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Welcome to my Blog! Music and God coming together

These regular weekly blogs are giving me an opportunity to share my life-long passion of discoving how the great themes of Music and Theology can come together, and I want to express my deep appreciation of my good friend Dr Paul Kybird for his encouragement, wisdom and deep insight in this adventure.
I have found that the telling of a story by a violin – through its many years of varied experiences – has created a fascinating way of engaging with these ultimate concerns of life.
So here goes –
I am a Violin, with a great story to tell, and on this platform I want to present and play the events of my long life –
By telling about my origins, how I was made, and where I feel my unique sound comes from, engaging with my whole body – mind & heart, violin and bow – in the pursuit of beauty, truth and goodness;
By including the historical soundscapes of the different places I have lived in, and sharing how it feels to be touched and embraced by the rich variety and diversity of musicians who have owned and played me over these many years;
By giving a voice to my emotions at times of suffering, when I was broken, and when I was ‘stolen’, sharing my feelings about the damage inflicted on my body, the permanent blemishes and unexpected ‘growths’;
By sounding out clearly, not supressing or muting, times of rejection, isolation and abuse;
But most importantly, by playing my story for the sheer joy and delight of it, and daring to hope that echoes and whispers of the mystery of God might be caught.
Moving on after 1815 – Changing Hands
I was played very little during the next few years – left in my velvet-lined case and feeling distinctly redundant! Lady Priscilla was heavily engaged in social parties,…
4 min read
A Variation – Beethoven’s God/Faith/Spirituality
I was profoundly affected by the sight and the sounds of the deaf composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, struggling through that evening at the grand Congress concert in the…
4 min read
1814 -1815 – Beethoven & the Congress of Vienna
Enter Ludwig van Beethoven, the monumental musician of the age. My remarkable encounter with him came about after Lord & Lady Burghersch had travelled from Berlin to the…
4 min read
A Dangerous Journey to Germany
Late in 1813, Lord Burghersh was appointed Commissioner (‘Military Attache’) to the headquarters of the Austrian Army in Berlin, where the ‘allied sovereigns’ (the Emperors of Russia and…
4 min read
1810-13 Early Years
My Journey begins, along with some questions Johann Peter Salomon My relationship with Lady Priscilla began reasonably well, especially when she took me off to lessons with her…
4 min read
1810 – Where do we come from?
I was born on 8 August 1810 in Thomas Kennedy’s workshop at 16 Princes Street, Westminster, London – or so I believe. It took only a couple of…
4 min read