21/02/2025
Too many ghosts... (Raggle Taggle, by Walter Stark)
I thought that this book was going to be difficult, an Irish violinist records his experiences in Hungary and Romania as a vagabond in the late 1920s. Then, life was hard for peasants and gypsies: poverty, prejudice, cruelty, hardship make for difficult reading. Our knowledge that, within a decade, many of the people mentioned would face Na**sm and the concentration camps, adds another layer of horror. I worried that there would be just too many ghosts. And yet...
This of a solo violinist at a funeral:
"...the music surged in a great ocean of harmony and the vibrating note of the solo fiddle resembled a candle in the wind, blowing this way and that. Sometimes the surging waves of music swayed this way, threatening to engulf us all in its flood, then it would recede and pause in its course. The solo violinist, however, did not pause for long ... and repeat for the hundredth time the theme as though he wished to burn it into our hearts. Grief increases by its own luxuriance, and when there are no limiting words, music leads us into a world where there is no end and where our spirits wander unfettered." (p122).
This book gives you the gift of understanding the Hungarian/Romanian peoples through their music. If you are searching for ghosts - listen to their voices in their violin music on youtube. It took me four months to read and process this book. I recommend it highly.
