hard to believe - after many maddening months of "no no, mmeff not possible in this corona year", eventually vivid vortune came back! after sept-out, oct-out, nov-out -- now in dec 'my music events for friends' can take place! jipheeeeeee!
so, what kind of music style will be on this time? oh oh that's not easy to epitomize ... well, it won't be african, blues, calypso, choir, electronic, flamenco, gospel, indian, jazz, pop, punk, rap, reggae, rock, samba, soul, tango, zydeco -- but pretty distinctive cisum will surely truly happen, promised!
and which instruments? aloiv? no. eciov? no. niloiv? no. ollec? no. onaip? no. ratiug? no. smurd? no. ssab? no. . teniralc? no. tepmurt? no. xas? no. yet yet yet, expect my ixcillint musos to give their best and to get swipes in your ears and eyes.
furthermore, there will be an old chap to lagshare, oops, to lecture a bit about cisum's intricate timber machinery creating ixcillint sounds. moreover, we will be honoured by a guest musician, out of the chronicle of 'mmeff'. finally, a surprising deed is due - a lottereee - as chase for luck!
... and this message was bernd rohrmann's invitation to ...
to his twenty-third music night!
so, did it go "as usual"? no, not at all this year, not as intended. urghhhhh. the story follows now.
since june it was clear that, because of the corona pandemic, the traditional sept date was not feasible, nor oct, nor nov... perhaps not even dec?
nevertheless, things always begin with pondering - which style of music this year? and which musicians??
then as first idea: italian music. i asked a vivid band "would you play on my event?" they said "yes, but aren't you a bit away?" very true - i met them in rome!
next idea: indian music. i had heard especially impressive musicians - but that was far far away, in cochin. and usually an indian band should be large.
third idea: classical music. obviously a pretty grand plan - yet completely unfeasible in my venue.
after more & more pondering, eventually a special idea florished - and that was taken, seriously.
thus - - -
the 2020 music night had a very large program, possibly the largest ever, consisting of 10 parts:
1 = starting the event & introduction
2 = planning procedure (outined above)
3 = why vespa is a matter
4 = music by 2 'hub' musicians - set [a]
5 = mini-history of "pre-piano"
6 = mini-history of mmeff
7 = surprise! true honour guests - former mmeff musicians
8 = music by 2 'hub' musicians - set [b]
9 = super-surprise, a lottery
0 = thanks & gifts to teams & bye-bye
all this took place -- had to -- between 6:30 pm and 10:00 pm - which means, a long evening!
in the following, each program part will be portrayed, with texts & pic's. by the way, photography wasn't easy, because of the odd room-lighting, inducing reflections, and florishing blue kind-of-xmas decorations - so pleez kindly tolerate bits of not-so-good qual!
invited were, finally, 12 people (more not allowed), friends and friends of friends, and there were 2 + 2 = 4 musicians.
the musicians were placed at the middle section of the venue, and all the guests were sitting at a set of tables around them.
given the immense agenda, the "captain" of the event (yes, this was indeed bernd) had to look sanguine, wearing even his norwegian cap, using sometimes a little memo booklet, and, in order to be well-visible, mostly stood on a small podest.
and to steer this rather complex event, bernd used his own "attention-please-bell", quite often indeed.
lots of essential pictures were presented in large frames (mainly in format a3). this task was partly done by bernd, yet mostly by the truly essential aide, lady anoo.
bernd's talks required to present historic music records. these were played on a powerful yamaha tool, by sir simon palmer.
the venue (explained below) containes some kind of a vespa museum, lots of machines mounted under the roof of the main rooms - you can't overlook them!.
this perplexes bernd somewhat - because in 2009, after the finale of his melbourne uni 'career', he tried hard to buy himself a vespa!
so, did this become true? unfortunately not - - yet the incredibly kind vespa shop let bernd have one, for the whole evening of "my music events.for friends".
obviously bernd enjoyed it! yet when presenting and elucidating "his" gorgeous vespa, bernd eventually admitted that all he owns is a cute little model vespa - this one here.
the grand, and seemingly naïve, idea was to focus on classical music, and to make a harpsichord the center of mmeff-2020. and after an intense search peter hagen enabled this - he owns and he plays harpsichords!
and the other half ot this year's 'orchestra' was andrew angus, a virtuoso on the medivial oboe.
their performance was outstanding. bernd warned them, with this cartoon, that all the clapping would mean an encore is a 'must'.
there is a brief video showing andrew & peter playing - -
the nowadays common piano has a long technological history, shown in this summarizing graph.
bernd provided a compact mini-essay about core elements.
clavicord
first built around 1400. consists of strings and a key board. much later still popular, in bach's time. it keys move a brass strip on a pair of strings. its sound is modest, yet some vibrato is possible.
virginal
created around 1450. kind of a small harpsichord. the keys get a plectrum to pluck a string. sound is stronger than the clavicord.
spinett
invented around 1500 in italy. later perfected in england. designed to have longer strings. bigger volumer. can handle up to five octaves.
zither
separate type of instrument (see graph above), not played with a keybord, rather with a plectrum or just the fingers. in use for thousands of years all over the word. (main instrument in background music of mmeff-2020)
harpsichord
it was in the 16th century that the harpsichord was invented, and expanded in italy and in the netherlands.
it was the dominant instrument in baroqe times, until replaced by the piano. harpsichords may have one or two keyboards. many, like this one owned by peter, are strongly decorated.
a master designer was the italian cristofori. many famous composers have written pieces for the harpsichord, including johann sebastian bach.
yes, "my music events for friends" is going for 23 years now, gosh.... so bernd fell to the temptation to present a mini-review, presenting many pictures, and a few comments as well.
here is an extract:
1998: first event. 2001: only mmeff with classical string quartet. 2006: the freely moving stiletto sisters. 2007: flamenco music plus, first time, a dancer. 2009: first rock band. 2012: unique south-african musicians. 2013: the only event in which a book was presented, celeste's "a certain music". 2014 tango music with tango-dancing couple. 2015: a surprising scottish concert,. 2017 zulya the russian artist, and 2019, last year, a kind of pop~jazz band.ons of the blues".
ooo MMEFF 1998
ooo MMEFF 2001
ooo MMEFF 2006
ooo MMEFF 2009
ooo MMEFF 2012
ooo MMEFF 2019
so this gave a brief review of half of the bands so far playing in "my music events for friends".
for each invitation letter bernd created an image, using pictures and texts. here are four of them.
2006
2007
2009
2016
may be this idea is a bit eccentric? anyway, bernd decided once more to invite musicians from earlier events as honory guests. and this time that were zulya kamalova (voice, composer) and anthony schulz (accordion), from mmeff-2017 - to present three songs.
and again - not suprisingly - their performance was truly impressive.
there is a brief video showing zulya & anthony playing - -
as the last program of mmeff-2020, bernd conducted a lottery, sending sir simon with the box, and announcing three wins to get. each guest could pick one ticket out of the lottery box.
the wins, submitted by lady anoo, were:
| *** | ""gold" win: musician quasi-art piece (bernd added little flower) - shown below) |
| ** | "silver": ltriangle |
| * | "bronze": red tool for 'rattling' musicl |
and here you see the lucky "gold" winner.
this wasn't easy, given the many issues to be covered between 6:30 and 10:00. so bernd had to stay in line with the pertinent agenda structure, and regularly checking his "inner clock" as well!.
he wanted to rescue the time for a musical surprise - - to present the very very famous "toccata and fugue in d minor", by - yes, by j. s. bach, in a most unusual recording, namely played on an accordion (!) in 2013, by sergei teleshev. and so the last 10 min's of this illustrious music night were shaped by it.
2020 mmeff's new venue was fortunately again "la porchetta". its manager is lady azzurra pantaleo, and she gave bernd the okay to use a special room for the music event.
bernd provided special vases with yellow roses for each of the prepared venue tables.
beside the harpsichord was a poster stand placed, with four pic's symbolizing the event.
in order to make the purpose of this space, namely, to be a 'grand venue' for mmeff-2019, truly visible, bernd created several dozens of pictures about music, musicians, and previous "mmeff" bands.
these were hang-up framed pic's or pic's mounted as posters on all walls and also on the two large room dividers.
here they are - lady anoo, sir simon, lady emmie, helping with playing special records, with showing pictures, with running the music machine, with serving the lottery, with photographing at the event, and even taking a video -- bernd says thanxxxxxx!
by the way, this report wouldn't be without all the pics by so brave photographers, "e" & "a" & "b"!
bernd stoutly expressed that he wishes to thank quite a few people, and even had some little gifts for them - - here are two for the musicians. andrew obviously looks impressed as his one.....
and by the way, not only were all happy with the musicians - the musician also showed their pleasure, like peter and zulya.
and here the three grate aids, simon & emmie & anoo, look stunned, or puzzled?, at their gifts.
finally - -of course the both charming and competent waitress, lady mariah, troolee deserved one!
>>> that's it - cheerio & aufwiedersehen (perhapsilee) & bye byye byyye <<<
