Douglas wrote:
>> After tonight's performance I am in no doubt that Joseph Haydn's 'The
>> Creation' is a great work. It has enormous energy and vitality. Quite
>> astounding when you think Haydn was well into his 60s when he composed
>> it.
> Hi Douglas: I am sure you mean well - and particularly within the context
> and age expectations of Haydn's era. I suggest such "surprises" are much
> less a surprise these days. More than a few of us still going full blast
> and
> - current statistics suggest, plagues etc. notwithstanding - many of us
> are
> looking at another 20 to 30 years on the main shift. An adventure that is
> re-defining careers, 'high points', etc. Haydn was just a pioneer. (I
> remember at University the Eng Prog in his thirties saying that Yeat's -
> such sexy work in his sixties - was a surprise). "Energy and vitality", oh
> yes, now that the kids are out the house! In fact, I say without real
> knowledge, my impression is that in Japan, poets traditionally have
> usually
> become "awake" and most fully into their practice starting in their
> sixties.
>
> Whoever "went gently"???!!
>
> Stephen V
> http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
This is especially true of women, "now that the kids are out of the house".
I really admire and envy those who can find the head-space, thinking-time,
reading-time, pen-time, etc, to write really good stuff, at the same time as
actually sorting out kids and partners competently and lovingly. But I think
there ought to be an equivalent of the Gregory awards, not for the
under-thirties this time but for poets over, say, fifty-five or sixty, who
didn't get their chance before. A good proportion of these would be women,
but by no means all, judging from the submissions we get for Arrowhead
Press.
As for the musical side, what about Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)? (Dunno if he
had a wife and kids, though.) He lived, and composed, through the difficult
not to say dangerous period of the Reformation, and with his pupil William
Byrd laid the foundations of English church music. His Forty-Part Motet,
"Spem in Alium Nunquam Habemus", is an amazing, mind-blowing experience.
Then there's Verdi (1813-1901) -- Ken will know which was the opera he
composed late on in his old age.
This sort of extended creative life seems to me more impressive than the
young prodigies. Well, I would do, wouldn't I, having missed the boat
altogether with the latter!
joanna
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