“Modern Love… gets me to the church on time.”
However, while I’m happy to trek up spiral staircases in gothic towns while on holiday, it’ll usually take a wedding (or worse) to get me into a place of worship. In fact, the only place I’m less likely to end up is a classical music event – the closest I usually get is
whistling along to ‘Mr Blue Sky’.
Oddly enough, the two things coincided the other night. A string ensemble were billed as playing music inspired by the Caribbean, so following the ‘support local music’ doctrine, off we trooped to St Michael’s Hall. As you’ll have already guessed, we were directed towards the actual church, which to be fair is an impressive structure with great acoustics.
As we squeezed – who knew there were so many music fans in town? – onto the arse-numbingly uncomfy pews, I pondered what it is about worship that demands pain and misery. Or maybe that’s just to keep the parishioners awake through the sermons.
Anyway, I digress. There we were in a church with a string quintet due on – potentially, the only thing that could make my evening complete would be if they were serving up gin and tonic with brussel sprout nibbles (as it happens the half-time wine was very pleasant, and for a minimal donation. No crisps though).
Unfortunately, the supposedly West Indies-inspired ‘tunes’ kicked off with something more akin to Brahms or Bach – the ideal soundtrack an advert for a financial institution.
Things picked up with their second piece, its shifting rhythms not unrelated to a tango. The throng seemed happy enough if a little surprised by the theme. But that was where things got really interesting. A guest soprano arrived, and the strings shifted into full ‘experimental’ mode. The looks of horror on the face of 95% of those present must have matched that on mine when I first spotted the cello.
Entering lazy journalist mode, I’d compare that part of the set with the likes of Stockhausen (think Wagner schooled in Guantanamo Bay) and Stravinsky (whose ‘Rites of Spring’ sparked riots in Paris; though happily tonight’s audience are a tad more chilled out). The talented quintet played these with as much finesse as their take on the Cuban-themed rumba-rhythmed selections. (Sadly the repertoire didn’t extend to any Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry dub mixes).
Of course, the lines between all musical genres can be pretty blurred. Prog has always had a relationship with classical music, with the ‘greats’ (Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin et al) employing orchestras, and The Who writing arguably the first rock opera. Though no-one is quite sure how to classify Rick Wakeman’s ‘King Arthur’ given that it was performed on ice.
And there’s one of my favourite singers, Peter Hammill, who wrote an opera with Erasure’s Andy Bell as well as vocalist (and horror film scream artist) Lene Lovich. Francis Macdonald – whose band Teenage Fanclub were favourites of Nirvana – has just released a
classical album, as has one of his contemporaries, Astrid Williamson. These are relatively young musicians, but for the listener, maybe classical music is something that happens once the midlife crisis is over and the guitars are packed away in the loft – replaced with
comfy slippers and The Proms on telly. Or maybe Songs of Praise.
All that said, you never saw David Bowie doing an orchestral album…
