Friday 19 January 2001

I had some interesting conversations today. I was working for the BBC, producing a lunchtime concert broadcast of Andrew Lawrence-King's group The Harp Consort. They're a terrific group, and Steve Player, their dancing guitarist, is playing on our forthcoming record (download an mp3 of Corn Riggs from the recordings page).

Hille Perl was playing a gamba which looked much like a cello - it has f-holes and only the sloping shoulders, the frets and the abundance of strings give its identity away. I asked Hille about it and she immediately went into a wonderful rant about the 'wimpy crap' that passes for a viol sound from most players these days. Her instrument's design was the standard in Italy well into the 18th century, and it makes a big noise. 

Phamie Gow showed up for a masterclass with Andrew which was fascinating. She was playing her own stuff on the clarsach, and Andrew was talking about the necessity of showmanship in new music (or old music that's new to the audience). Listeners aren't going to get the particular pleasure of anticipating their favourite bits of a well-known piece, so to make up for this you have to give them some visual clues as to what's coming, otherwise all they'll get is surprise after surprise, which can be a a bit of a one-dimensional experience. Had a chat with Phamie about the trials and tribulations of running a group and getting gigs - she's got a Celtic Connections date tomorrow night.

At the end of the classes, I stuck my head back into the room to find the assembled Harp Consort sitting in the back row like a bunch of naughty schoolchildren waiting for Andrew to finish. 'Well kids, what have you learned today?' I asked. Quick as a flash, Hille replied 'If you play the harp, you get a fat ass' (she's 6ft tall and strikingly thin).

It's easy to forget with all this going on that most of the students at the RSAMD still spend their time learning Brahms and Beethoven and co. Bob Inglis, the concerts organiser and a lecturer there, said 'we have to teach them all that stuff; we're training them to be orchestral musicians'. My reply was 'how many orchestras are there going to be for them to play in in twenty years' time? Not many.' And I suspect the ones that survive won't all be playing Brahms and Beethoven.  It is worrying that a lot of the budding professional musicians of the future are still being taught only one way of playing music - it's not going to make the orchestras very interesting, is it?

The classical recording industry has already been reduced to a fraction of what it was ten years ago. Will orchestras be next?  If their continued decimation leads to a greater musical diversity and creativity, it'll be a step forward. I'm not knocking standard repertoire, as we need all the great music we can get. But the idea that there's a single mainstream classical tradition that we should all inhabit is now past its prime.