There's only been one Portsmouth Sinfonia, 1970-82. It was started by
Gavin Bryars. Brian Eno joined it in 70 left in 74, playing the
clarinet. Eno produced two of the albums, and he certainly helps
promote PS long after it's official demise as it seems to fit in with
his work with the Fluxus movement. At no point does it appear to me
that Brian Eno owned the project, neither does he claim so.

An interesting note by Eno on the second recording:

"Once, I went to the classical music concert, Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein. It was recorded for the
broadcasting. After completing the music, they replayed some parts for
correction of the errors. Actually, most of the audiences didn't
recognize the errors. Systematic paranoia for the correctness. On the
very contrary, this live recording is full of joyous errors!"

I'd like to see more joyous errors. (this is outside of the punk ethic
btw) Gets you out of the mouse-trap of fighting under or against da
roolz.

Roger

On 11/14/05, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Christopher:
>
> hurriedly, I have an appointment:
>
> yes, those are very fair points, what I was thinking of was the later
> (current?) reception of the PS as being +Brian Eno's+ project.
>
> All the Best
>
> must dash
>
> Dave
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Christopher Walker" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 12:01 PM
> Subject: Re: Blah
>
>
> > <snip>
> > A (serious?) application of a
> > comparable notion was Brian Eno's Portsmouth Sinfonia: as an artistic
> > gesture, in a sense, it worked, in that (though obviously aided by Eno's
> > name) it attracted attention, but the succcess of having people who
> couldn't
> > play music playing it was, is, dependent on the existence of a corpus and
> > tradition being played by people who can. It works as a joke... [DB]
> > <snip>
> >
> > The touched-by-stardust explanation isn't really fair. If I've got the
> > sequence right, the PF was formed in the late 60s and under the influence
> of
> > Cardew's Scratch Orchestra (in which Eno also played, I believe) by the
> > composer Gavin Bryars, then in the Fine Arts dept of Portsmouth College of
> > Art, later the founder of Leicester Poly's Music dept, along with John
> > Farley,. who couldn't play a note. In addition to Bryars, many able
> > musicians were involved: not only Michael Nyman and Michael Parsons, the
> > Scratch's co-founder, but also Steve Beresford, Alan Tomlinson et al. Plus
> > people from other disciplines, such as Barry Flanagan.
> >
> > Whatever else these various groups were about, others might be the
> > Spontaneous Music Ensemble (John Stevens & Trevor Watts et al) or the
> People
> > Band (which included Johnny Dyani), and they were both of their period and
> > different one from another, they were also both not a joke and very far
> from
> > earnest. Recovering a sense of wonder might be part of it, I suppose. That
> > and the idea that proficiency should come about through need, as a
> response,
> > not through a priori imposition.
> >
> > A brass band I heard struggling with Astor Piazzolla a few months ago in
> the
> > square of a small Italian town had an alien enchantment, which is a little
> > of what I mean. Eugene Chadbourne playing Bach on the banjo might be
> > relevant here as well.
> >
> > CW
> > ______________________________________________________
> >
> > I am always doing what I cannot do yet in order to learn how to do it
> > (van Gogh)
>


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