Quite a cryptic preamble this week – clues are normal and then a number of extracts to be found – works by the unclued entry. This entry is then to be changed to a new creator and a different art form to replace the extracts. As clear as a product of a Northumbrian coal mine.
It quickly became obvious that there were clashes in the grid – which rather helped to find the extracts alluded to in the preamble.
There are 4 sets of clashes in 20ac, 42ac 11dn and 12dn.
A quartet of works by ELIOT (the unclued entry confirmed by crossing answers) – first association was TS ELIOT who had a series of works called the FOUR QUARTETS
Then some more lateral thinking is required when you know the names of the quartets and compare with the clashes
- Burnt Norton 12dn NT NO with L-RK = LARK
- East Coker 42ac ST CO with -ROG = FROG
- The Dry Salvages 11dn Y SAL with -I-D = BIRD
- Little Gidding 20ac LE GI with -OKE = JOKE
Basically the original 4 letters (quartet) of the answer that matches 4 consecutive letters in the work are to be replaced, with unchecked squares allowing any letter, checked letters maintain their clashing letter. Try explaining that in a preamble.
The final step being to replace ELIOT with HAYDN who has 68 string quartets, four of which are nicknamed the lark, frog, joke and bird.
A very interesting end game – Thanks Kcit for some good head scratching
Key * anagram; Rev. reversed; DD Double definition; Underline definition
Across
1 American revolted on tucking into powerful beer, nearly flat (10)
riz (american revolted) + on in hot (powerful) + ale(beer) – e(nearly) = HORIZONTAL
9 Religious garment sported in pastoral business (3)
Hidden pastorAL Business = ALB
12 Fearful area united (4)
a (area) + wed (united)= AWED
13 Regret about that woman in France abandoning latest reception (6)
Rue + rev elle (that woman in France) – last e = RUELLE
14 Very hard backing Greek character about ordinary routine (5)
hh (very hard) + Rev. mu (Greek character) around o (ordinary) = HOHUM
16 Sources of wood under test around middle of hull (6)
beta (under test) around ul (middle of hull) = BETULA
17 Composer not entirely diminished by acquiring creative skill (7)
minus (diminished) – s around art (creative skill) = MARTINU
18 Special characters? Key is to include C not V (7)
vital (key) + is removing v adding c = ITALICS
20 Acceptable, for example, to probe literature (5)
Lit (literature) around eg (for example) = LEGIT becomes JOKET
22 Male replacing colt in stable at once (6)
static(stable) swapping m (male) for c (colt) = STATIM
23 Cricket side with nothing poorly put together (4)
leg (cricket side) + o (nothing) = LEGO
26 Four members of literal quintet expressing a frenzied cry (4)
aeiou(literal quintet) becomes 4 = EUOI
28 Channel in New York getting US medical series – impressive (6)
kill (channel in New York) + ER (US medical series) = KILLER
30 Kingdom almost entirely plunged into a sort of sleep? (5)
all(entirely) – l in REM (type of sleep) = REALM
31 Turned serious about international upland plant (7)
Rev. dire (serious) around cap (international) = EPACRID
33 Odd behaviour includes following family in America (7)
kink (odd behaviour) around fol (following) = KINFOLK
36 Evening of Debussy recalled in one old section of Pelleas? (6)
Rev. soir (evening of Debussy) in a (one) + o (old) = ARIOSO
38 Odd heat around in middle of week (5)
Rev. ire (hear) in ee (middle of week) = EERIE
39 Initial sources of soil currently covering groove (6)
s c (initial sources of soil currently) + robe (covering) = SCROBE
40 Star, no mug, appearing in musical work (4)
Canopus (star) – can (mug) = OPUS
41 European cheers contribution from Greek? (3)
e (european) + ta (cheers) = ETA
42 American overalls clothing fellow dismissing English jackets (10, two words)
dusters (American overalls) around cove (fellow) – e (English) = DUST COVERS becomes DUFR OGVERS
DOWN
2 Pained comment about Scots completed (4)
ow (pained comment) + re (about) = OWRE
3 Masses initially missing property listing (6)
trental (masses) – t = RENTAL
4 John, upset: tucking into pasta, finding fossil (7)
Rev. loo (John) in Zite (pasta) = ZOOLITE becomes ZOOLITH
5 Resinous herb likewise pulled up and cut short (5)
Rev. so (likewise) + Rev. hack – k = OSHAC
6 Some early music players upset about you using textmessaging (4)
u (you using text messaging) in Rev. men (players) = NEUM
7 Hungarian violinist audible using early recordings, primarily (4)
initial letters of audible using early recordings = AUER
8 Port deliveries not completed previously? (8)
left (port) + over (deliveries) = LEFTOVER
9 A spit is home to special clover (6)
a like (spit) around s (special) = ALSIKE
10 Plainsmen, annoyed and everything, rising up (8)
Rev. sore + ‘n (and) + all = LLANEROS
11 Buoyant sales revitalised High Street shops (12, two words)
(buoyant sales)* = BEAUTY SALONS becomes BEAUTB IRDONS
12 Call for attention filling basement in curious audio feature (12, two words)
oi (call for attention) in (basement in)* = AMBIENT NOISE becomes AMBIELA RKISE
15 Star of game to spoil narrow victory? (5)
mar (spoil) + 1-0 (narrow victory) = MARIO becomes MARID
19 Silence, with no following steps (5)
stifle(silence) – f (following) = STILE becomes STYLE
21 Poet’s to portray Duke and Earl on exercises in Connecticut (8)
D (duke) + e (earl) + pe (exercises) + in + ct (Connecticut) = DEPEINCT
22 What slaves ate in due course turned foul over day (8, two words)
so (in due course) + (foul)* + o (over) + d (day) = SOUL FOOD
24 Vehicle dropping off Northern city yarn (5)
Carlisle (Northern city) – car (vehicle) = LISLE becomes AISLE
25 Breaking apart drink cartel (7)
tea (drink) + ring (cartel) = TEARING becomes NEARING
27 Attractive figure appears in this mystical music with piano (6)
mantrap (attractive figure) – p (piano) = MANTRA
29 Performers united in metaphorical speech? (6)
u (united) in trope (metaphorical speech) = TROUPE
32 Trim of exotic skirt (5)
pare (trim) + o (of) = PAREO
34 Tree in Quebec or around Manitoba (4)
ou (or in French) around mb (Manitoba) = OMBU
35 Fine to leave fermented drink in vat (4)
kefir (fermented drink) – f (fine) = KEIR
37 Clean out of carbon and lacking lime (4)
scour (clean) – c (carbon) = SOUR
I had completely forgotten to draft this, so the blog came as something of a prompt… Here’s my blog on setting the puzzle:
http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/extracts/
Signing in to add one more to the recorded number of EV solvers… 🙂
Great puzzle which made clever use of the Eliot/Haydn connection. I was convinced that the EAST COKER bit had to go in at 20 across, and this held me up for quite a while.
Some of Haydn’s compositions really do have silly names, don’t they?
Likewise (as I’ve contacted the setter directly with some feedback)
I’m embarrassed to say that the possibility of a Y in ST?LE didn’t occur to me for some time, resulting in some eccentric googling until light dawned.
I liked the fairness of “man” in the preamble, presumably to obviate a fruitless search through the works of George.
I composed a puzzle with a similar theme – the names of all four of Eliot’s poems and of four of Haydn’s quartets in a 15*15 for the Royal Statistical Society’s Significance magazine. The magazine’s editor objected to the inclusion of the (to me, neutral) word “transgendered” in the grid on the grounds that some people might be offended by it. Aside from the fact that I could not get the grid to work any other way, that’s not in my opinion a valid reason not to include it, so I and the magazine parted company.
Goujeers @4
An interesting coincidence of themes in this crossword and yours! Sorry it came to such an unexpected and unsatisfactory end for you.
The part of the puzzle that I liked best was discovering, about half way through solving, the name in the middle (ELIOT) and very soon after that guessing, and working out, the name that would replace it (HAYDN). I stopped to research the theme at that point and was very interested to read about the Four Quartets, not having encountered that work before. For a while I thought the related work was The Seasons or The Creation, but fortunately I dismissed them before I spent much time on them.
Some of the clues took me too long to solve, and in order to give myself a chance to tackle the endgame I sought help from an expert solver on the most opaque clues that I was temporarily or permanently stuck on. I thereby completed the grid – correctly, I believe – but I never really understood the instructions or the true significance of the changes I was making in the grid. I really needed more time both to research the Haydn connection and to think about what the preamble was trying to say.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Alan B: Kcit & I share quite a lot of literary and musical enthusiams, or did till he relocated to NZ. Still, as you say, the coincidence is interesting.
A setter’s blog is always appreciated, many thanks Kcit. I emailed the editor with some comments earlier in the week.
I’m afraid that, despite an almost full grid, and spotting both ELIOT and then HAYDN, the level of lateral thinking required was beyond me so I failed at the final hurdle. Oh well…
I used to be a great ELIOT fan – actually had a Crossword Club crossword published which had the names of his Four Quartets all included, and we remembered Kcit’s delightfu Listener Farewell Symphony crossword where half the characters in his final grid left just the H of HAYDN so we were well placed to spot the theme of this one with the generous change of name in the centre as a fine p.d.m. the five letters maintaining real words had to give HAYDN. Still, we found this puzzle challenging. Many thanks to twencelas and Kcit.
Yes, I too am signing in to add to the recorded number of EV solvers.
There have been a few tough EVs of late and this was no breeze. My first clash came at 26A/11D which alerted me to the likelihood of more, despite no-heads up in the preamble. (Loved 26A BTW). I was a bit all over the place in my solve here – jumping around the grid in the search for inspiration for the elusive PDM. When Eliot became the likely answer for the unclued entry, my mind immediately jumped to the Four Quartets – there have been a few thematics on the subject over the years – and this also strongly indicated classical music as the alternative art form. It wasn’t too tricky to identify Haydn as the composer — but those clashes? With the clashes all worked out the ‘NTNO’ was my way in. For some reason Burnt Norton is the one of the four which always sticks in my mind. A lot of Wiki work ensued on the Haydon compositions page and grid fill finally completed, JOKE being my last. A very fulfilling solve and a technique I haven’t seen before. Bravo Phi and thanks for sharing your own thoughts.
Thanks muchly to twencelas for the blog which cleared up the parse for 1A which eluded me.