Yearly Archives: 2014

6 May 1914; Wednesday

May 1914

Got up about 7.20. Received copy of the prospectus for the Heinrich Becker piano-­playing system1. Fine morning. Busy all day. Played the piano and read a bit at night.

  1. A Heinrich Becker published in 1914 “Mind, Muscle & Keyboard”, his system of piano technique and “facile” sight­‐reading. ↩

5 May 1914; Tuesday

May 1914, ,

Got up about 7.45. Alf back again. Busy all day. Played the piano at night and went down to the class meeting and played there. Went into choir practice later. First anniversary practice. Dick spoke at the class meeting and Crabtree led. Charlie in bed all day. Dr Hickey called to see him. Dr Hickey told us his opinion on MacFadden and *.

4 May 1914; Monday

May 1914, , , , ,

Got up about 7.45. Busy all day. Alf off work. Finished shortly after 5 o’clock. Played the piano, read Everyman, did a bit Pelman1, and had walk last thing. Went to the Berlitz with Joe and got copies of the prospectus. Berlitz2.

Read about Alsace-­Lorraine3 & Maeterlinck4 in Everyman5. Charlie came home bad6. Dorothy not well.

  1. “Pelman”: See note on 6 January. ↩

  2. Berlitz: ALL refers at the end of some diaries to ‘improvement’ in French and German, he attended evening classes in German at some stage, and as entries in the 1917 and 1918 diaries show, he studied French both privately and in Army classes; curiously, however, while he occasionally used German jocularly in later life, he never spoke French. ↩

  3. Alsace-­Lorraine: Germany’s seizure of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine in 1870 after the Franco-­Prussian War was (with the possible exception of the financial reparations also demanded by Germany) the greatest single cause of resentment in France towards Germany before WW1. This anger also led to France’s first attacks in WW1 being aimed, disastrously, at recovering these provinces. [Quite irrelevantly – my brother CWL told me when very young that our grandfather CWL had his arm broken when playing at school at ‘the Franco­Prussian War’; he was 14 in 1869/70.] ↩

  4. Maurice Maeterlinck (1862 – 1949) was a Francophile/francophone Belgian dramatist and essayist (copies of his “The Life of the Bee” and “The Blue Bird” are still found) who lived all his adult life in France – though not in Alsace-­Lorraine. ↩

  5. Everyman: see Everyman and Arthur Linfoot’s Library. ↩

  6. “Bad”: in North-Eastern English idiom means ill or unwell. ↩

29 April 1914; Wednesday

April 1914, , , , ,

Got up about 7.45. In good time for work. Mr Aitken in rather bad temper and Frank the same. Finished in good time. Aunt Mary to tea. Did a bit Pelman1. Played very little. Went down to meeting with Joe and Mr Chadwick called upon me to pray in the meeting. Walked round with Joe and talked about Pelman course. Had a bath. Went to bed shortly after 11 o’clock.

  1. Pelman: see note on 6 January. ↩

28 April 1914; Tuesday

April 1914, ,

Got up well before 8 o’clock. Busy all day. Finished about 6 o’clock. Read a little. Charlie got Toreador’s Song1 and I played it through. Did a bit Pelman2. Went to practice late. Decided on anthem “Send out thy light”. For the anniversary. Fine day.

  1. Toreador’s Song: Possibly the aria “Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre” (“Your toast, I can return it to you”), popularly named The Toreador Song, from the opera Carmen, composed by Georges Bizet to a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.

    This aria is for bass-baritone, which was Charlie’s singing register (see note on Charlie on the Family page). Presumably Charlie wished to sing it and had chosen ALL as accompanist on this occasion. ↩

  2. Pelman: see note on 6 January. ↩