Choir of Hard Knocks

Did you see the terrific performance of Silent Night by The Choir of Hard Knocks that was broadcast by ABC TV a few times over the Christmas period? I reckon it was the best thing on TV. The performance was earthy, real, and sincere. Musical, too!

Favourite Music Quotes

Jerry Rosen, former Boston Symphony Orchestra violinist
Listening to music on records is like getting kissed over the telephone.

Musica laetitiae comes medicina dolorum.
Music is the companion of joy and the medicine of sorrow.

Song title:
You don’t have to join the Ku Klux Klan to be a wizard under the sheets!

Album Title:
Songs I Learnt At My Mother's Knee (and some other low joints)

W. H. Auden (1907-73)
Music,
which can be made anywhere,
Is invisible and does not smell

J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. If heed is not paid to this, it is not true music but a diabolical bawling and twanging.

You just have to press the right keys and the right pedals at the right time and the music plays itself.

Aaron Copland (1900-90)
The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?' My answer would be, 'Yes.' And "Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?' My answer to that would be 'No.'

Heraclitus (c. 540-480 BC)
The fairest harmony springs from discord.

Sir Paul McCartney (1942- )
There are two things John and I always do when we're going to sit down and write a song. First of all we sit down. Then we think about writing a song.

Australian jazz musician, James Morrison [on his song Ease On In]
It’s kind of like a funky sort of Afro-Cuban swinging jazz-rock sort of Classical punk waltz reggae calypso sort of Scottish feel.
James and his family lived across the road from my Uncle Dave and Aunty Win. Aunty Win says they were very nice but very quiet, and only occasionally would you hear music coming from the house

Elvis Presley
I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to.

Sid Vicious
You just pick a chord, go twang, and you've got music!

Frank Zappa

I write the music I like. If other people like it, fine, they can go buy the albums. And if they don't like it, there's always Michael Jackson for them to listen to.

Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.

When too much music is barely enough ...

Joan and I attended the excellent performance of Mozart's Requiem on Saturday night at All Saints Cathedral, which was performed by combined choirs of Bathurst and Orange and the Bathurst Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Ann Hosking. This was a very good performance and the cathedral was packed again.

I mused to myself that if the best voices and instrumentalists in Australia had been performing for us, it would have been better, but not much better, because the standard was pretty high.

It was great to hear Gabriel Bieniek singing the soprano arias, sounding as terrific as ever. Will this be her last performance in Bathurst? We are very sorry to be losing her and her composer/pianist husband Matthew, but we imagine the Queensland part of her family will be over the moon that their daughter will be close by, especially after the birth of her baby.

Then, on Sunday afternoon we enjoyed some really beautiful music from Enchanted Winds, which features music by Kristopher Spike performed by Spike on piano, Leah Lock on flute and Deborah de Graaf on clarinet. Spike is a most interesting composer, and I am hopeful that it will not be too long before he is an Australian Music Centre represented composer, because he certainly deserves to be.

They were joined by mezzo soprano Sally-Anne Russell for 3 or 4 of the pieces they played.

Kate Neal

Did you see Kate Neal on Spicks and Specks tonight? If you'd like to hear some of her work, simply click on the above link, which will take you to an archive of a few MP3s of some of her pieces. I especially liked Rabid Fire, which was performed by an ensemble that includes terrific Australian pianist Michael Kieran Harvey.

Dame Joan Sutherland

Australia's most celebrated soprano has her 80th birthday today, 7th November, 2006. Limelight magazine, November 2006 edition, features a great CD which includes short interviews with her and her husband Richard Bonynge, and some beautifully sung arias.

Joan Sutherland shares her birth year with Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II and Chuck Berry.

Simon Tedeschi

We had a most enjoyable concert in All Saints Cathedral a couple of Sundays ago, which featured Simon Tedeschi, a brilliant young Aussie pianist playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No 19 in F, with our Bathurst Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Michael Deasey OAM.

Fiona Thompson, Mitchell Conservatorium director and viola teacher and Melissa McLean, violin teacher performed Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, one of our favourite Mozart works.

Simon's encores were alsoterrific: he played a sizzling version of Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo a la Turk, which featured his own improvised blues solos, and a great and difficult transcription of Danny Elfman's Simpsons Theme.

We look forward to hearing Simon again on 26th August next year, playing Grieg's wonderful piano concerto. This tiem round, I'm getting there early, because without a stage, and without tiered seating, we could not see Simon or the piano keyboard, which was a great shame.

Great music book: shame about the binding

How often do you find that the music books you buy will not lie flat on your piano’s music desk? I know some pianos are poorly made, but I’m talking about pianos with generous-sized music desks, such as the Yamaha in the studio at the conservatorium where I teach, and the Tokai grand piano in our lounge room.

I recently ordered a copy of Warner Bros Music’s “Ultimate Jazz Showstoppers,” which is a terrific book with great musical arrangements [mostly original versions] and a good selection of genuinely popular jazz pieces, but … it won’t lie flat and open easily on the pianos I use, and can’t even be used from a conventional music stand.

How dumb is that?

And all of this could have been solved by binding it with a spiral!

I wonder if the people who make the books play musical instruments?