[Music] opening of Graininess and Sheen by Kerry Andrew, Composer-in-Residence at the
Handel House Museum.
Claire Parker: My Name's Claire Parker and
I'm the Learning and Events Officer at the
Handel House Museum. When we have tours with
people who are partially sighted, it's much
more hands on; we're touching things, we have to describe things in a different way. So,
we'll touch the fabrics, we'll feel the wooden panelling, we'll compare the textures, we'll
open and close the shutters at the windows. It makes you be more aware of your surroundings
and tune into the squeaks, the floorboards which are all over the place, I mean, it's
not a quiet house!
Some of the rooms in the house that we visit when we're wandering around, probably most
important is the composition room. It's quite a small space and it could be easily overlooked,
but that was the space where Handel wrote a huge amount of his music, including really
famous pieces like Messiah for instance. Like many composers at the time, Handel wrote loads
more in the summer than he did in the winter because there was just much more light during
the day.
The performance room, Handel's practice and performance room, that's the room where we
have our concerts today so it's brilliant for us to be able to bring back to life the
space which was once the room where Handel used to have his rehearsals.
Kerry Andrew: I'm Kerry Andrew, a composer
and performer and I'm the fourth Composer-in-Residence
here at Handel House. Working with musicians
at the Royal National Institute of the Blind
has really reminded me that it's more important to focus on the sound that you really want
as a composer as opposed to what it looks like written down because I can get fixated
on producing perfectly notated scores and it's just not as important; it's about following
your ear and being more intuitive.
[Music] opening of Love's Philosophy by Kevin Satizabal, performed by Juliet Fraser (soprano),
James Risdon (recorder) and Paul Ayres (harpsichord).
Kevin Satizabal: My name's Kevin Satizabal
and I am in my fourth year of an undergraduate
degree studying composition at Birmingham Conservatoire. The piece "Love's Philosophy"
which is in performance I found very interesting because I was given a poem which was the Shelly
Love's Philosophy poem to set to music. For me personally, I'm very grateful for everyone
here for helping me over the last few years write my music and for me to be able to physically
see it in a braille score. It's been a fantastic experience for me and I hope I will be able
to keep coming back in the future.
[audience applause for Kevin's composition]
[Music] opening of the final Allegro from Sonata for Recorder and continuo in A minor
by G.F. Handel, performed by James Risdon (recorder) and Paul Ayres (harpsichord).
James Risdon: My name's James Risdon and I'm the music officer at the Royal National Institute
of Blind People. I work in our music advisory service where we support the music-making
of blind and partially sighted people.
Handel started to lose his sight around seven or eight years before he died. He was
a very prolific composer all the way through his life and a large inspiration for him was
being able to read the works of other composers and indeed to refer back to his own works,
and the onset of his sight loss meant he was no longer able to do this. It also influenced
the kind of work he did, so he wasn't able to compose as much, but he did continue his
performing work and he would improvise for example the solo passages of his organ concertos
and so-on. But it did have a profound impact on his life, certainly.
Well I think one of the reasons I think it is such a relevant partnership between RNIB
and Handel House Museum is that now, people think of Handel the musician and composer,
not Handel the blind composer, and I think with our partnership and our work, we
are allowing participants to come here and concentrate fully on the music and the sounds.
Claire: I think some of the things we've achieved through this partnership are because of the
continuation. We've been working together for so long that it's been building and building
and getting better every year.