For the last few months my typical friday has consisted of me waking up around 9:30-10am, having two or three cups of tea and then getting on with some composing, to which I would dedicate most of my day. In my head, that is already a pretty great friday, but today has broken the cycle in many ways and my fridays from now on will fall terribly short in comparison.
This morning I got up at the same time as I would do on a monday as if I was heading to York for lecture, but this morning, we didn't have a lecture, we had a workshop. Now workshops can go either way; they can either be a terrible experience where you feel as though you would of been better staying in bed OR they can be incredible and totally and utterly brilliant, so much so, that 3 hours doesn't seem like anywhere near enough time to fully grasp what is happening infront of you. Today was the latter.
The reason for this great day came in the form of four extremely talented musicians, also known as The Ligeti Quartet, and this morning, they visited our university and held a workshop on composing for string quartet. They played a broad variety of their repertoire and talked us through many important details that involve composing for strings in many different stylistic settings and genres. To see such musicianship up close is mind blowing, but then it goes a step further once they stop, smile and ask if theres any questions you'd like to ask regarding what they just played. As many of you are probably aware, if you go to a concert, the performers will very often play their chosen pieces with little to no interaction with the audience, so to be asked if you have any questions is a very strange feeling. It's not like I've never been to workshop before, but its one of those little things that never fails to make me laugh.
Unfortunately I can't find a link to any videos of them performing, but they do have a Soundcloud account so I'll place a link to a recording below. The link to their website is also above so feel free to check them out.
I need a cup of tea as I've got a long list of string quartets to listen to!
Liam
Agreed the workshop was actually outstanding, what a privilege to observe and engage with four extremely talented and tight string performers. I immediately went home and started tearing my string piece up and remolding it.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s probably taken for granted how much understanding an instrument or grouping of instruments can inspire creative ideas.
Hey liam,
ReplyDeleteI think your blog is very well written as a non musician, i can find a way to understand what you are talking about, which is always nice. I really like how the piece you out in this post plays with convention. to me as a completely ignorant to music, it seems to straddle different genres of music and he result is really fresh. hope all is going well :) charlie