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With: David Bedford, John Tilbury
ARNOLFINI MUSIC
David Bedford + John Tilbury
Kevin Ayers+the Whole World (see photo above)
The major Arnolfini Music event of the 1970/71 season will take
place at the VICTORIA ROOMS, Queen’s Road, Bristol on
thursday 14 January at 2000hrs (doors open 1930hrs). As with
Arnolfini Music events that take place in the Gallery there will be
a wine bar throughout the evening.
part one
1 music by Terry Riley
2 Grand Galop de Concert—Wilhelm Ganz
3 poetry related to works by David Bedford John Tilbury+David Bedford—keyboards part two
1 “the Garden of Love” for group instruments—David Bedford
2 “did it again” —Kevin Ayers
3 “why are we sleeping” —Kevin Ayers
notes by David Bedford
There is not much that can be said about the music of this concert,
since none of it needs to be subjected to detailed analysis for its full
enjoyment. It’s just music to be enjoyed, and maybe at times
laughed with
Terry Riley is now something of a cult figure, and those of us who
have played his music for years have mixed feelings about this. His
music with its continuous flow of slowly changing sounds needs to
be experienced rather than listened to.
Wilhelm Ganz’s music is unfamiliar to the British public, and it is
to be hoped that this performance will be the first of many.
The Garden of Love for pop group and instruments (including 12 Indian bird-warblers] was first performed in 1970 by the London Sinfonietta and Kevin Ayers+the Whole World [for whom it was written]. The main body of the piece is interrupted by “imitation games” in which one player improvises a phrase, and another player has to attempt an immediate imitation, so far as his memory and instrument will allow him to. It is then his turn to improvise a phrase for the first player to imitate, and so on. Most of these games are between one of the group and one of the “straight” instrumentalists, which gives an element of competition. The piece ends with a setting of Blake’s poem “The Garden of Love’ “with the group assuming the most important role.
The evening ends with two numbers by Kevin Ayers+the Whole World-which the group features in their stage act. As the programme of a recent appearance of the group puts it “then Kevin Ayers+the Whole World—and all hell breaks loose”.