Other Interests
My other interests include the history of ideas, playing with small gas turbine jet engines, and the performance and editing of 17th century music.
Until recently I regularly played the lute and other plucked continuo instruments (chitarrone, theorbo, bandora, etc) in various early music ensembles in London, Cambridge and elsewhere. The image shows a close copy of the Dieffopruchar 1608 chitarrone by David Van Edwards, and is shown next to a normal G lute to indicate the huge size of this instrument. Using such instruments I played in historically informed groups performing 17th century opera and consort music, and also accompanying songs on the lute, for almost 20 years.
Within the past few years my musical performance has moved to bluegrass (traditional music from the Appalachian region of the USA that began emerging into public notice from the beginning of the 20th century), in particular, bluegrass gospel. Appalachian music was formed within a profoundly isolated religious social context, and what makes this music touching and appealing at a basic human level is its preoccupation with hardship, loss, grief, vulnerability, atonement, and redemption. Curiously, the instrumentation and vocal harmony of bluegrass gospel has some remarkable similarities with the English broken-consort songs from the late 16th/early 17th century, though it is probably not possible to establish a continuous historical link, as the modern bluegrass band took shape during the middle of the 20th century under the influence of popular performers such as Bill Monroe, but it is possible to infer a succession of influences stretching back to the pre-17th century British Isles. The main points of comparison are not widely documented, but include: (a) vocal melody in the tenor part, with close harmony both above and below the tenor; (b) corresponding instrumentation (two violin family instruments: violin=violin, bass=bass viol, three plucked instruments acting together to provide a mesh of sound: banjo,guitar,mandolin = lute,bandora,cittern); and (c) repeats embellished by divisions taken by one instrument (or solo 'breaks'). There are some points of difference: (a) the modern bluegrass band does not have a flute (though this is a feature of Irish folk bands); (b) a novel instrument, the Dobro® (a lap held resonator guitar with strings stopped by a hand held steel bar) was introduced from the 1920s though did not become established as a member of the bluegrass band until the 1950s. There is no broken-consort analogue to the Dobro®. (c) The ostinato banjo 'roll' technique has no known counterpart in plucked continuo, however the 17th century chitarrone solo music uses the roll technique (for example see J.H. Kapsberger's Toccata Arpeggiata from the Libro Primo D'Intavolatura di Chitarone, Venice, 1604). In bluegrass sessions I play the acoustic bass guitar (a substitute for an upright double bass) and the Dobro®, and am trying to improve on the mandolin. A background in music theory and having played continuo on other plucked instruments has been a great help, but seems to be abnormal in folk music circles.
My wife and I both make contemporary abstract paintings. Click here to see some of them (my works are made and exhibited under the name William Rose).