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Norway remembers ...

George J

Herefordshire member
... the life of CJ Hambro. That means nothing to most of you, but Hambro was the President [Speaker] of the Storting [Parliament] when the Nazis invaded Norway in April 1940. This YouTube video from his State Funeral in 1964.

Well Hambro had the ear of King Haakon [who did not rule the country, the Storting did] and helped the King to refuse to submit to the German demand that Quisling should become Statsminister [Prime Minister]. King Haakon had a huge dislike of German Imperialism [as you might expect from a Danish Royal Prince, as born], but Hambro had a world view of the art of politics and what can be done. Thus the King forced the Regierung [Cabinet] to face his abdication if it decided to accede to the Nazi demand [a serious risk among the flabbier members] to appoint Quisling and Statsminister - this meant that the Norwegian Government in Exile [in London] never surrendered to the Nazis, and the Norwegian Merchant Marine [third largest in the world in 1940] could continue to serve the Allies [only Britain and the Empire at the time] under the order of their democratic government [feeble though it was without Haakon and Hambro]. Without the Norwegian Merchant Marine, Britain would have lost the War before the USA joined in after Pearl Harbour, due to food shortage.

Hambro was one of those unheard-of vital heroes, from an apparently small and insignificant country, who changed World History.

For me it is delightful that Hambro chose German music for his funeral. He knew the Germans were not inherently Nazi, and that they should be given the credit for their place in the World without malice. Magnanimous even after all he saw.

Quite a good demonstration of very old style music making also. Not at all sure that is how the modern Oslo Phil would play this music nowadays!


This an interesting little piece of history and not an especially great piece of music making. And the political point is clear. Forgive.

Otto Klemperer was right, music is political. Furtwangler tried to deny that link.

Best wishes from George Fredrik
 
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Dear Barry,

Not only obscure, but even more crucial than the Heavy Water operations later on. Heisenberg could not have created a Nazi atom bomb with the resources that he could have got under the delusional Nazi view that it was Jewish Physics, but we could, in Britain, have lost the European war before the USA joined in without the Norwegian Merchant Marine, whose sailors had a horrendous death rate in keeping Britain supplied with grain for bread for a crucial moment in the effort to survive and eventually prevail.

I am half Norwegian, and my late grandfather told me the real heroes from Norway. Hambro, he knew personally, and no surprise that I investigated this little piece of largely unknown history.

Thanks for your reply! George
 
The whole of the Merchant Navy on the allied side are grossly over-looked. The loss rate, most especially before the convoy system was intrduced, was horrfic. Then there are the convoys that went in to supply Russia after they changed sides - there are Russian memorials to the, primarily Britsih, naval and merchant naval seamen who died supplying Archangel and Mermansk.

But then, without the callous disregard for human life by Stalin and his military leaders...............................................

Man's inhumanity to man knows no bounds.
 
Then there are the convoys that went in to supply Russia after they changed sides - there are Russian memorials to the, primarily Britsih, naval and merchant naval seamen who died supplying Archangel and Mermansk.
Which then has another musical link to George Lloyd.
 
To round this out, I have just found this YouTube film of a superb performance of "Jesu joy ..."

And it does point to the strides that have been made in bringing back the characteristics of Baroque expression with the HIP movement.

I love the dark gentle timbres of gut strings and olden style wind instruments. These do blend with the choir better than the stark brilliance of modern instruments! Of course we still have Baroque voices, which themselves are as old as humans!


I am especially struck by the lovely Baroque [set-up] Violone and which evolved into the modern Kontrabass or Double Bass. I had a modern made five string double bass [commissioned 1995/6] but set up with gut strings. To have taken it the whole way, all I needed was raise the action [of the strings above the fingerboard] and instal frets. Frets can be a mixed blessing unless superbly arranged, but when right they remove the degree of inaccuracy that is inherent in the huge spaces between the correct notes of a fretless bass!

Best wishes from George

EDIT. PS: This the very first piece of classical music I ever heard as a small child in about 1968. That was an organs transcription, and you can only imagine the effect of that. I had a tiny little transistor radio rescued from the attack and I fast became an avid Radio Three listener at an age that would appeal to the controllers of Radio One these days!
 
Thanks! I'd looked up Hambros merchant banks but did not find the connection to the Norwegian PM. From this and other stories it seems that around 1900 Europe was, in many ways, more "unified" than it is now. Families running businesses in different cities and nations as if Europe were one integrated economy. I've also read that passports did not exist before WWI, you could go where you liked!
 
Slight correction: CJ Hambro was the non-political Speaker of the Storting [Parliament], not the political Statsminister [Prime Minister].

Please forgive the important corrective. I doubt that Kong Haakon would have been advised by a political figure, but certainly would be by a personal friend. Haakon had absolutely no political power, but only the figure-head leadership that comes from that very fact.

In the UK we have a problem in that our head of state, Queen Elisabeth. is so old and frail that if Boris Johnson chooses to suspend democracy she is no longer vigorous enough to stand her corner, and I remain to be convinced that Prince Charles is not actually part of the New World Order, where, "You will own nothing and be happy."

QE II has to outlive Charles. ... For all our sakes.

Best wishes from George Fredrik.
 
Of course we still have Baroque voices, which themselves are as old as humans!

Actually, we don't. Bach would have used boy sopranos, and alto parts would have been sung by adolescent boys (their voices broke much later in those days). So, the authentic sound of a Bach-era choir no longer exists - not that this in any way deprives a gorgeous piece of music of its magic.

Bach used the lilting 9/8 rhythm a number of times, another example being the opening chorale of BWV104:

[/QUOTE]
 
Read the Shetland Bus a couple of times. If you don’t know much about the cold end of WW11 it’s an entertaining eye-opener.
 


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