vivdunstan

Overjoyed to get my wee Maugein chromatic button accordion out for the first time in well over 6 months. I'm still learning this new to me type of accordion (I'm a very long-term piano accordion player) including even where the right hand notes are! Delighted with how much had stuck and making plans for progress. Had fun working through some tuition books, as well as Sous Le Ciel de Paris and even the Pirates of the Caribbean film's main tune.

I finished this the other night, the first in a trilogy I think of stories set in the Scarlet Pimpernel world of the French Revolution, with added vampires. I'd previously read one Invisible Library series book by the same author.

There was a lot to like in Scarlet. You don't need to be familiar with the original Scarlet Pimpernel stories by Baroness Orczy, though it's nice to recognise familiar characters. It is set after the first Pimpernel book, and tells you what you need to know. The Scarlet Pimpernel is an English aristocrat, with a French wife, who with his gang of fellow conspirators goes undercover in France to rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine.

The book is told through the experiences of an English maid, who gets embroiled in the Pimpernel's efforts in France. I did wonder how well this was going to work. Was she always going to be listening at doors, one step removed? But no, she is enmeshed effectively, in what to me was a surprising and good way.

I did expect the plot to go slightly differently in one section of the book, but overall it was full of surprises. And not necessarily following the history as we know it.

I wasn't so keen on another fantasy element (not the vampires) that was introduced later on in the story. But maybe this will be developed more in the subsequent books.

The big downside of the book for me was that there was far too much info dumping about the history. Not least in the introduction to the book, which had a phenomenally in-depth - far, far too much depth to be honest - essay giving a historical overview of the French Revolution at this point. Which I found phenomenally off-putting, and did not endear me to the author. Show us what we need to know through the story, through what the character encounters, and their experiences. Do not have a long-winded and frankly boring history lesson. I would skip this sort of thing when I was my doing my taught postgraduate Masters degree in history including this exact historical period. I don't want to read it in a fiction book, even historical fiction.

Also I don’t recommend following a Dramatis Personae listing with an opening chapter about a whole bunch of folk not in the list. It was a good chapter, but having the list immediately before it was jarring.

There were also extended sections - often multiple pages - of psychological reflections by the characters. I think the editor(s) could have tightened this aspect considerably.

For these reasons I'm rating it 3/5 stars. But I did enjoy it. And would read the sequels. But it should have been better.

Picking my next fiction read, which I think will be Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman, an author best known for the Invisible Library series of books. Scarlet is an alternative take on the Scarlet Pimpernel, combining the French Revolution with vampires. That sounds like a fun read.

When I saw my Mum the other day I played her a tune on my French chromatic button accordion. My choice of tune was Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof. Including up to 3-note right hand harmonies. And played without reference to sheet music. This is a stage I never thought I'd be at so soon with this totally different accordion system (I am a long term piano accordionist, but had never played chromatic button accordion before mine arrived from France in June). I said I'd play her a different tune on it next time I'm down there. And I've now picked it. Sous Le Ciel De Paris, a classic French musette piece. I haven't played it properly on accordion before, but I did have a fun go by ear straight after unpacking my wee French squeezebox. I have a nice sheet music version, in a kinder different key, so will learn that for Mum. But without all the fancy twiddles. I do not promise to play this one without sheet music!

Got a nice reply from one of the Maugein staff who I'd emailed (carefully written in French!) to say just how much the chromatic button accordion seems to be helping me recover some better neurological control of my right hand. Which has been poorer since I had effectively a stroke in 2004 when my cerebral vasculitis relapsed suddenly and dramatically, and I was a lot weaker for a very very long time down my right side. She says they have other clients who have had strokes, and whose doctors have insisted that they must keep practicing the chromatic button accordions. Which are a particularly intricate form of accordion to play. But a wonderful exercise for limb and hand control, plus mental gymnastics. Mine seems to be helping my hand control more generally, including helping me play my piano accordion much better and for vastly longer. Quite an incredible result - I only started learning the chromatic button accordion in mid June.

I have 6 big books of French musette accordion tunes, each with 110 tunes in it, so 660 total. It’s a treasure trove, but cumbersome to dig out specific tunes frequently, and especially a mix from multiple books. So yesterday I copied my favourites, the tunes I am currently keen to learn properly, and those that look intriguing. Just had a run through with my copies - which will be going into a proper dedicated music binder later today. Great fun, including my favourite “Paris Mon Accordeon” by Jo Privat, which I hadn’t dug out for years. I’m very soon getting my new chromatic button accordion from France, a totally different keyboard style. I hope that one day I will be able to play musette tunes on there too. Anyway much fun for now! I also practiced my arrangement of Disney’s Speechless from live action Aladdin.