Marco Albonetti is a longtime dear friend—a “brother from another mother,” as they say— as well as a collaborator. When he released his second Chandos record, he asked me how it made me feel. Such a simple question. But not a simple answer.

Whereas his first Chandos record was a culmination of over two and a half decades of his fascination with Astor Piazzolla, Amarcord d’un Tango is a deeper inquiry into tango. The first album is filled with energy, ambition, passion, and youth. The second is a bit darker, more emotionally mature, and was curated and created by a more seasoned and— dare I say it—older (and wiser) musician.

It is an exploration of opposites: liturgical and secular, sacred and profane, human and divine, past and present, connection and separation, fantasy and reality, remembering and forgetting, nostalgia and acceptance of the present moment, permanence and impermanence, young and old, love and loss … and, ultimately, life and death.

I believe that the thing that gives human life any meaning at all is the inevitable prospect of death.

And I believe the whole reason for living is to give and receive love.

Somehow, Albonetti and his collaborator Daniele di Bonaventura captured all of this in sound, using the very different but also similar instruments of the soprano saxophone and the bandoneon. The sounds of the instruments themselves are both produced by air moving through reeds, but one originates from inside the body while one emanates from the outside—yet another merging of opposites. I also love that the record moves between duos and larger orchestrations, representing both intimacy and distance.

A specific technical note for careful listeners: Albonetti chooses to use expressive intonation, following in the footsteps of great vocalists and string players. When he sounds a bit flat, one must consult the original text of the tango. He is intentionally text painting with his intonation, using melodic intonation rather than harmonic intonation to express emotions such as sadness or darkness. Playing with pitches between the cracks of an inherently out-of-tune bandoneon is a brilliant artistic technique in this situation. Albonetti means to say what he is saying and in the language in which he is saying it.

One of the more interesting aspects of navigating midlife is that we know we are at least somewhat resilient, because after all, we have made it this far.

To Olive

MY DIARY

1928

H J Cartwright

Wednesday, 19th April, 1916

The scene of my labours has changed. Peel, Hobson, Carles, Reed and I received our orders on Friday; we are the first officers of the 10th Bedfords1 to proceed to France. We left Folkestone yesterday and after a terrible crossing, during which I was sick, landed at Boulogne, and are now in that great Camp at Etaples. We are temporarily attached to the 35th Division.

Saturday, 22nd April, 1916

I am all alone now, and not feeling very brave at the prospect in front of me. Reed has left to join the 8th Bedfords. Peel, Carles and Hobson have joined the 6th Bedfords, and I am posted to the 7th Bedfords. I hate being here alone; I am not the sort of fellow to make friends with strangers. As my servant I have one Robbins who, strange to say was my Batman at Dovercourt. For the purpose of training I have the men of the Durham Light Infantry under my command. I took them on the miniature rifle range one day, and yesterday I spent out on the training ground with all the other officers here. We go through all the O.T.C., training as of old. The training ground is the finest possible, situate at the mouth of the river on the sand dunes, and overlooking Le Touquet, and Paris-Plage. I went today on the tram to Paris-Plage, and had a bain chaud; it is a beautiful watering place.

Sunday, 30th April, 1916

I am now on the verge of the firing line, and for the first time in sound of the guns. At 9.30 last night I left Etaples to join the 7th Bedfords. I shared a first class compartment with one Warley of the Buffs, and I slept all the way to Abbeville, where we had a stay of several hours. I took the opportunity of having a shave and breakfast, and looking round the town. It is a picturesque town with a very fine Cathedral. Getting back to the train we set off again, and at 1.30 arrived at Mericourt, the rail-head. I spent the night at the Rest Camp, and met two officers from the 7th Bedfords going home on leave.

Introduction

Up to 1930 Vauxhall was as vulnerable to the influences within the town as the other new industries and, far from creating initiatives within the Luton economy, was often adversely affected by local pressures. Although Vauxhall had emerged from the First World War as one of the largest single Luton concerns, its size was insufficient to offset the problems which it faced within the local labour market, those of a shortage of skilled workers and high rates of pay. In addition its problems were compounded by the changing state of the national economy from one of boom to slump between 1919 and 1921, and its relative performance in the car market in the 1920s. Its posture was in essence a defensive one in this period.

By contrast after 1930 Vauxhall's growth and profitability gave it the strength to exert considerable influence on the competitive bidding for labour between Luton firms. In order to attract sufficient skilled labour, Vauxhall continually raised its level of pay so that in 1950 the local association of the Engineering Employers’ Federation complained that it was unable to counteract its influence.

Luton and Vauxhall to 1930

The period between 1916 and 1920 was a time of labour shortage due to the war and the post-war boom. Workers were able to make progress in organising themselves and as we have seen in Chapter 5, not only did unionism in Luton reach new peaks, but for the first time even female labour was unionised, though not that employed in the hat trade.

After the abolition of leaving certificates (which prevented employees moving from one firm to another) in 1917, there was considerable enticement between firms by bidding up wages in order to attract labour. Thus inter-firm competition for labour was intense. It was a time of worker offence and employer defence. During this period Vauxhall was continually forced to follow wage rises given by other companies to retain workers.

Attempts were made to control the bidding up of wages by inducing firms to join the local EEF association. In May 1919 Bedford and Luton associations had amalgamated to form a Bedfordshire association, the BEEA.

This had little short term influence due to the differing natures of the two towns. In October 1920 this was acknowledged by the fact that Bedford increased its piecework rates by 2½ per cent and Luton by 4 to 5 per cent.

Furse mentions cases in local and national courts but few can be corroborated from those court records. Quarter sessions records for Devon, for example, survive only from 1593, the year of his death.

As for the courts at Westminster, the finding aids at the National Archives are not easy to use. Often they depend on knowing the date, and that is precisely what Furse usually fails to supply.

For example, it would be interesting to find William Moreshead's pardon for murder. Pardons were enrolled in the Patent Rolls, but there is no complete index, or county arrangement, and without a date it is not possible to find this pardon. John Moreshead was imprisoned, albeit sympathetically, for two years, and then released by gaol delivery. Gaol delivery records at the National Archives are JUST1 and JUST3, but such finding aids as exist are useless without a given date. Again, the case against Reynell for Fostardes Park cannot be traced in Chancery or Star Chamber because of the shortcomings of the finding aids.

Two cases certainly can be amplified from the public records at The National Archives. They concern the tenement Furse, and the manor of Skyrrydon, now Skerraton.

Furse

A suit in Chancery, Requests and Common Pleas. This case can be traced as REQ 2/248/12, Roger Olden, weaver, and Alice his wife, versus Robert Furse (misleadingly indexed as ‘messuage in Dean Prior’). The names Hockway, Olding and Furse do not show up in the index to C2, Chancery Proceedings, nor CP 25/2, feet of fines. Roger Olden, delightfully described as of ‘Cherryton fflippen', which must reflect both local pronunciation and a clerk or scrivener's mishearing of it, complains that about four years before Robert Furse of Dean Prior was lawfully seised in a messuage or tenement called Furse in Cheriton, and for a sum of money demised and granted it to one Richard Hookewaye deceased and Alice Langham for three lives. Hookway died a year and a half ago, Olden entered by right of Alice now his wife, and held the premises quietly until now, when one William Hooper offered Furse a large sum of money for it. According to the plaintiff, Furse made out that he had entered by force, and ‘so pluckt him out of possession thereof and gave it to Hooper.

Introduction

The two sets of charming reminiscences of Mrs Jane Inskip were written in March 1915 (while she was recovering from a severe illness) and in December 1924, a few weeks before her death at the age of 90. Mrs Inskip was born on 23 August 1834, Jane Street, the daughter of Thomas Street and his wife, Ann Her grandfather, George Street, whom she mentions in these reminiscences, had been a tenant of a farm of Samuel Whitbread's at Cardington called Harrowden Great Farm, from at least 1793. There is a bird's eye view of the farmhouse itself on a map of this date and the fine looking building seems to go well with her description of her grandfather as a man who “was led into a more expensive style of living than he could afford”. After his death in a riding accident in 1808, leaving a family of two sons and three daughters, his wife, Elizabeth, and his eldest son, Thomas, carried on the farm.

In 1816, this son, Thomas married Ann Malden, one of the family of four children (two sons and two daughters) of James Malden, who was a founder member of Cotton End Baptist Church, and had been appointed deacon there in November 1815. Thomas himself attended this church and had been received into church fellowship in the year before his marriage, on 2 April 1815. The year after his marriage (June 1817) saw the wedding of his sister Eleanor to Ebenezer Malden. Another sister, Sarah, married George Swannell of Filgrove, Bucks, in September 1824, and a third sister, Mary Ann, married Samuel Swannell of Felmersham, at Pavenham Church on 17 December 1824. Mrs Inskip states that her parents started married life as tenants on a farm in Clapham, but there seems to be no evidence of this. Certainly no Thomas Street is recorded as a tenant in Clapham on any of the Land Tax returns at any date, whereas he is recorded as a tenant of the Duke of Bedford's Yew Tree Farm at Cople from Lady Day, 1817, taking over the farm after the death of the former tenant, George Brooks. This would only leave six months for any tenancy at Clapham.

Abstract

Prominent women saxophonists of the late nineteenth century had to employ creative and entrepreneurial approaches to find performance opportunities outside of the wind band, as women were not typically allowed in these ensembles. The accomplishments of Asenath Mann (1866–1951) place her among the group of pioneering saxophonists who achieved prominence during America's Gilded Age.

Mann, who was heard throughout the greater Boston area between 1882–1888, worked during the years after Etta Morgan's and Louise Linden's careers and before Bessie Mecklem’s. In contrast to these three peers, who toured extensively, Mann was able to work mostly within a 120-mile radius of her home. She appeared both as a soloist and as a member of one of the first women's orchestras in the United States. Consequently, her work patterns were not those typical of the touring “career” woman musician. Rather, they were more consistent with those of the journeyman instrumentalist, one who supplements a steady position in a band or theater orchestra with individual freelance engagements. Mann was able to perform consistently without having to tour due to the availability and variety of performing opportunities afforded by Boston's geography, demographics, and cultural institutions. Press accounts of Mann's audience reception indicate that her musical competence and artistry received greater attention than the novelty of her gender or that of her instrument, possibly her greatest accomplishment given the patriarchal society of the Gilded Age.

Keywords: Asenath Mann; Saxophonists, 19th century; women musicians; women's orchestras; Bijou Ladies Orchestra; Marion Osgood; lyceum; fraternal societies

Introduction

This article introduces American saxophonist Asenath Mann (1866–1951). Mann is significant for having been the most active of Boston's saxophonists of either gender a decade before the emergence of Elise Boyer Hall (1853–1924), a figure well known to saxophonists today. During the five and a half years she performed before the public, Mann appeared both as a soloist and as an original member of one of the first women's orchestras in the United States.

In the first four decades of the twentieth century, the saxophone was becoming increasingly visible in American popular music. The bands of John Philip Sousa, Patrick Conway, Giuseppe Creatore, Frederick Innes, and Arthur Pryor had established the instrument as an indispensable fixture. Saxophone ensembles, such as the Brown Brothers’ Sextet, flourished in vaudeville, and their more refined counterparts toured the Chautauqua and lyceum circuits.

The intention of this chapter is to show how the engineering industry superseded the hat trade as the staple industry of Luton and how, because of this, the momentum of growth begun by the hat trade increased. We shall consider how employment was affected and specifically draw attention to the transition in which a predominantly female workforce was replaced by a largely male one.

The rise of the ‘new industries’ and their cushioning effect on the population from the Great Depression will be seen to explain Luton's prosperous local economy from the mid-1930s. Within this general structure we shall examine the role and importance of the New Industries Committee and the extent of diversification in Luton's economy after the influx of new industries.

The growth of Luton to 1921: the hat economy

The growth of Luton's population between 1851 and 1951 was rapid. Luton's growth was always well above the national average, and in some decades surpassed it by over 30 per cent, as can be seen in Table 29 overleaf.

There are three periods of exceptional growth, and they all coincide with periods of increased industrial activity. The 1850s and 1860s saw the rise of the hat industry; the decade from 1901 to 1911 saw the establishment of many new industries in Luton; and the 1930s witnessed the expansion of these new industries, particularly that of Vauxhall. This growth was comparable to such towns as Middlesborough, Crewe and Barrow-in-Furness in the 19th century. Whilst the development of these three towns rested heavily on the railways, Luton's expansion rested on the growth of the hat industry in the latter half of the 19th century, and on the arrival of engineering concerns in the 20th century. Thus while the hat industry declined in the interwar years the population growth was not adversely affected, as the predominance of engineering, particularly that of vehicle building, attained supremacy. This change in Luton's industrial structure was to have profound effects, not only on the prosperity of the town but on the balance of the labour force.

The growth of the hat industry

The main stimulus to the growth of the hat industry had been the imposition of tariffs during the Napoleonic Wars, which severely restricted Italian imports and encouraged the home trade? Initially, the plait was mainly locally grown and made and Luton emerged as a manufacturing centre of the final product, predominantly women's bonnets.

The music of American composer Steven Bryant has in recent years become a common fixture in band rooms in high schools and universities throughout the United States. In this album, Bryant showcases three pieces for advanced wind ensemble written between 2007 and 2015. It begins with the fanfare In This Broad Earth. With its open harmonies and recurring rhythmic motives, the piece is by turns reminiscent of fanfares by Copland and John Adams, and serves as a delightful entrée. The last work on the record, the Concerto for Wind Ensemble, is a tour de force for the entire band.

The centerpiece of this album is Bryant's Concerto for Alto Saxophone, written in 2014 for American saxophone virtuoso Joseph Lulloff. In a nod to saxophone nerdery, Bryant uses the opening motive from the first movement of Paul Creston's Sonata for alto saxophone and piano as the Grundgestalt from which all other ideas in this work germinate. From the beginning, this piece is filled with an amazing intensity: a quiet but frenetic solo saxophone line is gradually picked up and transformed throughout the ensemble, like the buzzing of a beehive. It is almost as if Bryant has allowed the saxophonist the use of the whole wind orchestra as an expressive device.

The Concerto is a wonderful match for the talents of Joseph Lulloff: the first and third movements showcase his incredible, fluid technique and his captivating expressive gifts. However, it is hard to imagine how many other performers could perform the second movement as effectively as Lulloff: the entire movement is built off of (and calls upon) the performer's parallel skill as a top-flight jazz improviser. While there are a handful of players who possess the skills as concert and jazz performers required for this work, there seems to be something of Lulloff's very soul and personality in the piece. Due to the intensive working relationship between Lulloff and Bryant in the Concerto's genesis, any future performers of this work must view this as the definitive recording, especially for the second movement, where Lulloff's improvisation comes into direct contact with notated music by Bryant inspired by other, earlier improvisations by the performer.

Throughout the recording, the Michigan State University Wind Symphony performs brilliantly, with an extremely large pallette of colors.

This volume consists of three main parts: firstly the War Diary of the 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment; secondly, a private diary kept by one of its officers, Second Lieutenant Henry J. Cartwright, during his time in France, and, thirdly, appendices detailing some facts and figures about the battalion, a selection of Operational Orders it received and descriptions of battles in which it was involved.

A War Diary was kept by each unit of battalion size and larger (including such formations as brigades and divisions) while on active service during the First World War. The diary was intended to be a record of the unit's doings, and was written by the Adjutant. The diaries were completed in a number of identical copies, of which one was kept by the unit itself and one sent to the War Office. Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service (BLARS) has the battalion copy; The National Archives has the War Office copy. This transcription is of the BLARS copy.

The Bedfordshire Regiment became the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment in 1919 and in 1958 was amalgamated with the Essex Regiment to form the 3rd Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment. The Regiment had used Kempston Barracks as a training facility and depot base. When it gave the building up BLARS cleared the building and the records taken formed the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment Collection under the reference number X550. Included in these records were the War Diaries of each battalion and that of the 7th Battalion which was allotted the reference number X550/8/1.

The BLARS copy of the diary contains a large number of Operational Orders. These were received from Brigade, Division, Corps or Army Headquarters and dealt with such matters as moving from one area to another, training to be carried out and, of course, attacks to be made on the enemy. Selections of these appear in the Appendices together with reports on battles in which the battalion took part, written by the Commanding Officer of the time. The Appendices also contain statistics on such matters as where the battalion was at any one time and numbers of men killed in selected actions.

THIS volume is intended to continue the previous volume issued in this series, in which the replies to queries for Cornwall were published. In the introduction to that volume will be found an account of the procedure of, and records left by, episcopal visitations and some notes on the interpretation of the several queries. All those matters apply equally to this volume. Here it should be added that the 1821 replies to queries are the last of a series of four in the Devon Record Office (Exeter Diocesan Records), dated 1744, 1765, 1779 and 1821. Fragments for other years also exist. In the earlier introduction there was also given a brief survey of conditions existing in Cornwall in 1821, as illustrated by the text of the replies to queries. What follows is an attempt to provide the same kind of survey for the county of Devon.

There are 387 replies from Devon clergy, covering 415 parishes or chapelries. The exact number of clergy to whom the queries were originally sent is now impossible to determine. Altogether the replies from about 48 were ei ther not sent in, or were subsequently mislaid by the registrar. Gaps in the records have been filled in as far as possible by printing the entries in the bishop's summary books. This has produced some information, chiefly on the residence of the clergy, for a further 19 parishes. The total of parishes covered is therefore brought up to 434. There remain perhaps 29 unaccounted for.

DEVON IN 1821

The Parishes

The 1821 census figures for Devon provide an admirable survey of the county, and a background against which to read the story of the accompanying replies. Exeter and Plymouth distinguish themselves as two greaturban areas, Exeter wi th a population of 23,459, Plymouth (the three parishes of Charles, St Andrew and Stoke Damarel) with 55,582. These two areas differed from each other markedly in the character of their parochial organization. Exeter, the ancient cathedral city, had about a score of churches and a closely entangled web of parochial boundaries, but it contained both tiny decayed parishes and large unwieldy over populated ones also.

1914

When Britain went to war on 4 August 1914 it had a small professional army which, by the standards of France and Germany, was tiny. It was realised that this army would not be able to sustain a long war without massive growth and, while some people thought it would be “all over by Christmas”, Lord Kitchener, for example, predicted, with uncanny accuracy, a war of four years’ duration. On the outbreak of war the Bedfordshire Regiment (traditionally the 16th Regiment of Foot) contained three battalions, two of them active service battalions (the 1st and 2nd) and the other a depot battalion to train new recruits and post them to the two active service battalions as needed. The 1st Battalion was at Mullingar in Ireland, the 2nd Battalion at Roberts Heights, Pretoria, South Africa. The 3rd Battalion, as might be expected, was at Kempston Barracks. A further battalion, the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion existed as a secondary depot battalion, and this later saw active service in France as part of 63rd (Royal Naval) Division. The 3rd Battalion remained a depot battalion throughout the war and saw no active service.

The most obvious source of additional manpower was the Territorial Army, which then, as now, consisted of part-time soldiers, often referred to as Saturday Afternoon Soldiers. The Bedfordshire Regiment fielded one such battalion, the 1/5th Battalion which would serve at Gallipolli and later in Egypt and Palestine. Two other Territorial battalions were formed as the 2/5th and 3/5th in September 1914 and June 1915, but these did not serve overseas.

The Territorials alone, however, could not provide Britain with the additional troops that the country needed and so a large number of New Army Battalions were formed. These were also commonly known as Kitchener Battalions, after the Secretary of State for War. Lord Kitchener wanted an army of 70 divisions for the long war he envisaged and set about recruiting with alacrity. In some ways the recruiting was, to begin with, hardly needed: so great was the desire to “do one's bit” that over 100,000 men signed up in the first few days.