets, and not infrequently that fine strong-voiced woodwind the serpent. The importance of these musicians can scarcely be exaggerated: their presence, both in the gallery and on secular occasions - ale-house, weddings, or dancing on the green - meant that a young man joining the Navy came from a community in which the playing of a musical instrument was an everyday matter."From: A note from Patrick O'Brian, on the CD insert
Pride and Prejudice: The Original Soundtrack from the A&E Special Presentation
Jane Austen's World: For Piano (Faber Music)
If you want to see me cry, come on over when my daughter is playing piano pieces from Emma or Sense and Sensibility. My favorites are Emma, by Rachel Portman, and Devonshire, by Patrick Doyle. The beauty of the music, combined with the fine work of my daughter, breaks my heart in the most wonderful way.
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