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Showing posts from April, 2010

Sounds of Sufism

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One of the disciples would start to sing a devotional song in praise of their Sheikh. Many of Abdul Qadir's followers were musicians. There was Richard Thompson who sang with Fairport Convention , Ian Whiteman who was with Mighty Baby ; Roger Powell who was with a group called The Action ; and Peter Sanders, a photographer with a beautiful voice. In fact the Zawiya was a veritable den of stunning voices. In no time, the zihr session would be raised to another, more etheral plane. Then the fuqara would stand up, form a circle holding one another's hands, and be led by a high-ranking member of the Zawiya, standing in the middle of the circle, in chanting La ilaha illa'llah ('There is no God but Allah'), La ilaha illa'llah . The dancing disciples would inhale with La ilaha and collectively exhale with illa'llah . The chanting would start gently but as it gathered pace, the circle would become more of an octagon, and fuqara would begin to sway, throwing t

He loved music from the non-formal scene

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He also liked synthesisers because he loved Brian Eno's, or Philip Glass' music, but also that of Nina Hagen and other artists from the non 'formal' scene. I believe it was enough to present him with a subject which he would like for him to catch on it. I also feel that it is this dilettantism, in the most original sense of the word, which made him so accessible for every audience, because Scott disassociated his instrument from music at large, hence I might also say that he played in the same manner that the 17th and 18th century musicians did in their own time. An era which, far from being restricted to lace and sweeps of the leg, was just as brutal and hard for the body, included among the well to do, than what exists in the Third World today, and a fortiori for musicians; if we shall take this into consideration, it might help us to get away from any insipid prettiness. He, for one, had done this - from Scott Ross - An Unfinished Destiny by Michel Proulx. The qu

God save punk classical

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The recent death of the The Sex Pistols former manager Malcolm McLaren, the launch of the 2010 BBC Proms season and the future of classical music blogs come together on this path . My 'love it or hate it' header image was created as a parody of the famous Sex Pistols album cover by Francisco Arriba from Buenos Aires in Argentina. Francisco writes an excellent and little-known English language blog titled I Hate Music! and that brings me to the future of classical music blogs. Over on the similarly excellent Renewable Music composer Daniel Wolf penned an excellent post last week which said: I may well be missing some activity, but judging from the blogs I follow, there has recently been a aggregatel decline in the frequency and volume of independent classical music blogging, with the number of institutional music blogs increasing. In a comment on his blog I agreed with Daniel. By any measure the momentum is going out of the classical music blogs and the rise of the insti

Jewish music under the sheltering sky

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In 1959 Paul Bowles was awarded a grant by the Rockefeller Foundation to make field recordings of Moroccan music. Bowles was a sometime housemate of Benjamin Britten and a protégé of Aaron Copland , the relevance of whose Lithuanian Jewish descent will become apparent in the next paragraph. In 1947 Bowles had settled in Morocco where he established his reputation as a writer and influence on the Beat generation with his first novel The Sheltering Sky . In addition to a grant for the recording project the Rockefeller Foundation provided a professional-quality but mains powered Ampex tape recorder , which limited field recordings to locations where 110 volt mains was available . This handicap notwithstanding, Paul Bowles and two companions travelled 25,000 miles across Morocco over a three year period making more than 250 recordings of the country's musical heritage . But despite support for the project from both the Library of Congress and the Rockefeller Foundation the potential

A bus named Havergal Brian

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Havergal Brian's music may not feature in the 2010 BBC Proms season , but as a consolation prize the composer has had a bus named after him in Brighton . He joins other musical celebrities including Ralph Vaughan Williams (no symphonies at the 2010 Proms and just one more performance than John Foulds ), Frank Bridge (no music at all at the Proms), Albert Ketèlbey (ditto), Dusty Springfield (well OK) and the WHO (that's a good idea ) whose names adorn Brighton's bus fleet. The full list of named buses is here , we can only speculate why certain names (including Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip) are no longer displayed. Thanks go to reader John Shimwell (who brought us Noddy and Berg's ears ) for giving us the ticket to ride. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of Havergal Brian. But I wonder whether his bus works a very long route? More on the composer of 'The Gothic' symphony here . Image credit Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company . Any copyrighted mat

Breakfast time blues

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Wake up feeling all is good with the world. Decide I really should be more positive about BBC Radio 3 . Switch on their breakfast programme presented by Martin Handley . First music is more than promising, Rachmaninov arrangement of Mendelssohn followed by Malcolm Arnold film score. Then Martin Handley announces next track will be a listener request from a disc of children's favourites featuring Zippity Doo Dah and Santa Claus got stuck in my chimney . Throw myself across room and stuff first CD I can grab into player. Abdoulaye Diabate , Djeli Moussa Diawara and Moussa Cissoko's delicious brand of jazz from the unlikely combination of piano, kora and percussion fills the room. All is good with the world again . * Confession time: my copy of Kora Jazz is a pirate CD bought in Morocco . The RIAA should just view it as a promotional copy . * Trivia time: OAOP will be taking an extended summer intermission in a few weeks while we pursue some paths in Europe. One of them lea

Cracked Media - the Sound of Malfunction

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In a small warehouse gallery space in the centre of Sydney a noise turntablist, Lucas Abela , stands over a stack of vinyl that is bolted to the rotary device of an industrial sewing machine, Instead of spinning the records at 33 or 45 revolutions per minute this "turntable" spins the records at up to 2,850 revolutions per minute. The stylus itself is made of a meat skewer directly connected to a guitar amplifier, Abeka holds the makeshift needle against the records with difficulty; the speed of their rotation constantly whips his stylus off the vinyl discs. The sound is dominated by intense noise: loud bursts of sound join occasionally recognizable high-speeed cartoon-like tunes. The force with which the needle is applied to the discs causes them to shatter at regular intervals, and as they do shards of vinyl are propelled across the room; some are firmly embedded in the gallery walls. In total the performance lasts around eight minutes before the combination of vinyl and a

Five Movements (For Morty Feldman)

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My former teacher, Robert Keyser , introduced me to Feldman's music when I was an art student in 1971 with an old copy of a record. I've been interested in his music ever since then. Feldman's article, " After Modernism ", written for Art in America in December 1971, had a big influence on me as an art student at that time. Those words come from American painter Marc Salz (b. 1949) His Five Movements (For Morty Feldman) in oil on Baltic birch is seen above. There are more Morton Feldman resources here including links to nineteen other artists who have been inspired by Feldman's music. Morton Feldman features in the late night BBC Prom on August 20 in this refreshingly adventurous programme from the refreshingly adventurous BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra : John Cage First Construction (in Metal) Cornelius Cardew Bun No.1 (London Premiere) Howard Skempton Lento Morton Feldman Piano and Orchestra (London Premiere) John Tilbury piano BBC Scottish Symp

All the fun of the BBC Proms

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Today the Cirque du Soleil announces a touring show featuring the songs of Michael Jackson and the BBC Proms 2010 season is launched featuring a concert of film music by Rodgers and Hammerstein, including Carousel, The Sound of Music and South Pacific , plus another paying tribute to Stephen Sondheim. All great fun, but what is the real price of the BBC Proms ? * Full programme for the 2010 BBC Proms season available here . Base layer image credit: Al Seib and 2005 Cirque du Soleil Inc via Kam Family Blog . Montage is (c) On An Overgrown Path 2010. 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Let's talk new music

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How to find your own composing style, the challenge of choosing texts, culture under a Soviet regime, Latvia's 'singing revolution', the role of sacred music and the importance of music education are just some of the topics young Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds (above) covers in his Britten Sinfonia pre-concert talk which is now available as a podcast. The talk lasts for 30 minutes and there is an introduction by me followed by a discussion with Ēriks. The podcast takes a little while to load but is definitely worth waiting for. Very exciting things are happening musically in Latvia and this podcast gives us a rare opportunity to hear about them straight from one of the country's leading musical figures. Listen to the podcast here . Read about Latvia's El Sistema here , my post-concert thoughts are here , and more of my podcasts are here including Pierre-Laurent Aimard discussing Elliott Carter and Tom Gould on Piazzola, Golijov and what it takes to get a Canadia

Armenian Fantasies

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Armenian duduk master Djivan Gasparyan is best known for being championed by Brian Eno and for his crossover collabarations with the Kronos Quartet , Canadian guitarist Michael Brook and others. Which is a pity because, as is so often the case, the genuine article is better than the crossover concoctions. For the real thing try the two gems of CDs on the German Network label seen in my accompanying images. They are titled Armenian Fantasies and Heavenly Duduk , both are quite wonderful but the latter is the one to go for if you like your duduk straight with no chasers. Among the haunting tracks on Heavenly Duduk are two interpretations of songs by the celebrated Armenian musician Komitas Vardapet (1869-1935). Other Armenians influenced by Komitas include the composers Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000) and Tigran Mansurian (b. 1937). Alan Hovhaness' music is well represented in the catalogue while ECM has done a commendable job of making the quite outstanding music of Tigran Mansur

Silence is no longer a possibility

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* A library in East Anglia has been revealed as UK's most popular for the third year running. The Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library had more visitors and lent more books than any other in 2008/09. It attracted 1,519,524 visitors and lent 1,124,233 items, including books, DVDs and console games ... Derrick Murphy, cabinet member for cultural services at Norfolk County Council, said: "This news is not only a great success for the people of Norwich and Norfolk but is also a tribute to the commitment of our library staff in attracting and retaining readers through their innovative programme of activities and promotions that run throughout the year" - from BBC News. * A life without pauses and empty spaces is a meaningless and chaotic life. More and more, we poor modern concussed beings are subject to a barrage of sensory input. Some of us may welcome this onslaught but I imagine that if you're reading this book, you, like me, have to put in a fair amount of effor

Classical music marks Smolensk tragedy

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Polish Radio Two is webcasting two concerts tonight (April 18) in memory of victims of the Smolensk tragedy‏ . At 19.00 Polish time a live concert: Andrzej Panufnik - Epitafium katyńskie Henryk Górecki - III Symfonia pieśni żałosnych (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) op. 36 Łukasz Borowicz conducts Polish Radio Orchestra and Wioletta Chodowicz soprano At 22.00 Polish time a recorded concert: Krzysztof Penderecki - Polskie Requiem: Lacrimosa Johannes Brahms - Ein deutsches Requiem Alexander Liebreich conducts National Orchestra of Polish Radio, Krakow Philharmonic Choir, Christiane Oelze soprano and Stephan Genz - baritone Find Polish Radio Two here , convert Polish time to local here . It is noteworthy that three of the four works being broadcast in the tribute are from the twentieth century. As stations such as BBC Radio 3 abandon challenging programming so internet radio grows in importance as part of the classical music survival network. I have been hearing good things about internet

Postcards from record stores

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To celebrate international Record Store Day here are five postcards from music stores that have featured On An Overgrown Path recently. In the blog's typically footloose and fancy free way the stores are in Belgium , France , Britain and Essaouira and Marrakech in Morocco - just click on those country links to read the postcards. And if anyone is still wondering why we need Record Store Day here is an article I ran in November last year , and for which I make no apology for running again today. Another UK record store closes every 2.7 days Rock star Sting has called the X Factor "televised karaoke" and said judges like Simon Cowell have "no recognisable talent apart from self-promotion". The singer, 58, told London's Evening Standard that the Saturday night show was "a soap opera which has nothing to do with music". This no-punches-pulled story on the BBC website raises some interesting points. Let us forget for the moment that Sting has a

Morton Feldman at the Woodstock Festival?

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'We've decided to go classical with the festival this year, maybe a string quartet, more contemporary, like Morton Feldman? Very avant-garde'. Dialogue from Ang Lee's new film Taking Woodstock , that's the theatrical release poster above. The festival that's going classical is Elliot Tiber's White Lake arts and music event which became the Woodstock Festival after plans to hold the concert in nearby Wallkill were blocked by the town's residents. The Earthlight Theatre Troupe did make it from the White Lake festival to the big one, but sadly Morton Feldman's music did not. Probably for the reason that the dialogue in the impressively researched film does not seem to be in Elliot Tiber's book of the same title on which the film is based. However the connection is plausible as Elliot Tiber studied art at Brooklyn College with Mark Rothko, and Morton Feldman's music was influenced by Rothko's paintings , including of course his choral

Music under the black cloud

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This was the view from our garden in Norfolk, UK this morning. Acts of God can bring benefits. We are at Orlando Jopling's concert of the Bach Cello Suites at St Mary's Church, Redgrave this evening. The church is in deepest rural Suffolk, a beautiful area but one where the silence can be disturbed by low flying jets from the nearby airforce bases . Problem solved. Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2010. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The heart stops beating

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Twentieth century music for flute and piano in today's lunchtime concert at the King of Hearts in Norwich was overshadowed by news of the venue's impending closure . For the past twenty years founder Aude Gotto and her dedicated team have been presenting leading artists in recitals of early and contemporary music in the lovingly restored Tudor building. But the money has run out and a looming £60,000 anuual deficit is forcing the unique centre for the people and arts to close at the end of the year. Over the years music making at the King of Hearts has inspired On An Overgrown Path posts about Martinu , Messiaen , Ligeti , Bach and many others , and Aude Gotto herself has contributed articles on topics ranging from India to the film Into Great Silence . Sadly, soon the magnificent Tudor music room, seen in the centre of my montage above, will be as silent as La Grand Chartreuse . For those who still think that reports of the end of Western civilisation are exaggerated here

His works revive past music

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Pliable's second law of music says you can measure the worth of a composition by the number of paths it opens. In which case Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds Passion and Ressurection is a pretty worthy piece. Yesterday it sent us to Castel del Monte in Italy for jazz/classical fusion . Today it sends us to a country that like Latvia was once under Soviet control, for a truly great and inexplicably neglected Requiem. Valentin Silvestrov, whose Fifth Symphony has already featured here , was born in Kiev in Ukraine in 1937 and composed his Requiem for Larissa between 1997 and 1999 in memory of his wife the musicologist Larissa Bondarenko. Writing of Ēriks Ešenvalds Passion and Ressurection I said: It is familiar because it sounds so right. Music written from the heart as opposed to written to catch the prevailing wind of stylistic fashion will always sound right. Requiem for Larissa is another of those unfamiliar works that immediately sounds right. In a typically illuminating sl

Music to the power of eight

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ECM's pioneering Officium, which mixed the classical Hilliard Ensemble and jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek, made a welcome guest appearance here recently . Officium was recorded in the 16th century monastery of St. Gerold in Austria, and writing about it prompted me to listen again to two jazz/classical fusion discs recorded in another historic building. The Castel del Monte is a 13th century castle built by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Apulia region of southeast Italy. The castle, seen in my header image, is remarkable for its symmetrical design which is informed by the number eight. Each floor has eight rooms and there is an eight-sided centre courtyard, and, as seen below, the ground plan of the fortress is an octagonal prism with an octagonal bastion at each corner. French tubaist and serpent player Michel Godard trained as a classical musician and has worked with many leading orchestras, but he is best known as a progressive jazz musician*. He was attracted t