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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.
1964-5 My first year at the RAM with Harvey (1)
On 10 September 1964, Clarence Myerscough, a young professor at the Royal Academy of Music (that institution I know so well) came to W E Hill’s door with…
4 min read
1964 – An Overture to introduce my new owner
I think it was Hans Keller (one of my previous owners), and before him, Oskar Adler, who said that it is important for composers to be aware of…
4 min read
1957 – 64, Years after my return to England
When Lilian Clarke came home to Hatch End on ‘furlough’ in 1957, she brought me with her, this time I was able to sail through the Suez Canal…
4 min read
1946 – Back to Africa, yet again!
The loneliness in my basement didn’t last long. Would you believe it, in the autumn of 1946, another member of my Richardson family arrived at William E Hill’s…
4 min read
1943 onwards – War Years of Emptiness & Loneliness, ‘Degenerate Music’ and Resonant Resilience
To my astonishment, Hans now seemed to lose interest in violin playing, and one dark and rainy day in 1943, he took me to the London store of…
4 min read
A Psychological Interlude from Hans Keller, violinist
On English-German music: ‘Music, the most romantic, metaphysical, ‘sentimental’ of all the arts reaches its highest watermark in Germany…..German listening to music always bears a creative, active character,…
4 min read