Bright Wings

The Big Snow

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Snow in Masterton, Monday, 15 August 2011

Draw on sweet night: singing on the Trinity Backs

 

A traditional feature of Cambridge University's May Week is Singing on the River, a concert of choral music sung on the Cam River from punts lashed together and lit with lanterns.

The concerts began in 1928, sung by the Cambridge Madrigal Society, under the leadership of Boris Ord. These days they are sung by the Choir of Trinity College.

In this 2005 video of Wilbye's beautiful madrigal Draw on sweet night, traditionally sung at the end of the annual concert, the lantern-lit punts move around on the river and, as the madrigal ends, slowly drifts away until the choir is almost inaudible.

Young Glenn Gould practising

 

The teenage Glenn Gould practising Bach's Partita No. 2.  A fascinating glimpse into a rehearsal of a great pianist.

Go Gran!

While having a late lunch at our lovely local cafe, Dish, I noticed an elderly lady - probably the far side of 80 - sitting next to the window, sipping from a champagne flute.

Her walking frame parked beside her, I momentarily wondered how steady on her feet she was likely to be after enjoying her tipple.

I wandered over to talk to her. It transpired she toddled into the cafe most afternoons and that her elegant drink was actually lemonade.

For many elderly people living alone the days are long and opportunities for outings and social occasions often limited because they are too far from the shops and depend on others for transport.  And for some there is a stigma attached to visiting a cafe on their own.

But not for this elderly lady. She was making the most of the opportunity to sit sipping her drink, watching the world go by and enjoying the company of others in the cafe.

Good on her.

Wairarapa South Coast

The southern Wairarapa coast in the late afternoon in winter.

Martinborough chic and vintage

A small selection of Hope & Glory beautiful handcrafted items.

A trip to Greytown for lunch in pouring rain saw us change direction as we could see the sky over Martinborough bathed in sunshine.

This proved to be an inspired decision as the weather in Martinborough was bright and sunny, if a bit breezy.

NZSO anniversary: a poignant tale of a thwarted career

 
National Orchestra of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service :First season ... 1947. Wellington inaugural concert, Town Hall. Thursday March 6th. Souvenir programme. [Cover. 1947].Reference Number: Eph-B-MUSIC-NO-1947-01-front (Alexander Turnbull Library)

 

It is 64 years this week since Anderson Tyrer picked up his baton for the first concert of the newly-formed National Orchestra - now the NZ Symphony Orchestra - with Vincent Aspey as orchestra leader. A milestone in New Zealand's cultural history.

It reminded me of the wonderful cleaning lady I had in the 1980s. She'd worked out I was a musician as she dusted round the heaps of music on top of the piano.

Home from work one day when she was cleaning, she asked me if she could play my violin. A valuable instrument, handed down through our family, the doubt showed on my face. 

Guardedly I said yes. She picked it up and expertly tuned it. And off she went. Stunning playing, with the rich tone, musicianship and technical ability of the true violinist.  I was gobsmacked.

She explained she'd been born, in Gisborne, into a musical family with a Maori mother and Italian father, and had studied the violin as a child.

She was 16 when Anderson Tyrer announced auditions for the National Orchestra. She travelled to Wellington, was auditioned, and told by Anderson Tyrer to come back when she was 17, as he felt that 16 was a little young to be joining a professional orchestra.

During the following year she got married to a man who hated music and she didn't pick the violin up again until after he died.

By then she was in her mid-fifties, and too late for the professional career she had dreamed of. But she made my day and I gladly let her play my violin whenever she wanted.

Prison system helps grow future criminals

Putting parents in prison - and resulting family dysfunction - is contributing to the future prison population. American policy analyst and prison chaplain Samuel K. Aitchison, writing for Patheos, sees the figures speak for themselves.

That the criminal justice system does little to serve the needs of either prison inmates or their families—and thus contributes to its own crime statistics—is hardly news. The literature on the impact of incarceration on families is replete with studies mourning the repetitive criminality of the incarcerated and the sobering prospects for their children.

American statistics indicate that having a parent in prison makes a child five times more likely to end up in prison themselves.

"We know that intact families are a strong contributing factor to prisoners successfully re-entering society. We know that children who are provided a measure of safety, security, and stability generally grow into productive, happy adults. The prison system, as I have experienced it, works completely to undermine both of these ideals."

New Zealand's lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key mentality sees New Zealand having one of the highest prison populations in the western world. Our prisons are overcrowded and there is little opportunity for effective rehabilitation or support to get inmates' lives back on track once they leave prison.

The wider impact on a prisoner's family and growth of potential future criminals needs to be given greater consideration.

Read the rest of Incarcerated Families here 

The dog as all-round musician

Schnoodle accompanies its own singing at the piano

Roy Tankersley MNZM

Roy Tankersley has been awarded a MNZM (Member New Zealand Order of Merit) in the New Year Honours, announced on 31 December 2010.

Well done, Roy. Very well deserved.

Roy has organised many church music activities at community and national level, including direction of the RSCM Winter School.  He is an organ consultant, motivator, workshop presenter, recitalist and choir trainer, as well as running an educational video project. Roy has had an enormous impact wherever he has been. His enthusiasm and passion for church music has inspired generations of New Zealanders.

Roy was for many years Head of Music at Tawa College and later Marsden School, as well as conducting several community choirs.

These days Roy is based as a freelance musician in Palmerston North, where he is Director of Music in the parish of St Marks and St Andrews, directs the Manawatu Youth Choir and Schola Sacra Choir of Wanganui.

Santa flies in

Reindeer being unavailable, Santa visits his Greytown, Wairarapa, customers by plane for an RSA Christmas Party held in the 1960s.

Santa is Barney Rhodes and the plane is a Taylorcraft BC12.

Christmas cards 1880s style

Card by John Philomen Backhouse, White Terraces, 1880

The practice of sending Christmas cards is rapidly diminishing as people use email and social media to keep in touch. Gone is the need to send Christmas cards in October, to reach Europe in time for Christmas, when the internet offers instant contact.

Card by Archibald Duddington Willis, 1886

I suspect many of these Christmas cards from the 1880s would have been sent "home" to the United Kingdom and Ireland, delivery in time for the festive season being dependent on ships arriving and departing on schedule. 

The cards would have been an opportunity for showing off their new home in New Zealand, hence the emphasis on scenic views.  Picturesque scenes of snow-covered villages are noticeably absent.

This card, also by Archibald Duddington Willis, shows the spectacular river terraces of the Rangitikei River, and Kohi (kowhai) flowers.

This Christmas card of the Grahamstown Goldfields, also by Archibald Duddington Willis, suggests a certain pride in the 'dark, satanic mills' of the Thames goldmining industry. In our theoretically clean and green world it would be unthinkable to include such a view on any sort of card today.

Source: Manuscripts and Pictorial Collection of the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Silent monks perform the Hallelujah Chorus

Silent Monks perform the Hallelujah Chorus. Wonderful.

Mounted Police to control Masterton teenage drinking

News of the Perry/Chapel Street carpark being used for late-night teenage binge drinking points to the need for a rethink as to how the Masterton CDB is managed at night.

I hate driving along Chapel Street late at night. The footpaths are thick with heavily intoxicated teenagers, who frequently stray onto the road and have a very casual attitude to traffic.

The Police have power to act: Masterton District Council's liquor control by-law bans drinking throughout the CBD and adjoining parks.

Mounted police
I'd like to see one or two mounted police used to patrol the CBD at night. A police officer on a horse has a much more intimate view of what is going on, a horse is highly manoeuvrable, and its size makes it very good for crowd control.

Officers on horses can ride through the parks and other areas where troublemakers gather.

Masterton is ideally placed to use horses for patrols with its proximity to the rural hinterland. I'm sure police who are also experienced riders would jump at the chance to combine their hobby with their work.

Other suggestions

• The Council could look at hiring Walkwise "safety ambassadors" who also patrol the CBD at night, acting as eyes and ears for the Police.
• Play Barry Manilow music from speakers in the popular congregating areas.
• Add additional CCTV cameras 
• Where possible, involve parents and help them see they are accountable for the actions of their teenagers.
• Attempt to find out who is buying the alcohol for these teenagers, and where.  
• With local churches, investigate providing a safe, van-based, mobile drop-in centre and transport home, such as is provided in Wellington.  

There need to be some unpalatable consequences for these drunken young people.  For example, if you are caught drinking in a public place like the CBD, you are hauled out of bed at 6 am by the Police the following weekend and made to clean up the CBD, including vomit. 

The Police and Masterton Council can't solve this on their own: they need community support. Do you have ideas or suggestions which might help?

Quadriga Consort plays

 

Quadriga Consort plays Loch Lomond

Quite by chance I found this compilation video of the Austrian early music group Quadriga Consort in which soprano Elizabeth Kaplan sings a hauntingly beautiful version of Loch Lomond.

The full group are: Elisabeth Kaplan (voice); Angelika Huemer (recorders, viola da gamba); Karin Silldorf (recorder); Dominika Teufel (viola da gamba); Peter Trefflinger (baroque cello); Laurenz Schiffermüller (percussion); Nikolaus Newerkla (harpsichord, arrangements and direction).

Gary Higginson, writing for Music Web International -

Yes, they play recorders and gambas and there is a harpsichord. However their repertoire is mostly folk music which is timeless. Elisabeth Kaplan is super: she has a flexible voice, a folksy voice which includes a pop singer-style elegant scoop up to a note where suitable.

Some arrangements have a ‘jazzy quality’ to them, using syncopation. You can hear this in ‘The Maid who sold her Barley’. ‘Pulling the Sea-Dulse’ has some distinctly modern, nice harmonies and changes of key so, although the sound-world says ‘early music’, the repertoire is mainly anonymous and traditional from the British Isles. That said, ‘The Saucy Sailor’, in this arrangement anyway, has a sense of the Hispanic about it!

Quadriga are nothing if not a sophisticated ceilidh band. What is especially pleasing about being able to see Quadriga perform, is that, with the obvious exception of their director and harpsichordist Nikolaus Newerkla, they each sing/play from memory. His allows for freedom and a greater sense of fun.