FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Friday, October 13, 2006
Topic Folk Club, Bradford
I was lucky enough to get to the Topic Folk Club's weekly meeting lastnight in time to see a couple of great folk performers get on stage.
Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, Gordon Tyrrall sang many well-known folk tunes and took an interestingly alternative approach to some more modern songs that one wouldn't normally associate with the folk scene. A couple of his songs were memorable as much because of their rhythmic content as the pitch or lyrics - I found myself spellbound as I tried to keep on top of the different time signatures that Gordon performed, seemingly totally comfortable with playing tunes that either mask their main pulse under a blanket of syncopation or that contain incredibly complex combinations of strong and weak beats. Wonderful to hear.
The other special guest at last night's meeting was David Moss, who wowed crowds firstly with unaccompanied fiddle music (mostly playing melodies of Celtic origin), then with his amazing vocal talent, accompanying himself on bouzouki. But, I think the part of this performance, by the former front-man of Banoffi, that most intrigued the audience was when he used Mongolian overtone chanting techniques within his folksongs.
This really was something else - using this specialist vocal method, David is able to sing multiple notes simultaneously. Of course, most sounds produced by voices and / or instruments can be broken down into the main pitch and a series of overtones that actually dictate the timbre of that sound (this is why a violin sounds like a violin and a flute sounds like a flute, even when they are playing the same note), but these overtones are so subtle that the listener is rarely conscious of them. Overtone singing, however, is a technique that brings these sounds to the forefront, standing them alongside or even in front of the main pitch, resulting in a whole collection of notes being clearly audible. David Moss seems to have this technique mastered because he used it to wonderful effect - watching him do this was rather like seeing aliens in an episode of Star Trek trying to communicate... it was so odd to know that only one person was singing in the room, without the assistance of a microphone (let alone any other live sound manipulation equipment) and yet I could hear at least two notes making up a drone plus one or two more providing a sense of melody. Really excellent stuff - I'm intrigued enough to try to find out more about this method!
In the meantime, you can catch David Moss giving his 'Musical Bridges' tour - see my forum entry for details. Also on my forum is information about forthcoming Topic Folk Club events. Many great performers are coming up (including an appearance by the original Scarlet Heights duo - a band that performed regularly at Maguires pub back in the day) and there is usually some opportunity to get up and do some singing or playing if you wish to do so. Non-members are always welcome : my friend and I were made to feel very much a part of the group lastnight.
Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, Gordon Tyrrall sang many well-known folk tunes and took an interestingly alternative approach to some more modern songs that one wouldn't normally associate with the folk scene. A couple of his songs were memorable as much because of their rhythmic content as the pitch or lyrics - I found myself spellbound as I tried to keep on top of the different time signatures that Gordon performed, seemingly totally comfortable with playing tunes that either mask their main pulse under a blanket of syncopation or that contain incredibly complex combinations of strong and weak beats. Wonderful to hear.
The other special guest at last night's meeting was David Moss, who wowed crowds firstly with unaccompanied fiddle music (mostly playing melodies of Celtic origin), then with his amazing vocal talent, accompanying himself on bouzouki. But, I think the part of this performance, by the former front-man of Banoffi, that most intrigued the audience was when he used Mongolian overtone chanting techniques within his folksongs.
This really was something else - using this specialist vocal method, David is able to sing multiple notes simultaneously. Of course, most sounds produced by voices and / or instruments can be broken down into the main pitch and a series of overtones that actually dictate the timbre of that sound (this is why a violin sounds like a violin and a flute sounds like a flute, even when they are playing the same note), but these overtones are so subtle that the listener is rarely conscious of them. Overtone singing, however, is a technique that brings these sounds to the forefront, standing them alongside or even in front of the main pitch, resulting in a whole collection of notes being clearly audible. David Moss seems to have this technique mastered because he used it to wonderful effect - watching him do this was rather like seeing aliens in an episode of Star Trek trying to communicate... it was so odd to know that only one person was singing in the room, without the assistance of a microphone (let alone any other live sound manipulation equipment) and yet I could hear at least two notes making up a drone plus one or two more providing a sense of melody. Really excellent stuff - I'm intrigued enough to try to find out more about this method!
In the meantime, you can catch David Moss giving his 'Musical Bridges' tour - see my forum entry for details. Also on my forum is information about forthcoming Topic Folk Club events. Many great performers are coming up (including an appearance by the original Scarlet Heights duo - a band that performed regularly at Maguires pub back in the day) and there is usually some opportunity to get up and do some singing or playing if you wish to do so. Non-members are always welcome : my friend and I were made to feel very much a part of the group lastnight.
