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Recently Paul Burgess hi-jacked his own review of Shepheard,
Spiers & Watson’s CD (Living Tradition magazine) in order to indulge in an
un-provoked and un-related snipe at some of the graduates from the Newcastle
folk degree. He wrote ‘Some of them appeared to either know or care about the
music they were playing’. He didn’t say ‘all graduates’, but that’s the
impression the reader gets. Paul Burgess also accuses these unnamed graduates of
only being interested in ‘show-biz’.
As a graduate of this degree (one
of less than 20 so far) I cannot accept that any of us would know or care little
about the music we play. The way the course is structured is like a normal
academic degree course, except that students serve a four-year ‘apprenticeship’
as a folk musician at the same time. Students are constantly guided by people
who have devoted their lives (either professionally or in their free time) to
traditional music, in theoretical and practical senses. How could you fail to
develop an enthusiasm for, and understanding of traditional music (if you didn’t
already have one), while being surrounded by these people?
In my
opinion, the ‘show-biz’ side was actually the weakest element of the course – I
found the ‘Music Business’ module (common to most music courses at Newcastle)
very disappointing and we were more or less left to develop stagecraft for
ourselves.
Now most graduates are working in community projects
promoting folk-arts, teaching and playing in sessions. We are just like everyone
else with an enthusiasm for folk music. Quite a lot of people criticize the
degree and those involved without reading the syllabus first. That’s very
frustrating and very unfair!
The offending review:
http://www.folkmusic.net/htmfiles/webrevs/sprcd1042.htm
Andrew Cadie
More details of Andrew's music can be found at http://www.myspace.com/andrewcadie
Living Tradition have also allowed the students a response via the letters page of their new edition