OZTHOUGHTS

National Anthems – The Good, The Bad And Awful

“National Anthems”, some are great and deeply moving, some are alright, but not really interesting, and most are simply dreadful. Banal words set to lousy, dreary “music”.

I was listening to what may well be the best national anthem ever conceived the other day and fell to wondering why so many were so bad. I have listened to dozens, read loads of more or less learned verbiage on the topic, but am not really any the wiser, except to note that both the words and music of most national anthems are put together very much on the cheap by people who have no obvious skills either as composers or as writers. This may be the simple reason.

So I thought I would have a serious look at some of them here, and play them to you to see what your thoughts on them might be. I shall start with ones that I consider to fall into the category of Great National Anthems, then have a look at a few that could be described as Acceptable National Anthems, and then, taking my courage in my hands, have a look at a few that come under the heading of God-Awful National Anthems.

Should be fun.

Great National Anthems:

As far as I am concerned, the South African National Anthem has to be the best, most emotionally powerful and uniting one. Conceived during South Africa’s dark days of Apartheid it brings together all the main language groups of that country, in a song that is both powerful, emotional and of course, patriotic in an acceptable manner. I will give you two versions of it, one recorded in a nearby country before the end of apartheid and the second at a rugby match once it had become the official anthem for South Africa. I think that both versions, in their differing ways, show what a national anthem should be remarkably well. Musically enjoyable, and also I believe the words are reasonable too, so here goes….. N’Kosi Sikeleli.

Now that is what I call one hell of a powerful national anthem!!!

That was recorded in Zambia, when it was obviously not possible to sing that song publically in South Africa, and now for the current version, but note how it still is able to invoke true emotion…

Continue reading “National Anthems – The Good, The Bad And Awful”

The Bassoon – Funny But Beautiful Sound

So, the bassoon… An instrument that a bit like the Cor Anglais tends to make people laugh rather than listen to seriously. This is a pity, as in fact it is an instrument that has considerable gravitas when needed as I hope to show you here.

What is a Bassoon?

Lets get this out of the way first, so we know what it is I am talking about. A definition of the bassoon would be as follows…….

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor clefs, and occasionally the treble. The bassoon is a non-transposing instrument known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, variety of character and agility. Listeners often compare its warm, dark, reedy timbre to that of a male baritone voice. Someone who plays the bassoon is called a bassoonist.

So now you know what it is at least, now lets have a listen to what it actually sounds like to start us on our way.

That tiny extract from Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, being Grandfather’s theme, gives a pretty good idea of the sound of this rather pleasing instrument. And as you can hear, nothing intrinsically funny about it either.

Continue reading “The Bassoon – Funny But Beautiful Sound”

More Curious Musical Instruments For Your Pleasure

Hi, well I am still wandering around the deeper and odder depths of Youtube to see what I might stumble upon, and this time I have come up with a rich haul of musical oddities, well, not so much musical oddities as odd musical instruments, which of course means that the music is also rather odd.

I enjoy finding musical instruments that people invent for one reason or another, mainly I suppose because they desire a particular sound that no existing instrument is capable of giving them, and some of them are truly weird.

The first one is an enormous instrument called The Earth Harp, which is the invention of a curious bloke called William Close, obviously a man with one hell of a broad vision to life. I shall offer you two videos of this instrument, the first being from that tedious show called “….. Has Talent”, as in this video he gives a short explanation of the instrument, and then plays it to universal acclaim. The second video is someone else playing the Earth Harp at a TEDeX talk, so the instrument is properly explained, mostly in the “about under the video window if you watch the video on Youtube, rather than the somewhat showy approach used in the “America Has Talent” version.

I apologies for the long run in before we actually hear the instrument, but such is the way of such shows… Also for some reason whoever uploaded the video changed the format, so everyone is short and fat.. odd.

So here we go…………….

So, now you know roughly what it is all about, here is a different person playing it at a TedeX talk…

Continue reading “More Curious Musical Instruments For Your Pleasure”

Palast Orchester – Ah, Those Weimar Days……

I came across this rather fine German band the other day, purely by accident, as so often is the case on the Internet. In this case a very happy accident.

This is a full size dance band who go under the name Palast Orchester, specialise in recreating the music and sound of the 1920’s and 30’s, as represented by German music of that tumultuous period, and which is being remarkably successful all over the world – Nostalgia anyone?

Before discussing them to any degree, I thought it best to offer you a typical example of their work to whet your appetite somewhat, so here goes with their version of this Weimar classic.

By the way, in spite of its appearance, this video does work OK, just click on the red arrow and off it will go.

This video gives you pretty well all the elements of this bunch of German musicians (well, except for the violinist, who is an Italian). In passing I would mention that for some reason whilst the band is essentially made up of men there is always the one woman in the band, the violinist, the current one (in this video) being Cecilia Crisafulli.

Continue reading “Palast Orchester – Ah, Those Weimar Days……”

Images To Inspire Great Stories

Every so often I find that I have collected a pile of curious images that I use to spark ideas in my head for my writing, and I also like to share some of them with you guys, to see if you can use them to help you either to write yourself, or as resources for your students to help them get started with their writings.

So, here are a new load of weird and strange images, each of which can certainly be used to spark ideas.

I particularly like this one, it has such a yearning feel to it… I know it is actually very banal, but there has to be a story lurking in it somewhere… What is he thinking? Why did he go to sea? Is he approaching some important point in his life? And so it goes, such an image has so many stories in it.

Or to go to the other extreme, from yearning to downright silly, here is one that any Dutch people will certainly recognise at once, a room full of Sint Nicholas’s. For the non-Dutch among you, it should at the very least give rise to strange thoughts about gatherings of imitation bishops, a fancy dress party in which every one accidentally wore the same costume… and so on.. no end of ideas in this one I feel.

Continue reading “Images To Inspire Great Stories”

Black Sabbath And Traffic – Worlds Apart!

Back when I was working as what was known as a “Lighting Roadie” – which means I was one of the guys who rigged the lights and then worked on a follow spot during rock tours and Festivals, I toured with a number of very different bands.

Basically in those days we roadies were mainly self-employed and were hired to work on a particular tour or Festival, in other words we did not work for the bands directly, but for the lighting company (in the case of lighting roadies) who employed us for that tour or event. So I found myself working with a pretty wide range of bands, some good, some great and many bloody awful to work with.

At those opposite ends of the spectrum there are two bands who stand out, Black Sabbath at the bloody awful end, and Traffic at the truly great end.

Black Sabbath:

I worked on the European section of their 1974 World Tour, which was the start of that huge tour. So I was involved in the rehearsals for the tour, which took place on the stage of a cinema in London (can’t remember where). This was all rather odd, as we rehearsed during the day there, and the owners of the cinema also rented the auditorium out to all manner of other people, so you had the ridiculous situation of a bunch of Heavy Metal Rockers on the stage, rehearsing their music with the stage curtains closed, and in the auditorium, a bunch of 6 year old kids having a “kiddie’s Disco” or something similar at the same time.

Continue reading “Black Sabbath And Traffic – Worlds Apart!”

The Many Faces Of Bach’s Toccata And Fugue

At some point about 1740, it is thought that Bach wrote what has become perhaps his most famous work for the organ, the extremely well known Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – well many people think that he wrote it, an equal number it seems are convinced that he did not write it. Perhaps it was written by Shakespeare?

However that may be, and to be honest, I don’t really care who wrote it, as it is simply a very enjoyable piece of music, which for me is all that matters. It has been interpreted by no end of musicians in an amazing range of styles and on all manner of instruments. I suspect that it has been subjected to more versions than just about any other piece of music, some good, some superb, and some – of course – God awful.

I have a number of different versions of this work in my music collection, and as I was listening to several of them the other day I thought it might be fun to have a look and see how many differing versions I could find, and I was amazed at what I found… Everything from organs, through banjos to Heavy Metal versions, all good in their way and enjoyable to a greater or lesser degree – depending on one’s musical tastes I suppose. Mine are extremely catholic (please note the small “c”) so I like pretty well all the versions that follow.

So, to set the scene, here is a performance of the standard version, on a church organ thus…

Splendid stuff I think you will agree. Such power and emotion in this extraordinary piece of music. I particularly love the second section where the organ runs happily up and down the keyboard… Such happy music. And then the sudden surges of the amazing power of a full size church organ.. Breath-taking stuff.

But, as I indicated above, there are many other versions of this piece, and some by their very nature are much less powerful, but still have the emotions of the original version, this one for example. I know that it has a sound a bit like an organ, but it assuredly is not one.

I love the ethereal sound of the glass harmonica, such a purity of tone and that vibration… goes straight through me, but I do have a very serious sound system with speakers more than capable of reproducing all those clear sounds… I am also always very impressed by the mere fact that anyone can play that collection of glasses, how the hell do they manage it?

Continue reading “The Many Faces Of Bach’s Toccata And Fugue”

Serious Music Isn’t Always Serious……

Generally when people think of classical music (should that be Classical Music?) they do not immediately think of it as being funny in any way. Nope, it is a serious matter, to be listened to in an almost religious silence, and unless you happen to live in China, no applause between movements or at the end of solo passages… A serious matter is serious music!

Well, happily, this is not always the case. There have been no end of people who have taken the piss out of serious music in the most enjoyable fashion imaginable. And without in any way showing disrespect to the original piece of music in the case of pastiche performances of other people’s music, or in the case of people such as Hoffnung, the music that is written especially for his concerts, such as the Symphony for Orchestra and Vacuum Cleaner that was written for the first Interplanetary Festival.

Actually, most of the music that was played in those superb and anarchic concerts was rewritten classical stuff, such as the following two videos taken from that wonderful series of concerts.

In the first one, be patient…

or this wonderful bit of silliness.

It is well worth your while to get hold of the recordings of the entire concerts, as they are so wonderfully silly, but affectionate at the same time…

I am not quite sure what to make of this strange video, a Western Clown conducting an orchestra in Shanghai, and playing some Mozart on a bit of hose…. Not sure if it is funny, weird, or good…. But anyhow, here it is for your delectation…

Continue reading “Serious Music Isn’t Always Serious……”

The Tuba – The Gentleman Of Instruments.

While I was friends with the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band many years ago, I purchased Vivian Stanshall’s Tuba from him as he wanted to buy a Sousaphone as he felt it had more character than his Tuba, and I was tired of playing a trumpet. I still have it with me – it has followed me from country to country as I have moved around the world, and whilst I no longer play it in any sort of a band, I do enjoy the occasional “Hurumph” through it.

I disagreed with him strongly about the Sousaphone having more character than a tuba, whatever that might mean, as I consider the tuba to be one of the Grand Old Men of musical instruments – the other being the double bass of course.

So with this in mind, as I was wandering the dark and dusty corridors of Youtube the other day, hunting for weird and wonderful instruments, I obviously came across a lot of tuba players, both serious and funny – all of which I duly noted down, with a view to sharing some of them with you here in due course.

And I feel that perhaps that moment might well have arrived, so without any more ado, here are some splendid examples of people taming the tuba for your amusement and pleasure.

When one thinks of the tuba, one’s mind goes straight to that wonderful English eccentric, Gerard Hoffnung, who made the tuba his own in a number of ways, both by playing them, and by his cartoons of them. So to start us off, here he is.

This is a quartet of tubas giving us their version of a piece by Chopin…. Such delicacy of touch and emotion…

This wonderful performance shows clearly what a subtle and gentle instrument the tuba really is. A sort of loving Grandfather of an instrument. Capable of being both smooth, gentle or abrupt and growly at need..

Continue reading “The Tuba – The Gentleman Of Instruments.”

Michael Flanders, Daniel Barenboim,Stravinsky

Many years ago, just after my period as a remarkably unsuccessful “antique” seller in the Camden Passage market, I joined the Little Angel Puppet Theatre and started out on what would be one of my main careers, that of a theatre technician.

My chief area of work there was as a lighting guy and scenery maker, and John Wright, the wonderful South African Puppeteer who ran the theatre with his wife, Lindy taught me all I needed to know to do that work.

One of the true highlights of my time with them was the version of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, which we performed at the Purcell Rooms (part of the Royal Festival Hall complex on the south bank of the Thames).

This was a seriously big undertaking for the Little Angel Theatre crew, who were more used to working on the small and intimate scale of their own theatre in Islington in a setting that was totally set up for puppetry – not a description that you could apply to the Purcell Rooms, which was simply a flat stage at the end of a long and relatively narrow auditorium, and which was, reasonably enough, set up and designed for small scale classical concerts to be performed in.

But, I am happy to say, we pulled it off magnificently.

The basic idea was that we used a whole series of rod puppets (controlled from below and behind by means of rigid rods connected to their moving parts), and the puppeteers were dressed from head to foot in soft, non-reflective – black fabric, and worked on a stage that had a series of steps going across the stage from left to right, so the further upstage you went (away from the audience) the higher you were.

The stage itself was also painted matt black, and the sides and back of the stage were covered with soft black fabric.

The lighting was by means of a series of spot lights on either side of the stage, aimed across the stage horizontally, with very narrow beams. And the idea was that the puppets would be held in one or more of these beams of light, and thus be visible to the audience, and when not held in the light, would be invisible.

The created the effect of the puppets floating in the air, but as often is the case with puppets, one quickly stopped “seeing” them as floating, but sort of invented a ground for them to be walking on.. odd how our minds do that sort of thing.

Most of the puppets were about a meter (3 foot) tall, but as there were no reference points regarding size, the audience quickly saw the puppets as normal human size. So when at the very end of the story, the soldier crosses the frontier to be reunited with his lover, and the Devil comes to claim his soul, we used a Devil puppet which was about 8 feet tall, so it looked enormous when it loomed over the soldier puppet we used in that scene (the soldier puppet we used there was a very small one, about 30 cms tall to make the difference in size even more marked and dramatic).

**John Wright with Devil puppets (thanks to Ronnie le Drew for this photo)**

Continue reading “Michael Flanders, Daniel Barenboim,Stravinsky”