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Showing posts from November, 2010

Songs of innocence and experience

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The power of music in the form of Gregorian chant first took me to Le Barroux outside Avignon many years ago and my earliest post about the monastery there was uploaded back in 2004. A number of return visits to Le Barroux and to other Catholic monasteries in France allowed me to explore the links between plainsong and mysticism . But those visits also brought me face to face with the connection between traditionalist Catholicism and right wing politics. So, after careful research, I published an article on Holocaust Day in January this year detailing the link between the right wing cleric Archbishop Lefebvre, founder of the controversial traditionalist Catholic Society of St. Pius X , and the convicted French war criminal Paul Touvier. When Decca announced that they had signed the nuns at L'Abbaye de l'Annonciation at Le Barroux in a bid to win the biggest classical popularity contest of all, Christmas number one, I wrote and broadcast in praise of the Gregorian c

Classical music and dumbed down ears

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The implication here being that young people simply can’t hear the greatness that is classical music. The music is simply too complex for their dumbed down ears. This sort of statement doesn’t seem to phase the classical audience that will likely be reading it but anyone who’s not already in that circle is probably going to feel, as I did, that this is a bit of a shot at those who listen to popular music. The intentions in all of this are great. We need more people asking questions about why the classical audience is ageing and trying to find out what will keep this tradition vibrant but it’s at least a little ironic to me that the very people doing this tend to perpetuate some really bad PR. It’s all seems to add up to people asking, “How can we get people to step up to our level?” As opposed to asking, “How can we make ourselves relevant to a world that doesn’t even know we’re here anymore?” That is audio engineer, composer, and guitarist Josh McNeil's interesting riposte to re

Classical music adds visual slam

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"Shouldn't we be making classical music more visual to attract younger audiences?" was the question asked in See the music . When I posed that question last year a marriage between classical music and contemporary visual art was no more than a dream. But Nov 12 brought resounding confirmation that the visual could provide a way forward to reach new audiences. Aldeburgh Music's innovatory Faster Than Sound project presented an evening of new music in the Britten Studio at Snape. All the compositions were created in an Aldeburgh Residency that explored the relationship between the acoustic and the electric. Spheres and Splinters provided the finale, this Aldeburgh Music commission for MIT guru and composer Tod Machover was played on a hypercello by Peter Gregson accompanied by interactive visuals. British based collective UnitedVisualArtists (UVA) created the visuals. Best known for their collabarations with rock acts such Massive Attack, Kylie, U2, and Jay-Z,

Colonial attitudes within Western music

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I have never felt comfortable with the economic, social and cultural order that reigns over the field of ‘world music’, that makes Western artists travel to countries in the East and the South that possess rich musical traditions. They collect music, repertories and musicians from there and return to fructify this godsend in the privileged world of the well-off West, where the art market is structured in a sufficiently rational manner to allow musicians to develop their careers and live off their art. None of us find this strange. The audience in those countries rarely have the opportunity to judge the results of our work as it is almost unavailable to them. Perhaps the time has come to reverse this trend. In any case, I feel the need to do so in order to preserve the coherence and balance of my own journey as an artist and as a human being. Yesterday I asked "Could [the mass market fallacy] also explain why creativity continues to flourish in genres such as world music and jazz

Classical music and the mass market fallacy

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So much effort goes into trying to find a mass market for classical music, all with remarkably little success. Could it be that there is a large market for classical music, but not a mass one? Could it be that classical music is granular and is made up of lots of connected but different niche markets? Could it be that there is no such thing as 'one size fits all' classical music? Could it be that when classical music is homogenised for the elusive mass market it loses its essential appeal? Could the mass market fallacy explain why so much classical music today is bland and unappealing? Could it also explain why creativity continues to flourish in genres such as world music and jazz which have shed their mass market pretensions? A perfect example of granular new music exploding into a blaze of creativity is the CD seen above. Dawn of Midi is a collective made up of Pakistani percussionist Qasim Naqvi , Indian Aakaash Israni on string bass and Moroccan pianist Amino Belyamani ,

Sarkozy's first CD?

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Channel Classics has the scoop . "In fact, no label had issued a (Beethoven) symphonic cycle in three years, and none was likely to do so again" as someone once told us . My wife points out that President Sarkozy dyes his hair and Ivan Fischer does not. That thread continues here and the French first lady's musical connections are here. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Also on Facebook and Twitter .

Beyond Katherine Jenkins

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sfmike has left a new comment on the post " Classical music tries Californian envangelism ": Hey, don't blame California for these frauds. That's like blaming Wales for Katherine Jenkins . Quite so Mike. But no need to blame anyone for John Jenkins (1592-1678). That is the Avie CD of his Six-Part Consorts above. It comes from Phantasm who also brought us the Byrd Four Part Mass without voices . But can I say a word about musicians like Katherine Jenkins ? Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Also on Facebook and Twitter .

The ministry of silly talks

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BBC Radio 3 presenters seem to earn bonuses for the number of times they use certain buzz words. Currently there is a big incentive on the word live . This is presumably in a futile attempt to differentiate the network from its close relative Classic FM which broadcasts fewer concerts. Just now we had Radio 3 classical jock Sarah Walker telling us that we had been listening to "Wilhelm Kempff live in concert". How many times have you heard a pianist dead in concert? RIP the art of the animateur . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

A musician is also a person

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'When you hear the sound of nuns chanting, it's like an immediate escape from the challenges, stresses, noise and pace of modern living. You're given a glimpse of a secret world of peace and calm - Tom Lewis, Head of A&R at Decca Records My header photo shows the Abbaye de Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation at Le Barroux in France. The quote below it comes from Voices - Chant from Avignon , the official website of the new CD from the nuns of the Abbey. This album was released on Nov. 8 and Decca is hoping it will chart over the Christmas period. To achieve this the label are running TV commercials in the UK, which is very unusual for a classical release. The official Chant from Avignon website provides a great introduction to the album. But there are also some aspects of the nuns "secret world of peace and calm" not mentioned there that deserve to be shared. The Abbaye de Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation at Le Barroux, which was founded in 1979, is a sister

Classical music tries Californian envangelism

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Aldeburgh has a long association with both contemporary and electronic music and my header photo was taken at Aldeburgh Music's 2007 Faster then sound festival . On November 6th Aldeburgh explored a new path with a one day TEDx conference featuring a slew of speakers and musicians from that crucially important area where classical meets contemporary meets electronic meets rock music. TED stands for 'Technology Electronics & Design' and is the brand of the privately owned not-for-profit Sapling Foundation. Its main activities are networking conferences dedicated to "ideas worth spreading". The TED movement originated in Silicon Valley, California and its events have been held in Monterey, Long Beach, Palm Springs and international locations. Central to the conference format is a strictly enforced 18 minute duration for presentations and speakers have included Bill Clinton, Malcolm Gladwell, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, Google founders

Bernstein's lost masterpiece

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On An Overgrown Path's server logs recently showed a visit by 'The Leonard Bernstein Office'. When I mentioned this to a friend the following response came back: In monk terminology from the Middle Ages that could be a long piece recited throughout the day which no one knows Lenny ever wrote... Lenny's Mass featured here. Header photo shows Lennie with Robert Corff in rehearsal for Mass . 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 Also on Facebook and Twitter .

Who wears the trousers in classical music?

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Anecdotal information leads to an interesting path. I am told research shows that around 95% of readers of Gramophone magazine are male. There are two ways of looking at this. First, and this is the one as a committed non-reader I subscribe to, Gramophone has long ceased to have any real relevance to classical music. But the second explanation is worth reflecting on and revolves around the assumption that the magazine still plays a role in decision making. Classical music audiences are most definitely not 95% male. But could it be that decision making among classical music listeners is still male dominated? Every possibility needs to be considered in the search for new audiences . Also on Facebook and Twitter . 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 do

Free thinking BBC?

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BBC Radio 3 is having a free thinking festival this weekend. Here is my contribution . And it is not just me . Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Also on Facebook and Twitter .

Exploited for the symphony-going public

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'Eight freedom songs Merton had written a few years earlier had been set to music by Alexander Peloquin for a young black singer who had subsequently disappeared to Ireland to take part in a successful show. In the end Peloquin used the songs in a symphony for Eileen Farrell , and Merton found himself accused of selling out, of using the sorrows of the black race simply as material to be exploited for the symphony-going public' - from The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton by Michael Mott * John Jacob Niles' less accident prone setting of Thomas Merton's The Responsory features in my Chance Music homage to Catalonia. Listen to the podcast here. Chance Music will be broadcast/webcast on Future Radio 107.8 FM at 3.00pm UK time on Sunday Nov 7 with a repeat at 1.00am of the morning Nov 7 to 8 - listen here . A podcast will be available here after the broadcast. Photo of Thomas Merton via alexsothblog . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair us

Another legend passes

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Rudolf Barshai died on Nov. 2 aged 86. Above is my 1965 EMI LP of Barshai conducting the combined forces of the Bath Festival Chamber Orchestra and Moscow Chamber Orchestra in Sir Michael Tippett's masterly Concerto for Double String Orchestra . A quite scintillating account which lost its sonic slam in the early CD transfer in my collection. The LP format has gone, that evocative style of artwork has gone and now the conductor has gone. Will the label itself be the next to go ? Also on Facebook and Twitter . 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

His master's assets

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Citigroup Wins Legal Dispute Over EMI Group Deal . So, as I predicted in February, there is now a real possibility that EMI will breach its loan agreements causing control to pass to financial conglomerate Citigroup. This could start a firesale of the record company's assets. Do we need an international cultural exception? Also on Facebook and Twitter . With thanks to Antoine Leboyer for the heads up. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

'A musician is also a man'

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So it was that in the spring of 1939 I came to Prades. I could not have imagined at the time that I would spend the next seventeen years of my life in this little town in the Pyrenees. And in spite of the sorrow in me, I found respite in my surroundings. With its winding cobbled strees and whitewashed houses with red tiled roofs - and the acacia trees that were then in bloom - Prades might have been one of the Catalan villages I had known since childhood. The countryside seemed no less familiar to me. The lovely patterns of orchards an vineyards, the wild and craggy mountains with ancient Roman fortresses and monasteries clinging to their sides - these too were a replica of parts of my homeland. Indeed, centuries before, this very region had been part of the nation of Catalonia - from Joys and Sorrows by Pablo Casals Today Prades wears its Casals connection lightly but proudly. There is no Café Casals in the main square, none of his recordings grace the shop windows and the two house

Classical music must put its house in order - 2

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The blind leading the blind . Classical music must put its house in order - 1 is here . 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 Also on Facebook and Twitter .

Music and movement

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The future must bring things which are considered blasphemous like... an atmosphere where people can come and go and even talk perhaps.. and certainly leave in the middle of a movement if they feel like it. That prediction from Jonathan Harvey takes us down an interesting path. One in four Americans over the age of 12 listen to music on iPods and similar digital music players and 37% of those mobile players are owned by 18 to 34 year olds . Those statistics simply confirm what we already know, music and movement are becoming inseparable, particularly among the younger generation. Yet classical music remains an essentially static artform. From the back seat of many concert hall, which is all some young people can afford these days, the musicians are distant motionless dots and the sound lacks slam . Music and movement go back a long way. Classical music has its roots in medieval dance and David Munrow's Two Renaissance Dance Bands was central to the popular revival of early musi

New music for old instruments

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There is a neat inversion of yesterday's theme of modern orchestras being influenced by baroque performance practices in the double CD above. About Baroque features the unusual combination of contemporary music and period instruments. It was the product of an innovative funding initiative by the Siemens Arts Program that brought together the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and five leading young composers in a series of workshops and rehearsals that allowed the composers to understand the sonic potential of period instruments. The output from the programme was five new works from Michel van der Aa , Juliane Klein , Rebecca Saunders , Benjamin Schweitzer and Nadir Vassena written specifically for the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. These were captured in concert performances and released on About Baroque in 2006. Let's make one thing clear, About Baroque is not ersatz early music. It is very contemporary music written for a leading period instrument ensemble. And how well it wo