I got my DNA heritage results today, and I have to tell you, I’m on a downer. You see, all my life I have suffered from what the Germans in the Fatherland call Fernweh: that feeling that you belong somewhere, but you are not sure where. But to explain all this, I need to take you back to something that happened at high school one day that changed my life.
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DNA Downer; 1.2% Scandinavian. Så typiskt!
It was 1971. I wasn’t in the mood for two periods of music.
You glanced around the class. I could see you summing up this new bunch of first years. This wasn’t the career choice you envisioned. Teaching sacred classical music to Clydeside kids who were only interested in the Beatles and Rolling Stones is not why you spent those years at university. You could have been the 70s Andre Rieu with your own glamourous orchestra that toured the world.
But here you were with your flannels with turnups and a Harris Tweed jacket thinking you better make the best of it. I’m sorry, I don’t recall your name.
You went over to the record player and removed a ’78 from its sheath.
“Let’s go on a journey, boys,’ you said.
“Journey?” I wondered.
“Allegretto pastoral is what this music symbolises. Absorb the sound of the countryside; the sound of the flutes as they liaise and resonate with clarinets in fluid harmony saluting the rising sun. Listen as the flute and the oboe sing like two morning birds; the bassoon as it brings morning to a close and a new day begins.
You stood there whilst Morning was playing and observed each one of us being caught in the moment. It was spiritual. Apart from the gentle music rising in a lazy crescendo, it was the first time I heard such silence in a classroom. After school that day, I scampered to the library to find books on, Norway, trolls, Peer Gynt, The Hall of the Mountain King, and Edvard Greig. You made me believe I was born in the wrong place.
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So here I am with my DNA results trying to absorb the shock of being 1.2% Scandinavian. Så typiskt!
Still, it’s nice to see I have relatives in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Canada, USA, UK, Ireland and who knows where else? I'm still trying to absorb it all and answering emails form those who are beginning to contact me. Interesting.