Details here of seminars, concerts etc.
Category Archives: New Ideas
Sibelius 7
Staff and students currently scaling the steep learning curve from Sibelius 6 to 7 may find some cheer in the wealth of YouTube tutorials in existence. A simple search revealed the following:
Here is the first one on that list:
James Taylor – Guitar Lessons
As a watch-and-copy species, this sort of thing can go a long way – and the camera work is excellent!
Discovering Music
Have you ever listened to Radio 3’s Discovering Music? One nice touch on the web page is the expression, “over a year left to listen.” Anyway, there is to be a recording made in Glasgow’s City Halls on at 18:15 on Wednesday 30 May. The title of the event is, The Second Viennese School: Introductory Talk.
This will be followed by a concert featuring:
Schubert (orch. Webern) Six German Dances
Schoenberg Violin Concerto
Berg 3 pieces from the Lyric Suite
Schoenberg 5 orchestral pieces (2nd version of 1949)
Ilya Gringolts violin
Ilan Volkov conductor
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
These works, still considered by many to be new music, are around 100 years old (with the obvious exception of the original Schubert…)
Entry to both events is free but tickets are limited to 4 per individual.
There is another free concert the following evening.
A few tasters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQrMRPXXDVQ
Creativity
I recently came across two interesting posts on creativity. One from the excellent site, Brain Pickings, features a video of a talk by John Cleese. It features the attention-grabbing phrase, ‘Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.’
The other, an article by Jonah Lehrer, is entitled The neuroscience of Bob Dylan’s Genius. I’ve never been a fan of Dylan but it’s a very interesting piece on the creative process.
On my reading lists which, by now, stretches further than years left to me on Earth, is Lehrer’s Proust Was A Neuroscientist.
Music, language and hearing (or not)
There’s really much, much more to this video by Charles Limb than the couple of points I’m about to select but here goes….
There is a very clear depiction, at 06:15, of the difference of range of frequencies (Hz) and level (dB) in music and language.
There is also an interesting demonstration, at 07:07, of how those of us with normal hearing take pitch perception for granted – compared to cochlear implant patients, whose perception can be out by as much as two octaves[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/bTE0MRRXNzs?rel=0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
There is also a very interesting talk on neuroscience and musical improvisation by the same author here – look out for great demo of piano improvisation by Keith Jarret at 01:15 – including some nice ‘outside playing‘ at 02:08 [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/BomNG5N_E_0?rel=0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Creativity
A great article in The Guardian (Mon 2 Jan) featured artists from various disciplines offering tips on creativity, inspiration and realising ideas. Placed in the arts section, it would be silly to criticize the piece for lacking a wider field of professionals, but I did find myself wishing for contributions from those in other areas of expertise e.g. science, engineering, social policy, education. The wider the field, the more boldly common themes tend to stand out.
In this regard I have to say that I’ve always found it something of an irrelevance that, in school life, Music is grouped together with, say, Art or Drama. As far as academic side of Music goes, I feel it has most in common with Language(s) and then Maths. Actually, on this point, let me bore you with another possibly pedantic personal opinion: it is often claimed that Music and Maths are very closely related. I think this is an overstatement. Music and Arithmetic are closely intertwined but Calculus, Trigonometry, Algebra and Geometry rarely darken my door – unlike alliteration. Certainly as regards the honing and analysis of technique, then Music has as much in common with PE as any other subject – and let’s not forget teamwork!
Returning to the article, I was pleased to see that composer, Mark Anthony Turnage, scotched the idea of inspiration allowing us to avoid hard graft. Fortifying this take on the creative life, he cited various details of working method: routine; a quiet place to work; the difference that time of day can make. He opines that “the afternoon is the worst time for creativity.” It can feel like the worst time for learning and teaching. Many pupils (and possibly staff) seem to undergo a dip around 2.00-3.00 and perk up when within sight of the home straits. In the unlikely event that I am charged with redesigning the school day, I will opt for 7.00-2.00, freeing up the afternoon for siesta, meditation, reading or sport. Turnage also feels his critical eye/ear to be more lenient in the evening, often necessitating morning revision.
Susan Philipsz, has some very straightforward suggestions: “keep it simple” and “be audacious” and, in similar spirit to Turnage, “if you have a good idea, stick to it. Especially if realising the project is a long and demanding process, try to keep true to the spirit of the initial idea.”
Singer/song-writer, Martha Wainwright, confesses to a piecemeal approach: “I write in short spurts – for five, 10, 15 minutes – then I pace around the room, or go and get a snack.” Playwright, Polly Stenham, touches on the physical side, advising us to “go for a walk.” Author, Haruki Murakami (in another article) takes this much further. “When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 am and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for 10km or swim for 1500m (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 pm. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing.”
Artist, Polly Morgan, stresses the fruitfulness of a cross-curricular approach: “Don’t restrict yourself to your own medium. It is just as possible to be inspired by a film-maker, fashion designer, writer or friend than another artist. Cross-pollination makes for an interesting outcome.” Harking back to my first paragraph, I would widen this field considerably. Morgan also seems willing to embrace the tough choices which many of us would prefer to avoid: “Don’t be afraid to scrap all your hard work and planning and do it differently at the last minute.” I have certainly found this approach indispensable upon arrival at gigs which differ widely from their description.
Director, Ian Rickson, encourages us to “embrace new challenges. When we’re reaching for things, we tend to be more creative.” This reminded me of an inspirational idea by Joe Zawinul, keyboard player and founder member of Weather Report (and incidentally one of the few who seemed able to write music which was happy but not inane). In his 7th decade, there was more chance than ever that his improvising would fall into favoured patterns. In a bid to stumble upon new sounds, he programmed one of his keyboards so that pitch ran in reverse order. Playing this, along with others formatted in the normal way, many novel ideas emerged which would not have occurred to a trained hand and ear.
Musician, Gus Garvey (Elbow), recommends the practice of bringing together two unrelated ideas. I recall coming across this in Edward de Bono‘s 1973 book, Po.
Perhaps my favourite sound bite from the piece comes from opera singer, Kate Royal who reminds us that, “art is everywhere.” Taking the word art as a synonym for inspirational practice then, with providers and consumers of public service having to produce more with less, this seems like as good a way to step into 2012 as I can imagine. Happy New Year!
You can access the full article here.
But let’s leave Joe Zawinul with the last word:[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ae0nwSv6cTU?rel=0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
The Latest Scores
It’s hardly surprising that, in a culture of written music such as the western classical tradition, the look of the music has become more complicated throughout its centuries-old develpment. If you’ve not had the opportunity to see some more out there scores, there is a great collection on the YouTube channel of the enigmatically named ch252525.
Here is an example (click the link above for more):[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/XpCfdRVXG1E?rel=0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
p.s. the Google Ad on screen is not part of the score 🙂
The Unanswered Question
Can you recall a sea-change in your thinking taking place after a book, documentary, film, argument talk, lecture? I’ve written here before on Leonard Bernstein’s Norton Lectures, on music and linguistics, The Unanswered Question, and the effect they had on my musical thinking. All six lectures are now on YouTube.
One thing I learned much later was that Bernstein had memorised the scripts! If you have several hours to spare, not necessarily all in the same day, then I can’t recommend them highly enough:
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[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/8IxJbc_aMTg?rel=0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
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Conference 1
I recently experienced four days which I would have to sum up as amongst the most stimulating but toughest days I can recall. They were spent at a conference (organised by the Mariani Foundation and hosted by Edinburgh University – specifically Katie Overy of the IMHSD) entitled: The Neurosciences and Music: Learning & Memory
Stimulating for the following reasons:
- dedicated, uninterrupted time to devote to an area of fascination which often only pops up intermittently – namely the intersection of music, language, memory, learning, science (of various sorts)
- the world’s leading thinkers – many of whose names I had already come across – were presenting recent research
- the questions/comments often added another dimension to the talks – I noted that resonant, thought-provoking questions were equally likely from delegates in identical or contrasting fields to the speaker
Tough for the following reasons:
- although I am now very interested in science, I do not have a scientific background – my last formal contact was failing Higher Chemistry and Physics in 1977
- speed – all speakers were keen to run to time and presentations were necessarily quick – this meant that slides containing acronyms, data, graphs, brain scans etc. seemed to be racing by*
- concentration – not my own (although this was no doubt challenged) but more the concentration of 18 hours of listening and a further 6 hours of poster viewing/chat to authors over four days was quite dense
I would equate the content of those four days with at least a year’s reading, TV/radio documentaries, on-line exploration. For that reason, I was glad to have my Zoom H2 mp3 recorder with me and intend to re-visit many of the talks in order to write things up over time. Until then, though, here is an outline of content to give some broad overview of the content.
*One of the delegates seated next to me, using an iPad, switched seamlessly between – typing, photographing, videoing. That’s the way to go! Other devices are available 🙂
Neurosciences and Music IV: Learning & Memory
DAY 1 – Thu 9 June
Registration
“Working with Infants and Children”
Workshop 1 – Experimental Methods – 4 x 30 minute presentations
Workshop 2 – Social / Real World Methods – 4 x 20 minute presentations
Day 2 – Fri 10 June
Keynote lecture – Human memory – 45 minutes
Symposium I – Mechanisms of Rhythm and Meter Learning over the Life Span – 3 x 20 minute presentations
Symposium 2 – Impact of Musical Experience on Cerebral Language Processing – 4 x 30 minute presentations
Symposium 3 – Cultural Neuroscience of Music – 6 x 20 minute presentations
Poster session I – 2 hours to view posters/chat to authors/take away A4 version handouts
Day 3 – Saturday 11 June
Symposium 4 – Memory and Learning in Music Performance 5 x 20 minute presentations
Symposium 5 – Mind and Brain in Musical Imagery – 5 x 20 minute presentations
Symposium 6 – Plasticity and Malplasticity in Health and Disease – 5 x 20 minute presentations
Poster session II – 2 hours to view posters/chat to authors/take away A4 version handouts
Day 4 – Sunday 12 June
Symposium 7 – The Role of Music in Stroke Rehabilitation: neural mechanisms and therapeutic techniques – 6 x 20 minute presentations
Symposium 8 – Music: A Window into the World of Autism – 4 x 25 minute presentations
Symposium 9 – Learning and Memory in Musical disorders – 4 x 25 minute presentations
Edinburgh International Film Festival previews – neuroscience is a theme this year – 15 min presentation
Conclusions and thanks.
Poster session III – 2 hours to view posters/chat to authors/take away A4 version handouts
18 hours of talks – 6 hours of poster sessions
45 Speakers
300+ delegates