Posts

Showing posts from January, 2014

Music of non-changes

Image
This year's Association of British Orchestras conference has the stirring theme of New Directions 2014. The conference is presented in conjunction with Classic FM, and yesterday's key note speech by Paul Morley is available exclusively on the Sinfini Music website which is owned and controlled by Univeral Music; coincidentally classical music superpower Universal Music also supplied last year's key note speaker, their ceo Max Hole. Tonight the delegates will be at the "elitist" Barbican Hall - Max Hole's description not mine - to enjoy Brahms and Walton with a dash of Maxwell Davies played by a leading London orchestra under a titled conductor . After which the great and good of British orchestras will doubtless return home preaching the gospel of change. New directions anyone? 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 wi

New audiences want classical music up close and personal

Image
'Most of today's music fans are not sitting in their living room, in the listening"sweet spot" of the stereo field, taking in every note of their favorite artist's new album. Most fans are listening in their car, on their laptop, or to their iPod with earbuds. And in most cases, the car, the living room, and so on, the listening device is most likely the iPod or some portable sound device equivalent' - Adam Ayan , Grammy-winning mastering engineer at the legendary Gateway Studios , Portland, Maine 'The truth is that great sounding recordings don't drive our industry. The average modern listener is okay with heavily compressed, grainy MP3s delivered from his or her phone through perfectly awful earbuds' - Kevin Becka , recording engineer and technical editor of Mix magazine 'When the audience changes, the music changes' - Aaron Copland Do you think the car you will be driving in ten years time will be identical to the one you are drivin

Importance of the negative view

Image
It seems it is not so easy, or wise, to express a negative view after all. But I do still recommend Jerry Mander's book In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Photo is (c) On An Overgrowmn Path 2014. This is redacted V2.0

How Benjamin Britten backed Pete Seeger

Image
Pete Seeger, who has died at the grand old age of 94 , had a little-known connection with Benjamin Britten. In 1955 Seeger was convicted of contempt of Congress six years after he had appeared 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. It is not known if Britten attended the London concert and the header image is a montage created by me for a 2012 post . But even though Seeger and Britten seem an unlikely duo there is a music connection: Britten set and Seeger recorded the folk song The Water is Wide , also known as O Waly, Waly

Eternal feminine or eternal spin?

Image
In May 2006 I ran a post lamenting the absence of women composers at that year's BBC Proms season. In those days there were very few people highlighting the gender imbalance in classical music, and that post is just one of many on the theme that have appeared On An Overgrown Path . In recent years a number of rather more influential people have, thankfully, spoken out about the under-representation of women in classical music. Depite their efforts the problem remains and continues to require urgent attention. Which does not stop me feeling distinctly uncomfortable about the artistic director of London's Southbank Centre Jude Kelly using the paucity of women in orchestras as a way to spin the launch of a rather underwhelming new Southbank season as seen above. Of course it is good that Marin Alsop, Lisa Batiashvili, Martha Argerich and Mitsuko Uchida are performing and that there is music by Stevie Wishart and Anna Clyne . But Marin Alsop conducting the London Philharmonic

How new technology did not save the record industry

Image
Good to see women and contemporary music triumphing in the classical categories at that most self-regarding of industry events, the Grammys . In her acceptance speech for three classical Grammys composer Maria Schneider "took the opportunity to lambast music piracy, calling it "legalized theft."" and her multiple Grammy winning CD Winter Morning Walks had to be 'fan-funded' by artistShare instead of being brought to market by a piracy-stricken major label. Just a few hours before seeing the LA Times report of the 2014 Grammys I had been reading the newly published Less Noise More Soul: the Search for Balance in the Art, Technology, and Commerce of Music . In this commendable anthology veteran radio presenter Rob Reinhart suggests the distinction between thief and victim in piracy is not as clear cut as the music industry would like us to believe. Here is the relevant passage: "Have you seen one of these?" It was a woman from Columbia Reco

Art for music's sake

Image
That self-portrait by Joni Mitchell for her album Both Sides Now has to be some of the best cover art ever. I was moved to post it by reading Katherine Monk's Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell . Also on Facebook and Twitter . No feebies involved in this post. 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).

Seeing things in a different light

Image
'I believe I can thank Columbia University, among other things, for having helped me learn the value of unsuccess' - Thomas Merton writing in Love and Living Syncretic light was captured by me in the lovingly restored L'Abbaye de la Lucerne in Normandy which hosts classical music concerts , and the photo is (c) On An Overgrown Path 2014. Any other copyrighted material 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). Also on Facebook and Twitter .

Not so mellow cello

Image
Some people think, probably with some justification, that I complain about the BBC too much. So I am sharing this comment which was added by Frances Wilson to my recent post about the programme Paul Tortelier at the BBC . Asinine, lazy television. Much as I enjoyed seeing clips of Tortelier, an artist whom I much admired, and was lucky to hear live as a child, I found the format simplistic and Petroc Trelawny's contribution largely irrelevant. Shame on the BBC, and especially BBCFour! 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).

Culture does not die - it reincarnates

Image
Those who value wisdom and insight will be saddened that John Terauds's Musical Toronto blog is lapsing into silence . John's decision to break the news and then go out blogging - which he does so well - is a model of humility in an age of histrionics and remorseless self-promotion. In another post Musical Toronto describes classical music as "an artform in profound transition" and the same applies to blogging. It is pleasing that in his valedictory post John says he is taking "a prolonged break" from music journalism rather than abandoning it completely, and I suspect he will be back in the future. John Teraud's musings on an artform in transition were sparked by the continuing tiresome announcements of the death of classical music, announcements that are being joined by pronouncements on the death of the blog . All of which are, of course, nonsense: culture forms do not die, they reincarnate. Blogging is being reincarnated in two different for

This is the house that Elgar built

Image
“I mean successful - but that is rock star stuff” was the comment made by a reader about the chateau once owned by Jacques Louissier when it featured here last year . Which started me thinking about a series of posts showcasing the houses of famous classical musicians. But the problem is that despite - or perhaps because of - rock star salaries there is very little information in the public domain about the homes of contemporary classical musicians. So this occasional series is kicking off with the house that Elgar built; or actually didn’t build, because Severn House, 42 Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead was constructed in 1888 for the celebrated portrait artist Edwin Long and extensively refurbished for the composer before he took up residence in 1912. The front doors of Severn House with their brass panels depicting men in armour are seen in the header photo. The house was demolished in 1937 so all we have are archive photos which I have digitally enhanced. However, despite the p

Classical radio loses yet more audience

Image
In response to my earlier post How classical music found a flourishing new audience a reader has pointed out the following news item: A court in Diss, Norfolk yesterday heard how a police raid last August on a smallholding near Thetford uncovered a cannabis factory. Giving evidence Detective Sergeant Peel said that more than 200 plants were found in the raided premises. Peter Storling age 42 from Tottington pleaded not guilty to producing a banned substance for sale on the grounds that the majority of the plants were dead. Storling explained that he read a New Zealand press report describing how cannabis plants flourished when played classical music. So he played his plants BBC Radio 3 all day, with the result seen in the photo above. The hearing continues today . As Brion Gysin said ' Nothing is true but everything is permitted '; however the true photo comes via Rhymes & Politics . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the pur

How classical music found a flourishing new audience

Image
A Gisborne man played classical music to his cannabis plants to encourage the crop to flourish, police say. Police uncovered the sophisticated growing operation with the potential to earn $500,000 annually last year. At the Gisborne District Court yesterday Verdun Sturgus Kemp, 21, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis. He was jailed for two years and one month. Detective Sergeant Wayne Beattie told Fairfax media that Kemp controlled the lighting, temperature and ventilation to grow 287 cannabis plants in his spare room, and a radio was set up to play classical music to the plants. Kemp told him the plants responded better to classical music. Sergeant Beattie said it was a "well-orchestrated growing operation". That story comes from the Fairfax News in New Zealand. Related trips include Could LSD have saved Tchaikovsky? and JSB on LSD . While elsewhere Elgar takes a trip , which leads to the positively Lebrechtesque Sex, drugs and classical music . Those cannabis plants

Classical music as a journey of joy and self-discovery

Image
The West has discovered how to tap so many powerful sources of energy in nature but still remains largely unaware of the tremendous force, even more powerful than nuclear energy, contained within each of us. As long as this powerful internal energy lies undiscovered, our life is doomed to the mental and emotional pressures so characteristic of our age. Classical music, which is designed to take advantage of this hidden inner reserve and utilize it to the maximum extent, offers us the best opportunity to overcome these pressures and transform our lives into the meaningful, integrated whole that we desire. That passage comes from the Preface to Introduction to Tantra by Lama Yeshe , but I took the liberty of changing the words 'The practice of tantra' in the final sentence to 'Classical music'; my sleight of hand is not entirely inappropriate as the foreword to the 2001 edition of Introduction to Tantra is by Philip Glass . The practice of Tantra is one of the most mis

In classical music all that Twitters is not gold

Image
Recent readership levels for On An Overgrown Path have been notably high and there is also an interesting trend behind those positive headline numbers. My recent post We need to widen the definition of forbidden music attracted few comments and generated little social media activity. Yet the number of people reading it - which is the true measure of success - has been exceptionally high. In fact the readership for the forbidden music post is significantly higher than other popular recent posts which have generated considerably greater buzz on Facebook and Twitter. This trend should be noted by all those classical music marketeers who confuse levels of social media activity with true measures of success. Also on Facebook and Twitter . Header image comes via Classic FM's guide to 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

Wagner, Mahler and Shostakovich all sound like film music

Image
In a typically thoughtful contribution to my post Why not play the premier league composers more often? Richard Bratby - who is professionally involved in classical music - mused "speaking solely from my own experience - there is a very noticeable falling-off in ticket sales when a symphony orchestra programmes pre-Beethoven repertoire, irrespective of the quality of the performance or the music, or the energy with which it is marketed. But why?" Now Kea has answered Richard's question with the following comment: Wagner, Mahler, Shostakovich, etc, all sound more or less like film music (or -- more accurately -- film music sounds more or less like recycled bits of Wagner, Mahler, Shostakovich, etc) and therefore don't require any intellectual involvement or serious effort to listen to. Understanding the music of Bach, Mozart or Haydn, etc (or for that matter Schumann, Brahms, Webern, Cage, etc) actually requires people to listen actively rather than being pulled alo

Paul Tortelier demonstrates the perils of television

Image
Last night's BBC Four TV programme Paul Tortelier at the BBC told us more about today's BBC than it did about Tortelier. Of course it was good to see priceless footage from the archives of the legendary cellist instead of the Perry Como and Andy Williams Christmas specials, the documentary about Abba and the re-screening of Mary Poppins that have filled recent schedules of the BBC's flagship arts channel. But, with big savings to be made to pay for all those executive golden handshakes , this was television on the cheap. For sixty minutes prime time TV the budget ran to no more than a quick trawl through the archives plus half a day in an empty radio studio for Petroc Trelawny to record the links. Yes, the programme was billed as 'Paul Tortelier at the BBC'. But there were no interviews with those who actually worked with Tortelier (he only died in 1990), no mention of - yet alone samples from - Tortelier at BBC Radio where his distinguished career Proms career st

Kitten on the harpsichord keys

Image
In May 2013 I wrote the following in a post composed while travelling in Languedoc : The cat seen above lives in the house in Assas that was the home of the legendary harpsichordist Scott Ross from 1984 until he died of an Aids related illness five years later. I took the photo a few days ago on the front porch of the little house in Languedoc, and it may be more than just charming image, as Scott Ross’ biographer Michel Proulx tells us that the harpsichord master adopted a black and white female cat while living at Assas. So could we be looking at a hitherto unknown member of a great music lineage? Since writing that post I have found the archive photo below of Scott Ross in front of his house in Assas taken in the late 1980s. When viewed with the photo above, it seems to confirm that a great harpsichord lineage lives on in Languedoc in feline form. Scott Ross' account of Scarlatti's Harpsichord Sonatas plays as I write. If you only buy thirty-four CDs this year - buy thes

Why not play the premier league composers more often?

Image
Much has been written about classical music's unhealthy obsession with composer anniversaries . So it is time to turn attention to the equally unhealthy obsession with music written in the twelve decades between 1854 (Wagner composed Das Reingold ) and 1971 (Shostakovich composed his 15th Symphony). In fact the obsession with composer anniversaries and the obsession with music from those decades has created a perfect storm, with anniversaries for Mahler, Wagner, Verdi and Britten followed by Richard Strauss this year and, wait for it, Sibelius and Nielsen in 2015. In fact a newcomer to classical music looking at concert programmes, listening to the radio or scanning CD release schedules, could be forgiven for thinking that the music written before Wagner is of little consequence. Which is, of course, terribly and dangerously wrong. There are a number of reasons for this unhealthy obsession. Musicians themselves are partly to blame: specialisation means that the pre-1854 reperto

We need to widen the definition of forbidden music

Image
One of the highlights of 2013 was the publication of Michael Haas' Forbidden Music . While working as a producer for Decca Haas was responsible for the invaluable Entartete Musik series which provided a retrospective of composers and works banned by the Nazis; at the foot of this post is the CD of music by Berthold Goldschmidt from that series. Haas is currently research director of the Jewish Music Institute for Suppressed Music , based at the School of African and Oriental Studies of the University of London and is also chief executive of Coralfox , a classical music consultancy and production company. In Forbidden Music , which almost certainly will become the standard reference work on the subject, Haas looks at the Jewish composers and musicians banned by the Third Reich for being 'degenerate', and the consequences for music throughout the 20th century. With a subtitle of The Jewish composers banned by the Nazis it is quite clear what the agenda of this meticu

They've opened a gulag for words

Image
They've opened a new gulag. The gulag for words. I go there every week, taking with me a shopping bag containing some fresh fruit, a bar of soap and a couple of tins of condensed milk. I call to a prisoner at random, then wait in the visitors' room with the gesturing crowd. The words file one by one out of a little door and stand in front of us on the other side of the wire. Pale. Trembling. Haggard. Shattered. Talk! barks the guard as he patrols the corridor that divides us, banging the grill with his keys. No one responds. Not the words, because their jaws are visibly broken. Nor the visitors because, as they suddenly realise - they really should have understood this earlier - the gulag has taken away their best words. Visit's over, the guard shouts, drawing a curtain we hadn't noticed before. Some barely audible words burst out, from which side of the grill no one could tell. Probably words of goodbye. That poem titled The Gulag for Words is by Abdella