Folk Radio interviews Adrian McNally about The Unthanks'
Lines.
We then went on to discuss the difficulty of actually selecting and interpreting the material, and whether he had found the Emily Brontë set any easier?[...] Likewise, with Brontë. To interact with work that’s come from someone from a completely different background and time. We are predominantly drawn to tales, but Emily’s poems are mostly descriptive and metaphorical, and about nature or introspection. They rarely have a storytelling narrative, so it was a very different sort of challenge for us.
Also, I guess we never really focus on bringing something up to date or immersing ourselves in a time in order to capture that time. We’re always trying to make our work relatively ‘timeless’., which was quite tricky with Emily, as much of her work is wrapped in the language of the time. To bring it out of that is quite hard because the language is so dominating. So I guess we looked for poems that weren’t so ensconced in that language of the time.
Also, a lot of her poetry chose itself in terms of just how rhythmic it is. That you can almost imagine she wrote it for song. We know that she was very interested in music, though there’s no evidence that any of them were written as song. But certainly lots of them lend themselves very easily to song because she’s so disciplined; once she sets a rhythm her fluidity is so consistent. In modern poetry, if it all rhymes and it’s all in rhythm, it might be considered a little simplistic or conventional. But it’s a real art in itself to create a fluidity of language, that is almost musical, so it felt like a natural fit in that sense.
So am I right in thinking you recorded all the piano parts in one night’s sitting and then you kind of developed it over time with Rachel and Becky? Sort of yes. I did write all the music for the project in the first night at Emily’s piano. I did really turn up with nothing because I wanted to be informed by the instrument. I didn’t expect, however, to be monitored quite so keenly. Everything’s worth such a fortune in there, I had to have someone in the room with me constantly, and its a tiny room. So to create under observation like that is less than ideal. But never the less it all came out in one night – I walked away with sixteen iPhone recordings but they were just musical ideas.
Then I spent the majority of the rest of my week at my residency in Howarth [sic] working out what poems worked well with which musical ideas. Which I largely did at my digs in another Brontë related house called Ponden Hall, which is now a B&B and it’s supposedly meant to be the house where Emily based the other house in Wuthering Heights on. There’s a box bed in one of the rooms, which is a replica of the one that the Brontë’s used to sit and read in – they used to go to Ponden Hall because the library there was better than their own. So both Becky and I got to stay in this bed (on separate occasions I might add) which is quite atmospheric, being in this box bed with all these side panels, one of which draws back to reveal the little window that was meant to be the window that inspired Emily to write the bit in Wuthering Heights where Cathy’s ghost taps on Heathcliff’s window. So I didn’t get an awful lot of sleep on the first night.
So the tunes were written on Emily’s piano but they were mostly put to her poetry at Ponden Hall. Then at night time when I was let back into the Parsonage because it’s a working museum by day, I’d go back in having road tested what I’d worked on at Ponden Hall.
Then Rachel and Becky entered once the melodies were written? Yes, my initial time in Howarth was alone. Then we went back maybe a month later to record them having rehearsed them at home. Rachel put the tune to Remembrance, adapting from a traditional tune, and both sisters worked on harmony once I’d given them to tunes. We recording them at The Parsonage because we really wanted to use Emily’s piano. It was an instrument that had informed these songs to start with, so really they were written for it. As well as by it, in terms of how unique an instrument it is and limited it is. It’s dynamic range and the way it plays can really limit the possibilities. And you know that can really be a creative stimulus to limit yourself, to certain parameters. It was an instrument I found difficult to play initially but one that I developed a real affinity with and now I quite miss it.
You said it felt like ‘what you’d been looking for, for years?’ Yeah, sort of, I’ve always had this notion of a certain sound and I kind of rush towards little pianos and I see them in the hope that this is going to be the one. And it never is because little pianos are often pretty poorly made. But this one has a certain kind of resonance in the upper end that does kind of remind me of this sound that I’ve always kind of imagined.
I suppose writing the music where she lived and grew up; there are obviously very strong ties here between music and place. There’s also the opportunity for listeners to visit the Shall Earth No More Inspire Thee experience, where they can walk the moorlands whilst taking in these song cycles. Do you think this sense of place naturally enriches the storytelling and the atmosphere of the pieces?[...] The house itself as well, it’s pretty much in the state it was. Lots of hard stone surfaces so the sound of the piano really kind of rattles around the place. The museum staff who were looking after me at night were telling me they were experiencing lots of tingles as they walked through the place hearing the instrument that Emily played, for it to be heard again in the space. I’m one of a very small number of people who have actually been allowed to play it since it has been restored, so it’s not a sound that they’re familiar hearing, it’s still special to hear it ringing round.
It’s all captured there on the record too: the harsh winds, the birdsong and the Grandfather clock. Yes, there is a loneliness up there and there’s a loneliness to Emily’s writing. That was one of our thoughts about only using Emily’s piano. The sole instrument being a metaphor for her loneliness and for the kind of isolation you experience being up there. (David Weir)
BookRiot looks 'beyond the Brontës' to try and find 'contemporary authors who are sisters'.
Perhaps the most famous sister authors in (English) literary history are the Brontës: Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Altogether, they produced seven novels (most famously: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant at Wildfell Hall) and numerous works of poetry. They even published under the same pseudonym: Bell. But they aren’t the only family of sisters to go on to become published authors! (Tirzah Price)
Several sites recommend what to watch in May.
The Cinemaholic suggests '17 TV Shows You Must Watch if You Love
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel', including
6. Jane Eyre (2006)
‘Jane Eyre’, a 2006-released TV series, is based on the classic novel of the same name written by Charlotte Brontë in 1847. It is centered around an orphan girl, Jane, who is raised by her aunt, Mrs. Reed. She then gets employed as a housekeeper in Thornfield Hall to serve as a governess for young Adèle. There, she meets the mysterious estate owner, Mr. Rochester, who is engaged to Blanche Ingram. (Anisha Dutta)
Now To Love looks at what's coming to Netflix in May and it seems that one
Jane Eyre (2011) will be available from 16th May.
While
Flavorwire recommends 'The 7 Best Movies to Buy or Stream This Week', including
American Honey: Writer/director Andrea Arnold, who went minimalist for her 2011 Wuthering Heights, goes maximalist (and then some) for this lengthy, meandering, yet fascinating tale of an aimless teenager who joins up with a motley crew of hard-partying, door-to-door magazine-selling con artists. (Jason Bailey)
Some streets in Barrie, Ontario, have new names according to
Barrie Today.
There are also three names derived from the entertainment world, such as Privet (named after the street Harry Potter lived on), Sherlock (a nod to detective Sherlock Holmes), and Wuthering (for the novel Wuthering Heights). (Raymond Bowe)
Yorkshire Post celebrates the 100th birthday of
genial English gentleman Charles Courtenay Lloyd helped to liberate Norway from Nazi invasion, trained Cold War spies, married a penniless Russian princess and taught generations of Yorkshire’s youngsters foreign languages. [...]
Mr Lloyd is a great fan of Charlotte Brontë and the family, which lived in Heaton Grove, often visited Haworth. (John Blow)
A columnist from
City News (Australia) is not a fan of bluebells as Emily Brontë may have been. More gardening with this tweet from the Brontë Parsonage:
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