Following on from last year’s very successful online course, with government restrictions preventing the Sherborne Summer School for Music functioning this year, the Sherborne Composers’ Workshop will once again be online. Places are already much in demand, but if you are interested in attending the course, do please be in touch.
The glissotar or glissonic tarogato is a new woodwind instrument. It is based on the Hungarian tarogato, which is a single-reed instrument with a conical wooden body. The main novelty is that, instead of tone holes, it uses a longitudinal gap or slot on the tube of the instrument. The two sides of the slot are covered with magnetic foil which attract a magnetized ribbon on top. The ribbon is fixed on the upper end, stretched and lifted up from the lower end as a string on a violin. You can push down the ribbon anywhere, it will seal up perfectly above it, so you can produce any note in the pitch continuum. Daniel Vaczi is the driving force behind this new instrument, and, through the Sonus Foundation in Hungary, he has called for short new pieces for the glissotar. ‘Time to Question’ is a short solo piece making use of the instrument’s ability to play glissandi, as its name suggests.
These two extraordinary musicians met in 1928 when Menuhin was still a young prodigy. They remained good friends for more than thirty years until the composer’s death in 1959. The violinist proved a great advocate of the composer’s works. In this seminar, Malcolm Singer will trace their relationship and their musical connections.
May 3rd, 2021
Malcolm Singer visited a few years ago to Walnut Hill to teach their young composers and coach chamber music. In this time of the travel restrictions as a result of the pandemic, he will give an online masterclass to the current composition students at the school.
