Posts

Showing posts from December, 2005

A contemporary composer is very lucky ....

Image
Let's play out the old year with a really positive story. Vanessa Lann (right) graduated from Harvard, and now lives and composes in the Netherlands, check out her excellent web site for a full biography . (Why are there so many exciting women composers around? - I have also written recently about Judith Weir , Jane O'Leary , and Odaline de la Martinez ). Vanessa's compositions include elements of ritual, ceremony or contemplation. She experiments with breaking from the conventional concert-hall approach to the performance and programming of music, and explores alternative ways of sharing sound, media and time with audiences, with the end objective of blurring the boundary between art and daily experience. Earlier this month I previewed the December performances in the Netherlands of Vanessa's new composition for cantor, choir and instrumental ensemble 'Illuminating Aleph'. So I was delighted to receive today this wonderfully positive and appreciative update

Sensational scoop - Elgar was German

Image
More than half of Britons polled do not realise that Elgar was English or that Beethoven was born in Germany, according to a survey for the digital arts and culture channel Artsworld. In a poll of nearly 1,200 people, Artsworld discovered that more than 85% of those surveyed described their knowledge of classical music as "average" or "worse than average". Nearly two-thirds were unable to identify Mozart as composer of The Marriage of Figaro. The poll found that only 46.7% identified Sir Edward Elgar as English, with the remainder plumping for German or Austrian. From today's Guardian. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Picture credit - San Francisco Symphony Image owners - if you do not want your picture used in this article please contact me and it will be removed. If bandwidth is a problem with your permission I will host your image. If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Another El

In praise of Richard R. Terry

Image
Hearing Richard Terry's Myn lyking in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge recently reminded me that the one hundred and fortieth anniversary of the birth of the father of the Tudor music revival figure is likely to pass unremarked. Richard Terry was born in 1865, and was appointed to direct the music at the Bendictine school of Downside in 1896. His pioneering work with the choir there revived the liturgical music of neglected 16th century Catholic composers, and led him to uncover the hugely important riches of Tudor polyphonic music. At Downside he was the first to perform in modern times as part of the liturgy music which is, thanks to him, so well known today. His pioneering performances included the three and five-part masses of Byrd , Tye 's Euge Bone , and Tallis' four-part Mass and Lamentations. When the new Catholic Westminster Cathedral (above) was built in 1901 Terry moved to London as organist and director of music. He held this position for twenty-three year

'The Google Story' searches in vain

Image
What exactly does 'Pulitzer Prize-winner mean? The list of recipients contains a lot of distinguished writers including Annie Proulx , and the music prize's distinguished winners include Howard Hanson , Aaron Copland , and just about every other well-known American composer from the second half of the 20th century. But there seem to be an awful lot of Pulitzer Prize winners around, and the writers aren't all up to the standard of Annie Proulx . David A. Vise has all the right credentials. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennnsylvania , has written four books, won a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for his journalism, and is a staff writer for The Washington Post . His latest book is 'The Google Story' which promises to take us 'inside the hottest business, media and technology sucees of our time.' The problem with books about online developments is that they are really redundant. You can read it all on the internet anyway, and the pace of change

'L'Orgue Mystique' - the music

Image
Blockbuster is an overworked description, but it can be applied with confidence to the extraordinary L'Orgue Mystique composed by Charles Tournemire . This cycle of organ compositions covers the entire Catholic liturgical year, and took five years to compose (1927-1932), It contains more than twelve hours of music, and is one of the largest compositions in western music - running to 1300 pages in the published edition. Charles Tournemire (below) was born in Bordeaux , and lived from 1870 to 1939. He was a pupil of César Franck , and his influence was acknowledged by Messiaen , who wrote: 'My only organ teacher was Marcel Dupré , for whom I had the greatest admiration and a very great and respectful affection. But I went occasionally to hear the improvisations of Charles Tournemire (a composer of genius, and a marvellous improviser). When Tournemire improvised at a concert, it was good. But the improvisations were much more beautiful during Masses at Sainte-Clotilde, when he

Lots of passionate sacred music ....

Image
"This Christmas, my school's choir has been scheduled to carol at Fullerton Hotel for 5 days. Went down to catch one of their sessions and they sang pretty well despite the open acoustics of the hall, not to mention that they are singing more than 10 sessions in total. Besides the joy of meeting friends whom I haven't met for months, the mood that evening was absolutely peaceful and filled with love, away from the overly commercialised environment everywhere else. It has been such a spiritually and emotionally satisfying Christmas this year, with the close company of God, lots of passionate sacred music, and sensible and matured new friends." To offset Jennifer's sobering experience of crossing paths with a gunman the extract above is from one of the most uplifting posts on music blogs over Christmas. Live music, love and friends ... it is from Jeff in Singapore whose blog Solitude in Music is worth visiting regularly. Report broken links, missing images and o

Shit happens in the real world

Image
'I was confronted by a man with a semi-automatic handgun. I came out with only a knot on my head and frayed nerves. Yes, I am shaking. Yes, I am going through periods of uncontrollable crying. I was just held up at gun point. That is a first.' One of the more sobering posts I read over the holiday was an account by fellow blogger and flautist Jennifer of being mugged at gun point, from which the extract above was taken. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Image credit - Handgun, oil pastel on paper by Matthew Kay from Saskatchewan, Canada. There is some interesting art on his website, worth a visit. Image owners - if you do not want your picture used in this article please contact me and it will be removed. If bandwidth is a problem with your permission I will host your image. If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Moments that take our breath away .....

Bach to normal programmes

Image
BBC Radio 3's Bach Christmas should have been like a long and arduous flight which finally reached a wonderful destination. Unfortunately I had a problem as soon as the flight started. All around me on the plane I found BBC presenters who insisted on talking all the time. Gratuitous explanations of the music were not enough, they also read out vacuous listener emails, kept plugging the online 'message board', repeatedly played the same Bach sound-bytes from talking heads, and kept running the most excruciating 'commercial' for (and I joke not) 'the late great B minor Mass'. After three days of this I became desperate and sent an email to the BBC saying please stop reading out listeners emails, just let the music speak for itself. Within sixty seconds of clicking on send the presenter ( Sean Rafferty ) read out my email. Sadly by the time my flight reached its destination I was grumpy, out of sorts, and vowing never to make the journey again unless I had d

£1 million legal bill rocks Hyperion

Image
'One of the best-loved institutions in the world of classical music is threatened following a legal ruling which may have far-reaching implications for the ownership of recordings of masterpieces. Hyperion record company is facing potentially devastating bills of £950,000 after losing a case focusing on the entitlement to copyright and royalties. The battle centred on an acclaimed recording of the French baroque composer Michel-Richard de Lalande for the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV. For the recording an expert on Lalande, Lionel Sawkins, was commissioned to edit the scores. Dr Sawkins regarded his endeavour as amounting to a new musical work, entitling him to copyright and royalties. After suing, he won at the high court, and again at the court of appeal. Hyperion last week settled costs with Carter Ruck, the firm which represented Dr Sawkins, after receiving an invoice for £758,000. The final settlement left Hyperion with a total bill of £950,000, which included their own cos

The Madonna of Stalingrad

Image
"I spent Christmas evening with the other doctors and the sick. The Commanding Officer had presented the letter with his last bottle of champagne. We raised our mugs and drank to those we love, but before we had had a chance to taste the wine we had to throw ourselves flat on the ground as a stick of bombs fell outside. I seized my doctor's bag and ran to the scene of the explosions, where there were dead and wounded. My shelter with its lovely Christmas decorations became a dressing station. One of the dying men had been hit in the head and there was nothing more I could do for him. He had been with us at our celebration, and had only that moment left to go on duty, but before he went he had said: "I'll finish the carol first, O du fröhliche !" A few moments later he was dead. There was plenty of hard and sad work to do in our Christmas shelter. It is late now, but it is Christmas night still. And so much sadness everywhere." The German army was trapped ou

The perfect ethical, and musical, Christmas present

Image
If you want to give an ethical present this Christmas why not give 'An Unfinished Destiny' , the biography of the brilliant harpsichordist Scott Ross whose complete Scarlatti Sonata recordings were my choice as the best thirty-four CDs of 2005 ? No nasty corporate publishers or booksellers are involved with this wonderful book. But before buying it you need to read the small print. You will not find the book in your local Borders or Waterstones , and it isn't on any of the Amazon databases. There is only one way to get a copy. Send 15 Euros in banknotes wrapped in black paper by post to the author (right) who lives in Montpellier in France (lucky man). You may have to wait for your copy, although mine came in four days - which is a lot faster than Amazon . Its absence from the inventories of Borders and Amazon is guaranteed by the lack of a standard ISBN identifier. The book is available in French and English. This is genuine 'print on demand' , but the proces

Wikipedia is remix

Image
Fascinating example of remixing, a subject which I've posted about before. My article on Sunday about Scott Ross and his recording of the Scarlatti Sonatas attracted a surprising amount of attention - which I'm delighted about. Today it appeared, with some amendments as the Wikipedia entry on Scott Ross ! I would add that I didn't put it there - the thought never occurred to me. I know who did, and I am delighted that they were able to remix it, and use it to help spread the word about this brilliant musician. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Image credit - Surfnetkids.com Image owners - if you do not want your picture used in this article please contact me and it will be removed. If bandwidth is a problem with your permission I will host your image. If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Guilty of remix?

For unto us a child is born

Image
It was a night spent in the basement of a burnt out building. People injured by the atomic bomb took shelter in this room, filling it. They passed the night in darkness, not even a single candle among them. The raw smell of blood, the stench of death. Body heat and the reek of sweat. Moaning. Miraculously, out of the darkness, a voice sounded: "The baby's coming!" In that basement room, in those lower reaches of hell, A young woman was now going into labor. What were they to do, Without even a single match to light the darkness? People forgot their own suffering to do what they could. A seriously injured woman who had been moaning but a moments before, Spoke out: "I'm a midwife. Let me help with the birth." And now life was born There in the deep, dark depths of hell. Her work done, the midwife did not even wait for the break of day. She died, still covered with the blood. Bring forth new life! Even should it cost me my own, Bring forth new life! by Sadako K

Farewell to Stromness

Image
A comment on my Judith Weir article by regular reader Henry Holland quite correctly pointed out that Peter Maxwell Davies isn't really a Scottish composer as he was born in Oldham in England, and studied in Manchester . Henry's thoughtful comment set me off down a few personal Overgrown Paths which I share here, and which will eventually explain the mystery photograph above. Despite his Lancashire origins I have a particular fondness for Max's more Scottish music, and first heard his exquisite 'An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise' , with its memorable part for Highland Bagpipes (below), played in the MacRobert Arts Centre in Stirling, Scotland when we lived there in the 1980's. The MacRobert auditorium on the University of Stirling campus was a regular venue for BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 . I remember a very young Nigel Kennedy sitting in the back row listening to the second half of a concert after playing the Walton Violin

Amazon Marketplace - caveat emptor

Image
On An Overgrown Path now achieves an impressive Google PageRank of 6/10, and this means every day a lot of visitors land here as a result of searching for a wide range of music-related topics on Google. A surprisingly large number of these searches are for Caiman USA or Brilliant Classics . The Florida based Caiman is one of thousands of Amazon Marketplace suppliers offering heavy discounts when you follow the Used & New link on Amazon . They have some very low prices on classical CDs, and customers are using Google to check them out before buying. Brilliant Classics is an innovative super-budget classical CD label from Holland who have a poor presence in high street shops, but can be found with big discounts online. Regular readers will know I buy a lot of CDs. I have used Caiman and other Amazon Marketplace suppliers in the past to buy Brilliant Classics and other labels, and have written about them favourably here. As a lot of people are interested in this information

If you only buy thirty-four CDs this year - buy these .....

Image
At the turn of the millennium BBC Radio 3 asked listeners to choose the greatest recording of the 20th century. The recording chosen was deservedly, but somewhat predictably, Solti's Ring cycle . The runners up were Carlos Klieber's interpretations of Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh symphonies , the Britten War Requiem conducted by the composer , and English String Music conducted by Sir John Barbirolli , which includes Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. One recording that I considered to be a definite contender didn't even make the long list. But now the great news is my nomination has been re-released at budget price, and is easily my choice for the thirty-four best CDs of 2005. Scott Ross was a musical maverick. He was born in Pittsburgh in 1951, and following the death of his father moved to France with his mother in 1964. He studied harpsichord at the Conservatoires of Nice and Paris, and won the prestigous Concours de Bruges, at the Roya

Cure for sacred cantata fatigue

Image
Sacred cantata fatigue set in from the otherwise excellent BBC Radio 3 Bach marathon this morning, so I took off with my mountain bike to Thetford Forest for the day. The weather here in Norfolk is cold - minus 4 centigrade last night, and just getting above freezing in the day with a light dusting of snow. All the wonderful singletrack in the forest's Black Route was frozen hard, so there was no mud and the riding was excellent once you warmed up. Information for fellow cyclists, my off-road ride is a Bianchi hardtail with Marzocchi Flylight Air forks upfront. After several hours in the solitude of the forest, and with no sacred cantatas, I could only agree with Claude Debussy who said that music is the silence between the notes Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Image credit - Mediamushroom , yea I know it isn't Thetford but it sets the scene. Image owners - if you do not want your picture used in this artic