Promenade Theatre Orchestra
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Promenade Theatre Orchestra
Promenade Theatre Orchestra (PTO) was an English quartet founded by John White in 1969 and consisted of the composer/performers White, Christopher Hobbs, Alec Hill, and Hugh Shrapnel. Although not one of the Scratch Orchestra's so-called 'sub-groups', the PTO often shared concerts and tours with the Scratch Orchestra as a distinct ensemble. Instrumentation and performance style The PTO performed primarily on toy pianos and reed organs, although they also played their own secondary instruments (White on tuba and rombone Hobbs on bassoon and percussion, Hill on clarinet and Shrapnel on oboe). The members met each weekend to rehearse, bringing new pieces with them to rehearse. The music mostly reflected the composers' interests in early British experimental repetitive compositional methods, which led to the strict numerical processes called systems music. White had developed music of random processes known as 'Machines'; Hill specialised in music based on English change-ringing s ...
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John White (composer)
John White (born 5 April 1936, in Berlin) is an English experimental composer and musical performer. He invented the early British form of minimalism known as systems music, with his early Machines. Life and career White was born in Berlin to an English father and German mother. The family moved to London at the outbreak of war. Originally a sculptor, White decided on a composition career when he heard Messiaen's ''Turangalîla-Symphonie''. He studied composition at the London Royal College of Music from 1955 to 1958 with Bernard Stevens and piano with Arthur Alexander and Eric Harrison. He also took analysis classes privately with Elisabeth Lutyens. Upon graduation, White became the musical director of the Western Theatre Ballet, and then professor of composition at the Royal College of Music from 1961 to 1967. He is a skilled pianist and tuba player and has written extensively for both instruments. In the 1960s and 1970s he was closely associated with English experimental com ...
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Psaltery
A psaltery ( el, ψαλτήρι) (or sawtry, an archaic form) is a fretboard-less box zither (a simple chordophone) and is considered the archetype of the zither and dulcimer; the harp, virginal, harpsichord and clavichord were also inspired by it. Its resonance box is usually trapezoidal, rectangular or in the form of a "pig's head" and often richly decorated. Etymology The psaltery of Ancient Greece (''epigonion'') was a harp-like stringed instrument. The word ''psaltery'' derives from the Ancient Greek ψαλτήριον (''psaltḗrion''), "stringed instrument, psaltery, harp" and that from the verb ψάλλω (''psállō''), "to touch sharply, to pluck, pull, twitch" and in the case of the strings of musical instruments, "to play a stringed instrument with the fingers, and not with the plectrum." The psaltery was originally made from wood, and relied on natural acoustics for sound production. In the King James Bible "psaltery", and its plural, "psalteries", are used to ...
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Experimental Music Catalogue
{{No footnotes, date=October 2019 The Experimental Music Catalogue (commonly known as the EMC) was founded in 1968 by Christopher Hobbs in order to provide an outlet for new music by composers of the English experimental movement, Publications appeared mainly as generic anthologies, such as the ''Verbal Anthology'', ''String Anthology'', ''Rhythmic Anthology'' and the ''Scratch Anthology of Compositions''. These anthologies featured music by British composers such as Cornelius Cardew, Hugh Shrapnel, Howard Skempton, Gavin Bryars, John White, and other experimental composers, including those in the Scratch Orchestra, but also others, including Robert Ashley and Terry Jennings. As the Catalogue grew in the 1970s, Hobbs released control to a committee including Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman. However, due to the change in music and publishing needs after experimental music turned to minimalism and other post-modern styles, the EMC was wound down in the early 1980s. Hobbs re-establ ...
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Conway Hall
The Conway Hall Ethical Society, formerly the South Place Ethical Society, based in London at Conway Hall, is thought to be the oldest surviving freethought organisation in the world and is the only remaining ethical society in the United Kingdom. It now advocates secular humanism and is a member of Humanists International. History The Society's origins trace back to 1787, as a nonconformist congregation, led by Elhanan Winchester, rebelling against the doctrine of eternal damnation. The congregation, known as the Philadelphians or Universalists, secured their first home at Parliament Court Chapel on the eastern edge of London on 14 February 1793. William Johnson Fox became minister of the congregation in 1817. By 1821 Fox's congregation had decided to build a new place of worship, and issued a call for "subscriptions for a new Unitarian chapel, South Place, Finsbury". Subscribers (donors) included businessman and patron of the arts Elhanan Bicknell. In 1824 the congregation ...
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Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew (7 May 193613 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, explaining why he had "discontinued composing in an avantgarde idiom" in his own programme notes to his Piano Album 1973. Biography Cardew was born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. He was the second of three sons whose parents were both artists—his father was the potter Michael Cardew. The family moved to Wenford Bridge Pottery Cornwall a few years after his birth where he was first nurtured as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, and later at The King's School, Canterbury which had evacuated to the Carlyon Bay Hotel for the war. His musical career thus began as a chorister. From 1953 to 1957, Cardew studied piano, cello, and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Career Having won a scholarship to study at the recently es ...
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Laurie Scott Baker
Laurie Scott Baker (1943 - 16 November 2022) was a British composer and musician of Experimental and Electronic music. He was a pioneer of live electronics and graphic scores from the 1960s. Life and career He was born 1943 in Sydney, Australia. From 1958 he studied at the Julian Ashton Art School. His musical career began playing double bass at the El Rocco jazz cellar, Sydney's major jazz venue at that time, with his school friend pianist Serge Ermoll. He worked for the Sydney Morning Herald as a trainee graphic artist. Baker left Australia in 1964, working his passage in the band on the Greek liner 'Patris'. In London he worked on several collective projects with the composer Cornelius Cardew. He took part in Music Now, a concert society founded in 1968 by Victor Schonfield which introduced avant-garde music to British audiences, including the first UK performance of In C and also in the first performances of the composers Frederic Rzewski and John White. He took ...
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People's Liberation Music
The Peoples' Liberation Music (PLM) was a political music group, playing folk and agit-pop, founded in 1972 by Laurie Scott Baker, John Marcangelo and John Tilbury. After Tilbury left in 1973 Cornelius Cardew and Keith Rowe joined with Vicky Silva as the main vocalist. Other members included Hugh Shrapnel, and Dave Smith (composer), Dave Smith; among its many drummers were Pip Pyle, John Mitchell, Back Door (jazz trio), Tony Hicks and John Hewitt. After the group was dissolved in 1978 it was reformed as the band of the Progressive Cultural Association (PCA). The album ''We Only Want The Earth'' (Musicnow – MNCDx004) was released in 2001. References External linksInformation and CD of Peoples Liberation Music
Musical groups established in 1972 English rock music groups Political music groups Propaganda songs {{UK-band-stub ...
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Maoist
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China and later the People's Republic of China. The philosophical difference between Maoism and traditional Marxism–Leninism is that the peasantry is the revolutionary vanguard in pre-industrial societies rather than the proletariat. This updating and adaptation of Marxism–Leninism to Chinese conditions in which revolutionary praxis is primary and ideological orthodoxy is secondary represents urban Marxism–Leninism adapted to pre-industrial China. Later theoreticians expanded on the idea that Mao had adapted Marxism–Leninism to Chinese conditions, arguing that he had in fact updated it fundamentally, and that Maoism could be applied universally throughout the world. This ideology is often referred to as Marxism–Leninism–Maoism to ...
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Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of Norway. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency of Norway; it also lays claims to the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. The capital and largest city in Norway is Oslo. Norway has a total area of and had a population of 5,425,270 in January 2022. The country shares a long eastern border with Sweden at a length of . It is bordered by Finland and Russia to the northeast and the Skagerrak strait to the south, on the other side of which are Denmark and the United Kingdom. Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. The maritime influence dominates Norway's climate, with mild lowland temperatures on the se ...
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AMM (group)
AMM is a British free improvisation group that was founded in London, England, in 1965. The group was initially composed of Keith Rowe on guitar, Lou Gare on saxophone, and Eddie Prévost on drums. The three men shared an interest in exploring music beyond the boundaries of conventional jazz, as in free jazz and free improvisation. AMM never achieved widespread popularity, but have been influential in improvised music. Most of their albums have been released by Matchless Recordings, which is run by Eddie Prévost. In a 2001 interview, Keith Rowe was asked if "AMM" was an abbreviation. He replied, "The letters AMM stand for something, but as you probably know it's a secret!" History 1960s AMM was initially composed of Keith Rowe on guitar, Lou Gare on saxophone and Eddie Prévost on drums. Rowe and Gare were members of Mike Westbrook's jazz band; Prévost and Gare were also in a hard bop jazz quintet. The three men shared a common interest in exploring music beyond the boun ...
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