Britten set almost everybody (eg Hardy, wonderfully), but not,
significantly, Hopkins, unless my memory and the worklist at hand serve me
very unwell. How to compose verses in sprung rhythms ~ reproduce them or
cross them? French composers probably don't notice the problem. I've never
heard any of Anthony Burgess's music. Does it get played in England, my own?
(I'm so glad that cathedral's in France & shall check it out toot sweet.
We're off to western France mid-August, perhaps a little divagation?) By the
way, Matthew, the Germans are also always knocking themselves & have taken
over Tuscany together with half of the midi: there are more Germans than
English with houses in our village, which would probably not have survived
without them ~ 30 years ago it was riddled with ruins & low on population. I
suppose this self-hatred is an intellectual middle-class thing: peasants &
workers would seem to be free of it. But from what I know of it from the
media & rare visits, England seems to have become a hateful place.
Martin
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