Guardian Christmas Special No 26,137 by Maskarade

by

The setter of this year’s Guardian Christmas special is Maskarade, who does of course have a hard act to follow, the Christmas slot traditionally being allocated to Araucaria (I was fortunate also to be allocated last year’s Christmas special  to blog). Maskarade also set this year’s August bank holiday crossword in place of Araucaria. Sil tells us that Maskarade is the editor of 1 Across, the crossword magazine founded by Araucaria, so that is both a recommendation and an indication of his (or her) clueing style.

The theme of this year’s puzzle was composers, with 12 being clued without definition, and a further 12 undefined clues being works attributed to each composer. Even in a 21 by 21 grid, it is a substantial achievement to include 24 themed solutions, so respect is due to the compiler for that alone. The fact that such a high proportion of the clues were undefined certainly made it a hard puzzle to solve, at least until the theme was deduced, although I was able to enter some answers on my first pass, which proved to be something of a false start. The clueing style is concise, not to say terse, which is not a criticism.  Thanks, Maskarade, for a satisfying Christmas challenge.

Across
1. Small town clamour
BORODIN BORO(ugh), DIN. The first of our twelve composers.
5. Modern contacts from Sliema
EMAILS An easy anagram with which to get started.
8. Got rid of Times boss?
ERASED ERAS, ED. “Times” does double duty here, as a charade for eras, and as an indication of the boss of a newspaper. Very clever.
13. Freedom that’s tolerated to excess
LICENCE Double definition
14. Criminal’s vehicle? I don’t believe it
GET AWAY Another double definition
15. Island work out – Georgia goes missing
ARRAN ARRAN(ge). I struggled for ages trying to find a word which lacked Ga, but Ge is the international vehicle registration code for Georgia.
16. He puts down corded material by sideboard with no top
REPRESSER REP, (d)RESSER. Rep is a relatively obscure word, at least in this context.
17. Leading industrialist books house exchange on Thursday
IN THE SOUTH I(ndustrialist), NT, *HOUSE, TH(ursday). A work by Elgar.
19. Killed – left missing out east by partners
SAINT-SAENS S(l)AIN, *EAST, NS(partners in a bridge game). The second of our composers, although one of the last in for me.
21. Cruel fellow, sober first
SADIST SAD, 1ST. A simple charade.
25. Fruit and nuts topped
ANANAS (b)ANANAS.
26. I performed outside Orcadian brae
MASKARADE SKARA in MADE. This clue caused me considerable difficulty. I wasn’t familiar with Skara Brae on Orkney, but the wordplay seemed obvious, and the definition seemed to be “I” (referring to the setter). A bit egotistical, I thought, only later discovering that Maskarade is the name of an opera by Nielsen (who is to be found at 4 down).
28. Snack counter spoken of at ski lift
T-BAR An easy homophone, if, like me, you have ever ridden on one of these devices.
32. Foreign articles – new shoe and new trousers
LEDERHOSEN LE DER (both forms of the definite article in French and German respectively), *SHOE, N(ew).
33. Countryman going west taking in most of Athens, touring
EGDON HEATH *ATHEN(s) in HODGE(rev – going west). This is a work by Holst (at 49 across).
35. Fishing area could be Dover?
SOLE This was so easy I didn’t enter it in the grid until I had confirmation from crossing letters, because I suspected a subtlety that wasn’t there.
36. Keeps poor Roy inside around start of year
HARY JANOS JAN in *ROY in HAS. Hary Janos is a Hungarian folk opera by Kodaly (45 down).
37. Large male kangaroo born just after WW2?
BOOMER Double definition (well, partial, since the reference is to “baby boomers”.
39. Appeal Ms Black left out, reverting to type
ITALIC IT CIL(l)LA (rev). I suppose you don’t have to be a baby boomer to remember Cilla Black, but it helps.
41. Cover a hawk broke to cause damage
WREAK HAVOC *(COVER A HAWK).
46. Puritan pocketing popular church gold
PRINCE IGOR IN CE in PRIG, OR. This is an opera by Borodin (1 across).
47. Island with volume ten
CAPRICCIO CAPRI, CC 10. And this is an opera by Strauss (10 down), although it can also be a generic term for a piece of music.
49. Otterden is going out on Sunday
HOLST S in HOLT. A holt is an otter’s den, but I’m not sure that I can fully explain the wordplay; any suggestions?
50. Enright edited
THE RING A simple anagram of what is perhaps the best known of Wagner’s (53 across) works
51. Coppers in capital, detailed
SMETANA MET in SANA. Sana’a is the capital of Yemen.
52. Baltic Queen?
ESTHER ESTH(Estonian) ER. An oratorio by Handel (23 down).
53. Old charioteer lost heart
WAGNER WAG(gon)NER.
54. Ruin half of Rhodes and Ilium
DESTROY (Rho)DES TROY.
…
Down
1. Could be Anderson without a wicket, starting over
BOLERO BO(w)LER, O. A reference to Jimmy Anderson, who has unfortunately been without a wicket all too often in the current Ashes series.  It is of course a work by Ravel.
2. Astronaut turns up and covers the ground again
RECAPS SPACER (rev).
3. 24’s patriarch came up, cleaving sword
DANSE MACABRE DAN (Archer), CAME(rev) in SABRE. An orchestral work by Saint-Saens (19 across).
4. Dogs spring off to heart of Kent
NIELSEN (spa)NIELS (K)EN(t). As the owner of a cocker spaniel, I should have worked this out much sooner than I did.
5. Break galley up – bit by bit
ELGAR Alternate letters in “bReAk GaLlEy” reversed. This was my way into the theme, as I had all the crossing letters and saw that Elgar was a probable fit.
6,9. A parody – 49 composed
ALTO RHAPSODY *(A PARODY HOLST). Nicely misleading – it’s actually by Brahms (29 down).
7. Sounds from the herd reach into the wood
LOWINGS WIN in LOGS
9. See 6
– –
10. Former captain will find out about abstract art
STRAUSS *ART in SUSS, and a definition (Andrew Strauss, former England cricket captain) despite what it said in the preamble.
11. Fishtail in shabby boat
DINGHY (fis)H in DINGY.
12. Next to his body, feet moved
BY THE SIDE OF *(HIS BODY FEET).
18. Footballer’s streams
BECKS Double definition, referring (do I really need to explain this?) to the former Manchester United and England player David Beckham.
20. Dignified introductions to services taken in cathedral
STATELY ST AT ELY.
22. Song thrush is off, finally
MA VLAST MAV(is) LAST. A patriotic piece by Smetana (51 across).
23. Solo was first up
HANDEL HAN(Solo – character from the Star Wars films) LED(rev).
24. Country folk now living in Grantchester
ARCHERS Cryptic definition referring of course not just to the long-running BBC drama series but also to Jeffrey and Mary Archer who famously live in the Old Vicarage there and a nod perhaps to one of Araucaria’s most famous clues: Poetical scene has surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating (3, 3, 8, 12).
27. Toddler’s bedtime story of a good baron in castle
RAG BOOK A G(ood) B(aron) in ROOK.
29. Lines from M*A*S*H
BRAHMS BR, *MASH.
30. No Christmas away for supporters
MONARCHISTS *(NO CHRISTMAS).
31. Thinkers rebuilding 52 igloos
THEOLOGISERS *(ESTHER IGLOOS)
34. Tailless bird left
RAVEL RAVE(n) L(eft).
38. Boycott’s obligation with a DJ?
BLACK TIE A subtle charade, if you ignore the apostrophe.
40. Short journey apparently on bike
TRIPLET TRIP LET. Apparently it can also mean a bike for three riders.
41. Launch site with low take-up period
WOOMERA W(ith) MOO(rev) ERA. Another name that may mean more to us baby-boomers; in the 1950s Woomera was the second busiest rocket range in the world after Cape Canaveral.
42. Spenser’s examined and sealed a document
APPOSED Double definition; it’s more usual to find Spenserian usages in an Azed puzzle, although he doesn’t usually signpost them quite so clearly.
43. Cavalryman’s well-heeled – not half!
SPAHEE SPA HEE(led). Another obscure word.
44. It’s “short in duration” and made from real ice, out east
ÉCLAIR *(REAL IC)e. A reference to perhaps the most famous of the witty definitions to be found in Chambers.
45. It’s certainly up with actress who played Lacey
KODALY OK(rev) (Tyne) DALY. Cagney and Lacey was a 1980s TV series.
47. Some tragically going up in smoke
CIGAR Hidden and reversed (“up”) in tragically.
48. Sign on , with light infantry first
LION L(ight) I(nfantry) ON.
…

32 comments on “Guardian Christmas Special No 26,137 by Maskarade”

  2. Not a favourite of mine. It requires far too much domain knowledge from a single source. For someone with a scant knowledge of classical music, it was impossible. Not only that, but because of the effort to shoehorn all the composers and works in, the crossing words were pretty obscure in many cases.

    Too hard to be fun for me.

  3. Thanks, bridgesong. I share your appreciation for this as an achievement of construction, but I found it to be a bit of a slog in solving.

    My way in to the theme was THE RING, but it still took me ages to find WAGNER. (BTW, I think you could parse this as WAG[o]NER or WAG[go]NER, but not, as you have it, WAG[gon]NER.) I found the composers to be mostly well known (exceptions being, perhaps, Kodaly and Nielsen, the latter necessary to work in the setter’s pseudonym), though some of the works less so (Esther, In the South, Alto Rhapsody, Egdon Heath, Capriccio), at least from my own classical music exposure.

    I was not familiar with the ARCHERS (real-life and fictional), nor with the “specialty” definitions of 42d and 44d.

    The reference to Skara Brae in 26a brought back childhood memories of hours spent playing a computer game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bard%27s_Tale_(1985_video_game)) set at that location.

  4. Not the best puzzle I’ve ever done.

    26a breaks the rubric and another 12 clues, also not further defined by having a definition.

    Unfortunately my pdf software threw a wobbly at some point and my solved version has vanished but I seem to remember problems with several other clues. Too much effort spent on the construction for my taste.

  5. I liked this, with only one or two exceptions.

    49a HOLT as an envelope (“going out on”) for S(unday)?

    40d I don’t get where LET comes from.

    “Classical” music is not my thing, but once you have the theme, which for me also came from 50 and 53, most of the composers are pretty well known, as are a few of the works, the rest coming from the word-play.

    The cricketing references were more obscure for me, but not required for the solutions

  6. Well I thought this was a nice puzzle. I was at all disappointed with this as a Christmas solve as it kept me busy for a couple of days.

    Yes 26A did have a definition but perhaps Maskerade thought we needed a little help with this obscure opera! It did delay me for a while though as I looked for a parsing which avoided the definition. However this didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the puzzle

    Thanks to Bridgesong and Maskerade

  7. Thanks Bridgesong and Maskarade
    I was a bit confused at first, as MASKARADE was my second entry (Orkney brae immediately suggested “skara” to me), so I thought that there might be a crossword compiler theme. This was also the last I associated with a composer, as the “I” led me to think that this wasn’t an “undefined” clue. I also traced an interesting article on crosswords by Michael ENRIGHT (here: http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/essays/2012/03/11/i-heart-crosswords/).
    Other than that, I found that the theme made it very easy, as in many cases I got the work first, then just had to look for somewhere where the composer would fit – – the clue became irrelevant. Hence the crossword didn’t last very long.
    A good effort by the compiler, but not really satisfactory as a holiday special.

  8. As another classical music ignoramus, I found this a bit of a struggle and had to resort to Wikipedia a fair bit. Nearly completed it, however, just failing on 22d having ascribed 47a (CAPRICCIO) to Smetana – as it’s a generic term, I expect several of the composers have one of these to their name.

    I also found some of the definitions too obscure – guessing 40d, 42d, 44d from the crossing letters but not being able to fathom why they were right

  9. Thanks Masquarade and bridgesong

    I found this a good work out which occupied 3-4 days on and off. Had Johannes Brahms early on to alert to the theme, but it took until “The Ring” and Wagner a little while later to fully get it.

    With the Otterden clue – I had used the Guardian setter, John Holt, without realising that a holt was an otter’s den – and hence why John has selected the pseudonym that he has. My interpretation of it is that HOLT is going out on (around) S(unday).

    Although there were a couple of composers (KODALY and NIELSEN) that I didn’t know and a few of the works that I didn’t, I thought that the clueing was very clear as to how each answer could be derived.

    The KODALY and MARY JANOS pair were my last two in.

  10. Thanks for this full explanation.

    I enjoyed the theme, knew ( or knew of ) all of the composers, though many of the pieces were obscure to me – I enjoyed listening to several via YouTube, and especially commend the Alto Rhapsody by Brahms.

    I am still struggling with 42d “apposed” – what exactly is the Spenserian ( Edmund ? ) reference, and how does seal a document give a definition for the answer – my dictionary gives as an example ‘appose a seal to a legal document ‘ . can anyone shed some light ?

  11. Thanks bridgesong and Maskarade

    An enjoyable protracted solve with some of the connections unclear to me before checking them.

    I too was puzzled by 26a which seems to break the setter’s self-imposed rule of no definition in these clues.

  12. Eoin @10: Chambers gives two separate meanings for appose. The first meaning is to apply a seal to a document; the second is the Spenserian usage of examine or question. The clue combines both.

  13. For this solver at least the puzzle was perfect seasonal fare. WEAM (Western European Art Music, aka ‘classical music’) is not my thing at all – I live in a musical galaxy far far away – but everything fell within the purview of general knowledge. The Rev has a worthy successor.

  14. It must be a thankless task to replace Araucaria in the Christmas slot, and I thought this was impressive and entertaining. I completed it on the day it was published – the only aid I used was a dictionary of composers, which I resorted to once I had all of the names, initially to sort out the matching of the works and their composers. The book also mentioned MA VLAST and HARY JANOS after which the rest fell into place easily enough. My favourite clue was BOLERO, which I only got once I had the crosser from BORODIN (which also took longer that it should have)…

    Thanks to Maskarade and bridgesong.

  15. Really enjoyed this. The theme was trickier, for me, than the rivers one in August, but it helped to get several of my older relatives involved at our Christmas gathering, with their superior knowledge of Smetana, Kodaly etc.
    Looking forward to his next one.

  16. thanks bridgesong @12 . looks like I need a dictionary transplant! neither of my dictionaries( Collins, Longman) give either of those definitions. Why is chambers so different and is it a de facto ‘reference point’ for these puzzles ?

  17. Thoroughly enjoyed this – great clueing and a theme that required some (but not too much) research. Just right for the Christmas holiday. (Although I did go wrong early on by having “underhosen” at 32ac – it did seem plausible, even if it didn’t really fit the definition.)

    Many thanks to Maskarade and bridgesong.

  18. How interesting to see the comments from some regular bloggers about the difficulties in solving this offering from Maskarade. I very rarely am able to complete a Guardian crossword, particularly a holiday prize one, but I did manage it with this one. Admittedly, I couldn’t rationalise why 40D is TRIPLET and still can’t.

    More from Maskarade please.

  19. Eoin @ 16; I don’t think that Chambers is in fact the preferred reference dictionary for the Guardian cryptics, although it is for Azed and Listener puzzles. From memory, I think that the Guardian mostly does use Collins, so if this meaning is not to be found there, then solvers have a right to complain. The Guardian’s crossword editor sends out a monthly newsletter (available via the Guardian website) and often deals with this sort of issue in it. Perhaps next month he will make mention of this (don’t hold your breath!)?

  21. definitely a worthy successor although I much preferred his previous puzzle obscure composers and their works which remained undefined is not a recipe I appreciate definitely a slog!

  24. I thought this was a great puzzle, very enjoyable and a good level of difficulty. Well done Maskarade and thanks to bridgesong too.

    Mike@18 and Mac@5 – a triplet (trip-let) could be cryptically thought of (apparently) as a small trip, in the same way as a hamlet is a small ham (farm or settlement) or twiglet is a small twig. The definition is a bicycle with three seats.

  25. As someone with scant knowledge of classical music, I found this a real treat. Having free time over Christmas helped me to twig the theme, and although I had to do some Googling, it was always on suspicion of something given by checking letters.

    Still not sure how the clue for HOLST works though, even though ALTO RHAPSODY was one of my earlier entries and it eventually gave me the solution!

    I also thought including one’s name as setter in the middle of the grid was bad form, until I realised… lovely puzzle.

  26. Thanks bridgesong. I found this hard and only got there by resorting to Google more often than I would have liked. It didn’t help when like DuncT I entered ‘underhosen’ ay 32 and convinced myself 22 had to be Debussy.

  27. Many thanks to Maskarade and bridgesong – very enjoyable and I look forward to similar treats in future.

    The only clues that stumped me were the double definitions at 13 and 42, and I would have appreciated a bit more explanation than ‘Double definition’ in the explanation, as I am thick.

  28. I enjoyed this puzzle although I needed aids to get my last few answers, which were KODALY, MA VLAST, HARY JANOS and EGDON HEATH. I agree with the aforementioned minor quibble about the “I” definition in 26ac.

  29. Found this challenging, and thoroughly enjoyed it once we had the theme (our way in was Prince Igor): took us 2 days’ worth of solving, with some help from our musical son-in-law. Missed the reference to Skara Brae, and didn’t believe Triplet could be the answer till we looked in the dictionary.
    Many thanks to Maskarade.

  30. Thanks setter and blogger. Put me down among those who know precious little about classical music yet who solved all of this without aids except for maybe a dozen arcane elements (to me) of JANOS, SMETANA etc. Excellent compiling, a great challenge for the holidays, just right in difficulty and pleasure.

  31. We’ve just finished this enjoyable puzzle. Can we make 2 comments:

    1. Should 13 be licenSe?

    2. Although we solved 27 we could not understand AGB. What in the clue told you that you are looking for an abbreviation? Is this a well known abbreviation? If not, why not have a great beach or archer’s glorious being or anything at all that abbreviates to AGB? (In fact, it appears that the recognised abbreviation of baron is bn).

    Thanks Maskarade.

  32. Poltair @31:

    1. No, unless you’re American. In British usage, licence is the noun and license the verb.

    2. There was nothing in the clue to indicate an abbreviation, but that’s not unusual. Here there are two abbreviations (A being a in the clue). B is given in Chambers as an abbreviation for Baron (although you are right, it can also be bn), and g for good is, I think, reasonably well known.

Comments are closed.