‘DEAR GREEN SOUNDS’ UNCOVERS THE CITY’S RICH MUSICAL HISTORY

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

@garethkvile @rgarciafons @GCHalls thanks: it affirmed my belief that #film and #music are always at their best shared and live
— Svend Brown (@svendbr) March 1, 2015

 Svend Brown is a Vile Arts' favourite. Not only does he programme contemporary classical music that demonstrates a

sensitivity both to its populist potential and intellectual intensity, he engages with the idea of the concert as a performance. His comment on The Adventures of Prince Achmed not only correctly assesses the success of Renaud Garcia-Fons' live soundtrack to this early animation, it reveals his underlying aesthetic, which challenges simplistic ideas about what consist of 'performance'.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving animated feature film (it is just over an hour) and is a 1926 retelling of a tale from the Arabian Nights - with the story of Aladdin thrown in for good measure. While some of the representations of oriental people could be criticised for racism, the animation style, based on shadow puppetry, holds up against contemporary techniques. The story relies on the panels to explore character rather than explanatory text - except in one sequence when director Lotte Reiniger reveals a sophisticated understanding of controlling dramatic tension - and is charming and melodramatic in equal measure.

Achmed's use of the frame will be revisited in this blog - the way that it adapts shadow puppetry and self-consciously shifts perspectives throughout is fascinating and surprisingly advanced for a 1920s' production - but Garcia Fons deserves kudos for his score. 

Most musical adaptations of silent cinema are either perfunctory (Glass' effort for Dracula is a lazy disappointment) or founded in the egotism of the musicians (55Daysof Static ruined Silent Running by bursting out into expansive post-rock every time the camera observed outer-space). Garcia Fons' ensemble, with a mixture of western and eastern instrumentation (the tabla rocked the show),

was delicate and subtle, never merely illustrating the scenes but, equally, refusing to overshadow the animation. A fluid, measure composition, it added romance and humour to a film already full of beauty and inspired images.

The 'liveness' of film is a tough idea, but Brown is saying something about the film as a performance - the way that it brings together an audience, making a community. The live music adds to the theatricality, and the sense of event... and the music itself is deepened by the visuals (a trick used effectively by Godspeed You Black Emperor). Cheers, Sven. 

The Big Song Relay: Here's To All Our Common Wealth

I've been rather enjoying the Independence Debate lately - mostly because of the accusations being flung about that certain actions performed by MSPs or local councils are 'political.' In the words of Skunk Anansie...

So - all this stuff about the Commonwealth: is that political? Does it suggest that countries are able to go it alone without being part of a British Empire? Or does it reaffirm the unity of the British nation state.

And what about the name of the organisation behind this event: Hands Up for Trad? Does it imply a conservative agenda, or are they just big fans of Acker Bilk?

Press Release Begins...

It is part of the Big Big Sing, and they have a specially commissioned song to accompany the Queen's Baton Relay as it travels across Scotland ahead of the Commonwealth Games. 

The Big Song Relay will bring together singers from all over Scotland to form choirs, lining the route of the Queen's Baton Relay as part of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Cultural programme.

Here's to All Our Common Wealth will be passed from choir to choir along the route, uniting communities and celebrating the excitement of the day.

Here's to All Our Common Wealth was written by Phil Cunningham, Karine Polwart, Alison Burns and Findlay Napier. The song captures the idea of Scotland's distinct common wealth: its land, communities and people.

Simon Thoumire, Creative Director of Hands Up for Trad says: "We are really excited to announce this song. It is all about the Scots looking outward to the Commonwealth community and sharing our talents and culture with the world"

Svend Brown, Director of Big Big Sing says: “Big Big Sing is all about taking the world stage of the Commonwealth Games as an opportunity to inspire as many people as possible to join in singing and enjoying the benefits that brings. 'Here's to All Our Common Wealth' gives us another great tune in the Big Big Commonwealth Songbook, one that we can all share and enjoy.”

If you are in a choir and would like to take part in The Big Song Relay, please visit: and click on Big Song Relay. You can get in touch with Hands up for Trad from there.

Anyone can sing 'Here's to All Our Common Wealth': it is available to download in Scots, Gaelic and English.  Backing tracks and learning materials suitable for all abilities will be available soon.

Big Big Sing, which is set to be one of the highlights of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, aims to get thousands of people across the UK singing in celebration of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and to enjoy the social, physical and mental health benefits of singing. Big Big Sing is a nationwide project providing singers, choirs and anyone interested in trying singing with a wealth of resources, training and performance opportunities up and down the country, throughout the year.

A choir, yesterday

Beethoven Weekend In Glasgow

There are few things that I enjoy more than trying to explain art as if I know what I am talking about. Sadly, I do have an idea of what I am talking about when it comes to theatre (an idea - not necessarily a good one, but I have something). A weekend of Beethoven, however, is a little out of my range. My music collection is okay until about 1500, then takes a few centuries holiday until 1913 and The Rite of Spring got my attention. 

Then again, I have learnt to trust Sven Brown, who is behind this mini-festival. After three years of Minimal at the City Halls, I know he can programme forty eight hours of fun. He has even made it easy for me by kicking off with Beethoven: An Introduction Lecture by John Deathridge (Thu 26 September, 8pm).

Press Release Begins...City Halls, Recital Room
John Deathridge is one of the world’s leading Beethoven experts. To open this first Beethoven festival in Glasgow, he offers an insight and overview of the works we will hear, linking the music with events in Beethoven’s life, and considering its impact on Beethoven’s contemporaries.

Vile adds...

Plus, this one is free... and is followed by another chat and play session the next day. Brown's structure provides me not just with tunes to hum but ideas to pilfer for my blog.

Press Release Resumes...
Getting to the Heart of the ‘Harp’ QuartetFri 27 September, 6:15pm
Free to ticket holders of the 7:30pm concert
City Halls, Grand Hall
Spend 45 minutes with the Elias Quartet taking a close-up look at Beethoven’s 10th Quartet (Op.74), and discovering it from the inside – from the point of view of the performers.

The Tempest and The HarpFri 27 September, 7:30pm
£15
City Halls, Grand Hall
Each of the concerts this weekend focuses on a different period of Beethoven’s life: early, middle and late. The music here all comes from the 1800s when Beethoven was in his 30s and the period when he moved centre stage in Vienna.

Getting to the Heart of the ‘Waldstein’Sat 28 September, 6:15pm
Free to ticket holders of the 7:30pm concert
City Halls, Grand Hall
Svend Brown joins Llyr Williams at the piano to look in depth at this fiery, radical piece of music and consider its place in the total cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas.

Waldstein and RasumovskySat 28 September, 7:30pm
£15
City Halls, Grand Hall
Here Beethoven challenges everything that meant ‘music’ in his own time. Performers, instruments and listeners are pushed to extremes in exhilarating, demanding music that leaves you breathless and transported. Arguably more powerful and extraordinary than his symphonies.

Getting to the Heart of Op.132Sun 29 September, 2pm
Free to ticket holders of the 3.15pm and 4.30pm concerts
City Halls, Grand Hall
T.S. Eliot called Op.132 ‘inexhaustible to study’ and envied Beethoven’s achievement in this piece. The Elias Quartet consider the piece’s emotional and technical complexities ahead of the afternoon’s final concert. 

Vile pipes up...

TS Eliot has got a cheek calling anything 'inexhaustible to study.' He had to give The Wasteland footnotes himself, thereby ruining the fun of certain A Level Students in the 1990s who wanted to pretend they got all his references. For anyone confused by the nomenclature of classical music, it's a string quartet. I looked it up on wikipedia. 

Hang on, I can go to YouTube.

Press Release Resumes...

Beethoven’s Distant BelovedSun 29 September, 3:15pm
£15
City Halls, Recital Room
Beethoven’s lyrical song-cycle An die ferne Geliebte is a miniature delight – the first proper song-cycle of the 19th century, paving the way for Schubert and Schumann, among others. Stephan Loges places it amidst songs by Beethoven’s contemporaries and admirers, including Schubert.

Beethoven: Closing ConcertSun 29 September, 4:30pm
£15
City Halls, Grand Hall
Bringing works from three decades together, this programme opens with Beethoven turning 30 and ends with one of the very greatest ‘Late’ Quartets, dating from 1825. A tumultuous and enrapturing finale.

Vile concludes...

With the range of compositions being played, it is interest to notice how Beethoven's music was influenced by his life circumstances. It's funny how he stops using high notes in his mid-career but seems to bring them back towards the end, an intriguing fact I noticed the last time I perused a selection of his scores.

SILENT ECHOES - FINNIESTON CRANE – GLASGOW

Ever since Cryptic's Sonica festival, I have been trying to work out what the difference between sound art and music might be. The easy definition - music has got a tune, and recognisable notes - was broken by the serialists before I was born, and electronic musicians might think they are "doing art," but it is really the application of new instruments to traditional structures. However, letting Bill Fontana turn the  Finnieston Crane into a musical instrument has got to be sound art. I am unlikely to mistake that for a jazz jam or baroque concerto.

Fontana has done this sort of thing before: he wired up the Golden Gate Bridge once. His technique reminds me of classic Glaswegian noise artist Kylie Minoise: he attaches super-sensitive microphones to tap into the deep sounds the architecture makes, which are not audible to the human ear. Kylie sticks them to his body and bounces off the walls. Hopefully, the crane won't get injured as often as Kylie does.

Inevitably, Svend Brown is behind this commission. Brown, who curated the minimal festivals, has spent the last three years turning Glasgow's City Halls into a happening hipster hang-out through his adventurous programme. In his capacity as Director of Glasgow UNESCO City of Music, he has brought Fontana to the west coast. 

It does fit in with UNESCO's vision. "One thing Glasgow UNESCO City of Music does is to draw attention internationally to the fantastic home to arts and creativity that Glasgow is," says Brown.  "By linking top class international work like Bill’s to iconic aspects of our landscape we take the name of Glasgow far and wide, we give the world a great piece of art – and we get to see the city through a stranger’s eyes."

Apart from the quibble that, technically, we'll be hearing the crane through a stranger's ears, Brown's master-plan is clear. It's one thing to have cool gigs in the classic venues. This time, sound is bursting out all over the city - the Finnieston funk-metal is going to relayed to Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art. There's a sweet cross-over here between the worlds of music and visual art. This is something that Glasgow has always been up for: viz. the number of artists who moonlight in bands.

Fontana does seem to get this, too. “I’m incredibly excited to be staging my latest installation in Glasgow – it’s a wonderful city with an international reputation for its vibrant music scene and rich industrial heritage," he says.  "The Finnieston Crane is an emblem of the city’s engineering past, and I hope this project will uncover sounds that will fascinate and surprise the people of Glasgow and beyond, as well as tap into the history of this iconic structure.”

Silent Echoes will run 18 April - 3rd May