Meeting :Federation of Guitar Societies Sunday 28th July

Well the Highlands Village Hall in Enfield, reverberated from the sounds of many a pluck and strum on Sunday!!

Eight intrepid souls from the Bromley Guitar Society found themselves in good company with players from Enfield, Richmond, Dorset, North Bucks, Greenwood and Southhampton Guitar Socities for one of the biggest ensemble performances that your correspondent here can remember for a hell of a long time.

All the hard work that Ray put in preparing us for this day paid off nicely. I can safely say that Bromley members managed to start when they should and finish when they should which, as the late Sir Thomas Beecham would say, is all you want in an ensemble performance! What happens in between is irrelevant! (His words not mine!!)

Cornelius Bruinsma had the rather unenviable task of leading this rather large contingent of players to play together (and in tune!! No small feat!!). He accomplished this with great humour and patience. We started the session with some warm up exercises and then launched straight into the Byrd's La Volta which, for some of us, was a bit of a surprise as we only received the music a minute before hand but, even more surprisingly for your correspondent, it worked really well!! By now, feeling more emboldened, so we launched into Gabrielli's Canzona, a piece that has a few interesting traps for the unwary and I think we were all amazed by how heroically it actually went. Especially when you consider our experiences with this piece in previous BGS meetings!

Then it was onto our nemesis, Schubert's Marche Militaire, another composition with a few hidden traps included. There were a couple of occasions where I had to indulge in a little bit of 'air guitar' but they weren't very often. Playing with such a large group does have the benefits of hiding your mistakes at times.

After a hearty lunch break it was time for all the societies to present their own contributions- no where to hide now! Led by our intrepid chairman Den, we made a brave and successful bash at Mr De Witts Sonata from the Entree, Main course (Minuet 1 and 2) and Afters (Bouree and even the dreaded Sarabande)

Tom, John, Vince, Shirley, Jenny and Trevor did the BGS really proud with their performance! Hopefully when Vince's sound pixies have digitised the recordings we'll have it on the web site so you can hear it for yourself.

The other societies provided a wonderful and eclectic selection of ensemble performances which was appreciated by everyone present.

Events like this don't happen by themselves. A lot of work is done behind the scenes and I can safely say that Enfield GS did a truly fantastic job both in organising the venue and the catering of drinks and meals for hungry and thirsty guitarists. A special thanks should go the Ray Butcher for all his work- not just with the organisation of the day, but for all his work and support for us in Bromley. Without Ray's cajoling and encouragement, we would probably have not been in contention let alone delivering a great performance.

In all the rush up to the day, I was hoping to have some photos and even another video of the event but certain domestic events intervened and unfortunately I had no time to get cameras ready. I understand that lots of photos were taken on the day so we will try to get these put on site. They should be available on the Federation of Guitar Societies Web Site.

No doubt there will be more Post Mortems!! Keep them for the Meeting on the 18th July! See you then!

News from the Lute Society

1. TALK ON FRENCH BAROQUE LUTE MUSIC

Dear all,

In case any of you may be in London this coming Monday, I am giving a paper on French baroque lute music at the Music and Morality conference hosted by the Institute of Musical Research and the Institute of Philosophy (University of London).

See below for details:

[1] http://music.sas.ac.uk/imr-events/imr-conferences-colloquia-performance-events/music-and-morality.html

This looks set to be a really interesting conference (Susan McClary, Jerrold Levinson, John Deathridge, Roger Scruton and many others will be there), and it even appears that parts of the conference may be broadcast on the BBC.

I have included the abstract below.

All best wishes,

Benjamin

BENJAMIN NARVEY: Honest Music: The Case of the Seventeenth-Century
French Lute
If morality can be understood to be a code of social conduct, then French lute music of the Grand Sicle presents us with an intriguing example of how music can function as a moral agent. In the wake of the civil war known as the Fronde (1648-53), the traditional French nobility amongst whom the lute counted as a favourite instrumentre-invented itself in a bid to preserve its challenged status through a code of social forms and manners they called honntet: literally honesty.

This term at once evokes morality, but as we shall see, it is also intricately linked to contemporary discourses of power, representation, rhetoric, and artistic taste (bon got). In fact, many of the musical forms found in French lute music, and many of the luthistes playing techniques and compositional strategies, are directly linked to this moral code of honest courtly conductto the point that much of the lute repertoire proves uncommonly dependent on honesty for its coherence as an art form. Where from the view of modern common practice
tonality this repertoire often appears to lack the very components thaT render musical discourse intelligible (its harmonies often seem aimless, there is not always a continuous or defi nable melody, and rhythms can be displaced well beyond the bounds of normative hypermetricity), a reading of this repertoire through the lens of honntet shows how French lute music functioned as a classic moral performance, since it reproduced contemporary social conduct through artistic experience. Thus, the case of the French lute serves to highlight the interdependence between contemporary ethics and aesthetics, and thereby provides a useful example of how music can be linked to moral sensibilities.

-- Dr Benjamin A. Narvey Post-doctorant/Post-Doctoral Fellow Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne) IVe Section des Sciences historiques et philologiques t +33 (0) 1 44 27 03 44 p/m +33 (0) 6 71 79 98 98 Site web/Website: [2]www.luthiste.com

--References
1. http://music.sas.ac.uk/imr-events/imr-conferences-colloquia-performance-events/music-and-morality.html

2. http://www.luthiste.com/

2. CLAVICHORD CONCERT
Friday 26 June

1.05pm Concert Room, Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5HT, UK.

Telephone +44 (0)20 7873 7373 Free, no tickets required

Clavichord Recital

Menno Van Delft -Clavichord

• JS Bach Fantasie in C minor, BWV906WF Bach Fugue no.2 in C minor, from Acht Fugen, Falck 31


• Ernst Wilhelm Wolf Sonata in B flat WF Bach Fantasie in D minor, Falck 18


• WF Bach Fugue no.4 in D minor from Acht Fugen, Falck 31


• Mozart Ten Variations in G on the Arietta ‘Unser Dummer Pöbel meint from the Singspiel ‘Die Pilgrime von Mekka’ by Christoph Willibald Gluck, K.455

Dutch harpsichordist and clavichordist Menno Van Delft makes his first visit to the Academy.

Menno, whose performances on that most demanding of all early keyboard instruments have become internationally renowned, will give a lunchtime solo recital on the Academy’s fine Bavington/Hoffmann clavichord. All audience members are invited to stay for the afternoon masterclass.

Both events have been generously supported by the British Clavichord Society.
Followed by Clavichord Master Class, 2.30–5.30pm, Concert Room