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The Past (the new blurb):

where we’re at – Mr McFall’s Chamber in ‘05

In the mid to late nineties, Mr McFall’s Chamber was part of a wide-spread movement to remove barriers which had, up until then, largely separated “art” music from “popular” music. Taking Webern into night clubs – or, for that matter, performing arrangements of Pink Floyd in concert halls – was a challenge to the status quo which, we were confident, would bring about a melting pot of new creativity – a “new alchemy of musical styles” was the phrase we coined for the new “None Of The Above” evenings at the famous Bongo Club in Edinburgh which we were instrumental in setting up.

Since that time so much has changed that such juxtapositions no longer surprise. Bastions of “art” music such as Radio 3 and the proms have long ago stepped across these barricades. The very composers whose works we championed from early on – Zappa, Piazzolla for example – are now widely championed by the music establishment (the only factor inhibiting performance of Zappa’s “classical” works is the almost paranoid withholding of sheet music by the Zappa family estate).

Trouble is, the seeming attack on “art” music by ourselves and others is now being used as an argument for demolishing the publicly funded structures on which “art” music depends. So, for example, the argument goes “yes, what’s so special about opera – let’s close the opera house! Let’s get rid of some of the orchestras!” Suddenly “arty” stuff seems to need defending (especially as the new political leaders belong more and more to the ugly-rumours-rock-and-roll generation). The fact is we never intended to abandon the “arty” stuff – we simply intended to present it in a less stuffy way.

At the same time the cynical attempt to market classical music as pop (Vannessa Mae, Bond etc) has made the public sick of classical musicians “crossing over” into popular styles. Even the wonderful Nigel Kennedy hasn’t really done himself justice in his renderings of Jimi Hendrix (I have to say this is hearsay – I didn’t catch his version of “Third Stone from the Sun” at Glastonbury). We are in danger of being tarred with the same brush.

Mr McFall’s Chamber was created originally around the idea of presenting what was experimental and strange in 60’s pop – like Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” – alongside what was experimental and strange in the classical field – plenty of opportunities here (almost all “modern” music sounds gloriously experimental and strange to the average person in the street). We chose to open our first ever gig with Anton Webern’s string quartet. Sweeteners were also included – at the first gig (at the notorious Transporter Rooms club in Edinburgh) we also played a version of Weather Report’s “Birdland”. This was to give listeners something a little easier and more familiar by way of light relief.

Gradually the experimental gave way to the “easier” elements – tango, klezmer, rock, film music – until the group became in danger of being seen as one which just played popular arrangements. The underlying intention of the group has always been to be accessible; but also to lead the listener into unexplored areas. In our group this can go both ways – leading classical audiences to jazz or tango, or even rock; while at the same time leading young “pop” audiences into arresting contemporary notated music. The group has therefore programmed large-scale works by such composers as Giya Kancheli and John Adams; while commissioning a string of pieces from composers such as James MacMillan, Edward McGuire, Cecilia McDowall and Ken Dempster. We have also performed countless pieces by lesser known contemporary composers – too many to list here, and I’d inevitably forget some of them!

For some years the group twisted itself into knots to get public funding, not without a certain amount of success. A great deal of my (Robert McFall’s) energy went into setting up the structures necessary for such applications – forming ourselves into a registered charity, endless form-filling, meetings etc – and less and less into actual music creation. This course of action seemed unavoidable, in that members of the group could only commit to periods of music-making with the group if the work were properly paid, and, although there were occasions when promoters booked us and paid 100% of the fee, mostly their resources were such that we needed to subsidise our own fee by providing part of the funding ourselves. It’s a big group and, at classical rates of pay, very expensive.

Early promise of substantial public funding from the Scottish Arts Council was, however, not to be – even though individuals within the organisation seemed to be personally very supportive of what we were doing. In fact what we were doing (putting equal seriousness into presentation of popular music as into classical music) was precisely what they trying to do, and they undoubtedly saw us as allies in that. Trouble was that, in order to find funding with which to establish support for jazz, folk and rock music the music department of the SAC more or less scrapped their support for small ensembles across the board (with the exception, curiously, of the Paragon Ensemble in Glasgow), and that was the category to which we belonged whether we liked it or not. The major national companies (Scottish Opera, the orchestras etc) had too much muscle for the SAC to take on, so it was the almost administration-free chamber ensembles (who didn’t have the staff or the political connections to make trouble) who had to pay the price. One of the things which made this particularly frustrating for members of the group was that they themselves knew the national companies intimately from the inside, and therefore knew how much higher were the standards we worked to in Mr McFall’s – we saw the national companies throw so much money away!

What was an important selling point for the group (the extraordinary diversity of styles in its repertoire and the ability of the musicians in the group to play convincingly in all of them) was, strangely enough, also a stumbling block in selling the group. Unless people had experienced the group themselves it was hard for them to imagine us. Even in terms of selling CDs our being “between the cracks” meant no-one knew which shelf to stack us in – Classical? Rock? World music? In time various people in the group split off into more specialist musical outfits – Su-a Lee increasingly in demand in various chamber music groups (with brief sorties into a “proper” tango group), Greg Lawson into the tango group “Que Tangazo” and, more recently, the extremely successful Klezmer group Moishe’s Bagel (with Phil Alexander on piano – actually the same personnel as Que Tangazo without the vocalist!), while Brian Schiele continued his busy career in chamber music, and Rick Standley continued to invest his extraordinary talents in both jazz and classical fields. The latest new departure is ex-McFall’s pianist Graeme McNaught’s new quartet “ra-Ro”, which has announced its intentions to carry forward some of the more Dadaist elements which Graeme brought to the early days of McFall’s. Many elements from those early days have born fruit elsewhere, which is good.

The group is still going, however, and, for the first time we have a DVD which shows the group in action from a couple of concerts in 2004, and therefore makes it more possible for people who haven’t seen us live to understand what we’re like. Musically the group has never been better – 2004 having been by far our busiest year so far. Things are a lot quieter right now, but that is partly because we have been mustering ourselves for a new publicity drive aimed at taking the group to festivals and to promoters in Europe and America in ‘06 (it is July ‘05 as I’m writing this).

The DVD, imaginatively entitled “Live at the Queens Hall”, will be on sale from August 10^th from our website. It was filmed by John McGeoch and his team from “Arts in Motion”, a vaguely crusty/theatrical performance-oriented multi-media-partying intitiative based up near Inverness (can you imagine that?). It’s all done a bit on a shoe-string (it was originally intended as an archive only) but contains some wonderful mixing of images by Andrew Blake and some pretty hi-fidelity sound recorded and mixed by Alex, our sound engineer, and his friend Murray.

There should be a link for the DVD up on our “recordings” page on or before the 10^th August.

The Past (the old blurb):

Mr McFall's Chamber, the name of the group, arose from a clerical approximation in the advertising of their first gig. The name, however, also signifies a chamber, or room, in which collaboration and experimentation can occur; in which ideas and music from different backgrounds can, for a while, happily co-exist in a friendly and courteous interchange.

They have twice performed for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, firstly in 1997,when they gave the British première of John Adams’ "John’s Book of Alleged Dances", and again in 1998, when they gave the second British performance of Dmitri Yanov-Yanovski’s "Chang Music 4". On March 23^rd1999, they gave the premiere performance of James MacMillan’s "Cumnock Fair", commissioned for the group by Cumnock Music Club. On 17^th June, they gave the premiere of Eddie Mcguire's "Nocturnes" at the Cottier Theatre as part of the West End Festival in Glasgow. They have also appeared at the Highland Festival, and have made numerous appearances at the Bongo Club in Edinburgh, a venue which has given rise to a number of collaborations with performing artists and musicians from various disciplines.

In June 99, Mr McFall's Chamber toured small venues in the West Highlands of Scotland for a week. In July, they made an appearance at the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham. During the '99 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, they gave performances both at the Bongo Club, and at the Spiegel Tent.

During 2000,McFall's performed Andy Thorburn's "Heartful of Friendship" for Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, promoted their own concerts at the Queens Hall, and at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, performed at The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen, The Arches in Glasgow, The Bongo Club in Edinburgh, Cumbernauld Theatre, The House For An Art Lover, the Cottier Theatre in Glasgow and Eden Court Theatre in Inverness. Their recordings have been played on various radio stations, including Radio 3's "Late Junction". They appeared with Matt Seattle (border pipes and string quartet) at the Peebles Festival, and revisited John Adam's "John's Book Of Alleged Dances" with a performance at the Queens Hall as part of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's chamber music series, along with music by Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber.

In early '01, the group did a short tour of the North of Scotland, playing in Thurso, Kirkwall, Skerray (where they had a unanimous standing ovation from all 17 inhabitants!) and Fort William. In March they performed for the Helensburgh Music Club.

In May and June 2001, the group released two new albums, "Revolucionario", an album of South American tango music and "nueva cancíon", and "Upstart Jugglers", featuring music by James MacMillan, Edward McGuire, Raymond Scott, Lowell George, Richard Thompson, Trevor Lucas, Edith Piaf, Carlo Gesualdo and King Crimson. Both of these albums are available to purchase from this site (see "Recordings"). The group launched these albums with highly-acclaimed performances at the Queens Hall and at the Bongo Club, Edinburgh, and at The Arches in Glasgow.

In December ’01, the group played again at the Queens Hall, (promoted by the Queens Hall) a programme of Olli Mustonen, Joe Zawinul, Dumisani Maraire, Cecilia McDowall, Carlos Guastavino, Toru Takemitsu, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Raymond Scott etc. The concert featured a couple of numbers on an all-electric line-up.

In March ’02 Mr McFall’s Chamber performed a mixed programme, again in the Queens Hall, which included premieres of new works by Phil Bancroft (the programme also featured his brother Tom on drums), and Matilda Brown. The programme also included two sequences of animations by students from Edinburgh College of Art with live musical accompaniment played and composed by members of Mr McFall’s Chamber (see Times review).

In May Mr McFall’s Chamber were featured on Morning Performance on Radio 3, as part of a week of programmes focusing on the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and its splinter groups. The broadcasts included pieces recorded on Mull by the string quartet from Mr McFalls - recordings of pieces written by teenagers there under the direction of composer-in-residence Karen Wimhurst - as well as pieces from a recorded concert on April 22^nd.

June saw McFall returning to the West End Festival in Glasgow.

In October ’02 the group gave the British premiere of Giya Kancheli’s “Exil” with Susan Hamilton, soprano, as part of the Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust season, and as part of the Dialogues Festival. They gave further performances for Dialogues, and at the Arches in Glasgow, and the Bongo Club in Edinburgh.

In January ’03 they featured in a South Bank Show on ITV about the composer James MacMillan, and in February gave a Radio 3 lunchtime concert of music by Astor Piazzolla.

In February also they gave the world premiere of Cecilia McDowall’s “Dance The Dark Streets”, and of Matilda Brown’s “Awake In Shadows”, and collaborated with video artist John McGeoch of Arts In Motion in concerts at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh, and at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow.

In September ’03 the group toured the Highlands for two weeks with memorable concerts in Tobermory, Cromarty, Inverness, Aultbea and Findhorn, winding up with two performances for the Wester Ross festival in Ullapool and Applecross.

In March ’04 the group were in residence in Shetland, touring schools and performing in the Garrison Theatre, courtesy of the Islesburgh Trust the the Shetland Arts Trust. Three new works by Matilda Brown were premiered, along with new paintings by Colin Lawson which were skilfully projected by video artist John McGeoch during the show. Other highlights were Max Martin on clarinet in Eddied Daniel’s “Solfeggietto Metamorphosis”, as well as a wonderfull new arrangement of John Taylor’s “Rosslyn” by Ian Gardiner, which featured, in particular, Alison Mitchell, our guest flautist. This programme was repeated in the Cottier Theatre, Glasgow, on April 4^th and in the Queens Hall on April 5^th.

In May Mr McFall’s Chamber toured with Phil Bancroft, Phil Alexander and Chick Lyall, performing a number of new works by these three. The tour finished with a performance at the Queens Hall. The tour featured, again, video work by John McGeoch and Arts In Motion.

In June the group performed at the St Magnus Festival on Orkney, where they gave three programmes – firstly Ken Dempster’s “Peer Gynt”, a community opera; secondly Giya Kancheli’s “Exil” with Susan Hamilton, soprano; and lastly a mixed programme of Piazzolla, King Crimson, Weather Report etc.

In March ’05 the group were resident at Dartington College in Devon for three days, and then played at Bush Hall, Shepherd’s Bush, London and in Saffron Walden. See “reviews” for reviews of the Bush Hall gig. In April the group repeated the programme (which included the premiere of a piece the group commissioned from Scottish composer Ken Dempster) at the Arches, Glasgow, and the Bongo Club, Edinburgh.

In August ’05 the group gave a late-night DVD launch performance at the Queens Hall as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This was largely a regathering of those who had performed with us in the spring of ’04, and of the material which features on the DVD “Live at the Queens Hall”. Also the group performed a Tippett centenary concert with the Dunedin Consort in St Mary’s Cathedral.

January ’06 saw the group perform a set of music by Martyn Bennett at Celtic Connections – a performance which they repeated in the Queens Hall in October ’06. This included Martyn Bennett’s rediscovered “Piece for String Quartet, percussion and Scottish Smallpipes in C”.

May ’06 saw a performance at the Bongo Club as part of a revived “None Of The Above” series. This featured Taylor Wilson in songs from Jacques Brel, Kurt Weill, Goldfrapp and Cole Porter, as well as a number of instrumental items by Latin American composers – including a number from Cuba.

October, as well as the Martyn Bennett concert at the Queens Hall mentioned above, saw the quartet accompanying Michael Marra at the last ever Bongo Club “None Of The Above” (see review)

February ’07 saw the group collaborating with a group of Newcastle composers, including Agustin Fernandez, Tim Garland and Kathryn Tickell, in a performance of their music at the Queens Hall and at the Tolbooth in Stirling. Subsequent recording sessions should mean that these three substantial pieces should be available on Cd soon.

In April ’07 the group premiered Dave Heath’s “An Everyday Occurrence” at the Queens Hall and at the RSAMD in Glasgow. This is a chamber opera about orchestral musicians. Our production featured Angela Tunstall, Gwion Thomas and Andrea Baker in the three singing roles. It was directed by Gerry Mulgrew and conducted by the composer.

In June ’07 the group performed for the West End Festival in Glasgow, for the Presteigne “Further Out” Festival as well as for the East Neuk Festival, at which they premiered a new commission from Gavin Bryars, “The Church Closest to the Sea”. They also took this work to the Aldeburgh Proms in early August.

In November ’07 the group performed a programme of music to mark the centenary of the death of Edvard Grieg. This featured two new works, “Den som ingen ser” by James Clapperton and “Musique Metrique” by the Norwegian jazz musician Thomas Stronen. The concerts took place in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow and were promoted by Bows Arts.

January ’08 saw the group repeating this programme for the Tromso “Northern Lights” Festival in the north of Norway, with a repeat performance of Thomas Stronen’s “Musique Metrique” in Oslo during April at the newly opened Najsonal Jazzscene.

Meanwhile in March the group toured Scotland as part of the Tune-Up touring scheme, performing a programme of music by the late Martyn Bennett – this tour featured guest musicians Fraser Fifield on pipes and whistles, Tom Bancroft and James Mackintosh on drums and percussion. This programme (or much of it) is to be repeated at the Spiegel Tent on August 26^th and 27^th (as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival).

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