Dear Sibelius
Cód:
491_9781904999683
When a schoolboy in Glasgow, Marshall Walker became addicted to the music of Sibelius. In 1996 he made a pilgrimage to Finland, visiting places of special significance to the composer, his birthplace in Hämeenlinna, the villa Ainola where he lived for over 50 years, the forests and lakes near Koli in the Karelia. Back home in New Zealand Walker began to write Sibelius a thank-you letter for a lifetimes companionship. Walker tells Sibelius how his music helped him overcome childhood ordeals in Scotland. He discovers Sibelian connections in his family, tracing the steps of his grandfather from a Sunday stroll in a Glasgow park to the Elliot Junction railway disaster of 1906 and commemorating his uncles service on the Salonika front in WWI. The scene shifts to student days at Glasgow University, problems with God, the kindness of the Scottish conductor, Ian Whyte, and the music of Arnold Bax, Sibeliuss son in music. In apartheid South Africa Sibelius becomes Walkers medicine man. Theres a glimpse of the composer fêted in the USA and a connection between his music and the American writer, Robert Penn Warren. A child falls in love with Sibeliuss Third Symphony. From New Zealand Walker sets out on the compulsive pilgrimage which prompts him to try to show how an artist can be a continuous, sustaining presence in a life. Theres talk of Sibeliuss music throughout the letter - a grateful junkys talk, not a critics.You have taught me about Sibelius. Osmo VänskäA true writer. Excellent. I must repeat, excellent.Lygia Fagundes TellesCompellingly human stories in a masterly fusion ofmusic and life.Hugh MacdonaldMarshall Walker was born and educated in Scotland where he is currently Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow. He lectured in English at Glasgow University from 1965 to 1980 after a spell at Rhodes University in South Africa. From 1981 until 2006 he was Professor of English at the Uni
Veja mais
