Romeo and Juliet, the ballet, was written by Prokofiev in 1936, first as three suites for orchestra and as a piano work. The piano work was later reduced to ‘ten pieces for piano -opus 75’. ‘Girls Dancing with Lilies’ … Continue reading
‘The Swan’, written by Camille Saint-Saens for cello with piano accompaniment, is the thirteenth movement of a larger piece called ‘Carnival of the Animals’. The Carnival is in fourteen sections. It includes tortoise, elephant, kangaroo, an aviary, pianists(?), fossils and … Continue reading
Tomatoes, Apples and Bananas. In a little side street near Jemal’f’na square in Marrakesh, I was doing a little street busking with the Fish accordionist MaiQue. Our repertoire of Scottish/Arabic tunes had attracted the usual small crowd of enthusiastic locals. … Continue reading
The Mysterious Voice of the One String Phono Fiddle The phonofiddle is not to be confused with the Stroh Violin. It is a relative in the same family, but has not got a violin fingerboard, rather a long flat fingerboard, … Continue reading
The Shipping Forecast Every night the entire nation of Britain fall into the envelope of sleep serenaded by the softly spoken cadences of The Shipping Forecast….a tiny transistor radio on their bedside table transmits the comforting voice of the BBC, … Continue reading
An extraordinary life and an extraordinary woman. Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico City in 1907. Her instantly recognisable paintings, many of them self portraits of almost hallucinogenic intensity, have defied definition or categorisation. Sometimes called ‘naive style’ and Andre … Continue reading
Imagine if there was music that had been created in the 7th Century which still sounds harmonically avant garde today. As early as the 6th Century, Chinese court music came to Japan. The Japanese introduced the koto and the biwa … Continue reading
