Mr Pullen
Disorderly
In the year before my GCSE exams for once a week there was an hour of music lessons. I’m many respects this, was my favorite class – in many others it was my least favourite: the teacher could not keep control, and the class was frequently a riot.
It was also a class what I got bullied writing front of the teacher and there was nothing he could do about it he had so little control over the class.
A stain on my memory
The teacher himself is very memorable, unfortunately for many of the wrong reasons: personal hygiene!
His shirts had green stains under his armpits. Add yellow teeth and halatosis to fell an elephant!
However I remember him as a very kind and patient man.
I learnt an awful lot from him and I am grateful.
A musical heart
Structure
Each lesson we would study a different piece of music. If there were any that were not classical, I do not remember them!
He would break the music down into sections and explain what we were listening to.
Passion
If you could hear beyond the chaos see beyond the personal hygiene, this was clearly somebody who was deeply passionate about music, unlimited to share that passion with others.
I learnt enough
Black scratches on paper
I’m going to the basics of reading musical notation, at least extract the melody from a piece. I could often get that by ear.
The little black scratches on pieces of paper enabled me to see deeper into the music that I was listening to.
Sibelius
Around the same period of my life, there was a topical news program on TV called “This Week, Next Week”. I rather like the theme tune.
In this class I learned that it was by a Finnish chap called Sibelius, from a piece called the Karelia Suite. It’s a wonderful sitting piece – something I learnt was called a tone poem.
Tchaikovsky
We spent a bit of time with Tchaikovsky, studying the 1812 overture, and many ballets.
In the ballets, particularly Swan Lake, I began to appreciate the emotion in music. Swan Lake has some deeply yearning movements.
However, I discovered his Pathetique piano concerto for myself – I despise Liberace’s version, which removes all the pathos, unturns it into a music hall joke.
Disney
Was he could never show us the Fantasia by Disney, the introduced us to many of the pieces in that film.
There are so many total poems in that film. I heard Mussorgsky and the night on the Bare Mountain, and Shostakovich’s The Rite Of Spring.
I also heard Elgar and Gershwin for the first time. Rhapsody in Blue remains an eternal favourite of mine.
However I discovered Elgar symphony no 1 and the cello concerto on my own. These two pieces can bring tears to my eyes they are so beautiful and so sad.
Number 5
Symphonies
Mr Pullen what’s generally very good at selecting crowd pleasers for the class. Beethoven symphony no 5 the first movement is one such example. It is full of drama and power.
It is not my favourite symphony, although I do like it; but it led me to a lifelong love of Beethoven in particular.
Symphony no 3 is full of energy at the start and yet the second movement is heartbreaking.
Symphony number 6 is full of colour and light and emotion and conveys the joy of being in the countryside.
Symphony no 7 is a hidden gem! The way the first movement teases you, starting out with a sad tone, then building to the world’s most joyous march building and building in energy! The second movement flips right over, my nickname for it is the medieval death waltz!
Of course, symphony no 9 carries a particular majesty. Each movement is connected and is finally united in the dazzling forth movement. A hymn to freedom and joy the breaks the bounds of a symphony. It is for good reason that it was chosen as the anthem of the European Union, whatever one thinks of its current state, initial vision of a peaceful union of different states coming together I’ve just centuries – no, thousands of years of wars – into harmonious coexistence.
Concerti
What are my favourite pieces of Beethoven music piano concerto number 5: Emperor.
Very often, Beethoven likes to start with loud chord – the first movement of this concerto follows his favourite pattern. However the remainder of the movement is simply awesome. The energy builds and builds and when you don’t think it can build any more it builds!
It was criticised for being too long! But that is one of the things I love about it.
The second movement contrasts with the first in its soft peaceful tones. I love this movement also.
Sonatas
Sonatas are to Beethoven, what sonnets are to Shakespeare.
There are many and varied and cover many different moods.
Moonlight is my favorite, why don’t believe it was ever called that in his time.
This is the peace I am learning now.
It is way above my ability, which means it just takes more time and more patience.
I’m approximately a third of the way in, that’s about two minutes worth. It is a piece I can just melt into.
Attitude
Towards this strange man who struggled to teach music and finally disappeared from the school, seemingly without anybody noticing, I feel a profound sense of gratitude. My life is far richer as a result of his lessons than it would otherwise have been.
Eunuchorn 
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