The first exploratory music workshop took place on Saturday 7th May at St Margaret’s House, Bethnal Green. It was run by GUO composer/director Tony Haynes with three Grand Union Orchestra musicians: Claude Deppa, South African trumpeter and percussionist; Yousuf Ali Khan, tabla player and singer from Bangladesh; and Carlos Fuentes from Chile, exponent both of Andean and Brazilian folk instruments and Latin-American music. This group of musicians was specially chosen to reflect the intended global span of Song of Contagion
As well as musicians, many students and global health professionals who participated in the launch workshop on April 23rd returned, and – whether they regarded themselves and musical or not! – joined in all the activities with grace and enthusiasm.
Elizabeth began the day by profiling various diseases and isolating the parameters by which they can be defined (and the relative importance we attach to treating and funding them). Tony then identified ‘musical parameters’ in a similar way; and with the aid of the musicians, demonstrated how variations of a piece of music can be achieved, while the separate elements of which it is comprised – melody, harmony, rhythm and so on – still remain recognisable.
To kick off the practical exploration, joining the disease parameters to the musical ones, Elizabeth produced some very vivid graphs, turning statistical data effectively into pictures, which the group proceeded interpret through music, turning them into some very dramatic and colourful musical pieces. or ‘vignettes’. As a result, we now have some emergent ‘repertoire’, but more importantly a number of creative strategies for generating further musical material.
(First posted by Tony Haynes, May 2016)