[222.1] SAVING RADIO 3 FROM ITS DEFENDERS

Edward Pearce, who has issued a passionate plea for 'traditional values' on BBC Radio 3, is a delightful man. Some years ago, when he worked as a commentator and journalist on a national newspaper and I scribed for an obscure weekly, I sat next to him at a political conference we were both covering. Unlike many 'name hacks' he was unfailingly courteous and good-humoured, even saving my hotly-competed-for place while I went in search of a cuppa. I've always enjoyed his writing, too. It is thoughtful, informed, quaintly punctilious and wryly Swiftian in its denunciations. A breath of fresh air also, because Pearce moved ground from conservatism to a Whiggish and idiosyncratic form of liberalism during the Thatcher era.

That said, his squeal of anguish over Radio 3 is spoiled (as one respondent says) by "[needless] words and phrases such as 'tributary tosh', 'kitsch', 'inferior music', 'inferior taste', and 'long live cultural snobbery'." Ah, well. That's the bluff North Riding traditionalist in him. Bless. Likewise, film music isn't necessarily the best target - Prokofiev, Britten, Walton, Tippett and Korngold didn't despise the medium per se. And rightly so. 'Light music' is, I admit, anathema as far as I'm concerned - Gilbert and Sullivan included, which drives me nuts. And there is surely plenty of other airspace for it?

But sorry Ed, the idea of re-building cast-iron walls between resplendent classicism and resolute modernism depresses me. Drummond and Glock may have seemed over-zealous in their educative missions, but the Proms at its best is now testimony to the fact that musical trenches are unnecessary. I don't mind jazz seeping in and out of the mix, either. Far from it. Given "those twentieth century blues" it's inevitable, as well as desirable. Radio 3 should still unashamedly be about music as art rather than music as distraction. With that I readily concur. But it should seek to discharge this remit by breaking barriers as well as upholding traditions. Both are possible. Quality should never be confused with stuffiness. And as you say, "[a]n audience of 1.78 million for a programme of classical music, long in earnest talk and flecked with avant garderie, is nothing to apologise for."

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[221.1] AUTHENTIC HANDEL AT THE PROMS

A good BBC 1 TV Proms broadcast this evening - the Baroque concert from last Thursday (23 August 2007) featuring a lively collaboration between two leading period-instrument groups, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (with Rachel Podger violin/director) and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (with Gottfried von der Goltz violin/director ). The programme centred on Handel, including the famous the ceremonial fireworks music written in honour of King George II, the Concerto a due cori in F major, HWV 333, and arias and duets performed by Kate Royal (soprano) and the wonderful Ian Bostridge (see pic - tenor). We also got Purcell (arr. Catherine Mackintosh), Sett of Favourite Airs, Fantasies and Dances. Telemann's Suite in G minor for two solo violins, strings and basso continuo, TWV 55:g8, didn't make the TV cut, unfortunately.

Some kind of comment on the 'period instrument' issue is inevitable, I guess. The overall sound mix was certainly fascinating, and the virtuosity of the performers extraordinary. The strings are duller in tone than their modern equivalents, and the breath control required for valveless horns and woodwind is considerable. I was full of admiration. The passion and communication of the performers lent the whole concert an undoubted vibrancy.

Yet I remain slightly sceptical. 'Authentic performance' can make a genuine contribution to our understanding and appreciation of the music, yet it is still a tentative exercise, historically speaking. I also can't help wondering how Handel would feel about it. He would find some 'modern instrument' performances of his instrumental pieces quite remarkable, I'd wager, and would crave the control and modulation available to the contemporary performer. "Why deny yourselves the best?", I can hear him saying. There's room for both approaches, of course. But music is alive and should be allowed to develop. We owe it to those who gifted it to us. Not least Handel, whose zest for life was always forward-looking.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[220.1] BRUFORD AND THE PIANO BEAT

I've long advocated that eclectic jazz-rock drummer Bill Bruford (latterly heading up Earthworks, also ex-Yes and King Crimson) should delve more into the 'new music' arena. I'm delighted to see that this is going to happen at the end of next month. The concert concerned will take place on 21 September 2007, starting at 19:30, 170 Kensal Road, London, W10 5BN Cost : £10 (£8) advance booking or £12 on door.

The blurb proclaims: "Legendary drummer Bill Bruford and new music’s star keyboard collective pianocircus have teamed up with innovative composer Colin Riley. They perform an evening of this new material at a special performance in London. Riley has created create a set of high-energy and ambient tracks to harness the power and range of the performers, blending electronica, jazz, and the avant-garde."

www.cobdenclub.co.uk/sitemap.html Tickets www.wegottickets.com/20834.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[219.1] A SONG FOR CONGO

I caught this on BBC Radio 4 yesterday, and it was both heartening and moving. Norwegian jazz musician Bugge Wesseltoft has used Beeb journo Mike Thomson's interview with Zawadi, a woman horrifically caught up in the conflict in Congo, as the basis for a song on his new album. Bugge Wesseltoft, who has worked with musicians like American guitarist John Scofield and Britain's eclectic composer and performer Django Bates, is to feature parts of the interview in the track called 'Wye'. Lyric royalties from the song are to be donated to the woman from Bukavu in Eastern Congo, who finally escaped her Rwandan Hutu abductors after witnessing the murder of fifty of her friends and family. The album will be released in October 2007. There is a clip on the BBC's website story here. It was in searching for Wesseltoft that I discovered the Maria Kannegaard Trio, too. [Pic: Thomson and Wesseltoft]

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[218.1] BACKED INTO THE FUTURE

Thanks to Sequenza21 for highlighting this one. Back in 1994, the following composers were invited to weigh in on what music would be like in 150 years: Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez (predictable, this one!), Harrison Birtwistle, Brian Ferneyhough (minimal answer), Steve Reich (maximal, funnily enough), Franco Donatoni (looks eerily like the late footballer George Best, on an off day) and Louis Andriessen. The ones who didn't take it as an opportunity pompously to state the bleedin' obvious (that prediction is a mugs game, and not to be taken seriously) wound up having some pretty interesting things to say - offbeat and onbeat.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[217.1] MONK IN MORSE CODE?

While searching for something entirely different, I had one of those happy chancing-upon internet adventures - discovering for the first time the Maria Kannegaard Trio {pictured}. They have some sound files up on their MySpace page, too. Their latest album, Quiet Joy, has been published on Jazzland Records, the label of the daring Bugge Wesselhoft - about whom, more anon. According to Rondomagazine the music "at one moment sounds like Bill Evans having the hiccups, at another like Thelonious Monk in Morse code (...) or like gumbo-backbeat when the drums peu à peu are losing all of their metal parts. That's one of many ways to describe the incredibly surprising style and positive craziness in the music of the Maria Kanneegaard Trio."

This from Roald Helgheim: “I immediately sat up and noticed Maria Kannegaard the first time I heard her … She was playing beautiful tunes, and then there was something about the way she was improvising. Something well defined, conscious, well-thought through: … she speaks to me with music so soulful it leaves one with a massive impression, but at the same time this music possesses an inner calm. … the most original trio-debut in Norwegian jazz for a long time.”

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[216.1] TRUE VENEZUELAN SWING

Rather unjustly, I think, Andrew Clements has a reputation in some circles for being a 'dour modernist'. Well, he certainly champions demanding new music and maximalism. Good for him on that. But he also operates from a wide musical palette, as is indicated by this enthusiastic review of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra's appearance in London. The progamme included Shostakovitch's stunning Tenth Symphony - one of my favourite works, and a piece of daunting musical and emotional scale.

Clements begins: "I am not sure anything quite like Gustavo Dudamel and his extraordinary group of young musicians have ever hit the Proms before. Whatever you have read about the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra - and the astonishing Venezuelan system of musical education that brought it into being - can't convey the brilliance and disarming exuberance of their playing, or the importance of Dudamel's role in channelling that energy. There are some great youth orchestras around today, but none of them is as exciting to behold as this." Read on.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[215.1] SHOUT IT OUT AGAIN

The indefatigable Adey Grummet writes: "The Shout will go into rehearsal on their newly devised theatre piece, Fingerprint in September 2007. Directed by Emma Bernard, it deals with the multilayered and kaleidoscopic aspects of [human] identity. The tour is as follows:

* Linbury 27, 28, 29th Sept
* RNCM Manchester 20th Oct
* Portsmouth New Theatre Royal 31st Oct
* Sage Gateshead 8th November
* Dartington Plus (Ariel Centre) 29, 30th November

Details of all this will be here as well as on The Shout's own website. Why not contact them there to be put on their mailing list?"

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[214.1] DOCUMENTING NEW MUSIC

Among the very best 'new music' web initiatives is undoubtedly the NetNewMusic/Sequenza21 New Music Wiki - and, of course, the Sequenza21 blog, which is essential reading. (Yes, I know, I must update my links.) "What we hope to do here is to build a reader-created community/encyclopedia of new music composers, performers, history, schools, important works - you literally name it. Since first person sources are always the best place to start, I am hoping that all of you who are active in creating and playing new music will create entries for yourself and the groups you are associated with."

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[213.2] MAX ROACH - THE SYNCOPATION LIVES ON

I haven't always been successful in seeing my musical heroes in the flesh, before they pass into dust and artistic immortality. I missed Miles Davis' last-ever appearance in London - so never witnessed him play live. I sadly never got to see Shostakovitch, Zappa or The Smiths, either. I caught Ligeti, Copland and Tal Farlowe, but missed out on Messaien - a huge lode star in my sonic firmament.

So I am thankful this evening, having heard the sad news of Max Roach's demise, that I got to see the ground-breaking jazz drummer in action, aged well into his 70s, along with pianist Cecil Taylor at London's Royal Festival Hall. It is a night I wont forget. Roach wasn't walking that easily and looked petty frail. But when he sat on the drum riser he was a man transfigured, and his deftness of touch, tome and rhythmic sensitivity never lost him. There were even signs of the controlled muscularity which he applied in such a customary way -- in the service of a greater musical cause, rather than for its own sake.

The BBC gives a pithy summary of what he was and what he bought to jazz "Born in North Carolina in 1924, Roach became the house drummer at the legendary New York club Monroe's Uptown House in his teens. He helped develop the bebop style while playing with the likes of Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie at Monroe's and another influential New York venue, Minton's Playhouse. Before bebop, jazz was primarily swing music played in dance halls, and drummers served to keep time for the band, Blue Note spokesman Cem Kurosman said. Roach, along with fellow-drummer Kenny Clarke, changed that by shifting the time-keeping function to the cymbal, allowing the drums to play a more expressive and melodic role.

"Roach began drumming before the age of 10In the process, he contributed to the shift of jazz from popular dance music to an art form that fans appreciated sitting in clubs, Kurosman added.
The self-trained percussionist also took part in sessions with Miles Davis, which were later released as The Birth Of Cool. The quintet he co-founded with Clifford Brown in 1954 is considered one of the classic ensembles in jazz. After Brown's death in a car crash with bandmate Richie Powell in 1956, Roach led a series of bands that included a who's who of jazz associates."

He was also a stalwart campaigner for human dignity and civil rights.

There is more on the BBC Radio 3 Profile - which adds: "Some of his duo performances are masterpieces of improvisation, notably his 1989 Paris collaboration with Dizzy Gillespie and a long-lived partnership with pianist Cecil Taylor both on record and in a series of occasional concerts. In the 1980s Roach formed a regular group which included Odean Pope on saxophones and Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet. In addition he worked in an amazing variety of contexts from all star jazz groups to the Beijing Trio, which explored Asian-American links."

See also: Art Taylor: 'Max Roach' in Notes and Tones (New York, USA, Da Capo, 1993); Drummerworld: Max Roach; Max Roach: The Hard Bop Homepage; Max Roach - Wikipedia; Max Roach - Verve Records.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[213.1] ORCHESTRAL CONCERTS GO 'VIRTUAL'

In The Guardian (whose online redesign really is fab): Second Life goes symphonic - a British orchestra is staging the first full-scale classical concert in the virtual world. Meanwhile, in the 'real world', we're at the Proms halfway point, the paper reminds us.

"The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic has created a virtual, 3-D version of its concert hall and on September 14 users of the website will be able to attend a concert led by the orchestra's chief conductor, Vasily Petrenko."

Encouragingly, the report adds: "Far from compromising with popular classics, the orchestra will perform, aside from works by Ravel and Rachmaninov, two premieres, by Liverpool composers Kenneth Hesketh and John McCabe."

A different kind of 'virtual orchestra experience' was provided by an installation on London's South Bank last Summer (August-September) called Play.orchestra - see illustration. "56 plastic cubes and 3 Hotspots are laid out on a full size orchestra stage, each cube containing a light and speaker. Sit down on the cube or stand in the hotspot to turn on that instrument and bring 58 friends to hear the full piece. "

An intriguing initiative of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Play.orchestra was reviewed at the time by Frankie Roberto.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[212.1] TIPPETT'S DANCING ENERGY

Ivan Hewett of the Daily Telegraph writing about Prom 18 (Thursday 26 July 2007, while I was in the United States):

"Then came another piece which was thought to be a swan-song: Michael Tippett’s Triple Concerto, written when the composer was 75 (in fact he went on composing for another fifteen years). I remembered its exulting melodies, the three soloists singing like one, but I’d forgotten its dancing energy, the ingenious cyclic form, and the virtuosity of the orchestral as well as the solo writing. The three soloists – violinist Daniel Hope, violist Philip Dukes, and cellist Christian Poltéra, played like heroes. But the orchestra was no less wonderful; in fact the most entrancing part of the performance was the sinuous duet between Hope and alto flautist Michael Cox.

Listen to the Proms on BBC Radio 3’s audio-on-demand service bbc.co.uk/radio3

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[211.1] A BIRTWISTLE PERCUSSIVE FAVOURITE

...and an unexpected find on YouTube. For O, For O, the Hobby-Horse is Forgot, by Sir Harrison Birtwistle (April 12, 2005). There are two further portions. Courtesy of OberlinPercussion [Clockwise from top: Ross Karre, Jared Twenty, Michael Lehman, Andrew Burke, Zachary Crystal, Matthew Jenkins]



Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[210.2] TONY WILSON'S PERFECT KISS

My friend he took his final breath
Now I know the perfect kiss is the kiss of death
(Bernard Sumner Peter Hook Stephen Morris Phil Cunningham)

I was delayed, I was way-laid
an emergency stop
I smelt the last ten seconds of life
I crashed down on the crossbar
and the pain was enough
to make a shy, bald buddhist reflect
and plan a mass-murder
(Morrissey Marr)

Sad to hear on the BBC this evening of the death of Tony Wilson - the impresario who created the context for the glorious emergence of The Smiths, in my view the indie band of the 1980s, and who is immortalised (warts and all) in the fine 24 Hour Party People.

"The Salford-born entrepreneur, who managed New Order, Joy Division and the Happy Mondays, was diagnosed [with cancer] last year during a routine visit to the doctor. The 57-year-old, who launched Factory records and the Hacienda nightclub, underwent emergency surgery in January to remove a kidney. He passed away on Friday evening in hospital. Doctors recommended he take the drug Sutent after chemotherapy failed to beat the disease, but the NHS refused to fund the £3,500-a-month treatment. However, members of the Happy Mondays and other acts he supported over the years stepped in and started a fund to help pay for it."

NP in my head: The Smiths, 'Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before' and New Order, 'The Perfect Kiss'.

Sound and vision files:

The Smiths – Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

Ten-minute version of 'The Perfect Kiss' on YouTube.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[210.1] THE REAL FIFTH DIMENSION

The fastest going JSB-related group on Facebook at the moment is the delightfully whimsical "Every time you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten". (You need to be registered to view it). I have gently raised the thorny and well-trampled issue of whether, therefore, he actually wrote Toccatta and Fugue in D Minor, which has plenty of PFs in it. They're mostly students on there. And that's what students are for. In the nicest possible way.

For the baffled, the relevant Wikipedia entry has a pretty succinct summary:

"In music, consecutive fifths (also known as parallel fifths) involve the concurrence of successive intervals of a perfect fifth between two voices in parallel motion; e.g., a parallel movement from C to D in one voice, and G to A in a higher voice. Intervening octaves are irrelevant to this aspect of musical grammar; for example, parallel 12ths (i.e., as created by successive intervals of an octave plus a fifth) are equivalent to parallel fifths. During the common practice period, the use of consecutive fifths was strongly discouraged. This was primarily due to the notion of voice leading, which stresses the individual identity of voices. Because of the powerful presence of the fifth above the fundamental in the overtone series, the individuality of two parts is weakened when they move in parallel fifths."

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[209.1] BETTER THAN IT SOUNDS

"Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem, followed by Mahler’s 10th Symphony; it would be hard to think of a more intense pairing than this one, given to us last night by the BBC Philharmonic and its new chief conductor Gianandrea Noseda", writes Ivan Hewett in his Telegraph BBC Proms review. Indeed. He adds: "It’s a clever pairing too, as the two pieces go together so beautifully. The doom-laden thump of the bass drum colours both pieces, and they both lead through strange, tormented areas of experience before subsiding in serenity and acceptance. Where they differ hugely is in scale."

For the at-home listener (like me in this instance - go to the Beeb's 'listen again' facility: bbc.co.uk/radio3) the immensity and gradualism of the Mahler [pictured] can be a challenge. In years gone by I have struggled with it, rather sympathising with the person who once famously commented that "Wagner's music is better than it sounds" - and applying it to Mahler too! Complexity and density in music (Birtwistle, Ferneyhough, etc.) has never been something that has especially daunted me. But lyrical density and ponderousness has. I know for many it is the other way round.

In the 1970s I got into Bruckner a little, partly by way of self-education. Wagner passed me by. And Mahler 10, except in bruised chunks. But the Proms is an ideal environment in which to stretch one's listening experience. Long may it be so.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[208.1] BACH TO BASICS

Ouch, sorry about that. What I wish to commend, however, is the short 15-minute-per-broadcast series on BBC 2 and BBC 4 (TV, around 11.20pm, after Newsnight) - York Minster organist John Whiteley performs a series of JS Bach's organ works. The BFI blurb, such as it is, talks up the "innovative camera techniques". Thankfully these enhance, rather than obscuring, the beauty of the music.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[207.1] THE APPALACHIAN SONGBOOK

I am staying in West Virginia at the moment, in a country spa hotel situated near the foothills of the famous Appalachian mountains. I've been listening to a young fiddle player called Rob Mann, a street musician and function player, who has been busting a cat gut or two taking us through some of the repertoire for this region. And very talented he is, too.

Of course the vernacular music of the area owes a good deal to English and (especially) Irish folk music, whence it borrowed some ideas and reworked them across the homesteads and bars. One or two of the better known tunes (from a wider span of possibilities) are included in Aaron Copland's famous ballet suite Appalachian Spring, which has always been a favourite of mine.

"An emotional highpoint of the score is a melody based on a traditional Shaker song, 'Simple Gifts.' We hear a chorus sing the original hymn that provided Copland his inspiration, then listen to Copland’s beautiful solo vocal and instrumental adaptations. Throughout the work, Copland brilliantly weaves melodies that evoke simplicity and the “earnest but good-natured piety” of Shaker culture. Composer John Adams discusses the Shaker influence on American culture and how Copland allowed that to shape the piece."

Adams' own orchestral work 'Shaker Loops' is one of the most widely adapted in the neo-minimalist canon, and has been set to words in an abbreviated version by Jon Anderson on the album Change We Must.

NPR continues: "Music critics were in awe of Copland’s ability to capture a vast emotional world within the limits of the 13-piece orchestration prescribed by the original score (which, in turn, was dictated by the size of the Coolidge Auditorium orchestra pit at the Library of Congress, site of the ballet's premiere). With some strings, a few woodwinds and piano he achieves remarkable effects."

See also Classical Notes on Copland and Appalachian Spring.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[206.1] NEWS FROM GRUMMET CENTRAL

"Lore Lixenberg [pictured] and Adey Grummet have worked together for years. Between them they sing some of the scariest contemporary scores know to humanity. Perhaps this is sheer foolhardiness and perhaps this is true courage. Whatever, it means that they never get cast in standard repertoire or considered for nice polite parts in nice polite opera houses with music where you know how many beats are in the next bar. Funny that. And a bit sad.

"However, Graham Coatman, the new artistic Director of the Hexham Festival, heard them whinging about this one day and decided to take them at their word. Dragging their good friend and stalwart support and all-round-nicest-man-we-know, Jonathan Williams, with them, they will be singing just what they fancy singing on 4 October 2007 in Hexham Abbey and no-one is going to stop them!" Updates here.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[205.1] A NEW YORK STATE OF SOUND

New York, where I was staying with friends recently, is a city pulsating with music. From bars and clubs to concert halls, buskers, street sounds and stores – melody, harmony, rhythm and dissonance seeps uncontrollably from its pores.

As I arrive on Amtrak from Washington DC, a man on the train next to me is listening to Charles Ives on his headset. I can tell this from the CD sleeve by his side rather than any discernible notes emerging from his earphones, but it is enough to evoke the music in my head.

On a Realty company’s forecourt a reggae trio, unlikely and popular with the passing lunchtime crowd, strike out with Bob Marley’s Exodus and more.

Then on one walk the Lincoln Centre comes into view. I remember hearing the Lincoln Jazz Orchestra at the Proms in London several years ago. In the aesthetic battle between Wynton Marsalis and the variegated memory of Miles Davis, I’m on Miles’ wing. But you don’t have to choose. The custodians of tradition and its innovators into new forms and possibilities can live together, if they are smart.

Mostly Mozart is on. But it seems to be mostly Beethoven, Mido, and the merest smattering of contemporary composition – which would not please Wolfgang Amadeus, surely? Steven and I talk Thomas Ades.

Across the road, of course, is Strawberry Fields, the shrine to John Lennon (‘Imagine’) and Yoko Ono’s overlooking apartment. The ‘found sounds’ beloved of John Cage are everywhere. And the imagined silences. Laurie Anderson haunts the sidewalks, resting between the cracks and rushing the red lights.

Somewhere else is the building depicted on Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti album. And in a studio I get a personal performance (well a rehearsal, actually) from R.U.B...with my friend Steven Sullivan doing the maths on bass for some reworked ‘80s material – including Depeche Mode (when they finally do the gig on 6 August 2007) and Elvis Costello’s ‘Pump It Up’.

Not quite The Juliet Letters, admittedly. But my mind slips naturally to the Balanescu Quartet, Nonesuch, Eno, Kronos Quartet and other border-crossings on the musical superhighway.

Talking of which: in Borders itself, I pick up Suzanne Vega’s new NY-centric collection, Beauty and Crime (11 songs bursting with hope, anguish and delight). Plus I note the relative absence of Tippett, A Child Of Our Time and some Ogden piano sonatas aside.

In another store I peek at the New Orleans jazz (is Woody Allen at Michael’s Pub tonight?), I peer at a Gramophone article on Ian Bostridge rescuing Handel, and I hear a track from the New York Dolls – who I never really liked, to be honest. But beloved Morrissey gets them, so there must be some point.

On CD in Jane and Steve’s apartment I take in, at various times, Bartok, Kodaly, Messiaen, Yes, Starcastle (don’t ask), Montreux, Arctic Monkeys, and the not-quite-forgotten John McLaughlin, Tony Williams (of Lifeime) and Jaco Pastorius power jazz trio. Press random again.

Something I listen to – I forget what, exactly – reminds me of that quintessentially NY downtown new music ensemble and festival, Bang On A Can. And in Virgin records I pass racks of Glenn Branca, whose post-punk orchestrations beat the eardrums into submission while enlivening them with sub- and après-sonic overtones, allegedly.

Last, but not least, is the Summer of Love psychedelia art exhibit at the Whitney – Jimi Hendrix, the artist who painted the cover of Miles’ experimental classic Bitches Brew, Jefferson Airplane, Ginsberg, Warhol and the Velvet Underground, a picture of Adrian Mitchell on the steps of the Royal Albert Hall (he now lives on my street in NW5), Janis Joplin, Julie Felix… more memories than my mind an hold.

Sing on, New York… from The Met all the way out West to Haight Ashbury. And well beyond. [Picture: Suzanne Vega, Beauty and Crime]


Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[204.1] STRIGGIO 40-PART MASS

Thanks to Deirdre Good for drawing my attention to this - missed in the rush to get ready for my US trip. "The rediscovery of the gigantic Mass in forty parts by Alessandro Striggio (1536-1592), lost since 1726, sheds important light on the connections between music and politics in the sixteenth century. Dating from 1566-7, it is one of the most extravagant pieces ever composed in the history of music. Here's a link to the lecture recounting the discovery by Professor Davitt Moroney, University of California, Berkeley."

From The Guardian review of the BBC Prom earlier this month: "Thomas Tallis may have written his revered 40-part Spem in alium motet after meeting the Mantuan composer Alessandro Striggio in London in 1567. Perhaps Tallis even took as a model Striggio's own 40-part mass Ecco si beato giorno, which in its final Agnus Dei rises to 60 parts. For centuries, the missing link in this theory was Striggio's lost mass itself; its rediscovery is an astonishing moment in musicological history. Unveiled in this late-night Prom by the augmented Tallis Scholars, possibly for the first time in half a millennium, Striggio's work is a masterpiece; richer and more extravagant than Tallis's more austerely English motet, but more than fit to be mentioned in the same breath as twin landmarks of 16th-century polyphony."

And here's the choral wiki for Ecce beatam lucem.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[203.1] SINGING FOR A CHANGE

At this year’s WOMAD world music, arts and dance festival (27-29 July 2007) UK-based international development agency Christian Aid is asking visitors to join its 'Climate Changed' campaign as they listen to acts from developing countries which are struggling to adapt to the devastating effects of climate change.

Nazmul Chowdhury from Practical Action in Bangladesh, said: "Forget about making poverty history. Climate change will make poverty permanent."

More information here.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[202.1] LISTENING RIGHT NOW

... to Kodaly (in his most lyrical phase) and, before that, some wondrous excerpts from Bela Bartok's Microcosmos - in a New York apartment, on a warm day with a beautiful blue sky visible through the wide windows. On piano, though it could also be on a harpsichord. Here's a Summer present for you, then: Bela Bartok. MIDI (free download) & MIDI/ZIP.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[201.1] DISAPPEARING YOUTUBE

Loads of interesting stuff in the jazz and rock areas has disappeared off YouTube, thanks to the pointless greed of ViaCom and other 'majors' - who are mostly not preserving profits, but denying potential purchasers a chance to sample music they might not otherwise contemplate. But whatever. There's a lot less 'classical' and new music. But thankfully these Michael Tippett clips, which I mentioned last year, are still around. At the last time of checking.

Tippett rehearsing the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra in the Ritual Dances; Tippett rehearsing the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra in Cockaigne; Tippett rehearsing the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra in Suite in D and Nimrod; Tippett rehearsing the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra in Putnam's Camp.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[200.1] HISTORIC PROMS PARTNERSHIP CELEBRATED

The BBC Proms classical music festival (sadly still best known for its jingoistic last night - but hugely brader in scope, not least in popularising new music) has kicked off the 12th and final BBC season curated by outgoing director Nicholas Kenyon.

It is being described as a celebratory season that marks the 80th anniversary of the partnership between the Proms and the BBC. While referencing the past, it looks to creating the music and performers of the future through concerts and broadcasting.

There are many new works (including 12 BBC commissions), and what the BBC calls "unparalleled opportunities for talented young performers as well as more ways than ever for a new generation to get involved."

In just two months the season spans eight centuries of music in 90 concerts. From the 13th-century Icelandic sagas that inspired Wagner, to the rediscovery of a lost Renaissance Mass, through the Baroque genius of Handel, Bach and Rameau, to the great orchestral repertory from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries (including new commissions), the music is performed by leading artists from across the globe.

Nicholas Kenyon says: "I hope that BBC Proms 2007, 80 years after the BBC took over this great concert series, is as exciting and innovative a season as it has ever been.

"In my final season I am especially pleased at the huge range of major orchestras and events, the new works, and the unequalled opportunities to hear the very best of young musicians.

"From an extraordinary Venezuelan youth orchestra to our own National Youth Orchestra, young brass players making music alongside the BBC Philharmonic on Brass Day, and talented young singers – found in a nationwide talent search – singing Rachel Portman's dramatic new piece about climate change. The future of classical music is right here at the BBC Proms."

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[199.1] MUSIC WITH PASSION

Darn, I've just missed Private Passions on BBC Radio 3 again. Still, there's always Listen Again. It's a great programme, hosted by a contemporary clasical composer with an eclectic range of interests and guests. And it is so much better than its analogue Desert Island Discs, because the people invited to participate are always those for whom music is central rather than decorative in their lives.

"Michael Berkeley's guest this week is US-born jazz trombonist, conductor and composer Scott Stroman, who is currently Head of Jazz Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His wide-ranging musical tastes are reflected in his choices, which include music by Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus (of course) alongside a Bach suite, a Beethoven string quartet, a movement from Haydn's Symphony No 99 and an extract from Stravinsky's ballet Apollon musagete." [Pic: M. Berkeley]

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[198.1] LIVE EARTH... SOME LIKE IT HOT

Well, I was intending to write about Ian Bostridge on Handel. More of that later. Meanwhile, in the midst of catching up with some writing, I've been on-and-off watching the BBC broadcast of today's Live Earth concerts across the world - a noble effort to mainstream concerns about global warming and Al Gore's necessarily ambitious seven-point programme to tackle the human impact on climate change. Not much that lands vertically on my musical universe, admittedly. But the Red Hot Chilli Peppers managed to combine rockist sensibilities with some accomplished playing, good use of dynamics (not that easy at the cavernous New Wembley Stadium), high energy material and strong harmonies. Bloc Party are also interesting, and Corinne Bailey Ray brought a beautiful voice and some jazz and soul vibes to the proceedings. Perhaps surprisingly, I also love The Beastie Boys [Mike D, Adrock and MCA, pictured] and their wry, experimental, MC scratch-driven, hard-edged punk rap. The Blues Brothers gone 'Intergallactic' for the C21st. Kinda. Then there's Shakira, whose appeal (like that of the Pussycat Dolls, who actually performed well) is perhaps not exclusively musical. And don't forget the raw, hook-laden power of Foo Fighters' 'Times Like These'. Predictably Gore has been attacked over the environmental impact of an eight gig satellite linked event for an eco-cause. He has hit back. Let's put it this way. The nay-sayers are not motivated by compassion.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[197.1] BACH TO THE FUTURE

Sidewalk Dances: 14 Moondog pieces has now been available in the shops for a few months. Sidewalk Dances was performed by Britten Sinfonia, pianist Joanna MacGregor and saxophonist Andy Sheppard in last year's (2006) London Jazz Festival. Read press reviews. The Britten Sinfonia website [see its left-hand column] has put up an online video, 'Bach meets Moondog' - a wonderful pairing of music from the Baroque master and the underground American street musician who has become legendary in new music circles. Somewhat reminds me of the curious Handel and Hendrix festival pairing a few years ago, based on the London House that both occupied in Brook Street, now the Handel House Museum.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[196.1] CELEBRATING ALDEBURGH MUSIC

Interesting piece in the Guardian by Nicholas Kenyon on the Aldeburgh Festival, its antecedents and prospects. See: Flying the flag, 30 June 2007. Inter alia, he notes of one of its leading lights: "It is ironic that, as a composer, Benjamin Britten's commitment to the music of his contemporaries was more equivocal."

"While the Proms of the 1960s under Glock's direction rushed to embrace the continental avant garde, introducing Messiaen, Schoenberg, Varèse, Ives, Stockhausen and Berio to a sometimes stunned metropolitan audience, Aldeburgh's tastes were far more restrained. In the 1950s, Kodály and Poulenc came, and Lennox Berkeley, Malcolm Williamson, Richard Rodney Bennett and Nicholas Maw had new theatre pieces performed. While the Society for the Promotion of New Music was allowed to present small-scale music from the younger avant-garde generation, Britten drew the line at Harrison Birtwistle's violent music-theatre piece Punch and Judy. (Whether he actually walked out of the premiere is debatable, but he clearly disliked the piece and criticised its lack of awareness of operatic tradition.) For all his generosity to young composers, Britten felt increasingly uncomfortable with some of the directions that music was taking.

"... Gradually, the festival worked its way back to find a home for new music and living composers. Oliver Knussen invited Henze (who had already been welcomed by Britten and Pears), Takemitsu, Dutilleux, Magnus Lindberg and others, and the present creative team of Thomas Adès and John Woolrich has made new music and a distinctive vision of the repertory central to its proposition. The creation of the Britten-Pears School transformed the context in which the festival happens, and Aldeburgh Music (as it is now snappily branded) is a round-the-year proposition of huge potential value to the whole east of England, with ambitious plans that will see the rest of Snape Maltings developed over the next two years." [Pic: Aldeburgh view]

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[195.1] CLICK AND GROOVE LEFT

Nothing at the End of the Lane (electronica / experimental) are well worth a listen on MySpace, which remains a good place to make surprising musical discoveries - usually recommended by friends and associates. In this case, Alexandra Douglass-Bonner. Thanks. NAtEotL cite an interesting range of influences - Masami Akita, Malcolm Clarke, Delia Derbyshire (of BBC Radiophonic Workshop fame), Kevin Drumm, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Jim O'Rourke, Pierre Schaeffer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and David Vorhaus. Hhmmnnn... I could detect at least five of them in the excerpts they offer: 'Alone', 'Projections', 'Needles and Crystals', and 'Stepping Stones' (remix).

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[194.1] THE SHOUT AND STREETWISE OPERA

The Shout are back in the rehearsal room and the workshop to prepare for joining with Streetwise Theatre and the Almeida to explore the world of folksong. Streetwise develop creative performing projects with homeless people, and their work to date has won much critical artistic acclaim as well as being acknowledged as some of the most innovative collaboration with those who are homeless.

My good friend and Shout luminary Adey Grummet (pictured) says: "The rather wonderful Emma Bernard will be masterminding the whole event and whatever glorious thing this project ends up being will be performed in the Almeida theatre at 8pm on July 21 and 4pm & 8pm on July 22, 2007.

"The Shout are also currently waiting for the final funding news for their autumn UK tour. A newly devised theatre piece, Fingerprint, also directed by Emma Bernard, it deals with the multilayered and kaleidoscopic aspects of identity. Stay tuned and pray hard for them! Details of all this will be here as well as on The Shout's own website." You can sign up to receive regular info.

Adey was also a leading light on the fabulous Kombat Opera mini-series on BBC2, which will hopefully be re-airing at some point. From the people who (originally) brought you Jerry Springer - The Opera, only even better.

Picture of Adey Grummet (c) Jim Four, 28 Woolwich Road, London SE10 OJU. Used with grateful acknowledgement. Give him some more work now.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[193.1] POST-ROCK OF AGES

Very well worth delving your ears into on Myspace is Gavin Harrison - O5ric, who operates on the unpoliced borderlands of post-rock and something 'progressive' that really merits that label. The 2007 album is SoulKatcher. Collaborations with Porcupine Tree personnel and Robert Fripp signify the orbit it is resonating in. I'm also listening to the Tree's new disc, the fine Fear Of A Blank Planet right now, as well as contemplating a review of the peerless Joanna Macgregor at the Exeter Festival (Bach's Goldbergs, Piazzola and African-American spirituals). The new Yes documentary from DVD UK is also being viewed with interest...

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[192.1] CONFUSING YOUR EARS AND BRAIN IS FUN

Among the many radio wonders of the web is Difficult Listening, a programme that runs from 9-11.00pm [local time] on Sunday evenings, RTRFM 92.1, Perth, Western Australia. The presenters are Bryce Moore and Sarah Combes. Its remit is: "Music on the edge: contemporary classical, electronic, industrial, ambient, improv, noise, musique concrete, sound art."

Brilliant stuff. I know I've mentioned it on NFE before, but you just can't have too many reminders of a good thing. And while we're about it, RIP-RIG to Radio 3's Mixing It, and shame on them for taking it off rather than re-inventing it. Merd. The blather about it al being part of a grand plan in which the integrity of the music it was showcasing is preserved elsewhere in a careful programming balance is, evidentially speaking, nonsense.

On a happier note, then... this past week's DL schedule includes:

* Tim Brady GO (8'45") Tim Brady, electric guitar, electronic devices CD: GO (Ambiances Magnetiques: AM 156) http://www.actuellecd.com/

* Jim Denley Masahide's Cave (8'47") Jim Denley, alto sax and recording CD: Through Fire, Crevice and the Hidden Valley (Split: 16) http://www.splitrec.com/

* Fetisch Park Suktion (15'39") Carla Subito, Marlon Shy CD: Alluvial (Extreme: XCD 042) http://www.xtr.com/extreme/

These playlists are stored cumulatively, for the past three months, on the website. To receive playlists via email, follow the link on the website. We are always interested in receiving new music for broadcast.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[191.1] THE ART OF THE MODERN

"I know that if I am true to the music in me, it must be a music of my agonies and your agonies as much as a music of, what shall I say, of heart-easing qualities. And yet I am quite certain in my heart of hearts that modern music and modern art is not a conspiracy, but is a form of truth and integrity for those who practise it honestly, decently and with all their being."

(Sir Michael Tippett)

Tippett forthcoming performances, via Schott.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[190.1] WELCOME TO THE REVISED NEWFRONTEARS...

After five years (and quite a few haituses over the past couple) this site has had a bit of an overhaul. The links badly need updating and reformatting, I realise. And the archives are a bit less than user-friendly at the moment. But give me time. What would probably be useful would be a section front-archiving all the reviews to save you from floundering around... or giving up in despair. There's actually quite a bit of useful material buried in this blog (which was kind of innovative when it kicked off, actually). But you'd be hard pressed to find it right now, I admit. One obvious piece of advice: use the search facility for specific artists, composers or musical styles. That should throw up a few surprises. Happy hunting, and bear with me.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[189.1] THE RESONANCE OF COMPASSION

Michael Tippett on the significance of combining the deep melodies of Afro-American spirituals with his own expansive lyricism in the often astringent setting of A Child Of Our Time: "It's a question of survival, if you like, which has become something desperately needed. Also the other element which was so strong is concerned with compassion in a world which is so driven and riven by fratricidal struggle and by self-righteousness of every kind"

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[188.1] BEYOND THE PALE

A bit outside the usual musical territory of NFE, but I was pleased that former Procul Harum keyboard player Matthew Fisher today won a share in the copyright and royalties of 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale'. It's a great song - an intriguing blend of ballad, Bach and lyrical psychedelia with a fine Hammond M-102 drawbar / Leslie cabinet sound (not the B3, as is often assumed). Fortunately the adjudicator, Justice Blackburne, read music as well as law at Cambridge.To prove his point Fisher [pictured] led the court through what the Daily Telegraph described "a dizzying 40 minutes of bar by bar analysis, picking out quavers, sequences, ascending and descending scales and dissonances." Good on him.

We skipped the light fandango
turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[187.1] MICHAEL TIPPETT ON YOUTUBE

This is what I have discovered so far: Tippett rehearsing the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra in the Ritual Dances; Tippett rehearsing the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra in Cockaigne; Tippett rehearsing the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra in Suite in D and Nimrod; Tippett rehearsing the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra in Putnam's Camp.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[186.1] HOW MUSIC WORKS

There is plenty of moaning about "the state of music" from those of us who see it as more than a purely consumer-led distraction, and the condition of music education (or lack of it) in schools is also hotly debated. But what, constructively, is being done to address the situation? One person who is using the medium of TV to promote better understanding of music in popular but non-patronising ways is composer Howard Goodall. His latest venture, the series How Music Works (showing for an hour on Channel 4, four Saturdays from 18 November 2006 at 20.25), is an excellent case in point. Tonight's programme explored melody, and included references from classical, blues, Gregorian, African, Asian, jazz and rock idioms. Goodall is a gifted communicator. And the fact that he can genuinely appreciate Sting's adoption of the Dorian mode as well as the intricacies of Bach and the demandingness of Schoenberg really helps. He is not trying to build bridges across divides. He is delving into the multiple musical environments in which he lives, moves and has his being. My own choices of Twentieth Century Greats (2004) would have been different. You can't, in my view, overlook Messiaen. But that series, too, was enlightening and well crafted. More, please.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[185.1] MUSICAL THOUGHT CRIMES REVISITED

In the view of many people, there is nothing less musically acceptable than Yes's 1973 four-side near 80-minute epic album, Tales From Topographic Oceans. I couldn't agree less. What gets called 'progressive rock' has committed more than a few atrocities, but this isn't one of them. It's coherent, evocative, complex and brimming with ideas. So it was with delight that I discovered, while surfing on Amazon, that at least one thoughtful reviewer agrees. Dr D. B. Sillars' oeuvre is worth visiting anyway, and here he is on TfTO.

Critics have called this album difficult and stated that there was an overstretching of musical ideas. This is not the case. I think the album evolves naturally over each of its tracks. It is complex, thematically and musically, but I think the whole thing holds together... It has stood the test of time very well. It is the album by [Yes] that I re-visit the most, finding new nuances from each listen. This remaster has done the album the justice it deserves. The sound is full and clear, with all the detail finally brought out of the mix. The studio run-throughs are interesting takes on how the pieces have evolved. The digipak packaging is sumptuous. Rhino has done a remarkable job with this and the other releases in the Yes re-issue programme. Take the opportunity and listen to this bold album from Yes’s classic period. It really deserves to be re-evaluated and given the recognition it so widely [merits].

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[184.1] VISIONS OF PARADISE

That being the name of the major Michael Tippett 90th birthday festival held in 1995 (the year The Rose Lake was premiered - one of my all-time musical memories: 19 February, Barbican Arts Centre). Anyway, it came to mind when I was trying to think of an appropriate quotation to mark the fourth birthday of this - now rather occasional - eclectic music weblog. And here it is (below), from Tippett's collection of essays Moving Into Aquarius. I'd take it as a decent job description for a poet, a theologian, a philosopher and an artist, too. But a musician has the advantage of working with the only truly asbstract language, when you think about it...

"I know that my true function within a society which embraces all of us, is to continue an age-old tradition, fundamental to our civilization, which goes back to pre-history and will go forward into the unknown future. This tradition is to create images from the depths of the imagination and to give them form whether visual, intellectual or musical. For it is only through images that the inner world communicates at all. Images of the past, shapes of the future. Images of vigour for a decadent period, images of calm for one too violent. Images of reconciliation for worlds torn by division. And in an age of mediocrity and shattered dreams, images of abounding, generous, exuberant beauty.”

[Image, 'Tippett in the Countryside', with acknowledgements to (c) Schott Music]

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[183.1] OCEANS OF COLOURED SOUND

BBC Radio's 'listen again' facility has undoubtedly changed the way I surf the ether music-wise for good - as has internet broadcasting per se. Searching out what I want to hear when I want to hear it becomes a much less hit-and-miss affair. And sometimes, just to make darned sure I'm not regressing into "I know what I like because I like what I know", I treat it as a random jukebox. Wonderful. This evening, in between two writing assignments, I've been taking in some of the lastest Mixing It (Radio 3), which I rarely hear at its scheduled hour. In particular, I enjoyed Bass Clef's album, A Smile Is A Curve That Straightens Most Things. You can dig it out on Boomkat. The links, for those who might want to dip in, are: Tracks on BASS CLEF - A Smile Is A Curve That Straightens Most Things: - Cannot Be Straightened; Opera; Eight Zero Eight. And while we're about it, here are those programme features from The Glorious Third as we celabrate (see below) it's sixtieth annus glorious in 2006... Classical (62); Experimental (7); Folk & Country (5); Jazz (9); Music Documentaries (1); World (6). What was that rubbish from the"not enough classical any more" brigade?

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[182.1] LISTENING UP, AGAIN

BBC Radio 3 broadcasts Listen Up!, a 2006 festival featuring more than 30 British orchestras and more than 20 living British composers. There's Free Thinking, the festival of ideas and debate taking place in Liverpool - and R3's role as commissioner of new music and writing is celebrated across thw schedule with new works by Jonathan Dove, Michael Zev Gordon, Judith Bingham, Howard Barker and Simon Armitage.

Listen Up! 2006 plays an integral part in the BBC Radio 3 60th anniversary celebrations. In October, Choral Evensong celebrates 80 years of live broadcasts and the London Jazz Festival returns to Radio 3 in November 2006. Not forgetting Hans Werner Henze at 80, of course.

The Third Programme was launched in 1946 and became BBC Radio 3 on 30 September 1967.
Live music, new work, drama and arts debate have always formed the backbone of the station's programming and the current schedule builds on this heritage.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[181.1] SIXTY YEARS OF GLORIOUS THREE

I listen to BBC Radio 3 far less than I should do these days, and largely on the internet (because of poor equipment and reception problems here in Exeter). But I still regard it as, without doubt, the most important musical tutor in my life – I’ve revelled in everything from opera at the Grand Met and the Proms seasons right through to world music, jazz, contemporary, Night Waves, Mixing It (of course) Late Junction, Michael Berkeley’s Private Passions. The list is without end. So I have particular reason to rejoice that, as of 28 September 2006, R3 has been around for sixty glorious years – starting off as the Third Programme I remember reverentially from my childhood.

For me the two defining directors have been Roger Wright (1998–present), who has had the courage to change, and Sir John Drummond (1987–92) who stuck by contemporary music. I also ought to be especially grateful for the often-forgotten Stephen Hearst (1972–78), who, as well as expanding and developing my classical tastes, went with the late Derek Jewell’s Sounds Interesting. It was this programme that enabled me to sample art rock, fusion, folk and a range of ‘popular’ music with serious consequences. The programme for the anniversary celebrations is typically imaginative – and, contrary to Radio 3’s dreary ‘traditionalist’ critics, who put their own ossified preferences above musical adventure, it’s exactly where the station should be right now.

Very much a minority experience, but a veritable life-support machine for vital aural culture.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars

[180.1] A STING IN THE TALE?

Greg Stepanich writes: This might sound a little strange, but here’s a disc I’m looking forward to hearing: Sting does Dowland. Early next month, the prestige classical label Deutsche Grammophon releases a disc of songs by the English Renaissance composer John Dowland (1563-1626). Dowland is celebrated for his lovely melodies and dark sentiments, something that could be applied to the songs of Gordon Sumner as well.Apparently, Sting began playing this music in earnest after getting a lute as a gift. On the album, he’s accompanied by another lutenist, Edin Karamazov, a Bosnian musician. Continued here.

As a bonus, you'll find there a version of Fine Knacks for Ladies, a happier Dowland song, published in 1600. The great tenor Peter Pears sings along with lutenist Julian Bream... bliss.

Comment on this post: NewFrontEars