Composer's Legacy

I cannot even guess how long it is since I wrote a blog - too busy writing for everything else but something happened this week which nudged me into scribbling a note today! I heard at the beginning of the week that a friend and colleague of mine the composer, Graham Whettam had died last Friday. I first got to know Graham in the 1980s when I was performing a series of concerts featuring British Music and one of those pieces was the Whettam Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano. There were some tempo markings in the music which I did not think made sense. As a performer, I have never been able or even tried to compose music but I have always been deeply immersed in the performing of music as a creative art. Perhaps this needs a bit more explaining - I mean that the composer envisages what they think the music should sound like but the realisation of the composition only comes to fruition when it is performed. Many composers with modern technology can indeed get a very clear picture of how it should sound but adding the individual performer is what is the final part of the composition (I suspect some composers may disagree with this!) The final bit of the jigsaw (for the peformer) is communicating the work with the audience - the ambience of the hall, the acoustic, the instruments being used and the audience will all influence that. And so it was, back in the 1980's that I came across the work of Graham Whettam and rather than play the music at a tempo marking which for me seemed far too fast for the interpretation, I gave him a call! That call led on to me performing the Sonatina frequently from Music Clubs to the Wigmore Hall and recording it for radio 3 and this in turn led to two new commissions - Impromptu for solo clarinet and Graham whettam's second clarinet concerto which was dedicated to me and written in memory of my sister Jennifer who had tragically died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 33. I also performed and broadcast Graham's first clarinet concerto as well as giving numerous performances of other arrangements of his music. As I have mentioned previously my performing career then came to an abrupt halt in 1993 when I had a road accident which stopped me performing professionally.

Hearing that Graham had died brought an era to a close but as his widow Janet said to me - he has left his music legacy for us to enjoy. Try listening to Caroline Clemmow and Anthony Goldstone in their recordings of Graham Whettam's music for solo piano and piano duet for sale on tutti.co.uk.

passionate about singing

What is it about the human voice that captivates in both composition and performance? Yes, I know, I am trying to deflect your inevitable comment that I was supposed to have written about the Summer Sing two Wednesdays ago, that's two whole Wdnesdays or 8 days - a lifetime to the dedicated blogger. My defence as always is that life got in the way, and really there can be no better impediment to writing about life than life itself. Hmm, this is clearly going to be one of those philosophical ones! OK, you ask (or maybe you don't!) which bits of life? Diary says (that's an oblique reference to Little Britain for the uninitiated) Norfolk - and it would be right! Norfolk is a hideaway which belongs to my brother Nick who is an equestrian (not a note of music in his entire being, bless 'im) and deeply involved with the 2008 para-olympics in Hong Kong. Norfolk is so utterly different from what our lives constitute most of the time that it is always a glorious and most welcome entr'acte. We live simply, eat simply, drink simply too much, walk miles, visit some of the most extraordinary churches these Isles have to offer and even bird watch. Well here's a thing. While walking from Hardley to Chedgrave and back, a distance of a little more than 8 miles (that's nearly 13 kilometres to our continental neighbours) and visiting St Margaret's Hardley which is little changed from its Norman beginnings and All Saints Chedgrave which provided a welcome cuppa, we dropped off at the bird hide by Hardley Flood. What do you think we found there? You would never guess so don't even try . . . A memorial plaque to Olivier Messiaen. The inside of the hide has a row of little brass plaques which commemorate all sorts and conditions of men and women who liked the locale, were ardent bird-watchers, had made an impression on the dedicator's life or were simply nice people and in amongst them all was one Olivier M. to whom bird song had meant so much as a composer. I took a photograph and felt warmed! I know this started out as a eulogy to the human voice . . . it has got lost somewhere along the way and turned out to be not so philosophical after all. Bird song, human voice, creative inspiration, memories - there are bound to be 101 connections. Much to my surpise, we have not a drop of Messiaen on tutti, neither sheet music nor recordings, BUT we do have a rather good work for meultiple double basses, called, Bird, Lake, Stone, River by composer Michael Hynes . . . "atmospheric stillness and calm. An ethereal soundworld . . ." saith the blurb.
Back soon, Sarah

passionately preparing

Well, I'm still sharpening pencils and today I have managed to tie up a lot of loose ends which would otherwise niggle away while I am trying to get down to the heart of the matter. I actually managed to create the Finale file where the Impulse Edition of the new work will be published - that is a statement of intent! Tomorrow evening I'm going to lead a 'Summer Sing' with the choir who are commissioning the work - the Islington Choral Society. This is a great idea, (which could only be put into action by those completely passionate about their singing), whereby, those unfortunate souls left behind while others prance about en vacances, gather together under the batons of guest conductors to explore some new repertoire. This is particularly good from my point of view as it gives me a chance to get acquainted with the musicians for whom I am writing and their ways of working. I also get to hear something of their strengths and weaknesses, abhorrences and passions, too! I'm going to work with them on breathing, articulating, listening and feeling (well that will all get done in 30 minutes, won't it!!) and then lay on them a little gem of a choral piece by Grieg which I heard performed a couple of months back by the choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor - entirely captivating. It is Grieg's setting of Ave Maris Stella, edited by my good mate, John Rutter.

Now I absolutely cannot write today without referring to an experience about which I feel intensely passionate - last night's Prom concert. Anybody out there hear it? A chunky programme full of promise with Brahms, Elgar and Strauss (Richard) on offer. The band was the RPO, but I cannot believe what was done to them in rehearsal to produce such extraordinarily inappropriate interpretations. The playing was fine and heartfelt but to my ears, completely off the interpretative radar: Brahms, whimsical and over-sweetly full of vibrato and this was the St Anthony Variations for goodness sake - variations on a theme by Haydn. I hoped for better in the Enigma Variations, but the performance was so precious and placed and saccharine, I could barely listen; as well as the tempi being up the shoot - Nimrod was so slow I thought he'd fallen asleep - so much for the mighty hunter. Regrettably, so much of this had stuck in the craw to the extent that I couldn't hang in there to listen to the Strauss Oboe Concerto - my loss I fear. I'll make myself feel better by giving you a link to all the oboe music we have on tutti.

Sorry to moan, but really, Brahms and Elgar are Saxons, not Siamese (no offence to anyone oriental intended!) I'll let you know how I get on with the Islington bunch, but not 'til Wednesday.
Cheers!
Sarah

no pain, no passion

So, today is the day after the day on which I should have started a new commission and I promised myself, come August 1st, I would put pencil to paper. It didn't happen and I could give oh so many reasons why not - visitors (composer Ian McQueen and pianist Clive Swansbourne ) - distractions (Clive was stung by a wasp on his finger - not good for a pianist) - indulgence (too much amber nectar; well - cava, malt whiskey, wine and cognac actually, but don't tell my doctor!) - over-excercising (had a work out session with personal trainer at the gym - my those sumo squats are something else!) - passionate thoughts about restructuring tutti. Long enough list? Enough of the obfuscation! If truth be told, it's the same old, never goes away, dare I start? Of course I do, but how? I know, I'll sharpen my pencils - that would be something like 300 so that should take an hour or so. Hmm, thirsty work - time for a cup of tea. Oh look, the acer is thirsty too, must water it. That reminds me, have I fed the orchid recently. Talking of feeding, what are we giving Ian and Clive for a dessert? and SO it goes on. This is the painful bit, but without it I won't get to the passionate bit! Should I tell you what I am about to write? No, I think I had better wait until I get started - probably later today if all the pencils are sharp . . . Sarah

passionately successful weekend

Cambridge Clarinets was terrific! It's hard to convey the benefits of this annual event but I can safely say that all those who take part value it for the musical content, the human interaction and the opportunity to take time out to simply be and to see ourselves in the context of a much bigger picture. Yes, it all sounds rather navel-gazing, but that would be a completely wrong impression. Everyone is there for the others and without each and every one it would not have the same impact. The surroundings are tranquil (except when we are playing - but even then there are moments of the deepest stillness within all the activity) and the food is sensational - literally! so much so that we are thinking of putting together a recipe book of 14 years' worth of inspirational eating! The music was inspirational too - 3 out of the 5 works were by contemporary British composers, one by a twentieth century composer and the last one a new arrangement , so 'live' was very much the order of the day. Geraldine gave some really good sessions on technique and 'how to play better' in all sorts of ways. She recommended a set of tone studies which were enthusiastically received so here they are if you are interested: Time for Tone
We have 10 coming for dinner this evening so this will have to be a short post. Actually we have 4 dinners in the next 6 days, so if it weren't for music, food would be the abiding passion in this house, not forgetting drink as well.
Cheers!
Sarah

passionate preparations

From 4.OOpm this afternoon is the annual Cambridge Clarinets weekend - a professional engagement which over some 14 years has grown into a tradition where 12 entusiastic clarinettists gather together to be coached by Geraldine and conducted by me. It is an occasion which has given us all so much over the years. Yes, the purpose of the weekend is to play as much as possible and we manage to get in around 20 hours and in the course of that to explore a fair bit of new music - we usually have a newly commissioned work or arrangement to tackle; but it is also a meeting of hearts and souls - we share a lot, debate endlessly, laugh copiously and sometimes shed a tear or two - all the stuff of humanity which is very heartening and, again, it happens because of the music. We see each other in this grouping, only on this one occasion each year, but when we meet, we just pick up where we left off - there is a flow, a continuum and no awkwardness. The theme this year is breathe, listen, feel and Geraldine and I have been preparing thoughts and ideas which embrace golden section, fibonacci, zen and other spiritual origins. Geraldine in particular has been writing her own approach to playing the clarinet and this is going to appear in instalments on tutti over the coming weeks. Cambridge Clarinets will be the test-bed for this and no doubt they will have a lot to say about it. There is plenty of clarinet music on tutti, so there will be lots of references to useful resources for musicians. Keep an eye out. Hope you have as passionate a weekend as we do - I'll blog about it next week. Sarah

passionate about composers (2)

Today is the Board meeting (yes I know I seem to be writing a lot about these, but they really are board meetings and not bored meetings!) of the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters where I am a director and chair of the Concert Executive which looks after the interests of classical composers. I suppose I have been doing something of the sort for about 15 years now. Anyway, the Academy has around 2,500 members including famous names such as Paul McCartney and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, all of whom are composers, songwriters and lyricists, British or living and working in the UK. It is a fascinating melting-pot of creative talent with a great deal of accumulative passion! I have a lot of fantastic friends there and we have many interests and issues in common. Quite a few of them have pages on Impulse or recordings and sheet music on tutti . Here are a couple of examples - composer David Bedford who has just written a piece for the passionate Cambridge clarinettists I wrote about recently - more to come on them after the weekend; and Timothy Salter, who is a Prof. at the Royal College of Music and has a great output of CDs under the label Usk Recordings . OK, well I'm off to defend composers and their rights - this is the internet so I had better not get started on that one! More tomorrow, Sarah

passions for wednesday written on tuesday

I'm writing tomorrow's blog today as I have just remembered that I am leaving too early to write it tomorrow! Ok this is a prophetic blog - tomorrow I will be attending an mcps-prs-alliance Board meeting - don't ask me what that is, I wrote about it in yesterday's blog - well the one I have just written today, but when you read this as tomorrow's blog it will seem like yesterday! Terrific stuff going on at the Alliance - lots of schemes and web functionality to make it really easy to licence music whenever, however, wherever you use it - and yes, sorry, but you do have to pay when you use music otherwise the guys and girls who created the music (composers of course) don't earn from their works. After that, have to spend some time preparing for Cambridge Clarinets. Now if you think I'm passionate about music, you should meet this bunch. Yes it is the annual weekend with nigh on 20 hours of playing music by Bach, Bedford, Coleridge Taylor, Hart and Wilson - and, yes, right again, lots of contemporary composers there. In fact you can check out David Bedford's website and buy his CDs on tutti we do after all, as our strapline says, bring you closer to classical. Enough prophetic blogging, but don't forget, even though the date says tuesday, this is really Wednesday 25th July. More on Thursday. KBO, Sarah

passionate confession

I can't believe the last post was in January!
My problem is too much, too big, too often - rather like over-eating, but in this case the bites are chunks of work that are demanding to chew. Take a typical day: start at 7.00am with a quick round of emails for overnight sales from around the world on tutti and then crosscheck these with transaction reports and backing; deal with customer queries and problems (not many of those thankfully!); pick up threads of unfinished items from yesterday or even the day before or even the week before, or in this case, 6 months before! - brief pause for sigh on passing thought that I will probably never catch up - yes that happens EVERY day - and then brighten up at thought that I can cross a few items off the 'to do' list. Most days there is a meeting to attend or to prepare for and this can range from a Board meeting at the mcps-prs-alliance (I'm a writer director on that one) to the management group at local church for community centre project (I'm chair of that one!) Spend some time updating pages on Impulse - hundreds of marketing and promotion-hungry composers and performers! Dash out to get to meeting - probably late (but only five minutes. Would love to stay for lunch, but, 'no', dash back to pick up some more threads. Prepare contract for latest commission - lovely opportunity to compose a new work for thriving choral society - chorus, string quartet and harp - can't wait to get started on that one (been saying that for a few months now, but have promised myself to get going in August - not too far around the corner!) Have a big think about developing tutti to include itunes - really important step for classical CD suppliers - talking of which, there is a brilliant Szymanowski (that's shoe-man-of-ski)on the tutti homepage at the moment - here it is: Complete Piano Music
Oops! have I remembered to eat today? and so it goes on. Anyway, I'm not asking for your sympathy, just a bit of slack in the fall off from blogging. Am now going to work this into the early morning routine. I know, you'll believe it when you see it. Well I always did like a challenge - passionate about it you might say! More tomorrow.
Sarah

passionate about tchaikovsky

Well, to be honest, I would never have thought I would put that as a title for my blog! but the good old BBC has followed up its Beethoven abd Bach extravaganzas with the Tchaikovsky experience. I got invited to an evening at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in London to hear the wonderful BBC Singers perform a programme of unaccompanied sacred choral music by Tchaik. Well, actually it was a Tchaik sandwich with Stravinsky for the filling - a rather extraordinary but not unappealing juxtaposition. The cathedral is an unremarkable building but has a more than remarkable impact - it makes you want to be quiet. (I remember experiencing that in the Kremlin on entering the church with the Rubalov icons floor to ceiling - that actually just silenced you without and within!) The BBC Singers did a magnificent job although their very beautiful balance didn't always give that flavour of the basses underpinning not only the music, but the whole wide world! Nonetheless, it was profound - not a word one can use easily these days. I rushed back to tutti to see what Tchaikovsky offerings we have. In sheet music there is some interesting stuff, especially for trumpet, and as for CDs, one rather special recording of Tchaikovsky works for piano duet, including Romeo and Juliet transcribed by Nadezhda Purgold (wife of Rimsky-Korsakov). How's that for original, but then you wouldn't expect anything else from tutti. Incidentally there is a new year's sale at tutti at the moment with 20% off everything. Yes, I said a SALE.
Cheers Tchaikovsky!
Sarah

Apologies, promises and passions in 2007

Duh! Where did all that time go? I know the essence of blogging is that it is regular and continuous in order to keep a thread of ideas and information but in the oh so busy world of a freelance composer and musical entrepreneur gee is that a challenge! Anyway, I'm back after an interval of - I dare hardly admit to it - 2 months. BUT, a fantastic amount of passionate stuff has taken place in that time. First there was the British Composer Awards. I have been spearheading these Awards on behalf of the British Academy of Composer & Songwriters for four years now and they have had a tremendous impact on the classical composing community here in the UK. The Awards give recognition to composers in just about every area of contemporary composition and because we are partnered by BBC Radio 3, there are all sorts of added benfits such as a broadcast festival of the nominated works and performances by the excellent BBC ensembles - Symphony Orchetra, Concert Orchestra, Singers. It's a really great celebration! After that it was the much lower profile but just as passionately important matter of the church carol service - a chorus of 40 and an orchestra of 20. Well, when I say orchestra, that includes penny whistle and three trumpets, but it's another great jamboree. I think the orchestra was saved this year by the tutti programmer, Olly, who led with his violin! And now we have turned 2007, there is a whole new year of passionate music matters starting to happen. I have the first of three commissions to start work on and from the end of the week, we will be running a new year sale on tutti with 20% off EVERYTHING! So check that out. In a couple of weeks there will also be clarinet tips on tutti, written by our resident expert and tutti team member Geraldine. Definitely not to be missed - so, I'll keep you posted! That's a promise!
Sarah