Flakey days
29/4/2008
We've been having a few troubles with the internet connection, here at GFdC HQ... I'm not rightly sure whether it's down to the ISP or to the hardware, or a combination of the two, but regardless there've been periodic dropouts of connection, usually for a couple of minutes, sometimes for rather longer. And this wasn't really a great time for this problem to hit - I wont be able to do anything about it for a while now, because:
This is a modification of this wikimedia graphic, which is licensed under the GNU-FDL. Hence my version is also FDL.
I'm going to Tanzania on saturday! I wont be online most of the time, but I may get the chance to visit a town with an internet cafe periodically - at most every fortnight. If I do, you'll be the first to know here, since I'm pretty sure I've managed to set up the server to allow me to update it from distant parts. I haven't tried yet, so I may be proved wrong, but I think it's ready to do the main things*.
However, if my server is ready it's a step ahead of me. I'm beginning to get rather nervous, since I've never met anyone else who's going, I've never left Europe before, I've never travelled solo before, I've never had to do a stopover at a random airport before... and I'm very aware that I might do something stupid. So I'm not quite mentally prepared, but then that doesnt matter - I can adjust slowly. I'm also not physically prepared, as the all-to-small pile of stuff on the floor waiting to be packed testifies. So, although there are a few days left before I leave the continent, I may well not post here again before I go.
In case I don't I'll wish you all luck in your various enterprises now, and perhaps I'll see you again on the other side ;-)
*There will be one or two things that dont get done while I'm away from the server, the only noticable one will be the lack of "Permanent Link" links. I thought updating two pages each time might be a bit much, I can add them on to these posts once I come back, and I dont expect anyone'll miss it :-).
One question from a bullet
16/4/2008
I want to give up being a bullet
I've been a bullet too long
I want to be an innocent coin
in the hand of a child
and be squeezed through the slot
of a bubblegum machine
I want to give up being a bullet
I've been a bullet too long
I want to be a good luck seed
lying idle in somebody's pocket
or some ordinary stone
on the way to becoming an earring
or just lying there unknown
among a crowd of other ordinary stones
I want to give up being a bullet
I've been a bullet too long
The question is
Can you give up being a killer?
John Agard
Handel, Bach and two flutes
10/4/2008
That's how my saturday night was titled, and by god where they two flutes... William Bennet and Kate Hill. If you don't know the names, take my word for it - it was a great treat for me to see them. Bennet in particular is up there with the world's best flautists, and Kate Hill, who was once his student, isn't far behind. And for a tenner I could sit 10 feet away and watch their fingers at work. My first reactions were mostly beyond speech, but now that I've had a few days to digest the wonder of it, I can say a few things.
The first interesting thing I noticed was that in many ways the two of them were diametrically opposed, and suprisingly it was William Bennet, the superstar, who had what I'd be told off for as bad habbits: the angle of his flute was ridiculously low, where Kate Hill had the upright posture (sometimes with expressive motion, it's true, but generally at 90°). The former student kept her fingers close to the keys, to the extent that you could at times barely discern the movements, which should mean you have to put less effort into changes of fingering, so should allow quicker playing without the risk of clattering keys - the master's fingers were much more lively and energetic. But bad habbits or no, it obviously works :-).
The other, slightly more general, point that presented itself was as a result of noticing that none of the performers - neither the flautists nor either of their accompanists (on cello and harpsichord) could have been born much after 1950. And this is part of what seems to be a huge trend across classical music, which I'm sure I'm not the first to comment on (no doubt many have done so with rather more background). I wondered whether it really takes until the mid 50s for musicians to reach their best. Frankly I doubt it. Technically I suspect most have reached their peak by their 30s, and are if anything less skilled (although admittedly will know the works better) 20 years later. It seems that the classical world moves slower than it needs to, in terms of the lifetimes of performers, and I fear that's not for the best of reasons. Orchestras have a reputation for being very cliquey, and I get the impression that you wont be properly accepted and gain enough attention within the group until you're seen to have "served your time", meaning that you can't get the exposure to become a big name and launch a solo career.
After all, since the classical music fraternity is smaller than the pop community, one would expect news to spread more quickly. And yet it seems the reverse - while U2 have to fight critics who say they're too old now they've past 40, a 45 year old flautist would be a youngster. Maybe I'm being superficial and ignorant - I'm hardly an expert - but perhaps it's more important that this impression is given, rather that whether it is a fair one or not. The Jacqueline du Pré building, where the concert was held, probably holds no more than 150, but was a quater empty when one of the world's best flautists was playing, and a large chunk of the audience were over 60 themselves. Certainly I'm no fan of some of the "trendy" gimics that have been employed over the last few years to try to win a young audience for classical music, but rather I think if the scene was (and I suppose appeared to be) focused solely on making the very best music they could, not on old boy-ish cliques, there would be more chance of a wider audience feeling connected.
Mind you, that could all be bollocks. After all, I'm describing the probably the best night of classical music I've enjoyed, then implying I know better... Ah, the arogance of youth ;-)