Right then, a little round-up of what I've been upto and a little look forward. Lots on (and hence not much written here of late, sigh).
In August I attended a guitar course West Dean for the first time since I began my Masters in the autumn of 2021. The was the 30th annual West Dean International Classical Guitar Festival, and was the fourth I've attended, if memory serves. As ever, the event comprised concerts by some of the world's finest classical guitarists (including Xufei Yang and Craig Ogden), small ensembles, an orchestra led by the brilliant Vincent Lindsay Clark, lots of workshops, private lessons, a final student concert and of course a lot of fun socialising.
The ensemble I played in was led by the renowned young British virtuoso Laura Snowdon. This was apparently her first time leading a group like this and she did it quite fantastically, and with infectious enthusiasm. I especially enjoyed working on Jürg Kindle's 2009 piece "Techno" - a challenge for us to pull off, but a total blast. Here's the piece played by the Eos Guitar Quartet (somewhat more "in the pocket" than our rendition, it must be said, but still... ):
Playing in Vincent's orchestra was a blast as it always is, of course; we worked on a couple of his pieces and a great arrangement of Peter Warlock's "Capriol Suite". I put in a couple of solo performances, rolling out Jobim's "Estrada Branca" at a lunchtime concert and Roland Dyens' "Lettre Française" at the final (and always nerve-racking) student concert. And great to catch up with friends that I've made at the festival over the years, including Hilary May, Stephen Boreham and Clive Kemp. All in all, great fun, if exhausting - and I'm already signed up for the spring course! Thanks to the indefatigable festival organiser Andrew Gough for pulling it all off.
In other news... My music theory studies with Peter Copley continue apace. I'm still working on Bach chorale harmonisation and figured bass realisation, but have now also started work on Species Counterpoint, for my sins, working through Johan Joseph Fux's (infamous? notorious?) 1725 treatise "Gradus ad Parnassum". I'll let you know how it goes, and might even post some of the results here as I progress.
(I also note, somewhat wryly, this observation about species counterpoint from Reginal Smith Brindle's autobiography: "... I now know that to study Species Counterpoint was probably the worst musical study I could have chosen. It bears no relationship whatsoever to composition of an inspired nature, and is only a mechanism for cerebral exercises. There is absolutely no room for creativity. But who knows, this study may have started that taste for those elements of constructivism which were to characterise some of my later music. On the other hand, it should have given me forever such a strong distaste for any artificial structures, that I would shun them ever after.")
Earlier this month Sarah and I took our first holiday together this year, and spend the best part of a week in the delightful city Annecy, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. In and amongst the lake swimming, hill walking and excellent food (and possibly some wine), I started work on a new Abyssal Labs piece. Now, diligent DGMFS readers will know that Abyssal Labs was a project that ran from 2012 to 2014: five albums of soundscaping designed as an accompaniment to contemplative practice. To be honest, the music didn't really work against its stated aims, but listening back to some of the work while launching the DGMFS Bandcamp page recently, I have to say I was pretty pleased with some of it as music in its own right, and started thinking about reviving the project as an outlet for long-form, slowly evolving soundscapes.
Anyhow, just before going to France I'd made a recording (I hesitate to call it a field recording - Chris Watson it ain't) at the entrance to Sainsbury's in Lewes Road, Brighton, having been somewhat entraced on a previous visit by the sound the travelator seemed to be making (yes, I know, I know...) Then while on holiday I started playing around with the recording and, well, something started emerging. I'd decided beforehand to work mostly in Ableton Live, to try to break out of old Logic-based habits, and I have to say this turned out to be a good decision. The work so far is definitely in the Abyssal Labs "mode", but using a new DAW, with a wholy different arrangement paradigm and new set of sound effects and instruments to work with has definitely taken the work in a new direction. So here's an early draft - it still needs a lot of work, but should give you an idea of where it's heading. I'm hoping to complete it over the coming weeks.*
That being said, the coming weeks are busy, very busy! After a short summer break, the Brighton Guitar Quartet was back this weekend. We played a 20-minute set as part of the first concert in the 2023-24 Sussex Musician's Club season, at the Unitarian Church, alongside sets from mezzo Pamela Cross and the astounding young student soprano Jem Byrne. We rolled out Andrew York's "Spin" once again, as well as Boccherini's barnstorming "Introduction & Fandango" and Leo Brouwer's head-spinning "Toccata" (our first public shot at it - and one that I think we actually pulled off!) Thanks to Angela Goodall of the SMC for inviting us to play.
The quartet will be back next month for a full lunchtime concert at St Margaret's Church in Rottingdean.
I've got a couple of guitar-based weekends coming up in October. 13th to 15th I'll be at Benslow Music in Hitchin on Gerald Garcia's annual guitar retreat, playing in the ensemble (Bach, Piazzolla and more) and turning in an appearance at the Saturday evening student concert. This year I'm hoping to accompany a couple of the singers also on the course; I'm currently working on arrangements of McCartney's "Blackbird" and Sondheim's "Could I Leave You". If they let me I might turn in a solo, naturally!
Then the following weekend I'll be at the second outing of Guitars by the Sea (here in my home town of Brighton), organised by the apparently indefatigable Jon Rattenbury. I'll be playing Telemann in a group led by Steve Gordon, and performing Akis Filios' "Dry River" in a trio with my guitar buddies Shaun Bullard and Paul Dallaway.
Finally on the guitar front, I mentioned a couple of posts back that I'd failed my Trinity perfromance diploma back in March. Well, in the spirit of "back in the saddle" I'm going to take another crack at it this November. Let's see... Oh, and on the the subject of failure, an update on my brass quintet, "Casualites of the Dharma", which I submitted for a New Music Brighton concert later this year. I'm afraid the piece didn't make the cut, which is disappointing, but ho hum. If any brass quintets out there fancy having a crack at a post-Messiaen processional dirge (with apparently very tricky timings) do get in touch!**
One of my tutors at Surrey, the polymath Milton Mermikides as recently been appointed Gresham College's 37th Professor of Music. Last week, he gave his inaugural lecture, the fascinating and wide-ranging "Why Music Moves Us", at St Luke's in Old Street, and I was lucky enough to attend. Here it is!
Finally, I'm looking forward to some great gigs this autumn, including Brad Mehldau at the Wigmore Hall, Cult of Luna in Bristol, and Bill Frisell at the Union Chapel. But I'm most psyched, of course, about seeing my son do his first headline gig at the Pickle Factory in Hackney on October 11th. You can get hold of tickets here. While I'm promoting Frank, check out his latest single, a rather beautiful Bach re-imagining:
That's it for now!
* I'll explain the name in some detail when I finally release the piece, but in the meantime, here's a taster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemp_Town_branch_line
** Because I'm sure dozens of brass players read this blog. Not.
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