Erik Dams links to an intriguing little thing by Bill Horton, editor of Offbeat Magazine (“not the New Orleans one”) about musical hand signals. I’ve bumped into about half of them, but there are many others–jazz is much more formulaic than most folks think, and it’s not difficult to communicate which ending you’re going to…
The eighteenth century would have sounded rather different if composers had employed Persian instead of Turkish music: Xenophon and others report: “In battles, Iranians played certain sounds that made the enemy fearful and escape, such as the sound of stones falling from the mountain or the sound of a waterfall or the horrible sound of…
I had an interesting chat (ie I listened) with someone the other night about the social position of musicians in the Middle Ages. I didn’t really buy his idea of the musician as The Other–at least not in Spain–but what he told me about Moorish and Jewish musicians in Christian society (as opposed to, for…
I know where I should be grazing this Christmas, thanks to the Archbishop of York: We are so lucky in this country to have churches that are nearer our homes than most supermarkets. I encourage you to take advantage of that this Christmas. Unfortunately there’s no way he can be referring to the Queen’s churches,…
Abdul Bari Jahani told IWPR, “This is in fact not a poem, but a list of tribes.” The old Yugoslav one worked on the same basis, with each republic having a section of its own anthem included, which is why it took hours to play at football matches.
I am told that, during a recent Shanghai performance of The Messiah, the tenors got confused and lost during the chorus “Let us break our bonds asunder,” presumably for fear they’d be despised and rejected thereafter.
I can’t remember learning to read texts or music, so phonics means little to me. I do remember that different headteachers made us learn to write with different styles, with the result that my handwriting is completely illegible (“That’s not a signature,” stormed my first bank manager, “do a better one!”). Were it not for…
As a sideline (no mainline yet) I write musical arrangements, principally for big band and for choir. Problem: piracy. Tonight trade war looms with China (I’ll probably have a curry instead): a reliable source tells me that a Shanghai choir is using my version of ET Mensah’s Tea samba.