We are all to blame


'The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who won't do anything about it' - attributed to Albert Einstein

Pau Casals resources On An Overgrown Path include Remembering Pablo Casals, In Search Of Pablo Casals, and most importantly A Musician Is Also A Man.

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Lyle Sanford, RMT said…
Just last week gave a copy of the suites to a promising young player, and told the story of the backstreet used bookshop in Barcelona - and also suggested she check out Jaqueline du Prés.
11:34 pm
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David Munrow - more than early music

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'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 era May 15 2007 is the thirty-first 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. ...
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How Wagner redacted Parsifal's Muslim brother

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That photo was taken when I visited the remote Tinmel Mosque in Morocco's Atlas Mountains. My visit prompted the post Is this Wagner's legendary Monsalvat? which highlighted the tenuous links between Wagner's Parsifal and the Islamic culture of al-Andalus. My further exploration of this subject has since uncovered some surprising and little known facts. Parziva l, the epic poem on which Wagner based his music drama, is a medieval romance by the knight-poet Wolfram von Eschenbach . In the poem Parzival's father, the knight-adventurer Gahmuret , served the caliph of Baghdad; which meant a Christian knight was serving a Muslim. While in the caliph's service Gahmuret married the Black pagan queen Belkane. She became pregnant with their child, but their mixed-ethnicity son Feirefiz was born after Gahmuret returned to Wales. On his return to Wales he won the hand of a queen called Herzeloyde, and that union resulted in the birth of Parzival. Which meant Parzival h...
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Musicians against indifference

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I'll be interested in American readers' reactions to the start of this review by the Guardian's Andrew Clements - ' Considering how much third-rate music has been included in Naxos's American Classics series, Elliott Carter has so far been poorly served by the budget-price label. But in the year of the composer's 100th birthday, this - the first of two discs that will include all five of Carter's string quartets - could be the start of a major addition to his discography.' Andrew Clements then goes on to write a glowing five-star review of Naxos' new CD of Elliott Carter's String Quartets Nos 1 and 5 performed by the Pacifica Quartet . I'll agree whole-heartedly with his verdict on the Carter Quartets, I bought them last week and they are superb performances of superb music. But I am not so sure about his other views. That judgement of 'third-rate music' raises the interesting point of should a critic focus primarily on the interpr...
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Classical music's biggest problem is that no one cares

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