Thursday 12 April 2001

This week's been pretty busy considering I was supposed to be on holiday, but my holidays usually work out that way.  They're the only time I get any serious thinking done. 

A lot of time was wasted going over the music for Melrose - scores and parts didn't necessarily agree, so I spent a whole day's work just checking for errors and correcting inconsistencies in the dots, with no chance even to begin to think about what the music might sound like!  The Bach is full of editorial additions (and it's still the only commercially available edition of that version of the piece). I wonder if the publishers realised back in the 1970s when they commissioned some poor soul to add a load of crap to Bach's rather detailed score, how much pointless work they would generate for musicians a few decades down the line, as we have to remove it all again.  And the Stamitz parts are from a different edition to the score, with lots of maddening little discrepancies which I ought to make decisions on now rather than wasting everyone else's time in rehearsal.

Meanwhile, I've found a helpful secretarial service willing to turn The Gentle Shepherd into an e-text for us, which should be ready next week, for our own editorial meddling.  The dates for our concert series in Glasgow are beginning to come together, as Marie collates everyone's availability - no mean feat.  And I've added a copy (well, two copies of different editions) of Robert Bremner's Thirty Scots Songs to my collection of 18th century arrangements of the Gentle Shepherd songs.  When I finally get around to putting the score together I want the biggest selection of options to hand.

But this week had its relaxing moments too - we managed two visits to the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh (one with kids and one without), and it was a real treat.  I suppose one thing that we Scots are good at is being proud of our past - the present we're not quite so sure of.  In the 18th century section, there was a quote from Ramsay's 1721 address to the Music Club about mixing Italian and native tunes - I must remember to include it on the Mungrel Stuff CD cover. 

... And shew that Musick may have as good Fate
In Albion's Glens, as Umbria's green Retreat;
And with Correlli's soft Italian Song
Mix Cowdon Knows, and Winter nights are long.

This could be a Concerto Caledonia manifesto.

Tonight I listened to the SCO who were live on the radio, as I wielded a paintbrush in the bathroom.  It's a toss-up which is the more enjoyable, listening from the stage in a set of tails, or from the safety of the  bathroom floor in a paint-splattered T-shirt.