REVISED PROGRAM: To Celebrate: Brahms & Mendelssohn

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TO CELEBRATE SATURDAY, F E B R U A R Y 2 6 , 2022 7 PM DECC SYMPHONY HALL, ALLETE STAGE DIRK MEYER, MUSIC DIRECTOR ERIN ALDRIDGE, VIOLIN

JOHANNES BRAHMS Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56 Theme Andante Variation 1.

Poco più animato Variation 2.

Più vivace Variation 3.

Con moto Variation 4.

Andante con moto Variation 5.

Vivace Variation 6.

Vivace Variation 7.

Grazioso Variation 8.

Presto non troppo Finale Andante CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor, Op. 28 Erin Aldridge, violin

17’

9’

SAMUEL COLERIDGE TAYLOR Keep Me From Sinking Down 6’ Erin Aldridge, violin

Erin Aldridge, Concertmaster, Hawks Ridge

PABLO DE SARASATE Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20 Moderato Lento Un poco più lento Allegro molto vivace Erin Aldridge, violin

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8’

INTERMISSION 20’ FELIX MENDELSSOHN Symphony No.3 in A minor, Op. 56, Scottish 40’ I. Andante con moto; Allegro un poco agitato II. Vivace non troppo III. Adagio IV. Allegro vivacissimo; Allegro maestoso assai

MUSICIAN PROFILE

ERIN ALDRIDGE ERIN HAS RECEIVED RECOGNITION AS A PROMINENT ARTIST. IN THE SPRING OF 2005, SHE WAS NAMED CONCERTMASTER OF THE DULUTH SUPERIOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA.

In the spring of 2005, Dr. Erin Aldridge was named Concertmaster of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. But, her story began long before that---back when her parents discovered that their daughter possessed a sense of perfect pitch. Hoping to develop and harness that potential, they sent Erin to conservatory, at three years of age, at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. What developed from there has evolved into a lifetime career and exceptional ability.

Dr. Aldridge attended Indiana University where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance. She then went on to receive her Master’s degree and Performer’s Certificate in Chamber Music Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she was also a member of the Leonard Sorkin Institute of Chamber Music under the direction of the Fine Arts Quartet. She continued her studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance.

Her primary teachers include Mimi Zweig, Josef Gingold, Nellie Shkolnikova, Rostaslav Dubinsky, Efim Boico, and Vartan Manoogian. Her conducting instructors include Margery Deutsch and David Becker. In 2003, Dr. Aldridge joined the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. She serves as Professor of Violin, Director of Orchestras, and is a member of the faculty piano trio Trillium. She is also on faculty of the Indiana University Summer String Academy.

Dr. Aldridge has won numerous awards as both soloist and chamber musician and has been featured throughout Europe, South America, and the United States. She is a well sought after performer and pedagogue, and has been published in Strings Magazine.

Dr. Aldridge maintains an active performance schedule as a soloist and chamber musician. She has been a soloist with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, the Long Prairie Chamber Orchestra, and the Itasca Symphony Orchestra. She has been a guest artist at the Indiana University Summer Music Festival, Arizona State University, DePaul University Contemporary Concert Series, Madeline Island Music Camp, Ashland Chamber Music Series with Trillium Piano Trio, National String Workshop, “Live at the Chazen” Concert Series, and has been broadcast on the BBC and Wisconsin Public Radio.

Erin is also a lover of rock and metal music and has been known from time to time, to lend her musical talents, adapting her abilities with the violin, to local bands and events that allow her to express the awesome versatility of her instrument.

These include collaborations with The Three Altos, Sara Thomsen and Ryan Van Slooten.

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who was intrigued by the piece, notably the second movement titled St. Anthony Chorale, which he copied down. The title of the second movement may imply that the melody was taken from a preexisting chorale, but there has not been a chorale with that melody found to date.

An interesting aspect of this original theme, which may be what intrigued Brahms, is that it is built on five rather than the usual four measure phrases. Brahms composed the set of variations while he was staying in the Bavarian town of Tutzing during the summer of 1873. The first iteration of variations was composed for two pianos (published as Op. 56b), which he immediately orchestrated into one of the most popular pieces in the orchestral repertoire.

JOHANNES BRAHMS : Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a JOHANNES BRAHMS : BORN: May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany DIED: April 3, 1897, in Vienna, Austria WORK COMPOSED: 1873; Op. 56b for two pianos WORLD PREMIERE: November 2, 1873, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Brahms conducting DSSO PERFORMANCE HISTORY: This work has not been performed by the DSSO since May 4, 1984, and was played three times previously before then: in 1961, 1949, and 1942.

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, percussion (triangle) and strings.

The Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn (Haydn Variations) has often been considered the first independent set of variations for orchestra in the history of music. However that claim may not be completely factual; in 1815 Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) composed “26 Variations on La folia di Spagna” for orchestra. There is also a question on the theme, which was most likely composed by Haydn’s pupil Ignaz Pleyel (17571831).

In 1870, while he was doing research for a biography of Joseph Haydn, musicologist and librarian of the Vienna Philharmonic Society Carl Ferdinand Pohl (1819-1887) discovered a piece for woodwind octet that he thought to be an unknown work by the great composer. Pohl shared this discovery with Brahms,

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The structure of the Haydn Variations follows a relatively simple form that dates back to the Middle Ages: statement of the theme followed by a number of variations, usually in the same key, ending with a restatement of the theme. Brahms’ treatment is a true masterpiece of imagination in his vision of this simple theme. The eight variations following the theme retain the same five-measure phrases, and vary greatly in mood: thoughtful, gentle, martial and even sensual. The finale is a passacaglia over a five-measure ostinato supporting the main theme. This is repeated many times, adding the higher instruments until the original theme triumphantly bursts forth.

The premiere on November 2, 1873, was a great success. Being one of the first works he wrote for orchestra, this success most likely provided Brahms with the confidence to compose a symphony. Regardless of who composed the original theme, Brahms’ Haydn Variations is a beloved favorite of symphony goers and musicians alike.

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Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28 CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: BORN: October 9, 1835, in Paris, France DIED: December 16, 1921, in Algiers, Algeria WORK COMPOSED: 1863 WORLD PREMIERE: April 4, 1867, in Paris at the Champs-Élysées, Pablo de Sarasate soloist, Saint-Saëns conducting

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS:

DSSO PERFORMANCE HISTORY: This work has been presented three times before on the DSSO’s Masterworks Series: in 1961 (with Michael Rabin as violin soloist), in 1969 (with James Oliver Buswell IV), and on October 24, 1998 (with 13-year-old Howard Zhang, Yong-yan Hu conducting). Other performances include a summer 1994 hearing soloist DeAnn Burger Letourneau at Lucius Woods Performing Arts Center in Solon Springs, WI. Tonight’s soloist Concertmaster Erin Aldridge has done this work with the DSSO on three run-out concerts: 2011, conducted by Ed Willett, at Big Top Chautauqua near Bayfield, WI; 2012 in Silver Bay, MN; and 2013 at Lucius Woods, Dirk Meyer conducting.

She also played it with the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra in the summer of 2019.

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings and solo violin.

In 1858 Saint-Saëns composed his First Violin Concerto for the young violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) and in 1863 Sarasate asked Saint-Saëns to compose a piece that would be as “fresh and young as spring itself.” The Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso appealed to Sarasate on two levels; the passion and lyricism of the slow Introduction and the virtuosic Rondo to display the violinist’s incredible technique.

Both of those works, along with Saint-Saëns’ Third Violin Concerto, were dedicated to the great Spanish violinist.

The slow Introduction has the violin singing a lovely melody. Saint-Saëns’ elegant expressiveness results in a stately and almost operatic opening.

The only way to describe the Rondo is a dazzling array of fireworks designed to show off the incredible skills of the performer.

Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso has become a staple in the concert repertoire. After Georges Bizet (1838-1875) transcribed the orchestra score for piano, the work became more available for students and established violinists to perform in smaller venues. The pyrotechnics of the brilliant finale leave us with a work that never fails to please.

Keep Me From Sinking Down SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR: BORN: August 15, 1875, in Holborn, London, England DIED: September 1, 1912, in Croydon, London WORK COMPOSED: 1911 WORLD PREMIERE: June 4, 1912, at the Norfolk, Connecticut Music Festival, Maud Powell soloist DSSO PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Tonight marks the first DSSO performance of any music by Coleridge-Taylor. However, the DSSO’s Youth Symphony (then the Junior Symphony) played his Petite Suite de Concert in 1955.

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, timpani, strings and solo violin.

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SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR:

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SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR: Continued Coleridge-Taylor was born to an English woman, Alice Hare Martin (1856-1953) and a Krio man from Sierra Leone, Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor (abt. 1848-1904), who was studying medicine in London at the time. They were not married and Taylor returned to Africa without learning that Alice was pregnant (her parents were also not married at her birth). She named her son Samuel Coleridge Taylor after the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. After she had Samuel, Alice lived with her father Benjamin Holmans and his family in Croydon, Surrey. He was married to a woman not her mother and they had four daughters and at least one son. Both Alice and her father called her son Coleridge and in 1887 Alice married a railway worker, George Evans.

Taylor grew up in a musical family and he learned the violin from Holmans. After realizing his grandson’s extraordinary ability, he paid for him to have violin lessons. The family arranged for the fifteen-year-old Samuel to study at the Royal College of Music. He changed his focus from violin to composition and studied under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), whose other students also included Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frank Bridge and Arthur Bliss. After completing his degree, Taylor became a professional musician; he conducted the orchestra at the Croydon Conservatory and was appointed a professor at the Crystal Palace School of Music.

Taylor’s early compositions were guided by August Jaeger, an influential music critic and editor for Novello (music publishing company). Jaeger told Edward Elgar that Taylor was ‘a genius.’ His first major success was Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast (1898), which brought him international fame. About this time the ‘hyphen’ appeared in his name; presumably he simply followed a printer’s typographical error. Coleridge-Taylor made three trips to the United States and there he became increasingly interested in his paternal racial heritage.

He participated as the youngest delegate at the 1900 First Pan-African Conference held in London. Through this conference he met leading Americans, including the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963). Coleridge-Taylor learned that his father was descended from African-American slaves who were freed by the British at the end of the American Revolutionary War. About 3,000 were resettled in Nova Scotia, but in 1792 roughly 1200 considered the society and climate there hostile and they moved to Sierra Leone, which the British had established as a colony for free blacks.

The Norfolk Music Festival is believed to be the oldest active summer music festival in North America. It traces its beginnings to Robbins Battell (1819-1895), a generous patron of music, who hosted summer concerts on the Norfolk town green beginning in the 1880s. His daughter, Ellen (18515 DULUTH SUPERIOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

1939), continued her father’s dreams of bringing music to Norfolk. She married Carl Stoeckel (1858-1925) in 1895 and together they started the Litchfield County Choral Union, which continues to perform at the Norfolk Festival to this day. In the spring of 1910, during his third visit to the United States, Coleridge-Taylor was invited to Norfolk by the Choral Union. Each year the members of the Choral Union choose a work to be performed and invite its composer to the festival. Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha and Verdi’s Requiem received the most votes. Since Verdi had passed away in 1901, Coleridge-Taylor won by default. Other composers who were invited over the years included Rachmaninoff, Kreisler, Sibelius and Vaughan Williams. Stoeckel hired members of the New York Philharmonic (at the time under the direction of Gustav Mahler). Only two members of the Choral Union and orchestra left in protest when they were asked if there was an objection to performing under an Anglo-African conductor. Coleridge-Taylor’s conducting abilities earned him the affectionate title the African Mahler from the orchestra.

While in Norfolk, Stoeckel commissioned Coleridge-Taylor to write a violin concerto for the famed Maud Powell (18671920) to play at the 1912 Norfolk Music Festival. Stoeckel requested the use of old “Negro” songs and hymns from the Deep South, as well as Yankee Doodle. Mrs. Stoeckel enticed Coleridge-Taylor by playing Keep Me From Sinking Down, Good Lord on the piano, a melody she had learned from her father, who had learned it from a slave. Both the Stoeckels and Powell were not pleased with the concerto when it arrived. Coleridge-Taylor, after not receiving any correspondence from them, wrote a letter denouncing his own work, asked them to destroy it and suggested that he would submit a new concerto. Stoeckel returned the manuscript to the composer and stated his admiration for the second movement, in which he used the Negro hymn Many Thousand Gone. Powell and Stoeckel asked if he would write an arrangement of Keep Me From Sinking Down, Good Lord, and that short work was performed by its dedicatee Maud Powell as the encore for the premiere of the Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto in 1912 in Norfolk.

Carl Stoeckel wrote of the importance of Coleridge-Taylor’s visits to the United States: “I suppose that it is difficult for you in England and Europe generally to understand the unfortunate and unreasonable prejudice which still exists against Africans in the United States; but the fact is here, we must face it and do our best to overcome it, and I know of no incident, in my life at least, that has done so much to dissipate this feeling as the visit of Mr. Coleridge-Taylor to this country in 1910.” Unfortunately, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor never heard Maud Powell perform his Violin Concerto nor Keep Me From Sinking Down, Good Lord. He died at the age of 37 of pneumonia less than three months after its premiere.

MASTERWORKS 4 rotechnical virtuosity. Although Sarasate had total technical command of the violin, his playing showed off his virtuosity along with a beautiful tone and impeccable intonation.

One can find an actual recording of Sarasate performing Zigeunerweisen that was recorded in 1904. Even through the scratchiness of an old 78RPM record one can hear his clear, beautiful tone, impeccable intonation and sensual interpretation of the music that rivals any contemporary violinists.

PABLO DE SARASATE: Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), Op. 20 PABLO DE SARASATE: BORN: March 10, 1844, in Pamplona, Navarre, Spain DIED: September 20, 1908, in Biarritz, France WORK COMPOSED: 1878 WORLD PREMIERE: 1878, in Leipzig, Germany DSSO PERFORMANCE HISTORY: This is the first DSSO Masterworks Series performance of this piece. It was given on two Pops Concerts: in 1992 with the Orchestra’s First Violin Section and in 1990 with Associate Concertmaster Ann Anderson as soloist. In 1952 Douglas Overland played it won a Junior Symphony concert.

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, percussion (triangle), strings and solo violin.

The violin began to come into prominence, joining with the piano, as a leading solo instrument in the 19th century. A number of violinists from then and into the current day have achieved extraordinary fame to the point of being household names: Paganini, Kreisler, Heifetz, Perlman and Sarasate.

George Bernard Shaw once said that though there were many composers of music for the violin, there were but few composers of violin music. Speaking of Sarasate’s talents as composer and performer, Shaw said that he “left criticism gasping miles behind him.”

Pablo Martín de Sarasate y Navascués, to use his full name, revolutionized the style of solo violin playing in the 19th century. Before Sarasate many violinists sought to emulate the celebrated Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840), focusing on py-

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When he was ten years old Sarasate performed for Queen Isabella of Spain. She presented him with one of the two Stradivarius violins he would use for the rest of his life. Interestingly, that particular Stradivarius, made in 1724, now called the Sarasate Stradivarius, was previously owned by Paganini and French luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (17981875). It is now on display at the Paris Conservatoire museum. The other violin, the Boissier-Sarasate Stradivarius, is owned by the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música, Madrid.

As his abilities developed, Sarasate’s parents decided to send him, at the age of twelve, to study at the Paris Conservatoire. His mother accompanied him on the train journey to Paris and while en route, she died of a heart attack at the Spanish-French border. At the same time he was also found to be suffering from cholera. The Spanish consul in Bayonne took him to his home and nursed him back to health, then financed his trip to Paris.

Sarasate made his Paris debut in 1860 and over the course of his career he toured many parts of the world, performing in Europe, North America and South America. Critics praised his pure tone and impressive virtuosic technique. According to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), Sherlock Holmes was among his many fans. The Spanish influence in his compositions inspired his contemporaries in their works, notably Georges Bizet’s Carmen; Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole (dedicated to Sarasate); and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, written for and dedicated to Sarasate.

The use of folk music became more common in the last half of the 19th century when nationalism was in vogue. During a trip to Budapest, Hungary in the spring of 1877, Sarasate was introduced to the music of the Romani (Roma) people. The influence of Romani music is found extensively throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East due to their nomadic lifestyle. Preceding Sarasate in the use of the earthy and sensuous Romani music were Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms. Perhaps the best known of Sarasate’s own compositions is Zigeunerweisen.

Sarasate apparently found material for this work in a collection of verbunkos (18th century Hungarian dance and music genre). The typical form of the verbunkos has two parts; slow

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PABLO DE SARASATE: Continued (lassú), characterized by richly ornamented music in a free improvisatory style and played with melancholy passion, and fast (friss), with virtuosic passages. The verbunkos also served as a kind of recruiting dance for the Austro-Hungarian army; the slow portion would be danced by the sergeant in dignified gestures followed by the fast section danced by the younger and more agile recruits, concluding with jumps and heel clicks (thankfully I didn’t have to endure that during my basic training!).

Zigeunerweisen has become a staple of the violin repertoire and is performed frequently by nearly every accomplished and aspiring concert violinist. It has also been transcribed for other instruments, even the double bass (among my collection I have recordings of double bassists Edgar Meyer, Roman Patkoló, Joel Quarrington, Daxun Zhang and others playing it). Regardless of the instrument, Zigeunerweisen is a tour de force for any soloist. With the avalanche of praise Sarasate received, he said, “A genius! For 37 years I have practiced for 14 hours a day, and now they call me ‘a genius’.”

On March 26, 1829, Mendelssohn wrote to Karl Klingemann (1798-1862) that he expected to arrive in London in less than a month and proclaimed, “NEXT AUGUST I AM GOING TO SCOTLAND, with a rake for folk songs. an ear for the lovely fragrant countryside, and a heart for the bare legs of the natives.” Klingemann, a friend from Berlin, was at this time serving as Secretary to the Hanoverian Legislation in London. Before his Scottish journey, Mendelssohn conducted the London Philharmonic playing his Symphony No. 1. He also played Weber’s Konzertstück and Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with that orchestra (and created a sensation because he did so from memory), gave a piano recital, and concluded with a benefit concert for the Silesian flood victims, for which he assembled an all-star cast. By mid-July he was ready for a vacation. Along with Klingemann he departed from London and arrived in Edinburgh on July 26.

FELIX MENDELSSOHN : Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 Scottish FELIX MENDELSSOHN: BORN: February 3, 1809, in Hamburg, Germany DIED: November 4, 1847, in Leipzig WORK COMPOSED: Between 1829 and 1842 WORLD PREMIERE: March 3, 1842, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Mendelssohn conducting; final version premiered on March 17, under the direction of Karl Bach DSSO PERFORMANCE HISTORY: There has been only one previous DSSO performance of this symphony. Taavo Virkhaus conducted it on September 20, 1985.

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings.

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Both Mendelssohn and Klingemann were diligent and gifted letter writers, which means that they left us with a complete itinerary of their travels: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Inverness, Loch Lomond, and the Hebrides islands of Iona, Mull, and Staffa. In hopes of visiting with Sir Walter Scott they made a detour to Abbotsford, only to be disappointed in finding him grouchy, distracted and unwilling to rise beyond small talk. They jokingly wrote of the bad food, uncomfortable inns and unresponsive Scots (“To all questions you get a dry no”). We also learned that Mendelssohn hated, ‘absolutely hated, bagpipes and anything to do with folk music.’

The initial inspiration for this piece came from his July 30 visit to the ruins of Holyrood Chapel at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. In a letter to his family Mendelssohn wrote: In the deep twilight we went today to the palace where Queen Mary lived and loved...The chapel below is now roofless. Grass and ivy thrive there and at the broken altar where Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland.

Everything is ruined, decayed, and the clear heavens pour in. I think I have found there the beginning of my “Scottish” Symphony.

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Enclosed with the letter was a scrap of paper with the opening bars of what would become the symphony’s opening theme. A few days later the pair visited the western coast and island of Staffa, which was the inspiration for Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture. After completing the first version of the Hebrides, he continued to work on what would become Symphony No. 3 while touring Italy. Finding it a struggle to make progress, he set the piece aside some time in 1831. In March 1831, from sunny Rome, he wrote, “Who can blame me if I am unable to put myself back in the foggy mood of Scotland?”

By 1841 Mendelssohn was certainly working on the piece and completed it in Berlin on January 20, 1842. After the first performances he made some slight revisions, removing 111 measures of material in total, and the revised version is the one most performed. Although being the last symphony Mendelssohn completed, it was the third to be published and subsequently known as Symphony No. 3. Although he described the work to his family in 1829 as his Scottish Symphony, by the time it was published in 1842, he made no allusions to its Scottish inspiration. It might even be debatable whether he intended the finished work to be called Scottish. However, audiences have found it hard not to hear the piece as evoking the Scottish culture and landscape.

Theorists and musicologists have remarked on the second movement being in the style of Scottish folk music, using the pentatonic scale and the characteristic Scotch snap rhythm. The Scotch snap or Lombard rhythm is a syncopated musical rhythm in which a short, accented note is followed by a longer one, reversing the pattern normally associated with dotted notes, in which the longer value note precedes the shorter. The Scotch snap is a prominent feature of the strathspey in Scottish country dances. Examples of strathspeys are the songs The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond and Coming Through the Rye. Traditionally, a strathspey is followed by a reel, which has even eighth-notes, releasing the rhythmic tension created during the strathspey.

Mendelssohn dedicated his Symphony No. 3 to “H.M. Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland.” Unlike other symphonies of the time, Mendelssohn indicated in the score that “the movements of this symphony must follow one another immediately, and must not be separated by the customary long pauses.” The composer also went on to suggest that the sequence of movements be indicated in the program as follows: Introduction and Allegro agitato—Scherzo assai vivace— Adagio cantabile—Allegro guerriero and Finale maestoso However, these designations do not correspond with the markings in the score itself: I. II. III. IV.

Andante con moto - Allegro un poco agitato Vivace non troppo Adagio Allegro vivacissimo - Allegro maestoso assai

Mendelssohn wrote a poignant letter home on August 15, 1829, from Glasgow at the end of his Scottish journey. It suggests an awareness that this may have been the highest point of his life, obviously not knowing that he had already lived more than halfway through his short life: This, then, is the end of our Highland journey and the last of our joint letters. We’ve been happy together roaming round the country as gaily as if storm and rain had not existed. But they did exist. We had weather to make trees and rocks crash, and the newspapers have been full of its awfulness… I hardly know how to describe the wretched, comfortless solitude of the countryside. We wandered for ten days without meeting a single other traveller. What look like towns on the map or at least like villages turn out to be just a few sheds huddled together, with just a single hole for door, window and chimney which has to serve for the entrances and exits of men, beasts, light and smoke. To any question the only answer you get is a dry “No!”. Whisky is the only drink. There are no churches, no streets, no gardens. The rooms are pitch-dark in broad daylight. Children and hens lie in the same straw. Many of the huts have no roof and crumbling walls, and many houses have been destroyed by fire… It’s no wonder the Highlands have been called melancholy. But we two have been happy enough, laughing, rhyming, sketching, growling at each other and at the world…eating everything eatable and sleeping for twelve hours every night. We won’t forget it as long as we live.

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