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Following on from his comprehensive Indian Raags Made Easy, a guide to playing Indian classical music on the piano (review here), composer John Pitts has now turned his attention to the distinctive and beautiful music for gamelan orchestra from the Indonesian island of Java. This was the music which so intrigued Claude Debussy when he first encountered a gamelan orchestra at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle, whose delicate, shimmering timbres are found in works like Pagodes.

In Extreme Heterophony: a study in Javanese Gamelan for one or more pianists, John Pitts offer a carefully-researched and clearly presented guide to the instruments and music of Java, with detailed explanations of the sounds, tunings, scales, metres and rhythms, using Western staff notation and terminology.

“Extreme Heterophony” refers to a foundational principle of how this music is constructed – akin to a theme and variations, but where c.10 types of related but widely diverse, decorative variations are all performed simultaneously – creating a rich, vibrant, exciting texture – and where the theme itself isn’t directly played. – John Pitts

This large-format book offers a deep dive in to the world of the gamelan, from descriptions of the instruments themselves to the use of melody, rubato, textural and rhythmic density, structure of performances, and notation. The author then goes on to explain the individual instruments (for example, the gambang, a xylophone, the “gender” barung, a metallophone, or the suling, a bamboo flute), their role and distinctive sounds within the gamelan orchestra, and how these roles and sounds translate to the piano, or a group of pianos.

The music, which makes up the greater part of the book, is adapted by John Pitts, each piece with a short introduction, clear directions and prompts to support the player/s. The pieces can be played at one piano, in duos or multiple duets at two or up to seven pianos. John Pitts’ website includes downloadable backing tracks to play along with, plus other useful resources for those who want to explore the music of Java in more detail.

This detailed, well-researched handbook is a fascinating introduction to the alluring soundworld of Javanese gamelan. The book is available in the UK/US from Amazon in printed book and Kindle format, and also as a PDF.

John Pitts website

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“bringing the very best classical chamber music to London audiences at affordable prices”

The innovative and now well-established London Chamber Music Society (LCMS) series returns to Kings Place with a generous and varied programme of Sunday concerts beginning on Sunday 23 January.

Old friends and new ones, including Solem Quartet, Rossetti Ensemble, and the Chamber Ensemble of London, are welcomed for this fine series of concerts with leading international artists. On 30 January, the Chilingirian Quartet, one of the cornerstones of British chamber music, celebrate their remarkable 50-year career in a concert culminating in the First String Sextet by Brahms. Other highlights include wind soloists from the Philharmonia Orchestra on 23 January, with pianist Andrew Brownell, in a programme featuring French music and the Sextet by 19th-century composer Louise Farrenc.

More in the French vein comes with violinist Philippe Graffin, who is joined by his compatriot, oboist Capucine Prin, on 15 May in a concert of oboe quartets as well as a fascinating new arrangement of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. Further highlights include Finzi’s Dies natalis on 20 March, in a concert of string orchestra works with the Northern Chords Festival Orchestra. There is more wonderful string music on 1 May, with violinist Peter Fisher and the Chamber Ensemble of London, joined by pianist Margaret Fingerhut in Finzi’s ever-popular Eclogue and also music by Vaughan Williams and Britten’s Simple Symphony. As well as the Solem and Chilingirian quartets, on 3 April the Navarra Quartet perform Dvořák’s String Quartet in G, and a new work by the American-Irish composer Jane O’Leary.

This season also celebrates the work of the remarkable Anglo-American composer Rebecca Clarke. The Fitzwilliam Quartet perform Clarke’s short quartet movement, ‘Poem’, on 8 May, in a concert that also features, with Anna Tilbrook, the mighty piano quintet by Brahms. Other trios include clarinettist Mark Simpson, cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Richard Uttley on 20 February, to include Simpson’s own Echoes & Embers, and the Barbican Trio on 24 April, in trios by Brahms and Saint-Saens.

This season’s coffee concert, on 13 March, is given by cellist Thomas Carroll and pianist Anthony Hewitt, with music by Prokofiev and Rachmaninov’s ever-popular cello sonata in G minor, with its beautiful long romantic lines. Linos Piano Trio open the LCMS 2022/23 season on 2 October.

All concerts take place in Hall 1 at Kings Place and start at the very civilised time of 6.30pm, apart from the coffee concert on 13 March, which begins at 11.30am.

For full details of this season’s concerts & to book tickets, please visit:

www.londonchambermusic.org.uk/

Chilingirian Quartet

The London Chamber Music Society boasts a proud history of Victorian music making in London with the regular Sunday Concerts that developed at South Place and then the Conway Hall from the 1920s. The LCMS continues that rich legacy at Kings Place, its home from 2008, with London Chamber Music Sundays – a diverse annual season of high-quality classical chamber music, ranging from duos and trios to chamber orchestras, coming from the UK, Europe and beyond. Many of Britain’s most celebrated ensembles have regularly appeared in the Series, from the Brosa and Amadeus string quartets of the past, to the Chilingirian and Carducci quartets today.

Artistic Director: Peter Fribbins

Header image: Solem Quartet

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Guest post by Alexandra Westcott

An article in response to Andrew Eales’ excellent article Making Peace with your Inner Musician, which was in turn prompted by this quote from the Bhagavad Bita: “Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice…But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace”

I’ve already written about mechanical practice versus knowledge and clarity. But I find I am developing my thoughts on this even more with regard to some of my students. In his article Andrew Eales’ discusses having less of an attachment to and more of an appreciation of results and goals; to be kinder and more accepting of ourselves and our piano playing journey; and to find ways to enjoy our playing and what it gives both to ourselves and others. I agree with this wholeheartedly.

I read this quote from the Gita and understood it slightly differently; I interpreted it to mean that in letting go of attachments to goals we let go of those goals altogether; taking away ALL judgement about our playing (even with regards to right or wrong notes) and immersing ourselves in the moment; surely it is this that this leads to immediate peace? I’m not saying that there are not times and situations when results are useful and necessary (whether extrinsic or intrinsically motivated), but that there can be another option for pianists.

As COVID struck I noticed my teaching changed; I was more interested in my students being able to play music than any amount of right notes or technical achievements (hard to do the latter online anyway), so we found ourselves focussing on the sounds, using improvising and ear games. I have already written about how this can help with improvising so I won’t reiterate all those points here, other
than to say if a student can withhold judgement about their playing then they can make music, however little they know or practice; when unable to concentrate on notes on a page, many of my students found solace through the piano and kept playing through both lockdowns.

More recently though, one of my students had an injury and couldn’t play, but got fed up with this and wanted to just get her fingers on the keys, so we have been talking about moving away from any ‘result’ at all, trying instead to focus on being in the moment, and the process of actually playing, whatever that playing is (i.e. whether improvising or learning a piece), and relinquishing all judgement about whether it is good, or right, or even sounds ‘nice’ (there is plenty of published classical music, or jazz improvising, from highly respected musicians and composers, of which I don’t like the sound, so if they can produce such music, why can’t we?!). The student is not learning for either a concert or exam, so why get upset about the notes…? Radical! We can aim at the right notes (assuming we are learning a composed piece), but judge ourselves less, or not at all, for getting them wrong, and enjoy the process in any case.

The Alexander Technique talks about ‘end gaining’; the mistake we make in focusing on the end result rather than how we get there. Understood correctly this is a huge part of how the Alexander Technique can benefit a piano (or any other) student. I think it can go further than aiding our clarity and technical grasp of the music and take us to a place where we are in the moment and finding peace, whether it is in enjoying the physical nature of playing the piano (which is one of the things I myself love about the piano, whereas I didn’t like the particular physical demands of playing the flute, for instance) or getting absorbed in the moods we can evoke. Sometimes we might enjoy the former but not like the latter we produce but does it matter; if it is ephemeral then is has gone in a whisper but we have lived the moment with peace and pleasure.

If you want a left brain reason to do this then be reassured, letting go of all our preconceptions and ‘goals’ completely can produce much more freedom; from judgement, from tightness of technique, or from musical and physical rigidity, and lead one to being more comfortable at the keyboard from whence ‘traditional’
results and goals are more easily attained.

So along with Andrew’s suggestion to be kinder of and more appreciative of where we end up, I also encourage you to be more mindful of, and kinder to yourself, in the moment. Take away an interest in the results completely, and with it any judgement of how you get there or what you are doing. As I’ve said once before and which reflects Andrew’s own words, once we get out of the way, there is only the music, whether is it ours, or Mozart’s.

Alexandra Westcott, BA, FRISM, is a piano teacher and accompanist based in north London.

Twitter @MissAMWestcott

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In collaboration with Gerard Hoffnung’s estate, over 50 intricately detailed, music-inspired fine art prints are now available at fine art print dealer and picture framers King & McGaw.

Satisfyingly simple and endearingly witty, artist and musician Gerard Hoffnung’s (1925–1959) illustrations are appreciated for their charming depictions of humorous characters and whimsical representations of musical instruments; from a cheerful lady playing a violin cat, two gentlemen straddling a double bass, to an elderly dame playing a flute that doubles as a washing line. An artist, tuba player, humourist,
broadcaster and raconteur, it is perhaps not surprising that Hoffnung’s work should spill over so far beyond his lifespan. Indeed, his legacy continues to delight succeeding generations around the world even now, more than sixty years after his death.

Incredibly imaginative, the titles of the playful works alone – ‘Cat with Musical Whiskers’, ‘Cymbal Player with Bandaged Nose’, ‘Tubular Bell Accident’, amongst others – will bring extraordinary scenes to life.

Hoffnung’s genius was to communicate his richly comic vision of the world through words, drawings and music. Bursting onto London’s musical scene at The Royal Festival Hall in the mid-1950s, the musician-cum-illustrator captured the interest of the music industry, and the population, to which he carved a prolific working career. His ability to have those around him in floods of laughter is ever present through
his drawings, which keeps his joyous spirit alive. When the collection of Hoffnung’s cartoons was exhibited at the Edinburgh Festival, The Guardian wrote: “…never before at an Edinburgh exhibition can so many visitors have been heard giving way to uninhibited laughter as the crowds filing through the Hoffnung exhibition […] in all, this exhibition is guaranteed to keep you happy for as long as you have the time to spare.”

King & McGaw are privileged to offer these works produced to an exceptional museum quality standard, each framed by hand. Brilliant as standalone pieces, these prints can also be appreciated as collectors’ items with a myriad of animated scenes to form your very own Hoffnung gallery at home. Beautifully presented in bespoke frames, they’re perfect for the devoted musician, lover of orchestras, or admirer of light-hearted illustrations.

Explore the collection

Gerard Hoffnung’s biography

[Source: press release]