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MT25.10 Bridgemas Special · The Downing Arts Podcast

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Welcome to the Downing Arts Podcast Bridgmas Special.
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We finally made it to the end of term and there are a lot of
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really tired people around, but there's been tons of stuff happening in the past few
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days with Christmas themed music and drama. And today the chapel choir are on their
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way to London to sing the Alumni Carol Service this evening.
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We had some very exciting news the other week as Downing's very own band,
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Cash Only, has been selected for the University Wide Advanced Popular Performance
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Scheme. And I'm very pleased to have here in the studio two
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members of the band. Hannah Mason, Lola Peskin. Welcome to you both. Hi,
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Louisa. Thanks for having us. That's a pleasure. So what does the
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Advanced Popular Performance Scheme involve? So the Advanced
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Popular Performance Scheme, which we also call the Apps Scheme, it's easier to say,
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will be a chance for us to have lots of coaching from professional
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industry musicians and really see where that takes
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us with the band as we find our sound, because we're a new band,
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so that's really exciting. Yeah. And we're
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looking forward to learning more about how to maximize our presence as
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performers as well as being helped with original arrangements
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and musical technique. Hannah and I are both vocalists,
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so we'll have some training in that and as well
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as more opportunities to play, which obviously will really help us develop
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as musicians as well. It will really help us to
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really find our presence as a band within the Cambridge music scene as well.
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So yesterday we had our first APS gig at the Six Six Bar.
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Yeah, really fun. Yeah. Yeah. It was really nice to hear the other musicians
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as well, who are also all really great. Who are you working with this year?
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I mean, you say having professional coaching and so on.
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Well, we haven't yet been given our specific coach because we've only just entered
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into the scheme, but there'll be a variety of industry professionals helping us with those
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different skills that we're hoping to gain. Yeah. And I think the coaching will start
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from next, so we're really looking forward to seeing where that goes. And one thing
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that makes Cash Only really unique on the band scene is that
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we do a lot of original arrangements. So Helen, who is our
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bass player, she also runs the band and she is incredible at writing
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arrangements by ear. So we'll get some
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help with making our or Helen's arrangements. So more like unique for
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the band and really grow, growing together and finding,
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like, finding how well we gel together as a band. Yeah,
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yeah. We are really, we're really lucky. Like everyone works really hard and
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really enjoys doing it. Yeah. And particularly Helen is just. She's just
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such like a talented, brilliant. She plays like every instrument and writes for every
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instrument she does and has perfect pitch and we're just like, so. And she's lucky
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to have her finding. Different songs that you would work together, which work together really,
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really well. Yeah. Like yesterday for the first time, we performed
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a mashup of Best Part by Daniel Caesar
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and Luther of Kendrick Namara and Scissor, like,
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put together, which we didn't expect to work so well, maybe, or like
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it just hadn't occurred to us. But yeah, like, really creative ideas, like, makes it
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feel really fun and interesting. So how would you describe your sound or your
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kind of style? And so we do a lot of kind of like R and
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B influenced music, but also kind of 2000s pop.
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And I mean, a lot of us are also jazz musicians,
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so we have some jazzy influences as well. We have a lot of jazz standards
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that will do as a band. So. Two of my favorite
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songs that I sing with Cassoni are Dive by Olivia Dean and
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Worth it by Ru, both of which really draw from jazz influences.
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And Helen's done some really cool things with the horn section, so that's
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always fun. Yeah. And contrary to popular belief, we are
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not an Olivia Deen cover band. Although I am
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singing Echo as well, which also has some really interesting horn arrangements. I think
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just as a, like, pop artist, she just has so, like, Olivia Dean has
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so many jazz and like R and B influences, so she's a
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really, like, fun songwriter to like that we integrate into our stuff and we.
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So what I was going to say earlier is Lola and I both also write
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songs and we've already been writing together this bit. Yeah.
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And we're really hoping that for next term we can really bring some more originals
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as well to our sound. Sounds really exciting.
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So you performed at Six Six last night. What do you have coming up next
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term? Well, one thing that the app scheme does is we'll organize gigs for the
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members on the scheme. So that's what the six Six last night was. And there'll
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be lots more things coming up next time. We don't have any sort of.
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We don't really know yet what if. We don't win or response. We'll start organising
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those events, which is like part of. Yeah, it's just like in, like different kinds
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of opportunities. Really good. Yeah. Fantastic. Well, thank you very much for that little snapshot
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into your vast popular performance scheme with your band, Cash Only.
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And, yeah, best of luck with it. Thank you. Thank you so much.
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My final guest this term is former Downing Organ Scholar and now Honorary
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Fellow Martin Baker. Welcome, Martin. Thank you, Louisa. Great to be here. It's great
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to have this opportunity to catch up. We had a fabulous carol service on
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Sunday and really looking forward to more of the same this evening in London.
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So you were at downing in the 1980s and then went on
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to an illustrious career, mainly in London, I believe. But how did it all start?
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Well, I began early. I was 4 when
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I first put my fingers on the organ.
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I guess my father had tempted me in various
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ways, but it was really just singing away in a manger at school that in
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the admissions class, I came home one day and announced that I wanted to play
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it on the organ or little keyboard that we had.
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And that was the beginning, really. I went back and boasted to
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the class that I could do it and they didn't believe me, so the teacher
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put me on the piano. I showed them that I could. They found out that
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I had perfect pitch quite early, which was a huge help. Got me through oral
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and dictation exams very, very easily,
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including the various things I did when I was at Cambridge.
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Of course, you know, you could be sitting in a room with some very,
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very good musicians and listening to some quite complicated
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things to write down on, on five staves, and I just do it straight away
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and look around arrogantly at the rest of the room.
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Anyway, so my background actually is I'm
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a Roman Catholic by birth and I grew up in the. The kind
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of Catholic church tradition, going to church every Sunday,
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serving mass once or twice, playing the organ perhaps
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once or twice. From a very early age, I apparently played hymns
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in Salford Cathedral, which is the Catholic cathedral near Manchester, on New Year's Day
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when I was five years old. They must have been pretty desperate.
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Yeah, so, you know, I had the bug quite early on. But what
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I didn't know about really was choral Edensong and the wonders of the Anglican
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choral tradition. I discovered that really by accident coming home
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from school in the. Probably by then it was the early 80s
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and I was in my teens and just switching on the radio
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and hearing cord evensong and that was a
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real eye and ear opener and I'd had nothing
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like that in my kind of Catholic church background.
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It eventually got me into my local. I was
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living at the time just south of Manchester, got me into a local
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Anglican parish church where I started playing psalms for
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the first time. I was 16 then and thought about
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Cambridge or Oxford and Cambridge scholarships.
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But one of my teachers Actually had a connection with Downing. And so
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I ended up coming to Downing in 1985. It was a big
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step for me, going to university and being an Alban Scholar and hoping it would
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lead on to other things in that field of church music,
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which of course it did. So, yep, that's how I ended up at Downington.
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Wow. And what was it like when you first arrived? Well,
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I. I was very young, I was only just 18 and
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most of the people in my year were probably two years older than
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I was. And even when I met the
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year after me, when I. When I was in my second year, I was still
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younger than some of the people in that year. So, yeah, I was really
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quite naive and immature. I remember walk coming in on the
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first day in late September and somebody who turned out
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to be in my year was sitting outside case staircase on a deck chair,
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looked up as I walked past it. Rather an Indian summer at the
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moment, isn't it, wearing a Boche. And I thought, you know,
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coming from Manchester and all that, you know, gosh, how am I going to fit
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in here? So I spent three
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years, in fact, in K14, I think it was, the designated organ Scholars
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room. And oddly it was actually on the floor where everybody else,
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all the other residents on that floor were, girl.
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Anyway, I went into my room, probably locked it and
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don't think I emerged very much. And a few days later
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there was a knock on the door from the girl who lives opposite
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Louise, who became a great friend and was in the choir. She said, we're all
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very curious. You arrived and you've gone into your room and we haven't seen you
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for a week. So we're just trying to sort of work out what kind of
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a person you are. And it turned out she was a cellist,
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had a great interest in music and, you know, that sort of
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eased me into the social scene. Yeah, it was a
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big thing, big change for me. Well, and were you the only organ scholar for
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the three years? Yeah, I was actually. There'd been a gap before I
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came, so there was nobody overlapping as organ scholar.
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There were lots of funny tales about the previous incumbent,
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whose name was Kevin, I think. I've never met him,
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he sounded like a real character. But they had a post grad,
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Chris Batchelor in, who was a cat at the time, sort of looking
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after the music. So I came in as the only organ scholar
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and remained that way for the first two years.
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Finally we got a junior organ scholar in my third year. But apart from
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being the only organ scholar in my whole three years, I was the only person
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reading music in the whole college, so that perhaps,
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you know, made it feel a little bit lonely. Presumably you had friends doing music
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across the university? Well, you'd think so. I mean,
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I think I was a bit shy and I didn't. I didn't go
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out there and integrate very well. So my friends were mostly
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based at dan, although. Yes, of course, there were some across the university,
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some of whom are now cathedral organists too. So these
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days, you know, we have lots of special services, like the carol service and Commemoration
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of Benefactors and all that sort of thing. Did you have to do all of
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those things in your time? My memory's a little bit hazy. There was definitely the
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Commemoration of Benefactors, which I should know the exact date, shouldn't I?
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It's always in May 18th. That's right. And it doesn't.
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Whether it's a Sunday or a Wednesday. It's always the 18th, isn't it? Yeah,
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always the 18th. Yes. So we had that.
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We had, of course, the Advent carol service and a
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couple of even songs every week in chapel. So Thursday and
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Sunday, and I think we rehearsed on a Wednesday evening.
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I seem to remember doing a deal with the choir at some point that we.
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I got an extra rehearsal by reducing the
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overall amount of rehearsal time, but putting in more rehearsals. I can't remember
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the exact details, but I felt it was more. It was easier
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to have more on a. Less. More often in terms of getting a
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good product. And how many were in the choir in those days? I think it
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varied. But what is it now? It's about two
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years, 26, 27. Oh, yeah. I don't think it was. It varied,
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of course, from memory. It was. There were more
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sopranos and altos than tenors and basses and there were quite a
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few people were. I mean, it was perhaps 20% of people
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came from outside of college. And I don't remember it being particularly
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easy to recruit because it was not a college known for its
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music, although there have been some really excellent musicians there. And indeed there
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were, but it didn't sort of have that public reputation at
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the time. So, yes, it was always a. I wouldn't say a
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struggle, but one had to work to find people in the choir. But it
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was a lot of fun. Well, we had some good tours. We went
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to Florence, in fact, I think only in my first and
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third years we went on tour. We went to Florence and then we went to
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Rome and Florence in my third year. The chaplains first
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we Had a chaplain called Tom Mendel, who was there in my first year,
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and then Brother Christian, who was an Anglican, of course,
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a Franciscan monk, was there. And he
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was a lot of fun and very helpful to
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me. I mean, I was, as I've already said, I was young, quite immature,
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and he was very supportive. And we used to go over to
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his rooms where he had some quite interesting books on the
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wall, on his shelves, ones that you wouldn't expect a Cambridge chaplain
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to have. So we found him a rather intriguing character.
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And he walked very slowly. He was always wearing his brown Franciscan
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habit. And if it was raining, he would walk just as slowly
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because he decided that he would get no less wet if
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he walked more quickly. Wow. And what was the sort of wider music scene
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like in Downing? I mean, was there one at that time? Well, there was,
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at some point while I was there, the Howard Building opened,
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and of course it had that theater, so there was some.
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You know, we were able to put on concerts in a place that wasn't the
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chapel, and there was a music society
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going, and I played some role in that.
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I have to admit. I was perhaps more focused on the chapel, but there
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were some very, very talented musicians around who would play
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concerts, give recitals and so on. So after Downing, you went
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on to Westminster Abbey, is that right? I went to Westminster
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Cathedral first as well. Westminster Cathedral? Sorry, yes. Then to St. Paul's then Westminster
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Abby, and then back to Westminster Cathedral. So I did a little kind of,
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you know, triangle of places in the centre of
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London, which was. And is that what you wanted to do, is what you thought
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you might do after university? Yeah, I had to pinch myself,
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really, because, I mean, it was wonderful being at Downing,
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but it wasn't mainstream in terms of, you know,
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Oxbridge College, choral music in chapels. You know, it's very different from King's
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College, Cambridge, for instance. And so to get
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that initial kind of foot on the ladder in Westminster Cathedral for
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me was wonderful. So I went from working with a chapel choir
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twice, you know, two services a week, to working in
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an environment where the choir actually sang. 12 services every
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week, and they didn't stop at the end of November. It started
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on the 1st of September, went through to Christmas. In fact, it went through to
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28 December, then there was a short break, then right
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the way through to Easter, 10 days off, or. Actually, I think back then it
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was even less than that. It was. I think we were back on the Sunday
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after Easter all the way through to the last Sunday in July.
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So the difference in workload was pretty
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considerable. And then after the cathedral, where did you go? Then I went
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across St Paul's I was basically number three
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at St Paul's I had been number three at Westminster
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Cathedral, but as an organ scholar. But at St. Paul's the organ
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scholar was number four. So I got my foot onto the salary ladder
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there and then to Western Stradiva. Whereas number two, briefly, I had
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to. I was the acting number one looking after the music there for about almost
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two years before going back to Westminster Theodore as a Master of music in
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2000. And I suppose it's probably just a good idea
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to clarify that Westminster Cathedral is the Roman Catholic Cathedral and the
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others, St. Paul's and the Abbey, are Anglican. So I
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mean, obviously it's very different situation from Downing Chapel. But when
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you're at so the Abbey in particular, I mean, did you ever play for royalty
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or, you know, was there any different things going on? Probably the biggest thing I
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did was playing the organ at Princess Diana's funeral, which was in August
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of late August, or was it early September of 1997.
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So. And I remember being in America,
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hearing news that she died. We were on holiday and thinking,
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well, she was officially by then a minor oil, thinking that
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that would probably not therefore come to Westminster Abbey. But after
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two or three days I had a telephone call from my boss saying,
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get back here quickly, we need you.
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And he gave me a list of the. He'd arranged all sorts
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of music for the choir, but also before and after
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the service, and it included some pieces I didn't know. So I went
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to the local music shop near Philadelphia and said, I need this
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piece. This, you know, things like the Albinonia Daggio. And I think there
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was a piece by William Harris, that sort of thing. And the
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chap who ran it said, oh, yeah, he said, that's the music they're playing at
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Princess Diana's funeral later this week. And I said, yeah, and I'm the guy what's
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playing it, you know, hey, high five and all that.
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Anyway, that was probably the most high profile thing I did while I was at
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the Abbey. But in real terms, you know, when you were. I mean,
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the building was no bigger. You had the same number of people inside the building
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as you would have had for quite a lot of these services. We had
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done things that were broadcast on radio and television before
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in my time. So one just deals with it by, you know, shutting out
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the. The big things that can sort of distract you and
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just thinking, yeah, well, this is part of my Routine, you know, I can do
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this and focus on the important things, focus on making the music good.
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Absolutely. Wow. And now you're back with us at Downing doing
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little bits with the choir and so on, and most recently, of course, playing for
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the Advent carol service on Sunday. And we've got number two this evening in
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London, which will be. Which will be great fun, no doubt. And how is it
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being, being back in college? Well, it's great.
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You know, I do a lot of very different things these days and
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I'm very proud to be an honorary fellow at Downing.
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It was, I think after I came back, it was 10 years ago,
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and opened the new organ in. Was it? It was 2015, wasn't it?
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I think, yeah. Is that right? And I joked at the
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time that when I came in 1985 as Organ Scholar, they said, well, I.
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The organ's not very good, but we're getting a new one soon and 30 years
19:14
later I got to open it anyways, they made me an honorary fellow and I'm
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very flattered by that. And hopefully I can use
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my background in church music at a
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high level to positively influence what happens in the college.
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And it's great to see the enthusiasm for
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music that's present. And one thing that struck me in
19:37
particular coming back is the way I think it's more integrated now
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into college life, music in general and the
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chapel choir too. So they sing the Grace
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quite often at hall, is that right? Yeah,
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every Sunday. Back in my day it was like once
19:56
a year and the rugby guys looking, who are those weirdos in the choir?
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Why are they here? You know, that that doesn't have any more. So.
20:04
So it's very integrated and,
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you know, it's very nice for me to be able to help
20:12
some of these youngsters if I can, having been in the, you know,
20:17
in the so called real world musical profession, if that's where they're headed,
20:21
to try and give them some
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of the things that will help them in the future if they're going
20:29
in that direction. And I know one of the things particularly has been dominating all
20:33
our horizons the past week is the Nova Nova by Ian Farrington, which we're
20:37
singing at the camera services. I know it has a pretty tricky organ part
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and you've been spending a lot of time on the organ at Downing getting ready
20:44
for it and so, I mean, you've mentioned the previous organ wasn't very good.
20:47
How does this. The new one, or I say new, it's 10 years old now,
20:51
but how does it compare? Oh, it's great. I think Takao have done a
20:54
really good job here. I mean, there's a. As a very limited space and
20:59
they've made the most of what they can do in that space. But without the
21:02
organs, sometimes people squeeze too many pipes into a small
21:06
space and the organ sounds weird, like it
21:10
can't. The sound can't quite get out. No,
21:13
it's been done really well. Perhaps in an
21:18
ideal world, one could think of a couple of things one
21:22
could add to the organ if there were space. But it's great at accompanying the
21:26
choir, but it's also very good for accompanying congregational hymns.
21:29
The previous organ just didn't have the body of sound to do that. It was
21:33
very flimsy, I think, is a word I'd use.
21:37
And that was when the building, of course, chapel is a wonderful acoustic. When it's
21:41
empty, when it's full, that dries up. And so did the sound of the old
21:45
organ. It was. It really didn't work. So the current one does work
21:49
very well. And yeah, the. The farrington is.
21:53
You know, I heard it for the first time last year and
21:57
I think it's a very good thing for the choir to do. It's fun.
22:00
Yeah, well, yeah, I know they've enjoyed it. Even if we have had to learn
22:04
the last two pages from memory in order to facilitate the hand clapping and stamping
22:07
and all the rest of it. Yeah, it's been good.
22:10
And I know one of your big things is improvisation,
22:14
which we haven't really touched on yet. When you are improvising, do you have a
22:18
sort of preconceived idea of what you're going to do, or is it all
22:22
just, this is how I'm feeling right now and this is what happens.
22:25
I remember there's a great quote, isn't there, from the
22:29
conductor, Lenny Bernstein, saying that when he's
22:34
in the middle of whatever it is, a Beethoven symphony or a Mahler symphony,
22:37
he feels as if he's creating the music in the moment.
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And I think when you're improvising and it's
22:45
going well, it feels exactly like that. You're kind of totally
22:49
in the present. You know where you've been, you know where you're going,
22:53
but you're not really thinking about it, but to get there. I wish
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I could do that every time, you know, and.
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But it's always something I've enjoyed doing. And I think because
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my starting point at the organ was relatively informal, you know,
23:08
I was four years old, I wasn't intimidated by the instrument I
23:12
was listening to a lot of music at the time. I think Beethoven 7 was
23:16
my favorite piece of music. I think it still is. And I would try and
23:19
play things like that on the organ because I had the pitch
23:24
and, you know, I enjoyed experimenting. It was like having a synthesizer,
23:29
really. So I think those early experiences have really helped
23:33
me along the way. And being an organist, one is
23:37
at times, particularly in a religious service, you're something
23:41
of a. A sort of film music composer. You know,
23:44
the role of music in a service is to kind of connect everything and
23:49
try and enhance the experience that people have who are
23:53
in the chapel or church, whatever. And you've got to kind of
23:57
get inside what the service is about, get inside their minds,
24:01
play with that a little bit. You know,
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I love that as a thing. But then if
24:08
you come to it late, and, you know, I'm teaching some people in the university
24:11
at the moment, and it's great to try and impart
24:15
some of this spirit of improvisation, but the older you
24:20
are when you start, the more inhibited people are. So all the time
24:24
you've been looking at a score, you've been thinking, what does a composer want?
24:27
And then suddenly you have to do something yourself and there are no notes in
24:31
front of you. It can be very frightening. Well, on that note, thank you very
24:35
much for your time today. It's been great to chat a little bit. Yeah,
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I look forward to tonight's Carol service. Should be amazing. Yeah.
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It's the end of term tomorrow and things are winding down. But the exhibition in
24:50
the gallery continues until the 22nd of December, reopening in the new year.
24:54
Downing's very own literary magazine, the Leaves, is open for submissions to its fourth
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volume, deadline 31 December. See the show Notes for details.
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Thank you so much to everyone who's contributed to the show this term and
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to everyone who's been listening. We have listeners in the uk, usa,
25:10
Russia, Germany, Spain, France, Hong Kong, Britain, Venezuela, South Africa,
25:13
the Netherlands, India and Greece. The first episode of
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the Lent term series will land on 22 January.
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Lastly, as a bit of a Christmas bonus, Martin has very kindly recorded
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a short improvisation, especially for all our listeners. Wherever you are
25:29
over the vacation, I hope you have time to rest and recharge. Thanks for
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listening.
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Satan.
26:55
Sa.