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In search of the lost link from non-classical to classical

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In previous posts I have explained how a rock band provided a link from the non-classical to classical worlds, a link which led me not only to a deep appreciation of great music, but also to a career working in the classical industry and BBC . But does the link to a rock band make me "dumb and dumber"? Let me explain why I ask that question. In a recent post I described the 1986 meeting between the great mythologist Joseph Campbell and Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead, and there is another link between Joseph Campbell and rock music. Founder member of the prog rock band The Moody Blues and Mellotron specialist Mike Pinder has explained that Campbell's work persuaded him to devote his time post-Moody Blues to bringing myths and music to young people . Mike Pinder is a Fellow of the Joseph Campbell Foundation , and his 1995 spoken word album A Planet with One Mind , a mythological tales for children from cultures countries including Native American, Aztec, Chine
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Classical music needs to build not burn bridges

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My post about Norman Lebrecht's 'dumb and dumber' attack on a non-classical genre and artist prompted several thoughtful comments from readers. Joe Shelby's response demands a post to itself, and the last two paragraphs should be studied carefully by everyone in the classical music industry. Here is his comment in full.  Though I loved some of the 'standard' classical in the common realm works (the works on Fantasia, Beethoven's 5th, common elements from the Bugs Bunny cartoons like Pier Gynt's music that is almost every cartoon sunrise theme), my doorway to classical (and especially modern classical) wasn't any connection to Rock music, much as I was a fan of progressive rock like Yes and King Crimson.  Rather, it was film music, particularly sci-fantasy (Star Wars, the Star Trek films, Rosenman's score for the Bakshi Lord of the Rings ) that became my doorway. I wanted more like that. I wanted to know where it came from. And it is from there
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How to save the BBC Singers

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Classical twitterati have been busy retweeting Andrew Neil's tweet comparing Gary Lineker's £1.3 million salary with the £1.5 million needed to save the BBC Singers. But no-one has tweeted  the most recent figures  showing that the ten highest paid classical conductors earnt in one year a total of £13.8 million. This means that the average salary (before guest conducting, recording and other fees) of the top ten conductors is slightly higher than Gary Lineker's. Moreover a 10% top slice off those conductors' salaries would be almost enough to save the BBC Singers. Over to you twitterati. 
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The Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour

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Wilhelm Furtwängler was born on 25th January 1886. He was Music Director of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1923 to his death in 1954, and held this position for the twelve years that Hitler was in power. In January 1945 he was conducting in Vienna, and fled from there to Switzerland where he remained until the Battle of Berlin ended in the defeat of the Nazis. The musicians of his orchestra remained in Berlin during its darkest hour. Here is their story: On 28th March 1945 the Russian forces commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov were just twenty miles to the east of Berlin. A month previously Albert Speer had been replaced as Nazi armaments minister after trying to persuade Hitler that defeat was inevitable. Speer now turned his energies to preventing the musicians of his adored Berlin Philharmonic from perishing in the inevitable final battle. Reich Commisioner Dr Joseph Goebells, who was in charge of the defence of Berlin, had ordered the entire orchestra to be drafted into the Vol
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Watch Michel Petrucciani video online

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Back in January 2005 I wrote about legendary jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani (right), and that article remains high in my 'popular pages' listing after fifteen months. Since writing that piece Overgrown Path reader Andrew Nathan and I have been tracking down Petrucciani video footage, and just this week Andrew came up with an absolute gem that is available free on Google video. In my original article I wrote that Michel Petrucciani was a 'pianistic genius' , and it is no coincidence that he is buried in the Pierre Lachaise cemetery in Paris alongside Chopin. This 38 minute video with excellent sound (and a bonus guest appearance from the gorgeous Charlotte Rampling ) is not just essential viewing for jazz fans, it should be watched by all students of the piano - whatever their discipline. Just click here to view this important document. (The video is not hosted by On An Overgrown Path , this is a link to an external site). And to set the video into context here is m
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Never sit in the comfy chair

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Travelling round Northern France, I found myself listening to France Musique. Frank Bridge. Arnold Bax. And the incomparable performance of In a Summer Garden by Barbirolli . Presented in a way that suggested the presenter knew what he was saying.... Cf Petroc Trelawny That comment was added by a reader to a recent post . By coincidence it was awaiting moderation when I returned from driving from Cahors in the Limousin region of south-west France to the Channel port of Caen, during which drive I too found France Musique's output unusually satisfying. When I cleared the UK border control at Portsmouth and turned onto the M27 I tuned in to Martin Handley on BBC Radio 3 . In the past Martin Handley was one of the station's more erudite presenters, but I quickly switched back to the SDHC memory card in my car's audio system . Because Handley's presentation style has descended - or more probably has been forced to descend - into ' Jack and Jill radio' which treats
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BBC classical cuts - beware of the knee jerk reaction

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It has been my privilege to work in the classical music industry and for the BBC , and, as this blog testifies, my life in retirement continues to be enhanced by classical and art music. So the recently announced cuts to the BBC's performing ensembles cause me grief, and I sympathise with those fine musicians whose lives will be directly affected. As was the case with the recent Arts Council England cuts , the planning and implementation of the savings has been badly handled.  But the strategies of the classical industry that have led to these cuts also disturb me, and I find the widespread knee jerk reaction  such as  '“New Strategy for Classical Music” from the @BBC... sounds like more of the same old levelling down of culture by those already busy wrecking this country"' unhelpful and troubling. I find this reaction unhelpful because it totally ignores two crucial factors that have triggered the BBC's dubious new classical strategy. The first c
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Classical activist heal thyself

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Puzzling to see the great and good classical activists flocking on to Twitter to celebrate International Women's Day this week. I quote from the Amnesty International report seen above:  "... for many women Twitter is a platform where violence and abuse against them flourishes, often with little accountability. As a company, Twitter is failing in its responsibility to respect women’s rights online by inadequately investigating and responding to reports of violence and abuse in a transparent manner. The violence and abuse many women experience on Twitter has a detrimental effect on their right to express themselves equally, freely and without fear. Instead of strengthening women’s voices, the violence and abuse many women experience on the platform leads women to self-censor what they post, limit their interactions, and even drives women off Twitter completely." And if that is not bad enough, the report was written before Elon Musk relaxed controls on Twitter cont
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Against the monoculture of modernity

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The terrible amnesia to which humankind is prey is undoubtedly one of the principal causes of our inability to learn from history. The invasion of Occitania and particularly the massacre on 22nd July, 1209, of the 20,000 inhabitants of Béziers on the pretext that the town harboured 230 heretics whom the town council refused to hand over to the Crusaders, dramatically recalls similar events in modern times, such as the Spanish Civil War triggered in 1936 by Franco's army with the excuse of the Communist threat and the division of Spain, the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939 with the excuse of the Sudetenland, and the invasion of Poland by Hitler's German troops, in September 1939, over the question of Gdansk. More recently, we remember the wars in Vietnam (1958-1975), Afghanistan (2001), those launched in retaliation against the terrorist attacks of 11th September, and the Iraq war (2003) with the excuse of that country's supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction.
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Classical music is not connecting with its rewired audience

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A typical American adult spends more than 11 hours each day interacting with media. Our brains are being rewired by this extended use of all-pervasive digital technologies, and the resulting re-synapsing of neural connections is fundamentally changing behaviour patterns and value systems. My proposition is that classical music is not adapting to these fundamental changes with the result that the artform is failing to connect with a new audience. A simple example of how quickly and easily neural connections are rewired is provided by an experiment carried out by the respected neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandaran . Test subjects viewed an image of jumbled black dots on a white background. After a short time the dots were seen to form a dog. Detailed brains scans taken during the recognition process showed that neurons in the temporal lobes became permanently altered once the dog had been recognised. That the dog was easily seen subsequently is confirmation of the new neural connections
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