Time Passages

Pamela and I were Married on November 2^nd.  She was gracious enough to let me select the music played at our wedding.  Music has always been very central in my life. I grew up in a household which was almost entirely classical, and nothing later than the romantic era and only came to appreciate other genres in my teens. The pieces I selected tell a story, albeit in a rather roundabout way, of my musical journey and perhaps more importantly, the people who influenced it. They are arranged by length rather than chronologically in order to mix genres randomly.

Bach	Brandenburg Concerto #3	These two pieces were staples of  Sunday mornings. my father would play at the weekends before lunch.
Mozart	Overture to The Marriage of Figaro
Stravinsky	Firebird Suite - Finale	The processional - A suitable piece for Pamela’s entrance I thought...
Handle	Arrival of the Queen of Sheba	The recessional - after the formal part of the ceremony is over ...
Pink Floyd	Pigs on the Wing Pt 1	Nick Hokin, who set next to me in math class in high school and took delight in wrapping my knuckles with a wooden ruler, encouraged me to buy Pink Floyd’s latest album. When I went to Boots to buy the record – the very first I’d ever bought – the lady behind the counter offered to play something from the album to see if I liked it. This was the first track and as it turned out, not in the least bit  representative of the rest of the album.
Handel	Music for the Royal Fireworks	A transcription of this piece I played on the treble recorder with Alex Spofforth at Broadwater Manor House School (age 8 to 13).
The Beatles	I will	Antony Lewis, another highschool friend lent me the Beatles Double Red album – the very first “pop” music to cross my father’s threshold. Although it was never played while my parents were home as a teenager, I’d play it whenever they went out in the evening.
Led Zeppelin	Bron Yr Aur	Nick Hokin again – he encouraged me to listen to Zeppelin. Presence had just been released (but this is from III).
The Beatles	Here There and Everywhere	As a teenager I didn't date; perhaps I was too shy, or just not someone anyone wanted to go out with.  So I imagined what a relationship might be like and this song resonated with my fantasy. What's strange is that I now have the love  and companionship I imagined as a teenager
Bach	Cello Suite #1 in G major	A friend who my father had met on holiday in Mürren and who knew members of the Amadeus String Quartet persuaded her to introduce the members of the quartet to him. Our family became quite good friends with Martin Lovett, the quartet’s cellist. My father, bless him, browbeat Martin to bring his cello to a new year’s even party one year. H e was gracious enough to play this for a tiny group (Suzi, Martin's wife, Betty and Derek Gardiner, my parents, and me).  The Gardiner family (Derek and Betty, their daughter, Sally and two sons, Mar and Ben)  were my parents closest friends and Mark and Ben were the closest thing to siblings I had growing up.
Janáček	Sinfonietta 4th movement	One of my father’s favorite pieces (and mine)
The Beatles	Fixing a Hole	I love the imaginary of this song. Another one that I’d play whenever my parents left for the evening.
The Beatles	Because	According to Jon Lennon’s telling the chord progression is that of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata played backwards.
Genesis	Fly on a Windshield	In high school, I idolized Mike Tier, a fellow class mate and an accomplished guitarist. At just 15 years old, Mike and hist friend Graeme Foy formed a band, ARB, and I’d hang out with them as often as I could. Mike was a fan of Genesis and lent me the Lamb Lies Down album. This is one of the more dramatic instrumental tracks.
Taste	What's Going On	On holiday in Spain in about 1975, Susan, Judy and Penny Edwards and their friends introduced me to Taste, Rory Gallagher’s (fairly experimental ) group. That holiday was the first time I rode a bike, a Yamaha DT 175. The following year my father bought me the same bike and I was finally independent. No longer did I have to rely on my parents to ferry me back and forth to Worthing (or cycle a  grueling 6.5 miles over the South Downs).
Suzanne Vega	Night Vision	I did visit Tom's Diner (actually Tom's Restaurant on the upper west side of New York) and there's a small framed newspaper  cutting  on the wall that mentions Susanne Vega's work.
Queen	You're My Best Friend	While I was at Imperial, I tried out for a couple of bands (and didn’t get the gigs). There was a music practice room bands could use at the top of the Union Building. When Brian May was beginning his PhD (before my time) he and his mates (Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor,) practiced there in their very early days.
Weather Report	Teen Town	Sally Gardiner’s then boyfriend and later husband, Peter Thorn, introduced me to Weather Report and so to Jaco Pastorius, a legendary bass player.
David Bowie	Sound and Vision	After university, eight of us rented a house in Bayswater (49 Kildare Terrace). David Bowie’s two albums, Heros and Low, were often on the turntable in the living room in the evenings.
Beethoven	String Quarter 16 F Op 135 II (Vivace)	Beethoven’s String quartets, particularity the Late Quartets are remarkable pieces. When I visited the Beethoven museum in Bonn with my parents, I was stuck by the tragedy of a composer whose hearing had almost completely gone and who was struggling with debilitating pain when he composed theses works.
ARB	Live at Bar 42 - Exposure	Mike Tier and I reconnected in my late 20s when I was moving from France to the US. I wondered if he wanted my Trace Elliot (he didn’t) and we’ve kept in touch ever since. One of my bucket list ambitions was to play with ARB. Mike was indulgent enough to set up a gig at Bar 42 and Will (drums), Graeme (lead) Mike (rhythm) , Andi (vocals) and me (bass). This was one of their songs.
Sky	Cannonball	My mother booked most of the family’s cultural events, Chichester Theater, Glindbourne and the Brighton Festival were the three I remember most. One year she saw that John Williams was playing. Williams was a renowned classical guitarist who’d made lots of recordings with Juilan Breame. As we walked into the auditorium at the Brighton Pavilion I was surprised to see large mixing desk in the middle of the hall – very unusual for classical guitar recital (which were never amplified). As it turned out we were there (by accident) for the very first concert of John William’s classical rock fusion band who’d been together for just 3 to 4 weeks. Not only was the music not quite what my parents had expected, Williams was playing Gibson Explorer!
Donal Fagan	Green Flower Street	Donald Fagan's album Nightfly was released while Malcolm 'Riz' Risby, Mark Fisher, Antony Broadbent and I, rented a house at 39 Kildare Terrace the year after we all graduated from IC.
Led Zeppelin	Dancing Days	Not much to say other than this is another track from a band that evolved tremendously from it's beginnings.
Eric Clapton	Wonderful Tonight	At INSEAD I joined what was loosely called the INSEAD band.  We played at some of the (in)famous national themed parties, the Scandinan party being a memorable one partly because of the copious amounts of Swedish hard alcohol being served.  Simon Hall, a management consultant, and Bart Bronnenberg, now professor of marketing  at the Tilburg School of Economics and Management, on guitar.
Abba	Dancing Queen	One of Pamela's favorite Abba songs.  She loves to dance.
Al Stewart	Soho (Needless to say)	Al Stewart tells some great stories in song. He said in an interview that he was renting a room in Soho while trying to make it as a musician. In the flat next door was none other than David Bowie. As he listened to Bowie writing and playing his own songs, Stewart realized he had to find a different niche and hence he started writing songs based on historical events that became his thing.  Tim Whitaker, Nick Hokin and I tried to form a band in high school.  We did play a couple of gigs, one at Imperial, with Graeme Foy guesting on lead guitar.
Abba	Take a Chance on Me	This is another of Pamela's favorite songs.
Beatles	Now and Then	This is "our song". When I first heard it I thought of Pamela and sent her a link to the song while she was away on a cruise with Bev Hahn.
Mendelssohn	Octet in Eb	One of my father's favorites, and a stable of Sunday mornings while my  mother cooked the roast for Sunday lunch.
Rush	Limelight	Rush was another band Nick Hokin introduced me to.   Hemispheres was the first Rush album I bought but this is from Moving Pictures.  Geddy Lee is the son of Holocaust survivors. One of my customers when I was working at IBM owned a jewelry store called The Great Frog somewhere south of Bond Street. Carol Lehtonen, the store’s owner and designer told me she’d sold rings to Rush. The store was a go-to place for musicians – I didn’t buy any as it was neither the kind of thing an IBMer was supposed to wear and it was anyway (probably) out of my price range.
Joni Mitchell	Black Crow	It was Sally Gardiner who introduced me to Joni Mitchell. Hissing of Summer Lawns was the first album I listened to.  Sally was (and still is) four years older that I was, a quite big gap when you're a teenager, so I only got to know her as an adult.
Gerry Rafferty	Night Owl	After high school I managed to get a job as a waiter in a rather nice hotel in Sils Maria, Switzerland. My roommate, Dick Williams, was a talented chef from London who’d worked under Anton Mosimann at “the Dorch”. Dick had a boombox and a handful of cassettes. Night Owl and City to City were two and through Dick I was introduced to Gerry Rafferty. Dick left after a couple of months and I’ve often wondered where he ended up...
Fleetwood Mac	The Chain	I came across Fleetwood Mac accidentally. The second part of this song was used by the BBC for its coverage of Formula 1 events.
Dvorak	Slavionic Dances Op 46 No 8	More music from my father’s homeland.
Caravan	Land of Grey and Pink	Another song from that holiday in Spain with Penny, Judy Susan, Niki and her boyfriend and the two bikers (whose names I’ve forgotten). It was my first and only encounter with marijuana. And after sleeping on the floor (it was very cold too as I recall) I came back to England with a mild septicemia.
Steely Dan	Black Cow	After graduating I took my first job as a systems engineer at IBM in London Central Branch, in Wigmore Street. We’d not sorted out the Kildare Terrace house yet so in the mean time I rented a room over the summer in Linstead Hall, the same hall  I’d lived in for two years as an undergrad. I took a handful of cassettes and a small portable cassette player. Steely Dan’s Aja album was one and the music that I most closely associate with my first weeks at IBM.
Brahms	Cello Sonata #1 in E minor, second movement	I don’t remember how I cam across Brahms's cello sonatas, but I still have the DG vinyl recording with Mistislav Rostropovic and Svatoslav Richter.
Miles Davis	Blue in Green	Derek Gardiner, Uncle Derek  knew me longer than anyone except my parents - he was a photographer and took pictures of me the day after I was born.  He was immensely curious, highly intelligent and pretty scary. You couldn't get away with any sloppy thinking when discussing things with him.  One lunchtime when I was having lunch with his family Derek came back from the studio clearly very irritated with a client who had been in the studio while he was working and had  tried to tell Derek how to do his job.  His comment was "" I'm difficult enough to argue with when I don't know what I'm talking about"". I was pretty terrified of him until much later in life.  I'd call Betty and if Derek answered, after a few pleasantries he'd say "I suppose you want to talk to Betty now" and pass her the phone.   Only after Betty dies did we have a stronger relationship, with long conversations about the state of the world.  He died last year and I will miss him greatly (as I do Betty).
Led Zeppelin	Fool in the Rain	Zeppelin aficionados have tended to dismiss their last album, ‘In through the Out Door’ as “not their best work”. That critique notwithstanding I love it; some of my favorite tracks were too long to include but this one I like in part because of it’s rhythm and its bass line.
Wishbone Ash	King Will Come	Tim Whitaker and I tried unsuccessfully to start a band and write our own songs. Tim went on to work at the Beeb, and at some point designed a lighting control system use in Starlight Express when it was playing in the West End .
Bartok	String quartet #5 1st Movement	Derek eventually persuaded my father to listen to music from the 20th century. He maintained that while you had to “really work at it” it was ultimately rewarding. This isn’t music you can enjoy 'out of the box', but I came to see what Derek was talking about.
Dire Straits	Telegraph Road	At IC I joined the HiFi society. We had a number of really interesting guest speakers. Scott Strachen, the designer (and builder) of the Syrinx PU2 tone arm was one. We also had a presentation of one of the very first compact disks - I don’t remember the presenter - and a spirited discussion of the merits of analog over digital . The track used to demonstrate the dynamic range of the that CD player was Telegraph Road. When I moved to the Sierra Foothills I drove 120 between Oakdale and Manteca to get to work in San Jose (and still do). That long stretch of road with the power lines running along the south side of the road make me think of this Dire Strait’s wonderful tale of hope and disillusion.