On our trip to Iona, and talking more than usual about sustainability, we decided it was time to go back to one car, and cut down on how much we used that. And see if we can work towards giving up the car entirely, like urbanites Martin and Meg have done.

So we set out to find a replacement to the Skoda Octavia estate that we’ve had for four years, and sell the little Fiat. We were very happy with it—as are the various others we know who have ones—but we were looking at an expensive but non-essential repair for it, and Emma wasn’t happy to drive it (or we to insure for her). So what instead? It needed to be smaller, not more than 3 or 4 years old, economical to run and with low emissions. The smaller Skoda Fabia estate suited, but hardly any were on the second-hand market. And so we got to thinking about the Toyota Prius, the first hybrid mass-market car. It wasn’t really smaller than the Octavia, but it does still definitely have some eco-cool, despite newer hybrid models now coming out. (Did you know that Lexus only make hybrids now? Neither did we. Amazing what you find out when enjoying hospitality in the Lexus showroom. They share a building with Toyota, and alas, the Toyota part was being re-furbished, so we had to slum it with Lexus …)

But another factor emerged: unwelcome pain in Martha’s hips, which was exacerbated by certain types of movements, including longish periods behind the wheel. So we thought it was worth giving the Prius a try as it only comes in automatic models. We were fortunate that a suitably-priced one became available within a few days at Listers Toyota in Cheltenham. So we gave it a test drive, and loved it. Driving an automatic is always easier and simpler than a manual, but this was something else. Once we got over the rather fiddly actually-get-it-moving process, and the unusual sight-lines, we loved it. And we still get a kick out of the thing running at times on battery only, and tyres against the tarmac being the only thing we hear.

And with our journeys since, over a mixture of town, country and motorway, we’re getting 55-57 mpg. Not bad at all for a petrol engine. Though slightly disappointing when compared with the 60+ mpg we could usually get on motorway-based journeys in the Octavia, but then it was a diesel. And you can’t beat only having to pay £10 road tax for the year, as the Prius’ CO2 emissions are so low.

Here’s to a hybrid future!

A year ago we heard about the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) from the in-laws, and decided we should take them sometime. Now turned out to be the time, and I’m calling it the first of four gems we found during our week with them in Yorkshire.

YSP has been around for decades, so its a shame we’ve only now known about it and have seen it. A year or two ago they hosted an exhibition/installation of Andy Goldsworthy, which was apparently their most popular show yet. And having seen a book of his work whilst resident at YSP, I’m not surprised. Wish we’d seen it …

The current exhibition has more than 100 pieces by renowned wood sculptor David Nash. Ranging from a few ounces up to several tonnes, and laid out in very different indoor and outdoor spaces, there’s a marvellous variety. Mostly achieved with hoists and a armoury of different chainsaws, his art was accessible and interactive enough that it just made you just want to have a go yourself. Or at least that’s what I left wanting to do.

We stayed in Wakefield, which is pretty handy for YSP. On the Sunday we visited Destiny Church. This is sandwiched neatly between a brand-new hospital and Wakefield’s former “Pauper’s Asylum” which have now been converted to expensive apartments. They got lots of marks for being friendly, welcoming, enthusiastic, loud, and for having a good mix of ages and backgrounds. The sermon wasn’t great (waffly and didn’t show how he got his points from the Bible), but they redeemed themselves a bit by telling us about the next gem …

… eating at the Swan & Cygnet pub by the Calder reservoirs near the Wakefield motorway junction. Obviously popular, it had a more extensive menu of good quality pub favourites that usual, very reasonable prices, some local real ales and a good atmosphere. We went back there later in the week, and rounded off the evening by walking from it around the neighbouring reservoir, admiring the sunset and wildlife, but unfortunately failing to find the geocache by the weir.

We also visited York, which is too obvious a gem for me to mention here. But hidden round the back of the Minster I found a rather special place for lunch: Gray’s Court. We didn’t find out about its history, though it clearly has more than your average lunch spot. It had a wonderful longroom full of old sofas to relax in, plus the option to eat outside in its charming gardens, backing onto York’s Roman town wall. It wasn’t cheap, but you could tell the quality of the ingredients; I’ve never had such a rich or filling Rarebit before, and Martha had the best-presented and tastiest Smoked Salmon and Scrambled Eggs.

Finally we chanced on the Fox & Hounds pub next to Newmillerdam Country Park, where we had a most excellent and filling lunch. Worth the (rather long) wait.

From a recent Guardian editorial In praise of… public drinking fountains:

Many surviving public drinking fountains of the Victorian era are a template for what our cities again need more of today – prominent and well-designed structures in streets, squares and parks supplying clean, cold and free water for the refreshment of thirsty citizens.

And let’s not forget the reduction in single-use plastic bottles that would go with this. Has anyone got a campaign started I could join in with?

This is an amazing animation of a short talk by David Harvey, on the theme of “What Next After Capitalism”.

H/T Kester Brewin.

On Saturday we had a Music Ministry Training Day at church. This was our name for the
Twist Conference that a team from St.Ebbe’s Oxford runs every so often. We had about 40 attend from several churches around town. It was led by Philip Percival (pictured) who is Director of Music at St.Ebbe’s.

We spent a little time looking at the few New Testament references to singing in the church:

• 1 Co 14.26
• Col 3.16-17 – deals with both the “up, down and across” of singing: between us and God, and to each other too. I also liked Phil’s line that “singing gives emotional training to be thankful”
• Eph 5.18-20 – the Holy Spirit as well is driving our singing and ‘embedding’ the truths of it into our lives

Philip also noted that songs often appear in the Bible that explain what’s going to happen. Importantly songs fuse theology (what God is doing in the world) and human emotional response.

We then had a “band masterclass” which to me was the most fascinating part of the day. Philip based this on his view that you can break all music down to these four layers:

• Bass – not just string bass or electric bass, but a drum kit’s kick drum too
• Melody – flutes, violins etc. plus the less obvious cello
• Rhythm – normally drums and guitars
• Harmony – guitars, pianos and other instruments that play chords

(We immediately see that pianos and keyboards are going to need some thought, as they can provide any or all of these. We’ll come back to that thought …) We also (mostly) concluded that the single best ‘instrument’ to lead a congregation is a voice — not a piano or keyboard.

After lunch we split into 3 workshops – either rhythm+bass, keyboards or leading singing.

In the rhythm + bass one, we did some practical work on building up the bass and rhythm and guitar harmony parts. This was a good exercise in starting simple. There we decided the second-most important instrument to add is still not a piano or keyboard, but the bass, which gives the root, and by implication some of the rest of the harmony.

Some particular thoughts I took away were:

• Traditional hymns when played by bands need less harmonic progression (ie, fewer chord changes per bar).
• Playing in 3/4 time is particularly difficult for drummers. The simplest dum-cha-cha rhythm just sounds cheesy; instead they suggest playing 6/8 half speed. Or variants on dum-cha-dum. These can also be good for guitars.
• Some suggest ‘I’-based songs are bad; Phil suggested that these can be OK. But we should be avoiding ones which go for the this-is-what-I’m-going-to-do-for-You-God line. It’s better if they start from God’s perspective, or a whole congregational one.
• In Phil’s view, the most important thing we can do when teaching a new song to the congregation is to have the band fully practised and confident. Makes entire sense.
• If a congregation isn’t ‘getting’ a syncopated rhythm don’t force it. It could be a sign that the songs aren’t very suitable.

If we’d had more time I’d have liked to have discussed one of Philip’s throw-away lines in rather more detail. He noted that too much of our worship material can actually reflect too much of the Old or First Covenant — ie, the temple worship of old Israel.

Overall, this was the best training day for church musicians I’ve attended (and I’ve been to quite a few). More than the others it had a good mix of the theological, the practical and the musical. It’s just a shame a few more musicians from St.Matts and other churches in the town didn’t attend.

It was also very encouraging to me personally, as I don’t think they suggested anything different to the things I do when leading my band, or aim to do with them in the future. But it was very good to see more experienced people demonstrate some of the principles, and that lots of people all saw it together. This should make it easier to improve our instrumentation more quickly than otherwise.

For my benefit, and the others of us who were there, I’ve done a list of the new songs they covered, and links to recordings, videos or sheet music.

We’ve been to hear two events in the Sound Mind series where the Cheltenham Science Festival invades the Music Festival.

The first was Does Music Make you Better?, which I’ve already written about.

The other event was The Sound of Melancholia and was billed in the programme as:

Stephen Johnson and Robert Winston explore the relationship between music and the emotions, from the ecstatic highs to the soul-searching lows. Using a range of audio samples and case histories, they focus particularly on examples of pathological sadness — historically termed ‘melancholy’, more recently called ‘depression’ — and reflect on how, paradoxically, this finds expression in some of the most beautiful music ever written.

Prof. Ray Tallis had to stand in for an unwell Robert Winston, but it wasn’t a problem as we could have listened to Stephen Johnson for hours. He talked about the experience of some major classical composers who battled with severe emotional problems, and also how they composed to help others survive depression or repressive regimes. He himself

He illustrated this with 3 examples:

Beethoven piano concerto op.110

• Beethoven helped others (particularly Brantanos) with depression by playing for them
• he consciously helped others with his compositions
• like Shakespeare’s “giving to airy nothing a local habitation and a name” his music helps his listener understand their emotions better and help inspect them.

Sibelius 4th Symphony

• writing this helped Sibelius work out his darkest shadows, loosening their grip, and creating a new possible future
• therefore a help to others with depression, including Stephen himself.

Shostakovich 5th Symphony

• Shostakovich was in danger with Stalin and needed to rehabilitate himself with the murderous regime
• the Symphony was a remarkable balancing act that kept Stalin happy, but still told the people through it that life was as bad and fearful as it was (but that they couldn’t ever say for fear of being purged)
• despite the risks, he felt he had to write it to help others — and indeed many Russians report it did help them survive, despite being some of the bleakest and violent music written.

It might not be obvious, but listening to music that reflects the darkness and shadows — reflecting depression or melancholy — works better than upbeat or joyful music.

Two weeks ago I described the ‘Painted Quartet’ auction at the Music Festival. I was very taken with this violin by Rhys Cowe, but the bidding started rather beyond what I could afford. It landed up going for £250, and between them the other instruments fetched about £10,000, which must be good news for the Star College.

Through this I discovered that Rhys Cowe is a local painter who has synaesthesia, and much of his work is his visual interpretation of the music he ‘sees’. For example, this is ‘Piano Song’:

Having failed to get his violin, I’m rather tempted to approach him next year to do a small commission for us …

The St.Ebbe’s group covered the following songs, which were new to most people:

• Come people of the risen king [Stuart Townend] – video of recording
• Come hear the angels sing (Hear the heaven’s shout) [Michael Morrow, 2006]

– music scores

• Nothing but the blood of Jesus [Michael Morrow, 2005] – music scores
• You never change (Light of the world) [Rob Smith, 2009] – MP3 download and sheet music
• This life I live [Michael Morrow, 2009] – music and MP3 for download
• O great God of highest heaven [Bob Kauflin, 2006] – music and audio sample

I’ve added links to resources, including where possible, a video or MP3 of the song. We’re finding these a good way of helping the musicians learn new material, and Philip and co suggested it too.

We’re just back from a fascinating hour at the Music Festival. Featuring two professors and several professional musicians, it was the first in the Sound Mind series that aimed to fuse together the Science and Music festivals. It asked the question Does music make you better? (as in less unwell).

Prof. Simon Lovestone kicked things off with a description of what dementias are (including Alzheimer’s), what interesting things are happening in scientific research, and the varied groups he’d worked with to help people understand the issues. The latest of these is the Opera The Lion’s Face. We also heard from musicians involved in the Music for Life collaboration between Dementia UK and the Wigmore Hall, which brings music therapy to dementia sufferers in care homes. It was affecting to hear of the connections that music can make with the otherwise most withdrawn and uncooperative people. And to hear how special this is for the musicians, and how it forces people to see the gift hidden inside dementia: always living in the present, with little or no past or worry about the future.

Finally we heard international violinist Paul Robertson, who apart from his work in the Medici Quartet, has been involved in educating medics about the “art of medicine”. His experience became hugely richer after being in a coma for more than a month, and losing the use of the left-hand side of his body. It seems that despite our higher brain function being lost (whilst unconscious) our music-appreciating core continues. It was particularly fascinating to hear him discuss his experience and views on humans as “the musical mammal”, plus then hearing him perform some J.S.Bach.

Their conclusion? Yes, music can definitely make us better. They think it won’t be long until GPs can no longer avoid prescribing music …

It was programmed and introduced by Prof. Ray Tallis; we could have listened and watched much more from the panel …

Here’s a good idea … a way to keep part of the Cheltenham Music Festival. Last year the Festival Director commissioned various artists to take a violin or cello and paint it; the ‘Painted Quartet‘ results adorned some of the covers of the festival programme.

This year some more have been commissioned, and they’re going to be auctioned off with the benefits going partly to the Festival and partly to the National Star College, on the outskirts of Cheltenham.

Each has an estimated price, which the cynic in me thinks is more to bump up the bids than a real estimate. But what do I know? I’m tempted to put in a low-medium bid on one of them, in the hope that no-one else will like it, and see what happens …