Golden Fields and Alsop’s Fable are separate pieces but go well together. Golden Fields is a response to evening sunshine on fields late in the summer. Alsop’s Fable had a more convoluted and perhaps unlikely genesis. You know those old blokes who sit about on benches in the market square watching the world go? I got in conversation with one a while back, or rather he spoke and I listened.
He told me about Brian Alsop, a farmer from up the dale who used to come into town on his tractor for a cup of tea at the cafe. From what the narrator said it seems he passed away years ago, I’m not sure how long ago, but a long time since. His demise was rather unfortunate, being exceedingly elderly and frail he had been advised by doctors and relatives not to drive his tractor on the roads, advice which it seems he did not heed. At this point in the narrative I did attempt a humorous remark about the futility of giving old Yorkshire farmers advice but my narrator just ploughed on.
It seems Brian was found deceased at the wheel of his crashed tractor, he may have passed through the village deceased as the corner he left the road on comes at the end of a long straight stretch. The tractor went into a dry stone wall and came to rest on what remained from the impact.
Now that would seem a curious enough story that had come to a natural end, but there was more. It turns out that what my narrator was building to was the supernatural. Brian, it seems, rides his tractor yet. In the years that have passed several people have reported seeing his tractor with him aboard coming down the lane into town. It apparently draws into view up the road but dissipates before reaching the astonished onlooker. Some who have seen this apparition have been locals who knew the man, but one or two people passing through the district have also reported this unsettling occurrence.
The tractor was a distinctive little old orange Fiat, I was told the exact model but cannot recall as I am unfamiliar with such matters.
To top this tale of unearthly manifestation a local superstition has grown up, firmly held by some folk, that if you see Brian motoring in his tractor then it is an ill omen. My narrator was somewhat sceptical about this but held that he did know someone who had seen this bucolic apparition and had subsequently suffered misfortune, so he maintained an open mind on the matter.
Now I don’t know if he took me for a youth easily taken in or if he told the story in all seriousness. In my experience a predilection for dry satirical humour is just as much a characteristic of country folk as a capacity for superstition.
In any case, the story constitutes a salutary warning to us all.
Having now heard a vocal imitation of the sound of the ghostly tractor from someone who claims to have seen this unlikely apparition I have been able to transcribe the sound into a jig.
#lucyalessio,#stephengamble,#musicforsoloviolin,#goldenfields,#alsopsfable,#folk,#fiddle,#violin,#jig,#air,#newmusic
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