Rather than emerge solemn and sermonising, Mathers has, with the possible exception of "Déjà Vu" (a fairly serious depiction of his struggles with alcoholism), opted instead for sick humour.
(I read the missing article as a joke: a head-shaking exclamation, with an implied ellipsis: "Look at the... " and "Knarrmean?" rather than a solemn statement of authorial intent).
Here's Davidson's take on the actions of Jeremy Corbyn on laying a wreath: "The pacifist Labour leader ignored the traditional bow at London's Cenotaph... he gave a slight nod of the head rather than the traditional solemn bow".
The poetic quality of Ferrández's playing is never in doubt, but speeds and orchestral dynamics are occasionally extreme, and conductor Radoslaw Szulc – so eloquent in the Schumann – is solemn rather than noble in places here.
Back-to-back wars in which Britain sustained devastating losses were enough to stunt and eventually thwart the imperial drive, however, and England had to spend most of the 20th century taking care of herself rather than carrying out her solemn mission to "civilise" the globe.
A website, Anglicans Online, tells us: "The debates were solemn rather than acrimonious in tone: members quoted Latin to each other, even Greek, and the meaning of Leviticus xviii, verse 18, was deeply pondered".
If you win, at some schools you have to talk at pep rallies, so, if you aren't the best speaker, act calm, speak very loudly, and make it short and sweet (if its too slow it will come across as solemn rather than peppy).
In fact, rather than getting caught up in being solemn and serious about the practice, it's fairly useful to bring along a sense of humor.
It's a solemn work perhaps, but forceful rather than hectoring, and is performed with an involving commitment and moral conviction by Gainsbourg (who won the best actress award at Cannes) and Dafoe.
He prefers, for example, Simon Russell Beale's "capacity for moral disgust" in John Caird's solemn National Theatre production in 2000 rather than Mark Rylance's own Hamlet from the same year down the river at the Globe.
