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Newent Orchestral
Society Bill's Musical Notes, August, 2009 Musical Madness Despite the summer season usually being a quiet time for me, musically speaking, I've had quite an interesting month. It started off with a trip to hear a talk at the Cheltenham Music Festival by Stephen Johnson (Radio 3 presenter) and Robert Winston (genetics expert) about madness and composers. As an aspiring scribbler, I thought I'd better find out what was in store for me. There are, it seems, common instances of mental instability in many creative types with musicians suffering their share. I understand it is to do with experiencing extremes, veering from euphoria to depression. Now I do regard myself as reasonably balanced (I would, wouldn't I!) but with an appreciation of what that means. This month, I've been listening to - and enjoying - two composers who couldn't be more different. First, the songs of Ivor Gurney, who is well known for his mental difficulties and spent a significant amount of time struggling with this. Gurney, local lad, is recognised as a genius in the genre of combining words, poetry, and music, expressing beauty, wonder, anguish, pain, love, desire. Much of this expression was inspired by the natural world, the fields, woods and hills around Gloucester providing magical source material. The other musical extreme I watched (I say watched as it was a DVD recording and the performance was theatrical) is called "Water Concerto" by contemporary Chinese composer, Tan Dun. The concerto is written for orchestra plus water percussion instruments (I wish I had space to describe them as they included flip flops, ping pong bats and a spaghetti strainer), inspired by the sights and sounds of his childhood in an old Chinese village and a belief that all things, including water, possess a living spirit. It's this latter belief which many people would shy from as unreal or even alarming, the idea that the atoms of the universe are imbued with life force, with soul. The point I'm getting to is that madness is debilitating, but experience of emotional or spiritual extremes is not something to be feared or that causes madness. The music of Gurney or Tan Dun can open up doors to other worlds. Does their music create madness? No, the opposite is true for it brings a making whole by taking us from our mad material, materialistic, world and letting us touch the realities that lie beneath its surface. There are short reviews of Gurney's songs and Tan Dun's "Water Concerto" on the Reviews Page.
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Bill Anderton, August, 2009