****Sunday 9th October****

Event 19
The Westgate Chapel,High Street BN7 1XH

"Improvisation in English traditional tune playing"

4.45pm

A presentation by ADAM BUSHELL


Adam explains:-

"The talk is called 'Improvisation and Traditional Music' (and it's definitely a talk/discussion and not a workshop or performance - instruments are not needed).

The talk has grown out of research I did for my Masters degree at Newcastle, and is both an investigation of some of the approaches to improvisation found in field recordings of English traditional players, and a celebration of the stunning musicianship of those players.

We'll be listening to and analysing recordings of players including Harkie Nesling, Fred Pearce, Walter Bulwer and our very own Scan Tester, getting an idea of the sorts of improvisation and variation they used and what the limits were. I'll also be referring to memoirs and oral histories (notably Keith Summers' work in Suffolk and Reg Hall's biography of Scan Tester) to get a picture of the ways they played in different settings.

This illustrated talk is partly an an investigation of musical history, partly an appreciation of some of the great players of traditional music and partly a set of musical ideas to take away and play with."