Let Me In This Ae Night - Chris Norman and David Greenberg
Today was a full day. I got to sleep in!
In the afternoon I ran around COSI with the Other One and a couple of friends. This was great fun. Then we all went out for cuban food, and thence down to the Early Music Concert.
I know I say this every time, but this concert was incredible. It was Chris Norman on baroque flute (and renaissance flute, small pipes, organ, and voice) and David Greenberg on violin (and octave fiddle) playing music of the 18th century, ranging from folk to baroque. Both artists are from Nova Scotia (the former did the music to Titanic) and many of the tunes they played have been preserved in Cape Breton until the present day.
This was the first time I'd ever seen pipes played, and it was really nifty. The bag kind of looked like a duck in shape, and he inflated it with an elbow-operated bellows harnessed around his middle. And as the music picked up his fingers just flew - all the time he was just kind of chilling. It was mesmerizing. The other noteworthy instrument was the octave-fiddle, which they described as looking a bit like a "melted violin." This was because the back was bowed inwards. It was made with special strings of incredible density, so that it could be tuned a full octave lower than a standard violin (the strange shape of the back was apparently to get it to sound at the lower pitches). They also did funky things with the violin - for several of the songs it was tuned so that it had two A strings and two E strings, each in octaves. This meant that he could only play tunes in A, but when he did so he could get this really cool off-string droning effect.
The music was a real mixture - Bach and Telemann appeared alongside traditional jigs and reels. This was, in many ways, the point of the program - that these diverse styles coexisted, sometimes even in the same individual. Probably the coolest part of the set was the section entitled General Reid. General John Reid (yes, that John Reid) had been a flute player and a composer in addition to his day job as a General; the first piece in the set was a selection from one of his flute sonatas, the second was his most famous composition, a military march still used by Scottish regiments today, and the third was a contemporary folk reel from the region. And these three wholly different pieces of music were made to flow into one another, highlighting both just how different the styles were but also the way in which all three participated in the musical consciousness of the time.
The two performers (and the program notes) put all of this a whole lot better than I'm doing. It was just really really cool. And there was a happy baby a few rows in front of us, who was dancing along to everything in the way we wanted to but wouldn't dare. Although we did get to sing along to a song called "Elegy on the death of a Mad Dog." Yeah, a few of the pieces were sung. Chris Norman has a beautiful, if very soft, voice. But, if anything, the softness (they were both unmiked) made it seem more genuine, and personal. This was an extremely personable concert. Both Chris Norman and David Greenberg were very friendly (we got to chat with them afterwards) and pretty unassuming. And they moved about on stage so much. David Greenberg, in particular, at times almost seemed to caper. The flier described him as "one of the most impassioned folk fiddlers you will ever HEAR" and I have to agree with that. And the music, of course, was just gorgeous. And fun! And at times heart-stoppingly beautiful.
They sold out of the CDs at intermission. Then they found a handful more. I totally got one (and I got them to sign it!). I am well pleased.
And I have to go to work tomorrow. What's with that?
In the afternoon I ran around COSI with the Other One and a couple of friends. This was great fun. Then we all went out for cuban food, and thence down to the Early Music Concert.
I know I say this every time, but this concert was incredible. It was Chris Norman on baroque flute (and renaissance flute, small pipes, organ, and voice) and David Greenberg on violin (and octave fiddle) playing music of the 18th century, ranging from folk to baroque. Both artists are from Nova Scotia (the former did the music to Titanic) and many of the tunes they played have been preserved in Cape Breton until the present day.
This was the first time I'd ever seen pipes played, and it was really nifty. The bag kind of looked like a duck in shape, and he inflated it with an elbow-operated bellows harnessed around his middle. And as the music picked up his fingers just flew - all the time he was just kind of chilling. It was mesmerizing. The other noteworthy instrument was the octave-fiddle, which they described as looking a bit like a "melted violin." This was because the back was bowed inwards. It was made with special strings of incredible density, so that it could be tuned a full octave lower than a standard violin (the strange shape of the back was apparently to get it to sound at the lower pitches). They also did funky things with the violin - for several of the songs it was tuned so that it had two A strings and two E strings, each in octaves. This meant that he could only play tunes in A, but when he did so he could get this really cool off-string droning effect.
The music was a real mixture - Bach and Telemann appeared alongside traditional jigs and reels. This was, in many ways, the point of the program - that these diverse styles coexisted, sometimes even in the same individual. Probably the coolest part of the set was the section entitled General Reid. General John Reid (yes, that John Reid) had been a flute player and a composer in addition to his day job as a General; the first piece in the set was a selection from one of his flute sonatas, the second was his most famous composition, a military march still used by Scottish regiments today, and the third was a contemporary folk reel from the region. And these three wholly different pieces of music were made to flow into one another, highlighting both just how different the styles were but also the way in which all three participated in the musical consciousness of the time.
The two performers (and the program notes) put all of this a whole lot better than I'm doing. It was just really really cool. And there was a happy baby a few rows in front of us, who was dancing along to everything in the way we wanted to but wouldn't dare. Although we did get to sing along to a song called "Elegy on the death of a Mad Dog." Yeah, a few of the pieces were sung. Chris Norman has a beautiful, if very soft, voice. But, if anything, the softness (they were both unmiked) made it seem more genuine, and personal. This was an extremely personable concert. Both Chris Norman and David Greenberg were very friendly (we got to chat with them afterwards) and pretty unassuming. And they moved about on stage so much. David Greenberg, in particular, at times almost seemed to caper. The flier described him as "one of the most impassioned folk fiddlers you will ever HEAR" and I have to agree with that. And the music, of course, was just gorgeous. And fun! And at times heart-stoppingly beautiful.
They sold out of the CDs at intermission. Then they found a handful more. I totally got one (and I got them to sign it!). I am well pleased.
And I have to go to work tomorrow. What's with that?