Word: parson
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Crude but Sympathetic. Peter Grimes is no conventional operatic hero. Britten found him in a poem written by Parson Poet George Crabbe (1754-1832) and added a few hints of Freud. Crabbe's Grimes was an uncouth and unsympathetic ruffian; to Britten and Librettist Montagu Slater he is still crude but somehow sympathetic-a character who, by his uncontrollable rages, continually puts himself at swords'-points with society, which Britten represents with the massive chorus. Sings Peter Grimes: "They listen to money, these Borough gossips. I listen to courage and fiery visions...
Overcoat & Broth. In the little Alsatian village of Günsbach, where he grew up, Albert Schweitzer's schoolmates looked on him as "a sprig of the gentry" because he was the parson's son. To be set apart from the other boys was an agony to him; he suffered many a whipping rather than wear an overcoat, the badge of a "gentleman." Once, after he had won a wrestling match, his opponent said: "Yes, if I got broth to eat twice a week as you do, I should be as strong as you are." From then...
Absolutely Topnotch. It all began in 1943, when dynamic Parson Walter Hussey, 38, was planning jubilee celebrations for his church's 50th anniversary. Says he: "I decided we'd have really absolutely topnotch performances of music and art -so why not approach the people at the very top of the tree? They could only refuse, and that wouldn't hurt me." When his father, Canon Hussey, who had been St. Matthew's first vicar, offered to make a jubilee presentation to the church, Hussey hurried off to see Sculptor Moore, whose smooth, tiny-headed figures...
This jolting dose of culture was such a hit with St. Matthew's plain parishioners that Parson Hussey decided to do it every year. Each St. Matthew's Day (Sept. 21) he commissions at least one new work, like Sutherland's Crucifixion. The congregation raises the funds...
Unhealthy Titillations. Says Parson Hussey: "Artists are looking for firmer spiritual guidance in their work, and working for the church provides them with the kind of inspiration and background they need. Through works of art man probably reaches the highest achievement of which he is capable, and so such works are surely the most appropriate offerings to God." Art as an aid to devotion seems to him quite secondary: "I don't believe in providing worshipers with emotional titillations. I think it's a very unhealthy idea. But it's true that, as they have grown...