Good Morning

Yearly Evaluations

In The Bourne

A day of sunshine and showers. I popped over to Sittingbourne to do another covert mobile phone store visit. After I did the job I phoned Ewart but he was still in bed - even midday! So I told him I would pop over on Sunday and for him to be up earlier.

Tomorrow I will be heading towards Ashford, Folkestone and Dover to do some pound type stores.

In Faversham

A parcel arrived from my bro today. It contained two cards and three Xmas pressies. They feel like two books and a CD lol!! I am sending the second part of my parcel to them tomorrow now that I found a suitable container for posting.

Now, as you know, I love music books but when they have loads of musical notation in them I get flummoxed because for the life of me I can't read the notation. I prefer to listen to the music you see. If one of these pressies have loads of notation I will be finding it difficult to enjoy the book as much as the occasional ones I buy on jazz.

A real bargain found in Faversham today and an album I have not heard of since 1971 in LP form. Emerson Lake and Palmer's "Tarkus" album! Bought for 50p as an Island remaster CD.

That really takes me back to my urgent post-teenage desires.

Classical Music Ins And Outs

I have had a mercurial affair with the classics over the years. In the seventies, it was Mozart and Tchaikovsky. The Eighties Bach, Mahler and Wagner, nineties I discovered new contemporary classical music and hardly looked back. That was when I started reading The Wire.

So it is mostly the serialists such as Berg and Webern
Mozart and Bach still in as well as Hadyn.
Stravinsky of course. Messiaen of course,  Ligeti, Xenakis, Berio, Stockhausen etc
Shostakovitch, naturally.
Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov are just too passe.
Minimalism and spectralism - oh yes. Glass, Reich, Nyman, and others.
Electronic and electroacoustic are definitely in.  Cage, Tenney, etc.

So, what were the top recommendations by Wire this year?

Friday Night Modern Composition

Yep, so no Tchaikovsky or Rachy stuff here-

Anna Höstman & Cheryl Duvall - Harbour

Howard Skempton - 3 Nocturnes: No. 1

Sarah Hennies - Spectral Malsconcities

ENJOY

Good Night