Rowley Gallery Blog
There was a lot of fuss last week about Edward Gorey’s 88th birthday, even though he died at the age of 75. There was a Google doodle and he featured in The Guardian and the Los Angeles Times and at Brain Pickings to mention just three, then Margaret McLellan sent me this catalogue of gruesome infant deaths – Hi Chris, This came today. I thought you might enjoy it. Best wishes, Maggie. Continue reading “The Gashlycrumb Tinies”
A favourite song from his Shooting At The Moon album from 1970, The Oyster & The Flying Fish, a duet with Bridget St John. Continue reading “For Kevin Ayers”
First there was Rogue’s Gallery in 2006, now followed by Son of Rogue’s Gallery, both compilations of pirate ballads, sea songs & chanteys, from an idea by Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean II. Continue reading “Shenandoah & Cape Cod Girls”
Stop motion animation by Sean Ohlenkamp with music by Rodrigo & Gabriela.
First there was this Christmas card from a painting by Mick Moon, made with oil paint & string on board and called simply Tree. Then I heard the three Staveley-Taylor sisters (aka The Staves) singing Winter Trees:
Continue reading “Winter Trees”
August 1954, aged 77, Pablo Casals performs Bach’s G-Major Suite for solo cello at Abbaye Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa near Prades in the French Pyrénées.
In an ancient abbey in the south of France I once heard invisible plainsong. I realised eventually that it came not from speakers, nor from monks hidden behind a screen, but from a fellow tourist who sang as he moved through the building, exploring its rich acoustics. It was surprising and beautiful. How amazing it would have been to discover Casals playing Bach.
Bach Unwrapped is a year long series of over 70 concerts throughout 2013 at Kings Place, London.
When these children in Paraguay were given the opportunity to learn music there were more students than instruments. Cateura is Paraguay’s biggest landfill with a resourceful tradition of recycling. It seemed only appropriate to make musical instruments from waste materials. Scrap was transformed into violin, cello, double-bass, flute, saxophone, guitar and The Recycled Orchestra was born.
‘MERZsonata is a homage to Kurt Schwitters’ sound-text masterpiece, the Ursonate…Every sound…has a biographical connection to Schwitters (for example, he wrote a sneezing poem, and he used to bark like a dog each night during his time in the Hutchinson Square Internment Camp on the Isle of Man during the Second World War)…Like the materials of a Schwitters collage, each element is both itself and part of something new.’ – Christopher Fox, 1999. Continue reading “MERZsonata”
This is how Notting Hill Gate looked in the 1920s. It was described as one of the most fashionable shopping areas in London. The Metropolitan Railway station can just be seen on the right and the Central Line station is on the left, under the TUBE sign. Swing round 45° anticlockwise and you’re looking down Kensington Church Street, home to the ever fashionable Rowley Gallery. Continue reading “Notting Hill Gate”