NSO horns rehearsal
30 October 2020
On 14 March I played Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No 5’ with the Milton Keynes Sinfonia at the Chrysalis Theatre in Milton Keynes (reviewed here in March 2020). As I wrote here at the time, it was an inspirational evening that felt like a bright moment of hope in dark times, but there was a strong expectation that this might be the last live music any of us experiences for quite a while. Since March I have practised playing my French horn at home, I have taken part in several multi-part lockdown recordings and I have pioneered experimental online orchestra rehearsals using the Jamulus software – but I have really missed making music together with other people in the same room. Last night, 229 days after that Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert, I finally got the chance to take part in a real live face-to-face rehearsal. Four of the horn players from the Northampton Symphony Orchestra met at St Mary’s Church in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, to play through some horn quartets. This recently refurbished church provided comfortable surroundings, plenty of room for us to be significantly socially distanced from each other and a pleasantly flattering acoustic. It was really exciting to see each other again after such a long break, and to play music together in which we could make eye contact and co-ordinate timing. We played some simple tunes before attempting a few more ambitious arrangements, including the two pieces we had recorded as multi-part lockdown videos earlier this year (the Scherzo from Shostakovitch ‘Symphony No 10’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHqPuxWZ3p4 and ‘It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing’ by Duke Ellington & Irvin Mills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ceYfHAHI9Y). Playing these live revealed quite how much editing we had each done to our recordings! As a thank you to the church, we also recorded a live performance of ‘Silent Night’ which will be used in the St Mary’s virtual Christmas carol concert. With rising infection rates across the country and severe local restrictions already in place in many areas, we were very lucky to be able to get together yesterday evening. I hope we can meet again soon but I’m incredibly thankful we managed to play music together this week.
Labels: Music
'The Kershaw Tapes'
23 October 2020
Regular readers may remember I was a big fan of Andy Kershaw’s much missed BBC Radio 3 show. I last encountered him at The Stables in Milton Keynes on a tour of talks to promote his autobiography (reviewed here in December 2018). So it was a real treat to hear Andy back on Radio 3 for a two-part Sunday Feature ‘The Kershaw Tapes’ in which he introduces recordings made on his trusty Sony Walkman Pro cassette recorder during his travels in Africa and the Americas in the 1980s. These two programmes are a great introduction to what makes Andy Kershaw such a compelling broadcaster – his raw enthusiasm for music, his bemused reflections on the eccentricities of the world, his journalistic framing of a good story and his Zelig-like ability to have been present at key moments in history. The short description of his first trip to Equatorial Guinea in the first episode of ‘The Kershaw Tapes’ is a beautiful miniature Kershaw story – fascinating, incredible, absurd, terrifying and life-affirming. And there’s some great music – exclusive live recordings of some of the world’s greatest musicians performing in their own homes, or in the kitchen of Andy Kershaw’s small flat in Crouch End. You can listen to both episodes of ‘The Kershaw Tapes’ at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mrgj
Labels: Music, Radio
'Hold Fast' by Stick in the Wheel
16 October 2020
Amongst the plethora of excellent new English folk music recordings that seem to come out almost every week, ‘Hold Fast’ – the new album from London-based duo Stick in the Wheel – caught my attention because of its unpredictability. Nicola Kearey (vocals) and Ian Carter (guitar/producer) have produced an eclectic collection of songs with some fairly conventional acoustic guitar folk sitting alongside tracks with more of a rock feel plus some electronica and pop. The lyrics include poetry from 10th century Saxon Britain, 17th century London slang and a Yiddish lament. By its nature the album is a bit of a mixed bag (the Guardian’s review suggested Stick in the Wheel were maybe trying too hard) but the best tracks have a swagger reminiscent of Bellowhead. See, for example ‘Budg & Snudg’ featuring the accordion of John Kirkpatrick (whose son Benji Kirkpatrick was a member of Bellowhead and who I reviewed here in April 2009): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpTfg1LVS0w
Labels: Albums, Music
'Pure' by Andrew Miller
9 October 2020
The best book I’ve read so far this year was Andrew Miller’s 2018 historical thriller ‘Now We Shall Be Entirely Free’, set during the Napoleonic Wars (reviewed here in April 2020). I was keen to read something else by him and have just finished ‘Pure’ – a novel he published in 2011 which is set in pre-revolutionary France of the 1780s (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Jonathan Aris). Andrew Miller’s writing is wonderful – beautifully crafted and constantly amusing. He conjures up the reality of living in Paris in 1785, through the quirky tale of the demolition and clearing of an old church and cemetery. He creates an extensive cast of believable, sympathetic characters and his protagonist, the engineer charged with overseeing the demolition project (“a man, neither young nor old”), floats through the story with an innocent naivety. But ‘Pure’ lacks the thriller plot of ‘Now We Shall Be Entirely Free’: it’s a much more gentle tale which feels more interested in the period (and the early stirrings of revolution). Despite three dramatic and violent incidents that punctuate the narrative, you are left with the feeling that not much has really happened. Nevertheless, it’s an enjoyable and entertaining read and I look forward to reading more Andrew Miller.
Labels: Books
Northampton Symphony Orchestra online rehearsals
2 October 2020
All our lives have been turned upside down this year by the Coronavirus pandemic. And while it doesn’t compare with the trauma suffered by those who have lost loved ones or those who have lost their livelihoods, living in lockdown has been deeply unsettling and stressful in itself. The restrictions to our social lives, our ability to travel and our opportunities to take part in the activities we enjoy have made us think more carefully than ever about our quality of life. What have you missed most? What do you most yearn to be able to do again? I have been an amateur musician almost all my life. In the early days of lockdown playing music provided great comfort, distraction, challenge and emotional release amongst the worry and uncertainty. I have been playing my French horn almost every day since March: I may even have improved slightly! But playing music on your own, or with recordings, is just not the same as playing music with other people. Like many other amateur arts groups, the Northampton Symphony Orchestra (with whom I have been playing now for 20 years) quickly replaced its regular weekly rehearsals with online social chats on Zoom. It has been great to keep in touch with other members of the orchestra but you can’t play music together via Zoom or any of the other video-conferencing platforms: the audio delay (latency) is just too big. (Try singing ‘Happy Birthday’ with each other the next time you are on a Zoom call – maybe while also washing your hands! – and you will quickly see how impossible it is.) I have collaborated with some NSO members on 2020’s emerging new artform – the multi-part lockdown recording. Recording a video of yourself playing along with a click-track so your contribution can be merged with others to form a virtual performance is surprisingly difficult but it felt good to have a creative project to work on with friends, albeit remotely. It’s definitely not the same, however, as actually playing music together live. So when I read an article about a choir in the USA that had been experimenting with low-latency audio software that enabled them to sing together online, I got very excited. I have spent the last two months exploring software originally designed for rock bands who wanted to jam together online, and looking at whether any of these programs might work for an orchestral rehearsal. The best option seemed to be a free, open source program called Jamulus. It’s a little fiddly to set up, and it only works if you have the right hardware (you need to be able to plug your computer directly into your router with an ethernet cable – wifi is just too slow) and a fast internet connection, plus a lot of patience! On 19 August we held our first online orchestra rehearsal: it was technically challenging, frustrating, at times hilariously bad, but exciting and ultimately actually quite inspiring. Eight of us managed to connect through Jamulus, and with NSO conductor John Gibbons holding us together on piano we eventually managed to play through the entire first movement of Beethoven's 'Symphony No 3 (Eroica)'. It was a far from perfect experience but after a break of more than five months this first opportunity to actually play live music with a group of other people again was incredibly enjoyable. And the best evidence of this is that everyone involved was keen to do it again soon. This Wednesday, our fifth NSO online rehearsal, was the best yet. We had ten people taking part, including violins, viola, cello, flute, oboe, clarinet, horns and piano, and worked on the ‘Symphonie in D minor’ by César Franck and Mendelssohn’s ‘Hebrides Overture’. Each week we have managed to tweak the software settings, address hardware issues and improve the small remaining audio delays. The sound quality is not wonderful and there are always a few technical problems but it’s getting better every week. This Wednesday actually felt like a proper rehearsal as we went back over certain passages of the music and managed to improve them. It’s still no substitute for making music together in the same room but, given the prospect of ongoing restrictions for many months to come, our online rehearsals have been really enjoyable. And working through the technical challenges and solving them together as a group has been a rewarding experience in itself.
Labels: Music
