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Andersen, Etude Barcarolle
I’ve been called worse things than a rogue flutist…I guess my all-time personal favourite was ‘Flute Snoop’, coined by a colleague of mine! With all eyes trained south of the border for Obama’s inauguration today, Canadians are quietly reminded of our current ‘prorogue government’ and the political limbo emanating from Ottawa…hmm-m, what rhymes with ‘limbo’…uh, not ‘Harper’, surely!? With all the political conflab of late, here is a more enjoyable story from my archives, recorded last spring, just steps from Parliament Hill in our nation’s capital.
I was keen to play here, especially when I stumbled upon this building by chance and recognized the institution for what it was. Just weeks earlier I had received a letter requesting a copy of my CD Urban Flute Project [re-defining space with sound] from Archives Canada – these very offices – for their national archives. I guess that’s the trouble that a bar-code will get you into!
After securing my bike out on Wellington Street, I approached the security desk and expressed my interest in playing flute in this magnificent, marble-clad lobby before making myself at home to record, so nothing rogue or renegade about this ad-lib performance. Unfortunately, the word from security was half-hearted at best, delivered in halting English by the guy who was just sitting in for a few minutes for his boss. Believe me, the last thing I want is to get someone into trouble! But how could I resist this wonderful echo-chamber?
And bottom line, if this is indeed a public institution, what really is the problem in playing a little flute?
Travel-weary that afternoon after having driven from Toronto – excuses, excuses – my tone is a little uneven initially. And admittedly I am distracted as I play here, concerned that perhaps mid-phrase I would suddenly feel the clasp of authority’s hand on my shoulder. Nonetheless I gradually warmed up to the space and this favourite Barcarolle-Etude of mine by Andersen, the live acoustics acting as a powerful amplifier for my sound. I was just getting going when I was rather perfunctorily interrupted, a foreshadowing of the experience I had later when I played flute in San Francisco City Hall, not to mention what transpired at The Empire State Building!
C’mon, really, it was the end of a work day, there was no-one around, maybe justement one or two employees passing through the far end of the lobby in the five or ten minutes that I was there. I probably would have gotten busted anyways, but my suspicion as I played was that this piece was too ‘classical’ sounding, and maybe if I was playing a Simon & Garfunkel, or maybe a CSN&Y tune, the reception might have been a little warmer! Next time I’ll have some Jacques Brel on hand, so that my window of opportunity to record might be just that much greater! For those of you fluent in Dutch, did I mention Jacques Brel? Geez, how’d I get onto that??
Welcome to the world of red-tape where playing in public spaces is concerned…this is a story in itself!
Note: This recording is a little ‘hot’ – ie. recorded on the loud side – so it’s not your computer! And that sculpture, what do you think: a Moore, or possibly a Brancusi? I would suspect the former, as far as that goes…check out the marble interior here!
