evelyn glennie

[cheerios]

She is considered one of the world's finest musicians/percussionists and she is completely deaf. There's a film about her called touch the sound which I am pretty interested in seeing. Has anyone seen this movie and would care to comment? Here's a still:

[nhennies]

I haven't seen the film but she is not "completely deaf", she has limited hearing... and also not the greatest taste in music.

[shitking]

Touch the Sound is a wonderful documentary (directed by the same guy who did the Andy Goldsworthy documentary, Rivers and Tides). It is filled with quite a bit of her music, and includes biographical information etc... although the most interesting aspect for me is definitely her talking about her perception of sound.

I saw Evelyn Glennie a few years ago at the Esplanade in Singapore. I don't remember much about it as I was fairly young at the time. I recall a lot of gong rolls...

[cdeupree]

I'll also recommend Touch the Sound. A significant portion of the movie involves an improv concert with Fred Frith set in a factory IIRC, so if you like Frith, there's another reason to see the movie.

[shitking]

And I believe there was also a cd released on Tzadik documenting that improv session. I think its called The Sugar Factory.

[horaflora]

Tried to watch it, but fell asleep pretty quickly... Though i believe and basic torrent site will have it, mine dl'd pretty quick as I recall..

[surfer]

Recommended, its a good movie (not as good as Rivers & Tides) imo. Frith-o-phobes beware!

[Dohol]

I liked the film for the scenes with Frith ( I am not a Frithaphobe ) but it had its low points..

"She is considered one of the world's finest musicians/percussionists " there are many better, but the back story is fascinating..

[kp*]

We had Frith and Glennie out for a week of workshops and concerts. As noted before, she has chops to spare, but i am not a huge fan of her repertoire (though she did play a monster of a snare drum piece that was staggering in virtuosity and full of all kinds of fascinating perceptual illusions and timbral interest). I also don't think she's an especially interesting improviser (and in fact the piece she played with Frith seemed a verbatim performance of what is on that Sugar Factory release, tonal arrival @ end and all), but she is an interesting person and was nice enough to the students. She's got quiet a presence and seems to be continuously surrounded by people. She also played a solo version of clapping music in which she played both parts, one with her hands and and the other part with her feet. She played it very (too) fast and it seemed too much like a parlor trick to me.

We played a bunch of Fred's scores and did two concerts with him and a week of workshops. He also did a concert which was half solo and half with Glennie. Since this isn't a FF thread. I'll just leave it at that.

[kp*]

Of course Fred also has a movie - "Step Across the Border" I don't remember much about the Glennie film (tho i remember seeing her on 60 minutes years ago) but i actually remember seeing "Step Across the Border" more vividly.

[RFKorp]

(though she did play a monster of a snare drum piece that was staggering in virtuosity and full of all kinds of fascinating perceptual illusions and timbral interest).

this is pretty much exactly what I was going to come in and mention. I saw her play a solo show a couple years ago that mostly bored the shit out of me except for one phenomenal solo snare drum piece that's burned deep into my memory.

[nhennies]

Anybody know what piece it was? "Prim" by Askell Masson, maybe? I think she plays that piece.

[kp*]

It could have been... I wonder if it work as well on recording? In our hall it was sort of surreal how the resonance seemed to shift and float independently of the snare attacks that produced it. It was like a kind of meta-counterpoint where the drum attacks and their reverberations existed in different strata... plus the piece used every area of the drum in a really effective way and was impressively dynamic and virtuosic. It had both the glitz of a show piece written for a virtuoso and the nuance, scale and severity of something more interesting. Anyway, it was the only piece that stood out for me.

[cheerios]

still haven't gotten around to watching touch the sound yet, have too much on my plate (including balthazar and berlin alexanderplatz) but anyway, I hear that Glennie teaches deaf people how to hear through chakras in their body which I think is pretty cool.