Beck's ground breaking move

I was fascinated recently to hear on BBC Radio 4 an item which was giving rise to much comment in the pop and rock world  because a 90's Indie- Rock Musician,  Beck, decided to make available some of his music only as sheet music with no sound recording. 

Jen Chaney in an article for Celebritology in the Washington Post,commented "That's right, Beck has written 20 new songs and if you want to listen to them at a party or while you exercise, you will have to get out a bunch of paper and read them. This is your punishment for all those free downloads. Music should not be so accessible and easy. It should be hard to get, and Beck's here to remind you of that, okay?"

For a classically trained musician this has been intriguing, particularly when in the radio interview, the rock expert being interviewed explained that rock composers rarely write down their music and many rock musicians cannot read music. 

For many years as a clarinettist, I specialised in performing new music and the joy of receiving scores that had never been performed before and of exploring new musical landscapes was only ever exceeded by the point at which I rehearsed it with other musicians when we were creating a performance together.

OK - so Jen Chaney is correct - it is not easy but it is hugely rewarding, not only individually but as a group of people creating music together!  I will be interested to see the development of the response in the pop world to Beck's ground breaking move.

We are going to continue to introduce new music and new composers to the tutti.co.uk catalogue in 2013 and I hope that all those people who enjoy performing from sheet music will continue to explore  this "brave new world" with us.

Women Composers in the Minority

An interesting statistic came to light recently which claimed that of the 75,000 music-writers – composers, songwriters and lyricists – that are members of the UK royalty collecting society, PRS for Music, only 14% are women.

I think that this could relate to other genres rather than contemporary classical where there is a lot of exciting new music being created. Part of it was even discussed in breakfast time on radio 4 and there, it was emphasised quite correctly I think, that it is not so much whether they are women composers but whether they are good composers.

I remember quite vividly being told by my professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, that he felt it was more important for his male students to succeed as they had to support a family where as most of the women when they left would give up anyway, get married and have babies. Well not this person! Incidentally, I was also told that I would have a much better chance of succeeding as a classical clarinettist, if I did not speak with a Derbyshire accent and if I went to an Anglican Church rather than a Methodist Church - but hey that was a long time ago!

It did not deter me because in the end it was the playing of music that was important to me and let's face it to the listener as well. I suppose what can make it more difficult is that not enough women get in at the highest level in order to influence decisions.

I am still one to support good compositions and good performers whether they are male or female. However, what is important to us at tutti.co.uk and on the impulse music website is to support composers and performers so that they are at least seen and heard. Just to even the balance a bit here is a link to women composers of a great range of styles on the tutti website.

A spark has been lost from the world of opera

I was very sorry to hear today that Marie Hayward Segal has passed away. Whenever I think of Marie I think of her laughter. She was on several musical committees with me and we would meet at various events and I would always be glad to see her as she would brighten up every occasion that she attended. Marie was a dramatic soprano and distinguished opera singer performing at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne and in Europe. She has died at the age of 72 and the music profession will greatly miss her. She is survived by her son Benjamin and her grandson George who was born just after her death.

Exciting British Music

I have been listening to music by composers who won British Composer Awards in 2011 and it is great to get a flavour of what is being written in the UK now.

There is so much inspiring new music around but it is not always that easy to know where to begin.

All of the compositions for the British Composer Awards had to have a performance in the UK in the year before the Awards take place.

Have a look at some of these extracts by winning composers not of the winning works themselves, apart from the Sorensen which is the actual winning composition. I think there is some really exciting music here.

Outreach category won by Graham Fitkin
An extract from Log for 6 electric pianos

Vocal category won by Huw Watkins
An extract from his Violin Concert - a stunning performance by Alina Ibragimova

International category won by Bent Sorensen
An extract from the Piano Concerto, La Mattina

Wind Band or Brass Band won by Lucy Pankhurst
An extract from Wired for Brass Band

Stage Works won by Orlando Gough
An extract from Ariel Songs performed by Shout

tutti has CDs of music by many past and present British Composer Awards winners including from the above, Huw Watkins and Graham Fitkin. Well worth hearing more of. Hope you like them as much as we do.

Remembering a great clarinet player

It seems like ages ago now that I was asked to write a biography on my fellow clarinettist and friend Georgina Dobree for the online edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. It has been published this month at www.oxforddnb.com. The stuff of biography is by its nature the achievements of a lifetime but somehow you cannot convey the friendship and the laughter and the kindness of a person in such a formal setting. As well as being a terrific clarinettist, editor and publisher, Georgina was known by people in the clarinet world for her parties. Whenever there was a visiting clarinettist or bassett horn player in London there would inevitably be a party in her home to which all the clarinet fraternity would be invited too. Georgina in the 50's and 60's at the Darmstadt Festival intriduced more ground breaking contemporary music with composers such as Peter Maxwell Davies, Oliver Messiaen, Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez than most players will do in a lifetime. She was meticulous in researching editing and performing early music as well as commissioning new works. She died in 1998 having greatly enriched the clarinet repertoire and having been a wonderful supporter of music and players alike.

Geraldine Allen