T I M M AT T H E W S & PA U L V I N C E N T P R O U D LY P R E S E N T

TUESDAY 21ST JANUARY 2014

CREDITON CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH(D O O R S O P E N AT 6 . 4 5 P M )

The Music Makers’

C O N C E R T # 3

Tonight’s PerformersTim Matthews, co-host of The Music Makers’ has this month established a new singing group in Crediton, The New Choir. It invites new members, no audition is required; just an interest in learning to improve one’s singing within the group. The repertoire is wide-ranging – from 16th century polyphony to 1970s pop. He couples his life as a piano tutor and house-husband with conducting the parish choir of All Saints Church, Okehampton, and The Alvington Singers, Kingsbridge.

Polina Shifrina, resident in Exeter for two years, is a professional pianist and teacher. She trained at the Conservatory of Vladimir, Russia, and subsequently at the Richard-Strauss Conservatory, Munich. She performed at The Music Makers’ fi rst concert last October. She teaches a number of piano pupils in Exeter. www.pianoexeter.jimdo.com/

Composer, keyboard player, percussionist and woodwind player, Alfi e Pugh graduated in 2012 with 1st Class Honours in Music at Bath Spa University. He has been composing since he was 10 years old: his competition-winning work Vasilia the Beautiful, for orchestra, was performed at St John’s, Smith Square, London in 2011. He has a particular interest in interpreting and arranging the work of Barry Gray, composer for many of Gerry Anderson’s TV series, including

Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlet. He comes from a highly musical family, and lives in Exeter. www.alfi epugh.co.uk

Natalia (nee Putilova) brings a second Russian contribution to this evening’s concert. Also known as the wife of Frank Letch, Mayor of Crediton, she has lived in the UK since 2006. She is, among much else, active locally in assisting non-English speakers integrate into local life. Born in Moscow, Natalia took courses in singing at the Moscow Conservatory in the 1980s. She will share her admiration for traditional and fi ne-art Russian songs.

Anna Tanvir and Arco Mukherjee have worked internationally as Crossover, combining the music traditions of both Ireland and Bengal. Anna was born in India and brought up in Ireland. She studied music at Dartington College of Arts, and at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Arco is a native of Bengal where he enjoys a substantial following as a performing artist. Both Anna and Arco are impressive vocalists: in addition Anna plays a Celtic harp, and Arco plays guitar. They have both performed widely in India and Europe, including at the Bourges Festival in 2012. Anna has recently moved from France to Crediton, where Arco is a most welcome occasional visitor. www.annatanvir.com

In a Landscape, by John CageTim Matthews — piano

Two Sonatas (K. 426 in G minor; K.427 in G Major), by Domenico ScarlattiPolina Shifrina, piano

Music from the TV series . . . Thunderbirds: ‘The Tracy Lounge Piano’; Captain Scarlet: ‘Markham Arms’ and ‘The Mysterons Theme’ / Joe 90: ‘A Piano Recital by Igor Sladek’

Themes arranged, and played by Alfi e Pugh, piano

Russian Romantic SongsSung by Natalia Putilova

• • • I N T E R VA L • • •

Crossover: music originating from Celtic and Bengali traditionsAnna Tanvir (voice and harp), Arko Mukherjee (voice and guitar)

Arabesque No 1, by Claude DebussyTim Matthews, piano

Further acts to be announced

T H E M U S I C M A K E R S ’ P R E S E N T C O N C E R T # 3

The organisers of classical concerts usually feel they must advertise their musical programme in advance. I often wonder why orchestral managers feel they need to do this. If there is to be a premiere of a new or rare work, fair enough - that’s exciting news. But audiences don’t normally need to know in advance what they will be listening to; they just need to know that the music will be good, and that it will be played well.

Classical concerts, as a result, tend to play safe with their repertoire. If you warn people to expect a new or challenging work, the middle-brow people will probably stay away – and miss out. By the same token, if you programme only the familiar and popular, then the really knowledgeable types will stay away – and they too will miss out on the chance of an interesting new interpretation. The fact is, you need both to create a properly numerous, yet informed, audience.

Tonight’s title, ‘From Scarlatti to Captain Scarlet’, seeks to intrigue rather than inform. Scarlatti was a composer of keyboard music in the 17th century. Captain Scarlet was a puppet in a children’s TV series in the 1970s – for which Barry Gray wrote the theme tune. Both will be represented by pianists here. There is plenty else, but the title was an opportunity too good to miss!

There will be other instruments appearing – a harp, guitars, drums and more, and there will be singing. There will be musical ideas, old and new, from Europe and America, India and Russia. There will be rhythm, melody, texture and harmony in varying proportions. But you didn’t need to know all this to persuade you to come.

Some eyebrows have been raised at the broad range of music at these concerts. The Music Makers’ creates a platform for performers to play, irrespective of style or musical genre. We merely ask that the performances are interesting and deserving of an audience. As for what makes good music, one defi nition of music is simply ‘organised sound’ * – a pleasingly broad description that I’m not sure we can improve on.

What sort of music tonight?

Most of the music will be a delight to hear. Some items, of course, may not be to everyone’s taste. In mitigation, we aim to create an environment in which you will not feel confi ned to your seats and forced to listen (at least not for too long at a time!) to something you don’t like. The evening is enhanced by good food, drink and friendship. The seats are reasonably comfortable, the room is warm and the lighting mellow. It doesn’t cost very much to come in. Educational, stimulating and entertaining, we hope.

We have invited (and sometimes cajoled) musicians to share their music at The Music Makers’ - but we haven’t tried to specify particular items to be played. The result is a concert series featuring the most surprising juxtapositions of musical expression. Surprisingly – so far – this has been tolerated and seemingly appreciated by our audiences. Perhaps we all have a broader taste in music than we would admit, even to ourselves. PV

*Defi nition of Music – source WikipediaAn often-cited defi nition of music is that it is ‘organized sound’, a term originally coined by modernist composer Edgar Varèse (1883 – 1965) in reference to his own musical aesthetic. Varèse’s concept of music as ‘organized sound’ fi ts into his vision of ‘sound as living matter’ and of ‘musical space as open rather than bounded’. He conceived the elements of his music in terms of ‘sound-masses’, likening their organization to the natural phenomenon of crystallisation.

Varèse thought that, ‘to stubbornly conditioned ears, anything new in music has always been called noise’, and he posed the question, ‘What is music but organize d noises?’

The fi fteenth edition of Encyclopedia Britannica states that ‘While there are no sounds that can be described as inherently unmusical, musicians in each culture have tended to restrict the range of sounds they will admit.’ A human organizing element is often felt to be implicit in music (sounds produced by non-human agents, such as waterfalls or birds, are often described as ‘musical’, but perhaps less often as ‘music’).

T H E M U S I C M A K E R S ’ P R E S E N T C O N C E R T # 3

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757) was born in Naples, the son of Alessandro Scarlatti (himself an important contributor to the development of opera, chamber cantata and string quartets). Domenico spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classifi ed as a Baroque composer, although his music was infl uential in the development of the Classical style. Like his father he composed in a variety of musical forms. Today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas.

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918) appears to have been the son of a china shop proprietor. He became a student at the Paris Conservatoire in 1873. Eleven years later he won the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome.

He spent almost his whole life in France, working as a composer. He was amongst the fi rst (along with fellow countryman Maurice Ravel) to break away from the melodic and harmonic conventions of the 18th and 19th centuries. He is often described as the founder of modern musical impressionism.

Barry Gray (1908 – 1984) is best known for his collaborations with television and fi lm producer Gerry Anderson. Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Gray started piano lessons at the age of fi ve. He studied at the Manchester Royal College of Music and at Blackburn Cathedral.

He subsequently gained experience scoring for theatre and variety orchestras. He served with the Royal Air Force during World War II before returning to the music industry to work with names such as Hoagy Carmichael. In 1956 Gray joined Gerry Anderson’s AP Films and scored its fi rst marionette puppet television series, The Adventures of Twizzle. Best known for his score to Thunderbirds, Gray’s work included the themes to all the other Supermarionation’ productions – among others, Stingray, Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons and Joe 90.

The composers

John Cage (1912 – 1992) was an American composer, music theorist, writer, and artist – and a pioneer of the non-standard use of musical instruments. Taught for a while by Arnold Schoenberg, he was a leading fi gure of the post-2nd World War war avant-garde. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage became interested in ‘chance-controlled’ music, which he started composing in 1951. (The piece this evening pre-dates this period).

He is probably best known for his 1952 composition 4’33” which is performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing - apart from being present for the duration specifi ed by the title. The content of the composition is not ‘four minutes and 33 seconds of silence’, as is sometimes assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance. 4’33” was performed by Tim Matthews at our last Music Makers’ concert (though it didn’t appear in the printed programme).

Alfi e Pugh (b.1989) is from Exeter. Essentially self-taught, he has been composing and arranging since 2000. Alfi e graduated from Bath Spa University in 2012 with a fi rst class degree in Music – and where he was awarded a major prize for composition.

He was Musical Director for the university’s production of Sondheim’s Into the Woods and the pantomime Cinderella. His 5 Dioramas, for clarinet and piano, were performed in 2012 at the Michael Tippett Centre, Bath. Alfi e is an expert on Sibelius notation software and has written for professional, university and county youth ensembles.

T H E M U S I C M A K E R S ’ P R E S E N T C O N C E R T # 3

Although our Crediton PIANO studio is now closed (piano teaching with

Tim Matthews now takes place at Crediton Congregational Church),

anyone wishing to play a piano can visit the Mint Methodist Church, Fore

Street, Exeter - where pianists are welcome, in return for a small donation.

For music lessons in Crediton, please contact:

Tim Matthews (piano, theory) (01363) 898047

Jake Slocombe (violin, guitar & rhythm) 07805 633794

For The New Choir (Music Director Tim Mathews),

please contact Paul Vincent: pv@eclipse.co.uk

PIANO MUSIC by Thomas F DunhillA selection of easy and moderate piano pieces available to download as pdfs from website www.thomasdunhill.com Prices from 79p, each pdf is presented with cover and biography to enable assembly into attractive paper version.Soon to be available: Twelve Months in Music – piano pieces by Thomas F Dunhill (1877-1946) These are roughly at Grade 2-3 level, each describing a different month, season or mood of the year. The pieces compiled from a number of albums published between 1904 and 1937.

We are grateful to CREDITON CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH for the continuing use of the church for The Music Makers’ concerts, and

for rehearsals of The New Choir.

For more information about The Music Makers’ events, please see our

new website at: www.themusicmakers.org.uk and see our advertisements

in The Crediton Courier.

Our next Music Makers concert will be on

TUESDAY 22ND APRIL 2014

Musicians and groups wishing to perform at this or subsequent events are invited to get in touch. Please e-mail Paul Vincent: pv@eclipse.co.uk

Refreshments are provided by Grape & Grain, wine & beer merchants, 130 High St, Crediton — Pies & cakes are from local producers Peck & Strong, of Crediton

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PIANO MUSIC by Thomas F DunhillA selection of easy and moderate piano pieces available to download as pdfs fromwebsite www.thomasdunhill.com Prices from 79p, each pdf is presented with cover and biography to enable assembly into attractive paper version.Soon to be available: Twelve Months in Music – piano pieces by Thomas F Dunhill(1877-1946) These are roughly at Grade 2-3 level, each describing a different month, season or mood of the year. The pieces compiled from a number of albums publishedbetween 1904 and 1937.

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