{"product_id":"hymn-and-cocktail-sticks-book-alan-bennett-9780571299249","title":"Hymn and Cocktail Sticks","description":"It's  a dwindling band; old-fashioned and of a certain age, you can pick us  out at funerals and memorial services because we can sing the hymns  without the book.   Alan Bennett writes: In 2001 the Medici  Quartet commissioned the composer George Fenton to write them a piece  commemorating their thirtieth anniversary. George Fenton appeared in my  play Forty Years On and has written music for many of my plays since, and he asked me to collaborate on the commission. Hymn  was the result. First performed at the Harrogate Festival in August  2001, it's a series of memoirs with music. Besides purely instrumental  passages for the quartet, many of the speeches are under-scored,  incorporating some of the hymns and music I remember from my childhood  and youth. The text includes both words and music.   Hymn is coupled with Cocktail Sticks, an oratorio without music that revisits some of the themes and conversations of Alan Bennett's memoir A Life Like Other People's. A son talks to his dead father as his mother yearns for a different life. It's funny, tender and sad.    The pinnacle of my social life is a scrutty bit of lettuce and tomato and some tinned salmon. Mind you, I read in Ideal Home  that if you mix tinned salmon with this soft cheese you can make it  into one of those moussy things. Shove a bit of lemon on it and it looks  really classy.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49570732998929,"sku":"GOR005769270","price":22.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50920205287697,"sku":"GOR008416848","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0571299245.jpg?v=1750699164","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/hymn-and-cocktail-sticks-book-alan-bennett-9780571299249","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}