Tim Paxton (cello) with Simon Coverdale (piano) gave us a lunch time recital today - Beethoven's variations on "Bei Mannern" from Mozart's The Magic Flute plus a cello sonata by Shostakovich.
We also had a talk in advance and followed the score. This was really useful. I didn't know the music, and so it was great to talk it through and know what to watch for - interrupted cadences and appoggiaturas!! The Beethoven was beautiful. Simon and Tim were great performers. Tricky stuff played with such skill and charisma. I loved the flourish at the end of one movement where Tim shot his bow straight up the air. Maybe I might try it! I really enjoyed the introduction each of them did of the pieces. It added to the performance and painted a picture for us - particularly the Shostakovich piece. At one point, Tim described one the movements as a human heart bleeding in the desolate freezing snow! You can just imagine it! The music depicted the hard times of a difficult political regime in the Soviet Union. It wasn't very accessible and I'm not completely sure if I liked it. Its hard core classical. But I can appreciate the skill and passion that it was performed with and it was interesting. I'll listen to it again. But I like some of Shostakvich's music. He sounds an interesting man who had to walk a tighrope all his life - trying to please his political masters - while also being true to his feelings and the suffering of the people. He has written his memoirs, which sound an interesting read. It said that he always carried a toothbrush around with him in case the black cars came to arrest him and he was never heard of again!
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We were filmed today improvising country music. It was good fun. The backing was in G meaning that Improvisation was mainly in G pentatonic. Good key for the fiddle - not so good for some of the other instruments. Ah well. It was the other way round when we were playing B flat blues.
I also played in the backing band for both classes. We played a couple of different chord sequences (one straight G, C and D, and one using G, Em, A7, D D7). Sounded really nice. I thought everyone did well. There were some great improvisers! Improvisation tomorrow. We will be filming country improvisation. I have come across some great fiddlers while I've been doing my research on country music. I mentioned Kenny Baker in my previous blog about bluegrass music. I have been listening to his playing today. Amazing. He was known for his long smooth bows. He played with Bill Monroe's band for a while and became one of the most emulated country/blugrass fiddlers. He died last year aged 85. Here he is playing Jerusalem Ridge with Bill Munroe playing mandolin (in 1985). What a couple of legends. " I think Bill Munroe's importance to American music is as important as someone like Robert Johnstone was to blues, or Louis Armstrong. He was so influential I think he's probably the only musician that had a whole style of music named after his band." Ricky Scaggs There are lots of styles of country music. Its difficult to choose one but I've decided to research Bluegrass more. I like the instruments traditionally used in bluegrass - fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar. Violins often double stop with open strings to underpin the rythmn and harmony. Unlike practically any other strain of american music, bluegrass can be traced - as the quote above says - to particular time and a particular group of men. Kentucky born mandolin player/bandleader Bill Munroe and a select handful of musicians he gathered in his band, The Bluegrass boys. Monroe and his band transformed the traditional country string band music into something fresh and exciting and revolutionary. They did this by giving it a syncopated beat along with close, him pitched lead and harmony vocals on favourites like "Uncle Pen" and "Muleskinner Blues" . Munro also elevated the mandolin from a accompaniment to fully fledged lead instrument and Earl Scruggs did the same for the five string banjo. Here he is paying Uncle Penn above at age 82. Their music - which they forged more than fifty years ago has endured and has regained popularity in recent decades. Film soundtracks such as the 2000 feature film "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" has helped. It starred George Clooney and featured vintage bluegrass music in a quirky film. It also included contemporary new grass musicians like Alison Krauss. The soundtrack sold millions, won five grammy Awards and sparked another revival. Bill Munroe's Bluegrass Boys deserve most of the credit for the bluegrass style. The line up during he late 1940s was Earl Scruggs on five string banjo and vocals, Lester Flatt on guitar and vocals, Chubby Wise on fiddle, Cedric Rainwater and Bill Munroe himself on mandolin. To this day, the band's recordings are the bible for bluegrass. In 1948, two of the Bluegrass boys left and set up their own band (Flatt and and Scruggs). Their band, Foggy Mountain Boys was influential too with the banjo playing lead. In 1955 they added resonator guitar to the line up. With the spread of bluegrass mountain radio, others began to be influenced too. In particular the Stanley bothers started covering some of Monroe's songs int heir own mountain style. They enjoyed great success. They also feature on the O Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack. Virginians, Jim and Jess McReynolds also became popular in the 1960s. They blended bluegrass with mainstream country and experimented with electric instruments. Also in the 1960 the Osbourne brothers from Kentucky became popular through country radio- which had often steered clear of bluegrass. They made this breakthrough by using distinctly unbluegrass instruments, like steel guitars, drums and pianos. Other ensembles such as Don Reno and Red Smiley and fiddler Kenny Baker would enrich and expand upon bluegrass tradition during the 1960s and 1970s. Newgrass By the 1960s Washington DC became the centre of bluegrass innovation. This was in partly because many musicians from Kentucky and Virginia had moved there in search of work. Young talented musicians were pushing the boundaries of traditional bluegrass using electrified instruments and eclectic styles. Bands like Seldom Scene and the Country Gentlemen emerged with more complicated lead instrumentals and smoother vocals. They were also beginning to sing songs written by the people like Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Dylan and even Eric Clapton. Since the 1970s, bluegrass has enjoyed a huge revival with bands like Nickel Creek, Alison Krauss, Larry Sparks, Del McCoury, IIIrd Time Out, Blue Highway, Claire Lynch and Rhonda Vincent. Here is a video of the fantastically tented Nickel creek. They started out as a straight bluegrass band but are transcending that now. And here is another great You tube link to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Bela Fleck is one of the most phenonomal banjo players around. He is also a great fiddler (listen to his recording of Down in the Swamp). His band has just got back together after a twenty year break and they are pushing the boundaries with their album "Rocket science". More on that in a further blog. The recording below is from "The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales from The Acoustic Planet Volume 2. Enjoy!
As I am listening to and improvising country music, I can't get it out of my head. I set out to compose a tune last week and - needless to day - it turned out to be a country song.
However I seem to lost the sound in my Sibelius. I was about to phone the helpdesk when I discovered that my support ran out last week. Typical. Grrrr. This is no doubt down to me and not the package. Its amazing. I quite like the song. I am under the weather a bit this week. I had the surreal experience of a cataract operation on Monday. No I am not that old - its been from a previous injury and retinal work. The wonder of medical science. Its truly amazing if scary. The interesting thing was listening to all the sounds while the operation was being done. There was actually electronic music (almost). What was making the sounds I don't know. Lasers or something? I wish I had recorded it. In fact I might ask them to one day and write a tune!. Anyway I have my feet up this week recovering. But I have put the time to good use. I have at last edited the sound files I recorded of the Folk Band a couple of weeks ago and exported them back into MP3s. Here are the above tunes which I performed in January. Hope you like them. Improvisation yesterday. I love it. Playing country music in G pentatonic with a flat 5 too. Chords? Simple I, IV, V ( although in country the order of the chords is simetimes more mixed - rather than following the blues progression). Double stopping is a big feature in country fiddling. Then played funk! THAT was good fun. The stress is on beat 1 and is 1/16th beats - fast and using modal approach eg D mixolydian and Dorian (with a flattened third and seventh , in other words). I have been listening to a lot of country to soak in the style, Brad Paisley, Dolly Parton, The Dixie chicks, Hayseed Dixie, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Naturally I particularly like anything with fiddles in and country music has a lot of fiddle accompaniment and fiddle singing. Bluegrass in particular lends itself well to the fiddle. Bluegrass instrurments often include, guitar, fiddle, banjo - all my favourites. I am thinking about buying a tenor banjo - such great instruments - and they can be tuned to fiddle an octave down. I don't think they would be difficult to learn to play for a fiddler. I am thinking of writing a country song for composition. But I like some the songs with minor chords. Witchata linesman, Landslide, Like a Rolling Stone - which I play it on guitar. I might write a song.using similar chords. Here is a great Bela Fleck and the Flecktones with a great track Big Country with a range of instruments that are unusual for country - strays into other territory. Sounds like us on a Wednesday morning! Went through to Celtic connections on Saturday. We saw the 10th anniversary concert of Le Vent du Nord. Great band. Its the first time I have seen them. They had invited a few guests including Breabach, Vasen and Dervish. The fiddler, Olivier Demers in Le Vent du Nord is quite amazing. Fiddle singing is difficult to do. But Olivier Demers, the fiddler was not only fiddling and singing, but also doing the whole rythmn section - with has feet! So he was tapping, fiddling and singing - all at the same time. What good coordination has he???? Unbelievable. It looked VERY hard work. This performance was a once in lifetime complete with birthday cake and birthday song sung by the audience. I wasn't the only one to think this was great. The Scotsman said "Things were threatening to become quite tearful, in a totally joyful way, by the end of this unforgettable show. A marvellous mutual love-in was hosted by Québécois quartet Le Vent du Nord – in whose decade-long coming of age Celtic Connections has played a significant springboard role – with three other top acts from Sweden, Ireland and Scotland, and a near-sellout Saturday night crowd. Nothing was ever going to go far wrong, what with both the birthday and the mouth-watering line-up – completed by not one, but two string quartets, comprising the likes of Greg Lawson, Christine Hanson and Fiona Cuthill – but all concerned rose resoundingly to the occasion by evident dint of diligent preparation and rehearsal, which shone through in silky-smooth, sumptuously swinging ensemble interplay, delivering two hours of virtually non-stop musical highlights.In amongst a veritable feast of instrumental colours and textures, the rich and rare alignment of Väsen’s Olov Johansson, on nyckelharpa (Swedish keyed fiddle) and Mikael Marin on five-string viola, with Le Vent du Nord’s Nicolas Boulerice on hurdy-gurdy (ancient French keyed fiddle) was particularly revelatory – but no less so, once again, were the Canadians’ immaculately radiant, red-blooded four-part vocals, a sound as lusciously suave as it is resonantly earthy. The set-list roamed seamlessly between material from each band’s repertoire, spanning and transcending traditions – not least in Boulerice’s breathtaking hurdy-gurdy solo, itself a mesh of the medieval with the futuristic – while vibrantly affirming each one’s uniqueness. An early contender for this year’s top Celtic Connections gig." Nicolas Boulerice, one of the group played the hurry-gurdy. This seems to be making a come back as I have heard of a few folk players but its the first time I've seen t being played on stage. Its an amazing sound. Fiona performing I have been working hard on the material for our performances on this week. Lots more choir, folk and strings group. Eddie McGuire (Whistlebinkie) came along and talked to us about John Cage, experimental artist, composer and also a poet. We are performed Scottish Circus on Wednesday - a 30 min piece composed by John Cage. This piece was written in conjunction with the Whislebinkie's who were playing at the one of John Cage's art exhibitions at the Edinburgh Festival in 1984. John Cage felt that some experimental music with a Scottish twist would compliment his work. The score give instructions to the players - there is no notation and no staves. Players are to play Scottish tunes that they know, starting at different times, moving between the audience, and stopping when they wish for rests. The music heard by the audience changes constantly - and will never be the same twice. Each performance depends on the players and instruments performing, as well as what they want to play - and when -on the day! It was a great experience. Our performance saw us mingling between the auditorium and the foyer in the Music Box. The performance of 4 minutes 33 seconds was even more interesting. Three movements of silence - with the musicians posed and ready to play but not actually doing so. We performed it on the foyer which was very busy. It was hard to hold the position for so long - without making a sound. But the effect on the audience was stunning. The whole place fell silent spontaneously. It seemed to have powerful effect on people. What were they feeling? Expectation? Annoyance? Potential? It certainly had an impact. Eddie McGuire said that although some were sceptical - in all the playing Whistlebinkie's had done it was performing John Cage's pieces that had got them the most reaction including an appearance on TV news. Interesting. It has given me an idea for composition. In the evening I was playing with the Folk Band. We played The Granton Fish Bowl, by Simon Thoumire and Hamnataing by Chris Stout, recorded by Fiddler's Bid. This is quite nice slow set with a relaxed feel. Next was three jigs, all great tunes, The Northern Highland dance, Mattie and Karine's (recorded by Lau) and the Roxburgh jig, written by Laurie Crump. It was really fast but good fun. My daughter, Sam, came along to the performance to take some photos - including the one above. She is a guitarist and really enjoyed the bands. The classical concert was on the 19th January - choir was the best we have ever done I think. The rehearsal of the strings group went quite well. The perfromance was good too.
Here is the link to a Youtube video of our performance of Ezekiel Saw the Wheel I am playing two reels which go up into third position - Sandyburns reel and the Hurricane. Sandyburns in particular is good fun. Its a Shetland reel although it isn't vey typical (in my view). More scales and also working on a slow lament - which is all up the finger board too!.
Working on my bowing and trying to relax my left hand more. Plenty to keep me busy. |
Fiona Harrison
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