![\"\"](\"https:\/\/billmitchell.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/i91699Corrigan.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(Cartoon by Corrigan, 2006).<\/p>\n
The latter is on April 21 and the former was designated in June because it is “when the British weather is more conducive to outdoor celebrations” (Source<\/a>).<\/p>\n Which just about summarises the situation.<\/p>\n The date of the celebration when all Commonwealth countries, that have not had the sense to become Republics – like Australia, choose to mark the ‘Queen’s birthday’, is chosen to be convenient to the British people, not their own populations.<\/p>\n And the countries that celebrate this day other than Britain are – (stupid) Australia, New Zealand and Fiji – all southern hemisphere nations which means our holiday is in the middle of winter and hardly the time to go outside for a celebration.<\/p>\n Australia tried to become a republic in a Australian republic referendum<\/a> – which was held on November 6, 1999.<\/p>\n The Conservative federal government, which hated the idea of becoming a republic, craftily worded the referendum to ensure it would fail.<\/p>\n In Australia we need a majority of voters in a majority of states to change the Constitution.<\/p>\n The Government of the day knew that there was an overwhelming majority of voters in the majority of states in favour of abandoning the British monarchy and choosing for Australia to become a republic. Maturity that is.<\/p>\n But they also knew that within that overwhelming majority there was a massive division about how the new head of state should be appointed.<\/p>\n So the wording of the referendum proposal was not confined to the question of should Australia become a republic – which would have succeeded.<\/p>\n It also added to that question the rider that the new “President … [should be] … appointed by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Commonwealth Parliament.”<\/p>\n This option was favoured by a minority of the majority of Yes voters, which means that the sum of the No voters and the other would be Yes voters saw the referendum fail.<\/p>\n Ridiculous.<\/p>\n Anyway, as a Republican I am taking the holiday and like most Australians don’t relate it at all to what is happening in the British isles.<\/p>\n Our only concern for events there at the moment is the embarassing display from our Prime Minister about vaccination rates and climate change response. He is attending the G7 meeting and showing the world how backward our nation has become under the years of conservative rule.<\/p>\n This is what I will be listening to while travelling this morning.<\/p>\n I have written about French composer and pianist Erik Satie<\/a> (1866-1925) – previously.<\/p>\n His famous three Gymnop\u00e9dies are a delight to play on piano – deceptively simple but devilish if you want to get the tempo correct.<\/p>\n Please read my blog post – Progressive political leadership is absent but required<\/a> (October 24, 2018) – for more detail.<\/p>\n His six Gnossiennes were also highlights of his folio of compositions.<\/p>\n Erik Satie was a genius and can be accorded the status of a post minimalist 100 years before its time. That is the way I see his compositions.<\/p>\n I should add that I am currently content trying to play Eric Satie’s piano pieces as they were originally intended rather than try to pursue contemporary, jazz-style interpretations.<\/p>\n I will leave that to the wonderful – Jacques Loussier<\/a> – who I first heard in the 1970s when I was learning Bach’s Bourr\u00e9e in E Minor for Guitar.<\/p>\n I was in a record shop and talking to the sales person who knew almost everything about everything music (at least that was the impression I had when I talked to him).<\/p>\n I told him about my experiments with Bach on classical guitar as I was buying a jazz album by Gato Barbieri and he told me about the – Jacques Loussier Trio<\/a> – who in the 1960s had become famous for their interpretations and jazz arrangements of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and other Baroque music.<\/p>\n He succeeded in incorporating the essential characteristics of these pieces into a jazz arrangements, with double bass and drums to complement his wonderful piano playing.<\/p>\n And that is what we are listening to today.<\/p>\n Here is the Trio’s interpretation of the first Trois Gnossiennes from Erik Satie:<\/p>\n I. Lent.Music – One can never have enough Jazz<\/h2>\n
\nII. Avec \u00e9tonnement.
\nIII. Lent.<\/p>\n