Incomplete And Utter History Of Classical Music

IT'S 1845: HERE IS THE NEWS

fi Sounds a little odd, really: 'Hello, my name is Stephen. Pm an Aquarius, realty, but I do have Maori rising.' ood evening, this is the last two years' news in brief, and I'm John Suchet reading it. The Anglo-Sikh war has now begun, which is a big nuisance to the civil servants back home in Blighty, who were already having a spot of trouble with the rather tedious and aforementioned Maori rising/ Interesting things are afoot in the US, too. Texas and Florida have come into the family of states, and - possibly more importantly - the rules of baseball have been codified by the quaindy named Knickerbocker Baseball Club. Presumably, somewhere in there are the rules that (a) no game shall take less than three weeks, (b) you must all eat junk food, and (c) you must learn to love die electric organ. As far as more handlebar-moustache sporting events are concerned, so to speak, die Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race has transferred allegiances: not from BBC to ITV but from Henley to Putney as a venue. It's possible that one or more members of the teams might have been taken with the new book of this year, The Condition of the Working Classes, which Friedrich Engels published in Leipzig. In fact, it had been only last year that Engels had met Karl Marx in Paris. History has it that they found they agreed on virtually everything except who would pay for the cappuccinos. Other recent books on the shelves included Vingt Ans Apres, the sequel to Les Trois Mousquetaires by Dumas, as well as a little something called Carmen by Prosper Merimee. The master of French neo-classicism, Ingres, has just exhibited his Portrait of the Countess Haussonville and JT Huve had finished La Madeleine in Paris.

That was the world in 1845. Now the weather, and light wars are expected around Lahore next year, with the odd blustery annexation out towards New Mexico. The rest of the world will be sunny with showery intervals.