Does a composer write his or her best music at a time of joy, tragedy or tranquillity? There are persuasive cases to be made for all three. Indeed we should probably add a fourth option i.e. none of the above as there are plenty of composers who seemed able to turn out wonderful music...
Creative Writing tutor Joanna Ezekiel has been working with composer Pat Livingstone to set Joanna’s poems to music, using music technology that includes sound effects such as marimbas and a klezmer band! Joanna chose five poems from her poetry collections ‘A Braid of Words’, ‘Safe Passage’, and ‘Centuries of Skin’ that had been tried...
An insight into a student-led collaboration between Music and Fine Art Over the last half year I’ve had the pleasure of visiting exhibitions of two artists local to the North East of Scotland. I was taken by surprise to find – among the seascapes of Frances Walker and Kate Downie – a similar little...
One of the vivid memories of my youth is sitting down on a chair on which my father had placed a much treasured vinyl (78 rpm) recording of Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary. Needless to say, it was smashed to smithereens (a technical term). The key question was whether I would be able to sweep up...
Good news for current and potential music students at the OCA! We have commissioned Carla Rees to write a new Level 1 Music course. Gareth’s recent interview with Carla gives some fascinating background on her interests, including her pioneering work on the 21st century flute repertoire and developments with the instrument itself (alto and...
Music Tutor, and soon to be author of the OCA’s second Level 1 Music Course: From The Present To The Past, Carla Rees talks to Gareth Dent about her work. I have many associations with the OCA; I came to the College initially as a photography student, and then later became a tutor on...
My reputation as a cool dude when playing jazz (pause for ironic jeers) has taken a bit of a hammering recently as I’ve had to start wearing middle distance glasses in order to see the charts. My optician tells me I’ll soon be needing multifocal lenses. Which brings me to Random Fact Number 742…...
The announcement of the UK General Election for May 6th brought to mind the song Things Can Only Get Better, written by Peter Cunnah. It was originally released by D:Ream in 1993 but achieved wide prominence when used as the Labour Party’s campaign theme in the 1997 General Election. It perhaps has a somewhat...
We are delighted to announce that Chris Lawry has been awarded the first prize in OCA’s first ever music competition. The challenge was to produce an original arrangement of a traditional folk tune. Entrants could choose one of two melodies. In practice, most chose ‘We’ve been a-wandering’, as follows: Chris Lawry’s arrangement can be heard...
Patric Standford, the Course Leader for Music was in the office yesterday so we took the opportunity to ask him about his career and what he was currently working on. We also recorded a piece about the Composition courses and this will be on the main OCA website next week. In addition to being...
Do you ever get fed up with hearing Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons over and over again? I certainly do. But then I’ve got some history here: I once swapped an LP of those musical seasons for an early Ray Charles album. The irony with the over-familiarity of the Four Seasons is that The Red...
I was listening to the Today programme on Radio 4 whilst driving into work last week and there was an item about an exhibition in Cambridge entitled Under Covers: Documenting Spies. Cambridge has been something of a breeding ground for spies, of course – and not always for the same side! The interviewee commented...
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