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Showing posts from January, 2015

In search of the lost chords

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Wars and tense political situations have had a profoundly negative impact on cultural life in a number of Arab countries and have endangered the transmission of musical tradition. Alongside Baghadad, Aleppo and Damascus belong to the most important music capitals of the Arab world and the cultural collapse underway in these places is accompanied by the loss of numerous historical documents, books, writings and artists' livelihoods and wisdom. By producing this CD we hope to save musical cultural assets from disappearing and, at the same time, to contribute something of our own. It lies in our hands to pass on traditions, to safeguard the fire and stoke it so that brilliant new colours may radiate from it. That is Nora Thiele writing in the sleeve note for the new CD Ahlam Babiliyya (Babylonian Dreams) . On it Nora Thiele plays frame drums with the Iraqi born oud player Saif Al-Khayyat in a programme of modern Iraqui maqam music - sample here . Middle Eastern music is based on a

New audiences - give us the facts not the spin

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Great numbers revealed at the Association of British Orchestras conference proclaims a Sinfini Music tweet . It refers to the good news given by the director of BBC Radio Helen Boaden in her keynote speech - see photo above - that 33,000 tickets for the 2014 BBC Proms were sold to first time purchasers. So as the good news has been widely circulated on social media, it is worth drilling down into the numbers. It is difficult to obtain information on Proms audiences, because the BBC only releases figures that spin well. But from data in the public domain , we know that the Proms audience expressed as a percentage of venue capacity dropped from 93% in the 2013 season to 88% in 2014. This means that the total attendance fell by 17,000, despite 33,000 Proms neophytes swelling the numbers. So in 2014 the Proms gained 33,000 first time ticket purchasers*, but lost 50,000 of its core audience, resulting in a net loss of 17,000 concertgoers. This picture is mirrored by Radio 3 audience

Stop trying to serve everybody, instead just serve the music

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John Cage's 26'1.1499" for a string player became a signature work for cellist and icon of the avant-garde Charlotte Moorman . She embellished Cage's original score by adding a section in which she set her instrument aside and played the body of a half-naked Nam June Paik as if it were a substitute cello. Considering Cage's reputation as an iconoclast, it is surprising to learn that he disapproved of Moorman's embellishments. In her definitive life of Charlotte Moorman , author Joan Rothfuss describes how "Cage and some of those in his immediate circle began to dismiss her interpretation - and her work in general - as overly concerned with self-presentation", and quotes Cage as saying "Paik's involvement with sex, introducing it into music does not conduce towards sounds being sounds". Today, classical music will try almost anything to reach new audiences, as can be seen from my header photo; a PR stunt for the 2014 BBC Proms so

Philip Glass meets the Pope

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Well not quite: but during recent travels I came across the double CD seen above in a splendid shop selling monastic artefacts in the medieval city of Troyes. Dominique Fauchard (b. 1968) trained as a classical organist, but branched out into jazz. Ex Sermonibus is a sequence of variations on Gregorian themes for piano. But, fear not, there is none of the Marian piousness of Charles Tournemire and the other Gregorian extemporisers . Instead it is more Philip Glass meets Ludovico Einaudi and Keith Jarrett during Mass. No, it's not the Hammerklavier Sonata, but it is all done with a beguiling lightness of touch and lack of pretension. This is music you either like or hate, and I feel guilty about being in the former camp. In fact, given the music's provenance, my guilt forced me to confess to liking Dominique Fauchard's transmuted plainsong. As penance I was told to listen to BBC Radio 3's breakfast programme for a week. Such is the price of sin. Ex Serm

Music with something important to say to our cynical times

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Nonetheless, I maintain hope that Rubbra’s time will come. There is too much quality in his work, in its craftsmanship and its distinctive voice, for it to forever remain in the shadows. He just needs a champion of suitable standing to bring his symphonies back to Britain’s concert halls. Even if you don’t share Rubbra’s religious faith (and I don’t) the essential goodness in his music surely has something important to say to our cynical times: its patient optimism, beautiful organic patterning and deeply felt spirituality are a welcome antidote to much of modern life. I was pleased to hear that comic writer Armando Iannucci included Rubbra’s eighth symphony in his choices for Radio 3’s Essential Classics last September. Such big-name advocates can only help more people discover this wonderful music . That extract comes from Simon Brackenborough's blog Corymbus . Simon's persuasive and beautifully crafted essay on Edmund Rubbra , which ignores all the silly conventions that pr

Classical music must go on a diet to survive

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In a comment on my post about orchestras touring China and the United Arab Emirates longtime reader Joe Shelby argues: "Better an orchestra with occasional trips to places we'd rather they not go, then no orchestra at all". I don't want to take Joe's comment out of context, because he quite rightly advocates more activism by musicians. But the view that classical music has to turn to ethically challenged destinations and also to ethically challenged funding to survive needs challenging. During a much reported presentation in 2013, Universal Music ceo Max Hole told orchestras they must change or die. He was right up to that point, but he was woefully wrong when he went on to tell orchestras how to change. The dogma expounded by Max Hole and generally accepted across the classical music establishment is that 'change' involves tinkering with the cosmetics of concert presentation . To date there has been absolutely no recognition of the very obvious

Occultism, farce and Milton Babbitt

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Despite inhabiting the twilight zone between occultism and farce, my recent post on why live classical music sounds better than recordings attracted a gratifyingly large readership . The Rudolf Steiner inspired explanation came from Joscelyn Godwin's provocative book Harmonies of Heaven and Earth . It is very easy to dismiss a book with chapters titled 'Kepler's Planetary Music', 'Tone Zodiac', and 'Gurdjieff's Law of Octaves', as New Age babble. But that is a dualistic viewpoint. As another quote from this eclectic volume shows: Milton Babbitt [seen above]... admits that totally serial music is and will always be a concern for the very few. ' Who cares if you listen? ' is the title of one of his articles. Yet for those who have penetrated his music, there is a satisfaction akin to that of higher mathematics, in which a perception of order upon order, of realms of totally logical organization, reunites the cerebral intellect with the

Inconvenient truths about classical music and free speech

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Following the terrible Paris shootings classical music has, quite rightly, has thrown its weight behind the freedom of speech movement, So it is worth noting that next week's Association of British Orchestras conference includes a session titled 'Touring China ' which explains how orchestras can exploit the lucrative Chinese market. China is now a regular destination for top orchestras and in the last few weeks both the London Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra have been touring the country. The standard measurement of press freedom is the World Press Freedom Index compiled by respected NGO Reporters Without Borders . In the 2014 World Press Freedom Index, out of 180 countries China is ranked 175th, a ranking which is below the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. In their commentary Reporters Without Borders describes how in China "human rights activists and dissident bloggers such as Xu Zhiyong and Yang Maodo

The quiet in the land

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With the William Schuman Award following on from a Pulitzer Prize , John Luther Adams is receiving the attention he deserves. His music is rich in linkages, and two of the more arcane deserve to be explored. In an essay Adams acknowledges what he calls "the remarkable book" The Tuning of the World by the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. The two composers have much in common, notably a passion for the wilderness areas of North America and the signature sounds - or lack of sounds - of those wildernesses. John Luther Adams' first string quartet The Wind in High Places has just been recorded , and at the core of Murray Schafer's output are twelve string quartets which, although recorded, are unjustly neglected. The quiet in the land is a leitmotif of Adams' music, and it is also the title of one of the programmes in Glenn Gould's Solitude Trilogy . These three radio documentaries were made for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) between 1967

If it's muck or mysticism, I'm on the side of the mystics

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It is pleasing to see my gentle advocacy of Raga Virga , a fusion of Indian Dhrupad songs and the chant of Hildegard von Bingen, reaching a wide audience via Facebook. My co-advocate is Paul von Wichert who hosts a programme on Winnipeg's Classic 107 , and in a comment about Raga Virga Paul says: "I hear a little Tibetan influence in O Splendidissima Gemma ". Which prompts me to share another discovery with readers. Mozarabic Chant was the liturgical plainchant of the Mozarabic rite of the Roman Catholic Church practised by Christians living under Arabic rule in medieval Spain, and it is important as a product of those far-off times when the three religions of the book co-existed in harmony. A pioneering recording of Mozarabic Chant was made by Ensemble Organum directed by Marcel Pérès for Harmonia Mundi in 1994, and this remains in the catalogue today. But, excellent as it is, the Ensemble Organum interpretation is really too hair shirt to reach a wide audience.

Lama in the sky with diamonds

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Recent unconfirmed but credible reports that His Holiness the Dalai Lama will open the climactic last day of this year's Glastonbury Festival do not come as a surprise. Last year I was able to observe His Holiness at close range during his Kalachakra teachings in Jammu and Kashmir . That experience prompted me to write about how the Dalai Lama's love affair with the Western media is strangely at variance with the concept of ego-death - anatta - which is central to Buddhism, and how he is eager to use egocentric show business personalities to front his appearances in the West. It is not without reason that The Daily Beast hailed the Dalai Lama as a "Twitter rock star" . The pursuit of ego-death does not deter His Holiness and those around him from embracing social media with a fervor that puts many rock stars in the shade, and that unedited header image comes from the selfie saturated Facebook page of a member of the Dalai Lama's inner circle. The Chines

Where's my stuff?

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Whenever possible I buy my CDs from an independent retailer . But sometimes availability or price dictates that one is bought from an internet seller. Over the years I have bought hundreds of CDs online, and of those only a handful have failed to arrive. But the occasional disc is lost in transit, and the latest victim is Raga Virga from Ars Choralis Coeln and Amelia Cuni . The online seller has an impeccable rating for reliability, and our local postman is beyond reproach. So what happened to Raga Virga ? Are there thousand of undelivered discs condemned to exist in the postal equivalent of saṃsāra? Or is someone in the UK postal system randomly opening CD packages in the hope of finding the latest Alfie Boe release? If so, what was the thief's reaction when instead they found a disc of Indian Dhrupad songs fused with the chant of Hildegard von Bingen ? Did the CD go straight in the rubbish bin? Or did this opportunist theft open their ears to the riches of both Hindustani s

Jordi Savall on the record

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That photo was taken when I was interviewing Jordi Savall for a radio programme in 2008. The interview has been available as a streamed audio file since then, but it has never been transcribed. However, the enthusiastic response to Timothy Stevens' invaluable transcription of my interview with Jonathan Harvey has now prompted me to undertake the task. The interview may have taken place seven years ago, but the messages in it - particularly the final paragraph - are, sadly, more true today than they ever were. BS Welcome to the 15th century church of St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, and to An Overgrown Path special that celebrates one of the truly outstanding musicians of our time. The viol player, conductor, composer and early music champion Jordi Savall was born in Catalonia in 1941. He started his musical training at the age of six before going on to study at the famous Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland. He founded the early music ensemble Hesperion XX with hi

Why live classical music sounds better than recordings

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There have been a number of musings On An Overgrown Path as to why recordings cannot quite capture the essence of live classical music . So I was delighted to find the following explanation of the shortcomings of sound reproduction in Harmonies of Heaven and Earth by Joscelyn Godwin. The author describes Ernst Hagemann 's theory as being on the borderline between occultism and farce. But that is a facile way to dismiss it. In today's recording studios a plethora of digital tools means that only the beautiful forms enter the microphone. As a consequence the ugly spirits are absent, and so the full artistic experience is lacking. Why is why live classical music sounds better than recordings. And before dismissing this post as an amusing mix of farce and occultism, remember that a number of prominent musicians were profoundly influenced by Rudolf Steiner, including Bruno Walter and Jonathan Harvey . The inevitable question, which could not have arisen before Edison's ph

The sound beyond silence

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In one of his discourses, Ajahn Sumedho , a teacher in the Thai Forest Buddhist tradition, tells how : 'I notice the kind of background sound which I refer to as the sound of silence, a resonating, vibratory sound. Is it a sound? Whatever it is - "sound" isn't quite accurate - I begin to notice a high-pitched kind of vibration that is always present. Once you recognise this point - at which one is fully open, receptive; when you recognize this sound of silence your thinking process stops - you can rest in this stream. It's like a stream. It isn't like ordinary sound that rises and ceases or begins and ends. The sound of the bell has a beginning and ending, and so does the sound of birds, the sound of my voice. But behind that, behind all other sounds, is this sound of silence. It's not that we create it or that it comes and goes - in my exploraration of this it's always present, it's just there whether I notice it or not. So once I notice it - an

Classical music targets the adult only audience

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I have argued before that classical music's new audience is grey haired . So it is good to see Melodiya agreeing and giving their new set of Tikhon Khrennikov 's symphonies and concertos a 16+ rating. No review samples involved in this post. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also on Facebook and Twitter .