Sunday 25 May 2009

I don't normally have much sympathy for Tory MPs, but if you want an enlightening perspective on the expenses row that's been dominating the headlines here for the last fortnight, you could do worse than read Nadine Dorries's blog, which has been taken down on the request of lawyers for the Daily Telegraph. You can still find it here. 

Last night I couldn't stop playing the 7-bar version of Adew Dundee that's in the Skene MS of about 1620. To be honest I think whoever wrote it down probably just made a mistake in one bar, got the rhythm wrong, and then copied the mistake each time that phrase appears, as by the time it gets to the variation, it's in neat 8 bar phrases again. But once you start playing it with a bit missing it's quite addictive, a bit like Quebecois fiddlers playing crooked tunes with odd beats added here and there: the version of Pigeon on the Gate that DG plays on Suzie's Tout Passe CD is a case in point. When we rehearsed it I got very excited when I realised that the two-chord bassline could slip in and out of sync with the tune. I was still just as excited listening to the playback at the session a few days later.