Saltaire Festival Review Sept 09

Horses Brawl, Saltaire, 11 September, 2009



ONE of the advantages of the Early Music Shop’s (relatively) new location in Saltaire is the fact that some charismatic venues are close at hand for occasional concerts. One is Sir Titus Salt’s Congregational Chapel and another is the interior of Salt’s Mill itself.

Both, obviously, are Victorian structures. But they betray the influence of earlier architectural styles and are perfectly sympathetic locations for renaissance and baroque music.

In the case of the mill, performances take place in a bare space where power looms once wove alpaca cloth day and night. But when the duo Horses Brawl performed to a large audience here they did so between cast iron pillars which were almost reminiscent of a renaissance theatre.

deconstructed renaissance/medieval music performed in a nineteenth century mill to a surreal backdrop of pastiche-eighteenth century theatre designs by a contemporary artist – this was actually perfectly appropriate in the case of Horses Brawl.

Laura Cannell (recorders, violin, crumhorn) and Adrian Lever (guitar) can be categorised as an ‘early music’ duo because of their sources and influences. But the extent to which they reinvent their material and do so, especially in Adrian’s case, on ‘modern’ instruments, means that they are a long way from the authenticist movement.

Not that this invalidates the creative process behind their repertoire. Nor does it diminish the impact of their musicianship.

Adrian Lever’s playing of a steel strung guitar, using a variety of capos, tunings and techniques – including a bow which made his instrument sound like a viol consort – is thoroughly ingenious and shows his determination to explore its potential.

Laura Cannell plays the fiddle with panache and her full-bodied, uninhibited recorder playing makes one realise that this staple early music instrument does not have to sound insipid and tentative.

The duo assembles its repertoire from fragments of early melodies – such as medieval dances, excerpts from sacred polyphony and eighteenth century folk tunes – and creates a post-modern musical melange that stands outside time. None of it was ‘renaissance thrash’ – the duo’s sets were, in general, rather contemplative and required concentration from the audience.

This is not ‘early music’ in a musicological sense. But, for many us, playing and listening to early music is all about reinvention and renewal – seeking an alternative musical route to the classical canon or the ubiquity of pop. Horses Brawl are perfect products of this philosophy, And Sir Titus Salt’s mill was a perfect accompaniment.


William Marshall