The lost art of memory

There’s been a lot of words spilt recently on the decline of reading and the losses incurred, such as a purported decline in concentration and IQ. Yet the invention of printing and the consequent increase in literacy also had negative consequences, especially for our capacity to memorise. How did the Homeric bards remember something like 30,000 or so lines of verse, a seemingly impossible task? Well, they just had powers of recall unimaginable today, a genuinely muscular memory exercised repeatedly, which became, over time, a less valuable skill. And there is perhaps no better study of mnemonics than Frances A. Yates’ fascinating work of 1966, The Art of Memory, which ranges from Simonides of Ceos, lyric poet of fifth-century Athens, through to the early days of print and the age of the great Neapolitan hermeticist, priest and philosopher Giordano Bruno (himself the subject of a fine study by the prolific Yates). ‘Progress’ comes at a cost.

Sibelius’ symphonies, coolly handled 

There is no shortage of fine recordings of the seven symphonies of Jean Sibelius. Notable cycles include those of Osmo Vänskä with both the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra, and Paavo Berglund with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. But few will prove more satisfying than the recent recording by the composer’s compatriot, Jukka-Pekka Saraste (his third and best cycle), and the forces of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. These are, as they should be, ‘cool’, undemonstrative performances, beautifully balanced and wholly atmospheric. The idiosyncratic Fourth Symphony’s notorious ending is captured with precision; the Sixth, whose greatness is reconfirmed with every listen, benefits enormously from the conductor and his band’s icy composure.

Ford Madox Ford’s masterpiece

Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End, a quartet of modernist novels written during the 1920s, tells the story of the ‘last English Tory’, Christopher Tietjens. It ranks among the greatest works inspired by the tragedy of the First World War and was adapted for TV by Tom Stoppard – his first work for the small screen in 30 years – though the highly acclaimed five-part series omits the final novel, Last Post. Benedict Cumberbatch is superb as Tietjens, navigating a world of opposites: war and peace, Tory and Whig, English and Scot, and, above all, women and men, with the former slowly gaining ascendancy.