Wednesday 23 November 2011

Discussions are now underway in varying degrees of detail for interesting new ConCal projects in summer 2012 and early 2013, and a possible short tour for an old one. My hands are gradually returning to something approaching full functioning, but I haven’t tried playing yet for more than a few seconds: I think I’ll learn how to open doors painlessly first. I’ve been enjoying walking as a means of getting about: I’m rationing my cycling for a bit as hitting bumps in the road hurts, a lot.

Being less mobile means that people have to come and see me: Greg dropped in at the weekend to borrow my ears for an arrangement he’s doing for Phil Cunningham, and Alison came round yesterday to play me the whole of Bach’s 6th cello suite on the 5-string Amati, in preparation for this London concert to a room full of cellists in a couple of weeks’ time.  

Visitors to my study are made to listen to some of this great new LP of Alan Lomax’s Scottish recordings from the 1950s, compiled by none other than Alasdair Roberts. When I put first it on, my jaw hit the floor on a regular basis at the amazing singing and playing.

I spent yesterday at home writing, which gave me the chance to listen to all of the Beach Boys Smile Sessions: it’s fascinating to hear Brian Wilson working with the Wrecking Crew, especially session drummer king Hal Blaine and bassist Carol Kaye, focusing on timbre in great detail but using a room full of top-flight session players rather than just the knobs on the desk. One of my favourite bits is where he tells Kaye to play quietly but to use more of her body, as the balance between her and the other bass ‘isn’t perfect enough’ (in Do You Like Worms Part 1 @3’55): on the rare occasions that DG and I teach masterclasses together we usually end up saying something very similar about involving the body when playing.  The solo version of Surf’s Up is arresting too.

After linking to John Potter’s blog a few weeks ago with his remark about ‘one of those teachers who used the same book of arias for forty years’, I found out this week that this historical relic from the 1880s is actually still being used as a standard text for teaching in at least one present-day institution that should know better. My gob is smacked.

Meanwhile, Aquila has stopped producing gut strings – there are links here to the petitions against the Italian and European laws forbidding the import of raw material.

later
I found my old copy of Kerr's Modern Dance Band Album for the Pianoforte, another 1880s (or is it 1870s?) relic that never went out of print. It's about as relevant to Scottish fiddle music now as Schirmer's Italian Arias book is to baroque music - perhaps slightly more so, as it defines a point in history for a surviving tradition, rather than a point in history of the understanding of music from the past. But it doesn't get used as a standard text for teaching fiddle players ...

... and I hope you can find time to listen to Montserrat Figueras, in celebration of a musician and a voice that inspired lots of others. I wanted to link to this but the clip has terrible sound.