On An Overgrown Path

Twenty-one years ago I wrote about an article on NewMusicBox  that forecast the age of music streaming, and included the following quote from the article: A world where music is available via the latest technologies for a single monthly subscription charge. A world with unlimited access to a huge range of music. A world where the music business will explode and reinvent itself. A world where listeners are empowered, and the reach of new music is limited only by your own imagination. A world where the major record companies aren’t invited to the party. A world where music becomes a utility on tap, just like gas and electricity. A world where music is like water.  It can be argued that streaming has empowered consumers by offering instant gratification. But two decades ago, in my post I expressed concerns about the advent of 'music like water' with these words: "Music-like-water won’t bring a utopia where every recording, of every work, by every composer from Evaristo Abaco ...

During my time at EMI commissioning power was split between the central International Classical Division - where I worked - and local operating companies. The International Classical Division  (ICD) controlled the big budgets needed for the international stars such as Herbert von Karajan, Mstislav Rostropovich, André Previn and Riccardo Muti. While the local companies had smaller budgets for recording projects with local musicians: for instance EMI UK commissioned Sir Adrian Boult's recordings from their local budget. The ICD had to propose a major recording projects to the local operating companies around the world who would give their sales estimate. Only if the global sales forecasts recovered the cost of the proposed project would it be green-lighted.  This democratic but flawed A & R approval process was originally put in place by EMI's senior management to curb Walter Legge's penchant for recording music he was passionate about but which the record buying pu...

In his latest Spectator press release - sorry review - for John Wilson conducting the reincarnated Sinfonia of London, Richard Bratby credits the original Sinfonia with recording movie soundtracks from  The Snowman to Vertigo . But he omits to mention that the Sinfonia of London and the Allegri String Quartet under Sir John Barbirolli made what is, arguably, the greatest classical recording committed to tape  -  Elgar's Introduction & Allegro for strings and Serenade for Strings in E minor, and Vaughan William's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis & Fantasia on Greensleeves. Just another case of the if it ain't Mirga, Wilson, CBSO, Kanneh-Mason, or film music , don't spin it syndrome.  New Overgrown Path posts are available via RSS/email by entering your email address in the right-hand sidebar. Any copyrighted material is included for critical analysis, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

As the arts funding landscape changes, crowdfunding is playing an increasingly important role in project financing. Crowdfunding has undoubtedly empowered worthwhile projects which would otherwise not have come to market, but that must not preclude discussion of its potential downsides. So this post discusses an important but overlooked point raised in a commentary on the business model of one of the most successful crowdfunding publishers . Namely that having a substantial social media following that can be effectively mobilised is an important requirement for successful crowdfunding. In other words, the social network has become the target audience. Marketing to social media followers is cost effective, because of the direct and low-cost communication route from creator to audience. But, very conveniently, these followers are unlikely to admit to an error of judgement in backing a project. Instead they will post fawning 5 star reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. And the death of ...

There was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred? Where? In whose protection? Was there water, bottomlessly deep? That photo was taken by me on the Ganges at Varanasi . The quotation from the Rig Veda 10:129 is appended to the opening movement of Jonathan Harvey's Bhakti for chamber orchestra and quadraphonic tape . My recent reading has included Malcolm Tillis' ' Turning East: New Lives In India '. Malcolm Tillis was a viola player with the Hallé Orchestra in the 1950s and played in the first performance of Vaughan Williams' Eighth Symphony . His career as a musician ended prematurely however; coming to an abrupt hall after he took a year's leave of absence to write what proved to be an unexpectedly controversial book , as this account explains: "Sir John Barbirolli, who was the principal conductor, knew I was writing a book, and he gave me a year's leave of absence i...

East Anglian skyscapes have inspired composers including E.J. Moeran , William Alwyn , Elizabeth Maconchy , Ralph Vaughan Williams , Gustav Holst* and, of course, Benjamin Britten . That sunset was photographed by me recently while staying at Ling's Meadow eco campsite on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk. As we move deeper into Kali Yuga , international travel becomes less and less appealing. In response to this I have been experimenting with mini-retreats in my local region. As T.S. Eliot explains in Little Gidding (No. 4 of 'Four Quartets'): We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time * The Holst connection with East Anglia is less celebrated than that of other composers. Holst lived intermittently at Thaxted in Essex between 1914 and 1917, during which time the works he wrote included the Planets and The Hymn of Jesus , and the tune adapted for I Vow to Thee, My C...

That photo shows a 1970 Kingsway Hall session for the EMI recording of Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress . From left to right are Ursula Vaughan Williams, Christopher Bishop (producer), Sir Adrian Boult , John Noble , Ian Partridge, Gloria Jennings, Christopher Parker (balance engineer), John Alldis (chorus master), Sheila Armstrong and Marie Hayward. During his career at EMI Christopher Bishop produced legendary recordings with Sir John Barbirolli, André Previn, Sir David Willcocks , David Munrow, Carlo Maria Giulini, Sir Adrian Boult and many others. Christopher was born on April 1st 1931; he is enjoying a well-earned retirement in rural Suffolk not far from Aldeburgh, and I am sure readers will join me in wishing him a very happy birthday. It is a scandal that in an age when so many minor media celebrities receive recognition with State honours that Christopher Bishop's contribution to British and indeed global culture has never been recognised with a suit...

Much of my recent listening has been devoted to the 17 CD anthology The Music of Islam . It is a measure of the ideological traps surrounding art music that my opening sentence and header graphic will have sent many readers clicking off to safer ground. And the danger of those ideological traps is highlighted by the sad fact that this post would have reached a far wider audience had it been devoted to one of the more fashionable causes currently preoccupying music's champagne activists . But for those readers that remain, I would point out that in an interview Alex Ross explained how he kept William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience on his desk for philosophical guidance, because the book "shows the way out of ideological traps and abysses". And it is surely no coincidence that at this desk Alex wrote The Rest is Noise , the seminal guide to avoiding the traps associated with the appreciation of 20th century art music. William James ' was a leading pr...

Contemporary Greece is carrying some serious baggage. It has gained notoriety as the entry point into Europe for refugees fleeing sectarian conflict in the Middle East, its economy is portrayed as a hopeless basket cas e and its music is seen to be forever locked in Zorba's groove . This negative image is very unfair, and it is doubly unfair because there are some very exciting and original things happening in Greece, particularly on the island of Crete. One of those exciting things is the feisty young lyra player Kelly Thoma, who is seen above with her hopefully airline approved cabin baggage. Equidistant from mainland Europe, Africa, and Asia, Crete historically has formed a bridge between the cultures of those three continents. As the Emirate of Crete it was ruled by Iberian Muslims for a century (c820-961CE), and was then part of the Christian world for seven centuries (961-1669CE), first under the Catholic Venetians and then as part of Orthodox Byzantium. Crete returned ...

In my twenties, I used to fret that I could never seem to feel at home in any spiritual tradition. It stirred me deeply to take part in Sufi movements in London, but it didn't mean I was a Muslim. I appreciated sitting in silence with the Zen people, but was equally reluctant to call myself a Buddhist. Yet I always felt I must be missing something, that I was a spiritual window-shopper who was reluctant to get more than his toes wet. As I have grown older and come to trust more the promptings of my own inner world, those concerns have fallen away. What is free of concept and image , as Hafez would say, is sheer alive presence - the love that ultimately burns us away. My faith is in that and in the aspirations of secular humanism; together they make for a secular spirituality. The equality of men and women, human rights, education and the democratic progress, environmental research - achievements like these surely embody some of the best of what it means to be human. They are exerc...

William Alwyn's First Symphony is coupled with Ralph Vaughan William's Job: A Masque for Dancing in the BBC Prom being given by Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra tomorrow (Aug 13). Genuine thanks go to outgoing Prom director Roger Wright for putting together a programme that shows how classical music's big opportunity is neglected music . William Alwyn was the Suffolk composer who wasn't Britten, and suffered as a result . With Roger Wright moving to Snape hopefully this will be redressed, and perhaps we can look forward to a cycle of all five of Alwyn's magnificent symphonies spread across future Aldeburgh Festivals. Additional thanks go to Roger Wright for starting tomorrow's concert an hour early, thereby allowing me to catch the late train back to East Anglia. If any readers are at this Prom do say hello. It will be easy to spot me: I will be one of those in the audience not applauding between movements . My ticket for the Alwyn/RVW Prom w...

Blame for the relentless suburbanization of classical music is invariably laid at the door of radio stations, record companies and the media. But some of the blame must be taken by the musicians themselves. In his classic The Snow Leopard Peter Matthiessen, who died earlier this month , wrote of the "debasement of our vision, the retreat from wonder, the backing away like lobsters from free-swimming life into safe crannies". It is this retreat from wonder that is leaching the lifeblood out of classical music, and it is happening with the tacit approval of people who should know better. Now let's get one thing straight. I am a fan of Sakari Oramo and I applaud his programming William Alwyn's First Symphony at this year's Proms - the first Alwyn symphony for thirty-two years . But the performance on August 13 will have to be very good to make up for the loss of credibility the BBC Symphony Orchestra's new chief conductor has suffered in my eyes from the Pro...

The Oud was introduced into western Europe by the Knights Templar returning from the Holy Land and by the Troubadours (from the Arabic root TRB - meaning lutanist) from Provence. Having reached the Troubadors from Muslim Spain, this instrument was to play a crucial role in the establishment of the Romantic Courts. The poetry, music and ideals that ensued from this great endeavor became the infrastructure upon which the Renaissance was built. Brought into the British Isles, the Oud was transformed in the Elizabethan period into the western European lute. That passsage is from the sleeve notes for Hamza El Din's CD Lily of the Nile . Hamza El Din (1929-2006) was born in the Nubian territory of Upper Egypt and studied Arabic music in Cairo and Western music at the Academy of Santa Celia in Rome. Like Bartók and Vaughan-Williams , he was part of the great folkloric tradition and collected Nubian songs from the villages that were to be submerged by the Aswan Dam. He played at the 19...

Those dismayed by the social media reaction to the recent Proms performance of Helmut Lachenmann’s Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied can take heart from the Twitter response above to Vaughan William's Sea Symphony . Walt Whitman's verse also supplies the text for RVW's lesser known Toward the Unknown Region which receives a rare performance on August 11 in a free Prom  that also includes the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Frieze . I await the critical deconstruction of both works on the social media with bated breath . 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).

Walt Whitman's line 'Behold the sea itself' opens Ralph Vaughan William's Sea Symphony * in a huge wave of sound that breaks over the audience. Hearing RVW's stroke of genius again at Friday's opening Prom performed by Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra excited many resonances. Alex Ross' tweet that "the opening gesture of Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony carries me away every time" resonated with these words written by that great editor and publisher Robert Giroux ** for the introduction to Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain : In books that become classics ("A classic is a book that remains in print" - Mark Van Doren ) the opening words often seem to be inevitable, as if they possibly could not have been otherwise - "Call me Ishmael," "Happy families are all alike," "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." The opening of the Sea Symphony may be bold and inevita...

BBC Prom director Roger Wright's assertion in yesterday's sycophantic Telegraph interview that "I do have an enthusiasm for British music, which I think is well-known" passes unchallenged by Ivan Hewett , but not by me. Yes, during Wright's tenure at the Proms many works by popular British composers have been programmed - Vaughan Williams and Britten at tonight's opening concert for instance - and there have been token appearances for more obscure British composers including Havergal Brian's media-friendly Gothic Symphony . But despite Wright saying in the interview that "British music has always been part of the Proms’ mission" there has been no serious attempt by him to mine the rich vein of substantial orchestral works by less well known twentieth-century British composers. For example, since being appointed Proms director in April 2007 he has not programmed a single symphony by Malcolm Arnold , Robert Simpson , Edmund Rubbra or William A...

Basking seals were photographed on the Norfolk coast this morning. I have spent much time recently listening to Sir Adrian Boult’s 1960s/70s cycle of the Vaughan Williams symphonies in the most recent EMI CD transfers , and they sound quite magnificent – particularly the choral Sea Symphony . Transfer from analogue master tape to digital CD format should, in theory, be a straightforward process; but in practice it seems to be a black art with some transfers of recordings sounding noticeably better than others from the same period. Christopher Bishop , who produced all the original VW symphony recordings except for the Sixth, which was the work of Ronald Kinloch Anderson, visited us last week, and he commented on the outstanding sound from the latest EMI transfers when we auditioned them on my Arcam Alpha 9 & 10 and Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus 803 audio system. Although in his 80s, Christopher still has very sharp ears and a commendable sense of self-criticism. When we auditioned...

In a footnote to an earlier post about brass band music I mentioned John Ireland's A Downland Suite which was composed for the 1932 National Brass Band Festival of Great Britain. Some years later Ireland transcribed the two middle movements for string orchestra giving them the title Minuet and Elegy (A Downland Suite) . Ireland's transcriptions appeared on the CD above in a particularly felicitous coupling that includes Ralph Vaughan Williams Five Variants of 'Dives and Lazarus' . It is not only the coupling that is felicitous on this  now deleted Carlton Classics disc  - the performances of this quintessentially English music are as convincing as any I have heard. Which gives the lie to the received wisdom that only English maestros can extract the odour of cow pats from English music , because the conductor is John Farrer - an American. The recording was made in 1996 by legendary producer John Boyden with the English Sinfonia in St Giles, Cripplegate, London. My...

It will surprise many to learn that my headline is supplied by Ralph Vaughan Williams. He was one of a group of composers, which included Gustav Holst, John Ireland and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who met in the late 1890s to discuss William Morris' brand of socialism , and Vaughan-Williams' proposition that 'the moderate man is contemptible' was the subject of one of their debates. Vaughan Williams was a leading figure in the English folk music revival and the pentatonic scale, which is the common foundation of folk music around the world, links the English rural tradition to African American spirituals. The presence of the Afro-English Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in Vaughan Williams' circle indicates that at the time racial prejudice was less virulent in Britain than in America, which is why that peerless exponent of the African-American spiritual Paul Robeson chose to live in England from 1928 to 1939 where he was able both to perform and pursue his radical politics. ...