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.Not only this, but they look back to a brief momentwhen both nations made common music under a common flag:Handel, court composer of the House of Hanover on the eve of theEnlightenment, is as much our icon of high culture and civilised 78 THE CITY OF COVENTRYsocial and intellectual intercourse as he is that of Germany.Thus,rather than expropriate from the Germans Handel s hymn ofsalvation (spiritual, and now military), the English view it as anobvious embodiment of the current national resolve.59 Jenningswould have been well aware that for over a century after his deathHandel was largely ignored in Germany.His oratorios only becamefamiliar to German audiences as late as the 1830s, largely thanks toMendelssohn, who of course was not only a great Anglophile butwas Jewish.Mendelssohn composed his own oratorio, Elijah, inEngland at the same time as his countryman, Charles Hallé, movednorth to Manchester, bringing with him the glories of Beethoven,Brahms, and Schubert.Thus, the Hallé Orchestra s performance ofthe Fifth was a double reminder that in Manchester today they stillrespect the genius of Germany the genius of the Germany thatwas.60The Hallé s conductor was by late 1940 himself a symbol ofresistance to Nazi aggression, his work and reputation bridging thegap between high and popular culture.Malcolm Sargent s much-publicised Blitz Tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestraextended his fame beyond a predominantly middle-class audience ofclassical music lovers.Just as most filmgoers in early 1941 wouldhave recognised Beethoven s Fifth even if they could not name it, sothey would have recognised Sargent s name on the fake posteradvertising the Hallé s performance even if they had no idea whathe actually looked like.61 The choice of Sargent, Britain s bestknown musician, and the Huddersfield Choral Society, Britain sbiggest choir, was clearly deliberate.Both exemplified the way inwhich the People s War for the first time rendered high cultureaccessible to all.Jennings applauded and encouraged this temporarybreaking down of barriers, witness his readiness in Listen to Britainto devote equal time and respect to Dame Myra Hess s performanceof Mozart s Piano Concerto and to Flanagan and Allan s canteenrendering of Underneath The Arches.In both cases Jenningsoffered an unashamedly egalitarian perspective on the British at war;and, in overlapping the music with preceding or succeedingsequences, encouraged McAllister to employ the same editingtechnique which had worked so well in Heart of Britain.62Jennings later recorded Malcolm Sargent and the LPOperforming Handel s Water Music, to accompany shots of uniformed SENT TO COVENTRY 79and civilian Londoners striding forward purposefully at the end ofWords for Battle.This final sequence, and indeed the whole film,attracted quite fierce criticism.63 But again, the man-of-lettersapparently straightforward call to arms requires a second or third reading, not least because the original intention was to release acompanion film, In Germany Now.Jennings envisaged an actorsuch as Anton Walbrook, possessing ever so slight an accent ,reciting verse by Goethe, Schiller, Heine, and other great Germanpoets.The actual film would comprise of clips from The Triumph ofthe Will and recent Nazi newsreels: Most of the illustrations would,of course, be placed against the sense of the poems: Germany has notrealised the hopes and dreams of her poets: indeed she has surpassedtheir worst fears& Fundamentally the film would be a simplecriticism of the Third Reich by Germans themselves& .64 In hishomage to Stewart McAllister Dai Vaughan discussed this project atsome length, demonstrating how the conflict between the genius ofthe Germany that was in the commentary and the brutal reality onthe screen would have rendered Words for Battle ( In England Now )a very different cinematic experience.The proposal clearly had itsroots in the final stages of editing Heart of Britain, but as Vaughanrightly concludes, early 1941 was not the best time to suggest a filmdevoted to the humanism of Germany.65Conclusion: Jennings shared agenda for reconstruction, and thecentrality of Heart of Britain to his wartime oeuvreJennings American biographers saw Heart of Britain as theprototypical Jennings war film, blazing the trail for the masterpiecesthat were to follow. 66 The use of music led directly to Listen toBritain, but the success of Jennings masterpieces also depended ona readiness to acknowledge past failure.Even when judged by thestandards and prevailing assumptions of the early 1940s, JackHolmes commentary is flat, unconvincing, dated, and patronising( Just look at these Lancashire lassies cowering before theLuftwaffe& those everyday tasks of the women came right throughthe fire and became heroic. ).How one longs for Laurie Lee sminimalist commentary to Spare Time. Wooden performances,especially when synch speech was required, were one of the banes ofthe classic documentary , and in his study of Fires Were StartedBrian Winston noted how by 1942 Jennings had learnt the knack of 80 THE CITY OF COVENTRY directing the undemonstrative English (multiple takes rendered anexhausted performer far more relaxed and less camera conscious).67In Heart of Britain there is little to match the convincing dialogue ofH.U.1 s fire crew, other than the brief exchange between the twoARP wardens skilfully constructed by Stewart McAllister.In thesteel mill George Good is painfully self-conscious, addressing hislines directly to an off-camera director [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
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.Not only this, but they look back to a brief momentwhen both nations made common music under a common flag:Handel, court composer of the House of Hanover on the eve of theEnlightenment, is as much our icon of high culture and civilised 78 THE CITY OF COVENTRYsocial and intellectual intercourse as he is that of Germany.Thus,rather than expropriate from the Germans Handel s hymn ofsalvation (spiritual, and now military), the English view it as anobvious embodiment of the current national resolve.59 Jenningswould have been well aware that for over a century after his deathHandel was largely ignored in Germany.His oratorios only becamefamiliar to German audiences as late as the 1830s, largely thanks toMendelssohn, who of course was not only a great Anglophile butwas Jewish.Mendelssohn composed his own oratorio, Elijah, inEngland at the same time as his countryman, Charles Hallé, movednorth to Manchester, bringing with him the glories of Beethoven,Brahms, and Schubert.Thus, the Hallé Orchestra s performance ofthe Fifth was a double reminder that in Manchester today they stillrespect the genius of Germany the genius of the Germany thatwas.60The Hallé s conductor was by late 1940 himself a symbol ofresistance to Nazi aggression, his work and reputation bridging thegap between high and popular culture.Malcolm Sargent s much-publicised Blitz Tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestraextended his fame beyond a predominantly middle-class audience ofclassical music lovers.Just as most filmgoers in early 1941 wouldhave recognised Beethoven s Fifth even if they could not name it, sothey would have recognised Sargent s name on the fake posteradvertising the Hallé s performance even if they had no idea whathe actually looked like.61 The choice of Sargent, Britain s bestknown musician, and the Huddersfield Choral Society, Britain sbiggest choir, was clearly deliberate.Both exemplified the way inwhich the People s War for the first time rendered high cultureaccessible to all.Jennings applauded and encouraged this temporarybreaking down of barriers, witness his readiness in Listen to Britainto devote equal time and respect to Dame Myra Hess s performanceof Mozart s Piano Concerto and to Flanagan and Allan s canteenrendering of Underneath The Arches.In both cases Jenningsoffered an unashamedly egalitarian perspective on the British at war;and, in overlapping the music with preceding or succeedingsequences, encouraged McAllister to employ the same editingtechnique which had worked so well in Heart of Britain.62Jennings later recorded Malcolm Sargent and the LPOperforming Handel s Water Music, to accompany shots of uniformed SENT TO COVENTRY 79and civilian Londoners striding forward purposefully at the end ofWords for Battle.This final sequence, and indeed the whole film,attracted quite fierce criticism.63 But again, the man-of-lettersapparently straightforward call to arms requires a second or third reading, not least because the original intention was to release acompanion film, In Germany Now.Jennings envisaged an actorsuch as Anton Walbrook, possessing ever so slight an accent ,reciting verse by Goethe, Schiller, Heine, and other great Germanpoets.The actual film would comprise of clips from The Triumph ofthe Will and recent Nazi newsreels: Most of the illustrations would,of course, be placed against the sense of the poems: Germany has notrealised the hopes and dreams of her poets: indeed she has surpassedtheir worst fears& Fundamentally the film would be a simplecriticism of the Third Reich by Germans themselves& .64 In hishomage to Stewart McAllister Dai Vaughan discussed this project atsome length, demonstrating how the conflict between the genius ofthe Germany that was in the commentary and the brutal reality onthe screen would have rendered Words for Battle ( In England Now )a very different cinematic experience.The proposal clearly had itsroots in the final stages of editing Heart of Britain, but as Vaughanrightly concludes, early 1941 was not the best time to suggest a filmdevoted to the humanism of Germany.65Conclusion: Jennings shared agenda for reconstruction, and thecentrality of Heart of Britain to his wartime oeuvreJennings American biographers saw Heart of Britain as theprototypical Jennings war film, blazing the trail for the masterpiecesthat were to follow. 66 The use of music led directly to Listen toBritain, but the success of Jennings masterpieces also depended ona readiness to acknowledge past failure.Even when judged by thestandards and prevailing assumptions of the early 1940s, JackHolmes commentary is flat, unconvincing, dated, and patronising( Just look at these Lancashire lassies cowering before theLuftwaffe& those everyday tasks of the women came right throughthe fire and became heroic. ).How one longs for Laurie Lee sminimalist commentary to Spare Time. Wooden performances,especially when synch speech was required, were one of the banes ofthe classic documentary , and in his study of Fires Were StartedBrian Winston noted how by 1942 Jennings had learnt the knack of 80 THE CITY OF COVENTRY directing the undemonstrative English (multiple takes rendered anexhausted performer far more relaxed and less camera conscious).67In Heart of Britain there is little to match the convincing dialogue ofH.U.1 s fire crew, other than the brief exchange between the twoARP wardens skilfully constructed by Stewart McAllister.In thesteel mill George Good is painfully self-conscious, addressing hislines directly to an off-camera director [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]