Sunday 18 December 2011

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here, although my twitter feed will bear witness to the fact that I haven’t disappeared completely. I’ve just been too busy to develop any opinions that go much further than raw enthusiasm or bitter rant, both of which seem more suited to 140 characters or less.

I keep trying to engage with those charged with the dispensing of public arts funding (I know that for the most part they’re good people doing their best) but I find it almost impossible. For example, Concerto Caledonia has been on the go for nearly 20 years now, and one category of funding at Creative Scotland is “Cultural Economy – Sustainable Development: A programme to help support organisations to improve their long-term organisational resilience and financial sustainability” which on the face of it sounds like a good thing to have. But something that arts organisations also have to learn is when to pack it in. I’m always impressed when a group or organisation says ‘OK, we’ve done what we set out to do, for a variety of reasons we’ve peaked now and it’s time to stop and do something else, or let someone else have a go’.  Continued artistic innovation has to come before organisational resilience. How about a public arts programme called ‘Winding Down Gracefully’?

I got a copy of the remastered Michael Nyman 1981 album in the post the other day. I’m not generally a fan of his stuff but this record has a rawness about it which I’ve always really liked. And I’d forgotten that 1) it uses a combination of early and modern instruments, and 2) it’s Lucie Skeaping singing the Bird List Song on a top A. I’ve always thought of the original In Re Don Giovanni as a Mike Oldfield single rather than in Nyman's terms of Mozart in the style of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Anyway, I now find myself in pre-ConCal gig management mode, having to figure out budgets, write brochure copy, finalise programmes, that sort of thing. It’s nice to be back organising music making, as it’s one step closer to actually making some. My left hand is getting stronger again: I found my old Grip-Master among some other neglected gadgets and it’s been quite useful, allowing me to exercise fingers in my pocket while walking through the snow.

And I found time yesterday to add 12 seconds to a piece of Vivaldi for the first episode of the next series of Skins, out on E4 in a month or so. Neil and I are going to have sit down tomorrow and replicate in the multitrack the edits I made in the stereo mix.