Monday 20 February 2012

I’m delighted that Charlie Gore’s mammoth database of fiddle tunes in old sources, the Scottish Fiddle Music Index, has made into online form here.

I’m still mulling over my response to ‘orchestral music as social work’. Playing in a youth orchestra can be a life-changing experience, there’s no doubt about that. But in my experience, those musicians who only have a classical training are the ones who feel the least prepared for making music in a social environment, away from their specialist area.  I’ve lost count of the number of musicians who’ve said to me how inadequate they feel when asked to play or sing outside a rehearsal room or a concert hall: social musical skills have not been the focus of their development, and their repertoire doesn’t usually lend itself to non-specialist environments.

I just tripped over this album of jazz-tinged Swedish music played with an organ in meantone tuning – it’s rather wonderful: Songs in Meantone by Anders Jormin, Karin Nelson and Jonas Simonson. In fact it’s better than that: I’m going to stop writing this crap and listen to it properly.