Florence Nightingale and the dangers of piano music
There’s a heartening story from the BBC today about how the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery at King’s College, London has been able to hire a composer-in-residence. The…
Happy New Year 2010
The view from the first day of my new decade. A clear vision is no bad way to start it. Happy New Year. Click for pictures
Why are dusters yellow?
Here’s something to mull over before the year goes out. Why are dusters yellow? And why has it never occurred to me to wonder why until now? It seems I’m…
Snow and rainmates
Since installing some site-stats software on my blog, I’ve been able to see how and why people end up at my site: by checking out the stats page, I can…
Musical surprises #25: A bit of Tooting history
Happy Christmas! Today’s revelation is not strictly a musical surprise, except that it vaguely concerns me and I’m a musician. But it’s quite surprising all the same, and I love…
Musical surprises #24: What Rumanian dances sound like without the Bartók
I love Bartók’s Rumanian Dances, and indeed, I’ve just recorded them with the violinist Gillon Cameron on the album After Class 2. But I was gobsmacked when I heard my…