Following the announcement of vacancy on the OCA Student Association Committee for a Music Student Representative, we have received one nomination and so Elaine Goodall will be appointed to the position unopposed. Elaine’s election statement is available here. OCASA President, Stan Dickinson, will organise the handover from previous representative, Chris Lawry, in the next...
As students will have seen in Stan’s announcement, there is a vacancy on the OCASA Committee for a music representative, to replace Chris Lawry. This is the formal announcement of an election for that role. Nominations All students currently studying music courses with OCA are eligible to stand and to vote. Students who wish...
Chris Lawry has represented Music Students on the OCASA Committee since the Student Association was set up last Autumn. Having now completed his studies with OCA, he is stepping down from the role. I’m sure that everyone would want to join me, and the committee, in saying a big ‘Thanks’ to Chris for getting...
If, as many history text books direct us to, we believe that tonality lay down and died between the great 20th century wars, then we have to resign ourselves to having lost not only a vital organ in the apparatus of the musical body without which longer term survival is unlikely, but we are...
There are lots of people writing music in the world, and a plethora of instrumentalists too, but it can often be difficult to be noticed. In my line of work I often come across what I call the ‘generic flute piece’ – a basically well constructed piece for flute which does most things right...
We seem to have invented for ourselves a new dilemma. The demand for old music in our concert halls continues undiminished in strength, though the listeners grow older, more tired and, most likely, less perceptive – for how far away can we be from the conception of a Beethoven symphony and still participate in...
For artists, photographers, musicians, writers and other arts practitioners at all levels, it is all too easy to become isolated. We can work alone, often from home, and it can sometimes be difficult to engage with a wider community of other artists. For some, this is an ideal scenario, affording control over the work...
A concert audience is a rather different creature now compared with what it once was, although it can give performers just as hard a time as reputedly in the 18th century. It is not unusual for a singer in an Italian opera house to receive applause and shouts of ‘encore’ which, far from being...
When I heard the composer Sally Beamish talk about her composition for the Cultural Olympiad several weeks ago I took inspiration from the way she had responded to the theme of sports. The composition Spinal Chords, commissioned by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, expresses the slow recovery process of journalist Melanie Reid...
In Part 1, I mentioned some of the ways a composer can get their music heard. In this article, I want to highlight the 11 Golden Rules of submitting your work to performers, either through a Call for Scores or as an unsolicited approach. My ensemble, rarescale, has an open Call for Scores, and...
There comes a point in the life of most (if not all) composers, when the computer-generated realisation of their music is no longer enough, and some sort of contact with live performers is required. Employ some musicians. Go to a composer workshop, such as the one held recently at the OCA Enter a competition...
Looking up from the programme, a puzzled expression crossed the child’s face as he asked: ‘What’s a lieder recital?’ ‘A song recital’. ‘So what’s lieder?’ ‘German for songs’. ‘So why . . . .?’. And well might the apparently naïve question be asked of a recital of chansons too. Is it not yet another...
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