Think you’ve got a good ear for musical style and history? Listen to this extract les-elemens and try to put a date to it. Then look at the last title in the Selected Compositions list on this page for the answer.
You can hear more on YouTube.
How many countries are there in the world? How many of these have a musical culture of which you’ve never heard a note? Would it strike you as odd if one of these countries was Iraq – a place with which we have been heavily involved? I had never heard any Iraqi music live and so was delighted to discover that Reel Festivals was putting on an evening of Music of Iraq at the Roxy Art House on Saturday. This formed part of their Reel Iraq Festival.
The evening featured Farida with the Iraqi Maqam Ensemble, supported by the Babylon Arabic Band. Both groups were very affectionately received and there was an engagingly enthusiastic, participatory feel. This video will give you some idea of Farida and the Iraqi Maqam Ensemble:
If you’ve never heard any Sufi music from Afghanistan you might like to catch a return visit to Edinburgh of the Ahmad Sham Sufi Qawali Group at the Roxy Art House on Tue 26th May. I saw this group in a fantastic performance in The Queens Hall last year. Here is an excerpt of the email which alerted me to the upcoming event:
The Ahmad Sham Sufi Qawali group is the most famous Qawali group in Afghanistan at the moment. They will be performing at the Roxy Art House on Tuesday, May 26th. The doors will open at 6.30 and music should begin around 7.30. We aim to convert the Roxy into as close an approximation of an Afghan Sufi house as possible for this. As such we won’t have a fixed price for entry, but will ask for £5 suggested donation. More of course will be much appreciated by the sufi group, all money will go towards covering their costs and any left over will be donated to an Afghan Charity. Last year the group raised £7000, which they donated to widows and children disabled by war.
And here is a taster:
New fingering guide video footage has been posted on the Video Page. Don’t forget to enjoy the 4-second long, deafening blast of Eb which serves as a bell at 2:24 in the Lower Part video - it adds so much to our lessons…..
Close up video of (suggested) left hand fingerings for Leo Brouwer’s Estudio No. 1 posted at bottom of Video Page.
I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t like YouTube. Almost everyone I know has confessed, at some time or another, to having been sucked into a vortex of fascination and losing (track of) time. Can young musicians actually learn much from watching videos? I’d contend that the answer is a resounding, yes!
They can hear how an unknown piece sounds; see how the hands move; hear how changes in tempo and dynamics can help to shape a piece; notice how the accenting of some notes and the subduing of others can result in solo music having several simultaneous layers and sounding more like ensemble music. There is also encouragement to be had in, for example, being spurred on by seeing someone younger than oneself turn in a commanding performance, or someone older making heavy weather of something you’d found quite straightforward.
One thing I have lately found YouTube nudging me towards is comparing various interpretations of the same piece, thanks to the related videos box to the right of the screen. While looking for Leo Browuer’s Estudio Sencillo No. 1, a piece played by many S3/S4 pupils, I stumbled upon an explosive performance by Wang Yameng of the 3rd movement of Browuer’s Sonata, written in 1990 for Julian Bream. The movement, entitled La Toccata de Pasquini could, I feel, only have been written by a guitarist.
Before long, I had watched ten performances, resulting in a heightened awareness of differences in technique; interpretation; performance spirit; posture; ergonomics of hand movements; quality of film and sound recording; location; lighting. Strictly speaking, these are not in any order, but the top three impressed me the most. What also appeals to me about this situation is the democracy of it. The grace and favour of promoters, agents, publishers is not required. All you need to do is learn the piece, film it and post it.
David Byrne writes eloquently, resonantly and, in one sense, optimistically about the future of the recording industry in the indented paragraph contained here.
If I feel as nimble as he appears to when I’m 56, I’ll be chuffed:
In our enthusiasm for learning through gaming, might we be overlooking one of the oldest games in the world – chess? There is sufficient belief in its contribution to learning in general, that countries as varied as America, Russia and Venezuela include the game – and its study – in the curriculum. Closer to home, Chess Scotland is very active in school life (look for Schools link in menu on left-hand side).
Google Alerts threw a pdf document my way entitled the Benefits of Chess in Education, in which, like music, chess is shown to strengthen other domains – reading, maths, logic, planning, problem solving, juggling options. There appear also to be social and behavioural benefits.
The chess community has not been slow to augment traditional over the board games and analytical books with a variety of hi-tech and online resources: chess computers; software; websites; gaming sites. YouTube features many instructional videos on openings and endgames in addition to more performance-based films such as this amazing blitz game (even the physical co-ordination is impressive – let alone the mental performance):
or this simul, in which Garry Kasparov defeats 25 opponents:
Perhaps, though, despite all this, the game of chess continues to labour under the image of being a geeky game? Well, not in South Bronx, where the Dark Knights record against schools which can afford private coaching is very impressive.
New videos of Scottish Medley 2009 have been posted on the Video Page. This will be played by NBHS in the Spring Concert (Thu 2 April, 2009) and MGS (Thu 18 June, 2009)
Continuing to experiment with video…here is a hurriedly shot, and appallingly lit, rendition of Now Westlin’ Winds. This is basically an instrumental version of what Dick Gaughan does with Burns’ original on his excellent Handful of Earth album. I did this arrangement a few years ago and a couple of pupils played it their Advanced Higher programmes. The tuning is DADGAD i.e. strings 1, 2 & 6 tuned down a tone (2 fret’s worth).
Just after writing this, I discovered that this is Dick Gaughan’s “favourite song of all time.”
My colleague across the pond, James Frankel, who writes an excellent blog entitled Music Technology in Education, is compiling a study of uses of YouTube in education. A description of the idea and contact details, should you wish to contribute, can be found here.
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The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body by Steven Mithen
Phantoms in the Brain: Human Nature and the Architecture of the Mind by V.S. Ramachandran
Communicative Musicality: Exploring the Basis of Human Companionship by
The Private Life of the Brain (Penguin Press Science) by Susan Greenfield
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