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Showing posts from June, 2016

The composer with a thousand faces

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Kevin Scott has added this as a comment to my article about Havergal Brian , but it deserves a post to itself: No doubt that Havergal Brian has been, shall we say, "hyped" up, but in spite of all of this, bear in mind that many of Brian's symphonies have yet to be heard in this country. I should note that Bernard Herrmann was the first American conductor to perform anything of Brian's, and that was his Doctor Merryheart Overture with the CBS Symphony in the mid-1930s when Brian was practically unknown in this country. I'm sure Herrmann was familiar with some of the early symphonies, especially when he made frequent visits to England in the 1930s and 1940s, which I feel inspired, in part, his scores to the movies "Mysterious Island" and parts of "The Battle of Neretva". That said, it would be nice if an enterprising conductor took on Brian's early symphonies, such as the epic Third with its two concertante pianos, the gargantuan fourth

No one must be allowed to capture the flag

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Rumours have been circulating for some time of references to Islam in Uwe Eric Laufenberg 's new production of Parsifal which opens in Bayreuth on July 25th , and today comes news that the opera's conductor Andris Nelsons has pulled out for unspecified reasons four weeks before the opening night. Although the more lurid rumours about the production have been dismissed by Laufenberg, they do seem to have at least some substance as he is quoted as saying that there is a reference to Islam, albeit brief, in the new production. Which leaves me wondering whether Laufenberg has read The New Wagnerian by Ian Dallas, who is better known as the Muslim teacher and prolific author Abdalqadir as-Sufi . Although Abdalqadir as-Sufi has achieved a degree of notoriety as a preacher, as Ian Dallas he knows his Wagner and The New Wagnerian certainly cannot be dismissed as a fundamentalist tract. In it he quotes Wagner as speaking in a letter to Hans von Wolzoen of "the future meani

How classical music became a pseudo-event

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A recent thread On An Overgrown Path that culminated in a reader's assertion that it's OK to program something that isn't perfect , received widespread support. This strand was an extension of my argument that audiences need permission to like unfamiliar music . In turn this reflected the response of "I've always felt that it is and will be strong enthusiasm that will change the world" by the much-missed Jonathan Harvey to my early advocacy of his music. But despite this, I am proposing today rather contrarily that excessive enthusiasm as well as excessive neglect can harm a composer's music. In his 1961 book The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America the historian Daniel J. Boorstin coined the term 'pseudo-event' for events that are staged specifically to attract media coverage. He asserted that pseudo-events are in reality 'synthetic news', and that manipulation to maximise media exposure reduces the spontaneity and intrinsi

He found a piece of the truth

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A gratifyingly positive response to yesterday's post prompts me to return to the wisdom of Jiddu Krishnamurti . My header image shows the original Deutsche Grammophon release of Mohan Kauns , which Ravi Shankar composed at white heat following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in January 1948. Gandhi famously declared that "My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God." Which underlines both the contemporary and perennial relevance of this story told by Krishnamurti*: The devil and a friend are walking the earth. Ahead of them, they see a man bend down and pick up something shiny from the ground; he looks at it with delight, puts it in his pocket and elatedly walks off. The friend asks, 'What did that man find that changed him so much?' The devil answers, 'I know; he found a piece of the truth.' 'By jove!' exclaims his friend: 'That must be bad business for you!' 'Not at all', the devil replied with a sly

Listening to music attentively is meditation

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As I grow older and as the world grows more insane - both of which seem to be happening at an accelerating rate - I find more and more wisdom in the thinking of Jiddu Krishnamurti , who is seen above. His teachings are very relevant to our current predicament, particularly his sentiment that "We are human beings, not labels". Writing in the introduction to the anthology of his teachings Freedom from the Known , his biographer and editor Mary Lutyens - mother of the still-neglected composer Elisabeth Lutyens - explains: A major obstacle, [Krishnamurti] says, is when we misapply thought based on past experiences to a completely new challenge that demands to be looked at totally anew. Avoiding action that is wrongly dictated by the past is clearly often a problem for our political leaders. Freedom from the Known was compiled at the request of Krishnamurti and its title was given by him to its editor Mary Lutyens. During its editing Krishnamurti said to her that "If

Social media and the Brexit autumn

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The Arab Spring in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt was dubbed the 'Twitter revolution' because of the role played by social media , and social media activity is now central to political strategies. Following the Leave victory in the UK EU referendum, considerable attention is being paid to the role of age, education and other demographics in the split between Leave and Remain. But to my knowledge there has been no attempt to correlate propensity to vote Leave with social media usage. Analysis shows that those over 60 were most likely to vote Leave, and, those with a higher level of education were more likely to vote Remain. So in the absence of empirical data I am proposing that as social media usage is highest among the young, well-educated and socially mobile, it is highly likely that Leave voters have a materially lower usage of social media. It is acknowledged that phenomenological as opposed to virtual events provided the tipping points in the referendum; notably the now app

We reap what we sow

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'... the EU Commission has been dysfunctional throughout the process and unfit for purpose. What needs to be done to make these time-servers democratically accountable?' - Slipped Disc : 31/5/2016 'This EU press release has just landed. It’s an instant fudge that admits no error and patches over the recent chaos. An appalling piece of misgovernance from start to finish' - ibid : 1/6/2016 Those are just two of the public attacks made by Norman Lebrecht on the EU during his coverage of the recent European Union Youth Orchestra funding crisis. It is bad enough that this is the same 'cultural commentator' who tweeted yesterday that "Turkey just voted for Christmas" and "All things considered, we're screwed". But what is worse is that none of classical music's great and good have the balls to disassociate themselves from Lebrecht's cynical opportunism . Readers will know that I am passionately pro-inclusivity , and it goes with

How we shot the messenger

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Yesterday brought the shocking news of the murder in Karachi of the great Pakistani qawwal singer Amjad Farid Sabri, killed according to early reports by the Taliban. News media has focussed on the circumstances of his death, with minimal coverage of his art other than via the easy option of embedded YouTube clips. But Amjad Farid Sabri deserves to be remembered for more than being a famous Sufi singer who was allegedly murdered by the Taliban; both because he was part of a musical dynasty that built pioneering cultural bridges between the East and West, and because his backstory provides a valuable perspective on the sectarian violence that continues to blight the Indian subcontinent. Amjad Farid Sabri - seen above - was born in 1976. He was the son of Ghulam Farid Sabri (1930-1994), who was one of the two musicians - the other was Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - responsible for popularising the genre of Sufi devotional music known as qawwali. Ghulam Farid Sabri came from a celebrated fa

Riches brew

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The revelation that the music director of an American orchestra received more than $5 million US dollars in remuneration in 2013/14 reminds me of a quote from Miles Davis, whose wise words explain many of classical music's current problems : 'Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent'. Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

Every picture tells a story

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Eight years ago I was among the first to highlight the imminent technology-driven demise of the traditional halakis - storytellers - in the famous Djemaa el Fna public space in Marrakech, Morocco. Since then others have paid homage to the dying oral art of the halakis , including Richard Hamilton whose excellent book The Last Storytellers documents some of the stories they tell. When I revisited Marrakech a few weeks ago I was delighted to find that one of the biggest night time crowds in the Djemaa el Fna was gathered around a young storyteller. This was a story worth sharing. So standing at the back of the audience I took out my camera to discretely - no flash - snatch the photograph seen above. But the halaki saw me out of the corner of his eye, cut off his story in mid sentence, and barged his way through the listeners to thrust his hat in my face and demand money. So the good news is that storytelling is alive and well in Marrakech. But at a price. No review samples used

Racism disguised as patriotism must not prevail

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Hubert Parry’s inspired setting of William Blake includes the famous lines ‘Till we have built Jerusalem, In England’s green and pleasant land’. Over the years Parry's Jerusalem has become associated with rabid nationalism , and racism disguised as patriotism is dominating the current political agenda both in Britain and the US . However the album artwork above is not there to illustrate the danger of nuanced racism, but rather to explode the beguiling myth surrounding Parry's Jerusalem. Because far from being the product of ethnic nationalism, Jerusalem started life as a rallying cry for a spiritual movement formed, to quote its founder, to appeal "to the whole of humanity... Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists... " And that is only the start of a long but remarkable story, because Sir Francis Younghusband, who commissioned Jerusalem in 1916, was an evangelical Christian Colonel who led colonial forces in a bloody invasion of Tibet. But in his mature years he became

Music answering the growing cry for help

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'With one Church you have tyranny; with two, civil war; but with a hundred, peace' - Voltaire That photo was taken yesterday evening in the Catholic church of Notre Dame de l'Assomption at Coëx in the Pays de la Loire region of France. The concert of north Indian music and Sufi chants was given by Nawab Khan and his ensemble Mantra - santoor, sarangi, tabla and voice. Nawab Khan comes from a family of musicians who performed in the royal courts of the Maharajas of Rajasthan. His very topical mission is to explore the spiritual and healing elements of Indian classical music, and he studied with two great Indian practitioners of music therapy. Mantra take a syncretic approach to spirituality and their music mixes Hinduism, Islam and the Christian tradition. The audience for last night's concert included a sizeable group of adults with developmental disabilities, and the communication between the musicians and this group was particularly striking. Mantra's late eve

There is nowhere near enough success to go around

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My recent question as to whatever happened to the future of classical music has gone unanswered. So in the absence of exclusive revelations from the inside track cultural commentators I am forced to conclude that the Bristol Proms suffered the same fate as Sinfini Music - another big new idea that wasn't quite big enough to survive the perpetual game of musical chairs at executive level in Universal Classics. But this is not the time for schadenfreude . Because classical music needs to change, and if we drill down through the inevitable corporate posturing and ego massaging, both the Bristol Proms and Sinfini Music offered a worthwhile challenge to some of the art forms silly conventions . So the purpose of this post is not to gloat, but to ask if there are any lessons to be learnt from yet another failed attempt to reach a new audience. In the absence of any inside information I have to conclude that the Bristol Proms, like Sinfini, was a heavily funded initiative to promote

These ocean crossings gave birth to a new society

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Jardins Migrateurs is a new CD from Montreal-based Ensemble Constantinople (Iranian setar and tombak , and viola da gamba) and Sengalese kora master Ablaye Cissoko - sample the album here . The title refers to the travelling gardens - jardins migrateurs - that invoked paradise in Persian culture. These travelling gardens found expression in the walled gardens of Moroccan riads and reached their apogee in Granada's Alhambra. Setar player Kiya Tabassian 's note for the track Traversées (Crossings) contains a very important message: Drawn from the manuscript Luz, y Norte by travelling musician Ruiz de Ribayaz, together with a traditional piece, this work is dedicate to the thousands of migrants who left Africa for the New World during the colonial era. These ocean crossings gave birth to a new society. The destiny of mankind lies in its quest for the new. No review samples used in this post. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical anal

Classical music should be answering a cry for help

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Last year 12 million adult colouring books were sold in the US. Which means the adult colouring market is worth half that of the American recorded classical music market. A recent Quartz article headlined 'America’s obsession with adult coloring is a cry for help' explained that adult colouring books appeal to America’s stressed, anxious, overworked and always connected cohorts. Colouring books may be a short-lived craze, but the classical music industry can learn from it. Just a few weeks ago I proposed that a classical concert should be a healing ceremony that placates the spirit, while back in 2011 I suggested that classical music should look to the booming $11 billion mind, body and spirit market for a new audience instead of reinventing itself as a sub-set of the entertainment industry . The Quarz article describes how the appeal of colouring books is that they are therapeutic without being therapy, meditative without being meditation, creative without being creation,

Leaders destroy followers and followers destroy leaders

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That photo of Marrakech's celebrated Jemma el-Fnaa was taken by me a few weeks ago. One of the books that illuminated my visit to the Red City was Stephen Davis' To Marrakech by Aeroplane . Stephen is best known as the biographer of Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley and the Rolling Stones, and ghost writer for Michael Jackson, but he also collaborated with me on a two part feature about the Master Musicians of Jajouka , who come from the Rif Mountains in the north of Morocco. Performance artist Brion Gysin , who was a long time resident of Morocco, played a pivotal role in bring the Master Musicians to the attention of Brian Jones , and it was the Rolling Stones' posthumously released album of their music which introduced the Master Musicians to an international audience. To Marrakech by Aeroplane , which is rich in anecdotes about Brion Gysin's Moroccan circle, is published by Inkblot Publications , and that Rhode Island based independent publisher has also made available