transforming London's air

I don't often read books by politicians, least of all those currently in office, but as I'm interested in the ongoing transformation of London and more generally the role of cities in addressing climate change, I volunteered to review Sadiq Khan's book on these issues:

Sadiq Khan
Breathe: Tackling the climate emergency
Hutchinson Heinemann 2023

It is called Breathe because it was adult onset asthma (contracted after running in London's less than perfect air) that made him fight for a better environment. He was also strongly influenced by the case of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who died at the age of 9 and became the first person to have air pollution recorded as the official cause of death.

The whole story of his path from SUV driver to fighter for clean air is well told and an amazingly good read, so my review, now out in C&I is also an endorsement:

Mayor's take on climate

Chemistry & Industry Volume 87, Issue 9, September 2023, Page 35

access via:

Wiley Online Library (paywalled PDF of the whole review section)

SCI (premium content, ie members only)

As always, I'm happy to send a PDF on request.

PS shame though that he doesn't mention the very amazing London WNBR, which for many years was just about the only environmental thing happening there and I could have used one of my photos, so instead I have to show the actual book:

a kitchen song

In the book Aimee & Jaguar (review to follow soon), Felice Schragenheim ("Jaguar") and a friend are reported as singing the traditional song "Mariechen saß weinend im Garten" in the kitchen, while washing the dishes (page 136 of my KiWi edition). I remember my grandfather Richard occasionally singing the first verse of this song when I was a child. (The only song I can remember him singing right now but others may come back?)

The song as I remember it from Richard's rendition appears very simple and quite monotonous to me, so I was wondering if his version was a simplified one, and therefore I wrote down what I remembered before looking up how it's meant to be. Turns out, however, that the first couplet really is that monotonous, and if anything, my memory across half a century tried to make it more interesting.

This is good news inasmuch as Richard had a reputation of not being very musical - although he was the son of our old cellist and also has lots of musical relatives on his mother's side. However, he did buy classical music LPs (including several recordings of the Dvorak cello concerto), so there can't have been a fundamental problem with his ears (read here why listening to music is as demanding as making music). He also had a go at teaching his daughter to play the recorder, but without lasting success.

The song, as I now learned from Wikipedia, is an old folk tune of unknown origin with a text by Joseph Christian von Zedlitz (1790–1862) first published in 1832. The text relating the story of a single mother despairing over having been abandoned by her baby's father is dripping with romantic pathos and tragic sentiment to an extent that 20th century kitchen singers like Felice or my granddad would likely have read it with at least a hint of irony, as the Wikipedia entry also notes.

Oh, and whereas the Liederkiste songbook, where I have a version of it, calls it a Moritat, the Wiki entry classifies it as a kitchen song. This song category was also new to me. Here is a 21st century recording from YouTube, performed straight-faced and not in a kitchen ...

Looking for an illustration I found several books and LPs collecting kitchen songs, including this one:

Source: Bertelsmann Vinyl Collection

PS: looking at the songs listed on the backside of the LP, there is one other that rings a bell: Du, du liegst mir im Herzen. Not quite sure but I may have heard this (not more than the first verse, again) from Richard as well. Will have to look at other kitchen song collections as well ...

ancient family trees

Ancient DNA studies have moved on from finding out about amazingly old individuals. The latest thing is to sequence entire groups of humans who have been dead for centuries or even many millennia, and derive their family relations. A recent study of neolithic burial has set the record with a family tree connecting more than 60 individuals.

I used this as an occasion to round up a few other examples of family histories revealed by sequencing ancient DNA and to argue that, like ordinary family history, this is a way of unveiling the human histories that for one reason or another have remained hidden. My feature is out now:

Hidden histories

Current Biology Volume 33, Issue 18, 25. September 2023, Pages R931-R934

FREE access to full text and PDF download

See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2023.

I'm not on Instagram myself, but I believe if you follow CurrentBiology there, you'll find my features highlighted there as well.

Based on ancient DNA sequenced from 64 individuals buried at Gurgy, northern France, researchers have constructed the largest ever family tree of prehistoric people. The portraits are artistic impressions incorporating some details derived from the genome information. (Painting: © Elena Plain; reproduced with the permission of the University of Bordeaux/PACEA.)

the library of rejected manuscripts

I came across a lovely little film available on DVD in Germany (and sold at discount price by now), which revolves entirely around the book publishing business, so as an author I feel obliged to spread the word and say a few things about it.

Le mystère Henri Pick - France 2019, Rémi Bezançon, starring Fabrice Luchini, Camille Cottin, Alice Isaaz.

The central concept is a library of rejected manuscripts that have never been published, which a librarian in a remote village in Brittany set up in a spare room. (I just love the idea, which is referenced in the Spanish title, so I chose that poster for illustration, below.) There, a young editor of a major publisher discovers the manuscript of a novel under the name of the Henri Pick of the title, a deceased local pizza baker who had never been known to read or write anything in his lifetime. The book becomes a sensational success, but a cynical old literary critic (Fabrice Luchini) smells a rat and embarks on a quest to find out who really wrote the book and how it ended up in the library of rejected manuscripts.

I have seen Luchini in more movies than I care to remember, but strangely I don't get fed up with him, and I am enjoying his mature works combining literature with bicycle use (see also: Alceste a bicyclette (Bicycling with Moliere) - France 2013). The film is every bibliophile's dream in that the main locations are the library mentioned, the offices of a major publisher (Gallimard, who happen to be the publishers of the original novel by David Foenkinos, Le Mystère Henri Pick), and various living rooms of bookish people with very decent bookshelves. For the occasional breath of fresh air, the characters get to cycle around that village in Britanny. All very lovely and I'll happily watch the film again fairly soon.

One does end up wishing the story was real. The one thing I definitely don't believe to be true in real life is the assertion that a major publisher has an archive of all manuscripts they ever received. In my experience, they can barely be bothered to return them to the author. I've seen submission guidelines saying that they will destroy the manuscript if rejected, unless you add a franked return envelope.

Not released in the UK, so I'll add it to my list of films not shown in UK cinemas.

new departures

Heinrich the cello has now left the premises, and I am keeping up the practice habit with Jenny, the new cello on the block:

I am keeping up a revision rota of Bach movements, which haven't improved much since I reached peak Bach in the summer of 2021, but I still enjoy playing them, and I also need the revision to make sure I don't forget them. Here's the second minuet in G, liberated from the grip of the first minuet:

I am beginning to realise that the things I feel as raw and energetic when I play them may come across as scratchy and crude on the video. Oh well. For comparison, my recording of the same minuet with old Heinrich starts here.

Apart from keeping up with Bach, I am also learning the thumb position(s), which turns out to be much easier since I learned the essential fiddle playing. And I am trying to do something about my dismal sight reading. Long term plan: set up the world's worst string quartet.

In other cultural news, I am beginning to realise that there is a lot about Bach in the French TV series "Astrid: Murder in Paris", whose eponymous character has autism. I am learning a lot about both Bach and autism, even though I fear that it may reinforce the perception that enjoying Bach may be a symptom of autism. Will have to do a review of sorts when I'm through with the first season.

Oh and there was also a folky flashmob in the Weston Library last weekend, on the occasion of the Playford exhibition now open.

a famous flautist

Some thoughts on

Friedrich der Große: Musiker und Monarch
Sabine Henze-Döhring
CH Beck 2012

Published in the year of Frederick the Great’s 300th birthday, this is a thorough appraisal of what we really know about the Prussian king’s music making. It turns out that all the anecdotes and the widely reproduced images such as the painting by Adolph Menzel appearing on the cover of the book and below, of the king playing a recital to an attentive audience, aren’t corroborated by any hard evidence.

Flötenkonzert Friedrichs des Großen in Sanssouci (painting by Adolph von Menzel, 1850–1852)
Source: Wikipedia

Typically, the author maintains, he will have played the flute in the company of his paid court musicians only, with no audience. Said musicians included his flute teacher, the composer Johann Joachim Quantz (at the right margin of the painting), as well as JS Bach’s son CPE Bach (at the harpsichord). Which is why Bach senior paid that very famous visit to Friedrich’s court. And given the circumstance that nobody could really go on record with judgements on the reigning monarch, we can’t really know how accomplished his playing was. So, it’s all a bit frustrating on the flute front.

What we know a lot more about, however, is his role as an impresario of professional and public concerts (in which he didn’t play), as well as court opera, where he championed the opera buffa as a new form imported from Italy, as well as star castrato singers also coming from there. The simple reason that we know a lot about these is that these musicians needed to be recruited and paid, which already involved correspondence and record keeping. And once they were doing their thing, Frederick liked to write letters about their music making to his relatives - and to Voltaire, obviously. As you do.

I also learned that, after he fought three wars against Austria over the possession of Silesia (which Prussia gained in the process), shared musical interests enabled he king to reconnect with Maria Theresia’s son, the future Austrian Emperor Joseph II. Music saves lives, again.

PS I missed the memo when this came out but discovered it on a recent visit to Potsdam where Old Fritz used to toot his flute.

the war on nature

Wars are a stupid idea for so many reasons eg because they tend to empower horrible people to do horrible things. In the current situation, as several countries are well equipped to wipe out our civilisation, our species, and much of the natural environment, it's even worse. And even in the "normal" conventional mode, the warring mindset means that all concerns for the environment go overboard because of "war priorities".

So, well, not much fun to write about, but as there are a few stupid wars going on right now and ecocides being committed, a few things had to be said. My feature on the impact of modern wars on the natural environment is out now:

Wars leave nature on the losing side

Current Biology Volume 33, Issue 17, 11. September 2023, Pages R879-R881

FREE access to full text and PDF download

See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2023.

I'm not on Instagram myself, but I believe if you follow CurrentBiology there, you'll find my features highlighted there as well.

The photo shows the Castle Bravo nuclear test undertaken by the US on March 1, 1954. (Photo: United States Department of Energy.)

PS Speaking of horrible people doing horrible things, today marks the 50th anniversary of the coup in Chile - here is my blog entry on the 40th, with memories of the 10th. Still not over it.

five priests in a row

Looking up W. O. von Horn, the author of the very romantic book that constitutes the earliest documented connection between Heinrich the cellist and Maria his future wife, I noticed the weird coincidence that the author is from a very similar background as two thirds of the ancestry of Heinrich and Maria’s future daughter in law. (As Ruth’s parents were first cousins, she only had three sets of great-grandparents, and the normal genealogy maths doesn’t apply.)

Porträt: W. O. v. Horn. In: W. O. v. Horn’s gesammelte Erzählungen. Neue Volks-Ausgabe. Vollständig in 12 Bänden. J. D. Sauerländer, Frankfurt am Main 1. Band, 1861
Source: Wikipedia

W.O. von Horn, real name Friedrich Wilhelm Philipp Oertel, was the middle one in a lineage of five consecutive protestant priests in the male line, rooted in the village of Horn near Simmern (plus his brother). Info from Wikipedia plus additional details from this genealogy dataset:

1. Johann Paul Oertel * 17.5.1708 Simmern, + 19.2.1780 Horn) parish priest of Horn since 1746, previously at Nieder-Hilbersheim
oo before 1747 Anna Christina (Christine) Faber

1.1. Friedrich Peter Paul Oertel (1748–1819) priest in Horn, 1804 President of the Lokalkonsistorium (whatever that means) in Bacharach, 1812 parish priest of Manubach, Kreis St. Goar, Superintendent in Koblenz
oo 22.3.1782 Juliana Carolina Wilhelmina Maria (Juliane) Wolff

1.1.1.Friedrich Franz Heinrich Jakob Oertel * 20.12.1784 Horn 1863 Bingen) parish priest at Oberdiebach and from 1832-1857 in Kirn
1.1.2. Friedrich Wilhelm Philipp Oertel = W. O. von Horn (* 15. August 1798 in Horn; † 14. Oktober 1867 in Wiesbaden)
oo 1822 Antonie Henriette von Saint George (1798-1870) from Weilburg (Lahn)

1.1.2.1. Pauline Christiane Oertel * 1823
oo Reichard Gerber (1823 – 1852)
1.1.2.2.Georg Friedrich Hugo Oertel (1827–1909) parish priest in Horn (1854-64), Ottweiler and Simmern; superintendent at Simmern (1883-1907)
oo Jakobina Philippina (Jakobine) Caesar (1827 – 1908)
1.1.2.2.1.Christina Julia Anna Oertel (1858 – vor 1889) oo 1883 Gustav Adolf Eybisch
1.1.2.2.2.Richard Oertel (1860–1932) parish priest in Neuerkirch; member of the Reichstag. oo 5. November 1886 Elise Cauer (1865–1919; daughter of Robert Cauer the Elder (1831–1893), sculptor)
1.1.2.2.3. Jakobina Mathilda (Mathilde) Oertel * 1862 Horn oo 1889 Simmern: Gustav Adolf Eybisch (widower of her older sister, also a parish priest in Heiligenwald, Neunkirchen und Bingerbrück, their son also became a priest)
1.1.2.2.4. Emilie Julie Maria Oertel (1863 – 1949) oo 1892 Simmern: Paul Julius Lembeck
1.1.2.3. Mathilda Oertel * 1829 oo Heinrich Wilhelm Eduard Fuchs, Oberförster, * ca. 1825

I note that the author’s background as the son of the parish priest of Horn born in 1798 was very similar to that of some of Ruth’s ancestors in the Kauer clan and in the Imig clan. (Sadly the Cauer clan which the fifth generation Oertel priest married into is unrelated to our Kauers, this prominent family of sculptors and artists came from Berlin and settled in Kreuznach for some reason.) So if only I had a more extended family tree for W.O. von Horn, I am quite sure it would touch mine somewhere.

A quick search for the place name of Horn in my family history file revealed that four marriages of my direct ancestors happened in Horn. They are all from the ancestry of Ruth’s grandmothers, the sisters Elisabeth and Margaretha Imig, and the most recent one is:

Christoph Philippi, a tanner from Ohlweiler near Simmern, married Charlotte Kuhn from Simmern on 25.7.1775. At this point, I assume that the serving priest at Horn must have been either Johann Paul or Friedrich Peter Paul Oertel.

Sadly the other three marriages that happened at Horn were too early even for Johann Paul. One was in 1701 (Joh. Nicolaus Kurtz oo Elisabeth Margaretha Wagner), and then we have Elisabeth’s parents in 1671, and another pair of Imig ancestors in 1659, namely Michel Augustin from Riegenroth and Elisabeth Christ. (NB I’m giving GedBas links for each spouse separately, because each of these has incomplete info on the families attached to their other half.)

Still a generation deeper down, we have Hans Caspars, a “welsch” (meaning foreign, eg French, but probably not Welsh) carpenter was active at Horn. No dates for him but his son Johann Caspers was born 1644 in Argenthal. (The son of Michel Augustin married the daughter of Johann Caspers in 1706 at location unknown.)

Whereas Ruth’s Imig ancestors are most closely associated with the village of Horn (as well as a bunch of other villages near Simmern), those of her grandfather Christoph Gottlieb Kauer are more similar to the Oertel families in that they also included village priests and teachers in the same area (but a bit more mobile). For instance, we have Johannes Weiß (1704-72), the parish priest of Eckweiler, next door to Sobernheim where WO von Horn became parish priest in 1835 and a contemporary of his grandfather born in 1708. Johannes Weiß’s father-in-law, Martin Philipp Nicolas Ebner was the parish priest of Alterkülz and a senior year teacher at the Latin school of Trarbach (as was his father). Further protestant priests include Nikolaus Andreae in Gebroth from 1632, as well as Peter Siegel during the time of the Reformation. Oh, and the Kauer side of the family also features a connection to the earlier story writer Johann Peter Hebel (1760-1826), who was also a priest before he found fame as a writer. I think it is fair to assume that W.O. von Horn knew the stories of Johann Peter Hebel.

Seeing that the first Oertel in line was born in Simmern, there should be further generations listed in Zwiebelberg's book of Simmern residents, which I don't have at hand right now, but can look up when I travel to Germany.