Vivaldi's Virgins by Barbara Quick

When I was high school my choir performed Vivaldi's “Gloria.” It was my introduction to a composer I knew little of until I was in my twenties. Gary and I were living in Philadelphia, which held an Avenue of the Arts celebration each year. Our first attendance of the event I heard an orchestra playing outdoors. They were playing Vivaldi's “The Four Seasons” and I fell in love with the piece.

Vivaldi's Virgins, a novel by Barbara Quick, is based on current research into Vivaldi's role as a music teacher and composer for the girls orchestra and choir associated with an orphanage in Venice.  For a link to the author go to:
http://vivaldisvirgins.com

The Ospedale della Pieta, or Hospital of Mercy, was one of four hospitals in Venice that provided care for the indigent, elderly, ill and orphaned. The Pieta was founded in 1346 as a way to provide for the multitude of unwanted infants who were discarded in the canals and streets of the city. Venice was a city with an active 'sex industry', and the resultant babies were often born with syphilis which caused deformities. Ringworm and smallpox were other common diseases that left children deformed.

The Pieta was founded in a tiny house starting with ten children. It grew to accommodate 800 orphans. By the 18^th c. babies could be left int a small opening in the wall of the Pieta. The orphans were branded and documented. If they came with tokens for identification, so parents could later claim them, they were noted and preserved. The children were taught trades and crafts. Some children were sent out for adoption. Well off parents also left girls for 'safe keeping' until they reached marriageable age.

Those girls identified with musical skill became musicians and singers for the church choir and orchestra. People would flock to hear the music, especially during Lent when the opera houses were closed.

The girls performed from a gallery, hidden behind openwork metal screens. Although many were not lovely, the music they created transported their audience, who imagined the girls to be beautiful angels. Once grown, the girls taught for two years to repay their keep while growing up. Then some entered the convent. Some were married off. And some remained at the Pieta for life, often playing into their 70s.

Vivaldi was one of a series of musicians employed by the Pieta to teach the students and to write music for performance. Vivaldi was called The Red Priest because of his fiery red hair. He seems to have had little calling for the priesthood, expending his energies in teaching music and writing, including over 500 concertos, many for specific girl musicians. Vivaldi was associated with the Pieta, which was not far from his birth place in Venice, from 1703 until his death in 1741.

The Pieta created mega stars of their time. “Anyone hearing her is transported to Paradise” was written about one of the star violinists, Anna Maria della Violin.  Anna Maria was born in 1696 and died at the Pieta in 1697. Vivaldi bought her violin, costing three month's salary, and wrote 37 concertos specifically for Anna Maria. Research by Mickey White shows that Anna Maria played many instruments over her 86 years at the Pieta, including oboe, violin, tiorba, harpsichord, viola d amore, cello and mandolin.

Anna Maria was described as beautiful, with blonde hair, rosy cheeks, fiery eyes and noble features. Barbara Quick's book makes this fiery girl come to life. She does a wonderful job of recreating Venice in 1709 to 1711, incorporating many 'facts' into her narrative in a seamless way. Like the real girls of the Pieta, Anna and her friends rebel, sneak out of the Pieta, and get into trouble. Quick's Anna is flesh and blood.

“Everything was so overheated for me then,” Anna writes looking back to her pre-pubescent years. “I saw signs and portends in the simplest events of every day life, imagining that they all referred to me. I felt barbs where none was meant, and I heard criticism ten times louder than any praise. I felt a sense of closeness to my friends so intense that I couldn't imagine that life would ever have the temerity to part me from them. I understood nothing then.”

I loved the scene where the girls have performed for the King of Denmark and he invites four to attend a ball with him. The girls are dressed in finery and Carnival masks. At the ball Anna sees Scarlatti and Handel, the mega stars of their day. The two musicians face off in a musical duel. Scarlatti is declared King of the harpsichord, and Handel as King of the organ. The women in the audience go wild. Think “Frankie.” Think Elvis. Think Beatlemania. I had never considered Baroque musicians had inspired the same kind of mania as we have in our modern world.

I was shocked to learn that after his death Vivaldi faded into the background for several hundred years. He was considered 'flashy'. His experimentation was unappreciated. His music is very hard to play, not just because of the quickness required but also because his music requires playing with two voices, chords, retuning the strings, and playing simultaneously two notes on two strings.

“Time has a very poor memory. We each of us do what we can to be remembered—but most of us are forgotten.”

Thankfully, researchers like Micky White and writers like Barbara Quick have resurrected the forgotten girl musicians of the Pieta.

For a very nice documentary about the Pieta see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=153WVp8QJQ0

What Was News in 1966

The August 1966 Good Housekeeping magazine is a glimpse into what was new, what people were thinking about, what they were buying, and what their fears were.

The cover story was part one of two excerpts from  Pierre Salinger's upcoming (in 1966 that is) book "With Kennedy."

"I had been everywhere in the world with the President," Salinger is quoted, "But now, when he needed me most, I was 4000 miles from Dallas."
 
To this very day, the Kennedy family can headline news. And in the early years after Kennedy's tragic death, this was especially true.

Kennedy was a part of the recent past in 1966. But there was a lot new on the horizon. Included in the magazine is an article on Teflon, created by DuPont. "There is no question of safety with Teflon, despite stories you have heard. The best health authority of all, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, concluded years ago that Teflon was safe for foot and conventional kitchen use. The finish has been long and thoroughly tried. Teflon was discovered in 1938." Two pages on the pro, cons and questions include a note that the coating raises prices $1 and still requires grease. My mom bought Teflon. It peeled off the metal pan over time.

Taking the "danger out of superhighway driving" was a new concern for the modern housewife. The article offers advice for entering and exiting a ramp, the proper space between cars to prevent tailgating and keepin a safe distance, lane changing, and highway hypnosis.

Another article asks "How Safe Is Your Child in Your Car?" Early restraining devices  included strapping in a bassinet which was anchored behind the sear. A harness was available that could be anchored behind the seat, and the Ford Motor Company offered the Astro-Guard Child Car Seat, which they admitted would tear away in a crash, injuring the child.

In the areas of style and fashion, we still used hair rollers and home hair coloring and permanents. The hair blower was still years away. I remember how hard it was to sleep in the big rollers.



Articles and advertisements for fashion sewing offered the latest trends in the Mod style from Britain.

Home décor in gold and olive, blue and green, and yellow was the rage.

We were still in the Wonder Years....Wonder bread that is. I remember rolling a slice into a tight little ball. The bread always stuck behind my front teeth after I had a sandwich.

 

The Coke ad was very simple; no frills, just the Coke please.

Women were encouraged to be active, secure in their use of the right protection. Tampex that is! What were you thinking? The Sexual Revolution had been addressed in the last issue, for the Letters to the Editor on the article "On Premarital Chastity" included many pros and cons. "...In most cases, age 20 is not too early for sexual experience but it is often too early for marriage." "There is only one argument that need be given. "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

 

I remember very well the big eyed children art of this era. Mom sent away for a set of prints similar to those below. She framed them and hung them in my room. One had a go-go dancer. I was 12 and did not like go-go dancers. I did not like dancing. I did not like rock and roll yet either. But I had the prints in my room, likely because Mom liked them and had no place else to put them.

 

 

What were people eating in August of 1966? Cold salads! With lots of meat, like Chicken Array Gourmet with 3 hardboiled eggs, 2 boned whole chicken breasts, 2 globe artichokes, 'Green mayonnaise', watercress, cocktail onions and curry powder. Or Beef Rolls Confetti with frozen lima beans, green beans,and peas cooked, 12 thin slices of roast beef, horseradish, Tabasco and minced onion and watercress. Or Meatball Bowl, made with, of course, meatballs, asparagus, canned white potatoes, and ice berg lettuce.

 

The back cover was an iconic Breck girl.

 

 

How time does fly. Remember when milk was still home delivered? Our 1969 ranch has a milk box built into the wall. Remember times before dishwashers, microwaves, and air conditioning? Remember when having two cars in a family was quite rich? When we had three tv channels and UHF? When girls were not allowed to wear slacks, and never jeans, to school, even in the coldest winter? And high boots were unheard of. We had to carry shoes when we wore boots, or used rubber rain boots over our shoes? Remember wearing scarfs and plastic rain hats that folded up into a little plastic slip case? Remember party lines? When Avon ladies offered little sample lipsticks? Do you miss these things? Or do you think we are better off now? 

Vintage Blue Double Wedding Ring Rescue

Thursday was one of those rare sunny days this winter, when the roads were dry and clear, so  I decided to get outta town and go buy fabric. The Scottsville Variety and Crafts store in Scottsville, MI  (home of the Scottsville Clown Band, quite famous locally) sells last year's fabrics for $5.99 a yard. They have a good selection of reproduction fabrics, and I needed to finish off my Charles Dickens quilt so I knew I'd find something there. I found a great border print and bought the whole 3.5 yards. They tempted me with several Centennial prints, so I need to return...after these latest storms are done.
 I also visited two other stores in town, a hardware/flea market combo and a new and used furniture with antiques store. There were loads of goodies to be found!

At the flea market I got some Brown Drip Hull covered French Onion Soup bowls and an oval shallow serving dish for our son, who has been collecting these dishes. 40 years ago my husband and I had a complete set! It was there I found a shabby quilt for $24.

Yes. $24. It had been washed. Perhaps that was not the wisest idea, as in many places the ring fabrics were worn or ripped or shredded. The binding is missing. But the blue background fabric is bright with no fading, although with some holes, but it is my favorite blue of all blues. $24. I had to bring it home.

It has nice hand quilting done in white and dark blue thread. There are red squares in the ring centers; most of the red fabric is good but some is dotted with holes.

There are some interesting prints, including Mexican hats, folkloric dancers, and best of all an Indian head/Bison coin print!

In the past I have repaired quilts with shredded or missing fabric by appliquéing vintage fabrics overtop of the bad. I do this on quilts that do not have a real value. I was given a quilt made by Alma Noonan of Lansing, MI that needed new binding and repairs. I used vintage and reproduction fabrics to repair it.

The purple and blue fabric is feed sack, appliqued over the worn original fabrics.

I have started repairing this quilt already, sometimes using the reverse side of fabrics. I try to match the fabrics I am replacing; that is using prints with the same motif and color as the original. The new fabrics do not have quilting lines through them, so they are discoverable.

I used feed sack on the center right ring, the a white flower on red fabric seen in the photo above. In the photo below I used fabric from an old apron, the yellow, red and blue round shapes print. I used the wrong side of the fabric as the ring fabrics around it are very faded.

Another feed sack print appears below, the red with white and blue stripes on the left.

The blue background is similar to fabric I used in my Ruby McKim's Ship of the World quilt, so I have hopes of finding this color and rebinding the quilt.

At Holden's Home Emporium I found a great carafe. They sold it as Blenko, but I have not been able to verify this. I bought it for our 1969 ranch retirement house that we are decorating with a Modern living room. I just love that color, and what a great shape! It is about 14 1/2 inches high. I already have my mother's four small crackle glass pieces which she bought when I was a little girl, and a Pilgrim carafe, missing the stopper, which I bought many years ago for $2 at a yard sale.

 

I have one other Double Wedding Ring in my closet, set with Bubble Gum pink. I found the top, backing, and binding in a garage sale in Hillsdale, MI in the early 1990s for $20 and I finished the quilt. I often wish I'd had the money to buy the other Double Wedding Ring top, binding and backing they also had for sale, with a lovely lilac background. The one that got away.

When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro

Nostalgia. Memories from childhood. The ways that events in our childhood have formed us as adults. Throw in a first-person narrative, an exotic setting in the past (early 20th c Shanghai), and a mystery to solve and you have a book that will capture my attention. So I read it in two evenings.

Ishiguro is well known for his book The Remains of the Day and the movie based on the book which starred Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. When We Were Orphans shares that early 20th c British sensibility, a formality and repression of atmosphere and speech.  I have also read his book Never Let Me Go, a chilling dystopia about clone children who discover their only reason for existence was for farming of organs.

The orphan of the book is Christopher Banks, the only child of a British couple living in Shanghai in the early 20th c. The narrator retells his childhood from the eyes of his child self, revealing secrets as he discovered them in adulthood. I dearly love novels that show the adult world from the eyes of children. Rumor Godden is a master of this technique.

Christopher's parents find themselves in an untenable situation. His father's company is in the business of selling opium to the Chinese, and his mother wants to reform the business. But if his father quits, they will never be able to afford to return to England. One day the father disappears. The 'best' detective in Shanghai is assigned to the case. Christopher and his best friend Akira, whose family are expatriate Japanese, pretend to be detectives solving the case in their fantasies. Then one day a family friend takes Christopher on a lark, abandons him, and the child returns home to find his mother has also gone missing.

Christopher is sent to an 'aunt' in England, and goes to public school. He believes he has fit into English school, but tries to hide his commitment and dream of becoming a world famous detective who some day solves the case of his missing parents and brings them home again.

Christopher does become a famous detective, and believes he has solved the mystery of his parent's disappearance and so returns to Shanghai on the eve of the Japanese invasion of China. From there the novel shows the clash of memory and reality as Christopher goes on a misguided journey into the middle of the war. After this quest that leads to disorientation and near madness, he finally meets the man who tells him the chilling truth about his parents.

Although I enjoyed this book, the ending was out of keeping with the rest of the book. Many readers would be bored and detached from the story until Christopher returns to his childhood home. The big reveal seemed to be from a different kind of book, lurid and somewhat cheap. There are references to cases Christopher has solved but no description. He remains a shadowy figure, not quite defined, and knowable mostly through his own memory of his own life.

The book did make me think about how we all view our childhood askew, rarely able to  understand it from any other perspective than that of our untrustworthy memory. Recently I reread my diary to learn that I had totally mixed up who was involved in an event I often have thought of. No wonder that at our reunion the gal I thought this had occurred with hardly could place me. Her presence in my life had made a greater impact than mine in hers. So much that I had placed her in memories where she did not belong.

Christopher's childhood expectations of what had happened to his parents carried into his adulthood. He follows chimeras and shadows when he could have enjoyed love and companionship. And in the end he is left wondering, had he based an entire life on a child's fantasy?

What I Have Been Reading

Jane Austen and Food by Maggie Lane. This e-book was a pleasant surprise to me. It is a deep and thoughtful exploration of Austen's novels and values through her use of food in her books. I have not read a critical study of Austen in years, sad to say. I really enjoyed this book and it has made me want to re-read, for the sixth or more time, Austen with a new view. I particularly enjoyed her chapters on Mansfield Park and Emma. The Kindle edition is $2.99.

Jackson by Max Brand was an e-book that I have mixed feelings about. It was a bit confusing at the beginning with jumps between time and viewpoint. We learn about Andrew Jackson from the view of a writer who is researching Jackson during his presidential campaign. The information seemed to be mostly accurate. I have an award winning biography of Jackson, so I plan on reading it soon for comparison. Brand points out that everything we know about modern presidential politics started back in the early 1800s. The reader is informed on all the 'new' ideas from that time, like snipers and the use of "OK".

There are some great lines.
"People believe what they read, " Emma said from the door..."It is the most depressing fact in the modern world."
"Jackson is the price you pay for having Jefferson." (Allowing a true democratic process means the people will choose who they will.)

The authorial voice is quite present throughout the book, and his political thoughts are quite evident.

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin was a Christmas 2013 gift, and I have been reading at it for a year! I loved Goodwin's book "No Ordinary Time on Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt". Her portrayal of Lincoln leaves me so impressed with the man and the leader. Why have I not finished it? Well, perhaps because I read a chapter and want to ruminate on it. And then the Civil War came and I am not so interested in war. I mean, I skipped all the War in "War and Peace" when I read it at age 19! But I am 200 pages from the end. I expect I will finish it before summer, lol.

The Donzerly Light by Ryne Douglas Pearson was a light read which I enjoyed, especially after a slow beginning. This e-book was the first novel by the author, and it was rejected. After his success as a screen writer (Mercury Rising) he decided to publish this book, which he always liked. The supernatural story is about a 1990s Wall Street wannabe who is given the power to know what stocks to buy, guaranteeing a quick rise to success. He loses his self, his girl, and finally everything else when his power turns dark. Sometimes this felt like a morality tale, sometime like Faust, a bit of the Gothic and mystery genre, it is hard to categorize. I quite enjoyed it.

Other books I have not blogged about which I read in the last months include:

Flourtown by S. G. Redling, an ecological/dystopia story about a community isolated from the world after a accident exposes them to a toxin that is transmittable. The people are sick and dying, trapped in a guarded enclosed city. It was an enjoyable conspiracy thriller.

I Am Legend and The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson, horror/sci-fi classics which I enjoyed. The Shrinking Man 1950s movie gave me nightmares when I was a girl!

An Unfinished Season by Ward Just, which I thought very good. Set in the early 1950s, it is the story of a young man's learning about the world and the experiences that determine his future.

Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook was the basis of the movie by the same name...I liked the movie better.

Honolulu by Alan Brennert  traces the forty year journey of a woman who escapes Korea in 1914 as a picture bride only to find life in Hawaii is hard and sometimes cruel. I loved the character and enjoyed learning about this time and place in history. I look forward to reading more books by Brennert.

I read most of Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks but lost interest. His 700 page book is the story of John Brown and his sons from the perspective of the only surviving Brown son. I did not like some of the characters, felt bogged down at times, and after reading a rather gory scene I decided I really did not want to read about Harper's Ferry and the slaughter. What I did learn is that extremism and terrorism have always gone together. The e-book has a lot of errors.

We have had record snow here, and it has been a continual process of digging out the mailbox...

Happy Valentines Day

Valentine Handkerchiefs

Here are Valentines handkerchiefs from my collection.

The middle 20th c was quite nostalgic. You see a lot of hoop skirt/top hat couples.

                                This is a great example of handkerchief design in its hey-day.

 Machine embroidered handkerchiefs were cheap gifts in the later 20th c.

And a small quilt hanging I made based on a vintage Valentine card and using handkerchiefs in the border. The pattern is available at my etsy shop Rosemont Needle Arts.