Crucifixus

I try to listen to one of the Bach Passions each Good Friday. Two years ago I heard a magnificent St Matthew Passion live in Cadogan Hall in London, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. I didn't manage it yesterday, because I was teaching a lute student who had done me the honour of driving two hours to get here, but this afternoon I sat down to listen to Gardiner's recording of the St John Passion.

The St John Passion has a lute in it for all of two minutes (the arioso Betrachte meine Seel'). The lute writing is puzzling because it has quite a few chromatic bass notes in it, which don't work on a normal baroque lute. I posted a message to the internet lute list about it, and got a couple of helpful replies from people who have found ingenious ways of retuning their bass strings for the purpose. And they usually play continuo for various other numbers, so the conductor can get more than two minutes use out of them.

France is officially a secular state but there are still plenty of religious symbols on display in town squares and at road junctions. There's a fine crucifix in the centre of our village, La Caulié. And just outside our back gate, on the adjoining farm, there' s a large granite cross, now surrounded by tractors and bags of fertiliser.