Elgar's Cello Concerto

The radio was playing Elgar's Cello Concerto, with Jacqueline du Pré on the cello. It is moving, and adds a touch of lament to the morning.

According to this internet source: http://www.elgar.org/3cellcon.htm , "Elgar wrote the concerto in 1919, just after the Great War. Appalled and disillusioned by the suffering caused by the war, he realized that life in Europe would never be the same after such destruction. The Cello Concerto was Elgar's lament for a lost world."

War, I think, is cruel. Before the World War One, who would have thought that war could be more destructive than one could imagine. Somehow, the leaders who have led the war have failed to see the miseries and sufferings that war could actually bring. A single human life is more valuable than one thinks, because as humans, we are interdependent and interconnected. For now, I start to think of social psychology, and the danger of conformity, displayed by human beings. It is alarming how one could lose himself/ herself when one conforms as a social being. My stand is that confirmity and blind obedience may not necessary be worth encouraging, especially when the authorities abuse its powers.

I suppose Elgar's expression of his lament through the Cello Concerto has been an apt one. Many of the times when I hear the concerto over the radio I could sense an air of anguish, despair and grief. Somehow, there was a cry for the miseries and sufferings of the people to be heard. Possibly, it is a way for one's despair and anguish to be expressed and to be heard.

Listen to the cello concerto if you would like to, perhaps you may have differing experiences? Last but not the least, the same internet source mentioned earlier gives quite a detailed and complete guide to the Cello Concerto (coordinated, edited and largely written by Frank Beck), and if you are interested to find out more about this concerto, http://www.elgar.org/3cellcon.htm