AZED CROSSWORD 1997

FADO

1.  M. Barley: Following difficulty striking new driver, golfer displays dejected air (f ado, Fa(L)do; ref. Nick F.).

2.  J. C. Leyland: Do Albufeirans replace blues number with this air? (comp. anag. incl. n, & lit.; ref. Albufeira, Portuguese town).

3.  R. J. Heald: What’ll have right refrain for a spot of dancing in Algarve region? (Faro with d for r, & lit.; F., chief city and district of Algarve).

VHC

D. Appleton: Sad folk music abroad – miss that with luck (comp. anag.).

D. & N. Aspland: Melancholy song that would be lame if transposed from minor to major? (i.e. fa-do in minor becomes la-me in major).

C. J. Brougham: Dejected folk saying “buzz off!” (not very loudly) (fad + o(ff); say = express).

C. A. Clarke: Primarily folk rather than soul, melancholy love song (sad with f for s + 0, & lit.).

Mrs P. Diamond: Iberian song, sweet one to perform (FA + do).

R. Hesketh: Type, primarily, of folk song and dance (f + ado, & lit.; type = lettering).

N. J. Hitchins: Fine commotion or song and dance (f ado).

M. Hodgkin: A bit of folk song and dance (f ado, & lit.).

E. C. Lance: Traditional local music in Algarve city, with outbreak of dancing taking over centre of tourism (Faro with d for r).

D. F. Manley: Bar dance, ballad of suffering? (anag. less ball, & lit.).

K. Milan: A plagal cadence characterizes this plaintive song (i.e. fa-do).

T. J. Moorey: Primarily fun-free song and dance? (f + ado, & lit.).

C. J. Morse: It’s the plagal cadence you want for a sad song (i.e. fa-do).

M. L. Perkins: Sad song characterised by a descending fourth? (i.e. fa-do).

N. J. Roper: If sad song re-arranged – sings this? (comp. anag. & lit.).

R. J. Sharkey: Plaintive folk song sequence of subdominant and tonic elements (i.e. fa-do).

S. J. Shaw: Song and dance with origin in folk primarily (f + ado, & lit.).

D. A. Simmons: Folk dance in Lisbon? France’s capital has one just the same (F a d(itt)o).

I. Simpson: Dump right for a spot of dancing in Algarve capital (Faro with r for d; see dump²).

Ms M. Stokes: Sweet girl expressing love – feel free to make a sad song therefrom (FA + do!).

P. Taylor: Melancholy folk refrain from opening of alcohol during loud party (a in f do).

J. R. Tozer: Song wherein singer regrets, in short, ‘rien de rien’? (FA d’ 0; ref. E. Piaf song ‘Je ne regrette rien’).

A. J. Wardrop: Two notes die away almost to nothing in part of a doleful song (fa do, fad(e) + 0, hidden).

G. Willett: A day of dancing and song tinged with sadness (anag. incl. d).

HC

C. H. Adamson, T. Anderson, D. K. Arnott, D. Arthur, A. Barnes, T. C. Borland, C. Boyd, P. Coles, T. Crowther, R. Davies, N. C. Dexter, V. Dixon, C. J. Ellis, A. S. Everest, J. Fairclough, M. Goodliffe, G. I. L. Grafton, J. Grimes, D. Harris, D. V. Harry, P. F. Henderson (New Zealand), R. J. Hooper, Ms M. Irvine, Ms M. Janssen (Eire), Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, Dr A. Kitching, S. G. G. Macdonald, M. A. Macdonald-Cooper, B. MacReamoinn, W. F. Main, P. D. Martin, C. G. Millin, Ms S. E. Mitchell, D. J. R. Ogilvie (USA), F. R. Palmer, R. J. Palmer, R. Perry, A. Plumb, B. Roe, N. G. Shippobotham, P. A. Stephenson, P. L. Stone, A. J. Varney, Ms S. Wallace, L. Ward (USA), P. O. G. White, D. C. Williamson, J. S. Witte, A. J. Young, R. Zara.
 

Comments
229 entries, no mistakes. Favourite clue: ‘Bum ref is wrong about Hearts – his specs are dodgy!’ for BOTTOM FISHER with 20 more votes than any of the rest (11 receiving one or mentions). One competitor made the fair point that the term doesn’t necessarily have derogatory connotations, as my clue implies. I can’t give chapter and verse for this, since the compound doesn’t appear in any of my other dictionaries. There is however something about its informal register that to me suggests some such implication.
 
It’s some time since I gave you a 4-letter word, but I thought that this one offered a reasonably variety of possible treatments. So it proved, though there was a plethora of variations on the ‘two-note song’ idea with nothing much to distinguish them. In such circumstances it is important to realize that something a bit more creative is going to be required. Mr Barley’s clue is a splendid example of what can be done with ambiguous wording (‘striking new driver’ and ‘dejected air’ both having different meanings in the surface reading and the cryptic reading). Several of you, clearly quite conversant with the Portuguese folk music scene, expressed serious doubts about FADO being a dance as well as a song, as Chambers defines it. My edition (the tenth) of the Oxford Companion to Music nevertheless describes it as a ‘type of popular Portuguese song and dance, with guitar accompaniment’ which made its appearance about 1850. It then dismisses it rather loftily as ‘a good deal looked down upon by the more educated classes’.
 
A number of less experienced competitors used ‘nowadays’ to define the AD part of FADO. Though I think I’ve come across this in other crosswords it’s much too vague for my liking, and not even accurate. One would never think of 1066 AD, say, as being nowadays.
 
Enough for now. As I write this, final preparations are being made for the Azed 2,000 lunch at Wadham College, Oxford, on Saturday 25 September, at which I look forward to seeing many of you. I’ll report on the event more fully next month.