On An Overgrown Path

Everything changes, the only truth. Time invokes change, not to change deliberately. Only what changes remains. Phoenix or harpy, the cutting edge of simplicity, the gift of being simple. The only truth: change. That is Martha Graham in the photo and the stanza above is from the Catalan poet Mario Lucarda 's Homenaje a Martha Graham . Contemporary Catalan composer Ramón Humet , who was championed by Jonathan Harvey , has set Mario Lucarda's homage to Martha Graham as nine songs. These settings are most definitely high-maintenance music, and Humet realised that the emotional intensity of his settings for soprano and piano militated against consecutive performance. So he composed ten complimentary Interludis Meditatius scored for Japanese shakuhachi flute and a percussion ensemble including xylophones, marimbas, bongos, crotales, temple block and wood chimes. The Interludis reflect Ramón Humet's deep interest in Japanese aesthetics and philosophy, and are stylistical...

In the photo above I have just arrived at the Coptic monastery of Dayr al-Salib (Monastery of the Cross) on the East Bank of the Nile in Upper Egypt. The Trappist monk, mystic and author Thomas Merton wrote of le point vierge - the virgin point - and described how there is "at the center of our being a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth... which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will". Le point vierge is found in different forms in the great wisdom traditions including the esoteric strand of Islam known as Sufism, and it is from this tradition that Thomas Merton developed his vision of a point of pure truth. In Zen Buddhism the vision is manifested in what Shunryu Suzuki famously described as 'beginner's mind' . This vision is also found in popular culture: for instance in John Lennon's Imagine, which - in an unashamed hymn to le point vierge - implores us ...

That photo shows from left to right Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Tristan Murail and George Benjamin listening to a playback of their world premiere recording of Murail's piano concerto Le Désenchantement du monde (The demystification of the World). The concerto is one of three works on a new NEOS CD , the others are György Ligeti's Lontano for large orchestra and George Benjamin's Palimpsests for orchestra. Tristan Murail was together with Gérard Grisey a pioneer of the spectralist movement, and it was Grisey who reminded his peers that "We are musicians and our model is sound not literature, sound not mathematics, sound not theatre, visual arts, quantum physics, geology, astrology or acupuncture". Andrew Clement's Guardian review of this new disc does full justice to the music. So in this post I want to focus on the sound captured on it; because just a few minutes of listening provides literally resounding confirmation that the musicians' model is ind...

Much righteous indignation elsewhere about Trump's wall. But walls are being built everywhere. For instance, as seen above, a clique of classical music luminaries has built a wall that blocks me from viewing their Twitter feeds. Presumably this is because of my unfortunate habit of trying to assimilate their tweets . But as a very light Twitter user I am logged out of the app most of the time, and blocking only works when logged in. So despite their petulance I still have almost unlimited access to the blocked accounts . What a strange world we live in... Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also reluctantly on Facebook and Twitter .

Sound is vibrations , and there is a growing acceptance of the healing power of vibrating energy - especially the low frequencies known as ultrasound . In a post last year drawing on a Sufi source I explained how research at the SUNY Department of Biomedical Engineering has identified the healing powers of a cats' purr, specifically how the low frequencies of the purr have as an anabolic effect which stimulates growth and maintenance of the human body. That header photo was taken at Mohammad Alaa Al Jaleel's cat sanctuary in Aleppo before it was destroyed by bombing late last year. Alaa was later evacuated from Aleppo and his plans, which for security reasons he cannot fully disclose, include a new combined "cat garden" and medical clinic where animal therapy can be developed to heal children orphaned and traumatised by the terrible Syrian conflict. Helping the human and animal victims of mankind's lunacy deserves the highest praise . But Alaa's d...

That tweet from Richard Bratby was in response to Overgrown Path posts which gave a platform to pleas by conductor Warren Cohen and baritone Stéphane Degout's for more adventurous concert programming. Now Richard is a good 'virtual' friend and I have great respect for his experience in concert management and for his journalistic prowess. But I do believe that two assumptions in that tweet need amicably challenging, because they reflect entrenched attitudes in the classical music establishment. The first assumption is that musicians performing at a concert carry no financial responsibility. Many musicians are booked on a per concert basis. As a result their financial responsibility is considerable, because if their performance is not a success they may not be booked again. Moreover a poor performance is likely to have negative financial repercussions for the management that booked them. In fact the financial responsibilities of musicians are increasing: in respons...

My recent post drawing attention to Mohammad Alaa Al Jaleel's selfless work with both children and cats in besieged Aleppo has reached a very wide audience. Now this photo of Alaa travelling with his cat Feras to continue his humanitarian work following their evacuation from Aleppo has appeared on social media. Those readers familiar with the 'A Street Cat Named Bob' books and film will be struck by the uncanny similarity. A BBC News video about Alaa's cat sanctuary in Aleppo before it was destroyed by bombing is below. About 60 of 170 cats in the Aleppo sanctuary were rescued and relocated with families that left the city. But many of the others were were feral and could not be caught and several were killed in a chlorine gas attack that came after the barrel bomb that killed the shelter's dog, It is hoped Alaa's humanitarian work will continue; but because of the very serious security risks in the region donations and further updates are being handled v...

Abrash is the term that describes the minute colour variations in handmade rugs from the Near and Middle East. These variations result from dyes being made in small batches; abrash is prized as the minor inconsistencies confirm the imperfection of man as opposed to the perfection of the Almighty. Rugs with abrash exhibit a shimmering quality which enhances their appeal and value; these subtle variations can be seen in the red fields of the Persian Qashqai rug seen above. The shimmering is caused by the slightly different frequencies of light waves generated by the minutely varying colours beating together. Sound, like light, is vibrating energy and the composer Morton Feldman (1926-1987), who was an authority on Near and Middle Eastern rugs, deployed the sonic equivalent of abrash in his late piano work Palais de Mari . This uses microtonal differences in pitch to produce a sonic shimmering from the resulting beat frequencies . Steven Osborne has recorded Morton Feldman's Palai...

In his plea for more imaginative concert planning conductor Warren Cohen lamented the ubiquity of the Emperor Concerto. So staying with the theme of unfamiliar music, today's post features music with connections to another Emperor. Chroniclers from the 9th century recount that when the young and beautiful Kassia (also known as Kassiani) was told by her suitor the Emperor Theophilos that "Through a woman came forth the baser things" she retorted "And through a woman came forth the better things". After rejecting the Emperor's ill-judged advances the proto-feminist Kassia went on to become an influential abbess, poet and composer . So, given the high profile of Hildegard of Bingen's music, it is surprising that Kassia is not better known today; particularly as she predates Hildegard by almost three centuries and is usually awarded the highly marketable title of the first woman composer. This puzzling neglect may be explained by two factors. One is t...

That headline quote comes from Book XI of Homer's The Odyssey which chronicles Odysseus' descent into hell. In my view a second helping of cat bait is justified to counterbalance the gathering global gloom. I took the photo in Essaouira, Morocco where a resilient mystical, musical and feline culture has reassuringly survived the never-ending foolishness of man. An observation by John Tavener is relevant to this image: There is something deeply mysterious about cats. I think they 'know' things we don't have access to. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Reluctantly also on Facebook and Twitter .

What is the source of the mysterious power of this image? Ginger is on a pouffe from Morocco decorated with a pattern typical of Islamic art. Cats are cherished by Muslims ; so does the circular symmetry suggest the whirling of the Mevlâna Sufis - the mystics of Islam? Or maybe the image reflects the circular symbolism of the Christian Canterbury Cross or the circinate variants of the Tree of Life found in the Kabbalah? (The Kabbalah is in Abraham ibn Musa 's reading a Jewish parallel to Sufism.) Or perchance the powerful visual energy come from further afield - from the Far East and the circular mandalas of Hinduism and Buddhism. Perhaps all these traditions combine in this syncretic orb? On the other hand it may be an uncomfortable reminder of the skeptical Krishnamurti's observation that "We are afraid to leave our own little circle and discover the circle, the barrier, around another". Or was my camera simply in the right place at the right time? Does any o...

Among those who shared the post expressing Warren Cohen's frustration at myopic concert planning was violinist Johannes Pramsohler . His Facebook share elicited a comment from baritone Stéphane Degout who is seen above. Stéphane is a big hitter in the operatic world and his comment contains an important message for all those who capitulate to the tyranny of programme planners and marketing experts; so I have posted it below in translation*. As Virgil Thomson told us, never underestimate the public's intelligence, baby, and never overestimate its information. Forty minutes of Debussy's songs last year, forty minutes of Poulenc/Apollinaire plus a trio of contemporary works in the same programme this year. Programme planners sometimes tell me that my recitals are too rarified, too intellectual, and that no one will come. But the rooms are full and the audience loves it. The tastes of audiences are often misjudged: the public are not backward children who only like what the...

Goodness knows, I try, but the problem is that I and the other people trying to bring more music, different music and new music to people are obscure and have a very limited audience. I did not go to a big school, I have very few connections with famous musicians, I conduct a couple of obscure orchestras (although one of them is really pretty good!) and have no connections in the media world to get people to pay attention to what I am trying to do. Previn, Bernstein and Monrow were well connected, famous musicians with an ability to reach vast numbers of people, and, more important, they were allowed to do what they thought best. When Hindemith died Bernstein devoted an entire Young People's Concert to him the very next month - an hour of Hindemith for 9 year olds - and he was allowed to do it. No 'marketing expert" would permit such an outrage today. These are the people who determine what we hear, and, because they think in such a short term way, they cannot tolerate...

The London Symphony Orchestra is one of Classic FM's partner orchestras . There has been much media spin linked to Simon Rattle's 2017 Barbican concerts as the LSO's incoming music director. The spin includes a shower of anti-Brexit and pro-new London concert hall tweets from Classic FM quoting him, and a news story that "Simon Rattle launches first LSO season with swipe at Brexit". Both the Barbican Hall and proposed new London Hall are in the City of London, and the financial community in the City of London has been one of the most vocal critics of Brexit . In another Classic FM news item critical of Brexit, policy chairman of the City of London Corporation Mark Boleat is quoted as saying: "Britain has long been a magnet for global talent. To continue the sector's success, with 12% of City workers made up of European staff, it is important the flow of leading talent to the UK continues". As pointed out in a 2015 Overgrown Path post Mark Bo...

David Munrow's Pied Piper BBC radio series broadcast from 1971 to 1976 introduced thousands of young and not so young people to classical music. The title was particularly apt because classical music's Pied Piper led his unsuspecting audience on a rich journey of discovery. In the same way other influential animateurs such as Leonard Bernstein with his CBS television Young People's Concerts and André Previn with his BBC TV Music Night programmes also helped new audiences discover and explore classical music. It was not just media figures that provided leadership on that journey of discovery. Conductor John McLaughlin Williams recently recounted how the proprietor of Serenade Records in Washington DC, which closed many years ago, led him on a journey of discovery through Medtner, Glazunov, Glière, and many other composers. And as a customer I have made many invaluable discoveries in the soon to close Prelude Records in Norwich, England, discoveries which were shared w...

'Hello Bob, your post on the closure of Prelude Records struck a chord with me, as it doubtless will with many others. Great stores like yours and my Serenade Records in Washington DC are authors of far, far more than they can ever know. The obituary of Nesim Revah who established and ran the shop that was my second home as a very young man can be read here . I didn't know that much about him until reading this. He was always super kind to me, a young black kid with what probably seemed either highly sophisticated or weirdly iconoclastic musical tastes. I learned of Medtner, Glazunov, Gliere, and so many others from Serenade Records. Eventually, Nesim found out what I was studying, and when the Washington Post did a little piece on me, he totally surprised me by cutting it out of the paper and posting it in a very prominent spot in the shop so all could see. (I'm actually getting a bit teary recalling this, now decades in the past, as it moved me so at the time.) Below...

News that a retail store in Norwich - 100 miles from London - is closing is unlikely to attract much attention. But the impending closure of Prelude Records , one of the few independent stores in the UK run by classical musicians for music lovers, will impact on the many readers of this blog all around the world. Many of the posts On An Overgrown Path have been inspired by chance discoveries in Prelude ; the kind of chance discoveries which are simply not possible in algorithm-driven online stores. My life will undoubtedly be diminished by the closure of Prelude Records. So the Buddhist doctrine of dependent origination means the content of this blog - how long before it too goes the way of Prelude? - will be diminished, and that diminution will affect readers all round the world. Not to mention of course the musicians and small record companies whose viability will be diminished by a further reinforcement of the financial stranglehold of Apple Music, Spotify and other online gatekee...

Today is New Year's Day in the Berber (Imazighn) calendar , and there are celebrations in Agadir, Tiznit and other majority Berber areas of Morocco. The presence of Berbers in Morocco predates the Arab/Muslim invasion of the country by eight centuries. Around three-quarters of Morocco's 30 million population are of Berber descent and the number of Berber speakers, either as a first language or bilingually with an Arab dialect, is estimated to be around 10 million. The Berbers mix observance of saintly and animistic cults with more orthodox Islam in a syncretic tradition known as Maraboutic Islam. My photo shows our Berber friend Hassan who has featured in several Overgrown Path posts . Hassan is an ace surfer from the Berber village of Tamraght , which is the surfing capital of Africa. I first met Hassan some years ago when he looked after me while I was sea kayaking in the big surf of Morocco's Atlantic coast. Back then Hassan was living in a hut on the beach with fis...