Music is Life - Brian Ferneyhough

Go here for Brian Ferneyhough's Time and Motion Study II:
http://youtu.be/ghyN-kJpcbI

After the 1997 Subud World Congress in Spokane, Wa, Reynard Rott and I traveled down the California coast to San Diego for an audience with composer Brian Ferneyhough. Earlier that year Reynard had brought the house down with a performance the man's monumental 'Time and Motion Studies II', and my recordings of the event had turned out so well that it seemed a good idea to meet the man himself and see what would happen. Turned out Mr.Ferneyhough (son of a coalminer and a charlady in the north of England and currently William H. Bonsall Professor in Music at Stanford University) is one of the most eloquent speakers I've ever recorded. The resulting reportage will be posted shortly.

What was most frustrating at the time was the sheer amount of great out takes that I had to leave aside, without any prospect of ever being used. That bit of memory (meaningful in the context of TMSII, funnily enough) stuck with me.

A couple of years later in Brighton I was in AAAFNRAA mode, one Sunday morning, so I pulled up the material and pasted it over a snippet of aural wallpaper Allen Racho and I had perped and it worked. This is the result. I have no idea where this little event belongs exactly but, if one of the ways to measure one's work is through its relevance in time, the least I can say is that the heart of Mr.Ferneyhough's message is certainly more relevant today as it was back in 1997.

The Eyecandy animation of classic Hubble images consists of a series of tests made for an altogether different project, which was abandoned but still resides in the freezer somewhere.

For more Ferneyhough quotes see also 'Share' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhnLuewLzkk).

Fifth upload of a series of audio pieces, created between the Summer of 1998 and the Spring of 2000 in the New Music Studios--my place, then, at 11 Jew Street, Brighton, England. --- DvN

This recording © David van Noortwijk

Category:

Music

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• Music
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• Ferneyhough
• Avant
• Garde
• Hubble
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• Escher
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• contemporary
• classical
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• modernism
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• Reynard
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[MisterSimnock]

Mmmh ... all very grand sounding, but if I actually "deconstruct" Fernyhough himself I find very little else than banal statements about the shallowness of advertising etc. that have been said by ordinary mortals many times before (and in plain English). Methinks BF is a rather puffed-up peacock. Nice Hubble piccies though. Thanks for posting.

[astroscribe]

@MisterSimnock. Personally, I'm not worried about people making statements that have been made before as long as they're made with true authority. So what matters is, in his words, the authenticity; "that directness, that shocking credibility, that sharpness, that blindingness of image." In other words, it doesn't have to be new as long as it's original. That's good advice, me thinks. It's been almost 15 years since we recorded this and his slightly odd turns of phrase still pack a punch for me.

[JohnRSamples]

I have been on several camping holidays with Brian and can vouch for his unpretentiousness. He is a good laugh around the camp fire and always does his share of the washing-up. He drinks hot cocoa at night and hums old music hall tunes in his sleep. All I would say is that he has some personal hygiene issues. It's not a criticism .... let he who is without small slithers of chicken skin in their beard cast the first stone.

[quelbop]

I beg to differ-I've heard Ferneyhough talk on several occasions and he's exceptionally unpretentious as a person. A really nice guy.

[allegramente5000]

New Age take on Brian Ferneyhough. The most unexpected way of packaging this composer,but i'm glad it was done.

[fremsley001]

I prefer the gaps.

[japanesesweet]

WoW! I like the way you have left gaps so his words are more digestable.