new crumhorn piece

We finished that tune today, it rocks! Hopefully the crumhorn will be okay after 3 hours of continuous playing and the same yesterday, I think I will give it some time off now.

I'm very tired, and that tune just keeps going round and round and round and round along with some bits of songs from choir.

Anyway, Horses Brawl action is that we're having a rehearsal on Sunday with Jennie Cassidy to finalise the programme for the paston festival and then a rehearsal with Philip on monday and then a gig at the arts centre on tuesday and then off to hexham on wed to friday.

That question has come up again of where do we fit in? the answer is that we don't and I see that as very positive because we can make our own rules but it's also much harder than a snugly fitting pidgeon hole but also much less restricting, but the benefits out-weigh the negatives, but it still makes that question hard to answer.

There's a bit of a nip in the air. Tonight I am going to see Jason Dixon about a new work he is going to compose for me to perform at my recorder concert next year.

We are going to do workshops in Hexham and the area around next week. We have been planning the pieces and trying to imagine situations and hoping for lots of recorder players (well I have!) We've also got our new album recording booked and our launch date and venue booked! more on that nearer the time, since it isn't even christmas month I think it's a little early to discuss next year's projects..... but soon.

An another thing, how do you tell someone what you really think about their music? this is an interesting question I feel and especially when confronted drearsomnity.

We've nearly written an entirely new crumhorn piece today, I think it will work, it's such a great tune. It's good to play music, I'm feeling on top of it all again now (after a brief dip in feeling like my fiddle was completely alien to hold) fingers and tonguing is working much better and I've just found out that my contemporary recorder concert is going ahead in March next year so I'm hoping to perform a couple of new commissions.

My perfect note is...

D. I have found my best singing note and I can announce it is D, not the one under the bottom line, the one on the 4th line up. I have just discovered this because I was singing the 'Introitus' to Orazio Vecchi's Missa in Resurrectione Domini 1607 (altus part) and it just kept working, I think it's partly because we were short of a few parts so I was on my line solo and actually started to enjoy it and get it! We also worked on the 'Kyrie', and the 'Gloria', and there is an incredible Flamenco feeling section for two and a half bars, but I did start to feel a bit dizzy from all the breathing and long notes and stuff.

It looks like we are going to be recording the 3rd brawl album at the end of January and will have a mahusive launch party gig in early May, very exciting, though also feels like a long way off, lots to do and perform between now and then.

I saw an fantasitc hedgehog in Raveningham today, their legs are always so much longer than you would imagine, it was taking a leisurely stroll down the road, it was so cute and reminded me of Jennifer and her membership of the society for the preservation of hedgehogs.... and a time I went to her house and they had created a hedgehog sanctuary in the bathroom and there was a baby hog standing on it's hind legs looking over the top of a box.

rehearsing tomorrow with Adrian, we're going to run our new pieces I hope and be really focussed, I've got new cinnamon tea so that should help.

London and Devon and fizzy drinks

Yesterday I went to London and back first class, the tickets were cheaper than standard (that in fact is not true but they were only about £2 more each way and it is much comfier and loads more room to stash recorders, fiddles etc so to me they were cheaper, it's all about quality of life and what's 4 quid? .....a glass of prosecco actually!!). We performed in Colourscape it was interesting and some of it was fun, and some of it made me really cross. We had some delicious chocolate brownies and Adrian, Lydia and I had a glass of prosecco at Canteen in spitalfieds market to sooth the madness it sort of worked, we were tempted to by a bottle but it was slightly out of our range.

Last time we were in Canteen we were playing for the grand opening, it was freezing and we were playing outside and then we were asked back to play for the opening of their second restaurant on the South Bank part of Royal Festival Hall, we couldn't be heard, but I'm sure we added something just by waving a crumhorn around being performing monkeys, that was a while ago though... we tend to have audiences nowadays!

Anyway, it does all make you question the line between earning money and performing situations, it wasn't all bad at all, just left me with a lot of thoughts to process (she said diplomatically trying to be positive and not have issues).

The album is coming along... I think we have only a couple more pieces to refine and hopefully some more will appear. Some rehearsals with Philip coming up, plus all the touring. Philip is joining us in Devon for a few dates. As we are going to be there about a week, we have hired a kind of log cabin as our base near Exeter, much cheaper than a couple of travelodges so that will be wierd and fun. The dates are looming and so are the workshops, though I am looking forward to it all I am definitely feeling like my head is focussing yet needs a day off. The antiques market at mum and dad's helped, I now have a lovely jumper that was Jen's and a set of 6 silver plated wine goblets which I am looking forward to trying out.

Charity

Tomorrow we are playing at the Waveney Greenpeace Fair, apparently the biggest annual single fundraiser for greenpeace.
It will be full of hippies and East Anglian creative types playing wholesome music on a couple of stages including a human dynamo stage. I'm performing 3 times, with Rampant Horse Collective, Leading a set by Norwich Fiddle School and then later Half an hour on the main stage with Horses Brawl and in fact so is Adrian.

Some good festivals have just come in for next summer, almost confirmed so can't put them up until official, but will be rather lovely.

I tried to offer my services as an overqualified recorder teacher to a local school, but was met with all the tedious baggage that accompanies the recorder... a load of rubbish... they've lost their chance now. apparently people wouldn't feel happy paying for recorder lessons as it isn't really a proper instrument... Grrrrrrrrrrrgh.

I have new boots to perform in, I just wore them on their first outing to the farmer's market in Aylsham, very comfy and some lovely local veg.

Practice makes complicated

What happens is we meet half an hour or so after we've arranged to meet (usually me being late as I haven't got the hang of how long it takes to migrate from county to city.... but today it was Adrian), and then we talk about gigs and what's coming up and what we will be playing and how we need to rehearse the whole set, and then we start playing/writing a half finished idea for 3 hours. Today we had to have a lie down and some beetroot salad to enable us to keep going.

New piece made from Ludwig Senfl's Ave Maria, beautiful amazing and totally absorbing arranged with another of the tamboura tunes Adrian was learning from a Plovdiv Conservatoire book. It isn't a building up piece, it is focussed and delicate.