My dear Friends
The day after 9/11 some people were doing something on the site of the tragedy. Other people, at a distance, wondered what it was and drew nearer to find out. Then they saw that a group of people were dancing, for the JOY of living.
And so we must hope that something good comes out of the terrible events last week in Norway. We have learned, and so said one of the Norwegian government ministers, that evil can happen anywhere, and is not just a result of Islamic terrorism. We learn from the Prologue of the Gospel of John that the Light was coming into the world, and that the darkness could not overpower the Light. In the original Greek, the darkness cannot even comprehend the Light.
There was a Norwegian man who was living in a cabin on the shores of the lake where the terrible incident happened. Having received a phone call from a friend, he took his boat out on several successive occasions and mangaed to rescue one hundred teenagers.
As the bells tolled from Oslo Cathedral and the people left hundreds of bunches of flowers, we can reflect that the reaction of the Norwegian people was one of a people wanting to affirm their democracy and their tolerance. That gives us hope for a better world.
In Peace
Sister Gila
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
More gifts
My dear Friends
I moved onto other artists just last weekend. Again, they were very different. The first one, Robin, is a photographer, taking interesting and unusual photos of the beach at Aldeburgh where Benjamin Brittten wrote much of his music and where there is a performing arts centre to this day. Robin specialises in interior landscapes, whereas her daughter, Isabel, paints large canvasses of sweeping colour, in dynamic blues, reds and yellows. There was one wonderful painting, almost like Cezanne, of a large bowl of yellow flowers.
Round the corner was Sue, a Jewish sculptor of some dimension. She was taught by Ester Joseph, whose amazing work I also went to see and which I will describe in a moment. Both sculptresses express the human condition on their work. Sue depicts some sorrow; a wonderful sculpture of figures like Adam and Eve(although she says they are not) being cast out of something like Paradise. A woman protecting her brood under a sort of canopy, and many more. I came away feeling very moved by her exhibits.
Going back to Esther; her figures are cast in stone and are lifesize. Sue was taught by Esther, although her figures are much smalller. Esther's figures really depict the fragility of our human condition, by the expression of the faces particularly. She uses different types of stone, some pink and I was amazed that such a slight figure as Ester could wield and mould such enormous figures.
Last but not least I visited the studio of Anna from Italy, near Lombardy. She does silk painting and they are really are exquisite, landscapes in the oriental style in a fine brush. I used my inner eye to gaze into the paintings and I didn't go unrewarded.
What a feast!
Shalom from Sister Gila
I moved onto other artists just last weekend. Again, they were very different. The first one, Robin, is a photographer, taking interesting and unusual photos of the beach at Aldeburgh where Benjamin Brittten wrote much of his music and where there is a performing arts centre to this day. Robin specialises in interior landscapes, whereas her daughter, Isabel, paints large canvasses of sweeping colour, in dynamic blues, reds and yellows. There was one wonderful painting, almost like Cezanne, of a large bowl of yellow flowers.
Round the corner was Sue, a Jewish sculptor of some dimension. She was taught by Ester Joseph, whose amazing work I also went to see and which I will describe in a moment. Both sculptresses express the human condition on their work. Sue depicts some sorrow; a wonderful sculpture of figures like Adam and Eve(although she says they are not) being cast out of something like Paradise. A woman protecting her brood under a sort of canopy, and many more. I came away feeling very moved by her exhibits.
Going back to Esther; her figures are cast in stone and are lifesize. Sue was taught by Esther, although her figures are much smalller. Esther's figures really depict the fragility of our human condition, by the expression of the faces particularly. She uses different types of stone, some pink and I was amazed that such a slight figure as Ester could wield and mould such enormous figures.
Last but not least I visited the studio of Anna from Italy, near Lombardy. She does silk painting and they are really are exquisite, landscapes in the oriental style in a fine brush. I used my inner eye to gaze into the paintings and I didn't go unrewarded.
What a feast!
Shalom from Sister Gila
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Gifts
My dear Friends
Every year the Cambridge artists open their studios to the general public. They started two weeks ago and I have been amazed at how God has showered them with gifts, all of which are unique.
I started on the South of the city, in a street lined with beautiful trees. The first artist I came across was Jane, who does striking still life, landscape and animal paintings in in a highly original style, combining Chinese painting methods with Western influences. I was very struck by a painting of Loch Rannoch, at the entry to the Scottish Highlands. I ascended to the first floor, and Jane's studio, and sar for a while in a lareg wicker chair.
Quite a contrast when I went on to Heloise! She is a young painter and paints bold and quite radical portraits, one of a handsome black young man. She also had two paintings which I could have sworn were Pre-Raphaelite-the style was almost identical. Heloise has four sisters and her mother was in the house, which has a quite definite feel of the turn of the twentieth century. Heloise's nudes were good too and lined the wall on the staircase leading up to the first floor.
Round the corner was Eithne(I suspect her name is Gaelic, although she sounds English) and some beautiful abstract paintings. The one I liked the best was of the standing stones on the isle of Harris in the Hebrides. Drawn from photos, it was nonetheless authentic and the dark red colur of the stones was striking.
It was nice to receive hospitality from these artists and to glimpse a little of their artistic life.
More later!
Sister Gila
Every year the Cambridge artists open their studios to the general public. They started two weeks ago and I have been amazed at how God has showered them with gifts, all of which are unique.
I started on the South of the city, in a street lined with beautiful trees. The first artist I came across was Jane, who does striking still life, landscape and animal paintings in in a highly original style, combining Chinese painting methods with Western influences. I was very struck by a painting of Loch Rannoch, at the entry to the Scottish Highlands. I ascended to the first floor, and Jane's studio, and sar for a while in a lareg wicker chair.
Quite a contrast when I went on to Heloise! She is a young painter and paints bold and quite radical portraits, one of a handsome black young man. She also had two paintings which I could have sworn were Pre-Raphaelite-the style was almost identical. Heloise has four sisters and her mother was in the house, which has a quite definite feel of the turn of the twentieth century. Heloise's nudes were good too and lined the wall on the staircase leading up to the first floor.
Round the corner was Eithne(I suspect her name is Gaelic, although she sounds English) and some beautiful abstract paintings. The one I liked the best was of the standing stones on the isle of Harris in the Hebrides. Drawn from photos, it was nonetheless authentic and the dark red colur of the stones was striking.
It was nice to receive hospitality from these artists and to glimpse a little of their artistic life.
More later!
Sister Gila
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Yiddish concert
My dear Friends
Sorry for the delay in writing. I seem to be surrounded by music at the moment, and I have just been to a very interesting concert. Mark Glanville is a bass-baritone who has much experience in opera as well as lieder, and his accompanist, Alexander Knapp, is an acclaimed musicologist, arranger and composer, mainly of Jewish music. I met Alex about 25 years ago, when I was thinking about becoming a Jewish Cantor in the Synagogue. (This was just before my Christian days.)
These two friends gave a very moving and impressive Yiddish version of Schubert's great song cycle Die Schone Mullerin. Mark, the singer, explained in the programme notes that the German-Yiddish juxtaposition was his contribution to reconcilation and forgiveness, as his mother had lost a lot of her family in the Holocaust. That aspect gave me much heart for my own work and the little concert I gave two weeks ago.
The concert consisted of twenty one songs, quite a musical feat! They were varied in tone and although not a direct translation of the Schubert cycle, follwed the tale of unrequited love. They were dark in tone, with a few glimpses of something lighter, but were a tour de force of the Yiddish language, which I hardly know. Yiddish is the language of the Ashkenazi Jews, who came from Russia and Poland and others parts of the Slavonic world. My own paternal grandparents came from Belarus, and their language was Yiddish, which was passed down to my father, who spoke it fluently although he was born in Leeds in 1897, the first of eight children.
After the concert I met a yooung man from Baltimore who teaches Yiddish in the university with his wife, and we discussed the fact that I had always felt Hebrew to be superior to Yiddish, and he said they had co-existed for hundreds of years.
But that's another Blog!
Shabbat Shalom, have a great weekend!
Sister Gila
Sorry for the delay in writing. I seem to be surrounded by music at the moment, and I have just been to a very interesting concert. Mark Glanville is a bass-baritone who has much experience in opera as well as lieder, and his accompanist, Alexander Knapp, is an acclaimed musicologist, arranger and composer, mainly of Jewish music. I met Alex about 25 years ago, when I was thinking about becoming a Jewish Cantor in the Synagogue. (This was just before my Christian days.)
These two friends gave a very moving and impressive Yiddish version of Schubert's great song cycle Die Schone Mullerin. Mark, the singer, explained in the programme notes that the German-Yiddish juxtaposition was his contribution to reconcilation and forgiveness, as his mother had lost a lot of her family in the Holocaust. That aspect gave me much heart for my own work and the little concert I gave two weeks ago.
The concert consisted of twenty one songs, quite a musical feat! They were varied in tone and although not a direct translation of the Schubert cycle, follwed the tale of unrequited love. They were dark in tone, with a few glimpses of something lighter, but were a tour de force of the Yiddish language, which I hardly know. Yiddish is the language of the Ashkenazi Jews, who came from Russia and Poland and others parts of the Slavonic world. My own paternal grandparents came from Belarus, and their language was Yiddish, which was passed down to my father, who spoke it fluently although he was born in Leeds in 1897, the first of eight children.
After the concert I met a yooung man from Baltimore who teaches Yiddish in the university with his wife, and we discussed the fact that I had always felt Hebrew to be superior to Yiddish, and he said they had co-existed for hundreds of years.
But that's another Blog!
Shabbat Shalom, have a great weekend!
Sister Gila
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Concert
My dear Friends
Sorry for the silence but I have been preparing for a Concert for Peace and Reconciliation. It took place yesterday. Some of you may know that around 2003 I met an elderly lady called Dr Sessions, a remarkable lady with a remarkable life. We were sitting in a beautiful garden in Cambridge one day and she suddenly said to me' You have to sing for your supper.' And so the series of concerts began, some in college chapels like Clare and Pembroke, one in a lovely hall in Wolfson college, again in Robinson college where I sang at my best, and now in the chancel of Michaelhouse, a cafe and a church which dates back a long way.
Thirty assorted people gathered yesterday to hear me play. The first to arrive was an American Jewish lady who asked me if I knew it was the Jewish Pentecost, which I did. It is a grace-filled time, as it is also between the Feast of the Ascension and Pentecost in the church, with the descent of the Holy Spirit.
I started the concert with Blowing in the Wind-I had the words printed on the programmes so everyone was able to sing-and they did! We came full circle at the end as when my time was up I asked them what they wanted and they said-to sing Blowing in the Wind all over again, which they did and it was quite moving.
Last thing on my mind by Tom Paxton was another favourite-every song in my breast dies a-borning says the last verse and a member of the audience explained what that meant. Otherwise there was my usual mix-Donna donna(originally composed for the Yiddish theatre), All my trials -'you know your mamma was born to die' and my best performances were Autumn leaves, a classic love song and Last night I had the strangest dream by Ed McCurdy. a dutiful anti-war song.
I couldn't leave out the Jewish music and there were three, culminating in Hinay Matov, psalm 133, which speaks of how good and pleasant a tribe of brothers living together.
I am very grateful to Annabel, the Chaplain of Michaelhouse, and Sue Binns, for allowing me to sing there in such a beautiful and historic place.
Shalom from
Sister Gila
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Dansette
My dear Friends
I would like to share with you a little about the history of my father's business. You may have heard of Dansette, a firm which produced record players in the fifties and sixties, and which contributed to the pop music culture in those decades.
Heading up the business, and before I was born. was my grandfather Morris Margolin, who came to England from Russia in the 1890's and who started a small family business in a furniture factory as a cabinet maker. He also had an interest in musical instruments, which he imported from the continent to sell. Instrumental in making the business successful in the 50's and 60's was my brother Samuel, who went into the business at age 20, and who was responsible for much of the subsequent design.
The Margolins decided to combine their interests in cabinet making and music to produce the 'Plus-a-Gram.'It was the first electric player in this country and was produced from 1934 until 1950. It became the forerunner of the Dansette. In the early 1950's BSR inroduced a British made autochanger at a realistic price as a basis for a new portable record player and suggested the name for it-Dansette-which was registered as a trademark in October 1952, the year after I was born. It was Mr McDonald, the chief of BSR, who invented the name-was he thinking of 'dancing?' We'll never know, but the name caught on and so did the record players, given the enthusiasm the new 'teenagers' showed in these players and their records.
I remember being taken to Old Street in the East end of London to see where the machines were made. I remember quite clearly all the wood shavings from the cabinets and the Garrard needles which were put on.
The Rock and Roll movement helped to boost sales of the Dansette, and the Beatles would have listened to records to give them inspiration for their own music. You could get all sorts of models of the record players and in different colours. Between the years 1950 and 1970 over one million Dansettes were sold. The company lasted until 1969; from a large profit-making organisation the company went into liquidation. But they had left their mark on the population of Britain and some people have kept their Dansette to this day.
Shalom from
Sister Gila
I would like to share with you a little about the history of my father's business. You may have heard of Dansette, a firm which produced record players in the fifties and sixties, and which contributed to the pop music culture in those decades.
Heading up the business, and before I was born. was my grandfather Morris Margolin, who came to England from Russia in the 1890's and who started a small family business in a furniture factory as a cabinet maker. He also had an interest in musical instruments, which he imported from the continent to sell. Instrumental in making the business successful in the 50's and 60's was my brother Samuel, who went into the business at age 20, and who was responsible for much of the subsequent design.
The Margolins decided to combine their interests in cabinet making and music to produce the 'Plus-a-Gram.'It was the first electric player in this country and was produced from 1934 until 1950. It became the forerunner of the Dansette. In the early 1950's BSR inroduced a British made autochanger at a realistic price as a basis for a new portable record player and suggested the name for it-Dansette-which was registered as a trademark in October 1952, the year after I was born. It was Mr McDonald, the chief of BSR, who invented the name-was he thinking of 'dancing?' We'll never know, but the name caught on and so did the record players, given the enthusiasm the new 'teenagers' showed in these players and their records.
I remember being taken to Old Street in the East end of London to see where the machines were made. I remember quite clearly all the wood shavings from the cabinets and the Garrard needles which were put on.
The Rock and Roll movement helped to boost sales of the Dansette, and the Beatles would have listened to records to give them inspiration for their own music. You could get all sorts of models of the record players and in different colours. Between the years 1950 and 1970 over one million Dansettes were sold. The company lasted until 1969; from a large profit-making organisation the company went into liquidation. But they had left their mark on the population of Britain and some people have kept their Dansette to this day.
Shalom from
Sister Gila
Thursday, 12 May 2011
River cruise
My dear Friends
Did you know that the river Oose (hope that is the correct spelling) was about 169 miles long? That makes it the third longest river in England. The river runs through St Ives and Ely in East Anglia, amongst other places. I had an unexpected boat trip along the Oose yesterday for about an hour and a half, with an expert boatman called Chris and two couples in their sixties and seventies. One couple lives in St Ives and the other in Somerset, although the lady is originally from Yorkshire.
It was a fascinating tour-I already knew that we were in Cromwell country but our guide gave us an insight into the history before the Reformation, when there were monasteries on the site and a famous Catholic called The Abbott of Ramsey, whose personal history I intend to look up. More of him in a moment. Staying with Cromwell, we passed the famous 17th century bridge where Cromwell drew up the drawbridge to prevent the Royalists getting in. Cromwell was the Puritan in the English civil war who was fighting against those who were on the side of the King.
Going along with this history was the beauty of the landscape, serene and full of wispy trees, with pointed churches in the distance. As we drew closer, we saw one that was not so pointed, Hemingford Abbotts, which lost its top ages ago and which had never been replaced, so now it was flat. On the other side was Hemingford Grey church, which was the church of one of our travellers.
We learned that in the time of the Abbott a skeleton was found, which was declared by the Abbott to be that of an ancient saint from Persia I believe, called St Ives and the town was renamed after him. In the Middle Ages, many miracles occurred in St Ives and many folk made pilgrimages to the town. Later the skeleton was declared to be that of a Roman soldier and the town thought to be of Roman origin, but our guide preferred the first interpretation!.
St Ives also has about 150 swans, who converge on the little quayside and some keep guard on their nesting mates, whom, if we were lucky, we saw by the river on their nests. I reflected that swans are very faithful and mate for life, anyhow it was wonderful to see these patches of white dotted on the landscape.
A good lunch in a pub and I came home deeply contented and determined to pay a return visit.
Shalom from
Sister Gila
Did you know that the river Oose (hope that is the correct spelling) was about 169 miles long? That makes it the third longest river in England. The river runs through St Ives and Ely in East Anglia, amongst other places. I had an unexpected boat trip along the Oose yesterday for about an hour and a half, with an expert boatman called Chris and two couples in their sixties and seventies. One couple lives in St Ives and the other in Somerset, although the lady is originally from Yorkshire.
It was a fascinating tour-I already knew that we were in Cromwell country but our guide gave us an insight into the history before the Reformation, when there were monasteries on the site and a famous Catholic called The Abbott of Ramsey, whose personal history I intend to look up. More of him in a moment. Staying with Cromwell, we passed the famous 17th century bridge where Cromwell drew up the drawbridge to prevent the Royalists getting in. Cromwell was the Puritan in the English civil war who was fighting against those who were on the side of the King.
Going along with this history was the beauty of the landscape, serene and full of wispy trees, with pointed churches in the distance. As we drew closer, we saw one that was not so pointed, Hemingford Abbotts, which lost its top ages ago and which had never been replaced, so now it was flat. On the other side was Hemingford Grey church, which was the church of one of our travellers.
We learned that in the time of the Abbott a skeleton was found, which was declared by the Abbott to be that of an ancient saint from Persia I believe, called St Ives and the town was renamed after him. In the Middle Ages, many miracles occurred in St Ives and many folk made pilgrimages to the town. Later the skeleton was declared to be that of a Roman soldier and the town thought to be of Roman origin, but our guide preferred the first interpretation!.
St Ives also has about 150 swans, who converge on the little quayside and some keep guard on their nesting mates, whom, if we were lucky, we saw by the river on their nests. I reflected that swans are very faithful and mate for life, anyhow it was wonderful to see these patches of white dotted on the landscape.
A good lunch in a pub and I came home deeply contented and determined to pay a return visit.
Shalom from
Sister Gila
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