How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Now a recorder, you know, isn't like a flute, though it's the flute's immediate ancestor, of course […] A present-day flute's played what's know as traverse, in other words you blow across a hole instead of…" (1.5)
We meet Professor Welch as he's animatedly describing to Jim the differences between a flute and a recorder. This does a pretty good job of immediately establishing just how boring the old man is, and how trivial Jim thinks his musical interests are. It's Jim's first shot in his war against culture—at least the first we see.
Quote #2
She ticked the items off on her fingers. "Part-songs. A play-reading. Demonstration of some sword-dance steps. Recitations. A chamber concert. There's something else, too, but I've forgotten it. I'll remember in a minute." She went on laughing. (2.30)
Margaret knows that her description of the weekend at the Welches' will make Jim cringe.
Quote #3
[…] "a chap from the Third Programme promised to turn up." (2.32)
Shmoop is sure you all know—we'll just remind you—that The Third Programme was a radio show on the BBC in the 1950s that offered "serious" programming like classical music, Shakespearean plays, discussions with intellectuals and authors. It was introduced to balance out The Light Programme, which had more popular music. Kind of like NPR vs. the Easy Listening stations. Amis's mention of the program was another way of showing us the "highbrow" aspirations of the Professor's musical weekend.
Quote #4
"One of the sons is coming too, with his girl. The girl might be rather interesting; a ballet student, I gather."
"A ballet student? I didn't know there were such things." (2.35)
Jim's trying a little too hard to show his anti-culture cred, don't you think? He can't be that much of a Philistine, can he?
Quote #5
"Look, Margaret, you know as well as I do that I can't sing, I can't act, I can hardly read, and thank God I can't read music. No, I know what it is. Good sign in a way. He wants to test my reactions to culture, see whether I'm a fit person to teach in a university, see?" (2.43)
Jim suspects that the reason Professor Welch invited him to the weekend music-fest is that he doesn't want some illiterate barbarian to get a job in his university. This passage shows us how out-of-place Jim feels in general at the College.
Quote #6
"[I]t's very pleasant to come down here and to know that the torch of culture is still in a state of combustion in the provinces. Profoundly reassuring, too." (4.18)
In his typically condescending way, Bertrand says that it's nice to see that arts and culture still exist in places outside of London. He says he feels reassured by this, since he likely doesn't want to live in a world of uncultured cavemen. Note the flowery language—he's a classy guy for sure.
Quote #7
"Well, that lets me out, anyway. No disgrace in not playing them. I'm only a lay brother, after all. Oh, but isn't it horrible, Margaret? Isn't it horrible? How many of the bloody [recorders] do you have going at once?" (4.53)
Kind of like your 4th-grade band concert.
Quote #8
In a moment he disclosed that the local composer and the amateur violinist were going to "tackle" a violin sonata by some Teutonic bore, that an unstated number of recorders would then perform some suitable item, and that at some later time Johns might be expected to produce music from his oboe. Dixon nodded as if pleased. (4.71)
OK, not only does Amis ridicule medieval music, he's now going after classical music. You know, those Teutonic bores—Beethoven, Bach, Brahms.
Quote #9
[…] three minor College employees were toiling at barrels of beer and cider under panels representing, similarly to the larger ones in the Ballroom, swarthy potentates about to be danced on by troupes of midget Circassians, or caravans of Chinese merchants being sucked up into the air by whirlwinds. (10.14)
Here's another poke at the pseudo-fine art on display in the grand rooms of the College. The perspective's all off, so you can't even make sense of what's going on in the paintings.
Quote #10
Passing under the thatched barbette over the front door, Dixon averted his eyes from a picture Welch had recently bought and talked about and which now hung in the hall. The work of some kindergarten oaf, it recalled in its technique the sort of drawing found in male lavatories, though its subject, an assortment of barrel-bodied animals debouching from the ark, was of narrower appeal. (18.21)
In two sentences, Amis manages to satirize Welch's taste in art, religious motifs, children, drawings on the wall in men's bathrooms, and barbettes (whatever they are).