Playing the piano - a catalyst for communities

By Julia Hudson 

There is a piano at St Pancras Station. In fact, there are a number of ‘street’ pianos all over the world, but this is the one that catches my eye. It’s almost never empty, as passers-by, tourists and possibly even the occasional commuter stop to pick out ‘Twinkle Twinkle’, well-known classics, their own compositions or sometimes just some blues-y chords. In London you are being bombarded from all angles: enter this shop, buy this coffee, give to this charity – and yet this project, ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ is successful, to such an extent that although it came to London for the 2012 Olympics it has remained here ever since.

The project’s website says: “‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ was first commissioned by Fierce Earth in Birmingham, UK in 2008. With 15 pianos located across the city for three weeks it is estimated that over 140,000 people played or listened to music from the pianos. Since then ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ has reached an estimated five million people worldwide. Disrupting peoples’ negotiation of their city, Street Pianos are designed to provoke people into engaging, activating and claiming ownership of their urban landscape.  Like a musical equivalent of Facebook, Street Pianos provide an interconnected resource for the public to express themselves.” Society is, increasingly, about self-expression – as well as social media, graffiti, demonstrations and even styles of dress are all ways in which people are bringing their personal life into public view. Here, we have one which gives something back.

When was the first time you played a musical instrument? Was it when your parents decided you should take piano lessons, probably against your will, or was it when you were forced to join the school choir? Probably not, in fact – my guess is that it was long before that, when a friend or relative with suitable disregard for your parents’ sanity bought you some kind of noisy baby toy. A brightly coloured xylophone, a tambourine, a mini keyboard, or even one of those books that plays carols at the press of a button – all brilliant toys to improve a baby’s awareness and stimulate their learning. Also, teaching them that by touching something they can make a noise, which (unfortunately, some might say) is inherently attractive. Fast forward 26 years, and I am currently spending some of my time at a house that owns a drum kit. I cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, play the drums. In fact, as a musician, I can safely say that rhythm is my weak point. However, in recent weeks I’ve taken rather a fondness to having a go (I’ve mastered two rhythms, a third still eludes me) and I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction when I manage it for a few seconds – rather than the instruments I already play, it’s fun to try something new and different.

These are examples of exactly the same symptom that I remember my Head of Wind Studies at school talking about many years ago. He picked up his trumpet, blasted out a loud and unpleasant noise to the assembled teenagers in front of him, and said ‘this is what everyone does, as soon as they get their trumpet home for the first time – not try to play a C major scale. Music should be satisfying, and it should be fun’. How can we convey this enthusiasm to children starting out on their musical journey? Why does every toddler happily play that annoying demo theme on their keyboard for hours, yet by the time they are in primary school music is being sidelined? Many teenagers throw all their energies into being ‘in a band’ – how can we translate this dedication and enthusiasm into formal education?

My view is that we need to convey the importance of knowing the basics. For every Paul McCartney that can’t read music, there are many Chris Martins and Laura Mvulas – classically, thoroughly trained musicians who then branched out to create their own kind of music. With a proper knowledge of reading music, an awareness of its history and trends, young people can then start to find their particular niche without intimidation, whether that is authentic Baroque chamber music or innovative electronic composition. And, increasingly, financial and circumstantial limitations don’t need to be barriers to involvement. With a new project run by Savills estate agents, ‘Free Rehearsal Space’ is a project allowing arts groups to make use of unused commercial property spaces. Initiatives like this, as well as the ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ project, have “enticed many hidden musicians out of the woodwork. It has become apparent that there are thousands of pianists out there who don’t have regular access to a piano. ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ provides access to this wonderful musical instrument and gives musicians the opportunity to share their creativity by performing in public.” 

More importantly than just competence at the piano, therefore, is the quest for community, as well as a respite from an increasingly stressful daily life. The creator of the project, Luke Jerram, says that ‘The idea for Play Me, I’m Yours came from visiting my local launderette. I saw the same people there each weekend and yet no one talked to one another. I suddenly realised that within a city, there must be hundreds of these invisible communities, regularly spending time with one another in silence. Placing a piano into the space was my solution to this problem, acting as a catalyst for conversation and changing the dynamics of a space.’ Ultimately, music is a social activity – as we discussed previously on this blog, without listeners a performance is merely a rehearsal. Here, every rehearsal becomes a performance.

To get in touch and share your thoughts, comment below or join in the discussion on Facebook or Twitter. 

To find out more about Southern Sinfonia, please visit our website or Instagram page

Performance, in every sense

By Chris Billingham

How can we use sensory stimulation to enhance young people’s experience of, and engagement with, classical music?

That is the question posed on the official website for Bittersuite, a new project that has inspired a range of reactions from the classical music community. Created by 24-year-old producer Stephanie Singer, Bittersuite has been inspired by synaesthesia, a condition described as a “union of the senses” where senses that are normally experienced separately are involuntarily and automatically joined together. Through workshops and performances, the project aims to create a multisensory experience where music is performed and also tasted, smelled and felt by the audience.

At a recent performance at the Rich Mix arts centre in East London, audiences heard the Phaedrus Quartet perform Debussy's String Quartet in G. While the performance took place, they were blindfolded and given various things to smell, taste and touch. During an interview on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, Singer explains that nearly every member of the audience had someone in front of them the whole time, feeding them and with “scampering fingertips up the body”. The aim of the project is to see if different senses can enhance the experience of music; if they can, will this increase young people’s experience and engagement with classical music?


Personally, I find the project fascinating, but I must admit I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, having attended and even been involved in creating immersive theatre, I love the idea of experimenting with concerts and enhancing the experience. There is something about taking an audience out of their comfort zone that intensifies the experience, making them concentrate more; in many cases, this makes the experience more satisfying. I also like that Bittersuite have incorporated historical aspects into the performance. In the In Tune interview, Singer explains that they have been inspired by “historical scents”, aiming to recreate the senses that would have been experienced when the piece was first performed. Suddenly an educational layer is added which is fitting, considering its aims to appeal to young people through sensory workshops. Audiences at the Rich Mix also experienced their bodies being swayed and “sea salt air” when there was an “evocative and invigorating moment in the music”. What’s fantastic about this is the level of thought that has gone into every moment; the creators of this project have thought about every sound and decided which sense fits best with it.

While I admire this and find it fascinating, this element is also the reason I am conflicted about the performance. As discussed in previous articles, I find music to be a very personal experience. Two people can hear the exact same piece and respond in completely different ways, feeling different emotions and imagining diverse images. A project like Bittersuite potentially takes this away from an audience who are literally being fed someone else’s interpretation.

Interpretation is, perhaps, the key word. Bittersuite are not telling audiences that the music should categorically make them think of the salty sea, merely offering it as an interpretation. For young people it could be seen as a guide into classical music, opening the door by providing comfort in the form of context.

Some have viewed this project as a ‘gimmick’, stating that people should fall in love with classical music through more traditional routes. I can understand this point of view but I suspect the key for Bittersuite is to provide an introduction, with the hope that people will investigate the music further, creating their own emotions, images and senses as they listen. It would be interesting to note how many audience members return to more conventional concerts in the future.


There’s no doubt that this project won’t appeal to everyone, if for no other reason than a desire for personal space: if one is worried about what might happen next, one probably won’t be listening to the music, meaning that it would not enhance engagement. However, given the success of immersive theatre and even events such as Murder Mystery evenings or 3D films, there is definitely an audience for experiences that are more immersive. We’ve discussed interactivity through social media, and other new concert concepts, but physical immersion is an entirely new concept. Personally I am excited that Stephanie Singer has potentially found a way to bring this audience to classical music. For those that are willing, it could open up a new interpretation and facilitate a love of music new to these open-minded audiences.

To get in touch with us, comment below or join in the discussion on Facebook or Twitter.



You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email above. To find out more about Southern Sinfonia, please visit our website or Instagram page.

Composer, performer, listener – responses to music

By Julia Hudson

On this blog, we talk a great deal about music and about performance (understandably, no?). What we like, our players, and our thoughts about concerts we’ve been to and been in. There is something else, though, which is as important as the performance. No, not the post-concert drinks… The 'Holy Trinity', according to Britten, is that of composer, performer, and listener – the three elements of the musical experience. Let’s face it, without an audience, a performance essentially becomes a mere rehearsal.

However, if we wanted to talk about the listeners’ response, we encounter difficulty. The composer writes notes, on a piece of paper, which we can praise or decry. The performer plays it, on an instrument which has been made out of wood or metal, and they either get the notes right or wrong. The response produced by combining these aspects? Infinitely harder to quantify. Take how much more subjective vocal music is, even, coming as it does from a “naturally produced” instrument not endorsed by the likes of Stradivarius or Steinway, and this only reaches a tiny part of the issue.

What feelings do you experience during a performance? Probably thousands, ranging from emotional transfixion through to cramp in your right leg. How can we possibly document these, in a quantifiable manner? History further complicates the issue; music wasn’t listened to in the reverential silence we award it today. It was background fodder, with a trip to the opera, ballet or theatre being a social occasion and opportunity for a gossip. In either event, can the music itself stand on its own? To expand - surely every audience member arrives at a concert with preconceptions, emotional states of mind and their own personal history, thus colouring the music with their own perceptions almost before they’ve heard it. I, for one, will never be able to hear the Chichester Psalms without remembering my amazing trip to the Last Night of the Proms.

Is that as it should be, though? A sacred piece of music, commissioned by the Southern Cathedrals Festival and often heard at Evensong, reminding me of a rather light-hearted, patriotic concert? Or perhaps one could argue that, unlike in worship, it is here receiving its due attention.

This “new” way of listening to music, then, gives us more obligation to truly understand it – we no longer have the security of knowing that, since we are at a ball, we can expect to hear a pretty waltz, or a funeral march at a funeral. We’ve talked on this blog before about interactive listening, or the importance of programme notes – as a child, before being taken to a concert, opera or ballet, I was handed with great solemnity an enormous and to-this-day mysterious tome containing plots, characters, instruments and explanations. Did it improve my understanding and, thus, my enjoyment? Undoubtedly.

The totality of these experiences must not be underestimated – Evan Mitchell, in a fascinating article, cited a study suggesting that “visual cues are in fact more important than aural ones in listeners’ evaluations of musical performances. Dr Chia-Jung Tsay, of University College London, found that out of three groups of participants – those shown silent videos, those shown videos with sound, and those played audio clips without video – only the viewers of silent video clips were able to correctly identify the winners of international music competitions. Even trained musicians who were subjects in the study conformed to this overall trend, yet many classical pianists still find themselves chastised for aspects of their stage deportment that are deemed to be excessive.” Why else, as he goes on to say, do seats in a concert hall face the stage? Expression, provided of course that it is complemented by musicianship, helps to convey meaning and emotion. Let’s face it, if you attended a concert played by a robot, you probably wouldn’t have much to write home about.

If you utterly disagree with this week’s thoughts, believing that comprehension of music matters little and it is solely about sound, or that you are able to hear the notes completely devoid of your own preconceptions – there is a project with which you should be getting involved: the Listening Experience Database. Their website elaborates:

“The Listening Experience Database (LED) project is a collaboration between the Open University and the Royal College of Music. It has been awarded a £0.75m grant over three years from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The main purpose of the project is to design and develop a database, freely searchable by the public, which will bring together a mass of data about people’s experiences of listening to music of all kinds, in any historical period and any culture. The project will involve the general public by using crowdsourcing as one of the ways in which data is collected.”

To get in touch with us, comment below or join in the discussion on Facebook or Twitter.

You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email above. To find out more about Southern Sinfonia, please visit our website or Instagram page.

Southern Sinfonia - Lighting up 2013

 By Chris Billingham 

2013 has been a very special year for Southern Sinfonia. We have taken part in many educational projects, received amazing reviews and witnessed incredible musicians performing an array of thought-provoking and challenging pieces. The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect on these events and share some of the images associated with them. 

One of the first events of the year was a fascinating 
Café Concert with Sasha Calin (oboe) and Simon Lane (piano). With the support of our friends at Gardner Leader, Southern Sinfonia is able to provide unique lunchtime events in Newbury's wonderful venue, The Corn Exchange. As well as Sasha and Simon, 2013 Café Concerts also included a range of performances including a fascinating insight into violins from maker Phillip Brown and violinist Theresa Caudle, a stunning performance from Southern Sinfonia Leader Alexander Hohenthal and pianist Sally Goodworth, the educational and inspirational recorder ensemble The Flautadors, and a winter jazz performance from bassist Chris Hill, pianist Dave Newton and singer Heather Cairncross, as well as the always fascinating Dr Jill White who introduced performances from the stars of the Newbury Older Musician of the Year: 

This year our bi-annual Newbury Older Musician of the Year competion was held in June, at the stunning West Woodhay Garden Show. The competition was fierce but pianist Alan Fantom was our winner (with runner-up clarinettist Philip Shirtcliff), delivering mesmerising performances that had every judge impressed. The older musicians weren't the only ones given an opportunity to shine this year, with last year's stars of our Newbury Young Musician of the Year competition giving performances in our October concert, 'The romance of Brahms meets Britain's Britten': 

 

The concert featured powerful performances of Brahms' Fourth Symphony and Tragic Overture, as well as our young stars dazzling the audience with movements from Britten's piano and violin concertos. This concert was a personal favourite of mine, being only slightly eclipsed by June's 'Magical Mendelssohn and More!' which also took place in St Nicolas Church. The orchestra performed with Downe House Junior Choral and two local actors... Arguably, this concert is memorable for me because I was one of those actors! 

                                                                 

Downe House Junior Choral and I weren't the only performers with whom Southern Sinfonia performed this year. A number of other concerts with talented individuals and societies also took place, including, amongst others, the City of Bath Bach Choir, Exeter Festival Chorus, the Old Royal Naval College Chapel Choir, Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Henley Choral Society, Southern Voices, Romsey Choral Society, Windsor & Eton Choral Society and Newbury Choral Society.

With renowned conductors including David Hill, Howard Goodall and Ralph Allwood, the concerts took place in a number of spectacular venues including St. Nicolas Church, The Lighthouse, Poole, Southwell Minster, Winchester Cathedral, Wells Cathedral and the School Hall at Eton College. We performed to large audiences and received wonderful feedback:

Education is always at the heart of Southern Sinfonia's work.. Amongst many events in 2013, our touring education project 'On Dover Tracks' saw Luke Daniels (melodeon) and John Dipper (fiddle) joined by musicians from around the country. Together they created 12 contemporary folk songs with composer Anna Rice. These songs celebrated the historical and cultural history of the many drove roads in Wiltshire and West Berkshire. As well as this, Helen Fitzgerald (cello), Richard Smith (violin) Bruce Wilson (viola) and Katie Neaves (violin) also entertained and inspired the many children who watched their recital as part of the Portsmouth Music Hub. 

In the wider musical world, 2013 has celebrated a number of anniversaries of many great composers. These include Wagner, Verdi and Britten, the last of whom we remembered in our October concert (above).
We at Southern Sinfonia attended some wonderful concerts too, including The Proms 2013, the Sao Paolo Symphony Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall, the Music for Youth Schools Prom and much more. 

Next year looks set to be just as busy; events include our Newbury Young Musician of the Year competition and a Café Concert season to look forward to. It includes Winds Exposed, an insight into the work of our wind principals, and a thrilling recital from one of the country's most exciting young pianists, James Sherlock. Southern Sinfonia will also join Bath Choral Society in the beautiful setting of Bath Abbey for a performance of Mozart's Mass in C minor and Pangbourne Choral Society for Mendelssohn's Elijah. 

Thank you to everyone who has, over the course of this year, performed at a concert, took part in an educational programme, read this blog or attended one of our many concerts. We can't wait to see what 2014 brings. Before that, however, we want to wish you a...

Happy New Year from Southern Sinfonia! 

We recently launched an appeal for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, which ripped through the Philippines on Friday 8th November.To donate and find out more, click here.

To get in touch with us, comment below or join in the discussion on Facebook or Twitter. 

To find out more about Southern Sinfonia, please visit our website or Instagram page.