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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, gala dances, soirees and the like, and when the Vienna Congress was finally over in 1815, we moved to Florence, Italy where Lord Burghersh was now a…
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 Hofburg in November 1814; unable to hear his creations, ‘giving in’ to Michael Umlauf while fumbling through the pages of his manuscripts. I had an inkling, a…
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 Congress of Vienna, which lasted from November 1814 until June 1815. This extraordinary gathering was convened after the downfall of Napoleon, with the aim of providing a…
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 Austria and the King of Prussia) were in the field against Napoleon and his army, then retreating from Russia. (Lord Burghersh) Thinking it might soften the pill…
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 teacher, my friend Johann Peter Salomon. Sometimes, even though there were wars and rumours of wars with Napoleon Bonaparte across Europe, Johann Salomon asked Lady Priscilla if…
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 months for my skilled luthier to bring me to this birthing moment when my voice was finally heard, when the bow’s horse-hair lovingly caressed my strings, and…
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…