A 4th gymnopédie

I realized recently that I hadn't made any recordings for this project this year, so I did the first section of Rod Argent's A 4th gymnopédie.  (On Red House, it's called "A 4th Gymnopedie," but on Classically Speaking, it's called "A fourth gymnopédie."  If Satie's pieces are to be followed, I think A 4th gymnopédie would be the best format.)

I set a click track and recorded my excerpt based on that, but I think it's a bit faster than Argent's tempo.  I was going from memory, and it turns out I was a bit late for a few notes; otherwise, I think this is accurate.

I used the Bösendorfer Grand Imperial voice on my Nord Electro 5 because it's the closest I could get to Argent's Bechstein (which he uses for this piece in this excerpt from A Keyboard Approach and which is mentioned in these two interviews).

"Butcher's Tale"

I'm nearly finished with reading Martin Gilbert's The Somme; lately, I've just been studying the maps in the back of the book.  Yester-day, I realized something about the places mentioned in "Butcher's Tale" - "And the flies came down in Gommecourt, Thiepval, / Mametz Wood, and French Verdun."

Coincidentally mirroring that "came down," the places are listed from north to south.  Here's a screen clipping I took of Google Maps:

I also started wondering why Verdun is specified as French when in fact all of these places are located in France.  As I understand it, both French and British Commonwealth troops were involved in the fighting around the Somme, but only French troops were involved in the fighting in Verdun.  The song seems to be from the perspective of a British soldier (in interviews, Chris White has mentioned his uncle who fought and died on the Somme), which somewhat explains this distinction.