Music
This page includes a number of our favourite links - musicians who are friends or whom we admire, and on events, concerts and festivals, musical life in France and much more.
Language of music Our background and interests
In Lunel we have made numerous musical contacts - not just for local concerts and recitals but so that Mary can play the 'cello and Jon can sing. Mary plays with groups in Montpellier. We are members of l'Association des Musiciens Amateurs, a national network which has a regional branch AMACLa in the Languedoc through which we have made links with many amateur musicians. (The sharp-eyed among you may notice that this AMACLa site is part of our own, managed by me as is the separate national site - note that the national website has an annoying advertising pop-up which obscures the navigation buttons at the top of the screen. Be patient!).
Lunel has one outstanding musical connection: it is the home of the international Mandolin Festival, now in its 6th year. It sounds fairly specialised but the range and quality of the music is extraordinary, and we are very proud of our friend Olivier Chabrol and his associates who organise it and the nez Mandolin School in Lunel - a centre of excellence of world importance. See photos of the 2007 Festival here.
We have spent more time performing music since we came to France than we have since the 1980s. And although one of Jon's choirs rehearses in English we make most of our music with French people, so we have had to learn French musical vocabulary. Not of course the signs and symbols which are international, but the words used to talk about music. Some of this is simply learning new words, but there are potential pitfalls and confusions: a minim (American half-note) is quite logically une blanche, and a crochet (quarter-note) un noir, but a quaver (eighth-note) is confusingly un croche - in fact it's logical since the French word means hook and so the note looks like its name. Le temps is either time or weather, but un temps is a beat. But the biggest change is in naming notes - do re mi fa so la te are the 7 notes of any scale, but in France do is always C, re D, sol G and so on. Gradually all this falls into place as it must if you want to make music with French people, The biggest problem though is a difference in education and therefore attitude here. Most musicians we know from England will have a go at anything, and we expect to sight-read. In France many people who play music need to take the parts away and work on them before they dare sit down and play things through. It is a tribute to many of our friends here that they are not as rigid as many of their compatriots, and the Association des Musiciens Amateurs includes many such, so we have found a good musical life, What we have to work at is the language!Mary and Jon met at a Society of Recorder Players' summer school in 1976, and early music has played a central part in our lives (see also below). We have an extensive library of early music for instrumental and vocal consorts up to 8 parts and for one or more instruments with continuo. Before they met Jon had been part of one of the (now) longest-standing early music groups in the country, the Canterbury Waits. Now in France we both play in day courses arranged by the Association Musique Ancienne, which us run by professional recorder player Denyse Dowling.
Jon sings in two choirs locally and also manages the website for one, Crème Franglaise. He rehearses regularly as a soloist with pianist Nathalie Gazzetta and has singing lessons with Christian Buono who is based to the west of Montpellier. In 2008 he attended the advanced renaissance consort singing course at La Maison Verte; see diary for more info.
Apart from Jon's singing and Mary's playing the family is represented in music through Jeff (Davenport), our son who is a professional drummer. Among the bands he plays with are Matt Andasun and Thee na Shee - both these Myspace websites have sound clips which are nice (Thee na Shee's old website also here and they had a come-back gig on St Patrick's night 2008 in Derby). Jeff sells drums for Sonor.
Among other important musical links for us are:
The Wam Bam Band - 'mostly live in Wirksworth' as they say, a brilliant Blues band featuring many of our friends.
Both of us found inspiration and gained musical experience during our university days, although studying other subjects. For Jon, this included choral work in Norwich with Philip Ledger (including a memorable performance of Bach's St John Passion with Peter Pears as Evangelist), where he also gained a broad appreciation of and love for the classical chamber music repertoire. This period also introduced him to many of the vocal works of Benjamin Britten.
Jon has enjoyed singing Schubert songs for many years, often accompanied by Mary but also inspired and taught by Joan Robinson, who sadly died in 1996, and who dedicated her performing life almost exclusively to Schubert lieder. Among performers of these songs we enjoy are Peter Pears (with his wonderful accompanist Benjamin Britten), Peter Schreier, Janet Baker and Ian Partridge.
Our wider and more eclectic tastes include Late Junction (a BBC favourite of Mary's - this link gives access to the amazing Radio 3 website); Eva Cassidy; Angela Hewitt, incomparable Bach pianist (hear the B minor Prelude & Fugue from Book II of the Well Tempered Clavier here); Dolly Parton and Cecilia Bartoli. Cecila Bartoli sings the letter duet from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro (our favourite, if not one and only, opera) with Renée Fleming here.
In the world of early music we acknowledge first our singer friend Vivien Ellis (this is the new website for Alva, her duo with Giles Lewin) - it's a real pleasure to follow a lovely person and good friend's success in the crossover world of early music, folk and much more.
Other early music singers Emma Kirkby (there are lots of websites but this is also a good example of a fan's dedication!), and Evelyn Tubb, both of whom have inspired us both as performers and Jon as a singer at and after the lute song classes at the London Early Music Centre in the late 1970s. Hear Evelyn singing Purcell and Emma singing Handel on Youtube.
Other early music inspiration has come from Walter Bergmann, Paul Clark and Ross Winters with other teachers in the Society of Recorder Players.
