Hebrides Ensemble
10.29.2009 | News
If, when you hear the words “Classical Music” you think of Holst, Beethoven or Chopin (and as ignorant as it may sound, I possibly fell into this category) then this is definitely not what one would define as Classical.
Based in Edinburgh, The Hebrides Ensemble come from a European Classical community of a kind, where all sorts of electronic and alternative avenues are being explored in a way that is catapulting Classical music into the super contemporary.
Having listened to an extract from a piece entitled ‘Moving Still’ I will wholeheartedly admit to being somewhat mystified by what I was hearing. . By its nature, Chamber music is a pleasurable, intimate performance. There’s a definite sexiness to this flurry of strings whilst a male vocal counts down from 10 to 1 throughout the duration of the extract. In addition to traditional Classical undertones, this track includes vocal percussion. Yes, beatboxing. There’s a street performance feel to it, without diminishing any of its elegancy. It’s a curious yet undoubtedly intelligent composition, which immediately gets you wondering what else the ensemble could have in store.
The collective have been touring Scotland and Europe led by Cellist and Conductor William Conway and with a ‘Chamber Music category in the 2009 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards’ nomination under their orchestral belt, this group are being recognised for their take on what could be largely considered ‘uncool’ in these Pop and Alternative driven times. At present they’re putting some efforts into breaking down the stereotype attached to the genre and entice a new audience. In terms of what they do musically, it’s easy to dissociate the stigma as, frankly, I wouldn’t have expected this from a typical orchestral movement.
You can catch these fellows in an upcoming show on 1st November, 8pm, Recital Rooms, . This is a celebration of Peter Maxwell Davies 75th Birthday. This will include a celebration of his most famous works combined with that of Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen.Glasgow
Have a look HERE for more info on The Hebrides Ensemble and click HERE to hear the extract discussed in this article.
Nicola
11.14.2009
Having been brought up on classical music, playing in youth orchestras etc. I used to think of pop and rock as a more vulgar sort of music, with none of the emotional sophistication of classical: pop and rock were eternally adolescent…
Of course, this was rot, as is the distinction between classical and pop. In these days, where musique concrete has long ago become the sampling style used everywhere and high-brow electronic experiments in university labs have developed into mainstream dance tracks, the days where many (on record, Paul McCartney) were intimidated by classical and classical connoisseurs sneered at pop could and should be forgotten. Music is music. Ditch the cultural baggage because it blocks the intended route of one person communicating sincerely with another. There is sublime pop and manipulative trash pop. On the other hand, one of the greatest musicians I ever met described one classical composer as ‘a musical baby’ so there’s derivative, trashy classical music too. Lots of it.
Pop is like what folk music used to be and, in this regard, in his time Bela Bartok could be described as a Hungarian pop remix artist. Ditto with Malcolm Arnold and his ‘Four Scottish Dances’ (which are great, by the way). Again, the ‘theme and variations’ of classical music are essentially re-mixes. A good example is Vivaldi’s variations on the theme ‘La Follia’ which was a hugely popular tune back in the early eighteenth century. It’s still a good tune and others at the time picked up on it like Antonio did. OK, so the technique was simply listening and re-tweaking stuff on a bit of paper rather than using pro-tools, but the idea is exactly the same.