The BBC Inspire composers did a grand job on the 5-way real-time fanfare thing at the last night at the Proms, but there was some transcendent heckling from an audience member at Glasgow Green.
See it on t'Iplayer just after 58 minutes through.
Tuesday 15 September 2009
Monday 14 September 2009
The Clap
Much more "SFW" than its title would suggest, The Clap is a short film by Geoff Lindsey, featuring a hilariously obsessive classical music fan. Do you get the feeling this guy spends an awful lot of time on the Radio 3 messageboards?
Thursday 10 September 2009
The Diva Guide
Following the recent discovery of Katherine Jenkins' supposed demands on her hotel room and from observing the most flamboyant and extravagant female opera singers of today, I feel compelled to collate and share my observations for all those aspiring, fame-seeking singers. I am certain that...by following these simple 5 steps, you too could become an opera diva!
1. Perfect the look of expectant applause when entering the stage. Indeed this can be developed by the same look being repeated during any length of musical interlude between singing.
2. Wear as much Bling as possible - this will ensure that you will glitter and sparkle on stage, drawing the audience's attention and blinding all other singers on stage.
3. Act the bimbo! Granted, you may have a degree from a top University and studied with tutors across the world, but it appears that vacancy sells! Accompany this with a blond rinse and you'll be laughing your way to the nearest Tiffany's.
4. Always have the last word - or note in this instance. Regardless of whether you are singing a dramatic quartet or a final love duet before your dying moments, sing loud, proud...and that little bit too long!
5. Ensure your flowers are bigger and better than anyone else on stage! If this means paying the stage hand an 'exclusive favour' then so be it!
1. Perfect the look of expectant applause when entering the stage. Indeed this can be developed by the same look being repeated during any length of musical interlude between singing.
2. Wear as much Bling as possible - this will ensure that you will glitter and sparkle on stage, drawing the audience's attention and blinding all other singers on stage.
3. Act the bimbo! Granted, you may have a degree from a top University and studied with tutors across the world, but it appears that vacancy sells! Accompany this with a blond rinse and you'll be laughing your way to the nearest Tiffany's.
4. Always have the last word - or note in this instance. Regardless of whether you are singing a dramatic quartet or a final love duet before your dying moments, sing loud, proud...and that little bit too long!
5. Ensure your flowers are bigger and better than anyone else on stage! If this means paying the stage hand an 'exclusive favour' then so be it!
Wednesday 9 September 2009
Lick my binary
An oak carving in the royal palace at Stirling Castle has yielded what is thought to be 'binary' musical notation on its perimeter, thought to be the oldest instrumental notation in Scotland. Essentially giving a form only, interpretations of the source have been diverse.Barnaby Brown of the RSAMD, pictured with the head (Photo: RobMcDougall.com) has undertaken serious researches, leading to a performance by pupils from Allan's Primary School of a nine-phase work extrapolated from the home-grown harp tradition.
A little known folk duo from New Zealand followed a more troubadourian reading:
Monday 7 September 2009
A peek inside Katherine Jenkins' hotel room
Your favourite cello-toting hellraiser was rather amused to read the following press release this morning:
KATHERINE JENKINS TO BE TREATED TO UBER LUXURY SUITE FOR BIG GIG WEEKEND
Big Gig organiser Kevin Newton is providing Katherine Jenkins with the five star luxury Wells Cathedral suite in his 14th century Swan Hotel for the night of her concert on Sunday 27th September.
As one of the three rooms of luxury Kevin is throwing Katherine the following special treats:Rose petals in the gold bath Special silk pillow slips to prevent wrinkles and creases Humidifier in the room for her voice Godiva chocolates White roses everywhere Dom Perignon champagne A sheepskin rug down the side of the bed so her feet touch that first thing the next morning Bowls of maltesers Cans of lilt Rose quartz crystals because they attract unconditional love next to the bedside.
It’s got me thinking: perhaps I’m being a bit too reasonable with my hotel room requirements. I’ve never asked for anything more outrageous than a warm room with a bed, hot running water and a half decent breakfast in the morning, and it strikes me that my diva image could be greatly enhanced if I were to aim a bit higher. So here is my new list of hotel requirements:
And if I don’t get all of these things, I’ll thcream and thcream and thcream until I’m thick.
Friday 4 September 2009
Its Not Just A Good Pub Guide
This could turn out to be one of those websites which starts out with good intentions but either doesn't really get off the ground or briefly flourishes before withering due to lack of interest. But if Barlines can help by giving it the merest whiff of publicity, then that is what Barlines will do.
The site, www.themusoguide.com, aims to provide practical information to the travelling musician (which, let's face it, is what most musicians are) regarding all those things which might just enhance that often wearisome life. That means places to eat and drink, interesting local activities for days off, musician-friendly lodgings, lift-sharing and gig-swapping opportunities - anything which, as the website's founders say, 'helps take the potential headache out of musician's Russian Roulette'.
It sounds like a great idea. After all, not every gig is going to be in an easily accessed city-centre venue with a choice of nearby amenities. But even in some of the smarter provincial towns, how much nicer to know there's a characterful local establishment serving proper grub at a good price, rather than having to rely on the holy trinity of Wetherspoons, Pizza Express and Cafe Rouge (though god knows there are times when they shine like beacons in the gloom). But the main thing is that the information is provided by musicians themselves meaning that the recommendations should have the particular concerns of the muso at heart.
Endearingly, the webmasters are keen that the site is for recommendations only and not a forum for moaning and bitching. Let's hope that the general community of musicians can keep its almost pathological inclination for mickey-taking in check.
The site, www.themusoguide.com, aims to provide practical information to the travelling musician (which, let's face it, is what most musicians are) regarding all those things which might just enhance that often wearisome life. That means places to eat and drink, interesting local activities for days off, musician-friendly lodgings, lift-sharing and gig-swapping opportunities - anything which, as the website's founders say, 'helps take the potential headache out of musician's Russian Roulette'.
It sounds like a great idea. After all, not every gig is going to be in an easily accessed city-centre venue with a choice of nearby amenities. But even in some of the smarter provincial towns, how much nicer to know there's a characterful local establishment serving proper grub at a good price, rather than having to rely on the holy trinity of Wetherspoons, Pizza Express and Cafe Rouge (though god knows there are times when they shine like beacons in the gloom). But the main thing is that the information is provided by musicians themselves meaning that the recommendations should have the particular concerns of the muso at heart.
Endearingly, the webmasters are keen that the site is for recommendations only and not a forum for moaning and bitching. Let's hope that the general community of musicians can keep its almost pathological inclination for mickey-taking in check.
Thursday 3 September 2009
Pirates of the high Cs
AAAAAAAAaaahahaaaargh meharties. Or since the official talk like a pirate day isn't until the 19th, I'll put it this way: What is the true relevance, please kindly, of the copyright faff to classical music, because if we're right, classical is going to be the worst-off of all musics when the smoke clears unless we pull ourselves together. This is a terribly long post, for which I apologise, but I can guarantee to put some hackles up by the end.
The commercial and creative sectors are drawing up jaggedy battle lines against the universe and its computer, and the most recent players to land on the board aren't really helping. The big internet providers have said that piracy isn't their problem, and claim that it is only perpetrated by a minority anyway. The evergreen Stephen Fry, speaking recently at the iTunes festival, spoke/ranted for the best part of an hour at the Roundhouse, in protest against 'Draconian' measures for file-sharers, in a we-might-do-a-bit-of-downloading-when-we're-poor-but-we're-all quite-nice-folk-anyway-marvelous-fabulous-who-will-support-the-
industry-when-we-have-more-money sort of thing.
In pop and the genres in which Stephen Fry shifts units, this is a very tempting argument.
We interviewed classical composer Eleanor Alberga yesterday, and wanted her take on it, but the words died somewhat on my lips as I tried to outline both sides of the argument as it relates to classical music.
Three-hundred years ago, around the time when copyright was first set down in the Statute of Anne, Handel's tunes were mercilessly filched for use in ballad operas. Speaking in the 12 September issue of Classical Music, L'avventura's Zak Ozmo said: 'Handel's opera Poro was performed 16 times in the 18th century, but various tunes fron it were performed hundreds of times every year through ballad opera'. Did Handel seethe at the missed income? Did it give him so much exposure that he didn't care? Can't that be a decent model for our times? It is extremely easy to write pastiche of any composer for a film/tv soundtrack; it happens all the time, and doesn't make any money for the composer being copied. Can there be a model that allows material to be used freely if it means more popularity/commissions?
Whatever the answer we sure as hell need a model that works quickly, because if the pirates win their cause, classical is going to be first down the plank. Here is how I know this:
I spoke to Christian Engstrom of the Swedish pirate party just before the European elections, and he saw the essential conflict as being between the enforcement of copyright law and human rights - basically, if you're going to effectively prosecute file-sharers it means all sorts of invasive monitoring of emails etc, which violates human rights. It's still illegal to open someone else's snail mail, by the way. They promote a copyright term of 5 years. They won over 7% of the Swedish vote, which means one, maybe two seats in the European parliament.
All well and good, but since we are, like, a classical music magazine, this is how the next bit of the interview went, before we lost it and started shouting at him.
So, ideally, anyone could organise a performance of a six-year-old work and perform it in whatever way they wished withough paying the composer anything?
Yes.
Do you think that classical composers would be able to earn a living under this system?
I think most classical composers aren't able to earn a living under the present system anyway. They will have to adapt their business model, that is what it is like being an entrepreneur, running a company, which is in effect what most cultural work is. If you can't make a profit from it, unfortunately you have to do something else. It is called a market economy and that is the way it is.
The commercial potential of a classical work lasts for much longer than five years after composition. If the Swedish Royal Opera mounts Einstein on the Beach, which Philip Glass, now a professional composer, wrote while driving a taxi to support himself in the seventies, should he not get his dues now?
If you can't support yourself by whatever you do, you have to do it in another way. There may be a small number of classical composers who would lose money from this reform, but it is no counter argument against safeguarding the civil liberties of our society.
The commercial and creative sectors are drawing up jaggedy battle lines against the universe and its computer, and the most recent players to land on the board aren't really helping. The big internet providers have said that piracy isn't their problem, and claim that it is only perpetrated by a minority anyway. The evergreen Stephen Fry, speaking recently at the iTunes festival, spoke/ranted for the best part of an hour at the Roundhouse, in protest against 'Draconian' measures for file-sharers, in a we-might-do-a-bit-of-downloading-when-we're-poor-but-we're-all quite-nice-folk-anyway-marvelous-fabulous-who-will-support-the-
industry-when-we-have-more-money sort of thing.
In pop and the genres in which Stephen Fry shifts units, this is a very tempting argument.
We interviewed classical composer Eleanor Alberga yesterday, and wanted her take on it, but the words died somewhat on my lips as I tried to outline both sides of the argument as it relates to classical music.
Three-hundred years ago, around the time when copyright was first set down in the Statute of Anne, Handel's tunes were mercilessly filched for use in ballad operas. Speaking in the 12 September issue of Classical Music, L'avventura's Zak Ozmo said: 'Handel's opera Poro was performed 16 times in the 18th century, but various tunes fron it were performed hundreds of times every year through ballad opera'. Did Handel seethe at the missed income? Did it give him so much exposure that he didn't care? Can't that be a decent model for our times? It is extremely easy to write pastiche of any composer for a film/tv soundtrack; it happens all the time, and doesn't make any money for the composer being copied. Can there be a model that allows material to be used freely if it means more popularity/commissions?
Whatever the answer we sure as hell need a model that works quickly, because if the pirates win their cause, classical is going to be first down the plank. Here is how I know this:
I spoke to Christian Engstrom of the Swedish pirate party just before the European elections, and he saw the essential conflict as being between the enforcement of copyright law and human rights - basically, if you're going to effectively prosecute file-sharers it means all sorts of invasive monitoring of emails etc, which violates human rights. It's still illegal to open someone else's snail mail, by the way. They promote a copyright term of 5 years. They won over 7% of the Swedish vote, which means one, maybe two seats in the European parliament.
All well and good, but since we are, like, a classical music magazine, this is how the next bit of the interview went, before we lost it and started shouting at him.
So, ideally, anyone could organise a performance of a six-year-old work and perform it in whatever way they wished withough paying the composer anything?
Yes.
Do you think that classical composers would be able to earn a living under this system?
I think most classical composers aren't able to earn a living under the present system anyway. They will have to adapt their business model, that is what it is like being an entrepreneur, running a company, which is in effect what most cultural work is. If you can't make a profit from it, unfortunately you have to do something else. It is called a market economy and that is the way it is.
The commercial potential of a classical work lasts for much longer than five years after composition. If the Swedish Royal Opera mounts Einstein on the Beach, which Philip Glass, now a professional composer, wrote while driving a taxi to support himself in the seventies, should he not get his dues now? If you can't support yourself by whatever you do, you have to do it in another way. There may be a small number of classical composers who would lose money from this reform, but it is no counter argument against safeguarding the civil liberties of our society.
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