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Showing posts from October, 2006

Philip Glass - World Music Is The New Classical

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‘By the early 1960’s, ’ Philip Glass said, ‘the world of new concert music had reached a virtual dead end. By that I mean there were more and more composers writing for fewer and fewer people.’ Glass (left) had worked with Ravi Shankar on film sound tracks in the early sixties and, like the sitar master, was looking to open a door that would bring different sensibilities to Western music. ‘That door turned out to be much bigger that I thought,’ Glass said. ‘I thought it would lead to Indian music. Actually, it led to World Music – and that continues to this day.' Glass had travelled to India in 1967 and discovered through his mentor Ravi Shankar that George Harrison was already immersed in India’s wisdom traditions, and had understood the impact Eastern music could have on the West. Glass met Harrison shortly after his return, and they agreed that the Indian sound was a much-needed breath of fresh air. ‘We were entering the same door but from different sides,’ Glass said. ‘F

Music as a healing force in Palestine

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Today’s Independent makes the vital connection between music and current affairs in both a double page feature and a thoughtful leader praising the work of contemporary composer and human rights activist Nigel Osborne (left). Here is an extract from the inspirational story of how music is helping traumatised Palestinian children: - The Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University, and one of Britain's foremost contemporary composers, is somehow managing simultaneously to play the guitar, dance, and conduct a class of 30 children in their lusty performance - in Mandinga - of a West African folk song. This is Balata , a stronghold of armed militancy and the target of at times almost daily Israeli incursions, where 150 Palestinians have been killed since the intifada began six years ago. It is also one of the most densely populated places on earth, home to 30,000 civilians who live in less than two square kilometres of cement-block housing packed so closely together that fat pe

Mahler beats Britten with finale knockout

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In the first half we had Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto , premiered in 1940 by Antonio Brosa and the New York Philharmonic conducted by John Barbirolli . The structure of the concerto is three movements with the final Passacaglia marked Andante Lento (un poco meno mosso). Its opponent in the second half was another 20th century masterpiece dating from 37 years earlier, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No 5 in C sharp minor, with its Rondo Finale marked Allegro - Allegro giocoso. The venue for last night's contest was Britten's own magical Snape Maltings , and the orchestra was the BPO. Everywhere else in the world BPO stands for Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra , but Aldeburgh is a parallel musical universe where the BPO is the Britten Pears Orchestra , a crack orchestra of young professionals whose spontaneous music-making puts to shame the autopilot efforts of the big name bands. Yes, they do take risks, as the early horn entry in the attaca between the last two movement

Paul Simon brushes over troubled waters

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From yesterday's Independent profile of Paul Simon (left) - He clearly harbours political anger against the Bush White House - especially over the Iraq war - and sounded faintly embarrassed when I asked him about the time he was invited there in late 2002, a few months before the Iraq invasion. He was one of a small number of prominent artists to be honoured that year by the Kennedy Center in Washington - a ceremony that by tradition entails a trip to the White House. At first Simon said, with considerable vehemence, that he would not have set foot in the place for any other reason. But then he changed his mind and acknowledged that an invitation from a sitting president is just one of those things you don't turn down. The White House, he says, was "bigger than the occupant, no matter who that is". Pliable adds - It is good to see Washington DC and its John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts remaining an irony free zone. Here is the announcement of the winne

Just a small experimental nuclear device

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There was very little interest in my recent article on the use by NATO of Depleted Uranium ammunition in the Kosovo conflict in 1999. Now read today's front page Independent article by award-winning journalist Robert Fisk , from which the extract below is taken, and see if you find my article any more relevant today: Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based weapon in southern Lebanon this summer in the 34-day assault that cost more than 1,300 Lebanese lives, most of them civilians? Scientific evidence gathered from at two bomb craters in Khiam and At-Tiri, the scene of fierce fighting between Hizbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops last July and August, suggests that uranium-based munitions may now also be included in Israel's weapons inventory - and were used against targets in Lebanon. According to Dr Chris Busby, the British Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk , two soil samples thrown up by Israeli heavy or guided bombs showed "elevated

Eric Whitacre download bonanza

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My recent article on Eric Whitacre generated a huge amount of interest. Now comes the opportunity to hear an interview with Whitacre (left) telling how he started in choral composing, plus performances of three of his works. (The title of the feature does seem a touch ambiguous though - Stumbling into Choral Music ). The generous 16 minute programme comes from NPR and includes complete performances of “ This Marriage ” and “Go Lovely Rose ” sung by Polyphony , under the direction of Stephen Layton , and “ A Boy and a Girl ” from a concert performance by the Santa Fe Desert Chorale , directed by Linda Mack . Follow this link for the download . Also worth a visit for Eric Whitacre fans is his MySpace site where you can hear more of the Hyperion Cloudburst CD featured in my original article . Image credit - Simon Perry via NPR . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed

The continuing cathedral choir tradition

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The greatest and perhaps most precious anachronism is the continuing tradition of the cathedral choirs ... it tells of a civilation utterly different from the one we seem to be preparing for the 21st century. Such a record as this brings it home. The mastery of our Tudor composers in their choral writing tells of a rich culture, in which the cathedrals were very near the centre; and this mastery is splendidly preserved by choirs like Worcester Cathedral ... it is amazing and marvellous to find them flourishing as vigorously as this one clearly is - John Stean's Gramophone review of Great Tudor Anthems sung by Worcester Cathedral Choir directed by Donald Hunt Image credit - Worcester Cathedral by Damer.com Any copyrighted material on these pages is used in "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail d

Independent record labels never failed me yet

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In a neat piece of wordplay today's Independent newspaper has a supplement in praise of Independent Music. Here are some of the highlights from Michael Church's article : Gavin Bryars , whose Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet , in which a tramp's accidentally-recorded song was put through a labyrinthine series of transmutations, is one of our best-selling contemporary composers. Yet since he began putting out his works on small labels "who were ready to take works from experimentalists like me, who the majors saw as beyond the pale", he has regarded those majors as a more of a curse than a blessing. Jesus' Blood, put out on a branch of Philips in the Nineties, has sold half a million copies, but since the costs of jetting an orchestra round the world were so huge, he hasn't seen a penny in profits. "And if I was recording now with a major label, I'd be lucky to do an album every two or three years. Moreover, the executives of that company woul

A treasure trove of Stokowski downloads

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A Japanese site has a treasure trove of recordings by the legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski ranging from 1917 acoustic recordings to 1953 electric recordings. All were 78rpm shellac releases, and the site claims they are copyright free. There are a lot of very fine things to listen to including two complete Tchaikovsky symphonies, a complete 1941 No 4 recorded with the NBC Symphony in 1941, and a 1940 Symphony No.6 'Pathetique' with the All American Youth Orchestra . Thanks go to US reader and internet sleuth Walt Santner whose research uncovered these, and the Norwegian historic MP3s , for us, and to the unknown Japanese webmaster for making them available. Stokowski was the role model for today's jet set maestros. Born in North London in 1882, a short distance from what was to become EMI's famous Abbey Road Studios , he started his musical career as organist in St James' Church, Piccadily . He moved to the US in 1905, and ten years later became a naturali

John Peel's Private Passions

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DJ and broadcaster John Peel (right) was the champion of independent British rock music for nearly 40 years on his late-night BBC Radio 1 show. He led the way in promoting new acts, from David Bowie , through Joy Division to the White Stripes . During his schooldays one of his teachers wrote “It's possible that John can form some kind of nightmarish career out of his enthusiasm for unlistenable records and his delight in writing long and facetious essays..." which kind of sounds familiar, doesn't it? As well as his music programmes John Peel was an award winning current affairs presenter on BBC Radio 4 and World Service. His love of classical music was not widely known, but he chose it for the majority of his selections when he appeared on BBC Radio 3's Private Passions programme. Peel asked presenter Michael Berkeley to include something that would surprise him. Berkeley programmed the Conlon Nancarrow's Study for Player-Piano No. 21 , and Peel subseque

The eternal feminine follows the musical path

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In my wanderings through song and poetry over the last ten years, I have come across stony paths, paths strewn with flowers, pathways across land and sea, and almost invisible trails, where it was very easy to lose my way ... Arianna Savall ( daughter of Jordi ) describes her own Overgrown Path in the liner notes for her first solo CD, Bella Terra . Now follow this link for an MP3 sample of some of really ravishing music, and if you think Arianna (above) has a beautiful voice remember that not only is she also playing the harp, but all the settings of the poems are composed by her as well. Meanwhile another eternal femine follows an invisible trail at Covent Garden's Linbury Studio Theatre as the Independent describes : - Dominique Le Gendre grew up around music. "Our next-door neighbour and landlady was a woman called Olive Walke, who was the leader of a choir called La Petite Musicale in Trinidad. My sister and I used to go and sit under her piano at the rehearsals,&qu

BBC Electric Proms premieres new rock opera

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Today’s Independent reports : - Two years ago, the BBC's director general Mark Thompson began his transformation of the corporation, cutting 4,000 jobs and promising in return a lean machine fit for the 21st century. The idea was that, with the savings made from the cutbacks, £350m would be ploughed back into programming. While many are still grappling with the realities of the seismic overhaul that has seen the corporation shrink by close to a quarter, the money is now trickling through. With it comes a wave of commissions. Notable among these is this week's Electric Proms, a five-day festival boasting more than 50 artists - among them Damon Albarn , James Brown and The Who - at venues in and around Camden Town in north London. Performances will be broadcast across BBC TV, radio, online and interactive, making the Electric Proms arguably the first tangible realisation of the all the management-speak; an example of Thompson's "360-degree commissioning", where co

Bill Gates compares Paul McCartney to Bach

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I'm sorry, I did say that the I had posted my last words about Paul McCartney, but I just have to share with you these words from today's Observer : - Paul McCartney's entourage is the first to come out fighting, releasing this weekend quotes from a laudatory DVD of McCartney's 2005 world tour. Following reports about his alleged physical abuse of his wife, the former model Heather Mills, his camp hopes that the counter-offensive will help the former Beatle. The new DVD will feature the warmest of praise for McCartney from no less than former US president Bill Clinton, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and various luminaries from the worlds of music and film. In the DVD, called The Space Within Us, Clinton labels McCartney 'an American icon'. He describes his music as a 'unifying force'. Gates goes further, comparing McCartney's work to that of Bach. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, re

New music comes in out of the cold in Iceland

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A thought-provoking article on Iceland by John Carlin in yesterday's Independent . Here is an extract supplemented by my own brief survey of the flourishing contemporary music scene in that remarkable country. The miracle of Iceland is that so much has been achieved in so little time in a country of only 300,000 people. Whether the miracle can be replicated in a bigger, more historically complex country is another story. Iceland has managed to arrange its society extraordinarily sanely. It has contrived to create an innovative entrepreneurial climate in which the price of failure is not destitution, as it might be in the US, but the guarantee of a social safety net that will feed and house you till the day you die, and take care of your children's health and education to the highest modern standards. A lot of people I spoke to in Iceland agreed that a large reason for the country's success was the absence of the cultural, religious, political and tribal baggage that other

Paul McCartney - the last word

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Magdalen College, Oxford presumably in the hope of notoriety, commissioned the former Beatle to turn his attention to "the classical end of things" for the inaugaration of a new concert hall. It took him eight years, but it sounds like the work of eight minutes. Melodically the cantata is banal to the point of embarrassment, while the macaronic text, which McCartney assures us tells us what really is in his heart is depressingly feeble. How the time drags. I could have washed up or emptied the bin - next! Rick Jones tells it like it is in his Times review of Paul McCartney's Ecce Cor Meum. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Rock idols and the Harry Potter fallacy

Malcolm Arnold and the rock idols

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The year is 1969, the group is Deep Purple, and the odd-man out in the suit and tie is Malcolm Arnold. Here is the extraordinary story behind this photo as told by Paul Jackson in his biography of Sir Malcolm. A few months after the Prom success of his Concerto for Two Pianos (Three Hands), Malcolm Arnold returned to the Royal Albert Hall to conduct a concert that would for many critics show that Arnold as a serious musician was now beyond the pale and without hope. The concert in question took place on 24 September 1969 and saw Arnold conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra alongside the rock group Deep Purple . The concert itself consisted of a performance of Arnold's 6th Symphony, a solo set by the band and finally the premiere of the Concerto for Group and Orchestra by Jon Lord , the keyboard player with the band. In the 1980s, orchestras willingly collabarated with pop musicians and recorded works by Queen or the Beatles , or David Bedford's symphonic treatment

Contemporary composers must never be bored

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Hi,I really enjoyed discovering your blog through your mention of our CD "Touch - don't touch", to which I (Moritz Eggert) also contributed a piece. Just now I sit in one of the most boring surroundings imagineable, a panel meeting of the Deutsche Komponistenverband , and reading your wonderfully educated and extremely enlightening blog was a wonderful reprieve of this boredom. Many thanks, and a good day, Moritz Eggert (photo above, and follow that link to a website well worth visiting). Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to A contemporary composer is very lucky ....

Early music speaks of the human heart

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I hope that Mr Sting's record does make people go out and discover early music like John Dowland because it's something I find calms my soul in times of trouble. Unlike later grand musical movements, the romantics and so on, which speak of grand themes of nature and politics and religion, early music speaks of the human heart, and that is the same now as it was half a millenium ago - Words of real wisdom over on Arthur Clewley's Diary , and Saturday took us to a harpsichord recital by Richard Egarr that really spoke to the human heart. The whole programme was exquisite, but the real delight was to hear several works by Antonio de Cabézon live. The music of Cabézon is rarely heard either in concert or on recordings, although he made a fleeting appearance here a while back. Cabézon was a blind composer and organist at the Royal Court of Spain, and was responsible for the education of Prince Philip and his sisters. He travelled widely in Europe with the prince, and visited

The Pentagon’s manna from heaven

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On 7 February 2000, Nato’s then Secretary General, Lord Robertson , wrote to the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan : I can confirm that DU (Depleted Uranium) was used during the Kosovo conflict … during approximately 100 missions. The GAU-8/A API round (left) is designated PGU-13/6 and uses a streamlined projectile housing a sub-calibre kinetic energy perpetrator machined from DU, a non-critical by-product of the uranium refining process … A total of approximately 31,000 rounds of DU ammunition was used in Operation Allied Force . The major focus of these operations was in an area west of the Péc-Djakovica-Pritzen highway … However, many missions using DU also took place outside of these areas. At this moment it is impossible to state accurately every location where DU was used. Before that admission, Finland’s Minister of the Environment, Satu Hassi , issued a statement: I think the EU should make an initiative: military use of DU should be forbidden. Depleted Uranium is a waste from