‘A little British humour’

    

A whimsical April Fools’ Day joke from the admin of the UGLE’s Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London’s social media:

Metropolitan Grand Lodge and Metropolitan Grand Chapter are pleased to announce the “One Journey” Apron for use by Master Masons who are also Exaltees. It can be worn in both Craft Lodges and Royal Arch Chapters and clearly portrays the indissoluble link between the two. The Apron will be available from 12 noon today, so it can be worn at Metropolitan Grand Chapter on 17th April 2024.

Ricky Gervais’ Dutch Barn spots it is not, but a good effort.

     

‘Beethoven’s Tenth discovered in Masonic library’

  

Beethoven, by Andy Warhol, 1987.

WQXR host Naomi Lewin reports today on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday that a manuscript described as two movements of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 10 has been discovered in the archives of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, located in Masonic Hall, the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of New York.

Livingston Library Executive Director Tom Savini is quoted only briefly, but the report explains that the manuscript may have seen the light of day already, just more than a century ago, when Masonic archives were being transferred from the previous Masonic Hall to the current building, and may even have been seen by Gustav Mahler, then the conductor of the New York Philharmonic, who was known for rearranging certain Beethoven works.

It never has been established if the great composer was a Brother in the Craft, although the themes of some of his best known works show Masonic thinking, and some of his collaborators, like Schiller, who wrote the Ode to Joy libretto for Symphony No. 9, were Freemasons.

The 5:35 audio of this Sunday, April 1 story can be heard here.