Antony Field and Daniel McKay

On Friday, 21st October, 2011 we had the privilege of witnessing Duo 19's first performance in the ACT, at a Canberra Classical Guitar Society concert, in the Wesley Music Centre.

Taking their name from their tram route, Duo 19 consists of Antony Field and Daniel McKay, both of whom are graduates of ANU's School of Music and currently teach at the Victorian College of the Arts.

The concert included performances of works by beloved Australian composers Phillip Houghton and Nigel Westlake. It was interesting to hear Westlake's Hinchinbrook Riffs, originally composed to be played by one guitarist with a digital delay machine, expertly executed by this duo.

We also loved hearing Songs from the Forest, also by Westlake, and originally written for Antony and Daniel's teacher, Tim Kain, to play with John Williams.

It was also intriguing to hear two of Castelnuovo-Tedesco's preludes and fugues from his Well-Tempered Guitars. His 24 pieces were written as a homage to J S Bach and for his favourite guitar duo, Pesti-Lagoya. You can hear one of these works performed by the Brasil Guitar Duo in the following clip.

Magic!

Eusebius requests your indulgence, please. Normal service will be resumed soon, but today he is reminscing. Today is our first baby's birthday. Daniel is 36 today and is busy rehearsing for a new duo guitar recording with Anthony Field, to be distributed by MOVE Records. It will include music by Phillip Houghton and Nigel Westlake, two great Australian composers for classical guitar.

But I'm remembering him as a little boy doing the percussion for our $1.99 Music For Pleasure Greatest Hits of The Tijuana Brass record.

He used to love the first track, The Magic Trumpet, which begins with a rhythmic motif for 2 trumpets, and is answered by the bass drum's BOOM, BOOM.

Today I discovered that the song was composed by Bert Kaempfert, who was born on my birthday and died on my Nanna's birthday. I used to love to listen to Bert Kaempfert's A Swingin' Safari when I visited my Uncle, Aunt and cousins. We thought Uncle Ben was a cool dude, with a great-sounding stereo and such a wonderful brassy, bassy record to play us.

If you'd like to make some great sounds on a trumpet, guitar or almost any other instrument (no vuvuzela lessons currently, though), you can enrol now to start your journey in music-making next year at Mitchell Conservatorium, which is located in the West Wing of Bathurst's Courthouse in Russell St. Phone 6331 6622 for more information.