A Cunning Blog

Long words. Short words. Words that say something.

Indie whut?

| 3 Comments

I knew I’d get into trouble the minute I used the words ‘Indie’ and ‘Classical’ in the same sentence. I actually wanted to call it ‘Musicians doing what musicians do’, but my editor didn’t think it was that catchy.
Nevertheless, whatever you call the kind of music coming out of the wilds of Brooklyn, Newtown, Chicago, Clapham and pretty much wherever musicians gather is worth inspecting closely, and not just because plenty of it is good.

I spoke to so many people for this piece. In the interests of clarity and a fixed word count, only a few made it into the printed piece, but many others gave generously of their wisdom, including Nicole Canham (Canberra Festival, Clarity, currently studying for PhD based around how the internet and music intersect), Tim Hollo (founding member of FourPlay, Communications Director with the Greens), Drew Crawford (composer, gigster, writer, all round smart fellow), opera’s can do gal, Jennifer Paterson (aka @gaspiagore) and anyone else who would listen.

Thank you, everyone, and watch this space for transcripts / commentary.

3 Comments

  1. Hey, can I give you my take on it too?? Interview me! 🙂

  2. Great piece in the Herald, Harriet.
    A timely piece, too(!!!) as I think that this ‘movement’ (if that’s what we can call it) will prove to be the way for ‘poor old classical music’ to finally reconnect with the Zeitgeist, after such a long time in the wilderness!
    As for the moniker, “Indie Classical” hmmm… I think I like it.
    It’s certainly darn sight better than the dreaded ‘Classical crossover’, which immediately makes you think of cellists trying to be rock stars or beat-boxing flautists or something (cringe).
    Anyway, your article certainly struck a chord me and with my quartet’s struggle to put a neat label on what we do. (I refer to my 4tet with Veronique and co… The NOISE). Funnily enough, in the liner notes for our CD, we refer to our musical influences as ranging from “Beethoven to Bjork, Bach to Bill Evans…”, so it was uncanny to see you use “Bach to Bjork”.
    Speaking of our CD, would you like a copy? Twould be an honour to send you a one. Feel free to get in touch via my email.
    Once again… great piece, and great to see this talked about in Herald.

  3. Pingback: Indie wuh? #3 | A Cunning Blog

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