Absent Friends & Missing Persons

[ahinton]

Well, living in Serbia as I do, I do have an eye on what's going on in the Balkans; I had assumed your reference was to Macedonia and Greece. I would be happy to explain Serbia's current complex relationship with the EU and that country's possible accession to it if anyone's interested.

As for 23 June 2016, the decision to plunge the country into all that was indeed taken by a relatively small proportion of the ruling class, mainly as an ill-fated attempt to pacify another relatively small proportion of the ruling class. (Which is why I refused to take part in the whole sorry exercise.) Most people in the country have more important things to think about almost all of the time, just as (presumably) when Belgium had no government at all for almost two years most people there got on with their lives as per normal. When it comes to self-inflicted political chaos, let the citizen of the country without sin cast the first stone!

I'd no idea that you'd moved to Serbia! Do please explain what you offered to do here; many thanks on advance - plenty of members will be interested, I'm sure.

[eighthobstruction]

....round about now I usually turn up write something silly and the whole thread goes silent for some time....


....and nearly always I find my comment at the top of a new page...

[Beef Oven!]

....round about now I usually turn up write something silly and the whole thread goes silent for some time....

[teamsaint]

....round about now I usually turn up write something silly and the whole thread goes silent for some time....


....and nearly always I find my comment at the top of a new page...

Round about now I usually jump in and write something that I think is considered and fairminded , that I quickly regret and then delete.



Like I just did, about 10 minutes ago.

( But the gist of it was, as RB hints at I think, don't believe much that is written in the papers, and even more so in the comments sections.......only one rung up the ladder from comments on Youtube videos).

[french frank]

Flosshilde. Anybody heard from him? And Pegleg who popped into the Early Music board about this time last year but then disappeared again. I hope all is well with you if you are reading this.

Don't know about Pegleg, but Floss was posting on his FB page last month. I think some people (quite rightly) feel ithe forum's taking up time that could be, um, more productively spent doing something else …

[teamsaint]

Don't know about Pegleg, but Floss was posting on his FB page last month. I think some people (quite rightly) feel ithe forum's taking up time that could be, um, more productively spent doing something else …

What, like Facebooking ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What, like Facebooking ?

[french frank]

What, like Facebooking ?

He only seems to post now and then - and then it's all promoting his business interests. So, probably, yes! He has to have produced something to promote.

[Nick Armstrong]

Round about now I usually jump in and write something that I think is considered and fairminded , that I quickly regret and then delete.



Like I just did, about 10 minutes ago.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It seems clear why we have a no politics policy on the forum. It gets heated even when we touch the periphery.

[Serial_Apologist]

It seems clear why we have a no politics policy on the forum. It gets heated even when we touch the periphery.

That's just people with no coherent alternatives deliberately stirring it, Alpie. The best way of dealing with them is just to ignore their posts.

[Petrushka]

Pet

Once you eventually retire - not long now - I think you should devise a whole Proms season.

Maybe you’d need a little help in the early and contemporary fields but I’m sure Ferney and Co would help.

We could then all play out the eight week season mid winter.

Sounds a good idea to have a Forum planned Proms season and even Forum commissions from Richard Barrett and A Hinton

[Richard Tarleton]

Sounds a good idea to have a Forum planned Proms season and even Forum commissions from Richard Barrett and A Hinton

Just not in the Albert Hall, or necessarily involving orchestras? This paragraph resonated strongly with me

Many people tend to think of orchestral music as some kind of supreme test of a composer's abilities, but it's never really been at the centre of my way of thinking because I take my inspiration more often from long-term collaborations with individuals and ensembles with whom it's possible to work at the limits of what it's possible to perform and perceive, resulting in music that couldn't have been brought into being by any other means (or, in the first instance, with any other performers). Working for a few days of rehearsals with 80-90 players who for the most part aren't going to engage very closely with the philosophy underlying the music demands a different kind of approach, not a question of "compromise" as such but of the music evolving from a process of putting instruments together rather than so to speak taking them apart. The sound of a solo cello can embody as much complexity and depth as a symphony orchestra, but there has to be something about the music that draws a listener into hearing it that way.

Not sure why I launched off on that last paragraph, but it's there now!

[Richard Barrett]

Many people tend to think of orchestral music as some kind of supreme test of a composer's abilities, but it's never really been at the centre of my way of thinking

Someone in a position to observe my everyday activities remarked when mentioning my extremely intense period of work between December 2016 and the spring of last year that in the first half of this time (when working on a composition for orchestra) I had seemed constantly under stress and haunted by uncertainty, while in the second half (working on a composition for 16 instruments and electronic sounds, more than twice as long but involving several musicians I already knew well and had worked with many times before), I was working just as long hours but almost always with confidence and enthusiasm.

This gave me much food for thought. I think what it comes down to is that with an orchestra one is always faced with the problem of how to make it sound new and unfamiliar, and the knowledge that, because the setup of an orchestra is the sedimentation of its history and traditions, this is only ever going to be possible to a limited extent (even John Cage's orchestral music still sounds like orchestral music!). And then there's the question of the (lack of) deeper engagement on the players' part, and the unlikelihood of enough repeat performances for the conductor's interpretation to rise much above the level of keeping things together. I think I still have unfinished business with the orchestra (actually the expansion of the last piece into the dimensions I think it needs), but when that's dealt with there are more important and valuable things to do.

As for the Albert Hall, don't get me started!

[BBMmk2]

Sounds a good idea to have a Forum planned Proms season and even Forum commissions from Richard Barrett and A Hinton

Perhaps have some concert bands and brass bands involved too