Dulcimer News
A very occasional newsletter about goings on in Australia
Dulcimer News No.16
Happy New Year!
1998 is with us already and I hope it brings much joy, music and fulfilment to you. It is looking like another busy year and it starts with:
The Annual Summer Dulcimer Weekend
You are cordially invited to join us at the Meyen's friendly farm on the weekend of February 7 and 8 for a weekend of dulcimer tunes, catching up with friends, swimming, eating and general partying. If you've ever been to one of these weekends before you will know how relaxed and essential they are to the general well-being of dulcimer players. The details are as follows: arrive at the farm, "Yuringa" on Gooroomon Ponds Road via Hall, ACT, at around 10am on the Saturday. If you are driving interstate and want to arrive on Friday night, just let Sharon and Ralph know in advance. We'll play dulcimer things and talk dulcimer things in between drinks, swims and consumption of food. Late in the afternoon, other musicians and their families will arrive for an evening of music, food and frivolity. You are welcome to stay overnight (bring a sleeping bag), then after a lazy breakfast in the garden, we'll play a bit more music etc etc till Sunday afternoon when our interstate guests have to drive home.
What you need to bring: your dulcimer, your drinks, a dish of salad or dessert to contribute to the evening meal, $10 to contribute to the Meyen's costs for other meals, swimming attire, other instruments you play, ideas to share and a sleeping bag if you're staying overnight.
If you are coming, please let me know on (02) 6286 3872 or Sharon on (02) 6230 2504.
The Pleasures of Hope
My CD with Andy Rigby, harpist extraordinaire, is out and available. Well, it has been available since we launched it at the end of August, but I've been away for a while since, and haven't done much marketing so far. So now is your chance to buy an Australian dulcimer CD, which makes very pleasant listening, even if I say so myself. Reviewers in the Canberra Times and Monaro Musings agree, so even if I am biased you can take their word for it!
The CD contains a mixture of pieces folkish, earlyish and contemporary. They are:
Connor Dons
Constantine Maguire/ Carolan's Draught (by Turlough O'Carolan),
O'Keeffe's Polkas,
La Folia in OZ (a new set of variations I wrote on a famous Iberian folk tune),
The Downfall of Paris,
Sonata in G (by Melchoirre Chiesa in Italy in the 18th century),
The Bantry Girl's Lament/ Morgan Magan (Trad. Irish and Turlough O'Carolan)
La Partida (from Venezuela)
Dollard's/ The Harlequin (two hot Irish hornpipes)
Coniston Water (a new piece I wrote about a friend's favourite place),
The Pleasures of Hope/ The Hof Hornpipe (the second is another of mine),
Sol (written by Judith Clingan),
Kate Kelly's/ Charlie Abdullah's/ Starry Night for a Ramble
and finally Dan Mack's Polkas.
I was joined by Jackie Luke and Margaret Legge-Wilkinson for Sol, which Judy Clingan wrote for Jackie and me to take to the 1995 Munich Hackbrett Festival. And Andrew Purdam joined Andy and me for some wacky darabuka playing on Dan Mack's polkas. Thanks guys!
So, it is available from me at the above address for $25 plus $3 postage and packing. Or if you live in Canberra, it is available from Abels, The Music Room and Impact Records. I'll have some at the Meyen's place on 7 February and at the National Folk Festival at Easter.
1998 Easter School
For two days prior to the National Folk Festival in Canberra, Jackie Luke and I will be teaching dulcimer again. This is a great chance to get thoroughly played in before the Festival starts. For details and enrolments, you'll need to contact the National Folk Festival.
Dale Jacobsen reports: Off to Belarus!
Last October, Gillian Alcock, Tim Meyen and I attended the 4th World Congress of the Cimbalom World Association in Mogilev, Belarus. As this was my first Congress (not to mention my first trip out of Australia), I expected I was in for a treat. I was! An experience of a lifetime.
In retrospect, one always tends to remember the best and push back the unpleasant experiences. There were both on this trip, but the best definitely outweighed the unpleasant.
Gillian and I met up in London and arrived at London Heathrow Airport early one morning to meet up with Sally Whytehead and Jenny Coxon, two wonderful women with whom I had only corresponded via a fax machine till then. We flew to Munich, where we joined Tim and the German delegation, then on to Minsk (Belarus) in a rather small plane with first class service.
Gillian, being first through the customs at Minsk, had a difficult task explaining to a non-English speaking Belorussian official what this strange looking object in a box was. It was thoroughly inspected inside and out, then inspected again, carefully looking inside the soundhole .... Eventually Gillian pointed to the line of eight similar strange objects waiting to enter the country, and indicated it would be better to let us all through.
A bus took us on a 3 hour journey through the flattest country I have ever seen. The countryside was like taking a step back in time. Very poor farmhouses, carts pulled along by horses, people gathering by the side of the road around fires to keep warm.
We arrived at a large and externally grand hotel where we were greeted in style and issued with an interpreter each for the five days. Then we were taken to our rooms, suffice it to say, all the money was spent on the exterior of the hotel.
On the first night we were treated to a concert by the Belorussians. I was overwhelmed by the musicianship of the performers. From child to old professor, they were excellent. While not all the music was to my taste, it was all done so well. Just when we weary travellers were ready to go to bed, we were informed there was official reception where we were toasted many times with Vodka (I chose the weak Fanta) and many speeches. All the dignitaries from Belarus were there, and all very proud of the country and culture.
The next five days went by in a whirl of concerts from 10am to 10pm. Each country was given a two hour time slot to fill as they chose. There were many highlights. Viktória Herencsar (president of the CWA) and Kalman Balogh, both from Hungary performed an impromptu gypsy number on cimbalom, the sound I had travelled all those miles to hear.
Paul Gifford, the lone American delegate presented a slide show of the history of the dulcimer in America, then proceeded to play on cimbalom and a wonderful old dulcimer of his own. Jenny and Sally played mostly English dance music, with Jenny wowing the crowds by doing a clog dance. The Singaporean delegate Qu Jian Qing stunned the audience and delegates, not only with her beautiful outfit, but by her superb playing. She was also a first time congress goer. She was followed by the Australian delegation. We had decided to play folk music, which was a wise decion, as most of the other delegates played classical or avant garde music, so ours was something different. I think I can modestly say we were received very favourably. They even wanted an encore. We did a combination of solo playing, duets and trios, a nice balance.
Space prevents me from giving a more detailed account of the different concerts, but they were all of excellent quality, and I for one learned so much regarding the different forms of dulcimers and the different ways they are played. Catch Gillian or Tim or me at the National Festival at Easter and we will probably bore you silly with any further details you want to hear.
I left Belarus the day before everyone else (a story in itself) and so missed the final concert and the sight-seeing tour, but I left feeling as though I had seen inside a culture I knew nothing of, and had to admit the Belorussians had won a place in my heart.
As for me, I flew back to the UK and spent four wonderful weeks based at Jenny Coxon's home and saw Scotland, Wales and a lot of Northern England, and played in some wonderful sessions and did a couple of gigs.
My final weekend was spent at Launde Abbey in Leicester with the Nonsuch Dulcimer club of England. Gillian also attended as the main tutor. For two days and nights, I attended workshops, learnt tunes and sessioned (and ate and some slept). Gillian also presented a lecture on the difference in acoustics between dulcimers. Briefly, why a hackbrett sounds like a hackbrett, a cimbalom sounds like a cimbalom etc and why they sound different from one another. It was very well presented and so interesting, not just to those of us who are makers, but to players as well. I hope this will become a hard-copy paper we can read the spots of Gillian? (I'll see! GA)
The next Cimbalom World Association congress will be in China in two years, and the one after in England. I hope more of us will be able to attend either of these. It is worth the considerable effort to attend.
Dale Jacobsen (Maleny, Queensland)
Still in Europe
Dale has covered the Congress well in her report, thanks Dale. The sightseeing tour was interesting but very cold and wet. And the final gala concert was a ball, with all the delegates converging on the stage at the end to play a piece which had been specially written for the occasion. By that stage Tim and I were sharing my dulcimer, but we only had to play chords as loudly as possible to be heard anyway.
One outcome of the AGM of the Cimbalom World Association was my nomination to the Board of the Association. I'm not sure what duties it will entail, but we'll see. Another outcome of the Congress was a video, and cassette recordings. I'll bring them to the Meyen's weekend, so you can get a glimpse of our adventures.
After leaving Belarus I went back to Munich to rest for a week (boy was a hot bath welcome!) Then I embarked on some enthralling dulcimer research. First I went to Brussels to the Musical Instrument Museum, one of the finest collections in Europe. They kindly allowed me access to their full dulcimer collection for measuring and taking notes. After a few days there I renewed acquaintances with instruments in Antwerp, a stunningly graceful place and took a trip to Bruges, a city with an original 15th and 16th century centre.
Then I took a train to Barcelona in north-east Spain, to glorious warmth, and relaxed Spanish lifestyle. After freezing in Belarus, I was a little wary of the hotel room which had *no* blankets on the bed. I needn't have worried, it was warm enough even in November. The staff at the Museu de Musica were really hospitable and I had my own bench to work at for a week, with an assistant to carry dulcimers from the store two at a time. Here was a treasure trove of 18th century Spanish salterios, most of which were in original cases and decorated with baroque paintings. Because they were in cases, they were remarkably well preserved. What a joy. Lots of photos and measurements later, I now think I have a reasonable idea of what makes a Spanish salterio.
From Spain I went back to snow in Munich, then to England where I taught at their dulcimer festival and visited some instrument collections. Leicester Museum had a couple of interesting ones with local design characteristics. In Norwich I was thrilled to see that the Museum at Strangers Hall had been given Billy Cooper's dulcimer after he passed away. There is something about touching an instrument which I had only known through some of the very first dulcimer recordings I ever heard. Several of the tunes in Getting Started, my tutor book, owe their presence there to Billy Cooper.
Finally I went to Tirol in Austria to stay with Ina Huber, my assistant in 1996. She lives in St Johann in the mountains, which left me with enduring memories of an ever changing mountain view and traditional mountain life as it is lived in the 1990's. Ina came with me back to Munich where we enjoyed the Munich Hackbrett Festival. A group from Mongolia stole the show there, but all the concerts were a delight as usual.
So it was a great trip, renewing friendships and making new ones. It would have been a lot harder without the many kindnesses shown to me by friends. China ... hmmm...
1997 Critics Circles Award for Music
A pleasant surprise awaiting me on my return to Australia was the news (and a certificate) that I'd been awarded the Canberra Times Critics Circle award for music for 1997. It says it is for "her major contribution to musical life in Canberra as a musician, as an internationally recognised dulcimer maker and for her encouragement to others to particpate in musical activity".
Closet Klezmer on CD
Closet Klezmer has been busy at Ian Blake's recording studio in the past weeks and their first CD should be out in mid February. This is klezmer music from Eastern Europe with a definite emphasis on their string sound so popular with festival goers. Contact Tim Meyen at 26 Canning Street Ainslie, ACT 2602 for your copy or keep an eye out at festivals where Closet Klezmer is performing ... Jamberoo, the National, Blue Mountains etc.
Musikverlag Preissler Catalogue in English
I translated the dulcimer music catalogue for Preisslers in 1996 and they have now printed the full version. I have copies if you are interested, and I can obtain music from the catalogue. I have a reasonable stock here of the more popular pieces.
Dulcimer Supplies and Lessons
I will be resuming private lessons in February. Lessons are usually a generous half hour and can be arranged during the day or early evening. Cost is $20 per half hour.
Available from me at the above address:
The Pleasures of Hope
CD Gillian Alcock, dulcimer and Andy Rigby, harp
$25 plus $3 postage and packing.
A Bag of Sticks Vol.1: Leaping off the Plateau Gillian Alcock and Andrew Purdam.
Music for duets, trios and quartets with cassette. $25 plus $3 postage and packing.
The Hammered Dulcimer: Getting Started Gillian Alcock. A tutor book and cassette with 25 tunes played slowly and at normal playing speed. $28 plus $3 p&p
Hammers $25 pair
Dulcimers ... write for a free catalogue.
Happy Hammering in 1998!
Gillian Alcock
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