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Showing posts from March, 2012

Are African American artists stereotyped as tragic?

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I am always amazed at these characterizations of Philippa Schuyler and other African American artists who become large, well-known, acknowledged with mastery over their art, etc. They are always characterized in this way of 'tragedy'. Philippa had a pretty incredible life. Her death was a tragedy which many of us don't believe was an accident. She was an acknowledged, accomplished pianist, which was her passion and she achieved a status which few do even in the 30 plus years of her short life. Why does this negativity surround all African American artists? Why such characterizations and so consistent. I could do a language study on what is said about African American artists who are at the top of their fields and it will all read the same. None of us has a trouble free existence. We all have problems and all of our lives could be called tragic simply because we are human and exist. Report on her accurately and without this drama. She was an infinitely interesting, imaginati

A portrait of the cellist as a young man

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The appropriately young Alart Quartet from Spain has done classical music a big favour by making the first recording of Pablo Casals' early unpublished String Quartet. Composed when the cellist was seventeen, the Quartet has been recorded using a performing edition created from a manuscript in Pau Casals Collection in the National Archive of Catalonia . It comes coupled with Casals' uncompleted Sonata for Violin and Piano played by Josep Colomé and Katia Michel on a CD from Spanish independent label Klassic Cat made under the artistic directorship of North Carolina trained and Barcelona resident Mac McClure . Production values are excellent and the LP quality packaging by Barcelona based Mandaruixa Design deserves a mention, although the transposition of timings for the Quartet and Sonata did slip through unnoticed. Made for media discoveries of lost masterpieces are currently trending . So let's make one thing quite clear at this point, Pau Casals' String Quarte

Instant Karma

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She was a squat, canny, flat-faced woman, heavily pregnant, from Rebkong, a Tibetan town in northern Amdo known for turning out writers and free-thinkers, most famously the mercurial, opium-smoking monk Gendun Chophel , who was known to have debated publicly with eight different people at the same time, like a grand master playing simultaneous chess. (On being arrested in Lhasa in 1947 he was found to be in possession of a subversive history of Tibet, revolutionary pamphlets and a rubber woman.) From Patrick French's 'must read' Tibet, Tibet . Soundtrack is Philip Glass' score for Martin Scorsese's Kundun. The film, which Patrick French describes as "a beautifully crafted piece of Dalaidolatory", shares its screenwriter Melissa Mathison with E.T. More on Kundun here . 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 remove

Remember we are only custodians

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'Remember we never really own them, we are only custodians until somebody else takes over the job.' That aphorism has appeared in number of forms and I came across it again reading Bill Rees' newly published The Loneliness of the Long Distance Book Runner. In that context it was referring to books, but it applies equally to music. When it is finally realised that classical music defies ownership and branding , and that we are its custodians not saviours , the world will be a much better place. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Book Runner is a hymn to the trials, joys and tribulations of the second hand book market. It was a recent chance buy in Wolfgang Zuckermann's gem of a bookshop in Avignon and now news comes that Mr Zuckermann has finally taken a well earned retirement at the age of ninety and his shop will soon be reopening under new owners . More on a true legend in his own lifetime here . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Photo is (c) On An Overgrown Path 2

Stockhausen flies a kite

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Celebrating the Basant kite flying festival at the University of East Anglia this afternoon. Out of shot to the left is the university's school of music where Paul Hillier's acclaimed recording of Stockhausen's Stimmung was made for Hyperion in 1983. At the end of last year it was announced that the school of music would close in 2014 because, in the words of the university chairman, "the university cannot afford to continue to subsidise a school where the future prospects are so challenging". Being for the Benfit of Mr Kite! is a track on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which features Stockhausen on its cover . The Wednesday Greeting ( Mittwochs-Gruß ) that opens Stockhausen's opera Mittwoch aus Licht is based on the music from the fourth scene and the composer instructs that it should be played à la Bayreuth in the foyer, amidst flues, winds, blowers, kites, balloons, and flying doves. There is an insider view of the UEA school of music here

How would you fix a classical radio station?

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Hi, I saw your blog online and I was wondering if you’d be interested in joining a group of classical music enthusiasts on Friday 13th April at 6pm, to share your expertise, opinions and a glass of wine, followed by attending the performance of Sibelius Symphony No 2 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican. We are researching classical music on the radio (specifically Radio 3) and we want to hear the views of the experts – you! We would really appreciate your time for a discussion before the concert, which will be held at a venue near the Barbican. We want to explore your thoughts on Radio3 and steal some of your knowledge, in return we will provide the wine and the concert tickets. We really appreciate your help. We think it will be a really informative and fun evening. Best, Lara Bale – Social Media Executive - Initiative That amiable email arrived on Friday. Good news that the BBC has finally realised that Radio 3 is broken . But bad news that one of the tools they are usin

Countering the charm of tyranny

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This notion, that one's 'got it', often stunts any possibility of growth or originality. It's easy to slide from being sure of yourself to being sure that others are wrong (both feed off one another); it's easy to accept that the answer has already been worked out for you well in advance and all you have to do is nod your head, repeat the words, and step into your pre-assigned role. It could be argued that the various forms of fundamentalism we witness are modern-day reactions to the preponderance of doubt and uncertainty, to the fragmentation of narratives and our inability to turn to Nature, Reason, or God for some coherent picture and our place in it. What is historical here, and what deep, psychological impulse? Conformity, order, the end of the story, there in the beginning all along; the allure of belonging, the 'charm of tyranny' ( Buruma ). To talk of individualism today is, the detractors would say, to align oneself with the forces of capitalism. Th

Beware of classical music information loops

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In recent years, political writers have made note of a phenomenon they call " epistemic closure ". The term refers to the ease with which people become caught in an information loop that offers a fully satisfying explanation of the way things are and presents no challenges to that perspective. The great practical advantage of free speech and a robust media, it has been said, lies in the way they enable a continual testing of propositions and ideas. But the Internet and social networking, which some tout as mainly a force for good, also allows people to confine themselves to a Möbius strip of the like-minded. Evangelicals and gay activists, Tea Partiers and jihadists, anarchists and Marines - any group can exist within an information membrane of its own devising, unchallenged by outside sources. The consequences for civility and public discourse are becoming all too clear. To that list of evangelicals, gay activists, Tea Partiers, jihadists, anarchists and Marines, can be adde

From Gaddafi guerrillas to Grammy winners

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Despite widespread coverage of the Libyan and Tunisian uprisings, events in North Africa are otherwise neglected by the North American and European media. So, prompted by my recent post about the Berber psychedelic folk band Imanaren, Stephen 'who are the real Master Musicians?' Davis sends an email drawing attention to the uprising by armed Tuaregs in northern Mali . The Tuaregs are nomadic Berbers who are the majority inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. Colonel Gaddafi's political machinations included fomenting unrest in North African nations to the south of Libya using conscripted Tuaregs. Following the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime, rebel Tuaregs armed with sophisticated Libyan weaponry have attacked towns in Mali's northern desert, with a rebel spokesman explaining “Our goal is to liberate our lands from Malian occupation”. And in breaking news, within the last few hours reports have come that an Army coup reacting against the Tuareg rebelli

EMI's Reflexe action

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The Reflexe early music series from EMI's German subsidiary Electrola acheieved cult status in the 1970s , but since then has been absent from the catalogue. Now that is changing and some of the titles are appearing in EMI's new Electrola Collection series - Camino de Santiago: Musik der Pilgerstraße from Thomas Binkley and his Studio der Frühen Musik is seen above. These notable re-release are something else that has slipped under the radar as classical music focuses on the infinitely more important topics of a conductors's Olympic torch and boosting the profits of Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung . You are only reading this because I noticed the Reflexe releases in independent retailer Prelude Records yesterday. More music and chance here . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Pete Seeger committee revived

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News via Alex Ross of an online campaign to put Pete Seeger back on the Billboard chart echoes another campaign fifty years ago that brought together the two musicians seen above. Seeger was convicted of contempt of Congress six years after his 1955 appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. After his conviction and before his successful appeal, Seeger obtained the court’s permission to tour England. In 1961 he played at London's Royal Albert Hall in a concert promoted by the British “Pete Seeger Committee” which had been formed to support the embattled musician; Paul Robeson was president, the great ballad singer Ewan MacColl was chairman, and the sponsors were Doris Lessing , Sean O’Casey and none other than Benjamin Britten . There is no mention of Britten's support for Seeger in Humphrey Carpenter's definitive Benjamin Britten: A Biography but it is detailed in David Dunaway’s invaluable biography of Pete Seeger . We do not know if Britt

Now let's spin music sponsorship a different way

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London 2012 Festival celebrates global ethics Opening the London 2012 Festival on June 21 is the UK premiere of Jonathan Harvey's Weltethos performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner. Weltethos , which means 'global ethic' in German, pays homage to the radical theologian Hans Küng who believed that international peace can only be achieved by a global ethical consensus, and the work is structured around the teachings of six religious figures on ethical topics. Weltethos was written to a commission by the Global Ethical Foundation ( Stiftung Weltethos ) and the " premier partner " for the London 2012 Festival performance is multinational oil and gas company BP. BP's ethical track record includes the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which resulted in the loss of 11 lives and caused disastrous environmental damage . A US government report into the Deepwater disaster blamed it on poor management

He wanted to write Buddhist bubble-gum music

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'For this we needed musicians, and Allen [Ginsberg] made contact with a Japanese tantric Buddhist sect, known for their choir and instrumentalists, who lived in San Francisco in an old house at 2362 Pine... They were called Kailas Shugendo (Yamabushi) and practiced fire-walking... The most active was a younger, more energetic cello-playing adept called Jigme, whose real name was Arthur Russell ... Jigme... joined Jonathan Richman's proto-punk band the The Modern Lovers . After this he became a central figure in the New York gay disco scene and made a number of disco records under his own name featuring his amplified cello under layers of echo and reverb which revolutionised dance music. Tracks like 'Is It All Over My Face' and 'Go Bang' became great favourites at Studio 54 of composers such as Philip Glass. Allen Ginsberg said, 'He kept saying he wanted to write Buddhist bubble-gum music.' Arthur died of AIDS in 1992.' From the newly published In

I'm picking up good vibrations

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Regular readers will know I am a lapsed BBC Radio 3 listener . But yesterday evening's rare concert performance of Holst's Hymn of Jesus coupled with another rarity Strauss' Serenade for wind and that pinnacle of twentieth century music Elgar's Second Symphony, looked too good to miss. So I anxiously scanned the Radio 3 programme page for the usual above the composer billing for the presenter waiting to leap out of the speakers to aurally mug me , and drew a blank. So I tuned in with trepidation to hear an unidentified presenter, who for obvious reasons I can't credit, complementing rather than competing with the music, and, miracle of miracles, avoiding any mention of BBC New Generation Artists . Holst's Hymn was intelligently introduced and, glory be, the back announcement not only did not crash the reverberation of the final bars of Elgar's Symphony, but it also dispensed with the usual tired clichés in favour of simply identifying the music and the per

I don't want to tweet in my dreams

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BBC economics editor Paul Mason's new book about the Arab Spring Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions contains a chapter titled 'I Tweet in My Dreams': The Rise of the Networked Individual . However others who do not share Mason's unreserved enthusiasm for social media are striving to ensure that the Arab Spring is not followed by an autumn of Western digital culture in which the emergent democracies become no more than technology enabled markets for global brands. An example of this thinking is Beyond Digital , a project which is working with young people in Morocco using digital technologies to sustain rather than replace indigenous cultures . For an example see their Sufi plug in project which "creates a space where software design, music tools, encoded spirituality, digital art, and indigenous ontologies overlap". Beyond Digital has already scored a notable success using digital technology to bring a Berber band playing "

Who is oiling the wheels of classical music?

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Dow Chemical's sponsorship of the 2012 London Olympics has attracted attention due to the company's links to the 1984 Bhopal disaster in India. But a "premier partner" of the London 2012 Festival , which includes performances of Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach , Jonathan Harvey's new choral work Weltethos , concerts by Gustavo Dudamel and by the new Aldeburgh World Orchestra , as well as the world premiere of Stockhausen's Mittwoch aus Licht , has attracted less attention. As the header graphic shows, the pole position sponsor of the London 2012 Festival is global oil and gas company BP, the company responsible for the environmentally disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. No suggestion of boycotts or demonstrations. Just a suggestion that people should be aware of who is oiling the wheels of classical music . * More on this story here . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is includ

Why no excitement about Lou Harrison?

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More proof that classical music is excited about the wrong things is provided by the lack of coverage for Eva Soltes' important new film Lou Harrison: A World of Music . Now back to the breaking news about that armless Chinese pianist ... Also on Facebook and Twitter . I have changed the aspect ratio of the film poster as the blog layout does not like extreme portrait format graphics - the original poster can be seen here . Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

When ideas fail, words come in very handy

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Writing about the forthcoming Birmingham performance of Stockhausen's Mittwoch aus Licht BBC arts correspondent Rebecca Jones tells us : 'The opportunity to see it performed in its entirety for the first time will, therefore, become a significant landmark in the history of opera.' Leaving aside the tortured syntax, can anyone provide an example of an insignificant landmark? Or is it a case of dream on ? Also on Facebook and Twitter . Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Awakening the inner analogue

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Digital culture's hatred of ambiguity was the theme of a post in March last year and since then the search for my inner analogue has led me to the realm between the known and unknown recognised in Sufism as barzakh or the intermediate world, and on to that celebrated guide to the intermediate states the Bardo Thödol Chenmo , aka the Tibetan Book of the Dead . Trilogie de la Mort (Trilogy of the Dead) is a three part work created by French composer, wife of maverick sculptor Arman and Buddhist practitioner Eliane Radigue , seen above. The trilogy was created between 1985 and 1983 using an analogue ARP 2500 synthesizer . Part one, ' Kyema ', is inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead and invokes "the six intermediate states that constitute the existential continuity of the being". This is followed by ' Kailasha ' which portrays an imaginary pilgrimage around Mt. Kailash, the sacred mountain in Tibet. The concluding section ' Koumé ' evokes re

A composer and his guru

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Olivier Greif was born in Paris in 1950, his father was a Polish Jew who survived Auschwitz. Greif's musical talent was identified when he was three and he entered the Paris Conservatoire aged ten to study piano and composition. He went on to study composition with Luciano Berio in New York where he moved in the same circles as Salvador Dali , Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol and Leonard Bernstein . All the accompanying photos, with the exception of my header montage, come via the Olivier Greif website and include shots of Greif with Dali and Bernstein. In 1970 Olivier Greif was appointed Luciano Berio’s assistant at the Santa Fe Opera and started exploring the music of West Coast composers including Terry Riley and La Monte Young. Despite his eclectic musical tastes Greif rejected serialism and electronics and instead developed a unique style influenced by Britten and Shostakovich, and he made a now deleted commercial recording of Britten's piano music . Greif's compositions can