Musings of an Old Muso
Henry Wenig
It was during the long Covid lockdown that I began writing these essays on music subjects. I hoped they would interest the members of my U3A classes who could not attend the usual face to face classes. I would send them a paper, together with links to recorded performances which they could access on their computers or iPads.
Having assembled quite a few papers on various topics, all to do with composers or aspects of music appreciation which interested me, I decided to get them published. Does greater knowledge lead to greater appreciation? At a time when listening to whatever music one fancies is so easily done, it becomes possible to suffer from too much of a good thing: repeated listening to the item of your choice leads to a certain boredom. The professional musician tends to listen more to the performance than to the music. The regular concertgoer can have the same attitude. Familiarity breeds not so much contempt as indifference. There is danger in such a surfeit of music, and I hope that these essays will help the music lover to listen to the familiar with fresh interest and to the unfamiliar with unbiased ears.
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Published by Bee's Boutique Books in 2024.
Burnishing the Soul
Leigh Hay
What a beautiful way to capture a life – through poetry! That is what Leigh Hay has done here in this book, capturing what she loves in her world and sharing it with us all.
Her words will lead you to the meandering streets of Saint Malo, the boulevards of Paris, the cobblestones of Scotland, and shimmering sprawl in Shanghai; but equally celebrated: the swing of her front gate, her morning walk, her local parkland, her Greensborough.
To sing is one of the true joys of Leigh, and indeed these words of hers bring their own subtle melodies to the world. Leigh notices things, she brings the gift of attention to all that is around her, and through her words, invites us to see for ourselves.
This book will remind you that wonder can be found both in the itch to ascend some distant mountain and the itchy mound of that mozzie bite on your ankle. Leigh’s poems are accessible and invitational, they revel in the fullness of life with all its colour and movement. This book of poems seems to suggest a way to live in this world: to walk, to sing, to explore far afield and in your backyard, to take note, to write. I take this book as Leigh’s very own ‘poetic manifesto’ on how to live a poetic life, indeed, on how to burnish one’s soul.
To burnish is ‘to rub to a shine’; a soul can be defined as ‘one’s true self’; I think there is a chance, within these pages, for your true self to be brought to a shine. Shine on reader! Shine on!
-- Cameron Semmens
Poet. Author.
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​Published by Bee's Boutique Books in 2024.
