NZ Symphony Orchestra under threat of closure

Axing the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is one of four options being put forward in the face of falling ticket sales for performances.
The Culture and Heritage Ministry today released a new discussion paper looking at the future of orchestras in New Zealand, amid concerns that falling ticket sales and rising Government funding were making the sector unsustainable.
New Zealand has four regional orchestras, in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Southland, as well the national touring orchestra.

Once closed down the NZSO it will be nearly impossible to resurrect this world class orchestra so the NZ government has to think carefully over this one. 

Everyone in the music industry is suffering today but some of the pain that orchestras are now suffering is self inflicted. Over the years orchestras have not been very thoughtful to others and now the sympathy that orchestral players expect is not forth coming.

As an artist and a producer and director I have a love/hate relationship with orchestras as organisations. In my experience they have not been easy. When it comes to money and treatment orchestras, like tenors are prima donnas. In my time everything was done to placate them for they could and did make life difficult and expensive for other artists.

In the past musicians and record companies had it all they own way. They got and demanded huge fees making it impossible for many other artistic disciplines to use them. It meant that many operas and ballets could not and are still not be shown on TV or DVD as the orchestral fees demanded were far in excess of the income.generated Consequently opera & ballet and classical music did not and still does not get promoted and many artists have had their brilliant performances lost to posterity. 

At charity concerts when other artists forgo their fees orchestras's get paid!  As Gilbert of G&S once replied after being asked to donate his the royalty for a charity concert. If the orchestra gets paid I get paid! Orchestra's do not do charity unless for themselves. 

Because of cost singers get only one rehearsal with an orchestra. If singers sing with the orchestra the orchestra gets more money consequently singers just have to sit and listen. This does not improve performances.

Orchestra's are good at downing instruments and leaving if rehearsal time overruns or demand overtime. This does nothing to help get good performances either. Orchestras are within their rights but for others who have to suffer this appears unreasonable. Sometimes the singer will sing for the first time with the orchestra on their first night. It wouldn't have hurt them. If others behaved like this nothing would get on.

Orchestras usually get paid more than performing artists too and on a regular basis. I never got paid as well as the orchestra although many West End shows relied on my performance. These musicians who were well paid often used substitutes  so they could take other work and on those days the orchestra sounded awful and the show and our jobs suffered as the orchestra sounded appalling. Shows relie on word of mouth!

The present copyright regime bought in by USA to protect Micky Mouse stifles creativity. Having to wait 70+ years  for re-interpretation is too long so new up to date versions of hits of the recent past miss out on promotion and will be forgotten. 

I used to hate dealing with orchestral musicians as a bunch both as a performer and a producer. I recall once trying to employ the NSO when instead of seeing the General  Manager I was given five minutes of the Concert Manager's time where he insisted on showing off his digital watch. As this interview had been arranged by Radio NZ I do not know was the most embarrassed. Point being is orchestra's then were prima donnas and instead of being helpful appeared self satisfied and greedy and prepared to put a woman in her place. Anyone prepared to employ an orchestra should be taken seriously. I made do with recored music and later digitized music. Digitized music which is now so good and so cheap too by comparison. 

So is recorded music. In Sydney I attended the Australian Ballet with orchestra, In the third ballet I thought the orchestra was playing, mush better than in the previous ballets so I glanced down to see an empty pit. The orchestra had gone home after the first two ballets! The  recorded sound was so good.

Lastly it is a pity that orchestral musicians do not appear happier when playing instruments at concerts. Usually they look bored stiff as if they would rather be somewhere else!  On tour they grumbled constantly in spite of having paid for weeks off while we artists had no pay for that week just the fare to the next town.

But that is a minor quibble. I should hate to see the NZSO go!

The Queen & The Olympics We are not amused

The photo above seems to say it all. Her Majesty appeared to be definitely Not amused.  She seems to be thinking how on earth did I let myself be talked into this? and in fact one wonders how she was?

I found the James Bond section embarrassing. I seem to be alone in this as the British Press and comments are all rapturous on the subject. I felt the sequence made the Queen look like Dame Edna Everage and although not a tremendous fan of the Royal Family I felt sorry for her. She must have hated it. You can see it written all over her face.

The British Press appears to have given the Opening Ceremony a 5 star rating and so who am I to disagree. I am well past my sell by date and in truth the Great Britain of my youth has long since vanished into the distance past so I can hardly comment.

This sort of ceremony must be a nightmare to produce and a poisoned chalice to the producer. Not everyone will like it. I thought it was like the curate's egg good in parts.  I loved the Abide with me sequence and the lighting of the cauldron. Very inventive and spectacular but I am not into rock and roll.

I do not get Mr Bean and I thought the Bond Sequence in  questionable taste.

I did enjoy 1948 better. It had a simplicity of purpose that I still think more appropriate and moving. The cost was minimal and the impact was stunning. It felt like an Olympic Games. The world athletes were the major attraction. The King was dignified. The massed pigeons  and massed bands were unforgettable.

Beijing was a difficult act to follow and London's ceremony was certainly different. Beijing was so expensive that London could have got away with a simple ceremony. I think most countries would be relieved at not having to copy the extravagance.

 I can't pretend I wasn't a bit disappointed that many things Britain does so well were not included but at least it did not rain!

Big Ben Olympic Style. NZ Style Work of Art

Commissioned by the London 2012 Festival, Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed has developed a collaborative artwork that will enable people throughout Britain to welcome the Olympic Games and those participating in it to the country. At 8.12am on July 27, members of the public are invited to ring any type of bell available to join a chorus of thousands of others in expressing their enthusiasm for the Games. Telegraph

Ben Ben has chimed 40 times to welcome in the London Olympics. 

Being English and proud of it I am doing my bit here in Auckland New Zealand to welcome the 2012 Olympic Games.  I love works of art, the quirkier the better.

The neighbours who think I am eccentric anyway will now think I am MAD!

I may not have a Big Ben but I do have a working Angelus Bell. I still recall the sound. Everything stopped at my convent school for the Angelus. I have completely forgotten the ritual but I know it included a few Hail Mary's and was a welcome break in a maths lesson.

I stood on the veranda for the three minutes. I don't think anybody heard but there were just two passers by who did give a glance but I enjoyed it.

As I attended the Opening Ceremony at Wembley in 1948 this is the least I can do. 

Tally Ho! Let Battle commence!

Modern Music really does all sound the Same

The scepticism about modern music shared by many middle-aged fans has been vindicated by a study of half a century's worth of pop music, which found that today's hits really do all sound the same. Nick Collins, Science writer, DT

And nothing in 3/4... that's a waltz to anyone under twenty! I could not understand why none of my loops in Garageband were available and neither could the Apple tec. We were on it all day and eventually gave up. That night I changed from 3/4 time signature to 4/4 and bingo all the loops arrived back. Very poor selection of loops in minor keys too! Don't think today's music does minor either.

Mozart, Mahler or Beethoven  have no need to worry. They knew how to write a good tune and they are safely out of copyright which means their music will get played unlike the present lot which won't and will be consigned to oblivion. 

You can do brilliant things with Garageband. For fun I wrote out the complete orchestration of September, one of the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss. 

I hadn't realized that the 1600 bar four minute song is one of the richest orchestrations ever written. Every bar is different. My feat is more amazing as being a singer  I do not play an instrument. However I do have a bit of theory. I should have paid attention in harmony class. 

Played over good speakers the transcription was a revelation. I sang it quite well too. You never hear it like this is a concert hall or recording because it is just too difficult to play. The first bars of cascading violins must be a conductor's nightmare! How does one get them together?

For the first time I could hear the showers of rain, the bees and the cuckoo at the start but as winter approaches the huge orchestration descends to a single French Horn.

Sadly no one can hear this! Yet! The copyright on Strauss's work is so strong that it is forbidden. The price required is just too high for me. Boosey and Hawkes informed me that they considered it my arrangement although every note is as Strauss wrote it.

Under copyright law MY arrangement will be under MY copyright so I suppose if Boosey & Hawkes is correct as MY arrangement is exactly the same as Richard Strauss's I shall own the publishing rights of September for the next 70 years. What a paradox!

The USA love affair with Guns

What is it with the USA citizens and guns? I heard with horror this morning that children of the age of eight are given firearms on their eighth birthday!

Not only that but the guns are pink for little girls! No wonder the USA has a problem.

Over the weekend 3000 USA citizens were cleared to buy guns. It is scary to think that nearly every citizen you see on the USA streets or in the supermarket has a deadly weapon JIC (just in case). WHY?

The pink rifle above is 100% legal and is on sale in the USA. Can you believe it?

On the BBC's World Have Your Say this morning a USA woman proudly told how she gave not only this but a selection of guns to her young eight year old daughter as if it were a bag of jelly babies. The mother could see nothing wrong with this. The gun lobby can see nothing wrong with this. The gun lobby thinks owning a gun  makes USA safer. It certainly makes the gun manufactures richer

Words defeat me. No wonder the USA has a problem.

Olympics Why are the Brits so negative?

Why are the Brits so negative about the Olympics? 

Last night in NZ I just watched a TV Documentary on the achievements of building the Olympic Park. It was a magnificent. I was so impressed. 

The tunnels for the electric cables, the downsizing stadium, the tennis racket roofs, the land scape, the use of rail, the waterways, the soil clean up, the incredible swimming pool,  all this is a tremendous feat. The site was ready two years in advance unlike many Olympic venues. That in itself is a feat. You wait until Rio!

Yet all the rest of the world hears about are grumbles about a few queues at airports, a lack of security staff and threatened strikes by selfish immigration staff who ought to be ashamed of themselves on this occasion by taking advantage and acting as spoilsports. This does nothing for UK's overseas image and negates all the successes.

With an event of this magnitude something is bound to go wrong, this time security is the culprit. Fortunately you have an  army so why not use it when needed? That is what it is there for. Better than a war any day!

As  child I went to the Opening Ceremony in 1948. There were grumbles then too! Appalling weather, not enough medals, not enough audience but it was an event I have never forgotten. I was four.

The building of the Olympic Park is a brilliant showcase of what the British can do and that alone deserves a gold medal. If I had a stadium to build I'd give the contract to the Brits!

So stop shooting yourselves in the foot. The British workers have shown on this project they are industrious, creative and hard working given the chance. This achievement is something of which to be proud.

Now get on with it and enjoy it. It is only a couple of weeks!

The Worst Journey in the World Cherry Gerrad

© Peter Hargreaves mmxii

This wonderful photograph of the Emperor Penguins was discovered on Facebook and was taken by Peter Hargreaves.

I have alway loved the Emperor Penguin ever since I read the book The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry Gerrard who was part of the 1910-1913 British Antarctic Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott.

It tells of extreme hardship and the meaning of human suffering under extreme conditions. The text is very hard to read as it describes the horrendous journey and the disastrous outcome in great detail. One can almost live every horrible step.

The scientific reason was to collect the eggs of the Emperor Penguin to study the embryos. This could only be done in the polar winter so the whole journey was undertaken in the worst of possible weather. The trip nearly killed them.

For me the most poignant moment in the whole book was the last chapter when Cherry-Gerrard takes the precious eggs to the Natural History Museum. In the time that they had been away science had moved on and nobody cared a jot about Cherry-Gerrard or the eggs. They did not want to know.

He arrived at 10 am to be told to leave the eggs on receptionist's desk. Considering these eggs had nearly cost him his life Cherry Gerrard was a trifle annoyed. He refused to leave them without talking to someone and had to suffer the indignity of having to wait i the entrance hall until late afternoon when somebody in authority could be found to receive them.  Even then the recipient was cold and unwelcoming.

How often have most of us had the experience of the smirk and distain of an unobliging secretary who protects his/her boss! The BBC variety used to be awfully good at this. Scared me stiff!

That somebody never realized that his rudeness and lack of empathy would be immortalized in this amazing book.

Whenever I see an Emperor Penguin I think of him. It may have been a useless journey scientifically but it is a wonderful example of just how courageous and brave humans can be. Cherry Gerrard's book is his gift to posterity. Everyone should read it.

The Beautiful Miller Maid  Chapter 3 Part 1 can be found here