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Portrait of Erik Satie by Santiago Rusiñol
'There is also one curiosity on this CD: a short quotation from Vexations - its "motif", made up of a theme and two variations - which Satie required to be played 840 times in a row; depending on the tempo chosen, this would take between twelve and twenty-four hours.
Without entirely playing the composer's game, for obvious reasons, Jean-Yves Thibaudet here simply reveals the different elements of the task, by playing the theme alternately with the two variations, as requested by the composer, then the theme again, this time followed by the two variations, one after the other.'
That is how Jean-Yves Thibaudet avoids the Vexations issue on his 5 CD set Satie - The Complete Solo Piano Music, and his performance of the work lasts for just 3 minutes 38 seconds. But at Cambridge University the pianists of Sidney Sussex College Musical Society are made of tougher stuff. On Saturday November 24th at 7.00pm UK time they are performing Vexations the way Satie intended, and the performance (poster below), in the College's Mong Hall, should last around 20 hours - non-stop.
This rare performance of Vexations is much more than an interesting curiosity. Today Satie is remembered for his Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes, and little more. But his piano music was a major influence on minimalist composers such as Philip Glass. Glass' early Piece in the Shape of a Square for two flutes is a homage to Satie, while Alvin Curran followed Satie in the adoption of epic time scales. Curran's Inner Cities for solo piano lasts for four and a half hours, and it is a work you will, literally, being hearing a lot more of On An Overgrown Path in the next few weeks.
Erik Satie's Vexations has an important place in the history of twentieth-century music. You can experience it in full via a live stream of the performance over the internet starting at 7.00pm on Saturday November 24th UK time - time zone convertor here.
Congratulations to Sidney Sussex College Musical Society for going where others dare not tread, and for putting Vexations on the web. The pianists deserve a credit. They are Kim Ashton, Thomas Athorne, Will Buchanan, Jesper Carlson, James Freeman, Paul Kilbey, Sarah Latto, Joe Scott, Lydia Slobodian, Emily Smith, Jamal Sutton, and Matthew Tait. The photo below shows the quadrangle in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. There are worse places to experience twenty hours of Vexations.
Back story on music in Cambridge here.
Header image is part of one of the portraits of Eric Satie by Santiago Rusiñol. 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
Music blogs go respectable next Monday (Oct 29) when I give a talk at Cambridge University. My subject is Blogs - the new wisdom of crowds? and I will look at why music blogs are so successful, and what their impact really is. The conflict between traditional journalism and the new bloggers will be considered, and new media opportunities such as webcasting will also be discussed.
I will be explaining how On An Overgrown Path started, present some readership data, and give inside tips on how to create a successful blog. And, of course, no presentation from me would be complete without a scholarly mention of Norman Lebrecht and BBC Radio 3.
Full details of the talk at Pembroke College are available on the Cambridge University website, and there is limited space for visitors. Any other organisations interested in a similar presentation please contact me via overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk.
Now read how blogging is doing it for our time.
Wisdom of Crowds is a book by James Surowiecki - recommended. Picture credit Rocky Music. 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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
On Friday October 12 pianist Richard Potter is giving a lunchtime recital at the Mumford Theatre in Cambridge. The programme is Ravel (Gaspard de la nuit), Couperin, Chopin, Liszt and Radiohead. Admission is free.
Not just Radiohead, but also Monteverdi in Cambridge.
Image is Atmospheric Skull Sodomizing a Grand Piano by Salvador Dali - yes, really. Well, can you think of a more appropriate image? 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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Thomas Adès' opera The Tempest is being broadcast by BBC Radio 3 from Covent Garden at 18.30 BST on Saturday 23rd June, follow this link for the webcast. Staying with Adès, if you find Elgar too romantic and pastoral try Adès' first string quartet Arcadiana. It was commissioned for the Cambridge Elgar Festival in 1994, and has a sublime tribute to Sir Edward in the form of seventeen bars in E flat, the key of 'Nimrod'. Not what you would expect from Adès, and quite delicious.
Thomas Adès' Arcadiana is on the EMI CD of his music Living Toys, available at budget price. 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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Another chance encounter with a writer was due to my friend Julian Pettifer, who was at St John’s (Cambridge). He said there would be a special guest in his rooms that evening, and asked me to drop in late for coffee. I climbed in and found to my delight the rumpled figure of W.H. Auden holding court. He was relatively sober and hugely entertaining, and I could see immediately why so many people found him charming. In later years he became a prize bore when drunk, which was most of the time, going on endlessly about who had sung the Third Lady in The Magic Flute in 1952. Happily, before that I was with him on a number of occasions when he was reading his own works, at which he excelled.
Once in Edinburgh, after a BBC recording, we went to the pub to have a drink with Stevie Smith at her eccentric best. Within twenty minutes Wystan and Stevie had started on a nostalgic journey through Hymns Ancient and Modern at a hideously out-of-tune piano. I rushed back to the BBC, rounded up a camera crew, and got back in time to film a few minutes of this priceless duet. It is often trotted out in commemorative programmes. Of course, in today’s BBC you would have to have it planned eighteen months in advance.
W.H. Auden was born on 21st February 1907. The story above is taken from John Drummond’s autobiography. Now take An Overgrown Path to Monteverdi in Cambridge
John Drummond's autobiography Tainted by Experience is published by Faber, ISBN 0571200540. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
'David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London transformed our view of medieval music. The impact of their performances far surparssed any that had gone before: by demonstrating how medieval music could sound normal, they created a niche for it in the concert hall and on record that it has never lost.' From Daniel Leech-Wilkinson's notes for Music of the Gothic era2006 bring the thirtieth anniversary of the death of David Munrow. His contribution to the acceptance, understanding and performance of early music almost defies summary. He was born in 1942, and learnt the bassoon and recorder as a child. Between school and university he travelled and taught in South America , and started the collection of ethnic instruments that were to give him, and the world, a new perspective on early music making. He read English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and was encouraged by Thurston Dart to take an active role in the music-making of that most musical of cities. It was at Cambridge that he started giving his unique combination of lectures and recitals on woodwind instruments that set him on a career as an evangeliser and performer of early music.
In 1966 he joined the wind band of the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed incidental music for the Bard's plays in Stratford and London. Shortly after he formed the Early Music Consort, an ensemble that was to challenge and change the performance style of early music. Among the original members of the consort were James Bowman and Christopher Hogwood (photo above).
Munrow is best known for bringing little known medieval and Renaissance music to a wide audience. But his activities were not confined to concerts and recordings. He used early instruments in the film and television scores which he composed, including The Six Wives of Henry VIII, A Man for All Seasons, and The Devils (with Peter Maxwell Davies). He also worked with folk musicians including Dolly Cousins and The Young Tradition. And he was actively involved in new music, among the first performances he gave were Elisabeth Lutyens' The Tears of Night (1972), and Peter Dickinson's Translations (1971) and Recorder Music for recorder Player and Tape (1973). He was a natural communicator, his BBC Radio 3 programme the Pied Piper was broadcast four times a week for five years and introduced a huge audience to the riches of early music, and he also devised and presented the TV series Ancestral Voices.
David Munrow's recorded legacy is considered so important that one of his recordings was included on the Voyager space craft's 'golden disc' that was sent to Mars a year after his death. The following is a brief guide to three 'essential' recordings, all of which are available in the UK for around just £10 ($18) for each double CD. No serious music collection should be without them.
*
The Art of Courtly Love -
a collection of French secular music from Guillaume de Machaut to Guillaume Dufay. Although the time span is little more than a hundred years it covers one of the most astonishingly rich and varied periods in medieval music, including not only the development of polyphonic song, but also the summit of the song writer's art. Recorded by EMI in Studio 1 Abbey Road in late 1972 and early 1973 this is relatively early Munrow, and the musicians include Early Music Consort founders James Bowman, James Tyler and Christopher Hogwood.
*
The Art of the Netherlands -
a collection of early Renaissance secular and sacred vocal music. When this recording was made by EMI in 1975 many of the Flemish composers on it, including Brumel, Josquin, Ockeghem and Obrecht were unfamiliar to listeners. Now thanks to Munrow's 
pioneering work they are well represented both in the catalogue and in live performance. The first CD is devoted to secular songs, while the second is made up of Mass movements and motets. The singers include Sally Dunkley who went on to perform with the Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen and the William Byrd Choir. To purists Munrow's presentation of 'bleeding chunks' of Renaissance masses may appear anachronistic, but this is wonderful music presented with commitment and inspiration. The variety is a strength not a weakness, and the result is a persuasive overview of the music of this period. As well as being an important recording in its own right this budget priced two CD set is an invaluable 'sampler' for anyone wanting an introduction to Renaissance polyphony.
* Music of the Gothic Era is a remarkable survey of vocal music from the 12th to 15th century, progressing from the Notre Dame School, through Ars Antiuqa to Ars Nova. The composers include Léonin, Pérotin, and Machaut, and the singers include James Bowman and Roger Covey-Crump. Music of the Gothic Era was made in 1975,predating by thirteen years the Hilliard 
Ensemble's recording of Pérotin on ECM, a recording which used two of the same singers. Munrow's performance was pioneering in every way, and it pointed to a new direction with a revised consort exploring sacred repertoire, which alas he did not live to realise. Some of the realisations may be out of step with today's concepts of 'authentic performance', but Munrow's scholarship, vision, enthusiasm and sheer exuberance result in compelling music-making that it is still outstanding in every way after thirty years. The Archiv division of Deutsche Grammophon recorded Music of the Gothic Era in the Chapel of Charter House School. David Munrow no longer had an exclusive EMI contract. Like Herbert von Karajan, who was also an EMI artist at that time, he signed contracts with both Deutsche Grammophon and EMI to maximise his commercial leverage. Munrow was ambitious, but he never lost his sheer enthusiasm and exuberant delight in music making. His irrepressible personality and talent meant he was now a media figure, and a career as a conductor and broadcaster outside the early music world was predicted.
But it was not to be. David Munrow completed the sessions for Music of the Gothic Era in October 1975 and followed it by recording the LP Monteverdi's Contemporaries for EMI in November 1975. These were his last recordings. He took his own life on 15th May 1976, aged thirty- three. Other David Munrow resources On An Overgrown Path include:
* David Munrow and the Voyager golden record
* Exclusive - a little piece of recording history,
* Monteverdi in Cambridge
Image credits: Header - Castle Classics, Early Music Consort - Musicteachers.co.uk, The Art of the Netherlands - www.amazon.com , recording session - Nigelnorth.net
Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk. Image owners - if you do not want your picture used in this article please contact me and it will be replaced.
Cambridge is a university first, and a city second. It is at its best when the students are in residence to counterbalance the tourists and language school students who take over in high summer. Last Saturday was a day to savour Cambridge. The weather suddenly changed from damp and grey English spring to something like high summer. The streets and open spaces were thronged with students enjoying the miraculous sunshine while taking a break from studying for exams, and the Backs were crowded as a mixture of students and early tourists took out punts.
We walked down Silver Street, along the river and back across Clare Bridge. Despite having seen it so many times we marvelled again at that most uplifting of views, Kings College Chapel viewed from across the river. The buildings are magnificent, but it is the students that make the city. This is the city of Rupert Brooke (who as a founder member of the Marlowe Dramatic Society allows me to insert a contrived link to my Infinite riches in a little room post) , and Silvia Plath (who was at Newnham College in 1955/6 on a Fulbright Scholarship, and whose husband Ted Hughes was at Pembroke College, but not at the same time as Plath). Ralph Vaughan Williams studied here, as did singer/songwriter Nick Drake who was at Fitzwilliam College for six months of his too brief life in 1969. See my posts Smile Why It Has Been , A Troubled Cure for a Troubled Mind and Improvisation for more on Nick Drake. If you are tempted to try his music, as well as his own CDs I highly recommend jazz pianist Brad Mehladau's Live in Toko album which has treatments of two Drake songs on it, Things Behind the Sun, and River Man. This album is the overgrown path that got me into Nick Drake.
Cambridge was pivotal in the Early Music revival. From Edward J Dent’s (who was a don at King's) pioneering presentations of Handel oratorios and operas in the 1920’s. Through Boris Ord’s work with King's College Choir (whose repertoire he expanded into Tudor polyphony) and the University Madrigal Singers, to figures such as Thurston Dart. I have the Neville Marriner Academy of St Martin's recording on LP of Dart's wonderful, but controversial, performing edition of the Brandenburgs, and what performers! - including the late and much lamented David Munrow on recorder. Munrow read English at Pembroke College, and next year is the thirtieth anniversary of his tragic and untimely death; a fate he shared, alas, with Nick Drake, Sylvia Plath and Rupert Brooke. Let's hope for some more Munrow reissues next year, and wouldn't a biography be wonderful? (Pliable Feb 2007 - alas there was no biography, but there was this Overgrown Path tribute.
Sir David Wilcocks helped establish the current world class standard of the King’s College Choir, while St John’s College Choirs has also established an enviable reputation. Two current stars of the Early Music scene (who were in Norwich for our Festival) also have Cambridge connections. Violinist Andrew Manze read Classics at Cambridge, while keyboard virtuoso Richard Eggar was organ scholar at Clare College. Composer John Rutter (who I touched on in my post Lux Aeterna ) also studied at Clare (as of course, did Nick Drake). James Wood, the composer of the opera Hildegard which was the subject of my post Hildegard comes to Norwich via IRCAM and Darmstadt was also an organ scholar at Cambridge. Fiona Maddock, whose book on Hildegard of Bingen inspired James Wood's new opera on the same subject (see my post Hildegard comes to Norwich via IRCAM and Darmstadt), was at Newnham College, while BBC broadcaster and journalist Andrew Marr (see my post I am a bringer of Truth and Enlightenment) was at Trinity Hall. All of this extraordinary cultural and musical heritage is underpinned by a vibrant university and town music scene, with a calendar of performances that is simply breathtaking in its range.
One of my favourite publications is the Cambridge Concert Calendar. This is published three times a year, and is essential reading even if you don’t live in England, as it gives a marvellous snapshot of life in this most musical of all cities. The current calendar for the Easter Term 2005 covers the period from the end of April to the end of July. It has 54 pages, and there are four concerts to a page – that is more than 200 different events to choose from.
On this weekend the concerts included a celebration of the music of Henri Dutilleux in Kettle’s Yard on the Sunday followed by a symposium on his life and music; and a Baroque programme in Robinson College Chapel on Friday. Monday brought a trio of Indian classical slide guitars and tabla in Emmanuel United Reformed Church in Trumpington Street. (It is wonderful how these place names evoke Rupert Brook’s poem The Old Vicarage Granchester.... At Over they fling oaths at one, And worse than oaths at Trumpington). And on Saturday the riches included a centenary concert remembering Cambridge composer, critic (he is the author of a fine book on the Beethoven Quartets) and academic Philip Radcliffe in King's College Chapel, with the Fitzwilliam Quartet (formed by graduates of the Cambridge college of the same day in the 60's, also Nick Drake's college, a nice crossing of overgrown paths) performing a string quartet by him. The following week Anglia Opera staged performances of Britten's rarely heard Paul Bunyan in the Mumford Theatre auditorium of Cambridge's new Anglia Polytechnic University. (Which allows me to link to my two Britten posts, Easter at Aldburgh and A direct line to Britten.) If you want a real taste of musical Cambridge the Cambridge Concert Calendar is just £2.50 plus postage from Gail Dubbyne at dobbyne at quadrant-video.demon.co.uk. It will give you a picture of the rich musical life of this wonderful city even if you can’t make it to the concerts.
We were in Cambridge for music making by the students,
Monteverdi's Vespro Della Beata Vergine of 1610 sung by the University Chamber Choir directed by King's College graduate David Lowe. The performance was in Sir George Gilbert Scott's majestic 19th century St John's College Chapel. Two weekends and two exquisite performance spaces. Last week the Scandinavian simplicity of Norwich's Swedenborgian Chapel (see my post What a Facade! , and now the High Church splendour of a Cambridge College).
This was powerful Monteverdi, sung with gusto and youthful vigour, but also with precision and purity of tone. The University Chamber Choir comprises thirty-two singers; eleven soproanos, eight altos, six tenors and seven basses. What a joy to see such a youthful (and expert) choir, and also so many young faces in the almost capacity audience. (The ageing of the audience for classical music seems to be unstoppable, like mobile phones and i-Pods).
Is it a lute on steroids? No, it is a chitarrone competing with the serpent in my Size does matter post for the largest instrument on the blog award. It also gives me a reason to link to my post about fantastic jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani, this was one of my favourite posts but it created zero reaction, but on the basis his size didn't matter I'm trying again.
The Baroque players (comprising freelance professionals) were suitable 'authentic'; three cornetts, two tenor sackbuts, a bass sackbut, two violins, a cello, organ, and a wonderful contribution from Dai Miller playing the chitarrone. During the interval, after the Lauda Jerusalem, we wandered out into the quadrangle of the College. The night was like black velvet, and unseasonably warm. We had that increasingly rare feeling that all is well with the world, and that Sir Peter Maxwell Davies can relax (see my post A Musician with teeth). The future of 'serious music' is in safe hands with these young musicians.
Note - this performance took place on April 30th. The sheer volume of posts about Norwich Festival events forced me to hold it over.
If you enjoyed this post you may like Lux Aeterna (and not Ligeti)
Portrait of Erik Satie by Santiago Rusiñol
