A mysterious musical message?

Many years ago, my sister-in-law Kay Griffiths shared the musical message above with me. Can you read it?

I use it to explain these three musical symbols to my students. And I always let them know how I learnt it.

Don't be sharp
Don't be flat
Always be natural

I'll let you ponder the philosophical meaning of the saying: I've been doing that for forty years, and still reflect on it, every now and again. But for musicians:

 means Play the key on the right of B

means Play the key on the left of B


And


means Play the original key.


Do you have any other great musical puzzles? We'd love you to share them.

But the little person in the picture is starting with exploring music through movement and actions and sound: sharps and flats can come later!

Your child can explore music at Mitchell Conservatorium in our early childhood program and later learn to make sense of those mysterious symbols, too when you phone 6331 6622 and enrol in 2013 classes.

Musical appenings

Sight Read 4 Piano is a great iPad app, developed in Britain by music examiner, Christopher Wiltshire to help you improve your sight reading. The app is free, but only includes a few sample exercises to show you how the program works. From the screen above, you click on an exercise you'd like to play, and a new page opens up on your iPad, with a counter ticking down, while you scan the music.
After a few seconds the music disappears. When you are ready, you tap the screen and a two bar count-in begins. After it is finished the metronome continues and a ding! alerts you to start playing.
Then something alarming happens: the music starts to disappear, one bar at a time! But this is a good thing, because it is teaching you to keep going and not go back when you play a wrong note.

When you first begin using the program, you should start a few grades lower than where you are aiming to get to. You may find initially that it is making sight reading harder, not easier. But once you get used to playing in time with a metronome, and can cheerfully play wrong notes and keep going, you have already begun to be a better sight-reader.

For a piano teacher (and there are also modules for people who play other instruments), the most cost-effective version of the program is the whole package. If you only want examples from your own exam system, or only from a few grades, each exercise is proportionately dearer.

I bought the whole lot, which gives me more than 1000 examples and loads of flexibility.

Scale Blitzer is an all-Australian app developed by Abe Cytrynowski, and Andrew and Samantha Coates, of Blitz Books fame. This app costs about $7 and then an extra $3-$6 for modules for your particular exam grade.

The app encourages you to practise up to 16 scales at a time, and tests you on your playing in a wide variety of ways. I am currently road-testing the app with my students, and hope they will like it enough to purchase their own copies to use at home.

It includes fun ideas and characters, and gets you playing your scales in different forms, at varying tempos and volumes, and with plenty of different rhythms. The program develops security and accuracy, and the many different activities provided should keep students enthused and motivated to perfect their scales.

It is designed for your iPhone or iPod, but also works on the iPad, which is my favoured tool in the studio.

The weird and the wonderful

lira organizzata by Wolfgang Weichselbaumer

This strange-looking instrument copy of an 18th century instrument is called a lira, or lira organizzata. The composer Haydn wrote five lira concertos. This recording of the first movement of Haydn's Lira Concerto in C will give you some idea of what it must have sounded like.

Thierry Nouat and Matthias Loibner playing liras

In this photo of a rehearsal of The Ensemble Baroque de Limoges in 2005, you can see the two lira players turning cranks with their right hands, while manipulating sets of keys with their left. Matthias  Loibner says the instrument is an organised hurdy-gurdy. Harry Edwall's article in The Musical Quarterly gives more detail about how the instruments worked.

I'm going to play a couple of movements at Bathurst's U3A Music Appreciation class tomorrow. I hope the class will enjoy the unusual sound.

U3A welcomes people over 50 who are no longer working full time. We meet at Mitchell Conservatorium on the first six Mondays of Term 4 each year at 11 AM for a one hour varied program.

If you would like to hear a full program of Early Music, please come along to the Baroque Ensemble concert on Saturday, 3rd November at 7.30 PM, where you'll hear

Andrew Baker - violin
Philip Braithwaite - flute
Tracey Callinan - harpsichord
and Sybbi Georgiou

playing some wonderful music from the time of Purcell, Bach and Handel. Please ring 6331 6622 during office hours, Monday to Friday for more information about this delightful musical feast.

Birthday boy beats Mozart

When we think of a child-genius, it is natural to think of Mozart. He was performing and composing at the age of five. But other composers also began very early. And some even surpassed his considerable feats.

Did you know that Chopin wrote pieces from the age of seven that were much more demanding to write and play than many of the pieces that Wolfie wrote, even in his maturity?

But the one who really impresses me is Camille Saint-Saëns, born on 9th October, 1835.

Consider this: at the age of two he could already read and write, and was picking out melodies on the piano. He began composing shortly after his third birthday, and by the age of five had given his first piano recital.

At seven he was reading Latin, studying botany and investigating butterflies (the last of which he continued to do for the next eighty years).

When he was ten he made his formal debut as a concert pianist, performing a Mozart piano concerto in B flat and Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto in C Minor. For an encore, he offered to play any of the thirty-two Beethoven piano sonatas from memory!

Mitchell Young Pirates?

Captain Stevenson, Angie LeChuck and Daft Petey

Another great musical devised by Mitchell Young Voices director, Michelle Griffin was enjoyed by an enthusiastic audience last weekend at All Saints Cathedral. As I entered the hall, I was greeted by three exotic characters, who also looked strangely familiar. There was something about Captain Stevenson, Angie Lechuck and Daft Petey that made me think I'd met them before.

As it turned out, I had never previously met the good captain, but when he's not a pirate who doesn't do anything he is Geoff Griffin, the father of musician, teacher, composer and conductor Michelle Griffin.

Angie is Mitchell Conservatorium's Cindy Fox and Daft Petey is talented actor, radio announcer and musician Ryan Fitch.

These three narrated the story, creating a suitable introduction and conclusion to the program.

Kathy Powell is not just the mother of talented Mitchell Conservatorium students Courtney, Timothy and Luke Powell, but is also a great singer and the perfect person to play the part of the evil Miss Elizabeth Black, who makes the orphaned children drink a nasty concoction of Brimstone and Treacle ... or tries to.

Mad Cap'n George

Michelle Griffin makes a grand entrance as the Mad Cap'n George singing Gilbert and Sullivan's Oh, Better Far To Live and Die and gave an excellent impression of a pirate who is one wave short of a shipwreck.
She cleverly kept in character through the whole proceedings: even when handing out prizes for the best-dressed pirate.

I enjoyed hearing the pirate orphans singing Paul Jarman's songs Find The Way Home and Far Away Our Home. You may remember Paul as the composer of the moving song, Pemulwuy

Does this map really lead to buried treasure?

Mitchell Young Voices provides a great way for young people to enjoy music through participating in singing, dancing and acting. If you'd like to be part of their next production, please ring Mitchell Conservatorium during office hours on 6331 6622 to find out about rehearsal times.

New director for Lachlan

Andrew Baker, B Mus (hons), L Mus A, A Mus A

Fiona Thompson, Executive Director of Mitchell Conservatorium, has announced the appointment of the new Director for the Lachlan Division:

I am delighted to announce that Andrew Baker will be the new Director of the Lachlan Division of Mitchell Conservatorium from the beginning of Term 3, 2012. Andrew Baker has demonstrated that he is well suited to this position; he has extensive experience in managing staff, students and events through his work at Orange Regional Conservatorium and has developed a high profile as a successful music educator, string teacher and performer throughout the Central West over the past 7 years. Andrew will retain a casual professional association with the ORC in the short term.

Andrew Baker began learning the violin at the age of 8 at his school, Barker College, where he ultimately became the school’s first captain of music. He studied violin performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Alex Todicescu and later in The Netherlands with Berent Korfker and Florian Donderer. Since 2005, Andrew has held the position of Assistant Director, Artistic Programs Coordinator and Head of Strings at Orange Regional Conservatorium in NSW where he has taught violin, string ensembles and school string programs, coordinated tuition and performance programs, and performed in around 20 concerts per year.
 Andrew is currently a Master of Philosophy candidate (String Pedagogy) at the Australian National University. He has presented his research through Violin Pedagogy Australia, The Australian String Teachers Association and The Music Teachers Association, and in December 2012 will present his research findings at the annual conference of the Musicological Society of Australia. Andrew and his wife, Helen, moved to the central west in 2005 to engage in the exciting music teaching and performing opportunities offered by the region. Now raising two young children, they are well embedded in the community and are proud to call themselves ‘locals.’ Andrew says

I take up the position of Lachlan Director, Mitchell Conservatorium, with great excitement. I look forward to working with the Conservatorium's professional staff to develop and maintain community-focused music education programs and resources in the Forbes and Parkes regions of NSW. I am especially committed to creating engaging music-making opportunities across the Lachlan Division’s communities.

The man, the land, the book and the song

The only known likeness of Pemulwuy, c.1801

It all started when my friend Louise mentioned that she had been on a chilly walk to the Pemulwuy shops today. The name sounded familiar, but it was a name and nothing more.

When I went to Belmont Public School in the 1950s and 60s, we did hear about Bennelong and we learnt about the local Awabakal tribe, but that was about it.

I'm guessing that the children of the 21st century would know that Pemulwuy was The Rainbow Warrior, a brave man who didn't take the arrival of the European boat people lying down.

If they were at all curious, they would also discover so easily that because the city of Sydney is built on his land, his name has been given to a Sydney suburb near Greystanes, and that he is the subject of a stirring novel by Eric Willmot, which inspired Paul Jarman's moving choral piece.

The linked articles from The Australian Dictionary of Biography are fascinating, as is the current Pemulwuy entry in Wikipedia. Matilda Media and See Pictures intend to produce a feature film, telling the story of Pemulwuy's battle for his people.

If you would like to read about Jarman's song, please scroll down this link to an article the composer has written about two of his compositions. The article gives musical examples, the story of the work's creation and also the lyrics which you might like to read through as you listen to this thrilling performance of the song by 500 male voices in the Voices of Birralee concert finale in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in  2011.

Where did you first hear Mozart's magic music?

Many people first heard the wonderful music of Mozart at school. Maybe your teacher played his delightful string quartet Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Serenade) or did you first encounter him through attempting to play his pieces yourself?
They say Mozart is too easy for the amateurs, but too hard for the professionals. It seems so light and charming, yet Mozarteans spend a whole lifetime in perfecting his phrasing and little nuances.

Like many people, I learnt a lot of his music through the wonderful film Amadeus. And the most striking of all of this music is surely his Requiem. Have you heard it yet? On Saturday, 30th June there will be a very special performance of this superb choral music at 3 PM at All Saints Cathedral.

Mitchell Conservatorium's Jonathan Lewis (tenor) will join with Helen Barnett (soprano), Bill Moxey (bass) and Narelle Hissey (mezzo soprano), The Allegri Singers, Macquarie University Singers  and Bathurst Chamber Ochestra to perform under Timothy Chung's baton.

This brief excerpt was one of the favourite parts of the mass when NSW secondary school students performed excerpts in a choral concert in Sydney Opera House, conducted by Graham Abbott in the late 1990s.



You can have a preview of other parts of the Requiem in Mitchell Conservatorium's Armchair Concert on Monday, 25th June at 1.30 PM on 2MCE fm, 92.3 or 94.7 fm or at 2MCE.org

A Japanese Music Lesson

Sally Nguyen in Osaka, 2012

Mitchell Conservatorium piano student, Sally Nguyen enjoyed her visit to Japan, made during the school holidays. Her host family kindly took her to a koto class, where she was able to hear this special instrument being played by an ensemble of keen students.

If we tell you that a koto is a little like a zither, you may still be wondering about it, because you won't see many zithers in Bathurst, either.

But this amateur Youtube video, made by another student from another school during a trip to Japan, might be worth watching, and better than any verbal description we could supply.



Many Australian composers have become fascinated with the music of our Asian neighbours and have incorporated some of the music in their writing. Peter Sculthorpe has even written pieces for piano called Koto Music I and II. The Australian Music Centre has a short sample here. You will notice that the performer is playing inside the piano, not on the keys.

If you would like to try this, please ask the piano owner's permission first: it can damage the strings.

Talented Artist and Musician

Emily Calder with her daughter Ellianna

Emily Calder is a versatile artist and musician. Since the age of four, she has been working her way down through the string section of the orchestra. Emily began exploring violin via the Suzuki Method. Her first teacher was former Bathurst resident, Janice Donaldson.

At the age of thirteen, she began lessons with Mitchell Conservatorium's Nicholas Newell, who introduced her to the viola when she was fifteen.

She is currently studying cello with Mitchell Conservatorium's Sybbi Georgiou.

Emily has the University of Queensland's Diploma of Music Teaching, which is a tertiary accreditation for teaching instrumental music, and is currently working towards the Bachelor of Music degree, awarded by the University of New England.

Emily enjoys many different styles of music, and is as happy playing gypsy violin as she is in performing the great classical violin repertoire.

At Mitchell Conservatorium Emily teaches violin and also directs two string ensembles for primary school students.

Mitchell Young Strings

On Wednesday afternoon, she enjoys teaching Mitchell Young Strings to play various stringed instruments. On Thursday, she leads Fiddlesticks, which is a NSW government assisted ensemble for students from Department of Education primary schools. Thanks to their support, lessons only cost $2 per session.

She teaches the students in these two groups the basics of playing an instrument in the violin family in an ensemble, and also uses her knowledge of conducting to show them the ropes in that area also. Emily enjoyed being part of Jerry Nowak's conducting classes when the world-renowned director and musical arranger visited Australia last year.

Pastel by Emily Calder

Emily is also a visual artist. She favours working with pastels, which she finds challenging and rewarding.

You can hear Emily playing Summer, from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and a movement from Mozart's Violin Cocnerto No 5 in A Major in a free concert on Sunday, 20th May at 4 PM in The Orchard Room at Mitchell Conservatorium, West Wing, Bathurst Court House in Russell St. Emily will be accompanied by pianist, David McKay. Her brother, Jared Killey will perform some beautiful classical guitar music.

A music lesson from Einstein

Reader's Digest has published Jerome Weidman's 1955 story about the evening he spent with Einstein.

Weidman has just had dinner in the home of a distinguished New York philanthropist, and discovers that there is to be a chamber music concert following, which he is going to have to endure.

I fixed my face in what I hoped was an expression of intelligent appreciation, closed my ears from the inside, and submerged myself in my own completely irrelevant thoughts.

After a while, becoming aware that the people around me were applauding, I concluded it was safe to unplug my ears. At once I heard a gentle but surprisingly penetrating voice on my right: “You are fond of Bach?”

I knew as much about Bach as I know about nuclear fission. But I did know one of the most famous faces in the world, with the renowned shock of untidy white hair and the ever-present pipe between the teeth. I was sitting next to Albert Einstein.

When he tells the famous scientist that he is tone deaf, and knows nothing about music, Einstein takes him upstairs away from the concert and shows Mr Weidman that he has a greater appreciation of music than he realises, by patiently leading him from the popular music he is familiar with into classical instrumental music. Then, Einstein dramatically announces

“Now, young man, we are ready for Bach!”
As we returned to our seats in the drawing room, the players were tuning up for a new selection. Einstein smiled and gave me a reassuring pat on the knee.

“Just allow yourself to listen,” he whispered. “That is all.”

It wasn’t really all, of course. Without the effort he had just poured out for a total stranger I would never have heard, as I did that night for the first time in my life, Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze.” I have heard it many times since. I don’t think I shall ever tire of it. Because I never listen to it alone. I am sitting beside a small, round man with a shock of untidy white hair, a dead pipe clamped between his teeth, and eyes that contain in their extraordinary warmth all the wonder of the world.

I wonder if you also feel that you are not able to enjoy music, because you are "tone deaf?" Part of Einstein's method in helping Weidman to appreciate the music was to get him to sing what he had just been listening to. The young man discovered that he was able, at least to some degree, to reproduce what he had been hearing.

Mitchell Conservatorium can't resurrect Einstein to help you to explore the wonderful world of music, but we can provide you with other enthusiastic guides who can help you, too to develop a love of music through making music yourself.

You can find out more from our website or by speaking to one of our friendly staff during office hours on 6331 6622.

Music is for everyone

I have endeavoured to make the children and teenagers clearly realise that music is not a mere pastime, not just a "garnish" to life, a kind of entertainment which one can take or leave at will, but an important entity of life itself ... And when I speak of music I always have in mind the great art of music and not music simplified specially for children.

I've been reading some great comments from Dimitri Kabalevsky, who was a twentieth century Russian composer and music educator. He was a strong advocate of helping everyone to enjoy music, which he believed

teaches mutual understanding, includes humanitarian ideas and helps mankind safeguard peace.

In 1974, he came to Australia to an international music conference which was held in Perth. At the conference he conducted a fanfare he had written for the occasion and also talked about his hopes for the future of music.

Here are a few of his reflections on the power of music:

Music has the amazing capacity to become a true friend, capable of sharing not only our joy, but also our grief, taking a part of it on.

All over the world live and work a great number of musicians and amateurs of music, including a very great number of young people, who deeply understand what is real life and what is real art. And they will determine the future of the art of music.

Kabalevsky spent a lot of his time writing music for children. He believed that the way to introduce music to people is to help them to enjoy songs, marches and dances, which he saw as the three foundations of all music.

Songs, dances and marches are the most democratic, the most popular and mass genres of music. There are millions of people in the world who have never heard professional music and know nothing of musical notation. But you would hardly find a single person who has never sung a song, never danced or never marched in a procession or to the roll of a primitive drum.

Here is a beautiful recording of Dominique Kim, from San Diego, playing the first movement of Kabalevsky's 3rd piano sonata.



You can find out more about Kabalevsky from Australian musicologist, David Forrest's website, which also includes information about his book, from which these quotes come.

The power of music

This video shows the amazing power of music for older folk. One reason that it makes people come alive is the way it brings back memories of happy times enjoying music from our past.

It makes sense to get those happy experiences happening now, so that you do have something to recall later.

Some of the most enjoyable things we can do musically are to sing and play music with others. Do you have memories of singing with friends, playing in a musical group or even listening to music together?

Are you doing any of this currently? Mitchell Conservatorium provides many opportunities for music-making in Bathurst and Forbes, including Mitchell Young Voices, various chamber music ensembles and we also have The Allegri Singers and Bathurst City and RSL Band which meet at the Con each week.

Please ring Mitchell Conservatorium during office hours on 6331 6622 for more information.

Me and my cello

This has to be one of the cleverest classical music videos. The music is beautiful and the video of a man and his cello is funny and holds your interest (I hope ...) right through.



We have some great cello teachers at Mitchell Conservatorium - not currently involving sky-diving lessons.

Please ring 6331 6622 during business hours to begin your cello experience.

Armchair Concert

I was pleased to see the special promotion of Orange-born Tim Hansen's music on The Australian Music Centre's website today.

I admit I'm biased, because Tim has composed music for my son Daniel McKay to play, including an entertaining concerto for amplified classical guitar and orchestra and also a piece called Earwig, which Daniel recorded with violinist Zoë Black.

You can hear Daniel and Zoë's version of the piece in the next Armchair Concert program, on Monday, 2nd April between 1.30 and 3.30 PM on 2MCE FM, Bathurst's community radio station.

We will also be rebroadcasting part of a terrific concert which featured duo pianists Max and Haydn Reeder and flutist Prem Love. Prem teaches at Orange and Mitchell Conservatoriums. He plays flute superbly and we will later feature him in a wonderful concert where he plays with flutist, Phil Braithwaite and pianist, Cindy Fox.

Max Reeder was for many years Senior Music Lecturer at Charles Sturt University and also director of Mitchell Conservatorium. Max and brother Haydn will be heard playing piano duet works by Mozart, Debussy, Bizet and others.

We hope you will listen on 92.3, 94.7 FM, at 2MCE.org or by using the smartphone tunein radio app. There's plenty of ways to make sure you don't miss the program.

Love, Chemistry and Cryogenics

Another entertaining show devised by Mitchell Conservatorium's Michelle Griffin, showcasing her talents and those of Mitchell Young Voices is being thawed as we type this and will be ready for your consumption on Friday 23rd March, 2012 at 6 PM and Saturday, 24th March, 2012 at 7 PM at Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre.

The program also features Cameron Moor as Michelle's lab assistant and a band which comprises of Aaron Hopper (guitar), Andrew Smith (percussion) and Cindy Fox (piano).

To find out more about Michelle and this new show, you might enjoy reading Maryanne Jaques' interview in the Western Advocate's online feature site.

Simon Tedeschi performing this weekend in Lithgow, Bathurst and Forbes

Internationally renowned pianist Simon Tedeschi is quite often described by respected critics and musical peers as "one of the finest artists in the world" making the young pianist's mark on music both undeniable and admirable. Renowned especially for championing non standard repertoire, Tedeschi enjoys a full international performing career.

Playing with the Bathurst Chamber Orchestra at All Saints Cathedral on Saturday 17 March, Simon and the BCO will be conducted by The Reverend Michael Deasey “Michael was my music Master at St Andrews Cathedral School in Sydney where I studied and I jump at any opportunity that I have to be able to come to Bathurst and perform with him” says Simon.

Hosted by the Mitchell Conservatorium the concert series takes in Lithgow and Parkes on the Friday and the Sunday of the same weekend. Several young musicians from the Mitchell Conservatorium will also be joining the BCO ensemble onstage as their special guest as part of the Conservatorium’s Music in Schools program. All school age children are welcome to attend the concert FREE of charge. For more information go to our website or call 02 6331 6622.

Here is an extract from Ginastera's Piano Concerto No 1, which Simon performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, back in 1998.

Armchair Concert

It is all happening, commencing on Monday, 5th March at 1.30 PM and fortnightly thereafter.

In our first program, David McKay will be replaying our 2006 Living Sound concert, featuring Bathurst Chamber Orchestra and others, with music by Matthew Bieniek, Jamie Briton and Russell Gilmour.

And we also hope to tease you with music from our up-coming concert in Lithgow, Bathurst and Forbes, which will feature internationally popular pianist, Simon Tedeschi, playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No 19 in F Major with Bathurst Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Michael Deasey, OAM.

Don't forget you can listen on 92.3 or 94.7 fm, at 2MCE.org or by using the tunein app for your smartphone.

If you'd like to make a comment or request, you can send us an email at armchairconcert@gmail.com We look forward to hearing from our listeners.

What day is your birthday?

Frédéric Chopin and his family always said that he was born on 1st March, 1810. However the church baptismal records state that he was born a week earlier, on 22nd February.

What day would you like your birthday to be? My name's David and I think I would quite like to have been born on 1st March too, as it is St David's Day, patron saint of Wales.

When we think of a child-genius, it is natural to think of Mozart. He was performing and composing at the age of five. But other composers also began very early. And some even surpassed his considerable feats.

Did you know that Chopin wrote pieces from the age of seven that were much more demanding to write and play than many of the pieces that Wolfie wrote, even in his maturity? In fact, if you were to purchase a copy of Chopin's Earliest Pieces and compare it with a copy of Chopin's Easiest Pieces, you would find that there is not much overlap, because some of Chopin's earliest pieces are quite difficult to play and are written in quite complex, and accurate notation.

Chopin is also quite a different composer from Mozart in another way: while Mozart wrote in all musical genres of his day (as several of the great composers have done), Chopin wrote almost entirely for the piano. Even when he wrote for orchestra, it was for piano and orchestra.

There is a lot of wonderful music to enjoy from the twenty-seven or so years that Chopin was composing music. But the Scherzo in B Flat Minor is a particular favourite of mine, played here in a very resonant acoustic, by Konstantin Bogino.

What a mother says in one day

What a mother says in one day, but condensed into a 3 minute song, to the tune of the William Tell Overture. (Well, the last part of the William Tell Overture.)



Thanks to AMEB for reminding us of this fun video. (The video quality is poor, but if you watch it on Youtube, you will also get a copy of the amusing lyrics.)

Did you know that today is Rossini's 53rd birthday? You'd think he would be older, but the poor chap was born on 29th February ...