To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.
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Recordings by BBC Singers to be broadcast April 11-15th Last year I was asked by the BBC to make a selection of pieces for a ‘retrospective’ of my choral music. The performers were to be the BBC Singers, perhaps the finest professional choir in Britain, and a week was allocated for rehearsals. For me this […]
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We are delighted to announce the launch of our exciting new music course, entitled Music 1: From the Present to the Past, developed for us by OCA tutor Carla Rees. This course starts with the present day, including contemporary ‘classical’ composers, film and world music, and works backwards, focusing on how one generation has influenced […]
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You Tube has a fascinating clip of Paul Simon discussing where the melody and harmony for the song Still Crazy After All These Years should go after the initial verse and chorus. Even if you are not into music theory, do listen to this – and don’t be put off by the irritating (to me!) […]
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Francis Ford Coppola recently made an interesting statement in an interview about whether artists (in the broadest sense of the word) should be paid for their work. Here’s the relevant paragraph: ‘You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. […]
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Does a composer write his or her best music at a time of joy, tragedy or tranquillity? There are persuasive cases to be made for all three. Indeed we should probably add a fourth option i.e. none of the above as there are plenty of composers who seemed able to turn out wonderful music on […]
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Creative Writing tutor Joanna Ezekiel has been working with composer Pat Livingstone to set Joanna’s poems to music, using music technology that includes sound effects such as marimbas and a klezmer band! Joanna chose five poems from her poetry collections ‘A Braid of Words’, ‘Safe Passage’, and ‘Centuries of Skin’ that had been tried and […]
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An insight into a student-led collaboration between Music and Fine Art Over the last half year I’ve had the pleasure of visiting exhibitions of two artists local to the North East of Scotland. I was taken by surprise to find – among the seascapes of Frances Walker and Kate Downie – a similar little gem, […]
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One of the vivid memories of my youth is sitting down on a chair on which my father had placed a much treasured vinyl (78 rpm) recording of Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary. Needless to say, it was smashed to smithereens (a technical term). The key question was whether I would be able to sweep up the […]
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Good news for current and potential music students at the OCA! We have commissioned Carla Rees to write a new Level 1 Music course. Gareth’s recent interview with Carla gives some fascinating background on her interests, including her pioneering work on the 21st century flute repertoire and developments with the instrument itself (alto and bass […]
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Music Tutor, and soon to be author of the OCA’s second Level 1 Music Course: From The Present To The Past, Carla Rees talks to Gareth Dent about her work. I have many associations with the OCA; I came to the College initially as a photography student, and then later became a tutor on the […]
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