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Well, I got my first Mac in 1989. Of course, it cost a fortune; but there were two music applications, Finale and Performer, which were fantastically capable and did the jobs I needed them to do in an intuitive way. I still use them 22 years later and of course they're more sophisticated and quicker and the hardware is miles better and costs a fraction of what it did then. So RIP Jobs. Apple may not be the same again but we've arrived in a technological promised land where those jobs are a lot easier and more pleasurable: there's no going back. Good Job(s)!
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Heiner Goebbels - this guy's music is so good, so individual; just listening to it again and it's going straight on my iPod. Check out Surrogate Cities and Landschaft mit entfernten Gewandten.
Just finished a piece for string ensemble, a Sonata for Strings, which I've sub-titled Stillleben. The German word Stille has, I think, a more loaded meaning than the English equivalent in Stillife. The first half of the piece is calm, quite serene even, while the second half is lively and rather dance-like. I don't think you can have life and be completely still at the same time: surely life implies energy and growth? So the artistic term still-life seems a bit of a misnomer.
There's a debate at the Cambridge Union this evening on the motion 'classical music is irrelevant to young people'.
I don't have much time for musicals since I'm a musical snob. The ones I like are all American: Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Sweeny Tod, Chicago, and Adam's Ceiling/Sky.
Went to a performance of Guys and Dolls in Salisbury last night. A superb show, great production. I am astounded by the virtuosity of the cast of actor-musicians, who sang, danced, acted and played with absolute precision and tremendous energy. Please note, they played the score from memory: there aren't many professional musicians who could do that in an orchestra pit, let alone on stage. The only thing was they were rather too loud. I was struck by the directness and simplicity of the music. It's composed without artifice, never over composed, no music for its own sake, the words always dominate. Hence, it's unpretentious and all the more charming because of that. I can't help but express the release that rain is bringing to life here as I write this. It's a long way short of a monsoon feeling, but still and all it's early May - and it hasn't rained here for weeks. Enjoyable though the sunshine has been, a scorching Easter, it's all felt wrong: the ground has cracked hard, forest fires - at a time when we should have had April showers.
I know this will look silly in a few weeks when probably half the country will be under water. |
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