Archive for What we’re playing
I.S.M. Art of Performance Masterclass With Tasmin Little
On Thursday 14th March, Tasmin Little came to The Forge in Camden to give a masterclass for the Incorporated Society of Musicians called ‘The Art of Performance’. It was a very special occasion in that there were only twenty people (including performers and accompanists) present, therefore the whole afternoon had an informal air of intimacy [...]
Little Star Lullabies!
Earlier this year, I recorded an album of classical music specially created to help babies and small children relax and sleep. I’d always felt that the music on many of the albums in this genre wasn’t of a particularly good quality and this was confirmed from discussions with several musician friends who have children. Parents were [...]
Projecting outwards…..
I had a wonderful violin lesson on Monday with Kato Havas where everything I’d learned seemed to come together. The ‘giving’ left hand she speaks of, with the performer thinking in terms of three intervals with the fingers ‘gliding’ into the notes, one finger preparing for the next in perpetuity; and the right arm with [...]
Playing it by Ear…..
Playing in a string quartet can be one of the most satisfying ways of making music. All four parts have the opportunity to be ‘heard’ (as opposed to an orchestral string section where this rarely happens), yet there is a constant blending and give and take. The other three parts assume a role more important [...]
The Twelve Days of Christmas……
When I came to choose and arrange the carols for the second volume ‘It Came Upon The Midnight Clear’, one of the first pieces I wrote down was ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ – a traditional and well loved melody that could be arranged in an inventive and entertaining way for strings, making use of various playing techniques for [...]
Noel Nouvelet
The final track on our album It Came Upon The Midnight Clear and other carols is the ancient French piece, ‘Noel Nouvelet’. Like many traditional melodies it has a complicated history that means there are a variety of sources, largely inconsistent. This in no way detracts from the majestic power of this melody which made it [...]
Don Oiche Ud I Mbeithil
This ancient Irish carol is loosely translated from its original Gaelic as ‘That Night in Bethlehem’. The words tell the nativity story – speaking of the events on the night of Jesus’s birth and end with a message of peace from the angels. In Ireland, there remains a tradition of leaving a lit candle in [...]
O Little Town of Bethlehem
No Christmas album would have been complete without including one of the most memorable English carols ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’. The original melody is often known as ‘Forest Green’ as Ralph Vaughan Williams collected the tune ‘The Ploughboy’s Dream’ in 1903 from a Mr. Garman of Forest Green in Surrey. The words added to the melody were [...]
The Sans Day Carol
This carol is another instance of a melody (which may have been in existence for many centuries) being collected and notated and thereafter becoming well known across the world. It owes it’s name to the Cornish village of St. Day (pronounced in Cornish as Sans Day) which itself was named after a Breton Saint. The [...]
To Drive The Cold Winter Away…
This wonderfully evocative melody is also known as ‘In Praise of Christmas’ or ‘The Praise of Christmas’. A version of this song dating from the early 17th century has the interesting title of ’A Pleasant Country New Ditty: Merrily Shewing How to Drive the Cold Winter Away’. The song is also included in that classic collection of folk [...]
