LP XLV--Brain and Lister

With my time in London down to a little more than 2 weeks, I have a personal bucket list of things to do. This morning was a trip to Hampstead Cemetery to pay tribute to two people whose lives were significant in different ways.

Taking the tube to West Hampstead, I exited and began the walk to the cemetery. As I walked uphill through a residential area, and of course stopping at a couple of bookstores on the way, I began to reflect on the life of horn player Dennis Brain. Born in 1921, the son of horn player Aubrey Brain, Dennis began playing professionally at the age of 17. His remarkable gifts on the horn continued as he played Principal Horn with the National Symphony Orchestra and later with the Royal Philharmonic. Many well-known composers wrote works for him including Paul Hindemith, Malcolm Arnold, Benjamin Britten, Gordon Jacob, and Lennox Berkeley. Francis Poulenc composed a piece in his memory on September 2, 1957, the day after Brain was killed in an auto accident. Brain's many recordings are stellar examples of artistry and perfection, including one of if not the finest recordings of the Mozart Horn Concertos.

As a young horn player, we owned a recording of the horn concertos by Mozart and I recall sitting with my ear to the speaker and listening to the vinyl recording over and over. Dennis Brain was tragically killed in an auto accident on September 1, 1957, and I was born exactly three years later. I believe his influence over my musicianship and horn playing, due to countless hours of listening to his recordings, has continued to this day, giving me a good reason to find his grave in Hampstead Cemetery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Brain

Arriving at the cemetery where many thousands are buried, I quickly realized it was an impossible task to find the marker for Dennis Brain without some help. I walked to the entrance but could find nobody around. Frustrated, I looked and saw a small bulletin board with some information. To my astonishment, there was a list of significant people buried in the cemetery (I know what you are thinking...everyone is significant, but you also know what I mean!) to include the two people I sought--Dennis Brain and Joseph Lister. Yet even with the help, it took me several minutes to find Dennis Brain. Faded with time and mostly covered by a flowering plant, it was with a moment of silence that I greeted the headstone and thought more about his remarkable artistry. Moving the plant aside, I read the poem by Paul Hindemith and reflected with appreciation and admiration upon the life of Dennis Brain.

My call transforms
The hall to autumn-tinted groves
What is into what
Has been....


Time to move on and find the grave of Joseph Lister. Although I have no personal stories or connection to Joseph Lister, in many ways all of us are indebted to this amazing surgeon/scientist. He introduced and pioneered sterile environments for surgery, preventing the deaths due to infection that were so prevalent prior to his recommendations. Our own President James Garfield likely would have lived except for the infections caused by a lack of sterile surgery. The acceptance of bacteria-filled environments and the lack of awareness of what poor conditions can cause in a patient, lead Joseph Lister to realize the essential necessity of a clean, sterile surgical room and tools. Although it took over 20 years, eventually the medical community accepted his discovery, subsequently saving thousands and perhaps millions of lives over the years. It is a tribute to him that we have Listerine as a way to cleanse our mouths and wounds.
http://www.lister2012.com/joseph-lister/lord-joseph-lister/

I found his grave where he is buried with his wife and gave a moment of silence in appreciation to him for his tenacity in making a difference in the world. A principled man, he never quit trying to convince people that it was the things you cannot see, the bacteria, that are the most dangerous. As I left the cemetery, I saw many headstones with Chinese writing, Indian writing, and several languages I did not recognize. London is truly a melting pot of nationalities.

I grabbed a bus for a trip to a different tube station and suddenly realized I was on Abbey Road. We stopped at "The Intersection" famous for the Abbey Road Beatles record jacket. I imagined myself barefooted like Paul McCartney and hoped that the gravel had been swept clean for him!