Quote of the Day (George Bernard Shaw, Proposing ‘A Financial Symphony’)

“Why not a Financial Symphony? Allegro: Impending Disaster, Lento maestoso: Stony Broke, Scherzo: Light Heart and Empty Pocket, Allegro con brio: Clouds Clearing.”—Anglo-Irish Nobel Literature laureate George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), June 29, 1932 postcard to English composer Sir Edward Elgar, quoted in F.W. Gaisberg, The Music Goes Round (1942)

Shaw, a music critic before he became a playwright, certainly did not feel bashful about suggesting to “Pomp and Circumstance” creator Elgar—in semi-retirement, following the death of his wife a dozen years before—what his next musical subject would be.

Elgar didn’t take him up on it. But he did accept the commission for a symphony that Shaw strongly urged the BBC have him do. That work was unfinished at Elgar’s death from cancer in 1934.

But his extensive 130 pages of notes enabled British composer Anthony Payne to finish the job over 60 years later. Symphony No. 3 in C Minor ended up being performed 25 years ago this week, to considerable acclaim.

When Shaw contributed his puckish idea to Elgar, the world was in the grip of a worldwide depression. Considering the repercussions of that economic collapse—not just the rise of Nazism in Germany, but also the starry-eyed wonder many intellectuals in the West would hold for the Soviet Union in those years—it definitely took a while for the “Clouds Clearing” movement to develop.

If a “financial symphony” were created today in line with Shaw’s concept, I’m afraid that the result could be every bit as discordant as what happened during his time and Elgar’s.

(By the way, if you want to hear how Payne completed Elgar’s project, listen to this YouTube clip of the performance by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.)

Quote of the Day (Henry Fielding, on Good and Bad Men)

“It is much easier to make good men wise, than to make bad men good.”—English novelist Henry Fielding (1707-1754), The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749)

The image accompanying this post shows Albert Finney as the title character in the Oscar-winning adaptation of Henry Fielding’s classic. As you might surmise in this scene, Tom Jones, for all his good instincts, is very, very far from wisdom.

Quote of the Day (Bernard MacLaverty, on Love)

“What was love but a lifetime of conversations. And silences. Knowing when to be silent. Above all, knowing when to laugh.”— Irish novelist and short-story writer Bernard MacLaverty, Midwinter Break: A Novel (2017)

Quote of the Day (Mark Twain, on Boys and Treasure Hunting)

"There comes a time in every rightly-constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure." ― American novelist and humorist Mark Twain (1835-1910), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)

Photo of the Day: Weasel Brook Park, Clifton, NJ

Weasel Brook, a tributary of the Passaic River, is the center of a 19-acre “pocket park” in Clifton, NJ. It reminds me of the stream in my neighborhood in Bergen County, except that Clifton has surrounded it not with housing but with open greenery and recreational facilities.

Though I have seen on the Internet that Clifton has upgraded Weasel Brook Park, which I visited yesterday, it doesn’t seem to have attempted to change its flow.

That may be just as well: in the age of climate change, any belief that a dam project would stem flooding for good might have been a dangerous illusion (as my hometown, Englewood, found out when Hurricane Ida overflowed the banks of the creek across the street from me, on what had years ago been labeled a floodplain).

Instead of residences that would have to be evacuated, Weasel Brook Park features two basketball courts, a picnic area, a playground, a multiuse athletic field, and, up a hill, the restored, 300-year-old Westervelt-Vanderhoef House.

(“Weasel” is a modification of “Wesel,” a town in Holland, and the first inhabitants of the area surrounding the brook were Dutch.)

Mostly, it provides a chance to walk a dog, breathe in the air, even to exercise. (Yes, there’s an “outdoor fitness system,” with stops for, among other things, a “chest/back presser” and “cardio stepper.”)

But, as a longtime fixture of Clifton, and among a group of county parks managed by the famous landscape architecture firm Olmsted Brothers, this slice of land gives residents a chance, for a few minutes, to slow down the pace of life in this Northern New Jersey city.

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Rick Warren, on Humility)

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others.”— Christian pastor Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here for? (2002)

The image accompanying this post, of Rick Warren speaking at the 2006 TED conference, was taken Feb. 23, 2006 by Steve Jurvetson.

Song Lyric of the Day (Bacharach and David, on ‘The Blues They Send to Meet Me’)

“But there's one thing I know:
The blues they send to meet me won't defeat me,
It won't be long 'til happiness
Steps up to greet me.”—"Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head,” lyrics by Hal David, music by Burt Bacharach, first performed by B.J. Thomas on the “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid” Soundtrack (1969) 

Remembering American composer, producer, pianist—and Oscar-winner for this gem of a song—Burt Bacharach (1928-2023).