On the intricacies of a cabbage.....

Psalm 22

2011-04-24T00:05:00.003+01:00

On Good Friday Christians around the world focus on Psalm 22, which is where the cry "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me" comes from. Despite (or perhaps because of) this being one of the most powerful psalms there are very few musical settings of it which can convey the raw emotion behind it so I thought it would be worth sharing a few of those videos which do, in their own very different ways.

Horning it up in Mahler

2011-04-19T14:10:00.008+01:00

One of my favourite blog posts of all time is Kenneth Woods exhaustive summary of youtube videos of the hammer blow in Mahler 6 (here). While this post will be slightly less entertaining it is on a similar theme. I'm conducting Mahler 1 at the end of May and my horn section (and others) have been having a debate about whether and when they should stand in the last movement, and the position of the reinforcing trumpet and trombone. The opinion between players ranges from being excited about trying anything, wanting to do it but not thinking it works in the one beat Mahler asks for it to happen in, to not being convinced it works full stop. Similarly there is a wide range of opinions over the placement of the extra trumpet and trombone Mahler asks for. So what do you decide to do as a conductor based on these differing opinions?

Obviously the first thing is to look at the score. It's important to remember when conducting any of Mahler's music that he was one of the best conductors of his time, and constantly changed the markings in his score after performances in order to make them more practical for players and conductors. While you may look at scores for other composers and find there are balance issues and effects asked for that are nigh on unplayable, Mahler was incredibly practical and anything which made it into later revisions of his score will have been tried countless times. Not only that but when he has long footnotes for the conductor or indicates that something should explicitly not be done in the way which might seem natural, this will be emphasised because it goes against what players expect or would like to do.

This footnote translates as "From here on (and definitely not 4 bars earlier) to the end, it is recommended that the horns be strengthened to the extent that the all-overwhelming hymnlike chorale reaches the necessary fullness of sound. All the horn players stand, in order to obtain the greatest possible power of sonority. If necessary also one trumpet and one trombone may be added." We can see that Mahler leaves no room for doubt about what he wants, with the position of the extra trumpet and trombone also clear ("placed near the horns").

So the first point for any conductor and players must be to assume that Mahler knew what he was asking for and to try that. However, browsing youtube videos indicates that this isn't what always happens. Here's a quick look at some attempts. I've not included any where the horns don't do anything, and this even includes such legendary recordings as Bernstein with the Vienna Philharmonic! All the videos start just before the horns should stand up.

Spot on!

A bit messy but in the right place.

Not only early but all over the place.

Also early but great to see the woodwind with their instruments up in the air just afterwards.

Interesting one where the put their bells up instead.

I'll leave you to judge for yourself which of these work best but for me there is an extra burst of energy and excitement doing what Mahler has written in the score. For any conductor these are the sort of practical decisions can turn a performance into something special for both orchestra and audience as can be seen by the response (see 12 April post) to a recent performance by the Philharmonia. "When the last movement came, and all the Philharmonia horns rose to their feet at the climax, nothing could stop us! The performance got them standing on their feet and roaring their approval."

So in conclusion you'll have to turn up to St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral on Saturday 28th May to see what our horn section do, but in the meantime - don't mess with Mahler!

Rachmaninov: All-Night Vigil

2011-01-11T03:18:00.005Z

Performing new classical music

2010-12-29T20:26:00.004Z

There's an excellent article in the New York Times today about performing new pieces of classical music. It captures succinctly the challenges players face in making sure they try and get new music performed, are completely dedicated to the value of performing it, and try and work out what pieces deserve another performance. This got me thinking because a lot of the conducting I've been doing recently has been pieces by Edinburgh University students.

I hope it wouldn't be a shock to any composers whose work I've conducted recently to say that I don't think any of it is up there with Bach and Beethoven, as much as I've enjoyed performing it. And to be honest I probably wouldn't consider giving another performance to many of the pieces either. However, I would keep going back to these same composers and performing more work by them and there are two reasons for that.

Firstly, because most of the great pieces you hear in concerts were written by composers who were middle-aged at the least. Of course there are a few notable exceptions such as Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn but most composers don't write their best music until they're past thirty or even forty. But does that mean they shouldn't have their music played until they're that age. If that happened then they would never develop fully as composers. Music is not complete until it's been performed to an audience (however small).

Secondly, there is a habit in the classical music world to always want to hear the same pieces over and over again. It's easy enough to fill a concert hall if you're going to play Beethoven, Stravinsky or Mahler but not so easy if you're going to play Lutoslawski or Schoenberg. This is the result of a culture which has developed since the nineteenth-century where classical concerts are like a museum where for something to have value it has to be old and culturally significant. However, I would argue that there are lots of pieces written throughout history which are extremely enjoyable and worth hearing once, or even a couple of times, even if you don't want to listen to it on repeat. This applies to long dead composers whose music we haven't heard but is important in considering whether to play a new piece by a living composer - most things are worth hearing at least once.

High Speed Rail

2010-12-21T03:09:00.007Z

The government has just announced the latest stage in the plans for HS2, the high speed rail line that will connect London and Birmingham. Yet there has been no further discussion of extending that line further north to Manchester, Leeds and Scotland. This is really a demonstration of the London-centricity of decision making and investment in the transport infrastructure of the UK. One of my favourite sitcoms is "Yes Minister", partly because despite being written almost thirty years ago many of the issues still seem just as topical today as they were then. There is a fantastic scene between Bernard Woolley and Jim Hacker in the episode "Doing the Honours" where they discuss the reasons for building motorways. (7:44 in the video below)

BW This M40 is a very good road.
JH So is the M4. I wonder why we got two really good roads to Oxford, before we got any to Southampton, Dover or Lowestoft or any of the ports?
BW Nearly all our Permanent Secretaries went to Oxford, Minister. And most Oxford Colleges give very good dinners.
JH And the Cabinet let them get away with it?
BW Certainly not, they put their foot down. They said no motorway to take civil servants to dinners in Oxford, unless there was a motorway to take Cabinet Ministers hunting in the Shires. That's why when the M1 was built in the fifties it stopped in the middle of Leicestershire.

Sadly this mentality of investing based on the needs of those in government and their closest contacts still seems to have more sway than the greater good of the whole country. There are a raft of reasons for extending high speed rail further north, or even (*shock horror*) starting building it in the north and gradually extending it towards London. You can hardly argue that the South of England doesn't have good transport links already. A quick search on Google Maps shows that despite being only two thirds of the distance, it takes less time to drive from Birmingham to Paris than it does from Birmingham to Aberdeen or Inverness. And despite a £12 billion investment the journey from London to Birmingham is only going to be cut by half an hour. While I don't know the figures, the reason for this high cost for a short distance has been given as the costs of having to pay compensation for the areas disturbed as you build the rail line through built up areas. So surely the same investment north of Birmingham could generate greater value for money.

There is also an environmental issue here which seems to get ignored amidst the financial discussions. How many people currently fly from London to Birmingham. Now compare that to the number who fly from Scotland or the North-East of England. It has been shown that cutting the journey time from Scotland to London to around the three hour mark would make a dramatic difference in the number of people opting for rail travel over flying.

The ignorance of those who make decisions about anywhere outside the M25 was summed up by Transport Minister Philip Hammond who said that HS2 would help tackle the north-south divide. While those in London may consider Birmingham to be in the North, maybe they should look at a map before they comment on this in public and consider how that plays out to those of us who actually live in the ignored northern part of the country. If they really want to tackle the north-south divide then perhaps some investment in transport infrastructure in the North would be the way to do it, rather than yet another project to help London commuters.

Frank Martin's "Agnus Dei"

2010-12-20T01:03:00.004Z

One of the pieces I'm currently studying for a concert in February is the Agnus Dei from Frank Martin's Mass for Double Choir. Martin was a composer I had never come across until last year when I heard his oratorio "In Terra Pax" in a concert during the Kirchentag in Munich. He seems to be relatively unknown in Britain, despite being very popular on the continent. Perhaps his best known work is his Mass for Double Choir, a wonderful but very tricky piece. The Agnus Dei is the easiest movement to pull off and deserves to be considered alongside some of the most of the most powerful choral music written.

The second choir provide a rhythmically simple harmonic accompaniment while the first choir sing a melody reminiscent of improvised chant. What really makes this magical though is the use of harmony. At the start we hear an open fifth (like the opening of Beethoven 9) which leaves the tonality ambiguous. When the first choir enter it sounds like the music is simply in the minor but then on "mundi" this is suddenly thrown into being modal and adds an extra air of mystery. The harmonies owe a lot to the influence of jazz with their added notes but you can also hear Martin shifting the tonal centre all the time, increasing the tension. The other magical moment starts at 2:52 on the video with a B always somewhere at the bottom of the harmony while over the top dissonant jazzy chords build up the tension before the climax at 3:50. He then uses suspensions to release the tension, rather than allowing the atmosphere to dissipate instantaneously. Then finally the whole choir come together for "Dona nobis pacem" (Grant us thy peace) with the final chord not being perhaps the obvious choice but leaving a much more satisfying conclusion. A wonderfully atmospheric work and I hope you enjoy it and explore some more of Frank Martin's music.

Quiet time as a conductor

2010-12-19T21:52:00.005Z

One of the odd things as a conductor is that you can go for a long time without actually waving your arms in front of anyone and yet you still have lots of work to do, planning projects and preparing scores. In 2010 I'm only going to have conducted one concert, way back in January, yet I've spent a lot of time making plans for future projects and between February and May 2011 I currently have seven concerts planned. However, this year doesn't feel like it's been wasted time, as I've had a chance to do workshops and take rehearsals with groups of a higher standard than those I was working with before and perhaps most importantly doing some serious score preparation.

One of the things which this quiet time makes you do is really try to get further into the music before starting to work on it with a group. I used to be guilty of being so busy that I would do almost as little preparation as I needed to before the first rehearsal and then starting to learn it properly after that. However, it's nice to actually have time where you have no pressure of a performance to prepare for but can just learn music for your own pleasure. And it means that when you do have lots of concerts coming up you can really organise your time better for learning scores.

Learning scores from scratch is perhaps one of the hardest things a conductor has to do as you have to try and imagine a large and often complex instrumental or choral texture in your head. Getting to grips with a new piece is perhaps best compared to trying to find your way round a new town. You start by wandering about, playing the piece through and getting a feel for it, trying to use the map/score to help you. Then gradually you start to notice things that connect up, you work out where the important places are and the logic of how to get from place to place. Of course the most satisfying part of this process is when you finally get to work with musicians and put all that studying into practice and I'm looking forward to the New Year when that happens regularly again.

Tuition Fees: A capped graduate tax?

2010-12-08T19:34:00.005Z

The last few weeks in politics have been dominated by the issue of tuition fees, with the coalition wanting to raise the limit on these while at the same time cutting funding and access schemes such as the EMA. The main alternative proposal seems to be a graduate tax. However, what is the real difference between the current proposal and a graduate tax? The coalition's argument for the fees is that it's fairer than before because you don't start paying back until you're earning over £21,000 a year. What's the substantial difference between this and a graduate tax which you don't pay below that threshold. Surely a graduate tax of 9% of earnings above £21,000 (the proposed rate at which repayment of fees would start) would mean graduates paying exactly the same as paying back fees. The real difference would be that they only have to pay them until they've paid back their fees plus whatever interest has been added, or until thirty years after they've graduated when the balance is written off. The reason that a graduate tax is more "progressive" (what a horrible word) that fees is that it doesn't place this cap on payment for education. Instead the argument is that you have a high earning job because of your education therefore while you are earning that salary you should be taxed on it. Even if the level of taxation was lower, the longer period of payment would make up for that and it wouldn't be seen as a large debt hanging over people's heads. The whole issue seems to be a branding one. In fact I'm opposed to both of these and think that education should be paid for from general taxation as it makes such a substantial contribution to society but as with much of politics these days there seems to be very little distinction between policies once you actually look at them.

There are a few other points worth raising in this debate. I heard Paddy Ashdown debating with a student and saying why oppose these proposals if you didn't oppose the introduction of fees by Labour. That seems to me a complete political smokescreen that is being put up by the coalition, who are screaming "these plans are fairer than what you've got now." However, what it ignores is that many of the people objecting to the rise no objected to the introduction of fees in the first place. Finally, a friend of mine pointed out that this is all being done in the name of sorting out the country's finances, but in fact because the government is going to have to pay these fees up front it won't make a difference because it's years until we see them being paid back.

The wider point here is that a generation who got free education, or even grants, had easy access to jobs, the housing market, pensions, healthcare and many other things is suddenly realising that the country had paid for all of this and will have to pay it back in the future. Instead of taking responsibility for it and repaying it through higher taxes now, meaning that those who have higher salaries as a result will pay it back, they are forcing my generation to start having to pay for it. Yet at the same time there are less jobs, less opportunity to get onto the housing ladder, little chance of pensions, etc.

Edinburgh Charity Orchestra - Call for Scores

2010-12-03T22:48:00.004Z

Any budding composers out there might be interested in an opportunity to have a piece played by my new orchestra.

The Orchestra

Edinburgh Charity Orchestra is a new group formed to perform large scale concerts in order to raise money for and awareness about the work of local charities. The orchestra is invitation only and draws on some of the best student and amateur players in Edinburgh, as well as looking to give experience to young professional soloists and composers.

Our first concert is currently being planned for Saturday 28th May 2011 in St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, featuring Mahler's 1st Symphony and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.2, with soloist Andrew Johnston. We would also like to include a work by a local composer as the first piece on the programme.

Eligibility

- Composers must be aged 35 or under, or in full-time education, as of 31st January 2011.
- Composers should either be Scottish or resident in Scotland.
- The submitted work should be no more than 8 minutes long.
- It may have received previous performances but should not have been published.

Orchestration

The maximum orchestration is the same as Mahler Symphony No.1 (below) while the minimum is 2.2.2.2-4.2.3.1-tmp-str.

Mahler: Symphony No.1 - 4 flutes (2 doubling piccolos), 4 oboes (1 doubling cor anglais) 4 clarinets (1 doubling bass clarinet) 3 bassoons (1 doubling contrabassoon) - 7 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 1 tuba - timpani, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, bass drum, suspended cymbal (up to 4 percussionists in total) – harp – strings

Application

The deadline for scores to be submitted is Monday 31st January 2011. The completed score should be sent in PDF format to edinburgh.charity.orchestragmail.com along with a recording if available. The email should also include the following information: Name, address, e-mail, phone number, date of birth, are you Scottish or resident in Scotland, details of current education status (if over 35), length of work and details of any previous performances.

The work to be performed will be selected by the conductor in consultation with members of the orchestra. Applicants will be notified of the result by the end of February at the latest. The composer of the selected piece will then be required to produce digital copies of parts by the end of March and the orchestra will be responsible for having these printed and bound.

For further information you can comment on this post and I'll get in touch with you.

Classical Music in Scotland

2010-09-26T20:55:00.005+01:00

During my time at university much of my independent musicological research has focused on classical music in Scotland. For my undergraduate dissertation I looked at the composer Cecil Coles who was tragically killed in World War One at the age of twenty-nine while for my Masters I explored the Edinburgh Musical Festivals of the early nineteenth-century. I suppose there are two reasons why I have found this area of research to be so interesting, firstly because there is a natural interest in the history and culture of your own country, and secondly because it's actually a relatively unresearched field and there is a lot of original work to be done. It's also quite a small field, so while if you're studying music in European countries you would specialise in a particular period, the history of classical music in Scotland is contained enough that it can be a speciality in itself.

Another thing which I've realised over the last few years is that as someone who is both a performer and a musicologist it's important to tie those together and give unknown older pieces an airing. It's very easy to say that they've had a chance to be heard and the fact they're unknown today is because they weren't good enough to gain a place in the canon but there are many reasons why pieces go unperformed. Now of course you're unlikely to find many undiscovered masterpieces which should be considered in the same league as the Bach passions or Beethoven symphonies, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of music out there worthy of performance. A lot of concert programmes are chosen from a relatively small range of repertoire when you consider the amount of music that has been written over the last few hundred years and even hearing or performing something once can be worthwhile.

So I know that I'm very poor at actually posting regularly when I decide to start a series of posts but I will hopefully do some posts about Scottish composers and particular events in Scottish classical music here over the next wee while. I really just wanted to offer this as a brief word of explanation as to why there will be some posts that otherwise could seem extremely random appearing here in the future.

Why do we commemorate 9/11?

2010-09-13T14:33:00.008+01:00

Saturday saw the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a date which has become the defining moment of the new millennium. But why do we still see 9/11 as a significant date? Of course it is still very close and something that almost everyone can remember, perhaps it won't be seen as so significant in fifty or a hundred years time. However, there are other events in the near past which don't have the same resonance today. A major difference is that most of the dates that we commemorate are for positive reasons. Even Remembrance Day is marked on the date that saw the end of war rather than the beginning. But the events following 9/11, and in particular the "War on Terror" seem to have changed the Western perspective of the world in a way which leaves us uncertain about the future, and it is perhaps this which is marked more than anything else. While the twentieth century was the the American Century, the last decade has been defined in the West by the supposed rise of Islam. I would question whether the number of Muslims has increased dramatically but what has undoubtedly increased is Western awareness of the religion and a fear that it will upset the balance of what is still effectively a Christian culture and its influence on the rest of the world. This year that was demonstrated with the new coverage of 9/11 being dominated by the threat of a Koran bonfire while it can also be seen in the sale of bumper stickers with the slogan "All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11". In this regard the world has completely changed. It is no longer possible to dismiss other religions as having little significance in Western culture, or to argue that North America and Europe are at the centre of the world as has been the attitude before. So in commemorating 9/11 we are actually commemorating the moment when the West became aware of the rest of the world and while the balance of power and influence remains uncertain it seems likely that this will continue to be a significant moment.

Eric Coates and the lighter side of concert music

2010-07-14T00:32:00.003+01:00

One of the things which often annoys me about classical musicians is how snobby they can be when it comes to performing music that is not strictly classical. I don't advocate a free for all and "Pirates of the Caribbean" should not appear on concert programmes any time soon but there is lots of lighter music written for films, tv and light music groups which would work very well in concerts. One of my favourite composers in this mould is perhaps the greatest composer of British Light Music, Eric Coates, who is probably best known for the Dam Busters March. From his first week as a composition student at the RAM he was unashamed about the fact that he wanted to write light music and when he was so good at it it would have been sad if he had been forced into writing second rate classical music instead. I share a favourite piece with Sir Edward Elgar in "Summer Days" (Elgar apparently wore out his record of this he played it so much) but haven't been able to find a video of that to share. Instead here is "Saxo Rhapsody" for saxophone and orchestra and the Knightsbridge March. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Mahler

2010-07-07T14:13:00.003+01:00

Blogs today are full of 150th birthday wishes for Gustav Mahler who was born on July 7th 1860 in the Bohemian town of Kalischt, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and now in the Czech Republic. He did of course go on to become one of the most prominent musical figures in music I thought I would join in and share some of my favourite Mahler movements.

Last movement of the first Symphony played by the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Although there are other wonderful moments in this Symphony the last movement is one of his most exciting. After a sudden dramatic and dissonant opening the music is driven forward for a full minute before you are given any firm ground to stand on, even then it's so busy that you struggle to work out what the music is doing. The second half (second video) can almost be thought of as one long build up capturing memories of the rest of the piece and is brilliantly paced. Also as an added bonus it has the best viola section moment (4:17) in the entire orchestral repertoire!

The Fourth Symphony is so different to the others with its smaller orchestration and more classical proportions and in the third movement Mahler has one of his most tender moments. The way the opening builds up gradually without turning into gushing sentimentality is heart wrenching and the ending (4:15 in the third video) where we see heaven open is one of these magical climaxes in late Romantic/early 20th Century music which you sense the whole movement has been building up to and which can leave you totally drained afterwards as it dies away, particularly as it keeps moving through unexpected key changes.

Imago Divina 4th July - Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

2010-07-07T13:37:00.004+01:00

This is a little late and may also require a little explanation. This picture was taken by Erick Coll at the WCRC Uniting General Council I'm just back from in Grand Rapids. The person in the picture is Mary Fontaine who is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. One of the things which really challenged a lot of people at this event was the idea that indigenous people are often told that they cannot draw on their own traditions to express praise to God. This picture is of Mary doing just that.

Psalm 30
Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name.

Imago Divina 27th June - Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

2010-06-27T20:23:00.004+01:00

Galatians 5:1-25

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Imago Divina 24th June - Nativity of John the Baptist

2010-06-24T15:59:00.005+01:00

Luke 1:57-66

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbours, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

Photographic reflections on the Lectionary

2010-06-24T15:52:00.004+01:00

Yesterday at the Uniting General Council of the WCRC I went to a workshop entitled "imago divina" which was looking at how you use images on powerpoint in churches as something to enhance worship. The Rev Susan Phillips who took the workshop was very inspiring in the way that she used scripture readings as the basis for this and the effectiveness of the images she used in adding new thoughts to the text. So I thought I might start doing this as a way to reflect on lectionary passages (using textweek).

Reformed Youth Forum 2010

2010-06-19T05:27:00.002+01:00

I'm currently in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Uniting General Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. For a few days before this young people under the age of thirty all around the world gathered to get to know each other and to discuss the issues we face as young Reformed Christians. Here's a video which was made by Jessie to share an idea of some of the people who were there and to present our message which was written to present to the General Council and our churches.

Favourite free software

2010-06-09T15:29:00.007+01:00

As a poor student I can't afford to buy lots of expensive software and so over the last few years I've experimented with lots of freeware that's available, some to download and some to use online and I thought I would share some of it. Some of these are intended to be free alternatives to expensive industry standard software while others focus on doing just a couple of basic things but are very good for that. Obviously this is not an exhaustive list and it's not meant to be a comparison either, this is just a few of the programmes I like and would recommend and I know other people have their own preferences.

Office Suites
Open Office - Probably the most famous open source software this is a free version of Microsoft Office, although that probably doesn't do it credit as while it feels similar it had it's own strengths. I doubt many people would have a strong preference for the Microsoft version after using this so given that it's free I would recommend never buying Microsoft. Of course this isn't even an option for people in some countries as Chris pointed out after his visit to Nepal.
Google Docs - This is an online programme and much more basic but very useful. I use it to do basic editing of documents and then when I want to format something I download it to Open Office or desktop publishing software. This has almost removed the need for carrying flash drives since almost every computer is connected to the internet and you can use it as storage for any file format too.

Media
GIMP - I only discovered this today when I was searching for some photo editing software and just about every list of free programmes had it at the top of their list citing it as the free Photoshop. From the little I've done with it it seems excellent so well worth exploring.
Autostitch - I've always been a fan of taking panoramas and there is a certain satisfaction in laying out photos and trying to piece them together. This is obviously more complex with digital photos but the demo version of this software which is used as the basis for some much more expensive programmes makes this as simple as selecting the photos you want to put together regardless of how complicated it seems. There are some stunning examples on their website but here's my own 8 photo panorama of the Wailing Wall and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Music and Video
Switch Sound File Converter - Simple programme which does what it says on the tin, converts sound files from one format to another.
Wave Pad - Very good basic software for editing the wave version of sound files. This allows you to do things like very detailed cutting of a track and fade in and outs. I've found this useful when I want to use musical examples in a presentation.
Dirpy - There are a number of websites with software allowing you to save youtube videos in various formats but this was the most professional I have used, allowing you much more flexibility than others.

Other
PDFill PDF Tools - I tend to use pdf as a format for saving and sending files once I've finished editing them, whether it's text documents, posters or sheet music. The universality makes it much easier for people to open than some other formats and you know that it will appear exactly as you have designed it, whatever software is used to edit it. The one difficulty of course is that you lose editability unless you happen to own lots of expensive Adobe software. This programme gives you some control over pdf files such as changing the order of pages, splitting files etc.
Weebly - Another area with lots of competition is free website builders. I've tried quite a few of these but never been happy with any until I tried weebly (you can see my own site here). While a lot of this choice comes down to whether you like the templates on offer I would say that Weebly is one of the easiest to use I've come across as well, basically letting you drag and drop different elements into your template and edit them there. It does allow you to edit the html code as well so that gives even more flexibility if you want it. Like a lot of these sites you can get extra functionality by paying more but even a lot of the features can be worked around if you know how (for example inserting a favicon by uploading the file onto the site and putting an html link on each page)
Free Serif Software - This is a great suite of programmes you can get for free. Serif decided that it would be good to put older versions of their programmes online for free in order to entice people to buy the new versions. However, a lot of these older programmes are still pretty good. My favourite is PagePlus which is desktop publishing software. (I've just noticed they have panorama software up now but I think it uses autostitch as it's basis so not sure whether it will really be much better.)

Edinburgh 2010 - Day 5 morning

2010-06-06T13:23:00.005+01:00

Still typing up Days 3 and 4 of the conference but was very inspired at church this morning so thought I would share that first. We had a guest preacher at St Giles' from the largest Presbyterian congregation in the world, the Youngnak Presbyterian Church in Seoul, Korea. Unfortunately it was not able to hear him very well because the acoustic is very difficult to speak in but I got a copy of the sermon afterwards and it was some powerful thoughts on the theme of Jesus as the Messenger of the Gospel of Peace. However I was most struck today by the Anthem we sang in the choir, 'The Spirit of the Lord' by Sir Edward Elgar. The text is from Isaiah and it summed up so many of the themes of this week, particularly those about mission for justice and peace, the very theme of the sermon. It it also the most wonderfully evocative music. It comes from 'The Apostles' and here is a video of the orchestral version.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor:
he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord;
To give unto them that mourn a garland for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud,
and as the garden causeth the things
that are sown in it to spring forth;
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to spring forth before all the nations.
Isaiah 61

Edinburgh 2010 - Day 2

2010-06-04T10:58:00.005+01:00

Thursday morning started with the Opening celebration and remarkably it was possible to hold parts of it outside as the weather has been lovely. The worship continued the theme of singing songs from small countries around the world as a reminder about the breadth of the church today and the previous domination by the large colonial powers. We were told the stories of the Blind Man at the Pool of Siloam, the Woman at the Well and finally Zaccheus. After that we were asked to find two people we didn't know and ideally from different cultures and to share a Road to Emmaus moment, talking about what character we would like to meet and what questions we would like to ask them. I wandered in the warm Scottish sun (a sentence I never thought I'd type) with an Italian Roman Catholic ecumenist and a Swedish Lutheran minister and we talked about various issues surrounding churches in Europe today including the search for spirituality by people with no church connection and the deep roots that Islam is building around the world.

We then had the first Plenary Session on the topic of “Mission in the Long Perspective”. The keynote speaker for this was Dr Dana Roberts who based her talk on Revelation 7.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

She structured it around significant milestones for mission in the twentieth century, starting with Edinburgh 1910, moving onto the 1963 World Council of Churches Mission Conference and talking about the Christian part in fighting communism with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the protests in Tienanmen Square, using these to put our current position in context. She focused on the need for unity in mission both between denominations and between different cultures and classes. Now that we live in a post-Christendom, post-geographic, global context we need to acknowledge that common witness has diversity and pluralism embedded in it and that faith exists worldwide in different expressions with all cultures contributing to a common understanding of Christ. She concluded by saying that if we take a long view of mission then this means that we act on the promise in Revelation 7 that God will wipe away the tears from the eyes of the world that he loves and there shall be no more hunger.

This address was followed by four responses seeking to put the topic into different perspectives. Unfortunately the names of those who spoke were not announced clearly or printed anywhere so I cannot credit them all here. The first person who spoke though I can and this was the Most Reverend Brian Farrell, the Secretary to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He shared the idea that Catholics live by memory and that for them mission is related to the very first spread of the Gospel. He echoed a theme that keeps recurring this week that mission can no longer be imposed but must be shared. We then had an African theologian who used the metaphor of the World Cup in South Africa and particular the plastic trumpets that we will hear regularly. He said that the World Cup was a desperate attempt for Africa to be heard and that African representation is still a problem because it's only represented, not representative and the issues of the “global South” are not addressed. Revelation 7 is about fully equal human people and unless all are full and equally human this vision will not be fully realised, we must recognise the connection between the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth. This theme was continued by a representative of the Orthodox Church and judging by the response of some delegates this was an issue felt deeply by those from the “global South”. Whether it is a fair assessment of the church today and particularly this conference is a big question because I think it has been recognised and articulated as an issue but it cannot be denied as a historical issue. The final person to reflect on the topic was a Brazilian Baptist from the World Evangelical Alliance. He talked about how the lack of unity in the church can be a hindrance to the church in its influence on society and the dichotomy that exists between people's experience in church on Sunday and how they live the rest of their lives. He also talked about the specific context of mission and revivals in Latin America and this was an interesting case study in how Western missionaries in 1910 didn't understand the local context at all and Christians in Latin America were left to address many issues themselves.

After lunch we moved into the first session looking at the nine parallel themes that have been studied for the last five years and are being discussed this week. The conference has been split into three streams studying three topics each and today I was looking at Theme 1: Foundations for mission. We had the chance to hear about two research projects carried out specifically for this topic. The first was looking at “Mission at the margins” and studying the marginalized Dalit community in India. This led to the idea that struggle for life is a foundation for mission and that the perspective of the discriminated and the disadvantaged should be a vantage point for mission. Also that mission can become a catalyst for forging alliances where it is based on issues of social justice. The other study was done ecumenically in the UK and Ireland and was looking at the relationships between the articulated ideals of mission and the actual practice. It found that there were huge gaps between these. One interesting finding was that people have a strong response to relational language and reject language of separation, even in churches where there is robust language used in talking about sin and salvation. There is also not a strong link between issues of mission and justice, an interesting link to the other case study.
These case studies were then used as a chance to hear about some of the transversal topics for the week, topics that run through all the themes such as mission and youth, women etc. and to talk about our own perspectives. I was in an incredibly diverse group which was completely by accident made up of an Anglican from Botswana, an American Baptist of Chinese heritage, a South Korean, a Russian Orthodox priest, a Spanish Roman Catholic nun, a Scottish priest who works in Rome, a Brazilian Baptist and then a Scottish Presbyterian of course. To talk about issues such as understanding of the trinity, love as the focus of mission and translation between God and man and between communities with people who represented every part of the world church denominationally, theologically and geographically was incredibly powerful. In the end it proved difficult for everyone in the debate (almost a hundred people) to agree a common conclusion but the richness of the different conversations in groups was so valuable and some of the facilitators of the debates were going to try and reflect as much of that as possible in time for our next discussion thread.

The end of the day was rather nice. I don't tend to like official receptions but I decided to go to the Scottish Parliament reception and was very glad I did. Partly I felt that as a Scot it was nice for me to be there with people from other countries and it also just offered a chance to get to meet people and talk. We were warmly welcomed by the Presiding Officer and I think that many of the delegates appreciated this. I had some fascinating conversations with a Baptist from Brazil and a Roman Catholic from Tanzania and it just continued the feeling that this week is as much about building relationships and an understanding of people from diverse backgrounds as anything else. While the content of the debates is important it is there relationships that are living out the gospel and demonstrating that perhaps we can all be one church after all and work together in mission.

Edinburgh 2010 - Day 1

2010-06-03T10:51:00.001+01:00

Wednesday saw 250 delegates from across the globe gather to celebrate the centenary of the 1910 World Missionary Conference, a seminal moment in global Christianity. The theme of the conference is “Witnessing to Christ Today” and in organising this event the aim was that it should reflect the changes in the world since 1910 when the conference was almost exclusively attended by white European male Protestants. Certainly my immediate experience was that they had succeeded in this judging from the number of women and people from Africa and Asia, neither may form the majority but they certainly have a significant presence.

While it may not have been deliberate, this recognition that the church's mission may be healthier outside Protestant Europe could be seen reflected in the passage from John 15:1-11 that was read at the evening worship. This is the passage that talks about the vine and the branches and perhaps this conference will be a chance for these older churches to be challenged about pruning their branches and also for all churches to realise that they are part of the same vine.

The opening evening was a chance to meet people, worship together and to be welcomed by Scottish church leaders. I had a great time meeting people from India and Finland over dinner and then sitting next to a Malaysian and a New Zealander at the worship and welcome. Even just while meeting for the first time it was obvious how much we have to learn from each other about the different perspectives that churches around the world have on mission, scripture and community. It was also very encouraging to be at an event where people are eager to share those perspectives and learn from others, rather than just promote their own.

The next few days should be very exciting as we move into discussing a range of topics and more opportunities to meet people. You can find out more about the conference and other things being organised for the centenary year at the Edinburgh 2010 website.

Churchy things

2010-05-18T23:25:00.005+01:00

May and June are very busy for me with various church events I'm attending. I'm just back from the 2nd Ecumenical Kirchentag in Munich, a huge event with estimated attendance anywhere between 100,000 and 500,000. I will blog about this once my photos have been developed. Tomorrow I head off to the Church of Scotland General Assembly where I am a youth representative and will be giving the Youth Assembly report next Tuesday. We're trying to develop how we communicate with people using social media so you can follow the youth reps on their blog, twitter and flickr during the week. I'll hopefully blog here too and will of course be tweeting (I've eventually added a twitter feed at the side of this page). After that I'll be at another conference in Edinburgh, this time though it's a global one - Edinburgh 2010 - and I'll be the youth rep on the five person Church of Scotland delegation. Finally I'm off to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Uniting General Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, again as the youth rep on a five person delegation.

It all promises to be very exciting as well as thought-provoking and tiring! I've been extremely lucky during the past two years while I've been Moderator of the Church of Scotland Youth Assembly to represent the young people of the church at many different events across the world and even though my role finishes this summer this is still something I am passionate about and hope to be able to take part in further. I'm quite excited to see where my journey will have taken me too by the end of June and I have lots of ideas in my head atm for what to do with all these experiences. I'll try and post some updates here and eventually might even get round to blogging about my trips to Malawi, Israel/Palestine and Rome from the last two years.

Understanding classical music through improvisation

2010-05-07T18:10:00.002+01:00

I've recently started working on organ improvisation. As an organist this is an incredibly important skill as you often find yourself in a situation where you need to fill a short amount of time but don't know when you'll have to finish. Indeed, it has historically been how a lot of organ music was conceived with chorale preludes and French organ symphonies being elaborate improvisations. When I was having a lesson and we were discussing different ways in which you could use a chorale melody as a basis for improvisation this became very apparent, as by using different techniques to elaborate on the same melody you could easily make it sound like Brahms, Reger, Hindemith or even Messiaen.

It is worth highlighting what is meant by improvisation here. Most people have a concept of this as being completely free, where you make something up on the spot. However, that is often the most difficult way to improvise. In order to make the music coherent you give yourself certain restrictions, for example improvising a melody on a minor scale moving only by step and in four bar phrases, harmonised with first inversion triads. It is these restrictions which define the "sound" of a composer, eg. the way they echo phrases or different harmonisations.

And the moral of this story is that classical musicians who are stuck to the authority of the score and don't want to move away from that would actually have a better understanding of the music they are playing if we all learnt how to improvise.

How not to conduct

2010-04-17T21:44:00.001+01:00

Thanks to All the conducting masterclasses for bringing this video to my attention. It is a rather excellent (and not inauthentic) depiction by Kenneth Williams of what happens when a young conductor believes they know better than a professional orchestra. This is from the film "Raising the Wind" which I subsequently purchased and it is very entertaining and well worth watching if you ever get the chance.

Vicar of Dibley Theme

2010-03-20T18:46:00.003Z

I was trying to find an English language anthem for Psalm 23 to use as an example in a presentation and then realised that the Vicar of Dibley theme tune is actually an excerpt from a very fine anthem by Howard Goodall. Have a listen, the bit when it cuts out for Dibley is actually the most exciting in my opinion, as it moves into "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death..."

Cosy trip to Rome

2010-03-20T18:14:00.002Z

After the amazing trip to the Holy Land last year with Cosy (Church of Scotland Youthwork) I was away with them again last weekend, this time to Rome, the centre of the Roman Catholic Church and the most important city in the world at the time when Christianity was born. It was amazing to see places like the Colosseum which even two millenia after use still have huge historical significance. But the highlight of the weekend for me was the time we spent in the Vatican. After a quick tour through the huge museum and some time in the Square and the Basilica we were really lucky to be able to get a tour through the Necropolis, the original Roman graveyard that still exists two levels below the Basilica where St Peter's tomb is supposed to be. The next day a few of us came back and climbed the 500+ steps to the top of the Dome, the highest point in Rome which offers amazing views over the city.

Photo upload doesn't seem to be working properly at the moment but will put some up at some point.

Conducting Tip

2010-02-27T16:52:00.002Z

I was singing for a conducting workshop taken by Patrick Russill this afternoon. It was very interesting being on "the other side" of a conducting workshop and I learnt a lot from it. There was one thing in particular which he said which I thought was worth sharing for anyone else interested in conducting - your gestures should be about how the people in your group produce their sound, not when they produce it, the when then takes care of itself. I've heard almost every conducting teacher I've ever worked with say something similar but this was the clearest way I've heard it expressed.

Robin Hood Tax

2010-02-14T21:46:00.000Z

Gershwin Piano Quartet

2010-02-11T17:10:00.003Z

I was trying to find piano quartets made up of piano and string trio on youtube and instead came upon this group who are just four pianos. They do some amazing stuff. You can check out their website here.

Faure Requiem and Carnival of the Animals

2010-01-07T21:56:00.005Z

Here's a shameless plug for a concert I'm organising and conducting in a few weeks time. It should be a great gig with lots of the best students and recent graduates from Edinburgh Uni involved and the music is a mix of popular French classics and some new pieces by students from the University. Best of all it's completely free!

Gallus Fever

2010-01-07T21:50:00.004Z

Saw a friend from school for the first time in a while the other night and he mentioned a band he's in now. I don't normally listen to much pop/rock but when I do then this is the sort of thing which I like, with very good singing and some fantastic instrumentalists. So here's a video and you can also check out their myspace page here.

Twelve Days of Christmas

2009-12-24T06:35:00.002Z

Here's a seasonal video to enjoy.

Symphony Cycle

2009-12-24T06:12:00.006Z

I just remembered an idea I heard about ages ago but thought I would give it a go again. The rules are simple, you have to make the best 9-symphony cycle you can by choosing the best symphony for each number. You're not allowed to choose a composer more than once so you may have to sacrifice your favourite by one composer to fit them in somewhere else. Here's my offering.

1 - Mahler
2 - Rachmaninov
3 - Saint-Saens
4 - Brahms
5 - Sibelius
6 - Haydn
7 - Beethoven
8 - Schubert
9 - Dvorak

There were tough choices here for every position. Mahler's 1st is one of my favourite pieces and the first spot is rarely the highlight of any composers work but Prokofiev and Walton and would give it a run for its money and Elgar is worth a mention. Vaughan-Williams "London" Symphony was a contender at no.2 while at no.3 Bernstein's "Kaddish" is worth a mention. The fourth and fifth were both hotly contested with Nielson and Schubert both contenders at no.4 and Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky only just missing out at 5. The biggest conundrum however was at 6 and 7 which are my favourite Beethoven symphonies, with number 7 edging that. So it was really a case of what would fill the other spot best and the choice here was between Haydn's "matin" and Shostakovoch's "Leningrad". With so little to choose here I decided to choose my favourite Beethoven leaving Haydn to fill the number 6 spot. Finally at 8 and 9 I went for Schubert and Dvorak. Dvorak 8 is also worth a mention but the Schubert is such a perfect piece it couldn't really contend and Dvorak 9 is better. Of course Mahler and Beethoven both deserve mentions here too.

So in the end a pretty good list, with a huge amount of choice but some obvious winners in every spot. The big losers are Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky who were contending for a few spots each. Mozart suffers from the quality of his early symphonies but if there was a prize for a no.41 then he would win. Other fantastic pieces missed out due to not being numbered, such as Stravinsky and Bizet's Symphonies in C, with the latter being a particular favourite of mine.

Musical Muppets

2009-12-01T17:41:00.008Z

Here are some musical offerings from the Muppets, the Bohemian Rhapsody one is new I believe. Enjoy.

Bank charges, the bail-out and the Unforgiving Servant

2009-11-26T23:23:00.005Z

There was a debate on Question Time tonight about the recent furore over bank charges for unarranged overdrafts. In light of the huge bail out that the same banks were given recently there was anger in the audience about this. It occurred to me that it parallels very well the story of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:23-34. The insertions in bold show this.

"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king [government] who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man [bank] who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. [bail out]

"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants [customer] who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. [the parallel falls down here because of course the banks gang up on customers]

"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. [The government response which hasn't happened yet]

Sing Hallelujah

2009-11-23T01:55:00.003Z

BBC Radio 3 is running a project to get choirs across the country singing the Hallelujah Chorus on Saturday 5th December to mark the 250th Anniversary of Handel's death. That gives me an excuse to share this video. I don't know if les freres de St. Francis de la Sissies are planning on participating or not.

Guys and Dolls

2009-10-28T13:02:00.001Z

Here's a shameless plug for a show I'm Musical Director for that is on very soon.

A clear reading of scripture?

2009-10-21T04:09:00.008+01:00

I can't get to sleep at the moment and so thought I would take the chance to put down some thoughts which have been working their way round my head. This may just be stating the obvious to some people or heresy to others but I thought I would put something down and see whether it makes any sense.

The sheep on the right above is a good (if extreme) example of many discussions over the meaning of scripture. These all too often seem to descend into one person having a clear understanding of a passage and someone else being left scratching their head.

One of my biggest frustrations is when people use the phrase "clear reading of scripture" or something similar. It must be wonderful to be able to use it without any sense of the wider implications it has. It seems such a simple phrase, and I'm sure for many people who have a strong idea of what certain passages in the Bible mean to them and those in their faith community it is not one which seems terribly controversial. Yet over the last six months I have come to the conclusion that it's at the root of many of the impasses found in churches around the world today.

In many ways I'm envious of those who can use it. For me scripture is never clear and I wish it was. It's always difficult to work out exactly what is meant and how it can apply to the world today. I don't want to argue against the idea that a series of books written in Greek and Hebrew in the Middle East over 1500 years ago can transmit the same message to people in the many and varied cultures of the world that have happened since, and in many different translations (or should that be mistranslations). I think that is a wonderful possibility. However, given that huge spread of billions of unique human contexts it seems an improbable one. Surely no two of those billions of people can have the same understanding of a text that is around 800,000 words long in English translations.

Anyway, those arguments are just minor as far as I'm concerned. My main point is this, and I've not yet been given an answer to it. Given that every clear reading of scripture I've come across has a strong principle of the fallibility of man, how can anyone claim to have the perfect understanding of any text that the phrase "clear reading" implies, let alone one that is or contains the Word of God? (Is it actually a heretical phrase is this respect?)

I think my conclusion is this. The phrase is all about power and a lack of willingness to critically engage seriously with both those who hold differing views to us and our own faith. It changes the debate from whatever issue is being discussed to a questioning of the authority of scripture. We all need to have a little more humility when we discuss our faith. Our understanding of the Bible is just that, our own unique understanding, which is just as unique as we all are as human beings. There may be certain core beliefs to the Christian faith but I doubt there is a single statement you can make to which every other person calling themselves a Christian will agree. And what sort of arrogance does it take to assume that we are right just because we see ourselves as holding the majority or so called orthodox view. I challenge anyone to place themselves on that pedestal.

How Obama could earn his Nobel Prize

2009-10-19T23:05:00.010+01:00

I don't like posting whole articles here but I think it's worth doing with this excellent article by Joe Klein in Time entitled "How Obama Could Earn His Nobel Prize". He urges Obama to take the sort of action I have hoped he can take for some time, particularly after my visit to Israel/Palestine in the summer where I saw quite how badly a solution is needed.

The Nobel Peace Prize, presented prospectively — a triumph of hope over inexperience — threatens to become a central metaphor of Barack Obama's turbocharged political career. He seems fated to be feted for who he is not (George W. Bush) and who he might turn out to be, but not for things he has actually done. This is dangerous stuff, politically. It almost guarantees disappointment. So the prize presents him with an immediate challenge: How does he go about actually earning it? The foreign policy that Obama favors, patient diplomacy on a multitude of fronts, requires qualities of wisdom, horse-trading and fortitude that we can't yet be sure he possesses. Nor does it lend itself to high drama; it is more often about the slow reduction of tensions, or the creative stalemate that prevents things from getting worse, than about Nixon going to China.

But an opportunity for a grand gesture may be developing in the most unlikely of locales: the Middle East. Obama has sent a special envoy, George Mitchell, to launch negotiations, but the Mitchell process has moved slowly and seems to be slouching toward catatonia. The Israelis have refused to freeze their illegal West Bank settlement-building; the Arabs have refused to make any gestures toward recognizing Israel's sovereignty until such a freeze is imposed. Deadlock. At the same time, though, there is the rarest of Middle East commodities — some actual, tangible good news — beginning to bubble up on the West Bank. The situation there is improving dramatically. The Israelis and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad have been cooperating on the removal of checkpoints and other economic impediments; the economy is growing at a 7% clip. U.S. Lieut. General Keith Dayton has supervised the training of an effective Palestinian security force; crime and terrorist acts are down significantly. (On the other hand, Hamas-controlled and Israel-isolated Gaza festers.)

The moment may be at hand for a dramatic U.S. initiative, even from a no-drama President. "The two sides seem unable to make peace on their own," says Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser. "I think it would make a lot of sense for the President to announce what he thinks a Middle East peace plan should look like." The elements of such a plan are widely known. Bill Clinton announced a version of it in December 2000, as he was leaving office. Brzezinski cites four major components: a return to 1967 borders, with land swaps enabling Israel to keep many of its existing settlements; no right of return for Palestinians who left, or were forced off, their lands when Israel became a state; Jerusalem as the capital of both Israel and Palestine; and an international peacekeeping force replacing the Israelis currently patrolling the Jordan River Valley. (A fifth point, often mentioned, would be international control of the religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem.) "If the President announced such a plan," Brzezinski says, "he would probably receive the support of almost every country in the world, including most of the Arab states. This would put enormous pressure on the Israelis and Palestinians to make peace."

The notion of putting enormous pressure on the Israelis to do anything has proved problematic for U.S. Presidents over time, however — and Brzezinski's well-known desire to apply such pressure has made him unpopular among Israel's noisy neoconservative and Evangelical supporters. But there are others, including well-known supporters of Israel like David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who think a breakthrough is possible. Makovsky's idea is to start with what seems the toughest problem: the Israeli settlements. "It is actually possible to work out a land swap that would satisfy both sides," he says. "I've done the maps: a 4% land swap would do it. Eighty percent of Israeli settlers live on 5% of the West Bank. You could give the Palestinians some very attractive land in return for those settlements." That would leave more than 55,000 Israeli settlers on the wrong side of the wire, but their presence, in Arab cities like Hebron, is a permanent provocation that will have to be removed if there is ever to be any chance for peace.

Makovsky has some real credibility on this subject. He and top Obama adviser Dennis Ross offered a version of this idea in a recent book with a long title. Makovsky then presented the plan to Benjamin Netanyahu over the summer. And? "He was noncommittal," Makovsky says. Indeed, if Netanyahu agreed to the land swap, his right-wing coalition would atomize. But he could still form a new government by aligning with the centrist Kadima Party. And then he would have the chance to be remembered as the man who finally secured Israel's borders — the sort of achievement that actually might merit a Nobel Prize.

REVIEW: RSNO/Deneve/Kavakos

2009-10-17T10:42:00.005+01:00

I've been thinking for a while that I should write about some of the concerts I go to and so decided to start with the RSNO concert I was at last night. I had almost completely forgotten this was on because I've got out of the habit of thinking of Friday nights as RSNO nights and it seems like most of their Edinburgh audience had also forgotten, or else were scared away by what was for me the main attraction, the Berg Violin Concerto played by Leonidas Kavakos. What makes this a particular shame is that Kavakos is a class above the soloists the RSNO normally get (I'm sure I read a while ago that Sir Tom Hunter had donated a large sum of money for them to pay higher fees for soloists and conductors but can't find anything about that online).

The concert opened with Ravel's "Pavane pour une infante défunte", or rather that was the first piece of music, with Deneve having a chat with the audience for a good few minutes first. I know there are mixed opinions on this habit he's got but he is quite entertaining and it does give him some connection with the audience so I quite like it. The Ravel itself was what I expected to be the highlight of the evening given Deneve's mastery of French Romantic repertoire but sadly for me it was the low point, with some tuning issues and the whole piece never quite flowing. While it's supposed to be calm music it seemed like the musicians were scared to start each section. Despite this the colour Deneve created in the strings was excellent and the RSNO wind section are also great these days, particularly the young principal flute and oboe who they will do well to hang onto in future years.

The rest of the second half was the Berg, superbly played by Kavakos and with the orchestra in much better shape. Although this is a piece I love, having played it with NYOS and listened to it many times on CD, I realised this was actually the first time I have heard it live. The sound Kavakos produced was warm and lyrical right from the start, and the overall shape of the opening was great, this being a section I sometimes feel can sound a little disjointed. Throughout the piece the brass section in particular were great, really firing up the rest of the orchestra at some of the bigger moments. However, the highlight for me was from where the Bach Chorale enters in the wind in the middle of the second movement, with the balance both within the section, and with the soloist being excellent, and the mood created just right as the calm within some of the chaos of the rest of the piece.

The second half was Dvorak's 7th Symphony, not a piece I know particularly well. You can understand why it's the eighth and ninth Symphonies which are the most popular, since this doesn't have tunes which grab you quite so immediately and leave you singing them afterwards but it seemed good fun nonetheless. Having already had to deal with French Romantic and serialist music, Deneve and the orchestra managed to change their style again for this more gutsy Czech music and it was a suitably exciting performance although without any real highlights. All in all it was a good night. The Berg must be one of the highlights of the season and it's a real shame that more people weren't there to see it.

Parliamo Glasgow

2009-10-14T22:23:00.003+01:00

Hello. I've not really done much blogging over the summer. It was much busier than I expected, with time spent in Israel, France and Spain as well as being at the Church of Scotland Youth and Children's Assemblies and lots more besides. I was hoping to get a chance to write about some thing but I've just started on a new course, an MMus in Musicology at Edinburgh University which has been keeping me very busy. I will try and write up things soon but just as an aside here is a video I was reminded of the other day.

Church of Scotland National Youth Assembly 2009

2009-09-04T00:45:00.002+01:00

This weekend I'm in Stirling for the CofS Youth Assembly. I'll be contributing to the official blog and tweeting. You can also follow other people tweeting by following the #nya2009 tag.

San Antonio Statement, 1989

2009-08-05T16:10:00.006+01:00

Just discovered the wonderful statement made by the World Council of Churches (WCC) about how Christianity should relate to other faiths from their Conference in San Antonio, Texas in 1989. I also think it says a lot about how Christians should relate to other Christians.

"We cannot point to any other way of salvation than Jesus Christ; at the same time we cannot put any limit to God's saving power. There is a tension between these affirmations which we acknowledge and cannot resolve."

A right to die?

2009-08-04T12:33:00.008+01:00

It's a good month and a half since I posted here and there are many things I have been thinking about during that time that are worthy of discussion here, not least my trip to Israel/Palestine which will have at least one post once I get my head round things. However I will start again by sharing an excellent article by Dominic Lawson from the Sunday Times about the assisted suicide debate currently taking place.

As it points out, this debate (as with many political and ethical debates) has been mainly carried out by those with "loud voices", and makes particular reference to Debbie Purdy who last week won the right to have clarification of the factors taken into account when deciding whether to prosecute those helping assisted suicides at the Swiss clinic Dignitas.

"One of the characteristics of those most determined on assisted suicides is that they are powerful personalities used to exercising total control — the polar opposite of those who would be the most likely victims of their campaign, were it to succeed. Purdy is quite typical, described in The Guardian as “a self-confessed adrenaline junkie who had revelled in travelling the world diving from planes, conquering mountains, trekking through jungles and exploring the depths of the oceans”. You can see why such a personality cannot bear to contemplate the complete loss of control that her condition might impose. Debbie Purdy is, in so many ways, an admirable woman."

It is of course more vulnerable people who will be affected by this in a negative way, particularly those who are elderly and/or have mental health issues. The article considers the specific case of one 90 year old women who, while currently enjoying life in a nursing home, is quite clear that if assisted suicide was made legal here she would feel it her duty to use that option so that her family could benefit financially. A point which isn't mentioned here is that those who are most strongly opposed to assisted suicide are medical professionals and particularly those who work with patients near the end of their life. Of course religious groups are strongly opposed too and their view is often discredited as "dogmatic" and "out of touch". Yet that shouldn't stop them making their voice heard. The church has been in the business of helping sick and dying people for well over a thousand years and still sees that as a huge part of its work. Crossreach, the Church of Scotland's Social Care Council, is the largest provide of Social Care in Scotland. Noone should attempt to discredit the views of a community so involved with these issues just because they have a strong religious faith which supports their opinions. I will leave the last word to Dominic Lawson as he says so succinctly what I'm sure many feel.

"When I saw her [Purdy] declare last Thursday, “I feel like I have my life back”, my stomach heaved. It is a sick society that regards assisted suicide as an affirmation of life."

Twitter Tees

2009-06-17T22:55:00.005+01:00

For anyone who uses twitter you may be interested in Twitter Tees, a competition being run by Threadless. The concept behind Threadless is that people submit designs for t-shirts and the best ones are chosen and made for people to buy. Twitter Tees is following along the same lines and inviting people to submit or nominate tweets to be slogans on t-shirts. These are then voted on and the most popular ones will get made up. The best thing about it is that if your tweet or one you've nominated gets selected then you win money! So get started, you can see my current efforts here. If you think you can do better then have a go yourself and make sure to let me know by commenting here or sending a tweet to @iainmclarty so I can vote for it. Here's a selection of the twitter themed t-shirts they currently have in stock.

The Fly-Swatting President

2009-06-17T12:24:00.003+01:00

Nice to see a President who is willing to get his hands dirty. Of course this video raises all sorts of questions about Obama's attitude to diplomacy versus military action. After very little attempt to shoo the fly away he gos straight in for the kill, and then gloats about his bloody victory to a TV camera afterwards!

Ben Zander at Davos and "The Art of Possibility"

2009-06-16T22:08:00.010+01:00

Thought I should share this video, it is very long but well worth watching. I spent a week in London last summer doing a conducting course with Ben Zander and it was one of the most challenging and also transforming weeks of my life. This video shows a talk that he does all around the world to leaders in all branches of life and it draws on principles which he espouses constantly in daily life (during the course we went along to one for around a thousand executives of Deloitte). Our course was focussed on conducting but more on looking at our attitudes in life and the way we interacted with others than technique which so many others focus on. At first I dismissed it all as the same old positive thinking stuff you always hear, but perhaps because it is very much based in something important to me - classical music and specifically conducting - I actually think it is very good. It is accessible even if you're not a classical music enthusiast because the talk itself is normally given to non classical music fans. And if you really like it then it's well worth getting the book he co-authored with his wife "The Art of Possibility". [Not sure why I'm suddenly plugging so many books on here]

Archbishop Mandelson

2009-06-16T00:02:00.003+01:00

I have recently discovered the "Archbishop Cranmer" blog and I would like to share something from one superb post there. The section of this video from 1:30-2:45 had me in hysterics for ages, even on repeated viewings, but the whole thing is well worth watching. I always think it's a shame that I completely disagree with William Hague on most political issues because he really is one of the most talented public speakers the House of Commons has seen in a long time.

The Message in the Music

2009-06-15T23:57:00.002+01:00

For the past few decades churches have been struggling with the issue of Contemporary Worship Music. CWM is a term which developed in the latter half of the twentieth century to define worship music that uses styles used in the popular music of the time, which is sometimes also used to include world music and music used by communities such as Iona and Taize. It is also distinct from Contemporary Christian Music (or CCM) which is more focussed on performance music. This really started in the States but has been adopted more and more in the UK, particularly in churches with strong groups of young people.

Ok, so you probably knew most of that already, but now that we've set the scene ask yourself what your views are on CWM as opposed to more traditional church hymns. Do you like it? What do you think of the theology behind the songs? Does it allow you to worship God? Does it allow for corporate worship? Is the music itself well written? How does the language used reflect and shape your relationship with different parts of the Trinity? Do you think the language is accessible for different ages/genders? Do the popular songs reflect a good balance of the different elements needed in worship?

All these questions and many more are addressed in an excellent book I read today called "The Message in the Music". Comprising ten different essays written by academics you would think initially that this must be the dullest book on CWM ever written but in fact it is one of the best books I have read recently on any type of sacred music.

It takes as its starting point the 77 most popular songs from the CCLI Index drawn up by looking at their lists of 25 most popular songs every six months (the latest one can be found here). Each writer then takes this as their starting point for looking at the songs from a different angle, ranging from whether they reflect a Trinitarian theology and whether they deal with issues of social justice to whether young men can engage with the language and the quality of the music.

Perhaps the most important thing about it is that it not only deals with the songs from an academic perspective, where each writer adopts their own methods for analysing and proving the conclusions they come to. It also offers practical advice for worship leaders and songwriters, looking at what is done well already and what needs to be done better to improve the quality of the songs and their appropriateness for use in worship. Many of the writers obviously come from backgrounds where they are regularly involved in using CWM too which is obviously an advantage.

The benefit of an academic book like this is that it allows a relatively unbiased exploration of issues around CWM because of its use of scientific research models in trying to answer the questions it asks. When I asked the series of questions earlier some of them might have provoked a strong reaction. For example I know that there is some language in some modern songs which makes me distinctly uncomfortable in singing it because of its apparent personalisation and sexualisation of my relationship with God. However, it is interesting to see that explored academically and while it reinforces my views on that it also let me see the benefits which the language I am uncomfortable with can have for others, and also consider it in relation to wider issues such as the Trinitarian (or un-Trinitarian) theology behind the songs.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in church music at all. It's not currently available on Amazon but you can buy it for £9.99 at Blackwell's. Whether it's music you love, hate or just accept as being there, it will challenge your preconceptions about it and leave you with a better understanding of how songs relate to your faith.

General Assembly - Round Up

2009-06-15T23:18:00.003+01:00

I've not blogged for a while now and so missed finishing my reflections on General Assembly. After Saturday the week became incredibly hectic and also much more emotional and I didn't really have the time or the words to finish blogging. I think the best thing to do now would be to post a brief comment on my highlight of each of the remaining days.

Saturday night - A very odd debate which has now received much media attention. For various reasons I'm not going to comment on the content of the debate itself, not least because of the moratorium imposed later in the week on any public discussion of these issues (You can find an official statement about it on the Church website here). It really saddened me that the debate had many times more public interest than any other debate I have witnessed in the hall, with the public gallery full and a hall used as an overflow room with a video link also full. It's been said before but the church and the media between them love to seize on anything to do with sex and blow it out of all proportion. I know the issues are important to some people but they should not be at the centre of the church's passions. There must be thousands of references in the bible to social justice and a very small number (10-20) relating to sexuality, some of which are ambiguous. I'm not saying it's not important to talk about it but I think the Bible is quite clear about what the more important issues are.

Sunday - The Assembly service is held at my church (St Giles') and I always love the sound the congregation makes during hymns in that service, when hundreds of minsters and elders who all know them really well and are enthusiastic belt them out at the top of their voices it's an amazing experience of worship. Also had a fantastic game of ultimate frisbee on the Meadows after church with the other youth reps.

Monday - Again the day centred around the Overture from Lochcarron and Skye Presbytery which hadn't been heard on the Saturday night because the Petition debate took about four hours. In fact Monday didn't get onto the Overture either because first of all the moratorium I previously mentioned was proposed and then the Overture was withdrawn. The Presbytery have since said they were unhappy at withdrawing the Overture but as someone who sat through all of the debates on the subject I have to say that the Moderator and Clerks were completely fair in the way they handled it and it was not rigged at all. You could sense in the hall that because of the gracious, open and honest way that Saturday night had been debated they didn't want to debate the Overture and it was the will of the Assembly rather than its officials that forced it to be withdrawn. If evidence is needed of this then the rapturous applause from the floor when it was done should be enough.

Tuesday - This was my busiest day of the week. First of all I had to be a "shaker", greeting the Lord High Commissioner as he arrived. Then I went to help organise the Children's choir which I was conducting to promote a new music programme called "Sing Out" which I may mention at another time. You can see the video of it here. After lunch I then gave the Youth Assembly report which seemed to go down well, which included a new video about NYA which I can hopefully post here at some point. The rest of the day was more of a social nature - a reception for the youth reps with the Moderator, the Beating of the Retreat at Holyrood Palace followed by a reception there, and finally a meal at Hard Rock Cafe generously paid for by Mission and Discipleship as a nice finish for our week.

Wednesday - The final day also started a little stressfully for me as I was doing the bible reading at morning worship. In a slightly ironic twist the reading was the story of Zacchaeus and I had to do it from a different lectern from normal because it had a box at it for a very little man to stand on. This was of course Desmond Tutu who was a guest and gave a wonderful talk which can also be seen on the Assembly's webcast page here and is compulsory viewing! (even at 26 mins long)

It was so nice to finish the week on such a positive note. Even the much publicised debates had been conducted well and there were many amazing things discussed during the week. It's always a privilege to be involved in the General Assembly and I think until you have been to one you never realise the amount that the Church of Scotland does across the country. The time away with the other youth reps is also something I treasure. Despite the lack of sleep it always leaves you feeling refreshed and ready to go back out into the world reinvigorated and more positive about the place of the church and also young people in it.

General Assembly - Saturday morning

2009-05-23T15:09:00.004+01:00

Last night was a fantastic night in terms of Youth Rep preparation. We had a really good session looking at how we talk to each other about sexuality and then watched the new film about Youth Assembly, which I hope we can use a chunk of during the Youth Assembly report on Tuesday. That was followed by a really nice evening chatting with people and playing Scrabble. This morning was quite interesting. You could tell that there were a lot of people not in Assembly business, possibly waiting for tonight. We had two of the reports which give visitors to the Assembly a chance to be in the spotlight - Ecumenical Relations and World Mission. I only saw the whole of Ecumenical Relations and thought it was excellent in highlighting some local ecumenical work going on. I also thought that Archbishop Mario Conti was received extremely well and gave one of the best speeches I've heard at an Assembly. It was interesting to see the Church of Scotland greet an important figure from the Catholic Church so warmly!

The big night in terms of media attention is tonight. I have a counter-motion to the Overture lodged so unless the Overture isn't actually taken I will have a chance to say something about it and hopefully help take the debate in a direction which allows gracious discussion of the issues. I will possibly post what I am planning to say here later, whether I get a chance to say it or not.

General Assembly - Thursday and Friday

2009-05-22T16:57:00.002+01:00

Due to lack of internet access at our hotel I didn't manage to put up a post about the first day of the General Assembly, but I'll start now by covering the first two days.

I missed the first morning due to my final undergrad exam, but it was basically just all the pomp and ceremony, along with setting out how business would proceed. The one controversial point though was an attempt to alter the order of business on the Saturday night, meaning that the Overture from Lochcarron and Skye Presbytery would be heard before the Judicial case from Aberdeen. However, it was decided (correctly in my opinion) that since the case must be considered according to church law at the time it arose then swapping those orders of business could prejudice it. The afternoon wasn't particularly exciting, again getting a lot of procedural things out of the way. The one thing which came up was a lot of the agro people feel towards the Council of Assembly. Thiis was highlighted in their attempt to sort out the thorny issue of who the charity trustees for the churches councils are, and their suggestion that the non-voting members of the Council of Assembly should take this role was seen by many as a power grab. However, in best Presbyterian tradition a committee was formed to look into the issue further. This seemed to be the order of the day with at least one other committee proposal.

Today we had what are always two highlights of the Assembly for many, Communion and the Church and Society report. For the last two years I have had the honour to help serve Communion but this year wanted to experience it as part of "the body of the Kirk". There is nothing quite so stirring as singing "Ye Gates lift up your heads on high" unaccompanied amid a thousand people! The Church and Society report perhaps provided less controversy than in previous years but it was nonetheless hotly debated at times. I commended the Council on having highlighted so many issues raised by the Youth Assembly. I also thought that Ian Galloway, the convener, did an excellent job in answering all the varied subjects he was required to talk about. As always in this type of debate those with personal experience of issues are warmly received and we heard from the minister in the Scots Kirk in Sri Lanka on this issue. There was also a new motion on Presbyterian Mutual, a building society(?) supported by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland which has suffered in the current economic climate, and their representative filled us on that. It could have major implications for the church there. The last debate (HIV/AIDs) has just finished and I'm now off for dinner before doing prep for tomorrow with the other youth reps and then watching the premiere of the Youth Assembly film!

To finish I'd just like to make a comment on how well Bill Hewett has done as Moderator. Many who knew him from being Business convener of the Assembly might have been surprised at his appointment but he has demonstrated not only a superb grasp of how to control proceedings with grace and humour, but also his other ministry skills that many might not be aware of, particularly in his leading of Communion today. I'm particularly glad of this given that coming up tomorrow night is the media focal point of the week, and all these skills will be called upon in handling that debate.

Church of Scotland General Assembly meets Web 2.0

2009-05-19T15:40:00.004+01:00

The Church of Scotland General Assembly starts in two days time and there seems to be an increasing number of technological innovations surrounding it this year.

As for the last few years it will be streamed live online at its website. You can also find short video summaries of each day there (which have been excellent in previous years) and a whole load of papers to download.

There is also a twitter page which I have been told is by the same people who do the online streaming. And a number of other people including myself will be tweeting away during the week, with some of us using the tag GA2009 which means tweets can found easily through Twitter search.

There will also be a few people blogging I'm sure. I will try and post a daily update like I did two years ago on a forum for young people in the Kirk. Again a google search for GA2009 should bring up some blogs but if anyone else is going to blog or knows of people who will be then let me know and I will post a link here.

Klingon Opera and Film Review

2009-05-12T12:10:00.004+01:00

Anyone interested in Star Trek may be interested to see this Klingon review of the new film (thanks to Nick for finding this). Anyone who hates Star Trek might enjoy laughing at the cultish behavious surrounding it. I particularly like their attempts at a Scottish accent.

There is also a story about Klingon Opera here. The Klingon Terran Research Ensemble hope to mount the first performance on Earth of "u", the story of Kahless the Unforgettable, which is a cornerstone of Klingon mythology. Apparently "The Klingon have a rich musical culture that until now has been largely overlooked by the musical establishment." I'm sure it couldn't be any more painful to watch than some other contemporary opera, even if it is based on something called "Scream Theory".

Live Streaming of Malko Conducting Competition

2009-05-12T11:25:00.003+01:00

I've just spent the morning watching the first round of the Malko Conducting Competition live online. They are streaming the competition for the whole week as it starts off today and tomorrow with thirty young conductors (already narrowed from 300 by video audition) and moves to the final three by the end of the week. It's a great idea to put a live stream up because it's fascinating to watch the different styles of conductors from across the world. This morning I've watched Brazilian, Lithuanian, Italian and English conductors performing Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Shchubert (Note the diverse range of nationalities conducting music by composers all from within the same area). Conducting is a very insular world and so masterclasses and competitions are often the only chance to see large groups of conductors together at once, particularly at this level where there are some of the finest young conductors from across the world competing. You can find the competition website here and there are links to the schedule and the live stream from there.

A blogging backlash?

2009-05-05T15:14:00.006+01:00

It seems that I'm not the only one who has problems with the way Lochcarron and Skye Presbytery have gone about their Overture followed by the petition organised by The Fellowship of Confessing Churches. A considerable number of bloggers have been writing about their dismay in the way this has been handled, with most comments about the misrepresentation of facts and positions to the media, the bullying nature of a petition and fears about the implications of any decisions which will be made. It should be noted that there are very few people commenting on their direct opposition to the Overture on grounds of their views alone, but instead a wish to see the broad spectrum of views taken into account. I've posted links to a few of these below along with some particularly good comments. If I've linked to you and you feel I've misrepresented you or that you don't want to be quoted on this page then let me know and I'll take it off - after all, the danger of quoting things out of context is quite relevant here! Equally if there are other comments I've missed please let me know. It's often said that politicians pay far more notice to a letter than to a petition with hundreds or even thousands of signatures, because of the thought and individual expression which goes into it. We can only hope that these voices of moderation will be heard through the barrier of sound the petition is trying to create.

NOTE: It's worth reading comments on these links as well because there are some well expressed views there too.

Stewart Cutler - "Not in My Name - So, no. I won’t be signing your petition. And I hope no-one else does either. Not because I don’t believe in your right to have one. Not that because I don’t think you have the right to hold your opinion. But because I believe that we are called to love one another and to conduct our discussions with love and respect."

John Orr - "GA09 and petitions - Creating online petitions is the entirely wrong way to go about this debate. It simply polarises the issues and creates artificial division. It undermines the authority and purpose of the General Assembly. It says, openly, that the petitioners do not believe that the Assembly can deal with the issue in a balanced, prayerful and gracious manner. It sends the message that they who shout loudest get their way."

Bryan Kerr - "A God of love ... for all - Too often debates about human sexuality become offensive name-calling exercises which display nothing of the love of Christ or the grace that should characterise Christian living. This is especially important for those claiming the title of Evangelical as we should be people who not only preach grace but live graciously." [This is in fact a quote from a former chairman of Forward Together, Gordon Kennedy, which surely emphasises that people from all backgrounds recognise the need for a gracious debate]

Nikki - "the squeeky wheel gets the most oil? - Why do I need to go to church to be told how crap I am?' ..... The press are already circling like vultures, waiting for the church to rip itself apart. The media rarely portray those in the church who are moderate - it doesn't sell papers, doesn't make for a handy sound-bite. And many folks outwith the church think that Fred Phelps and his followers speak for all Christians. It's depressing."

And finally a link to an old article in the Church Times by Giles Fraser which doesn't talk about this issue but has the best quote I've seen to summarise these problems in debates on belief - "Part of the problem is that too many contributors do not recognise that they are being unpleasant because they believe themselves to be justified by some higher cause. This creates a blind spot, which is why the nastiest stuff comes from “believers” with a mission"

NEW POSTS (as of noon, 6th May):

Chris Hoskins - "Where's the Grace? - Whenever this issue, or any other negative publicity for the Church pops up in the media, so many people (often with no Church connection!) jump on the bandwagon and use it as an excuse to dump on the Church. I hate that. Where are these people(media and naysayers) when the Church is doing incredible work? And then theres the people in the Church. The people who feed the negativaty by being horrible about and to each other."

Margaret McLarty - "Where is love? Does it fall from the skies above? - I struggle with church, but one of the reasons I love the Church of Scotland is that it allows for a whole nation to unite and everyone in that nation is held in love and welcomed ..... This is a huge test of all these ideas we hold true as Christians ..... Can we love those who hold different ideals as us and still welcome them as people in our lives and churches?"

Bridging the Gap - "Like a Weaned Child - A particularly dominant voice seemed so caustic, so certain, so loud ..... and I thought to myself, “Is that respect? Really? When it is quite clear that in your mind, your way is the only way?” ..... It will require that we continually go back to the source of all life – Jesus Christ. Not for the perfect answer, not for the resolution to all the tension and uncertainty, not for some triumphant declaration ….. no, we go to Jesus for life."

Logical problems with Lochcarron and Skye Overture

2009-05-05T14:25:00.005+01:00

I apologise to those who may occasionally look at this blog for non-Church of Scotland related thoughts (and I'm amazed there's anyone who looks at it at all) but this is the thing that's concerning me most at the moment. It turns out there is slightly more to Lochcarron and Skye Presbytery's Overture than I thought, with three justifications for it given beforehand.

OVERTURE
ANENT MINISTERIAL CONDUCT
From the Presbytery of Lochcarron-Skye

Whereas:
1. the Church’s historic understanding of the Biblical teaching on homosexual practice has been questioned in recent years.
2. a lengthy period of reflection has elapsed without a resolution of the issue.
3. it is undesirable that the courts of the church should be asked to judge on individual cases in advance of any such resolution.

It is humbly overtured by the Reverend the Presbytery of Lochcarron-Skye to the Venerable the General Assembly to receive the Overture set out below,

“That this Church shall not accept for training, ordain, admit, re-admit, induct or introduce to any ministry of the Church anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside of faithful marriage between a man and a woman”.

As someone just finishing a degree which involves maths I would consider myself to have a fairly good grasp of logic. So how does "the Church’s historic understanding of the Biblical teaching on homosexual practice has been questioned" lead to a resolution which strongly states one side of the argument? Also I would contend that part 2 is in fact wrong. The church presented a report on sexuality two years ago in which it stated that there was a wide range of opinion and because of this it was impossible to reach a conclusion on issues such as whether a committed homosexual relationship equates to marriage. Just because there wasn't a firm black or white decision doesn't mean it wasn't a decision. The report can be downloaded here and was, perhaps surprisingly, welcomed in the Assembly Hall, with only a small amount of opposition. So, in actual fact the church does have a stance; it's that this issue divides opinion and cannot be decided one way or the other at present. Of course this overture could be seen as looking at whether a decision has been reached, although I'm not convinced that two years is a "lengthy" period of time. However, if the statements which provide the justification for the overture itself aren't credible, and the logic connecting them is flawed, then why should the Overture be considered?

NOTE: I may be wrong on this but there is a question of whether the Overture should even be heard. Standing Order 48 of the General Assembly says that "All Overtures from Presbyteries passed on or before 24 April shall be sent to the Clerks of Assembly not later than that date in each year." The first news report on it was on April 28th so I don't know whether it was transmitted in time or whether I have read the Standing Orders wrongly, but it's another thing to consider.

Implications of Lochcarron and Skye Overture

2009-05-04T16:51:00.006+01:00

I was thinking last night that the implications of the Overture Lochcarron and Skye Presbytery are presenting to the General Assembly would have have huge implications, whether you agree with it or not, and this hasn't really been discussed.

“That this Church shall not accept for training, ordain, admit, readmit, induct or introduce to any ministry of the Church anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside of marriage between a man and a woman”

(1) Who is going to police this? It seems to me that this is opening the system up to false allegations flying around. For example, I know that some people wouldn't believe it if two men/women were living together and a couple but not in a sexual relationship. Furthermore, what counts as a sexual relationship and who decides this?

(2) Any ministry of the church casts this net very wide. Certainly it means it would include ministers of word and sacrament, deacons, readers and elders. Does it also include musicians, Sunday school teachers, people who organise the flower rota. Does it apply to staff in 121? Everyone has their own ministry in a church and this presumably means that who is included in it will come down to the interpretation of each congregation/presbytery. Whatever happens, those involved in a sexual relationship outside marriage and most homosexuals are going to feel very unwelcome in a church.

(3) Is this to be backdated? What happens to those currently in this situation? Presumably those currently in jobs keep them but if they want to move charge they will be defrocked.

(4) I'm still not convinced that it isn't against the discrimination legislation brought in last year at the General Assembly. If a gay couple took the case to court saying that there was a contradiction between the legislation saying that sexuality cannot be used to discriminate in job applications, yet then had this to contend with there does seem a contradiction in what the church is saying even if not explicit. I know there is an escape route by saying it's not discrimination on sexuality but is on being in a sexual relationship outside marriage, and that you can be gay but not have sex, but it seems like non-discrimination on grounds of sexuality has implications of sexual practice in there, even if it's not explicit.

These are the implications which spring to mind immediately. I can't help but think that even if you agree with the sentiment of the Overture it is an extremely strong piece of legislation to put in place, and given how many people will disagree with it I wouldn't be surprised if this was more likely to cause people to leave the church than Scott Rennie's appointment.

Cringe

2009-05-03T14:37:00.001+01:00

If this happened to me I think I would want to cry. Yuri Bashmet (one of the worlds best viola players) takes it really well though. Suppose there's not much you can do.

Free classical downloads - Part 3

2009-05-02T17:42:00.004+01:00

This is a follow-up to a few posts I did in March about free downloads for classical music. "On an Overgrown Path" has just posted about the excellent download site at The British Library. They only have Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms recordings from before 1957 but even that gives a huge variety. For example, a quick browse through Brahms found there are between ten and twenty versions of each Symphony, with performers including Philadelphia, BBC Symphony, NBC Symphony and Concertgebouw Orchestras to name just a few and conductors including Barbirollo, Bernstein, Furtwangler, Karajan and Szell. There is lots to explore although I have exams for the next week so will hopefully manage to put it off until they are done.

Tahiti Trot

2009-05-02T17:20:00.002+01:00

I will soon be conducting my last ever concert with my Edinburgh Uni orchestra (EUMS Sinfonia) and this is the last piece I will perform with them. The story goes that Shostakovich was listening to the song "Tea for Two" with conductor Nikolai Malko and they had a bet that after one hearing he couldn't orchestrate it it under an hour. In fact it only took forty minutes for Shostakovich to create what has become one of the best loved short pieces of light music. Here are a few different versions from youtube. The first is a vinyl of the original show tune, then a version of the original done by the Chipmunks(!) and finally the Shostakovich orchestration.

The Kirk and gay ministers - pull the troops back from the front please

2009-05-02T01:23:00.009+01:00

Anyone who has been following church news in the past few months will be aware that there is a fight going on over gay ministers. This has been an undiscussed topic in the Church of Scotland for many years. There are many ministers who are openly gay and have served in parishes without controversy, but the issue was brought to a head when a church in Aberdeen decided they would like their new minister to be Scott Rennie, who said that he would live in the manse with his partner as he does in his current charge in Brechin. In the Church of Scotland congregations call their own ministers and this has to be ratified by presbyteries. This duly happened with large majorities in both, but a few of those in the minority in the presbytery vote (with no connection to the congregation) decided they would appeal to the General Assembly. After consideration by the Council of Assembly the issue has been put up for debate in May, and the debate is sure to be one of the most heated in years.

The Kirk has actually been making progress on issues surrounding homosexuality in the last few years where other churches around the world have struggled. Note that by progress I don't mean saying that everyone should think homosexuality is ok, but instead seeking to reconcile those with differing views. Two years ago a report entitled "A Challenge to Unity" was presented to the General Assembly which emphasised the divide among churchgoers over the issue and concluded that wherever you stood the institutional intolerance shown towards those who often struggle with their sexuality in a church environment was a huge problem which had to be addressed. For a church which seeks to be truly national and welcome people with a diverse range of views, this sort of compromise and the gracious attitude with which it was received seemed to me to be progress.

However, this recent debate has been much more acrimonious, with conservative groups starting a campaign through the newspapers and the internet in an attempt to block Scott Rennie's appointment. Lochcarron and Skye presbytery have submitted an overture to the General Assembly seeking to resolve the issue once and for all, asking the Assembly to resolve “That this Church shall not accept for training, ordain, admit, readmit, induct or introduce to any ministry of the Church anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside of marriage between a man and a woman”. In the meantime the other side of the debate has been left to columnists, notably Ron Ferguson in the Herald and Life and Work editor Muriel Armstrong. The latter has proved particularly controversial, saying that those who claim to be biblical literalists will always be selective literalists to a degree and that this makes their whole case in this debate questionable.

Now it had seemed to me that this whole debate would go to the General Assembly and then be resolved in favour of the congregation who wanted Scott Rennie as their minister. Certainly that seemed the sensible way forward given that everyone personally involved in the situation was overwhelmingly happy with that (As Ron Ferguson points out, those who are claiming it will be the biggest split in the church since the Disruption have probably not realise the irony that people left then because they wanted the right for congregations to call their own ministers, something that conservatives are now desperately trying to make sure doesn't happen). However, it now seems like the whole issue is going to be hijacked because of those who wish to see homosexuals driven out of the church. While I respect everyone's right to their own individual view on this subject, I have actually been offended by the presumptuousness of ludicrous statements made about how the majority of the Kirk agree with the infallibility of biblical views opposing homosexuality. It is quite clear that there is a huge division in the Kirk over these issues and noone can claim to speak for the whole church unless they say exactly that.

I was also shocked when the conservative group Forward Together were forced into an embarrassing apology to Scott Rennie. This happened after he threatened legal action over their inaccurate claims that he left his wife for a man, when in fact his wife left him and he didn't question his sexuality until after this. When you can't even get simple facts about the case correct it doesn't strike me as caring about the case itself. Instead it shows it for what it really is, another attack on homosexuals in the church, using this case as the latest poster campaign.

There has now been a petition started to get agreement with the Lochcarron and Skye Overture. Presumably it's an attempt to influence the vote at the General Assembly by showing how many people agree with it. If I believed in gambling, I would be willing to bet that a petition stating completely the opposite view could get just as many signatories. Furthermore, the language used in the petition is incredibly strong, and while it will encourage those who feel strongly to sign it, it can only cause further bad feeling with those who couldn't sign it. It is the sort of thing which when you read it will either make you jump for joy or run for the nearest fallout shelter in fear of the war which is surely imminent. I don't believe that such a strongly worded statement is helpful in this debate at all, although the sentiments expressed in it and the desire to stand up boldly for them are laudable in their own way.

To be perfectly honest I really struggle with issues of homosexuality and Christianity. I can see both sides of the arguments and never come down clearly on one side or the other. But the bad blood being spilt on this particular debate will only ever prejudice me against the arguments put forward by those spilling it. I never had one of those wristbands which said WWJD - What would Jesus Do? - because I found the whole thing a bit cheesy. But it's a valid question to ask sometimes. I don't think he would have taken a personal situation and skewed it into a national (rapidly becoming an international) debate which threatens to deeply affect many people's personal situation in the church and their Christian faith. I will fight for people's right to disagree with homosexuality on religious grounds, but not to claim that they speak for everyone when they clearly don't. And when the existence of a divide is clear I will fight to make sure that there is compromise reached, not that one side "wins". There's disagreement over the whole issue and everyone is going to have to live with that, at least in the near future.

Debate on homosexuality seems to be the churches equivalent of nuclear weapons. There is a huge split on whether it's right or wrong and if it ever blows up there is no way back because we will have made the environment we live in irreparable. For the sake of the church as a whole I hope both sides can back down and try and have some reasoned debate and seek to work out a compromise to this rather than going for full on attack. As the title to this post says, pull the troops back from the front please, let the diplomats have a go at a solution. After all of this I think the person who comes out with most credit is Scott Rennie himself. Although I don't know him personally it is apparent that from the start he was open about his situation and willing to allow debate over deeply personal issues in order to resolve what both he and a congregation saw as a calling to serve as their minister. I applaud him for keeping his dignity throughout all of this while those seeking to crucify him are screaming their heads off in the same old, thoroughly unmusical tune.

Clement Freud takes on gossip

2009-04-29T00:00:00.003+01:00

This video shows the genius of the late Sir Clement Freud: able to approach a controversy in a disarmingly charming way, raise controversy with a hint of humour, and really get an audience on his side.

Camerata on the Radio

2009-04-14T08:41:00.005+01:00

The rest of the Camerata concert which was recorded in Perth two weeks ago is now on iPlayer, again as part of "Classics Unwrapped". If you live in the UK you should be able to listen to it until Sunday afternoon. Beethoven's "Egmont Overture" is about 10 minutes in, while Schubert's Symphony No.4 - the "Tragic - is at the 1 hour 22 minute mark (It is Symphony No.4 rather than Symphony No.5 which Jamie MacDougall introduces it as).

Online score perusal

2009-04-08T00:49:00.003+01:00

Molly Sheridan at NewMusicBox writes about Schirmer's new online score perusal service. As someone who spends hours in libraries looking at scores in order to programme concerts, and who struggles to get hold of many scores this seems like a smart move. Not only does it make it easier for conductors to browse scores, but it's a good business move for Schirmer who presumably hope to increase music hires by making unknown works more easily studied.

Tom Service on classical music and education

2009-04-06T13:20:00.002+01:00

Tom Service has written an excellent article here in the Guardian on classical music and its relationship to education in this country.

Camerata Tour

2009-04-06T11:50:00.004+01:00

I've spent the last week on tour with Camerata Scotland, the older and smaller version of NYOS. Most of the players are in music college and the few who aren't (like me) try and keep their playing up to that standard as much as possible. I seldom get to play in such a good orchestra these days so I really enjoy when I get invited to this one. We had a great conductor, Jac van Steen, who kept a great sense of humour throughout the week and shared his passion and insights into the music with us. We also had two stunning young soloists to perform Mozart's "Sinfonia Concertante", Giovanni Guzzo and Mark Braithwaite. These are names worth remembering as I'm sure they are going to be much better known in a few years. The BBC recorded our concert in Perth and you can here the Mozart at around the hour mark on "Classics Unwrapped", which is available to listen to for the next week if you stay in the UK. The other pieces we played - Beethoven's "Egmont Overture" and Schubert's Symphony no. 4 (Tragic) - will be played at a later date.

Tennis Rankings at end of Roland Garros

2009-04-06T11:17:00.003+01:00

One of my favourite sports is tennis and I've been watching the British press making a huge fuss this week of Andy Murray's chances of overtaking Novak Djokovic as world no. 3. When they're analysing this though they are only really thinking from week to week. The way tennis rankings work means that your best scores stay for a year and then get dropped either at the same time next year or when you get a better score, apart from in compulsory tournaments like the slams and masters events where all your scores for the last 12 months are counted, however good they are. This actually means you can see in advance how well players have to do over the next x months to keep their position. So while the press have been disappointed at Murray not catching Djokovic this week, none of them have looked at the next few months in detail when Djokovic has a huge amount of points to defend. The way I like to analyse this is by taking a cut off point such as the end of the clay court season - eg. the next Grand Slam. If you deduct all the points that players (lets take the top 4) won over that period last season, we effectively see what they need to do to take or hold a position by the end of that period. So we have at the moment;

Nadal - 14470
Federer - 11020
Djokovic - 9010
Murray - 8840

The logical way to read that is that Nadal is untouchable, while Murray and Djokovic need to have much better clay court seasons to catch either of the top 2. However, if we deduct the points won from last years clay court season we get (from my quick calculations);

Nadal - 9860
Murray - 8320
Federer - 7620
Djokovic - 7110

This gives us a completely different story. Murray has had such a good year outside of the clay court season he is effectively world no. 2 outwith it. This means that he doesn't have to get results as good as Federer and Djokovic during this period but could still end up as no. 2. Certainly in the case of Djokovic who won a Masters and reached the semis of the two others and Roland Garros last year, Murray has a strong chance of staying no more than behind 1200 points of that type of form, and unless Djokovic suddenly gos on a winning streak that we wouldn't expect given his current form, it looks likely that Murray will take the no. 3 spot. Given that Federer is actually an extremely good clay court player, the no. 2 spot looks less likely, as I would expect Federer to do better than Murray by at least 700 points over this period. However, looking at Federer's recent breakdown, and Murray's unfulfilled potential on clay, anything could happen here. We're certainly likely to have a reshaped top 4 by the end of the French Open.

EDIT: Paul Newman in The Independent has actually picked up on this and seems to share my view that Federer won't be troubled as much due to Murray's relative lack of pedigree on clay.

Edinburgh International Festival Programme Launch

2009-03-25T22:41:00.005Z

Tam Pollard at the "Where's Runnicles" blog has posted his views on the Edinburgh International Festival's programme here and I thought I would give a few points of my own, although I agree with much of what he says.

I'm slightly disappointed by the lack of big name Symphony orchestras and conductors in the Usher Hall but I think that some big name Baroque performers such as John Eliot Gardener and Masaaki Suzuki are maybe the reason there. I am very pleased to see NYCoS involved in the final concert after the policy for many years of having no youth groups performing, however good they are. As an ex-NYOS member I think it would be great if they could be invited one year - how about a joint NYOS/NYCOS concert, that would draw the crowds in surely.

I think my main gripe is the lack of 18th Century Scottish music in the main programme. Sure it's got a few dedicated late night spots by performers who know and love the repertoire but it would have been great to see it included somewhere in a big name artists Queen's Hall programme, or in an Usher Hall concert - although I appreciate that's more impractical given the small resources much music of the time was written for. If the theme of the programme is "The Scottish Enlightenment" it would have been nice to see music from this more to the forefront since noone else will promote it if a Scottish Festival doesn't.

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention is that while it is nice to see some contemporary music from Scotland (Macmillan and Maxwell Davies), it would have been nice to see some young Scottish composers given exposure rather than (or as well as) established ones. This is another area I feel the festival could have done better in recently, particularly given that Jonathan Mills is a composer himself. I do appreciate that everyone has their own personal views on what should be in a festival though, and it can't be all things to all people. While this post has been mainly about things I feel are missing that is not to say I don't think the programme is good.

Free classical downloads - Part 2

2009-03-09T07:35:00.003Z

There were a couple of sites I forgot to mention in my last post.

Alexander Street Press offers downloads about twice a month, and best of all you can sign up to a mailing list to remind you when the next one is available. It's currently Enescu's String Quartet No.2, something I've certainly never heard before, but it's supposed to change today so if you're a big Enescu fan get there asap.

Particularly timely is Radio 4 in the Netherlands. This week in honour of Bernard Haitink's birthday they are giving away a symphony a day of him conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, one of the best orchestras in the world, playing in arguably the best acoustic in the world. There is a special website set up here. Earlier this year they also put up ten symphonies played by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for their 120th Anniversary. These were supposed to be taken down but they still appear to be on the site. One good thing about these downloads is that you can also download a CD cover with them, meaning you have the programme notes, one thing often missing in downloads.

The Dutch Radio 4 being so generous with downloads highlights the issue of the BBC Trust restricting the BBC's ability to give away free classical music on the internet. Despite the fact that it would break no copyright laws if they gave away recordings of their own orchestras of music from the early 20th Century and earlier. The Trust decided to restrict this after the phenomenal success of the free Beethoven downloads it made available for two weeks and which were downloaded almost one and a half million times! Commercial companies raised a huge fuss and the BBC bowed to the pressure. This was probably one of the worst things done for the promotion of classical music in recent years. While Radio 3 had probably planned to continue this and there could have been many new fans for Bach and Haydn if they had done Anniversary downloads for them, the Trust instead kept classical music in the domain of those elite few who already go out and buy it, while the record companies shot themselves in the foot by not jumping onto the bandwagon and trying to get new fans for their products when they are already suffering from declining CD sales. It's maybe worth mentioning at this point that classical music is one of the few areas of commercial music that doesn't look like it's currently looking for life support. Anyway, enough of the rant. Lets just say well done and thank you to the Dutch.

Free classical downloads

2009-03-02T13:27:00.003Z

The last few days I've been exploring free classical downloads on the internet. There are of course a lot of sites where you can pay for downloads but if I'm buying music, and I frequently do, then I prefer to get it on CD. However, I was interested to see if you could get recordings by world class artists legally and have discovered two sites where this is possible. They both have different reasons for being able to get round copyright.

LiberLiber is an Italian site with mostly orchestral and operatic repertoire where all the recordings appear to be over 50 years old, which is I believe currently the protected period in some European countries, presumably including Italy. If you are interested in these I would download them soon though because the EU wants to lengthen the copyright period to 95 years, meaning sites like this would be illegal. You may think that 50+ year old recordings are not worth bothering about anyway but there are some great performances here, even if the sound quality doesn't have the clarity we're used to now - watch out for some Toscanini/NBC Symphony recordings and a few by the Berlin and Vienna Phils among the orchestral repertoire, while the opera stuff includes some fantastic Italian companies and quite a lot of D'oyly Carte G&S recordings.

The Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston hosts regular recitals, and it posts live recordings by many of the artists who perform there, and actively encourages you to share it with your friends. There is almost 40 hours worth of music on here and again has a range of world class (and mostly very young) performers. The sound quality of these is excellent as well, always something which can be the downfall of live recordings if not done as a professional release (although I imagine the recording engineer must be a professional). Presumably all these artists are happy to release a few tracks in order to get greater exposure.

Both these sites are completely legal and yet provide a great service to the classical music world through their downloads. Liberliber is releasing recordings which the artists are no longer getting the money for, and which most people would not buy in a shop, yet after exploring the music that is there I am encouraged to go and listen to this repertoire further. Similarly with the Isabella Gardner Museum I will certainly keep an eye out for recordings by some of these artists now, names I didn't know before and probably wouldn't have taken a chance on in a shop. Both these sites only work because the quality of the performance is what you would get if you paid for a recording though. There are other sites where you can download recordings by amateurs and while it's nice that it's there it doesn't really excite you in the same way and I would rather pay than listen to that. As someone who is against illegal downloading I think it's great that people are finding ways to use free downloading constructively and I hope that more people will follow. If you know of any other sites which make good use of legal downloads let me know, in the meantime please explore these sites and hopefully you will discover something new for you there like I have.

Take this Sabbath Day

2009-02-27T22:56:00.004Z

I've started watching the West Wing from the start again. A mistake I know, but one I will have to live with as there's no chance of stopping until I get to the end now. I was just watching episode 14 of series 1 and it really resonated with me. It brings up the age old question of "How do we know when God is guiding us?". For anyone who believes in a higher power, that powers interjection in our world is one of the great mysteries and one which perhaps is best unexplained. In the West Wing episode, President Bartlett has to decide whether to commute a death sentence. At the end of the episode, after seeking advice from everyone during the day he decides not to commute the sentence. Eventually his childhood priest arrives - too late to change his mind but not too soon to speak about this question. Here is the video of the last scene...

For me the question recently has been what my future plans are to be when I finish my undergrad degree. Various options have appeared and disappeared and at the moment nothing seems to be obvious. The question is how do you know what the right thing for you is, and how do you know how that fits into any plan God may have for you? People keep telling me when things don't work out that it must be that God has a different plan for me, something I can accept but which I wonder whether they would say if the easy option had worked out. Would they have said that was God's plan? Often it seems to me like people will say they are putting their future in God only if they are going with the uncomfortable options, often being in a similar situation to Bartlett where they turn down plenty of options along the way. How do they know that those possibilities aren't plans for them either? It's very easy to make yourself into a martyr because that seems to be the right thing to do to demonstrate your faith while blithely ignoring all the rescue boats God has put there along the way. As I said earlier, this is one of the mysteries in religion and one I am actually quite happy being there. It doesn't make plans easier but it does make faith easier somehow - don't know if I can explain that though. Would be interested to hear where other people stand on this.

Sinfoniettta Review

2009-02-09T17:34:00.007Z

Nice review of my concert a few weeks ago in the Edinburgh Journal. It's a student paper but it's always nice to get reviewed and I'm particularly pleased that they managed to pick up on the reasoning behind the concert, commenting on the timing of it at the start of term and the programming of new and known works. Obviously noone will be too critical when they know people involved in groups they are reviewing, but it's nice to be encouraging and make any comments constructive as well, something a few posters on a message board have forgotten when commenting on Edinburgh University Footlight's recent production, giving it an (in my humble opinion) unjustified roasting which does their own reputation more harm than those they are criticising.

"It’s easy to get caught up in the end-of-term concert rush, in which a mass of university societies take us on a well rehearsed journey through music history. It doesn’t half leave a gap in the market for a beginning of term concert, especially one with such a well balanced programme. The programme of the newly-formed Edinburgh University Sinfonietta, under conductor Iain McLarty, takes us from a new arrangement to a new work to a world famous classic – a feat which, it must be said, they pull off really rather well.

Cecil Coles’ Behind the Lines provides a placid opening. It is a good display of the talents of the orchestra: an accomplished balance between sections is undeniably present and the harmonies fill the performance space beautifully. For what is essentially a reduced ensemble, the work’s emotional qualities come across well, and are brought together by a beautifully executed closing diminuendo.

Thomas Seltz’s violin concerto demonstrates a polished energy in its marriage of genres. Solo melodies couple the exquisiteness of classicism with the unknown of the 21st century, the outcome of, say, Shostakovich in a particularly adventurous mood. Violinist Aaron McGregor delivers a solo which demonstrates flawless mood changes alongside true emotive coherence. Occasionally his sound is lost amidst the orchestra, but the balance is generally good. Despite giving a moving performance, the work could definitely benefit from larger orchestral forces. The outer movements in particular deserve an accentuation of the energy portrayed this evening.

Prokofiev’s iconic Peter and the Wolf fits the ensemble perfectly. Serene pastoral sections are expressively portrayed while sporadic darker passages are punctuated ominously by the lower strings and brass. Careful use of brass does accentuate the tranquil quality possessed by the work (as Strauss said: “Never look at the trombones – you’ll only encourage them”). Narrator Nigel Osborne instils his infectious enthusiasm, breathing life into the work which is appreciated by newcomers and seasoned listeners alike."
Sarah Mitchell - Edinburgh Journal

Musical Duels

2009-02-05T14:04:00.004Z

In the 19th Century, virtuoso musicians would sometimes engage in "duels", battling to show who was the most skilled. There are of course other examples of this elsewhere - while it may not be historically accurate the scene in "Amadeus" where Mozart imitates other composers is one, while the modern equivalent would be a rap battle. The rise of the virtuoso performer in the 19th Century meant that was where the most spectacular battles probably happened though, with the most famous of these being the Liszt-Thalberg rivalry. Anyway, I was reminded of all this by a video I found today. Maxim Vengerov, debatably the closest thing to a virtuoso violinist around today is completely upstaged by a double bassist.

The Two Cow Theory

2009-02-02T21:40:00.003Z

This is something I came across years ago while I was at school and remembered about recently. It is essentially a way to understand different systems of government, economics, belief etc through the medium of cows. The following list is a collection of some of the best ones I could find, there is an extremely comprehensive collection here. No offence is intended to any person/cows.

REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbour can get his own.
DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbour has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office that put a tax on your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money, buy a cow and give it to your neighbour. You feel righteous. Barbara Streisand sings for you.
DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, then pours the milk down the drain.
THE TALIBAN: You have two cows. You turn them loose in the Afghan "countryside" and they both die. You blame the godless American infidels.
COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour.
SOVIET STYLE COMMUNISM: The government takes two cows away from your neighbour and sends them into orbit to prove the communist system is better. Your neighbour is sent to Siberia for being a landowner. You are sent to Siberia for being a troublemaker. The capitalists, shocked about the orbiting cows, are spurred into action and land cows on the moon a few years later. Your economy cannot compete and dissolves into chaos.
FASCISM: Your neighbour is shot for not having the proper papers for his cows. All four cows are taken away and forced to work in a slave labour camp making missiles. You are then shot for not having any cows.
SOCIALISM: The government takes one cow from your neighbour and gives it to you. Then it takes one cow from each of you in taxes. The two cows are given to poor people, who require continuous government handouts to keep their cows from starving. The government continually raises taxes. Eventually both you and your neighbour are forced to sell your remaining cows to pay the taxes.
MARXISM: The cows revolt against exploitation and form a commune where they are all equal. Since everyone is equal, they are all managers and no one does any work. They stand in long lines to buy grass. One cow escapes to Mexico, but the other cows send an assassin after him.
FEMINISM: You are forced to have an equal number of cows and bulls. Instead of giving milk, your cow runs for the US Senate while your bull refuses to mate. Cows become extinct.
AMERICAN CAPITALISM: The person with 3 cows becomes rich by renting one of his cows to you. Then he takes his cow back and uses the profit to buy your cow from you, leaving him with 4 cows and you with none.
EUROPEAN CAPITALISM: The government discovers that cows cause global warming and you are forced sell your cow to pay for expensive emission control devices. There is no market for cows. It is considered gauche to eat beef, and killing a cow is considered a form of genocide. Your neighbour is tried in the International Criminal Court for running a cow slavery ring. The government sets limits on the number of cows it can have, then exceeds them.
KEYNESIANISM: The government buys your cow and hires five workers to take care of it to ensure full employment. The cows get bigger and bigger, while the currency loses its value. Soon a cow costs $1,000,000 which is only about 3 days wages. But supply and demand has made owning a cow unprofitable. The economy collapses.
AMERICAN CORPORATION:You have two cows.You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to lunch. Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.
GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows but you don't know where they are. While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman. You break for lunch. Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows.You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 12 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka. You produce your 10th, 5-year plan in the last 3 months. The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
MEXICAN CORPORATION: You think you have two cows, but you don't know what a cow looks like. You take a nap.
SWISS CORPORATION: You have 5000 cows, none of which belongs to you. You charge for storing them for others.
BRAZILIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You enter into a partnership with an American corporation. Soon you have 1000 cows and the American corporation declares bankruptcy.
INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You worship them.
FLORIDA CORPORATION: You have a black cow and a brown cow. Everyone votes for the best looking one. Some of the people who like the brown one best,
vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which is the best-looking one.
NEW YORK CORPORATION: You have fifteen million cows. You have to choose which one will be the leader of the herd, so you pick some fat cow from Arkansas
CHINESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.
INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You worship them.
BRITISH CORPORATION: You have two cows. Both are mad.
IRAQI CORPORATION: Everyone thinks you have lots of cows. You tell them that you have none. No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country. You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of Democracy.
AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. Business seems pretty good. You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.
NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION: You have two cows. The one on the left looks very attractive.
CHRISTIAN: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbour.
AGRIBUSINESS: Cows are genetically modified to produce their own corn. The cows are designed to be cube-shaped to increase stacking efficiency. Other countries pass laws prohibiting the import of self-fed beef.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: Bovine servitude is prohibited by the 28th Amendment. It is illegal to say anything unflattering about bovinely-abled individuals or to use the word "cowed". Anyone who says the word "coward" is fired from their job. The word "cowboy" becomes synonymous with "Nazi".
MILITARY: The military builds a secret underground facility, protected by 35-ton blast doors, to house the cows in the event of a national cow emergency. It has its own underground power station, TV station, and hospital. No cows are actually stored there. Anyone who finds out about the facility mysteriously disappears. There are rumours that it stores cows from outer space.
CitiGroup VENTURE CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public then buys your bull.
SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

Obama does Copland

2009-01-29T15:25:00.002Z

One of the most interesting posts about Obama I've seen here. I've been a fan of Obama since I first came across him abuot six months before the first primaries and for the exact reasons mentioned here. He seems to be a genuinely interesting, engaging, caring character who will apply himself to a problem, and knows how to use people and resources to help him - before then applying that all and being willing to think on his feet and take credit for it. Nice to see this applied in a setting so close to my heart too.

Iain McWhirter talks sense

2009-01-14T01:13:00.004Z

My mind has just been made up for me in who to vote for in the forthcoming election of a new Rector at Edinburgh University. The Rector is supposed to be the voice of the students and Herald journalist Iain McWhirter has effectively written a campaign manifesto in his column today which highlights some of the biggest issues for students today.

His point about student financial support needing to be at the poverty level is one I have been making for years. I maintain that it is near to impossible to get through University without any debt other than your student loan unless your parents support you to the tune of over £2000 more than the government expect them to, or you spend a significant amount of time earning money in part-time jobs. It's a simple calculation really.

Maximum student loan (i.e. parental income under ~£30k, the government doesn't expect them to contribute) = ~£4500
Rent in Edinburgh = £3600+

So students are expected to pay bills, eat, buy course books, have the occassional night out, and do everything else you do in life on around £1k a year. A minimum income guarantee at the poverty level (£7k) would make this much more realistic.

His point about the number of recent graduates not in work also shows that he actually realises what . I have many friends who graduated in the last year or two, of whom at least half haven't been able to get the types of jobs they were looking for and are working in what they see as temporary jobs, or not working at all.

Gilles Apap

2009-01-08T02:03:00.006Z

It often seems like genius and insanity are just two different ways of looking at the same thing. Bearing that in mind I present to you the violinist Gilles Apap. I think the fact he has a "bad reviews" section on his website says a lot. Personally I love what he does, although there are points where it crosses into the insane category. However, if more people took risks like that and tried to reinvent classical music we probably wouldn't have the same image of it as a dead artform which only pensioners listen to. While Apap is undoubtedly brilliant in his own way, any prospective imitators need to be careful to reinvent things in their own way, and also do it not merely for the sake of it. Here is what Menuhin wrote to him

"The different folklorique music, particularly that of people who, sadly, are on the path of extinction, it's up to us to assimilate it, it's up to us to be inspired by what it has to offer, by its characteristics, and to grant this music a new resurgence by way of the creative imagination of musicians who are able to play anything. For me, you are the example of a musician of the 21st century. You represent the direction in which music should evolve; on the one hand, the patrimonial respect of the precious classical works, presenting them in the correct style and with the intense communication that was appropriate to their time; on the other hand, the discovery of contemporary [popular] music and its creative element, not only in the improvisation, but also in the interpretation."

Strong stuff from one of the great performers of the twentieth century. In the meantime I leave you with a few of his best videos.

A new take on Vivaldi's "Spring"

A novel bowing technique

Cadenza from the third mvmt of Mozart's "Violin Concerto No.3"

Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray argue over Beethoven

2009-01-07T21:24:00.002Z

This video was posted across at "All the Conducting Masterclasses" and I thought it was worth posting here since it's so funny. On a serious note it demonstrates really well the sort of narrative that a lot of music has (particularly Beethoven), and all musicians should aspire to being able to convey this level of clarity in how they interpret a piece.

"No cue cards, no teleprompters, and no second takes--legendary funnyman Sid Caesar pioneered live television sketch comedy with his 1950s sitcoms Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour. This classic sketch is "Argument to Beethoven's 5th," Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray play a married couple in a argument with pantomimed action and the dialogue is classic music."

NYA 2008 Deliverance

2009-01-07T00:43:00.003Z

Here is the final deliverance from Youth Assembly last year. I think it's a great document of what young people in the church think. In particular, the section dealing with Mental Health is an important issue for people to deal with and I hope it can bring the issue to greater attention. There were many ideas during the weekend which couldn't make it into the final deliverance due to lack of space (especially in the Sustainable Living and Future Church sections!). However, I hope people who were there feel that this is a good result of their work. Would be really interesting to hear people's take on this six months on.

Healthy Relationships
The National Youth Assembly,
1. Encourages the Church of Scotland to help combat stigma by raising awareness surrounding mental health problems in local congregations and encourage them to form informal support networks.
2. Urges the Church of Scotland to ensure that everyone, and in particular key figures in congregations, are aware of the issues surrounding and resources available to people with mental health difficulties and encourage these to be used.
3. Suggests that the Church of Scotland provide training and information on mental health issues for those who provide pastoral support, but recognise that there are boundaries and situations where reference to a medical professional is necessary.
4. Encourages pastoral support to be available to the families of those suffering from mental health problems, as well as the individuals themselves, while respecting the need for confidentiality.
5. Recognises that, although Ministers and others with a pastoral role should be trained and resourced in understanding mental health issues, it would worthwhile to note that they are not mental health experts and should not be expected to be.
6. Encourages the churches in Scotland to work at being an inclusive community that celebrates the diversity of the gifts of its people and allows them to grow as individuals
7. Encourages the churches in Scotland to support and develop the role of Street Pastors in their work with the homeless and other disadvantaged groups.
8. Recognises the quality of the Church of Scotland’s work with the marginalised of society and encourages the extension of that work into the everyday life of congregations.
9. Loves the elderly.

The Media
The National Youth Assembly,
1. Recommends that the Church of Scotland explores and utilises appropriate technology to further the Gospel to develop fellowship, locally, nationally and internationally.
2. Encourages the investigation of new avenues that technology opens to engage with people we may not have previously had contact with and provide training for key figures to utilise these technologies to the full.
3. Believes that people should relate with others online in an authentic way, mindful that Christ calls us to love one another as we are loved.
4. Encourages communities to use social media to continue and expand conversations, and to connect to the collective wisdom of the community.
5. Recognises the work needed to create resources and to acknowledge and value the ownership of work made available on line.
6. Encourages the implementation of a weekly Sabbath from unnecessary use of technology to ensure that personal relationships continue to have their proper place at the heart of the Church of Scotland's ministry and witness.
7. Encourages education within churches concerning online safety, particularly with young people, including information on the dangers of disclosing personal information online.
8. Challenges all churches to have an online presence by 2010 and consider implementing a scheme such as that run by the United Reformed Church.

Sustainable Living
The National Youth Assembly,
1. Would like to develop ideas of eco-consciousness within the running of the NYA, for example reducing mailings, enhancing transport links, encouraging car sharing and providing buses.
2. Encourages:
· the Church of Scotland to promote responsible use of the Earth's resources and support those who are vulnerable as a result of climate change
· congregations to work with others to consider ways of becoming more ecologically sound.
· members to be more eco-friendly in their day to day lives.
3. Encourages the UK and Scottish governments to devise legislation that promotes more efficient use of national grid and renewable technologies. Recognise that nuclear power has a role to play in the current energy climate.
4. Urges the Church and Society Council to lobby local authorities and central government to increase both the availability and convenience of public transport - especially outwith inner city areas. We would also encourage the development of greener transport initiatives such as hydrogen buses, urban tolls and free public transport. The Church of Scotland should actively encourage congregations to lead by example and make more use of these services.
5. Affirms that action needs to be multi-faceted. Even though there is no conclusive proof of anthropogenic climate change, we would regard the responsible attitude to be to continue current measures, using revenue raised by carbon taxation in humanitarian aid.
6. Encourages the UK and Scottish governments to address the issues of fuel poverty as a matter of urgency.
7. Believes that we should learn from the examples of other countries’ complementary energy policies and that these schemes should be encouraged worldwide. We emphasise the need for our own country to be as energy efficient as possible before criticising other countries on their energy policies. As such, the NYA would encourage the UK government to advise other countries on their energy policies learning from our mistakes during the industrial revolution.
8. Calls upon the Church of Scotland to make all reasonable effort to reduce the consumption of paper and look to possible alternatives including electronic distribution and recycled paper.
9. Believes the church’s future is inextricably linked to the ideal of sustainable living not simply in forming centres for sustainable living on a local level, but also to use its influence in government to bring about change.
10. Encourages the Church of Scotland to use community buildings where possible for church meetings and vice-versa.
11. Suggests using the mission team model to send teams to join in sustainable church building projects.
12. Encourages the Church of Scotland to educate church members about sustainability projects like those in Bankfoot and Milton.
13. Would like the Church of Scotland to inform churches about grants that are offered by the government and other organisations for implementing green energy initiatives.
14. Encourages the Church of Scotland to consider employing further personnel to advise on issues of sustainable living, in recognition of its importance to the future of the church.

Future Church
The National Youth Assembly,
1. Believes that the future church should be a 24/7 church, as the wider world increasingly operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
2. Believes that the church in Scotland should be identified as a community that discusses and studies, as well as a community that listens. This should involve times of reflection and discussion within worship.
3. Urges the church in Scotland to work towards bridging gaps between social groups, especially young and old, both within and out with the church. We believe that we should celebrate the differences of each group as each has an equal role to play while recognising that different groups have different needs.
4. Believes that congregations are responsible for caring for each other and the community. All in the church should be encouraged and empowered to practically show Jesus to the community, without expectation of anything in return.
5. Recognises the value of small congregations working in the best interests of communities, and urges the church to support such congregations by the pooling of resources to avoid marginalisation and closure of these valuable congregations.
6. Encourages all churches, where possible, to develop ministry teams to fit the needs of their local communities
7. Believes that the church of the future should be community focused, adopting an attitude of acceptance to those who are on the fringes of society. The concept of acceptance must be recognised to be far more than disabled access, but also include the use of car pooling and the provision of worship times, styles and spaces that are best suited to the local condition.
8. Believes that money should be shared between all churches so that the Gospel may be spread to the wider community.
9. Calls on the General Assembly to endorse the gifting to the Scottish people of the celebration of births, weddings and funerals as opportunities to start meaningful relationships and conversations. We ask that resources and training as how you do this be given to all ministers and elders.
10. Believes that Territorial Ministries as outlined in Article 3 have a complex impact on the mission of the church; it could be perceived as the focal point in relation to the calling and training of ministers without appropriate attention to the possibility of using lay ministers and particular callings. At the same time territorial ministry offers a precious universality in the support of the country’s people.

Edinburgh University Sinfonietta

2009-01-06T03:14:00.004Z

Musbook and classical music on the internet

2009-01-06T02:59:00.005Z

I was interested to see a new social network for musicians starting up this week. Called Musbook, it shares a lot of features with sites which are already popular such as facebook and bebo, however there are a number of differences. The whole site is open, since the purpose is professional networking rather than keeping in touch with friends. There will also be directories of musicians and ensembles (who can have their own page) very soon, including maps to see what's near you. It will be very interesting to see how this pans out. Classical music seems to be an area which is actually very well suited to the internet. Maybe it's to do with the size of the people interested in it - a big enough group that a tool like the internet makes communication and discovery a lot easier, yet not so large that it becomes hard to find the information you wish. There are a number of sites (musicalchairs for example) through which you can quickly find links to most of the major ensembles and conservatoires in the world. It is also possible to keep track of jobs and masterclasses through various sites. Musbook does this for UK jobs, musicalchairs for jobs worldwide, while the Scottish Music Centre does it for Scottish jobs. The classical music scene also seems to be a good size for networking anyway. Even as a student I would say that I probably have at most two degrees of friendship with most serious classical musicians in Scotland, and that can quite easily extend down south as well. When you also consider the amount of international movement by musicians it makes for a fantastic mix of people. Musbook seems to be in a great place to take advantage of this. It is run by musicians and is regularly asking for feedback, so hopefully it shouldn't fall into the trap of failing to satisfy its target audience. All it really needs now is for musicians to join. So if you're a pro, student or just a music lover go to Musbook now and sign up....

How not to get people to read your book....

2009-01-04T00:05:00.004Z

Just before Christmas I did something I have thought of doing for a while and bought a copy of Richard Dawkins' bestseller "The God Delusion" (TGD). For good measure I also bought a copy of "The Dawkins Delusion" (TDD) by Alister McGrath, a book widely considered as the best response to TGD. Those of you who have ever heard me on the subject will be aware that I have very little time for "evangelical atheism" and may be surprised that I have even bought TGD in the first place. However, I think that when things really annoy you it is often good to explore them a little further with an open mind and try and understand where people are coming from. Having bought the books I planned to read them over the holidays and do a blog post or two on my thoughts at some point. I'm blogging slightly earlier than I planned. As I'm writing this I started reading TGD ten minutes ago and I'm already annoyed. I've not even got into any of the substance of the book yet. The reason is that in the edition I've got, Dawkins' decided to spend the first ten pages attacking his critics, and giving responses to the most common criticisms of his book. Now I was trying to approach a subject about which I have extremely strong views with an open mind, and what I really didn't want to find was what seemed like an attack on any opposing views before I'd even read any of the book. How Dawkins' expects anyone who is inclined to disagree with him take his views seriously after that I don't know. I will now attempt to count that as a false start and read the book proper with an open mind.

Positive Thoughts on Classical Music

2009-01-03T00:45:00.003Z

I thought I would start off the New Year by posting an article by Leon Botstein which takes an optimistic look at the world of classical music. It's very nice to hear a positive voice where so many seem to try and find everything possible to be gloomy about (yes, I'm looking at you Mr Lebrecht). I don't necessarily agree with everything Botstein says. Looking at the picture now compared to thirty years ago and saying that comparisons with pre-19th century patronage are valid while the mass appeal of classical music in the 19th century isn't is an odd argument. I think the best you can say is that what we call classical music has survived through different circumstances over an extremely long period of time. The 20th century is the first time we draw distinctions between different genres of music, with classical music basically encompassing all art music prior to this. Therefore, classical music is now competing with other genres in a way it didn't in either the 19th century or the earlier times when it relied on patronage. However, as a separate point, the statistics on music over the last thirty years (which I've never seen before) are extremely interesting, and worthy of optimism in their own right.

Christmas videos

2008-12-24T21:54:00.003Z

Happy Christmas to everyone reading this, whenever it may be. I'm just back from the Watchnight service at St Giles', which is one of my favourite services of the year. The minister was on great form tonight and really managed to pitch his sermon exactly right, with something to think about for visitors as well as regular punters. Anywaw, I hope you have a great Christmas and here are a few videos which I thought are worth sharing.

Bankfoot Church Centre

2008-12-24T01:18:00.004Z

The new church centre at Bankfoot is featured on the BBC today. Link is here.

I'm very pleased to see that the new building is being so well used as this is the church my Mum's aunt is involved in and ever since the old church burned down four years ago the congregation seems to have been engaged in the community to an extent they might not have had if the fire hadn't happened. While I'm not saying the fire was in any way a good thing, it's great to see a church who haven't clung onto their building as what defines them, and instead have used the chance to create a new building and created it in the way they want their church to work.

Repertoire this year

2008-12-17T15:28:00.007Z

Kenneth Woods has been doing comparisons of repertoire he has conducted this year with other conductors. Obviously I won't have conducted nearly as much as any of the professionals have (certainly not as much as Leonard Slatkin), but I thought it would be interesting (for me at least and that's all that matters here) to do a similar thing. These pieces weren't all conducted in concerts, but some of them were pieces I studied at courses (C), some where I just took a rehearsal (R) for someone. Since these probably account for about a quarter of the repertoire I learn I feel it's important to include them here. I also haven't included short pieces for choir here because all the Rutter and the carols would probably double the length of the list.

1. Arnold - Trumpet Concerto
2. Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 (mvmt 1+2) (C)
3. Beethoven - Symphony No. 6
4. Beethoven - Violin Concerto(R)
5. Bizet - Excerpts from L'Arlesienne
6. Bizet - Carmen Suites 1+2
7. Bliss - March from "Things to Come"
8. Brahms - Academic Festival Overture
9. Brahms - Symphony No. 4(R+C)
10. Dvorak - Symphony No. 9(C)
11. Faure - Dolly Suite
12. Gabrieli - Sonata Pian' e Forte
13. Grieg - In Autumn
14. Glinka - Jota Aragonesa (Caprice brillante)
15. MacCunn - The Land of the Mountain and the Flood
16. Mahler - Symphony No. 2 (2nd mvmt)(C)
17. Mozart - Divertimento in D (mvmt 1+2)(C)
18. Mozart - Overture to the Magic Flute
19. Mozart - Symphony No. 41(C)
20. Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel) - Pictures at an Exhibition
21. Rossini - Overture to the Barber of Seville
22. Schubert - Symphony No. 8
23. Sibelius - Pelleas and Melisande suite
24. Williams - Theme from Jurassic Park

On reflection, I'm actually surprised quite how much is there when I write it all down. There is also a fairly decent balance, with Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms and Schubert taking up just over a third of the list (9), Romantic composers just more than that (10), Arnold, Bliss, Sibelius and Williams give some 20th century representation, while Gabrieli is the token pre-18th century composer on the list. I'm slightly disappointed that I've not done more contemporary music, but that should be rectified by doing two new works, both written by composers at Edinburgh Uni, next term.

Assisted Suicide

2008-11-17T13:15:00.002Z

Paralysed after being attacked by neo-Nazis, Noel Martin is planning a trip to Switzerland to commit suicide. Here, disabled broadcaster Liz Carr, who met Noel for a BBC Radio 5 Live report, writes an open letter asking him to think again.

"One of the main problems I have with assisted suicide stories like yours, Noel, is that the media perpetuates the idea that to be disabled or ill must be the greatest tragedy of all. Disability inevitability equals no quality of life.
I know when people read your story, many will agree that yes, if they were in your situation then they would want to die too. Most people are so scared of illness, of disability, of getting older, that wanting assisted suicide is seen as an entirely rational desire. What scares me is that views like these will also be held by the doctors, the media, the courts, the government and all the others who have the power to decide if we live or die.
I'm sure by now you know how I feel about assisted suicide. Until the day when good quality health and social care are universally available regardless of age, impairment, race, gender or location, I believe there is no place for legalised assisted suicide.
I just think it's too easy for a society to promote assisted suicide as a right rather than work to overcome the barriers to supporting older, ill and disabled people to live fulfilled and valuable lives. Forget the right to die, isn't it more urgent that we campaign for the right not to be killed"

Peter Howson

2008-10-28T11:49:00.007Z

I have never been a huge art lover, appreciating it but not having the same degree of interest in it that I do in music. However, I was interested to see the news recently that Peter Howson has been commissioned by Archbishop Mario Conti to paint a huge scene depicting the martyrdom of Scotland's only post-Reformation saint, John Ogilvie. I think the most striking paintings I can remember from when I've been in art galleries with my parents were the oils from Peter Howson's "The Stations of the Cross", which was being displayed in a little gallery at the Trongate in Glasgow. You can find images of the whole exhibition here. I think one of the things which strikes me most about this is the mix of intimate feel they have (which is most apparent when you look at the pencil sketches and see where the oils have derived), and with the brutality that is typical in Howson's work.

1. Jesus is condemned to death

2. Jesus is given his cross

3. Jesus falls for the first time

4. Jesus meets his mother

5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus

6. Veronica cleanses the face of Jesus

7. Jesus falls for the second time

8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

9. Jesus falls for the third time

10. Jesus is stripped of his clothes

11. Jesus is nailed to the cross

12. Jesus Dies on the Cross

13. Jesus is taken down from the cross

14. Jesus is placed in the tomb

Queen or Copland

2008-10-27T23:10:00.003Z

Alex Ross has made a wonderful observation on his blog "The Rest is Noise".

Colin Powell

2008-10-27T22:31:00.009Z

Not posted in a while and thought I would start again with something which I feel has been one of the most important moments of the US Election in recent weeks. This was the moment during Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama, when he commented on the rumours among some Republicans that Obama was a Muslim.

"I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America."
"I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions."

I don't feel this needs much explanation. It was basically everything I had wanted to say since I heard these rumours circulating. It is worth posting the image Powell was referring to though, one which is incredibly powerful. It's also worth noting that figures from both the CIA and adherents.com put the number of Muslims in the United States at just under 2 million - not an insignificant number. Indeed according to wikipedia there are 15 states with either similar or smaller populations, and the three states with populations between 1.5 and 2 million each have 3 seats in Congress and 5 electoral college votes.

Obama's campaign has been praised in breaking new ground in racial issues, with him being described as a post-racial candidate. This has been an issue which has dominated the last half century in American politics. Is the next issue going to be religion? One of my favourite moments from the Santos-Vinick election race in the West Wing is where Vinick says at a news conference

"I don't see how we can have a separation of church and state in this government if you have to pass a religious test to get in this government. And I want to warn everyone in the press and all the voters out there if you demand expressions of religious faith from politicians, you are just begging to be lied to. They won't all lie to you but a lot of them will. And it will be the easiest lie they ever had to tell to get your votes. So, every day until the end of this campaign, I'll answer any question anyone has on government, But if you have a question on religion, please go to church."

Let's hope that this is another case where the West Wing has been a precursor to the actual event in American politics. Someones religion can tell us a lot about them, but it can also play a lot to our prejudices. I don't think politicians should completely hide their religous views (indeed if their faith has any importance to them it would be extremely hard to do so), but I do think we need to consider those views properly. Otherwise we can be in danger of branding them with our prejudices about their religion - whether they are Muslim, evangelical Christian or, dare I say, Presbyterian.

Milton Church Update

2008-09-25T17:55:00.008+01:00

Here's a follow up from the Sustainable Living debate at NYA. There's an article on the BBC News website about the church they're trying to build in Milton. There's a really interesting interview with the Rev Chris Rowe on there, and some good news that the government have given them £43,000 to look further into the possibilities.

Here are a few images of earthships. One in Brighton, and then an idea of how the construction happens.

Obama meets Bartlet

2008-09-25T11:59:00.002+01:00

Great column in the New York Times.

"Now that he’s finally fired up on the soup-line economy, Barack Obama knows he can’t fade out again. He was eager to talk privately to a Democratic ex-president who could offer more fatherly wisdom — not to mention a surreptitious smoke — and less fraternal rivalry. I called the “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin (yes, truly) to get a read-out of the meeting. This is what he wrote:

BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET."

The best bit is this.

"Obama The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?
Bartlet Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.
Obama What would you do?
Bartlet GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!"

Where are the British?

2008-09-16T22:19:00.003+01:00

Interesting article in the Telegraph about London orchestras. Have a slight issue with one point they make though.

"So at the head of the five orchestras we have a solid "Middle-European", two Russians of very different character and style, a composer-conductor Finn with a taste for new music, and an Italian. You could hardly have planned it better."

Surely it would be good to have a British conductor in there too. It's nice to have conductors from these different European traditions, but we shouldn't play down the importance of our own. With the death of Vernon Handley last week we saw a champion of British music who was never given one of the big London jobs. Hopefully some of the younger British conductors can make it over the next few years, but at the moment we'll have to be content with watching Runnicles and Elder in Glasgow and Manchester.

Whatever the rush, it pays to talk.

2008-09-11T21:57:00.002+01:00

I wasn't going to post anything else right now but Avril just reminded me of something on her blog at B+. This weekend was undoubtedly one of the busiest of my life. I thought last year was bad but this was even busier. On Saturday for example, I didn't stop doing things from 2pm in the afternoon until 2am the next morning, and it was mostly things where I was up front talking or setting up or leading a rehearsal. And yet it was also one of the most relaxing, postitive, sociable weekends I'd ever had. I think the reason was that I decided early on, however much of a rush I was in, I was going to try and make time to talk to people. Now, I'm sure I didn't manage all the time, and I apologise to people I walked past while looking like I was trying to avoid speaking to anyone, but compared to most times I really felt like I succeeded in making time for people. There is of course some precedent here. Besides telling stories with no obvious meaning, Jesus' favourite thing to do was to sit down and talk to people, preferably children. And of course the more of a rush he was in the more he did it. It annoyed his disciples no end but that didn't matter, because for him the most important way to forge a real relationship with someone was to take time out to chat. It's probably too easy in our world of blogs and facebook and twitter to forget that sometimes, but it was a lesson I learnt this weekend. Of course his next favourite thing he did after that was to sit down and have a meal with people, which is a whole other story from NYA2008. Where else could you have Burn's Night and Christmas Day in the same weekend.

NYA2008 - The Debates

2008-09-11T21:00:00.007+01:00

I'm still not entirely sure I have my head round things from last weekend but I thought I would start trying to put down a few thoughts on paper. I'm starting with what happened in the debates because in many ways that's the easiest part of the whole thing to think about, none of this emotional or spiritual stuff getting in the way of getting your thoughts straight.

As everyone knows by now, we were trying out a completely new debate format this year. There has been lots of discussion as to whether debate was an appropriate word to use for these, but for me the important element to them was still having discussion and getting young people's opinions. Ok, we weren't getting people to produce a formal deliverance at the end of each one, but it was still a debate. I had the privilege of being free to wander round the different sessions which were happening. It undoubtedly took a while for people (both staff and delegates) to get the hang of what was going on, but on the whole I thought that by the third and fourth sessions people were really engaging with the issues and starting to come out with some really great stuff. It was interesting to see how each of the groups did this differently as well, from the speakers in the Sustainable Living, to the Cool Wall in the Future Church. I didn't hear anyone complain about this new structure though, people seemed really positive, and glad to be able to get into things in detail. The best comment I heard was from Mr Kimmitt, who said how it was great to be going from the whole assembly, into four big groups, into small groups, and then you end up talking to your neighbour. That was what the structure was trying to achieve and if someone in the process could discern that then I think for a first attempt we did a really good job.

In terms of the large debates on Monday, I again thought it generally went really well. Certainly people seemed more engaged with the issues than previous years, and seemed to be taking ownership of the deliverances in a way they haven't previously. I know there have been complaints about it getting bogged down in semantics but there were really very few occasions where this happened and it was much better than previous years. I also thought with the way things were structured there was much more sense of occasion about the final debates. With everything coming at the end of the weekend, and having all the officials from councils there it really made people feel they were doing something important. Now that we're enjoying the wonders of Web 2.0 we should be able to keep people up to date with how these results make any difference. I will certainly try and keep people up to date when it comes round to presenting the report to the General Assembly, and hopefully the youth delegates there will be able to use the final statements to be able to challenge any relevant councils. I think we will also have some reports from the debate leaders to go along with the four deliverances, and when you put those together we will have a fantastic outcome from the debates. There has been a suggestion that our deliverances should go in the middle of Mission and Discipleship, or be split amongst relevent council's reports but anyone who has ever attended the General Assembly will know what an impact having this seperate report makes.

When I was being interviewed for the film which was being made during the weekend, I said that this event is about empowering ordinary people within the church, and allowing them to have their say on important issues. I genuinely think that if you look beyond the lengthy speakers, semantic debates and twitter interruptions that that is what happened this weekend.

I've still got lots more to say, and when I've rethought things I may even come back and completely disagree with everything I've just said.

Weeping

2008-09-11T20:01:00.004+01:00

There are very few songs which almost make me cry, but this is one of them. I first heard it on the "Renaissance" album by the Soweto String Quartet. It was written by a young white South African called Dan Heymann who was drafted into the South African Army in the mid-1980's. The conscripts were sent into the surrounding black townships to enforce the night curfew. Dan's frustration with this situation and his horror at the whole Apartheid system led him to write this song. It responds to the system created by Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, and the arrogant manner in which the people of the world were dealt with when the questioned what was happening.

Here's a link to Dan Heymann's website which has lots more information about the song and it's background and here are the lyrics. I've also posted a video of Josh Groban singing it at the Nelson Mandela borthday concert below that. My favourite version is still the one by the Soweto String Quartet but I couldn't find that anywhere. Do go to their website though as there are lots of audio and video clips.

I knew a man who lived in fear
It was huge, it was angry, it was drawing near
Behind his house, a secret place
Was the shadow of the demon he could never face
He built a wall of steel and flame
And men with guns, to keep it tame
Then standing back, he made it plain
That the nightmare would never ever rise again
But the fear and the fire and the guns remain

It doesn’t matter now
It’s over anyhow
He tells the world that it’s sleeping
But as the night came round
I heard its lonely sound
It wasn’t roaring, it was weeping

And then one day the neighbors came
They were curious to know about the smoke and flame
They stood around outside the wall
But of course there was nothing to be heard at all
"My friends," he said, "We’ve reached our goal
The threat is under firm control
As long as peace and order reign
I’ll be damned if I can see a reason to explain
Why the fear and the fire and the guns remain"

Maestro

2008-09-11T16:26:00.004+01:00

I have to admit to being slightly sceptical when I first heard about this programme. Here is something I'm considering spending a lot of my life doing, and they were going to make a TV programme implying that a bunch of third rate celebrities could learn it in five weeks. However, as a I followed it I was actually very impressed. Certainly the contestants were aware of what the challenges were, and where their limitations lay, and that came across to the audience too. In fact maybe this was a good thing for shedding some light on the process of "learning" conducting. I did two courses this summer, both very different, but both very helpful. In one I even had a Katie Derham moment, and this is certainly typical on these courses. Anyway I'm looking forward to seeing Sue Perkins on Saturday. I thought she was the best all round conductor in the end, and her Beethoven was light years ahead of Goldie's. Here are some of the best comments on the programme. They're all from the Guardian but it seems to have been the paper most interested in it.

Charlotte Higgins at the Guardian
Rafael Behr at the Guardian
Sue Perkins, Roger Norrington and Charles Mutter at the Guardian

And here are videos of my two favourite moments from the series.
Firstly, Sue Perkins conducting the Simpsons, she has no pattern but it caught the character of the music, and it's changes, better than any other performance.

And secondly, the classic moment in the first episode where Bradley Walsh thanks Charles Mutter for saving him and calls him Charlie and Chaz (1:03).

NYA2008

2008-09-09T10:21:00.003+01:00

I'm currently sitting in the foyer of the Apex waiting to leave, and just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone for the whole weekend. I'll start putting some thoughts together here eventually, and some of it may appear elsewhere, but after such a long weekend I don't think I'll make much sense right now.