Opening the composer’s workshop again. Playing Ole Bull and Shade Fiddler Slone at Musikhögskolan i Malmö, plus workshop with the wonderful composers there. 15 5 14

‘Peter Sheppard Skaerved’s playing sets a gold standard.’

Welcome to my Website. If you have any questions, I am delighted to answer-just use the ‘Contact’ link. It is incredible useful for me to be able to hear responses, ideas and suggestions, so I really appreciate them!

First evening in Bergen, a few steps from Bull’s birthplace 29 5 14

29th May 2014

Upon arriving in Bergen, I decided to check something which had struck me on engravings and photographs. Bull was born on the 5th February in the chemist’s shop owned by his family, ‘Svaneapoteket’ (the Swan Apothecary).

Bull’s birthplace, the family business

This wood-framed building (parts of which dated back to 1595) burnt down in the catastrophic fire of the 15-16th January 1916. Looking at the photographs of the building which replaced it, re-orienting the entrance to the corner, cut in the ‘Copenhagen-manner’ to save space whilst allowing  large vehicles to take the corner, it struck me that it appeared that the new building re-used the only part of the building which seems to have survived-what appears to be a granite door way and the bronze swan which gave the building its name. It still is the ‘Swan Apothecary’, and when I wandered over there upon arriving this evening, this impression was confirmed. The style of the stone cutting and design of the doorway is different from the rest of the building, which is very much in the style of the post-war buildings in Bergen. And, I am more of the opinion that the Swan appears to be of 18th Century ilk. This, may be the very bird under which he walked every day of his young life.

The bronze swan over the door of ‘Svaneapotekete’ 29 5 14

But this is the reason that I have come, as portrayed in the spectacular statue by Sinding, under my window tonight.

Sinding’s memorial to Bull

Tuesday 27th June 1230 ‘Capriccio’ at the Royal Academy of Music

Responding to Holmes’ recording of ‘Capriccio’-my working score.

SOUNDBOX 1230 Royal Academy of Music Museum. Peter Sheppard Skaerved in conversation with Jeremy Dale Roberts, about his ‘Capriccio’. Here’s a link to my investigation into this piece, and a recording by my teacher, Ralph Holmes, made in 1965.Link 

A great day: Part One. With Jeremy Dale Roberts, Morgan Goff, Bridget MacRae, Neil Heyde, Mihailo Trandafilovski at Kettles Yard. 25 5 14

Utter pleasure, ‘Intimate Letters’ at Deptford Town Hall, with Mihailo Trandafilovski, Morgan Goff, Neil Heyde, after a great day of workshops with Goldsmith’s composers. Thanks to Bridget MacRae for the photo. 22 5 14

New work by Sadie Harrison and Malene Skaerved-just in 21st May 2014!

And, this is really exciting. Just arrived from Sadie Harrison, the first fruit of her amazing collaboration with Malene Sheppard Skaerved. What a privilege, to be able to see this emerge, and to be able to play it as soon as possible.Here’s another link to more of her wonderful pieces, to get you in the mood..Link

…and love.. (opening of a brand new work for voice, violin and piano) by Sadie Harrison. Text: Malene Skaerved

Concert and composers workshop in Sweden, 15 5 14

Tomorrow, back to the inspiring composers at Musikhögskolan i Malmö. At lunchtime, I give an odd little concert/talk of Ole Bull, Henze, Abrahamsen and Slade Fiddler Slone. Then the fun starts-working with the materials which the composers have been sending me-the workshop door jammed wide open, as it should be.

Inspiration. Today’s composition/performance workshops in Dover for DAD’s ‘Nautical Threads’ project, based on Courbet and Hokusai. Photo: Kati Saqui 14 5 14

Soundbox 13th May 2014-The Elgar Bow

I am presenting a session on the 1878 Tubbs bow given to Edward Elgar. 13th May 1230 Royal Academy of Music Museum Piano Gallery (Admission Free). Close up attention to the relationship between how this bow functions and Elgar’s technical approach as a young composer/violinistLINK

6th May 2014 Preparations for concerts at the Bergen Festival (31st May 2014)

‘The Brushy Fork of John’s Creek’-Workshop recording Peter Sheppard Skaerved, after recordings by John Salyer and Hiram Stamper-both of Kentucky (bringing in elements of Ole Bull’s version of ‘Fanitullen’-see the text below)6 5 14

Shade Fiddler Slone, holding the bow exactly the way Bull described

I have been sleuthing. I have made a delightful discovery, that a mountain fiddler Ole Bull met, over firewater whisky round a campfire, after surviving a terrible riverboat fire on the Ohio River, was Shade ‘Fiddler’ Slone (1828-1922)-in the picture-, who taught Hiram Stamper (1893-1991), who in 1977 recorded the tune his teach taught Bull 90 years earlier.Bull describes Slone’s posture and bow arm exactly as he appears in the one surviving photo. So I have posted the beginnings of a commentary on Bull’s letter, and my recorded imagining of what Bull said that he did to the tune (which did not go down well) More here! https://www.sheppardskaerved.com/2014/05/ole-bull-and-the-brushy-fork-of-johns-creek/

4th May 2014 Concert of Martinu, Dvorak and Tausky at Leamington Festival

Peter Sheppard Skaerved, MIhailo Trandavilovski, Morgan Goff, Valerie Wellbanks, rehearsing ‘Coventry’, Leamington Spa 4 5 14 LINK FOR MORE

Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Roderick Chadwick at the NPG, 2nd May 630pm

The usual restraint. Thanks to Susan Sheppard (mum) for the photo! Ives ‘The Revival’ at our NPG concert tonight. 2 5 2014

Coming up this Friday, my next programme linked to the National Portrait Gallery’s WWI exhibit. Here’s my chart of works written 1914-18. We will be celebrating Satie, Janá?ek, Lilli Boulanger and Ives. With Roderick Chadwickhttp://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/late-shift-1/live-music-the-great-war-in-portraits-02052014.php

Composing 1914-18.

Kettles Yard-27th April 2014

With composers Jeremy Dale Roberts, Kate Honey, Richard Causton, Jeremy Thurlow, pianist Roderick Chadwick 27 4 14

Jeremy Thurlow-‘Self Ablaze’

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Violin, Roderick Chadwick-Piano

World Premiere-Kettles Yard Cambridge 27 4 14

It was Deedee and Elliott Schwartz who introduced me to Jeremy Thurlow-beginning a friendship and partnership which has now resulted in two wonderful pieces, ‘Ouija’ for violin and electronics, and ‘Self-Ablaze’, which Roderick Chadwick and I premiered yesterday at Kettles Yard. Here it is…and here’s the composer, with Richard Causton and Roderick, in rehearsal-Photo, Malene Sheppard Skaerved

With composers Jeremy Thurlow, Richard Causton, and p27 4 14ianist Roderick Chadwick

with composers Robin Holloway, Jeremy Thurlow Kettles Yard 27 4 14

Roderick Chadwick’s hands, and Blu-tac for Richard Causton’s ‘Seven States of Rain’ London 24 4 14

Back in Tennessee 16th-17th April 

Rehearsing Elliott Schwartz’s wonderful Concerto this evening at Turner Hall, Nashville, with amongst others, Audrey Lee?, Matt Lammers?, Caity Quinlan?. 16 4 4 14Thanks to Michael Alec Rose for the photo.

Bull in America. A morning’s practice/composition on the Upper West Side. My hubristic determination to reimagine Ole Bull’s lost ”Fantasia on American Airs’, including ‘Jordan’s a Hard Road to Travel’, ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’, ‘Arkansas Traveler’, ‘Home Sweet Home’ which he first played in Bloomington, Indiana in 1856. ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’-the last one that I needed to put together seems to be taking shape. New York City 13 4 14 FOR MORE

Just in from Sweden. A wonderful time with the creative minds at Musikhögskolan i Malmö. A concert full of voices. 10 4 14

Priaulx Rainier by photographer Study by Malcolm Lawson
1965

Priaulx Rainier-Movement for Piano and Violin 1935 

Workshop recording-Roderick Chadwick-Piano, Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Violin 9  4 14

This extraordinary piece was first shown to me by the composer Douglas Young, with whom I broadcast it for the BBC ten years ago. It only exists in manuscript, and whilst it is clearly scored for violin and piano, this source was notated at later date by the composer for transcription for orchestra (not, clearly as a work for violin and orchestra). It’s not clear what stimulated the young Rainer to write this deeply felt piece, Rainier was often a guest at the ‘musical weekends’ of Lady Diana Massingberd at Gunby Hall, Spilsby, Linconshire. An inscription on the score dedicates the work to Lady Massingberd, who was a violinist.

Lady Diana Massingberd, (1943) byt Richard Ziegler

SomeCésar Cui for a Spring morning! 8 4 14

César Cui-Perpetuum Mobile

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Violin (Stradivari 1714 ‘Maurin’, Aaron Shorr-Piano)for more go to KALEIDOSCOPE

For Joanna Jones. Approaching Dover from the west 31 3 14.

‘It Rubs off’ 3rd April 2014

UYMP (University of York Music Press) seem to be having a little fun at my expense-always a good idea-they’ve uploading this clip too much fun playing Sadie Harrison’s ‘It Rubs Off’, part of the ongoing ‘Gallery’ cycle.

28 03 14 A day of inspiration-Two composers, two pianists. Liszt/Lafont Grand Duo, with Olivia Sham and a fantastic Erard. Coffee and plotting with Jeremy Dale Roberts (here), discussing Ralph Holmes, the next stage with his wonderful Quintet, and a …. quartet. And work with Jeremy Thurlow and Roderick Chadwick on the new piece for Kettles Yard.

Jeremy Thurlow with Roderick Chadwick. 28 0 314

Jeremy Dale Roberts in conversation 28 03 14

Recent Reviews of CDS

BBC Music Magazine April 2014

Review of David Matthews Solo Works. To order, go to: http://www.toccataclassics.com/cddetail.php?CN=TOCC0152

Review of Michael Finnissy’s brilliant completion of Grieg (AND MORE) with the Kreutzer Quartet and Roderick Chadwick. To order, go to: http://www.divine-art.co.uk/CD/28541info.htm

Sally Kindberg’s brilliant illustration of Stravinsky’s ‘Little Tich’ instrument somersault. From her notebook page drawn at the Kreutzer Quartet Concert at the National Portrait Gallery 14th March 1014 http://www.sallykindberg.co.uk/notebook/about-artist-and-author-sally-kindberg/

Now, this is wonderful. We have been talking about Stravinsky’s notation of Little Tich’s somersault in his ‘Big Shoe Dance’  in the brilliant ‘Three Pieces for String Quartet’ of 1914. And on her lovely notebook blog, artist/author Sally Kindberg reveals all! And a lovely document of the concert. To find about more about her work, go to http://www.sallykindberg.co.uk/notebook/about-artist-and-author-sally-kindberg/

Here’s the quartet in the space, under the ‘serious men with moustaches’!

Kreutzer Quarttet playing Stravinsky in front of the 1833 Parliament at the NPG 14 314

Peter Sheppard Skaerved introducing the Kodaly Duo Op 7, with Neil Heyde. National Portrait Gallery 14 3 14

Two Concerts for 1914 -1918 National Portrait Gallery, London

‘Les femmes ont des voiles noirs

Et les jeunes filles sont graves.

On parle à voix basse. Le soir

Tombe… Silence… Un peu d’espoir

Brille en l’ombre ainsi qu’une épave.’ (Cécile Périn)

Garlic and Sapphires in the Mud: some of the works composed 1913-1919 (from PSS Notebook 2013)

 Peter Sheppard Skærved-Violin with the Kreutzer Quartet and Roderick Chadwick-Piano

Violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved co-curated ‘Only Connect’ at the NPG in 2011. This is the beginning of a series of concerts responding to the complex narrative of 1914-1918.

 LINK to Details on the National Portrait Gallery Website

Concert 1-Bagatelles

14th March 630 pm Room 20 Admission Free

 Kreutzer Quartet (Peter Sheppard Skærved, Mihailo Trandafilovski, Morgan Goff, Neil Heyde)

 You have built ships and armies with the bread

That should have driven hunger from the land.  (Cale Young Rice The Great Crime-published in the Daily Herald  5th August 1914)

Composers view the collapse of the old certainties: nothing would be as it was before. For Webern and Stravinsky, the string quartet, symbol of the old cultural order, was broken.

 ‘You have built ships and armies with the bread

That should have driven hunger from the land.’ Cale Young Rice (August 1914, in the Daily Herald)

Anton Webern Bagatelles (1913-4)

‘Sonne Halde stampfen keuche Bange

Sonne Halde glimmt stumpfe Wut

Sonne Halde sprenkeln irre Stahle

Sonne Halde flirrt faches Blut.’ (August Stramm)

(Sun slope stamp gasping fears/Sun slope gleams dull rage/Sun slope speckle dull blades/Sun slope flickers many-fold blood)

Igor Stravinsky-3 Pieces (1914)

Zoltán Kodaly – Duo (1914)

Josef Suk-Meditation on a Czech Chorale (1914)

‘What ever mourns when many leave these shores

Whatever shares

The eternal reciprocity of tears, …’ Wilfred Owen

John Foulds- Three Aquarelles (1914)

 ‘La guerre n’est que deuil et que boue.’ (Robert de Sousa December 1914)

(The war is nothing but mourning and Mud)

Concert 2-Cortege

2nd May 630 pm Room 20 Admission Free

 Peter Sheppard Skærved-Violin

Roderick Chadwick – Piano

The year 1914 inspired lyricism from some composers, mock-heroic posturing and irony from others. In three years, Lilli Boulanger would be dead, and America drawn into the War.

Was jubelt ihr und schwenkt die bunten Tücher?

Und brüllt den Krieg? (Oskar Kannehl-Die Schande:Gedichte eines dienstpflichtigen Soldaten aus der Mordsaison 1914-18

Leoš Janácek-Sonata (1914)

Lilli Boulanger-Cortège (1914)

Erik Satie-Choses Choses vues à droite et à gauche sans lunettes (1914)

Charles Ives-2nd Sonata (1912-1914)

 Igor Stravinsky-Three Pieces for String Quartet Stravinsky, Igor: Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914 rev.1918) 

Kreutzer Quartet (peter sheppard skaerved-neil heyde-morgan goff-mihailo trandafilovski) 2007

Recording Courtesy of University of Wolverhampton & Colin Still (Optic Nerve)

Voices

‘They all write poetry, and recite it with gusto to any three hours old acquaitance. We all write poetry too, in Englan, but we write it on the bedroom washstand and lock the bedroom doo and disclaim it vehemently in public’ Charles Sorley (Jena 1914)

‘The poet is always our contemporary’ Virginia Woolf

‘Zwei Worte – Feind und Vaterland-

Und alles ist gesprochen.’Rudolf Herzog

(Just two words-enemy and Fatherland-and all is said)

‘Dans la pierre de Reims sculpte ton diadème,

Arras ensanglante soit ton emblème,

Taille pour ton manteaux la pourpre de Verdun.’(Raymonde de Tailhède)

‘Les morts sont tous d’un seul côté’ (René Arcos)

‘Un petit coup sec: c’est fini.’ (André Martel)

Two amazing weeks. Here’s an overview of what I have been doing the past two weeks in Nashville, London, Oxford and Dover. 

EVENT: Friday 7th March Royal Academy of Music Recital Room. Admission Free 230pm

Reflections on the exchange programme LINK

The adventure begins. Opening the door to collaboration in Nashville and London

Monday 24th February 2014

(Photo-David Gorton)

Here in Nashville to work with the wonderful students and colleagues on the Blair School of Music/London Exchange. After a long journey, everyone arrived safely. I will post each day as the work progresses.

Exchange Programme

The programme was founded after Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Michael Alec Rose were introduced by the great composer George Rochberg. The first programme took place in 2006. Each iteration, performers and composrs from the Royal Academy of Music London, and the Blair School of Music (Vanderbilt University) Nashville, spend a week in each city, filled with workshops and experimentation.

Opening the Composer’s workshop. Nashville and London (Photo David Gorton)

But I am going to start with inspiration from an instrument. Luthier David Hume has restored by 1903 W E Hill and Sons violin, which I was so lucky to obtain when I was 16. This is British based making at a high point, and even more excitingly-with all the orginal fittings. That bridge is over a century old! It was this violin that started me on the quest for colour and meaning, the whole point of this week’s work!

1903 W E Hill and Sons. Orginal bridge!

Same Day PM-Work begins

A wonderful hour with Michael Alec Rose working on ‘Silence’, the third movement of his set of pieces inspired by Dartmoor. LINK to the project. The lovely resonant foyer of Ingram Hall, the perfect piece for experimentation. What was fascinating about this session, for me, is the fun that can be had when with a composer, you find the stuff which is hiding behin the notes. Michael’s music looks elegantly simple on the page (this is a compliment), but there is a deeply felt expressive shape which animates it, and which cannot be notated. It’s thus with Schubert, with Kurtag, with Torelli: and just like those composers I find that I need to get the ‘passport’ (as Stravinsky put it about his Concerto); which might be better expressed as the knowledge of the shapes and meanings which are fundamental to the work. In this context, our workshop was a little ‘nerdy’, ranging from the hunt for articulations which might reveal the ‘micro-sphere’ of the piece, through work on voice-leading, which is always fundamental to solo writing/performance, and perhaps most important of all for this piece, the shaping of silence-through rhythmic notation, and spatial. Michael has said that this relates, is at an angle to the drawing/composition which we did of the walk which inspired this piece, which I reproduce below. We are hunting for a way to abut these.

The work begins. Revelling in the latest movement of Michael Alec Rose’s series based on Dartmoor, in the lovely space of the Ingram Hall Foyer, Nashville. https://www.sheppardskaerved.com/2013/09/michael-alec-rose-pre-amble-world-premiere/

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Hillfield-Cosdown-Hound Tor(s)-the great silence-River Taw-Ivy Tor

Workshop One. 24 2 14

An inspiring first evening, hosted by Mr and Mrs Calhoun, in their lovely home in Bellevue. Wonderful to ease into the first workshop with a lovely meal, in such a warm and welcoming environment. Beethoven noted to himself, in his Tagebuch for 1812-13, the importance of ‘every day, meet for a meal with musicians: there you can talk about instruments and such’. I read this as a reminder that he should not allow his regular Werkstätte to lapse. These began early on from his arrival in Vienna in 1792, and usually involved his closest string-playing friends/teachers/collaborators/drinking buddies, such as Schuppanzigh, Linke, the Romberts, Mayseder, Kraft, Weiss etc. What we did today is something which I think that he would recognise.The evening consisted of a series of timbral and structural explorations, which were all brought together in final musical object, which incorporated a 5 part canon by Michael Alec Rose.

Peter Sheppard Skaerved with composer Sean Calhoun. Nashville 24 2 14. Photo;David Gorton

Those of you who know me will know that painting has always been a daily part of my practice as a musician.  Recently this has had some surprising ramifications, such as Sadie Harrison’s wonderful ‘Gallery’ LINK

Nashville. Workshop day one. Timbres. Flame.24 2 14

Composers Michael Slayton & Sean Calhoun. 24 2 14

What was really special was the way that we all worked in companionship. Whether playing or commenting, suggesting, there’s no room for hierarchies in collaboration-just the excitement of the power of all the ideas in the room-this picture, of Michael Slayton, bringing his wonderfully crafted insight to bear on what is happening, and elegantly coming up with a lovely peroration for the evening, sums this up.

Peter Sheppard Skaerved with Audrey Lee, Matthew Lammers, Macek Burdzy, Sara Cubarsi and Caitlin Quinlan (photo David Gorton)

This picture shows what I think is always a great place to begin, with pure noise-listening carefully to the colours, textures and pitches which emerge from the instrument-the edge of sound, the husks, gravel, clitter, mud, diamonds and long grass which gives even the most traditional classical sound its character and heft.

Tremolo exploration

The tremolo exploration with the result of a suggestion from Carter Callison, that we find a way that we reify the fact that increasing densities of rhythmic activity, increase in speed, always leads back to stasis.

Mass exploration

This begins from a gesture which I love the fact, that any group of musicians, will ‘accidentally’ produce what I call the ‘omni-chord’ a serendipity which never fails to astonish me.

Composer Carter Callison (in hat!) with violinists Audrey Lee,Matthew Lammers, Macek Burdzy (Photo David Gorton)

Michael Alec Rose-Canon (With improvised ‘frame’)

Michael’s Canon was the only piece of notated music which we worked on today, but as is so often the case, notation is something to work towards and away from at the same time-the discoveries which result from mistakes (in performance and writing) are so often the grit which makes the pearl!

Memory of ‘opening the composer’s workshop in Mexico City

Here is a piece which I wrote for a group of young composers and performers with whom I collaborated in Mexico City in 2004-2005. We had wind players, so worked on the cross over between bowing and breath, between speech and music. The piece was born in a project in Ankara; hence the Turkish title, ‘Breath’.

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Nefes ‘Breath’

Ensemble Sodio e Asfalto. Mexico City 2004

Ensemble Sodio e Asfalto. Mexico City. This was their idea…string players, be very afraid of your double and single reed colleagues!

Day Two-‘Touch, for there is a spirit in the woods’ (William Wordsworth)

I began the day in the sheer wonder of the woods around Nashville, walking with my very old friend, violinist Karen Winkelman. We chose to go to walk the ridge path at Radnor Lake. The woods were full of wildlife-deer, waterfowl, songbirds-very vocal. But still that amazing feeling of the ‘moment before’, when nature cannot quite allow Spring to be sprung: quivering anticipation.

Radnor Lake Nashville 25 2 14

Landscape like this always puts me in mind of G B Viotti, who loved to walk in Epping Forest, with the painter Elisabeth Vigee-le Bryn. Here’s his most personal piece, which sums up his love of nature.

Giovanni Battista Viotti-Ranz des Vaches

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Violin (Betts Stradivari – Library of Congress)

e A walk in the woods. 25 02 14Wirj

Workshop with Michael Alec Rose-‘Bearings’

Michael and I met in the afternoon for a second workshop on his Dartmoor pieces, this rtime on ‘Bearings, which reflected on our first full day of work on the moor, which led us along an astounding stone row towards the circle on Stall Moor.

Stone Row towards the miraculous Stone Circle on Stall Moor. 1 12 13

Here’s an overview of the session-chit-chat, pencil and eraser white noise effects, lots of wrong notes, but the process blown wide open

Michael Alec Rose & Peter Sheppard Skaerved workshop-Ingram Foyer, Nashville 25 02 14

Workshop 2: Ingram Hall 25th February

VIolinist Audrey Lee 25 02 14 (Photo David Gorton)

Audrey Lee-Workshop piece ‘vibrato speed/amplitude study’

Audrey brought a simple but challenging suggestion to today’s workshop-to observe and utilise subtle shifts in vibrato speed and amplitude, in an ensemble setting.

Sarah Cubarsi & Caitlin Quinlan (Photo David Gorton)

Sara Cubarsi-Workshop Piece

Sara brought a fascinating ‘instruction score’ which presented a fascinating challenge of activating contra-rotating layers of microtonal ascents and descents. A new and unique technique.

Sarah Cubarsi’s score for her ‘circling’ piece. (Photo David Gorton)

Micahel Alec Rose presenting the whole crew in Turner Recital Hall (Photo David Gorton)

Sean Calhoun-”Erase’

Sean had incorporated some of the  techniques which had began to emerge in the first workshop, and invited the ensemble to focus them on the ‘bowed tailpiece’ technique, which was no transferred onto the double bass, with dramatic (distant thunder/heavy metal) effect. 

Peter Sheppard Skaerved trying to avoid conducting. 25 2 14

Double-bass/composer Carter Callison (Photo David Gorton)

Carter Callison-Workshop suggestion

Carter invited the group to explore the miraculous effect of glissandi with fingered/touch harmonics on the fourth, but with the hand position rigid, which results in fantast curves and dips of glissandi. There was energeti debate as to whether this was ‘seagulls’ or ‘space invaders’.

Radnor Lake and Ridge, Tennessee 26 02 14

Workshop 3 26th February Choral Rehearsal Hall, Blair School of Music

David Gorton, Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Julian Perkins -with Nashville Exchange Alumna Diana Mathews- at the first ‘outing’ of the Dowland Project. British Museum 13 12 13

This workshop focused heavily on David Gorton’s ‘Dowland Project’, which had its first outing at the British Museum in December. (Link to earlier workshops). Here’s a link to my blog about the project on the British Museum Website.

Lachrymae. Nashville 26 2 14

David is publicly drawing together layers of responses to John Dowland’s ‘Lachrymae’, moving towards a large scale piece for string orchestra. To date, material by Dowland, Randall, Farnaby, Byrd and Sweelinck has found its way into the mix. Today he split the string group into two halves, and we all started the process of building, moulding, melting, smashing and reconstructing.

John Dowland-Layering of versions by Randall and Farnaby

John Dowland-Further layering (plus Byrd)

John Dowland-Further layering and melting!

The Last Transformation 

Sara Cubarsi and Carter Callison hard at work in the workshop 26 02 14 (Photo-David Gorton)

27th February Workshop Day 4

David Gorton discusses his Dowland Project in the Composers Class. With Carter Callison, Sara Cubarsi and Macek Burdzy 27 2 14

Discussion in Composer’s Class, with David Gorton, Michael Alec Rose, Carter Callison, Macek Burdzy, Sara Cubarsi, Audrey Lee, Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Peter Sheppard Skaerved 

Today was a very intense. After a morning giving short coachings to a cross section of instrumentalists and composers from Blair, the exchange contingent re-convened to present our work to the student body in Turner Recital Hall. This involved revisiting some of the earlier experiments, most particularly Sean Calhoun’s ‘Erase’ and David Gorton’s continued Dowland exploration.

Sara, Audrey, Matt and Peter, working on Carter’s new work

Then we spent an hour presenting the work to the Blair composition class (see above) before re-opening our ‘composer’s’ workshop with a piece of six strings by Carter Callison, based on a hexachordal treatment of Palestrina. This proved to be a fascinating session, as everyone brought a plethora of ideas to bear on this work, which is distinguished by an apollonian purity.

Carter leads the session on his fascinating new piece.

attending the  very interesting ‘Living Sounds’ concert of student compositions, which featured a striking string quartet composed by 2nd Year Composition student Amy Thompson. Watch out for that name in the future.

I finished off the concert with solo pieces by Michael Hersch, Sadie Harrison, and David Gorton-his Rosetta Caprice.

Underfoot. 28 2 14

28th February Day Five

Listening to David Gorton give an interesting talk on his ‘Austerity Measures’-which is a great excuse to look at material from the previous exchange 2012

Everyone hard at work at Blair. Workshop in full swing

Concert Performance 1st March  2012 Turner Recital Hall, Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University Nashville TN.

Workshopping ‘Austerity Measures’ at Blair. (Photo Lindsey Reymore)

David Gorton-Austerity Measures

Friday Morning: Bach, Hindemith, Cold, Sunlight, Gorton 28 2 14

For me, the rest of the morning has been spent giving individual sessions to Blair Musicians, which are fascinating for me. I have been working on the Hindemith Horn Sonata, the Bach 1st Solo Sonata, and with composers-the conversations ranging from Cage to Paart to solving ‘inside piano problems’ with fishing line…..

Workshop 5

After a celebratory Indian meal, and good conversation, we all were happy to turn to a workshop to finish our time in Nashville. This was centred on challenging material provided by Sara Cubarsi, which involved incredibly slow movement through the first few chords of the Chorale ‘Es ist genug’, which Bach arranged, and Berg enshrined in his violin concerto.

Sara Cubarsi presents her workshop piece, with Macek Burdzy and Caitlin Quinlan Nashville 28 2 14

This apparently simple piece proved to be equally challenging and rewarding, and, after an hour’s work, yielded a musical object of great beauty. The conversation ranged from the challenge of incrementally expressed microtonal shifts, through to Yoga, to Scriabin, to the great challenge of listening in such detail.

Sarah Cubarsi-Workshop Piece

Reflections on Week one.

Voices from the exchange:

Last Nashville Workshop 28 2 14

‘The last week has been incredibly refreshing. The freedom to experiment as inspiration appears and bring risky or unorthodox ideas to the table nurtures the creativity and open-mindedness I’d like to apply to all repertoire, new or old. This, along with an undogmatic admiration for the capabilities and alluring boundaries of tonality, has set the stage, so to speak, for a week of fruitful composition and music making.’ Matt Lammers

Last evening in Nashville. Natural beauty, the challenge and joy to every artist

‘I’m appreciating parts of the compositional process that had been a mystery to me, or that I had not even considered, and remembering that there’s an entire universe of sound possibilities outside the canon I’ve grown up with.’ Audrey Lee

‘ The experience of working with the students and teachers from RAM and Blair has been remarkable – the performers are not only skilled at playing their instruments traditionally, but also at experimenting with we composers’ often eccentric ideas. And the performers have excellent ideas themselves – it’s not just the composers telling the performers what to do. I’ve particularly enjoyed the various contortions of Dowland’s Lachrimae.’ Sean Calhoun

‘During this week, the composers had a chance to almost be in the skin of the performers, dealing with performance aspects of their work, such as effects like the stiff-arm tremolo, the John Cage trick, sul pointicello, improvisation and of course dynamics, tempi, and I could go on for a while, and putting them into practice, generating very interesting material and discussions in the room that will need to be digested over time. From the performer’s point of view, I think the key to these workshops is what Peter set us as “homework” after the first session at Sean’s place (which set up a great friendly environment!): to think as composers. Personally, this space allowed me to put into practice some of my ideas on the theoretically infinite nature of microrhythm, that we perceive as “pitch”, which I had to simplify so that they would work in a short space of time working with a group of 7 players (and simplification was a key element to the success of these exercices). I (we) experienced the REAL HUMAN MEASURE of what we call a microtone. The workshops are a cascade of ideas and I cannot wait to know what next week is going to bring us!’ Sara Cubarsi

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Night Flight (US 370)1 2 14- 2 3 14 (

Sunday 2nd March

Arrival in the UK. Whilst most of the group went home/to find their billets for the next week. Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Michael Alec Rose met up with writer Malene Skaerved (Peter’s wife) and took the high-speed train to Dover.

Peter and Malene perform her ‘Winter Pockets’

Peter and Malene had put together a salon for DOVER ARTS DEVELOPMENT, for whom they completed a major Arts Council residency project last year , with composer Nigel Clarke. LINK This had climaxed in a major concert event at the ‘Maison Dieu’ in October last year, with Peter’s ensemble ‘Longbow’, which includes a number of previous alumni from the previous exchange programes-Diana Mathews, Alice Barron, Preetha Narayanan, Midori Komachi, and members of the Kreutzer Quartet.

Dover 11th October 2013, Nigel Clarke and Malene Skaerved’s extraordinary work in performance. Longbow (Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Mihailo Trandafilovski, Aisha Orazbayeva, Shulah Oliver, Alice Barron, Tanya Sweiry, Annabelle Berthome Reynolds, Preetha Narayanan, Diana Mathews, Morgan Goff, Evie Heyde, Val Welbanks, Rachel Meerloo) in action!

Sunday’s ‘Salon’ aimed to take the collaboration with the town of Dover forward, and took place a sail maker’s loft which is now artists’s studios, responding to new cloth/thread sculptures by local artists Clare Smith. Peter and Malene wove together her new poetry and works by Philip Glass, Biber, Sadie Harrison and Michael Alec Rose – literally, art, music and words in a workshop environment, which was moving for all concerned. Link for more information on the event.

And here is the DAD Online link to the event

Applause, with Michael Alec Rose

Workshop 6 Royal Academy of Music Museum

We used the opportunity of the fascinating pianos in the RAM museum to stimulate a new stage of discussion of colour. The Heichele Fortepiano (ca 1812) with its multiple pedals; for tuning, moderation, sustaining, and ‘Turkish Music’. This discussion of pedals provided a great opportunity of Carter Callison to introduce his ground-breaking ‘scordatura pedals’ for the double bass. The first musical experiment of the class revolved around the harmonics that are possible on the instrument with this range of easily accesible re-tunings.

NB lo-fi sound quality due to mic problems

Workshop experimentation 1. 3 3 14

Carter and Peter enjoying themselves too much

After a while, David Gorton’s Dowland material was re-introduced, here with semitonal shifts replacing the melodic counterpoint

Workshop experimentation 1. 3 3 14

The composer listens. Michael Slayton at work (Photo David Gorton)

A final experiment. The Dowland bass line, with contrary motion micro-tonal ‘fake glissando’ above.

Workshop experimentation 1. 3 3 14

After the morning of experimentation, we all went different ways, and I soon found myself giving a session at the Music Faculty of the University of Oxford, working with some fascinating students on pieces by Villa Lobos, Bernard Andres, and Toru Takemitsu – prompting me into more discussions of colour and form, and a great excuse to listen to Takemitsu, in Rhapsodic, post-Messiaen mood.

I met Toru Takemitsu just once, when I was a student at the Academy. I was asked to take him to tea. So we sat by the fireplace in the old Staff room, and he talked about colour: ‘I dream, he said,that I have wings, and I am flying by a wall that extends in every direction, as far as the eye can see. In the wall are many drawers, and I can fly up and down taking the many colours that are in the drawers.’

Toru Takemitsu – Distance de fée, for violin and piano, SJ1050

Violin-Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Piano-Jan Philip Schulze (Live Performance September 2010)

More voices from the Exchange

‘Reflecting on the past week I have come to realize that there are so many rules I have put upon myself.  I can break and make my own rules and I have seen that I can stretch my imagination even further. Getting myself to go that extra step and stop limiting myself is a really interesting moment in my artistic development that I’m looking forward to nurturing and that I think I can even go further with. Applying that to my everyday practice and music-making will be an important step for me. I’m very much looking forward to the next week and have already had an amazing time in London so far! ‘ Caitlin Quinlan

Workshop 7, SOUNDBOX and more

We began today’s session with some really detailed work extracting material from Sean’s lovely piano  piece.  This opened doors onto some ear-catching rhythmic structures and Berg-ian harmony.

Sara Cubarsi and Carter Callison discuss scordatura

I am very excited by the spirit of collaboration in this wonderful group. It is a delight to work with people who delight in listening, in sharing ideas, in finding joy in musical adventure.

Discussion 4 3 14-Photo David Gorton

Carter Callison brought in the first prototype of his ‘Scordatura pedals; these immediately proved to be a great stimulus of ideas, and of course, I couldn’t resist getting them to do things for which they were not designed!

Workshop feet

Carter introduces his pedal system to Matt

Michael Slayton in eloquent flood

Caitlin and Audrey work with Sean on ‘expanding’ his piano piece into a chamber work

At 1230 we set up for ‘Soundbox’ the public forum where I explore anything which interests me-in this case, Michael’s new work for Zubin Kanga, who played and presented very eloquently.

Michael Alec Rose and Zubin Kanga prepare to give a SOUNDBOX on the new piecce, ‘Sui Generis’

Wednesday 5th March Workshop 8

Today we went to one of my favourite venues, the wonderful St Michael’s Cornhill. This Church is very special to me. I was lucky enough to give many recitals and chamber concerts in there as a teenager, including my first SERIOUS quartet concert when I was 15 (Beethoven Op 95 AND Mozart K421 on that programme..). I am deeply indebted to the visionary organist and music director of the Church Jonathan Rennert for the welcome to this inspiring building, Wren’s most Italianate, where Blow and Purcell inaugurated the organ.

Wren’s Vision. (Photo David Gorton)

I have recently been spending time playing in the church, building and exploring my work centred on the musician’s of Samuel Pepys’s London. Here’s a link to that growing project. I wanted to talk about the music played by musicians in London at the time that this marvellous building was finished. So I played a prelude by Torelli, published by the firm of Walsh, whose shop was literally yards from the Church, in 1705.

Giuseppe Torelli-E minor Prelude (From Walsh-Preludes & Vollenteries 1705 LINK for more)

TIme beating-no more. St Michael’s Cornhill (Photo David Gorton)

We began the afternoon’s work with Carter Callison’s fascinating 6 part work based on Palestrina. This is the second workshop on this piece, and we were able to push the experimentation further-making both ‘full throttle’ versions, and removing and restoring musical material.

Carter Callison-Workshop Version one (Full Volume)

Carter Callison-Workshop Version two (Notes removed…)

Carter Callison-Workshop Version three (Intermittent return of melodic material)

Pew End. (Photo David Gorton)

Attention then turned to Michael Rose’s Dartmoor project-a jewel-like expansion of part of ‘Silence’, which I had premiered in the Dover event on Sunday. The fantastic acoustic of this wonderful church provided a great opportunity to experiment with notions of musical, acoustic, and architectural space.

Michael Alec Rose-‘Silence’ (Workshop version of opening)

Sara Cubarsi continues her challenging work on microtones. She brought along a two-part piece, using a 53-part division of the octave, but cleverly notated in conventional notation.

Sara Cubarsi-Two-part workshop piece (53-part division of the octave)

In St Michael’s Cornhill, joined by Diana Mathews-playing Carter Callison (Photo David Gorton)

The group’s exploration of Dowland’s Lachrimae  hand in glove with David Gorton’s compositional work on this musical source took wing in this inspiring place.

David Gorton-Dowland Workshop Pieces (St Michael’s Cornhill)

1.Version with florid cadenzas

2.Microtonal Version

3.Microtonal version plus original theme

4.Last version

A perfect place to work. St Michael’s Cornhill. 5 3 14 (Photo David Gorton)

Nashville – London Composer Exchange. Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University. Peter Sheppard Skaerved trying to avoid conducting. 25 2 14. Photo David Gorton http://www.peter-sheppard-LINK

27th February 2014 REICHA!

It’s here! Reicha Complete Quartets Volume 2. With Neil Heyde, Morgan Goff, Mihailo Trandafilovski. Thanks to Martin Anderson and Ron Drummond for all the work. Go to the link to listen and BUY! http://www.toccataclassics.com/cddetail.php?CN=TOCC0040

Reicha Quartets Volume 2

Working on Michael Alec Rose’s latest installament of our Dartmoor Collaboration at Ingram Hall, Nashville, 24 2 14

On stage playing Jim Aitchison’s ‘Portraits for a Study’ 22 2 14

21st February 2014 Celebrating W E Hill and Sons, and Philip Glass

Philip Glass-‘Strung Out’ for Amplified Violin (1963)

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Violin (WE Hill and Sons 1900) Workshop recording Wapping 21 02 14

The back of my beloved W E Hill and Sons violin, newly restored, with all original fittings from 1900 (pegs, bridge, tailpiece). So pleased to bring it home, that I could not resist playing Philip Glass’s ultimate ‘gallery piece’, ‘Strung Out’, which have been playiing for 20 years-in all sorts of contexts-in front of a Pollock, in the Rufino Tamayo Gallery in Mexico, and Sunday week, in Clare Smith’s exhibition space in Dover…

The back of my wonderful (and newly restored) Hill Violin, which I have played since I was 16 years old, and used to record Telemann, Schubert, Haydn, Henze….

February 18th 2014-A great work for two violins

Alan Rawsthorne-Theme and Variations 1936

Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Christine Sohn-Violins

When I  was a first year student at the Royal Academy of Music, the wonderful Manoug Parikian handed me a copy of this piece, Alan Rawshorne’s ‘Theme and Variations’ for two violins. ‘This is possibly the best piece ever written for two violins’, he said, handing it over, ‘I certainly can’t think of a better one.’ Many years and many performances later, I have to agree with him. John McCabe fuelled my enthusiasm for this piece, which succeeds in being at once almost spartan in it’s use of materials and an absolute winner onstage. Here it is, with Christine Sohn a first year student at the Royal Academy of Music, the wonderful Manoug Parikian handed me a copy of this piece, Alan Rawshorne’s ‘Theme and Variations’ for two violins. ‘This is possibly the best piece ever written for two violins’, he said, handing it over, ‘I certainly can’t think of a better one.’ Many years and many performances later, I have to agree with him. John McCabe fuelled my enthusiasm for this piece, which succeeds in being at once almost spartan in its use of materials and an absolute winner onstage. Here it is, with Christine Sohn

Composer Alan Rawsthorne

Working with young composers at the Royal Northern College of Music. 16 2 14. With Neil Heyde, Morgan Goff, Mihailo Trandafilovski

One of the great pleasures is watching my wonderful collaborators/friends at work, inspiring others (and me). Here’s Neil Heyde, yesterday morning, working on the new String Quartet by RNCM composer David Curington (at right).

February 16th 2014 Hans Werner Henze – Solo Sonata ‘Tirsi-Mopso-Aristeo’1978/Revised 1994

Montepulciano Summer 1990

Henze’s solo sonata was directly inspired by a folk version of the Commedia dell’Arte particular to Montepulciano, where I worked with him whilst I was a student. It’sperhaps one of the most interesting dramatic challenges for solo violinist, demanding that the player present, quite literally, three complete acts of an imaginary drama, whilst the music makes allusion to (as Henze reminded me) Haydn and Montiverdi. Here’s a corner of a building in the old centre of the town, drawn in the summer of 1990.

Henze-Solo Sonata ‘Tirsi’ First Page

February 14th 2014 John McCabe Celebrated

We are celebrating the great John McCabe this weekend at the Royal Northern College of Music. The concert starts with wonderful ‘Maze Dances’.

My much-loved copy of John McCabe’s ‘Maze Dances’. 14 Years work, and it’s almost there!

John McCabe ‘Maze Dances’ (1973)

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Stradivari 1734 (Habeneck)

Soundbox. February 11th, 2014. With Nigel Clarke-Composer, Joanna Jones-Artist, and pianist Jan Philip Schulze

Jan Philip Schulze’s surprise appearance at SoundBox today, a great opportunity for me to express my gratitude and admiration of this wonderful friend and collaborator. and a recording of us playing Evis Sammoutis’s ‘Metioron’ in Nikosia: https://www.sheppardskaerved.com/2011/05/evis-sammoutis-%CE%BC%CE%B5%CF%84%CE%AE%CE%BF%CF%

With pianist, Jan Philip Schulze, in 2000, in the stunning Golden Hall in Maribor, Slovenia,

Tuesday February 11th Soundbox: War and Peace

SoundBox. Tomorrow February 11th. 1230 Piano Gallery, Royal Academy of Music. Together with Joanna Jones and Nigel Clarke, discussing our Arts Council project with Malene Sheppard Skaerved for Dover Arts Development. Here, part of te process, Nigel and I sulking in St Edmund’s Chapel, Dover. For more information on the project go to -https://www.sheppardskaerved.com/2012/07/war-and-peace/

Improvising in the Grand Shaft, Dover. Photo, Marius Skaerved

Improvisation in the Grand Shaft 

Sunday February 9th Celebrating John McCabe!

It’s going to be a week celebrating the work of the wonderful John McCabe, leading up to workshops and concerts, with Neil Heyde, Morgan Goff, Linda Merrick, Mihailo Trandafilovski, Aaron Shorr at the RNCM. So to begin, here’s the coruscating ‘Star Preludes’ live with Tamami Honma.

John McCabe-Star Preludes

Live performance London 1999 (Stradivari 1734 ‘Habeneck’)

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Violin

Tamami Homna-Piano

With Composer John MCabe-Burgh House, 2006-See Event Friday February 18th (bottom of post)

Back at Goldsmiths College-first concert of our new Residency. Webern, Stravinsky, Matthews, Finnissy, Bartok 6 2 14

A Richer Dust. A glimpse of some of the music we will be playing as part of my two-concert counterpoint to the National Portrait Gallery’s ‘A Richer Dust’. Here, the wonderful working manuscript of John Foulds’s ‘Waters of Babylon’ (1914). Haven’t played this piece for many years-I just love that the scratching out happens just before he uses 1/4 tones for the first time!LINK

On violin playing, some thoughts (February 2014)

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’-that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’

(Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, (v.5)

Over the next week, I feel driven to write a little about what I have learnt from composers about how music might be performed. It was made clear to me, from my earliest years, by the extraordinary artists who helped me, that we had a duty, to speak and sing truthfully, however inconvenient that might be.

So, day by day, a series of vignettes. All of them sit alongside the Keats which I have chosen to begin. Funnily enough, the Ode on a Grecian Urn came up most powerfully in conversation with the British composer Howard Skempton, sitting in the Enlightenment Gallery of the British Museum, in 2006. The poem was, he said, fundamental to his music, to his expressive sensibilities, to the directness of expression which he thought.

Day 1. Louis Krasner

But so much of it begins with Louis Krasner, who commissioned and premiered the Alban Berg Concerto, and to whom I went to study when I was 20. Krasner believed that connections between us were, are, everything. He demanded that I believe, as a Credo , that J.S.Bach had arranged the chorale, es ist genug, specifically so that Berg should find its meaning, the ‘kronende Abschluß’ of his own ‘requiem’ centuries later. He made me promise that I too, would, in sixty years, ‘pass it on’, as he had passed it to me.

Louis Krasner at NEC Boston. Photo: PSS

There was no question with Louis, of truth being anything but hard won, wrought: “You must fight, you must wrestle with the material, even with the composer, you know, like the story of ‘Jacob and the Angel’. There are many obstacles in the way, and you must seek them out in the music – the effort, the physical, emotional extremes, the furious activity-this will bring you to the truth, to the music. It’s not meant to sound restful, that would be insincere, and you will betray Berg, and Bach!”

Hearing Krasner talk, driving me to take more challenges in music which I thought that I had mastered – his sense of duty, never left me. His picture hangs in my hallway, reminding me to take the difficult road, every time I pick up the violin.

Day 2. Ralph Holmes

I was sent to study with Ralph when I was twelve, by Beatrix Marr, about whom I will be writing later this week. Ralph would have been in 41 when I first met him, and I was not prepared for how overwhelming this encounter would prove. I have no idea why he took me on-I was a mess, and really, musically, very behind the curve. However, he found a way through my muddled approach, using his interest in, well everything. Very early on in the lessons, he used the collection of paintings and sketches, which filled his studio, to illuminate our work directly-when he talked about colour, he would hunt for the precise shade, in a nocturne by Whistler, or the sheer heft, the impact in a  Matthew Smith,  or  in one of Elisabeth Frink’s oil sketches. It took a couple of years before I let on that I had always been a painter, and that became further fuel for the fire.

Coupled with this, something which I am not sure that he could articulate, but which his playing, and his sensibilities could not fail to. Ralph always hunted for sincerity, whether it was to be found in the bustle and bluster of a Leclair sonata, or the brimming lyricism of the last of Prokofiev’s Cinq Melodies or Bach’s E minor (continuo) Sonata. ‘Gilding the lily’ was simply not an option, not acceptable; the beauty which was to be found had to be presented as it was, with its flaws, which so often, were/are integral to its nature. Very early in our friendship, he brought out a copy of Matisse’s Woman with Green Stripe, to make this point.

Lord Nelson-‘Though Shot and Shell’. A treasured gift from Ralph Holmes

Every day I see a gift that he gave me, a wonderful hand-coloured ‘magic-lantern’ slide of ‘Lord Nelson-Through Shot and Shell’. The face is almost overwhelmed in the rage and erosion of the brush strokes around it, by serene nonetheless. I had admired it, standing on his piano, for months, and then one day, he made me take it. It sums up so much of what he was saying, and what his radiant playing imparted.

3. The Living Line

Like so many artists and musicians, there is no divide between the inspiration which comes from working with mentor figures and friends/colleagues. If there was one subject which animated the conversations which I was having with the players to whom I was closest when I was younger, it was the question of line. Debate raged, instruments in hands, over the relationship between the physical nature of the material of music, and its meaning or function. This might not seem to be a ‘blood on the carpet’ issue, but for string and wind players (not to mention singers), it’s fundamental. We fought over this question of integrity: should/shouldn’t the manifestation of music, whether seen formally (like a phrase) or in a concrete manner (the breath running through a note, the tremor and scratch of the bow on the string), reflect/be the music itself? On this subject, it is fair enough to say that no one can agree, and, whichever answer you choose, you will make someone dislike your work. It was/is obvious that the answer was intensely personal? The teachers whom I admired had made it abundantly clear that this was a question of integrity, of conscience, but there is no question that the industry was looking the other way, and perhaps still does.

Egon Schiele -Self Portrait (detai)

A glimmer of light in the conversation was found in drawing. A few of us became fascinated by the way that the great artists had made their emotional/spiritual involvement apparent in the way that charcoal, pen, or pencil met the paper. It became apparent that the greater the draughtsmanship, the more impossible it was for these giants to resist the manifestation of Eliot’s ‘circulation of the lymph’ in the tremor of line on the page. We turned to Käthe Kollwitz, to Egon Schiele, to Hockney, Guercino and Michelangelo. There in the drawings, an answer seemed to be found. In recent years, meeting up again with the friends who were part of those discussions, I found that far from ebbing, these convictions had remained embedded; we had all found different paths from these small beginnings, but this realisation remained, still fundamental. 

4. Beatrix Marr

In my childhood the violinist Beatrix Marr was a constant. ‘Trix’ had been my mother’s teacher at the Royal Academy of Music, and we would go and stay with her at half-terms, in the beautiful cottage she shared with her husband Norman, in a hidden valley in South Devon. Quite early on, I would take the train down to Devon, and stay with her for lessons. She had studied, like so many of the great London players of her generation, with Rowsby Woof, but had also sought out D.C.Dounis, and his approach was present in her teaching. However, the distinguishing feature of her approach was idealism (She did not believe in treating children any different from adults).  Music simply had to be relevant, and that meant that the musician had to be a complete artist; literature, painting, history, all these were factored in. I still have the books that she pressed on me when I was very young – anthropology, folklore, history, art – and she made me love Patrick Leigh Fermor’s work, a fascination which never dimmed.

Lessons took place under the Hugo von Beckerath drawing of Brahms playing his Op 76, lost in rapture and concentration.  I grew up comfortable with her clear understanding that there were mystical links which did not respect place and time, and that, as artists, as people, we were bound to respect these things, that no note should be produced from the violin in vain. Trix banned me from ‘fiddling around’ on the instrument-‘either play, or be silent, say what you mean’. That stuck with me, and she encouraged me to love practice, not as a repetitive routine, but a place of discovery, of enquiry, of silence. So much of this was beyond me at the time, but as is so often the case with great teachers, the lessons seeped in after the fact.

Stone tool (Spearhead) from Beatrix Marr’s garden, Membury, Devon.

Bach was always at the centre, and she was the first to make it clear to me the high expectations that Bach set any musician.  She would take one movement, say of the G minor Partita, and have me study and play it in 8 different ways, with different bowing combinations or dynamic gradients. Then she would send me out to hunt for Neolithic tools in her vegetable garden, or to walk to the medieval stone bridge which crossed the river near her land. I now understand, what she was showing. We do not interpret Bach, or any great music, we chisel away at our understanding of the work in the optimistic expectation that we might live it well, that we might stumble across something wonderful in our repeated modest traversals of these pieces. The stone tools which she gave me, and the ones which I found in her garden, are often on my practice table.

(more to follow)

Wednesday 29th January 2014-A glorious daw with a treasured composer

We spent the day recording  with the great David Matthews, such a dear friend and lifelong inspiration. I will say it -his 12 Quartets are as important to us as any string quartet cycle that we play. Yesterday we recorded nos. 2 and 3, which date from the 70’s for release on Martin Anderson’s wonderful Toccata Classic’s label, making this our 4th Matthews disc for them (counting my disc of solo works). David was with us, like playing quintets, with Neil Heyde, Morgan Goff, Mihailo Trandafilovski. Here, outtakes of No 2-listen to the Scherzo (which he says was more than a little influenced by Velvet Underground).

David Matthews-2nd Quartet Op 16(1974-1980(outtakes of recording session 29 1 14)

Kreutzer Quartet (Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Morgan Goff, Mihailo Trandafilovski, Neil Heyde)Engineer-Jonathan Haskell

Allegro

Scherzo

Elegy

A fantastic evening: with David Matthews, Morgan Goff, Neil Heyde, Mihailo Trandafilovski, after playing David’s 10th Quartet (which we have loved playing for 10 years) and his arrangements of Beethoven Op 119 and 22. (Photo Marius Skaerved)

Tuesday 28th January 2014-a new work arrives

First steps with an unheard work. Robin Holloway’s ‘Sonatina’ for solo violin, on the practice desk, 29 1 14

Sunday 26th January. Review of Grieg/Finnissy Disc (Metier)

Grieg/Finnissy disc continues to make waves!’ROBERT ANDERSON (Music and Vision Daily) ‘… the whole disc is an unexpected serendipity.’