Philip Higham in Farnham Parish Church

I came across cellist Philip Higham  rehearsing in Farnham Parish Church. He was very good, ideally suited to the church acoustics. I was tempted to buy a CD but at £20, no way. I left, returned, and bought. Had it been £10, I would have bought two. It was though a double CD.

Philip Higham rehearsing in Farnham Parish Church https://t.co/e9SvmzI62a #music #cello #Bach #Farnham pic.twitter.com/hQJsJ70arA

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) April 29, 2017

Philip Higham rehearsing in Farnham Parish Church https://t.co/r0fC8S2jTA #music #cello #Bach #Farnham pic.twitter.com/rQ7qF86pNk

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) April 29, 2017

Philip Higham was quite apologetic. He has to buy them. That is the disadvantage of being on a record label.

As the acoustics were so good, I suggested get hold of quality recording equipment, record, master and release as a live recording on bandcamp.

If lack the funds, crowd source.

Also consider looping the cello. I gave Zoe Keating as an example.

Or could do a duo with bass player Steve Lawson.

In the evening, was giving a cello concert hosted by Tilford Bach Society.

Begin Again

Megan Nicole, Alex Goot and ThePianoGuys, with their take on Begin Again from Taylor Swift from her album Red.

Note the hint of J S Bach Sheep May Safely Graze (Cantata No. 208).

And better than the Taylor Swift original (though it is good too).

The Stillness of the World Before Bach

There must have been a world before
the Trio Sonata in D, a world before the A minor partita,
but what kind of a world?
A Europe of vast empty spaces, unresounding,
everywhere unawakened instruments
where the Musical Offering, the Well-Tempered Clavier
never passed across the keys.
Isolated churches
where the soprano line of the Passion
never in helpless love twined round
the gentler movements of the flute,
broad soft landscapes
where nothing breaks the stillness
but old woodcutters’ axes
the healthy barking of strong dogs in winter
and, like a bell, skates biting into fresh ice;
the swallows whirring through summer air,
the shell resounding at the child’s ear
and nowhere Bach nowhere Bach
the world in a skater’s stillness before Bach.

— Lars Gustafsson

Read on Poetry Please (27 minutes into programme).

For Annie, with love.

Aleph

O Aleph by Paulo Coelho. Music by J S Bach.

O Aleph published in Brazil August 2010, shot straight to No One.

O Aleph published in Portutugal in February 2011, shot straight to No One.

Published as Elif in Turkey March 2011, shot straight to No One.

Available in English, September 2011.

In The Eight, which Elaine kindly gave me when I was in Istanbul for Paulo’s St Joseph Day party, we have a cameo appearance by J S Bach, where he speaks of music capturing space and time. To learn more, read The Eight, a semi-mystical novel by Katherine Neville.

Aleph, a point in space and time. Jorge Luis Borges describes it:

The Aleph was about two to three centimetres in diameter, but all of cosmic space was there, with no diminution in size. Each thing was infinite, because I could clearly see it from every point on the universe.

– The Game of Chess