On An Overgrown Path

Benjamin Britten was born in the house seen in these photos on November 22nd, 1913. The house is 21, Kirkley Cliff Road, Lowestoft in Suffolk. It was Britten's home until 1934, by which time he had composed his Simple Symphony op. 4 , based on music written in the house between the ages of nine and twelve. The photos above shows the attic room that was Britten's bedroom for twenty-one years, and it is here that he composed much of his early music. The top photo shows the room today; the lower one was taken by Britten himself in late 1934. On the writing desk, where he composed, can be seen a small bust of Beethoven. The North Sea, with its many moods, is a leitmotif that runs through all Britten's music. The breakers can be heard from his bedroom, and the photo above was taken by me looking out to the shore on a typically grey and murky autumn day. Above is the same view photographed by Britten himself in December 1934. The view to the sea is the same, ...

Frederic Chiu 's new recording of the piano music of G. I. Gurjieff/T. de Hartmann Hymns & Dervishes was recorded at Manifold Studios , Pittsboro, NC. In Russia Gurdjieff's circle included Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Nicholas Roerich , while in America Frank Lloyd Wright was an early enthusiastic evangelist for the multi-faceted mystic. The music of Gurdjieff/Hartmann has a number of distinguished advocates including Keith Jarrett . But Frederic Chiu gives a refreshingly different interpretation that emphasises the music's lyrical rather than calisthenic nature. I already have many recordings of Gurdjieff's music, but I will be returning to Hymns & Dervishes frequently, thanks I suspect in part due to the Tao of acoustics*. Photos 1 to 4 show Manifold Studios, which was designed around the sound and dimensions of a concert grand piano by Wes Lachot , who based his design on the acoustic architecture theories of Gurdjieff's student Frank Llo...

A useful Guardian article highlights the boom in new age music. Whales and waterfalls may not be everyone's cup of tea; however it is easy but wrong to dismiss the new age revival as having no relevance to Western classical music. Back in 2011 On An Overgrown Path highlighted t he $11 billion opportunity offered by the mind, body and spirit market. Another more recent post proposed that classical music should be answering a cry for help , a proposal that has been given painful relevance by recent political developments on both sides of the Atlantic. The current reluctance to leverage classical music's therapeutic qualities is puzzling as in the past there have been some spectacularly successful fusions examples of music and mindfulness. Geeta Dayal's Guardian article focuses on the American market for Eastern-oriented new age music, but there is an even longer and more Occidental history on the other side of the Atlantic. In Victorian times it was fashionable for i...

The current debate about the role of Facebook and other social media in shaping - or misshaping - public opinion is relevant to classical music. Writing my recent post highlighting the music of the contemporary Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen reminded me of Virgil Thomson's celebrated dictum of "Never underestimate the public's intelligence, baby, and never overestimate its information". It is a pretty safe bet that very few dedicated followers of classical music have even heard of Lasse Thoresen, yet alone heard any of his music . But it is also a pretty safe bet that many of the same group have heard of John Luther Adams, and quite a few will have heard his music. Now, let me be clear, I am not belittling the music of John Luther Adams - which was advocated here at an early stage - or comparing the merits of the two composers. But it is undeniable that the difference in their online profile is massive. This despite their music sharing a beguiling mix of i...

These art works are by the prolific musician and artist Mercan Dede . I first came across his work when I was in Istanbul years ago , and his ambient take on Sufi music featured in my Sounds of Sufism programme on Future Radio in 2010. Born in Istanbul and now resident in Canada, Mercan Dede's music integrates traditional Turkish instruments such as the ney and bendir with electronica to create a mix targeted at young dance club audiences . Sufism's liberal tendencies mean it is marginalised and sometimes persecuted by orthodox Islam, and Mercan Dede - aka DJ Arkin Allen - is in turn frowned on in traditional Sufi circles for, ironically, creatively implementing the Sufi doctrine of not going with the flow, but making the flow. As can be seen in the three examples, Mercan Dede's art works embrace syncretic themes; a selection of his art and music is on his personal website . Mercan Dede is actively helping make the flow: a portion of the proceeds from sales of hi...

In the 17th century a movement developed in Japan to make esoteric wisdom available to a wider constituency. This movement was rooted in the Buddhist belief that the mission in life of an enlightened being is to bring enlightenment to as many other sentient beings as possible without - to use a 21st century expression - dumbing down the essence of the wisdom. The main drivers in the movement were Basho the haiku poet, the Zen teachers Bankei and Hakuin , and the Zen painter Sengai . Such was the success of the movement that the esoteric discipline of Zen - the art of nothingness - has become in the 21st century a mass market commodity. Just one example of that mass market reach is provided by Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance . This has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide; an audience that beleaguered classical music would die for. What is surprising is that the question is not 'what can classical music learn from Zen?', but rather...

Today brings a very special personal celebration. But I have come to the conclusion that social media is no longer an appropriate way to share precious family moments. So as a nuanced public celebration I am publishing a revised version of a post from the archives which I feel is relevant in several ways. Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen (b. 1949), who is a follower of the Bahá'í faith, has set the teachings of Bahá'í founder Bahá'u'lláh's*, while the syncretic Requiem from Catalan composer Bernat Vivancos (b. 1973) sets sacred Bahá'í texts. Bahá'u'lláh taught that "We, verily, have made music as a ladder for your souls, a means whereby they may be lifted up unto the realm on high" . Sacred art is prized and music encouraged within the Bahá'í faith. Architecture is particularly prized , and the photo above was taken by my wife when we visited the Bahá'í Lotus Temple in New Delhi designed by Iranian-American architect Faribor...

A link in yesterday's post exhorting readers to meditate and destroy led to my 2013 advocacy of the contemporary Vietnamese composer Ton-That Tiêt's Smiles of the Buddha ( Les Sourires de Bouddha ) for chamber choir. Elsewhere I have described Ton-That Tiêt's music as exhibiting bracing hints of Penderecki, Ligeti and Stimmung . My advocacy lamented that no samples were available to share; but now reader David Sieber has pointed out that Smiles of the Buddha is available from both iTunes (for $1.99) and Amazon digital music. Wise words in yesterday's post urged us to go "against the stream, to develop wisdom and compassion through our own direct actions". So why not go against the stream, forgo all that social media cack about the US election and Brexit, and instead blow $1.99 on some musical wisdom and compassion. Photo was taken on my 2014 road trip to the Tibetan Buddhist region of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir. Any copyrighted material is includ...

For me the tone and quality of the media response to the US presidential election and UK EU referendum has been almost as shocking as the results. One beacon of light in the mainstream and social media darkness is the online Lion's Roar resource which sought the response of Buddhist teachers to Donald Trump's victory. Like all established wisdom traditions , Buddhism has its failings . But the reflections by these teachers on the election result convince me that Buddhism can teach political parties and media pundits an awful lot about Truth. Here is one of the responses; it comes from Noah Levine of Against the Stream Here in the United States of Samsara ignorance is the status quo. The Buddha’s teachings guide us to go “against the stream” to develop wisdom and compassion through our own direct actions. As the path encourages, “Even amongst those who hate, we live with love in our hearts. Even amongst those who are blinded by greed and confusion, we practice generosity...

It  was very clear to me from the beginning of the project that the object here was not one of finding the common ground shared by two or more traditions and working from that as a starting point. Here the common ground was minimal if indeed it did exist. That is Ross Daly writing in the sleeve essay for his CD White Dragon *. This album was recorded live at Ross' 2003 Houdetsi Festival on Crete and is a collaboration with the Huun Huur Tu throat singing ( khöömei ) ensemble from the southern Siberian republic of Tuva , plus guest musicians including the Franco-Iranian percussion group Trio Chemirani . Tuva is known as Russia's Tibet and the republic's religion is a mix of animistic shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism. So it is not surprising the album's opening track Mörgül on which Huun Huur Tu deliver an a cappella Buddhist prayer took me back to the early morning puja in the Tibetan Buddhist Thiksay monaster y close to the Indian border with Tibet**. Ross Daly...

That Washington Post article can be read via this link . Keep hope alive by supporting Ali Keeler's musical celebration of our pluralistic, diverse society via crowdfunding site LaunchGood . As David Montgomery explains: "Their music is far from political. It’s all about beauty and faith and peace and devotion..." 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).

Too often we forget there are two sides in every war, and too often the great art works remembering humanitarian tragedies of war are the products of the victorious side. A recent post featuring Wilfred Josephs' Requiem led me back to a work commemorating one of the great tragedies of the Second World War. I first wrote about Rudolf Mauersberger's Dresden Requiem ten years ago , and in the week when we remember the war dead my revised appreciation of that overlooked masterwork is published below. Eleven young choristers from the famous Kreuzchor were among more than 25,000 who died in the British and American bombing of Dresden on February 13th 1945. As well as the terrible human loss of its choristers the famous choir also lost its its Neo-Gothic choir school on the Georgplatz, its library of sheet music and archive, and its very raison d'être, the beautiful Kreuzkirche (Church of the Holy Cross) which dated from the 13th century. The history of the Kreuzchor dates ba...

That tweet saddens me. It was written by Jeremy Pound who identifies himself without disclaimer on his Twitter account - see below - as the deputy editor of BBC Music Magazine . I don't know Jeremy Pound, but presumably he is a very nice guy who holds a senior position in an influential publication which he reached due to his qualifications and experience. Of course all of us have blind spots in our music appreciation. But is it not the role of a writer to report with a reasonable degree of objectivity that a work fails to engage them, fails to move them, or is beyond their comprehension? And is it not also their role to explore why that vital connection has not been made? Karlheinz Stockhausen has been judged by others with far stronger credentials than Jeremy Pound to be an important if controversial figure in late 20th-century music. To publicly dismiss one of his seminal works as "a load of pish" - definition "variation of piss, most usually used in the nort...

There is a dearth of click-baitable music stories at the moment. So the Guardian has fallen back on the tired old 'here comes the next saviour' formula with a piece by click-baiter extraordinaire James Rhodes on the Greek-Russian conductor Teodor Currentzis*. Back in 2005 the Telegraph ran a similar piece on Currentzis which was modestly headlined 'I will save classical music'. Not to be outdone, seven years later Newsweek ran the puff piece above lauding how Gustavo Dudamel is "saving classical music". Each of us will have our own views on whether salvation has finally arrived . But if it has, it clearly does not extend to the avaricious and restrictive management agency system which is responsible for many of classical music's current problems. Dudamel has played the agency game to perfection , and Teodor Currentzis is managed by IMG Artists , which describes itself as "a global leader of performing arts, social media, and festival and e...

In a comment on my post about Stokowski the technology visionary , Antoine Leboyer observes that "Karajan also understood the importance of the medium as a message... these days, Karajan's and Stokowski's style have made them out of fashion but who has taken their place?" Who indeed? Herbert von Karajan was a technology enthusiast and his close friends included Sony executive Norio Ohga who was a key figure in the development of the Compact Disc . Like Stokowski, Karajan regarded technology as a servant that could help him achieve his artistic ideals. This attitude contrasts sharply with today's leading musicians who see new technology as a master that has to be obeyed without question . Who among today's celebrity maestros is playing an active role in freeing recorded sound from its straightjacket of compression ? Antoine's observation that Karajan's style has gone out of fashion applies far beyond technology. Today it is modish to dismiss Ka...

Making the case for Stokowski the magician , Lisa Hirsch comments on Twitter that "The long list of works he premiered in the US tells you Stokowski was the real thing", while in a blog comment Philip Amos urges us to "Consider the orchestras he founded... the premiere performances he conducted... the inspired way in which he placed the sections of orchestras." To Lisa and Philip's advocacy I would add Stoki's pioneering work with new technologies. A 2013 Overgrown Path post described Stokowski's experiments in multi-channel sound with Bell Telephone Laboratories and the Philadelphia Orchestra, pioneering work that pre-dated today's surround sound systems by 80 years. And Fantasia , which was released in 1940 with a soundtrack by Stokowski and his Philadephia Orchestra, was the first commercial movie with stereo sound . Later in his career Stokowski recorded for RCA at the time they were issuing CD-4 quadraphonic LPs ; one example is the 1975 ...